having fun ...

My two college roomates were in town and we took all of our combined SEVEN kids to Leapin' Lizards ... the kids had a blast and somehow I didn't get any photos of the adults ... life is definately different than it was at CofC 10 years ago!

The girls had fun in the bouncy play area for a few minutes, but then they got mad that it was too hard to stand up in there ... they have a single minded focus these days ... WALKING!

Meredith
I leave this cabinet with all kinds of fun (and safe) things to pull out and bang on the floor ... the contentment only lasts for a few minutes because Hannah finds clean cups or cup lids and gets super mad that she can't get anything to drink out of them and Meredith usually ends up getting the cabinet door closed on her (we won't name any names on who does the closing ...) and I end up with two girls crying and reaching for Mommy ... I have been known to prop the door and fill ten cups with water ... JUST to get some dishes washed!
The girls have two passions these days ... #1 is playing "I'm gonna get you/get your tushy back here" ... if you say either one of those things they go crawling as fast as they can away from you and laughing and squealing ... #2 is playing on Mommy and Daddy's bed or in the crib with each other... they will stand up and flop down on their backs or tummies and have a good time snuggling with our pillows ... or roll around and wrestle in the crib with each other ... they love it ... they will bang their heads on the crib or steal pacis or loveys and think it is hilarious?! ... if they did that in the "real" world, they would have meltdowns! it is too cute ... here they are wrestling ... and proof that they weren't even mad about it!

hairbows, cabinets, friends, family & trains

It sounds like we have been busy! We bought the girls some hairbows as Hannah's hair is starting to get in her eyes a little. I thought it would be a good idea to get them used to them. Meredith's hair isn't quite long enough to stay put yet, but she will get there. My dear friend Beth and her 3 kids Kate (5), Asher (2), and Anna (9 1/2 months) came to visit us and we went back to Stone Mountain. It was hot and the bees kept trying to attack us but other than that, we had a good time. Ryan and Sarah came, too, and were good sports about helping with the FIVE kiddos!

Meredith in her hairbow (getting into the cabinets!)

Hannah in her hairbow (reaching for Mommy, as usual =)
It doesn't ever get old (for Hannah ... Cooper prefers when she gives him food to when she tries to play ... she isn't a very strong competitor)!
Hannah walking! She loves to stand up on her own in the middle of the floor and walk! She will stand and look at you like "LOOK AT ME MOMMY" and she is so proud of herself! Meredith acting like a jailed inmate! She loves to hold on and rattle the bars!
Meredith and Mommy on the train at Stone Mountain
Hannah and Uncle Ryan on the train (we had to bribe her with cookies to get her to sit still)
Beth and Anna
Sarah being an honorary aunt to Asher and Kate

We have had a great few days! We went to the Fernbank Museum of Natural History this past weekend. It was really a cool place! We could have stayed there for hours playing! There were tons of little exhibits that the girls loved and tons of play areas just for little kids. They will have a better time when they are walking so we will have to go back. Speaking of walking, Meredith took her first steps today! So they are both taking steps ... oh, toddlerhood, here we come!

Since they had such a hard time with the move, I started letting them take their little blankets all around the house with them ... and now they are total blankie junkies! They want them all the time ... here is Hannah with hers and Meredith with hers within reach, if needed!

Why, oh why, do I even kid myself and get a bowl? This is why I swiffer the kitchen at least once a day and cringe and think ... OK, TONIGHT is the night I get on my hands and knees and scrub the grout! Oh, the joys of renting an old house! Here they are all suited up in the swimmy diapers and water T's from Grammy Finley.
9 times out of 10, this is how I will find Hannah. She is such a Mommy's girl right now. Alan has gotten used to calling Meredith "his" baby b/c she always gets passed to Alan since she is a little less Mommy clingy! She has started to say Mama (Hannah has ... Meredith has been chatting us up for a while ... she now says Mama, Dada, bye-bye, duck, ball ... and various other sounds that sure mean something to her ... quite the talker, that one!) and so now reaches up and adds a pathetic sounding "Mmmmama" ... she also has started to cry Maaaaamaaaa, Maaaamaaaa when she is fussing b/c she doesn't want to nap! Oh, that girl, she already knows how to get me to do what she wants!
Meredith is a child after my own heart! She loves to be OUTSIDE! She will crawl to the door and CRY to go outside! Playing outside is one of the things that will be easier when they are walking for sure! Here she is pointing to her water table and pool ... "I see it Mommy ... I want to go out there!"
OK, NOW I am happy!

Stone Mountain Park

The girls' Aunt Sarah & Uncle Ryan bought them annual memberships to Stone Mountain for their birthdays (well, the memberships are for us and they come free ... but they don't need to know that =) so we all went this weekend! The girls were GREAT and they seemed to enjoy the sights! We plan to go back often! Next time we will ride the train around the park AND next time I will get a photo of the girls with Ry and Sarah! They WERE there, I promise!

