CHRISTMAS!!

Christmas number three has come and gone at the Goddard residence. Once again, the holiday just got better. This year's Christmas was marked by PRESENT OVERLOAD -- it took us all day to unwrap all the fun! We got an early start though.

Gabe (R) and Elias (l) opening their traditional Christmas Eve presents

Ta-Da! We love our new PJ's Aunt Diana and Uncle Bill!

Gabe is combing Elias' hair with the comb their great-great-grandmother bought on her honeymoon.

We've done a lot of Christmas reading over the past six weeks.
One favorite was definitely _'Twas_The_Night_Before_Christmas_. However, even this classic came in second to the boys' ultimate Christmas Story, _The_Grinch_Who_Stole_Christmas_ by Dr. Seuss. Every time we tried to talk about Santa coming and bringing presents, we were interrupted with adamant cries of "NO! That's the GRINCH"

So, we all got in on the fun and started preparing for the Grinch to come visit us. Since the boys have reached the age of ultimate destruction, our tree this year was pretty sparsely decorated this year...

....until Christmas Morning.

We woke up not only to TONS of presents, but also to a lit tree -- clearly stuffed up the chimney, then updated and brought back by the Grinch. AND...there were other signs he may have paid a visit...

Max!?!?! What are YOU doing here???

And the Toys -- Oh the Toys. It was TOYS, TOYS, TOYS, TOYS!

Gabe "fixes" the tree with his new tools

Daddy and Gabe work at the Tool Bench.

I sleepin'! zzzzzzz!
Elias snuggles in his new sleeping bag.

Do you remember that Fischer Price Doctor Kit you got for Christmas many, many years ago? Well, it hasn't changed much...

...and it is still AWESOME!
Elias is now accepting Blue Cross

Even Ruby got in on the fun!

I Love The Smell of Poultry In The Morning!

Many of the favorite toys were of the musical variety. Harmonicas, horns, and kazoos were fun, but all paled in comparison to...

...GUITARS!!!!
Elias (l) and Gabriel (r) get their strum on!

Happy Holidays to everyone!!! We hope you got all the love, peace, joy, and goodies you wanted under your tree this year.

It's Beginning to Look A Lot Like Christmas!

We are getting into the Holiday Spirit out here in sunny California! The Goddard Elves have definitely been busy.

YUM! Christmas decorations sure taste good!
(Gabe on Left; E on Right)

Of course, decorating with toddlers is different than decorating with adults or with babies. The boys can be both helpful and...well...let's say adventurous! Here's a great example. Elias is putting up the tree with Daddy. He is helpfully choosing the right branches for each section of tree and then unfolding them to make them look bushy.

Wow, I'm a great assistant! I should really get paid for this!

Hey...what's back there? I think I need to check this out...

HELP HELP!!! We're being eaten aaaallliiivvvvveeeee!!!

Needless to say the tree remained undecorated for a while... squirming toddler bodies are decoration enough!

We were also surprised to wake up to a terrific site last week.
Yup! That's 8 inches of snow out our window!!!! Horray! Now let's go outside!

Of course, first we need to put about 200 layers of clothes on the kids...

YEAH! SNOW!

And while we're at it, let's have a photo-shoot:

Gabe shows his softer side

Elias gives Gene Simmons some Competition
(and yes, that IS a Yuengling hat my child is proudly wearing!)

And finally, we venture out into the alien landscape!

Thigh deep in the good life!

We made good use of the snow while we could...

...before coming in and enjoying the view from the fire.

Happy Holidays Ya'll!

First Christmas!

We had a very Merry Christmas at the Goddard house. Kathy's mom came early and helped us to recover from our illness (we all had the super-cold/flu) so we were bright-eyed and bushy-tailed for Santa!

Ninah with Santa's Little Helpers

The boys got quite a boon from friends, family and Santa. Their gear is EVERYWHERE now. We need another house just for their stuff...

Elias & Gabe in their mountain of toys

The boys are really into new toys and activities now, so their exersaucers have been getting a TON of miles put on them. :-)

Gabe and Elias hard at work...

In the end, our favorite gifts this year are easy to identify. And we love unwrapping them every chance we get!

Wow, UPS really will ship anything!

Holy Stinky Spit-Up, Batman!

So, avid readers of the Goddard Twin Blog may have noticed that we haven't been posting too much lately. The reality is that our posting seems to be directly proportional to the number of hours we have slept in the preceeding days. Lately, there hasn't been much sleep at all around the homestead. Until about 3 weeks ago, we thought we had the perfect sleepy babies. They went down each evening as though by magic -- After a big meal, they would fuss for 30 seconds while Chris swaddled them, but as soon as their heads hit the crib and we turned on their "Ocean Sounds" white noise, they were asleep -- before Chris had finished tucking them in together. We were in this pattern for months... then a few weeks ago, the boys seemed crankier at bedtime -- even though they were clearly tired. We did more rocking and cuddle time before bed...eventually, we started putting them to bed in their bouncer seats, then in their bouncer seats with the vibrating mechanism on...things just kept escalating. The last week things have been really tough.

The boys just couldn't seem to settle at night -- no matter what we did. They were clearly exhausted -- even overtired. We would feed them, walk them, wear them, sing to them, bring them to bed with us. It didn't matter what we did, neither of the boys could settle. We might be able to put them down, but 20 minutes later, they were up and screaming in a way we had never heard before. Eventually, the only way we could get any sleep at all was to swaddle the boys in their swings on high each night. They still woke up every few minutes, but were able to fall back asleep without crying as long as they were in constant motion. During the day, the boys would only sleep for a few minutes at a time. Where they used to each take 2 hour naps, we were lucky to get 20 minute catnaps out of them -- and these would only happen when they were laying on their tummies. Pretty soon we were all asleep on our feet all the time... Images like this became the norm:

Chris & E in a rare moment of common slumber

Kathy kept thinking this was pre-teething pain and talked with the pediatrician's office about potential remedies... We tried them all with no success. Finally, Chris pushed for a pediatrician's appointment. We agreed that the boys seemed like they were in pain and not getting any better. So today we both went to the pediatrician. He immediately told us this was unlikely to be teething, but instead he thought it might be something else in their tummies. I guess we shouldn't have been surprised based on the boys' recent diet:

Gabe and E sit down for Thanksgiving

The pediatrician started asking us questions -- Have we noticed any more spit-up lately? Actually, Gabe seems to spit up after every meal...sometimes out of his nose. Does their breath and/or spit-up smell funny? Yes -- we have been bathing the boys twice as often because we can't seem to get rid of the spoiled-milk-spit-up smell. Do the boys seem to prefer any positions? Yup -- sitting up, standing or tummy-time only. The verdict?!? ACID REFLUX! Usually peaks around 4 months; common symptoms include discomfort laying back, spoiled milk smell, more frequent regergitation (occasionally), lack of weight gain, increased parental concern and a strong feeling that the babies are in pain.

We were SSSSSOOOOO glad we went to the doctor. We now have some samples of baby Previcid and are hopeful that sleep will once again return to the Goddard home...just in time for the Christmas Holiday! We sure are looking forward to it: Gabriel and Elias model their super-cute Christmas attire (Thanks Anna & Aunt Rachel!)

This year we wish for peace on earth...and hopefully it will begin in our house! :-)

Merry Christmas!