Catching up

Ok, so its been a long, long time since my last post. So this post will catch everyone up on the new developments in our house. Lets see, the babies have outgrown their infant carriers and are now in their big kid rear-facing car seats. Fortunately, we are still able to have 3 car seats across our middle row, so Big Sister Bear sits between Brother Bear and Small Bear. This is very convenient since she can pass them toys, binkies, or just try to make them laugh. Their seats are very cute in a black and white "cowmooflage" pattern. Big Sister Bear is lobbying to move into the "way back" of the van since the small bears are grabbing her and her toys now. I'm trying to hold her off as long as I can. I like to be able to reach things to her and check her car seat buckling easily.

The move from the infant carriers has introduced a whole host of other changes as well. Long gone is my skinny, easy to navigate, light weight stroller. Now we have a side by side umbrella style stroller. Its still fairly light weight but is a bit harder to navigate for sure. Brother Bear and Small Bear are now grabbing each other's toys and hands. Hopefully this will not escalate into full scale fighting.

Brother Bear and Small Bear are now sitting well in their highchairs. They were quite wobbly for a while, which made it difficult to go to restaurants without their infant carriers. We did a "parent hack" of moving them from their car seats to their infant carriers when going to out to eat, and that worked well. I think we've finally outgrown the need for that now since they can sit well and longer and best of all, love finger foods! I have a love-hate relationship with the finger food stage. I love that I can keep them occupied while I eat by giving them puffs and cheerios. I love watching their delight with being able to do these things for themselves. I love watching them explore new tastes and textures. I hate the amount of floor cleanup involved. Its all worth it in the end though, when they graduate to being independent eaters.

The babies are also sitting up on the floor to play now. I still have to help them get up, but once they are up they can sit quite happily for a long time to play. We still occasionally have a backwards swan dive accompanied by the inevitable screaming, but these incidents are becoming fewer and farther between. Soon they will be able to get themselves up, and will be very happy babies indeed.

They are also moving around independently now. They are not quite crawling, but still manage to get across the room pretty handily. We are baby proofing in earnest. Big Sister Bear is having to move many of her itty bitty toys up to her room now, and her room is in desperate need of a re-organization party. But that is a story for another weekend.

Lastly, my favorite development of all: Babbling. Small Bear, being the social creature that she is has started full scale babbling. Heard most often is "na-na-na-na" with the occasional "mmmm" thrown in for good measure. I keep telling her that she needs to be working on "ma-ma-ma", but with typical-baby disdain for a parents wishes, she is not cooperating. Hearing her little voice making really talking-type noises completely melts my heart. I need to get some on video so I can listen to her later when she is a teenager.

All in all, things are crazy-busy but going quite well.