The Sound of Music

Maggie has started to sing. I wouldn't believe it if I heard it about someone else's almost 17 month old, but I swear to you, the girl is singing. She burst out one day, swaying back and forth with "Row, row, row" followed by some gibberish. She has a book that sings the song, and she kept putting it on that page to hear the song, and then repeating it. She will repeat it when I sing the ending. It's adorable. Then today, up in the nursery, Ben was messing around with the baby crack machine and it started playing the music for Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star. Without words. So, I see her start to sway again, and sure enough, she starts in with "Tinkle, tinkle, tinkle" - What? Are you kidding me? I don't know where she even heard the words, I don't sing it that often, I don't think anything we have sings the song. She's s genius, I'm telling you now.

In addition to the singing, my babies love to dance. It's mostly this up and down knee bend (I think they learned it from Andy), Maggie throws in her head sway motion, Ben likes to spin in circles or stomp, and they do it when Jack is on or when they hear other music. Maggie likes to push the buttons on our singing toys and then stand there and dance. They do not have a long attention span for it, but to some of the songs on Jack, it's like a dance party in our living room. I'm trying to dance like a toddler, to teach them some new moves, but while they think I'm funny, they haven't really been imitating it.

We've been keeping busy the past week, and while I don't have a lot of spectacular photos, I have some to share, of course. I have been promising myself that I am going to be a better blogger, a more prolific blogger, and I'm trying to branch out and read more blogs. If you read my blog, leave me a comment, I love knowing that people other than my mother are keeping up with our family :-)

Speaking of my mother, on August 26, we went to the zoo with my Mom, my SIL and my nephew. A good time was had by all, highlights included riding the carousel and seeing the lemurs up close and personal. They seemed oddly interested in my babies. Probably if they could talk, they would have told me that they were twins, or they had twins, or their mothers sisters neighbor had twins. Here's a nice shot of us (without the lemurs) and a nice view of how my do it myself hair dye doesn't look so great in natural light.
August 27 - We finally made our basement into the rumpus room we'd always planned on. The babies now have a real live play room. Toys everywhere. And this is Ben. Having a ball, literally, with some cat toys he found in a basket. Right now, everything that is a ball is fun. Balls that have bells in them that ring when you shake them? Brilliant invention.
August 28 - I took a lot of pictures today. Right now, my photo policy is kind of take now, delete later. It takes me close to 200 pictures to come up with a few good ones some days. I have a lot of pictures of the backside of babies, the back of their heads, one of them, not the other, one looking, one not. Toddlers are tricky to photograph. So, while this isn't a perfect shot (what is that face Ben is making?), hey they are both in the frame! And looking in the same general direction! Wearing stinking cute pajamas!
One of my favorite pictures yet of Maggie and her Ba-Ba. I love seeing my Grandma with my kids. She loves them, she is so interested in them, and they love her and know her by name and picture. Also, check out my big girl with real pigtails in the back! All her hair was up at once - so cute.
And this one. Try to focus on the healthy meal I am feeding my child, and ignore the big stinking shiner on Ben's forehead. This was probably the worst head injury to date. He fell face first (as always) in my parents' driveway, going downhill. On blacktop. He got a big old goose egg, a scrape that bled a little, and basically a bruise that covered close to half of his forehead. Poor baby. Poor Mommy who was following him, but didn't catch him when he fell. There was much screaming and crying, and I had a moment of "Am I supposed to be taking him to the ER now?" before we decided to just clean it up, try to put ice on it, and give him Tylenol just in case.
And one more - Maggie looks a little goofy, but check out her Daddy. That is the look of a man who adores his daughter. Loves his family. Loves his wife and kids, and who has a baby girl who has him completely wrapped around her finger. And seeing him like that? Love him more and more everyday.
August 29 - This is one of those promised pictures of Ben, naked in the hall, piling the blankies and lovies around him so he can read them books. He put the ladybug there for modesty.
August 30 - I have been reading. A lot. My new favorite author is Rachel Gibson, she has a bunch of semi-related books that are funny, have interesting plots, and good naughty parts. I love a good romance novel. And the rest? Well hmm, notice the comic books at the bottom, the fantasy type reads near the top, and in the middle - yeah, I'm thinking about trying to write a book. I have always wanted to, have had a plot of a book rattling around in my head for quite a few years now, and I figure now might just be the time to give it a shot. No, I haven't started writing it, but I'm researching. We'll see what happens.
September 1 - It only seemed fair to post a nakey Maggie in here too. Plus, these were really the only pictures I took on this day!
September 2 - I got to watch my nephew Ryan for a couple of hours so my SIL could get her hair done. All I can say is I bow down to women who have 3 under 2! Really, Maggie and Ben love Ryan, and they were happy to have him come over. The only thing that seemed really tricky about two toddlers and an infant? Getting up and down the stairs together. I thought it was hard to herd my little ones up and down the stairs when it was just them, but carrying a 6 month old at the same time? Oh vey. I'm glad we only had to do it twice!
September 3 - Not the best composed or technically perfect photo, but there is a story behind this one. We kept the babies up a little late this night because we had errands to run. When we came back, we let them have some milk and some pretzels, and we snuggled in to watch some TV. Ben insisted on climbing up to snuggle with me, and Andy tried to take Maggie. She squirmed away because she just wanted Mommy. All snuggled in with my two usually squirmy babies? Heaven. Sorry Daddy.
September 4 - Ben wasn't really happy about wearing his "Ba" costume, but as soon as we showed him in front of the mirror - this is the look he had on his face for like 10 minutes. Look at my big boy! Look at how much fun it will be to dress them up this year! Maggie is going to be a monkey, so they are both dressing up like their lovies. Cousin Ryan is going to be a lion. We'll have quite a zoo between us!
September 5 - Today. I love this picture of Maggie and Andy. We met up with an old sorority friend at the park with her son. It was a beautiful crisp day, and the babes had a blast. I played around a little with this photo just with my on camera editing features - I have learned that one good cure for an overexposed photo is to make it black and white. We think this one might be frameworthy, and if I was a little more Photoshop savvy, I'm sure I could make it even better, but that look on her face? The light shining on them? Pretty darn good enough for me! Well, that's it for now. I think I'm coming down with a cold, I have been very tired this weekend, and I think it needs to be bedtime. Thanks for reading!