I know this blog kind of has a "what I did with my summer vacation" feel to it. I have ideas for meatier posts floating through my head during the day, but my ambition to write them fizzles out by the evening. This leaves me with easy to write baby milestones and "what we did today" posts. It's kind of like the other half finished (or not even started) projects I'm working on - the security blankets I've been working on for Kate and Maya, the wall hangings I started months ago that just need a binding, the gifts I want to sew for birthdays and Christmas, the craft project I want to try, the unfinished rug hooking project, etc. But, the dishes are done, the floor is swept and ready for more baby crawling and the girls are clean, fed and tucked into bed - and that's got to be good enough for now.

So - on to more "what I did with my summer"...

Today Kate, Maya and I met up with my friend, Laurel (hi Laurel!) and her three year old son, Liam at a beautiful beach. I was a little hesitant to take Kate and Maya back to a beach after the rather miserable previous beach experiences I had with them. The past few times we've tried the beach it's been too hot or too sunny or too windy - and there is always way too much sand eating and crying. We did much better at the beach today, though there was still quite a bit of sand eating and a bit of fussing. After the beach we hit the nearby baby pool which was much more fun. I was feeling very spoiled and lucky to be able to hang out at a private Tahoe beach and then swim in a luxury baby pool.

Maya playing with buckets of water


Note the identical twins on the lounge chairs behind us. I hope Kate and Maya are still hanging out on a beach together when they are that age, too!

Dogs and Ducks

It's been awhile since I posted. Not because I haven't had any big baby news, but mostly just because I've been busy and more inclined to watch a movie after the girls go to bed than blog about our day.

There have been lots of new developments in Kate and Maya-land. Maya is talking up a storm and now says (in a mostly appropriate context) mama, dada and dog. She spent all this evening saying "duck" over and over again but I'm not sure she knows what this means - I think she just likes the sound of it. Kate knows mama and dada, but doesn't babble as much as Maya does. Both girls are understanding a lot of what we say now. For example, if I ask where the dog is, they'll look at Rosie and if I ask if they want to watch the "Wiggles", they'll both look at the TV and clap their hands.

Maya and Kate are also standing without holding onto anything for about 5-10 seconds now. They both have good balance and will wave their arms around to keep from falling. I think this means that walking is just around the corner! I've been enjoying the crawling stage - they can get where they want to go, but I can still wrangle them pretty easily. We'll see what happens when they start walking/sprinting.

I took the afternoon off today and ran errands BY MYSELF! It was wonderful to be able to do my errands without worrying about baby schedules and getting them in and out of the car at every store. I went to seven different stores and did all sorts of shopping I've been needing to do - something that would have taken days and a lot of screaming with the girls. I think I need to get away and do things like this a bit more often - I feel much more refreshed and energized after a few hours to myself.

Maya standing

Better

Thank goodness today was a better day and we all were much happier. The girls woke up at 5:30 giggling at each other, so I knew we were off to a good start.

We had a very mellow day - the girls spent a lot of time just crawling around the living room and pulling up on things (their current favorite activity). We also went to the local Fire Station and had carseat genius (and fire chief), Pete, install our new convertible carseats. I was all set to go out and buy a mini-van because I couldn't figure out how to get the seats installed in my tiny Subaru Forester. But, Pete got it worked out - so I guess I could say that I saved $30,000 today.

Oh, and Maya actually stood without holding onto something for about 10 seconds today - and Kate started to crawl properly on her hands and knees instead of the flailing type of crawling she was doing before.

I was worried before the girls started crawling that they'd end up crawling in opposite directions and I'd have to clone myself to keep up with them. Luckily they always seem to want to stay together (so far) and end up just following each other around. (Don't get me wrong - a clone would still be useful to do the dishes and vacuum, but so far, I'm surviving with just one of me).

Have some cute pictures:

Maya and Kate making the rounds of the house...


Kate pulling up on the chair


Kate looking just like her grandpa


Maya loves to clap...


Maya coming to get me...

Babies - 2, Mommy - 0

It's been a rough day for some reason. Josh left this morning to go on a business trip, so I've been flying solo all day and evening. This shouldn't be so hard as I do solo twin duty all the time, but the girls were so whiny and difficult today. I think they didn't get enough napping in, so were exhausted, but don't have enough sense to know that they would feel better if they just took a little nap.

They are climbing, crawling and pulling up on everything. This is all fine and dandy most of the time as our house is pretty well baby-proofed at this point, but when they are tired they seem to become a little more clumsy than normal, so every minute or so this afternoon a baby would tumble off of whatever they were climbing on and wail like the end of the world. I tried moving them into different rooms and taking away the things they were pulling up on - but to no avail - they always find something to climb on. The poor babies are covered in scratches from falling so much and it's too hot to put them in protective clothing.

Another fun new thing is that the girls have discovered that it's fun to stand up in the cribs and laugh at each other (see above photo). This is actually really cute and funny - except when the babies are tired, I'm tired and it's time for them to go to sleep. I put them down this evening at their normal bedtime and they spent 30 minutes squawking and laughing at each other until Maya had had enough and started crying. I finally had to remove Kate from the nursery so Maya could fall asleep (only took her a minute or so) and then rock Kate to sleep because she was so riled up. Now, it sounds like a nice peaceful thing to do - rocking a baby to sleep, right? Well, not Kate - she twists and turns, scratches, grabs my nose, arches her back, screams, etc. Finally after 15 minutes of such shenanigans she finally fell asleep and I managed to transfer her to the crib.

Thank goodness both babies are finally asleep. Hopefully they'll be nice and refreshed in the morning - and take a nice long nap tomorrow.

Way Back When-esday

Kate and Maya age 8 days old still in the NICU. This isn't necessarily a great memory (although they were pretty cute), but it reminds me of how far they (and I) have come since they were born. Right now the girls are standing facing each other in their cribs and giggling hysterically - how they've changed in 9.5 months!

Visit Twinfatuation for more "Way Back When-esday fun...

Hiking

It's the end of another day and another week. The girls are so much fun right now - they can play independently nearby while I do something other than entertain them, are interested in me reading books to them, love to crawl (or try to crawl) into my lap, and actually kind of play with each other.

They are babbling like crazy and I swear Maya already can say several words - baba (for bottle), dada, mama, and an attempt at block. It's hard to tell exactly if these are actually words or just coincidences, but I'm leaning towards actually words. Yesterday, I was feeding Kate a bottle and Maya sadly said "baaa baaaa" while trying to crawl onto me. I think Kate is also saying mama and dada - though usually mama only comes out when she's really upset.

A friend and I took the girls for a short hike in the backpacks today. The girls did great and were pretty happy for most of the time. I'm lucky to have friends who are willing and able to carry one of my not very small babies on their backs. Here's a picture of me holding Maya and Kate peering out from the backpack.

Play Date

Kate and Maya had a friend over today to play. It was pretty fun watching the three girls interact and kind of play together. Kate tried to play the "game" she plays with Maya with Talia - namely steal whatever the other baby has back and forth. Talia obviously isn't used to twin tactics and didn't realize that she was supposed to steal the toy back once Kate takes it so Kate was a little confused.

There were some really cute moments when all three babies were standing up with their little baby behinds in the air, but I missed it with the camera, so this is the best I could do.


And, baby chaos...