Night Three

Last night was the third night the twins slept in their own cribs, and WOW, it was great. Yes, you heard me, it was GREAT! Everything started the same as it did the last two nights - we put them to bed by reading to them. They fell asleep in my arms, and Sarah helped me put them in their cribs. I don't remember the time now, but I think it was around 2:30 am when I heard the first cry. It was Emily this time, not Ella. When I went to check on her, I saw Ella stirring. I thought for sure Ella would wake up. However, to my surprise, within 2-3 minutes of me leaving the nursery, all was quiet. No one made another sound until about 7:15 this morning when Ella woke up first. Emily slept until maybe 7:45.

I'm not ready to call this war won, but I think at this point, Sarah and I are winning every battle. :)

Sarah's Birthday

Today is Sarah's birthday. We had a small gathering over at Sherri's with pizza and cake. It was really nice. I had fun planning (most) of it.

The main reason for today's update is, as always, to talk about the twins' progress. Last night was the second night we had them sleep in their own cribs the whole night. It started the same as always - I read to them, put them in their cribs, and they went to sleep. Ella woke up first, around 1:30 am and started crying. We started the cycle of checking on her every few minutes. This time, it only took about 35 minutes for her to fall asleep again. However, from 1:30 - about 3:00, she would wake up, cry, fall asleep, and repeat the cycle every 15-20 minutes. I think Emily woke up twice. Eventually, everyone fell asleep, and didn't wake up until after 7:00 am.

The last update I have has nothing to do with sleeping. Ella and Emily both say "Uh-oh" now, and I taught Emily "pee-yew" (as in stinky diaper). My mom (Sharon) has been trying to teach them "Woopty-do".

Last Night the Earth Shook

Well, we finally made the decision to get the girls to sleep the whole night in their own cribs. I'll write more later - gotta get ready for a Birthday Party.

We decided it was time to start getting the girls out of our bed and into their own for the whole night. And since Sarah and I have several days off between now and New Year's, we thought this was the best time to start. We started by putting them to sleep like we normally do - we change them into their PJ's and read them a few books. Everything was as usual. Then Sarah and I went to bed. Around 1:00 am, Ella woke up first. This is where things for the girls changed. Instead of bringing her straight to bed with us like we would have done in the past, we put our pediatrician's advice to work. I checked on Ella right away, said some soothing words, and laid her down in her crib. Then I left. She kept crying. Five minutes later, I repeated the same thing. Then 10 minutes after than, then 15.

At this point, 30 minutes has passed. Ella cried the whole time. Emily hadn't woken up at all. After 30 minutes, you're supposed to wait another whole 30 minutes before going in again. I think I fell asleep sometime in that second 30 minutes. I woke up a little after 2 am when the alarm went off and Ella was still crying. I checked on her and stayed with her a little longer to settle her down. Maybe two minutes. Soon as I left, Ella started crying again.

Basically, she cried constantly for 90 minutes. Emily didn't wake up at all while Ella was crying. At some point, Ella quieted down. Then, around 3:00 am, Ella started crying a little again. She finally woke up Emily, so I checked on them both. It didn't take long for them both to fall asleep. Then they didn't wake up until 8:30 (for Ella) and 9:30 (for Emily).

It was an exhausting night, but an important one. We have to keep it up now until they have fully transitioned to sleeping in their cribs all night.

What a Great Christmas

I'll share some pictures in the coming days, but let me just say what a great time we had. We went to Gary's on Christmas Eve and Sherri's on Christmas Day. We were supposed to go to my dad's today, but Sarah has gotten a virus and saw the doctor today. He said it's nothing to be worried about, but she's going to rest up and we'll reschedule with my dad.

The Girls Saw Santa!

Yesterday, Sarah and Sherri took the twins to see Santa. He was visiting our little town of Auburn. He really likes Auburn and stops here a lot. Fortunately, there wasn't a line of kids waiting to see him, so the twins got right in. From what I hear, Santa's little helper was very nice and took lots of pictures. The North Pole Developing Company (NPDC) is preparing our pictures now. We'll be picking them up at the Auburn branch on Thursday, so I'll be sure to post them on this blog.

We also did another Christmas related activity yesterday. Around 8:15 last night, we loaded the girls into the car and drove around Auburn looking at Christmas lights. Our neighborhood is quite impressive, if I do say so myself. If you want to check out some pretty lights, come by and drive around Canal and Calloway streets. Another good neighborhood to check out is Incline off Dairy Rd. Several wonderful displays. We also went to the Atwood Bail Bonds, which is spectacular as always. Every year gets better, but this year is especially amazing. It boggles my mind to think how much electricity he uses. By the time we got home, it was a little after 9:00 and Emily had fallen asleep. Ella took a little nap earlier in the evening, so she was awake. We put Emily to bed and Sarah cozied up to Ella on the Lay-Z-Boy until they both fell asleep.

