Surrounded by Twins

Although I don't have twins of my own ... it seems that I am surrounded by twins - to the point that I was very nervous for my U/S this pregnancy to make sure it WAS only 1 in there and although I would love to have another one in the future - doubly scared that the third pregnancy would be twins. I have so much respect for all the twin mom's out there and especially for moms of larger sets of multiples. Kudos to you, because I don't know that I could handle it.

My mom (1 of 7 children) has a set of twin siblings - My Aunt Renee and Uncle Mike. My sister, Lori, has been pregnant with twins twice - girls that she sadly lost around 14 weeks gestation and her 4-year-old boys Adam and Ethan. Russ and Debi (Chris's brother) have almost 2-year-old Emma and Will. My sister's SIL (her husband Jeff's sister) just delivered Seamus and Sophie last week at only 28 weeks gestation (they are doing well, but please send prayers their way).

Top (L to R): Aunt Renee (twin), Aunt Diana, Grandmom, Pop-Pop, Aunt Dannette, my mom Michelle

Bottom (L to R): Aunt Kelli, Uncle Bud, Uncle Mike (twin)

Adam & Ethan

Emma & Will

There is also one more set of twins surrounding us - literally. Directly behind our house, live Rachel and Olivia. They were born in March 2005 -and are just 3 1/2 months older than Katie.

Katie, Rachel, and Olivia

Rachel was diagnosed with Rett Syndrome last year.

Rett syndrome is a unique developmental disorder that is first recognized in infancy and seen almost always in girls, but can be rarely seen in boys. It has been most often misdiagnosed as autism, cerebral palsy, or non-specific developmental delay and is caused by mutations on the X chromosome on a gene called MECP2. There are more than 200 different mutations found on the MECP2 gene. Most of these mutations are found in eight different “hot spots.” Rett syndrome strikes all racial and ethnic groups, and occurs worldwide in 1 of every 10,000 to 23,000 female births. Rett syndrome symptoms appear after an early period of apparently normal or near normal development until six to eighteen months of life, when there is a slowing down or stagnation of skills. A period of regression then follows when she loses communication skills and purposeful use of her hands. Soon, stereotyped hand movements such as handwashing, gait disturbances, and slowing of the normal rate of head growth become apparent. Other problems may include seizures and disorganized breathing patterns while she is awake. In the early years, there may be a period of isolation or withdrawal when she is irritable and cries inconsolably. Over time, motor problems may increase, but in general, irritability lessens and eye contact and communication improve.

A landmark study reversing the symptoms of Rett syndrome in a mouse model was announced on February 8, 2007, based on an experiment performed by Dr. Adrian Bird, Ph.D., and past chairman of our Scientific Advisory Board. The results were astounding; breathing and weight were normalized, mobility and gait restored, and tremors disappeared in mice just days away from death. The principle of reversibility was established; the study suggests Rett syndrome and related disorders may be reversible even in the late stages of the disease!

To help support research to find a cure for Rett Syndrome, Rachel and her twin Olivia along with their parents Kris and Steve will be participating in the Stroll and Roll for Rett Strollathon this weekend in South Yarmouth, MA. If you would like to help, you can make a donation by visiting http://www.rettsyndrome.org/, click on "Make a Donation" in yellow at the right. Scroll all the way to the bottom until you see the strollathon logo and click. You are able to select the Cape Code location and make your donation in honor of Rachel Medeiros.

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Funny Girl - Random Silliness

Katie has been cracking us up lately with the things she is saying. She has recently added lots of vocabulary and phrases. We can't understand it ALL the time...but she's getting better and better with her speech. The funniest thing is that she adds these new phrases to her sentences...but they don't always make sense. For example, for the past few days she is loving to use the word "either" at the end of her sentences. But..it's not always the most appropriate word for what she's trying to say, either. See what I mean. Sometimes it seems like she's using it instead of "too" - but she knows that word and loves to use that one, too - lol.

Her other current "frequent phrases" are:

Come on - said in kind of a growl of frustration. Whether she's waiting for a DVD to start, or most any situation that something isn't working right away for her. I have noticed though..that she may have gotten this from me (although I don't growl it when I say it)

Oops, sorry - I've been hearing this one 5 million times a day. Even when I'm really frustrated at something she's done, the way she says it definately makes me want to laugh. But she says it over everything...she did something wrong, the pets did something wrong, I just tell her there's something she needs to do...AND where did she get this phrase...I just heard it on Dora the Explorer this morning EXACTLY the way she says it. EDIT: I stand corrected, Chris just told me it's from the monkey on Go Diego, Go...oops, sorry!)

But my FAVORITE:

Yesterday, she started telling me, "Mommy, I love you ALL day long!"


She's so weird in her sense of humor...she likes saying she's a girl, but thinks it's hilarious to tell me that I'm a boy and laugh. But if I turn the tables on her and joke back that SHE'S a boy..she gets pretty upset and defensive....NO, I'm a GIRL!!


She also started trying to put my baby in her tummy last week. I do this thing to her when she's hanging her tongue out her mouth and I pretend to grab her tongue and stick my thumb between my next 2 fingers and then pretend to put her tongue (my thumb) in my mouth..and I'll give it back to her if she keeps her tongue inside her mouth. She thinks it's hilarious. Well, last week, she pulled up my shirt - started making grabbing motions on my belly and then patted her belly and told me..Mommy, I took your Timmy. I have Timmy in MY belly now.


And finally, the stardom of getting on the bus the first day has gone a bit to her head and now she wants me to take the camera outside when we wait for the bus and take pictures of her everyday..which I'm happy to oblige. The second day on the bus, she even turned around on the bus steps waiting for me to take her picture there again. I nipped that one in the bud, but I have been taking cute pictures of her outside almost every morning.

Last Wednesday:

Mommy, mommy, take my picture!

Getting on the school bus for the very first time!



Thursday

Friday

Today

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TWO for TWOS-Day

It's once again time to show a favorite "Two-some" pic, whether it be twins, siblings, friends, husband/wife, pets, or anything else you can think of. This great idea came from Deanna at Eight is Great. Check out her blog to see who else is participating!!

This is Katie and her "boyfriend" Max. We met Max (along with some other good gymnastics friends) when Katie was 18 months old. They have been in the same class at the Little Gym for 1 1/2 years now. They are crazy together. Max actually tells everyone Katie is his girlfriend because he likes her pretty hair and they love to wrestle and roll around on the floor. Max is half Korean and half caucasian just like Jon from Jon and Kate Plus 8 ... so we know they'd have adorable kids, lol. I just hope it's not Max and Kate Plus 8...

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Toby's First Days

Just a quick post to add a slideshow of our first days with Toby ... especially for his foster mom Carrie who misses him a lot ... hopefully she forgives us for changing his name!

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Baby Picture Sunday - Animal Kingdom

Better late, then never:

This weeks theme for Baby Picture Sunday is Animal Kindom.

Here is Katie with Lucky when she was 2 months old:

and again at 3 months old:

Head over to Debi's blog at Who Says 8 is Enough? to see who else is playing along for

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What's in a Name? - Part Two

Finally, back to explain the meaning of the "More" in

"The Other Boufs: Mommy, Daddy, Katie ... and More"

Well, first and foremost would be the impending arrival of our son Timothy in November. I'm currently 31 weeks pregnant. Obviously, I'll need to change the name of the blog slightly after he gets here.

...and the rest of the family that I recently realized almost qualifies us to host the next Ark. Yes, pretty soon we will have 2 parents, 2 children, 2 dogs, and 2 cats.

The Doggies:

Chris and I had been considering getting our first dog for awhile and in June 2004 we got a call from Chris's parents down in NC that they were currently taking care of a stray puppy that they thought would be perfect for us. A momma dog and her puppies had been running around for a few days around their golf plantation and it turned out that they all got hit by a car except for one. Chris really wanted a lab and I didn't want TOO big of a dog and kind of preferred a black dog. Well, Lucky fit all the criteria for both of us. As an adult he's about 55lbs, which although considered a large dog - is nowhere near how large SOME labs can be.

