Tuesday, January 8, 2008

Updates for the NEW YEAR

Wow, 2008 already. Here's how we're lookin' at 18 months.

Abby, still trying to escape:




We are slowly settling back into our routine. It's been a rough few months adjusting to sleeping patterns, as the only one who has been sleeping through the night is Stella. I'm attributing it to teething, but I could be wrong, very wrong.

Speaking of teeth, we have now discovered that we can use them to bite things, like each other. Abby likes to chew on the edge of the sippy cups and has now figured out how to pop the cover off. I discovered this when I stepped in a puddle of milk last night. She now has all of her teeth, 1st year molars included. Stella has a total of 6, two on the bottom and 4 on top. Her smile keeps looking better as the teeth fill in and she doesn't have the lowly eye tooth. Zoe has 4 teeth and is working on number 5. The four she has include the bottom two in front and her top two eye teeth. She has one of her front teeth cutting through now. She looks so silly.

Here's Stella flashing her pearly whites:


Abby is zooming around like a pro-basically running around the house. Once the aggressor of the bunch, she now whines when the other two take things from her, until she gets them back. In addition to her ability to dance to any type of sound, she has also started singing. Stella and Zoe still haven't built up enough courage to walk alone. 1-2 steps at best if not paying attention. On occasion, both will walk holding on to one hand. They still enjoy walking behind and pushing their cars. Zoe is a monster at maneuvering herself out of corners when stuck, while the other two have yet to figure out how that works. Abby will just whine until you come help her or walk away, while Stella will walk to the other side of the car and push from that side.

We also like to help get ourselves dressed and undressed. We are also perfecting the art of feeding ourselves. Not so skilled at scooping up food, but they do well when we put it on the fork and they can feed themselves-they absolutely love it and it is always a fight to get the fork/spoon back to put more food on it.

Zoe, flashing as she attempts to take her shirt off:


Here's Stella, picking out toe fuzz.


All three have now figured out how to get on the Zebra. Daddy also got them a rocking giraffe, which is perfect in every way. Stella and Zoe absolutely love it! Daddy also bought us our first T-ball set. Abby will actually make an attempt to swing the bat and hit the ball off the tee. The other two like to just hit the ball off of the tee with their hands. Some of our other favorite things to do is look at books, climb in and out of the toy box and push around objects. I've also started working on doing somersaults with them. They know what to do when I say "put your head down". Stella actually knows what to do, she just has trouble getting herself over.









Just as Dr. Nau told us, the girls' vocabulary expands on a daily basis. Some of our most used words are: All ga (all gone-complete with arms out to the side/shoulder shrug); Abby, ZoZo, baby,more, Lily, Luke, No No, this, mine, what, bread, bye-bye and we are working on I love you. Grocery shopping has been a hoot lately, as we LOVE to socialize, especially Stella. Everyone we pass in the store gets told "hi" a minimum of 5 times. We've also been working on making animal noises, and yes, everyone knows that a frog says ribbit, ribbit. Zoe does it the best though, sticking out her tongue in the process. We can do moo, baa, and phhhh (horse noise complete with head shake).

Uncle Luke (or "gook")


Thats about all that I can remember of what's been going on here. So much happens that if i don't write it down as it happens, it gets forgotten. No wonder the baby books aren't up to date!

Monday, January 7, 2008

Christmas




Christmas went well and we were glad that the weather cooperated with our travel plans. It's always nice to spend time with family. The girls (Ian and I too for that matter) were spoiled. The girls still don't have a real good grasp on opening presents, even if we started unwrapping the present. I think 1, maybe 2 presents got unwrapped before we were chasing the girls in 3 different directions trying to coral them back to the presents. But, they sure do love what they got. Here, I'll show you:

Here's the unwrapping:





Here's the enjoying:

Ian and I got the girls a rocking zebra, with the idea that it would be similar to a rocking horse...just updated from when we were little. Needless to say, it doesn't rock. It only allows the girls to bounce and spin themselves in circles-neither of which they can do right now because their legs don't touch the ground when they sit on it. Here's some pictures and video of their first rides.











We are big Sesame Street fans here at the Fox Den. We especially love ELMO!! Here is Stella modeling her new Elmo slippers.


This is an activity center that the girls got from my brother Adam and his wife Heidi. It even has a mirror and wheels-2 of the most awesomely entertaining things right now. Here is Stella and Zoe pushing it together which quickly turned into a fight.


This is a tunnel we got from our sitters, Mallory and Sarah. The girls love to chase each other through it and hide in it as well.




The girls also appeared to enjoy the simpler joys of Christmas...empty pop bottles, the ornaments on the christmas tree and pulling items off of Grandma Tellers' shelves. Then, Grandma decided to take the shelves out of the book case, and we liked that too!