I... will... crawl...

Harrison is now working hard on crawling too, especially when he's in his crib for some reason.

Heidi is trying all sorts of techniques to crawl, but unfortunately not the traditional  hand then knee approach. Today's move was to lie on her tummy, go up on both toes, then lift her bum up in the air. Very Downward Dog-esque. Very impressive. Sadly, not very effective.

Her fuzzy picture here is of her sucking on sheepy' s ear. It's pretty much how she falls asleep everynight .

Sleeping like a baby

That cannot be comfortable Heidi!

Go to bed, Harrison, it's midnight !

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."

Delayed Post

Just realized as I sat down to organize photos and post up another update that my latest post about our anniversary weekend in Ottawa and generally exciting week of milestones did not post, despite it saying on the phone that it had posted a week ago. Sorry to have been gone on such an extended absence! The result is you now have 3 weeks of reading on one day unfortunately, because if I don't post up tonight I'm apt to get terribly behind, and then important details may get left out and we just can't have that. So, happy reading. I hope you're comfy...

Happy anniversary / 9 month birthday

Phew! It feels like it's been a very eventful week, and ages since a proper post. The poor quality of the photos from the cell phone is an annoyance to me, but sadly the time to download organize and upload real pictures doesn't seem to present itself very often. Ah well.

In any case it's been a banner week! May 4th was our 10th anniversary (how is that possible?!?), and we celebrated with a little trip into the elegant coffee place in napanee. It was lovely, and a great way to spend your anniversary with your family of five.

That afternoon my parents arrived for an action packed weekend that included laying a new laminate tile floor in the kitchen which looks very classy. Mom and Dad then tried their hands at babysitting in triplicate while Rob and I went to a neighbourhood wedding. They survived with no complaints and I had a great time dancing my tush off!

Monday, the twins went in for their 9 month check up. Harrison is 18 lbs 15 ozs (so almost 19) and his wee little sister is 16 lbs even. I somehow expected them to weigh more, but they're sticking right to their growth curves. You can also add 8 ozs because they were both hungry and drank a full bottle after they'd been weighed :)

On Wednesday our twins turned 9 (months that is)! They were working hard on trying to sit up alone but still crashing after a few seconds. Heidi was having significantly more (brief) success than Harrison. We marked their big day by having their portraits taken for the first time. Is it evil to admit feeling glad that a professional has just as much difficulty as I do at trying to make two babies look at you at the same time, let alone smile, and pose them close enough to look cute but also convince them not to chew on each other?

Friday we headed up to Ottawa for the anniversary getaway Rob and I coined "24 hours of bliss ". We conned my brother and sister in law into looking after our 4 dependants (blaze included)  while we spent 24 hours child free in downtown Ottawa,  walking hand in hand around the market sipping Starbucks, lying in the grass in Major's hill Park, lingering over elegant meals, and spending the night at the château laurier. We enjoyed it while it lasted which is good, since John and Betty may not recover from babysitting the whole group (5 kids, 2 cats and a dog) for another 10 years.

We spent a lovely mother's day in Ottawa at my niece Rowans fabulous choir concert and the tulip festival getting great pictures of the babies.

Just to top off an event filled week the twins mastered sitting up alone. What they couldn't do Friday, Heidi suddenly could on Saturday and lo and behold, Harrison could on Sunday. Amazing. At this rate, I can't imagine what next week will hold!

Heidi crawling backwards?

I can't be sure, since it wasn't witnessed, but unless Heidi has started crawling backwards I  have no idea how she got herself under here...