Baby Fight!

Sophie being attacked by Mary Monster!

Mary is a little rambunctious. We try to keep her under control before it gets too out of hand. Sophie takes it in stride. She did get upset the other day when Mary started a fight in Kroger. Just a little tug on the ear, no harm done. We try not to attract too much attention when shopping (with limited results) but I had to laugh - they're so cute when they get upset.

It's been a while since the last post. We've since had a great trip to Georgia for a conference and to visit family. I went to a transportation conference in Atlanta and the girls stayed with Grandma and Papa. We stayed a few days after the conference and visited family. We all had a great time, but I think Mary and Sophie had the most fun.

Sophie, Palmer and Mary

Mary and Sophie got to meet their new cousin Palmer during our visit. Unfortunately, this was while Peter and I were in Atlanta so we did not get to meet him. What a cute fella! Palmer has a blog too - palmeredge.blogspot.com. His parents are my cousin Jeffrey and his wife Susan. I can see some similarities between him and Mary - they both favor the Edge side of the family.

I also think that Mary favors my Aunt Tricia (my dad's sister) in the next picture. People say she looks like me but I don't know. She definitely favors me more than Sophie does. Sophie's Peter's baby. But she loves her Mama. :) That's Aunt Tricia's granddaughter Kadie in the right corner. We did get to see her when she came to play with the babies. She saw Mary and Sophie during our last visit, but they were bigger and able to play a lot more this time.

Sophie, Mary, Great Aunt Tricia and Kadie

Sophie favors Peter's side as you can see in the picture of her with his mom! The girls visited her in Atlanta, then she and Peter went to visit them at my parents' house in Forsyth while I was at the conference.

Sophie and Grandma Ilona

Unfortunately, we missed another baby - Lydia came to play twice while Peter and I were in Atlanta. And no one took pictures! Oh well, there's always next time. She came to visit with Mema and Papa (my adopted grandparents) and her grandma, Gayle.

Peter and I had fun getting some time to ourselves in Atlanta and spent some time in Athens visiting our friends Bret and Alli and their daughter Gray and our friend James Griffith. Peter also stocked up on Georgia shirts while we were there. The girls got some Bulldog gear too! Some outfits from Grandma and some pink Georgia Bulldog shoes from Great Aunt Janis and Great Aunt Marilyn. (Thanks especially to Aunt Marilyn, that gift was hard for her being a GT mom.)

Our last day the girls and I went out to lunch with Grandma and stopped by to visit Great Aunt Dorothy and Uncle Cecil. It just happened to be that my cousin David and his family - wife Michelle and daughter Mackenzie - were visiting, and he also was going to a conference in ATL. That was an unexpected treat since I have not seen Mackenzie since she was a little baby.

I think Peter was ready to get back home and back to work, but I did not want to leave. It was nice to be back home again and around family and friends. Not to mention I did not have to wash dishes all week. But it was good to get back. The girls were excited to be back in their own room again. And the dogs were happy to be able to lay around inside all day.

There's no place like home!

Playtime with Mary and Sophie

We are all doing well, looking forward to a trip down to GA next weekend. Just thought I'd share this video of the girls playing yesterday afternoon. If you can't tell who is who, Mary is the one going for the camera.

Lazy Sunday

Sophie and Mary on Sunday afternoon

Yesterday was a fun, lazy Sunday. We went to church and then to our favorite restaurant for lunch, then the girls, dogs and I had a nice nap (Dad went to work). Mary and Sophie were wearing some new white dresses that their Nagyi sent them (Peter's mom) so I got some pictures outside.

Sophie sampling the "greens"

Mary admiring her landscaping skills

"Mary, you're not going to eat that, are you?"

Just posting this one to show Sophie's new talent of pulling up and standing! We saw her do this for the first time Friday night.

I could not give this post the title Lazy Sunday without thinking about the SNL clip of the same name. Unfortunately due to some copyright blah blah blah you can't find this on YouTube right now. So these guys made their own, and it is just like the original only different guys. I was a little disappointed when I could not find the original, and you can tell these guys are lip syncing, but the scenes are identical! Wow.

Roomba vs. Twins

Hmm... this one is a close second!

Catching Up with Mary and Sophie

It’s been a while since the last post and we’ve been pretty busy, so here’s to catch up on things, and like my filing system I’ll go most recent first. (Sorry I got a new computer installed at work today and have been a little obsessed about file transfer… anyway, onto the girls!)

