Christmas at Bordine's

I took the babies to visit Aunt Cathy at Bordine’s and take some photos with the holiday decorations. I could easily spend a fortune in that store! The themed trees were beautiful and they had so many great ornaments. Susie was nice enough to let me “test drive” her digital SLR camera, I’ve been wanting to purchase one and this way I was able to check it out before buying one. The camera was awesome and I was able to take some really great photos.  Matthew & Claire loved the ornaments and wanted to play with everything!

Lots To Be Thankful For

Thanksgiving AM we hung around the house, watched some of the parade and cleaned up a bit. We went to Aunt Cheryl’s for Thanksgiving dinner in the afternoon. We got to see Sarah, TJ, Uncle Tom, Grampa, my Mom & Dad, Andrew, Chris and Mrs. Schryer. Aunt Cheryl made a great dinner and it was nice to be able to catch up with everyone. Matthew & Claire loved seeing all the dogs and were really laughing at Mrs. Schryer’s dog, mostly because he is “their size”. Matthew & Claire tried most of the Thanksgiving food, they liked the sweet potatoes, mashed potatoes, green beans, turkey and cranberry sauce. The only thing they were on the fence with was the rutabagas. This is the start of our extremely busy holiday (and birthday) season. It seems we have multiple parties and events every weekend from now until Christmas! Hopefully I can keep up with the blog after each event! Here are some photos of the babies’ first Thanksgiving:

Claire and the Lost Bunny

Jeremy needed a little break on Wednesday, so I took a day off work to watch the twins while he tried to get some sleep in-between his night shifts.  I pretty much busied myself catching up on my to-do list for the house (i.e. cleaning out the pantry, the fridge, doing laundry, etc).  The babies were so good all morning, they played nicely in the family room and even took a nap. 

In the afternoon, I decided to venture out to the grocery store with Matthew & Claire.  I decided since we were just going to Kroger for regular groceries and baby food I would forego the stroller and put each baby in a cart.  I arranged their shopping cart liners, placed each twin in a cart, gave them their animal blankies, checked pacifiers and we were off.  (Why oh why is Costco the only store I can put both babies in the same cart??? I digress....)  Anyway, I pushed one cart and pulled the other cart all through Kroger, we were making great time and I was finding everything on my list.  About 3/4 of the way through the store, Claire starts saying "Uh-oh, Uh-oh" over and over and over.  Mind you this is not unusual for her to say and I enjoy listening to her little voice, so I would just repeat it when she said it and laugh.  Fast-forward a few aisles and she is still saying it.  I looked at her and noticed her pink bunny blanket is missing.  She must have dropped it and was telling me.  I stood there feeling a little dumb for not listening to her and then decided we would have to go back and look for it.  We retraced several aisles and were able to recover the precious pink bunny.  I knew she understood what "uh-oh" meant but it was just funny that she was actually trying to communicate with me!!!

Do I Have to Teach Them "No" Already??!!?!?!

We are slowly learning the word "no". It has become necessary to start this training since the TV and other electronic items have become seemingly more interesting within the last several weeks.  A few months back when the babies started crawling, I was so proud of myself for making a "barricade" to keep the TV and other items associated with the TV out of harms way from the twins (or causing harm to the twins for that matter).  I spent about an entire Saturday afternoon cutting plexiglass to the right size, making sure the edges weren't sharp, assembling a makeshift door for the TV stand and then installing all of the above. Whew!  A few papercut-like wounds from the plexiglass, several hours and half a roll of duct tape later I had completed my baby-proofing. 

I thought there was no way they could penetrate my TV-fortress, boy was I wrong!  At now 11 months Matthew and Claire schemed together, while I was off doing laundry and cleaning bathrooms, to dismantle my hard work.  I heard the stereo go on so I hurried to go back and check on them (mind you I only leave them for 10 minutes increments) I found them sitting on the plexiglass, the DVD player was opened, the stereo was at maximum volume, they had removed Jeremy's XBox 360 from it's perch on the second shelf and were each proceeding to chew on one of the controllers.  I thought, "how in the world did they do all this in less than 10 minutes???"  I reassembled everything, told them "no", and redirected them to play with another toy. 

Since this little incident I have discovered how they were able to remove the barricade.  They have each, on separate occasions, demonstrated the ability to display this next feat.  In order to remove the barricade, they will grab on to the top and lean backwards with all their might until it lets loose, flinging the child that is removing the object and giving both babies access to the "treasures" they're after.  The first time I witnessed this I couldn't help but laugh, not only at the shear determination but just the sight of one of the babies using all their weight to remove the plexiglass door. 

Now, when Jeremy or I see someone touching the TV or TV stand, we say "No" very sternly.  Usually Claire will stop and find something else to do.  Matthew, however, will smile at you, then go back to the TV, when you say "No" again, he looks right at you.  If you start moving toward him, he will immediately let go of the TV and scurry away laughing hysterically.  They definitely know the meaning; it's just whether they choose to obey it!

Matthew & Claire are 11 Months Old!

Matthew & Claire are 11 months old!  Hard to believe they're almost 1! 

