Let's Table the Issue...

Last week was my unofficial "Take a Week off of Blogging," so now I'm back in business! For the girls' first birthday, Aunt Cassie gave them a really cute Fisher Price dollhouse that comes with a Mommy, Daddy, baby, and a few items of furniture including a mini table and chairs, a kitchen set, and a little toilet.

Last week, I noticed that Claire continually kept picking up the pink table to play with it. She is now pretty much obsessed with this pink table. Last Friday, she picked it up at 9am, took it into her crib with her and held onto it the entire time she was napping, put it down for lunch, then picked it back up again and held it the whole way in the car to the store, then continued holding it in the store and on the way home in the car. I finally took it away during bathtime, so that eventually she wouldn't take it in her crib at night. She loves this table!

Yeah, so, what's the big deal about that?

I finally figured out the fascination - she can put her thumb all the way into the base of the table, so for some reason, she is enthralled with that and as soon as she spots that table in the morning, in pops her thumb and it stays and stays and stays until I take it away.

Please, just a few more minutes with my table!

(I guess I should be glad she isn't fascinated with the play toilet - that would be a sight to see if she wouldn't let that go!)

Murphy's Law...at the Mall

First off, I didn't bring my camera to document today's mishaps at the mall, so you'll just have to imagine the scenario in your head. To provide a little background: on Saturday, we are taking some family pictures with a photographer, and of course I'm trying to find the perfect coordinating outfits for all of us to wear. Normally, I would NOT be waiting until the last minute, but we were having a hard time getting in touch with the photographer, and finally, Tuesday night, she emails back (after I sent her about four emails, getting slightly more "stalker"-ish with each email.).

Since she had not gotten back with me earlier, I was sort of thinking that maybe the photo shoot was off and I was so concentrated on the birthday hoopla, shopping for outfits got pushed to the back burner. Well, here it is, two days before the shoot, and I'm frantically trying to find something cute to wear! I know that we will all wear jeans, so that's settled, and I found a cute little top for the girls that I really liked; Paul is no problem because he can wear pretty much any color to coordinate with all of us.

Today, I set out to the mall to find something to wear. Well, five minutes out of the car, both girls started slightly fussing and wiggling in their stroller. No fear! Handing their sippy cups to them, I figured I had at least another 30 minutes before trying to figure out another distraction. Oh no, that was not in the cards for today. About 3 minutes later, the fussing turns into crying. I'm like, "Seriously, I JUST got to the mall after a 20 minute drive; give me a chance to even WALK into a store!" Where was Daddy when we needed him?

I started scrambling around, did manage to try on a couple of tops at one store, but between the crying and throwing of toys/keys/clothes/cell phone/jewelry (basically whatever I could distract them with), it wasn't too easy to see if I really liked the top or not. Growing more and more frustrated by the minute (I think all of us were at this point!), I start power-walking around the mall, zipping into stores and trying to find something that might work. This little sweetie (Claire) was egging on the other little sweetie, making it a super fun day for Mommy!


As the crying escalated and stares started coming my way, I just gave a huge, "Humph!" and stormed out! Of course, as I'm making my way out of the doors, we all get hit in the face with an arctic wind that must have blown in while we were inside, making the whole excursion even more perfect because we all had jeans and just a longsleeve shirt on - no jackets in sight. So I start running with the stroller into the wind, almost sink into a deep puddle of water, and finally get the girls loaded in the car. I'm sure I was making people chuckle if they saw me.

The next chapter to this story is that I'm heading back out tonight ALONE.

You can call me Auntie...

I'm officially an aunt today, as of 4:55pm on Tuesday, January 18, 2011! Our precious niece, Emma Kate Griffin, is just gorgeous and weighed 7lbs, 3oz, and was 20 inches long. Cassie is doing really well and looks about like I did three days after I delivered the twins! She was already able to walk around just three hours after giving birth, unlike me, who walked like three DAYS after giving birth! Two very different experiences, but in the end, this baby is all that matters! Little Emma Kate just peacefully sleeping in her bed:

Proud Daddy and Mommy!

