Halloween pictures 2009

Daddy and his Halloween bugs

Costume party at our Isis class


C & M's new favorite activity...a slide!


Carrie's jack o'lantern


Jason's jack o'lantern


Watching for trick-or-treaters


Callie kissing her Rody


Maia's big smile


Sisters playing peek-a-boo


Mama and her bumblebee

Daddy trying not to get stung!

little ladybug

She's walking!!!!

Callia officially walking

The girls are 15.5 months and getting so independent (almost). They want to do everything by themselves although when they do need help, they ask for it by raising one hand in the air (like asking the teacher for help). With both girls walking, it is both easier and more difficult for me. It is nice to not have to carry them both everywhere but now I have to make sure they don't go in opposite directions!

Callia is so proud of her new walking self. While she used to spend much of her time sitting and reading books, she now spends most of the day walking around! It is very fun to watch her be much more physical. She still loves her books though and now says, "Ga" for gorilla (Goodnight Gorilla is still her favorite book). Callie has been so incredibly loving these days. She sometimes just looks up at me, smiles and says "Mamamama". She also gives real kisses! I gave her a little lion beanie baby recently and she carries that around with her everywhere. She often looks at it, roars and gives him a kiss! So incredibly cute. She and Maia have a blast together and love to play peek-a-boo in their cardboard house. Callie has actually been saying "Ba" for "Boo" when she sees a picture of a ghost.

Maia is constantly busy and I am trying to find ways to nurture her active self! Honestly, she wears me out some days because she is always on the move. She climbs on top of and into everything as you can see by the pictures and is often trying to test the boundaries of things. If I say to her sister that playdough is not for her mouth, Maia immediately puts a piece in her own mouth and looks at me for a response. Luckily, I am on to her game and don't give that behavior too much attention by just redirecting her to another activity. She is very interested and proud to help Mommy and does "chores" like sweeps crumbs off the floor (more like re-distributes) and puts dirty clothes in the hamper at bath time. Maia is so silly and has the best belly laugh. She loves to be chased, tossed around and tickled. She just loves her sister and has recently created her own version of "sister" in sign language by placing her two pointer fingers to her cheeks. The actual sign is running your thumb down your jaw line and putting your two pointer fingers together. I thought this was pretty clever.

Now that Jason's big work project has wound down, we are really enjoying more time with him. The girls have been so excited to have Daddy take them outside to play and Maia sat mesmerized yesterday watching Daddy rake leaves. We took the girls for their first swim lesson today and it was so much fun! They LOVED the water and had smiles on their faces the whole time. It is such a nice activity for us to do as a family. Now we are gearing up for Halloween tonight and Jason and I have just completed our jack o'lanterns for our annual pumpkin carving contest. Will post pictures soon....

Maia & Callia in their "playhouse"

Maia on top of the tunnel

Callia and her special lion

Callia roaring like a lion

So grown up!

Officially toddlers....


Maia stuck in the Mega blocks container


Maia the Bumblebee and Callia the Ladybug at a Twins Halloween Party


More Halloween pictures soon....

Almost 15 Months and so many new developments

Callia is getting so independent these days as she now has taken a few solo steps. Walking is in her near future and we cannot wait! At the same time, she has become a little more attached to Mommy than she was and has had a hard time separating from me at night for bedtime. Hopefully, this is just a passing phase. She has also started saying more things like, "Go", "All gone", and "Na" for Jenna, our babysitter. She and Maia are very into "their letters" and can recognize Callia's "C" and Maia's "M". The cutest thing Callia does lately is she pretends to snore. Her favorite book is still "Goodnight Gorilla" and she makes a snoring noise whenever she sees the gorilla sleeping at the end. However, now when she sees Daddy sleeping or Mommy resting, she snores too. It is extremely cute!

Maia has started saying more too. She says "Da" for pasta and "nana" banana. Having fewer words does not hinder Maia's capability to express what she wants. She points to something and nods yes if you ask her if she would like that. She uses many signs to communicate like, "more, please, thank you, cookie, fruit, songs, all done," and raises her hand when she needs help. I truly believe that without these means of expression she would be one very frustrated little girl. She is still incredibly active and has now acquired a new skill climbing onto the couch. She knows how to get down but has attempted to go head first off the couch a few times. Luckily, Mommy was close by to catch our "Supergirl".

Do you see her 3 teeth yet? Two on the bottom (below), one on the top (above)!

Maia loves to hug everything these days...usually toys she loves or pages in books. On occasion she will grace her daddy or me with some "Love".

The girls are much more interactive these days during play time. They often play next to each other at the same activity or different activities but lately I have been catching them playing peek-a-boo with each other through tunnels or this little barn. I love watching that!

