The Birthday Party!

At last, some photos of the big event!

Piper & Knox are 1!

Here are some pictures from the big day. We waited to have their party on Saturday and there are a lot of great pictures from that day, but unfortunately none of them are on my camera! I'll post some photos when I can get them from our guests! We did get a video of the cake eating - and it was definitely a hit with both Piper and Knox, but especially Knox! We'll post that on YouTube because it'll never upload to the blog. I'll send out a link when it's up.

We need to get a video of Knox walking, too. He's getting a little more steady on his feet and sometimes he's able to take 4, 5 or even 6 steps before he falls down. But he never does it on command so I haven't been able to capture it on video. Piper is still cruising around on the furniture (or around other people), but she's not taking steps on her own yet. She did try to take a couple of steps toward me today but she quickly landing on her bottom. I know it's only a matter of time now until both of them are running (and most likely in opposite directions).

Happy 4th of July!

Holiday greetings from our little patriots!

Story time

Everyone keeps asking if Piper and Knox are walking yet. They're not quite there yet, but Knox will take a step or two if you hold onto his hands and both are "cruising" around the furniture. Here is a quick video from tonight's storytime. I think Piper will be the reader...

Eleven Months!

This is what happens when we try to get the monthly photos now!

Ten Months!

Piper and Knox turned 10 months old on Saturday! It's hard to believe that in just two months, we will start measuring their age in years :) We are working on lots of new things in preparation for their first birthday. In addition to standing and cruising around the furniture, we're working on a few basic signs for milk, eat and more and we're working to learn to drink from a cup and use a spoon. Hopefully we'll be able to master the cup and spoon by July so we can get rid of the bottles once and for all and start eating "big people" food for every meal.

Look at us!

Ok, posts are getting few and far between because mommy and daddy are swamped, but here are some recent pictures. Piper and Knox and getting big and with the way they're pulling up to stand in their gated area, walking can't be far away!

Nine months!

It's hard to believe it, but Piper and Knox turned 9 months old last week! It's getting MUCH harder to capture them on film together, especially with the blocks :) Someone is always hightailing it toward the camera or grabbing at the blocks or putting a hand in their mouth. Or all three. And the weather hasn't cooperated in getting another wildflower photo for the last two weekends, so we have to make due with the Easter picture!

We have lots of updates along with our 9 month old picture! Piper and Knox are getting much better with their finger foods. They can actually get the Cheerios into their mouths most of the time now, along with tiny cheese cubes, bits of banana and mango and little bites of toast.

We had to move both crib mattresses down because the babies had figured out how to pull up in their cribs - kneeling or standing in them and threatening to topple out! The babies have also mastered sitting up in the grocery cart (and mommy is quickly learning which stores have double carts!) And last night I ordered new car seats - Knox is about 1/2" from officially outgrowing his infant car seat! So we'll make the switch next weekend which means saying so long to the bucket seats and the snap and go stroller. From here on out, babies will be going from the car directly to the stroller, instead of staying snapped into their carseat "buckets." And when we take them to a restaurant, they'll sit in an actual highchair!

Time is sure going quickly! I'll get some videos posted when I can so you can hear them chattering, too.

Piper Crawls!

I know you've all been worried about Piper's crawling ability :) She's stubborn and still seems to sometimes revert back to her "commando crawl" with her belly on the ground. But here's proof that she can actually crawl when she wants to!

Her brother is a speedy crawler now - check it out (if you look closely, you'll see him whiz through the corner of Piper's video as well!)

Piper's Easter dress

Piper was a little more cooperative later on at home. Here she is jumping in her Easter dress that Grandma Pam-Pam sent!

Happy Easter!

We tried to take our first bluebonnet photos yesterday. Thanks to Lady Bird Johnson, every resident of Texas must take photos of their children in the bluebonnets each spring. Piper and especially Knox clearly didn't get the message yesterday! I think they were just mad when they learned that they are too little to eat chocolate!

Piper tries a rice cake

Here is Piper trying a rice cake. She is a bit more adept at feeding herself than Knox is (although neither of them have mastered Cheerios yet!). Notice the nice scratch she gave herself during her nap one day this week. Poor thing!

Knox Crawls!

It's official, Knox can crawl in a forward motion as of yesterday! Check it out on the video. I'm sure that Piper isn't far behind she's not going to let her brother leave her in the dust!

Lindi & Matt visit - Part 2

Ok, here are the pictures from Lindi and Matt's spring break in Austin!

I think they had a good time visiting. The twins definitely enjoyed it :) But I know that our weather was a huge improvement over Michigan - sunny and in the 70s every day. They checked out campus and Stubb's for live music and of course we had plenty of Mexican food and bar-b-que! And I think we went to Amy's for ice cream almost every day. We were sad to seem them leave, but it's back to finish up junior year before another summer working in Charlevoix. It's hard to believe that in just over a year, Lindi will be a college graduate!

Eight months old!