Little Emma not so happy about getting her picture made. Little does she know that Aunt Karie will be blogging about her and needing lots of pics to do so!

Okay, I'm better now!

I love this pose...already contemplating how she ended up here after a crazy day! Welcome to our family, little Emma Kate! We love you, and your two cousins are SO excited to meet you very soon! Only one year and ten days apart - how great is that?

Give me some space...

During the last few days, it's been really cold outside and not really worth taking any excursions outdoors. Bundling up two little ones, loading them into the stroller, and trying to run errands is not too easy anyways, let alone on a freezing cold day!

So, we've been spending a lot of time "reading" at home - I try to read out loud to the girls a little each day, but I also give them a lot of books to let them look at. They love those "touch and feel" books, but more than that, they just love turning pages constantly. I hope that they will love reading as they get older since I think it's the most valuable hobby in the world!

Now that the girls are a little older, they have been doing a great job "sharing" their toys and playing nicely. The only time where they have a little friction is when they get in each other's spaces. In the stroller the other day, Claire started playing footsie with Caroline and was cracking up, but Caroline didn't think it was so funny and started "fake" crying.

Both of them have perfected the art of the "fake" cry now, but I just look the other way when they do it. I will do anything NOT to encourage any more drama than necessary. Caroline is showing her demonstration of that here since Claire is kind of in her space. Poor Claire doesn't really know what to think!

One Year Stats...

On Monday, the girls had their big one-year checkup, and it's always interesting to see what they weigh or how much they've grown. After nine months, their growth starts to flatten out, so I wasn't too surprised to see that they hadn't put on a lot more weight since our last appointment.

Claire at one year:

Height: 29.75 in (38%)
Weight: 19lb, 11oz (43%)
Head circumference: 17 in (7%)

Caroline at one year:

Height: 29 in (30%)
Weight: 19lb, 13oz (48%)
Head circumference: 17 in (7%)

Our "little" girls are doing great, especially for being preemies! It does look like they'll be wearing the 12 month size for a while since that goes up to like 24 pounds. They are still coming in about a month behind developmentally, but that will even out as they get older.

My favorite story about the girls is about weaning them off the bottle this week. For months, I was looking forward to getting rid of the bottle, and hating to wash so many of them each day, so I had started weaning them off a couple of feedings a few weeks ago, using a sippy cup instead. We were still feeding them with the bottle at nighttime, so I was a little worried about letting go of that last feeding. I asked the doctor, and she said that it would probably be 3-4 nights of h**l to get them off the bottle, so I was prepared Monday night for the transition. However, true to form, the girls did not even cry and went to bed perfectly without the bottle. Every night since then, it's like they didn't even miss it and they are doing just fine! So thanks again to my very, very easy babies for letting me off the hook on this one!

Probably my favorite thing about the girls' turning one so far is this:

NO MORE expensive formula or time-consuming breastmilk! Plus, it's SO easy to just pour the milk right out of the carton into their cups. I'm loving it!

Little Mommies

For the girls' birthday, our "big" present was a doll and umbrella stroller. It was tough finding a small baby doll who didn't make noises (I knew that would have driven me nuts), but we finally did find one! The bonus was that they made the same doll with two different outfits, so we got one with pink stripes for Caroline, and one with pink polka dots for Claire.

So far, they have enjoyed playing with their new babies. Caroline definitely seems more interested and will grab her baby from the stroller and really look at it and hug her close.

She also thinks her bow is quite tasty!

Claire isn't as excited to play with her baby, she kind of holds her at arm's length trying to figure out who or what this is.

Most of the time, she pushes the baby away onto the tile and tries to see how far she will go.

I think being a new mommy takes time to get used to, and in the end, she is ready to embrace her new role!

One Year Birthday Madness!

Saturday was the long-awaited girls' first birthday! It just so happened that their actual birthday also happened to be on the same day as their party, so we really lucked out for this first year. It was a pretty crazy busy last few weeks - hosting Christmas and making dinner, then New Year's, then one week later, the girls' birthday! I realized it will be like this every year, so I better get used to it!