Final update from yesterday is not Christmas related, but is about the twins' development. Yesterday, when Sarah was feeding them, Ella reached for some cereal and let out her usual soft yell, making sure Mama knew she wanted more. Sarah said, "Ella, no. Say 'more'." And she did. And then the next time Ella was about to reach for the cereal and yell, Sarah could see her stop just as she was about to screech and instead, Ella said "more." Emily quickly followed suit.

18-month Checkup

The twins had their 18-month checkup at the doctor's office this morning. All is well. The doctor says they are growing great, their speech development is progressing nicely, and that they are very healthy girls. He complimented us on what nice jobs we're doing with them. Here are their current measurements:

Ella weighs 21lb-4oz and is 32.25 inches tall

Emily weighs 21lb-7oz and is also 32.25 inches tall

One comment I was particularly interested in was that the doctor said he thought they would both develop into tall, lean body types. Sounds good to me.

Oh, I also asked him about giving them fluoride when they just had dairy products. The fluoride bottle says to wait two hours. The doctor said it won't make them sick, but there is a reaction between calcium ions and fluoride ions that diminishes the amount of fluoride absorbed by the body. But he said it's better to give them the fluoride than forget until the next day.

Finally, I asked about humidifiers since we bought one last week when the girls had a cold. The nurse said she recommends them for upper-respiratory problems and if we want to go a step further, we can add some of the medications to it or even rub Vick's Vapor Rub on the bottom of their feet to help relieve stuffy noses. (Yes, the bottom of their feet.)

More Dance Moves and Country Christmas

On Wednesday, my mom, Sharon, taught the girls how to do a high kick when dancing to some Christmas music. Funniest thing to watch. I tried to get some video, but by the time I got the camera out, they weren't interested.

Tonight we all went to Auburn's 21st Annual Country Christmas in Old Town. It was great. We met Darryl and his aunt Enid and uncle Bill. We parked at the fairgrounds at 5:00 and initially put the girls in the double stroller. There was a free shuttle bus from the Bernhard Museum to Old Town, but we decided to walk. It was cold, but the walk was fine. We all got a chance to visit. Bill and Enid are so nice. Bill genuinely makes one feel like he cares about them and is interested in what they have to say.

When we got to Old Town, the first thing we did was get some clam chowder in a bread bowl. It was the PERFECT thing. It was warm, and delicious! All of us had some, including the twins. We stood in front of a roped-off section in front of the old post office where a brass band was playing Christmas songs. When we finished the chowder (and our bowls), we let the twins out of their stroller and walked up towards Awful Annie's parking area. They had a small horse wagon that was offering rides. We didn't take a ride, but we got up close to the horses and the driver had sheep dog that the girls petted. Then we headed back down towards Bootlegger's and went in some of the shops. We moved on to where the Old Firehouse is and they had a section fenced off for pony rides. Nearby there were two or three large cages/wagons that had wolves in them. A wolf rescue group was collecting donations and doing some educating. Awful Annie's was the top end, the Old Firehouse was the bottom, so when we rounded that, we headed back towards where the brass band had been playing. This time there was a carolling group singing. We noticed the city had setup a fire pit in the middle of the street, so we huddled around there, and I bought hot drinks for everyone. We warmed up for 10-15 minutes and decided to head back.

We walked back up past Awful Annie's and headed to the Bernhard. Darryl noticed they were offering free hot cider and home made cookies, so we headed in the top of the winery and warmed up with a snack. Bill and Enid had never been to the Bernhard, and the house was open, so they all headed in for a tour while Sarah and I changed the twins and let them run around to burn off some energy. Then we headed to our car and came home. In all, we got there about 5:00 and were headed home a few minutes past 8:00, so we were there about three hours. It was really nice and we had a good time.

Their Words

Ella is doing most of the talking these days. Between the two of them, they can say:
Uh-oh
No
Dog
Diaper
Doctor
Mama
Papa

The Christmas Tree is Up

It's a little later than we thought, but it's up! I'll include a few pictures later.

Updates

The twins now say, "Uh-oh." As everything else, it is very cute. They started saying it the other day when I said, "Uh-oh, mom forgot her purse."

Also, they are getting upper molars now.

Christmas Lights Parade

We had a great time tonight at the Auburn Christmas Lights Parade. It was COLD, but we all bundled up. As you might guess when you look through the pictures, MY favorite part was the 501st Legion (Star Wars troop). Awe-SOME!

