Family Shots

The Alexandria Times called wanting to feature David on Veteran's Day and also asked for a family photo. I can't find the article in the paper, but you can read it here -- http://www.connectionnewspapers.com/article.asp?article=346056&paper=59&cat=104

This is the best photo we got and then the camera died.

Pig Tails

The girls' hair is long enough to wear in pig tails and it's just so adorable. Sylvia's hair curls just perfectly. [can you tell the best place to take their pictures is in their highchairs strapped in and unable to move?}

Learning Shapes

The girls are getting very good at shapes. Yesterday they used an application on the iPad and consistently pointed to circle, square, triangle, heart, oval, and rectangle. What smarty pants!

Zippers

The girls are both very much into trying to take off their clothes. Sylvia cries and says "na-na" and lifts her shirt. She wants to be naked. They are getting very good at unzipping their pjs. A couple of times we've gotten them in the morning and they were unzipped all the way! Silly girls!

Daddy Turns 40!

We had a little breakfast party for Daddy on his 40th birthday -- November 12th.

Veteran's Day

November is pretty cool for Daddy. November 1oth is the Marine Corps birthday (235th this year), November 11th is Veteran's Day, and November 12th is David's birthday (40th this year!). Yeah Daddy! Lots to celebrate. We went to Mt Vernon with the girls. We also learned out new house is on George Washington property -- River Farm. We can even get a plaque to go on our house saying we're part of Historic River Farm. Very cool!

Cereal

The girls now love to have milk and cereal like Daddy in the morning. They also drink the milk from their bowls, just like Daddy. Nice, eh? We'll have to undo a lot of the etiquette Daddy is teaching them.

Doors

At our new house, every door has a handle door knob, not just a round knob. This makes it very easy for a nearly 3ft high little girl to open doors all by herself. She can say "knock, knock" and then locks her sister in the pantry. Evelyn loves it. In this video, you can hear Sylvia say "Evelyn" too...she says "ya ya."

Painting and Dancing

The girls (especially Evelyn) love to dance. Here they are painting and dancing!

Crazy Tots!

The girls go nuts before bedtime. They love to run around upstairs and scream!

Dress Up

The girls LOVE to dress up. We do it every night.

Halloween Part 2

Daddy was away over Halloween weekend, so I decided it would be too much to go trick-or-treating. And, I really don't want any candy in the house the girls wouldn't eat anyways. We had more fun with our friend Melissa -- the girls played with some fun masks and she brought them bubbles, which is always a huge hit!

Happy Halloween

We hosted a Halloween party for all of the girls' little friends. Evelyn was a puppy and Sylvia was a cow. They wore their costumes almost the entire party (2 hrs). Evelyn was all sweaty when I took hers off. They really picked out their own outfits; I held up a few and Evelyn said "dog" and Sylvia said "mooo". It was a really good time. They are both totally addicted to stickers. They were very helpful in the party prep phase too!

Latest Videos

Here are some recent videos!

18 Months!

Well, the girls are 18 months! Hard to believe. They had a great checkup and are on track. Here are their stats:

Evelyn
Head 17 3/4 cm -- 17% (tiny head grows!)
Height 32" -- 73% (little legs GROW!)
Weight 21lbs 11.7oz -- 19% (skinny girl stays skinny!)

Sylvia
Head 18 1/cm -- 84% (moderate head got BIG)
Height 32.5" -- 84% (legs grow)
Weight 23lbs 12.5oz -- 50% (stayed pretty much the same)

I am SHOCKED by the height. There's no way they will stay in this percentile. They come from a long bloodline of shorties on both sides!

Pasta Play

Part of their program includes playing with things that have cool textures and are just fun to experiment with. Here they are playing with pasta.

Hummus

Sylvia LOVES hummus. I mean LOVES it! If it's all she could eat at every meal, she would. She ate almost this entire bowl.

Just Plain Ol' Cute

I'm definitely a fan of this toddler phase. They are so cute and fun to play with. And, they are downright silly all the time.

Pumpkin Patch

We visited a low key pumpkin patch with our friend Wyatt (and his Mom, Julia) and had a great time seeing the animals and playing with their toys. Notice Wyatt trying to sneak a kiss from Sylvia.

Picnic

The girls enjoyed a picnic last week when the cleaners came. It has been incredibly nice here and we've spent our entire weekend in the yard.

Pudding Paint

We cracked out the pudding for a little pudding painting (since they still are inclined to eat everything we stick with pudding, not paint).

Max The Fish

The girls got a new fish, his name is Maximus Aurelius (since Betas are fighting fish). We are calling him Max. They girls love to make fish faces now.

Sand Box

Grandpa Benson made the girls a 10ftx8ft sandbox. It has already provided an outlet for lots of fun and sandy mess. Thank you Grandpa!

New Car

The girls got a new car! They love it, even though they don't really know how to work it.

Toddler Activities

The girls like to do things over and over. This weekend they put the sugar packets in the box about 100 times.

Big Boy Shoes

Grandpa came to visit for nearly a week and did sooo much for us! He put in a workbench, shelving and pegboard in the garage, shelves in the basement, fixed everything that needed fixing, made a sandbox for the girls, programmed our garage openers. You name it, he did it! Sylvia loved trying on his big shoes.

Do 17 Month Olds Need An iPad?

The girls are super spoiled! We don't let them run around like brats, but there are a lot of people who love them very much and give them gifts. For example, Grandpa brought the girls a 64 gig iPad. Yes, a totally insane gift for 17 month olds. We have downloaded some incredible apps and will continue to do so. It's a great supplemental learning tool and what a splurge. Thank you Grandpa, you're too good to us!

Reston Zoo

When Grandpa was here, we visited the Reston Zoo. They have a large petting zoo--girls were a little unsure about all that!

HATS!

I've mentioned this before, but they LOVE to wear hats. These are just too cute!

2 Little Monkeys Sitting on a Wall

They just love to sit on the ledge in front of the fireplace.

Playing Together

Evelyn and Sylvia are super cute when they play together. They loved looking at eachother through the glass door. Silly!