Is that me you're talking too?

Kate turned around when I called her name tonight! Wow - that's a first. I had been speaking to Connor, but then when I said KATE, she turned around to face me.

Also - Kate finally has top teeth breaking through the gums. can't wait to see her big smile WITH teeth.

Coming to the Depot office

Some of my favorite ladies in my life! Tracy and Kate and Connor came to the office today to have lunch with me. Kelly helped get them from the car to my office. What would I EVER do without these two awesome ladies in my life. They keep me organized, running on-time, sane (?), happy and just darn lucky.



We ate lunch down in the Home Depot Cafe and then kept running in to more of my favorite people. We saw Carol (sorry, no camera), then Kelly and Diane sat down with us to visit. Look at how the babies love these ladies too.

Pulling up

Kate decided to show off her new trick of pulling up by herself again. As I put her to bed tonight, she pulled up on the side of the crib and stood and cried (hoping I'd pick her up). Very cute and very clever Kate!!!

We're 8 months old

Kate and Connor are 8 months old today. Wow! I just got back the final prints from their 6 month photo session when I realized that they were 1/3 of their lives older than since when those photos were taken.

Looks at this photo from even just 3 months ago...



The twins are doing great and hitting all of their milestones. Connor has 6 teeth and Kate has 2. Both of them are crawling - Connor on his hands and knees, while Kate is a little bit more of a tummy crawler. Both are babbling up a storm, but Kate does a little bit more of the yacking. They love to feed themselves - so we eat lot's of finger food after they finish their bottles. Today, we added bits of chicken and spoonfuls of yogurt to their growing list of items (last week we tried fresh mango).

The twins are still taking 3 naps a day - and so that helps make the schedule a little less crazy. I guess we use all that "free time" to make bottles, do baby laundry, clean up baby-spit up and all kinds of other fun things. OK - I use that time to blog too!

We went "swimming" today in the backyard. Both enjoyed the relief from the heat, but Kate is more the fish right now than Connor. She loved paddling across the pool to the other side to find a new toy that she wanted to play with. She even pulled up to stand by herself on the edge of the pool - a first! Connor was content with Momma hugs instead. All is good.

Prunes for Breakfast???

Actually, Kate and Connor LOVE prunes and all fruit. so - that's what they get for breakfast - usually mixed with some cereal. Doesn't it look like they have chocolate all over their little faces?

Snacking on Puffs!

Kate and Connor are decidedly fans of PUFFS. These rice puffs come in banana, pineapple, cherry, apple, etc. Maybe it sounds like a bad idea, but just know that 90 of these puffs have only 25 calories. Couldn't be that bad, could it?


For today - they were watching Wimbledon (notice the gaze to the right) and snacking on banana puffs.

Cruising around the kitchen

Kate and Connor are cruising around in the kitchen after their dinner...

Cruising in the kitchen

Kate and Connor scooted over to the other side of the kitchen after dinner. They seemed especially pleased with them selves for getting so far away from the keeping room.

Happy Father's Day

We are fortunate that we haven't trained the twins to scream when they wake up in the morning. Instead, they just play in their cribs and wait for us. Nice. This morning, Kate was wide awake sitting up in her crib when Hugh went in to get her. Kate turned to him and in her baby-babble said "hi da-da." I wasn't there to hear it, but all day long she was yakking up a storm - so I believe it. The only time she STOPPED talking was when I turned the video on to capture it.

Kate and Connor got Daddy a special card for Father's Day. OK - the fact that they "got" him a card is a miracle, but Mom pitched in and helped. We opened cards as we had a nice breakfast together (bacon, eggs, waffles for the big people; formula, then apricots and oatmeal for the little people).

After breakfast, Connor wanted to make sure he had a treat for Dad too. So - he decided to finally start crawling forward (and with a vengeance). Connor was all over the kitchen and really crawled a lot when we put a late morning snack a few feet in front of him. The chow-hound still exists. I know he's going to enjoy his new found mobility and it should help minimize his frustrations.

We had a nice day hanging around the house, and then the twins joined us for dinner at the dinner table. Remind me not to do that when they are tired and hungry - and just plain cranky.

