VIDEO OF WALKING

We have a lot to post to catch up from our Christmas, but in the meantime here is the video of Brooke walking. She has now begun to walk (aka take a couple of steps) without even realizing it (aka even when we don't stand her up and put out our arms and say WALK!!)

Since Audrey is still not walking, I thought that I would post a picture of her feeding herself some yogurt (she even would put the spoon in the container to get the yogurt!)

UPDATES

We had our one year doctor's appointment on Friday...it is this late because it was originally scheduled for the same day that Audrey had surgery and they won't do the well baby the same day as anesthesia. Unfortunately this "well-baby" appointment featured two babies who were not actually well. Brooke (who has had a cough off and on since October) started to really cough and have a runny nose on Thursday. By bedtime she had a fever and was just laying on the floor (so sad!) Since she was wheezing and breathing fast, she is now taking puffs from the albutoral inhaler. Of course, now all 3 of us gals are all sick (though I don't have fever) Hopefully we will get over this in time for the holidays...or soon after our vacation starts!

The first of many wrapping paper sword fights...it's never too early to instill a competitive spirit, right?

Here are the stats for the girls:
Brooke: 32 inches (over 95th percentile) for height, 22.5 lbs (between 75th and 50th - though she had not been eating well and probably lost a few oz), and her head is 46.4 cm (75th percentile)

Brooke LOVES her chair...she gets in and out of it constantly and when sitting she smiles and pats the armrests!

Audrey: 30 inches (around 50th percentile) for height, 20.5 lbs (25th - though she is legal to be forward facing!), and her head is 44.4 cm (25th percentile).

Audrey loves to chat on the phone...she will even hold it up to her ear (occasionally!)

The girls seem to be on the same growth curve as last visit and everything looks good. They got their chicken pox and MMR vaccines and got blood taken for iron and lead screenings....FYI Audrey's earlier bloodwork for liver functions and anemia came back great and she won't need bloodwork again until the first of the year...and her head is looking much better-only one big spot left!

Audrey rocking her Pepples do (this makes her bald spots less noticable!)

Here is a video of Brooke dancing. Still no photgraphic evidence of her walking....as she has been just laying around lethargically since then.

WE HAVE WALKING!

YEAH!!! We have a walker today (an easy to remember day as it is our friend Lesa's birthday - Happy Birthday!).

So I have been meaning to update the blog with these two hilarious bathroom stories (which I will wait and share another day), but today we had a giant breakthrough....actual independent steps. So after our MOPS today, the girls and I were playing in the playroom (and talking on the phone to our friend Jennifer). I put one of the girls up on their feet and pulled my fingers out of her grasp and left my arms out. And amazingly she took one step toward me! So of course I repeated this and she would take 2 or 3 steps toward me! I AM SO EXCITED!! There is no photo or video footage of this yet as she is walking into my arms and therefore I can't hold a camera too, but I am sure to record this as soon as Darren gets home from work.

Now you are probably wondering who was the walker? Well 57% of you who voted are....wrong. Our little walker is Brooke!

13 MONTHS

The girls are (as of yesterday) 13 months old! I feel like I should have a bunch to say, but instead I just have little bits. So this will be moderately random....and the pictures will also be random since it is especially difficult to get a good picture of the girls at the time (lots of movement and irritation during the photo shoots!)

The Golden Girls: The early years

The girls love to travel around from room to room (with me as an escort since our stairs are not gated) but they especially love to play in the kitchen...helping me unload the dishwasher and opening all cabinets and the pantry and removing whatever they can. And they love the phonics fridge magnet!

The girls are "sharing" the magnet...Brooke does all the hard work!

Brooke now has 10 teeth through the gums - the most recent molar made an appearance over Thanksgiving. I predict that additional teeth for both of them are right around the corner. This is based on the amount of drool, the constant chewing (we may never get rid of the paci), and most importantly we will be traveling and with family again!

More peas please!

The girls have decided that they only need one nap a day and so we are working through that transition. They are also eating 3 meals and one afternoon snack. It is amazing to see the quantity of food that they can eat...sometimes we just have to cut them off! They love to play peek-a-boo and it is really their best trick.

After Santa pictures we played at the mall...Audrey seemed to like this block for some reason!

It has been quite cold here (yes, I know Houston has gotten more snow than us) and I just think that the girls are so cute in all of their winter gear!...to be honest, I think that I am also quite adorable in my winter gear too!

My snow bunny Brooke

There has not been any independent walking yet, but they do love to push their walkers and cruise on the furniture. They are both dancing to music - absolutely adorable! They can both stand independently (Audrey has only just started that today - in the bathtub no less!).

Audrey loves to push Brooke around

SANTA

We went to visit Santa today. I knew going in that it was very likely that the girls were going to cry considering they cry whenever handed to people who are dressed normally...so a large man with a giant beard in a fuzzy suit was a for sure cry starter. But alas we went anyway. They only take 3 pictures (got to move the line along!) and this was the first and by far the best. The crying escalated as time passed.

THANKSGIVING

This year for Thanksgiving we drove down to Darren's family in South Carolina. Fortunately, we were able to turn the girls around in their carseats and use our DVD player. Audrey was mesmerized by it! The girls did great on the drive and we changed plans mid-drive and made it all in one day....of course we arrived at about 12:30 am!

It took the girls a little while to warm up - they currently are in an attached phase. But once they settle in, they are good to go. By the end of the trip, Brooke would even touch the giant golden retriever (Audrey was not so sure about it!).

They ate like little rock stars - they are huge fans of meat: turkey, ham, roast beef, BBQ pork, chicken. They ate everything that the adults did (though they, like their mom, skipped the collard and rutabagas!)

While there, they got to have another first birthday party-complete with cakes for each of them. They again really loved the cake!

Audrey has been really cute lately and has been hugging all her stuffed animals and dolls...which is funny since she is not our little cuddler. Brooke has also been really cute - but she has been dancing! (both of them really, but more Brooke) Anytime music comes on she starts to boogy down.

The played with their cousin Kayla quite a bit. Here is a video of Kayla pushing Audrey around in a doll stroller. This went on for quite a while and it was totally adorable... until Audrey fell out - who could have seen that coming?

F-L-O-R-I-D-A S-T-A-T-E...whooo!

As always I am behind. So I will start with the weekend before Thanksgiving. My college roommate Stacy (the aforementioned Chicken) came up to this area for Thanksgiving to be with her wonderful finance Peter and his family. And since FSU was playing Maryland (in football for all of you crazy non sports people) that same weekend we decided to go...of course this was in September when the weather was wonderful. As it turned out, it was freaking cold the day of the game which happened to have a 7:45 pm kickoff! But we had a great time and survived the weather!

Here we are before the game all decked out in our new winter gear.

Stacy and Peter's moms babysat the girls for us.

We are all smiles as we KILLED those little turtles!


Unrelated, but too cute of Audrey in a drawer!