Bowling :)

This past weekend, a dear family friend was in town that we had not seen for over 5 years.  In case your math is rusty, I'll just tell you outright that he hadn't met the girls yet, either :)

On Friday afternoon/evening, we met my family and Luster at the bowling alley - Elise & Avery's first trip.   The rows of chairs were the perfect size to play on, and we all had a great time!

Playgroup!

It's been a long time since we got to have playgroup, with all the illness that winter brought! We had just 3 moms today, but it was so much fun because all 6 babies were doing very similar things (read: we didn't have to pull our kids back over and over again so that they didn't breathe on other peoples' babies :)). We're looking forward to more outings, especially as the weather gets nicer and our babies all get moving more and more! Check out how sweet this group is --



























Avery & Avary :)

Practicing Standing

As I mentioned in the 10-month update post, the girls LOVE to practice standing, or to "test themselves".  I'll watch them cruising along furniture and just let go, focusing as hard as they can on balancing until they have to either grab back on or lower themselves (slowly and steadily!) to the ground... it's adorable!  We've tried to get it on camera, but you know what that black box does to my usually cooperative girls :)

Here is the best we've caught so far!  (Sorry that I forgot blogger won't let you turn the video... I swear, someday I'll work on rotating them elsewhere!)

And proof that the girls certainly aren't camera shy!  Instead, they usually run to it like it is the love of their lives, weak knees and all...

Fun Morning!

The girls and I went to Florence today to visit the Disney store.  We also scored excellent deals at Gymboree (Gymbucks redemption time), the Children's Place & Yankee Candle Co, shared lunch from Great Steak, and played a little in the play area before it got to crowded.  On the way home, we stopped in for a visit at Max's House.  There are so many new faces there!

I didn't bring the camera because it was just supposed to be a quick trip, but Elise & Avery are really enjoying interacting with their world more and more all the time! :-P

Happy Earth Day! ;)

So big!

Yesterday, we were supposed to go to the museum for Signing Safari class. We have tried to get into this class for months, but it was always one thing after another that kept us out... and yesterday was no exception. The highway was shut down.

Anyway, the girls were all dressed up and ready to go, so we took some pictures anyway. I just couldn't resist these shirts for them! Little Jen's says "If you think I'm cute, you should see my mom!" (cliche on a shirt, but appropriate, no? ;))



















and Little Kyle's says "My dad is Cool - we're a lot alike".



















Aren't they perfect, especially paired with the now-infamous Children's Place jeans (of which we have several pairs in each size, after the Great Search in the off-season!)?!















They even have super cute new shoes, too!















Since we didn't make it to the museum, once we finally got off the highway we decided to go to lunch at Culver's. Keeping with the theme of cute clothing (accessories?), check out the hysterical bibs there!

"I'm as cute as a butter burger is delicious" :)


























They're cute again today (I know you're shocked that I'm saying that!), ready for Rockabye Readers at the library. And, as they will tell you (albeit much more cooperatively when there isn't a camera around!), they are getting SO BIG!

Easter Toy

Last Wednesday, we finally got around to showing the girls the Push/Ride-On Toy that they got for Easter.   While they "got it" just the day or so after, in the sense that they enjoy riding on it, know to pick their feet up if someone is pushing it around and aren't shocked when it moves forward on them (though they still won't push it purposefully), they certainly didn't know what to do with it at first.  The following video is a few short clips of the... experience :)

A bit of improvement...

And for the record, Thea still doesn't like it.  Even when nobody is anywhere near it. 

Sharon Woods

Yesterday was another beautiful day (as is today... this must be some sort of record!), so the girls and I met up with our friends at Sharon Woods! We had a nice picnic lunch, then played on the playground. We even found a great little shaded spot under some of the play equipment.
















Elise (for once in her life) didn't care about the sun... she wanted to explore!















She and Alyssa played for a while on this, um, porthole(?) --































Avery thought it looked like they were having fun, so she joined them, too ...































Noah was very content to sit and watch the crazy girls from a distance, for the most part! Smart boy... :)














Did you know (or remember, rather!) these three babies shared a due date? Aren't they so cute?!















We are so blessed to have found such wonderful friends to share these times with, as I was blessed to commiserate with Amy during our concurrent pregnancies! ;) (No pictures of that, sorry.)

Noah's big brother Matthew was very sweet with all of the babies.



























We can't wait to play again! Check out the rest of the pictures (just a few extra) in the Photo Album!

10 Months! (Yesterday)

After a busy day and lots of outdoor play, I was concerned the girls might not stay awake long enough to get their monthly pictures. Oh, they didn't have any trouble doing so! The only person that had any trouble was me, and that was snapping quick enough to try and get something even remotely close to what I was "supposed to". What you saw above is the best I could get! :)

You can see a bit of the progression here, but I swear to you - I shot in action mode and 90% of my shots were still blurry as Elise & Avery flipped off the blanket or leaped out of the chairs and crawled away. Or climbed up onto the back of the (too soft to hold them) chairs. The little buggers are QUICK! :-P

Aside from being faster than me, here are some other new things they are up to:

• signing "more" and "eat", appropriately, without prompting. I thought it was sweet enough when they first started signing successfully after someone had said the word, but my heart melted when Elise leaned over to a boy eating Puffs in a nearby cart at the store and signed, plain as day and as emphatically as she could, "EAT?!" :) Aww, so good honey, but nope. Sorry! :-P
• Crawling as fast as can be, but usually still opting for their special 4-point knees/elbows crawl. It's not an army crawl, mind you, but something I've only seen my strange children do. They use their elbows instead of their hands, so that they can carry items with them wherever they are going. Silly girls!
• Pulling to stand on EVERYTHING, cruising along anything they can, pushing things like baskets to get some forward motion (except refusing to do so purposefully with a toy made just for that!), "testing themselves" to see how long they can stand if they let go of something (hysterical!), etc. If we help them balance to start, they are working on standing for a few seconds at a time... but mostly they get too excited and lunge forward into the person sitting down with them. :)
• Eating everything in sight, except for corn. Unless it's on a spoon. (I know, they're weird!) Most recently, they had pizza and hot dogs (cut up, of course!) and devoured them both. I swear, they eat more than some 3-year-olds I know! Growth spurt? Sheesh!
• Getting heavy as crap, especially when I have to carry both of them around all day! I'd love to remember and get them on a scale somewhere to see how big they have gotten, but I know it's big. And heavy. (See previous point.)
  
• Wearing a Size-3 diaper, and mostly 6-9 month clothes. Some of the latter are still big, but most fit very nicely. The outfits that fit best are Carter's 6M stuff but we have/had mostly winter stuff. They have lots of cute summer dresses to wear soon though, don't worry! ;)
• Making ridiculous strides socially/cognitively. It blows my mind that over the last week they have learned (without much "teaching") the motions to various parts of The Wheels on the Bus (namely lights blinking, doors opening & shutting, & wipers swishing), Some (old-school) Gymboree song about a mysterious popcorn-popping Apple Tree, Mr. Sun and other random Childrens songs. I need to refresh my memory with more though, because The Wheels on the Bus gets very old, very quickly. {And to think, I had such grand plans to just play Rockabye Baby, BNL children's CDs and the like, so as not to drive myself up the wall. It's just IMPOSSIBLE to resist them though, when they do the songs with me! :) :) They have also started to "point" (which is more of a general gesture) at things they want, repeat sequences that I do to them with a toy, etc. It's unreal to be a part of!
• It seems, too, that over the last couple of days they have appropriately used "mama" and "dada" with some consistency, though I'm not sure it's enough for me to say they 'get it' just yet. I'll keep you posted :)

I am so, so fortunate that I have a husband that is supportive of the notion that our girls need to be home with one of us (luckyblessed me!). Without getting into unnecessary detail, it's not really something we "can" do financially, but it's something we've made it a priority to do. Who knows if our decision is the best one in that regard, but it's the one we feel needed done... and I could not be more grateful. I love that I get to spend so much time with these precious little ones as it passes too quickly, though I often struggle with guilt that Kyle doesn't get to see them nearly as much. They sure do love their dada though, which you know if you've seen him walk into a room with them! :)

"I have been blessed

With so much more than I deserve
To be here with the ones
That love me
To love them so much it hurts
I have been blessed"

Spring (Driveway) Picnic!

