New babysitter

We are having our sunroom renovated and it turns out that the twins love watching the contractors work.  

As math teachers it is also important for us to teach the twins measurement and geometry so I put together this block pool for them.  So far they love it.  Perhaps some of their first words will be triangular prism or cylinder.  

Another week at Castlerie

We had another great week at our cottage on Long Beach, Lake Erie.  We had our friends Anne, Mike and their son Eli join us for a few days during the week and then Grandmas Charlotte and Marsha came for the weekend.  Eli was born a month and a half AFTER the twins. You can see by his size compared to Josie and James just how little our munchkins are.  We also had a wonderful visit with Vickie and Dave on Saturday.  The weather all week was perfect making our second last week of summer another great one.

We have been blessed with so much family time this summer.  I hope Josie and James know how lucky they are to have their mom AND dad with them ALL summer.  I certainly appreciate how lucky I have have been to have had Brian with me these past 2 months.

So many milestones

So much is happening these days with James and Josie it is hard to remember what I have recorded and what I haven't. On Monday Josie popped the beginning iof her first tooth.  Two days later she has begun to pop her second one.  Both are only popping slightly through.  She is taking it very well.

Today James said his first word, "dada".  He said it in the morning while Brian was changing his diaper.  Again, we don't really know if he knew what he was saying but he was looking right at Brian when he said it.   

This week both James and Josie have become master sitters.  They can both sit for minutes on end while they play with a toy or watch us.  They do fall over from time to time, usually when reaching for something, so they are keeping us busy as we watch closely and spring into action to catch them.

Both James and Josie continue to develop their crawling and rolling skills.  Both have developed a system on continuous rolls and tummy scoots to get them where they want to go.  For James this is often off the blanket and into the grass.

This week Josie has also caught up to her brother when it comes to eating.  They are now both great eaters and are enjoying breakfast, lunch, dinner and an afternoon aback.  This is helping us to get the babies on a schedule for eating and naps.  The goal is to keep the schedule going once Brian goes back to work in September.   

This week we have been at our cottage on Lake Erie.  The weather has been perfect and the babies have spent lots of time outside (in the shade of course).  They are even starting to tolerate the water better.  We got some great pictures of the babies in the water with their friend Eli but those are on our good camera so I will have to post them later.  

This week, like every week this summer Brian has gotten to spend sl day with us. This has been great for me and for James and Josie.  They absolutely adore him and I can tell that he loves bring a dad.  He makes such an effort everyday to talk to them, play with them and teach them new things.  We are all very lucky to have him.

Here are some pictures from Wednesday when we took JJ to the Welland Early Years Center.  We all had fun, especially Josie while Brian taught her how to use a hammer.  We have now been to Early Years centres in 5 cities.  I wonder how many we can visit on our travels around Ontario.

James and Josie's first fight

As a parent watching their first " fight " was really interesting.  James was in the exersauser and I was helping Josie stand while she held the exersaucer from the other side.  James was eating one of the dangly toys and Josie reached across and took it from him.  James cries out and attempted to take it back which ended in them both crying and struggling to get it from the orher.  As a new parents this is all new to me and I wasn't sure how intervene it if I even should.  I did intervene, twice, to give the toy back to James because he had been playing with it first.  Thankfully Josie was soon distracted by the lure of something else.  They are so much more interactive with each other - mostly eating each others hands, shoulders, heads - it will be interesting to see how their personalities develop as they "fight ".  This picture was taken after dinner last night.  We put them on their mat and they played happily together for over. 30 min!  

This was snack time yesterday.  They love avacado!

8 month photoshoot

We had a quick photoshoot on Thursday morning.  I can't believe they are 8 months old!

This weekend I left the babies for 2 nights  so that I could go to Jenn's bachelorette party.  Brian stayed with the babies Friday night but headed to Windsor Saturday for Kevin's bachelor party.  Jane and Dave eagerly volunteered to spend the weekend with their grand babies.  Great Grandma Ruth even came over on Saturday for extra help.  I am told that the babies were angels the entire weekend and that Josie took a bottle very well, which is a huge relief.  

It was great having some girl time away but the highlight of the weekend was watching their faces light up when I got home.  Both babies were smiling and giggling when they saw Brian and I.  James even pulled my face to his to give me a big kiss.  

James' new toy

Now that the babies are becoming mobile they are finding new ways to play with their toys.  James has decided that he prefers turning his playmat into a fort.  

I put him down to play on the mat and this is what he does.  

Josie's first words

Yesterday Josie clearly said "dada".  Was she referring to Brian or just babbling?  Who knows.  But she definitely said it.  

8 months old!

Wow, my little babies are not so little anymore.  We had them weighed last week.  James was 15 lbs 10 oz.  and Josie was exactly 13 lbs.  they have developed a lot this month.  They are both sitting up on their own and starting to discover the movements for crawling.  They have also become much better eaters this month and love feeding themselves fresh fruit and veggies.

I haven't had a chance to do an 8 month photoshoot yet but I will this week.  

Watermelon

Taking a break during our drive to the cottage.

Turned the temperature in our Hottub down.  They loved it!

Another week in paradise

This picture was taken at the end of our week at the Allen cottage.  It is far too cute not to share!

We spent most of this week at the Goodwillie cottage.  Here is Josie enjoying a delicious Niagara peach.

We love the sunshine (well we love sitting under a sun shade on the grass in the sunshine)

Sitting all on their own now - my little babies are getting so big.

Josie loves her daddy.  She kept looking up at him and smiling.

Auntie Jenn and I took the babies on their first trip to Blueberry Knoll.  They are still a bit too young to eat blueberries but if they are going to be Goodwillie's we figured they needed to develop their appreciation for the jam making process early.

We had planned to come home on Wednesdsy but it was such a nice day that we stayed.  This also gave us a chance to do a little photo shoot with the twins in their Australia themed outfits.

Today (Friday) we went to Caledon to visit Brian's friend Holly and meet her adorable twins Hunter and Hayden.  While we were there James and Josie got to meet one of Holly's parents horses, Macho.  James makes a pretty cute cowboy.

Crawling!!!

Today Brian and I watched James demonstrate very inefficient but determined crawling.  He was able to turn himself around and crawl about a foot on his tummy to reach his butterfly toy. We are very proud parents right now!

We just got home from 5 days at the cottage with Jane and Dave.  We had a great time.  I Will post pictures when I have time to upload them from my camera.

Update: Its a week later and James is definitely on the move. Last night we were talking to Dave and Jane over Facetime and James crawled across the bed to get to his grandma and grandpa.