Our main activities now are puzzles, always books, the new farm house, playing outside and pretending in our new kitchen (found it on Craig's List for a steal). They love to open the doors and play with the pretend food but most especially, they love to have a "tea" party with the tea set that Grandma and Granddad got for them. As usual, we are keeping very busy!

Our new "kitchen"

14 Months and I'll do it myself!

Callie showing off her new teeth - look closely!

Maia giving her banana monkey a hug

It's amazing to me how quickly the time goes and how little of it I have to take new pictures and update this blog! The girls are growing up so fast and wanting to do so many things by themselves. This takes extra patience and time on my part but I love watching their faces after they have succeeded in their endeavors. This is mostly around feeding as both girls like to use a fork or spoon on their own. Much of it ends up on the floor, them or me but they are getting better at it each day. Maia can even successfully poke something with a fork all by herself!

Callia is so near to walking that we think it will happen any time now. She took her first solo step today and is constantly practice walking all around the room. I used to say that I was fine with waiting for her to walk since the idea of two toddlers walking in different directions seemed very daunting, but now I am really excited for her to walk. I think it will open so many doors for her and she will be so proud of herself. The only thing that really worries me is having them walk/run away from me in opposite directions in a crowd. My friend, who also has twin girls (they are a little older than Callia & Maia) found these adorable monkey backpacks they can wear and a parent can actually hold onto the tail in a crowded area. I used to be so against "leashes" for kids but now having twin toddlers, I have changed my mind and think it is a matter of safety. So I got them too and will use them once Callia is officially walking.

Anyway, Callia has begun saying versions of words like "da" for pasta and "na na" for banana. I also think I heard her say "Elmo" the other day - one of her favorites. She is just a love and so happy to be sung to and read to. I love it when I sing certain songs to her and she anticipates the next part or mimics me. If there is a sad part in a song she will put out her lower lip and squint her eyes.



Maia is always on the move. She continues to amaze us with her communication skills while only being able to say "Ma ma" and "Da da" right now. She can tell us what she wants through gestures, sign language and nodding her head. Signing has been very helpful for us since I can imagine Maia being so frustrated if she could not communicate her views to us. Naturally, siblings tend to want what the other has and often Maia would whack Callia over the head if she wanted her toy. I introduced the "turn" sign to her so she could ask for a turn and then I help her get it when Callie is finished with the toy. This has helped tremendously and Callie no longer gets bumped on the head!

Maia's depth of understanding is incredible to us. The other day, she started crying and kept pointing to a drawer. I opened it and she pulled out the Triple Paste diaper cream. I asked her if her bottom hurt and she nodded her head. Sure enough she had a rash and stopped crying once the cream was on. It will be so fun when she has words because I think what she has to say will be very humorous. Maia has a little bit of a mischievous streak to her. One night, she took a box of tissues out of a cabinet; Daddy told her they were not for playing and put the box behind his back. At some point, she took the box behind the ottoman to hide and took every single tissue out. Daddy saw that it might be bedtime so he started singing the "Clean-up Song". Maia put back every single tissue into the box and then put the box back in the cabinet where she originally found it. So funny...



Jason has been incredibly busy at work this month and it will continue into the next. He works so hard and is so dedicated to his projects but I know he misses being with us. The girls really adore playing with Daddy and often Maia cries when he leaves, signing "More Daddy". Luckily, we saw a lot of him this weekend and I was able to take some time to do some things for myself...like get my haircut! I decided now that the girls have stopped pulling my hair, it is time for a change. So I had about 5 or more inches cut off and I love it! I think I will get it even shorter next time! Will post a picture sometime soon...

We have been enjoying a wonderful organic farm share that includes many vegetables and fruit since last June. The positive side is that I have been able to make a variety of organic things for us and the girls (they like kohlrabi!) but the negative side is that it is quite challenging to cook anything with 2 toddlers underfoot. Today, I was able to make tonight's dinner as well as tomorrow night's....baked ziti with eggplant - one of the girls' favorite meals. I am very proud that they are pretty adventurous with food although there are definitely things they do not like. I am just happy to expose them to a variety of things so they hopefully won't demand the same thing for dinner every night - I can dream, right? We keep very busy during the week and have had a great time at playdates with other kids/moms from our class. Looking forward to being out and about more this winter and not so cooped up like last year!

Callia's big day today!

Just a quick entry to commemorate this important day. AT 14 months Callie has her first tooth with two others making their way as well. She seemed so proud when we clapped for her! She also started saying, "Uh, oh" when she dropped something with the cutest little voice! In addition, she finally started walking using her walker. It was Callie's big day today!

13 Months and ready to explore!

Sisters on the rocking chair

The girls are now 13.5 months and so busy these days! They both love to discover new things and are really excited to explore.

