Almost a year!

Whenever T and E are in their high chairs, one of them always reaches out for the other. So presh.

So I learned a new thing this week. Being an only child, I was under the impression that if a child gets sick and then gets well, then that's the last you'll see of the sickness. Not so! Somehow, Tamsie and Evie were both running fevers last weekend, then Tamsie picked up a cough, then Evie was better. Then Evie started to run a fever all over again, then Tamsie's fever went away but the cough remained. This continued for a few days, but now they seem to be pretty much all better. At least the fevers are gone, so I'm calling it a victory! So if you think we fell off the face of the earth this past week, we didn't. We were just trying to keep the girls quarantined until they were better, so we wouldn't transmit the same cycle o' sick to anyone else's home!

As for the moving-in process, last night I accomplished something major: I FINALLY ORGANIZED MY CLOSET. Mostly, anyway. See, I know this may seem rather ridiculous, but the process of organizing things that go in closets is just one of those things my right-leaning brain can't process very well. Overwhelmed by the enormity of the task before me, I had been putting it off and putting it off and putting it off... just because I couldn't figure out the best way to put everything in that closet and make it work. Plus, I knew that going through everything would involve some tough decisions about what to keep and what to get rid of. It was a puzzle I had no desire to solve, and I was waiting on some magical solution that was never to come. But it all came to a head on Saturday morning when I wasted copious amounts of precious time ransacking the piles of clothes on the bedroom floor while on a mad quest for a pair of leggings. Chris saw the mess and said, "Wonderful! I see you're finally organizing your closet." Actually, I wasn't, but that entire episode turned out to be the last straw. As of now, all is organized except for jewelry, which I still have no compelling organizational solution for. In fact, if you have any revolutionary ideas regarding jewelry storage, please do share. Until then, I will continue to wear the same accessories over and over, just because looking at my big pile of sparkly chaos gives me a headache.

I have yet to organize the bathroom vanity area. However, as you can see below, organization poses no threat to the Vaf's brain. We always say I'm the germaphobe, but he's the neat freak - everything of his is so orderly and sensible. While mine's not, you can pretty much guarantee it is pretty blasted germ-free!

Our bathroom vanity for the time being. This is so typical of us. I still haven't sorted through all these bottles and such, so not only is there a pile of random makeup on the floor by the tub that I still need to sort through (and probably throw away most of), but the vanity is also crowded with stuff I need and stuff that needs to be thrown out. My side is totally spilling all kinds of over into his neat, tidy side! I'm pretty sure it's driving him CrAzY!!! He is so patient with me! :)

I have, however, been trying to restore some order to as much of the house as possible. Thanks to a gorgeous table from my sis-in-law and soon-to-be-bro-in-law, our entry hall, for one, is looking much more inviting! :)

Chris and my dad worked hard on hanging up lots of wall stuff over the weekend while Mom and I directed them. (Mom has to be handy because I always need a second opinion before I'm ready to put holes in the wall!) I'm so thankful for their help!

And while T and E are turning one, so there isn't too much to plan party-wise, I have been trying to line up as much party stuff as possible. I am still in shock that my girls will be a year old by the end of the week!!!

Here are some pictures from our recent adventures:

Grocery shopping with some sleepy girls! Here's Tamsie, whom I had just woken up prior to loading her in this cart...

And here are both girls... totally dominating the produce section! Thank goodness Chris was there with me to help wrangle the girls! Can you imagine how it would work with both of them and just one adult?!

Evangelyn demonstrates how we keep them happy during such outings: by giving them plastic lids they can bite!

Tamsie also enjoys biting a nice lid.

Evie was so happy! She was grinning and waving her lid all over.

Tamsie at mid-morning post-nap snacktime. Kinda groggy...

... but pretty happy!

I love this little smile!

And here's her sister, the lovely Evangelyn Rose...

.... wondering why on earth Mom was taking pictures and not feeding her!

On her way home from work, my Mom stops by when she's able to help with the afternoon feed. This is one of the nicest things she's ever done for me! I look forward to her arrival every day, and she looks forward to seeing her two snuggle bugs. I'm pretty sure they look forward to seeing her too! In fact, one day last week I was telling one of them that Grandma was coming to visit when she got off work, and the baby just smiled and squealed at me when I told her. (By the way, victory! That box behind mom contained the mirror that is now in our entry hall - so that means one less moving box around here!)

Evie, reaching for my phone

Tamsie was napping, so Evie had a little photo session in her playroom.

That is her daddy's mouth fo sho. Mine can't even make that shape.

Another day, another mid-morning snacktime. The girls interact with each other so much during these times!

So happy!

Reaching out...

Making each other giggle!

They are known to steal puffs from each other's trays. I think Tamsie's practicing here.

They also talk to each other constantly.

Sweetness

Loving Evie's grin

"Once again, Mom, this is fun, but where's the food?"

SORRY - baby feet! Can't help myself!

You should know that my dad picked these socks out for them - impressive, right?

Tamsie on a bath rug

... right before she crawled away while I was trying to get her picture!

Tamsie has also figured out how to take her pants off all by herself...

