Enjoying the last throes

I feel like I'm always talking about the weather, but with little ones it often makes the difference between leaving the house or not (no small thing when you are home all day every day) and this year has been absolutely crazy.  Until August.  Usually in Chicago, August is the worst, hot, humid, awful mess, when people can't get out of the city fast, far or often enough (this time last year we were in the Hamptons). But thankfully this year it has been just lovely, a bit more like September, which almost always has days full of the weather that I like best.  It will be interesting to see what this fall is like, whether it'll be more summer or snow, or maybe locusts or something...

 

Daddy took a day off and we took the kids to our Central Park and they had a blast climbing all over. 

They do have pants, but I overdressed them and then it got warm, so we lost them.  One of the benefits of being small.

This little guy has one gear, reverse, which leads to fun times under furniture.

 He has now sprouted teeth #5 and #6, on top, and humors me with the occasional "mama" and I swear the other day said "bye bye" after I was prompting them to say this to all the nice people at the mall who wouldn't stop harassing us.  You never realize what a freak show twins are until you try to casually take them out into "civilization".

 

Her big girl chair finally came today (his is still on backorder) and she LOVES it.

My little reader still working on her teeth... :)



Moe and Curly

The kids are coming up on eight months and have been changing so much over the last few weeks.  They are both sitting up by themselves now, jabbering like crazy (it's all "dadada" over here so far, apparently I'm just some lady who watches them all day ;) ), and having fun playing together.  They love to steal each other's toys and bang them around while squealing, when not rearranging themselves on the playmat so that they can be touching (i.e. kicking) each other at all times.  I found them the other day both leaned over and he had her foot in his mouth and she was pulling his hair and they both had huge smiles on their faces. :)

Alistair now has four teeth, as his two uppers broke through a few weeks ago, but she is still all gums.  Marielle is definitely stronger with her fine motor skills, picking up small objects using just her thumb and forefinger (the pincer grasp), but I think he is closer to crawling.  The pic below is his favorite position to get himself into and now he has started scooting backwards.  They no longer stay where you put them for very long.  Our days of non-mobile babies are definitely over.

She is crazy for story time and loves to "read" books by herself, while he'd rather just chew on the boards and laugh at me while I make a fool of myself doing the voices and animal noises. This is a really fun age. They laugh a lot.  They are so aware and interactive with everything and everyone.  I've seen several wave like motions, but we're not there quite yet.  I marvel at how big they have gotten in such a seemingly short amount of time, but also look forward to the coming months when we'll be moving to vertical, which will be amazing to see. Their personalities are so cute and are really starting to blossom.

New wheels

No, not me (I'm all set), but the kids got their big kid stroller (which I have realized is basically just a kiddy version of my blue SUV) for their six month/half birthday...  And they absolutely love it!

Their inaugural trip to Ravinia, a few sprinkles, but still fun

2012 Bumbleride Indie twin in Ocean

I had worried about getting a stroller with air tires, since I know they can be a pain (talk to me again after I'm stuck somewhere with my first flat), but the ride on this thing is amazing.  It is basically self propelled, easy peasy, and can take on anything.  Even the bumps in our sidewalks would slow down the City Mini, and since this was only slightly larger when folded and how many strollers do we really need, I sold the City Mini.

Had we had twins at another time of year, I probably would have gotten this earlier and with the carry cots (bassinets) or it is one of the few that also takes two car seats (Maxi Cosi).  Though the seats go flat, they are rated from six months (I have no idea why this is).  Before I finally bought this, I had considered a BOB or the Summit XC since they are practically giving them away now, but I loved this one just too much.  And thankfully, the kids agree.  Good kids.  This is not a serious runner, but neither am I.

So now that I've sold our double snap n go and the City Mini double, we are down to just this, the Twin techno (for travel, etc.) and the single Mac jogger (which I rarely use, but love too much to part with).  Hopefully, we should be set now.  And since I fell in love with the one stroller that apparently never goes on sale, and I have a strong aversion to paying retail, I thankfully found a retailer in my old hood (in Boston) who got me a good deal.