On the go...

Now that the girls have mastered crawling, they are on the go all the time. The Baby Jail? Hah! They'll only sit in there if an adult sits in there with them... and they pretty much get tired of the confinement within a few minutes and cry to be let out. They LOVE just roaming the open spaces of our (tiny) apartment, climbing up on anything they can grab onto. It's plain exhausting. Here's a few pictures of them in jail yesterday before they got tired of it.

Liv in the darker pink

Let me out, mom!!!

And a video of them playing, notice how every single thing

goes right into the mouth.

And me and a happy Caroline after her bath last night.

9 Month Pediatrician Appointment

We had the girls' 9 month appointment yesterday. Everything checked out really well and Dr. Ray even said that they are total "super stars". The girls are both hitting every milestone that 9-m0nth olds should and are no longer being adjusted for prematurity since they are all caught up. They both had to get one shot but took it like champs and hardly cried at all. They were so cute showing off their smiles and giggles to all the nurses, and loved getting the attention as usual.

Now for the stats.

Caroline (aka Pipsqueak)
Weight: 16lbs, 5oz - 10th percentile
Lenght: 27 inches - 25-50th percentile

Olivia
Weight: 18lbs, 9.5oz - 50th percentile
Length: 27.25 inches - 25-50th percentile

Liners still lags a bit behind her sister, which I'm sure Reflux has played a role, but as the doctor reminds me: she is just different from Olivia and grows at her own pace as any idividual does. I feel awful constantly comparing them to each other, but they are identical twins, so unfortunately this will be the continuing trend in their lives.

As for their development up until this point...

Like I've mentioned before, the girls continue to amaze us by hitting every single milestone within only days of each other. If one starts doing a new trick, her sister is always close to follow. Both girls are now doing the following:

• crawling so well, we often have baby races
• pulling up to a standing position
• gets into everthing!
• finger feeds with puffs/cheerios/yogurt melts
• getting the hang of a sippy cup
• shakes head "no"
• imitates sounds and gestures
• waves hi/bye
• eats pretty much anything
• can say mama, dada, baba
• sleeping about 11-12 hours on average

Our girls are getting so BIG! Sorry for not having any new pics to share. Grandpa Richard & Grandma Linda are coming to visit this weekend so I'm sure we'll have lots of new ones to post in a couple days.

Laugh it Up

We have so much fun laughing with the girls over the littlest things. They take interest in ANYTHING you have in your hands and want it - whether it be food, drink, alcoholic beverage... here they are wanting a sip of mommy's water.

And watching Charlie through the window

And just being cute:

Our Three Babies: 9 Months & 2 years!

Today the girls are exactly 9 months old. They're getting so big!!

Here they are last night chewing/sucking on some ice in a mesh baby feeder. They loved it! Anything they can eat totally entertains them for a good 15 minutes.

Olivia

Caroline

Short Video

And Charlie is Two Years old today!

6 Weeks Old

2 Years Old

Baby Jail

We ended up getting a baby play yard to contain the girls to one area of the house. This is basically a baby gate/fence which Rob refers to as "Baby Jail". Not too pleasing to the eye as far as home decor goes, but whatever makes our life easier is far more important at this juncture! It was funny watching the girls crawl the perimeter this morning, trying to scout out their plan of escape, no doubt!

And like I mentioned in yesterday's post, wouldn't you know it - Miss Olivia has mastered pulling herself up. Good thing I had daddy lower their crib mattresses this past weekend! Here's a video I caught of her doing it last night.

Weekend

This weekend was cousin Katie's birthday party! She was too cute in her little cupcake birthday dress.

Happy First Birthday, Katherine Marie!

Here we are with Grandpa and cousins Katie and James

The girls enjoying some play time

The cute onesies Auntie Nessa got them

At the pool afterwards

And it was also Mama Diane & Papa Bede's 34th Wedding Anniversary. Happy Anniversary!!!

Now that we have two mobile babies crawling around and gettting into everything, Rob and I are desperately needing to baby proof the house and also look into getting some sort of play yard device to "contain" them in one area. And Olivia is just about pulling herself up to a standing position....scary, I know!

Her favorite thing to do right now is crawl over to the sliding door and slap at the glass to get Charlie's attention.

Happy girls after lunch on Saturday,

you can see their little toofers in these.

Now we have TWO Crawlers on our hands!

Last night, Caroline was fed up with Liv getting all the attention and showed us that she can crawl too. Two crawlers! Our lives have just changed drastically! So funny how they've hit probably every milestone within about 5 days of each other - holding heads up, sleeping through the night, sitting, teeth, now crawling. Guess twins can't help but always be in competition with each other!

Here's a couple videos I got of Liners showing us her beginner's crawl/hop.

The Ledge

As an employee working in the Sears Tower (I refuse to call it by the newly changed name, "Willis Tower") we were offered an opportunity to visit the new attraction on the Observation Deck free of charge.

The Ledge is a series of glass bays that extend just more than 4 feet outward from the Sears Tower and let you look 1,353 feet straight down over the city. Here's a picture.

I've always had a slight fear of heights but I just had to put my fears aside and take advantage of this. It was truly a rush taking that first step over the side of the building and onto the glass platform. A journalist in the Tribune captured the emotion perfectly, "being suspended a quarter of a mile in the air with nothing more than three layers of half-inch-thick glass standing between you and a date with your funeral director." Pretty crazy, huh!

Here I am, trying not to freak out!

Playing Catch-Up: Krupa Family Gathering, Father's Day, Trip to Texas & 4th of July

Haven't posted in a long time - we've been busy! We of course have a million pictures from the last few weeks, so here's a few to document what we've been up to.

The Krupa Family had a big gathering a couple weeks ago. It was neat to all get together and the girls loved meeting all of their cousins, aunties and uncles.

The girls and their cousin Katie

Cousin James being sweet with the girlsMommy and Liv

Krupa Family of Four

All the family babies born in 2008!

Mama Diane & Papa Bede with the grandkids

Then the next week the girls flew on an airplane for the very first time. We all went to Texas to see my family and to attend my friend Tara's wedding. The plane ride wasn't too terrible, but pretty stressful nonetheless - toting around all of the baby gear was the worst part! The girls were restless in the beginning of the flights, but once we took off they slept pretty well.

Sleeping on the plane seat between Rob and I

Liv sleeping on my lap and mommy's much needed

bloody mary in the background.

Caroline on the seat.

We stayed at my mom's house in San Antonio and the girls had so much fun with their Grandma Karen and Grandpa Dave!... so much fun that we didn't even get ANY pictures of them. =( Sorry Mom!

Auntie Nessa

Mommy & Liners
Girls with their Great-Nanny

Pool Time! Their very first time being in a pool! They LOVED it.

Here with Daddy & Grandpa Richard

And Grandma Karen had a baby pool for them

They met their Great-Grandpa for the first time!

Aunt Vanessa & Uncle Jeremy

Us at Tara & Mike's Wedding

Fourth of July Weekend: Hope everyone had a Happy 4th! We stayed in town and went swimming and hung out at

Mama Diane and Papa Bede's house.

Nice hat Daddy

Caroline

Olivia

And Olivia is crawling! Forward!

We just discovered this in the last couple days. Here's a couple videos I got.

And in this one you can hear Caroline saying, "Mama".

She just started that about a week ago.