Silent videos

I've been borrowing Mom's camera ever since I broke ours. The only thing is, her camera doesn't have sound capabilities. Oh well. I'll give you a play-by-play.


Rebecca is saying, "Cheese!" and Mary-Gail is saying, "Hi!"
Rebecca starts walking, falls, says, "Owie" and then crawls to my lap to say "Hi!" and "Cheese"




Mary-Gail is walking from the office to our bedroom to join her mischievous sister in the bathroom. I love Mary-Gail's little duck-tail curl in her hair (small and petite just like her). When Mary-Gail reaches the bathroom, I call her name and she turns and gives me a smile. It looks like Rebecca's ransacked the dirty clothes hamper (socks are strewn across the bathroom floor), and she's also accessed the bathroom drawers and pulled things out.

Rebecca's favorite past time: emptying our dresser drawers.

She did it at Grandma's!

Mary-Gail took her first "actual" steps on Tuesday, April 8th w/Auntie Darleen, but she didn't actually start walking until she was at Grandma's.


The girls and I stayed at my mom's house the week of Monday, April 21st - Thursday, April 25th. We were having a new furnace and A/C unit installed, I didn't want the workers and the girls to be in each other's way. Staying at Mom's those 4 days was the best thing ever, because Mary-Gail started walking! Actually walking - more than 4 or 5 steps at a time!!

When Mary-Gail would start to crawl, I'd say, "stand up," which she would, and then she'd just start walking. Walking!!! It was an amazing thing to see. I wanted to e-mail this video to all the neonatologists who had basically written Mary-Gail off due to her brain bleeds. Take that!!!

(P.S. Not to exclude Rebecca, she does make a quick apperance in the video - the flash of purple at the end is her foot trying to kick me to get my attention. Where does she get her attitude from?)

No wonder your nose bleeds

Rebecca likes to put her fingers in her nose. She doesn't "pick" her nose (yet), rather she just shoves her pointer fingers all the way up her poor, little nostrils! This was her last night, voicing her objection to me and her dinner.

Sunday at JoJo's

Last Sunday, 4/20, I took the girls to JoJo's house for Cy's 1st b-day bash. It was a kite flying birthday, and those that had kites were encouraged to bring them to fly them in Chrisman Park. Tony was sick and stayed home with his furry girls. :)

Mary-Gail bundled up after being outside watching kites fly

Un-bundled and using Cy's walking toy

Cy like to try and bite JoJo's lips

I think he got her lips!

I seriously love NPR!

My family thinks I'm crazing for only listening to public radio. But I love it! My local public radio station, KUER 90.1, has great programs:

• Morning Edition - most of the time I get my news from here since I'm too lazy to get up early anymore and catch CNN as I walk. They also air "This I believe" commentaries each morning.
• RadioWest w/Doug Fabrizio - I usually catch the 7 pm re-broadcast since I'm busy with the girls. Did you hear his interview with David Isay? David Isay is the founder and producer of Story Corps (aired on KUER each Friday morning). I love listening to Story Corps and want to seek out a Story Corps booth and record something. What about David's interview with blogger Frank Warren about his blog Postsecret? It was a very interesting interview which made me visit the his blog. There was also an interview with someone in PA who created a website for missing gloves. Very interesting...
• Fresh Air w/Terry Gross - Terry Gross is coming to the Capitol Theatre; wish I had money to see her (Tony would come w/me, but he'd moan about it).
• P.R.I's The World - I like their geo-quizzes, but I never know the location of where they're talking about.
• All Things Considered - I really like the news anchors
• Marketplace - Just a constant reminder that I need to roll my 401-k over to an IRA. Still haven't done it!!!

Saturday is a great line-up too:

• Weekend Edition - more news to catch up on
• Car Talk - seriously the BEST talk show and the brothers are hilarious. Very contagious laughter
• Wait, Wait. Don't tell me - another great news game show. I especially like when the cast has Roy Blount, Jr. & Paula Poundstone. One day you'll hear Carl Kasell's voice on my answering service.
• American Routes - listen to this all the time. I fell in love with old gospel and spiritual songs when we lived in Charleston. One song that sticks in my head is "Black Superman (Muhammed Ali)." "...that Black Superman. He floats like a butter-fly and stings like a bee..."
• A Prairie Home Companion - Garrison Keillor's dry humor is great. Plus, he can whip up a song in a heart beat. My grandma & grandpa next door would have listened to this radio program.

Popsicles anyone?

Our first Popsicles. And who do we get to share them with?

PAPPY!!!

Rebecca has sucked her popsicle to a point

It's sooo cold!!!

Rebecca is a pro at this.

Mary-Gail couldn't quite get that you hold the popsicle stick;

Pappy helped by breaking off some popsicle.

Pappy tried to share his banana popsicle with the girls -

NO THANK YOU! They will have nothing to do with bananas!!

WE LOVE ROOT BEER POPSICLES!!!

Pappy snuck up on us

Pappy came over Thursday night right at bedtime and was able to read us one of our favorite books!

See the Mouse?