Reading to the Twins

Sarah pointed out the fact that when we read certain stories to the girls, they interact with the stories. For example, they love "Five Little Monkeys," which is about five monkeys jumping on their bed, the girls will laugh when we read the part about them jumping. When we come to the part about them falling off the bed, Ella taps her head. When we get to the part about the doctor saying no more jumping, they will signal "No, no". Very cute.

Also, their molars are coming in big time!

Quick Photos from This Weekend

We put up some outdoor Christmas decorations.

Thanksgiving

We had a great time on Thanksgiving yesterday. See below for more details of what we did on Thanksgiving





The day started out pretty normal - Sarah, the twins, and I hung out at the house in the early morning. I went over to Marie's to help setup for about an hour. We had the carpets cleaned a few days before and I vacuumed in the morning, so the place looked great! When I got home, Sherri arrived to help peel persimmons. We've been drying loads of them the past week or so. After Sherri left, we started making our mashed potatoes. I kind of goofed a little because I put the boiled potatoes in the mixer and added the milk and other things before I mashed the potatoes. So we had a few little lumps in our final product. :) But they tasted fine - a little heavy. I need to find a way to make them lighter and fluffier.

We finished the potatoes in plenty of time to get over to Aunt Marie's (she's 101 this year). I think there were 10 or 12 people at Marie's. We had some nice appetizers before I helped carve the turkey while Sarah, Sherri, and some of Marie's friends helped watch the girls. After dinner, there was chocolate cake, apple pie, pumpkin pie with apple butter topping, and ice cream. I know that my favorite parts of the whole meal were, in this order:
1) Sweet Potato Casserole
2) Mashed Potatoes with Gravy
3) Turkey
4) Stuffing

Those were my favorites, even over dessert, that's how good the food was. There were lots of other things to enjoy, and we all had a great time.

Emily's New Skill

Last night, I had to laugh. I saw Emily do the perfect stereotypical sulk. I think I was trying to put a jacket or sock or something on her, she didn't want it, I set her down, and she turned away and STOMPED off about 3-4 feet. It was SO funny. It won't be if she keeps it up, but i had to laugh.

The Mandarin Festival

On Sunday, we all went to the Mandarin Festival in Auburn, with Sherri. First time we've been - it was huge. Almost takes up as much space as the Auburn Fair. Great time, ate lots of mandarins, we listened to small band from Ottawa, Canada play some jug band music - the kind my dad likes (and I do, too) and we picked up some decorations for our yard. The twins had fun dancing to the music, too!

My Guitar Princess

This is Ella with my electric video game guitar.

Some Photos from last weekend.

We had a lot of fun this weekend, and it was fairly relaxing. On Saturday morning, I watched ASU beat UCLA in a good game (except for the first kickoff return for a touchdown against my Sun Devils in 135 games). The twins raced around the living room (video below). Saturday afternoon, we had several friends over to make a wonderful Japanese feast (photos). Oh, and the dogs had a nice relaxing weekend, too. :)

The sounds of my daughter's laughter...

...has to be the best sounds in the world!

Nicole's Birthday

I have to be quick because I want to get out of the home office. Here are some pictures from Saturday at Nicole's birthday celebration! Ella was having a blast playing with Winter.

Halloween 2007

Yesterday was great! Yes, it was a little hectic after about 3:00 pm, but it was great. I was able to carve a couple pumpkins (I'm becoming quite the speed demon, if I do say so myself), the twins were in costume, they visited some friends around town, and we had lots (100+/-) Trick-or-Treaters. Here are some pictures from yesterday, and three short videos clips.

Happy Halloween

I know these are old, but this has to be my favorite Halloween up until this year.

From 2005, enjoy:

Halloween Comes Early

Last night, we decided we couldn't wait even one more day to see the twins in their costumes. Sarah got them each a witch outfit, one white and one black. They're not supposed to be good or evil, just CUTE! :-) Here are a few pictures from last night.

More Words

As of this morning, Sherri started teaching them to wag their fingers and say uh-uh (as in no-no) when they do something they shouldn't. Emily has the hang of it, big time!

Robots and Autism

This is something interesting I stumbled upon while listening to a podcast about parenting in the digital age called Jumping Monkeys. They mentioned something on show 21 about robots being used to help autistic children. This one is called Keepon, and he specializes in relating to very young children. Apparently the researchers who built him decided to program a dance routine to a song called "I Turn My Camera On" by a musical group called spoon. Good for a laugh and totally clean.

More Planting and Other Updates

We planted all weekend, Sarah, Sherri, the twins, and I. Even though it is hard work, this is definitely the most excited I've ever been about plants. The girls had the most fun today, I think. They got to swing around in mama's and grandma's arms, played in the dirt, and got soaked by the hose.



