Monday, December 25, 2006

Merry Christmas!

Today the boys celebrated their second Christmas. We all slept in until 10:30 and then eventually made our way over to Halmoni and Grandpa's house for lunch and opening presents, then later in the afternoon we packed up and headed down to Granny and Grandad's house.

Santa brought the boys got lots of cool new toys and clothes! Thank you sooo much everyone! To humor Caleb's affinty for ducks, Santa gave him a new stuffed duck that quacks and a wooden duck pull toy. And in honor of Joshua's love of shoes, he received a wooden lace-up shoe toy! Unfortunately, Joshua wasn't fooled by this imitation shoe and promptly went back to playing with dirty old shoes he found lying around the house. Two cardboard wrapping paper rolls proved to be wildly popular this Christmas, as well. The boys followed each other around the house brandishing their weapons, loudly proclaiming "Aaugh! Auugh!" We can't help but wonder if little girls behave this way, too? Our boys definitely act like boys!

Sunday, December 24, 2006

Sweet Addison Grace

Today the boys met their new "cousin" Addison Grace! She came over to visit with Aunt Suzanne and Grandma Joyce, who also met the boys for the first time today. I was utterly amazed by how sweet and quiet Addison is. I only seem to have recollections of our boys crying incessantly when they were her age. We barely heard a peep out of Addison the whole time she was visiting... her mommy sure is blessed ;) We all had fun celebrating Christmas Eve (and Aunt Suzanne's birthday!) together!

Monday, December 18, 2006

Celebrity Status

So this must be what it feels like to be a celebrity. Today was a relatively warm day so I loaded up the boys and took them shopping in Old Town. While strolling along the ancient brick sidewalks, the boys were bombarded with ecstatic smiles, friendly stares, and gushing compliments from complete strangers. Rarely did we walk past a person who did not exhibit one of these reactions. Granted, the boys did look particularly cute and Christmasy in their matching green snowman overalls and red knit hats, but we have grown accustomed to such reactions in public places no matter the season or location. Whether we're at the grocery store, a restaurant, or simply taking a walk around the neighborhood, we have gotten used to all eyes being on the spectacle which is our twins. So now whenever Joe and I go out by ourselves without the boys in tow (which isn't very often), we can't help but feel slightly neglected. It takes us a while to get used to not being the center of attention!

Tuesday, December 12, 2006

Shoes!

I think Joshua has been hanging around Aunt Megan too much. He absolutely adores shoes. If he finds a pair of shoes lying around, he'll pick them up and walk around carrying them, or he'll give them to you, or he'll try to put them on. He has been known to try on Halmoni's clogs, on Sunday at Branden's birthday party he was trying to step into Catalina's high heels, and yesterday we caught him trying on Daddy's shoes. He has also been known to lie on the floor at people's feet and use their shoes as his pillow! He sure does love shoes. Maybe that's why he's always looking down at the ground...

Monday, December 11, 2006

First Haircut

So I finally gave the boys their first haircut, which many people seemed to think was long overdue. It was actually more like a trim, just around their ears and the back of the neck. I admit it does look a little more organized now, and hopefully now people will stop asking if one is a boy and the other is a girl. Halmoni distracted Caleb by reading him a book while I cut his hair, and I trimmed Joshua's locks while he took a nap. And Daddy- the one who'd been most persistently insisting that they should get a haircut- didn't even notice until the end of a long and arduous guessing game!

Saturday, December 9, 2006

13 Months Old

Wow, the boys are already 1 year and 1 month old! They are doing new things every day now. Joshua's newest thing is that he will give you items that belong to you. For example, he will pick up your shoe and give it to you, or he will pick up your cell phone and give it to you. He likes to play peekaboo with Daddy's UVA hat. He will cover his face with the hat and then take it away quickly in anticipation of hearing us exclaim "Peekaboo!" He will also try to feed you if he is holding food and you open your mouth. And he likes to playfully bat people in the face, a habit which he finds hilarious but we are trying to discourage. Yesterday he was walking around Halmoni's kitchen kicking a measuring cup around like it was a soccer ball. Today he was standing up and trying to put his foot in his shoe! He now spends more time walking than crawling. It's so cute to see him trotting around and he is clearly very proud of himself!

Caleb has been walking a few steps here and there. He only walks when he is distracted and isn't thinking about what he is doing. For instance, Friday night we attended a friend's Christmas party and he was distracted by all of the people and his new environment, so he stood up and took a few steps, but as soon as he realized what he was doing he collapsed to his knees. He walked even more today, but once again only when he was distracted or he didn't think we were watching him! Caleb has also become quite proficient at holding and drinking from a juice box. He is not as much of a voracious eater as Joshua, but he does tend to be a neater eater, and Mommy appreciates that a lot! He also chews all of his food for a very long time before swallowing it, unlike Joshua who will swallow huge chunks of food whole (including 12-inch long japche noodles!). Caleb is a bright boy and at this tender age can already understand the book "Brown Bear Brown Bear What do You See?" When each animal is asked what he sees, Caleb will lean over and try to peek at the next page to find out what he sees (there is photo of him doing this in the December gallery). He only does the peeking thing with this book, so we're pretty sure that he understands the storyline.

Tuesday, December 5, 2006

Caleb walks!

Today Caleb took his first steps ever- about 5 or 6 steps in a row! Halmoni was holding his hands and helping him walk, then she let go and off went Caleb walking all by himself into his Mommy's arms!  We were all so surprised and happy that we started cheering and clapping, only to have Caleb start bawling! We think our applause must have caught him off-guard, compounded by the fact that he probably scared himself with his newfound mobility, since up until today he would rarely even stand up without holding onto anything!

On another note, yesterday after dinner Daddy noticed that Caleb's hands were wet and cold, but we figured it was probably because he had been playing in the dishwasher. Then today we caught him red-handed with his hand in the toilet bowl... eeew! We always keep the bathroom door closed at our house (and therefore the boys are always scrambling to try to get in there), but the door is not always closed at Halmoni and Grandpa's house, so Caleb jumped at the opportunity to make mischief in the forbidden room!