Hanging Out

No more walking since the first few steps on Wednesday. Hailey tries though, and laughs every time she starts thinking about it, but then chickens out and crawls instead. They'll be running everywhere soon enough I'm sure, so I'm not going to push it.

In the meantime, here's Hailey causing trouble. She grabbed the bag of Cheerios off of the table when I wasn't looking, and spilled them everywhere. I love her "what?" face.


She looks very innocent here too, but I'm sure she's just hanging back, plotting her next move:
Saturday we met Josh & Kristina and some of Kristina's family in Chinatown for dim sum. It was very good and very fun. The girls didn't eat the food, we brought their lunch. But they did try what I believe to be a Sweet Cream Bun, and as you can guess from the name was very tasty and they loved it. We'll save the Chicken Feet for the next trip.


We actually did this with Josh & Kristina last April too, but for some reason the pictures didn't make it to the blog. They definitely didn't try the food then, they were only 3 1/2 months old. In retrospect, I'm proud of us for even getting out at that point. Here's Hailey and me:

Riley slept through it apparently:

As I recall, after dim sum that day we convinced Josh and a very skeptical Kristina to go shopping with us at the outlets. She didn't think the girls would be good shoppers. I think that is when she realized the girls were very well behaved and that Stacey & Chris would still be fun to hang out with even though they were now "old" and had kids!

Breaking news!

Hailey took her first solo steps yesterday! She took 2 steps to Jade during the day and one to me when I got home from work. I'm glad she at least attempted to take one to me or I would not have believed it. I thought we had a few more weeks! She may not do it again for a while (I spent most of my morning before work trying to get her to do it again, Chris says I have to stop pressuring her) but it was very exciting. As soon as she lets me, I'll capture it on video for the blog.

Riley had a big day too; she actually held her sippy cup of milk after her nap and drank the whole thing by herself. These girls are perfectly capable of doing this simple task themselves, but refuse to do so, and would rather sit and scream until you give in and hold it for them than just drink their milk. Yesterday was the first time one of them actually started and finished the job themselves. Woo hoo!

So big!

I can't believe how big these girls are! They amaze us every day with all the new things they learn and do. Here are a few:

• Identifying body parts - we have "hair" and "nose" down pat (next up: "nose hair")


• Brushing their own hair, most of the time with the correct side of the brush


• Holding up one finger when you ask how old they are


• Giving high fives


• Mooing, of course


• Clapping at the right time when singing BINGO


• Signing "please" when they want a toy (which is a new game for Hailey, she hands you her toy and immediately asks for it back with "please")


• Making sniffing noises and scrunch up their noses when they see you blow your nose


• Holding their arms up when you ask them how big they are


• In general, being unbelievably cute and funny!

They are also very good at growing teeth. Our total tooth count is now at 19. I have recently learned that almost 10 teeth each at one year is a LOT.

This week's pictures courtesy of Grandpa Tom. Enjoy.

Miss Hailey Can Moo, Can You?

Winter Wonderland

So the holidays are over and we're back to normal life. The girls are happy to be back to days playing with Jade and are loving all the new toys they got for Christmas and for their birthday.

Here are some pictures of their first time out playing in the snow. Though "playing" just meant sitting in a snow bank until mommy and daddy let them get up an go back inside.