Could I be any more long-winded?

Sorry for the delay, but here I am and all is well here. It's been extremely busy, believe it or not, but it's also been extremely wonderful. The boys are getting so big and they both keep surprising us.

Daxton is doing great. He's so stinking close to standing on his own... He'll let go for a few seconds but then holds on again. If you help him stand and then sneak your hands away, however, he sits down immediately. We've tried that trick so many times now that he refuses to stand up holding our fingers anymore, and if we try to force the issue we end up dragging his butt across the floor like a wormy dog. He crawls at about 20 mph on his palms and the bottoms of his feet and never, ever stops moving.

His old PT, Yum-Yum, came for a visit last week, and she seemed amazed at how well Dax is doing. She saw no inappropriate tone or patterns of movement, and thinks he is so close to standing and taking steps. He's such an awesome little boy!

Eating is going better. Main meals are still cereal and baby food fruits and veggies, but he is making progress with chunkier foods. He can now finger feed himself small cereals and cookies, and we've even sneaked in some green beans and chicken pieces. He's a big fan of Oreos, but those have to be eaten outside while naked. But isn't that how we all eat our Oreos?

And speaking of eating, he's doubled his amount of teeth in the past three weeks, and halved his amount of drooling. And, yes, all the new teeth are discolored, too. Still, his smile is so amazing that you hardly notice.

We were worried that maybe our boys didn't have enough to play with, so the hubby went to my parents' last weekend and picked up their old piano. I sat Dax in my lap and after just one bang of his hand he was in love (and we were in earplugs :) His high chair fits perfectly under the piano, so we just strap Dax in and he will just play and play and play... And maybe I'm a crazy mama, but I swear there's some music behind what he's doing... He just has a little fine-tuning to do.

On to Mr. Ty... He's growing so fast! Our littlest man can now roll over from his belly to his back, and his arms and neck are getting so strong. He's eating us (and stinking us :) out of house and home, and perfected his "pick-me-up and/or feed me" whine. He's also figured out his mommy and daddy will do some crazy things to get him to smile... And when he finally does it lights up the whole room.

His hair has settled in at a nice strawberry blond, and it looks like his eyes might be staying blue. He's also got the tiniest little cleft in his chin like his daddy, and one dimple like his mama. He's absolutely precious!

The brothers are getting along much better now. Whenever we put the two together Dax just smiles at his brother and Ty just stares at Dax with fascination. Even though they're getting on so much better, it still blows my mind that boys and girls with sisters and brothers grow up with both eyes still intact.

As for us, the hubby's been working hard, and I was too up until I left to go to Daytona Beach for a conference last week. I was able to catch up with a lot of old friends and catch up on some CEUs that I missed with all the craziness of last year. My mom and dad came up and played with the babies and cooked up a bunch of yummy food for us while I was gone. Going away was harder than I expected, but I did get to read a whole book, spend some quiet time on the beach, and learn how to artificially inseminate an elephant. So at least I accomplished a few things!

And, just in case my blog has been boring today, I thought I'd share that I'd been feeling a little strange so last Saturday I took a pregnancy test, and it was positive.

Bask in that for a minute. Feel the burn.

I called the hubby, who just happened to be five hours away on his way to bring home the aforementioned piano. After the initial shock, he threatened to drive off a bridge. I told him he couldn't, that he had to deliver the piano first. I told him he was being irresponsible since I had not yet decided if I was going to jump off the house, and he should make sure I don't before he drives off the bridge just to make sure our kids aren't orphans.

Within an hour or so we decided that maybe we would survive, and started working out the practicalities.

In the week that followed, I probably spent $50 on pregnancy tests, and, you know what? They were all negative. I took them in the morning, the afternoon, and the night, but no positives. And today it became official. Not pregnant!!!

And we all breathe a collective sigh of relief.

I love, love, love my babies. I love, love, love my husband. I love, love, love my sanity. I think we'll keep things the way they are :)

The vasectomy is scheduled for this month, btw. We're counting down the days!

I guess that's all our news for now. I'm having some downloading issues, but I promise to post some pics and videos soon. In the meantime, I have a question for you...

If I wrote a book, would you want to read it? What would you like to see me do with it? And if you're a NICU parent, would you be interested contributing some of your favorite NICU stories?

Just a thought... I have a project I really want to do, but it would be a big undertaking and if I can't win, I don't want to play :)

So... Thoughts? Comments? Suggestions?