all i want for christmas...

well, ozzy didn't have to wait 'til christmas to get his wish. santa delivered his top two front teeth a few weeks early! yesterday marked the arrival of no. 4 for the oz-man.

let's hope santa delivers for abie, too. and cross your fingers it's before we leave for chi-town on saturday!

the boys get in the christmas spirit with wintery pj's:

family fun

upside down abel cake

start 'em young

my cuz holly is in town from san fran so we had to introduce her to the famous salt lick bbq joint. of course, the boys were in tow as well. these boys are definitely native texans and took to the ribs like, well, a cow to the lick! abel was especially enamored with jordan's baby backs and at one point started screaming at the top of his lungs for more! we finished off our meal with a piece of the most amazing pecan pie ala mode, and the boys had their first taste of ice cream. it was like the nectar of gods. serious moaning and groaning!

festival of light

happy hanukkah, y'all!

abie ripping into the boys' first hanukkah present:

it's a dreidel!

oz lets 'er rip:

our tradition of lighting the candles begins:

seeing double doubles

the boys had so much fun today playing with forest and logan (of the the joys of twins claim to fame). it's amazing when you get two sets of twins together. so much action and excitement! forest and logan turn one next week - what an awesome accomplishment - for them and especially for their mama, dawn! they are both walking so well and oz and abie were watching carefully. so much so that they both were practicing their hands-free balancing like mad when we got home from the playground. the boys were so tuckered from their non-stop playing that they went down for their afternoon nap immediately and have been snoozing for two hours now!

it wasn't easy getting them lined up for a photo shoot, but here are my best shots:

10 month boasts

we're all so proud of our kiddos, it's hard not to constantly wax about all the incredible things they do on a daily basis. abie picked lint up off the floor and studied it for a minute! ozzy blew raspberries with a big mouthful of oatmeal and it sprayed all over the wall!

i try to be low-key when it comes to talking about what the boys can, or can't, do. but lately i've noticed some pretty cool things happening that i want to mention for the sake of posterity, since this blog will more than likely become their baby book(s).

it seems like some major synapses are firing in our little abel. in the past week, abie is now signing for milk! go figure, i don't often nurse on demand, so i feel like i'm letting him down a little when he starts making the sign when he's, say, getting his diaper changed before his nap. can't begrudge him for trying, though! he is also doing "how big is abie?" and reaches his hands high in the sky before i can even get "so big!" out.

both ozzy and abie have been clapping like little maniacs for a while and wave to whoever they see. oz gets so excited when he sees his dad come home at the end of the day that he waves with so much force he nearly knocks himself over! they both also do "high five," which i started as a distraction when ozzy tries to whack my face...he gets a little rambunctious at times.

they both dance when you sing or put music on, but abie really gets his groove on in a major way. he does what we call the "ray charles," where he sways his head from side to side. when he really likes what he hears, or if he's super excited (like when i come into the room after their nap), he wiggles his entire body with so much verve! oz does his version of the white man's overbite - sticking his tongue out and bouncing up and down.

gross motor-wise, they are doing all the typical stuff. crawling around every where, going from room to room, standing on anything they can pull/push up on, cruising on furniture. they are both starting to experiment a bit with letting go and over the past few days they have both stood independently for several seconds. they absolutely love the playground and ozzy has garnered the nickname "the little escape artist." he'll high-tail it across the playground and stand up on the wrought iron gate where matilda is and bounce up and down. he's super adventerous and will just take off - sure, he'll throw me a few look backs as he's speed crawling away, just to make sure i've got my eye on him.

the boys are serious foodies. they just love everything about it! we took them to a brazilian churrascaria yesterday and they sampled everything that was safe and appropriate: fresh mozzarella, marinated shitake mushrooms, chicken, filet, fried plantains and mashed potatoes. oz loves to feed himself and is quite good at grabbing food and getting it in his mouth however he can. abie likes to be fed. he's a lay-on-the-couch-and-feed-me-grapes-as-i-recline kind of guy. they are boys after my own heart; their new fav food is mac and cheese (amy's brand).

in terms of play, the boys mostly love non-toy items. tupperware, balls, books, the formula can, the garbage can, and of course any knob or pull on any cabinet. a few weeks ago they started playing peek-a-boo with each other using their curtains. it sends them into hysterics. they also love playing peek-a-boo with us - when we change their diaper, they'll pull their blanket over their face and rip it down over and over and over again. they also love chasing us, matilda and ally (the cat).

our days are filled with all types of conversations. today, ozzy talked with his dad for about 5 minutes on the phone. here's the jist:

jordan: eh
ozzy: eh
jordan: eh
ozzy: eh
jordan: ahhhhh!
ozzy: eeeeahhh!
jordan: eh
ozzy: eh

they both love to scream at one another at the tops of their lungs. jordan eggs them on, especially when i'm feeding them. let's just say i've seen a lot of mashed up food in my kiddos' mouth' lately.

there's our boast-post. so what are your kids doing? hmmmm????

morning bliss

adventures in eating

our boys love to eat. they love everything about it, from the mushy textures of soft tropical fruit, to creamy mac-and-cheese, to banging on the table with spoons (okay, so maybe i speculate a bit).

we're exposing them to as many safe foods as they are willing to try. abie continues to love everything we give him. oz has some speculation about things at first, but he's a good sport about trying, and most of the time he ends up liking things after a few bites. lately they've had chili, sag paneer, double baked potato, tortilla crusted catfish, cranberry sauce and queso.

we love taking them out to eat and lately we've been trying to meet jordan once a week for lunch. today we took them to shady grove, a fun eatery right by zilker park. it's old-timey trailer park kitschy and the boys loved it. they entertained all the tables around us, plus the wait staff, with their pterodactyl screeches, waves and claps. they truly are a hoot!

