Fun at the Park

The girls love to go to one of the many tot lots in our neighbhorhood! We took them to the park after their birthday party and naps with cousin's Laura and RJ (we're going to call them Aunt and Uncle from now on).

Cuties!

Aren't they so big and cute these days?

New Hair Styles

Keeping the girls' hair cute and clean is always a challenge. They love to run their dirty fingers through their hair while eating lunch. They can't stand to have a ponytail holder in their either. These new do's lasted about an hour. A record!

Sylvia at 1 Year!

At one day before Sylvia first birthday, she weighed 20lbs 5oz (40th percentile), measured 29 inches (48th percentile), and her head measured 18 centimeters (15th percentile). She is very healthy and right on track according to the doctors.

Sylvia is a huge talker. When she wakes up in the morning, the first thing she says is "bird" and points to the bird mobile. Lately, her favorite word is 'baby." She calls everything a baby, even us! She points at flowers and says "baby." It's super cute. She also uses other "B" words, including bear, bye-bye, ball. You can tell her to go get the baby, bear or ball and she does. She uses mama, dada, and baba too (Momma and Dada for us). She signs please and more.

She loves music today and will use one finger to play her piano. She actually is very careful about the keys she hits and does not just bang it. She loves maracas, tambourine, and our homemade shaker bottle. She will definitely play an instrument.

Sylvia takes about 3-4 steps when she's standing -- all unprovoked! She's made great strides lately and will stand up from sitting on her chair and will walk towards you. She also has extremely good fine motor skills and can pick up the smallest object (and typically put it in her mouth). When she gets her hands on a remote control she pushes the buttons very carefully, unlike other kids who just stick it in their mouths.

She's a very good sleeper. She loves to have books read to her. She will point at the pages and usually say "bear or baby." Too cute. When you lay her in the crib, she will stay put, allow you to put a blanket over her, rub her forehead a bit. Most of the time she won't move. She twirls her hair and makes a very loud, uuuuhhhhhh sound to put herself to sleep (we've posted videos of this already). She almost always wakes up happy. She will give you the biggest hugs after naps.

She's a good sleeper, but is a bit dramatic when she is put down for the night - she cries for a few seconds at the top of her lungs and then calms down. She is very clingy and loves her Mommy.

Sylvia is a good eater, but a little picky. But, she is not consistently picky about not eating one particular food. She does love avocado, cheese, cottage cheese, bread, crackers, and corn. She now insists on hold her own spoon. It's a very messy eating adventure!

We love her more than words can express! We can't wait to see what excitement the next year holds!

Evelyn at 1 Year

At one day before Evelyn's first birthday, she weighed 19lbs 2oz (20th percentile -- peanut!), measured 28 3/4 inches (40th percentile), and her head measured 17 1/4 inches (15th percentile). She is very healthy and right on track according to the doctors.

Evelyn is still our busy little girl, but surprisingly this chair has slowed her down a bit. After falling off of it a few times when ignoring Mommy's requests to "sit on your bottom", she really enjoys sitting in this chair. She will sit in it and play with her purse (and it's contents) and her dolly. She may get out of the chair and play with other toys, but if Sylvia tries to get in the chair she is suddenly only interested in it. She will push Sylvia out of the chair in a flash. Yes, I know, I need to get another chair. I had no idea this one was going to be such a hit.

Evelyn takes about 6 steps when we prop her back to a wall or the couch. She will stand for about 5 seconds. Given how early she crawled (7mos), I'm surprised she's not walking yet. But, I am not rushing her! She has extremely good fine motor skills and can pick up the smallest object (and typically put it in her mouth). She's a good sleeper, but is a bit dramatic when she is put down for the night - she cries for a few seconds at the top of her lungs and then calms down. She is very clingy and loves her Mommy. She's the first to whine if you are out of her sight for a second or two. However, at the same time, she is very independent. She will play by herself for a long time. She is also very loving and will give her sister a hug and kiss anytime we ask her to. She's recently learned how to sign "please" and it's so cute! Evelyn is a very good eater. She loves strawberries, meatballs, peas, beans, corn carrots, lasagna, and cheese especially. She has 3 teeth and working on a 4th.

She says mama, dada, baba, tickle tickle (and actually does the motion to tickle us, herself or her sister), and bird. She often repeats words, but not consistently, like "kick it," "go," "get it." She's a very good imitator or actions and words. We think she is a very smart little girl. She is super smiley and knows how to make the cutest little faces to get you to laugh. Note, the last picture, prime example of this.

We love her more than words can express! We can't wait to see what excitement the next year holds!

