Hannah is 15 pounds 15 ounces, 26 inches and Meredith is 15 pounds 14 ounces 26 1/2 inches. Getting SO BIG! Mommy could tell yesterday as I carried them both around the house b/c neither would let me put them down without screaming! My arms are SORE today! Meredith is crusing, saying Mama (not at me yet), Dada (not at Alan yet), and Yum Yum (when she is eating something she likes though it sounds like Num Num) and waving hi and bye. Hannah is letting go when she pulls up and clapping when you say "YAY!"

sisterly playing ... they were laughing hysterically pulling this string back and forth ... the random things they like?!?!

ugh oh ... time to put up the gate!
where there is one ... there are two!
taken from my phone ... so not the greatest quality ... but they are such cute little messes! Those teething biscuits are a mess! Hannah has 3 teeth and Meredith has 2.
and the diaper changing wars begin!
they LOVE to play with the dog! they know what to do with his toy ...
Meredith says ... Cooper ... don't you want this? She picks it up and waves it at him when she wants him to play.
two against one!

The girls are EVERYWHERE these days! They thunder around chasing each other, the dog, me ... whatever is top on their priority list at the given moment. Thanks to separation anxiety, it is usually me, and if I am too fast for them, tears ensue. As my Pediatrician says, "that stage usually fades around a year old, and then you are really sad that they aren't so attached to you anymore." As Alan says, "she's got you nailed." And he is right =) They are pulling up on anything they can get their little sticky hands on! They are just too cute and growing up so fast!

Hannah's serious face ...

Meredith is my smiley girl! She is always smiling and sometimes just crawls around giggling for no apparent reason! I love it!
Hannah's extreme concentration face. Her Dad makes a very similar one!
This is what happens when you fall asleep sitting up (Hannah)
Bubbles! The girls have graduated to the 'big girl' tub. Though it is a little frightening when I am bathing them solo ... mainly because they want to pull up on the side of the tub all the time ... but we have a cusion pad for the bottom of the tub in case of falls and I do the best I can with keeping them entertained in a sitting position ...
I told you ... all smiles ... most of the time (Meredith)!
Hannah
It turns out that standing up and chucking things out of the crib (including the favorite loveys and all the binkys ...) is WAY more fun than sleeping! Naps and night have taken a bit of a hit with all the new talents ... but maybe after a few more weeks the newness will wear off and we will get back to our previous 'sleep training has paid off' babies with good nap and night habits. Won't come too soon for us! I hate to hear them cry!!!
Toofies! Hannah has two in the bottom ... one almost all the way and the other right behind it. She also has a canine coming in the top. Meredith has 2 that have popped through on the bottom. No sign of top teething yet.

getting so big!

Hannah is trying to pull up on a not-so-sturdy "object" ...

I have so many photos of Meredith sleeping, thought I would throw one in of Hannah ... is she trying to smother herself here? As if we Mommys don't have enough to worry about!
Putting Hannah to work entertaining the dog ... hmmm ... this could be good!

all we want to do is STAND UP!!! Here is Meredith ...
Hannah ...
Ooo la la! Sometimes, by the end of the day, there is more food on their clothes than in my whole fridge ... so we end up playing in diapers! Hannah is the one who can stand AND turn. Meredith loses her balance still.

mischief & mishaps

So, we had a doctor's appointment yesterday for the girls' last RSV Vaccination! That makes 8 shots each! Poor things! They have absolutely learned the the Pediatrician is not a place they want to be as they screamed from the minute we went into the exam room until about 10 minutes after we got back in the car. It was a nightmare for us all! Including everyone else within a 5 mile radius! When I asked if any other babies screamed as much as mine, the nurse said "well, a lot of babies cry, but the Finley girls are ... ummm ... special." That says it all! I will not go alone again! Even if I have to take someone off the street! Hannah weighed 15 pounds 8 ounces (5%) and Meredith 15 pounds 3 ounces (less then 5%). Plugging along on their "own" little growth curves! Hannah has one tooth in and one coming in and Meredith has two coming in. Spend 5 minutes at our house and you can see what developmental milestones and teething does to babies! Makes them clingy and whiney! As I have always said, it is a darn good thing they are so stinkin' cute!

So, I have learned that "quiet means mischief!"

