My how they've grown!

My boys are 5 months old today. It astounds me how fast these last five months have flown by; especially in comparison to my ten year long pregnancy! I've been reminiscing a lot about Kyan at this age and about the pregnancy with the twins. Check out what I looked like on the day of the twins' birth with my hair braided in preparation for labor (38 weeks exactly):

The strangest thing about the size of my body was my nose. Seriously. My nose grew to amazing proportions. The nurse in the hospital said that it was just water retention. In my nose? I tried to explain to Ben how, even though I knew I was huge, I didn't feel that different in my face until I looked at the pictures in retrospect. Now I see it looks like someone took a bicycle pump and pumped air into my face!

Five months ago today I met these amazing little boys who have completed our family! The ride was a hard one, but despite the struggle it was all worth it in the end. Of course I knew it would be, but I have to say that I had more than a few instances where I was ready to throw in the towel no matter what the consequences. The human body has amazing capacity, that's all I can say!

Here are my pumpkins just hours after being born. I was so wired and in love that I didn't sleep for about 48 hours. I was also astounded that my belly was still so big :)

When we took the twins home I had such a distinctly different experience than I remembered from bringing Kyan home from the hospital. When we drove home with Kyan I sat in the back seat clutching his hands and stroking his face while I feverishly scanned the passing cars and dared them to come anywhere near my precious little bundle. Now, granted, we had an hour long drive on Hawaiian freeways which could undo a person on a good day, compared to the five minute drive on side roads to get the twins home, but still my anxiety levels were on two different ends of the spectrum. I do remember thinking both times: "I can't believe they just let us walk out of the hospital with this (these) baby(ies). What if we don't know what to do once we get home?" Of course we did know what to do. Thank goodness!

Our next challenge was saving the twins from the infinite love of their big brother (a challenge we still face constantly!).

I think Kyan wants to eat the twins up as much as I do, only in 3 year old land that means climbing on them and trying to engulf them with his hugs and kisses. YIKES! Somehow they have survived this love and are thriving, though. They've gone from our swaddled little beans...:

to our big strong boys:

I am really looking forward to, and terrified by the idea of, the boys crawling and walking and talking. I know things will get a lot more challenging when this all starts, but I can't wait to hear what they have to say and see how they experience life.

We've all come a long way and I feel like the countdown is on...in a mere five years all three of my boys will enter school...in just ten years I will have a teenage boy...in fifteen years I will have an eighteen year old boy...and three years later I may have an empty nest (notice I say "may have", I'm not counting my chickens, yet :)

I just want to enjoy them and love them and be the best Mama that I can be. I never thought that I would have the opportunity to stay home and care for my children without working, so I am going to enjoy these moments while they last! Here's to my boys and all of the joy they bring to my life!

my boys plus Quinn :)