• 35 pounds (Carolyn 17-3; Elizabeth 16-13)
• 17 teeth with more on the way (8 for Carolyn; 9 for Elizabeth including one first year molar)
• First steps (Elizabeth can walk across the room. Carolyn prefers to walk while holding our fingers. She’s keeping us waiting for her first solo steps.)
• First words — dadadada, mamamama, hi, uh-oh
• Favorite toy — whichever one is currently in sister’s hand
• Favorite games — peek-a-boo, open & close, in & out, and fetch (Carolyn especially will often drop something on the floor, then look at us and say “uh-oh” and wait for us to retrieve the object. At which point she will promptly drop it and begin again.)

The girls are learning more and more about their world:

• They put the hat on their head
• The brush is for their hair
• Socks go on feet

They can’t do all these things with great skill yet, but it’s clear they understand the relationships between the objects.

Physically the girls are still on the petite side. Developmentally they’re right on target. They play together now. Sometimes that simply means they play beside each other. Other times it means they take things from one another — and they’re beginning to be unhappy when sister takes what they’re playing with. Sometimes it means that they’re in their room laughing and squealing at each other when they are supposed to be napping. Recently, they’ve even started chasing each other around while speed-crawling, laughing and squealing all the while.

It’s great fun to watch them play and learn, smile and laugh. I marvel at how quickly the past year has gone by. And at how much the girls have grown. God has blessed us richly. And now for everybody’s favorite part — a few pictures of the girls. (OK, maybe more than a few.)

Playful gal...

Smiles

Peek-a-boo!

Going for a ride!

Playing in a friend's pool!

WHEEEEE!

All tuckered out...

Elizabeth LOVES to wear her hat!

Hungry girl

What a cutie!

Uh-oh!

Pirate girls hunt for merchant vessels to plunder!

The grandparent appreciation shot

Family

We didn’t get to go with the rest of the family on vacation last year, because Carolyn and Elizabeth were still so tiny, and it just didn’t seem like a good idea to travel at all. But I’m glad we could go this year, because it was a lot of fun having the girls with us. (Naturally, it also restricted our activities quite a bit, and we didn’t get to do all the things we might otherwise have done, but that’s OK.) One day, we took them on a walk in the stroller through Calaveras Big Trees State Park, and marveled at some really impressively enormous trees. This was a great place to visit because it was very close to the cabin and the whole trail was wide and smooth, which was perfect for our all-terrain stroller.

Little girls, big tree!

Another shot of an ancient giant posing with our tiny young ones. This one was so big that at some point (many decades ago) they cut a tunnel through the middle! The tree seems to be doing pretty well, all things considered.

We also spent a day at beautiful Lake Alpine. All the kids had fun swimming and playing in the water, while Dad and I hiked around the lake and found some geocaches, including a couple that were high up on some cliffs named Inspiration Point. Carolyn and Elizabeth spent a very short time splashing and playing in the chilly water, but since they still have hardly any body fat (and they’re just not used to cold water), they got unhappy rather quickly.

Dad & Mom out on one of the islands

Splish splash!

I also got to fulfill a dream I’ve had for many years, and took everyone to visit an amazing area where you can swim through a cave! (Technically, I guess it’s supposed to be called a natural bridge, but it sure looks like a cave, and frankly I just think that sounds a lot more cool.) It’s about 120 yards long, and there’s a bend in the middle so you can’t see all the way through to the other side, but it never gets entirely dark. I accidentally led everyone down the wrong (shortcut) trail on our way down to the river, so it was very steep, but we all arrived safely and everyone was suitably impressed with how cool the cave was. Janet and I spent some time playing with the girls in the water here too, and this time the girls were able to have a bit more fun. Perhaps the water was a little warmer.

This is the north end of the cave. It's fairly shallow at each end, but it's deep in the middle.

This is the south end of the cave. The ceiling starts out much lower here (that's about 7 feet high), but quickly rises as you progress further inside. This end has many spots where water constantly seeps through the rocks up above.

Towards the end of the week, I discovered that there was a “nearby” geocache that was over a month old but had never been found. That was too tempting to pass up, so Mark and I decided to go find it one evening after dinner. I said “nearby” with quotation marks because although it was only about 8 miles away as the crow flies, the twisting and winding nature of mountainous forest service roads meant that it was really going to be almost 30 miles, much of it unpaved. I carefully studied the possible routes in my GPS and on Google Maps, and it seemed that we’d have no problem getting there. But NO! One after another, our attempts at reaching our destination at Prather Meadow were denied by no less than three different locked gates and a couple roads that simply dead-ended (even though all our maps showed them going through and connecting). Sadly, I never did find that cache, even after making one more attempt the following morning with Dad. But we gave it a good shot, and despite the disappointment I thought it was a lot of fun driving around out on those quiet, seldom-used roads.

We didn't find the cache, but near dusk we did find some cool rocky cliffs overlooking a forested valley.

4 Generations on the 4th of July - Carolyn & Elizabeth with Grandpa Hucker and Great Grandma Upton

It was a great joy to introduce our little girls to more of their extended family. And of course everyone loved meeting them! Grandma’s party was on Saturday and quite a few people dropped by the open house style party to congratulate her. Sunday evening we took the girls and went downtown to see the fireworks display. Elizabeth watched the fireworks. Carolyn mostly watched the people and the cars.

Ooh! Fireworks are fun!