Lucky - 4 months old:

Lucky - last November being a daddy to our new puppy Sophie:

Sometime around last October Chris and I both got an e-mail from someone at work about lab puppies that needed a home. We hadn't been fully looking for a 2nd dog, but had talked about it. It turned out that when we finally decided to call, the puppies had all been adopted, but once we had decided to go for it we started searching on petfinder. Our main reasoning was that we had watched my mom's and another friend's dog a few times when they went on vacations and Lucky loved having a second dog to play with. Definately got a lot of energy out for him when we didn't have the time to play with him for hours in the back yard. We found Sophie in a local animal shelter. She was originally from West Virginia and her whole litter had been brought to NJ for adoption. She was from a very interesting litter of lab mix puppies. Two were yellow labs, one was black with white (like Lucky, but not quite as cute as him), one was all over black and tan brindle, and our Sophie was mostly black with tan brindle on her face, legs, and paws. She will also be around 50 lbs - full grown.

Sophie - 3 months old:

Sophie - last week - about 1 year old:

The Kitties:

Well, when I created my blog (and the name) - we had two cats Bailey and Caely. Bailey sadly passed away this past August at almost 14 years old from suspected liver failure. I got Bailey from the local farmers market pet store in fall of 1995, when I was in 11th grade. My mom took care of him for the 4 years I was away at college and then he came to live with me in North Jersey for 3 years until Chris and I bought our house in South Jersey - where he spent his final 5 years. Bailey was an AWESOME cat. I think I would have actually paid to clone him if it was a possibility. He wasn't quite as friendly once the doggies arrived into our home...but he was his old self whenever they were outside. I have some ADORABLE kitty pics of Bailey but unfortunately my ancient scanner is on the fritz...so I'll have to just post some pics from the digital age.

Here's the fatty enjoying our new house in 2003:

We noticed Bailey losing weight over a few weeks and then all of a sudden he looked so different. The night before Katie's birthday party at the end of June we noticed he could barely walk. I took him to the vet on Monday and was basically told he probably had a few days left. The antibiotics they gave him helped a lot in the beginning and he actually had another good 4 weeks in him. During those 4 weeks, he was great to be around. He was super cuddly, slept with me every night, and even began to enjoy laying around with the dogs. His very last weekend he even ran outside for one last hurrah to lay in the grass and bushes.

Katie really enjoyed her last few weeks with Bailey since he let her carry him and pick him up to help get on the bed. Pics below are Katie with Bailey the day we got home from the vet, since I didn't know how much time left we really had and then Bailey with Caely.

And my great last pics of Bailey. I absolutely can't believe he passed on only 4 days after playing outside with so much energy...but I think he knew and just wanted to enjoy it.

Then there's Caely. A waste of space...although I have many more pics of her I'll leave it at the one I have of her above with Bailey. Mostly cause I'm getting sick of writing this never ending post. I got Caely in summer of 2000 after moving into my apartment after college. She has always had mental problems. She is petrified of anything that moves. We don't see her at all unless we are in the bathroom, sitting at the computer or laying in bed...basically as long as we're not moving and a threat to her. She's not bad at all...just a sad waste. A shame, since I wasted one of my favorite girl names on her (I love Micaela with Caely as a nickname but Chris hated the name and told me I should name my cat that since he wold never allow a daughter of his to have that name..he also didn't like it cause he thought it was a made up name...funny in the current climate of Mikayla/Micaela/Makayla popularity). Again, my kitty pictures are not digital so, the one above basically shows what she looks like now...

SIDEBAR: Oh my freaking goodness, after writing this blog for over an hour...Katie just decided to turn off my computer...thank you, thank you, thank you blogger for saving this in autodraft...

Ok and FINALLY...

Introducing Toby:

I had decided that it wasn't a bad idea to wait to replace Bailey until after the baby came, but I was feeling really bad for Caely because she seemed to be really missing Bailey. While afraid of any human, canine, or other moving object - Bailey was her pal. I was a little nervous because after having one great cat and one worthless cat - you never know what you're going to get. Well, we sure got lucky!! Toby is terrific. He is SO super friendly...he follows us from room to room - wants to be with us and even likes the dogs (they on the other hand are being pretty annoying in their excessive amounts of attention they are paying him). He even comes when he's called. I think Bailey was watching out for me from above. One downside is that Caely isn't as thrilled with him as I had hoped. She will coexist with him in the same room, but if he looks at her or gets too close she has to start up with her groaning and whining. Hopefully she'll warm up to him in time. She is getting slightly better with him though. The only other is that he's pretty annoying at night. He likes to play with and eat my hair and generally attack may head/face when I'm laying down in bed. So, he's banned from the bedroom for now..hopefully when he outgrows his kitten antics he'll stop with his fascination with my hair.