I wanted to make their first birthday party extra special, and even though they won't remember it, hopefully they can look back at the pictures and see how we all celebrated!

Getting all dressed up for their "pink" birthday party! I didn't choose a theme because they really aren't into any TV characters (since they don't watch TV!) or other themes, so we just went with pink everything! My little princesses all dressed up...they weren't digging that tulle very much!

Still not crawling...but oh so close!

Content to just sit and take it all in...

They love standing up and looking into their toy box...Claire was looking out the window to see what a beautiful day it turned out to be!

Getting the food all ready...we went with mostly sweets, since it was a birthday party!

Homemade pink and white iced cupcakes!

The two special birthday girl's cupcakes.

The party food table - all ready to go!

Another angle of the table...plenty of food!

Daddy with Claire! All excited about her big day!

Look at all those presents!

Hanging outside during the festivities!

Uncle Ross and Aunt Jenny (Paul's brother and his wife) came to the party all the way from Dallas! We don't get to see them a lot, but the girls sure love them when they come!

Most of the whole crew...minus John (taking the picture), Mr. and Mrs. Griffin, and my cousin Lynda who came a little later. It was a great family gathering and the girls got so many nice gifts and surprises from everyone!

After looking through my pictures, I realized that everyone else took pictures of the girls opening presents and eating their cupcakes (so we do have those pictures, just not on my camera), but I had forgotten to delegate that job to someone since I was helping them eat and opening most of the presents myself! We did get a lot of videos of all that fun, so I'll try to post one of those...there was so much to remember to do and it all happened so quickly, so this was about as good as it got!

We are enjoying the girls' being one year old now and know this year will be full of changes as last year was. At least this year we get to start out sleeping through the night unlike this time last year! Very thankful for that change!

It's the Little Things...

I'm sure every parent says this, but it's funny to see how out of the blue, one day one of the girls just starts developing a little trait or habit that I know I didn't teach them, but they somehow just figured out how to do it. Of course, it is always the cutest thing to see, and so I'm sure the more I praise them for doing it, the more they are motivated to continue the behavior!

Lately, Caroline has started clasping her hands above her head, and now she'll do it if I prompt her. Many times, she'll raise a toy above her head or hide one eye behind the toy to play a game with me. I've noticed, though, that just in the last month, they really seem like they are conversing with me, just without words!
Claire's latest thing is that she'll reach towards me all the time - while she's eating, sitting, playing, or even lying down. She will grab whatever she can - my arm, my leg, and squeeze it to her and kind of pinch my clothes with her hands. I guess that is her way of giving me a hug, but it's the sweetest thing ever. Just in the last day or so, while she's reaching towards me, she makes this little, "unh, unh, unh," noise that shows me that she wants something. Like I said, they can't talk, but they sure can communicate with me now!

Before and After...

This time last year, I was only a few days away from delivering our precious girls. On Friday, January 8, 2010, they were delivered at 5:42pm, weighing four pounds, 15 ounces exactly. We all had a rough first week after the delivery, but finally, a week later, we were all doing much better. Our new family...January 15, 2011...one week after the girls were born.

Tuesday, January 19th, finally able to take the girls home (they weighed right at five pounds here and were about the size of a baby doll - I could easily hold both of them at the same time):

Now check us out! Nearly a year later...how much things have changed...eleven months old!

We're looking forward to Saturday - officially one year old! More to come from our birthday post!

Happy New Year 2011!

Happy New Year! It's hard to believe another new year is here. This time last year, I was eagerly anticipating the birth of the girls. Little did I know they would arrive just seven days later!

Last night, we took the opportunity to go out for dinner and a movie, and it was a fun, low-key night, a great chance to celebrate the new year just the two of us!

Excited to get a date night out!

This morning, we woke up to a beautiful, sunny day just in time to welcome the new year. Claire got out her maracas to celebrate!

Caroline, too, is excited about the new year! Lots of great things to look forward to in the coming weeks and months.

Now we are in the birthday countdown mode. Only one more week until the girls' first birthday! They are ready to celebrate!