Peekaboo

Outside playing

This would just be SO much better if her eyes were open! I'm just too slow.





















































So today we had a lovely time setting up some blankets outside, bringing some toys out, and just playing in the shade. Perfect weather, not too hot today, unlike yesterday which was boiling. The girls are now able to get on and off the toy bicycles all by themselves. Rachel for the first time today crawled in the grass all by herself, without any prompting or bribing! This may not seem like a huge feat to you, but this is pretty new since both the girls have been pretty afraid to touch the grass since I introduced it. Ava still will not crawl in it, but Rachel braved it today!

I am just amazed at how much the girls are trying to communicate. Still no real words, although Kristi has heard a "ba" meaning ball. I may have heard it, but not sure if she was really talking about the ball. If I say to the girls, "should we go upstairs for a nap?" they will both right away crawl towards the stairs to go up. Or if I say "lets go in the car" they will both crawl towards the garage door! How amazing is that?? Ava is pointing a lot these days, pointing to food if it is sitting on the table and she wants it, pointing to things outside, pointing to her bottle. Hopefully she'll start to attach some words to what she's pointing to. When Ava wants to be picked up, she'll stand up on my legs and pull down on my pants and say "mei, mei, mei" which I'm not sure means "me, me, me" like pick me up, pay attention to me. But I like to think it does. Rachel has blown a few kisses my way, which is just the cutest thing ever. If I do it to her a few times, she'll eventually put her hands to her face and then say something resembling "mah" like muah. Very cute.

The girls are getting a little bit messier with their food. They've started throwing things that they don't want, well, not throwing, nicely picking up and dropping on the floor. Its like they are weeding out all the things they don't want on their tray to make it easier to get to what they do want! I had pieces of french toast on Rachel's tray this morning, probably about ten pieces, and Rachel took them, one by one, off the try and neatly placed them on her seat. I didn't wait to find out if she was planning to eat them from there, or just using her seat as storage. It was pretty funny and cute, I was trying not to smile so she wouldn't do it all the time thinking she was making me laugh.

Off to physical therapy this afternoon, which I think will possibly be our last one.

Bathtime Video Recall

So for all of you who are wondering, my bathtime video was rejected by google video because it contained "Pornographic, nude, or obscene material." Can you believe this???

Ava's New Hat!

More bathtime

Standing!

Bathtime video

Bathtime with Gansters!

Zooooo

Went to Cosley zoo today with the girls. Great weather, bright and sunny and warm. Got an up close and personal look at a beautiful horse. Both girls were a little tentative in walking up to him, but loved looking at him through the fence as you can see in one of the pictures. LOVE the picture of Rachel with the "We bite" sign. She looks like she's shrugging saying "Yeah I do bite . . . whats the big deal??" We gave mom a present this morning for her birthday from all three of us. We made some foot prints with finger paints and framed them. All the girls idea.

Well the past few days have been GORGEOUS. Blue sky, sunny, and hot hot hot! Finally we can break out all those cutesy little outfits the girls have =) Over the last few days we've gone to Catigny to look at the gardens, the Arboretum, the Riverwalk, and Oakbrook mall. We've been doing most of our cruising in the girls latest mode of transportation, a 1-door, Green, sleek wagon. This is not just your typical red wood wagon people. This is the wagon of the 21st century. The girls love it, although I think sometimes they get sick of riding backwards.

We've recently found out that the girls have a phobia of grass. They will un-willingly sit on it, but by no means move around. Sometimes I laugh at them, but I know thats not nice =)

Rachel is now crawling on all fours most of the time, except when she wants to really cruise, then she reverts back to her old ways. Maybe this means they'll both be on their way to walking soon!

Every Monday morning when I get the girls up, I am so surprised because I swear they always get bigger!!

Playtime!

Arboretum

So today I had the lovely pleasure of taking our girls to the Morton Arboretum. It was a pretty nice day, although there was a chilly wind. I took my lovely mother with me, as you'll see in a few pictures. I thought there would be a lot more places that they could get out and "walk" around, but I was slightly disappointed. They do have some amazing playgrounds and courses that older kids can play on, so I look forward to being able to doing those things in the future. We did get to do a few slides and make our way through a shrub maze =)

So, if thats not the cutest thing you've ever seen, then I don't know what is. I'll post a video I have of this also, HILARIOUS. Its sideways, so bear with me and tilt your head. If you're not in a good mood, this video should cheer you up!

