Within Which Are Many Pictures

We had a Wintery-Twintery time in Chicago this time. There was never a time when there wasn't snow on the ground.


On Sunday, we celebrated The Twinks' birthday up in Chicago with our Great Lakes relatives.

Emma struck a pose with her cowboy cake...


While Joseph got right down to business.


We also had Christmas with Uncle Matthew, Aunt Nicole, and cousins Will and Josh. The Twinks were decked out as Santamen.




As is my wont, I put gift bows on their heads (and my own, at times, but there are no photos thereof).




As one-year old kids tend to be, they were often more impressed with the wrapping than the gifts. They'll figure it out soon enough...


Oh wait, maybe Emma already has...


We also have to thank the kind people at Palm Court as we left quite a mess behind at this end of our dinner table.

Emma and Will had much fun.


JoeJoeMan got serious with his breadstick.


Of course, there are many more photos from our trip to be found at the Flickr site (check the badge to the right), as well as some that I never posted from our "All Saints' Day Dress-Up" at my parents'. There's some cute stuff there...

Oy, Airlines

We flew back home yesterday, and lemmie tell ya, it wasn't fun. We got through O'Hare pretty easily (delayed 30 min, I think), but the kids were none too happy on the flight. Thankfully we were sitting near understanding, kind people. Then came Memphis. We got on the plane on time, but then it went South. The plane was HOT. Also, it turns out, the plane was overweight, so we had to have volunteers to leave the plane. In the end, we sat at the gate, in the plane, for an hour before we took off. We fed The Twinks when we got on the plane, but they were already fussy before the plane even took off. I did not have the touch, as I couldn't get either of them to fall asleep. Sarah got Emma to sleep and we swapped, but she eventually woke up, and was sore displeased. As we got close to home, we were told that visibility was bad and we might have to divert to an airport 2.5 hours away from home (with no car, natch). They decided to fly around for 15 minutes to see if the visibility got better. Eventually it did, or they decided to cheat, because we finally landed, and not a minute too soon. Sarah and I hadn't eaten since breakfast so when we got in at 5:30 we were starving. The Twinks seemed glad to be home, and happily terrorized our cat and dogs, and played with toys, old and new. Thankfully, they went to bed early and slept pretty well last night (or if they didn't, I certainly wasn't awakened by them). Of course, they were up with the sun at 5 AM this morning, but that's every morning...

Happy Birthday!

The Twinks turn "One Years Old" today. To celebrate, we went shopping at Target in the snow. Chicago + December Weather + Babies = Not That Fun. It really started snowing again this afternoon and we're hoping we don't get delayed flying back tomorrow, but it is Chicago...

We'll have some pictures to post after we get back. All in all, we've had fun, as busy as we've been. Those of you who remember our terrible American Airlines experience back in February will be happy to hear that our Northwest Airlines experience was much better. From Pensacola to Memphis we even got to sit at the front at the bulkhead, with an empty seat for the kiddos on each side. Jackpot.

Babies and Food

Since The Twinks have a milk protein allergy, we've had to introduce some foods later than most. This includes meat (which they've been on for almost a month now) and, as you'll see below, graham crackers.



Emma was a little less enthusiastic than Joseph, but she still liked them. She's very businesslike about her food.



Emma also is proud of herself afterward, and claps for herself.



Joseph already has "See-Food" down pat.



And he usually gives us a speech after dinner. We don't know what he's saying, but he says it with feeling.



He's probably telling us that crackers are way better than that "meat" stuff that smells like cat food. Ugh. I HATE meaty baby food.

9 Month Update

The Twinks have now been out longer than they were in.

As of their last appointment, Emma is 27.75" tall, 19 lb 1 oz, and her head is 17.5" around.

Joseph is the exact same height, is 18 lb 15 oz, and his head is 18.25" around.

They are both quite talkative these days, although most of it is gibberish. Emma's first word was "yay!" as she clapped. She followed them quickly with MaMa (in her "sweet voice") and DaDa. JoeJoe's first word was DaDa. They both cluck their tongues and make lots of fun noises.

Emma crawls around pretty well, while JoeJoe is still working on it. He's not as interested as getting around as Emma is. He's slowly starting to get more motivated, though, and should be getting around soon.

In conclusion, here are a couple of pictures of the kids with some funny hairdos, compliments of their sitter.

Is It Any Surprise That The Twinks Have Strong Legs?

Sicky Babies

The Twinks each have a double middle-ear infections. So that's four infected ears if you're scoring at home. So the kids are feeling a bit peaked (that's "PEEK-id," for those unfamiliar with the term). The doc's got them on antibiotics for a while which should clear things up.

They weighed the kids today, and they're within 1 oz. of each other. So JoeJoe's finally caught back up to Emma, who is still a bit taller than him.

They both love their jumparoo and their exersaucer and have been working on different sounds. They have lots of fun talking to each other and have a lot of fun playing together, even when they don't try to put each others' eyes out. :)