Also, both girls have some molars popping through. And we're transitioning them from using signs into talking more. They vocalize a LOT, but they don't say a lot of words. So, starting yesterday, we're officially phasing out the signs and encouraging them to speak. They seem to have a good grasp of dog, Dada, Papa, Mama, and other sounds that could be words soon.

Planting Day 1

This afternoon we took some time to start planting our new backyard.

Ella's Poor Hand

Today was not good for Ella. Specifically, her left hand. She smashed it in a door TWICE before noon. Both times she was holding onto the hinge side of the door and either she or Emily pushed the door closed and it squished her hand. Fortunately, no permanent damage, but lots of tears, ice packs, holding, kissing, soothing, etc.

Grandpa Gary's Birthday

Tonight we went over to my brother-in-law's and his fiance's house, Chris and Layla. We were there to celebrate the 24th anniversary of Grandpa Gary's 40th birthday (in other words, his 64th). We had a wonderful time! Joe, Savannah, and Marilyn were all there. Layla prepared this awesome crock pot roast and baked potatoes with all the fixings. Sarah and I brought orzo pasta salad and potato salad. We had chips and dip, we had drinks, Layla bought everyone their own cake, it was great.

Joe and I spent some time trying to figure out the Rubik's Ice Cube (aka Mini Cube), which is supposed to be the easiest of the Rubik blocks to solve. It's only 2x2x2, but we couldn't work it out. We played a little Halo 2, which I did work out. :) Gary opened his cards and gifts. We gave him a digital photo frame that cycles through pictures, which you can load from a memory card or right from your own computer. Chris and Layla got him a really cool water fountain. I love the idea of having a fountain at our house, too, so we'll have to look for one sometime.

The day today was a little hectic leading up to dinner since I had a BUSY work day and we were trying to get things in order before going to the party, but boy was it a nice way to end the evening. It's great to get out with friends, which we don't do all that often, and to have a safe, kid-friendly place with other people who have young children and know how to help watch after them. Very nice time. I snapped a few photos.

Auburn Community Festival

This weekend, my Mom invited us to the Auburn Community Festival at ARD, which is really a fall celebration, with GIANT (1000+ pound) pumpkin weigh-ins and food, music, arts & crafts, etc. Unfortunately, we had car trouble in the morning and by the time we got there, my mom had left. We missed her by 2-3 minutes she said later. But we had a good time with the twins.

They had a costume contest, and it ended just as I walked up. I saw the little girl who won for her age group, she was dressed like a sugar plum fairy. She had a little white dress, hot pink wig, and a wand. She was cute, but our twins would have easily won if we'd dressed them up. We honestly didn't even know about the festival, much less the costume contest, until my mom called and told us about it. The girls loved dancing to the music (which was a bit too loud for comfort). We had several people comment on how cute the twins were. They got some balloons and we walked all around. It was a beautiful day.

More Teeth!

Last weekend, Sarah noticed that the twins were getting some more teeth. Now Ella is getting three more and Emily one or two.

Also, the twins are really saying words now - Dada, Mama, and even Ella (sort of). Emily I think is a little too hard still. But what's even cooler is that they are trying to say lots of other words and they are doing it without us prompting. Like today I was saying the word "dip" and they started repeating it. They've also been imitating animal sounds for the past several days. Cow, cat, dog.

What a Beautiful Day

Sunday was gorgeous! It also happened to be the first day we really got to enjoy our new backyard. My father-in-law, Gary, came up around 2pm for a couple hours and we spent 80% of the time in the backyard. We finished setting up the gazebo, rolled out the BBQ, and let the twins run around. It was awesome! I am so looking forward to using that space next year.

Zoo Pictures

These are some of the pictures from our trip to the Sacramento Zoo on 10/7.

Our little animals are behind bars!!

Checking out Mr. Orangutan

Ella really loved the flamingos.

Emily with Grandpa Bud.

Our Future Boxer

Yesterday I woke up with a start. My youngest daughter, Emily, punched me in my right eye. I went from dead asleep to dead shock! Sarah was awake and witnessed the whole thing. Emily was rolling over in between us and flung her arm in such a way that she connected squarely with my eye.

