just plain ol' cute

This week was the regrouping week after the long vacation, and I have to say the babies are doing pretty well with getting back to a routine and schedule. In fact, Tucker went back to waking up only 1 time a night to eat (which means Whitney is eating 1 time a night). They have also gotten into a fairly set nap routine. I can count on them sleeping for 40 minutes starting around 9:15 or 9:30, then 3 hours from 12- 3 or 12:30-3:30 and then bed at 7:30 or 8:00. It is SOOOO lovely. I really like how I now have down time at night for sure. It is most relaxing to take a shower for as long as I want. No interruptions.

They have both figured out how to roll back to front, so now the play gym on the counter while I cook dinner is no longer safe. They can't do it consistently, but one flip would be enough. I'm going to make a play area on the floor in the dining room. Watch out Rocky and Sammy. Your 4 legged floor buddy is going to increase from 1 to 3 here soon. Whitney flipped from her back to front on Thursday, and Tucker did it yesturday. I can assure you that Tucker learned his by accident. He absolutely hates tummy time. I left him on the floor on his back to go get something and found him on his stomach. He was a little upset when I left, but really mad when I came back. It didn't take me long to figure out why. He created more tummy time by accident and couldn't get out of it. Whitney learned to flip back to front because she wanted her favorite toy, the snail with the lights/music/mirror that Anne's mom gave them. The toy was a little out of reach, so she went to get it and flipped over. I also find them in various positions in the morning when I get them out of their cribs, so I know they can move a little more.

We've been practicing being nice to the doggies and petting them, mostly so Sammy will know that all the hair pulling might be worth it if there is another member of the family that might pet him. Rocky usually remains aloof. They both seemed to be excited to pet the dogs, but Tucker really got excited and started jabbering to Sammy and smiling, like he does when he meets new people. I don't know. Maybe he was trying to set something up about Sammy giving him a ride or something. The picture of Rocky with his paws on the scriptures is just awesome!! If anyone wants to use the picture to convince someone of how important scripture study is, go for it!! Even dogs beg for the scriptures!!

Whitney LOVES bananas. Or she really likes to eat food with different flavors other than milk. She already understands the relationship with the bowel, spoon and to open her mouth so I can actually get the food in far enough for her to swallow. It is so fun to see her get excited. She also asks for more and will settle for milk only when she gets tired of eating. I'll begin rice cereal tomorrow. I have a friend that told me that her daughter is so much less messy at eating, and I just thought it was because she didn't remember how it was with her boys at the same age, or maybe she waited a little longer to start solids with her daughter, the third child, but no. Rest assured girls get the fine motor skills sooner than boys. At least with these two. Tucker doesn't get eating. Bummer, because I think he would be happier if he did. Most of it still comes back out the mouth, and he gives it about 5 bites before he just wants to eat quickly with the bottle. Somehow he managed to get banana in the back of his hair, all over the bib, on his shoulders, under the bib, etc, while I just needed to wipe off Whitney's mouth. I don't even know how he managed to do that much damage with 5 bites worth. Whatever. Whitney polished off his portion of the banana.

Whitney also has been practicing the use of her hands. This comes in particularly handy when it comes to using the frozen teether. She gets a lot of relief out of chewing on that thing, whereas Tucker needs a little more help to keep it in. He's really good at chewing on his bib (or his clothes if his bib gets turned sideways) to relieve pain. He is getting better at using his hands this week, though, so maybe the teething thing will go better next week.

We celebrated our 6th wedding anniversary this week and went on an official date, no kids. We went to dinner while our friends watched them. It was great to have Jim's complete attention for an hour, but now I know what people mean when they say "It's hard to be away from the kids that long" when they go on a vacation. We already started to look forward to seeing them again, as they are family!

Anyway, there are two videos of them just being cute. I love to see how content Whitney is to play on her stomach and with her toys. She kicks her legs repeatively when that happens. I also got a video of her laughing!! Finally it was caught on tape!! Tucker has been talking a bunch this week, so I have a video of that also for enjoyment. He usually does most of his talking while being upright, standing or sitting. Stomach or back positions don't usually elicit this type of calm communication. There are also some other "photo op" pictures of the babies just playing in the house or outside while I've been weeding. Enjoy!! There is one with them in the stroller. We go for a walk at 7:30 am to the top of the mountain, so that was them at the top. There is a picture of Tucker's thighs stuck in a bumbo chair. He loves to be upright in that thing, but getting in and out of it is getting to be a problem.

the past 3 weeks flew!

I can't believe how fast the past three weeks went. I will just do the highlights. There are a lot of highlights.


Memorial Day was a perfect day for me. The babies only woke up once in the night and stayed on a fairly good schedule the whole day. We went for a hike to a waterfall as a family. Our first family hike!! Then we came home and Jim and I worked in the yard together while the babies took their afternoon nap. I got all the yard work stuff done that has been bothering me. And then I cleaned the whole house at the same time. I can get so much done when baby nap time is at the same time!! Amazing. In the evening I played with the babies on the lawn while Jim worked on the shed. It was a great combination of getting out of the house, being together as a family and being productive. The weather was perfect, too.

