First Time on the Swings!

The other week Matt and I took the boys on a walk to the park just down the street from our house and we decided to try them in the swings for the first time. Turns out, they LOVED it! We have been back a few times since and have even had them share a swing... because it reminds me they're still little even when I feel they are getting SO big. :) Matt and I loved seeing their smiles... and we may have enjoyed a few minutes playing on the see-saw while the boys watched us like we were nuts. HA! Here are a few pictures from their first time swinging:

Lucas

Andrew

Happy In/Out-iversary!

Today the twins are 36 weeks and 4 days old, which means they have been out of me as long as they were in me! :) Here are some pictures to show the huge progress they've made!

(Click on any picture to make it larger)

36 weeks pregnant

12-11-13 birthday
36 weeks and 4 days IN!

8-Months-Old
36 weeks and 4 days OUT!

And more cuteness comparisons!

Arts & Crafts

This week we did our first art project! My teaching days at Stanford are coming back around, ha! For our first painting we did watercolor ice cubes on coffee filters and for our second painting we did finger paint on paper... both in ziplock bags since paint isn't approved for babies this age. ;) Once they were dry I hung them up on the wall in the playroom and the twins really like to look at them!


Watercolor Ice Cubes on Coffee Filters:

Finger Paints on Paper:

Displayed On Our Wall:

House Updates: Bathroom Renovation

Last week we gave our guest bathroom a slight face lift by reglazing the bathtub and shower. We are really happy with how it turned out and how much easier it is to give the boys baths now!

You can click on any picture for a larger view (sorry about the chip on my phone camera lens)!

Before: Blue tile in shower and glass doors

After: Reglazed in all white and doors removed

After: New shower curtain 

After: All done!

8-Months-Old

My mommy heart aches at how fast these little babies are growing up! I am so proud of all their little accomplishments!

First up, my little Baby B needed his first haircut as you can see below. So when my mom was here we cleaned up his hair and, of course, I tucked some of his baby hair aside to save. Because I am a sappy mom like that. :) Growing up, my mom always cut our hair so I was so thrilled she could help me give my boys their first haircuts! Lucas got a little haircut too but his was not nearly as shaggy as Mr. Andrew's.

Andrew posing with a little stuffed bull Matt got me from China years ago. They're starting to get into stuffed animals and I love it!

After haircuts! And very happy to be snuggling. And yes, they put themselves like this. How cute!

This last month we decided the boys are just too heavy to carry in their carseats anymore, so we started using our Ergo's to carry them, or sitting them up in the stroller (here). I realized I needed to tackle how to carry them at the same time and after a quick YouTube tutorial I learned how to do this:

Two babies. Two Ergo's. Same time. Yay me!

We also took the twins to a sit-down restaurant for the first time. With waiters and high chairs and everything, people! We were so proud of how well they did and a stranger even commented to us on the way out about how well behaved they were! :) We brought little placemats and toys and ordered them a side of avocado and they had a great time watching people and munching away on avocado, beans, rice, and tomato!

 Our new house is just down the street from two great parks and we recently decided to try out the infant swings there. They loved them so much that I bought a used play structure from another mommy friend for our backyard. It also has a slide and little climbing wall but we're not quite there yet so for now we'll take turns enjoying the swing in-between our trips to the park!

 We are also still really enjoying our kiddy pool in the backyard. It's the perfect activity for warm San Jose days!

Here's a quick video of the twins "talking" to each other  :)

These babies are loving eating! We haven't found anything they don't like. I am still really happy with Baby Led Weaning (here) and it works really well for our family. We have chosen to not give them any juice or sweets or treats (i.e. ice cream, chocolate, crackers, processed foods). We feel responsible that anything which goes into their little bodies comes from us and therefore it's our job to start them down the road of healthy eating. Someday when they're older I'm sure they'll swap lunches and have snacks at other kids houses but for now we feel this is best for our family. So far, they don't seem to mind! Here they are eating ground turkey, peas, and watermelon:

And....drumroll!... at 8-months-old on the dot, Lucas started crawling! So far Andrew is as happy as can be sitting and playing with his toys, and that's just fine with this momma! This way I get to slowly get used to crawling babies and baby proofing. :)

A Week With Daddy

This last week Matt was able to use some of his paternity leave to spend time with us at home after a two week work trip to China. It was soooo nice to have family time together drinking coffee, taking walks, laughing at silly things the babies do, sharing tasks around the house, completing some items around the house, and ending the week with a little trip to Lake Tahoe. Here are some pictures from our week:

We took the boys on a walk around Lake Almaden near our house. This was the first time they sat in their stroller without their carseats!

We went to the beach in Santa Cruz. We played on our beach blanket, dangled our toes in the waves, and avoided eating any sand. 

We snuggled Daddy and rough housed too!

We took our first trip to Barnes and Noble and you'll never guess who picked out the book we bought! ;)

We went to the library for the first time! We read lots of books, played with some toys, and signed up for library cards to check out these books!

Matt's best friend Steve was having his bachelor party at Lake Tahoe this last weekend. We really wanted for Matt to be able to attend but I was hesitant for him to be gone for another four days after just returning from a long trip to China. Our solution was to rent a small cabin for us to stay in so Matt could hang out with his friends during the day and evening, as well as help me during bath/bedtime and in the middle of the night when the babies needed paci's and help getting back to sleep. During the day when Matt was gone, the twins and I hung out in the cabin playing with toys and sticking to our eating/napping schedule for the most part. Matt joined us Saturday afternoon for a walk down to the lake where the boys put their feet in the water and people watched. We then went to our first sit-down restaurant for dinner together and they did really well! We were really happy with how well the babies did on the car ride, sleeping somewhere else, at the restaurant (where they wolfed down their side dish of avocado!) and being out of our usual element! Sorry about the blurry pictures! 

We feel so blessed to have had this last week for some quality family time together! It feels like time is just flying by and it is nice to be able to slow down and enjoy one another. :)