a fun week!!

Last week I met a mom at a park. She is from Taiwan and has lived in the states for 5 years. Before I talked to her, I was really nervous that anyone around me while I was walking in this city would do something to my kids. Irrational, I know, but it was how I felt. I was always looking around my surroundings, behind me, etc to see who was around. Walking with a double stroller with two babies and then two old dogs on a leash doesn't make for a very fast getaway vehicle, so I was (well, still am, but not as bad) wary. But now I know normal people can live in a city and it's ok to talk to them.

The other interesting thing about this mom is that her husband and mine work on the same floor. I met her by her son crawling over (he was sitting playing with grass nearby when he suddenly decided to speed crawl over to the babies) and sitting between the babies. So we started talking. I asked her if she was visiting the area, and we got to talking and found out the above information. They even work on the same stuff. But they've never met. Her and her husband are living in corporate housing 2 blocks down from us and will be here the same about of time. I guess her baby was listening to Heavenly Father that we could be friends for this short time. I have a feeling she has been feeling very lonely, as she is very social and seems to miss her mom group from home very much. She reached out to me and gave me her phone number and suggested we meet for breakfast that weekend with our hubbies. Pretty wild. At first I wasn't too excited about making friends with someone for a few weeks with someone I met on the street, but Jim pointed out to me that I would have zero friends if I didn't have church. Good point. I'm blessed beyond my wildest dreams with a lot of stuff, and I didn't even want to share something as simple as a mom network. Something I get automatically around the world as soon as I go to church. So we've been hanging out. She has been very interesting to get to know. We'll see how long we stay in touch after we both move in two weeks. It might be longer than I think.

Last week I didn't mention why Tucker was working on eating. He finally figured out how to get the bottle nipple to his mouth. He doesn't hold it long, but we're one step closer to them feeding themselves. Whitney hasn't figured out how to bring the bottle to her mouth yet. She has, however, figured out that if she drops her cracker, half the time it is caught in her bib and she can fish it out to continue working on it.

This week I got a pretty good scare. Whitney was sitting on the floor by the coffee table, a safe position before that day. I walked out of the room to get Tucker out of his crib and walked back in to find her standing at the coffee table. It startled me because she was falling quite a bit when she was standing, but after I caught my breath, I figured if she got there herself, her body probably has enough reflex so that she pulls her head up so it doesn't hit the floor as hard if she falls. And I won't leave her sitting near low surfaces. My days of finding them where I left them are drawing to a close.

The other thing she can do is crawl really fast to the dog water dish. It is rather uncanny how she seems to have a video camera trained on that thing. Every time it is down on the floor she goes toward it. She loves to splash the water, just like in the bath. I have enough time to be one step ahead of her to lift it up. Rocky is getting trained to drink water during baby naptime only. The dogs are going to have to learn to be camels when it comes to baby naptime only once a day. Whitney crawls fast enough to chase Sammy. Sammy has figured that out and nips at her to herd her and to try to get her to play with him. No worries. Sammy nips at her ruffles only.

Tucker is getting much better at being on his stomach. He has been playing on his stomach 10 minutes about three times a day, often when he falls over while trying to overextend his reach for a toy when sitting. He also has been amazing, playing by himself (not Whitney or I around to entertain him) up to 30 minutes at a time, often 2x a day. Which is awesome, because Whitney has started the clingy mommy thing and a little bit of stranger danger stuff. Sometimes she cries and cries if Jim tries to put her to bed. That was very nice of the babies to trade off being demanding.

If anyone has any doubts that boys are boys and girls are girls can talk to any mom with a set of boy/girl twins. It is already so apparent. Like Whitney babbles and Tucker makes noises. Whitney does a lot of singing and ba-ba-ba stuff. Tucker grrrs like a monster (with a huge smile on his face) every time he pulls to stand (with assist from us so far). He also barks like a harbor seal at random. I think these are the consonants he is working on for his speech. And they are the same age and so young. It is so fun to have the differences at the same time, though.

This week was extra nice because I had two nights out. Once to go to the Bellevue temple for the first time and once to get my hair chopped off. Going to the temple was very relaxing and a spiritual renewal. I guess my haircut was a scalp renewal, not as relaxing as the temple, but a night out anyway. This place sets appointments at 8 pm on Friday nights, and I took it!! After baby bathtime/bedtime!! I've never had a male hairdresser. He combed and scrubbed my hair more than I've ever had it. And I thought Anne was rough. But the cut is good, so I can't complain. And this place does a free trim within 4 weeks of your appointment to help the cut last longer. Awesome!! Sign me up!

The most exciting bit of news I have for this week is that I am going to visit my aunt and her family. I can't remember when I last saw them for sure, but I think it was at my great Grandma's funeral. My mom had this great idea to come visit me to help me unpack and all at the end of October. And I've been thinking of how I want to visit my aunt before the babies turn two. I was looking online at plane fares for my mom flying up here. I looked, just to see, how much it would be to visit my aunt during the week my mom is supposed to be here. The week my mom is here is off season and during the week, so I called my aunt to make sure it was ok and booked the flight. My thought was to fly with the babies by myself, but I found you can't do that with twins, I'd have to pay for two tickets no matter what (one in arms and one in seat). Since my mom already had time off, I could go with help and for the same price without having to use Jim's time off (we want to go home for Christmas). I'm sooooooo excited!!!! Oh well if I'm not unpacked. The house will always be there, but the babies will not always be under two (free to fly in arms), so we're going!!

Anyways, a note to Sue. Today I just figured out that you have posted comments on almost all the blogs since you came to visit us this summer. So I had a great time reading them. Miss you a ton, too. And now I'm going to have figure out how to post on your blog. Be looking for it!!

3 more weeks and the pictures of the babies will be back. Awesome. That means 3 more weeks until we have a dog door. Hopefully we have less rain than this rainy week, but I think I'm dreaming.