Overcoming a few technical glitches

It's been a challenging couple weeks for blogging. My laptop got infected with viruses that rendered it completely useless. I tried to limp along with it at super slow speed, but then it stopped starting up all together. Thankfully computers are something J. and I are never too short on. I was able to switch to another spare laptop we had, but it required learning Mac, which was no short order. I was finally able to download the software I needed to night to download photos from our camera, blahhed, blahhed, blah. We all spend way too much of our lives talking about what a pain in the ass technology is.

Fortunately today was a day off from work for me and I was able to get out of the house with the babes. We met up with our friends Tatum and Meghan at a nearby park (Tatum is featured above int he stripy pants). It was very exciting to see that Sadie and Jack have reached the age where they can enjoy playing with other babies. There was much hair pulling and even a little kissing on Tatum's part.

While I was getting ready for work yesterday I heard Jack and Sadie cracking up in the nursery. They had banded together to knock over the nursery trash and were having the time of their lives rummaging through the trash. It felt heartless, but I had to spoil the party, put the trash back in the trash can, and place it high enough to be out of reach.

The Laws of the Universe

We had a wonderful visit this weekend with my cousins Beth, Karen, Dani and Nyko who live in Berkeley, California. Our two families made an outing of visiting the Griffith Observatory. Jack was particularly taken with a giant pendulum at the observatory. Here he is looking down at it with his dad (larger picture above). While they are a bit young to grasp the laws of the universe, Sadie and Jack did enjoy hanging out with their cousins.

Dress Up

Unfortunately both the babies are sick this weekend. We're on our bizillionth day care cold. They say that once you get thru one year of day care or school children build an immunity to cold germs and get fewer colds. We're six months in. God help us if this continues at this rate after a year.

As a result of all the illness we've been keeping a low profile this weekend and staying in. There has not been a lot to take photos of, but I did play dress up with Sadie before bed last night. Sadie's Grammy gave her this fantastic hat for Christmas. I love it, but must admit that Sadie does not have many occasions to wear it. Somehow it just seems to go best with her birthday suit.

What are you doing with that camera?

The bigger photo above cracked us up so much when we saw it. One of Jack's favorite activities is to crawl under the rocking chair and navigate his way out (he is still only crawling backwards). Something about this picture epitomizes Jack's concentration and single-mindedness while he is engaged in an activity.

Babies, Babies Everywhere

Last Friday I took Sadie and Jack to a playgroup with some other moms that I met when I was pregnant. We all got a prenatal care together as a group. It was a great way to get my routine prenatal care and connect with other moms-to-be. Now we all have babies between 7 and 9 months old.

Another mom in the group took these photos. It's exciting to see a picture of the babies with me in it. It also really highlights why I don't get more pictures when we're out and about. There is rarely a time when we're out when there is not at least one baby in my arms, or a baby needing attention. On this particular afternoon Jack had not taken his second nap and screamed bloody murder if he did not maintain physical contact with me. Hopefully once these two are walking I'll be able sneak a few feet away and snap a few pictures a little easier. In the meantime enjoy all the pictures taken around our house. There's more to come!

Sadie's Tooth

Sadie has been cranky for weeks. First we thought it was an ear infection, but then the pediatrician ruled that out. Then we thought that it was acute teething, but when it lasted past a week it was hard to call it acute teething. I had somewhat given up on the idea that a tooth was ever going to break the gun in her mouth, but tonight during dinner I felt that there was the beginnings of tooth that had poked through her gum. It's too small to get a photo of, but I thought that this photo of Sadie chewing on her lobster puppet's antenna might do.

After dinner tonight I put the babies down for some floor time (a.k.a. mama-has-something-else-to-do time) while I prepared a bath for Sadie. I heard her start screaming bloody murder. I rushed in to find that Jack had taken the toy she had been playing with right out of her hands. And so it begins...bloody noses and tattletaling can't be far behind.

Frolicking in the Clover

This weekend was beautiful in LA - clear skies, lots of sunshine, 75 degrees. I feel a bit guilty reporting that knowing how many of you are in the midst of winter, but how else to explain these photos? I wanted to take advantage of the nice weather so I thought that I'd throw a blanket down in the clover in front of our house. Most of the year we have a dirt patch in front of our house, but the winter rains bring a beautiful clover cover to the dirt. My plan was to bring a couple toys out of the house and enjoy the nice afternoon, but Sadie and Jack had other ideas. They both immediately scooted to the edge of the blanket and were stuffing clover in their mouths before I could make it into the house to get toys. It's been a good eight hours since these photos and the babies have not had any reaction yet, so I'm going to assume that there was nothing too dangerous in the clover and weeds.