Halloween 2011

Even though Halloween was today, we've been celebrating it for several days in the Hepper household.
    It all started last Thursday when we went trick-or-treating at Daddy's office. Caroline was soooo excited to go the party at Harris Williams that she took a very abbreviated nap and spent the entire car trip to the office saying, "Hurry Mommy, hurry! Time to go trick-treating!"
   This is the first Halloween that Caroline really understood the idea of trick-or-treating, and she wasted no time getting her fair share of the goods. Our little cupcake hit up every candy bowl in Daddy's office at least 3 times, making off with about 10 pounds of candy in all.
   After a hearty helping of cheese balls, cookie cake, and a juice barrel (who knew they even made these anymore!), she was all sugared up and ready to go home.   The twins spent the Halloween party looking cute in their ladybug costumes and taking in all the festive decorations.  Office party = huge success and lots of fun.

Our little cupcake, excited to go trick-or-treating at Daddy's office.

Caroline helping herself to Daddy's candy bowl.

Hailey and Caroline compare loot.

Juice barrels: a high fructose corn syrup and artificial color lover's dream. 

Mommy and Julia 

Margaret and Daddy

Julia all tuckered out.

Our next Halloween event wasn't until Sunday. All three girls donned their Halloween costumes again and headed out to a party at Kangaroo Jac's, an inflatable bounce house wonderland. Caroline had the best.time.ever. The inflatable slides were a huge hit as were the cupcakes and candy she devoured in between jumping and sliding sessions.

Ladybugs Margaret and Julia ready for another party.

Can you spot the cupcake?

She was moving so fast, all I could get was one blurry picture!

My sweet ladybugs having a joint finger chewing session after the party.

On Monday, we had even more fun planned. Caroline had her classroom Halloween party, then we went to our Halloween block party, and then the actual trick-or-treating that Halloween calls for.

Ready to go trick-or-treating!

Post trick-or-treating..the babies were over all the partying and were ready for bed!

Notice how tired I look? Kinda glad Halloween is finally over. 

Whew! That's a lot of celebrating and sugar crammed into the span of four days! I know I'm exhausted and ready for a few low-key days.

Just a couple more pictures that must be shared...
...the ladybug costumes the twins wore were right up Margaret's alley.

Julia even got in on the foot obsession action...

             Happy Halloween to all!!

Warning: Sarcasm Ahead

Now that I have a whopping 4 and a half months of being a parent to twins and a toddler under my belt, I feel like I've accumulated some wisdom that deserves sharing. It has to do with what well-intentioned strangers say to me when they see me out with all three of the girls. Here are some of the comments and questions I hear frequently and what I'd really like to say in reply if I wasn't constantly biting my tongue and reminding myself that people generally don't mean to irritate me.

1. Oh my, don't you have your hands full?!
Well isn't that the understatement of the year. And boy, if I had a dime for every time I've heard that, I'd be rich and have a nanny taking care of these kids for me.

2. Are they both yours?
No, one is mine and the other is my husband's.
(I can't take credit for this response. A twin mommy friend of mine shared it with me.)

3. Are they natural?
No, they're made of plastic. Want to pinch their cheeks and feel for yourself?

4. Let me guess. A girl and a boy?
Yes, you're right. Never mind that they are both decked out in head-to-toe pink. 

5. Are you going to try for a boy?
Yes, because having three beautiful, healthy, and wonderful girls leaves us with no choice but to try for a boy. Not to mention my life isn't crazy enough. Why not add a fourth child into the mix?

6. Oh, your poor husband!
Yes, he hates being the apple of four girls' eyes.

7. Would you like some help?
Now this one, I really shouldn't be snarky about, but I often want to reply, "Only if you're hiding a pack mule and a Sherpa somewhere to help me carry all this stuff. Otherwise, don't bother." (Credit goes to my sister for this one.)

8. I don't know how you manage. I'd never leave my house!
I tried staying home. I went crazy and they've just now released me from the looney bin.


9. Oh twins! My sister's husband's best friend has twins!
Great, thanks for sharing. How does that relate to me?


10. They're X months old? Oh they're still soooo tiny!!
Sigh. Thanks for the reminder. Because that's just the kind of encouraging words I need to hear right now.


Well that's it! That's a recap of all the crazy (and seemingly nice) things I hear as the mother of twins and a toddler. I really couldn't make this stuff up if I tried.
And now so we end this post with something nice and sweet instead of sarcastic, here are some pictures of my sweet girls and a funny video of Caroline...

