Since We Moved In...

The days & weeks since we moved in have blurred together in a mush of frenzied activities...I will try to remember the highlights...for my benefit at least!

We were lucky enough to have family here for almost the entire first week. This was amazingly helpful, and we are so blessed to have such supportive and helpful family!

The babies playing on the deck for the first time. They loved it, but they got VERY dirty...

The first guests I welcomed at our doorstep the first day? The census volunteers and a Kirby salesgirl...a tiny girl whose boss dropped her and left her with the giant vacuum ("this is much lighter than the old model" she chirped) and told her to carry it to another house or wait at mine...she chose to wait at mine...for 1 1/2 hours (she actually cleaned the vacuum while she waited...with MY cleaner)...it took 2 calls to her boss (on MY cell phone because hers wasn't working) before he finally picked her up. At least I got free hand soap and paper towels (plus a HUGE discount - the vacuum would only cost me $1,500) out of the deal.

The babies LOVE their new space. At our last apartment, we were so crammed in that every room seemed like a danger zone - stuff could avalanche at any moment! Here, we have so much room and so many places to put things that it feels safe and I've pretty much given the babies free reign. They are loving it. I also would like to think it helps tire them out by night-time...

St. Patrick's Day. Playing in the foyer (between the full length glass door and full length mirrored doors on the closet, they are in heaven!). I ignored my cardinal rule of taking pictures the second I have them dressed (when I have them dressed for a special occassion), and you can see the results!

Numerous trips to WalMart, Lowes, Bed, Bath, and Beyond, Target, etc. to get the things we needed to settle in. I had forgotten the errands it takes to get everything up and running when you move. And since nothing (not even a grocery store) is within 15 minutes of us (more like 20-30...or 40...), EVERY errand is an event.

We discovered we live in a black hole. We live in a smaller lake community of a township, but the local post office had to close a couple years back and was turned into a branch of a nearby town thus changing the mailing address. Long story short - we have 4 different town names and 4 different zip codes, and NONE of them can be found on google maps, gps, mapquest, etc. We had trouble setting up things like cable, internet, and garbage pickup because we don't show up on their grid, and we had a company call us because they needed to ship a package to us but couldn't find us. They finally said they would send to the address and hope it got to us (it arrived today! woohoo!)

And the babies...

They both got their first injuries that drew blood...both on the mouth...mommy was ready to take them both to the hospital (and daddy was the voice of reason). They were fine and the boo boos quickly disappeared.

Ryan started clapping and now it is incredibly easy to tell whether or not he likes something. If he likes the food he is eating, the song you are singing, the face you are making, the toy he is playing with, he claps! Unfortunately, if he is being naughty and gets caught, if he throws the food he doesn't like off his tray, and when he throws his sippy cup on mommy's sore toe...he also claps (because he wants you to think it was a good thing?).

Allie is suddenly into mimicking. Mostly something that she thinks is funny. It is so cool to see her do the same thing I just did (so far...I'm sure there will be moments when I wish she didn't copy me...). She also thinks it's really cool when you do something she just did (like blow a raspberry).

Yes, Allie has her tongue out for EVERY picture. It's her new thing...

They both have started mimicking words (like today when I caught Ry-guy taking giant sips of milk and spitting them out like a fountain and I exclaimed, "Ryan! No! That's messy!" and he gleefully shouted "mssss-eeee!" or when Allie cried out a happy "Ta-da!" after hearing one of their favorite toys say it). I love hearing their attempts at new words.

They are both getting better at communicating. Ryan is loving the B words (baw for ball, bur bur for brown bear, and I kept thinking he was saying bubble (buh-bul) until I discovered that he only did it when holding a certain book...a book about a bee...a bee nambed Bumble...). Allie is much more into gesturing. She will say words, but mostly when she wants the shock value! It is nice that each day it gets a little easier for me to understand what they want.

St. Patrick's Day at one of the local playgrounds (there is only 1 baby swing so they had to share...)

They are getting better and better at balancing. They both frequently stand on their own, and they both have taken a couple steps (usually accidentally). While I am excited for them to reach this huge milestone, I am also not in ANY rush for them to become more mobile. It's hard enough to keep up with them as it is!

They both turned 1!!! More on this later...

We have had an eventful couple of weeks as we have been settling in. And I know I haven't even, in the slightest, captured half of it here, but hopefully it helps fill in the gaps :)