Happy Halloween!

For Halloween, the girls decided to dress up as two of their favorite people: Rex and Jett, our dogs. A few pictures are below of them in outfits hand-fashioned by their maternal grandmother through the wee hours of the week leading up to the day of tricks and treats. That's Rory as Rex (part Gordon Setter, part Springer Spaniel, a tiny bit of Burnese Mountain, and all dog) and Danni as Jett (mostly Nova Scotia Duck Trolling Retriever, partly human). The girls had over a few little friends on the Saturday before Halloween too, including one little boy, Dylan, who joined their menagerie as a very effectively dressed chicken. Fowl and furry friends got along great.

A full day

Rory likes singing her name, which she pronounces perfectly, to herself in a beautiful singsong. It means her, and it means Danni. It means someone who reaches up to you with open arms for a hug that must be given.

Danni's favorite word is "babies." It means her, it means Rory, it means her reflection in the glass of a dishwasher, stove or window. It means someone squeezable.

They will walk across the room to hug each other.

They have begun riding scooters, which they push along the floor with their little feet. They can carry their scooters across the room with one hand.

They like climbing up and down the futon mattress that is now part of their play area -- which has spread to include the kitchen, dining room, and den (trust us Grandmas, they are all baby proofed!), since they have fully outgrown the play pen.

They can climb down off of the bed: they turn themselves over and slide down. They will climb onto a couch if they get the chance. They love running around the kitchen island, or being dragged around the room in tiny cloth boxes as if at an amusement park.

They got their first boo-boos, Rory on her chin, Danni near her eye.

They have begun enjoying hide 'n' seek, which they play with their Daddy, the growling monster waiting around the corner that they charge alone and in tandem to discover, only to burst into high-pitched laughter as soon as they meet him eye to eye.

They feed themselves with a spoon (although their aim could use some work), and gosh does Momma make them awesome food.

They are growing up so, so fast. And they make us laugh so dang much it hurts. Here, enjoy these pictures and see for yourself.

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....