As for HIS name. There was something about his pointy little face that made me think of Toby ... but we took a day or two to decide. He came to us named Milo... I asked Katie - How about Elmo since it was close and she loves Elmo and she said NAAH! Later than day we were on the couch and she randomly turned to me and said "Mommy...how bout...Winnie the Pooh?" LOL. Well, I think that would be too much of a mouthful and Winnie alone just reminds me of Winnie Cooper. So when I said Toby the next day everyone seemed to like it (Katie, Chris, and my mom). Unfortunately, I came up with some possibly better ideas the next day, but Katie was pretty set on Toby at that point. She had a really hard time saying it at first (kept coming out as Coby - which I had a dog named) and once she got it down pat, there was no changing it because she was so proud of herself. My other ideas - as I was commenting to Chris that Toby kind of has a butter face due to some coloring around his nose was to name him Butters..like the South Park character. Although his personality doesn't fit that character..the name is cute. My other idea (which Chris didn't like anyway) was Weasley (ie. Harry Potter) since he's orange. We also though about Leo - the redheaded Little Einsteins character which Katie thought was a GREAT idea...but then I thought..well on a cute name basis, Leo is kind of on the same level as Milo...so Toby it is, and we love him.....especially Katie (doesn't hurt that he lets her carry him around everywhere) and even Chris. Oh and Candi...since you don't like "people" names for pets unless they represent a tv character...you can just call him Tobias :).

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What's in a Name? - Part One

Today, I wanted to write about the meaning/background of my blog name:

"The Other Boufs: Mommy, Daddy, Katie ... and More"

1. The Other Boufs - This actually stems from a few sources. My SIL Debi has a great blog, Who Says 8 is Enough?. If you're not already coming to my site via hers, I highly recommend checking it out. Last Christmas time, she talked about coming to our house for dinner and mentioned that her family had been to dinner at the "Other Bouf's" house. So, since she was my inspiration (do you call nagging to start a blog inspiration? :), there's a bit of a shout out to her in my name. Honestly, I'm really glad I've started and have quickly learned how addicting it can be. Here' some pic shout outs of her beautiful family:

Ok, this pic is really old, but it's one of my favorites taken in Disney World in April 2004. When Katie was born..this was the pic of her cousins that I chose to put on her family picture board (clockwise from the bottom right are Teddy, Henry, Alex, Gabi, David, and Stephanie):

Fast forward 3 1/2 years for the entire Bouf clan (from left to right: Keith, Stephanie (holding Emma), my Katie, Henry, Gabi (holding Will), Alex, Teddy, and David) during Christmas 2007:

Anyone who knows Debi knows that pics of her are hard to come by and I think she'd prob kill me if I put up any of the pics I DO have of her since they are MOST flattering - lol - but here's a terrific one of BIL Russ (on the right) and his little (but bigger) bro (my husband Chris). Pretty much shows their true personalities...aren't they so cute dressed like twins?

The other inspiration for "The Other Boufs" was that right around when I actually created my blog, I had just seen the "The Other Boleyn Sister" with my sister, Lori, which was a really good movie (despite what the critics say and it's departure from actual history). Since Debi already had her blog, which is pretty widely read in the twin and multiple circles of the net, we are clearly the lesser known Bouf family.

2. Mommy, Daddy, Katie - Well here we are:

Thanksgiving 2005

And a bit more recent, from this past January:

Katie absolutely LOVES "Mommy, Daddy, Katie" time. From the time she was very little and barely spoke, her favorite phrase was to just repeat over and over "Mommy, Daddy, Katie...Mommy, Daddy, Katie." Even now, she is never happier then when the three of us are together going somewhere in the car..usually out to eat or to a store together and STILL likes to chant her favorite phrase. However, as much as she loves it being the three of us she is so excited about her new brother on the way that I don't think she's going to have any problem changing her phrase to "Mommy, Daddy, Katie, Timmy" in November.

I'll finish up with the "and More" in Part 2 since the formatting is driving me crazy in this post every time I add a new pic.

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