6 months at lightning speed!

Whoa! Where did the last 6 months go? I know that time definitely seems to go faster when you have kids, but now that I have two 4-year-olds, two babies, and a start-up company to keep up with, time has never moved so quickly. Yes, Franklin and Carlton are six months old today! I keep remembering a phrase that someone told me when I was overwhelmed by taking care of Cora & Greta. It goes something like this: "for mothers the days are long, but the years are short." How true that is. The four years of Greta & Cora's lives seem to have also flown by, but I know that there were days that I thought would never end.

As I did with Cora & Greta, I took Carlton & Franklin to have six month portraits made. They are not able to sit up on their own yet, so it made things quite interesting. Carlton was asleep when we (Mom went with us) got there, so he wasn't as happy as Franklin, who was Mr. Smiley the whole time, but neither boy cried at all the entire time, so that was nice. I've been working on giving them tummy time and encouraging them to roll over and try sitting up, all the time wondering what I'm doing to myself! In fact, today Carlton rolled over more times than he has total to date so far. He kept rolling from his back onto his tummy and then getting frustrated. Franklin is quite content to lie on his back wiggling and kicking. I try to remind myself to ENJOY these days before they become mobile since they won't stop moving once they're able to. That's Franklin in the light blue and Carlton in the red.

Oh, and I finally started feeding them some baby cereal a couple of weeks ago. Our whole family has been sick off and on for the past three to four weeks, the holidays were busy, and our internet service has been sporadic lately, so my online time has been rather limited. Anyway, I have to say (while trying hard not to toot my own horn too much) that I am SOOOOO happy that someone (not naming any names) invented the Baby Dipper bowl and got it to market before I had to spoon-feed another baby. I haven't gotten the high chairs set up yet since they're only eating a tiny amount of cereal once a day, so I use the Bumbo seats and a little stool as a table, placing a Baby Dipper bowl on the stool and using my hand that's not holding the spoon to wipe their faces or hands or to hold their arms down while I try to get the spoon of food to their mouths. I'll post a couple of pictures from one of our first experiences with the Baby Dipper bowl. By the way, Carlton is much more interested in eating than Franklin is, but Franklin seems to slowly be getting more interested in actually eating than just pushing the food out of his mouth. I know it's early yet, but I'm ready for them to be eager to eat. That's Carlton on the left and Franklin on the right.

Jumping in the Leaves on Thanksgiving

So, I tend to post things out of order, but at least they get posted eventually. Though we had cold, rainy weather the day after Thanksgiving, we were treated to a beautiful, sunny afternoon on Thanksgiving day. We were at my parents' house in Glencoe, Alabama, where my dad had already raked up a big pile of leaves for Greta and Cora to jump in after lunch. We had beautiful leaf-jumping weather two years ago, but last year the bad weather came ON Thanksgiving and the leaves weren't as plentiful either. This year we had 13 adults and 4 kids there, so it was lots of fun just hanging out, but by far the highlight of the day was watching Cora and Greta run and jump in the leaves. Here are some of the best photos:



And our shadows started to get really long, so that was about the end of it:

Here's hoping that Thanksgiving 2009 brings another warm, sunny afternoon with lots of colorful leaves for all four kids to jump in! Carlton and Franklin will be 17 months old then!

A monumental day in a little girl's life

This was Cora's first real haircut ever. She turned 4 in October, so it was quite a decision for us and for her to make to finally cut it. She wanted to have 10 inches cut off so she could donate it to a little girl (Locks of Love) instead of 8 inches to donate to a woman (Beautiful Lengths). When the lady first started cutting she had a very solemn look on her face, but when all was said and done she was/is delighted with her short, free-moving hair. While Greta got a little trim (since she wants to donate hers next time), Cora flitted and twisted around the salon enjoying her new hairdo.So, here are some pictures from today.

Mom-preneur Shop-A-Thon on Tip Junkie

This is going to be a quick post since I've got to get the girls ready for gym class here soon. I just listed the Baby Dipper bowl on the Mom-preneur Shop-A-Thon on the Tip Junkie web site! There are tons of cool items from moms all over the place, so check it out to support moms like me who are trying to run a business and take care of kids at the same time! Thanks!!!