Rebecca is swiping her nose to show how the mouse wiggles his nose

Pappy saying "ribbit" for the Frog

Mary-Gail's mean mommy

I must be such a mean mommy. I don't carry Mary-Gail everywhere I go. I must be mean...

Mary-Gail is so close to walking! She has taken 4 un-assisted steps last Tuesday, and 5 un-assisted steps with CarCar & Spencer last Friday. Tony & I have seen her take a few steps here and there, but once she realizes she's on her own, she drops and crawls to you for you to carry her. My Mary-Gail is voicing her objections that I won't carry her.

She cries "UP!" I said, "Let's walk," and she smiled and took my hand. Silly Mary-Gail. You can do it, I know you can!!!

Snack time with the cousins

JoJo, CarCar, Jed, and the kidlets stopped by yesterday just in time for snacks! See this little guy? The one sandwiched between his cute Aunite CarCar and cute Mommy.

This is Cy. He will be ONE YEAR OLD on Friday and can you believe he has been walking for a month now? Amazing! Happy birthday buddy!! Rebecca & Mary-Gail get to attend their first birthday party...oh, what to wear, what to wear :)

Stripes!

Mary-Gail eyeing Gage's "LEGO" fruit snacks

The first attempt...

...unsuccessful.

The second attempt...

...Gage let Mary-Gail have his fruit snack. What a nice cousin!

REBECCA, our little mimicker

Rebecca has the amazing talent of mimicking anything you say - words, sounds, facial expressions. She loves to hear Tony squeak his lips and tries desperately to get the same result when she attempts the squeak. Rebecca was awestruck the first time she heard Tony whistle to her and Mary-Gail. Since then, she's tried to whistle back: her little, plump lips make the "form" of a whistle, but all that comes out is a soft, sutle blow. Rebecca seems to learn and remember new words all the time now. Sadly, this means that my baby is growing up, and soon her sweet jibber-jabber will be a distant memory.

Last night I had Rebecca & Mary-Gail in my arms feeding them and I asked Tony, "Lovey, [pause] can you get me a cough drop?" Only to hear Rebecca say, "Lovey? Lovey?" Can you believe that?! I seriously need to get a voice recorder, or just fix my broken camera. UGH!!

Rebecca's new favorite word is CANDY (thank goodness she doesn't know the meaning of "candy" yet). She also says COOKIE and completely understands what that means. Pappy has "cookie time" with Rebecca & Mary-Gail and they get sooo excited when he comes over for COOKIES. Here are some of the other words that Rebecca is saying:

• "beep-beep-beep"
• "ah -oh"
• "haa-haa"
• "neigh-neigh" (for her horse)
• "bee" (in lou of her "Hello Bee" book)
• "go!"
• "Pretty" as she puts my headbands on her head. This is really funny because she will hardly move after putting the headband on - her mannerisms are hilarious!
• "open" as she points to my cell phone. She calls it "open" because she has to open the top to access the buttons.
• "moo-moo" for cows and her ride-on cow
• "up" "down" as she climbs up and goes down
• "peas" (for 'Please')
• "taste" for a taste of my Diet Coke
• "Pixeeeee" (and she'll pat her leg for Pixie to come)
• "baby" (as she signs it)
• "all done" (as she frantically signs it)

Today Rebecca heard me gargling after brushing my teeth, so she started to gargle on her saliva!

Sunday @ Auntie Carol's

Today we went over to Auntie Carol's house to celebrate Isaac. Isaac turned 12 on Tuesday (4/8), and today he received the Aaronic Priesthood. What a big day for Isaac!!


Tony brought the girls down after their nap. They played with Amy, Isaac, & Travis, and showed them their skills at making beautiful music on the piano.

Mary-Gail says, "Wasn't that the most beautiful piece you've ever heard?"

Isaac takes over to show them what "real" music sounds like

Meanwhile, Rebecca re-energizes herself with massive sucks from her sippy cup, races to the kitchen, "crab-crawls" back underneath Travis...

...and reaches me. She's safe!

Isaac plays with Mary-Gail; Travis introduces Rebecca to foliage

Mary-Gail tries to escape; Rebecca starts to eat the foliage

Travis is definitely going to be Mary-Gail's gymnastics coach!

And the grand finale...viola!

Pappy takes us to the carnival

The carnival or something like it. This is what Pappy's do,

and our Pappy does it the best!!!

Pappy came over on Friday (4/11) and the girls greeted him at the door.

They KNEW Pappy would give them a ride!

Are you ready girls?

Look at the excitement in their eyes!

Here we go!

...Swinging backwards...

...Swinging forwards...

...and weeeeeeeeeeeeee!!!

Lasagna for dinner

I called JoJo after dinner Wednesday night (4/9) and asked her,

"who thinks it's a good idea to give kids lasagna for dinner?" She said,

"only if it's bath night."

Two cute cuties!

Rebecca looking very satisfied. She's not only got a full tummy, but

she also managed to leave room for a double-stuffed Oreo cookie.

That's my girl!!

Mary-Gail practicing her "wink"

I guess it was bath night for us. Hooray!