Itsy Bitsy Tyrant

This gesture? This used to mean "more'. Now it only means, "More Itsy Bitsy Spider. NOW."

Chase Scene

We spent the day at Nana and Papa's today. After Nana dragged out all the good toys and we spent lots of time trying to pry the felt fruits and veggies out of poor Penny(the dog)'s mouth, the girls spent most of the day chasing each other up and down this hallway. They played chicken with Nana, Naomi tried to close the door on her sister and stole the nighlight from the wall. Lillian got so excited and crawling so fast at times that she'd trip herself up. Earlier, she played DJ with the lullabye crib toy. She'd push the button to select either "Baa, Baa, Black Sheep" or "Hushaby Baby" and then start her head-bobbing, rocking dance. So, of course we played along. At one point while Nana and I were dancing along with her, she looked right at us, pursed her lips and slowly shook her head. Our dancing was scorned. By a baby who tripped herself crawling. Help.

Sick baby

But, she's still cute!

Running a low fever and sounding a little snuffly. Nothing serious, but enough to make her not quite herself. I love the snuggles, but wish she felt better.

Ivy Sandwich, and a Preview

Nat and Amanda joined us tonight to celebrate another snow day. That's 4 this year, so we'll see if they'll have to be made up. We got quite the winter wallop this time around with just about 10 inches falling overnight.

We made the best of it and holed up in the house with our dinner-bearing guests. It was a grand evening of watching the silliness that children can create. The girls attacked Jack's train track from many fronts and Jack amused himself with the gumball machine for a while. Lillian was able to talk Amanda into singing "The Itsy-Bitsy Spider" before I was able to warn her that she'll never be able to stop. As soon as the song ends, Lillian puts her fingers together in front of her to imitate the spider (or the 'more' gesture) and makes noises that, if one is listening with "mom" ears--Amanda can hear it, too-- sounds a lot like "Itsy Bitsy". How can you resist that? I counted 9 repetitions at lunch today. She also very clearly
moo-ed today while we were playing with the barnyard puzzle. Naomi has been imitating the hand gestures to (I was goin to abbreviate "Itsy-Bitsy Spider" to IBS, but I think that's the acronym for Irritable Bowel Syndrome.) our new favorite song, as well. I promise to get William to film this soon, as I can't be the lead singer and the key grip at the same time.

Here are the three little girls, looking for trouble.


And these were in the dollar bin at Target this week. I couldn't wait until Easter to share this adorableness.

How do they get Grandma in this little box?

Ah. The wonders of speakerphone.

(I know I missed yesterday. I might be giving myself Wednesdays off, as I am taking a pottery class [yay!] and not getting home until 10. At that point, I just want to decompress and not get mired in computer-land. Can we survive on 6 out of 7 days?)

Hop on Pop

Cheating.

I didn't take any pictures today (but I did lots of laundry!), so I'm offering this gem that William was hiding away on his camera. This is back at Ikea in January. Lillian adores her Papa and loves playing peek-a-boo with him. I just love the look on her face in this shot.

Defying Expectations

"Oh, I'm not as mobile as my sister, you say? Pardon me while I climb up on this footstool and see if this VCR is the right size for a peanut butter sandwich."

Chicks With Blocks

I think I need to teach them the 'rock on' horn fingers gesture, as it would go very well with these expressions. Also, a sound byte of "AWESOMMMMMME".

Serious About Play

Lillian takes her playtime very intently. It's like you can see her neural processes sparking in front of you.

Daddy Time

This girl. She loves her daddy. It's not a great picture, but it was a lovely moment. Someday maybe I'll get the two to coincide.

*OH! And there is some conjecture that Naomi said her first word today. "Bubbles." Are we surprised? During circle time at the Parent Center, the group leader closes the time with bubbles, blown over the kids' heads for them to chase and pop. Naomi was crawling after them and waving at them and, twice, uttered the very intentional sounding syllables, 'bub-bub'. We have witnesses.

Bright Eyes

I think it's the sunshine. It's making us all a little delirious. It's been a gorgeous couple of days--a delicious break in the midst of this wicked winter. We took advantage of it today and got out to the Botanical Gardens again.

I'm Not Ready

But, I better get there soon. Naomi's been standing on her own this week and now Lillian's doing this. She did three laps around the house before we could talk her into coming to dinner. She goes and goes until she runs into an obstacle and then just shifts and shimmies around so that she's at the front end of the walker and uses it that way. Or she'll look to you and request that you help her turn it around. She doesn't talk, but boy, does she get her point across. Tonight, she flipped out because I didn't take her into the closet where she could play with the light switch/rock on a string.

Breakfast of Champions

Taking pictures of food and making it look attractive is more difficult than I imagined it would be. In any case, we had heart-shaped strawberry pancakes for breakfast and, since the girls could have cared less, I figured I'd share them here.

Happy Valentine's Day!

Pure Envy.

Apparently, it was too much to take for Naomi, who later stole a piece of pepperoni pizza right from the birthday girl's hand. Made the poor girl cry. We didn't point out that she had 4 years on her thief. I think the hardest part of parenting is going to be not laughing when stuff like this happens.

Friday!

As a celebration of the arrival of the weekend, you get three pictures!

Baby roundtable at Chipotle:



Mittens are confusing:



Fingerpainting. It didn't go as well as it could have. A few moments after this picture was taken, Naomi rubbed her eye. It was pretty much all done after that.


A busy, fun day today.

What?

You don't unload the dishwasher in your winter coat? Why not?

Shopping list

1. Lock for toilet lid.

2. More hand sanitizer.

The Waiting is the Hardest Part

Here is Lillian at today's physical therapy appointment. She takes a while to warm up to Linda, the therapist, so we like to give her some time and space to acclimate before we start twisting her around.



Meanwhile, Naomi notices that outside our little room, someone else gets to swing on the awesome thing hanging from the ceiling. Ohhh, if only....

Not to be outdone...

So, if Naomi's going to read silly board books, Lillian's looking for a little light reading as well.

In other news, I will be having a video camera permanently mounted to my head. If I could have captured the scene of Lillian crawling out of the bathroom with her oversized, hooded frog towel dragging behind her like a green cape, we'd have world peace.

Like mother, like daughter

I had a bookclub meeting today, so I thought it would be appropriate to post this shot of Naomi examining the classic, "Hand, Hand, Fingers, Thumb" even though I'm cheating and this photo was taken earlier this week.

It continually warms my frozen, Ohio-winter-weary heart to see the girls reach for books over and over again. They'll turn the pages while you read and sit patiently for a whole story. Lillian frequently lays on her belly, flipping pages of a book for a much longer while than I would expect a baby to do. Though, her super-human attention span shouldn't surprise me any more.

Mmmm. Receipts.

Lillian brought this to her Daddy. In her mouth.

Bubbles!

I take the girls to a music therapy class every Friday. This is not so much 'therapy', as we traditionally understand it, but a remarkably patient and enthusiastic woman who plays different songs for the babies, leads us all in rhymes and dances, and passes out little tambourines and bells for everyone to chew on. The girls really get a kick out of it. They have started to dance along to tunes that catch their ear and imitate some of the movements. The therapist closes each session with a bubble machine mounted on the ceiling (SO COOL!) and we encourage the babes to chase the floating bubbles. Naomi loves it. You can see the residue of former bubbles in her hair.



You know what's hard? Tonight, William and I put the girls to bed and we stayed in their room for an extra long time, letting them put on a show for us, bouncing in their cribs and offering us their pacifiers. They giggle when you actually take it and then they demand it back. Naomi tossed her poor puppy-lovey out of the crib over and over again and William tossed it back in. And then, since it was well past their bedtime, we turned off the lights, turned on the humidifier and the sound machine and made to leave the room. And the hard part? Turning around to see Naomi, standing in her crib in the near dark, making the sign for 'more'.

Sleeping like....

And yes, she is labelled. Parent Center madness requires that all small moving objects be handily indentified.

Happy Groundog's Day!

We may not have seen our shadow, but we certainly found our reflection (and our tongues)in lots of different places.

In Lillian's shot, you can only see Naomi at the edge of the mirror because Lillian was forcibly shouldering her sister out of the way.

We are surviving the Snowpocalypse here pretty well, especially since William was home today and Nana came to see us on her snow day yesterday. But, if Puxatawny Phil was right, I certainly won't be offended if Spring comes early.

Nostalgia

We are currently sorting, ironing, hanging and labeling all of the clothes from the past 15 months in preparation for the consignment sale season. Pulling these bins of tiny, tiny clothes from the attic is making me a bit wistful (and weary of ironing), so I'm going to make you share my burden. Here. This is the outfit we brought Lillian home in. (There's no significance to the Nat'l Geographic--just a size reference.)