My Little Shining Star

Josie is a little shining star, that's her dance song for her first recital.  It is indeed recital season, and lots of excitement has been involved as we lead up to this Saturday. 

Try as I might to explain what she's going to be doing on Saturday under the big lights on a big stage with a BIG audience, I don't know that she's understanding of what it will be like   Her group of  "shining stars" are all the same age group, same antics, same attention spans.  For the fact that I know and have seen the routine informally at least 100 times, I can imagine the potentially adorable show that is ahead of us.  

But there's an even greater chance they all get on stage and go completely blank with fear, confusion, intimidation or just plain silliness from having to sit quietly for 1-2 hours back stage before going on. 

 These photos are from last week's dress rehearsal, brimmed with excitement as full makeup was required.  After admiring my "painted eyes" for so long, Josie finally had painted eyes of her own, with blush and pink lipstick to boot! 

And maybe the most important piece of all, the ballet bun. Not an easy feat with whispy four year old hair, but we nailed it!  It stayed perfectly in place the entire day, so I'm relieved to think it has a prayer of surviving back stage butterflies through to the finale. 

Break a leg, baby...

At 10 Months

Ahhhh ten months.  The big first birthday is looming on the horizon and I'm trying to soak up all the babiness I can for as long as possible.  Here are my girls at 10 months (only a few days late)....  



Livie

Alivia, Livie, Livs and many other combos, my smiley sweet little girl.  While she's on the go go go, Annalise just enjoys the view.  We've unfortunately been to the doctor recently for persistent runny nose and goopy eyes, so I know she's currently 17.5 lbs!  And she's my babbler, there are some "mama" and "dada" sounds in there, but nothing we can truly say is a first word.   Sleep, ever so elusive... some nights good, some nights bad. It all blurs together anymore, I can't say Alivia or Annalise is a better sleeper b/c every night is different and luckily it's usually one or the other that's a stinker and up for some reason.  Thankfully it's not usually both on the same night. 


Annalise&Alivia - 10 mo


Annalise, Lise, Lili any variation thereof - my goofy girl.  She's fun, funny always ready for a play date.  I love her sideways smile, her smirk.  She largely watches contently as Alivia crawls around the house.  When she does get in crawl position we get excited and cheer her on.  But as of today she just flops down on her belly and goes into army crawl.  But don't be fooled, she's fast - sometimes faster than Alivia.  Who knows, maybe she'll never be a crawler. 

Annalise

It's time for us to take a look around the house and sort through Josie's toys that come will a million and one little pieces and put them away somewhere safe.  And the basement door, have to remind ourselves over and over again we have to keep it closed.  The baby gates never came down from Josie, so those are up and ready to go.  The cribs have been lowered a notch as the girls are getting stronger and stronger, yet they aren't pulling up to standing yet - it's not too far off.  Especially for Alivia. 

95 out of 100 photos are mostly like this :)



"No no Annalise...."

  



In this 10th month, they're back together in the same room again.  Through so many months of sleep experimenting, crying it out, colds, etc... we've had Annalise in a crib in the play room at night and nap time.  Knowing I didn't want this to go on forever, I want them to share a room, we put them back in the same room a few weeks ago.  Interestingly enough, this has been great!  If one is up in the middle of the night, the other sleeps through the noise unbothered.  Naps are a different story, and we nap them separately.  But night time success! Now we just need to keep them asleep for 10 ideal hours so this mama can get some sleep.



Annalise



Alivia



And She's Off

And off she goes, Alivia is officially crawling.  She's off and running, almost literally.  Seems interesting as baby B, she's always the first to reach the milestones.  We're told this is common for B babys (second born of twins).  She slept through the night first, rolled over first, sat first, and is now crawling first.   

 Annalise probably isn't far behind. But as of today she's still immobile, except for the reverse scoot she has going on.

Alivia may be the smaller of the two, but she sure is quick.