Baybay & Baybee: Week 88 (4/10-4/16)

88 weeks old!

The daffodils are open! It is officially Spring now. Saturday afternoon we did a little photo shoot at Smith College in the daffodil patch. When we got home, I poked through some older photos and found a couple from a year ago for comparison. In the two pictures below, Maya and Ella were 8 months old!

Look how little they were! 

(Ella is on the left and Maya is on the right.)

And another in their tiny hats.

(Maya is on the left and Ella is on the right)

And back to the present, here are the girls walking through Smith College to get to the daffodil hill.

Mmm!

They smell nice!

With Dada.

Yay! We got everyone to look at the camera!

An artistic shot that I really like.

Together in the flower patch.

Me and Maya.

Ella spent a lot of time picking the tiny yellow flowers that were all over the ground, and putting them carefully into her pockets.

We found a bench!

Playing while I wander around taking pictures.

My last cooking class was on Thursday. We celebrated by making a cake. I really enjoyed the class and am going miss the time spent there every week.

 Cheese cake!

While I was at my class on Thursday, Kathy came down to spend some time with the girls. Here they are driving her car.

Grandma's glasses.

 Cleaning up the kitchen.

On Sunday, I went to a free toy & clothing swap in Easthampton. I took Maya and Ella with me and we had fun giving away a few toys and picking out some new things.  This swap was organized by one of the moms in a group I am part of and she had a great turnout! Everything was free and all the leftovers were taken to a thrift store. Such a great idea!

There was lots of stuff to look through! We picked out a few clothes and a bunch of fun toys. We also got rid of a few toys the girls no longer play with.

Maya spent a long time playing with this elephant toy that blows air out of its trunk and makes noises. We didn't take this one home.

This was how Ella spent most of her time at the Swap: eating blueberry muffins on the tractor. We took the tractor home, along with a few blueberry muffins for the car ride.

Other fun stuff this week included a short morning trip to the farm, turning and planting the garden, and a visit from Selena. Both girls learned the word, 'cool' and Ella went poop on the potty all on her own without telling anyone she had to go.

Maya also made her first two-word spoken sentence on Thursday! We had made blueberry muffins for breakfast and that was what prompted it. She came running back into the kitchen as I was taking the rest of the muffins out of the tins. "More! More!", she said. When I tried to give her a muffin, she held up two fingers with a very offended look on her face. When I questioned her reason for wanting TWO more muffins instead of just one, she explained, "More Dada!" I gave them to her and she happily ran back to the table, two muffins in hand. Sure enough, one was handed over to a very thankful Dada.

Watching the big horse eat.

The babies!

Planting seeds to start in our cold frame!

Turning the garden together.

Selena reading to the girls.

Silly.

Just hanging out in the living room with Baa-baa and the marbles.

Baa-baa gets thirsty sometimes.

Maya and Ella have been experimenting with feeding each other.

Playing "Boo!" is still a very fun game.

Baybay & Baybee: Week 87 (4/3-4/9)

87 weeks old!

Wednesday night (actually Thursday morning), Maya climbed/fell out of her pack n' play. She wasn't hurt at all (we had a futon on the floor just for that reason) but she was scared and Brett and I are very worried about it happening again. I am thinking we will have to give the beds on the floor another try, sooner rather than later.

On the topic of sleep, I've decided that our early mornings have got to stop. I can't go on bringing both girls into our bed so early and then nursing/laying with them for an hour or more until we all get up for the day. While part of me enjoys the cuddling and nursing, it's just not comfortable to do it for so long. Brett and I are so tired all the time and I think that's mostly because of the mornings. I'm not sure what the plan is, but something's going to have to change. 

We love Mama and Dada's bed.

The weather continued to be warm all week so we were outside a bunch. Our seeds arrived in the mail, we had a fun visit to Leyden on Sunday, we went all together to a playground one afternoon, and the girls did a LOT of swinging on their swings.

Big-kid swings at the playground.

On Mama's lap.

Three at a time!

Ella went down this fast slide. I stayed at the bottom to catch her after the picture was taken.

Swings at home.

When Maya woke up before her sister at nap time one day, I took her outside to play. She wanted to swing (of course), but wanted Ella to join her. I reminded her that Ella was still asleep and I said that if she missed her sister she could wave to her.

Sisterly love.

A visit to Brett's parents' house. Lots of fun stuff to play on!

Ella nails the landing.

The cutest one.

Time to take a walk down to the river!

We spent a long time throwing rocks into the water.

I took a lot of pictures.

Ella searches for the perfect rock to throw into the river.

A big one!

Happy post-rock-toss face.

I love this one.

Dada and Maya.

Maya wants a rock that's hard to get.

Just hanging out by the river.

On Tuesdays I usually go out in the afternoons when Craig comes to watch the girls. I often go to thrift stores and do other errands for some of the time. This week I had an awesome find at the Salvation Army in Hadley. We are pleased to introduce and welcome into our home,"Baa-baa", our new rocking sheep.

It was love at first sight.

It really is an especially awesome toy.

I also got those fire engine pants. Maya needed to wear them as soon as she saw them.

Craig has been an amazing help to us with caring for Maya and Ella every week. We all love him. Sadly, he will be leaving next month for a summer job, and then going to law school on the West Coast in the fall. We'll miss him very much.

This is Mira. We met her last week and she came to watch the girls for a short time on Thursday to watch the girls. Maya and Ella took to her right away and we are relieved to have found such a caring and sweet person to fill Craig's shoes.

Words learned this week: away, poop, more, maybe, and moon.

Soy beans were a new food for the girls this week. I'm not sure why we hadn't thought to give them that before. They LOVED both shelling and eating them.

No matter how much you try, inevitably some of the food misses the mouth.

Making pancakes for breakfast.

I made a delicious chick pea coconut milk sweet potato curry! I mostly followed this recipe, though I added a bunch of kale at the end, more coconut milk and less tomato. We all liked it.


What it's like grocery shopping with twins.

This Baby Einstein farm animal video is a current favorite.

"Get in, Mama! I'll drive!"

"I'll back the car up for you!"

Exuberant drivers.

Pushing her sister around.


Pushing her sister around.

Maya and I wore matching shoes one day.

Maya still loves to nurse. Ella still enjoys it too, but Maya has more enthusiasm for it and will ask to nurse at any time of day.

How many can I hold at once?

A good example of how the house gets so messy...

Yup.

One...

Two...

Three! (You may notice the mismatched mittens Maya is wearing.  She generally hates mismatching and this may be one of the few photos we have of it.)

A song from my childhood, passed on.