At the top of Stone Mountain! Normally a tram ride to the top of anything would be so much fun for me ... but with my child in my arms ... I couldn't help but REALLY look at the cables and check out how sturdy they seemed! Obviously, we made it just fine!

Birthday cake #2! Aunt Sarah made a chocolate and banana cake for the girls! They are lucking out in the birthday cake dept! As a first time Mom, I learned that babies probably shouldn't have chocolate late in the evening ... it took them a while to fall asleep last night! Oops! Here's Meredith ...
and here is Hannah ... always making a funny face! She wanted to smear me with chocolate really badly!
Walking ... with a little assistance! Though Hannah DID take her first 3 unassisted steps today!
The girls really enjoyed watching the "bubble man" make REALLY big bubbles!
Here is Stone Mountain. See where the tram took us ... all the way to the top! It was a great view! A little "smoggy" to be able to see the city line but pretty nonetheless! The coolest perspective to think about the size of the carving was ... Sarah told me that to celebrate the finishing of the carving, they put a table set for 10 people on the shoulder of the guy in the middle (can't remember who that one is ... Andrew Jackson?) and they ate dinner there!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY GIRLS!

A year has gone by! This time last year, I was in a hospital bed with almost everyone in my family having seen the girls except for me. All I had was their photos on the small screen of my camera that I would look and and sob because of ... let's face it, hormones ... but also because they were so small and attached to all of those wires and all I wanted to do was hold them! Fast forward one year and now all they want is for me to hold them! I have decided that all of the difficult developmental stages that babies go through must be God's way of helping us let go. If our lives had been nothing but one good day after the next, then I would mourn the passing of each year. Despite having to spend a half hour of their birthday at the Dekalb Cty Tax Office getting car tags, the girls had a lot of fun today! Alan was off work and we went to lunch then played, played, played! Oh, and even had some cake! It was very low key as we are having a family party for the girls in a month (I couldn't get my act together to have it in time for their actual birthday) but it was nice to celebrate with just the 4 of us!

... hmmmm ... wonder what this was the result of ... didn't I tell you that sticky goo made great hair gel! (Meredith)

Ah Ha! The culprit! Birthday cupcakes!
YAY ... happy birthday to me! (Hannah)
Now, what am I supposed to do with this? (Meredith)
Hannah is a sticky mess!
Meredith is a sticky mess! She DID eat some and finger paint with some!
Playing with one of our birthday gifts! Hannah in blue bathing suit and Meredith in pink.

Meredith LOVES to snuggle! If she is playing with anything soft she will lay her head on it and snuggle! She is snuggling with Mommy's teddy bear here.
Birthday gifts from Grammy & Granddaddy Finley ... Meredith does well with her chair! She has figured out how to not just tumble out of it!
Hannah is sharing her chair with Mommy's teddy bear!
Playing with our new play house! We love to ring the doorbell, turn the lights on and off, open and close the door, and fight over the "letters" that go in the mailbox! As the guy who works at Fisher Price Customer Service says (I had to call b/c I couldn't get the doorbell to work at first), "it is a really fun toy" ... I couldn't help picturing this guy in his 30's playing with the Laugh 'N Learn Play House when he gets off work. I do have to admit, it is pretty fun ;)

trip to the kid's museum ...

We went to the kid's museum today. It is called Imagine It. Despite taking a wrong turn and not being able to get back to where we were so that we knew how to get where we were going (welcome to ATL, right?!) we made it there in one piece. Thank God for GPS.

Future concert pianist?

Crawling around on the water bed was super fun!
Having fun playing a duet!
What are these things on my feet? The girls' first time out in real shoes!
Meredith in her shoes ...

2008 D.A. (ie during atlanta)

OK, here we go ... making up for lost time! Lots of pictures!

Go Meredith Go!

Go Hannah Go! I got a push toy about a week ago and we sometimes have little scuffles over it, so I bought another one yesterday. I got a different one with the thought that they would enjoy two different ones to play with ... well, guess what ... yep ... now they fight over the newer one!
I mean I wasn't singing or anything? She just likes this new pose I guess ...
Testing the boundaries ... I don't know how many times I say ... "no ____, we don't play with cords" ... they now look at me to make sure I am looking as they go to play with the cord ... ah, toddlerhood, here we come!
Meredith likes to pat Hannah on the head ... at least here there was no hair pulling involved ... I am trying to teach them to be gentle ... really, for Cooper's sake!
Hannah's grin ...
Mmmm ... doesn't that spit-laden goldfish just look so appetizing? They are always trying to feed me their half-chewed food.
In the wagon they got for Christmas! The picture is weird, it makes them look like ghosts but I promise they do actually exist ... just a little over-exposed here!
Hannah loves to play with her ears ...
Here is Meredith striking her pose again! It is even better when she has some kind of sticky goo all over her hands! Sticky goo makes a good hair gel!