The Zoe and Silas Show

This will be a quick post because... I'm back at work tomorrow! It's hard to believe that four months have FLOWN BY already! I am so thankful that I was able to take this time to be with Derek and the babies. It has been awesome, but I have to say that I am ready to do something outside of the house! I will ease back into things by working 10am-4pm Monday through Thursday for the first two weeks of February. This will give me some time to figure out the new morning routine! Silas and Zoe are now consistently sleeping from 8pm-6am. After they suck down their bottles first thing after waking up, they are in a great mood and ready to play! It seems like they will stay awake for at least 60-90 minutes at this point, and that is exactly when I need to be getting ready for work :) Derek gets home sometime between 7:15 and 8am, and I will ultimately need to be out the door by 8am at the latest. So, it seemed like having a later start time for the first two weeks will give me a chance ...

Kristin gave me this great idea to take a picture of the babies on their "birthday" every month from the same angle in order to give folks an idea of how much they have grown. January marked the first birthday photo where they are actually smiling. Of course, it takes both of us acting crazy and at least 30 pictures to get the money shot. And we have to time it for when they are awake and in a good mood. And now we want smiles. And they both need to be looking at the camera. You can see where I'm going with this. This is all no small feat, so I'm always relieved when we get a good one for the baby books! We inevitably also get some hilarious ones in the process, and always have to include a few with the parent who is working with them :) As you can see, they are very good with taking instruction. Here they are listening intently to Daddy. A little further parental intervention was needed, Before we got the money shot! January 5th, 2010 We also try to get pictures of ...

My mom kept the most amazing baby book for me that she gave to me as an adult. She started it when I was born and it goes through kindergarten. This is pretty remarkable, considering I was the 2nd child. The best part about my baby book are all the stories that my mom managed to write down. Most of them are on random scraps of paper and paper clipped to various pages. No matter to me - the fact that she wrote them down is amazing! Here's a couple of good ones: 14 mos - Stephanie had left a jar of peanut butter open on the table. While I was on the phone, Alissa got into it. When I found her, she was covered with it. Her hands up to her wrists were in the jar and she was stuffing it into her mouth. She was having so much fun. Stephanie and I just laughed! June '77 - I was watering the flowers in front of the house with the girls helping me. Linda & Don Palmiscno were in their yard (waiting to go out to dinner) talking to Paul. They invited me over so I just put down the hose...

My friend Kristin gave Zoe & Silas the coolest gift when they were born. She orders books for them every month from Amazon! She knows I love to read, and we're both academics and know all the benefits of reading to your kids. It's so much fun to see what new additions we get every month. Combined with all the great books we got for baby gifts from other friends and family, their bookshelf has become quite the library! I have just recently started incorporating reading books several times a day into our routine. They LOVE it! We all snuggle on the bed in the guest room where we get them ready for naps. They are really interested in seeing the pages turn, looking at all the pictures, and hearing the different inflections and crazy voices that Mommy uses when she reads. So far, Silas seemed to love "Hop on Pop" by Dr. Suess, And Zoe and I were big fans of "Don't Let the Pigeon Drive the Bus!" by Mo Willems Thanks Auntie Kristin for such a fun gift!

Every night around 6:00 we get on the floor and play! This is when we all do our "exercises" -- tummy time for both babies, feet stretches for Silas, neck stretches for Zoe's torticollis, and sit ups and push ups for Mommy :) We have the first meeting with our Early Intervention clinician on Tuesday, so I'll write more about physical therapy after this meeting. Playtime has definitely gotten to be a lot more fun over the last few weeks, now that Silas & Zoe are interested in toys! This is what floor time used to look like: But now they can finally play with some of the fun toys we have! It's great because I can also use the toys as motivators for them to practice lifting their heads during tummy time! Zoe loves to look at the different fun animals. This one is her favorite, due to the crinkly wings and bright colored body. Thanks Auntie Timery & Uncle Steve! She likes feeling the different textures, like the softness of bear that Elisa gave her. She is al...

Wishing you all the best in 2010! Love, Alissa, Derek, Silas and Zoe PS: Good thing we got the videos, because otherwise all we would have is this picture :) So I posted this one on FB instead, even though it was actually taken a few days ago...