By request --

Elise's crawling:




And not by request but just kind of funny, Avery voicing her opinion (about what, I have no idea...):

Mmm... Toast!

Some of my favorite Zwieback Toast pictures. The rest are in the album...

Elise's Ortho Appointment

All Clear! :)  Dr. T was very impressed with the girls' motor skills & development, and is not at all concerned that her little feet will correct themselves as she starts cruising and walking.

Stay warm!

Slippers!

The girls have these adorable bunny "house slippers", but they don't stay on for anything. In that regard, they're just as (in)effective as socks.

It's been freezing here, so we resorted to what I guess you might call "bath slippers"? Does such a thing exist? Anyway, they match their bath robes ... but at least they stay on a bit better than socks, and keep their little toes warm!

Snow Day #2

We were snowed in again yesterday, as you might imagine. In the evening, Kyle and I brought snow inside to the girls (after reading about such a great idea on another blog I read about a handsome little boy! :) ). I can't say they were too crazy about it in their house ...

Elise would at least explore it some,

but Avery really wasn't excited to do so. Can you blame her? It's cold! :)

When I packed it into a ball (GREAT packing snow, by the way!), they both watched, very intrigued. Even Avery ended up checking it out when offered to her!

Overall though, this pretty much sums up their reaction -- confused interest, at best!

They made the news! Well, sort of....

If you read here yesterday (or on facebook, etc) you saw that I was avoiding doing housework by racking up votes for my little Snow Babies in a Channel 9 (WCPO) news contest. In the morning, the anchor said they were taking votes on uploaded pictures, and the photo with the most votes would get a spot on the 6:00 news. Wouldn't you know, these girls are so loved (and I have a few internet venues to tap ;)) that they ended up with nearly (or over) 30 votes on each picture! The next photos behind had 13. You all rock!

That being said, the news lied. Shocking, I know, for the media to not be truthful. ;) They showed a few pictures, but it had nothing to do with the voting. The ones showed were cute (or neat, in the case of a rockin' fort), but had 1-2 votes each. Not cool. ;)

Thankfully, we had the earlier broadcast on anyway to keep track of conditions when Kyle would be driving home post-call, so we actually caught that two of the three pictures were shown during the day. We certainly wouldn't have known if we were just going by what the anchor said, though!

Ironically, Avery's picture (looking at her mitten) had significantly more votes than either of these two, but we now know that doesn't really matter.... :)

Anyway, since I'm sure nobody saw them (except Vicki and my family, apparently!) --

(Oh, and sorry for the seizure-inducing quality. I know there's a way to get info off the DVR, but it's never gonna happen around here. This is the best you get! ;))

Most of the time, they can get what they're after...

And in literally just the last few days, Elise has figured out she can get around almost as well as her sister. In fact, she got under the jumper:














from the lower right corner of this frame (facing the toy table) --














so quickly (we're talking a matter of 2-3 minutes) that I just assumed it was Avery before doing a double-take and realizing what she had done. Sorry, Elise! :-P

Vote for my Snow Babies! :)

I don't think we win anything, but it's still fun. They could be on the 6:00 news! :)

http://www.wcpo.com/ugc/cat/WinterWx/Ehpw01by9UKaGHpVO7pMzg.aspx

http://www.wcpo.com/ugc/cat/WinterWx/WTOA0XPC80aP21yKa4_MIA.aspx

http://www.wcpo.com/ugc/cat/WinterWx/ZuHqbHvIl0eZW-bSm4BL-g.aspx

(You can vote for each one once!)

Snow Day!

Yesterday, we got the first really big snowfall of 2009! Because we thought the girls would hardly even be mobile by the time winter finished, we only bought "snowsuits" that are really just "warmsuits". Definitely not waterproof. So, our playtime in the snow was limited!

The girls got dressed in nice, warm layers, including hats and gloves. I slathered Noodle & Boo Ultimate Baby Ointment (our lifeline with regards to excema, etc) all over their little faces and they were ready to check it out!

Neither Elise nor Avery enjoyed lying back looking up at the snow that fell on their face. If only I could have really caught on film some of the faces they were making! :-P


















They enjoyed sitting though, and trying to figure it out. Avery was very sleepy and therefore not as easily excited, but definitely intrigued. Elise loved it. :)








































































Next time, we'll REALLY have to play - when Daddy is with us, and we're (all) dressed more appropriately!

There are a few more pictures of the girls taking it all in in the Picasa Album (link in sidebar). Enjoy!

Snacktime!

(Sorry for the choppiness of the second. Blogger would have taken the rest of the month to upload the 6 minutes of video we started with, so I tried to cut down as much of the 'downtime' as I could. As it stands, it took quite a while. No time to employ my mad editing skills :)).

The Down-Side to Mobility....

Sometimes you get stuck. :)

(Pay no attention to the crap behind the chair. It's all on the way out of our house)

7-Month Pictures

Why did you not point out that I hadn't yet posted these?! :-P

There are a few more (cute ones, if I do say so myself!) of each girl in the January Picasa album now.

Mesh Pouches and Biter Biscuits!

Lots of new finger foods lately! One night, Elise and Avery got two special treats before bed!

