Tuesday, July 29, 2008

BACK FROM THE BEACH

Well you may have noticed that I have not posted anything for over a week...I have an excuse as we were having a fun-filled week at the Hadden family beach trip in Hilton Head.

Here is a summary of our week: the girls were adorable! Well in case you want more detail, I will continue. Both girls are unfortunately in the stranger-danger phase and want mommy and daddy whenever they see us. For the most part they did get over this and were held by everyone...even their 3 1/2 year old cousin (who was so super cute with them and has finally agreed that she likes them equally...this was a huge step since in January she only liked Audrey!). Brooke was definitely more of the extrovert this trip. They both enjoyed the beach and the pool - both the tiny one at the beach and the big one at the condo. Audrey did get a sun/heat/sunscreen induced rash on her face (thus the redness in the following pictures) but that has gone away. And like their father, they love to sleep on the beach!


Photos at the beach - how cute are they!!!
Fun with the fam at the beach side pool - note all 3 girls have the same suit!
Going for one of many wagon rides -which can be exhausting as Audrey is illustrating by her falling over asleep!
I believe that they are singing "I'm too sexy" in their heads

Chillin' with the 'rents in the beach pool

Getting love from their cousin Kayla

Tuesday, July 15, 2008

8 MONTHS

Well as you can see by the adorable little age counter thing, the girls turned 8 months old this past week. They are officially 2/3 of a year old. Now they have been outside in the big world for as long as they were inside (or close---the whole 40 weeks/9 months thing is tricky).

After church...our 5th...still looking.
Not a lot of new stuff, but I will try to come up with something so I can use some of the million pictures that I have taken...though they might not have anything to do with the content of the post:

Audrey is always looking for a pacifier around Brooke!

1. Brooke is officially a roller (talk about a huge relief!) The girls are just not motion oriented, but Brooke has finally become a roller...though she spends only the briefest of moments actually on her tummy. It is cute to find her in different places. Of course now we have to work on getting into a sitting position all by herself. Audrey does not roll to her tummy yet, but does seem to be working on a crawl type thing when she is on her belly. She prefers to sit and crouch over to reach things. My mom was here this past weekend and apparently I did not crawl until 10 months and my sister didn't crawl until 12 months! So the girls seem to be following in our laid-back approach to moving!

Just cute!!

2. Brooke now has 5 teeth. Her third tooth on top has started poking through. Thanks heavens cause it seems to have been hurting her lots and all she wants is her ma ma (which she says as she looks up to me and lift her little arms...adorable!....of course she also says ma ma to lots of other things as well, but whatever it still counts!)

A foretaste of things to come as the girls battle for the remote!

3. We used a gift card from their birth to buy them an adorable little chair.
How cute is the little chair...and the little girls of course!!
4. Audrey has decided that she likes to shake her head no at everything...all the while smiling an enormous smile.

Audrey just being cute!

5. They ate banana puffs for the first time!! Audrey absolutely hates them and refuses to put them in her mouth and makes a horrible face when I put them in. Brooke has really enjoyed them...so funny to watch her chase it around her tray and then try to get it from her hand into her mouth where she chews them really well...then she seems to hate to actually feel the swallowing of the chunkier stuff, but then wants another!

Eating Puffs for the first time!!

Tuesday, July 8, 2008

DATING AND OTHER NEW STUFF

As most people know, I have always said that if I didn't have D then I would be a crazy person on on-line dating. I find it fascinating and a brilliant way to meet people - I briefly got to live vicariously through a friend who used match.com. So I am now delighted to say that I have joined the on-line match making...of course I am trying to "mom date" and not look for a new mate (thanks Kathryn for the fun, yet accurate, term). I randomly met a gal at the library last week and we had our first lunch on Monday. Very fun and it seems like there is potential for friend there - I don't want to jinx it by saying much more. I have also joined two meet up groups for stay at home moms and have some up coming "play dates" with them. Fingers crossed that I will meet someone nice who needs a friend....as an aside there are also several ladies on my street who seem very nice, but for some reason they seem much older than me (thus my usage of the term ladies). However, I plan to pursue them as well. Hopefully I will have more to report soon.


Brooke celebrated her independence day by sleeping on her tummy for the first time ever...this is major progress!

Audrey is showing off her newest hair-do. She is our little wild child!


Over the past few months the girls have started becoming more aware of each other. They have certainly been aware enough of the other to steal toys. Recently, they seem to look over at each other during breakfast as if to check if the other is still there...can't tell yet if they are actually hoping to see an empty seat or if they are happy that their little buddy is still there. However, yesterday for the first time, the girls were entertaining each other during lunch - laughing and smiling and it was the cutest thing I have ever seen. I finally decided that I had to get this on camera about the same time that they decided that they were done.




In this video, Brooke has a first - she actually ends up maintaining possession of her toy. As you will see, this victory is certainly tempered by the whapping that she receives from Audrey.

Sunday, July 6, 2008

HAPPY FOURTH!

This was the girls' first Fourth of July so of course I had to commemorate it with a bajillion pictures since they had several adorable outfits. Unfortunately, the girls did not seem to be in a cooperative mood, so none of the pictures are really that great. Alas, here are the best of the bunch.

Audrey's shirt says "I'm Independent" and Brooke's is a cupcake with fireworks coming from it that says "Lil Sparkler"

Wednesday, July 2, 2008

A DAY IN THE LIFE...

Since I am not doing a baby book and therefore am not really recording stuff anywhere other than here, I thought I would give a little synapses of our life...yes, we are scheduled and yes, it works well. I am aware that this will pretty much only be interesting to me and possibly the grandparents, so you have permission to skip this.

6:30 - 7:00 am: girls wake up...usually in good moods with little chatter in the cribs that eventually turns to cries to come get me!

7:30 am: eat breakfast. the girls eat a quarter cup serving of oatmeal (usually mixed with a spoonful of fruit) and drink a 6 oz bottle. they love their bottles and are so cute with them. they have not quite mastered the fact that they need to tip the bottle in order to actually get anything out.After breakfast until 10 to 10:30 am: play time and when we usually practice our PT exercises to get the girls more mobile....they are quite content to just sit and play for hours so moving has not really been one of their top priorities. current favorite toys: sit and play stage, mega-saucer, and various balls (insert your own joke here).Morning nap: Audrey consistently wakes up earlier than Brooke from all sleep. more play time until lunch
11:30 am: lunch which consists of a number 2 veggie (either orange or green) and a number 2 fruit (either banana or other) followed by a 3 oz taste of formula.
After lunch is usually when we run our errands.

Afternoon nap: this usually happens in the car while we are out and about. the girls LOVE to sleep in the car, though I feel bad cause they always seem so startled when we get places and I have to wake them up.
3:30 pm: "dinner" (which we will eventually need to move to an actual dinner time) where they have basically the same thing as lunch but with the alternate veggie choice and fruit choice. Just this week we have started introducing the little dinners in the jar. These are much more palatable (to both me and the girls) than the straight up meat in a jar. If they get a dinner, they split it and a vegetable. So each day they each eat 4 number 2 containers (it is hysterical to see me buying these as I get 30 at a time!)

Afternoon play/fussy time: more playing but generally they are less content as the day goes on. Therefore this is the time when we do baths and take walks. Currently we use a bath ring (though we only have 1 so they go separately...I tried a combo bath once using a bumbo as the other chair...does not work as the bumbo floats even with 17lbs in it...though A seemed to like bobbing up and down, but it was clearly not safe and will not be repeated)
7:30 pm: final meal of the day which is a 7 - 8 oz bottle. Then we change into pjs (if not already in them from the bath) and have our bedtime story (goodnight moon) and goodnight prayer. We turn on their little nature sounds and they drift off to sleep by about 8:15.

Other random info:
Audrey loves to flap her arms and give great big smiles, loves to squeal with glee, must touch everything that comes near her (which is adorable as she rides in the bumbo in the basket of the grocery cart), continues to spit up massive amounts (dr said she is a "happy spitter"), weighs 17.5 lbs, and stays content longer at one activity though does steal pretty much everything that Brooke picks up to play with.

Brooke likes to look around at things and observe, holds her hands together over her belly, loves to say "mmm" when eating (which turns to ma ma ma ma when she is mad), has all 4 of her front teeth through the gums, loves to cuddle and be held more (and she must weigh at least 20 lbs! though no recent doctor visit to confirm), refuses to do tummy time (she just tucks and rolls back over), and likes to stand up (with support).