This fun evening came to an end and the aunts and uncles had to go home. Trent and Amy (left) were staying with Todd and Stephanie (right). And Todd and Stephanie may look a little tired in this photo since they had participated in the Chicago Triathlon that morning, both swimming, biking and running, improving their times from prior events - a satisfying experience. This is The End of Justine & Lauren Go Home - Part I. Please go to "View My Complete Profile " (at right) to access Justine & Lauren Go Home - Part II.

When we got back from the park, there was more family bonding with the babies. Todd is shown here holding Lauren and Trent, who looks at the camera dubiously, is holding Justine. Note Lexi sitting above them staring at Trent like he's crazy. You can almost read Lexi's mind - she must be thinking, "What's that goof ball doing?"

Guess who's not having a great time - Connie! She still has bottles to unload, measure, fill and refrigerate. Look at her "lab" behind her - those are all her sterialized bottles, nipples, sealers, and other paraphernalia having to do with the bottles. It was literally a never ending job!

There are 20 photos of our "adventures" at the Whole Foods Festival in the park near Connie and Troy's house, so I'm going to blog them in a separate album.

If you look closely in the window, that little face is Lexi, who can't go on this trip. She's perched up on her favorite place on the arm of the sofa watching us leave. Troy glances up at her as he walks down the front steps.

Here are the twins all snapped in. Those pacifiers are a riot, but they kept the babies happy until we started moving.

It's time to go to the park two blocks away for the Whole Foods Festival. Lauren at left, and Justine, are all buckled in and ready to go. These car seats attach to the double stroller, a very neat thing!

We all got a chance to "baby" sit: Connie with a sleeping Justine, Todd with Lauren, Troy with Lauren, me with a fidgety Lauren, Stephanie with Lauren, Trent with Lauren, and Amy with Justine. These babies were all the entertainment we needed.

Troy was just hanging out watching everyone else handle the babies - well, why not, he gets plenty of baby-time and could use a break! Course Connie could use a break too - she's making 15+ bottles each day, and getting them washed and reassembled, not to mention the washing, bathing, dressing, rocking, swaddling, and changing.

Stephanie and Todd are smiling at the Savannah Candy Kitchen divinity that Bob sent me as a surprise. It was so sweet of him to do this as he usually tells me that it's too expensive to order. So this was special! I love this divinity and fortunately for me, no one else really did, so I had them all to myself.

Aren't Stephanie and Todd cute in this photo?

I have been at Connie and Troy's a whole week now and not many pictures were taken, so I had to make up for lost time. It's now August 29 and we have visitors: Todd, Stephanie, and Amy and Trent who drove in from Madison, WI for the weekend to visit friends in Chicago.

Pictured here are Amy, Trent, Lauren in hot pink, Connie, and Justine in bright orange. The babies are dressed in cute little Oshgosh B-gosh outfits that Connie's sister, Carrie, sent them.

This is a tired Justine - look at her eyes, she's beginning to drift. She looks so cute, though, in her car seat so patiently waiting for whatever is next.

Look at this adorable baby Lauren! While in Chicago I took the night shift on feeding and changing the babies. That way Troy and Connie could get some quality sleep. It worked well. When they got up, I went to bed and slept during the day. I probably had the better shift because the babies were sleeping 4-5 hours. During the day they were awake more and I'm sure Connie had her hands full!

It's now the next morning after a wonderful time at Todd and Stephanie's the night before. Here is Connie modeling her baby carrier. It has a special name that escapes me right now. Justine is in the carrier in this shot, Lauren is still too small to be carried in it. It's a great "hands free" device, though. Connie can carry one baby and tend to the other all by herself.

Stephanie and Todd are gourmet chefs and everyone in the family love to be invited to their house for a fabulous meal. On the menu this evening was lamb kabobs, chicken, couscous, a pear and greens salad and a scrumptuous peach vanilla ice cream dessert. Everything was perfectly prepared and every bite was delicious!

Connie with Justine Marie and Troy with Lauren Ann.

The first thing that needed to be done at Todd and Stephanie's was to give Lauren, who's on a 3-hour feeding schedule, a bottle. Troy took care of that duty while Connie held Justine, who looks like a doll in this photo.

We were greeted by Stephanie, Todd, and Hobbes who was very happy to see us and a little too interested in the babies - not to hurt them, just to lick them! Hobbes has never met anyone he didn't like - he's the friendliest Golden Retriever we've ever seen!

Todd and Stephanie invited us to their house for dinner, so we bundled up the babies and headed out. Lexi knows when we're leaving, so she jumped up to her perch in the window on the arm of the sofa. And that's where she'll stay until she sees us walk by when we come home. She's sad when we leave, but beside herself with joy when we come home.

Here are Lauren (left) and Justine in their Pack N' Play, a neat collapsible crib/playpen/changing table. I didn't feel comfortable walking down the stairs while carrying them, so they are sleeping in bassinets in the living room. Lauren takes a bottle every three hours and Justine every four hours 24 hours a day. Not much gets done except filling and washing bottles, doing laundry, cuddling, holding, rocking, feeding, burping and changing babies.

And this is our equally wonderful Justine Marie. Justine is about 9 lbs here. She's been doing so very well, steadily gaining weight from her low of around 2 lb-5 oz three months ago. Justine is a patient baby, usually. She's about three pounds heavier than Lauren, so she's more filled out, with those baby-perfect chubby cheeks! She's our "Gerber" baby! She spits up a little more, so Connie had been leaving her bib on to avoid ruining her cute little clothes. She has her legs crossed at the ankles in this photo.

These are more pictures of our sweet baby Lauren Ann! For a tiny girl of about 6 lbs, she's made incredible progress from her low weight of 1 lb-9 oz just three short months ago! She's still wearing newborn or preemie clothes. Her tiny face looks very much like a newborn baby and her cry is definitely of the newborn variety - we think she sounds like a meowing cat in an alley when she gets started - and if you don't attend to her right now, she'll let you know she's not pleased!

We have a series of pictures of Lauren being Lauren! She's a very expressive baby. When she gets focused on something, her eyes get wide and she waves her tiny arms and legs around. Her little tongue can be busy too, making grunting noises. But she can have a short attention span, so you have to be creative to keep her satisfied.

The third baby needed some attention too. Little Lexi is such a wonderful doggie. She almost seems human sometimes! Here she languishes on the sofa without a care in the world. There are people and food and babies everywhere, but she's oblivious - it was her nap time!

It wasn't long before Aunt Stephanie arrived. Todd was camping in Wisconsin with Randy and Carl, an annual get-together, so she rode her bike over to say "hi". We immediately gave her a baby, Lauren in this case, who was awake now too. Stephanie also helped Troy with some grilling and we had a quick "eat-it-on-your-lap-with-a-fork-in-one-hand-and-a-baby-in-the-other-hand" kind of dinner.

Although I was clearly having a bad-hair-and-shiny-face day after my long flight from Las Vegas to Chicago, it didn't take me long to get my arms around a baby. Justine awoke first and I changed her into something more practical. Connie got me up to speed on the changing-table organization, the bottle-making regiment, the burping techniques, and the feeding schedules. I had no problem with the loving and cuddling - instructions not needed!

Sweet Justine was snoozing in the swing next to Lauren, but what struck me was how Connie had dressed her. Bob and I had picked out this darling outfit at Baby Gap in Las Vegas for each of the babies. Unfortunately, even the smallest size was still too big for Lauren, but Justine looked adorable in the little dress and sweater set with matching bootie-knee socks! Too cute!

I walked in, hugged Connie and quickly saw the babies. Lauren, above, was tightly swaddled, something Troy and Connie insisted she actually liked. She was fast asleep in the cushioned vibrating baby rocker, looking so peaceful and content.

The ring Troy originally selected was beautiful, but they decided they really wanted something with the babies' May birthstone in it. So they went back to the jeweler and ended up with a lovely square-cut emerald ring with a diamond on each side representing Justine and Lauren. It was a beautiful choice, but a busy Mom has no time to show off a new ring- in fact, in this photo if you look closely, there's a tiny arm hanging over Connie's hand.

Troy and I stopped on the way from the airport to pick up some roses for Connie, the new Mom. He had already given her a beautiful "Mother's Ring" as shown above and they had taken a great photo of the babies for their birth announcements wearing the little green dresses Bob and I had given them.

Chicago, A Great Town!

Troy picked me up at the Midway Airport on Sat, Aug 20. I couldn't wait to see my new little twin granddaughters! The front door of Troy and Connie's townhouse was opened wide in this shot and Lexi came running out ready to bark and growl at me. But she quickly stopped and remembered that she knew me from doggie-sitting for her in Las Vegas and immediately began licking me and running around in circles! What a welcome!

Since the babies have both been home, Connie has had help almost every day and night from Lynette, her mother Betty, and her sister Carrie. It's my turn now, so I'm going to be flying to Chicago on August 20, 2005 to stay for a couple of weeks. And I'm looking forward to getting my arms around those little babies again!

Many thanks to Lynette for taking these wonderful first photographs and for staying overnight with Connie and Troy to help with the first multi-night feedings when both Justine and Lauren were home.

Priceless Babies!

Now this picture should have a clever caption as Lauren seems to be looking at Justine and thinking, "Hey, what are you doing up there snoozing away while Lynette's taking our picture?"

Lexi and Lauren

What a precious picture! Lexi is sure checking out Lauren. We wondered how Lexi would manage with two new little babies getting all the attention since she's been the baby for five years now. But Troy and Connie say she's been rather uninterested in the girls, even though she sure was taking a peek at Lauren in this shot.

Tiny Lauren and Sleepy Justine

This picture is sooo cute! Justine keeps sleeping along - I guess nothing will disturb her - while Lauren seems very alert for the camera! If the girls had been born on their expected due date of July 31, 2005, they would have been 2 days old in this picture. As it was, they were born on May 16, 10 weeks early, and are 2 1/2 months old in this picture instead! Amazing!

Lauren Went Home on August 1, 2005

At home at last on August 1, 2005, this is precious Lauren Ann at just over 4 lbs. Isn't she the sweetest thing? It was touch-and-go for this little one who weighed in at birth at 1 lb-13 oz and went down to 1 lb-9 0z. But everyone who loved her were praying for her, and with that and her spunky personality, she fought off the infections, respiratory and stomach problems, put on 3 HUGE pounds and sailed through the 2 1/2 month hospital stay to finally land at home with her family in Lincoln Park.