I think Kate and Connor have the BEST DAD in the whole wide world (but as we say around here, "I'm biased."

Our First Swim

Today was the first time we went for a "swim" since I was pregnant with the twins at Amelia Island last July.

Tracy and I found a cute little blow up pool and ordered it for Connor and Kate.
I think it will work well, since it has it's own built in shade canopy. If Connor is indeed Hugh's mini-me, he'll burn easily. It's been in the 90s this week - so it's nice to have this pool in our backyard, rather than having to go down to the neighborhood pool.

Connor held on to the side for dear life, while Kate enjoyed splashing a bit more.

Playing after dinner

Honestly - I had no excuse to take pictures tonight except for the fact that i just LOVE Kate's outfit (ok - and Connor's too). Have you ever seen such a cute little floral skirt? It has 3 layers of ruffles all over it and is just precious.

These babies have quite the wardrobe. It'll be a shame when they outgrow ALL of it this summer.

Sippy Cup - take 2

We tried the sippy cups again this morning. I can't say it was a total success - but it was much better. Connor did pretty well, but Kate kind of got frustrated. Makes sense. Connor can hold his bottle really well when he nurses, whereas Kate doesn't like to do that. Fortunately, it was just water that ended up everywhere.

New foods

We're trying new foods every few days. This weekend, we added cantaloupe. What faces the kids made - especially Connor! Tonight we added (well cooked) whole wheat pasta.

The kids east SLOWLY because they want to pick up every little morsel - but they have such a tough time getting it in to their mouth (especially Kate). When I took off their bibs, I found half of the food in the pouch. No big surprise.

Sitting Outside

I got home a little early today and decided to take Kate and Connor outside to the backyard to play. I'm beginning to see how much "stuff" you have to cart around when you have kids. We took quilts, burp cloths, toys, toys and more toys.

It's so interesting to watch them when they are outside. They really weren't so interested in the toys. Instead, they seemed to be fascinated with the sound of birds and cars, and the feel of the heat as well as the breeze on their skin.

No No

This week is the first time I had to say "No" to both Kate and Connor. Kind of funny that it immediately struck me that it was their first time for me to tell them no. What happened to my perfect angels? Nothing - they're just mobile enough and strong enough now to need to be called off sometimes.

Kate had crawled across the living room and was shredding "Libby's" plant. The plant is dear to me since the vet gave it to us after Libby (the Lab) died 9 years ago. It's one of the few plants I haven't managed to somehow kill. Anyway - I realized that Kate was pulling at the leaves - so I shouted a quick "No, No" and she actually stopped. Nice.

Connor was just snuggling with me and actually just pulled on my earrings so hard that I was afraid they would tear out. So again - I quick "No, No" and a re-direction of his hands seemed to help.

If only all discipline and conversations in the future would be this straightforward.

Video of the kids playing on the floor

OK - since I don't know how to edit movies yet, ya kind of get the wheat with the chaff. In other words, it takes 30 seconds to watch 5 or 10 seconds worth of video. But - if you've been wanting to hear how the babies sound - now is your chance!

Almost Daddy's Birthday

We celebrated Daddy's birthday tonight with a big seafood dinner and playing with the babies. What could be better? Well - the kids had cauliflower today for the time. Considering I hate cauliflower, I thought it was pretty magnanimous of me to serve them things I don't even like.

After dinner, Hugh had a really nice time playing with Kate and Connor on the floor. While both of them really liked it - I think Kate LOVED it. Look at that happy smile of hers!







Connor had a great time too. He just loves "flying" with Daddy up in the air. If only Hugh didn't end up with a nice blob of drool in his face while he was doing it.

Grandma and Noisey come to visit

Grandma has come for the weekend to spend time with her "baby (Hugh) and our babies (Kate and Connor). Fortunately, she brought our first baby with her (Noisey) so he could visit with us too.

Kate and Connor are beginning to enjoy Nosiey a little on this visit. Noisey is patient and let's them pet / maul him. When it's enough - he just walks away. So far - they can't keep up.

Looking pretty

Tracy was just taking some pics of how CUTE we are. She's right!