The rest of the week was preparing to be gone for 10 days. The day before we left, someone turned on the summer light switch. It went from being 70 degrees in the day to 93 degrees. We didn't turn on the airconditioning because by the afternoon, we knew we would be gone in 12 hours. That turned out to be a mistake. Jim figured out that the babies must not have slept well (they woke up 3 times in 4 hours) because they were hot, but we were so tired and hot ourselves that Jim didn't think of it until 3 am when we both got up to leave for our trips. It was ok, though. My really awesome neighbor brought over some apple zuchinni bread and that totally made my night (and my breakfast the next morning) after the babies had finished their screaming fest for the night.

Jim's rafting trip in Colorado with the scouts turned out well. Everyone made it back safely and alive. They flipped the raft the first day after running on the river at record high water, but after that, they learned. The last day everyone except one guy got bucked out of the raft several occasions. They got done earlier than anticipated and decided to drive back that night instead of the next day. Jim was only gone 3 nights!! I guess it wouldn't have been a big deal for me to stay home anyway, but our trip was worth it. Jim didn't go with the Scouts to build the house on the Indian reservation, but it turned out well and Jim still had a part in it in that the Scouts practiced building skills on our shed. We were glad the house building project turned out well.

The babies did really well on the drive out. We left at 3:30 am and drove until 4:30 california time. We stopped twice to bounce the babies and let Sara's son run around on the playground. The babies didn't start crying until we got to I 80 and Sunrise when we hit a bit of slower traffic. The same was true on the way back except the traffic was longer when we hit I 80 and 215. The babies didn't like being in their carseats in slow moving traffic for 1.5 hours. Whoops. The trip was good mostly because my driving buddy or I fed the babies in the car in their carseats. That saved a lot of time instead of stopping a ton. I got pulled over in Salt Lake on the way out for going 73 mph in a 75 mph zone. We can't for the life of us figure out why the cop pulled us over. Maybe he just wanted to see for himself that we fit three kids and two adults safely in a Saturn sedan.

We were able to visit with all the grandparents and great grandparents. My sister was also able to meet the babies. The highlights of the trip were going in Grandma Cindy's pool and Grandma Kim's spa. The babies loved playing in the water. I loved how the siblings loved playing with the babies. Erik was a little wild with Tucker, but I think Tucker liked it. He never complained, just had a look of concentration to make sure the next thing Erik did was ok.

Tucker started teething half way through the trip. That meant he was up in the night more often, crying. Except for that one night he was up from 1:30 to 4 wanting to play. And Whitney took a turn being up for an hour and a half in the middle of the night wanting to play. She played with the bunny in Grandma Kim's bathroom for that time. Oh yeah. Tucker had a night that he woke up and played with Grandpa Anderson for 2 hours. Thank heavens for the help at night. I was able to get a little more sleep and be less grumpy. Now that we are home and in a better routine, they are sleeping a little better at night (although Tucker is still waking up 2-3 times because of gum pain, he settles down more rapidly) and both are taking better naps.

Some other trip highlights were gardening with Hannah and Erik, going to See's with the whole gang, walking to do errands with Grandma Anderson, going to breakfast with Grandma in the Attic and watching the shed get re- arranged. It was really fun to see everyone and just have company all day.

When we got back, we had a day of cleaning up from the trip and then I went to a continuing education course from 7:30 to 6 that Saturday. Jim took care of the babies that day. He made me look bad. He told me that he poop scooped the back yard, hosed off the front porch, went grocery shopping, put away the groceries and made a dutch oven dinner, all while I was gone and in between naps and feedings. Oh yeah. He also went to the doctor about his bug bites. I asked him how on earth he managed to do all that. He said he put the babies down for their naps by walking around poop scooping with them in the front pack and back pack. Yeah. He was tired by the end of the day. I'd believe that. I only tried that trick once and thought I was going to fall over with the weight of it after only 5 minutes! He also said they didn't nap longer than 45 minutes at a time and didn't eat really well, only 2-3 ounces every 2 hours or so. So that's when I decided I do ok, even though I don't get as much done in a day.

For baby news, Whitney had a great time at Grandma Ann's. She learned to roll for the first time in front of Aunt Hannah. She also figured out that bananas are really yummy. She was watching me eat a banana with great interest. I smashed it up in a bowl and fed it to her with a spoon. She totally got it. She would get really excited when she saw the spoon go in the bowl and tried to help me with the spoon to get the banana in her mouth. Her body went still with concentration when the spoon got close to her mouth.

We had a great first father's day. Whitney helped me get the cards and books ready for Jim in the morning and Jim cooked fajitas for himself with spanish rice and pico de gallo. Dave and Jill came over to enjoy the meal. We sat on the front porch to talk afterwards while we snuggled babies to sleep.

Anyway, there are lots of cute pictures out there, mostly not with my camera, but here are a few. The first is Grandma Cindy holding Whitney and me holding Tucker before their first swim in a pool. The next is Whitney helping Grandma An sew. The next is Whitney swimming with Aunt Hannah. There is a picture of them doing tummy time in a park at Battle Mountain, NV. Tucker is being cool with Erik's glasses on the walk to See's. Grandma Wilma holds Whitney. Grandpa holds Whitney in the front pack and Tucker supervises Erik and Hannah weeding while rocking out to country music. Whitney in the stroller on the way over to swimming at Grandma Cindy's. Whitney and Aunt Brit on the back porch. Ryan holding Tucker on the air mattress after sleeping on the back porch. All of us before bed in the shed once it got organized.