Burke Lake Train and Carousel

There is an amazing park near us and they have a little train and carousel. The girls had a blast with their G'ma Debi and cousin Alexis!

Hats!

Evelyn says "Mommy, I need a bigger hat, I wore this LAST summer." Mommy replies, but you have such a small head and this hat is cute! Sylvia says "Mom, just give her a new hat."

First Birthday Cake

The girls' had never had sugar (besides naturally occurring) before their first birthday celebration in Scottsdale (which was really 1 day shy of their 11 month birthday). Can you tell who liked it more? Sylvia wouldn't really eat any and Evelyn cried when we took her cake away because we thought she was having too much. They really liked gelato though. It was really funny watching them dig in. I will post videos soon.

Here are more pictures from the trip: http://www1.snapfish.com/thumbnailshare/AlbumID=2301060016/a=8289532_8289532/otsc=SHR/otsi=SALBlink/COBRAND_NAME=snapfish/

First of Many First Birthday Celebrations

We thought it was appropriate to celebrate Evelyn and Sylvia's first birthday while in Scottsdale and so many of David's family and friends were there. Grandpapa and Grandmama catered in Mexican (so good!), and we enjoyed cake! It was a good showing of friends and family: Grandpapa and Grandmama, Oma, Aunt Sylvia, David's childhood friends Jeff (his son and girlfriend) and Wes (and his wife Suse), Jeff's parents Olga and Lanny (who were like David's second family). It was very nice!

Trip to Arizona

This weekend the whole family headed to Scottsdale, Arizona. Grandpapa and Grandmama Romley (David's Dad and Step Mom) hadn't met the girls' yet, so we piggy backed on Daddy's work trip to see them. It took an insane amount of coordination and planning -- renting a condo, buying 3 plane tickets, ordering groceries in advance, renting cribs, highchairs, toys, baby gates, etc. It was unbelievable how good the girls were on the 5.5 hour flight! Only a little fussing at the beginning and the end. They were made for traveling. We visited a lot the first day with Grandpapa and Grandmama at their house. Thursday, when David was working, Oma (David's Mom, who came into town from San Diego) and Aunt Sylvia (yes, Sylvia's namesake) came and visited for a few hours. Friday, we went to the zoo. Saturday, we had an early birthday party for them! What fun!

11 Months

The girls are 11 months! No walking yet, but they are fast! Don't you love the picture of Evelyn about to climb out of the chair. Getting these pictures is not an easy task.

Poor Sylvia

After our bout with a nasty virus, Sylvia had a fever! It got up to 103.3 and would go down and then back up. I took her to the doctor and they told us she had a ruptured right eardrum. No wonder she was screaming! Well, we got antibiotics and we thought she was on the mend...until I saw fluid leaking from her left ear! We took her back to the doctor and her left eardrum is also ruptured. It's not uncommon and they should heal back well. Poor baby. She's been totally out of sorts lately and we were afraid this may cancel our trip to Arizona, but they said she's fine to fly. They said since the pressure is relieved, it's better. If it was just fluid build up they would have advised against it because the altitude would have been very painful. She's on antibiotics and eardrops. This is our first ear infection and first round of prescription drugs! That's pretty good.

It KILLS us to see our babies hurting. She's a super trooper though and always seems to be able to crack a smile or make a silly noise. She's such a good girl. Evelyn escaped it; it's nice to only have one baby sick at a time. That's for sure!

Riding on a Pony

The girls' love their new pony! I can't wait to get a video of how they rock it back and forth! They actually hug it and giggle. So cute!

Sick!

The entire Romley household (sans Daddy, he was on travel) was very sick last weekend, but the girls still seemed to have a good time.

Happy St. Patrick's Day

The girls wish you a Happy St. Patrick's Day! They are actually a good portion Irish; their daddy is a quarter Irish and their mommy is a euro-mutt, so definitely a little Irish!

Our Little Scholar

Evelyn loves books! She will grab a book and go over to the pillow corner and actually turn the pages on her books. She will do this for a while (maybe 10 minutes!). She's our little scholar...well, we hope they are both scholars!

Team Work

The girls' are definitely playing together (and annoying each other)! Here they are both behind the push toy ready to go! Click the picture and you can see Evelyn's 2 little teeth!

Kisses, Waves and Five's

The girls are super cute, they wave, blow kisses, point to the birds, cup, their head and belly, give fives, and all sorts of other silly things. This video shows some of it.

Take That Therapy!

Just days after our assessment of Sylvia's gross motor skills because of our over-reactive peditrician, Sylvia made HUGE progress. She's crawling, standing, crusing, climbing stairs, etc. She's really not behind at all -- I have two friends who's babies were born a day before and 3 days after and Sylvia is doing much more than they are. I need to take what our doc says with a grain of salt. But hey, we're continuing with the therapy. Why not?! It's covered by insurance, and we will have an expert at our fingertips for both girls 2x a month. Pretty good deal if you ask me! Here she is navigating a pretty large pillow to look out the window. Videos to come.

Trips Out

This is a picture of Sylvia and Evelyn on one of their daily outings; this time to a pet store. Of course, they couldn't leave the house without their books!

Tunnel and Tent Fun

The girls' (and Daddy) have a new toy -- an incredibly long tunnel and a cool little tent, which we've made plush with soft blankets and pillows. They love it!

Peek-a-Boo

The girls are so cute and play peek-a-boo whenever they can. Sylvia likes to play with her shirts. Evelyn loves to play with blankets. Soooo adorable.

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.