Soft Play Room

We love soft play rooms...a nice relatively safe environment for baby fun.

Standing Babies

These girls are so cute and so big! I put Evelyn in Sylvia's crib while getting them ready the other morning. It amazes me how much they've grown!

10 Months!

As each month passes, we can't believe it. Where has the time gone? As they say, time flies when you're having fun!!

Sylvia 10 Months!

Sylvia has made a lot of progress this month. She is a pretty fast belly crawler, she rocks back on all 4s, will take a few movements forward on her hands and knees, will pull up to standing, will move from things (like couch to toy) if they are close, can sit from standing (this is harder to do than you think), and just started moving from belly to sitting (very new!). She is a little behind on gross motor skills, so we had her evaluated and the therapists say she has a weak right side (legs and pelvis) and simple exercises like putting toys on her right, holding her hips together when on all 4s, and helping her move from belly to sitting will help her get up to speed in no time. We are having someone come to the house 2x a month for physical therapy. The therapist said we don't have anything to worry about, but we just want to make sure Sylvia (both babies, really) have every opportunity she can to be successful. And, we know she will.

Sylvia's still a very happy baby, but is crying more as I think she's frustrated with her inability to move as quickly and easily as her sister. She fusses and then quickly cheers up.

In fine motor and communication, Sylvia excels. She is scoring at least 10 months and up to 12 months! Who knew that pulling off your socks is a 12 month skill?!

Sylvia is a bit more picky with what she eats, but she still eats very well. She loves cheese, fruit, yogurt, peas, corn, cheese toast, blueberries, raspberries, etc. She isn't as fond of proteins, but seems to prefer turkey, beans and ham.

Sylvia's hair is long too and we've just started pulling it to the side since they are taking out their barrettes. She still has no teeth!!! Most doctors say that's better anyways since they are getting a night bottle and milk rots teeth!

Evelyn 10 Months!

Evelyn is just as busy as last month, but more. She is a super fast crawler, pulls up on anything, cruises on furniture, and walks excitedly when behind her push toy or with someone. She waves, gives "5", points at the birds on the wall when asked "where are the birds", kind of says dog and bird (she is definitely trying to talk), occasionally points to her belly when asked, hands toys to you when you ask for them (most of the time), drops toys in a bucket when asked, among other things.

Evelyn is a very good eater. She loves everything! She will gobble down an entire scrambled egg yolk (they can't have whole eggs until they are 1), suck the juice out of mandarin oranges, eat as much cheese toast you put in front of her. She loves veggies, beans, cheese, fruit, fish, chicken, turkey, beef, etc. Sometimes I wonder if she will ever stop eating. She much prefers her food over milk and really doesn't like being fed. If it's something she can hold she will not allow you to put it in her mouth, she takes it out of your hand. A few days ago she was loving kidney beans so much, I probably let her eat WAY too many. Let's just say, it was a lesson...beans really do cause lots of gas, especially in babies. She was up crying and after hearing the worst gas of all times, we quickly figured out the problem. We gave her mylicon and pushed on her tummy and it really helped.

Evelyn's hair is super long! And, she has TWO teeth. The second tooth made its appearance on Tuesday, March 2nd!

10 Month Outtake!

It is getting more difficult to take this monthly picture. Check out these hilarious outtakes.

Girls Ready For POTUS Cabinet

Today, I took the girls on a tour of the White House West Wing. While showing the girls and our friends around, we were first very bummed out that the President was actually working (on a Saturday no less!) in the Oval office and we wouldn't be allowed to check it out on the tour. Well, it worked out in our favor when Rahm Emanuel, the President's Chief of Staff, walked out of the Oval office and walked right over to my girls! He said "well, hello, who do we have here." I introduced them as future EOP (Exective Office of the President, that's my job, you know) staffers. He laughed and said "Come here." He ushered us into the Cabinet Room, which you can peek into on the tour, but NO ONE ever gets to go in. He said, put the babies in my chair (all the chairs are marked on the back who they belong to) and I will take your picture. The Secret Service was NOT liking this one bit, but they let the COS (Chief of Staff!!!!) take a picture of US! He didn't want to be in the picture. I can bet anyone that there hasn't been twin 10 month olds sitting in the Cabinet Room, at the President's table!

What an amazing tour. After 10 years as an EOP staffer, I've never had such an opportunity. I'm telling you, get a puppy or a baby and you've got it made!

The other pictures are outside the official entrance of the West Wing, and in the Press Briefing Room.

Baby Jail!

We try to have several play dates each week. When Rebecca was getting Sam (11 mo) ready to go, all the kids crawled over and pulled up on the gate. Don't they look like they are in baby jail?

Oh No! They Know No! And Use it!

