The Baby Proofing continues...

What is the girls' favorite "toy" these days? The coffee table/death trap. I mean, what could be more fun for one year olds than glass, metal, and sharp edges. No matter what I do to distract them with other stuff, they flock to the coffee table all day long. They like to gnaw on the table bars too, weird children. So we decided it was time to store that one away and get a safer option for the living room - a leather ottomon which Rob picks up tonight. In the meantime, I've resorted to just keeping a watchful eye on them and letting them play.

Liv

Liners

The girls watching their daddy doing some repairs on the balcony.

And a video of some Coffee Table Peek a Boo.

Enjoying our sippy's yesterday morning.

Now BOTH are standing!

... for more than 2 seconds at a time!!! I saw Olivia standing for the first time last night, caught a short video of it.

Weekend Fun

Just a few pictures and captions to capture the cuteness...

My sweet Caroline trying on mommy's new scarf

I just love Baby Boots! They wore these for

some family pictures we took on Saturday. LOVE it!

And yes, these are my children inside of the dog crate.

No, we didn't put them in there.

Caroline's baby blues

Of course they're in matching outfits!

Being silly

smooshy face

Cheeeeeese!

My little Morning Sunshines before I left for work today. Baby Thermal Underwear is so cute!

Caroline's stinky face

Liv didn't want me to leave!

A few videos:

BABY RACES!!!

Take 1

Take 2

And here's one of Caroline STANDING all by herself!

Let the Birthday Month Begin

Grandma Karen & Grandpa Dave sent some preliminary birthday gifts for the girls to open. They got a kick out of tearing apart the tissue paper and opening all their new stuff. Good practice for their birthday party coming up.

For ME??!?

And here are a few short videos of the girls "walking" with the walker toys. We don't have much runway space in our little apartment, so they're constantly running into things - it's like baby bumper cars.

In this one, you can see how they like to share one walker by both pushing it at the same time. It's pretty entertaining.

On a different note, we had to turn on our heater for the first time this year. Winter is on it's way here in Chicago!

Mission: Sippy Cup

Oh the trials and tribulations of finding a sippy cup from which your toddlers will actually drink. (Yes, they are just about toddlers now). They do really well with them when it's filled with juice or water during snacktime. But if I try to fill it with their milk, replacing their beloved "bah-bahs" - all hell breaks loose. Go figure! I so thought I could have them off the bottles by their first birthday. hmmpff. Looks like we'll be joining the masses in the infamous "breaking the bottle" battle.

And just so it's clear, the sippy cup industry must be booming. I have tried (and am not alone on this - most of my mommy friends have confirmed this as their experience too) ... I have tried SEVEN different types of sippies - some with hard spouts, some with soft spouts, some with straws, some that help to reduce gas, etc. - to determine if there is just one particular type that the girls will really take to. NOPE. The struggle continues....

Here are the 7 different types I've tried thus far. (And mind you, we have at least 4 of every kind - and are running out of cabinet space!)

How Much Wood Can a Woodchuck Chuck?

So every morning when I come into the girls room to get them up for the day, I'm usually greeted by two little squirts standing in their cribs, laughing and talking to each other. But the last couple weeks I've noticed Olivia GNAWING on her crib rail, as if she's trying to eat her way out! Ugh! These are beautiful, brand new cribs (thank you Mama Diane & Papa Bede)! This little woodchuck has scraped off a good portion of the wood finishing with just the few toofers she has. Time for some damage control, guess I need to look into a protective crib rail covering.

I remembered this morning to survey the damage and collect evidence:

Oh, and I had to work late last night, not getting home

until right before the girls' bed time.

And this is what goes on when Daddy's in charge for the evening:

BDay Planning, New Teeth and Pay back!

Can you believe it, our little girls are going to be 1 year old in just a couple of weeks. And what's a first birthday without family and friends joining together to watch the munchkins smash into some cake, right!? We're going with a pink and brown polka dot theme.

In other news, both girls are finally getting more teeth in - their top front two are poking through in both Caroline and Olivia. Isn't it interesting how they are getting the exact same teeth at the exact same time? So all together, only 4 teeth for each twink thus far. Caroline was NOT about to allow me to hold her still enough for a picture. And here's my attempt to snap one of Liv's chompers before she squirmed away - so it's quite blurry.

As daddy was vacuuming the house yesterday,

Olivia wanted to help me with the laundry.

These hungry little monkeys were ready for their lunch!

Mmmmm... scrambled eggs and sausage might be a new favorite.

C

O

Here's just a quick video of Caroline walking with the walker toy. They're doing this all over the house now, but I can never seem to catch it on video.

Bath time last night. We usually put them in the tub together to splash around and play, but when the girls are extra dirty and covered in food from their dinner (as was the case last night) I have to bathe them one at a time to do a good cleaning job. Daddy got some pictures and a video of Olivia getting bathed and Caroline patiently waiting her turn.

As a side note from the previous post of our scare with Olivia:

Apparently I used to do the exact same thing when I was a baby. From all the horror stories my family tells of what an absolute difficult baby/toddler I was, a similar incident was remembered from when I was a baby. My poor mom and dad. I'm definitely getting pay back X's TWO now! So it's confirmed - my daughter is a drama queen and she get's it from her mama.

And as my Uncle Cliff so wittingly put it,

Olivia's latest escapade into medical history is merely a fulfillment of the
Jewish mother's curse--"May you have a child just like you!"