Matthew studies everything very seriously, you can tell he's thinking about what it is, how it works, etc.  This is particularly true if it is an object with wheels.  Lately he has been enamored with the vacuum cleaner; he'll crawl over to it, sort of pet it, play with the wheels, etc.  He's knocked it over a few times so now we have to store it out of his reach.  He laughs out loud if you grab his legs as he's trying to crawl away.  He thinks this is just hilarious!  Matthew says a few words: Mama, Dada, dog, uh-oh (he borrowed the last one from Claire!).  Matthew stands on his own and cruises along all the furniture.  He likes to play pat-a-cake, which he is very serious about as well.  Matthew enjoys pushing toys (or the laundry basket) around the family room, he has a toy fire truck that he pushes in circles for hours!  Matthew has 11 teeth, 4 on the bottom in the front, 4 on the top in the front, 2 bottom molars and 1 top molar.  He enjoys most foods that we put in front of him, although he's a little less adventurous food-wise than Claire.

Claire is a very happy baby, she giggles and smiles as she's crawling around the house.  She loves to follow Matthew around when she things he is on to something interesting.  Claire says several words: uh-oh, doggie, Mama, Dada.  She can stand up on her own and cruise along the couches in the family room.  She enjoys being read to and climbing all over anyone who sits on the floor to play with her.  Her new game is peek-a-boo, we went to eat lunch with some friends and Claire took the nice cloth napkin and put it over her head, she kept picking it up over her head an pulling it away, just laughing hysterically!  She mastered pat-a-cake a few months back and that also continues to be a favorite around the house.  Claire has 8 teeth, four on the bottom, four on the top (all in the front).  She loves to try new food that we put on her tray, but when's she's done eating, she's done!  She won't let you get another bite into her mouth! 

A few other odds & ends:
We've graduated to the big bathtub!  This is nice because the babies enjoy splashing in the water together and playing with all their bath toys.  Gramma S bought them their first pairs of shoes, Matthew is a size 4, Claire a size 3.  They don't seem bothered by the shoes and can walk with them on if you're holding their hands.

Top 20 in the Photo Contest!

Matthew & Claire's photo made the top 20!  Click the link below to view all the entries and vote for them to make it to the top 10!

http://multiplesandmore.blogspot.com/2009/11/halloween-photo-contest-top-20.html

This time they are number 18.  Thank you for your vote (you can also follow the link on the left-hand side of the page)!

Matthew Says Mama!

Last night Matthew crawled over to me, stood up on the edge of the couch, looked at me and said "Mama".  I started giggling so he started laughing and said it again!  Jeremy said he said it yesterday morning and this morning just after I left for work, too.  He has also figured out how to climb in back of the couch, I put a box in his path so that should stop him for a day or so until he figures out how to move it.

Claire has expanded her vocabulary by a few words.  She now says "Uh-Oh", dog, Dada and Mama.  Last night the babies and I stopped by the shoe store so that I could buy a new pair of shoes for work (I have a habit of wearing them until the sole falls completely off) and also so I could try a couple pairs of shoes on Matthew & Claire.  While we were in the store, I gave Claire my wallet to hold because she was getting bored.  After holding it for a few seconds, she looks up at me and says "Uh-Oh", then deliberately drops the wallet on the floor.  The lady behind the counter was laughing hysterically at her!  At least she is giving me a warning of when she's going to throw things on the ground now!  On a side note, I think we've decided to purchase a pair of Pedipeds for each babies' first shoes.  I just have to find the ones that I like!  I can't believe I've resisted the urge to buy them shoes all this time!

Here's a little update from this past weekend that I hadn't gotten around to posting, yet:

On Friday night Jeremy and I were able to go out to a nice dinner at Cinco Lagos in Milford while my Mom watched the twins. The wait was really long but the food was well worth it. We had a good time and it was nice to have a night out. On Saturday Jeremy had to work so my Mom and I took Matthew & Claire to meet our friends Julie and her Mom Kathy and her son Charlie for lunch in Royal Oak. It was nice to get to catch up with them and see how Charlie is doing. We went to a couple baby stores in Royal Oak with Julie and Charlie. We got a quick photo in, too.

When we got back to my parents’ house my Grampa S and Andrew were there. It was so nice outside we hung out in the front yard for awhile and we borrowed the neighbor’s leaf pile to take some fall photos of Matthew & Claire.

On Sunday, Susie and I went to Mayberry Park in Northville to take some photos of the babies. They did really well and we got some great photos. I can’t wait to see the ones Susie has. We were taking some photos on a bridge with the props we brought and some Japanese tourists came up and asked to take photos with the babies. I thought it was a riot that Matthew became a "tourist attraction" but he went right along with it.  They each took turns posing with Matthew (while they were making the "peace sign") and taking photos of each other!  I wish I would have snapped a couple with my camera but I think I was so surprised by it, that it didn't register!

 

Claire's First Word

Our little chatterbox has said her first official word.  And the winner is... "Uh-Oh!"  I was hoping for "Mama", "Dada", maybe "doggie" but "Uh-Oh!" it is.  I think that counts because when you say it she says it back and she has said it a couple times when she drops something so she understands the meaning.  I had to document this since she'll probably be talking up a storm in no time!

On another note, I've entered Matthew & Claire in a photo contest through the blog network that I belong to.  So far they have made the top 40! We would really appreciate everyone's vote!  (Only 1 vote per computer).  Here are the details:

Link to view all the entries (they are # 3 Pebbles and Bamm Bamm):
http://multiplesandmore.blogspot.com/2009/11/halloween-photo-contest-top-40.html

Here's how to vote:
Click on the link above and vote for # 3
Voting poll is on the right-hand side of the page, you can see the number of votes everyone has, once you cast your vote.
(You can only vote once per computer)
Feel free to pass this along to anyone else that you might think would like to vote!

Voting ends at 6PM (est) on November 12th and the top 20 will be announced on November 13th.