Happy 8 Month Birthday Liam & Luke!

We are not quite crawling yet, but we are close (especially Liam)
We love to play on the floor and take each others pacifiers
and Jump, Jump, Jump
And ride in the jogging stroller.....
and then drink from mom's water bottle
and then get "kisses" from Adi
We are learning to feed ourselves
and practicing our standing and pulling up.

Happy 8 month Birthday Liam and Luke! We love you and look forward to your continued growth and progress.

Mom and Dad

Take Me Out to the Ballgame.....

Dad and the Boys
Mom and Boys
The Twins
We are holding hands
Luke being Silly with Mom

The boys went to their first Twins Baseball game this afternoon and had a great time. John and I were both suprised at how good they were. They really seemed to enjoy all of the sights and new sounds. I am not sure Liam moved for the first 30 minutes while he watched everything around him. We made it in time for the first pitch and managed to stay until the 7th inning. We probably could have stayed a little longer, but we wanted to make this a memorable trip (good memories, that is). The Twins ended up losing 7 to 5 against the Detroit Tigers, but it was a good game. We enjoyed having John around for an extra day this weekend. I am posting a few pictures from the boys first game as well as our play time over the weekend. We are looking forward to many games in the future!!

Happy Birthday Dad!!

Happy Birthday Dad!

Getting Ready to Ride in the Burley
All Strapped in!
Fun at the Lake
Sitting with Dad at the Lake

Luke at story time
Attentive Liam
Everything goes to the Mouth....

John's birthday was Thursday and the company he works for gives each person the day off on their birthday. He was able to take today off so that we could enjoy a long weekend. We had a great time celebrating his birthday (a little belated). We went to storytime at Barnes and Noble with the boys. I have taken the boys several times to story time at the library as well and they love it. They are both very attentive and interested in the stories (or at least appear to be). Even the lady doing the story time remarked how attentive Liam was!

We also took the boys down to the Lakes near downtown Minnesota. As one of my birthday presents, we purchased a Burley bike trailer. These trailers are very popular in Minnesota and so much fun to ride on all the paved trails around the lake. The boys seemed to enjoy at least the first half of the ride, but were both asleep by the end. This was the first time John and I have been able to ride together in a little over a year. We last rode while living in New Jersey before we found out I was pregnant so it was great to be back on the bike together as this was a weekly hobby for us before the boys were born.

The boys are really sitting up well and beginning to pick up small pieces of food off their high chair trays. They love love to eat yogurt, but don't turn much of anything down. Liam has two top teeth coming in and Luke is getting more hair. They are a lot of fun and changing daily.

Enjoy!

Happy Labor Day!

My Three Boys (Grandma and Grandpa Carrithers gave us our shirts!)

Liam loves to sleep on his belly with his bottom in the air
Luke in a toy wagon that holds blocks
mmm Spaghetti
yummy Spaghetti
Enjoying Some Water after our Run around the Lakes

We hope everyone had a very nice Labor Day Weekend. We enjoyed having John home for an extra day and getting to spend lots of time outside enjoying the inevitable end of the summer in Minnesota. While we did not go out of town for Labor Day, we enjoyed time at the house just playing with the boys.

Luke and Liam tried their first spaghetti on Friday night and seemed to really enjoy it. John and I tend to eat a lot of spaghetti on Fridays prior to long runs over the weekend in order to carbo load so the boys are learning early.

On Saturday, we went out for dinner and welcomed lots of comments from people. We are always quite the production when we go out to dinner and typically spend a good part of the meal answering questions about the boys. Our most commonly asked question, of course, "Are they Twins?" Although I know they do not look to be identical, I find it hard to imagine that one could have two babies that close in age and not be twins!

On Labor Day, we went down to what Minnesotans refer to as "the Lakes". There are a group of lakes near downtown Minneapolis that are connected by a series of running and biking trails. We ran on several of the trails and then enjoyed a nice lunch at a great little deli that reminded us of several delis we loved in New York City.

We hope you all enjoyed the holiday!

Our Progress at the Grocery Store

Luke is gettting excited about the steering wheel!
Liam is not so sure about this.
Watching Baby Einstein with Dad and Adi (the dog)
Liam loves to be on his belly
Luke

I have wondered several times what I would do if Liam weighed the same thing as Luke. Luke is around 20 lbs and Liam is around 16 lbs. While four pounds may not sound like a lot, it makes a big difference when you are carrying babies around for any period of time.

In the past month and a half or so, Luke has been sitting up very well so I have been letting him ride in the front of the grocery cart and he does much much better than when he has to sit in his car seat looking up at the ceiling the entire time. Luke is very outgoing and loves talking to people, looking around, and laughs throughout our trips to the store (when he is sitting in the cart). Prior to this, he was getting very anxious, bored, and often quite cranky. Liam, on the other hand, has always been in the Bjorn carrier on my chest. He is lighter so it is easier for me to carry him and he has enjoyed the Bjorn carrier since he was around six weeks old. But, I have often wondered what I will do when the Liam outgrows the Bjorn carrier because most grocery carts only have room for one child unless you put them in the basket of the cart. Some stores have carts and things designed for two older children, but they are still a little young for that. Considering that I really don't like going to the grocery store anymore than I have to, we need all the room possible in the basket so there is not room for a baby nor do I think we could keep Liam from getting into everything in the basket!

Well, we tried a new store this week and both boys were able to ride in the cart. Luke loved it! He loved the steering wheel, sitting next to his brother, etc....Liam, on the other hand, was a little skeptical. In case you can't see his lack of excitement in the picture, we had to abandon the experiment midway through the store and put Liam in the Bjorn carrier which I thankfully decided to put in the basket. I think we still have a little time before both boys will be riding in the cart together. I remembered when I got to the checkout of this grocery store why I typically do not go there. They do not bag your groceries. Bagging groceries with a Bjorn carrier on your chest and a baby in the grocery basket that is trying to eat the grocery list is not the easiest thing to do. I actually had the nicest lady and mother of three boys that are now grown who offered to assist me in bagging my groceries. Very nice of her and I greatly appreciated the help!

We are looking forward to the Labor Day Weekend and John's time off for a few days. The weather here is still so nice and we hope to take advantage of some time together. Enjoy your Holiday!

Our Adventure to the Zoo

Near the Giraffe Exhibit
Dad holding the boys at the Giraffes
Mom and Liam getting ready for the Carousel-can you see his excitement?
Riding the Carousel

We made our first trip to the Zoo this weekend. The Como Zoo and Conservatory is located in St. Paul and is actually FREE, which we thought was great considering we were not even sure the boys would be interested in the zoo. Although we thought we had the trip organized with the basics including extra food and drinks, stroller, diapers, a day with great cooler weather, etc...we missed one small detail. The Zoo is located within a few miles of the Minnesota State Fair, which we have learned is very popular. Needless to say, parking was a nightmare and we drove around for over an hour looking for a place to park. We were fortunate because we planned the driving part of the trip around the time that the boys nap so they were asleep for "most" of the time. "Most" of the time meaning they woke up right at the end of our hunt for a parking place and they were screaming mad and hungry. Just as we were about to bag the whole idea, we found a place to park that was not 5 miles away from the zoo. The boys seemed to enjoy the animals and were particularly interested in the ducks and seals. We rode on a carousel that was the most exciting part of the trip. They were surprised by it initially, but enjoyed the music and spinning around in circles.

Liam has discovered his legs recently and now loves to jump up and down in the bouncy chair and exersaucer. Luke has been jumping for awhile now, but Liam would typically just sit and twirl around. It is quite funny to watch him do his little dance around the floor.

We hope you had a nice weekend!

The Importance of Play

New Toys!
Luke with Liam in Background
Liam Playing the Drum (a gift from the Maymirs)
Luke with new Sesame Street Toy
Liam helping mom fold clothes

I am reading a book called the privilege of parenting that I have found to be very interesting so I thought I would share a few things. In this book, the author suggests that we can do two things to help restore the "art of fine parenting". One, we should remember that parenting is a privilege. By remembering that parenting is a privilege, we also understand that parenting is arguably the most important responsibility one will ever have in life. He states that parenthood is a "complex, interactive process," and unfortunately you can't immediately know how well you are doing. The second thing we should do to restore the art of fine parenting is to rediscover the importance of play. The reason for this is that play is integral to a child's discovery of the world. Play through mimicry, exploration, fantasy, and practice are how a child makes sense of the world and its resources.

In light of the importance of Play, the boys got some new toys recently. They are moving beyond rattles for entertainment and enjoy the things that light up, make noises, sing songs, etc...(the stuff that can drive me crazy by the end of the day). I am posting a couple of pictures of the boys with their newest toys. We have several pillows surrounding us on the floor because we are pretty good at sitting up, but we are not great. Thankfully, they seem to be pretty resilent after they topple over because it is hard to keep two babies upright at all times!

Liam has proven to be part monkey, just like we already thought he was. The other day he managed to get out of his bouncy chair despite the fact that he was strapped in. I turned around and found him laying on the floor with his blanket and stuffed dog. He somehow managed to get out of the chair and bring his dog and blanket with him. It looks like we won't be using the bouncy chairs very much anymore!