Month 4

Only a few more days and the girls will be 5 months old!  Why is it that when you've been too busy to blog, you can't even remember the things that you've been busy with?  Let me try...

Lucas and I have continued to train for the relay marathon coming up in April.  [Except for the last week,] we have made running and/or going to gym a pretty high priority.  This is stressful and a lot of work and switching around schedules and carting babies to the gym nursery, but it's important, so it's a no-brainer.  Lucas will have no problem running the 6-7 miles.  I am running 4 right now, and I like to think that the next 2-3 will be acheivable over the next 6 weeks that I have left to train.

Now let me say a special thank you to Melissa, Betty, my mom, and Jenn.  We'd be lost without you.  I think it's pretty amusing right now that I am on the loveseat, laptop on my lap, blogging. And Betty is on the couch, reading, what is probably the Wall Street Journal.  And we've got two babies alseep in their cribs.  Mission accomplished.

At Melissa's, Nora laughs hysterically when Violet puts her hands on head.  Well, truth be told, Violet doesn't have to really do anything, and Nora will be smiling and laughing.  This may be true of Margaret as well, I just haven't witnessed that yet.  Melissa takes all three girls for lots of walks.  A little fresh air goes a long way for sleepy almost-5-month olds.  (and Vi, too).

Margaret and Nora light up when they hear Grandma's voice say, "Good mornin' Baby" on days when she's here.  They know her face, her voice, and they recognize the songs that she sings to them, even if it's me or Lucas singing.  They are lucky girls to get to spend some time each week with Mary, their cousin, who is such a well-behaved girl for Grandma. 

On Fridays, Miss Jenn watches them and brings none, some or all of her kiddos to the party.  Sometimes Grammy and Grandpa (Houts) take Bailey or Riley out for special one-on-one outings, which is really special for them. 

And, of course, Betty...  who loves these girls as if they were her own children.  She brags about them to her friends and shows their pictures around.  Her grown sons and husband are sick and tired of hearing about Margaret and Nora, and she feels comfortable enough with us to share that.  My favorite thing that Betty talks about with the girls are their mobiles.  What are those birdies doing?  Where are they going?  Are they going to get food?  Are they flying through the trees?  Are they swooping down, back to the nest?  Yes.  Yes they are!

Within the last couple of days, the girls have had some blog-worthy milestones:  We are smiling big at everyone.  We can both laugh out loud if mommy and daddy put a lot of work into it.  We are pros at sitting in the Bumbo seats and we like to face each other and laugh and smile and kick.  We went for a walk in the double stroller and sat upright like big girls instead of in the carseats. We are eating rice cereal from a spoon every evening.  We tried bananas but didn't like how cold they were.  We are not quite sleeping through the night, but sleeping from about 10-4:30 on a good night.  (I guess technically that could be considered "sleeping through the night", except, keep in mind folks, I said, "On a good night".) 

Margaret's Favorite Things:  Kicking her legs and flapping her arms.  Eating her hands.  Finding Sissy and smiling.  "Swimming" on her Ocean mat.

Nora's Favorite Things:  Her Paci.  Looking at her curtain by the changing table.  Seeing her bottle.  Stretching big after being unswaddled.

The picture below is very special because they are sitting in front of an afghan knitted by their Great Grandma Houts.  She didn't knit it for them specifically, but I know she'd be happy that the get to snuggle with it!

I've discovered the joys of pinterest. (Turns out, sometimes I miss the bandwagon and catch up with it 2 years later). I would tell you here how to find me, but I don't know how to do that.  I don't care that it's "social networking" - I would do it even if no one could see what I post. Here's what I like about it: It takes #1 your idea.  #2 anything you might find in "Google Images" pertaining to said idea and #3 puts them into organized folders or "boards".  Except, it's not taking up any harddrive space. And you can email a link to your board, rather than a zip file of all your tutu ideas or cute felt food or what have you.

Other things going on:  We joined Kirkwood Baptist Church.  There we have found a great Sunday School class, a safe nursery, lots of new friends, and it's close to home :)  I FINALLY joined the St. Louis Mothers of Twins Club.  We had someone come out to look at our cracked basement floor and he suggested that we call a Structural Engineer.  That can't be good.  (As Betty aptly put it:  Structural Engineer never spells "C-H-E-A-P").  We got to meet precious Baby Emily, born 2 weeks early on February 24th at a whopping 8lbs.  I am happy about the fact that Emily, Margaret and Nora will all be in the same grade at school.  :) 

So all that, and watching a lot of episodes of Friends, is what we've been up to lately.  Thanks for tuning in!  And look for the 5 month post on Saturday or shortly thereafter!