Rollin', Rollin', Rollin'.....

Yep, we had some rolling going on here today! That's Carlton and Franklin in the photo above. Both Carlton and Franklin rolled over for the first time. First it was Carlton rolling from his tummy to his back. It was less than 2 hours later and then it was Franklin rolling from his back to his tummy and did it two times! They've been in that "lay-on-my-side-try-to-roll-over-but-that-arm-is-in-the-way" stage for a few weeks now, so they have both finally made it to the point of actually rolling. Isn't it uncanny how twins do things together like that? Now I know that there will be some rolling in bed and likely some unhappiness due to ending up on a tummy (Franklin), so here's hoping that doesn't happen tonight.

Tonight I also have to start back on my injectable medicine for my Multiple Sclerosis, Betaseron. I went off of it in April 2007 when we decided to try to have another baby (not babies, but what can you do?). It's been rather nice not to have to give myself injections every other night for a year and a half, but it's time to get back on the meds since that's all the doctors can do for now. So, tonight starts the every other night ritual of self-administered injections until the pending oral medication is approved. I can't wait for that day!!!!

To end on a happy note, here is another recent picture of Franklin and Carlton. Yes, it wasn't long ago that we had weather warm enough to wear shorts and short sleeves!

Thinking like a four-year-old girl

It is absolutely fascinating to see the world through the eyes of two four-year-old girls. Hans, Mom, Dad, and I continue to be amazed at the ways they express things that they want to describe, but don't know the correct word for. They usually hone in on some words they know that are similar, but not quite the final word. The latest was when I was going to draw a picture of Thomas O'Malley and Duchess from "The Aristocats" for Cora. She asked me if I was going to draw the "handsome thing" on Thomas O'Malley. At first I didn't understand what she was talking about, but then she pointed to the collar and bowtie that he has on and I knew what the handsome thing was and, yes, I did draw it.

Greta's most memorable phrase of late was when Mom was riding with the kids and me up to Greeneville, TN, for my grandmother's funeral. That day happened to be one of the super-foggy days we get here sometimes in "the valley" (that would be the Tennessee River valley). We were talking about fog, so it wasn't that Greta didn't know the word for the white stuff all around us, but she expressed it in her own astonishingly artistic way: "the fog is a blanket of white." Mom and I just sat there looking at each other for a moment in awe of what just came out of the mouth of a just barely four-year-old girl. Greta loves to look at art and notices details that we adults don't usually see. She loves the Maxfield Parrish prints we have on the wall in our guest room. We have several of the ones in the collage below, specifically, the ones on the four corners and the one on the right-hand side in the middle.

Both Greta and Cora enjoyed watching and dancing to "Singing In the Rain," especially the very artistic scene with Cyd Charisse and the famous "Singing In the Rain" scene where Gene Kelly sings and dances in the street. They have tried to duplicate the flowing dresses and streaming scarves like the "green lady" (Cyd Charisse).

It's fun to watch the girls dance since they've not been taught any real dance moves. Sometimes we have "The Cora Show" and "The Greta Show" where we put on a CD and let them dance however they desire. Greta's style is smoother, more like real dance moves. Cora's is a bit wild with her long arms & legs flapping maniacally. That's Greta at the top and Cora at the bottom. Fun times!

And, yes, I'll write something about Franklin and Carlton in the next post....

OK, so step back in time a bit now. Greta and Cora turned four years old on Wednesday, October 29th, though their birthday party was at The Little Gym on Saturday, the 18th. In all (other than the adults), there were 8 sets of twins there! One set was 5 years old, 5 sets were 4 years old, 1 set was 2 1/2 years old, and Franklin & Carlton were 4 months old. The kids all had a ton of fun running around playing on the gym equipment and playing some "organized" games with the instructors on hand. This was the first birthday party we'd gone away from home for and we will never again have one at our house! It was SO much easier to go somewhere else and let them worry about coordinating everything including the clean-up! I did have to bring the cakes (we got one for Cora and one for Greta) and the goody bags for the guests, but that was it!