Sylvia and Evelyn Turn One!!!!

On April 28, 2009, our little girls, Evelyn and Sylvia, turned 1. It is hard to believe 365 days ago at 7:17pm and 7:18pm our lives changed forever, in the best possible way. We have come so far and have experienced so much. It is truly amazing how much love you can feel for your babies.

They are incredible little girls now. I think the days of calling them "babies" may be over. They look and act like little girls. They love purses, fake lipstick, their dolls, bears, and playing in their playhouse. They now give big hugs, climb into your lap, kiss each other, and continue to melt our hearts with their laughs and smiles.

We are so lucky. People often ask us if we want to have more children. My response is almost always "Why?" David and I have a perfect life and a perfect family. Sure, another baby wouldn't make it unperfect, but we don't feel the need to change one thing. Life is good. Two on Two is great. There's plenty of love for these little girls and I couldn't imagine taking any of my time, effort, energy away from them.

We were told early on to "Soak Up the Magic" of having children. We do that every day. They are the best thing that ever happened to us. We couldn't be happier!

Happy Birthday, Evelyn and Sylvia. Mommy and Daddy love you very much.

[We are turning this blog into a book for their 1 year birthday. Talk about a baby book!]

Note about the pictures. They are getting so big and restless. We are going to transition into taking the pictures on the floor. We may have to take the pictures solo too. It is very difficult for Evelyn to sit still enough to take a decent picture.

The First Birthday Celebration

For the girls' actual birthday celebration on Wednesday, April 28th it was a day of fun! Their boyfrield Wyatt came over for a play date and brought them flowers. What a gentleman! Later, we went to dinner and enjoyed cupcakes. Sylvia wanted nothing to do with them. Evelyn dug right in! Sylvia was far more intereted in eating crayons! The big party is on Saturday.

Ready For Swimming

Evelyn tried on her new bathing suit and smiled big for the camera!

Cow's Milk

The doctor gave us the OK to start with cow's milk! This typically starts at their first year birthday, but the doctor said since they eat a ton of dairy already we are fine to start 2 weeks early.

They sucked it down like it was candy!

I'm excited because since I stopped giving them my milk at 10 months, the formula costs have increased. Thankfully we can now supply a few days of milk on just a couple bucks.

Check Old Posts

I went back and added some videos and inserted some posts (like 11 mos and Easter), don't miss out...go back and look!

Another Tooth

Sylvia got her right upper today!

Milestones

A few days ago, we stopped giving the girls' milk at bedtime. And, they have been off bottles for nearly 2 months. They get about 6oz with dinner and then water while we read books. It was no big deal. The next challenge is starting to practice drinking with an open cup. The experts say sippy cups should be used only temporarily as a transition from bottle to a regular cup. Prolonged use of a sippy cup can really mess up a kid's teeth and is said to impact language development. We will only give milk at meals, no juice, and water other times. This should help ensure good dental hygiene and not affect their language development (we hope! until they discover candy!). Now that they are very proficient at sippy cup use it's time to start practicing!

Also, the girls will have their first taste of cow's milk this weekend. We're starting the transition from formula to cow's milk!

Gosh, where did the time go?

Sylvia's First Tooth At 11 Months and 14 Days

Sylvia finally got her first tooth! It's her upper left and I think her upper right isn't far behind. I just wonder where those lower teeth are that typically come in first.

Evelyn has 3 teeth, 2 bottom center and upper right. The upper left is coming

Zoo

This week my 11 year old niece was in town and there were a lot of outings! Here are the girls at the zoo with a meerkat!

Field Trip

The girls visited the Natural History Museum today and liked the bug exhibit. Then, they passed out.

Summer Days in Spring

It has been HOT! At Monday's White House Easter Egg Roll (pictures to come) we roasted in the 90 degree heat. Yesterday, the girls' enjoyed a more breezy afternoon on the waterfront in Old Town, albeit was still hot (nearly 95! a new record!).

3 Generations

Grandpa Benson, Grandma and cousin Alexis are visiting for a week and a half from Indiana. We've had fun showing them the city and eating!

First Easter

Evelyn and Sylvia enjoyed their first Easter with family in town (Grandpa, G-ma and cousin Alexis). We got dressed up and went to the Baltimore Aquarium, which they loved, and enjoyed seafood on the harbor. It was a super nice day.

White House Easter Egg Roll

It was HOT on the day of the Easter Egg Roll. The girls were good sports and Sylvia even touches the Easter Bunny!

Bad Hair Days

Now that Sylvia's hair is long enough to put in pig tails, it looks crazy at the end of the day when we take it out.

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!