The babies are turning 9 months old this week.  Here is what they are up to:

Samia-

She is our adventurer and is always exploring and following me around the house in a very fast army crawl.  She prefers not to sit.  So when I put her in the tub I have to keep it shallow enough so that she can flip over on her belly and slither around in the water.  She reminds me of the iguana Greyson used to have when we first met.  I would take pity on the somewhat neglected reptile and put it in the bath to swim around, which it loved.  Samia swims around just like that iguana did and loves it almost as much. 

She is quite the eater and prefers to feed herself.  If you have a bowl of food you are trying to spoon feed her you have to take all the finger foods off her tray so she will take a brake from the double fisted face stuffing and eat her veggies.  She is not in to sitting around and reading books or snuggling, but I am sure that will come in good time. She is too busy for all that.  She is a great sleeper most of the time and is almost always the second one up in the morning, sometime grumbleing about her sister waking her up.  She is starting to say lots of “mamamabababa” sounds.  I am sure a true mama and dada will be coming soon.

Piper-

Pipes is a little sweety and is much more of a studious baby.  She likes to really study things, especially her books.  Brown bear is still her favorite of the 6 board books we have, but the new book my friend Robert bought them (5 little monkeys, jumping on the bed) is catching on.  Piper can go from crawling to sitting with ease and now uses this skill very often to sit up and play in her crib instead of sleeping.  She still enjoys hitting everything.  She uses her hand, her foot, a toy… whatever makes lots of noise.  She was refusing to feed herself.  She would either just pick up the food and hit things with it or ignore the food completely.  Just a couple days ago she finally started to pick up crackers and attempted to get them in her mouth.  She always seems to get them to her mouth vertically instead of horizontally and just can’t get her mouth wide enough to get them in.  Not much talking from Piper yet.  She makes lots of noises, just nothing that sounds like they will be making a real word anytime soon.  But Piper is funny that way.  Samia will work her way into some skill for a good month or so before Piper.  Piper will just decide one day she can do something and then starting doing it pretty well.  It is like if she doesn’t think she can do it properly she will just wait a bit longer to try.

Mom and Dad-

What are we up to?  Chasing babies around, making baby food, doing laundry and cleaning the house.  We can tell how clean the house is by the amount of dirt on their front side after a day of crawling around on the floor.  Greyson has been taking the babies out for a jog, except for this last week when it has been snowing and hailing out.  Marty and Janie (Greyson’s brother and sister-in-law) are coming to visit this next week and we can’t wait to see them and show off the girls. I have to go off to John Day dam for the week leaving Greyson home alone with the babies.  I would love to quit doing these traveling jobs altogether but I have to find other  local work to replace it. 

 I think that we finally have this blog all fixed up where it isn’t a pain to put up pictures like it used to be.  So… I will try much harder, once I get back next week, to add updated pictures more often.

Thanks for reading and sending those comment,

“Mommy”

This was on thanksgiving day 2007. They’re pretty fast. The wind chill was vicious (felt like teens), but not bad enough to prevent post-run mimosa sipping. *edit* mom and dad sipping mimosas.

This was on st Paddy’s day 2008. They tied for first in the babies’ division.

Interesting to see the differences between the two girls. If it isn’t apparent enough in hair color, skin, and head structure, their behavior is as opposite as it can be.

Samia is over a heavy crabby phase, and is now typically very happy. Most of her issue was probably the result of teething. She almost seems to be beyond toys, exploring everything— guitars, shoes, drum sticks, electrical cords and outlets, drawers, entertainment center, plants etc etc. revisiting some of the more complex noise-making toys but not nearly as often. She’s army crawling everywhere, if I hadn’t mentioned that before. She also feeds herself at the table, loves cheerios, and baby mum-mums-a rice cracker sort of thing. She loves eating solids, and I can’t seem to find one that she’s not eagerly wolfing. She can sit fairly well, but doesn’t have much interest in it and instead prefers to move around and explore.

Piper, by contrast, loves to sit and play with the simplest of toys, can’t crawl, but can get to a seated position from lying prone and would stay seated for hours if I allowed it (haven’t seen samia do that yet). She’s equally interested in plugs and things, if only I’d position her close enough. She’s content and quiet, waiting patiently for Samia to bring her something that she can steal. Piper also gets a little more frustrated if she’s left behind by the red and parents are off redirecting her, so I don’t think it’ll be long before she is at least as mobile as her sister. She takes hesitant rocks on her hands and knees before giving up and rolling to her back. Occasionally she’ll even gain a few inches in the process. She doesn’t want anything to do with feeding herself cheerios or other foods, but likes them well enough. Piper will try foods, eating most things if I feed them to her, but has a very effective gag reflex if I give her larger bites. She squeals and flaps her hands with joy when it’s reading time, or bath time. Those are the times that I really see her come alive.