This is hilarious. They are getting sassy and disobeying Mommy and Daddy -- telling us NO! How dare they! I have no idea how they learned this. Saying "no" and shaking our heads isn't something we do all the time.

Eating Cuteness

We've metioned this before, but Sylvia is super cute when she eats.

Evelyn Loves Her Sock!

Evelyn will often pull off her sock, or even her sisters (or a random kid's for that matter) and eat her sock. She crawls around the room with it in her mouth, like it's her prized bone. Yeah, I don't think she'll pass etiquette school quite yet!

It's Hard Sitting Still for a Photo

Our good friends, Bob and Josie, and their 17 month old Clay came over for a visit. It was the end of our playdate and the kids were not cooperating for our photoshoot!

Weird Photos

David took pictures of the girls through a paper towel roll. They were too weird not to post.

Evelyn's Cuteness

Evelyn GOES! She will crawl on anything she can. Here she is about to climb off the chair. And, he's scaling the walls (just like we were) during the snowstorm.

Nose Wrinkle; Toothless Grin

Sylvia is just so darn cute. Here she is with her nose wrinkle thing and her big toothless grin.

First Tooth

Finally! We have "discovered" a tooth! It made it's appearance in Evelyn's little mouth on Thursday, February 4th and it's still making it's way up. It's the lower left. We will have a photo once it's really visable. It's been causing her a lot of pain; poor baby! She loves Tylenol though!

Funny Hat!

Evelyn looked like a little elf with her hoodie up!

Hard to Control Evelyn

It's getting almost impossible to change Evelyn's diaper. She's sooo busy and does not want to even mess with such trivial things!

Loud Eater

Sylvia makes this adorable noise when she's feeding herself. Its like she's focused.

Blizzard of 2010!

We had a massive amount of snow over the last week--first it was about 25 inches, then another 12 inches. The government was closed for 5 days! We went a little stir crazy being couped up inside, but we had lots of quality time together. Daddy worked a lot still so Mommy needed a much-needed break on Thursday when Angela came in.

We took the girls sledding and it was a blast!

Playing Together

The girls really do play together now. It's adorable. This time Evelyn couldn't stand that Sylvia was in the tunnel by herself and joined her. They were both cracking up!

Sylvia Pulling Up

Sylvia is now pulling up. We start out by using this box and she works hard to pull herself up on the couch. What a big girl!

Hey!

Here's Sylvia having a heck of a time crawling through her tunnel.

Bye-Bye Paci

At the girls' 9 month visit, I asked when we should wean the pacifier. We only used it at naps and bedtime, but it was time. He said the sooner you do it, the easier it will be. He also suggested we start with naps first. Angela was there was said "oh great!" Thankfully for her it was a Friday and I told her we'd put our money where our mouth is and do it over the weekend. The naps went OK. Nighttime was another story. Evelyn cried for 45 minutes and Sylvia 30! Sometimes HARD! We never let them cry it out, so this was terrible. Each time we'd try to go in and calm them down, it got worse! The next day was much better and by Monday, there wasn't much crying at all. I'm amazed by these resiliant babies!
So, bye-bye NUKS!

Cute Little Bears

The girls hop into their bear suits in seconds for a quick swing on a cold day!

One In & One Out

Playing together!

Pot and Pan Band

The girls love banging on pots and pans! Video to come!

9 Months!

How the time flies when you're having fun. These babies are a blast! We are so lucky to have healthy, happy babies.

Evelyn 9 Months!

Evelyn is a busy, independent little girl. She's all over the place! She is crawling (she looks like a lizard with her feet turned outward), pulling herself up, walking behind her push toy, climbing stairs (when supervised and allowed!), climbing on me, climbing on anything she can climb on. She is has perfected falling square on her bottom and then gets back up to climb and crawl again.

She too loves the same toys as her sister and is getting more interested in dolls and plush toys. She loves wooden blocks and dumping out toys from the bins, and then crawling into the bins!

She loves to eat everything (even though she still no teeth!)-- food, paper, trash, and anything else she finds on the floor. She will get very mad at us when we try to get it out of her mouth! Seriously though, this girl loves to eat and is very good with finger foods. She loves corn, peas, green beans, broccoli, cheese, the list goes on and on. We really haven't found anything they don't eat (well, really, we don't accept that as a response...they just get it the next day!). Evelyn is a MESSY eater. She loves to put her hands in everything. And, she enjoys pulling off her bibs (annoying! especially when she laughs about it, but it's hard not to laugh too!) and tugging on her hair with her goopy hands.

