Mama took a girls' trip!!

Can you believe I left Chris alone with the babies?? Actually he did a great job! Better than I could have hoped for (although he does have a blog-worthy story that I will have him post sometime soon). I went to Corona del Mar in Newport Beach with Amy and Liz for 3 whole days, Thursday night to Sunday. It was truly blissful!! Check out Amy's blog for the details. It was beautiful and relaxing and so strange to go a whole day without changing a diaper. I thought it would be harder (and Amy said she never thought I'd agree to go!), but I missed them a ton and was glad to be home Sunday night!

Mother's Day 2008

This was my first Mother's Day. It was so exciting. Also neat to look back on where we were just last year at this time - I was huge already, and the babies were only about a month away from making their grand entrance to this world. We went to Church in the morning and then had the family over for dinner. The babies are doing great in the Church nursery now; it took about 3 times before they seemed to really get comfortable. But the evening with the family was great. We had burgers on the patio, and the kids seemed to have so much fun. And they love seeing their big cousins running around.

Big, giant turtle alert!

On a recent trip to the zoo with Cheree, Tony and Caedyn we had lots of fun seeing the turtle right next to the glass. And since Chris was along, we got to go in the area with the birds (I could not handle this without an extra adult!). But with a bird food stick (thank you Tony and Cheree) the kids got to see the birds up close too!

10 months old!

I am a little late on getting this posted, but the babies turned 10 months on April 20. They are just so fun these days. The cutest thing lately is how they will stand at the end of their cribs and look at each other, reach out for each other and crack up. They reach for each others hands in the high chairs sometimes too. And just smile at each other. It warms my heart. That is not to say there are not some struggles over toys. Charis used to just let it go when Price would take her toy, but no more. Sometimes she even will crawl over and take his toy, and then push him down (little bully). I know we have a lot of little, and maybe big, battles in store over the next few years. I am so excited that school is done, though, and I am not teaching this summer. We are going to have lots of fun. We have already been to the zoo three times!! It is hard to believe we are so rapidly approaching their first birthday. What fun times!

Just checkin' in

I just cannot resist these little photo collages...too cute. The top two are from My Gym (the Colleyville version of Little Gym or Gymboree). We go every Wednesday morning and the kids seem to really enjoy it. Can you tell by Price's white-knuckle grip on that swing? It is really a fun outing for them and for me! And Chris actually got to come with us last week, which was neat. The bottom left is them sitting on their new little mini-couch. It pulls out into a "bed" - the only one that sleeps on it is Scooter, though. And the bottom right is quite obviously Charis driniking Capri-Sun. I don't think my Super Baby Foods book would condone that. But what a super-star, she can use a straw already! This ability is attributable to her Podi bottle, which is much like a big straw except with a nipple on the end. Price on the other hand, gets the straw in his mouth and just waits for something to happen. And then decides it is really not worth whatever it must be.

Oh, I had a "mom" moment last night when I found Cheerios loose in my purse. And then we had a TV-like morning this morning, and unfortunately it was more like Married w/ Children than the Brady Bunch. Poor Price was crying for probably about 4 hours - off and on. Cough, runny nose, and tooth #7, and possibly #8 too. Thankfully Charis was doing pretty good all the while. But I could not even put him down for a moment. During all of this, I managed to drop a 1/2 gallon of coffee creamer on the floor in the kitchen, and even as it glp glp glped out on the floor there was virtually nothing I could do (except pick it up as fast as possible, which I did of course) but I was mid way on getting the yogurt w/ mango breakfast ready and the kids were apparently quite hungry. So I had to leave it standing there for like 10 minutes while I fed them. So gross. But now my floor is probably cleaner than before. And both babies are napping. Aaah.

And one final note - after just 4 months of signing "more" at least 20 times a day, I think Price signed it back to me this morning! Sweet victory.

To beet or not to beet...

yes, corny I know but, seriously, let me give you some simple warnings if you are considering feeding your toddler beets (who really considers feeding their toddlers beets, except maybe people in the Ukraine who make Borscht stew?? I don't know, but just in case).
1) undress the child, or dress them in fuschia
2) undress yourself, or dress in fushia, or use an apron that you do not care about
3) feed at dinner time, before bath time - not a good idea for breakfast
4) clean up with paper towels
5) clean up immediately
Okay that's my 2 cents on beets. As a first time mom and a picky eater myself, I am trying to introduce my kids to lots of flavors. I'd call this a success - but next time it will be before bathtime, not in our new shirt (even if it was only $5).

Guess who's standing...

At long last, Price is pulling up by himself and even officially properly crawling. He had pretty well mastered the army crawl, but it just did not get him where he wanted to go fast enough. Charis is now letting go and standing for approx. 30 sec - 1 min. It is amazing! Price tries the letting go thing sometimes but he just falls right down (not so sturdy yet!). Yay Price! We are so excited for you!