They are both around 20 lbs and are in the 75% for height according to our pediatrician. They are fantastic eaters these days and I am appreciating it while it lasts. Some of their favorite foods are lentils, barley, asparagus and quinoa....but ultimately any type of fruit will be devoured by both. Maia has taken to signing quite a few things and fruit is one of them. They both like to tell us what the doggie/snake/ bear "says" but my favorite is the sound of a clock!

We are researching some new things to do for the Fall/Winter as we felt so cooped up last year. Now that our schedule is easier, it will be fun to try some new classes and meet with friends. We have a nice Monday play date group who like to go to Museums/ Parks/ Zoos, etc and we are learning of all the great outings there are in the area.

Callia continues to be very much into her books. She has her favorites like Goodnight Gorilla and the Small Seed, but she is open to new ones. We are going to attempt the story hour at our local library this Fall as soon as we can stop the morning naps. She is still not interested in walking yet but likes to stand at the couch a lot and climb up stairs.

Maia is on the go wanting to walk everywhere and do things herself. She has become more and more independent but still lets me sneak a hug in once in awhile. She has become quite good at practicing the fork and spoon at mealtime.

One of the things we especially enjoyed this summer was this awesome water/sand table that currently only holds water (they just eat the sand).

Here are some fun photos of the girls playing at the water table:

Maia making a big splash

Callia, splashed by her sister

Maia claiming innocence

More rocking chair photos:




Mommy testing her creative eye with two spectacular subjects:





Here Maia and Callia are trying out their new bear chairs:

Hugging the bears

12 Months - walking and climbing....

We are on to great adventures with our very mobile one year olds. Callia has been "practice" walking with us and wanting to stand and climb much more than ever! Maia has started walking and between that and climbing onto everything, she is a very busy girl. One of their favorite things to do is climb on these soft block structures that their Grandma and Granddad got for them. They are also very interested in climbing onto the couch and we are really emphasizing the "feet first method" of getting down. Maia has also felt very comfortable diving into new physical skills head first and figuring it out pretty quickly. Callia's style of learning is one where she likes to observe for awhile before she tries something new. But then she does it very well.

The girls are very interested in being around each other most of the time, even if they are not playing with the same toy. When Maia wakes from her nap and Callia is still sleeping, Maia often points to the monitor motioning for Callia. The other day, our babysitter Jenna and I took them to a spray park down the road from us. At one point, Maia and Callia actually embraced and I have never seen them do that before! They love new experiences and adventures but especially interactions with people. We have the most wonderful neighbors who stop and say hello while we are playing outside and if Maia sees them out the window from inside the house, she points and gets very excited.

Callie and her sweet smile...

Callia still loves her books but has become a bit more interested in climbing and playing with blocks. She is signing "more", "all done" and makes a clicking sound when asked what sound does a clock make. She loves to be praised for anything but does not like to be encouraged too much (hence, switching from bottle to cup is not really working with her at the moment). She is great at anticipating things in songs and books by either making a happy sound or doing a hand gesture. Her smile still brightens my day and she is a very happy little girl. I love watching her study things from books to toys to blades of grass, she will turn them over and study every angle.

Callie and her books

Maia continues to bring us much laughter. She can be very vocal about her needs (and right now it is mostly for Mommy) but she is also so animated without trying to be. She has a great belly laugh that one can produce by doing pretty much any sort of tossing, tumbling or tickling. Maia's favorite thing to do right now besides walking is climbing. She likes to sit on the back of our couch and attempt to climb various pieces of furniture. I found her today (as I was in the kitchen for a minute making their breakfast) sitting on top of a music table in the soup bowl (can only be believed with a picture-see below). More objects of great interest to Maia right now are transportation vehicles. She likes to roll trucks or cars around giving various things a ride, such as blocks or her baby doll. As much as Maia needs to be physical, she is also a very loving little girl. She likes to give her baby some "love" by holding her and rocking from side to side. She also does this for other stuffed animals and a plastic giraffe that one can insert balls into. She does not discriminate. She also likes to give "love" to her sister by thunking her head down on Callia's. It is very sweet to see, albeit a bit ungraceful.

"What? I didn't do anything?"

We recently had a really fun visit with my brother, "Uncle Mark" and my dad, "Two Papas". We haven't been brave enough to fly with the girls yet so we haven't seen my brother and his family in a year. It is really hard being away from them, especially for so long so we were thrilled to see Mark while he was in town helping our dad move to VT. The girls loved him and were so happy to spend time with Uncle Mark and Two Papas.

Maia walking....

Callia climbing

A fun visit with Uncle Mark from Tucson, AZ

Grandpa Roberts (aka. Two Papas) and his granddaughters

Maia giving her baby some "love"