Waiting for Rainbows: Olympic Stars!

As we watch the summer Olympics 2012, I imagine what it must be like to be a mother to any of these professional athletes. It is almost like I can feel their pride as I see them cheer on an Olympian. While my girls might not be dancing on a balance beam, swimming laps in a pool, or running any races (at least not yet anyway!), I feel like I gleam with pride on how smart, how athletic, and how beautiful they are. I am one proud momma and every single day I am so thankful for their beauty and perfection inside and out.

Aubrey and Avery continue to be healthy, growing, and speeding past developmental milestones. Aubrey is starting to catch up to Avery and keep up with her activity level these days. What makes me smile most is when the girls play together…which usually goes like this: Aubrey is playing with a few toys and Avery is across the room playing with other toys. Something catches Avery’s attention and all of a sudden, anything that Aubrey has seems like the most coveted toy in the room. Avery quickly crawls over and Aubrey watches her with anticipation and excitement. Avery might bulldoze, she might climb, she might steal toys…it doesn’t matter—Aubrey loves it all! Aubrey laughs, squeals and just becomes super excited to be in the company of her sister. There are more times that Avery climbs through Aubrey than around her and Aubrey just continues on her merry way.

This month for the first time, I saw Avery standing in her crib talking with her sister who was on her belly, pulling down the bumper, who was talking back with her. From across the room, these girls were telling a story together and they were all smiles as they figured out a way to see each other while being in their cribs in the nursery. This is just the beginning!

In this past month, the girls have been loving extra attention from Aimee and Israel. They both have spoiled them with so much love and fun times. It is like a dream come true having them so close and sometimes the 35 minute distance between us seems too big!! We are so thankful they are here in Houston, both with great job opportunities! The girls also enjoyed a visit with Nana and Grandpop…as always everyone had a fun time during the visit. Nana was proud to show them off when we went shopping and to eat Tex-Mex for dinner.

This month I have really been focusing on learning/teaching the girls animal noises, body parts (eyes, nose, mouth, ears, fingers etc) and clapping hands. The girls love hearing me make animal noises (although I wouldn’t be caught dead doing these in public!). Their favorite animals are the bee, the monkey, and elephant. While it will be a while for them to really grasp what we are going over, I do find it entertaining when I stick out my tongue and Aubrey sticks out her tongue too and starts with a hearty laugh. Avery is really starting to clap her hands (usually likes to clank toys together to make a little more clatter) and Aubrey is still working on putting the mechanics together, but will have it in no time.

It has been really neat watching their personalities continue to develop—they sure have two different perspectives in life! Avery is my risk taker…she literally has no fear. We have to keep an eye on her because she already has pulled several daredevil stunts in her short little life already. Aubrey, on the other hand, is very calculating. Before she does most things, she wants to make sure it worked out for her sister first, she will do a mental “pro/con” list in her head, and she will do a full risk assessment analysis before she proceeds. Aubrey is definitely a mix between Jay and I, and well Avery, we aren’t sure where she got her adventure-some side from…but we love her innocence and perhaps some would argue ignorance!

We went on our first overnight trip this past month. We stayed in a hotel suite in Galveston, TX. It was the first time the girls were forced to sleep in a pack and play, which went probably better than we expected. It was really key that we had two rooms to the suite so that they could be in their own area and we could have our own room too. My friend termed vacation with twins as “relocation with twins” which truly is a perfect description. We went away for two days and our van was pretty packed full! It adds up quickly when you have big items like a double stroller and two pack and plays and all the supplies for pumping/feeding! Overall, we had a great time and definitely look forward to many more vacations as a family together.

This year I had two very special girls who celebrated my birthday with me. Of course I was super spoiled by Jason, family and friends. It was special year too as I could celebrate with Aimee and Israel in person. I truly am blessed to be surrounded by so many people that love me. I can only hope that our girls will have similar friendships in their lives as well.

Here is a little more detail about each girl this past month:

Avery Grace: weight- 14lb 13.5oz

**Avery uses full advantage of her slender body and really has exceeded all expectations as it relates to locomotion. Last month she perfected crawling to perfection and this month she is working on walking. She walks by pushing a car in front of her, or by holding our hands and it will be very soon before she is walking independently (yes, she is only 10 months old!). She has been cruising along furniture for almost a month now and she likes to transfer from one object to another that is slightly out of reach that requires her to take a step and leap of confidence. She now also stands on her own (she is standing longer and longer every day). One of her other favorite tricks is to visit mommy and daddy in the nook, where we prepare all their bottles, which means she has to crawl up two steps—and she does it with such ease. Maybe we do have an Olympian on our hands!

