Driving the Stroller

We recently switched to the larger car seats for the twins. This means we're not using the baby carriers anymore, which is good since they were getting pretty heavy and difficult to carry. When they were in the baby carriers I could click them right into the stroller while they were still in the carriers. When we used the stroller with the baby carriers, Connor and Chloe faced whoever was pushing the stroller.

Well now that we've graduated to the larger car seats, we pull the babies straight from the seats and put them directly into the stroller without any baby seat. This means they face forward in the stroller looking out. I'm a little sad, because it was fun to have them face me while I pushed them around, but I can't be too sad because they love facing forward in the stroller. There's so much to look at and explore. I let Connor sit in the front and he sits up leaning forward with his hands on the front bar almost like he's driving the stroller. He soaks in everything and talks to people as they pass by, he loves facing forward in the stroller.

Both babies are hams and love interacting with people. I needed to buy a compact at the cosmetic counter and the babies were a big hit. They both smiled and chatted and entertained anyone willing to pay them a little attention.

It's a little difficult to adjust as things change and each change means they're getting older, but when they love it so much it makes it fun for all of us.

Social Babies

When we had family over last Saturday it was helpful for relatives to hold babies while we prepared and hosted in general. Chloe loves being held and getting attention, but Connor's no slouch when it comes to socializing at a party.

I love this sweet picture of Chloe with my Grandmother.

Uncle Martin took care of Chloe while we got food ready. I wonder if she showed him her Cookie Monster voice?

Connor, look up. See that hair, that's what yours will look like when you get older. 

Uncle Brian, look down. This is exactly what your hair looked like when you were a little troublemaker.

It's fun to have the family over and for the babies to spend time with everyone. We're lucky we can do it.

Fans of Aunt Carol

We had some family over last weekend and my Aunt Carol worked in as much baby holding time as she could. Connor really likes Carol. I think he has always liked the sound of her voice, but on Saturday he was really fascinated with her necklace too.

However, Connor wasn't Aunt Carol's only fan. The puppies know she's a dog person and were ready just in case she might drop something. Lots of fans!

Melting Swans

Yesterday afternoon, around 3:30, I felt the house getting warmer. It was the hottest day of the year at 106, we had 30 minutes until we needed to feed the twins and we realized the A/C had gone out.

It was getting warmer, but we still had some electricity, so we pulled down all the shades and had every fan on. Carl made a few calls to see if we needed to get an emergency electrician and checked with the neighbors to find out some of them had also lost air conditioning.

Turns out it was a problem with the electricity, to fix it the provider had to shut down all of the electricity to replace a cable and wires that had burned through. This happened at 8 pm, the bedtime feeding for the twins. We talked about packing everything up and going to my Mom's house, but the twins don't have beds there, we'd have to wake them up at 6 am to get them back home and the air could come back on at our house at any point. Or the air conditioning might not come on all night and we'd have to take the babies and Maria somewhere with air conditioning the next day.

The babies went to bed right after the last feeding and they seemed to fall asleep just fine. Maxwell, however, was not comfortable with the situation. Not only was he breathing heavy because he was hot, it was now 87 in the house, but the situation was making him stressed. He would follow me wherever I went, but I couldn't get him to relax. I finally went into our master bath and got him to lie on the floor where the tiles were cool. We probably stayed there for an hour and a half, but he was finally able to calm down.

At 10:15 the electricity and air conditioning came back on. The babies were sleeping well and the house cooled down pretty quickly. I'm glad it was only a few hours, but I just can't imagine living without air conditioning in this crazy heat.

Eating Adventures

As we're learning to feed ourselves and trying new items there are some things that work better than others.

We bought some vanilla teething biscuits. They're like hard cookies. I let the twins have the teething biscuits while I sat down at the table and worked on my lap top. They sounded like they really enjoyed the biscuits, but when I looked back up at them I realized what a giant mess "teething biscuits" were.

They both enjoy eating puffs, but Connor really goes after it with some gusto. He likes to grab several puffs at once and tries to jam them all into his mouth. Sometimes they get a little sticky and his misses his mouth.