Margaret/Julia

Julia/Margaret

A trio of fabulous little ladies

Caroline drawing a self-portrait...

4 Month Update: the Good, the Bad, and the Stinky

 Last Thursday we took the twins to the doctor for their 4 month check-up and shots. Here's the report:

The Good:
Dr. Nelson was thrilled with the developmental progress the girls have made. Both Julia and Margaret are on par with full term 4 month olds in all areas. Both girls smiled, cooed, and even blew raspberries at their doctor and then they each showed off some pretty impressive tummy time skills. Margaret is a little lacking in the muscle tone department, but we expected to hear this and Dr. Nelson said she has no doubt Margaret will catch up by 6 months.

The Bad:
One the most anticipated parts of the visit was the weight check. And unfortunately, the littlest Hepper ladies did not wow the socks off Dr. Nelson in this department. Julia weighed in at 11 pounds, 5 ounces and Margaret was 10 pounds, 1 ounce. That's the 5th and 3rd percentile, folks. Talk about discouraging. I was sure they were both at least 12 pounds, but obviously I was wrong.

The Stinky:

Since I'm already nursing the girls a ridiculous amount of times a day, Dr. Nelson suggested adding a bottle of formula every night before bedtime. While this was a bit disappointing to hear, I think it is the best way to help these pint-sized princesses add some much needed pounds. Plus, in theory, the formula should help them sleep longer at night.
So, with high hopes we mixed up our first ever bottles of formula on Friday night. I nearly lost my dinner when I smelled the stuff. Formula stinks!! The girls were not impressed either. Two seconds after their first taste, they both pulled back and looked at me like, "You're kidding, right?!" First attempt = fail.
Last night we tried again, mixing up a half and half concoction in the hopes of easing the transition a bit. Success! Both girls sucked down their bottles and went happily off to bed. For about 4 hours. Guess the formula isn't going to solve our sleep issues just yet. We'll keep hoping though!

Our pint-sized princesses

A Visit to the Pumpkin Patch

 I swear I blinked my eyes and the month of October is already halfway gone (again, that's not surprising, is it?!). So with Halloween quickly approaching and no pumpkins to speak of on our front porch, we planned a family trip to Ashland Berry Farm this weekend to get our pumpkin picking fix.

The weather was absolutely perfect: clear blue skies, with the temperature hovering right around 60 degrees. All three little ladies were in good spirits and decked out in their finest pumpkin picking attire. We arrived right at 10am (opening time) to find the parking lot over halfway full and the line for hay rides already winding through the farm and out the front gates. Apparently the entire Commonwealth of Virginia also decided this was the perfect weekend for a pumpkin patch visit. Luckily, we found a parking space and discovered that the line to get inside and onto a hay ride was moving relatively quickly.

While Daddy held our spot in line, the babies contentedly sat in the stroller while people oohed and ahhed over them and Caroline took a quick spin around the koi fish ponds until it was time to board the hay ride into the patch to select the perfect pumpkin (although as you'll see below, Caroline's "perfect pumpkin" is a bit reminiscent of Charlie Brown's Christmas tree).

Our friends the Benjamins joined us after we got back from the hay ride and the two Carolines spent some time running through the children's corn maze and scoping out the petting zoo. Before long, we'd had our share of fall fun and got ready to head home before the girls decided to melt down on us. It was the perfect family outing to welcome in the second half of October.

Margaret, Caroline, and Julia ready to go to the pumpkin patch.

Pumpkin love!

Taking it all in.

It's a teeny tiny pumpkin!

Julia happily munching on her fingers while we waited in line.

Margaret doing what she does best: staring at her feet.

Caroline and Daddy ready to head out into the patch.

Looking for the perfect pumpkin (this was not it)

Big C and Lil C in the children's maze.

Mommy and Caroline

Back at home and proud of her pumpkin.

Such a beauty :)

Two tuckered out pumpkins.

 To be fair to Margaret (to show she's not always looking at her feet) and because it's just too cute not to share...

Girl Talk

I caught some pretty cute video and pictures today of Julia and Margaret having a little "girl talk." I have a feeling there's going to be a lot more where this comes from...

Julia/Margaret

Julia telling Margaret a story.

And a pic of Caroline, just for good measure. We hit up the children's museum for lots of play time and lunch and this was the end result...

I think it's safe to say she had a great time.

Hip Hip Hooray, the Twins are 4 Months Old Today!!

(Well they actually turned 4 months old yesterday, but I was too tired to finish the post before I went to bed so it's up one day late.)

