11.25.2001

Snapping

Connor imitates snapping by fiddling with his thumb and forefingers on both hands and making the "click" noise with his tounge against the roof of his mouth.

Follow Directions - Connor is very good at doing what we want him to do (...usually...). He'll put toys away at the end of the night before heading up for bath, and LOVES to put the dirty clothes in the laundry basket (more about containers earlier).

Funny Stories

Jamie caught Connor red-handed a while back with resees peanut butter cups. There were a few left over (probably from halloween?) and sitting on the kitchen table. She had left him in the kitchen while taking Avery up to take a nap. When she came down, he was sitting on the kitchen floor, with a reeses in his mouth, a wrapper on the floor next to him, and another unopened one in his hand !! All he said was "mmmm" (good !!) He had apparently used a magazine or something on the table (which they can now reach) and slid it across the table - not knowing (we think) that it would knock whatever was on the table off !!

Both Avery and Connor play with the stereo in the living room on the way by to go to the stairs for bed, etc. They usually don't get to play in the living room. Even when playing with the stereo, they don't quite know all the right buttons to push - usually the speakers are turned off, but they turn the receiver on and off, select FM radio, and definitely play with the volume knob. One day Avery was playing with all the buttons, and happened to get them all in the right sequence. The volume was on max, and she turned on the radio - speakers were on. BLAST !!! Jamie looked, only to see Avery freak out with her arms flailing out to the sides and scared face. Didn't know what to do - so she crawled into the "cubby hole" wood box that supports the stereo equipment - hiding from the disaster I guess :-)

Around the House

Avery is all about reading books and doing puzzles (wood alphabet letters with corresponding objects, and fitted animal & vehicle pieces). She'll go into her bucket of books and pull out 4 or 5 at a time and bring them to us to read, or just go look at them on the ground by herself somewhere. With the puzzles, she can identify any of the animals or letters, and say yes or no (nod or shake her head) if she wants to put that piece in. She'll sit and do the same puzzle over and over and over....dumping the pieces out by turning the puzzle upside down.

Connor is mostly interested in containers and carrying things around. He'll put pieces of puzzle, balls, pretty much anything into a bucket, bag, or whatever, and carry it around...only to find some other container and move the contents over to it.

The other day we had a "spinning" session, where they were spinning around and getting dizzy, and cracking up. It must feel weird to them to get dizzy and try to walk.

Halloween

SOOO CUTE !!! Jamie found full body costumes at Costco for the kids - Avery was a lion, complete with full head of hair/mane, and Connor was an elephant, with a trunk hanging off his head. We took them to the Carlsbad Company Stores the weekend before halloween, as the stores were handing out candy for the kids. There were a lot of kids around, and the babies had a good time "walking around like crazy people" and going in many of the stores.

One store had a lady dressed as a cat and she was kneeling down at the entrance to the store with a bucket of candy. The kids went up to her and didn't know what to do - kept their 3 feet of distance and just stared. Connor had candy already in both hands from a previous stop....after some coaching, Connor took the Baby Ruth he had in one hand and set it down on its end (!!) to make space in his hand for the new candy. Connor had a bag from some previous store that he was using as his candy bag - for the both of them.

Avery had a couple candy bars in her hand that we assumed she would just look at and play with the wrapper. 5 minutes later, Jamie noticed that the WHOLE THING was in her mouth, wrapper and all. With the saliva and heat, etc, the chocolate was melting and oozing out through the wrapper - mmmmm, good. Had to fish the wrapper out of Avery's mouth, much to her disappointment...

Sleeping Habits

For the most part, they are both sleeping like angels these days . Usually from 7pm to about 7am. Of course, when we take them on a trip or somewhere out of their normal routine, they *hate* it !! We just got back from Jamie's parents' house for turkey day. They slept in the pack-n-plays, and didn't fare too well, waking up crying at 2am, etc.

Around home, it's really funny to peak in on them in the morning to see what they are doing, while waiting for "ma-ma" and "da-da" to come get them. Connor will sometimes sit on the edge of the crib, with his feet dangling through the slats and down, like he's on a school bus... Avery will always have a "binky" or two (unless she loses them during the night), and waiting for us to come bring the small tupperware bucket for her to place the binkies before getting out of the crib.

Connor is all about his blankets these days. He usually has at least 2 with him while sleeping at night, and MUST have them bundled up with him when he gets out of the crib in the morning. He'll keep them bundled up around him as he gets his morning milk, and typically lays in "dad's corner" on the couch while catching some TV and drinking his milk.

Thanksgiving

Well, now it's Thanksgiving weekend, and I'm still trying to find time to post a couple entries. Wild how time flies by and here we are 6 months later than the last post. So...again, we'll try to make more frequent posts, as the "babies" are now doing more and more zany things every day...