Gymboree!

(Written by Catherine and Samantha)  This week was kind of boring until the end.  Lots of the usual playing, talking, climbing, crawling fun we usually have.  Catherine is now kissing people by putting her mouth on them, she does it to me all the time now, and sometimes she blows raspberries too.  Then she gets all excited about it and yells AAAAAAAAAAAAIIIII.  I am now dancing too and I get so excited, but I yell OOOOOOOOOOHHHHH.  We are also both starting to use furniture and things to move around the living room.  It makes life much easier, but slower.  Mommy says that I, Samantha, am stealthy.  Catherine’s hands make slapping noises on the floor so you can always hear where she is, but not me.  And I’m getting faster, so look out!

Catherine trying to eat the strap instead of her food.

 We tried new food this week, don’t know why, we like the old stuff.  This new stuff has chunks of stuff in it and that is yucky.  Mommy also tried giving us smushed up potatos (ick!) and bananas (not so ick, but not good).  We want to stick with the old stuff, especially the sweet potatos, mmmmmm.

EWWWWW!  What was that, a lemon???!!!

Then end of the week was the best part, we went to Gymboree for the first time.  It was a lot of fun.  We got to climb ramps and stairs and go down a slide.  I, Catherine, loved going through the tunnel.  Samantha did too, but she preferred to roll it around.  We both went down the long ramp and played with the balls and jumped off the tower (with Mommy and Daddy’s help).  There was a log that all the babies pushed together.  I didn’t move my feet that much, but Daddy helped me.  Samantha did much better once she got going.  Then there was parachute time with bubbles, we love bubbles!  We got to sing and explore and climb and it was great!

I'm going to be a Bond girl one day

Beep beep! Coming through!  

Up the stairs!

Bubbles

Happy New Year!

Well, we have entered a new year and we can’t believe how far we’ve come in 9 1/2 months.  Samantha has 2 teeth and is pulling herself up on everything, even her crib.  We have no idea why it took her so long to do that last part, she was pulling herself up on everything else but her crib, which I thought would have been the easiest.  She loves saying ‘da da’, though she says it all the time so we don’t think she has specifically associated it with Dave.  She is so loud when she talks, once again highlighting a difference between her and Catherine.  

Catherine is quiet when she talks, but so loud when she squeals ‘like a dinosaur’.  Sam is so much happier now that she’s not sick or reacting to the flu shot or whatever it was before Christmas.  She got very clingy and didn’t want to be out of sight of me or Dave, didn’t even want Nana to feed her if I was feeding Catherine, but we think she’s getting better about it now that she’s feeling well.  She’s actually become so much more independent recently, playing and exploring on her own, it’s wonderful to see.

The girls are crawling at quite a speed and we are being double-teamed often.  When I tried to wrap presents, when we eat, when we do anything.  

It is difficult to feed one girl at a time because the other wants to climb up and touch the bottle or her sister’s face, and putting them in the exersaucer just makes them mad.  I think they are bored with it because they can’t get out of it.  Their aunt and uncle got them a walker and I think it will be wonderful for us, especially because they can move but not get at the dog food.  Both of them have managed to get a piece in their mouth and made a yucky face, but they still keep trying.  Go figure.  We often have a little train in our house as they follow each other and/or the dog around downstairs.  Usually Catherine is in the lead, not necessarily because she’s faster, but because she’s nosy and wants to be involved in what you’re doing.  Neither of them like to be alone and I wonder if that is a twin thing.  They’ve never been apart except the 3 weeks when Catherine came home from the hospital and Samantha had to stay, and it still breaks my heart to think about it.

We now have high chairs, which has been great.  The girls love to sit at the table and eat cheerios  or mushy bananas while we eat lunch or dinner.  They feel like they are close to us and involved and we have them stuck in 1 place, so score 1 for both sides.  We took them to their second restaurant and they had a great time.  Samantha didn’t cry at the waiter when he talked to her and Catherine flirted with him.  Oi.  We had cheerios and extra salsa dishes on the floor but it wasn’t too bad.  It did help that Uncle Mike was making faces and keeping them entertained.  

The girls had so many new experiences.  Catherine now claps her hands, dances, and makes kissing noises with her mouth.  The rubberducky tub is fun!  They played with empty boxes, tried on Daddy’s hat,  had a group bath, our first cold, and got to wear Rangers gear and sit at the ‘big people‘ table.  So much already, and so much more to come in 2012.