Sarah can tell you, I sat up with a start and quickly took on an air of such indignation that you'd think I thought she meant to do it. The look on my face was priceless, according to Sarah, and looking back on it, I can appreciate that. However, at the time, I was really upset. Saturday is Sarah's day to sleep in, but Sunday is mine, and I had just been woken up in a painful way. Sarah couldn't stop laughing, and I felt she was laughing at me, not with me. I decided to get even. :)

A few minutes after hoping out of bed, I went out to the truck to get something - I don't remember what now. Sarah was changing the girls. Just before I got back inside, I had a brilliant idea. I turned around and went back to the truck. I remembered how whenever the twins touch the car wheels, their fingers get black. So I started rubbing the chrome wheels on my truck, and sure enough, my fingertips were black. I rubbed that around my right eye, checking it out in the side view mirror. When it looked good enough, I headed back inside. I purposely looked at Sarah, just a quick glance, and she jokingly said that my eye looked dark. She thought it was a trick of the light, but when I walked closer, she got quite a look on her face! Her voice went up a couple octaves as she said, "Oh my god! It really is black. Emily gave you a black eye!" I hammed it up for a few more minutes, posing for pictures and playing the sympathy card. Then I said that my eye was stinging and I wanted to wash it. Sarah went to get my an ice pack and when I came out of the bathroom, my eye was miraculously healed! Oh, man, we laughed so hard over that together. It was great!

Some More Firsts

I think I'm ready to say that work should officially be a bit less hectic for me next week and my goal is three new posts a week.

This week, we had a couple more firsts. Ella has been using the sign for fish. We don't know how she learned it. I mean, we assume someone taught her as opposed to her just picking it up from seeing how fish swim. In any case, when she sees a fish in a book, she makes the sign. FYI, for anyone interested, this is the website Sarah and I visit when we want to learn a sign. http://commtechlab.msu.edu/SITES/ASLWEB/browser.htm

The other first was today - I swear Emily is saying "daddy" and "hi daddy." They sign so much now, which is AWESOME, so it's been a while since I've really heard a true new word sound from them. I'm going to try and list all the signs they know (go to the above website if you want to see some of them):
Mother
Father
Water
Milk
Eat
Apple
Banana
More
Please
Thank you
You're welcome
Hat
Change
Cat
Dog
Fish
Shh (as in be quiet)
Bed (we use this for going to sleep)

They know a ton of words, because they can understand when we say, "Take your sock to papa" or "Get a book, we'll read" or "Put the toy in the box." It's sooo cool.

Alright, that's it for tonight. Take care everyone.

Quick Update

Yesterday we went to the Sacramento Zoo. I will upload some pictures later.

Emily and Ella know so many signs, it's just amazing. It blows my mind seeing them learn and grow. This weekend I did something, I think I used my foot to press something down. One of the twins copied me. It happened so fast, it actually startled me, like "Oh man, if they copied me doing that, I am going to have to watch what I do more carefully from now on." :)

Some updates and lots of pictures

Work's been busy, which is why the posts aren't very frequent.

This is totally off topic, but it is related to kids. A friend of mine is adopting two sisters in the Ukraine. Their names are Tanya and Alonya. You can checkout their blog at http://jobthedog.blogspot.com/. Right now is a good time to read it because they are in the Ukraine now. They started this more than two years ago and are literally days away from finishing.

So the last several days we've been having success setting the girls in their cribs and, as long as one of us stays in the room, they usually fall asleep in 15 minutes. I find that I like this method, as long as I have my laptop or DS to entertain me while I sit in the glider. About 10-14 days ago, I saw Ella and Emily "twirling" while they dance. I think Sarah said she taught them. It was neat to see.

Today, I think Emily might have said "dog", but not really sure. We're teaching them a lot of new signs, and they are so quick to learn. We taught them "bird" recently, and "you're welcome." They know tons of signs, and use most of them correctly. Milk, water, eat, more, please, thank you, hat, bird, dog, cat, etc.

Now for some pictures.
Ella

Emily with her new hat


Emily is a ham, alright.


Time to put the girls in their boxes for a nap. :)




Ella on the piano


They love those purple plastic boxes



Not quite settled down enough to go to sleep. Something is funny.

Food!

The last 24 hours have been good to us in terms of food. Last night we went to the local Rotary Club BBQ. We had free tickets, but damn, the food was good! I would have paid if I'd known it was that good. They had tri-tip, salmon, chicken, and ribs. We had a little of everything except the ribs, which were gone when we got there. They also had corn, salad, garlic bread, and beans on the side. Did I mention it was good? We saw several friends, some of Sarah's co-workers, lots of people Sherri knew. I think girls had a bit of everything.

Then today we took the twins to the Japanese Food Bazaar in Penryn. We met Darryl, and saw all of his family. We even saw an old high school acquaintance, Andy Leukonen, and his wife, Megan, and baby girl, Josie. Josie is two weeks older than the twins. Anyway, we brought home lots of good food - inari sushi and chow mein.

