10 Month TwinPhotos

It is getting harder and harder to do a twin-photoshoot solo!  I spend more time making sure they aren't going to fall off the chair than I do actually snapping any photos.  And, they are aware of the stickers, which last on their chest for about 10sec, if I'm lucky!

At least someone will wear the sticker!  I'll be doing a milestone post on each baby shortly, here's a look at 10 month old Oliver (and the days before monthly stickers).

Frisbee Fun

Oliver has been throwing around the "O" letter from our foam mat (that protects our carpet from baby spitup) and has been requesting we buy him a frisbee.  After playing frisbee at a birthday party on Saturday, we bought him his own frisbee on Saturday and took it to the park to practice with Daddy.  Oliver is really good at throwing it - he understands that he needs to release it flat, and has got great form.  We definitely need to work on catching it - right now, I just peg him with the frisbee a lot! 

Fire Engine Celebration

This year, I was the one in charge of the birthday festivities.  Adam and our au pairs have handled it the past two years.  We kept the party low key with just close family in attendance.  We had kicked around the idea of a party at a venue, but Oliver wanted to have it at home.  We let him pick between a construction/truck and fire engine theme, and then when crazy on Etsy.  Oliver's large fire engine made a perfect decoration, and by having it up high, eliminated a potential fight over who would get to play with it. 
   

Here were the little kid attendees, minus our neighbor-friend Mason  --- All of Oliver's cousins - Remi from one side and boys, boys, from the other! 

Oliver's 3rd Birthday

Oliver turned 3 on Saturday!  Of course, the day started early, because there is no convincing an excited toddler that 5:20am is too early when there are presents to be opened!  Thankfully, snuggles with Mommy and some Mickey Mouse Clubhouse was able to hold him off a bit until the rest of the house started to stir.  At 6:30am, while the babies were having their morning bottle, Oliver was opening presents!

None of the presents we had gotten him were things he could play with immediately (mental note for next year).  The walkie-talkies from Daddy are very cool and will come in handy this summer at the SSC.  At the last consignment sale I was able to score a VTech 2 and some games and some story collections (presents from da-brothers).  The video games are still a bit over his head, but I'm sure he will pick it up quickly.  Thankfully, Pauline got him a very cool farm tractor with a wagon that tips over.  He got a cute fireman shirt from Jana, which he insisted on wearing that day - how cute that both Pauline & Jana sent him presents!

Since his party was on Sunday, we decided to do a family outing to celebrate Oliver's birthday.  We headed to Please Touch Museum - one of Oliver's favorites.  Now that the babies are mobile, they were able to have a bit of fun as well (not like the last time Oliver & I had met Nicole & Devon at the museum).  Lukas napped for quite a while, so he didn't play that much, but Alex really loved climbing through tunnels and going down the slide in the 3 & Under areas.  

In the space room!

Lukas asleep in the stroller behind me

Oliver kept asking when we were going to eat cake.  So, while getting last minute groceries for the party, I got him an Elmo cupcake for after dinner.

9 Months! 9 Months!!!

Life is very different in our house these days... in a good way!  We have babies on the move that are starting to show us their personalities!  They chase after us down the hallway, squawk when a brother steals their toy and like to "talk" to us.  Also, we now get the occasional morning when all three sleep past 6am - heaven! Unfortunately, evenings continue to be pretty brutal, since they are both still lousy nappers.  Surprisingly, there isn't a single tooth between the two of them.  

They are both lil' peanuts - Alex is in the 15-20% percentile for weight and Lukas is only in the 5-10% percentile -- interestingly, there is just under a pound of difference between them.  Both continue to trend along the same growth line, so the doctor tells us we have nothing to worry about.  

Always fun to reminisce and see what Oliver was like at this age.  No surprise that the babies remain developmentally behind their big brother.  They can pull themselves up on things, but that's a very new skill and they aren't doing it all over the place yet.  They don't really have an interest in walking when we hold their hands and haven't tried to "cruise" either.  

Latest family activity

We are starting to see the first glimmers of the family fun we will be able to have playing as a family with all three kids.... Of course, the stars have to align for this to happen (no one overtired, dinner finished early, and not bath night), but we have had two particularly great nights of family fun recently.  Well, one night, the second night (when I wanted to videotape) Oliver was a bit uncooperative.  I'm hopeful this will become a more regular occurrence over the coming months.    

I bought these ride-on toys at consignment sales (I admit it! I am becoming a consignment sale junkie!).  I made the mistake of only buying one ride-on toy at the first sale.  Why did I think buying a single super-fun toy for 3 boys would be a good idea?  Of course I had to get one for each baby... and then I realized Oliver would freak if he didn't have one too... there's a lot of plastic laying around our house these days!  Anyway...  the babies weren't very steady sitting on these for some time, but now they all really enjoy getting pushed back and forth. 

Life in Video

As promised to Pauline....  Here are some videos I have taken in the last two weeks.  Oliver is saying "to infinity and beyond" as he jumps -- he's on a big Toy Story kick these days.  Every day the babies seem to be able to crawl farther, faster.  It won't be long before they can crawl from one end of the house to the other!

Easter Sunday

It's been quite awhile since we celebrated a holiday with my dad and Margit's family.  Jana was actually with us the last time.   We're a large, noisy crew when everyone gets together!

Easter Morning with Omi

We weren't at my mom's for long on Easter morning, though it did feel like it took FOREVER to get everyone dressed, fed, and packed up.  Thankfully, we got some family photos in early in the day.  There would have never been a good opportunity, let alone cooperative kids, at my dad's.  

Easter Weekend in New Jersey

This year, we headed up to Jersey to spend the long weekend with family.  On Good Friday, we hung out at Kristy & Ray's.  My mom was watching Devon, because his daycare was closed and Nicole had to work.  Since Bentley had missed out on cousin fun last time we were up, Robin coordinated to have him sleep over at Grandma's Thursday night so he could join in.