Because she's kinda the funniest kid I know...

Oh Olivia, how you crack me up.  I noticed a few weeks back that she was clapping on her own but whenever I tried to get her to clap on command she refused.  I thought well, it's not really clapping then haha.  She must have heard me because yesterday when I congratulated Emma on standing up on her own Lu started clapping like crazy.  Now whenever I say "Yay" or "Clap" she gets so excited, hops all around, and claps. 

*Don't mind my obnoxious voice or the fact that her PJ's have holes, PJs don't seem to last long around here, I don't know what my kids do to them!*

Crazy 8's

The girls spent their first nights away from home this St. Patrick's weekend.  My mom, my friend Shanyne, and myself and the girls headed down to Pauma Valley (near Temecula) to visit our family friends, The Bordens (I capitalize their name as a title because they own thousands of acres of orchards/ranches hehe).  The Bordens live in the middle of nowehere so I quite literally had to bring everything but the kitchen sink.  Dad stayed home so it was also a test of my ability to really do things on my own.  It was a nice weekend but I came home incredibly exhausted--I give major kudos to all the single mommas because I couldn't imagine doing this job without Alex!

We also experienced our first FLU EPIDEMIC.  Oddly enough, neither the girls nor my 86 year old grandmother caught it!  First Grandma Sue got the stomach flu, then me, then my mom, and finally Alex.  It was awful and all I kept thinking was the girls would be next but surprisingly they made it through unscathed--I'm still in shock they went untouched.  Since that event I've become even more crazy about hand washing and sanitizing in this house.  So if you don't mind me rudely yelling at you to wash your hands before touching my children then come on over, otherwise I would avoid this house until my memory of that awful sickness fades from my mind haha.

The girls turned 8 months recently and I started privately (ok, not so private now) freaking out about how close to 1 they are.  Yes, I know, they still have 4 more months BUT we have a ton of things happening between now and July 21st so I really need to get my ducks in a row about their party.  For those curious...April is full of baby showers and doctors appointments, May is full of graduations (Natalie graduates from college--when did she get old?!), June 14th my niece is due so I'm pretty much calling June moot so that we can be available hehe, and July has bridal showers right before the girls' birthday.  So yes, I'm crazy and already started designing birthday invitations :-)

Over the last few weeks the girls have really become little explorers, crawling and climbing on everything they can reach.  Olivia scares me to death with her bravery--she just pulls herself up and then lets herself fall backwards--we've had a number of head boo-boos and I'm surprised she's managed to not incur a single bruise (she gets that from dad as I bruise when Dozer puts his paws on me!).  These girls are a perfect combination of my stubbornness and Alex's fearlessness which is frightening and exciting all at the same time!  They both are also getting teeth like crazy.  They were sort of late bloomers with their teeth at 8 months (Alex was 2 months!  I was 4 months) but they are certainly making up for lost time which has also made for some rough nights/days.  Lu loves these mesh bags we put frozen fruit in and Emma loves a wet washcloth so we are trying to take it one day at a time.

Our new family car!  We have so much space, I love it!

Emma has advanced from crawling to "Mogley Walking" as we call it (a la Jungle Book)

Emma crawling and doing yoga

Emma discovers she has a shadow

Lu learns to kneel to get what she wants :-)

Lu sacrificing the face in the name of her toys

Pretty Pretty Princess

We took the girls to the zoo for the first time yesterday.  We decided to go to the Santa Barbara Zoo as it was Princess Day and we were able to meet up with a friend.  I've known Shandi since I was about 6 and she has a daughter who is just 9 days older than our girls so it was a perfect opportunity for the girls to reunite since they last saw each other when they were just a few months old.  It was a GORGEOUS day but uber packed with tons of pretty pretty princesses :-)  We took turns carrying one and pushing the other in the stroller because they preferred being out to see everything.   When I carried Lu she was so hyper and excited she just kept trying to hop all over and watch everything.  When it was Emma's turn she let us know very clearly she did NOT care for the reptile exhibit, uh-uh, no way, not at all.  Whether it was the darkness or dampness or the reptiles themselves, who knows, but she wanted out of that place and fast.  However, we next went to the elephants and she found true love.   I think she liked seeing some fellow big-boned mammals :-)  She kept laughing and then looking back to daddy and then back at the elephants--we stayed there for quite a few minutes just watching her.  While the mommas and babies finished lunch, daddy took Emma to get some stuffed animals.  Emma picked a giraffe for herself and a monkey for Lu.  Overall it was such a nice day and the girls were troopers.  We can't wait to take them to our zoo on a weekday so we can do less stroller wrangling!