15-month Checkup

The twins had their 15-month checkup with the pediatrician yesterday. All is well! The doctor said they are growing well, he said they look great, and we're very happy with the checkup. The one surprising thing was that Ella still doesn't weigh 20 pounds. She still has a couple ounces to go. Emily is a few ounces below 21lbs. They are about a pound apart. But they are the same height.

The doctor said Ella is in the 5%-10% range for weight and Emily is in the 15%-20% range for weight (these are both on the low half of the spectrum). Both girls are about 50% for height, so he said he fully expects over the coming year or so that they will grow into their height - in other words they'll gain a lot more weight.

He also gave us some tips on getting them to sleep through the night. I think Sarah and I will make a decision either to try the techniques or not in the coming few weeks. He also recommended a book called "Good Night, Sleep Tight" by Kim West (www.sleeplady.com). I don't want it to sound like we're totally have problems with the twins sleeping at night. Yes, it is true that they do not sleep through a whole night, and yes, it is true that we sometimes don't get a good night's sleep, but in the grand scheme of things, I think most new parents go through this.

Last Night

Really quick (getting ready for dinner and I already did one post), last night we decided to let the girls try and get themselves to sleep. They cried and cried. Around 12:15 am, Sarah went into their room, laid down next to their crib, and within 5 minutes, they were asleep. We're going to work on this, but it was great that they went to sleep without being totally dependent on us.

The Pirate

Yesterday, I tough our daughters to do a "Pirate Face." :) What does that mean, you ask? Well, we were having dinner last night and one of the twins put a hand over her face. At first, I said "cyclopse," and had both twins doing it. But then I decided a pirate was more hip. :) So I started saying, "Show me your pirate." And they put their hand over one eye. It's so funny. I'll have to get a picture of it. I did it again today, and it still works. :) My mom saw it and got a kick out of it.

San Francisco Zoo

Okay, I know this will be a bit of a let-down, but the only picture we got of the twins at the zoo was with statues!! Wait, let me explain - we went to the zoo using free passes that Sarah had from work. Saved us $28. We went through the first third of the zoo, and then decided to have lunch. By the time we were done with lunch, we could tell the twins were tired, and we decided not to push it, so we hopped in the car and headed home. Two minutes after we got in the car, both girls were sound asleep - new record.

At the zoo, before lunch, we saw the Savannah exhibit (giraffes, zebras, etc.), African Aviary (some ibis birds, ducks, and a couple others I can't remember), the gorillas, lemurs, howler monkeys, and more. Mostly African (or Madagascar) animals. When I was looking at the pictures, I realized we had so few, but honestly, since we had been to the petting zoo at the CA State Fair just a few days before, where the twins could get right up close, there really weren't any animals close enough to get a pic of the girls and the animals in the same shot. It was still fun, but we'll have to go back another time to get more of the zoo. And I'm looking forward to taking the girls to the Sacramento Zoo.

Emily petting the lion cub

Emily and Ella sitting on the lions

Watching the Parade at the California State Fair

While we were at the fair, we saw a short parade and I took a quick video of the girls watching the parade.

California State Fair

Yesterday afternoon, we all went to the California State Fair. It was great! Sarah, Sherri, the twins, Darryl, and I went. We went to the petting zoo, walked through the farm and jungle areas, saw the county exhibits, etc. This was the twin's first fair.

Ella on the left with Emily and Smokey!


Smelling the orchids(?) in the rainforrest display.



On the lawn for dinner. Emily didn't want Darryl to let go of her.



Ella had a ball walking on the grass.


Ella with Sherri after dinner.

Emily's Teeth

Over the past month, Emily has been getting two more of her lower teeth. These are the teeth immediately next to the two front teeth. I really noticed that they were finally in this week. For those of you keeping track, she now has four top teeth and four bottom teeth. (It's a good thing the biting seems to have stopped.)

Ella is getting those same bottom two teeth now. I can see them, especially the one on her right, coming through her gums.

My Dad and the Twins

Yesterday I had the great pleasure of going to my Dad's house with the twins. I always enjoy the times my dad and I spend together when there is no pressure, no one else around, nothing to distract us. That's not the same as saying I don't want anyone else around. What I'm saying is that the times I remember most with my dad are when we can relax and he plays music, and we don't have to be somewhere or go some place else. So yesterday was perfect. I took the twins down to his house and we had a ball. The girls walked around, Dad played his ukulele, we went to the co-op for lunch. Great times. I even got a little video on my digital camera of Dad playing and singing for the girls.

Biting Resolved

We think Emily's biting has stopped. While I was gone at my company's Sales Conference, Sarah said there was no biting that week. And since I've been back a week, there hasn't been any. We're very thankful, but we'll continue to keep a close eye on it for a while.