**Avery loves joining Mommy and Daddy when we eat in the play area. As soon as she sees us eating from a bowl or plate, she busily crawls over to us, and stands up holding onto our legs just waiting for scraps. She is so eager to try everything but she of course will moosh it around in her mouth a little while and sometimes eat it and sometimes let it roll back out of her mouth (yumm!). She is a daughter after my own heart—she loves Chick-fil A waffle fries and pancakes. She doesn’t like ice cream which her sister seems to love (com’on…they have to try some yummy foods too!). Speaking of food—the girls are trying to feed themselves food at dinner from time to time and we were very easily fooled by Avery when we see that she has cleared her tray and then when we go to clean her up and we find 95% of her meal tucked in her bib…oh and we thought you were so hungry! Avery’s favorite food this past month is eggplant.

**While we always say that Avery doesn’t talk much…she sure says “mommmma” all the time! There are some play times that she just says “mommmmma” over and over and over again…and I can’t say that it doesn’t make me one proud momma! Every now and then I wonder if she slips in a “daddda,” so we are keeping our ears peeled for her next word.

**Avery sure does enjoy the toys that Aubrey is playing with, but perhaps even more fun is my tubing that belongs to my pump. Both girls enjoy hanging out with momma when I’m pumping, but Avery especially needs to be climbing all over me to get the tubings in her mouth. She will wrap her mouth around it and then make raspberry noises…it really is quite funny!

**Avery has successfully weaned off her evening dose of Prevacid for reflux and we continue to see improvements with her reflux. She continues to eat approximately 5-7 ounces every 4 hours. One time she surprised us and ate 10 ounces for a feed—that is almost unimaginable for her! She sports 6-9 month clothes and wears size 3 diapers.

Aubrey Hope: weight- 16lb 3oz

**We are so proud of Aubrey…she have picked up the pace and is keeping up better with her sister. This month she has gone from having the smallest amount of backward movement, to army crawling, to rocking on all fours. We are amazed that she really has learned to boogie quite well with her army crawling! She is getting faster and faster every day (the video posted below was the beginning of her army crawling ventures...now she can just about keep up with her sister!). We love that she is now able to crawl to new toys and join her sister in discovering the gift of locomotion.

**Aubrey continues to be the better eater compared to her sister. She gets pretty excited about her solid food, opening her mouth wide open and brimming with excitement. As she has always done, she makes these adorable munching noises while she eats. She enjoys trying to feed herself and has a little better accuracy in reaching her mouth than Avery, but we still have to be prepared to clean up a mess after dinner! Aubrey also loves when we bring food into the play area and I swear these girls would do back flips if they could, just for this very simple baby food called “puffs.” Aubrey seems to really love ice cream and mashed potatoes—she is definitely following in Jay’s and my footsteps, what can I say?!? Aubrey’s favorite food this month also is eggplant.

**Aubrey loves a new trick she learned—when we pat her on the back, she will continue to talk/sing (sweet nothings!) to get the inflections in her voice with us patting her on the back. She is so funny—as soon as we start, she starts to make noise to hear the pitch changes and then when we stop, she stops. It might be just as entertaining for us as it is for her!

**Aubrey has also successfully weaned off her evening dose of Prevacid for reflux and has less issues with reflux too. She continues to eat approximately 5-8 ounces every 4 hours, and right now is actually squeezing in a whole extra feed mid-day because she is growing (yay!!). She also wears 6-9 month clothes and size 3 diapers.

Ummmm....I need some extra fiber.

Just taking a break....playing is so much work.

Playing together, standing at their musical toy from Uncle Joel.

Thank you Great Aunt Dee Dee and Great Grammom for my cute outfit.

Thank you Great Aunt Dee Dee and Great Grammom for my cute outfit. This is one of my favorite toys this month.

\Sweet sisters...finally a picture where they aren't crawling in opposite directions!

Girls standing at the toy box.

Such cute outfits from Gramma!! Poor Aubrey looks like she is about to tip!

Avery--what are you so serious about?!

Thank you Gramma for our cute dresses. Look, we both looked at the camera on cue!

Sweet girl (trying to reach for my phone!!)

Hey gramma-thanks for my pretty rainbow dress...Mom tells me a special story about waiting for rainbows.

And now you can see what picture time is like in our house these days!

Thank you Jennifer K. for these adorable ballerina outfits--I don't think it gets much cuter than these outfits. The girls first time in little tutu skirts!