Photo Update

Sandy here:

The girls are getting much more alert and smiley and their personalities are really starting to come out (Doug and I are in so much trouble!). I've been having a lot of fun with them lately and wanted to post a few more recent pictures:

Analee is tired of all the attention when she goes out in public, so she has decided to go incognito from now on:


Tava says, "Daddy, just wait until we ask for the car keys -- you won't know what hit you!"




Storytime is a favorite around our house:





All of this activity can make for one tired Tava:



Analee, not so much:

The Vault

Sandy here:

So, we've been going through our photos, and I came across one that made me laugh. This was taken just a few days before the girls were born, when I was on "couch arrest." Boy was I large and round!



At least I'm approaching a more normal size now--this was taken a couple weeks ago, when our friends Adam and Elisa and their baby Ethan came to visit (You can read about their trip here)



Amazing what 2 babies will do, eh?

Exercising with Babies

Sandy here:

The weather in Durango has been typical spring--warm one day, rainy the next, snowy the next, really windy the next...Today is a warm day, and the rest of the week it's supposed to be rainy/snowy. A perfect day to take the girls out in the Chariot. They wake up around 10, have late breakfast, and I begin the "load girls up" process, which because it's just me (and two of them) is a bit involved and takes a little while. Molly got us these infant sling things that are great--basically the babies are riding in a hammock in the Chariot--well, a hammock with a neck support and clip--but again, they take a little finagling to get babies in. I get the babies in their jackets (which they don't like--not sure why), load Analee up, go back in to get Tava, load her up, decide that I'm feeling brave so I'll take Miliya with me, get my water bottle, cell phone, put keys in the door, grab the leash for Miliya, head outside to do the final snap down of the protective cover over the babies.....

Analee has had a massive spit up--all over her face, jacket, onesie, pants, socks, etc. What I find so interesting when babies spit up is that it's usually a quiet thing in that they don't cry or yell--they just get one of those dazed looks on their face like "What just happened?" (Those of you with babies know exactly the look I'm talking about.) Now I have to unload Tava and get her someplace safe (ah! the swing!), and commence the clean up process with Analee. Normally Tava likes the swing, but at this moment she decides the swing sucks and lets me know in no uncertain terms about it. Miliya is following me around, tail wagging, with this expression like, "Are we going soon? What about now?"

I get Tava calmed down (kneeling down in front of the swing as I'm holding a nearly naked Analee in my arms) and go back to washing/dressing Analee. The eternal optimist, Miliya is still following me around.

I decide that I can salvage this walk, so I put Analee someplace safe to go inspect the Chariot and realize the damage is more extensive than I initially thought. The sling is soaked in spit up and there is even some spit up underneath the sling on the seat and floor of the Chariot. By the time I get this cleaned up (with Analee now upset), the sling is soaking wet and there is no way I can put a baby back in it until it dries.

So instead I came inside and ate some chocolate chip banana bread.

At long last--a video!

Sandy here:

This video is already about 3 weeks old, which in baby time is a long long time ago (they are now demanding cell phones and wanting to wear make up). We have some more recent videos on our camera--someday, they'll make it onto the blog. But for now, without further ado--floor time!

Identical-ness

Sandy here:

Whenever I go out in public, I invariably get "twin" comments. I was at the hardware store the other day (it's never too early to teach the girls the joys of home improvement), and had my favorite exchange yet:

"Twins?"

"Yes."

"Identical?"

"Yes, identical girls."

"My brother has identical twins--a boy and a girl."

What could I possibly say to that?

Sleep

Sandy here:

So, at 3 a.m. last night as I was feeding the babies, I began thinking about sleep. One could even say I sometimes obsess about sleep--probably because I'm not getting much of it. It's probably similar to the way a heroin addict obsesses about his next fix.

My thoughts were as follows: My life is now divided into 2 distinct sections-- before the babies and after the babies. Here's how my sleep thoughts have changed:

Before: I'm not going to be one of those parents who tiptoes around their kids when sleeping. They are going to learn to sleep with noise!
After: Be quiet! Do you want to wake the babies? (or my favorite--you wake it, you take it)

Before: I really don't want the babies to get in the habit of sleeping with me.
After: If this will buy me an extra hour of sleep, I'm all for it right now.

Before: We've had this mattress for a while, maybe we should get a new one.
After: This is the comfiest bed ever!

Before: My babies are going to sleep in their crib.
After: Is it worth the fight right now to try to get them to sleep in their crib when they will sleep much easier in their jiggly chairs?

Before: I'm getting them on my schedule, not vice versa.
After: I wonder what time they'll let me go to bed tonight and when they'll wake me up to eat again.

Here are a few recent pics, we'll try to get a new slideshow and a video up this weekend.

Helping Mom make dinner (Analee on the left, Tava on the right)

Analee--look at that smile!

Tava looking at her new BFF the jiggly moo-cow

Big cousin Audrey with Tava and Analee