Friday, December 31, 2010
Monday, December 27, 2010
Best. Christmas. Ever.
On the night before Christmas, (or a few days--we can't keep track.)
All through the house (specifically the sofa in the living room.)
Not a creature was stirring (except for these two.)
Not even a mouse (but probably a neurotic dog.)
Here, we are keeping an eagle eye watch for Santa. (or Dad, who was caulking storm windows.)
When Christmas morning did arrive, it was pretty awesome. The Bromleys were here from California, the Weatherlows from Washington, Grandma, Nana and Papa, oh my!
We had a delightful brunch and descended on an outrageous pile of generous and thoughtful gifts.
Lillian and Naomi didn't quite know what to make of it all, but they certainly enjoyed the buzz and attention.
We brought up the ride-on bugs we purchased back in April that are now much more age-appropriate. The girls got a big kick out of them, especially motion-junkie Naomi. She also learned to climb off of it herself yesterday. Next, we'll have to get her her own personal mechanical bull.
They also got a silly gumball machine. This toy, more than most things does a beautiful job of illustrating the differences between the girls' personalities. Lillian, the detail specialist, carefully inspected the whole machine, one aspect at a time. After watching Granny for a while, she began to practice the steps of delivering the gumballs: she rehearsed pushing the lever for a long while, precisely placing her index finger and applying just the right amount of pressure. Once she'd mastered that, she worked on lifting the little door where the balls dropped to. After retreiving the colorful balls, she weighed each one in her hand, balancing it in her fingertips and examining it. She shook them and compared the noises of the ones with little rattlers inside and ones without. Here she is in her "Alas, poor Yorick" pose.
One she had completed all of these tests and was about to formulate and publish her results, Naomi came over and turned the whole machine upside down.
The extended Christmas celebrating continues today, as Saul and Leann are up from Cincinnatti. Here is Lillian, watching Leann and trying her best to figure out how to unwrap a present. (It turned out to be a box of blocks which she is quite excited about.)
After so much fun and celebration, it has been decreed that this was The Best Christmas Ever. Until next year.
Merry Christmas to all, and to all a good night.
All through the house (specifically the sofa in the living room.)
Not a creature was stirring (except for these two.)
Not even a mouse (but probably a neurotic dog.)
Here, we are keeping an eagle eye watch for Santa. (or Dad, who was caulking storm windows.)
When Christmas morning did arrive, it was pretty awesome. The Bromleys were here from California, the Weatherlows from Washington, Grandma, Nana and Papa, oh my!
We had a delightful brunch and descended on an outrageous pile of generous and thoughtful gifts.
Lillian and Naomi didn't quite know what to make of it all, but they certainly enjoyed the buzz and attention.
We brought up the ride-on bugs we purchased back in April that are now much more age-appropriate. The girls got a big kick out of them, especially motion-junkie Naomi. She also learned to climb off of it herself yesterday. Next, we'll have to get her her own personal mechanical bull.
They also got a silly gumball machine. This toy, more than most things does a beautiful job of illustrating the differences between the girls' personalities. Lillian, the detail specialist, carefully inspected the whole machine, one aspect at a time. After watching Granny for a while, she began to practice the steps of delivering the gumballs: she rehearsed pushing the lever for a long while, precisely placing her index finger and applying just the right amount of pressure. Once she'd mastered that, she worked on lifting the little door where the balls dropped to. After retreiving the colorful balls, she weighed each one in her hand, balancing it in her fingertips and examining it. She shook them and compared the noises of the ones with little rattlers inside and ones without. Here she is in her "Alas, poor Yorick" pose.
One she had completed all of these tests and was about to formulate and publish her results, Naomi came over and turned the whole machine upside down.
The extended Christmas celebrating continues today, as Saul and Leann are up from Cincinnatti. Here is Lillian, watching Leann and trying her best to figure out how to unwrap a present. (It turned out to be a box of blocks which she is quite excited about.)
After so much fun and celebration, it has been decreed that this was The Best Christmas Ever. Until next year.
Merry Christmas to all, and to all a good night.
Wednesday, December 22, 2010
Updates and excuses.
Egad. I just realized that my last post was about Thanksgiving. And even that was two weeks late.
What if I just confess that I've been horrible about taking pictures recently? That's really the major reason behind my lapse. Really. It has nothing to do with the fact that we have two mobile babies and Christmas to prep for!
Naomi and Lillian are doing wonderfully.
(Okay, so I started typing this entry two days ago and that was as far as I got. Anyone want to be hired on as my ghost writer? We pay in Cheerios.)
They are still doing wonderfully.
Here are some newsflash-like updates:
Lillian now has 6 teeth--four on top and two on the bottom. Though, she will never, ever let you look at the top ones. In order to catch a glimpse, you have to turn her upside-down and tickle her.
Naomi still has just the 4. We see them a lot.
Lillian has started physical therapy. She was taking an awfully long time to crawl and once we had her developmental assessment done, it was suggested that we have an evaluation done, just to be sure that everything was okay. The therapist reports that there are no physical impediments to her movement, just that she is comfortable just sitting and her contentedness actually works against her in the mobility department. She is quite reluctant to twist her trunk or to take herself off of her center of balance. So, we have a few little tricks to work with her and force her out of that comfort zone. What we have learned in this process is that the girl is wicked smart. When we try to get her to reach way over to grab something, she doesn't like that tipping sensation. So, after two attmepts, she just refuses to play our little game and finds something else to amuse herself. Like her own hand. That, and she started crawling after the first session of therapy. Her thought process must have been something like this: "They're onto me. They're going to stop bringing me things and carrying me everywhere. Guess I better get my butt in gear. Sigh." Now, it's a baby parade all over the house.