The puppies really enjoy meal time for the babies, they usually walk away with a little dropped treat themselves.

Fun Toys

I'm a little embarrassed by how many toys we have for the babies. Some of the toys are gifts friends and family couldn't resist giving the twins and others are things Carl couldn't resist getting for the twins, but the long and short of it is we have a lot of toys.

One toy they've been playing with lately is a cool piano table that plays music and names colors and numbers in both English and Spanish. Connor and Chloe both can stand and play on the piano table at the same time. It's a really fun toy.

But not matter how fun all the toys they have are, sometimes nothing beats a hanger.  

I was cleaning out the babies' closet and piling up the hanger to throw out. I guess a pile of hangers is irresistible as toys kept them distracted for awhile. But now that I've thrown out the hangers, we're back to fighting over a space at the piano table.

Teeth

Connor and Chloe have both been teething since May. Their cousin Andrew came to visit in early July. Andrew's a month younger than the twins, but already has at least six teeth.

I keep saying "everyone's different" and having twins has really helped me understand that, but in the baby teeth area, Connor and Chloe have the same number in the same place. So far only two, right in the middle on the bottom.

Casa Parade of Playhouse

Last weekend we were looking to get out of the house, but with the temperature over 100 we wanted to find a cool, baby-friendly place. We ended up going to the old stand-by, the Mall.

At Northpark Mall they had the annual Dallas CASA Parade of Playhouses. A dozen or so playhouses are built, donated and on display throughout the mall for people to purchase raffle tickets to win one.

Dallas CASA is a non-profit organization whose volunteers are appointed by judges to advocate for the best interest of abused and neglected children in protective care. CASA stands for court appointed special advocates. The parade of playhouses is an annual fund raising event for this organization.

We did our part and bought raffle tickets and then we had to pick which playhouse to put our tickets in to try to win. Here's a link to all of the playhouses including a castle, a cozy cottage with a swing on the porch, and a cupcake house.

We considered the fire truck playhouse

The girly house

But ended up putting our tickets in the stage haus. It has a deck on top, sliding doors and seemed good for both boys and girls.

If we don't win a playhouse this year, it will be fun to see what they come up with next year and try again!

Chloe's Voices

The twins aren't actually talking yet, but they're really trying. They both make a lot of sounds, raise the pitch of their voice and sometimes it seems like they're talking to one another. Every now and then we think we recognize a work like mama, dada, or baby, but they're not linking those words to us so it's just sounds at this point.

Chloe has been trying out voices that sound like she's talking like a duck. It's almost like a smokers voice, rough and scratchy coming from the back of her throat. I've been trying to catch it on video since it's a crazy voice coming from a cute baby girl.

This morning we had Sesame Street on and Cookie Monster was singing about the letter S. Chloe started to do the voice and she sounds just like Cookie Monster. Maybe that's where it came from.

Fall Over Laughing

Awhile back I posted a video of the twins cracking up when Carl pulled a burp cloth over their faces. Toys surround them, but the most fun is a worn out burp cloth.

Little did I know they don’t even require a burp cloth for entertainment. In this video clip Carl is making funny noises and the babies love it. Chloe laughs so hard it makes her fall over. I love this video!

Popsie and Nana Visit

Our summer has been full of activity and the twins have had lots of visitors. It’s taken me a little while to get back to my postings, but I wanted to share a visit from a few weekends ago when Popsie and Nana (aka Carl’s Dad and Step Mom) came to spend some time with the twins.

When Popsie and Nana came to visit they brought a lot of fun and love for the twins. Connor and Chloe got super cute Ragin’ Cajun onsies that look adorable on.

We grilled out and went swimming, but I think the favorite part of the visit for Connor was Popsie and Nana’s puppies, Bobby Sue and Katie. Connor is used to having Max and Leo around and is learning to be gentle when he wants to play with dogs. He was very interested when he saw Bobby Sue and Katie. They’re similar in size to Max and Leo, but clearly new and different dogs visiting our home. The best part was when we went for a swim, Bobby Sue didn’t want to be separated from Popsie so she jumped in the pool and swam with us. It was great fun and Connor really loved meeting new puppies.