BTW, check out the Tahoe Reunion and the Emily is Walking posts because I added some pictures to them.

Three Nights in a Row

Okay, I'm back from my company's annual Sales Conference, so that is why the absence of posts. Here's a quick one - the last three nights Emily has been sleeping really well in her own crib. Last night she went to be at 10:00 pm and didn't wake up until after 4:00 am. But more impressive than that are the two nights before where she went to be around 9 pm or 10 pm and didn't wake up until after 6 am. Ella has still been waking up anytime between 11 pm and 2:30 am, but it's easy to get them both back to sleep again.

More posts to come...

Not such a good thing

So I've been posting to this blog for about six weeks now and basically everything I say is positive. That's great, and it's certainly the case that most events with the twins are positive. But recently, we discovered that Emily is a biter. Yes, that's right, she's using her teeth to get her way. She has bit Ella hard enough to leave marks about 4-6 times. Needless to say, we are not happy. Both Sarah and I have caught her doing it, and we've also stopper her a half-dozen times. Sarah has done some reading on it, and we may call the pediatrician to see what he suggests. For now, we're just staying vigilant and watching Emily as closely as we can.

For me, one of the worst things about it is that I don't feel like I can put Ella and Emily alone together in a small area (like their crib or the playpen), even if just for a few minutes while I make them breakfast or whatever. We are actively reprimanding Emily when we catch her, and I hope this is just a phase, but I'll be sure to update you all.

Tahoe Reunion

It was short, but sweet. We went to Lake Tahoe on Friday. We got up there a few minutes before 1:00 to Zephyr Point (http://www.zephyrpoint.org/). The event is the CCFC annual gathering (CCFC = Chinese Christian Family Conference). I think of it basically as a big extended family reunion. It's a place where I have been going off-and-on (more off lately) since I was about 10 years old, maybe 12. So I know the place pretty well. I have a hard time remembering the names of all the people, but it is still a great time. Sarah and I think this is the first time in about five years that we've been there. She came with me two or three times in the past.

The reason we went was to show off the twins, really, and to have a nice day away from everything. We had a picnic, went to the beach, played in the sand and water, and had a great time! We got several pictures of the twins, which I'll upload later. While we were there, both girls ate sand. YUCK! Ella really liked the water, which I guess was warm for Lake Tahoe (but still the coldest water they've ever been in.) Emily didn't dis-like the water, she just didn't take to it as much as Ella. Everyone up there loved them, and it was great to see that there were lots of other kids. I think they ranged from about 5 - young teenagers. I hope we go again in the coming years.

Papa with Emily and Roberta with Ella in Lake Tahoe.



















Papa with Emily and Roberta with Ella (and her other granddaughter Ella) in Lake Tahoe.














Emily and Ella in Lake Tahoe.

Emily in an innertube at Kaje Tahoe.

Our Ella playing with her cousing, also Ella, at Lake Tahoe.

Quick Update

Emily has started standing on her own as of yesterday. Until yesterday, she needed help standing. She'd crawl to the couch or a toy and pull herself up. Now she can do it on her own. I have some pictures, which I'll upload later. They are kind of blurry, but you'll get the idea. Similar to what Ella did a couple weeks ago.

Today we're going to Lake Tahoe to visit my dad and step-mom at the CCFC family reunion. Hopefully we'll get some pictures of the girls at the beach.

Definitely My Daughters

Take a close look at the photo. See what is in Ella's hands? That is a Nintedo Wii controller! And what does Emily have in her hand? A computer mouse and she's looking at the keyboard. Sarah snapped these shots while I was in another room. These are definitely my daughters! No doubt about it.

Emily is WALKING!!

Okay, so this isn't the post I alluded to yesterday that proves these are my daughters, but I couldn't wait. I had to get this posted ASAP. This morning, around 10:15 - 10:30 am, Emily started walking on her own. Sherri was here, and a friend had come over, too. Both of them were sitting on the couch and Emily started to walk between them. They called me into the front room and Emily walked from the couch to the TV and back, and then all over the place. She holds her arms a little more up than Ella does, but same sort of thing. Now she's still not quite able to transition from a sitting to standing position on her own, but once she's standing, she can walk now! And she is so happy when she does it, just like Ella! It's great! I got a couple pictures, so I'll post them later.

Walking and Carrying the Basket

Ella has moved on beyond just walking. Now she has started carrying things around with her. Most recently, her Lego basket. She carried this basket around the room a couple times this weekend. Most of you that know me know that I love Legos, so this is doubly sweet.

But, if you think I like this, wait until you see my next update. I'm not sure if I'll get it posted today or not, but it'll be posted this week for sure, with pictures, and you'll know why I know she's my daughter.

