Yogurt Jam Band

Ashley and Adam are committed environmentalists.  Rather than recycle the old yogurt containers, they repurposed them into musical instruments for their jam band.  With Ashley on the vocals and Adam on the drums, they're sure to go far.

Ashley Catches Up

Ashley has been working on her circling skills as of late. 

Full Body Experience

Now that Adam has started to try to feed himself there is more clean up involved.  Ashley seems to have figured out how to minimize mess, at least in this clip....

French Fry Guys

Counter to her contemporaries' locavore / organic parenting strategies, MLM fed the babies french fries while she and MLD had a late lunch.  Because really, we all know quiet babies are better than noisy babies in restaurants.

At least the fries were hand-cut in the kitchen.  That counts for something, right?

The fuzzy haze on the camera lens isn't fine art photography effects.  It's what happens when your babies chew on your camera and you forget to clean it before taking the next set of photos.

First Harvest

Technically this isn't our first harvest.  It's our 4th harvest.  We didn't think that harvesting three figs -- one each day -- really counted as a "harvest".

Below is the first crop of lettuce and one pickling cucumber.  I learned a lot of things:

1.  Do not plant something you need to bend down to pick (lettuce) next to something which has thorns (gooseberries or currants).

2.  Do not pick lettuce after a rainstorm.  Even though the rain has stopped, you will still get wet.

3.  Mother Nature packs extra protein into lettuce.  In addition to the lettuce and cuke, we were also treated to one inchworm, one slug and two flying things.  I have a new appreciation for pre-washed lettuce.

This made enough salad for me and Ilya for dinner for two nights!  And this morning I picked even more.

Maybe one day Adam and Ashley will like lettuce just as much as their Mommy and Daddy.

Patience

Today we have a long video of the citizens playing on the floor.  You'll see why we praise Adam for his patience.  Ashley's laughter and smiles hide her curious side.  What is that stuff on Adam's head???  And why is it so much fun to grab?

The afternoon didn't get any better.  MLM thought they were whispering to each other to devise a way to take down the baby gates.  Apparently not.  

This twin stuff is going to be even harder than we thought.

Lunch Date

Today's heat was a little too much for us to visit the zoo with our friends as originally planned.  The big kids ate lunch together at the table.

Norah, Ashley and Adam

Clean placemat -- lunch is finished!

There's some cauliflower left behind my ears -- Ashley

Little Cruiser

Cruisin' around the couch is a new past time:

Drum Roll Please....

... MLM had this notion that non-battery operated toys were quieter and therefore a good idea.  The citizens proved otherwise.

"Uno, dos, tres, catorce!"  With apologies to U2.

I'm going to conduct the orchestra.

Maybe Uncle Eric will teach me to play this djembe.

Hmmm... are these the sege sege?

I have no idea what he's talking about

No problem Ashley!  Here's some information about djembe drums.  Or just ask Uncle Eric. 

Will this make some sound?

Let's play together and make lots of noise.

Take it away, Adam!

Root Toot Scootin' Good Time

Proving that twins do have their own unique personalities, Ashley has taught herself to crawl in a completely different way than Adam has.

Bath Time for Sophie

MLM loves eavesdropping on the citizens' conversations.  They're so cute!  No foam was ingested at any point in this sequence.

Adam and I are going to give Sophie a bath in this tub.

First take out all of the toys.

Let's use this to rinse her off.

Hmm... flimsy side wall construction.  We'll fix that.

Ashley, help me find something to strengthen the tub walls.

What about these?

Yup.  They're strong enough.

Good idea.  Let's get a lot of them.

Mommy, can we have some water please????

Foam Fun

After this escapade MLM decided it was time to take away the foam mat for a while.  

Happy Father's Day

Today we celebrated MLD's first Father's Day!  MLD took an early morning bicycle ride.  Followed that up with breakfast at a local diner and then a nice drive up along the coastline while the A-team napped.  


Later in the afternoon we met up with Uncle Sasha, Aunt Tali and cousin Daniela who were in Boston for a big dance competition.  That's where we took these photos.


Finished the day with take-out from a local Chinese restaurant delivered to our home by some good friends and their son.  Seeing lots of babies around the table at dinnertime is always a special treat.


We send our love and best wishes to all of the fathers we know.  Hope your day was just as special!

Movers in Training?

Adam appears to be a furniture mover in training.  Ashley will direct the moving crew.

Faster! Faster! Faster!

Can't keep up with Adam these days.

Self-sufficiency

Ashley has learned how to feed herself!  

Scoopable

Sometimes MLM doesn't want to take photos.  She wants to scoop them up and kiss them all over.

 

Tales from the Highchair

Adam, do you have something you want to share?

Yes!  Two more teeth on top!

Month Ten

The stickers didn't pose a problem this month.  Tongues did!  The A-team has officially entered the "make-funny-faces-at-Mommy" phase of their development.

falling over is still an occasional problem

Adam is trying to make a quick get-away.

"Make funny faces for Mommy, please."

"We're ten months old!" chorused Ashley and Adam

funny face with tongue #1

funny face with tongue #2

ok guys, enough with the funny faces

Finally!  A nice photo.