Weakness

Today was such a beautiful day, I am so glad I had the day off. Nope, the daycare provider isn't sick again, this was a planned vacation day, and I really lucked out. The babies and I took a walk around town after lunch. We stopped for an iced latte, went into Hipster Home, and visited my favorite local yarn shop, The Knitting Basket, where I dropped sixty bucks (I know, baby shoes and yarn, I have an addiction, people!).

Here is one of the yarns I bought. It's Claudia Hand Painted Yarn, the color is called Boot Camp. So J, if you're coming down on Sunday bring that sock pattern!

Right now Alex is napping it off and Anna is playing quietly, checking me every once in a while to make sure I'm still in her line of sight.

This morning Alex and Anna discovered the bowls in the kitchen cabinets. The stainless steel bowl stole the show, it makes the best noise when dropped on the floor.

When Alex is napping Anna cannot resist him. She loves to terrorize him!

A Shoe In

Today my daycare had a sick day so I got to spend the day with the wigglies. I have discovered just how awesome it is to simply lay on the floor. Anna and Alex have the most fun crawling all over us, whenever Z or I are in the 'pen' with them. It's the best. So we spent the morning at home. Playing, reading, napping, all the fun stuff. After lunch we headed to the mall. It has been my mission, ever since Alex started to 'cruise' or furniture walk, to get the babies into shoes. Their socks wear out so quickly now, it's just time.

So off we went to Stride Rite. Yikes, they are pricey, but I couldn't resist. Plus they have a twin discount! 10% off. Excellent. Here is Anna showing off her new togs:

And here is Alex hanging out in the background. It's more like a tribute to my little sis, J. Hope she'll get the joke...

And because I thought the last post was a little Alex heavy, or maybe I just remember it that way, here's a rare smile from Anna.

Elements of Nerdiness

I know I sound like a dork but I got a chance tonight to play with Photoshop Elements tonight and actually learned something that I'll really use! My biggest fear was spending money on a program that I wouldn't understand how to use, but the mini tutorials are really helpful. Here is one picture I played with of Alex.

Before:

And after:

It's still a little dark but I like the way I got it to look warmer. So there's more to learn but I'll have to take what I can get in one hour increments.

I took some other pics of Alex this weekend for fun.

So spiffy in his Huggies!

Here is Anna hanging out with cousin S. at Grammy's:

And as promised, a view into the new living room 'space' we've created for the babes:

Nine Months

The babies had their nine month well visit last Wednesday. Overall the appointment went well. Unfortunately Z couldn’t come to this one but my daycare provider was super nice and filled in. I may be ready for certain things, like running onto a grenade range holding two live grenades to my chest (“Right handed Drill Sergeant, RIGHT HANDED!”), but dealing with two babies by myself while they get their shots is NOT one of them. It turns out I could have relaxed a bit, Anna didn’t cry when she got her shot. Such a big girl!

There’s not a whole lot to report except, WOW, I can’t believe they are nine months old already. They have officially exceeded their gestation. I’m so unbelievably busy, each day flies by. We made plans to go to the Outer Banks in August and I was worried that it was so far in advance I wouldn’t be able to wait that long, but at this rate I’ll be scrambling to get everything ready in time!

I also have a new laptop, and just installed Adobe Photoshop Elements. I’ve been playing with it tonight with some recent pictures of Anna, doing her Downward Dog Yoga move she’s been showing off lately. Alex has really taken to crawling, motoring around while Anna seems to have stalled and shifted to trying to stand up. But instead of moving to furniture to pull herself up, she’s making the attempt to get her legs under her and stand up on her own. It make take her longer that way, but she’s pretty stubborn. Meanwhile Alex has been pulling himself up everywhere possible.

With the new outbreak of mobility has come “the corral.” We bought a portable play area to set up, so now our living room looks more like a petting zoo. The results are mixed. Alex is lukewarm and Anna is leaning towards a veto. Shocking. I’ll have to post some pictures of it later, I don’t have any downloaded just yet. I’m still in denial that it exists.

Below is the picture I’ve been working on in Elements. At this point I don’t even know what I did, but I loved using all the different tools.

An update on Anna’s sleep training: on target. There’s a bit of fussing during the first ten minutes, I think that may always happen, but overall it worked. I had two experienced moms tell me it would, and I’m glad I finally put my foot down and tried it. While talking to my sister I told her the best thing to come out of it (for me) is the validation in parenting. Some people might argue that point, sleep training isn’t for everyone, but it was the best thing I could do for my family and for Anna. And the biggest roadblock of all, Z, said to me, “You know, she’s crying less now,” pause, “you’re right to do this, I’m proud of you.” It may sound like he’s being patronizing, but it’s just his style of speech. This was a big deal for him to say, and for me to hear. Out loud.

So to end on a lighter note, in the post below is a video of Anna that makes my day every time I watch it.

Banana Ball