It's Apple Picking Time! Kara

Since we had initially planned on going apple picking last weekend, I was excited to go this weekend. Thus I had been talking about it with the girls all week, and explaining that you could just pull apples right off the tree and eat them (and showing them how this would work). I inadvertantly taught them how to "pick apples" and whenever I mentioned apple picking toward the end of the week this is what they did.

Kara's first apple. Picking with dad.

I want this one! Probably accompanied by grunts. Double fisting. Interesting fact: the girls only eat soft fruits and vegetables, and don't like peel. So for all the looking like they were eating apples, I don't think they ate much, or spit bites out because they had peel. The big bites taken were either my almost finished apples or where Andrew told me to "start it" for them so that they might eat some.

Plopped herself down in the tall grass. Meandering around, not a care in the world, or regard for the rest of her family's whereabouts. :)

Andrew chased her around while I held Anna. I wish I had a similar video for Nan, but no such luck; she was not nearly as adventurous.

It's Apple Picking Time! Anna

Getting ready...Anna got really into her apple picking practice, glancing longingly at the apple while she picked it. Haha.

The story of Anna's apple picking experience was a little bit of a sad one. She did like the apples and the picking, but as you can see, I held her most of the time. Apparently her shoes were hurting her feet, so every time I put her down she cried and wanted to get back up. I thought she was just clingy because she's a little sick, and she never pointed to her shoes. Toward the end we got the shoe thing figured out and she ran around with Kara like normal.

Picking apples - first one. And then one that she got by herself without mom's help!

Being held by mom. And finally pointing at her shoes to let us know there was trouble.

Happy now that her shoes were off. And a failed attempt at picking an apple herself - she tried, even with both hands, so just decided to eat it while it was still on the tree. :)

It's Apple Picking Time! Girls Together

First apples! ... Mom and her girls.

A lot of time was spent stopping them from picking rotting apples off the ground ... do you like how Kara is trying to steal my apple?

Watching them run around ... our best shot of them sitting together in the tall grass.

This is surprisingly similar to our time outside at home lately - Kara runs around exploring like a crazy woman and Anna walks around holding the 2 tiny pumpkins that Nana got for the girls.

No No Yes Yes

As I mentioned in a previous post, the girls love saying "no no." Our favorite No No book is:

They love it - and the other one of hers we have: Quiet Loud (we wanted the rest of her collection, but Target was out the day we got these). Maybe this is why they prefer wearing only diapers, to be like the baby in the book. Haha. The book just says No No and Yes Yes with pictures of things to do and things not to do. Here are our examples.

No No. I just missed a really nice hug from K to A at the end.

Yes Yes. Andrew and I started laughing because as K was kissing A, she started making sounds - not sure how well you can hear it in the video.

When Dad's Away...

We play and play and play! Andrew's been late a lot this week or gone in the evenings and so the girls and I have had lots of good play time. They're getting more and more fun.

Laundry is really fun to play on, especially when reading books...Anna is demonstrating what they do when I say "if you bite your book, I'll take it away." Maybe they think they're hiding it from me?

They're tall enough to and/or interested enough to climb on our kitchen and dining room chairs and have been spending a lot of time sitting and standing on them. They look so cute sitting on chairs like adults.

We were dancing to some music the other night when we were waiting for Dad to come home, and they decided they wanted to stand and dance on their rocking chairs. I told them to sit down a lot, but they were so happy I let them. Kara wouldn't let me get her picture, though.

Dark again, as usual...our camera stinks at videos and blogger makes them look darker. But here's a trick that was keeping them entertained the other day - backing up until they crashed into something. Kara first, then Anna - and when Kara gives her a hug, Anna pushes her over and runs away. Typical. :)

The Pierces Come to Visit

So last Thursday-Saturday Nana and Pop were in town for Pop to attend a medical meeting, and Andrew's grandparents were in town for a funeral, so we had lunch with them on Saturday. Andrew was out of town Thursday and Friday. I am not usually the family photographer and was a little focused on making sure my night alone with the girls went okay, thus we have 4 pictures from the weekend. I didn't even think about the camera when we went places. Oops!