If you haven't heard, we've had some sick babies over here on Greenlake. First Rachel and then Ava. They've both had mighty fine surprises waiting in their cribs in the morning . . . . If you don't think the smell is bad when you walk in the room, you'll definitely think the chunks of food hanging in their hair in front of their eyes is just LOVELY. I almost took a picture for your enjoyment as later it actually seemed a bit funny. (Ava thought it was funny too, she thought it was a special toy danging just for her). This afternoon, however, tops it all. We were having a delicious lunch when Ava starts to look a bit . . . funny . . . . and then out it comes racing towards me! That tray just about saved my life.

"Baby" as in the late Baby Beluga is our new favorite word.

Teeth are stupid. Just ask them =)

April Showers

My my my, its been a long time since I have blogged. I went to LA for a few days, so today was my first day back. It seems like the girls get bigger every time I leave! Ava is definitely pulling up all over the place, standing against walls, refrigerators, toys, chairs. Rachel hasn't quite gotten to this stage, she still tends to flop down on her belly and stay there! Didn't have the car today, so spent the day playing in the house. We took rides in laundry baskets, crawled through tunnels, and shopped in the pantry!

Playing at the mall

I finally got the guts to take the girls into the little playground at the mall. I was always worried about the other kids, keeping an eye on both, etc. But today, I was a real woman. Some of the equipment there was perfect for all the things the girls need to work on right now. Particularly with Rachel. Many of the statues and things are at a perfect height for her to pull up on and kneel while playing. Plus, who doesn't love a new thing to crawl on?? We had one little mishap . . . . we were playing on a toy when another girl, probably 4 or so, come up and sat on the toy, practically taking up the whole thing. She just sat there, even after I said hi and asked her what her name was. Didn't say a word. Her mom came over and asked her to get up so that "the babies could play." She started throwing a temper tantrum like 4 year olds do. Just screaming and yelling. Ava did not like this. So she started crying. Poor girl (Ava, not the 4 year old). But that ended quickly. And the mom made the girl come over and apologize later, haha.

Needless to say I cleaned the girls with about fifty wipes after we left there. Don't worry.

Here are some pictures to illustrate.

Monday morning sunshine

Good afternoon! Girls are sleeping soundly, staying cool with their fans on. Another warm and gorgeous day outside. I was excited cuz I got to dress the girls in cute little jean skirts today =) Very flashy. We took a short drive to a park in our neighborhood and went on the swings for a little bit, did a few slides. It's hard because there are so many more things I know I could do with them, but its just difficult when its two against one! I need a little helper when I go out =) Kristi had to use the car for a lunch meeting, so we came back and went outside for a little stroller ride. My mom, dad, and Zack came out for a little bit. This was my dad's first time meeting the girls. Of course he thought they were adorable (duh!). While Ava was busy deciding whether she wanted to be near the dog or not, Rachel was busy stealing my dad's sunglasses.

I'm starting to develop a theory on toys for babies. I say we ban buying toys from stores. Thus far, the things I've noticed the girls to be most interested in are: Sunglasses, necklaces, earrings, buttons, things attached to their shirts, the velcro on their shoes, barrettes, their socks, cell phones, and of course paper.

Another PT appointment this afternoon after nap. Will update if anything new comes up!

Play at the Park

Finally a nice day outside! Sunny, warm, and beautiful! Almost time for flip flops! The girls and I went to Cerny Park to enjoy the sunshine and the swings! Swings were a big hit, as usual. I had decided to let the girls crawl around on some of the plastic equipment but then to my dismay soon realized that it was all still wet from yesterday! Bummer.

We had a wonderful lunch of cheese stuffed ravioli. Oi. Have you ever tried to wipe off millions of tiny little cheese particles from a wiggling one year old?? You should try it sometime. But it was worth it cuz they LOVED it! I could tell by the lack of food on the floor. It wouldn't be such a big deal to clean up if they had a dog, maybe I should bring Zack over to wipe the floor clean! =)

We get to pick mommy up from work today! Yippee!

Soooo fun!

