A Month Of Milestones

What a month of milestones! The babies have learned to sit up, hold their own bottles (although they spend an exasperatingly large amount of the time holding them up upside down so they drip all over), Harrison is standing at a table the last few days and Heidi is trying desperately to crawl (but can't figure out how to get her big head out of the way). The gear in our house is slowly dissapating, which is like heaven. We are down to one swing, one jumperoo, two high chairs and an infinite number of tiny toys and cheerios littered across the floor, but that's a significant improvement from two swings, two bumbos, two vibrating chairs, one jumperoo and the aforementioned infinite number of tiny toys (seems we can't beat those). The twins 9 month birthdays really threw me for a loop, both since it marked the anniversary of them being "out" longer than they were "in", and because it means I'm more than 75% done my mat leave. Very sad. Heidi and Harrison are growing well. Heidi is 16 pounds even, and while that only puts her at the 8th percentile (no suprise, we all know she's our delicate little girl) her massive head continues to grow, it's now passed the 75th percentile! Harrison, not to be outdone has a head measuring literally off the chart, above the 95th percentile. Pretty smart kids we got! His weight is 18 pounds, 15 ounces, which is perfect for him, coasting along at 25th percentile. He certainly seems like a very solid 19 pounds though. As though this night hasn't been aggravating enough with techinical difficulties, the mass of photos I'm attempting to attatch don't seem to be working tonight. I'm posting them one at a time, but may run out of steam before they're all done. I'll have to keep working on that and get them all up when the world of computers stop conspiring against me.

Holding Bottles

Heidi Puts On Her Prettiest Birthday Party Dress

Brendan and I get up to no good with Face Painting Markers. Yes, they came off. Yes, with more scrubbing than Brendan had imagined.

In very exciting family news, Rob has completed his spring long training and is now a volunteer firefighter. His first official duty was helping at the Earth Day Trash Bash. We all joined him, Brendan and I got rides in the firetrucks but the twins hung out in the pickup instead!

Although I don't dress them up to match very often, it's very hard to resist dressing boy/girl twins in COORDINATING outfits

Part 2 in the series of coordinating outfits (two of Rob's favourites)

You can see that taking pictures of the twins is getting harder...

Mr. Tough Guy has been learning how to mow the lawn

Granny juggles the twins on a work weekend with my parents a few weeks ago

Rob and my Dad installed a new laminate tile floor in the kitchen; very classy looking!

Off to a neighbours wedding on the weekend of our 10th anniversary; just the two of us (while Mom and Dad looked after all 3 kdis). It was a very strange feeling being alone!

9 Month Photo!

Photos from our 24 hours of Extravagance in Ottawa for our 10th anniversary (thanks again to John and Betty for looking after our whole family). We hit Major's Hill Park at Tulip Festival time, Starbucks at Half Price Frappacino time and Chateau Laurier at just the right time to get comped a deluxe room for our special occasion! Woo hoo! We finished off with a fancy lunch at the Courtyard restaurant.

Yes, those are teeny, tiny patent leather shoes

Mother's Day

"I Can Sit!"

You gotta give him credit; the guy's got range. When he's not mastering the wide eyed, non blinking stare, he's working on his squinchy nose grin!

Putting in a little deck time at the cottage this May 2-4. It was a great neighbourhood weekend, with 7 adults, 4 kids and 4 dogs all under one roof. There was lots of cards, Bud Light Lime, sunshine and amazingly, jumping in the lake!

Triumphant picture of my first "girls" 4 wheeler ride! I was petrified, but we survived.

Standing on my own two feet! Just two weeks after learning to sit up Harrison learns to stand up on his own. He didn't pull to stand, I put him there, but he's pretty steady once he's there. His sister, by comparison, when lifted into this position, holds her legs out in front of her at 90 degrees like she's sitting in mid air. That's ok, she's gonna crawl soon, and then we'll have enough to worry about. What do you do when two 9 month olds move in opposite directions? I don't want to think about it!

Excerpt from How To Raise Twins, by Rob and Nancy Lock; "With nothing more than sheer stubborness and an unlimited tolerance for hauling gear, you too can maintain your previous lifestyle. At least for 20 minutes."