Margaret/Julia

 It's hard to believe that Julia and Margaret turned four months old today, but it's true. I don't have any weight or height stats for you because we don't actually go for our 4 month well visit until the 20th. Which is probably good because I'd love for the girls to have several extra days of eating (and hopefully weight gaining) under their belts before we hit the scales again.

Stats aside, the girls are making amazing strides developmentally and of course, continue to be just too cute for words. Both girls can roll over from tummy to back and Julia can roll over from back to tummy. Both girls are grabbing toys, cooing, kicking with excitement, tracking people, sounds, and objects, and have great head control. Both girls have also found their hands, have mastered the art of getting their fingers into their mouths and have developed a great love for those tasty digits.
Temperament-wise, these ladies are fantastic. They love to ride in the car and can be dragged around town when Caroline's schedule demands, they will play alone for quite some time, and they generally receive manhandling from big sister C without complaint.

Here are some differences between the girls...

Julia: 
Julia is quite the Momma's girl these days. She prefers to held by me and when she can hear my voice in the room, she'll throw her head up and down and side to side until she finds me. She's earned the nickname "Screaming Eagle" in our house because when she isn't happy, she lets loose a shriek/cry that sounds exactly like a giant eagle might make as it swoops down on a poor helpless mouse. Thankfully, Julia is generally happy so we don't hear that sound too frequently.
Julia is a little further along than Margaret in her ability to grab and play with toys and so she will spend lots of time playing independently. She gets very excited when she sees her family members and always gives a big smile and hearty leg kicks when one of us comes into her line of vision. Julia also loves looking at Margaret and cooing at her.
An area of needed improvement for Julia (that line came directly from my days as a teacher!) is her sleeping habits. Boy oh boy, the girl needs to improve majorly in this area. It's typically around 4 months that you see a sleep regression in infants. Well, that would require some progress to have occurred and with Julia, I don't think we ever saw any. Poor child still tries to get up up to 5 times a night and would love it if a nap was defined as a 20 minute long resting period.

Julia, aka "The Screaming Eagle"

Margaret: 
Margaret is what I call a "user friendly" baby. She's the baby that is usually handed over to a friend or my babysitter when I need help because she's pretty happy-go-lucky and will tolerate being held by a perfect stranger if necessary.
Like Julia, Margaret lights up with a huge smile when she sees one of us. She's really into faces and will charm your socks off by batting her long eyelashes and with her sweet coos. As you may have seen in previous posts, Margaret is quite enamored with her feet. She could probably spend a good half hour staring at them, especially if there's something colorful down there.
 Margaret is a stellar sleeper. She loves to nap and is able to pull 6-7 hours of sleep straight during the night as long as the "Screaming Eagle" doesn't wake her up.

Mmm...fingers!

Please try to ignore/excuse my annoying "mommy talk" in this video.

As I said before, both girls are just too cute for words and I feel so lucky to have such fantastic little ladies, Caroline included of course!

Three sisters hanging out in Julia's crib.

Is it Friday Yet??

Whew! It's only Wednesday and I'm already exhausted and ready for the weekend! I think I'm so tired because in addition to having nearly 4 month old twins who still aren't sleeping through the night, I've been very busy this week running to and fro taking Caroline to all her fall activities and getting ready to co-host a baby shower tomorrow evening.

 I must have been in a sleep deprived stupor when I decided that in addition to three days of preschool a week, it would be a good idea for Caroline to take a Little Scientists class and a Fairy Tale Ballet class every week this fall. Talk about over scheduling! The good news is that she loves loves loves all her activities. The bad news is I spend a good chunk of time shuttling her around town, which is made ten times harder by the fact that I have two additional bodies to shuttle around with us.

Anyways, enough complaining! Today was Caroline's first ballet class, and I got some really cute pictures of her to share with you all. And although she said she had a great time, I think she's still trying to wrap her head around the idea of a room full of girls in tutus and leotards twirling and dancing while the teachers try to engage them a variety of games. Caroline spent a lot of her first class standing off to the side of the group, giving them her infamous "stink eye" face and no doubt thinking "what in the world are you all doing??"

20 minutes before ballet class is the perfect time to rub orange marker all over your face!

All cleaned up and ready to go!

Scoping out her new classmates.

Taking it all in.

Leaving her classroom. Tongue out = good time

Hailey and Caroline: ballet buddies

So cute!

Julia and Lainey got some side by side stroller chatting in while the big girls were in class.

Ballet class was exhausting for Julia. She fell asleep in her bouncy seat while I was giving Caroline a bath.

Margaret, on the other hand, is still obsessed with her feet and was not tired out at all!