This morning was SO great. It was pretty dreary and rainy this morning, so AGAIN, there went
my plans for the zoo. I'll get there sometime. I figured the park would be wet, even if it wasn't raining. I went to the mall yesterday. So this left me with very few options. So I thought hey, why not take the girls to MY house!? I OK'd it with Kristi, since we do have a dog and our house isn't necessarily "baby proof." I first got the girls in the stroller to walk over (we live about 2 blocks away from each other for those of you who didn't know) and of course as soon as I started to walk out the garage it started to pour. Soooo, into the car we go. As soon as I got to the house I began to think I might have a problem. I had to get both girls into the house, which meant I'd have to set one down (rambunctious dog jumping around at the prospect of two little things to play with), or give one to my mom (new person, only seen once or twice, could be sketchy). Decided my dog was more dangerous than my mom, so gave Rachel to my mom while I went back to the car. My mom held her facing out so she could watch me go to the car and know I wasn't leaving her, she was a little iffy for a second, but then was fine. We took the girls into the living room to explore the new territory. Zack, our dog, was totally psyched. My mom and I realized that he had probably never even seen babies before! I'm sure his first thought when he saw them was "New toys!" I think he was probably pretty excited that there were these things that were actually at his eye level instead of towering above him. All Zack wanted to do was lick them and be near them. Rachel was okay around him, she looked more annoyed than anything. Kind of scrunching her face when he would come up to lick her. Ava had a death grip on my shirt for the first couple minutes, but then began to ease up. I think seeing Rachel handling it, helped her to know it was okay. Every time Zack went near Ava she still didn't really like it, but neither cried! Yay! It probably would have helped if he wasn't so excited about them being there.

We let the girls play our piano for a little bit, which turned out to be hilarious! Its an electric piano, so there are buttons you can press to make different melodies play, so you can only imagine all the different sounds that they were making! I have an absolutely wonderful video of Rachel dancing to the music . . . . but unfortunately for all of you, I don't think you can put videos on here! Ooops. Maybe K&K will have a way to send it out.

All and all I think it was very exciting for the girls to be in a new and different environment. Its so nice to be somewhere new and not have to have them strapped into a car or a stroller. I think my mom kind of enjoyed having some babies around too =) We think Zack's next toy should be a baby . . . . .

Enjoy some pictures!

Pictures galore!

I don't know if thats actually how you spell galore, it looks funny. Today I went to the mall with our little ones. I was hoping for the zoo, but this weather isn't quite cooperating (Kristi's mom will agree). The mall is always nice, moms and strollers everywhere. Cold mornings are when babies and children take over! I put the girls in one of those quarter-operated machines (didn't actually start it) and they were very interested in the buttons and things to touch and of course put their mouths on, ick. This is where those wipes come in. After walking around some more, I passed a jewelry store and picked up a catalog. Yes, I'm a girl, and I like shiny things. (Rob, boyfriend, if you're reading this, I'm sorry I can't help it). We sat down by the fountain to watch for a bit, and the girls seemed very interested in my catalog. So I tore it into two and gave one to each. This is the best idea I ever had. Paper is the new toy. I started scrunching up the paper in front of them and making noises (don't ask me to repeat these) and I have never seen them laugh so hard. Well, at least laugh at me, they always laugh at Keith. I tried to capture the laughter, but pictures never capture it all, and stupid me, couldn't remember how to do the video. So, enjoy my pictures! Hope it makes you smile and brightens up your day. And remember, a piece of paper isn't just a piece of paper =)

Today seemed to fly by. One second I was feeding breakfast, and all the sudden it was time to go to physical therapy! I'm waiting every second to hear one of the girls first real words, its coming soon, I can feel it! Physical therapy was pretty interesting today. It was a totally better experience when the girls weren't so upset like they were last time. It's so interesting to watch as Julie "manipulates" the girls bodies as they are moving, in order to better develop certain parts of their bodies. Julie was explaining that Rachel is mostly using her back muscles, which is why she crawls the way she does. So we need to help her activate and build up her stomach muscles to help her to crawl on all fours instead of her trademark army crawl. It was almost a relief to hear that we don't need to focus so much on Rachel walking, but on crawling on all fours, getting out from a sit, and kneeling while playing. Maybe as soon as Rachel can accomplish these goals it will be no time till she's walking!

I'm hoping tomorrow we can go to the zoo! I think it might be nice weather, but if not, later this week.

Rachel loves her toys!

Come on now, isn't being IN the toy basket so much cooler than just standing next to it?? She figured this out all on her own.