Naomi is a mobile little monkey and a serious troublemaker. She's cruising along all the furniture, pulling everything off the coffee table, trying to open cabinet doors and dismanteling all of my plants. Thankfully she gives herself away by giggling all the time.
Since it's practically Christmas, Granny and Pop-Pop are in town. They came out to see the girls yesterday and were greatly entertained by their antics. Pop-pop was sitting across the table from Lillian as she was eating and she'd continually catch his eye and then flop her whole body to the side. Of course, he did it in return and then she never stopped. Here, like this:
Granny got into the act, too, waving with Naomi. Here she is with Lillian. Think these two are related?
I've never been a huge Christmas person, but it's so much more fun with these two babies. Not that they even notice. It's just another weird thing that happens around them. I swore I was going to wrap up emtpy boxes for them, as they would be just as thrilled with wrapping paper and cardboard as they would with gifts, but of course, I lost that resolve. They might still get empty boxes, too, but there will be silly presents as well. Here are the little elves in all their dressy frippery:
(One random fact that I won't elaborate on because otherwise I'll never get this posted: One year ago yesterday was the first time we tried to bring Naomi home.)
What if I just confess that I've been horrible about taking pictures recently? That's really the major reason behind my lapse. Really. It has nothing to do with the fact that we have two mobile babies and Christmas to prep for!
Naomi and Lillian are doing wonderfully.
(Okay, so I started typing this entry two days ago and that was as far as I got. Anyone want to be hired on as my ghost writer? We pay in Cheerios.)
They are still doing wonderfully.
Here are some newsflash-like updates:
Lillian now has 6 teeth--four on top and two on the bottom. Though, she will never, ever let you look at the top ones. In order to catch a glimpse, you have to turn her upside-down and tickle her.
Naomi still has just the 4. We see them a lot.
Lillian has started physical therapy. She was taking an awfully long time to crawl and once we had her developmental assessment done, it was suggested that we have an evaluation done, just to be sure that everything was okay. The therapist reports that there are no physical impediments to her movement, just that she is comfortable just sitting and her contentedness actually works against her in the mobility department. She is quite reluctant to twist her trunk or to take herself off of her center of balance. So, we have a few little tricks to work with her and force her out of that comfort zone. What we have learned in this process is that the girl is wicked smart. When we try to get her to reach way over to grab something, she doesn't like that tipping sensation. So, after two attmepts, she just refuses to play our little game and finds something else to amuse herself. Like her own hand. That, and she started crawling after the first session of therapy. Her thought process must have been something like this: "They're onto me. They're going to stop bringing me things and carrying me everywhere. Guess I better get my butt in gear. Sigh." Now, it's a baby parade all over the house.
Naomi is a mobile little monkey and a serious troublemaker. She's cruising along all the furniture, pulling everything off the coffee table, trying to open cabinet doors and dismanteling all of my plants. Thankfully she gives herself away by giggling all the time.
Since it's practically Christmas, Granny and Pop-Pop are in town. They came out to see the girls yesterday and were greatly entertained by their antics. Pop-pop was sitting across the table from Lillian as she was eating and she'd continually catch his eye and then flop her whole body to the side. Of course, he did it in return and then she never stopped. Here, like this:
Granny got into the act, too, waving with Naomi. Here she is with Lillian. Think these two are related?
I've never been a huge Christmas person, but it's so much more fun with these two babies. Not that they even notice. It's just another weird thing that happens around them. I swore I was going to wrap up emtpy boxes for them, as they would be just as thrilled with wrapping paper and cardboard as they would with gifts, but of course, I lost that resolve. They might still get empty boxes, too, but there will be silly presents as well. Here are the little elves in all their dressy frippery:
(One random fact that I won't elaborate on because otherwise I'll never get this posted: One year ago yesterday was the first time we tried to bring Naomi home.)
Friday, December 10, 2010
Thanksgiving
I think our society needs to focus more on gratitude, don't you? We get caught up in the swirl of daily life and the ever-changing needs and wants that the advertisers prescribe. We go straight from Thanksgiving dinner to waiting in line for the big screen TV. Now stores open at midnight; the leftovers are hardly cold in the fridge yet before someone's being trampled for the sake of a cheaper appliance.
In order to focus on this feeling of thankfulness, I think we need to make the Thanksgiving holiday last at least two weeks, don't you??
What I'm saying is that we had a wonderful, wonderful Thanksgiving and I want to go back.
Lillian and Naomi only had a little bit of fun and attention. I wish you could have seen the disappointment on their faces the following Monday when they realized it was just me. Their adoring entourage had disappeared!
Here are Lillian and Pop-Pop and Naomi and Brad. This is mere seconds after Naomi dumped Brad's coffee all over the table.
We had an amazing Thanksgiving dinner with everyone. We wept uncontrollably during Brad's grace, of course. There is so much to be thankful for this year. That we can all be together and the love and support in that togetherness is overwhelming. That these girls are in our arms and healthy and happy. That we can gather and share our concern for family who could not join us this year.
Here are the girls in their special Thanksgiving dresses. It was quite an eye opener to pull out last year's dresses and compare the two. They look like something you'd put on a doll. Seriously. They are less than 8 inches long.
We made time to celebrate the girls' birthday again. Brad made a delicious ginger cake that the girls didn't eat because they had to go to bed. It was okay, though, they had balloons. Here is Lillian, becoming a hummingbird. She was just a little excited.
Naomi really enjoyed exploring a new house. Here she is, stealing the remote from the table.
If we are not going to extend Thanksgiving for several weeks and must continue blazing headlong into Christmas, at least we have an in. It turns out, we're friends with Santa, who's been calling himself Dennis this whole time. Tricky guy.
Happy (belated) Thanksgiving, all. We certainly enjoyed ours and hope that you did, too.
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