What We Did Last Week (Week of 6/14/15)

Last Sunday CJ drove me and my friend Caitlin down to Queens for my friend Dalelyn's baby shower and the girls got to spend the day with their Nova, Aunt Kate and cousin Abbie. They had a blast and it went sooo much better than the last time we left them!  They also had a visit from Abbie and her friend Colleen giving mom a much needed break after a long day. It seems like our first bout with separation anxiety is subsiding and mom can finally get a much needed break at times!

 Nature and Outside 

Banging on everything we can!

Outside time just got a whole lot better over here! My dad came through for us once again and graciously gifted us a Northstates Super Playyard complete with a door extension! This thing is awesome. It gives them enough space to explore and crawl around, they can pull up on it and cruise safely and I don't have to chase them all over the place. When we add our Sportbrella and our new SpeakStick we have the ultimate outdoor set up to encourage safe, independent play and exploration for these babies now that they're on the move!  We got out a few times this week to enjoy the beautiful weather.

Sensory and Exploration

They are loving taking things in and out of boxes, dumping and shaking them and flipping them over and banging on them so we're doing a lot of that these days. Every day I'll add some different objects to their boxes and just let them have at it.

We also went on a crawling tour of the house. Thanks to our new play yard they have a huge safely contained space in the living room but whenever I can I'm trying to let them exercise their skills and explore. I set them free the other day and it was like they discovered a whole new world. They were crawling under tables, behind boxes, looking under the bed and their cribs, pushing doors, banging on the fridge and washing machine and discovered the cat food bowl - good thing I'm quick!

Music, Movement and Games

Thanks to our new SpeakStick (read my review here) our music sounds so much better than when I had to use my phone or computer! I discovered a few great playlists while trying to find something to listen to on our road trip to NYC so we've listened Family Road Trip, Mood Booster and some Cinematic Chill Out when they were needing some low-key music.

They had a chill jam session with Dad and his guitar one night. I was in the kitchen doing dishes and heard him strumming and looked out to see them totally enthralled with it. He handed them their guitar and xylophone and they played along. So cute. 

Obstacle course and cute baby faces!

Aside from our crawling tour we've been doing tons of pulling up and cruising. This week we did our very first baby obstacle course! I set up my Snoogle pillow for them to crawl over, our nursing pillow for them to crawl through and the coffee table for them to crawl under. I put their activity walker at the end to give them something to aim for. Jules was not having any of it and quickly crawled her way around but Viv had a blast and did it over and over every time I led her back to the beginning.

Our favorite game this week was "I'm gonna get you!" and mimicking. They can make a ton of sounds but we're still working on them repeating after us so we practice a lot every day. We're hoping to finally get a Dada out of Jules this weekend just in time for Father's Day too! She's so close but she just giggles when I say it!

Favorite Toys

Peek-A-Boo Blocks - (Do not pay $100 for this, even though it's discontinued you can find it for about $10 at any garage sale). This has been a favorite for a while but now that they're shaking everything and actually taking the time to look at the blocks it's much more interesting to them. They also love dumping the box out and trying to put them back in.

Alphabet Abacus - They love knocking this thing over and rolling the letters over and over.

Blankets - They've finally discovered the joy that is snuggling up to a soft blanket! They have Aden + Anais swaddle blankets in their cribs and during play time I will throw a few of the approximately 200 blankets we have out for them and they will shake them, snuggle them and play peek-a-boo. Before rest time I will raise it up high and lower it over them making a whoosh sound and I swear I've found the key to getting them to be happy that it's time to sleep! They will laugh and pull on it and then ball it up under their arms and fall asleep just like I do. Freakin' precious.

Favorite Books

We read a few stories from our big books again this week and I gotta say back in the old days people wrote some messed up children's stories. Ever read Ferdinand the Bull? Don't, it glorifies bull fights and while it is a lovely story for the most part and ends happily I struggled with it and it made me sad. Then there's Millions of Cats in which millions of cats possibly eat each other. Thankfully they also have some of my favorites like Guess How Much I Love You and Amelia Bedelia so we stuck to those this week!

New Foods

I'm adding this new section to try and keep track of all the new things the girls try. In the last few weeks they've tried beets, calamari, olives, blueberry pancakes, homemade applesauce, macaroni and cheese and mandarin oranges.

We hope everyone had a wonderful Father's Day!

Xo,
Maigen