March Of The (Halloween) Penguins

This was our second family Halloween with Dominik & Scarlett and this year they got to go trick or treating. In this picture we got our family portrait in front of the same house we got it in front of last year. Does everyone look the same? I’m pointing at the camera so the twins will look at it but babies are pretty much into doing their own thing.

Although you can’t see it in this picture Dominik was able to do a fair bit of waddling.  Given that he only really started walking a couple weeks ago he did great!

At our first stop Scarlett took a piece of  candy we’d put into her bucket and tried to add it into the bowl of candy being offered up by our neighbor instead of taking one from him and adding it to her bucket. After a little tutorial from Mom and Dad she understood that she was supposed to take a candy and add it to her bucket and got it right the rest of the night.

All in all they were able to visit about 10 houses about 50% under their own power and seemed to have a really good time doing it.

Dinner Time

As the twins are nearing their first birthday, they’ve become less interested in drinking their bottles and much more interested in eating meals. Here are a couple shots of them having tofu, brocolli, and apple slices for dinner.  Dominik’s eye looks strange because he rubbed yogurt in it during breakfast.

Eleven Months

About once every eight or nine weeks I pick up my copy of What To Expect The First Year and although it is slightly informative, it always FREAKS ME OUT. For example, I had no idea that 11 months is a good time to start weaning the twins from their bottles. Considering they eat solids three times a day AND 38 ounces of milk/formula (each) broken up between six bottles, weaning seems like an impossibility. We’ve been using sippy cups since they were about five or six months old and, while they can down eight ounces of formula from the bottle in about 10 minutes, it takes them several minutes to drink 1/2 an ounce of juice or water from a sippy cup.

Oh, and What to Expect the First Year also recommends transitioning straight from the bottle to a regular cup.  I figured I’d throw caution to the wind, surround us all in towels, and give it a try.  The twins loved it and only dumped their full cups on the floor twice.

After the big weaning experiment, I decided to let the twins do whatever they wanted for their 11 month birthday. This meant that Dominik got to pull all the books off the bookshelves and Scarlett got to play with my keys, the remote, the digital camera, and my cell phone.

Two To Toddle

I finally got a picture of Scarlett walking. Unfortunately, it was during a time when she refused to wear pants. Dominik hasn’t taken any steps yet on his own, but he is a master at pulling himself up.

Major Milestones

The past two weeks have been incredible in terms of firsts.  Our babies suddenly became toddlers and, although we’re documenting as much as  working parents can, we’re not sure when or how it happened.  Here are some important dates for 2009:

May 15:  Scarlett waved and said, “bye-bye” when I left for work in the morning.

May 15:  Dominik’s first clap.

May 17:  Scarlett’s first clap.

May 20:  Dominik pulled himself up to his knees.

May 22:  Dominik pulled himself up to standing.

May 24:  Dominik began crawling!

May 29, 6:41 p.m.: Scarlett took her first step! (M.J. and I both got to see it.)

Also, after almost 11 months of having to rock the twins to sleep (for 20 + minutes for each of their naps (which only lasted 20 minutes)) we decided to do some sleep training using Sleepy Planet techniques.  Now they take simultaneous naps twice a day for at least an hour each.  Yay us!

Oh, and Scarlett still has no teeth!

 

Forward Facing Babies

We took the kids on their first car ride in their new car seats.  Despite the look on Dom’s face, they both loved facing forward. Scarlett was so pleased she clapped for most of the ride (a skill they both picked up recently – Dominik on Friday, and Scarlett on Monday).  These were the best pics I could get from my camera phone.

A Pre-Drive Stretch

The day before our long drive to San Francisco we thought it would good to take a few hours stretching in the park before we spent almost a whole day in the car. 

Dominik always loves a day in the park with his Mom.

Scarlett’s crawling so quickly now it’s hard to get the camera out and aimed before she sees it and rushes forward to grab it out of our hands.

And Dominik isn’t far behind her in the crawling department either.

And trying to escape upward with the camera doesn’t help either because she’s already trying to climb up our pant legs. If she had claws it’d be game over.

Scarlett is also really enjoying assisted walking.

And trying to eat bananas whole.

Of course their favorite is the swing set.

Dominik even braved the slide.