Auties Olivia and Kari

We've had lots of fun visiting with Auties Olivia and Kari this weekend.

Naps and Non-Naps

The past couple of days have been really fun days with the babies. There have been lots of firsts - pulling to standing, eating blueberries, playing with dogs. We've also been on the go a lot because Aunties Olivia and Kari are in town and there's been lots of visiting. Yesterday our nap schedule was thrown off pretty bad. Sadie reacted to this by sleeping forever. She took more than 3 hours in naps yesterday. I finally had to wake her up from her second nap and the photo above shows her attitude towards me after rousing her. Jack on the other hand wanted absolutely nothing to do with naps. I tried him in the nursery. He spent an hour in the swing. Finally, in desperation, I brought him into the bedroom and tried lying down with him. He wasn't interested in sleeping, but he really liked playing under the comforter.

Supermarket

Sorry for the delay in posts - I was working on our taxes last week and somehow it sapped every last minute I had at the computer. The other thing that has happened is that we seem to be able to do a lot more with the babies now. There is less time at home (thus less picture-taking) and more time out-and-about with Sadie and Jack. Our lives are starting to resemble normal people again. Instead of having to rely on J. for all the grocery shopping I can actually go to the supermarket myself with the babies. Multiple births are so common supermarkets even make special carts that fit two babies at once.

This is a picture from one of recent grocery outings. The babies started to get a little fussy and I had forgotten to bring any toys so I had to resort to entertaining them by letting them play with a plastic produce bag. The bag did the trick and we made it through an entire shopping trip without any major meltdowns.

I'm finding that household items work wonders with 11 month-olds. Another mother recently mentioned that her 13 month-old loves toothbrushes. Toothbrushes = brilliant! I went out and bought a bunch of cheap toothbrushes and the babies are in hog heaven with them. When we get really desperate for a new activity we let them tear up catalogs, but that requires more supervision than toothbrushes because toothbrushes cannot be consumed.

Party On

Everything is a phase - the good and bad with babies. One of the good phases that we are in right now is the babies are enjoying parties again. When they were younger than 6 months they were great at parties because we could just throw them in our slings and they were content. After six months they were too antsy for the sling and would meltdown quickly at parties. As they've got more mobile they've started to like parties again. Now parties provide endless opportunities to explore, steal people's sunglasses, appropriate other babies' toys, and make merry. This afternoon Jack and Sadie spent two and half happy hours at a party with not a single meltdown. We can only hope that this is a phase that sticks around.

Birthday Party Envy

This is Sadie at a birthday day party for a one-year old this weekend. Sadie actually had fun, but I didn't get a chance to take a photo until the end of the party and this was Sadie's state of mind after two and half hours of birthday party fun.

It was quite a party - catered, a clown, and a large outdoor playmat for babies. The clown brought a parachute, which may have been the best thing that has ever happened to Jack. He loved tugging on the parachute while people shook it. I may have to research how to purchase a parachute online.

My Brillant Babies

Sadie and Jack are soooo smart. Tonight at dinner Jack learned how to drink from a cup. The baby books had recommended that we start providing a cup of water at dinner so that the babies can learn how to use cups and eventually transition off bottles. Generally the cups have been used for loudly banging the high chair tray, but tonight Jack picked up his cup and started drinking from it. He doesn't even like water. Ever time he'd take a sip he'd make a disgusted face, but he was so enamored with his new skill that he kept drinking the water!

Sadie's latest breakthrough is that she has learned how to imitate sounds we make. She's gotten really into clicking her tongue back at us, and this weekend she learned how to give a raspberry! Raspberries are hard to describe, if you're not familiar with the term, but it's essentially when you stick your tongue out and blow out making a fart sound. Archie Bunker made the raspberry famous on All in the Family, and we're big Archie Bunker fans, so there are a lot of raspberries in our household. Sadie's pretty darn cute when she gives a raspberry.

Thing 1 and Thing 2

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I tried to get a photo of Sadie and Jack in some adorable Dr.Suess onesies today. Tami, one of Pud's co-workers, got Jack and Sadie Thing 1 and Thing 2 onesies back in August. At the time the babies were so small that the onesies were huge, but now they are snug as can be, so it was time to get a photo before the babies outgrow the onesies. Ever since Jack and Sadie learned to roll over they have no interest spending any time on their backs. They won't even lie on their backs long enough to have their diapers changed. I grabbed a couple of lemons off the lemon tree in the backyard in the hope that the lemons might keep the babies occupied long enough to get a quick photo of them on their backs. The lemons worked for about 30 seconds, but the photo above it the best one photo I got. Unfortunately Sadie had her lemon in front of her face.

I was also able to snap a quick photo of Sadie sitting up. The babies are getting better and better at sitting independently, but it's often hard to get a photo because we need to be nearby in case they topple over. Between the grass and the quilt I felt confident that Sadie would have a soft landing if she toppled over (which she did a few moments after this picture).