Digging In

It's the time of year when we (me) are really itching to get out in the yard to dig in and clean up.  Last Fall I found the time to fill my three garden beds full of tulip bulbs for Spring cutting.  They're all on the brink of blooming, and when they're spent I'll pull out the bulbs and get my vegetables in.  But here we are, a few weeks away from that, and my new garden bed is empty and ready. 

We did some test growing in the our basement greenhouse, and I have a good handful of zinnias ready to go in the ground, and here's josie making some holes for me, and just plain making a big mess. 

I've found it hard to fit in my hobbies lately (I wonder why!), but I'm hoping the babies find themselves happy in the stroller b/c this is how I imagine much of our Summer as we get outside and go. 

I see us walking our street over and over this Spring, luckily it's quiet with very minimal traffic. And through these pictures I see it's maybe time to get this girl a big girl bike as her knees are about up to her chin.  She's just now warming up to this version of mobility - having been fearful of anything with pedals and wheels up until now.

Instant Best Friends, Well, no...

I think there are a lot of false presumptions about twins and how they should look, behave, grow, etc... and one that I'm finding particular untrue at this point in the game is the "instant friend, constant companion".  Other than when they were swaddled little bundles laying together in the crib, they don't really play nice. There's a lot of hair pulling, fingers in the nose, pulling on ears... this makes for unhappy sisters. Nor are they much entertained by what the other is doing at any given time.

I'm pretty well aware that this is going to change as they get older and most likely (hopefully) for the better.  Who they are entertained by, Josie.  For sure. She's loud, she's boisterous, she's always bouncing around the room.  It's rare to get Josie to focus her energy on baby entertaining, but when she does - everyone is happy. 

Developmentally, this week has been interesting.  Three things of note. Alivia's baby babble is getting much more conversational.  If I'm out of the room and hear them chatting, I can always tell which is Alivia vs Annalise. Annalise is just babble, but Alivia... she's having a full conversation!  Alivia again, ahead of her sister - scooting around like she's got somewhere to be.  Poor Alise, or happy Alise, she's just fine chillin' in the same spot for the most part. 

And lastly, their coordination is finally getting fine tuned to the point of snatching pacifiers out of each other's mouths and popping it into their own, and also for the purposes of sneaking a toy away from the other. It almost never goes over well.  

8 months in

Oooops, there's about 6 months since I've thought about updating.  There's a lot to say about being the mom to a lively 4 yr old and twins while being cooped up in the house all Winter, but more exciting to all of us is the sun shining and the chance to go for walks outside. We're 8 months into adapting and figuring out how to do it all - and it isn't always easy, well, like 90% of the time it isn't easy - but it's all worth it.  

livie - 8 months

alise - 8 months

To be honest, we're really anxious to get out of this house and enjoy Spring.  Ed built me an XL greenhouse over the Winter to get our special tomatoes started back in February, now's just the job of building a fourth raised bed to accommodate the big garden plans.