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By Janet, on June 12th, 2011 Our little girls are constantly on the go. They’re examining, exploring, and expanding their horizons. They’re learning new things every day — and they’re loving it. Here’s a variety of pictures of them in motion.
 Helping out in the yard.  What if we put this in there?  She's ready to learn team games like bocce ball.  Can I drive to the park next time?  Over she goes.  Her climbing is good enough to make Mommy nervous.  Running is one their new favorite activities!  Let's go for a ride!  Can you twist your tongue like this?  Balancing is easy when I'm holding Mommy's hand.  Now what?  Look at her go.  We like playing outside.  Throwing stones in the creek.  Playing house.  Just wait until she's a teenager.  And sometimes there are some boo-boos...
By Janet, on May 29th, 2011 Our two little girls are two years old. What can I say but WOW? Dan and I have been looking at a lot baby pictures the past few days and reminiscing about our little newborns. They were so small…
 Newborn Elizabeth's tiny hand with Mommy's pinky  Cute newborn Carolyn  Our first family photo, taken when the girls were three weeks old and only 5lbs. They’ve done a lot of growing over the past two years. And their vocabulary has expanded significantly in the past few weeks. In fact, I think they’re learning new words almost daily right now. We’ve made a list of over 40 words that they say. Although they’re still working on their pronunciation so I often still rely on the visual clues to understand what they’re saying. Their comprehension of vocabulary is significantly larger, including phrases like “Put this on the table,” or “Your socks are in the bedroom.”
They enjoy being outside — blowing bubbles, going for walks, playing at the park, exploring the back yard. And inside or out, they like climbing. Anything they encounter is an obstacle to be summited — furniture, patio chairs, playground equipment, or me if I’m sitting on the floor. In fact, their ability to climb greatly exceeds their understanding of the consequence of falling. Hopefully they will learn that lesson without dramatic injury. I’m sometimes torn between being proud of their accomplishments and being worried about them.
Watch this video of them climbing and judge for yourselves!
 Click on the image to load the movie in a new window.  Is this how it works?  Bubbles are fun. And good practice for birthday candles!  Bubbles!  That's good blowing!  So, whadda ya want to do next?  What's that? There are lots of indoor activities to keep them busy too. They like looking at books, coloring, and we’ve recently given them their first Play Doh to squish and roll and shape.
We recently gathered at Nana & Papa’s house to celebrate the successful completion of the girls’ first two years. There were candles to blow, cake (decorated by Mommy) and ice cream to eat, and presents to open. The girls liked blowing out the candles. Although I think they couldn’t quite understand why we wouldn’t let them hold the cake by themselves. They also had great fun tearing the wrapping paper off the presents. They are clearly much more accomplished at that than they were at Christmas.
 Birthday cake!  I can do it Mommy.  Will you hurry up with the singing so I can blow out the candles? And so two years have passed since our little girls were born. They are growing up and it won’t be long before one of them looks at me and says, “I’m a BIG girl, Mommy.” For now, I continue to try to remember and treasure every moment, every milestone. They are remarkable girls who love to laugh. We are richly blessed!
By Janet, on May 8th, 2011 Today was my second mother’s day since the girls were born. I love being a mom! And I feel so blessed by my daughters. They are very sweet little girls who bring much joy to my life. As I watch them grow and learn and develop, they’re becoming more and more adept at imitating and it’s becoming more and more apparent how important it is for me to be the best role model I can be for them.
 Bedtime story I begin to realize how fortunate I am that I had a pretty good role model about how to be a mom. I think my Mom would agree that she wasn’t perfect. Maybe there are even things she wishes she had done differently (I know I’ve already had those thoughts myself). But there was never any question that she loved me and wanted what was best for me. She was a stay-at-home mom for most of my childhood. Looking back, I realize not only how I was blessed by that, but also how it was able to bless my friends. Some of my friends had less than stable homes, and often we would play at my house. My parents welcomed my friends and I remember countless hours playing in the backyard (we had a great climbing tree), sleepovers (how did anyone sleep with a house full of teenage girls?), and birthday parties at Chuck E. Cheese. They listened to impromptu concerts when we were in first year band and were our faithful audience for skits and tumbling routines.
 Me with my mom (~1972) So as my girls grow, I hope I can demonstrate love, patience, consistency, and encouragement so that they will learn independence, confidence, perseverance, and that they are loved.
Thanks, Mom. Happy Mother’s Day!
By Janet, on May 3rd, 2011 This year the girls were able to participate in the Easter egg hunt. Well, at least they were able to pick eggs up off the grass and put them into their baskets. They love exploring. And there were little treats inside the eggs so that was a lot of fun.
 Let me see!  I found one!  What do I do with it now?  We're hoping this helps them develop an interest in geocaching, of course. But the girls are not yet two, so egg hunting only held their attention for a little while. Then they were ready to move on to other things.
Like swinging:
 Give me a push, please.  Look Ma! No seat straps! And hanging:
 I'm getting the "hang" of this.  This is fun!  Whee! And rocking:
 Giddyup. We hope your Easter was as joyous as ours!
 Our Family
By Dan, on April 22nd, 2011 The girls have learned a new skill that will certainly serve them well for the rest of their lives. A couple days ago I was sitting at the computer and the girls were playing behind me. Suddenly they both erupted in a burst of giggles, so naturally I turned around to see what unbelievably adorable thing they were up to now — and they were hugging! You have to understand that so far in life, although they usually don’t mind being held or briefly hugged, they just don’t really initiate hugs on their own unless it’s with a stuffed animal, the rocking dog, or occasionally a piece of tupperware. But there they were, embracing each other and giggling, with Carolyn even giving Elizabeth a friendly little pat on the back. We’re looking forward to giving them lots and lots of practice in developing this new skill.
 Hey Sis!  This is fun!  Sisterly Love After snapping a few pictures, I realized that what I really wanted was to preserve these first hugs on video, so I quickly got out the video camera and started shooting. The hug-fest was briefly interrupted by a giggle-chase around the house, but eventually I got a few more hugs out of them.
 Click on the image to load the movie in a new window. If you’re still reading, here’s one more bonus film clip from last week. This one doesn’t involve hugging, but it’s still pretty cute and it too features a brand new, first time ever accomplishment for the girls. I noticed that they were straddling the bouncy horse straps in a way they had never done before, so I got out the video camera and started filming. But from there it quickly escalated to an unprecedented level of climbing that we’ve never seen before. They actually managed to climb into their bouncy toys all by themselves! They’ve climbed on chairs and all sorts of other things around the house, but this was literally the first time they had ever even attempted climbing into the bouncy toys like this. I’m so proud of them!
 Click on the image to load the movie in a new window.
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