Long time no update

Hello all. Are you still reading this?
Sorry it's been so long..over a week, "oh my!" Our computer has been acting funny for the past week and it is sooo slow and all of these weird pop ups keep interrupting my attempts to come online and post. Hopefully Edwin's cousin who is a computer wiz will come over and run some virus scans. Nevertheless I will not be posting pictures until it's fixed because even in typing, the computer is freezing frequently! Frustrating!
All is well in the world of the Rodriguez twins. Edwin is still army crawling and working REALLY hard to get his toys. I am still concerned that I don't see significant changes in his strength, and I may request PT come at least bi-weekly. We shall see. He is getting HUGE and is now comfortably wearing many 12 month outfits!
Gaining weight has a lot to do with S&E's new found interest in food..they still enjoy baby food, but they have also found that "Mommy and Daddy" food is great too. Edwin can eat 8-10 ounces of baby food per sitting. Serena is usually around 4 still, but has managed 6. They eat baby food 3 times a day now. They still drink between 20-24 ounces of 25 cal formula per day. The other night I cooked baked mac and cheese. I left the elbow macaronis in for longer than usual, so it was extra soft and mushy. I was attempting to get a spoonful in while Serena kept pulling up on my legs attempting to get up onto the couch to get into my lap and grab the food off of my plate, when I realized she could probably try some. I gave her one piece. She LOVED it! She ate about 15 or so pieces of it. I then tried Edwin, who has had a tendancy to gag on things in the past. He LOVED it. Both also love American cheese, and throughout a day they eat about a half of piece each. It takes a long time to eat because I break the pieces up really small; if they could handle bigger pieces they could probably mangage a whole piece in one sitting. Then last night my dad made his famous spaghetti sauce. I brought some over to Edwin's moms and he made the spaghetti. Normally I like my pasta a little less done (I don't LOVE it mushy), but thankfully Edwin cooked it and in my opinion he overcooked it. But this made for another good opportunity to expose the kids to a different taste. They ate the spaghetti too! Edwin must have had 20+ little strands. No puking, no gagging. I was impressed. They have also both had Ritz crackers, blueberry muffins, cooked apples, and a bunch of other things we dared to put into their mouths. Serena's two bottom teeth are very noticable now, but Edwin's have not popped through yet, so we are still limited to foods which are easy to gum. It actually inspires me to cook, so it's a good thing all around.
Socially S&E have decided they really love us as parents and prefer us over strangers. Serena in particular has shown signs of stranger anxiety on a few occasions recently. They both smile so much and just seem so happy, which makes me soooo happy as well. Edwin will mimic me when I say "mmmmm" and he puts his lips together and looks so cute! I have to video tape it. He has yet to add the "a' for mmmmaaaammmmaa, but we're close I hope! Miss Serena just laughs and smiles at me when I say, "say mmmmmmm", but she has her own language and babbles quite a bit.
In O2 news, Edwin is down to 250ccs and doing well, we wean by 50ccs every other week now, and stop at 100ccs. Then he can have time off! Serena has been sleeping without O2 for over an hour, so basically she can usually maintain O2 free for her day time nap(s). We still put her on at night, but soon that will be a thing of the past.
In twin girl news, Lily had her PDA ligated this week, and is doing well, Sophie continues to do well, and is the stronger of the two. I have TONS of pictures of the girls but I will wait until our computer is back to normal.
I realize how lucky we are that our NICU is a 5 minute drive from our home. My cousin and his wife have to travel an hour and a half (with traffic, which there is always traffic on the way to San Diego)to see the girls. They also have an 8 year old to worry about so they can't go as much as they'd like to. I can't even imagine. Our experience was so different, and I think it was the only way I could have coped. It gave me a sense of control to be there and go to rounds and give as much care to S&E as possible. We also never were asked to leave for nurses shift change, and my cousin and his wife have to leave between 6:30-8 or something ridiculous. Another reason to be thankful for our wonderful NICU, which we actually visited this past week when S&E had their 1 year blood work. It was nice to see everyone, like always.

So I'm sure I'm leaving a lot out, but this is a recap in a nutshell, and I promise to post pictures soon.