Weekend update

We had a great weekend - alas, it's almost over. We went skiing with a friend on Saturday while Grandma and Grandpa babysat Kate and Maya. It was a beautiful, warm, spring day with perfect spring "corn" snow. It was a great way to celebrate the end of winter (let's hope!) and finally welcome some the warm, summery weather.

Today, we went to an Earth Day celebration and had a picnic with some friends. It was very warm and sunny and I was so happy to be able to dress Kate and Maya in their adorable short sleeve onsies and pants without having to worry about cold feet or sweaters or hats, etc. We all had a very nice time at the picnic - Kate and Maya were happy to get passed around and held by everyone. Poor Maya has a cold that I picked up at church on Easter Sunday, and despite being kind of sick and having a stuffy nose, she was still smiling and happy all day.

Here's a picture of Kate and Maya after their dinner. They are very messy eaters - I let them try to hold their own spoons and the food goes everywhere.


And here's a picture of Kate getting smooched by me at the Earth Day picnic

Easter Pictures

Maya and Kate in their Easter outfits. Kate wasn't very happy, but Maya looks pretty cute in this one. The girls were pretty exhausted by the time we were taking pictures, so this was the best I could do...



Cousin Susan and Kate - I think I see some family resemblance there.



Maya at the dinner table (Kate was napping)

Friday Odds and Ends

It's the end of another week - time is flying by! It was a so-so week since I decided to simultaneously go on a diet, go on a budget, cancel our satellite TV, and get the girls on a napping schedule. Combined with bad weather, all this meant that our outings were seriously curtailed and we spent a lot of quality time hanging out in a quiet living room.

The effort I put into getting them on a napping schedule seems to be paying off, though. Today they had a 1.5 hour a.m. nap and a 2 hour afternoon nap - and were pretty happy and unfussy during their awake time. These girls take after me and their grandma in the sleeping department as they are now sleeping 12-13 hours at night and 3.5 hours + during the day!

In other news, Kate has figured out "us vs them" and definitely recognizes "us" as being me, Maya, Josh, and Rosie (the dog) and "them" is anyone else (we're working on adding Grandma and Grandpa into her "us" list). She gives any of "us" a huge toothless grin whenever we come into her view. Unfortunately, she frequently cries whenever she sees on of "them". Hopefully this is a phase that will pass soon, though, it is pretty heartwarming that she loves her sister and Daddy so much!

We've also starting giving the girls baths in the big tub instead of in the infant tub in the sink. We fill the tub with a few inches of water and put them in on their backs. Maya LOVES this and spends most of the bath flailing around and splashing water all over hte place. Actually, as soon as she hears the water being drawn in the tub, she'll start smiling and flailing around like she's practicing splashing. I haven't been successful at getting Maya in her full tub spaz attacks because she gets a little camera shy when she sees the video camera, but here's my best attempt.

8-1

We had a few friends and their babies over for dinner and to watch the MSU - Carolina game this evening. Josh was slightly outnumbered in the male to female ratio - counting Rosie, we had eight females to one Josh. Luckily Josh is used to this and took it all in stride. Here's a picture of all four babies - hopefully they'll all be great friends!



And here's a photo of Maya - I'm posting this because you can see her little teeth. I think she's on the way to getting more.

First picnic

Our cupboards (and freezer and fridge) were almost completely bare, so we headed out to do a Costco run today. Usually when we head to the city, we go out to lunch, but today the weather was warm enough to have a picnic in a park. It was so lovely to sit next to the river in the sun with our babies and enjoy the nice, spring weather. After we all ate, I took Kate and Maya down to the river and sat with them on a rock close to the rapids. They got very quiet and watched the water rushing by.

Here's Josh feeding Maya while Kate hangs out


And, here are two photos of Kate and Maya eating their dinner this evening.

Lazy Saturday

There's not much new to report here in Kate and Maya-land. We all spent the day at home, though, unfortunately, Josh had to work for much of the day. It's been kind of cold here (and it snowed recenty), so my dreams of hanging out at the beach with the girls are going to have to be shelved for a bit longer.

Kate and Maya are really enjoying their rice cereal and aren't too sure about the peas I started them on a few days ago. Kate will actually swallow them and Maya makes faces whenever I give them to her and spits them out. She actually shuddered a bit with the first mouthful of peas today. I'll keep trying her, though and hopefully she'll realize they're not so bad.

Also, my mom noticed when we were at her house that Kate seemed to "sing" along when she was playing the piano. I thought it was just a fluke, but today when I was playing, she'd was warbling away again. Unfortunately, I'm not a very good piano player, so she'd get upset when I got to a difficult part and messed up. Maybe she'll be a musician?

Josh missed the MSU basketball game today because he was working, but he got to watch part of the North Carolina game. Here's a video of he and Kate watching the game together. Sorry it's not a very exciting video...

What a difference three months makes! The last time we spent the night anywhere other than home was over Christmas when we all spent the night at Grandma and Grandpa's and the babies were so fussy that someone had to be up with them rocking them and holding them all night. Even though Christmas was very nice, I decided that I had to get the babies into a good sleeping habit before we attempted another overnight visit. Today Kate, Maya and I came up to my parent's house and are spending the night and so far it's been no different than the routine at home. Kate and Maya went to bed without a fuss at the normal time and asleep right away - despite sleeping in their unfamiliar port-a-cribs.

We all had a very nice day here at Grandma and Grandpa's - we drove out and visited my mom's ex-chickens (she had to give them away because only two were left after a weasel got into the hen-house). Kate was awake when we arrived at the chicken yard and got to get out of the car and see chickens, a goose and ducks for the first time. She seemed pretty fascinated by the whole thing. Maya missed out because she was napping.

It was a beautiful, warm spring day and we spent a little bit of time outside on a blanket on the grass (something I hope to do a lot of over the next few months). Here are a few pictures of the girls outside - note the crocus in their ears! Spring has officially sprung here at Grandma and Grandpa's house (our town being a few thousand feet higher is still working on spring).