Ah, February in NC

Snow babies! 

Written by Catherine and Samantha:

Well, there were a lot of firsts these last two weeks.  First, we had snow!  It lasted long enough for us to get all dressed up and go out and take these pictures.  I, Samantha, didn't really like this outfit.  It was very difficult to move around in.  I fell over, fortunately it didn't hurt my head because it is so padded, and I couldn't get up.  I couldn't even roll over!  I did try to touch the snow, it was weird.  Mommy said it was mostly ice.

Then, it was warm, and Chelsea took us outside.  We got to play and laugh and clap, I love to clap.  Then Mommy and Daddy took us to the park and there were swings just our size.  Well, mostly our size.  Samantha had so much fun, but I was scared.  I mostly had fun, but I was holding on for dear life.

 


This is our nanny, Chelsea.  She's so nice!

Catherine's Godfather, Dan, and cousin Kris came to visit.  We went out to dinner with them and cousin Paige and had a lot of fun. 

We are trying to do so many new things, too.  Samantha is getting really good at drinking from her sippy cup, though a lot of times she holds it by the top and gets water all over the floor.  I am working on climbing everything.  Our name benches, our chairs onto the sofa, and up the stairs.  I have to thank Grandpa for showing me how to do it.  Mommy says that the most exciting thing is Samantha taking steps.  She stands for so long and then gets excited, yells ooooooo, takes a step or two, then falls down.  Mommy says she is so proud of both of us.  I'm waving bye-bye, and clapping with both hands just like Sam.

Standing on my own!

 

Mommy had us try these dresses from Great Grandma on.  We may wear them for our birthday, which is in less than 2 weeks, can you believe it!?  We think we look so pretty.  Catherine's new favorite game, by the way, is peek a boo.

Catherine is getting so good at waving!

This is what happens when Daddy comes home.  Heidi gets so excited that she has to go see Daddy first or she gets too loud.  Then we crawl to him as fast as we can to be picked up.  Then Heidi gets jealous again and we all have to get down on the floor for hugs and kisses.  Daddy loves it!  Mommy has to just sit there and wait her turn.  She's not as insistent as Heidi and not as cute as us, so she's at the bottom of the kiss list.  So, now it is time for bed.  The next time you see us on here, we'll be ONE YEAR OLD!

old friends, new friends

I was so lucky to get Alecia as my roommate freshman year of college.  She introduced me to so many friends and new fun things, and kept me going when times got tough.  Now she's moved nearby and we all got together for a great Saturday.  This is me with Samantha, Micah, Anna K, Catherine on the floor, and Alecia with Abby.  We're looking forward to getting together more often and, hopefully, our kids will be friends (or, as Alecia said, roommates at Carolina!).

 Hello?  Oh, it's Catherine!

Meanwhile, our girls have been working on walking.  Samantha is so good and it seems like she could walk any day, but Nana says she's too chicken to let go and try.  Catherine seems to get along just fine without walking, she's so fast on all fours.  I think one day she'll decide that Samantha is too far ahead of her and she'll just start walking as if she could have done it all along.  The girls like putting the balls into their walker to make it produce sound.  They both like to climb on the walker as well as play in it.  They don't go far because they're still a little short, but they like it, and it plays music.

We're all surprised that Heidi doesn't mind the walker.

So excited!

We are all so excited that Catherine finally has teeth!  Samantha was pulling ahead in so many things, walking better with smaller steps, up to 4 teeth now, and 19lbs 1oz big.  Catherine walks with giant steps and would rather sit and have you swing her from place to place, and she weighs 14lbs 5oz, almost 5lbs between them.  At least Catherine has teeth and can try the same foods, though I'm sure they won't like the same things, just to be difficult.  

Can you see my teeth on the bottom?  Look closely.

It is so hard to see my teeth, but they're there!

Well, Catherine and Heidi are getting along well.  Catherine likes to pet Heidi, and we definitely think that she thinks she's a dog.  She 'woofs' when Heidi barks and plays with her ball, but this latest kissing with her tongue thing is perhaps getting to be too much.  Samantha and Heidi don't get along because Sam grabs and pulls everything, including hair in Heidi's face, tummy, and tail.  Poor Heidi!  I guess that's why Heidi has started chewing Samantha's pacifiers, which often end up on the floor because Samantha's got quite an arm.  Heidi even ate the paci attached to the monkey, so sad!

Stuff like this crazy situation happens a lot.

        

Aren't these cute?  Catherine makes a new face now that Dave calls her monkey face.  She makes it and goes 'ooo'.  Then Samantha laughs, we laugh, and Catherine laughs.  It makes our evenings so much fun.  We hang out upstairs and play with our toys, throw the ball for Heidi and get ready for bed.

Super fans!

Well, our girls have experienced great football games in their short little lives so far.  The Gamecocks had a wonderful season and won their bowl game and now the Giants have won the Super bowl, yay!

They've been doing so many things!  Samantha has a tooth on the top and when she smiles (or yells) you can see the bottom ones very clearly.  Catherine finally has her first two teeth on the bottom and you can see them if you really look when she smiles.

Some nice person at Walmart gave them pretty headbands, aren't they cute?  Catherine likes to take hers off, but Samantha leaves it there and I think it makes her look so pretty.

The girls have also spent a lot of time with Heidi.  Heidi is so confusing to us.  She loves the girls, especially Samantha, and is so protective of them.  She lets them pull on her and no matter how hard they pull, even if Heidi growls or cries, she just gives them a kiss, says "It's OK" and just stays there next to them and lets them do it again.

Recently the girls have been sick, a lot of snuffly, runny noses and Catherine spiked a fever one night.  But, all seems to be mostly back to normal, we just have a few extra tissues on hand.

There has been a lot of standing and walking going on around here, too.  Samantha especially loves to let go and stand on her own.  Catherine doesn't take the initiative as much, and if you hold her and don't let go as quickly she will just bounce and expect you to throw her in the air.  Both of them are great at holding fingers and walking around, but Catherine still takes oversized steps.  Samantha looks ready to go any day now.  Samantha also seems to be getting frustrated recently with her lack of vocabulary.  Sometimes she just sits there and raises her fists and yells.  It seems like she is trying so hard to say something and gets mad that there's nothing coming out that sounds right.

Nana and Grandpa went to Italy and all we got were these t-shirts ;-)

 Recently we've been having a lot of fun with the doorway bouncers.  Samantha is especially good at jumping up and down in hers.  She gets so excited and looks like Tigger bouncing both up and down and back to front and around in a circle.  I would have thought that Catherine would quickly become a pro at this because she loves to bounce three times and then wait for you to throw her in the air, but it took her longer to get the jumping part down.  At first she just really liked to leave one foot on the ground and use the other to push herself in a circle and wind herself up.  Then she would pick both feet up and unwind, weeeee! The girls get so excited now I worry that they'll bonk their heads on the doorjamb, but I guess that's a part of how this growing up thing works.

Bath time is over, good night!

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.