Nana holding Anna and Kara - they're heavy! They loved Nana and snuggling with Nana this weekend. Usually they don't take well to other people and want to always sit with me, but they were content to sit with her and went to her instead of me sometimes, even when they were tired or upset (key mommy only times). With Andrew gone 2 nights last week I let the girls sleep in the bed with me...this is probably why they didn't sleep very well, since they roll a ton and are used to sleeping with positioners and in tighter quarters. This is one of the interesting positions I found them in - I thought they looked so cute with their legs interlocked.

Thanks Nana for the new dresses! Can you tell the girls are not interested in posing for pictures these days? At least I've always liked their stoic looks. They love these babies with hats from my mom...what they like about them is taking their hats off. Then they whine at me to put the hats back on. This is repeated over and over and over - these are not my favorite babies! I tell them every time to tell me "hat on please" and they say something that sounds nothing like that. Anna actually says "diaper" every time. That's her go-to word when we ask her to say different words, ever since we were so excited she said it.

Monday in the Park with the Pierces

The girls love the park. Swings are the favorite - if we put them down at the playground they run over to the swings immediately. We walked past the playground twice yesterday as we went to and from the library and Kara was so mad that we didn't stop and swing...she pointed and grunted in the direction of the playground for 5 minutes after we were past. :)

Kara, Anna

Kara and Anna - then Anna and Kara last October for comparison.

Andrew didn't quite get the full effect, since they just went around in a circle...climbing up and going down all by themselves like big girls. They love slides too. We took another video that didn't make the cut of Kara trying to push Anna down so that she could go. :)

Little Mommies

In addition to diapering and rocking their babies, the girls have taken the mom behavior to the next level and like to wear my boppy and sit in my feeding spot. They started doing it on their own a few weeks to a month ago, and love it when I ask them if they "want to be the mommy" - sometimes it's hard to get the pillow back from them to feed them...I have to ask if "I can be the mommy now." Ha.

Kara especially loves being the mommy.

They have in the last week or 2 started to demonstrate their knowledge of what they are and aren't allowed to do in a new way - in some of their books or songs when it says "no no" I always wag my finger. They've started doing this when I tell them no about whatever they're doing, and even when I don't say anything if they are or their sister is doing something wrong. It's pretty cute, especially watching them tell their sister "no no" before I do it...but it hasn't led to any better behavior yet. It seems like they enjoy it enough that it makes them want to do more bad things. :)

Our Moves

Random dances...their new moves are "shimmy shimmy" - Anna's really good at isolating her hips and shaking them back and forth - and Kara's shoulder isolation. I don't know where they get these since we didn't show them either...Andrew marvels, since he maintains that he can't do Kara's dance. :)

Shimmy and spins, etc.

Dancing along with the video of babies dancing on another blog (of people we don't know found through Erin's blog...haha). They usually are a little more enthusiastic about their dancing, but this video shows Kara's dance and Anna is hilarious - she mostly just analyzes everything Kara does, which is totally not her usual personality, making it even funnier.

Random in the yard video. Andrew really wanted to capture them brushing off their hands, since he thinks it's funny. It's definitely one of his favorite things I've taught them.

This Week

Is strange. Andrew's gone a lot...worked Monday most of the day then 7P-7A Monday night and slept most of Tuesday, was really late tonight, and is out of town starting early tomorrow morning-Friday afternoon. And Nana and Pop are in town starting tonight through sometime Saturday. So not only do I get 2 nights alone with the girls, I get more day time alone with them than usual and get to entertain family. I know that having grandparents around should be helpful, but I always manage to turn helpful into "stressful" because I'm dumb.

Other - this week and last week I've been randomly violently ill with cold symptoms - only on Wednesday. Last time I was totally better Thursday and hope that I will be tomorrow, too.

The babies are trying to talk - finally. Matt, how many words till you can come visit? Anna said "diaper" the other night (awesome first word, I know-not technically her first word, she says lots of things that start with D that we recognize, and dada and mama, but this was a milestone nonetheless). Then yesterday she said "go" and today she and Kara both said "nonono" (maybe we shouldn't encourage that one!).

