Hair: Styling 102

That's right, folks, I'm moving onward and upward in the baby hairstyling world. I'm so good at one ponytail, that I thought I'd try two:
I may need to work a little on symmetry. But I'd say it's not too bad for a first try. Especially if you consider the patience and attention span of a one-year-old.

Try two was a little more symmetrical.











Since I'm getting so good, I thought I'd try a side ponytail while I was at it:











Okay, the side ponytail was entirely accidental. I was just lucky to get any ponytail in before Ruby squirmed away.

Gratitude

I've decided I need to focus more on what I'm thankful for and less on the difficulties that face me each day. I was talking to my sister, Jenn, this afternoon and we decided to start a gratitude blog on which we can write down the things we are thankful for each day. It's our little experiment to see if we can make ourselves happier just by focusing on the positive. If anyone would like to join us, you are welcome. Just e-mail Jenn or me and let us know you're interested. Anyone can read and comment. Perhaps you can find more things to be thankful for, too.

One Year ...

has passed and we're still here to tell about it. I'd say that's quite an accomplishment!

Here is the rundown on the birthday celebration.

In a fit of insanity, Daddy and Mommy gave the girls this:
Very important side note: it was mostly Daddy.
The girls are still figuring it out. They love it if Daddy or Mommy are running it. The girls would rather play with the end where the balls are than hold onto the handle. That is quite alright with Mommy.

Daddy took the girls outside to play while Mommy worked on making cakes. They just sat in the pile of leaves and were perfectly happy. That is until Cora sunk down so far that the leaves were over her face. She didn't care for that at all.









Now, about the cakes. I had some great ideas for what I wanted to make for the girls but I ended up having no time to make cakes. It just didn't work out well. So, instead of making a cake from scratch, which I normally do, I used a cake mix. That proved to have two problems: first, a cake mix doesn't actually make very much cake and second, cake mix cakes are not meant for anything other than being eaten out of the pan they are cooked in. Also, my frosting came out a very strange consistency, I don't know why. It was too runny and nothing I did made it any better. Since my time was limited I decided to just make balls. They ended up sort-of ball shaped. Ruby's was falling apart before I could even get it all together. The frosting kind-of ran off the cake. It was great. At least they tasted good. Here's a picture:
Now for the fun part, letting the girls eat the cake:









Both girls just poked at the cake for a while. Cora first figured out that it was sweet. So she would rub her hand in the frosting then suck on her fingers. She finally decided to try picking up the whole cake. It fell apart and made a good mess. Ruby didn't ever try much with hers. Ray got impatient and tried to help her make a bigger mess. She didn't care for it.

The end results.









Here's a picture of the girls with all their gifts. Everything behind them is from their Grandma (Ray's mom). Aren't those dresses just darling? I'll have to get pictures of them in the dresses one of these days.

For those who are still with me. The girls had their one-year checkup. Height and weight-wise Ruby is around the 25th percentile, but her head is in the 76th percentile. Cora is fairly average and normally proportioned.

The girls are doing really well. According to the doctor, they are the best looking twins she sees. She really did say that and I know these girls aren't the only set of twins she sees. They survived their shots. I survived taking them to a doctor's appointment all by myself (Ray was out of town).

Hair: Styling 101

It's a good thing my children are still in that stage where they are cute no matter what their mother does to their hair. Hopefully by the time they outgrow this stage they will be able to do their own hair.
Ruby's hair really isn't quite long enough to put in a ponytail, but I figure if I have Cora's hair up and not Ruby's people will really think she's a boy.

Back story on the afghan

I am notoriously slow at getting wedding gifts created for my siblings. Lil wanted to be sure that hers was done before she got married. So we made a deal that she wouldn't get engaged until after the afghan was finished. It took a lot longer than I intended, but now it's finally done. She is free to get engaged at any time.

Random stuff I've been meaning to post for a while

These days it is awfully hard to get anything done without "help." It is especially hard to empty or fill the dishwasher, which is what I was trying to do when I took this first picture. The girls kept getting into the dishwasher and so I came up with the ingenious idea of using the stroller to block them from getting into the kitchen. After a bit Ruby was crying her very angry cry and when I checked she was stuck under the stroller, she managed to back out on her own. A little later she made it into the kitchen by pushing the stroller forward a little and slipping in behind it. I fixed that problem by putting the brakes on. The third try she made it all the way under the stroller and into the kitchen. Just look at the very sad face she has. I gave up at that point.

When Cora gets angry she will crawl away and pout. Although she will sometimes pause, look back at you, and scream. This picture was taken one day after she threw a fit that wore her out completely. Her nap didn't last long, though. As you can see Ruby was headed towards Cora as I took the picture and it only took one hit on the head to have Cora screaming again.

I just thought this picture of Cora was too cute not to share. If you look closely you can see her little teeth.

The girls love to push the stroller around the living room. The basket is just the right height for them to hold on to. They will push until they run into something and get frustrated because they can't move anymore.

One day I was in the kitchen and the girls were playing in the living room. When I stepped into the living room to check on them I couldn't find Cora anywhere. There aren't that many places she could have gone because I had all bedroom and bathroom doors closed and the gate was on the stairs. I was getting concerned when I heard a slight noise from under the table where we keep the carseats. This is what I found:
She had gotten stuck and just sat there sucking her fingers until I happened to come along and find her.

Ruby is much easier to find when she gets herself stuck. She doesn't sit quietly and wait. Although, I still had a little trouble finding her the first time she got herself stuck here:
She was crying like mad but I didn't think to look under the crib. I walked right past her and thought it strange that the crying then seemed to be coming from behind me. She goes under there to rescue toys that have been thrown under or dropped from the inside the crib. Other furniture she has gotten stuck under: kitchen chairs, living room chairs, high chairs, and our bed. Basically, anything even remotely tall enough for her to get under. Now that she's walking she doesn't get stuck under furniture quite as frequently, I assume it is because she's not seeing the toys that are under the furniture.

Lil, it's done...

...and you know what that means!! :-)

Mobilization: Part 2 - Cora

Now, I'm not quite so slow at letting you know about Cora. She has only been walking for one week. She's getting the hang of it. You can see from the video that she is not quite so steady or confident as Ruby just yet. But I'm sure she'll get there soon.

Mobilization: Part 1 - Ruby

I'm a little slow getting to this, since Ruby has been walking for three weeks now. She's getting really quite good at it. I believe she walks more than she crawls these days and I have long-since lost count of how many steps in a row she has taken. Here she is:

Chocolate

We had (I really hope that past tense is correct) mice in our house. We caught two and haven't seen signs of anymore. However, the little pests made some big messes in the short time they were around. First it appears they had a sweet tooth since they ate Ray's marshmallows. But worse, they were addicted to chocolate. They ate holes into EVERY SINGLE BAG of chocolate chips we had. I was not happy when I discovered this. However, I may use this knowledge against mice in the future and bait traps with chocolate chips. :-)