Race for the Cure

On Saturday, I packed up the girls and met Nana and a bunch of ladies downtown and we participated in the Race for the Cure. It was a wild scene, thousands and thousands of people milling about ahead of time, picking up their free swag. (The pink lanyards worked well as pacifier lassos.) People were decked out head to toe in pink, lots of them wearing the names of those people they were celebrating or remembering. Once we got walking, cheerleaders and bands were stationed along the route to keep us motivated. There were lots of other families with strollers, all negotiating the streets of downtown. We couldn't have asked for a more gorgeous day to enjoy the view, the company and inspiration of this gathering. I couldn't help thinking--what if these girls grew up not having to worry about breast cancer? This definitely won't be our last year in this race.

Here are the girls, wearing their pink for the cause. Naomi, who has the cutest little ears on her hoodie:

Lillian. All this walking is hard work:

10 Months

Ten months. If I were casual about rounding off, these babies are practically a year old. In two short months, that will be so. Two months ago, we were just in Boston. Already, there is a bit in the air here that reminds me to drink more tea. And these babies are ten months old. Inconceivable!

Well, in the past few weeks, we've been very busy. William, sadly, has gone back to work. The winning lottery ticket never came through. The girls and I are back to a routine. This time, though, we're able to work in some fun. That's a major difference from before the summer. When William was working this past winter and spring, it was more like survival mode. Getting laundry done was a serious accomlishment and we just bounced from feeding to sleeping to butt-wiping with little time to breathe. I had a standing appointment to load the dishwasher at 10:30am. Now that I have the basics down and the girls are more independent, we get to enjoy more of this time. I'm sure this will all change again very shortly, as they are threatening mobility.

Okay, Naomi is threatening. She's up on her hands and knees now, rocking back and forth. In fact, this is what she does in her crib now instead of sleeping. Only, she's a ninja and does it in total silence. So, I'm humming around, delivering laundry, or restocking toilet paper, or whatever and I peek in there, and there she is--on all fours, looking at me through the crib bars and obviously very pleased with herself. We used to swaddle both girls to sleep, but they've really outgrown that. Without that constraint, Naomi is everywhere. There is simply no telling where she'll be when we check on them. She also uses her newly free arms to pull her pacifier out of her mouth and rattle it along the crib, like a prisoner with her tin cup.

We've moved Lillian out of the shared crib, since her sister is such a wanderer. Lillian currently sleeps in the twin bed with a barricade of boppies, just in case she randomly decides to start moving. So far, no. She just snuggles with her washcloth.

So, for fun. The girls and I walk to the park a few times a week and have their lunch under a tree. There's a lovely little playground with baby swings--you saw Lillian's pictures in the last entry. I wanted to make sure you got to see this winner of Naomi.

Here are the girls, post lunch, having a lovely dessert of plastic chew toys. And Lillian, just for kicks.

We've done lots of other things, too, where I've been totally remiss in taking pictures. We attended Jack's 3rd birthday party (3 at Last!) where the girls took notes on the cupcakes, in preparation for their own party. They also fell in love with their first balloons. I didn't expect much of a reaction, but Nat tied one in a loop around Lillian's ankle and she grabbed that ribbon and yanked on that balloon over and over and over again, bopping herself in the forehead for what must have been half an hour.

The girls got to experience their first Camp Hamilton over Labor Day, though it was a little cool to go swimming in the pond. Maybe next year. Here are the girls enjoying the view from the dock with Nana and Papa.

Myla, Bryan and Rowen came to visit again. What a change in all the kiddos since they were last here in May!

I took the girls to the zoo today for their first time. It was such a gorgeous fall day that we couldn't pass it up. Naomi and Lillian were far more interested in the other people than the animals, but it was still a good time. Here's a mama and baby koala; he's the same age as the girls!

Here are the girls, relaxing outside the Wallaby Walkabout. Inside, we got to see a baby wallaby peeking out of it's mother's pouch, an angry goose chasing a young couple, and a donkey up close. The girls were pretty unsure what to make of the donkey.

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I almost forgot to tell you--Naomi finally has a tooth!

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I'm off to go hide under a blanket and pretend that time really isn't speeding up.

Lillian

The baby of the family.

She's awfully adorable. Here she is with Nana on the Towpath Trail.

Lillian is the studier. We're going to have to get her DNA tested to see if they can make an anti-ADD medication from her genetic material. She gets the most intense look of concentration on her face and it just stays that way. Here she is, on the swings, captivated by her own shadow.

It turned out she did actually enjoy the swings quite a bit, once it got moving.

