Farewell, Loyal Friend

The day has finally come. You have been there for me through ups and downs over these past 10 1/2 months. You were the path through which I could provide the little that I was able to through the first weeks of Hannah and Kate's lives. You kept me company in the wee hours of the night and morning. As much as I hated you at times, you were the one thing that I kept coming back to because it's the only way that I knew and sometimes it felt like it was the only thing that I could do for my girls. We met in the hospital. Little did I know the hundreds (maybe even thousands) of hours that we would spend together. You've accompanied me everywhere I've been the last 10 months. You have amazed me at how well you have kept up. You were worth every penny. You enabled me to shed pounds and get to a weight I haven't seen since high school. So as I say farewell, there are some bittersweet memories floating through my memory. Remember the late nights in the hospital when I could barely make it out of bed, remember the bottle after bottle that I filled as a new mother wondering if the flow would ever stop, remember those times when you simply sat with me as I cried wondering how in the world I could ever be a good mother to two precious little girls. But most of all, remember that we shall reunite someday in the not too distant but not so near future. I leap for my newfound independence with a slight sadness at finally having to pack you up and say goodbye. Here's to you my loyal friend.


Call me crazy, but maybe it's only something a mother who has had a baby born way too early with not even an option to breastfeed until weeks later will understand. While I am very excited about being able to wake up just minutes before the girls wake up and it's one less piece of "luggage" that I have to carry around, it's just a tad sad to put away something that was the only way I could provide for my daughters who were fighting to live.

For those who are considering buying a breastpump, I will highly recommend Medela. I have literally spent the last 10 1/2 months using and abusing my pump and it still works just as good as the day I bought it. I sincerely hope that the next go around I will not have to use it that much. So with that said...

The Dairy Bar is officially closed for business.

Happy 1st Birthday, Baby Lantz

My Precious Baby,

A year ago I was supposed to give birth to you, but that was not what the Lord had planned for you. He planned that you would miss the pain and suffering that happens here on earth and go straight to Heaven where there is nothing but joy. He planned that you never experience anything less than perfect and that you rest in His arms. He planned that you have two beautiful little sisters to play with one day in heaven. His plans were not our plans, but we trusted that He had something better mind. I don't know if you can look down from Heaven and see all that He has done this past year. I don't know if you were there encouraging your little sisters to keep fighting everyday when they were in the hospital. I can't wait for the day when we get to be a complete family one day. Mommy loves you and has great joy knowing that you already know the fullness of Jesus's love for you.

Until that day,
Mommy

Rain, Rain, Go Away...

So it has been raining here a lot the last couple of days. In fact, we have twice had plans to go swimming or out to breakfast with friends and we haven't even been able to make it out of the house because it has just been pouring rain. That also makes it extremely difficult for our lawn crew to cut lawns, but they are working around it the best they can. God has poured down blessings of a lot of tree jobs, more lawns to cut, and a big landscaping job, but it's hard to get all of that done when we've had constant rain. We woke up to rain this morning and after about 4 hours of a hard, steady rain, it has finally let up. Hannah found her way over to the sliding glass doors and watched the rain for a little bit this morning.

George spent some time yesterday practicing for a wedding he is playing in this weekend. I think it's the first time they have heard him play his cello since they were in the womb. They showed semi-interest. It was more a of a really big toy to play with than to enjoy listening to.

Two Terrific Talkative Twins in a Tub

I have to start off by saying HAPPY BIRTHDAY (won't disclose which one) MOM! She is celebrating a milestone birthday today and feels like crap thanks to her lovely little granddaughters (or was it me) getting her sick. She's got medicine though and she's on the recovery. How can you be mad at these two little darling faces...even when they do give you a cold that turns into a sinus & ear infection?

We had a lot of fun the other night in the bathtub and I was able to capture it.

They were both competing for the rubber ducky. It wasn't a fight. There were no tantrums thrown, but they were certainly both grabbing for it. As you can see from most of the pictures, Kate ended up with it 90% of bathtime. Maybe it's time to invest in 2 rubber duckies.

"Get in my belly, rubber ducky."

My Sweet Hannah

My Sweet Kate

Kate-notice she's standing

Much to her father's amusement, Kate is now babbling "Da-da" also. George eats it up and pretends like they are really calling for him. I'll have to remind him of that if they start doing it at 3:00 in the morning. I got a couple of seconds of it on video. She normally talks for longer, but the camera seems to distract her.

We are feeling much better, I think. At least, I am. It's hard to tell with babies because it takes them longer to recover and being sick doesn't seem to hold them back much. They graduated into the crawler room at church this past Sunday. These girls are not letting their preemie status hold them back from achieving things that normal 10 month old babies are doing. Kate is pulling to stand and has even ventured a couple of times to take some steps holding onto the couch.

Oh, the possibilities...

Now that they are on the go, a whole new world of possibilities and adventure has opened up for them, including the dog dish. Kate is very comfortable in her new crawling ability and she will now venture into rooms without having to be coaxed or following someone in there. She will still usually follow me into the kitchen, but for a while she just loved the new feeling of the floors...until she discovered the dog dish. We don't leave dog food in there so at least I don't have to worry about her eating dog food. However, she likes to splash in the water. After thinking it was cute the first couple of times she did it and taking pictures, she now gets a little swat on the hand and a firm "No".

I also captured Hannah's mobility on video. I apologize (once again) for the horrible lighting, but she was cracking up at Bella playing and I had to make a quick grab for the camera. You can see her body and you can definitely hear her laughing. Kate is in the background playing around and on top of George.

On a sadder note, we made our first visit to the doctor yesterday for a sick baby checkup. As previously mentioned, the three lovely Lantz ladies are sick. Hannah's snot started to turn colors though so I thought maybe we should check with the doc just to be safe. She said it was just a virus. Kate's cough got nastier today. If you think about it, please pray that we would all get to feeling better. We seemed to have shared our germs with the family we were around this weekend, too.

George had to let go of one of our employees this week. While he spent a large time trying to mentor this young man and showing a lot of grace and mercy to him, the working relationship was no longer conducive to us running a business. It was causing us too much stress. Therefore, George is spending his two days off this week mowing and doing yard work in 90 degree temperatures. Oh the joys of being a small business owner!