... not one of my favorites of her new skills.

When Tamsie doesn't feel well, she tries to eat her solids with her head down on her tray. It's very sad.

It has been baby shower season around here! Two Saturdays ago, I went to my childhood friend Jennifer's baby shower for her little boy, Ryan, and this past Saturday, I went to Kim's shower for her baby triplet boys, Jacob, Owen and Carter!!! Here I am with the triplet mama herself. 

This precious girl is now at 30 weeks, which means she has made it further than I did, and she's carrying an extra baby, too!!! She also happens to be just about the tiniest person I know when she's not carrying three babies! I'm so proud of her and thankful to the Lord for taking such good care of her and those boys, and I'm praying she's able to keep them in a good bit longer!

Here's a picture of Tamsie squawking, which is one of her current favorite things to do, much to her dad's chagrin.

T and E, holding onto the side of a crib and jumping

E is doing some serious giggling here

Having fun, like they do!

My sweet babies!

Well yesterday it was fabulous to get out of the house and go to church with a couple of healthy girls, and so good to see dear friends. We're praying for healthy reports on these girls' kidneys when they go in for their tests next month. As for me, I'm hearing one of them making some noises from her swing upstairs, so I'd better go see what's going on! Much love to y'all, and thanks for reading! :)

Tamsie Update

So I have been, as my dear English friend Vickie would say, rubbish lately about taking pictures of the girls, but I'm gonna go ahead and post anyway because so many people have been asking about how Tamsie's appointment went on Friday with the pediatric urologist.

Tamsie had a renal ultrasound done to get an idea of what her kidney reflux is looking like. When we met with the doctor afterward, she told us that she does not have any records of Tamsie's previous ultrasounds, but only the written reports. At the last ultrasound, the radiologist assigned the condition of her left kidney a 3 out of 4. (4 is the worst. In my last post I said there were 5 grades of kidney reflux, but I was wrong - there are 4.) This time, the radiologist assigned her condition a 4 out of 4. That means that either it's gotten worse (obviously NOT good to hear), or it has stayed the same, and it's just a different radiologist's assessment of the situation. The doctor said that it's entirely possible that that's the case, because assigning a number to these things can be kind of a subjective process. Her right kidney is at a 2, which, at this time, isn't anything too concerning, because grade 2s typically sort themselves out over time without any intervention. So we left the appointment not knowing the full scope of the situation, but with the indication that her condition has potentially worsened.

However, on the way out I wanted an additional bit of hope, so I confirmed with the doctor that the main reason that all of this is a problem is that it puts her at heightened risk for UTIs, which, as young as she is, could do some serious damage were she to have one. The only sign we know of to look for would be a fever, so any time she has a fever over 100.8, she has to go to the doctor to confirm that it's not a UTI. So far she hasn't had a UTI, so that is really something to rejoice about! (Friday actually turned out to be even more dramatic than we were bargaining for, because that evening she ran a 102-degree fever. Chris took her up to LeBonheur Urgent Care, and praise the Lord, it was NOT caused by a UTI.)

The doctor wants us to go ahead and have the next two tests done as soon as LeBonheur can get us in. She said it's not an emergency or anything, but she just doesn't want to put it off any longer than necessary. So now we're waiting to hear back from the doctor's office to know when her dye test and renal scan are scheduled. We're still in waiting mode, which is not a fun place to be. Now I'm totally understanding what my mom meant all those years when she'd say, "I'd rather it be me than you." Having a child with ANY kind of medical issue that involves prolonged testing is nothing I'd recommend to anyone. I'm not googling any of this, because I know it's not healthy, as I tend to assume the worst. I'm just trusting God that He's gotten us this far (and He has gotten us VERY far from where we started), and that He will continue to take care of us, and that He has this whole thing under control. It's not easy, but He never said it would be easy. 

In addition to trusting Him with Tamsie's situation, now I know to be trusting Him with Evie's as well. When Tamsie had her ultrasound on Friday, the ultrasound tech asked us if all is well with Evie's kidneys. "As far as we know," I said. His response was something like, "I mean, you've had scans done for her and everything just to be sure she doesn't have this too, right?" And my answer was no. We discovered that Tamsie had an enlarged kidney during an ultrasound the day before she was delivered, and Evie's looked normal at the time, so we just never pursued it further. I brought this up to the urologist, and she said that kidneys can appear normal but still have reflux. She advised us to have the dye test done on Evie too, just to rule it out. The dye test is very invasive and NOT fun for the babies to go through, but I think it would be better to go through it and know whether she has this or not so that we can be treating her if we need to be. That's also something on the horizon that we're praying for good news about.

By the way, this kidney condition was caused by neither Twin-to-Twin Transfusion nor prematurity. It's something she would have had anyway. Also, we're pretty fortunate to have caught it before she was even born, because a lot of times it's not caught until a child has had a string of UTIs and damage has already been done.

