Warp Speed

Sometimes I wonder if I am living in some kind of time accelerator.  The babies these days are learning and doing things faster than I can record it.  I have so many movies and pictures from the last few days to share!    So without further ado, I will get started!

First off, sippy cups.  We continue to work on this.  It continues to be a work in progress.  Some days are better than others.  Now we do try to have them drink their formula from their sippy cups as often as possible.  Last night I put an ounce of organic whole cow's milk in with their formula at dinner time. They seemed to tolerate it very well.  I will be adding more and more milk as we make the transition away from formula in the next few weeks.  Picture and movie time:

Secondly, mobility.  Chloe in particular continues to push the envelope when it comes to things she can do.  We have gates that prevent the babies from going down stairs, but on the second floor the steps to go UP to the third floor haven't been gated yet, because the babies were not able to climb up the stairs.  The other day I looked over at Chloe and she was just sitting on the first step.  She had managed to climb up the step, and was sitting cross legged on the step just surveying the area.  I almost had a heart attack!  So we are definitely going to have to do something about that.  The other day she walked with the dinosaur on her own, I have a video of that.  She has also discovered how to push the glider in the nursery back and forth.  In Birdies class at The Little Gym she is fearless and LOVES any skills or activities that involve hanging from the bars.  She will hang from the bars with a huge smile on her face.  Her strength always seems to surprise the teacher.

Finally, just fun stuff.  My stepsister Michelle (Aunt Michelle to the babies) sent us an amazing package for the babies' Christmas presents.  Chloe got her first little tea set, and Brady got a really cool car.  She also crocheted a gorgeous baby blanket that Chloe now sleeps with in her crib.  Thanks so much Aunt Michelle and also thanks to my niece Trinity!

And here is just a random picture from Sunday morning when they were going through all the toys in their toy bins.

A few weeks ago we had a play date with the Dermody family and we noticed that the babies really enjoyed playing with a tunnel that their friends Sam and Abby had.  I decided to order one on Amazon as an early Birthday present.  The babies have really enjoyed playing with it, but unfortunately so has our cat Sabrina.

I will leave you with just a video of me and Mr. Brady goofing around while Chloe was still napping one morning.  Please excuse my giant foot.

As you can see we are very busy but we are having a lot of fun!  Happy Monday everyone!

 

Baby Blair Witch Project: AKA Chloe iPhone Attack!

Over the last several days I have been trying to get Chloe to say "Mama".  Not just randomly, but when I ask her to.  She can do it, when the mood strikes her.  Often I will ask her when it is just us and my phone/camera is nowhere to be found, and she will look at me so deliberately and say loud and clear, "Mama".  If I try to recreate this situation when I have my phone handy to take a video, that is a different story.

Here are some funny videos of my attempts to get Chloe to say "Mama".  As you can see, she is a lot more interested in attacking the phone.   However, I am finally rewarded on the last video, even though it is faint, you can hear her say "Mama" on two different occasions.  Well, more like "mamamamamama", but you get the idea.

Annnnnd....drumroll please....Eureka!

Have a great day everyone!

 

Work in Progress!

Hello everyone, so sorry I have been absent from the blog the last several days.  It seems the older the babies get the faster the time goes!  They have certainly been very busy babies and they are keeping me on my toes!

As we approach the babies' First birthday I have been busy trying to implement a few "big kid" changes into our routine, specifically when it comes to eating.  We have dropped the kids down to eating three meals a day and two snacks.  Our eating schedule looks like this most days:

6 AM Breakfast: 8 ounces formula
10 AM Morning Snack: Juice/water, cheesy eggs, Cheerios, fruit, yogurt, cereal bar
1 PM Lunch: 8 ounces formula, some kind of adult food or a solid baby food
4 PM Afternoon snack: Juice/water, cheese, goldfish, fruit, crackers
7 PM Dinner: 8 ounces formula, some kind of adult food or a solid baby food

We are working on incorporating more adult foods but it is slow going.  We had some success with pasta and spaghetti sauce yesterday.  They do not enjoy foods with a wet or slimy texture, they seem to prefer foods with a crunchy and dry texture.  I am constantly wondering if I have cut up the food too small for them to pick up or too big and it could be a choking hazard.  I always tend to air on the side of too small just in case.  Some of the adult foods they enjoy are:  Cheerios, Goldfish, cheesy eggs, cheese, cereal bars, some fruit, some pasta.  I would like to introduce them to peanut butter but I am leery.  Neither I nor Chad have any peanut or any other known food allergies, but everyone is always scared of peanuts.  Eventually I would like to also include bites of meat but I just don't think we are there yet.

I have also been working very hard to encourage the babies to drink independently out of their sippy cups. I give them their water or juice from their sippy cups at both snack times and let them drink from them on their own.  At the three mealtimes we still do bottles so I can be sure they are getting all of their formula.  They know how to drink from their sippys, but I don't think we are ready to drink solely from sippys just yet.  I keep exposing them to it and hoping it will get better and better.  Chloe just started to throw her sippy cup from her tray this morning, so we have that going on now too.  Here she is:

Soon we will be mixing in regular (cow's) milk with their formula to ease the transition from formula over to solely cow's milk by their First birthday.  We haven't done this yet, but it is next on the docket.

