Just Another Update!

It's been a busy week! Busy is good! My great friend, Leah, traveled from Pittsburgh for a visit. (They just moved to Pittsburgh early this summer for Mike's residency.) We got a couple of days to hang out and I'll probably see her in Duluth this weekend too. Leah and Mike's girl number 2 is due in January. So many girls!

Sofia, Josie, and Madeline sitting with Anna in the background. Future best friends!!

My brother, Jon, traveled from LA for almost a week. They really grew since the last time he saw them! Plus, they are doing so much more. He even bottled one of the babies for the first time! He also got to experience the witching hour. Woohoo! No, I think he had a good time and it was so fun to hang out. Now, he's back to his thesis work in California. Good luck!

Josephine and Jon (remember his character from his project is named Josephine!) Grandma Alice and Sofia are in the background too.

Of course, there was even more excitement when my grandma Alice and my cousin Emily came from out east. Right now, Emily is working in NYC in the school system, which she enjoys. Emily was definitely thrown into things and she helped with every single feeding. I wasn't sure if she knew she would be put to work the whole time but she claims she did. Thanks Emily! Hopefully it is not too long before we see each other again! I know the girls will be running around by then, though. My grandma was excited to meet the girls and I'm so glad she could make it all the way to Minnesota!

Emily hanging out with (foreground to background) Sofia, Josie, and Madeline.


Four generation picture! My mom is holding Madeline, my grandma is holding Sofia, and I have Josie.
Emily with Madeline, Josie, and Sofia at my parent's condo.


Sofia is in the low 13's for weight and she is as cute as ever. She loves to babble and laugh. The belly laughs we get are to die for! She is really good at sitting but hasn't figured out how to scoot around yet. You can tell she really wants to, so it should be soon.


Madeline is in the upper 14's for weight and still scooting around. She and Josie get up on their hands and knees and kind of rock back and forth. They will be crawling soon. Madeline keeps getting chunkier- so cute! We get belly laughs out of her too... Madeline must have known I was writing about her because she just got up from her nap! Hi Maddie!



Josephine is mid to upper 14's- very similar to Madeline. We still don't think she looks identical to Madeline! They have different eyes and Josie's dimples are way more obvious. I wonder if they will look more similar as they grow (or less!) Josie is unfortunately our worst napper/sleeper. If someone wakes up at 3, it is usually her. It might be because she sucks her fingers and thumb the least amount. Not quite sure yet how to self-soothe. We are pretty lucky, though, since we more often than not get a whole night's sleep uninterrupted.


This weekend we are heading up north (Dan's even taking Friday off). Lara, Charlie, Dane, and Peter will be in town again. It will be fun for the cousins to see each other. I don't even want to know how much bigger he will be! Moose! Some of Dan's extended family are going north too, so it will be lots of fun!


I had to add this picture. Doesn't Odin look so patient to go on a walk? What a great dog...
Have a great rest of the week and weekend!

Support My Bro!

My brother, Jon, is here visiting from LA. He has his script and idea all set for his thesis film for USC Graduate Film School (talk about prestigious if you are in the film industry!) He's making a stop motion animation film and he even named a character after one of my girls! It's called Josephine and the Roach. Go watch the promo and spare a buck or two if you think it looks interesting! Any donations are due Sept 11 or he doesn't get a cent (I guess that's how the site works). There are rewards if you donate certain amounts (ranging from drawings to DVDs to keeping the actual puppet from the movie). Click Here!

I'll update soon with more pics of the girls! They are all doing very well right now. It's exciting here in the Klopp household. Jon is here 'till Sunday and soon my grandma and cousin are coming! Exciting!

8 Months Plus!

The girls are over 8 months old already! How can that be?? I was just getting over the fact that they are half a year old! It's hard to tell from the weather, but summer is on the wane. Before we know it we'll be planning their birthday party.... (I hope not too soon because I love autumn.)

The girls are all doing splendidly. They keep doing more and more and they make us laugh everyday. Yesterday we had a NICU follow-up clinic. The therapists put them through a battery of tests to see how they are developing. They were all separated into different rooms (Debbie went with Sofia, Dan went with Josie, and I had Madeline). The bummer was that Debbie and I tried so hard to get the girls to have a good solid nap in the morning, but of course it didn't go as planned. Despite their tiredness they did pretty well!

Madeline: In every category: cognitive, motor- gross and fine, and language- receptive and expressive, Madeline either scored in-between her adjusted and actual age, or right at her actual age. She showed off her new skill of army crawling and also sat for a long time. Luckily, she was in a good mood almost the whole time.

Madeline
Sofia: She scored well in the cognitive and motor categories (in-between adjusted and actual age), but she was too sad to show-off her language skills. I guess she was crying the whole time and did not feel like babbling! She was our first babbler so we know the results weren't accurate. These tests are very dependent on mood, unfortunately!

Sofia

Josephine: She scored in-between for all the categories as well and even scored above her actual age in receptive language. I'm not sure what she was doing to score so well since I wasn't there during her test, but woo-hoo! Yesterday, before the test at home, Josie army-crawled for the first time. Of course she didn't do it at the clinic, but that's just how it goes.

Josie

It was great to hear what we already believed: that our girls are on track and catching up to their actual age. By two years old they should be caught up developmentally. The therapists who tested them were pleased overall and were so happy how much they loved tummy time. While we were at Children's, we visited some of the nurses and nurse pracitioners that took care of our girls. They couldn't believe how big they were! It was great to see all of them again. The next follow-up clinic will be when they are a year old adjusted (March!)

Here are a couple more random pictures... couldn't help but share them.

Josie, Madeline, Sofia

Sofia and Madeline ("Whatcha lookin' at?")

Madeline fell asleep in the Johnny Jump-Up!

Madeline, Josie, and Sofia showing off their sitting skills. LOVE this pic!
Here's Madeline demonstrating her army crawling! Uh-oh, we better start baby proofing!


I have to mention a cute little tidbit about Odin... On more than one occasion, when the girls are crying "bloody murder", he has ran down to the basement and brought up his blanket. We are thinking he is trying to help out because he has never randomly done that before. What a sweetie!

On a side note, Dan and I just had our third wedding anniversary! Dan picked a nice Italian restaurant in Stillwater while my parents watched the girls. Nice choice, Dan! The next couple weeks are going to be exciting because my grandma from out in Connecticut is coming to visit, as well as my cousin traveling from NYC and my brother from LA. Yay!! Have a great rest of the week, everyone!