Here is the latest photo - the babies are getting so big!

Lindi & Matt visit

Ok, it's been a busy couple of weeks here in Austin! Last weekend Chad and I went out to LA for Helena's big wedding celebration. Those of you who went to our wedding may remember Helena as the officiant at our ceremony. She had a really fun celebration at a restaurant in LA on March 7th and Chad and I got to have our first weekend away from twins. They stayed back in Austin with my Aunt Tracy and her friend, Emily. Or rather, Emily and Tracy stayed at our house with the twins! Although we missed the babies terribly, it was great to have a weekend away. I must admit that I spent a lot of time catching up on my sleep! And I'm told that Knox and Piper were angels all weekend. I'm not sure if I completely believe that, but they look pretty happy in these photos!

Then when we got back to Austin, my niece, Lindi and her boyfriend, Matt, came to spend their spring break with us! I'll post more about their visit a bit later - I hear some babies who are definitely ready to get up from their nap!

Seven months old!

Ok, I'm a little late posting this from last week, but here is the 7 month photo. We were just getting ready for a walk! The babies are doing really well with solid food - they eat cereal and fruit and veggies twice a day and although same days are messier than others, they're doing well. We're looking forward to starting some finger foods soon :)

They're getting really close to crawling these days - in fact, Chad says they ARE crawling - but basically they only go backward and they go at a GLACIAL pace! So we are enjoying these last few weeks (days?) before they become mobile and chaos ensues!

Pam Pam Visits for Valentine's Weekend

Amazing!

This is a thing of beauty! Both babies holding their own bottles :) Knox has gotten quite good at feeding himself, but Piper still prefers to have someone else hold her bottle. Goes better with her high maintenance image, I guess!

New pics

We've been pretty quiet on the blog lately. Daddy has been on a looooonnnngggg business trip (10 days in Slovakia and Las Vegas) but he's coming home tomorrow! On Monday night, I took the babies to see a free concert with Spoon at our cool record store, Waterloo. I think they enjoyed it - what's not to like about good music, people watching and nice, sunny warm weather in January?! Special thanks to my friend, Emily, who has been helping me to take care of them over the past few weeks (and for donning the Baby Bjorn carrier w/Knox at Spoon!)

Six months old!

It's hard to believe it, but the babies turned six months old yesterday! At his appointment yesterday, Knox weighed 16 lbs, 8 oz!! Piper was 15 lbs, 9 1/2 oz. As you can see, Knox is definitely filling out - he's a sturdy little boy. Piper has a more slender frame and at 26 inches tall, she is 1/2 inch shorter than her "little" brother.

Sleeping through the night!

As promised, here is a picture of the twins' new "playroom!" We've relegated most of the their toys to this dog free zone. There is a nice soft mat under the whole area that should make it easier once they start to crawl and pull up to standing. We also got them these little chairs - so funny how they sit up and laugh at each other! Of course, nothing entertains either one for very long - but it's all about containment!

Last week I decided it was time for everyone to get some more sleep! So we started following our schedule VERY carefully. Three naps a day at very specific times and no more than 3 hours of sleep during the day. We've cut back to five "meals" a day (two featuring a bottle and solid food) and baths as part of our nightly bedtime routine. It's a lot of work - and we're definitely not as flexible as we were - but I'm happy to say that we've had three good nights in a row - the babies have slept until 6:30 or later the last three mornings with minimal waking (and no feedings) during the night. So I guess we'll be sticking to that schedule! I'm sure the solid food is helping, too but at this point, I don't want to change a thing!

New Year, New Food, Schedule, Playroom...

Wow, it's been a long time since I last posted, but we have been busy with big changes since the new year! We started with solid food (rice cereal) on the 1st and have been working our way up to twice a day and this week started on vegetables, too (Sweet potatoes and squash - poor babies!) As big as it seems that the babies have gotten, they look pretty tiny in their highchairs!

Knox took pretty quickly to solid food and now he's eating like a champ. It's messy, but he quickly grasped swallowing his food and he seems to like it all.

But poor Piper didn't take very well to the plain rice cereal. She was really excited and opened her mouth up wide for the first bite, with a big smile on her face. Then as soon as the cereal touched her lip, she made the most hysterical face. We tried to capture it with the camera but she was too quick! But let's just say it wasn't a happy face! Here is a few bites later. Since she seemed to hate the plain cereal so much, I found a rice cereal with apple to try. I'm not sure if she's just used to the texture now or if it's really that much better, but the apple cereal seems much more appealing to both of them. Although Piper still has a quite a way to go to master the technique for eating solid food! She has mastered rolling over, though, and now turns over and sleeps quite comfortably on her tummy every night. And she's almost sitting up. Or rather, she sits up but can't quite keep herself in that position and pretty quickly slumps to the side or the front!

I'll save the pics of the new "playroom" for the next post!

Happy New Year!

Apparently Piper isn't excited about 2010! Or maybe she just doesn't like her tiara :)