I want to include some pictures to give you an idea of what I am dealing with here.  This is Chloe and Brady while we were trying out noodles and spaghetti sauce:

Here is a typical afternoon snack: Juice, Cheerios, Blueberries, and Raspberries:

I always thought I would be so relieved when the babies could eat regular food with us.  Now I realize that the days of just feeding a formula bottle were actually a LOT easier!

Moving on to some fun things other than our eating escapades.  We've been having other adventures in pre-toddlerhood.  The other day THIS happened:

I have no idea who the culprit was, I just had to laugh.  Note to self:  Keep bathroom door closed!

We also recently bought something for the babies that I remember very fondly from my own childhood...balls from the grocery store!   I used to beg my Mom every time we went to the store to buy me a ball from the big, colorful bin!  The other day I bought the babies not one, but THREE grocery store balls!  They have been having a great time playing with them!  Who knew $1.50 could still bring so much joy?

Well, that is it for me, nap time will be over soon!  Have a great Monday everyone!

 

Our First Trip to the Zoo!

Since today is Martin Luther King Jr. Day, Chad didn't have to work.  The weather was gorgeous outside, so we decided to take advantage of the beautiful day and go on our first zoo trip!  We decided to purchase a family membership today, so we can now visit the zoo whenever we want for a full year!  Since we live only 15 minutes away, we hope to go often, especially if the weather is nice.

We invited our friends the Dermody family to come with us to the zoo this morning.  All of the adults and children had a fun morning looking at the animals.  I have included some pictures from our day later in the post.

These first pictures aren't really too zoo-related other than being taken at the zoo, but I thought Chad did a great job of taking these close ups of Brady and Chloe.

One of the most visible animals out and about today at the zoo was the tiger.  We were able to get quite a few pictures of him.

This last picture of me and Chloe was taken at the tiger exhibit:

Another fun exhibit was the lion area.  The lion was sleeping right in front of the glass enclosure.  If you look closely you might be able to see him in the left corner.

Brady was not impressed by the lion at all.

Here is a great picture of the Dermody family in front of the lion enclosure:

Here is our clan:

I like this picture of Chad and Chloe:

One of the highlights of the day were the giraffes.  You could pay $5 for several pieces of lettuce to feed to the giraffes up close.  We decided to do it, and it was really cool to get to see them up close and actually feed them.  In the background of this picture, you can see other people feeding the giraffes:

And here is a good picture of one of the giraffes, although it is not close up.  Neither of us remembered to bring along the camera while we were actually feeding the giraffes (boo!), but we were a little busy managing two babies, a bunch of lettuce, and hungry giraffes.

It was an eventful and fun filled morning.  We look forward to going back soon!  I will leave you with one last picture, this is poor tired Chloe in the car on the way home:

We were all tired from our fun day at the zoo!  Now when is it time for my nap?  :-)

Hope everyone had a great day today!

 

"Hi there!"

I wanted to share a series of photos I took of the babies yesterday.  I like it because of their fun little expressions.  They were busy as little bees playing with their Little People Zoo Talkers that Uncle Charlie, Aunt Beth, and their cousins Mia, Max, and Lexie got them for Christmas.  When they looked over their shoulders and found me with the camera, they just looked so pleased to see me (or at least that's what I would like to think) that it melted my heart.

Here they are busy playing...

Oh, and yes, one child IS dressed and the other IS still in PJs.  And yes, they ARE playing surrounded by a pile of clothes.  The realities of twin parenthood, LOL.

In this picture, I just love Brady's expression, and I think you can tell he is getting bigger.  He seems to really be benefitting from eating the cheesy eggs new foods we've introduced.

Here is Miss Chloe playing...

Here she says, "Oh, Hi!"

"So pleased you could join me!"

I love that I get to spend my day with these sweet little faces!  Have a great day everyone!

 

Wednesday Wows

A funny thing happened after my blog post the other day, the babies woke up from their nap and just a few minutes later, Brady stood on his own for the first time!  He probably stood for about 20 seconds while watching Sesame Street.  He has done it several times since then, but never for that long.  It is definitely progress and it made me go "Wow!"  to see my little baby standing for the first time!  I was able to snap a quick picture with my phone to capture the moment:

I thought I would share a cute video of Miss Chloe today too.  Grandma (my Mom) and Grandpa (Daddy D) bought the babies a Fisher Price Laugh & Learn Puppy for Christmas that sings and dances.  At first it was a little hard for them to play with because it has to be standing upright to work, and they weren't sure how to make it sing.  I showed Chloe one time that if she presses her hand on the puppy's foot, it makes music.  Ever since then she can happily push the button herself to make it sing and dance!  She is such a little smartypants!  You can see in this video once it stops singing she will push the button again.

I am very proud of our babies, I can't believe how grown up they are getting!

 

Little Birdies

As usual, a lot has happened in our family in a short amount of time and I have a lot of blogging to catch up on!