Evelyn is still a good night sleeper and becoming a better day sleeper now that she has her own nursery (pictures to come, Mommy is still working on it). She's becoming more cuddly and will often take a break to lay her head on your shoulder. She's also a bit of a Mommy's girl and needs to be sitting on my lap during storytime before bed. Daddy gets very sad when she does this, but I'm sure one day she will be totally all about Daddy. He will get his turn.

Evelyn is a pretty amazing acrobat of a baby.

Here are the stats from the doctor:
17 in head = 21st percentile

27 1/4 in height = 31st percentile

19lbs 2oz in weight = 51st percentile

Looking good Little E! She actually has a fat roll over her pants! She is WAY bigger than her Mommy at 9 months (weighing in at just 16lbs 14oz), but about the same height (28 inches).

Sylvia 9 Months!

Sylvia is such a big girl! She's still "army" crawling, but hikes her belly off the floor more. She's getting fast at pulling herself around the room! She's even starting to push herself forward and backwards some.

She's not too fond of her exersaucer anymore (her once favorite toy), but loves to stand tall and play with anything. She's quite chatty if you hold her up. She starts out on her tippy toes, but we re-position her to stand on her flat feet. Sylvia loves books and is quick to turn the page for you or take a nibble. Her favorite toys are these small round boxes, a blue block, a ring with balls inside and a new homemade toy that's a plastic bottle with beads inside. She loves music and will move up and down while sitting if you start to sing!

She still doesn't have any teeth, but I can see the impressions of 4 on the bottom that are moving their way up (at least I think that's what I see).

She's still a good sleeper and a really good eater. Tomorrow we are transitioning almost entirely to finger foods -- we're done making purees, I think!

Sylvia has a ton of hair and it's a little wavy on the back. She still lets us put bows in her hair, but gives me a hard time when I clean her ears...she's bats my hand way! She's a determined little girl and pushes her bottle, food and anything way when she's finished wiht it.

Our little girl is getting so big and she's so adorable.

Here are the statistics from the doctor:

17.5 in head = 59th percentile

27 3/4 in height = 50th percentile

19lbs 13oz in weight = 62nd percentile

Finger Foods

The girls are good eaters! Now they are doing pretty well with finger foods. They love to eat cold veggies. One day they will be begging for cookies, now they squeal for veggies and cheerios.

Busy Evelyn -- Evelyn Walking Assisted

Evelyn is active! She is standing, crawling, climbing and walking while assisted. Here are a few videos to show how busy she is! I realize there are a lot of posts of her. Posts of Sylvia are coming.

This walking thing is new -- like it started yesterday. I bet she'll be walking by 10 months. Remember, she's not even 9 months yet!

Evelyn Walking Stairs

Busy Evelyn Standing

Overnight Away

At nearly 9 months, Mommy and Daddy took advantage of their friends' offer to watch the girls while we went away for 24 hours. The Lemon's took the 11am-5pm shift and Angela took the over night. Sylvia cried and cried as soon as they arrived. I think she knew what was going on. It was a bit weird that we had to set up shop in the family room because our contractor was at the house converting the office to Evelyn's room and updating the basement bathroom. Anyways, we went less than 10 miles away and stayed at the Hotel Monoco in Old Town. We had a great time -- went to lunch, walked around Old Town, hung out in the hotel, had a great dinner at Jackson 20, and then got home at 10am the next morning. We really missed our girls, but had a great, well-deserved night away.

Bed Head

Angela sent us this picture at work today. It's of Evelyn's awesome hair-do after her 1.5 hour nap! Go Evelyn (on the nap!).

Sylvia Swimming

Sylvia gets all excited when crawling around and stops to "swim." She flaps around her arms and legs; so cute!

Girls Playing

Just a cute video of the girls playing.

Play Room Re-Do

Standing Tall

I already posted about Evelyn standing (pulling herself up), but Sylvia loves to stand and play too.

Temper Tantrum

It's already starting, baby temper tantrums. This is pretty funny. Evelyn was so upset yesterday. Everything got her going!

Super Big Smile

Evelyn has a super big smile. She's yacking it up all the time. Her eyes get all squinty like Mommy's when she smile big.

Fun with Diapers!

The girls LOVE to get into everything. This time it was the diaper caddy. Of course, these are clean!

Cute Babies in Bucket

We put the babies in the toy bin and zoomed them around the room. They loved it.

Evelyn Standing

Evelyn is pulling up and standing on everything she can. She snuck around the couch and found this box, which was a perfect height for her. We tend to get a lot of good pictures before their morning nap, when they are still in their sleepers. We are typically running around in the afternoon. They really do change clothes every day!

Eight Months!

It is hard to believe our little 6lb babies are 8 months old. Sylvia now weighs 20lbs6oz and Evelyn 19lbs6oz. They have maintained their distance of a pound consistently. We don't go to the doctor until their 9 month appointment, so we don't have any other statistics to report.

They are healthy, happy babies. They still sleep 12 hours at night, take 2 naps during the day (we are still working on the naps). They are great eaters and have meals and bottles at 7am, 11am, 3pm and 7pm with dinner of two vegetables and grain at 5:30pm. At 7am they have fruit and yogart, lunch they have 2 veggies, 3pm one fruit, and 7pm just milk. They get a multigrain of oatmeal, rice, barley and whole wheat or pieces of toast, cheerios, rice cakes or crackers. They have started to eat finger foods -- peas, corn broccoli florets, green beans, beans, banana, avocado, etc. Soon they will be off pureed foods entirely. They are still receiving Momma's milk and they haven't had one bite of commercial baby food. Angela and I have prepared ALL of it! They fill their days with a program that Angela created (remember, she's academically and professionally trained to raise babies!) and they are learning the colors (red), shapes (circle), signs (drink, eat, change, more), and we are teaching them some spanish (aqua, leche, mas). They have song time, outdoor time (including play group on Tuesdays), fine and gross motor development activities, and lots of other stuff.

In January, they will begin baby swimming and a song/sign class (where they learn more sign language). In addition to the Tuesday play groups, I have at least 2 other play dates each week, so they are getting a lot of social interaction with other Moms and babies. Overall, they are doing great. We are lucky to have such happy, healthy babies. Also, another big deal is that we're separating their rooms. They have been in separate cribs since 3 months, but they are now napping in separate rooms and we're officially converting the study to a second nursery in a few weeks. Evelyn is a super light sleeper, so she needs to have her own space. It's ok though, they spend a ton of time together all day, every day. Mommy is a little sad about it though.

Sylvia At 8 Months!

Our little Sylvia is a joy. She's easy! Sylvia is a quick learner and is clapping, waving hi (this is sooo cute!), and army crawling. She loves to eat, but prefers when someone else holds her bottle. She's quickly realized we don't hold her bottle any more! She is an easy sleeper (goes down easily) and she's funny while she does it. She makes these adorable, LOUD groaning noises before she sleeps. She loves to sleep too and will power nap some days over 2 hours (this is new and because we separated the girls at nap time). She does fuss when she's not picked up when she wants to be and will throw a bit of a temper tantrum when Evelyn steals her toys. She loves plush toys like her dolly and these fun boxes we found in our closet. She leans in real close to mirrors and licks them (I think it's a kiss, but she doesn't do it to us). She knows her Mommy and Daddy very well and gets excited when she sees us, which makes you feel sooo special! She is very vocal too and loves to babble. She loves to stand and will babble very loudy when she's pulled up. She also is very good at mocking sounds you make. I think talking will come very easily for her. I've also mentioned that she's big--she's a BIG girl wearing 12-18 month clothes too. We love her very much, and her big belly!

Evelyn At 8 Months!

Evelyn is BUSY! She is all over the place. You can't turn your head for long because she will race across the room, pull herself up, stand for a while and then move into another location before you look back! She loves to explore and is incredibly curious. She loves to feed herself and will often refuse being fed by a spoon in favor of picking up the food herself. She actually gets excited when I take out the Cheerios box! She's a pro at holding her bottle. She's a pretty independent baby and keeps herself entertained by roaming about the room. She is getting better at napping, but typically only takes 2, 30 minute naps a day.

She's so easy to get to laugh and smile. She does this adorable hissing sounds and raspberries when she's happy to see you...it's her way of saying "I love you and I'm happy, I've decided." She wants to be climbing all over us most of the time, which is a lot of fun. Evelyn still seems tiny to me. I call her itty bitty, as we have for a long time. We love her very much and feel fortunate to have such different babies that are so special.

Evelyn Is Officially Crawling

Evelyn is now officially crawling, climbing over/into things. She is also pulling up half way and moving from her belly to sitting. So big! The last video was taken on the 12th, the first on the 13th and the second video on the 26th. She's made great progress in just a short period of time. I expect in a few weeks she will be "cruising" where she crawls to something pulls up, takes a few steps, and then crawls to the next spot. Things are going to get really interesting soon.

Sylvia is making progress too -- she is still pulling herself forward like an Army crawl, but this weekend she got on all fours and rocked back and forth. She's heavier and bigger than Evelyn, so I think it's harder for her to get up. She's not far behind though, which is fine with me.

Sylvia Loves Her Mommy

Sylvia has gotten really attached to her Mommy lately. If I come home from work and kiss her without picking her up, she will start to cry. Here's an example of her being held by Gramps, but crying when I walk by. So cute! The first part of the clip is of Evelyn muching on pears. She loves to chew on everything. They are definitely teething, but still have no teeth (they are nearly 8 months old!)