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The girls have made a number of changes in the last few weeks so I thought I'd take the opportunity to share some of them:

Olivia:
*She loves saying da-da.  She can say it all day now!  Sometimes she'll alternate between that and ba-ba but mostly it's da-da.
*To my horror one evening, while getting pjs for a bath, I stuck Lu in her crib only to watch her sit herself up, pull herself up, then lean over the edge of her still-raised crib.  I honestly stopped breathing!  I snatched her up, yelled for Alex, and said "You have to lower it right this instance."  Prior to this she never even attempted to get out so to watch her do it in a matter of seconds scared me to death.
*Her bottom right tooth finally broke through on March 9 and her bottom left is almost out.
*She is now wearing 9 month clothes and size 3 diapers.

Emma:
* She could sit and play in the bath all day if we let her, she also likes to splash and make her toys fight (or kiss, I can't really ask her what she's doing but for the most part it kinda seems violent!)
*She is so in love with Mickey that if she hears the Hot Dog song come on she will come running (via walker) from another room
*She says ba-ba and ma-ma
*She was so sad when we lowered her crib (blame it on sister!)
*Absolutely hated her first taste of meat, literally threw up :-( 
* She is now wearing 12 month clothes and size 4 diapers

Stinky flamingo face

She just talked and talked while we were at the elephants!

We love animals with a lil meat on their bones right Emma?

Splashing penguins

Taking a break

Sleeping gorilla

And these two guys came home with us :-)

 

February 29th: Olivia discovers she can talk

 Emma loves when the Hot Dog song comes on!

My lazy Sunday morning babies-one still in bed cuddling piglet, the other watching cartoons

 Rocking their very first vans!

It was 80* this day!

Big Girl 'Nanas

I have started my second round of baby-food-making and yes, you heard me correctly, second!  When I did the first batch I really had no idea how many apples would make what amount of baby food and how quickly the girls would eat it.  However, it turns out my motherly intuition was spot on and all the baby food I made nearly 3 months ago is just now running out!  Which couldn't be more perfect since it is recommended to only store it for 3 months (frozen).  This time around I'm making my purees with more texture.  I've also added a few new additions like zucchini, spinach, mangoes, peaches, yams, and plain whole milk yogurt.  FYI...Emma is a yogurt fiend!! On our first try with yogurt I mixed in some banana-blueberry puree and that kid could not get enough.  Olivia liked it too but Emma was practically falling out of her high chair every time I alternated a spoonful to Lu.  The only foods I haven't tried to tackle yet are meats.  As some of you know I spent most of my life as a vegetarian.  I didn't start eating meat (and by meat I mean only chicken and turkey--absolutely no red meat or seafood--I know, I'm a weird one) until I met Alex!  That man lives on meat and if I wanted to survive (he did all the cooking when we first lived together!) I had to make some concessions. Now that I do all the cooking I've only become proficient at cooking chicken breasts and ground turkey.  I've never attempted a whole turkey or chicken and I can't even stand holding a packaged raw red meat container so my "meat cooking skills" are limited to say the least.  Then add in the idea that once I would cook said meat I would have to put it in the blender and puree it and well...I honestly break out in a sweat.  So, for the time being, I plan on using store bought meat purees.  Truth be told, I would skip meat all together until the girls were ready to have it as a finger food but the protein and iron they will get from the puree is hard to pass up.  I also worry if I don't expose them to the flavors sooner rather than later they might end up not liking meat like myself.  I was a VERY picky child and it was so much harder as an adult to learn to like foods so I'd like the girls to be more like Daddy :-)  I always joke to people that Alex would eat gravel if I fed it to him--he is such an adventurous eater and always surprises me with his willingness to try things.

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The girls are quickly becoming less and less my babies :-(  They are always too busy to let me sit and hold them and seem to always want to move on to the next entertainment.  Emma has the run of the house in her walker and because of this we have had to baby proof most things-- electrical outlets, trashcans, cabinets, the fireplace, and doorstops...actually we stopped re-attaching them since Emma  knocks them right off all the baseboards, yikes!  Olivia likes to rotate through several "play-stations."  She'll start her morning off playing in her highchair, move to her jumper, sit at her jungle/ball/noisiest-toy-ever-thing, and roll/crawl around her bedroom.  She has become an expert at this jungle ball toy where she puts the ball in the top and it goes down a spiral slide and comes back out to her then she puts the balls right back in the top--it can entertain her for 30 minutes which is a lot considering her normal attention span is like 5 seconds :-)  They both like to roll and crawl all over each other now which has made for a number of head bonks that lead to lots of crying because they egg each other on.  They are also starting to become scared of certain things which is just strange to me since they are things they were never scared of before.  Loud noises like the dogs barking, my blender going, or the doorbell never use to bother them but now these things set off a double chorus of crying as one realizes the other is scared and again, they just egg each other on.  The only time they aren't affected by each others crying is when they are in bed.  If one cries the other can sleep right through it--this has never changed since day one and thank God because things could get ugly around here if that wasn't the case!  I'm quite sad my babies are acting less and less like babies but it is amazing to see changes in them literally day-to-day.

Trying some 'nanas as a finger food

Yum!

I dunno dad...

Squishy face!