We enrolled the babies in a class at The Little Gym. Their class is called Birdies and is for babies 10 to 19 months old. We had our first class over the weekend. Brady and Chloe are the youngest babies in their class, and probably only one other child wasn't walking yet. I still think the class is very beneficial for them to be exposed to lots of other babies and parents since they are used to just me at home most of the time. We sang songs, played with sticks, balls, and maracas. We learned several "skills", and in general explored the gym and the equipment they have to offer. We still have 20 weeks of class left to go, so I bet by the time they are done with Birdies class they will definitely be holding their own with the other babies.

I think Birdies is a very appropriate name for babies at this age, because they are busy mastering the skills they need to become more independent from their parents, like crawling and walking. Brady is getting more and more sturdy on his feet every day, and sometimes will stand on his own if he is distracted by a toy or some noise, etc. Once he realizes he is standing he quickly lowers himself down to sit. He will walk now holding our hands, and is becoming very adept at walking with his dinosaur, even on the hardwood floor. I am sure it won't be long before he chooses to stand independently, and eventually takes his first steps!

Chloe is really blossoming right now as far as movement goes. She still army crawls to get places, but she will switch to what we call "big girl" crawl more and more frequently. Eventually I believe she will phase out army crawl altogether.  Here are some videos of Chloe doing her "big girl" crawl:

Speaking of "big" boys and girls, the babies' one year birthday is quickly approaching!  I have put off making preparations because I was in denial at the fact that my little babies are growing up so fast.  Since it is now only a little over a month away, I had to buckle down and start making some plans.  We are going to have a "Cupcake Princess" and "Brady Monster" party.  Yes, you read that correctly.  I wanted to have a party that celebrates both of our babies and their distinct personalities.  These are our personal nicknames for the babies, and so we decided to make them the theme of their party!  I ordered a "Cupcake Princess" outfit (yes this does exist) for Chloe and a "Brady Monster" shirt for Brady on Etsy.  I ordered "cupcake princess" and "monster" party decorations and party hats.   Basically, we are having two parties in one.

We plan to have the party in the big backyard (weather permitting) of the house my Dad is renting for the month of February when they visit.  We still need to nail down the cake and a few other items, but it is a start.  I hope to create a Facebook event and/or send out invitations to invite some of you once we have a few more things ironed out.  I hope many of you who live in the area can come, it should be fun!

Naptime will soon be over, but I want to leave you with a couple of funny videos and one picture of my busy Birdies from the last few days.  As you can see, I have my hands full!  :-)

Had to include this picture of Miss Cupcake Princess getting into trouble and trying to climb the stairs!

Have a great day!

 

Cupcake Princess!

First of all, Happy New Year to everyone!  Sorry I haven't updated the blog sooner, I don't have an excuse other than the babies seem to be dropping down to one 1.5 to 2 hour nap a day, so there is a lot less nap time to get things accomplished in a day.

For several days I've wanted to do a post as a little spotlight on Chloe aka our "Cupcake Princess".  Chloe's movement has progressed rapidly over the last few weeks.  She is now army crawling wherever she wants to go.  The last few days we've caught her doing a traditional crawl, but she quickly switches back to army crawl.  Since she is mobile now we have to be super vigilant about even the smallest piece of carpet or anything on the floor, because she will spot it and try to eat it.  We call her our little Roomba.  She has also started pulling up everywhere, so we've had to lower her crib.

We discovered the other day that she is breaking through FOUR top teeth at one time!  She has four bottom teeth already, but now this ties her with Brady at 8 teeth a piece (four bottom and four top for both).

She has figured out how to open and close anything that has a lid, whether it is her toy laptop or a plastic trashcan (unfortunately for us).  Last night she learned how to swing the bathroom door open and closed.

She LOVES music and dances to a lot of the tunes her toys play.  She has known how to clap for a long time, but yesterday I got her to wave.  I got it on video but unfortunately she's only done it that one time since then.  I think she gets confused between "Hey" and "Yay" and sometimes wants to clap instead of wave.

We entered Chloe in a Facebook contest for the Bitty Bows that she often wears.  Since I am a fan of their page, I got an update in my status feed asking for Christmas pictures of babies wearing their Bitty Bows.  One picture would be selected to win a $10 gift certificate.  I posted this picture of Chloe wearing a red Bitty Bow for Christmas:

and she won!  Thanks to our friend Carlea for taking such great Christmas pictures for us this year!  With our gift certificate we ordered several more Bitty Bows for Chloe to enjoy.

Here are some videos of Chloe showing off her dancing skills.  The first video is from Christmas day, after playing with their new toys for 5 hours with no nap, Chloe was still going strong:

This video is a few days after Christmas, Chloe was playing with a new train that was a gift from her friends Sam and Abby:

The next video is of Chloe waving.  I haven't been able to get her to do it since, but I got it on camera once,  so that has to count for something!

And here is Chloe using her brother to pull up!  

We are so proud of our busy girl, crawling around, pulling up, growing teeth, winning contests, dancing, and waving!  Cupcake Princess, we love you!