Aiden's Rock and Lunge

Aiden is still working on the logistics of crawling, but in the mean time he does a pretty good job of scooting around the living room. Last night I began baby proofing. I moved most of my plants into the other room and set up a play yard fence in front of the TV. I think I'll probably buy a few gates to attempt to keep the boys in one room.

Bouncing Baby Boys

The boys love the bouncer so much that today I made a quick trip to buy a second one. Most of my twin books suggest that there's no need to *buy two of everything, so I originally only planned to buy one bouncer. However, when the boys started crying when they had to end their bouncing sessions, we knew we had a hit on our hands. They love it and are completely tuckered out when I put them down for naps. Bonus!

This evening I tried to accomplish a million things. I made a little progress. I wanted to address Christmas letters, but couldn't figure out how to print the labels. I finally figured that out, but can't find the dozens of "Forever" Christmas stamps that my mom picked up for me. The house is a disaster, so I'm trying to pick it up before Eric gets home on Monday. However, when I stop to think about why my life is in such disarray, I can't help but smile, because I'm thinking of my two little guys who surely have visions of sugar plums in their heads.

*During my frenzy of spring cleaning tonight, I moved the monkey chairs down to the basement. Low and behold, I spotted the exact same bouncer that I bought at the store this morning. I have no idea when we got it. Maybe it was a shower gift? Ahh, love my chaotic life.

Aiden Bouncing

The boys love this bouncer. Here's Aiden giving it a go:

Yum!

Hello, Dear Readers.

I have a few questions about food that I want to throw out there in the blogosphere. Thanks in advance for your answers.

Right now I nurse the boys in the morning before I go to school. [~6 A.M.] After their first nap they split a jar of vegetables, have rice cereal, and have a 4 oz bottle of milk. [~9 A.M.] More play time, another nap, and then they split a jar of fruit, more rice cereal, and have a 4 oz bottle of milk. [~Noon] Play, nap, and then I nurse them around 3:30 or so. Either rice cereal or oatmeal around 5, plus they spilt another jar of vegetables. Around 7, they each have a 7 oz. bottle of milk and go to bed.

So, how do I go about transitioning them to drinking out of sippy cups? Will they drink milk from the sippy cups? I know they can't have cow's milk until they are a year old, so do I give them breast milk/formula, which is what they currently drink from their bottles? Water? Juice? What kind of finger foods would be the best to start them on? When should I start feeding them table food instead of jarred baby food. Is there anyone who wants to hire us a personal chef so that said table food will magically appear at our table? Should I adjust this schedule?

Is it Friday yet? (Whoops. That last one snuck in there. It's been a long semester.)

(They'll be 8 months old in 10 days. Ack! They'll be 8 months old in 10 days?!? How did this happen?)

Visiting Santa

Tonight we took the boys to meet Santa at the Botanic Gardens just north of us. They offered a special night just for our neighborhood and when I saw the sign saying Santa was going to be there, I knew this might be a rare opportunity to have the boys meet Santa while avoiding a mile-long line in a shopping mall. Eric, my mom, and I headed over to the gardens after the boys ate supper. After paying our entrance fee, we bee-lined it to the barn with Santa. You've never seen a stroller move so fast. We did encounter a line once inside the barn, but at least it was warm inside. After a while, Reid started crying. (The boys missed their 3rd/last nap of the day because we took them to the doctor's office to get their flu booster shots. By the way- no tears from either one. I was shocked. They're usually inconsolable after shots.) I wasn't sure if we were going to have to abandon the mission at that point or not. I didn't want to be THAT parent whose kid is having a melt-down because I was dragging him all over when he really just wanted to go to sleep. Luckily, Eric managed to settle Reid down. Neither one cried in Santa's lap; just continued to look stunned by the entire experience. My mom stayed on to enjoy the rest of the Trail of Lights while we high-tailed it out of there.

Aiden dreaming about Santa and his reindeer.

It was a big day for the boys.

A Second Visit with Great-Grandma Starrs

Yesterday the boys, my parents, and I headed for the northern border for a second visit with my grandma in Cheyenne. The boys took naps on the way up and back. When they were awake, they were pretty content watching out the window or playing with their toys. The weather was a little chillier up in Cheyenne but the roads were dry.


On the way home, Reid playing with Pedro...

and Aiden sleeping:


My grandma thought the boys had grown a lot since she last saw them in August. She said she figured the next time she saw them they would be walking!

Four Generations:


Great Grandma reported no teeth yet for Aiden:

Reid enjoyed holding Great Grandma's hand:

My armfuls:

Showing off their santa hats:


I finally updated Aiden and Reid's travel map. Right after I scoured the internet and created my own map, one of my favorite digital scrapbooking sites came out with the template I used to create the following. This is exactly what I wanted but didn't have time to create myself. I love it when things work out like that.


Did you know any 2D map can be colored with only 4 colors?

Ho, Ho, Ho!

I took this picture with my phone in lighting that wasn't the best. I'll have to try to get a better shot in better light this weekend. However, it still turned out so cute, I couldn't resist sharing it. Eric was standing to the side and managed to get those cute grins.