A few of my favorite things...

One of my favorite things is when I walk into the nursery in the morning, or after nap time, and I am greeted with giant smiles. I love that!! It makes me forget that they may have cried for awhile before falling asleep, and makes me forget about getting up a couple of times during the night! I also love laying in bed in the mornings as Addison and Fischer wake up and they start talking. I like to listen for a few minutes over the monitor before going in to get them. They are so happy when they are well rested!

Another favorite of mine now are weekend mornings when the babies come and lay in bed with us before we feed them. Scott doesn't have to get up for work so it gives us time to all hang out as a family. I didn't think I'd still be as excited about weekends as when I worked, but I am because Scott doesn't have to work and family time is so fun.

I can't believe today is the last day of July. I feel like time is flying by and sometimes I wish it would slow down. I sort of dread August, because on August 22nd my babies will be 6 months old. Where did the past 6 months go!? I fear that I will be an emotional mess on that day, and I can only imagine what I'll be like when they turn a year old. I am just thankful they are healthy and growing and developing as they should.

Stay tuned (probably tomorrow) for my slideshow of July pictures. I took a lot of pictures in July...I guess I am trying to capture everything that I can. Oh, and for those of you interested in what they are eating, they tried apples today and loved them.

It was bound to happen eventually... we came across a food the babies didn't like. We gave them turkey in turkey broth today and they both ate a little and decided they'd had enough. It was pretty funny to watch their faces. So they finished up with some peas - who picks peas over turkey?! Apparently Addison and Fischer do. We'll try the turkey again in a week or so.

Since Fischer had a video of just him on here I felt like Addison needed one too. This is just the beginning of a long life of making sure I do things evenly and fairly for them. Come Christmases and birthdays, I'm sure I'll count presents so they can't say that someone has more than the other... sounds like fun! Anyway, Addison is just talking in the crib, and notice that Fischer is just laying there watching her.

I love taking showers. When I was pregnant I told Scott I wouldn't be one of the moms who went days without showering. No way! That's not something I was willing to give up. And I haven't!! I don't think there has been one day I haven't showered. I used to take showering for granted, that's for sure... now it's not always so easy but I get it done. I also used to take long, relaxing showers and now they are usually about 5 minutes. In and out!!! It also helps that Scott works from home when he is in town, so he can listen for the babies or keep an eye on them for me. Normally I lay the babies on our bed with pillows all around them and they usually cry the whole time. I like having them right there on the bed so I can check on them as soon as I get out. But today we tried something new! I put a bunch of blankets down on the bathroom floor so it was soft and put pillows all around so they couldn't roll onto the floor. I think they enjoyed the change of scenery and the sound of the water because they squealed and talked the whole time. Yay! In fact, they stayed in there for about 30 extra minutes while I did some chores and they played with some toys.

It's bath night for them tonight and Scott is out of town. I'm getting pretty good at giving baths by myself. I don't do them together, but it's definitely a whole process to get them both bathed and fed before they start getting really fussy! Right now they get baths every other night, and I used to skip a night if Scott was gone, but now that they are eating food they are very much in need of a bath every other night. They could probably stand to have one every night, so that's probably in our near future. They aren't the neatest eaters! They are finally able to wear their adorable bath robes that they got as gifts - Thanks Irish! :) They look so cute and comfy in them.

The babies tried another new food today - bananas! They seemed to like them too. So far there isn't a food they haven't liked. They were a little iffy with the peas, but still ate them. They aren't happy when their food is all done, so we have to have their bottles ready pretty quickly afterwards. We were just commenting today how much heavier Addison feels now - I think she's pulling away from Fischer even more. They have to go get a shot next Tuesday so they'll get weighed...I'm curious to see how much they weigh now. They are both such good eaters!

As I've said many times before, Addison is generally our fussy baby and Fischer is generally pretty laid back. However, over the past 5 days, they have sort of reversed roles. Addison has been less fussy and much chattier, and Fischer has taken over the fussy role. I think they come up with these little plans so that I don't get too spoiled. Just when you think you have them figured out, they like to change things up!

They are doing well napping in their nursery now! I think this is the 4th day and they are adjusting well and I'm enjoying my new freedom during nap time.

This morning we took the babies to a park nearby and spent some time in the shady outfield of a baseball field! Our original plan was to go have a picnic lunch, but we ended up going around 9:30 because it gets way too hot by lunch time. They seemed to really enjoy just laying around on a big blanket on the grass - they've never done that before. I hope to make it something we do a lot. It helps me not feel like so much of a hermit too, because with the heat it's hard to go out and do much with them right now.

They also had pears today for the 2nd time. They both really seem to like them - Fischer couldn't eat his fast enough. We have one more day of pears, then it's on to bananas or apples. Once they've tried both of those, we can start just doing foods for one day instead of 3. So far they've had green beans, peas, carrots, sweet potatoes and pears. They seem to be good eaters. My plan is to do one fruit and one vegetable a day.

Also, we had them nap in their room today! They've been napping out in the living room in their swings. I've tried having them nap in their cribs and it just doesn't work. So today we put their swings on the floor in their room - Fischer only slept for about an hour, but Addison is still sleeping. Hopefully they'll do ok with this change, because it gives me a lot more freedom during their nap time since I can carry their monitor around with me.

Here are some pictures from this morning's outing.

The babies actually smiled at each other yesterday while they were facing each other in their bumbos - they had a little conversation too, and I actually got it on video!

This was my first attempt at uploading a video, so I hope it works ok. Whenever Fischer gets excited, he kicks his legs really fast. I finally caught it on camera right before his bath time. He gets especially excited when you turn his mobile on. I am trying to get a video of Addison but as soon as she sees the camera, she stops doing whatever it is she was doing.

Things are going well around here... I feel like the babies do something new everyday. This morning, Scott heard Addison say the "da" sound for the first time. Of course he thinks she'll be saying Dada in no time, but I'm still hoping for Mama. :) They have really started to notice each other more now. They stare at each other a lot, and roll all over each other. They also try to eat each others hands, arms, heads, etc... I can't wait until they start smiling at each other! They are also noticing the dogs more and Fischer has even laughed at them a couple of times.

Fischer has started to realize when I am going to kiss him and he opens his mouth really wide. It's so cute, and slobbery all at the same time. If I try to kiss him on his cheek, he turns his wide-open mouth towards mine. So cute! Addison hasn't started doing that yet, but I'm sure that'll come soon. Addison is always trying to sit up, and Fischer is starting to a little bit. We spend a lot of time pulling them up by their arms, and they really like it. Sometimes Addison goes all the way up and stands - she already has strong little legs! We have some toys for them to sit in that would allow them to stand/sit on their own but they aren't quite strong enough on the sitting yet so I have so stay right there and help them the whole time, but they still seem to like it. We are doing "bumbo training" everyday to try and get it to where they can sit a little better. They get really tired in the bumbos and start slumping over but we'll keep working on it. My goal is to get them to where they can sit in a highchair when we go out to eat, because they don't like being strapped in the car seats anymore but we can't hold them and eat at the same time.

I'll be sure to post some more pictures soon - of course I'm still taking some everyday!