16 Months and on The Go!

Claire and Chloe are enjoying their play time with the ball dressed in their outfits from Hawaii. What happy little souls they are!

Another day the girls visited Grandma at her office in the Library. It was Grandma's last day of working before going into full retirement! Hooray! They checked out their pictures that covered my computer screen, visited with other folks in the department, played with some of the office toys, and then had a ball pulling out the shredded paper from the recycle bin in Grandma's office. The alligator came along for the trip as you may notice in a couple of the pictures.

At the end of the week, on Friday, the family attended a wonderful birthday celebration for our friend Bob. He was turning 60, and on that day Claire and Chloe were 16 months old. We all had a great time. Claire spend 98% of the evening on the swings and loved every minute of it. There were several little kids which made the party even more special.

Off to the Park!

Grandma was very lucky to get to go to the park with Claire and Chloe, Paula, and Aunt Suzie this past week. From the moment the word was mentioned, Claire was at the front door saying, "park", "park". We finally convinced her she needed to drink her juice and get her shoes on and then we were off....

Upon exiting the car, the race was on. The girls got so excited and Claire immediately began her "gathering". In several of the pictures you will notice that she has a fist full of sticks, which, by the way, she held on to for dear life, no matter what. The sticks made Grandma a little nervous, but I soon saw that she managed them very well. In the first picture you see Chloe beginning her exploring and Claire way off in the upper left corner. Next you see Claire with her sticks and Chloe just taking it all in. Chloe was full of curiosity and very fast on her feet and Paula got to her just as she was about to go under one of the play areas in a tunnel like space; she was most likely just following some big kids.

Shortly after we arrived a school bus full of children came for a field trip and the girls were very interested in what the big kids were doing. Aunt Suzie and Claire pose in one of the play areas and Aunt Suzie holds Chloe in the swing while we wait for another baby swing to be available.

Here are a couple of movie clips of the girls swinging. In the first one you can see a walking path behind Claire's swing. Paula doesn't bring them to the play area unless another adult is along, but she often walks in the park with the girls in the stroller. When Claire, particularly, sees the swings and play area through the fence it always makes her very upset to walk by. You can hear her delight as she swings, (sticks still in her grip) and Chloe giggling beside her. The second film is Chloe also thoroughly enjoying her swing time.

The last little film is just some fun at home. How thankful we are for their good health and strong bodies.

Wedding, Shuttle Launch, and Catching up with the Twins

We are back from spending several days in Florida. We had a wonderful time, attending our nephew Mark's wedding, seen here with his bride Carrie, and his parents Bob and Jean. The wedding took place in Cocoa Beach a lovely area with lots to see and do.

We met so many wonderful people and saw and experienced so much while there. An exciting day was spent on Monday, anticipating, and then watching the Atlantis Shuttle launch. What an awesome sight! If you double click on the picture, you should be able to see the shuttle quite clearly.

What a great trip, but of course we missed the girls tremendously. On the last day that we were with the girls before we left for Florida, Chloe was into "twirling". It seems that there is often a "focus" for the day and twirling happened to be it on that day.



One of the things we brought back for the girls was a rubber alligator. At first Chloe wanted no part of it, but after seeing that Claire thought it was interesting, Chloe changed her mind big time. For the next day or so, the alligator was her main concern, jabbering continually about the alligator. Her word for alligator sounds more like "Al Gore", which has given us all a good laugh. Here are pictures of each of the girls checking out the new toy. They both quickly identified the teeth, eyes, tail, and toes of the little creature just as they normally are quick to point out almost any body part you name, on themselves, and anyone else in reach.

Here is a cute picture of both of the girls and then a sweet picture of Claire giving Papa a kiss. She is the most generous of the two with kisses, but Chloe got into the act as well after seeing Claire.

The last little film is of Claire playing with the alligator. Who would have thought such a creepy little toy would bring them so much fun.

Spoons 'n Curls

The girls are beginning to get the idea of the spoon. Here is Claire, holding the spoon but still using those trusty fingers for her rice.

Chloe to the right with her spoon. She clearly says spoon, and usually wants to hold a spoon but have you feed her as well.

Here are two styles of curls. Claire's are tight and short. Chloe's are quite a bit longer.

If you double click on the picture, you can see Claire's curls better. The picture is just a bit dark.

Amazing, unique, little darlings!