Gifted Girls

I can understand now why every parent thinks their child is gifted. They spend so long as helpless babies that when they first start learning new things it seems like a miracle. Of course we think our girls are geniuses because they can make the sign for more and milk. We are also pretty impressed by how they 'read' --sit with a pile of books, turn the pages and babble. But today I was floored by Braiden's direct communication with me. She and Maitlyn were banging on Brian's big exercise ball--something I showed them how to do. Then, Braiden reached out, grabbed my hand and put it on the ball. At first I thought it was just cute that she wanted to hold my hand. Then I realized she was telling me to bounce the ball. I bounced it, then stopped and put my hands back in my lap. Once again, Braiden grabbed my hand and put it on the ball. Genius, pure genius!

And while we're on the subject of Braiden, who knew the temper tantrum drama queen would turn out to be the lovey dovey one? Today, when Djina (my friend Angela's baby) was visiting, Braiden leaned down and kissed her on the forehead. It was really more of just a slobber, but an unmistakable sign of affection.

More, More, More

Braiden seems to have learned the sign for 'more'. All day today she was making the sign and smiling. Although I suspect she may just be doing it to get a positive reaction out of me, since she made the sign on the changing table as well. Who knows, maybe diaper changes make her hungry!

Maitlyn sort of makes the sign, but mostly bangs on her high chair when she wants more. We'll get there....

Sick Babies

We had our first round of the stomach flu this weekend. Oh so fun. Maitlyn woke up puking Thursday night, Braiden followed suit Saturday night. And to top it off, Brian and I got sick Saturday night as well. Nothing like a house full of sick people. Luckily Laura pulled morning duty while Brian and I tried to recover. And Sheila (Grandma) came over to baby sit while we recovered some more. I have a new found respect for the Gosselin family (of Jon & Kate Plus 8 fame). I could not imagine having 8 sick kids at once. Two was bad enough.

I will spare you all pictures of this weekend's festivities...

Kodak Moment

Maitlyn walked all by herself today. We were at Giggles N'Hugs for Sheila's birthday. It's an indoor playroom/restaurant where the adults can sit and eat while the kids run wild and play. Maitlyn was in the middle of the play area when she stood up and took 3 steps (mostly in a circle). We started cheering and clapping, and had everyone in the place cheering for her as well. But of course, no camera anywhere nearby. We were all crying, so perhaps that was a good thing.

Maitlyn gives Braiden a little push--practice for all that walking!

Happy Halloween!

Ahhh, Halloween. The day when parents get to inflict exquisite torture on small children by putting them in scratchy, hot, oh so cute outfits and parade them around town.



The girls' first Halloween was relatively painless. They cried only a little bit--Maitlyn was a better sport than Braiden. We took a quick walk around the neighborhood to see the uber-decorated houses and then back home.

The girls are also standing by themselves and cruising around the furniture. We are all placing bets on when they will start walking. Then our lives will truly end as we know it.

Braiden surprised us by standing straight up. Doing her best Elvis impersonation here.

They will be playing duets any day now.

Catch-up

It's been a month since my last post. Amazing how quickly time gets away. Sometimes I think it's only been a week or so since I last spoke to someone, or received an email, and then all of a sudden a month has passed!

So lets play a little 'ketchup':


1. The babies worked two days on the new TV show The Mentalist. Simon Baker was so cool--he was playing with the girls and making jokes with us. And the Assistant Director was incredibly nice and even sent me this picture with me, Maitlyn and Simon.
Everyone loved the girls (but what's not to love?).
The episode should air on CBS Tuesday, November 11 at 9/8c.




2. We also spent 2 weeks in Las Vegas shooting a new movie called 'The Hangover'. It's directed by the same guy who did Old School and Road Trip, so it will probably be a total guy movie. Laura had never been to Vegas before, so she was like Dorothy at the gates of Oz when we got there. It was fun, but exhausting and very, very hot.

They hired 3 sets of twins to play 1 baby in the movie.

Our only day on film--by the pool at Caesar's Palace.

3. MILESTONES!!!
It seemed like in one week Maitlyn and Braiden turned into little girls. They now stand up,
crawl, have teeth (Braiden has two on the bottom, Maitlyn--aka Snaggletooth--only has one on the bottom) and babble incessantly.

They have discovered the joy of Peek-a-Boo!

They also got their first cold the day we flew to Vegas. Sucking snot is akin to baby torture. And having to do it twice is parent torture. I got one of those battery operated snot suckers, which works well enough but is rather disgusting to clean. I'll spare you the gross imagery.

What babies with runny noses get to look forward to!

I will try to be more diligent in my postings, but I can't promise anything. It took four days just to write this one!

Warp Speed

So when I said in a previous post they were growing so quickly, I misspoke: they are changing at warp speed. It's been a little over a week since they started babbling, and now they are 'talking' nonstop. Maitlyn is minutes away from crawling on all fours and Braiden can sit up all by herself. She also pulled herself up to standing yesterday, not too long after she threw her first temper tantrum. We are going to have our hands full with these two headstrong girls.
Whenever we are out and other parents of twins see us, they always say, "The first year is the hardest. If you can make it through the first year, everything gets easier." That makes me a little concerned, since the first year thus far has been fairly mellow. I'm worried they are going to start walking and talking and all hell will break loose. Or maybe we'll get really lucky and the second year will be like a vacation.

Baa Baa Braiden

Here's a little taste of Braiden's new one-syllable vocabulary. And no, the sound didn't go out midway through--she just decided to mouth the 'word' instead.

More Pictures

There are lots of photo albums of the babies on our Web Gallery
Enjoy!

So fast

It's amazing how quickly the girls are growing. They are already quick little scooters (I like to put them on the floor for baby races) and have even started rocking on their knees. Saturday Braiden started saying "ba ba ba" and Maitlyn followed suit just yesterday. I tried to record it, but they stop talking once they see the camera.

We had to take the bumper pads out of their cribs because they were pulling down on them. Now at nap time, since they can see each other through the rails, all we hear are squeals of delight. I think they could entertain each other for hours. Yesterday when I went in, Braiden had pulled Maitlyn's lovie and pacifier into her own crib. I think our nap schedule is in serious trouble.


Maitlyn the scooter...

The commercial

My husband, the tech guru, downloaded the commercial from our DVR. Click on the link to see it.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HkacSx12eJg

Reveling

Brian is out of town tonight and Laura was at work, so it was just the girls and I for dinner. We played 'You Can't Get Me' (Cousin Pierce's favorite) in the high chairs for about half an hour after they finished eating. They were laughing so hard and having so much fun. I tried to sear the experience into my brain, knowing that in a year or so I'll look back on this time with such nostalgia. These babies are so much fun. Everyday I think about how absolutely blessed we are to have such wonderful girls in our lives.

On TV

My sister and I were watching a recorded episode of Jon & Kate Plus 8 (the show that makes me feel like having twins is a walk in the park) and we saw the girls' State Farm commercial!! They filmed it back in April and we got a residual check last month, but we still hadn't seen it. I searched all over the internet, but no sign of it. We watched it about 10 times. The first shot is of Braiden, then Maitlyn, then Braiden smiles at the actor at the end. It flips back and forth between the girls and a dummy baby, but you can totally tell who our cute babies are. Keep an eye out for it!