Lillian is not as quick to smile as her sister, earning the nickname Queen Elizabeth. The look of intense concentration can easily be mistaken for a bit of contempt and judgement. When she does flash her million-watt smile, though, it's totally worth it. Both of her bottom teeth are now fully through, making it that much cuter. She has an adorable squeaky laugh that usually needs to be tickled out of her. And, if you get her to smile or smirk just the right way, a dimple/divot appears on the left side of her mouth, right where Marilyn's mole was. Here's one of Lillian's winningest smiles.

Some of Lillian's favorite things include:

Washcloths.

Mom's hair.

Tags of various toys and blankets.

These are all good for grabbing and chewing on. One of her favorite games right now is to have someone flutter a blanket down over her. Before you can even say peekaboo!, though, she's grabbed the blanket off her face and is peering at you over the hem of it, grinning like a goof.

When she gets excited about things, she flaps her arms up and down and bangs her hands on her knees. She also (this might be my favorite thing ever) talks herself down after sneezes. Like a humming sigh.

Poor girl might be tone-deaf, though as she really appears to like my singing. A favorite is "When I'm 64." She is also totally enthralled by whistling as it produces both noise and a breeze!

Here is my new favorite picture of my youngest. Feel free to add your own caption.

Naomi

I figure we ought to let these girls have the spotlight to themselves every now and then.

Naomi's been so much fun recently. She's frighteningly mobile, even though she's not crawling yet. She pushes her arms to do a half-push-up (don't worry, honey, momma can't do the full plank ones either.) Then kicks her feet and lifts her butt in the air.When she really gets going, it looks like she's doing the worm. She rolls fast. She also spends a fair amount of time on her back, playing with and eating her toes.

Naomi favors several toys, including the stacking ball thing you see here:

Other winners are board books to chew on, and the playmats on the floor that are good for scratching at, catlike.

In an earlier blog comment, Kate noticed that Naomi might actually be a cannibal. She might be right. She likes few things better than chewing on her sister's head. Other than that, she's still pretty much a stinker about eating. Except when she does this:

"I'll take this here Puff. Thank you."

Moments later, this sticky, half-melted Puff was pasted to the side of her face, but nevermind.

She's earned the nickname Beavis, for her ridiculous giggle. Butthead just seemed wrong. Still, on occassion, she likes to shout out "Ha HA!" and crack us up. She also gives us the goofy grin you see in the picture below.
We also call her SnuggleBunny or VelcroMonkey because she really latches onto you when you hold her. She buries her face in the side of your neck and nuzzles. Of course, that might be more of the cannibal thing. At least she's a friendly cannibal.

She's also kind of a motion junkie and loves to be tossed around by Daddy. This, in turn, totally tweaks out the dog. Who Naomi still adores more than any other family member. Strangely, she does not try to eat the dog.

Here's a picture from earlier that sums her up quite well:

We'll do a Lillian post soon. (Okay, soon being a relative term, I guess.)

9 months

It's been a while. Sorry!

Lots of excitement has kept us busy. Lots of humidity has kept us sweaty.

The girls have passed their 9 month marker. A smooth, shot-free doctor's appointment reveals that Naomi is now 17lbs8oz, and her giant sister Lillian is now 20lb12oz. Just as a reference, Naomi is now in the 50th percentile and Lillian in the 80th! Not for other babies born in January, near their due date, but for other babies born full term in November!

The 3 pound difference is stunning. Lifting Naomi is like tossing a pillowcase in the air. Lillian? Not so much. She is solid. Apparently she feels it, too, as she is much less mobile than her sister. We can't really leave Naomi in a room alone like we once could. We were packing the car last week and both girls were hanging out on the floor in the middle of the living room. When we returned, Naomi was like 8 feet away, hanging out with the oscillating fan. She's rolling and pivoting and trying so hard to scootch her way around. I think she'll be crawling soon.

Our packing was for good purpose, as we headed off to Columbus to visit Kate, Shane and adorable puppy Olive. We stopped first at the State Fair and the girls were treated to the sights, sounds and smells of the fairgrounds. They slept through part of it, of course. That's how they show us they really like something. While we were there. the girls considered some career options.

Naomi as culinary master:

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Lillian as Happy Equestrian:

Playtime is just getting better and better. The girls continue to be fascinated by eachother as much as their toys. My new favorite thing is when we sit them on opposite sides of the play gym you see in the background of this photo. They shake and rattle the toys for a minute and then...Lillian realizes that Naomi is right there and she ducks her head, peeking under the toys and smiles. Then they just giggle at eachother for a bit.