The family taught the girls some new things while we were there. The girls learned to blow kisses and “give me five.” They are becoming more and more interactive and social. They’ve begun to reach when they want to be held. They hand me things and smile in satisfaction when I take it from them and say “thank you.” They’re developing physically as well. More and more we see them let go of things while they’re standing. I know their first steps will occur in the very near future.

We had a very busy weekend! On Saturday we celebrated birthdays for Carolyn, Elizabeth, and Janet. (Janet’s birthday isn’t actually until the 19th, but we made the decision to have her celebration a bit early and combine it with the girls because the next couple weekends are also going to be enormously busy, thanks to the production of Twelve Angry Men that Dan is in.) Then on Sunday we all got together again with Dan’s family here in Livermore to celebrate Mother’s Day. Last year on Mother’s Day we had no idea that our girls were so close to being born. This year was special for us all because it was the first time our daughters were really there to celebrate with us. Here are a few fun pictures from the weekend’s festivities. Enjoy!

That was a fun song! Let's sing it again!

Janet had to really huff and puff to blow out the sparkly hurricane-proof candles!

There's something stuck on my head...

What do you mean, we can't have any cake?

Happy Mother's Day!

Hanging out with Mommy on Mother's Day

This is fun, but partying two days in a row can get tiring...

Mother's Day Blessings

Carolyn is learning to be quite a little snuggle bug

It's so much fun to watch them play and explore together!

• Janet and I recently put our heads together to calculate how much milk she has produced since the girls have been been born. We didn’t keep exact records, but in the last 11½ months we figure that she has pumped or nursed over 15,000 fluid ounces, which translates to around 120 gallons. My first thought at hearing this was “Wow, that’s a TON of milk!” Actually, it turns out to be only half a ton, but still, that’s a lot of milk! Janet’s thought was “No wonder I’m always hungry!”
• The inevitable corollary to the observation above is that we have changed well over 1000 pounds of diapers.
• Bottle feeding both girls simultaneously for these many months has made me very aware just how often some part of my body itches. Almost without exception, as soon as I’ve managed to get the girls settled and both of my hands are busy holding bottles, something starts to itch. Insistently. So, I’ve had a lot of practice improving my mind-over-itch control. On the plus side, the girls can now manage to feed with about 50% efficiency while holding the bottle themselves. It’s not good enough yet to just let them handle it completely on their own, but progress is being made.
• Elizabeth is now in full crawling mode. She wants to explore everything and everywhere, and is not long content in one place. And our house still needs a lot of childproofing before I’ll feel comfortable letting them crawl around without watching them every second! Carolyn is sorta crawling, but she still reverts to scooting or rolling sometimes. In another week or so she’ll probably have it down.
• There are a ridiculous number of Oxi-Clean products scattered around our house. Just off the top of my head, I know of at least four spray bottles, two bottles of gel stick, and one six pound tub of powdered stain remover.
• Carolyn’s inquisitive little fingers are fascinated by my comparatively big fingers. When I least expect it, her tiny little razor sharp fingernails unerringly seek out my cuticles, and then they dig in. Apparently she wants to completely peel open my fingertips and expose the root of my fingernail. It is quite painful. Elizabeth does this too, but it seems to be not as often.
• Carolyn has also learned to whistle a few notes, which makes her just about as good at whistling as I am.
• I’ve been practicing with the girls trying to get them to say “mama”.  I guess those M-sounds are a little tricky to make, so developmentally they tend to come later than D-sounds. They’ve been making D-sounds for a while, and often say “dada” — but I don’t think they’re saying it as a name for me… You see, they also say “dodo” quite a bit.
• It’s hard to believe we’re coming up fast on their first birthday! But I don’t look back on the last year and wish that they could stay this age longer. I know that each developmental stage brings its own set of challenges, but I’m really looking forward to being able to converse intelligibly with them. I can see some advantages in not having to carry them everywhere too. But we’ll do our best to enjoy each stage as it comes.
• We feel so very blessed by these wonderful little girls!

The Siemens Twins

Wheee!

Elizabeth

Carolyn

On Sunday, we celebrated Easter and had an early birthday party for my Dad over at my parent’s house. It was a fun time to visit with family and let all of them visit with Carolyn and Elizabeth. Elizabeth’s 4th tooth is starting to come in now (the 2nd upper tooth — more for her to grind), and they’re both beginning to sit well without support and make some genuine crawling movements. We all had a yummy meal, homemade ice cream for dessert, and watched Dad open a few presents. And as bonus, we got a bunch more pictures of the girls! Here are a few:

Family Portrait

Easter Dresses

Easter Baskets

Cute Carolyn

Lovely Elizabeth

Happy girl!

Feeling playful!

Carolyn

Elizabeth

Papa & Nana with all the grandkids

Did I mention they're getting more mobile?

A quick word about this last photo… First of all, you can tell Mark didn’t take this one, because it looks so amateur with the crazy angle and everything. Anyway, I was working at the computer with my back to the girls while they were a few feet away supposedly looking out the window. When I realized it had gotten a little quiet I turned around to look, and somehow Carolyn had managed to get herself pitched so far forward that she had her cheek resting on the carpet. She was still strapped into the chair, though! I wish I could have seen how she managed to get that one leg cranked back around behind her like that. The thing that amazed me is that she wasn’t complaining about her awkward position, and in fact she seemed to be quite comfortable. I think we’re probably just about done with that particular bouncy seat, though.