God keeps reminding me of Romans 8:32: "He who did not spare his own Son but gave him up for us all, how will he not also with him graciously give us all things?" Lately, when I make the girls their bottles, before I can walk over to feed them, they start crying, as if they're afraid I won't give them their bottles. As if I would just make them their bottles and then withhold them from the girls!! (This alone is a HUGE answer to a lot of prayer. They used to cry when they'd see the bottles because they were afraid of them, and now they cry because they're so ready to engulf them!) I realized the other day that this is what I tend to do to God when I get scared He's just going to leave us hanging at this point. Once again, I'm reminded of Matthew 7:7-11: 

"Ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you. For everyone who asks receives, and the one who seeks finds, and to the one who knocks it will be opened. Or which one of you, if his son asks him for bread, will give him a stone? Or if he asks for a fish, will give him a serpent? If you then, who are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father who is in heaven give good things to those who ask him!"

So we're praying that God will give the good gifts of healthy kidneys to both of our girls. Please pray that all of their tests bring us reassurance and good news and that they outgrow all of these issues. (Our Louisville doctor always assured us that it was totally possible for Tamsie to outgrow all of these problems in time.)

In other news, it's October now, which means the girls' FIRST BIRTHDAY is now 11 days away - praise God for getting us here! I keep thinking constantly of how much better our situation is this year than it was last year!

On to my measly offering of pics for the day:

Here's Evie wearing a Baptist Memorial Hospital T-shirt I was given at the hospital when I was born.

Dad dug up this picture of me wearing the same t-shirt back in '83 - except that I was 1 month old at the time and Evie was 11 months in the picture above! ;)

Y'all, thanks for praying for all of us. God has worked amazing wonders through the prayers of many who continue to lift us up. We can't say thank you enough, and we really can't thank God enough for bringing us to where we are now.

Welcome home!

... and now our Internet is connected in our new house, so I can post again! YAY!

OK, so here's our recap:

- Our Louisville house sold... yayayay!!! Hope the new owners give it the love and care it deserves... it really was a fabulous first house.

- We closed on our new house on Thursday and immediately started moving in... finally! Everything is still pretty chaotic around here, although significantly less chaotic than it was Thursday - ha! I am just so ready for everything to be all set up and looking pretty, but I'm having to give both of us some serious grace here. Let's just say that if I thought moving was hard pre-kids (and oh, how it was), I had NO idea just how hard it could be with them! I mean, not only is there a TON of work to be done setting everything up, but there's also a TON of the usual work to be done of taking good care of the girls! I am so motivated to get the house finished, though, that I feel like I've been the most productive I've ever been, just trying to do it all. With help from my mom and dad and my fabulous mother-in-law and sis-in-law, we truly have made a lot of progress, and many fun memories as well.

- I am most thankful to have our own house again. I've actually enjoyed the moving-in process (well, as much as it can be enjoyed, I think), just because we've had to wait so long to move in, and it has been good to sift through everything we have and clean it all up. It has given me a chance to throw out all kinds of things we don't need anymore, sell some stuff and give some other stuff away. If I learned nothing else this summer, it's that I can get by without a ton of the stuff we have that just tends to create clutter. Simplify, simplify, simplify is the new motto around the Vafi house! (So is dust, dust, dust. You would not believe how dusty everything gets just sitting around for a few months in a house that is waiting to sell!)

Here are some pictures from the past few days:

Evie catches up on some sleep on the way from closing at the attorney's office to the new house.

Tamsie, on the other hand, like Aerosmith, doesn't want to miss a thing.

Dad helped us out that morning, watching the girls and directing the heroes of the day - the movers and the pest-control guy.

Chris with the new house keys and an early-morning 5 o'clock shadow

They didn't sleep much the night before, so neither did we - but coffee and adrenaline kept us going!

As soon as we had the chance, we set up a home base for the girls in the playroom upstairs. They were LOVING having so much space to play! They just kept giggling and crawling everywhere as soon as we put them down. I grabbed my camera, and by the time I did, I had missed the best parts, but I did catch this:

Friday, Carissa and Cliff dropped by to check out the new digs.

The girls enjoyed having such a cute little buddy to play with. This time, he paid Tamsie more attention than ever before... are he and Evie on the brink of a break-up?!

Evie in front and Tamsie in back on their first trip to the Memphis Zoo this weekend. Chris's workplace hosted a get-together at the zoo, and we had fun seeing everyone!

So much to see!

Saturday we celebrated my cousin Chris's 16th birthday! Here he is, modeling one of his gifts: an obnoxious Vols hat!

Playtime with Evie... notice the sheet over the window in the background. That's because we don't have blinds yet! 

Our house is on a little lake, which makes for a pretty view! You should know that right after I snapped this lovely little picture, that white bird on the left and one of the geese got into some kind of an avian conflict. I'm thinking the goose won, because the white bird flew off.

Evie has always had a nice little bicep!

The kitchen in the throes of unpacking and settling in. I never know what to do with that space above the cabinets, but maybe this is a start.

I should wrap it up and get my rest while I can, because I still have loads of work cut out for me in the morning! Goodnight, y'all.

** Please remember to pray for Tamsie's kidney situation. Her ultrasound is Friday! Thanks so much!! :) **