The Zoe and Silas Show

Do these babies look tired to you? Silas & Zoe are good sleepers and never protest the 7:30pm bedtime. They have recently, however, started to "play" before going to sleep. I can only imagine what they'll be doing a few months (or a year!) from now!

I was all set to take Silas & Zoe out for a late afternoon walk today, but when I went out to the car to get the stroller I was disappointed to see that it had started raining. I decided that the foiled walk was the perfect excuse to get things figured out to play on the deck! As some of you know, our landlord re-built our back deck earlier this spring. It was a total pain at the time, because the babies' nursery is directly adjacent to the deck, and the construction schedule needed to work around the nap schedule. There were many days where Silas & Zoe were woken up by the sound of a nail gun. Mike finished working out there awhile ago and I finally tested it out as a play area this evening. Watch below to get a tour of the much improved space. Having this outdoor area definitely makes the construction woes a few months ago worth it! We were having such a nice time playing that I decided to feed them outside too. I brought the booster seats outside, carried al...

I received 4 canvases and paint in a handprint kit from my friend Lisa as a baby shower gift. I had envisioned where the canvases would hang in the nursery when they were adorned with cute little hand and footprints. Life with two babies has been *a little* crazy, however, so I haven't been able to mobilize to get the art project done until recently. My friend and co-worker, Eliza, has been coming over every other Sunday for the last few months to play with S&Z while I make baby food. Eliza will be moving to Chicago for grad school soon, so we decided to have one of her last Sunday visits involve the handprint project. I knew we would need another person to make this a success, so we asked our friend Stacey if she'd be willing to help out as well. We started with footprints, because those seemed pretty easy. Because Zoe started crying when her second foot was dipped in the paint, we decided to take a break to play and eat lunch. The handprints were next and we decided to ap...

Baths have always been a little tough in our house with two babies and parents who have little time together. Derek took charge of baths early on, even when I was home on maternity leave and we used the whale bathtub on the kitchen counter. Now that we have a good routine of things based on our work schedules, Derek typically bathes Silas & Zoe once during the week when he has them alone, and then we do one bath on the weekend when we're both home in the morning. Bathing both babies is definitely easier with two people, because one baby needs to be occupied while the other one gets bathed and subsequently dressed. Because baths have always seemed complicated x2, we have opted to give thorough sponge baths the other 5 days per week. Now that Silas & Zoe are solidly sitting on their own, we got a nonskid bathmat that allows us to bathe them sitting up. I used it for the first time last night after we got home from the Cape. Because they were already up 1 hour past bed...

I have been having a lot of problems posting videos directly to the blog, so I decided to put them on YouTube instead. Here are links to a few that I wanted to share! Click here to see Zoe's initial attempts at army crawling (shot 2 weeks ago). Click here for the "morning books & NPR" description that goes along with the recent 'Guest Bed' blog post. Click here for the follow-up video of how much they have started moving around more recently (the rails make it look like baby jail!) and here for another that I just shot on Saturday. Finally, click here to see how they have started playing so nicely together (I'll be sure to post another of them stealing toys from another, however, which is one of their new favorite activities!). All of the hard work of "twinfancy" parenting is finally paying off :)

We had a wonderful visit to Grand Forks a couple of weeks ago. My Mom & Dave still live in the house that my Mom & Dad moved into 2 weeks before I was born in 1975. They have put a big addition onto it and made many other improvements over the years, but to me this house is truly home. It was so great to bring Derek, Silas & Zoe to the place I grew up. It's very relaxing there and I look forward to lots of summer visits in the years to come. There was a lot of time spent playing on the floor in the great room. Snuggle time and stories with Grandma is a given. There was also lots of quality time spent hanging out with Daddy! We surprised Derek and celebrated Father's Day while we were there. We gave Derek a personalized "SuperDad" book, which Silas & Zoe love! Our typical work and childcare schedules don't give us much family time, so it was nice for us all to be together. Mom & Dave have a gorgeous backyard, so we sat outside every night after ...

The bed in our guest room has proven invaluable since Silas & Zoe were a few months old. We used to do a lot of things on the couch, like give bottles, snuggle, and take naps. When the couch became too much of a hazard for possible falls, I moved shop to the guest bed. We eventually had to install guard rails to keep it a safe place for babies. This is my preferred spot for solo feedings. We read most of our books here. S&Z are also really great and will chill out for a few minutes after their morning bottle while I finish getting ready for work. They look at books and listen to NPR. I like to think of it as early education :) We like to play on the bed too. And now playing includes a lot of MOVING! I have a couple of videos that I want to post of them moving and grooving but I am having technical difficulties. Bottom line: those rails aren't going to keep this bed safe for much longer!!!