Where has the summer gone?

It's hard to believe that Labor Day weekend is 3 short weeks away. Where has the summer gone? We've had a busy but fun summer. Cole has been to the Milwaukee Zoo with his buddies Ben and Jake. He's been to Lake Holiday in IL to play in the sand for hours with his buddy, Isabel. In July, Grandpa Randy came for a week to visit and play with Cole. Here are pictures from Granpa Randy's visit.

Twinkies Update

Patrick and I had an ultrasound today with our "high risk" Dr. who will monitor the babies for the next 6 months. She did a screen for Down Syndrome by measuring the backs of their necks. Both babies measured in the "normal" range and we breathed a collective sigh of relief. She also said the membrane separating the two sacks is very thin so there is a VERY good chance the babies are identical! We will find out Sept. 15th if that means two more boys to the mix or two little girls! We can hardly wait.

I am feeling better...still tired, but I'm guessing it's just the start! She also said that both babies were good sized so that too made us happy. We saw both their heartbeats along with both of them kicking and moving their arms. After Sept. 15th I will have an ultrasound every month so the Dr's can monitor the growth. With the high chance that they are identical means one placenta and the chance of one baby stealing from the other. We hope they continue to grow together at the same pace.

We are both starting to adjust to what our household will sound like in the years to come. We are truely blessed.

Cole's Day with Nana

This past Saturday Cole spent the day with Nana while Patrick and I played golf with my Dad's side of the family. Cole and Nana had a good time together. Cole loves to push things around the house, so Nana got a shopping cart for him which was a big hit. Not only does he love pushing it around, climbing on it is also lots of fun! They also went to a local petting zoo. Cole enjoyed the animals (he takes after his mother not his father).

And then there were 5...

Well it's true....in case you haven't heard the excitment in the Dwyer home....a) I'm pregnant and b) with twins! June 18, 2008 was a defining day in the lives of the Dwyers.

Patrick and I attended my first-trimester ultrasound expecting to see the heartbeat and get a good clean bill of health. What we got was news that we were expecting twins. There are no twins in either family and I have never taken a drop of fertility medicine. So this is purely by chance and one we joked about for weeks. Patrick would jokingly say "what if it's twins"..not believing there was a snowball's chance in hell we would both laugh. Well I guess the jok is on us! We also believe they will be identical. What we have intially been told is that they share same yolk sak.

I have a follow-up appointment with my Dr. on Tuesday so will learn more at that time what the next few months will look like. My original due dat is January 27th...but I'm guessing I may go early now. I told Cole he should enjoy this birthday this year...as it will be the last one he has alone!

We appreciate all the support we've been given in the last 24 hours. We know we have a long hard road ahead of us....but we are only given what we can handle...and apparently we didn't know it but 3 children were in our future!

Stay tuned as our family (and me) grows!

From Baby to Toddler....

Sunday nite we had our first "major" experience of what it's like to parent a toddler. Cole went into his usual crazy-mode around 7:00 PM. He was climbing all over furniture, laughing, climbing all over me, and throwing himself on the couch.

At one point he started to pull my hair. I would tell him "NO, we don't pull hair"....what did he do but open his mouth wide and give a big hearty laugh in my face! This went on several times and as stern as I tried to be...he could care less. Patrick took a stern approach and tried make him sit to understand what he was doing was wrong. He started laughing at Patrick and then realized sitting was not a lot of fun.

At one point our giggles back and forth regarding the situation turned to looks like "he's not ever going to listen to us". Our neighbor warned us this was a hard time...I thought Cole was going to prove her wrong...but no such luck. Let the fun begin!

Finally a blog!

So here it is...finally our family blog. We had good intentions when Cole was born - Patrick created a website to post pictures and videos. What we soon learned is that parenting and raising a child took over our lives and we had little time to spend on creating the website. I enjoy reading other people's blogs and figured if anything our family and friends far away would probably like to know what is going on with the Dwyers...espicially Cole.

So here it is our blog. Bear with me as I learn how this thing called the in-ter-net works. More to come!