Catching up.......

Wow - it's been a while since I've posted. I'm on my laptop so no pictures, but I'll make up for that next time! It's been a busy couple of weeks for me -- work has been very busy but, after this week, I will get back to more normal hours (translation......more normal posting)! So -- how about a bullet-pointed list to catch you up, shall we?!?

• Mobility, mobility, mobility. Times two. The girls are crawling in full force and they are e.v.e.r.y.w.h.e.r.e! They've left the hang-out in front of the fireplace and have moved on to the foyer. I think they like how their voices echo when they squeal and how they can bounce things off the floor. When it's not steaming hot outside, we'll leave the front door open and the girls and Barley hang out and watch what's going on outside.


• They do still return to the fireplace to make sure the gap between the grate and the glass hasn't grown....you know.....so they can toss more toys down there!


• Sofia has started doing more and more of the "typical" crawling on her hands and knees rather than the army crawling (which has been serving her well, by the way). Olivia is getting faster and faster with her army crawling and the two seem to play more together now than before.


• We're moving towards the next phase -- pulling up. D said he was in the kitchen the other day and the girls were playing in the foyer. He paused when he realized he no longer heard squealing or tossing toys around on the floor and when he went in to check on them, he found both girls having pulled up on their knees at the bottom step of the stairway. EEK! Since then we've seen them pulling up to their knees more and more, and Sofia has even started putting her foot up.....next step --- standing!


• As a result of the above, we've lowered the crib mattresses down to the next-to-last setting. I had lowered them twice already and then the other night, Sofia was sitting in her bed while I was changing Olivia and I saw her little hands reach up and grab the railing. If they were standing at the railing, it would come up mid-way.....enough leverage for a quick flip over. So down they went!


• Both girls were in this great bedtime routine and they would go down without so much as a peep. Until a few days ago. They've started this "thing" where we have two bed times.......for the first one, they go down....they cry.....we try to let them cry it out.....one of us gives in.....they come down to play for another hour or so and then they're ready for bedtime #2. I'm ready for this one to stop!


• One night while I was working late, D said the girls had gone down for bedtime #1 and they were crying really hard. He just couldn't let them cry it out. So he went upstairs to look in on them and he said both girls were sitting up in their beds wailing at the top of their lungs. You know who won that battle....I think they stayed up til 10pm that night - haha!


• Over the past couple of days, Olivia has figured out that, maybe - just maybe, getting around on her back may be faster than the whole army crawling thing. Yesterday she was playing in the foyer and she came around the corner towards the family room.......on her back pushing herself with her feet. And smiling! It was hilarious. She's been doing that quite often since yesterday and I must admit.....I'm a little nervous that she may just adopt this new thing as her primary mode of transportation.


• Also yesterday I caught both girls sitting in the foyer -- they were sitting up -- and using their feet to turn themselves around in circles. It was so cute -- they were laughing and spinning and spinning and laughing.

I think that's about all for now! Consider yourself caught up! Pictures and possibly a video coming soon! (You don't think I could watch Olivia scoot across the kitchen floor on her back and not get it on video, do you?!?!?!?!)