Picture: Tyler stands on his own!

Life with the boys is wonderful, as always! Their health status is good, but of course we are daily faced with the challenges of having micro-preemies. We feel so blessed that the boys are doing as well as they are, but as I've shared with my micro-preemie mom friends who face similar "challenges", the road to full recovery is sometimes sooo far out of sight!

We had an appointment with GI yesterday to evaluate their current feeding status. Unfortunately BOTH boys lost weight! Eek! The last two weeks we've been working on getting Parker to eat while awake (he's resorted to strictly sleep feeding) and getting Tyler to take the full amount of his day time bottles without gavaging the difference. Well, both daily volume amounts decreased so we thought they'd most likely lose weight, but the GI didn't want us to change anything for two weeks to give the boys an opportunity to get REALLY hungry, in hopes it'd encourage eating. After yesterday's appointment we're fitting in one more feed with Parker at night (which may or may not be a sleep feed - one out of five sleep feeds is certainly better) and are continuing "status quo" efforts with Tyler unless we don't see improvement (in that case we'll call GI in a week and let them know). We NEVER thought we'd be dealing with EATING issues, of ALL things! My family just can't grasp this concept...a family member not wanting food? Are you kidding? Yes, I swear I did birth them...believe me, that's one I'll NEVER forget!

Today was a HUGE day for the boys. They had a physical therapy evaluation and also had their regular developmental therapy sessions. The physical therapist told me that it looks like both boys could benefit from services because they both lack the stomach muscle strength to allow them to sit up by themselves or crawl. She is recommending services for both boys, so we'll see what comes from the evaluation report. And developmental therapy is always fun for the boys - they see it as a time to play with their friend Danielle! In fact, they really respond to Danielle when they see her now...which I like! She looks so different from me (long curly black hair, dark eyes) - I think it's good that the boys are getting used to someone who doesn't resemble momma.

Stats: Tyler weighs 18 pounds and measures 27.5 inches; Parker weighs 15 pounds, 13 ounces and measures 26.5 inches. Tyler is standing up on his own, has two bottom teeth, babbles and screams when he's happy or tired, is almost out of his 9 month clothes, loves to kick his feet wildly and jump around in his jumper and is fascinated by the new animal sounds book! Parker continues eating his feet (will that ever go away?), has three bottom and one random top tooth, says "da, da, da, da..." over and over again, watches mommy constantly and doesn't let her leave the room without notice, and is drawn to music and singing. The boys often play next to each other, which is so fun to watch. Yesterday the boys stole the same item (a spatula believe it or not) out of each others hands about 20 times before one of them got tired of the "game". They don't realize that stealing items from each other is wrong, so right now they just look at each other and wait to steal it back. It's so funny! Tyler LOVES his brother and often smiles, laughs and tries to hug Parker. Parker, on the other hand, will ignore brother and even turned his back on him the other day. I felt bad for Tyler but have to realize that their relationship is going to be between the two of them. They will love each other and show it in their own way. Lesson learned mommy! [ssshhhh...I did force Parker to hug his brother the other day though - ha ha!]

Here are some new pics below...I know that's what every loves!