First, we finally tried out the Munchkin Fresh Food Feeders that we were initially so excited about, and then never got around to using ;)

I'm not sure we'll use them often, since they don't really get to each much through them, but it was a nice way to "try" grapes since they aren't allowed eating them (choking hazard and all) for a year or two still! :-P


























The packaging says you can do meat, etc in here.... but I just don't see the point in that. For fresh fruit though, especially as things like Watermelon come in season, I think it will be great!

They also finally got to have a go at the Biter Biscuits. The girls found these in their special "purses" at Christmas from Grandma Shelly. They (and we) were finally ready for them. As you would expect, the girls loved them! (Why wouldn't they, those things are TASTY!) Also as you would expect, they were an absolute mess. Thankfully the sleepers they were in were already filthy and it was almost bathtime, so we didn't bother stripping them down. In general, we certainly would!

They went straight into the mouth (as everything does)


























Hmm.... this thing is different!



























Yum!




























All done! Or Mommy says so anyway, when it gets too small and mushy to handle! :-P


























Check out the Picasa album for a few more pictures, and stay tuned for a bit of video coverage! It was especially funny when Avery would "lose"the biscuit and try and retrieve it!

Birds are gross. And very stupid.

No, we didn't get new pet sparrows. Ick.

Yesterday, Kyle was post call. This month, that means that one day he's on call, and the next he might as well be because he's just shy of dead when he comes home. I was having a particularly strong need to just veg, too, so I ordered pizza after putting the girls down and woke Kyle up to hang out for an hour or two before going (back) to bed.

The pizza man came, so I grabbed Thea and took her into the family room (she's obnoxious otherwise). Kyle opened the door to pay, and - in an instant - there was a bird in my family room. Followed very closely by a second. The dog was going crazy, so I took her upstairs. Kyle finished paying and we began trying to get them out of our house. (We had shut all the doors upstairs, including the girls' room, and just prayed they didn't wake up!).

After opening all the doors and trying to shoo them out with a broom (VERY unsuccessfully), I called my dad. He just seems to be able to take care of these things! He said keep trying a few minutes, then he'd be over with a net or other (less child/family-friendly) method of removal :)

Kyle had the idea to hold up sheets/blankets, almost as "fake walls" to try and direct them out the door. We were out of options, and they mostly just kept flying back and forth between above-pictured perch in one corner to the top of the kitchen cabinets. Ew, ew, ew. Birds are so disgusting. Might I add, at this point, that we also had nasty grey feathers ALL OVER the two rooms. Ew.

The fake walls didn't really work, but in a frenzy they flew toward the door to the garage. We propped it open, and continued our pursuit - hoping that if they weren't smart enough to leave the house, we could at least trap them in the garage. That would be much easier to deal with!

Eventually, they did make it into the garage, but not before coming entirely too close (multiple times) to my face as I stood on a chair with my Wall. We shut them out of the house and opened the garage door, assuming they'd leave. We returned to our (then cold) food, to try and get some sustinance (it was about 9pm at this point) before tackling the mess. Ew.

We ate, spent who knows how long vacumming, sweeping, mopping, wiping down everything, etc. Miraculously, they didn't poop anywhere. Still, with just the feathers and other .... junk that comes off of wild animals, it was certainly not the way we had planned to relax......

And after all of this, Kyle went out the back door, around to the garage, and - wouldn't you know it - the stupid things are still just perched on the open garage door. Asleep.

Kyle opens and closes the door a few hundred times, whacks some more with the broom, starts the cars, etc. Only one bird ever leaves. What the heck?

Now, as I type, Kyle is going downstairs to see if the other stupid creature left when the sun came out this morning. We slept all night with the garage door open (brrrrr) in hopes that s/he would use it's tiny little bird brain and get out of our house!


Some day this will be funny. It's not yet, to us anyway, but I thought it might be for you ;)

"It's All Happening at the Zoo"

Simon & Garfunkel. I know that one, but I don't know what's with the song lyric post titles. I'll try to quit.

It did end up being even warmer yesterday than the forecast predicted. It hit - no exaggeration - 59 degrees! That's so close to 60! In January!

(If only I weren't constantly brought back down to reality that it's still winter. We have a high of 26 today in the 'burbs, and I'm sure we'll still get our yearly February blizzard. Gross.)

Enough about the weather, you want pictures. I know why you keep coming back... ;)

We met up with Stacy and her girls, as well as new friends Lindsay and Torin. As I mentioned, Elise and Avery got to ride like "big girls" in the stroller. It would seem they enjoyed it!


























We weren't the only ones impressed with the weather. We were only there about 2 hours, but some of the animals that are not always the most viewer-friendly made an appearance. The rest were really active too, despite it being mid-afternoon!


















































{Editor's note: No pictures of Puumba this time, we didn't make it to the nursery :(.}

I do think, though, that these guys might like it to warm up a bit more still --














I know the girls were paying attention at least some of the time, thanks to a fabulous shot that I didn't even notice until I got home. I assure you nothing fascinating (to you and I) had just happened. If I recall correctly, the best it could have been was a bird jumping from a rock into the water. The girls, however, took note!
















Yes, the girls were fond of their new view of the world. Elise found herself able to get very comfortable --















-- while poor Avery just kept getting a jolt when her sister would kick her seat from behind. Note to self, DEFINITELY have to take turns in each seat!

Ultimately though, both of them were able to relax just fine, and enjoy a nap in the sun!


















What a nice break from the cold!