Our yard is still a swamp and our patio and deck are both wet, so we improvised! Besides, it's sunnier in the front of the house during the afternoon....













































We even had a little bit of a picnic --















and then came in to wait for Daddy to come home!



















(Or wait a few minutes for him anyway, until something else was distracting...)

Tonight we were running some errands, and went on a spur of the moment picnic (#2!) in Monroe with Nana, Pappy, Aunt Cassi & Funcle Ben!  This one was much more than puffs - chicken, mashed potatoes, biscuits, sourdough squares (huh?) and chocolate eggs.  Much better!

It was such a beautiful day, and I'm so glad we finally got to enjoy it!  Tomorrow, the girls and I are meeting some friends at Sharon Woods.  Hooray for Spring!

Helping with the Dishes?

I got on here to write a post about a picnic. Instead, I found a few surprises waiting for me on the SD card! :-P
































































It would seem that while I was at the grocery store yesterday (?), the girls helped Daddy get the dishes out of the dishwasher! Too bad it looks like they were dirty... we'll have to recruit them again when the current cycle is finished!


I'll get to the other post eventually, but this was too cute to pass up!

Apparently, I don't read to them enough.

Easter

Beautiful Longaberger Easter baskets from Grandma Shelly!

This year, Easter fell right in the middle of Kyle's long stretch of 15-hour night shifts, so it wasn't as lovely a day as it could have been, as far as spending time with family goes! Still, we had a wonderful day despite various schedule changes and hardly getting to see Kyle at all :( (Side note: When this goes to press, he is FINISHED with that stretch! FINISHED with nights for a while, and back home with us for more than 60 minutes per day! :))

The girls and I got up and played for a bit, then got dressed and ready for church. Elise was in the middle of a meltdown (the norm for both girls this last week, which we hope is related to losing their daddy and not understanding that he'll be home with us again. At least if that is true, the three of us will regain some sanity (and sleep) in just a short while!), so I don't have very many pictures of just them in their Easter attire. I had planned to take a few more after church, assuming they hadn't destroyed their dresses in the meantime. More on that later...


Before we left for church, Avery and Elise explored their baskets a bit. In addition to these, they (we) got a membership to the Cincinnati Museum (surprise! ;)) and a walking/ride-on/push toy that will be featured in a future blog entry.















Mostly, they enjoyed the eggs. (Not at all shocking, considering plastic eggs are practically all they've played with in the last few weeks!)















I sang in the Easter services, so I had to be there at 9am for a sound check. Until 1pm. With no nap for the girls.

I decided we'd need to improvise, so I left them in the car during sound check (my mom kept an eye on them!), then we drove around for about 50 minutes to get back in time for the offeratory and my song :) We then stayed for the second service, and the girls played in the nursery. I told myself at several points on the way in that I should take out Elise's & Avery's bows, so as not to lose them, but I didn't listen to myself. I'm really not smart, in that I didn't listen to my smart self. We lost Elise's bow, after I had spent over an hour picking out (and sort of having custom made) the best ones I could find for their dresses. And before we really got any pictures. :(

We've since tracked down the bow (I'd have to talk to you in person to share where, to protect a little old lady at church :)), so I'm hoping to get a few shots of the girls in their Easter get-ups during their 10-month portrait session. If I remember.
Anyway....

After church, we went to my parents to hang out with my family and my grandparents. Kyle was sleeping there after getting home around 10am and some family members had other places to be as well, so it was a very low-key gathering -- but great company nonetheless!

The girls enjoyed getting into Kyle's basket just as much as their own -

"eating" Kit Kats (through the wrapper), and even finding and enjoying their very own eggs!

Avery even discovered a new and improved way to shovel in the Cheerios. Such an inventive baby...















My sister and I went on our own egg hunt outside ("my mother is a jerk" :)), and around 4pm we enjoyed a fabulous Easter dinner, during which Kyle joined us before going back to work.

It was a beautiful day, despite being a little quite a bit chillier than it should have been with such a late Easter this year. We hope you enjoyed yours as well, and were able to celebrate with friends and family!