I tried to take a video of their words just now but they only slept an hour today for some reason and are too tired to cooperate. So here are some videos from last week - not great either. They showcase the girls' skills in responding to "tell me something" and "sing." They also respond to "whisper," but that's harder to get a decent video of, and I spared you "yell/scream." Hopefully I'll be able to capture some more memorable things on video soon - their words, and also that the past several weeks they are really into songs with hand motions and love to do the hand motions with me - Itsy Bitsy Spider, I'm a Little Fishy, Open Shut Them, Head Shoulders Knees and Toes and Hands are for Clapping are favorites. The funny thing is that when we do any of these songs at story time they act like they've never heard them and barely even clap, which they've been doing since they were 7 months old or so. Strange.

I realize the 2nd video is too dark to see...but the audio is too cute!

Sunny Days

The girls especially loved the sunglasses that came in the bins of books...they always want to try on my glasses when I wear them, and I don't let them. And I have posted many many times about how they love being blind. This is pretty close. They've been running around headbutting each other with their sunglasses on and cracking up.

So...here are a few shots of my cuties trying out their sunglasses and enjoying the *perfect* weather we've had for a month+ now! (with a couple of Andrew's hair thrown in for good measure at the end).

Kara and Anna close-ups...I absolutely love these. Anna always makes this face when she has sunglasses on. Can you tell the difference in their nose shape?

Kara and Anna on the stoop...matching shirts and sunglasses make them hard to tell apart.

Gotta make sure they're on straight, right?

Andrew's new hair cut - I think I prefer more hair. :) The girls are super cute, though.

Spoiled

Ever since way before the girls were born, we have been spoiled and blessed by the generosity of friends and family. Andrew and I have really bought very little for them - apart from diapers and wipes (and we had gift cards to cover those for nearly 10 months), just a few toys and books that we thought they would like. I guess everyone knows that twins are hard and takes pity on us. Plus once you see Kara and Anna, it's hard not to lavish love and things upon them! Haha. (Seriously though, having them with me or Andrew does make people way nicer to us).

This week and month have been especially full of spoiling by family and neighbors. We started off with toys (and diapers) from Nana and dresses from Mimi, got 2 big packages of clothes and toys from Grandma, and then a big laundry basket full of toys left on our front stoop (presumably from our neighbors across the street). In the past 2 days we got 2 boxes of clothes and toys from Grandma, then today found 2 big containers of books on our stoop when we got home (from our neighbors across the street). Kara and Anna LOVE everything. Oh, and exclusively for Mom and Dad - we were in a Starbucks in the Central West End this afternoon that happened to be closing today - forever - so we got free coffee. :) We are so thankful!

Our gifts this week - 2 huge buckets of books and 3 pairs of sunglasses, 4 outfits (including Indians shirts-Grady's ladies), 2 skirts, 2 tops, 6 pairs of tights, 2 babies, 1 fire engine, 5 little people and 1 pig, 2 necklaces, and 1 book. It was too much not to document! The best part is 3 from the right - the mom of the little people. Anna has been using this as her "lovey" and freaks out if Kara ever wants to play with her...I've been wishing for 2 of her for quite some time now.

Trying out our new PJs and making sure to point out that Anna has bunnies (and Kara has butterflies) - they really like doing that. Notice that Anna is holding the mom in every picture. :)

Balloon Babies

This past weekend was pretty low-key since Andrew was under the weather with a bad cold, and the girls have had runny noses for a week+ now. But we did take a couple hours Saturday afternoon and go to The Great Forest Park Balloon Race. There were a ton of balloons and lots of people, babies, dogs, and some animals to keep us all entertained. We got there right as they were launching all the balloons, so it was perfect timing. Maybe next year if the girls like to stay up later we can try to go to the Balloon Glow on Friday night, since I'm sure the balloons look pretty all lit up.

Kara, Anna and Dad. I think they were more excited than they look. :) Their hair looks really red in this picture. I saw everyone with helium balloons, which the girls love, so I made us track down the booth - they were so happy and held onto them and hugged them, etc. for the entirety of our time there - worth the effort to get them, I'd say.


Checking out the balloons flying by when we first got there. At the end of the launch time - lots of balloons in the distance.


There was a big turtle randomly there, which the girls liked petting (K, then A). Anna was trying to grab its arm as it was trying to claw its way out of the fence.

PS - This is the last picture of Andrew's lovely locks...I cut his hair on Sun night and the clipper piece must not have been on securely, because it slipped off and I accidentally shaved off a huge section. So, now he's bald - not shiny head bald - but pretty bald. It doesn't look as bad as I thought it might. :)