Just Dance

I know I've really neglected this blog. Sorry! The girls are growing quickly and are learning so much.

Cara loves dancing when you tell her to dance now. Afterward we always clap and say "good job!" and she claps along with us. She loves dancing on command, although I suspect it's really the attention she enjoys. She will also stomp when asked to stomp. As you may recall from previous posts, Cara's favorite lovey is an Ugly Doll named Babo. She knows him by name and when asked to find Babo, she'll search the room for him and bring him back to me. I can't believe she understands as much language as she does.

Nora has started clapping, and she loves dancing anytime music is playing. She loves catching things rolled to her now, and she's actually pretty darn good at it! She definitely didn't get any athletic ability from me. Nora loves playing peekaboo and has started holding things up in front of her face to hide. We have a plastic pasta strainer that lives in the toy bins in the living room, and Nora will hold it up in front of her face, then peek around. She could play peekaboo for hours, I'm sure. She can throw some truly epic tantrums, but I try not to remember those...

We had a pretty rough Christmas, and spent the holiday snowed in at a hotel in Wichita Falls. It didn't really go as planned and unfortunately Cara and Nora didn't get to spend much time at all with their great grandmas, but they did get some great presents and are enjoying those daily. Here are the girls hanging out in the hotel on Christmas Eve:


And here are a few Christmas photos we had taken by a photographer friend:






Both girls are walking now:




Cara has been walking for months, but Nora just within the past few weeks has started walking a lot. She can make it across a room now.

Don't worry - I haven't forgotten about their birthday from November! I do have pictures that I'll upload at some point in the future... hopefully sooner. We'll see. Cara has an ear infection and Nora has a sinus infection, so they've been pretty unhappy, clingy little babies lately.

Little People

"The world is big, but little people turn it around!" - Les Miserables

I've been envisioning this post for a while about the crazy little personalities C & N reveal on a daily basis. They're not tiny little pudgy infants anymore that only sleep and eat; they're real, actual little people! Isn't that wild? These two little people let me know how they're feeling each day. They tell me when they're grumpy or tired or happy, and they make sure they get attention when they're feeling a little narcissistic. These two little people rule my world every day, so I know them pretty darn well by now.

Nora is an emotional dramatic girly girl. When she's in a good mood, she lights up for strangers, but when she's in a bad mood, a smile from a stranger will usually result in tears. Good moods can quickly turn into bad moods with her. She's fascinated with shoes and clothing tags, so she's clearly following in her mommy's footsteps with a love of fashion and shopping. Although she's not crazy about change, she tends to go with the flow and will nap just about anywhere as long as she has her paci. She LOVES music and dances to any beat. She has a few different dance moves and I'm working on teaching her the electric slide, so I'll be sure to let you guys know how that goes. ;) She's a fan of bouncing up and down or rocking back and forth when standing, and when sitting, she rocks front to back. She just can't help it - she's gotta dance when she hears music.

Cara is such a sweet little toddler. She is always friendly and interested in exploring new environments, and she's quite the gigglebox. She is very attached to a few certain stuffed animals of the Ugly Doll variety, in particular Babo:









and Moxie:















They're pretty lovable, aren't they? ;) For whatever reason, she adores them and the minute she sees one, she giggles and lights up. Babo stays in the crib and Moxie usually goes on car rides with her. Cara has recently learned the delights of shaking her head no, so when I feed her a food she's not interested in, I get a little smirk and a good head shaking no. She loves push toys that she can walk with, and she will push the one we have back... and forth... and back... and forth... over... and over again... until I get tired of pulling the toy away from whatever wall she's against.

I could keep going on about both of them, but that's probably good enough for now.

The Hour of Separation

The girls have definitely begun experiencing separation anxiety lately, although it has hit Nora harder than Cara. I have to admit it's sweet seeing how excited they are to see me again or to see Kirby when he gets home from work, but... all the crying and meltdowns are a little annoying. Nora has started having all sorts of issues going to sleep at night when I leave the room. She's fine at naps, but for some reason, she won't sleep at night. Hopefully this phase passes quickly because let me tell you, she has one LOUD piercing cry.

Both girls are currently sick with colds, I think, which has made our week so far pretty miserable. They both have the sniffles and are running fevers, and boy do they get upset when a stuffy nose interferes with eating or their pacifiers. They got to meet my grandma and uncle Pat for the first time on Saturday, though, which was fun. I'll have pictures of the weekend soon, but for now, here are a few semi-recent ones:

Greetings and All That

Greetings blog readers! After a long hiatus, the husband and I have decided we need to keep up a regular blog for out of town family and just to brag about our delightful twin girls. As many of you know, we previously kept a journey of our multiples pregnancy here, so if you're feeling really bored, you can read all about carrying twin girls, gaining less than 50 pounds, back pain, hospital bedrest... excitement galore!

The girls are closing in on 10 months old now, which is impossible for me to believe. This year is just flying by! Every day I'm amazed by something new they're doing, and they're really at a fun age overall now that they are mobile and can play so much.

Both girls are crawling, although Nora just recently mastered a regular crawl. For a while, she was doing a pretty funny army crawl you can see here:


Cara's been crawling for months now and is very good at it. She's an adventurous little monkey who loves climbing and pulling up on things. She loves playing games with you like peekaboo. She has a head full of blonde hair, blue eyes, and kind of big feet. Hehe.

Nora is just now getting a bit of hair, but she has lots and lots of squishable rolls. I suspect she may be a baldy for a while to come! She has brown eyes and is more timid than Cara and easily upset. She likes snuggling and music.

Our days are filled with naps, fighting naps, climbing, battle cries, diaper changes, homemade baby food, playgroups, library story times, baths... all sorts of goodies. They definitely keep me busy, and occasionally drive me crazy, but they're lots of fun and it's been great watching them grow and learn so far.