Sophie and Mary had their first full day at their new babysitter’s house on Tuesday. Erika has a 2 year old daughter, Elana, and she loves to play with our girls. The girls are just staying there on Tuesdays when I work, so Peter can get in an extra day of work during the week. They may stay with her at other times here or there. But I’m hoping this is the start of a wonderful relationship.

Sophie, Elana and Mary

Sophie demonstrating her table manners

The girls were 9 months old on Monday, July 7^th. We spent the 4^th of July weekend at home rained in but had a fun time playing inside. The girls were dressed in some cute red, white and blue outfits, so I took some pictures of them sitting on the changing table – watching the rain out of their bedroom window.

Mary and Sophie

The girls are eating more solids now and a little more variety. Sophie has really improved with the eating – she voluntarily opens her mouth now when I used to have to trick her. This picture was taken last month. At that time, I was feeding them both, but Sophie had her own spoon to feed herself. She wasn’t that capable, but she would keep putting the spoon in her mouth, and I could shove in food whenever there was an opening.

We took a vacation the first week in June – kind of – Peter went to the ACA meeting in Knoxville and we also got a place in Gatlinburg where I stayed with the girls and Grandma and Grandpa came to visit. I also got the chance to take a break and spend a couple of nights with Peter at the Hilton in Knoxville and go out with some friends I had not seen in a couple of years. The girls had a great time too – they went to the pool for the first time! We just went to the baby pool, but since then we’ve gotten some floats so they can be in the big pool with Mom and Dad. (We did that a couple weekends ago but no pictures.)

Mary and Sophie on the way to the pool

Testing the waters with Mom and Grandma

Mary likes to kick and splash!

Well, that gets us back up to date, I think. It’s about time for the girls to get up from their nap and I hear someone singing a baby song. Thanks for visiting!

Lee Park

Mom, Mary & Sophie

Around a month ago, our friend Andy was in town for a conference, and the girls and I went to meet him in downtown C'ville. Andy is a great photographer, so I asked him to take some pictures of the girls during his visit. These were taken downtown at Lee Park. You can see the rest of the set and download from Flickr at http://flickr.com/photos/ehcalum/2569805063/in/set-72157605552858074/.

He did a great job capturing the girls' expressions. Especially Sophie. It's hard to get a picture of her when she does not look serious, because once she sees the camera she is just focusing on figuring it out.

I do regret I did not dress a little nicer - I didn't really think about the fact that I'd have to be in some of the photos since the girls could not sit unsupported! Oh well, maybe my dream will come true and I'll get nominated for What Not to Wear. I'm trying to dress a little better now but admit I've recently been spotted in the same outfit at Kroger. But then usually all eyes are on Mary and Sophie. It's not rare that someone will start talking to them without even acknowledging I am there. That happened yesterday and Sophie promptly let the two ladies know that she doesn't like being approached by strangers - good girl! Mary was just flirting as usual.

This is our first week back home after our vacation in Tennessee. I will post some pictures and write about that later.

Hello Again

I realize it's been a while since our last post. So here are some more recent pictures of the girls. Nothing much to report, it's just been business as usual. Mary has a tooth - I think that's new since the last post.

Peter's mom Ilona came to visit the first weekend in May. She was only here for a day but we made the most of it. She played with the girls and got to see some of the sights in Charlottesville. We had lunch that day at Michie Tavern, it's a historical landmark near Monticello (Thomas Jefferson's house). They have a big lunch buffet and servers are all dressed in 18th century dresses. It's often crowded with tourists but not that day, and they were able to accommodate us and our big stroller as soon as we arrived. Sometimes it's nice that you get extra attention when you've got two infants in tow. Usually it's just people wanting to make comments or ask questions (are they twins, are they both girls) but the girls like the attention.

Nagyi and Mary

Nagyi and Sophie

And I had a nice first Mother's Day. It was special, but then every day's a little special with the girls. We did go out to lunch and it was the first time it had just been me, Dad and the girls going out together.

Mary and Sophie with the Exploration Station

Sophie

As you can see, Sophie likes to lick things. Especially the Exploration Station. And my arms, particularly during bath time. She likes to kick a lot too, crib rails, crib toy, floor, her sister... Mary doesn't like being on the receiving end of the kicks though - we try to prevent that as much as possible. Now I've given Sophie the nickname Licky Kicky. I can't come up with one for Mary though, she likes to eat and jump a lot, but Hungry Jumpy doesn't have the same ring.