Fishy Lips

If any of you know the term, then I think you're already laughing. "Fishy Lips" is when you suck in your cheeks so much that your lips pucker and end up looking like stereotypical fish lips, like in a cartoon. :) Anyway, I did it for the twins several days ago and now Emily can do it back to me. It is so funny! And she gets such a kick out of it when either we do it for her or she does it for us.

Learning to put their toys away

The twins are learning to put their own toys away. This may not be huge news to anyone else, but it is neat to see. Over the past few days, I've taken different storage bins and as I was picking up their toys, I would hold the box out to them and they would pick up something and deposit it in the bin. Now of course, as soon as we were done picking up, they'd go over to the box and pull toys back out, but that's okay.

The Race to 20!

We're still waiting for the magic number - 20 pounds. We took the girls into the doctor's office yesterday, just to be weighed, nothing else. The assistants will do that for free if you just come in.
Ella is 19lbs, 3.4oz
Emily is 19lbs, 14.4oz

That was naked of course, no diaper or anything. I know Emily is 20lbs with clothes on. Ella might take another month to get there. We'll see.

Ella is WALKING!!

Oh my gosh, it went quick - from standing on Thursday to walking this weekend. Ella is moving across the room now, and sometimes even comes back to us like a boomerang. :) She's so happy when she does it. And it's so cute, too, because she holds her arms up, bent at the elbow. I guess it's for her balance, but I'm surprised she doesn't hold them more outwards. Actually, as I write this, I think the real reason is to protect herself when she falls forward. She hold her arms up, bent at the elbow with her little hands in front of her, somewhere around chest/neck level. She smiles, laughs, and giggles the whole time. We have it on video. :)

For the past few days, Emily has tried standing up and walking. Today was cool because she was holding onto the baby gate at the kitchen, and Ella was walking back and forth between the two gates. My mom was here, and we could see Emily thinking about walking herself. She was holding the bars with one hand, and we could see her loosen her grip, then tighten it again, and repeat that a few times. She finally committed and let go completely, but fell down immediately in a squatting position. We cheered for her, and I bet she'll be walking in a week. We know she can, since she was doing some walking last month.

One Small Step for Baby...

...One giant HURRAY from her parents.

Thursday, was HUGE for baby development. Ella stood up all on her own! In the middle of our front room.

Some Quick Updates

Below is Emily in her Star Wars "Jawa" costume. To me, she looks more like a Twi'lek with a hat. :)
Okay everyone, I'm getting back on track for the blog updates, so expect to see my usual 3 updates a week.

Three days ago, we noticed that Emily has started crossing her legs when she sits. Like yesterday she was on the couch and Sarah gave her a snack. She had her back against the back of the couch and her legs stretched out in front of her, then she crossed her legs at the ankles. Very cute!

Ella is our future rocket scientist, already using the calculator!
I can't remember if I've said this already, but one of Ella's favorite sounds is similar to the word "baboon." She just drops the double "o." It sounds like babn, which is close enough to baboon. I don't think Sarah or I ever said the word baboon to her before she started making this sound, but a couple days ago there was an animal in a video game I was playing that sort of looked like a baboon, so we pointed it out to Ella and said "baboon." She made her sound, and I thought it was funny. I don't know where she picked up the sound. It's interesting because I hear other parents say their children make sounds for certain common objects. If our girls have sounds for things, like blanket, or chair, or toy, I haven't noticed. I'll have to ask Sarah.

In the past week, the girls have developed a game they both love. In this game, they try to take the cap off anything, and then put it back on, and take it back off, over and over. This seems to entertain them endlessly. I drink a lot of water, and usually drink it from a bottle. The little 16.9 oz clear plastic bottles you get from the grocery store, or Costco, or wherever. They love to take the cap in one hand and either they want us to hold the bottle, or they will hold it in their other hand. I think it's great hand-eye coordination. The only thing that stops them is if the other one tries to take it, or we stop them. There is one problem with the water bottle caps - they are just the right size for the girls to fit in their mouth and could choke them. SO, we're going to have to find bottles with bigger caps, like Snapple or something. :)

That's it for today.

The Week Went So Fast!

I wanted to get some photos loaded this week, but the days have gotten away from me. :( So, this is my lame attempt to get a few pictures up and I will write more as soon as I can.


Emily on the left side of the picture, Ella on the right. Like two little birdies waiting for food. :)


Chris on his Birthday (7/16). Ella is on his right, Marilyn is in the middle, and Emily is on his left.


At Gary's house. Savannah and Joe go swimming!


Ella and me at Gary's. She's watching Savannah and Joe play in the pool. Next time, we'll go swimming, too.