Hannah crawls now some and scoots on her rear end a lot ... sometimes where she decides to plop down, there is something in the way ...
My snuggle bug spending some QT with Daddy ...
So, Hannah still crawls backwards sometimes. She only crawls forward when there is something she really wants (think my coffee mug, the telephone, remote ...). Crawling backwards is OK except you can't see where you are going! I left for a few minutes and sure enough ... someone cries ... I try to leave her for a few minutes to let her work it out on her own ... thinking that she was crying b/c I left or b/c she fell ... I come back in and see this little head poking out from under the ottoman ...
... and of course, I snapped a few photos before I "saved" her!

frustrating 'almost' mobility & teeth

So, Hannah finally has a tooth! Well, the little, sharp tip of one. It seems to be giving her a lot of pain. She is pretty fussy ... yeah, imagine that?! Hannah has also crawled a handful of times. She isn't consistent but maybe, just maybe she will get it down and at least have one less thing to fuss about! However, crawling doesn't seem to be doing much for her and she is constantly trying to pull up on everything! We have had a few bumps and bruises, but I guess it comes with the territory! Meredith is also trying to pull up. She doesn't have much interest in trying to crawl at all and I can't feel any evidence of teeth just yet. Though, they say, for identicals, to expect the teeth to come in at the same time ... so we'll see!

Meredith, trying to push herself up

Ugh Oh, feet are slipping ...
... here we go ... welcome to my world ... ALL DAY LONG!

Here's Hannah, she is getting used to being on her hands and knees! Probably from all that rocking on her hands and knees that wakes us in the night and cuts naps short ...
... I just want ... to get there ... just to that table ...
YAY Hannah!
Here is how I found Meredith when I was getting her up from a nap ... do you think she likes her binky??

Going shopping! They wouldn't look at me ... too much else to look at!
She has the whole crib to sleep in ... but ALWAYS snuggles up to her soother ...
Is there anything cuter than a sleeping baby?
Snuggling up to the soother is all fine and good until you get your head stuck. This seems to happen maybe twice a week! I don't want to take it out though b/c she loves playing it so much!

summer time and the livin' is easy!

We took advantage of the warm weather yesterday and I chanced the girls' moods in the baby pool. Hannah LOVED it and had such a blast splashing around. She looked like she was in heaven. She wouldn't even look up at me to take her picture (which is unlike my girls, as you have all seen!) I just loved this picture of her.

Here's Meredith. She liked it for a few minutes, but then Hannah grabbed her hat and almost pulled her all the way over AND kept stealing the boat she wanted to play with (who is the toy thief now, huh!?) and that was about all she could take. She cried and fussed so I took her out and she played quite happily with her boat on a towel next to the pool.

I just can't believe how big they are getting! They are still 5% babies at 14 1/2 pounds, but they look more and more like "big girls" every day!
They did not get this way themselves (yet). I think it will only be a matter ot days before Hannah can pull up to standing. They were quite proud of themselves here, as you can see!
Two super nice days in a row. Shauna and I decided to give it a go in the pool with all 4 babies! Meredith did great this time! She seems to prefer hanging out with Brennan in the pool rather than her hat pulling sister. Hannah and Cohen were quite the movers and shakers (and toy eaters, apparently) to Meredith and Brennan's calm fun!

Here is acrobatic Cohen climbing OUT of the pool and Hannah watching with envy! Hmmmm ... how can I do that??
Brennan is showing off his "toofies" and I think, in both of their expressions, I can see a future pre-teen "Mooooom, leave us aloooone!"

our trip to the beach!

We spent a long weekend in Charleston last weekend. The weather was pretty rainy most of the time. We had fun though! The girls did pretty well and the biggest issue was the stranger anxiety. All the people freaked them out a little, but they warm up eventually! We went out to eat a lot and we are learning that going out to eat with two babies is not nearly as relaxing as going out to eat used to be! Babies sure do love to grab things, don't they?!

Hannah and her cousin Brayden (9 1/2 months) sharing toys

Meredith and her cousin Grayson (5 yrs) sharing toys
sisterly love (yeah, right!)
Hannah and Mommy at the (cold and wet) beach
Since she refused to nap, I took the opportunity to take Meredith to the beach during a moment of sunshine. I think she would have had fun if she wasn't so tired. She kept wanting to eat the sand and I think she got mad at Mommy for not letting her eat the sand ... I guess next time, maybe I will just let her eat sand??
Hannah hamming it up in Daddy's hat
Had to get the cute dresses shot!
Meredith is WORN OUT from the non-napping! She napped on the screened porch in the carseat for a while ... sounds good to me!