Ella has a great laugh

This morning, we played "horsie" with the girls while they rode on our backs and we ran around the house. Lots of fun. Ella has such a great laugh, too. Sarah was tickling her and they were playing, and Ella was just laughing and laughing.

The twins and I also made a game out of cleaning up the living room. The three of us were putting the blocks and Legos away, while Sarah was doing laundry. It made the chores much more entertaining.

Going backwards for a minute, last night was a "little" rough. Around 12:30, Emily woke up and for the next hour, I think I got up four times for her and once for Ella. But after about 1:30 am, they didn't wake up until 7:00. And we think it's because Emily is getting another tooth popping through. The 3-4 nights before that have been great - the twins are doing very well sleeping through the night.

Now skipping ahead several months, Sarah, Darryl, and I are planning another trip to Bandon, OR. We went there a couple years ago, when the twins were just a few months old, and we're going back this September to the same house. We're really looking forward to it. I'm going to take a week off and we'll go crabbing, tide-pooling, we'll go to the wild animal park, etc.

More Talking

The twins are saying more and more words. The biggest change was that they don't "whine" or "screech" as much when they want something. Instead, they say Mama or Papa. In a related story, they are sleeping better through the night, but when they do wake up, they often say Papa instead of just crying. It's pretty neat.

Emily is getting at least one more tooth. It hasn't broken through, yet, but her gums are very red and she's been cranky. I'm sure it'll pop through in the next few days.

As for me, I'm going to the gym now. Sarah gave me a gym membership for Christmas and I have been seven times in eight days; although, to be fair, I went twice the first day - once to sign up (and I did workout) and a second time for a class.

Pictures

We misplaced the camera for several days. Sarah just found it a few minutes ago, so I'll upload some photos later (hopefully today).


Also, a couple updates:

• We're continuing to get them to sleep on their own. Some nights are better than others.
• They really are saying Mama and Papa more often now when they want something, rather than just whining or yelling to get our attention.
• They're enjoying their toys from Christmas. They love when we read to them, so the books are seeing a lot of action. They also got some water washable markers that they play with in the bath tub.
• We went down to my Dad and Roberta's house in Sacramento this morning and had a good time. The girls were shy at first - they don't see Grandpa Bud and Pa-Pa (Roberta) often enough. But within 30 minutes or less, they had warmed up. We stayed down there about three hours and had lunch with them.
• Ella is getting another tooth in the lower-left part of her mouth.

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.

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!

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.

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.

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.