the boys:

dad gettin' the lovin':

ozzy all excited:

abie getting comfy at the table:

I

the honeymoon is over

in the words of my goddess yoga teacher, today i'm officially "on my moon." if you don't know what that means, you're probably of the male gender and wouldn't be interested in this post anyways. but i thought it was a nice sounding way of putting "it."

it's been a long time coming - 19 months to be exact. well, jordan would correct you and say 19 months and 4 days, since my LMP was on may 23 (2006!!!), a date we said so many times to various doctors that i don't think he'll ever forget it. it's also the boys' 10 month birthday today. and it's just three days off from the full moon. i have to say i'm kind of in awe of it all!

it came with little fanfare, thank goodness. i had a hunch about it yesterday after feeling mildly crampy. i feel rather lucky, actually. 19 months - with 10 months postpartum - is a pretty glorious stretch to not have to deal with it.

so, with that, the honeymoon is officially over. well, at least not until next time (did i just say that?!). or if jordan has his way, not until i hit menopause!

level playing field

while we try hard not to "compare" the boys, as they quickly approach their 10 month birthday i can't help but notice how things are evening out. they have taken very different paths in terms of development - ozzy cruising through the gross motor stuff, and abie excelling in the fine motor arena.

we wondered as abie clapped, waved and gabbed about, when ozzy would join in. likewise, when oz-man was crawling from room to room of the house, we couldn't help but ask ourselves, "doesn't abie want to play follow the leader?"

the past few weeks have been all about the boys "catching up" to one another in these various skills. oz busted out his clapping and consonants one day, as if they had been there all along. and while abie had demonstrated he could crawl months ago, it wasn't until last week that he decided to use it for true mobility. the very next day he beat oz in a race to the empty can they were chasing.

they now stand in a place where their skills are more-or-less equally matched, and it's so much fun to see how this changes their interaction. new games of peek-a-boo have been discovered, chase and hide-and-go-seek are becoming staples. long conversations using every consonant in their repertoire take place during breakfast. and the unexpected meeting behind a door or around the couch that sends them into giggles and claps galore.

it's a fun time in the house right now as they explore and discover things together, and on their own. i can't help but marvel at how wonderful it is to witness how TWO babies walk their own path...and end up at the same destination with big smiles on their faces. how lucky and privileged we are to be a part of their journeys!

daytripping

it was a gorgeous, brisk fall day in austin today so we took alex and the boys to zilker park and then for some shopping along south congress. sorry the pics are so crummy but we only had our phones with us. the boys loved the ducks, coots and egrets in barton springs, but the best part was the ultimate playground with enormous xylophones for the boys to bang on...okay, so we were the one's doing the banging and it was so much fun!

t-day with the silverboys

our friend alex came in from chicago to celebrate thanksgiving with us. he brought cool new "ugly" stuffed creatures, which abel immediately fell in love with. abie starts his thanksgiving binge by munching on uglydog's ear:

the boys are fascinated with standing at the french doors and looking at the backyard. here ozzy and dad play a game of "look but can't touch:"

we decided to buck tradition this year and have a particularly texas thanksgiving dinner. jordan get's ready to throw three racks of baby back ribs on the smoker. yummmmm....

the finished product. oz tries to grab and feed dad some ribs:

dinner was full of excitement! oz choked on a cheerio and i had to almost perform the heimlich. luckily it popped out when i put him way up over my shoulder and gave a good pat on the back. i've never taken action so quickly in my life (although, this isn't the first time i've had to come to a choking rescue. many years back i did the heimlich on a woman in a japanese restaurant who choked on some shabu-shabu). and of course, dinner activities wouldn't be complete without the boys' playing a rousing game of peek-a-boo with their trays. here is abel demonstrating:

by 6pm the boys were fast asleep, by 7 everything was clean and by 8 we had a roaring fire and settled in for a movie (well, j and i did. alex was in such a food coma he went to bed!). it was a nice, easy, mellow thanksgiving - a perfect first for the boys.

a new room with a view

last weekend we decided to overhaul the boys' environment. i'm a total believer in the socio-spatial dialectic - meaning our space shapes us, and we shape our space. i dig it on a grander scale in terms of how our cities are structured to facilitate (or not) our experience. i also know how important home space is to our overall well-being. we knew things weren't working for the boys and how they used (or didn't use) their room, and as well things just felt chaotic and haphazard with the "play area" we had designated on the rug in front of our couch.

so we recruited the help of our friend carrie contey (www.earlyparenting.com) and she did an evaluation of our house and how we can make it safer and friendlier (ala montessori-style) for the boys. so we jumped in head first and after a few days of planning, a massive IKEA shopping list, and a weekend full of power drilling and furniture lifting, we've made a brilliant shift.

we swapped the boys' room and the guest room, which boasts three huge windows where they can stand and watch the world go by. the colorful curtains have become the boy' favorite attraction where they sit and play peek-a-boo with each other for sometimes 15 minutes. and we installed some rad IKEA box shelves at the perfect height for standing and cruising (but that they'll also grow into), where we only put out a few toys at a time and swap 'em out every few days for a nice surprise.

in the living room, we created a similar play area with the box shelves. now when i put the boys down, they immediately crawl to their play "stations" and go to town. and their bedroom has become so much for them. a place to play, explore, hone their skills, but also rest. it's made diaper changes and getting ready for naps effective, fun and (best yet) fuss-free. we all are thrilled with our new spaces!

party like rock stars

we had some drizzle on our morning walk and so it was the perfect opportunity to punk the guys out. they responded accordingly.

abie gets nutty:

ozzy's all mellow with his mohawk: