Word Play

The girls, with two teeth freshly grown in on the tops and bottoms, are now experimenting with language constantly. One of them has suddenly begun picking up a variety of words and loves repeating them, including "baby" (which usually means her sister), "fish" (usually pronounced "ish"), "more," "Rory" ("aora"), "Dadda" (yes!), "knee," and "ball." All animals are of course "woof woofs." Her sister loves saying "woof woof" too. She has also lately taken to trying to say "fish" and "baby" as well. But her special favorite is "uh ohhh." She enjoys saying "uh ohhh" so much that she often throws things down to justify it. And both girls constantly point at things around them, then look to us for the name of it. At this rate, any day now the girls should be saying "bread maker," "sclera," and "French doors."

Meanwhile, the end of summer's warm days means fall clothing ahead, so with these photos we look back fondly on the games the girls played when clothing hardly mattered, like in their kiddie pool. We have no doubt by next summer they will be saying "backstroke."

Moments

We returned yesterday from a spontaneous reunion over the Labor Day Weekend with the girls' paternal family, and the girls had the chance to be with almost every uncle, aunt and first cousin on that side of the family. A few hours after our return, the girls were in their familiar playpen at home and Danni began crying. She seemed upset that her Mom had gone out of view. This happens sometimes, and we figure the tumult of the busy weekend and the trip back several hours in the van had left the girls a little frayed. Rory, on the other side of the pen, turned to her sister's cry. She walked directly across the pen to her sister, rested her head against Danni's back, and hugged her. For a solid 20 seconds. Then she sat down at her sister's feet and looked up, as if to ask, "What's the matter?" Danni turned, reached out her hand, and patted her sister on the top of her head. Her crying had stopped, at least for a moment.

As the girls turn 17 months-old today, we share this moment of what they bring to our lives and these two recent close-ups below.

Water Bugs

Well as we approach the two-month mark without an entry on this blog, we thought it was time for a quick update and a few photos. The girls are walking like crazy now, and have officially decided walking is better than crawling on all fours, although let's face it, crawling on all fours can still come in awfully handy sometimes. They had been experimenting with taking 5, 10, 15 steps at a time, and then two weeks ago, on a memorable Friday, we watched as they stood up in the playpen and it was almost as if we could see them concluding: Yes, we shall walk. And away they went.

So with walking nearly mastered (and running not far behind, by all signs), Rory and Danni have decided it's time to begin thinking about the next mode of transportation. Driving laws being what they are, the girls for the time being seem to have chosen swimming as the next mode. On our recent vacation to Ithaca, we brought them into a running stream beneath Cornell Plantations, and they loved it. Back home, we had already taken them for their first dip in our pool, and their faces lit up with joy, so much so that we try to make swimming a daily event. Meanwhile, the kiddie pool out back provides lots of opportunities for splashing. Occasionally the girls decide to dip their heads under water just to see what happens. And when the brook, the pool, and the kiddie pool aren't available, there is always bath time, which they just love.

These shots capture some moments from the little mermaids' recent swimming expeditions, plus one shot just to prove, if only to ourselves, that in fact sometimes the girls do sleep.

A Memorable Day

Today, the girls were continuing their practice standing. When one daughter looked her Daddy in the eye as he sat a couple feet away in the playpen, reached out a hand for his and, without hesitation, took a few hesitant steps, and then more. Her face beamed with excitement. Daddy was speechless. And she did not want to stop. Daddy rose to his feet. She kept her hand in his, lightly, barely, and there she was, walking with her father back and forth across the pen, one little foot after the other. Then Daddy noticed her sister watching, her face full of curiosity, her smile wide. She wanted to try too, and without leaning on anything, she rose to her feet and held out her hands to Daddy as her sister sat down for a rest. Now her hands were in Daddy's, and she took her turn, and soon, there they were, both of them, stepping forward, and they didn't want to stop: when one was walking with her hand (or hands) in her Daddy's, the other was rising to her feet, waiting for her turn. Back and forth they went, one after the other, journey after journey, and sometimes together, one hand in each of Dad's, all three of them walking together. Their Dad was shaking his head in disbelief, calling for their Momma. She knew something was up. She entered the room wondering what...and there were her daughters walking with their Daddy.

Exclamations.

Then, just an hour later, Mom reached into one of the girl's mouths and found it: her first tooth! That explains the last week of rough sleeping.

That explains why we will always remember this Memorial Day.

Two by Two

As the girls move toward their 14th month, they are standing at every opportunity; moving quicker and quicker along stationary objects, mostly the fence of their playpen, especially during their new favorite game, "smack down" with Dad; and convincing us that they'll be walking, maybe even dancing, by summer's end. So as Memorial Day Weekend unfolds, we offer a retrospective on the girls' move from the prone position, to sitting, to feeding themselves, to crawling (including all over each other). Enjoy. (Once you get to the Picasa folder via that hyperlink, try the slideshow button.)

Soon these are likely to seem the girls' quiet days of yesteryear....

Height, Weight and Jive

Monday's well-baby doctor's visit report: all excellent, featuring this news: Rory is now 30 inches tall (that's 2 1/2 feet in the scouting charts) and 20 lbs. and 6 ounces. Danni is 29 inches and 18 lbs. and 10 ounces (and gaining fast). Nice head sizes too, the doc says, which, sorry, is no surprise in this family.

Meanwhile, we were glad to have our friend Jordan in town this weekend. She's a professional photographer, and sent us these lovely shots. Enjoy.

The big motor-skill news: the girls are dancing now. Put on a little music and watch them jive, Rory bopping her head and torso up and down and Danni raising her elbows along her sides, like she was ready for some country shucking, and swinging them. Watch out Dancing with the Stars....

Sound and Motion

These days the girls' favorite exercise is pulling themselves to a standing position. They'll do it against whatever surface they can find -- the fencing of their playpen, the rails of their cribs, each other, the leg of Mom or Dad. It is only a matter of time before they are sprinting around the house.

But their primary means of locomotion is still the belly crawl. They've gotten so good at it, it now takes about a high-speed camera to capture them in motion. Every now and then, just to spice things up even more, they get on their hands and knees and zip past.

As our little babies pick up speed, we look back fondly on when they were just beginning to go mobile. On February 3, the girls first crawled. We happened to have the video recorder going that night. So here are their first crawls, live on video. First Danni, then Rory, demonstrates the power of will.

Thrilled by the capacity to get on their own from one place to another, they had within weeks created their own new game together -- playing tag. If the sound effects of their laughter don't make you smile, just hang on for the kicking legs with which they celebrate having fun side by side.