The girls (and we) survived our first overnight apart. Nana and Papa hosted the ladies so William and I could get away for a night. We talked about going somewhere but we were so thrilled to do dinner and a movie and sleep in that it would have been a waste. The girls were taken on guided garden tours and enjoyed pool time at Nana and Papa's Bed and Breakfast. A good time was had by all, apparently, as the grandparents have even volunteered to do it again sometime.

Lots of stuff!

HI!

Do you see what I see??

If you look very carefully, you'll see that Lillian has not one, but two little teeth! We've been seeing the first one for a week or so now, and just noticed the second this morning. She hasn't been particularly fussy, so we count ourselves lucky on that front. These teeth, more than most things, have been so hard. It's such a concrete sign of their growing up. All the other things have come relatively slowly, building day by day, until suddenly you realize that they are holding their head up, or sitting up. But with teeth--they're there, where they weren't yesterday. Naomi doesn't have anything breaking through yet, but she's chewing on anything she can and drooling up a storm, so I won't be surprised to see something soon.

But, she does have feet! And she loves them.


We've been madly busy as of late. We painted the kitchen. Here's William, hard at work, a mere two days before we threw a party at our house. Lots of people came over to help use celebrate our fifth wedding anniversary. Our consensus is that it's been a damn good five years. (Kitchen madness notwithstanding.)




We took the girls to a picnic at the Potter's Field--a place William discovered a few years ago. It's the county land where they bury unknown or indigent people. It's an idyllic little park that we can always count on having to ourselves. We let the dog run and pack a lunch and lay around, enjoying the quiet. The girls seemed to really enjoy it. You can see from the pictures that the girls are sitting up on their own now. They still wobble a bit, especially if something interesting happens over their heads.

Lillian's in yellow, Naomi in blue.

Roxy really wanted to be in the picture. Um, excuse me, dog.


Group portait:
Mass chaos:

We're enjoying our mass chaos.

Technical Diffuculties

Sorry for the long break. Our one remaining computer gave up the ghost last week. Now that we've fretted for a bit and said lots of nice things about it, it has miraculously come back to life. I don't know how long this reincarnation will last, so I'll get an entry up now. If we disappear from the ether again, blame it on the computer malfunction, not my scatterbrained nature.

When we last left off, we were still in Massachusetts, enjoying the time with family and friends. In all, we couldn't have asked for the trip to go better. The girls mostly slept when we wanted and were very agreeable. They tolerated the car rides very well, too. We got to dip their feet in the Atlantic Ocean, albeit for a very short time, as a storm was kicking up. They ate peas from Pat's garden (and didn't like them at all) and spent time in a dualing doorway jumper rig that Richard set up on the swingset in the backyard. The met the wonderful twin girls that live next door--we now hope that our girls grow up to be that courteous and engaging! We stopped in New York again on the way home, welcomed by the Morehouse clan, and enjoyed an evening along Cayuga Lake. Beautiful as always.

Now home, we are returning to our routines and discoveries. We immediately set up a pool in that backyard, after seeing how much they enjoyed the one in Duxbury.

(Here's a picture that didn't get posted before. That's Brad's foot between the girls. This is how Naomi approaches virtually everything now--nose scrunched, mouth open and claw hands. )

The girls have been trying new foods and getting somewhat better at it. Two nights ago, Naomi (who's usually quite a bit less interested in eating--unless it's Brad's foot.) repeatedly leaned toward the spoon and opened her mouth, like she'd been practicing! I really think she's going to be the "I can do it myself!!" girl, and once they are feeding themselves, she'll be much more into the idea.

We took the girls to West Side Market yesterday, letting them revel in the sights, sounds and smells. They got to lick a mango.

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They have been paying so much attention to each other recently. It's grand amusement For William and I together with a girl on each lap and just watch them go. For the last two days, it's been a constant conversation:

Lillian: Aaaiieiiieiaa?

Naomi: Hissssssss.

Lillian: AAAiiiAAAA??

Naomi: Hisssssss.

William has accurately described Naomi's hiss as, "Please adjust my radio dial" kind of static. I refer to her as my tiny Komodo Dragon.

A few nights ago, we were sitting in just this arrangement, watching the girls do their thing when Naomi tossed her head back and went, "ha HAA!". It was one of those moments that makes me regret that we do not have a TV studio set up 24/7.

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For your picture fix, here are the girls in their formal portrait poses that Richard snapped in Duxbury.

Cherubs, anyone?:

Lillian:

Naomi: