Tessa

It is so interesting to see how different these two girls are from each other.

Tessa loves to be held, and she likes to interact with others.  She loves to bump heads with others (a trick that Jason taught her).  She also loves to smack people's faces when they pick her up (a trick I am trying very hard to break her from).  It is easy to get a smile and a giggle from her.  She is generally a pretty happy girl.

It has taken her a lot longer than her sister to get moving.  She started crawling finally a few weeks ago.  She still can't pull herself up to standing yet, but she is trying.

Tessa is a talker.  She has many sound including ma, da, ba, along with others.  She does not yet seem to connect them with people.  It has been funny recently though.  She will say dada.  I will then tell her mama.  She then will repeat dada.  She seems to know that it is a game, but I don't think she really associates the words with us yet.

Tessa has been sleeping through the night.  We have had a few rough nights whenever she gets a cold.  She seems to hold on to colds for a long time.  I always wonder if she will have more trouble since she was premature (and needed more respiratory help than Eowyn).

I have been starting the girls on finger foods.  Tessa is a very neat eater for the most part.  She has had some trouble with larger pieces.  She has been gagging a lot, and I have to keep a close eye on her.  Tessa loves watermelon.  I gave the girls some the other day, but I ended up having the clear out her mouth.  She kept stuffing more pieces in there, but she wasn't chewing the pulpy part enough to swallow it.  She will have to wait awhile before she gets her next taste of that.

I will leave you with a few of my favorite pictures.

Eowyn

I cannot believe that the girls are a year old today.  I wanted to write a post for each one of them to celebrate this special day.

Eowyn is always on the move.  She has been crawling since just after 7 months.  For a long time, she crawled like an inch worm.  It was pretty funny.  It took awhile, but she was finally able to get herself to sitting and back down again.  Not long after this, she also learned to pull herself up to standing.  She is now cruising around the furniture, but she refuses to walk holding anyone's fingers.  She will try to either sit down or pull her legs up.

Eowyn is very determined.  If she see something she wants, she will go after it even if it mean crawling over the top of her sister to get it.  I have been transitioning the girls to finger foods.  Eowyn has enjoyed it so much (or at least she is enjoying making a mess) that she will yell whenever she runs out of things on her tray until you give her more.  I am hoping that she will learn to harness this energy to determinedly pursue what is right in the future, but that she will learn to temper the methods of getting there. 

She is sleeping through the night.  We had a bit of a hiccup around the time I got out of school.  She started waking up in the middle of the night screaming at the top of her lungs.  At first since she was not prone to doing this, we went to her, but she would immediately settle down if we picked her up.  Finally, we let her put herself back to sleep a night or two, and now things have gotten better again.

Eowyn continues to remind me of Gabriel when he was little, both in looks and personality.  She can be fairly serious much of the time.  She likes to play with toys and read books, but she rarely laugh.  It takes a lot to get her laughing.  She does smile a lot more these days.  She has developed a smile where she crinkles her nose.  She doesn't like to cuddle much unless she is tired.  When she is tired thought, she will put her thumb in her mouth and settle her head under my chin.  Sometimes she will only do it for a moment before she is squirming to get down and be on the go again.

I will leave you with some of my favorite pictures of her throughout the year.

Summer

I have been neglecting this place for awhile now. It has happened for several reasons. Mostly because I have been busy with the end of the school year and little ones who want more and more of my attention every day. I have gotten behind in posting the twins monthly updates (okay maybe behind is not strong enough of a word). I hope to correct that next week as I prepare for their first birthday. I also need to post some things about Gabriel soon. But I will leave all of those for posts coming soon. I wanted to write this post on my goals for the summer. A friend of mine started posting her weekly goals a long time ago. I most often just keep mental lists, but I liked the idea when I saw it. Since then, my sister has also occasionally taken up the habit. At the risk of copying (and possibly boring you), I wanted to write down some of my goals for my summer break.

Kids
- work with Gabriel on having a consistent daily quiet time
- have Gabriel work on reading and math every weekday
- take Gabriel to the library for the summer reading program
- work with the girls to transition them from bottle to soppy cups
- introduce more food to the girls including moving them to milk
- work on the girls' photo book and the next family photo book

Home
- paint the outside of the house
- work on the ceiling in our bathroom
- deep clean one area each week

Spiritual
- have a constintent daily quiet time
- attend weekly Bible study
- memorize 2 verses a week

School
- rework the units from the first semester
- write lesson plans and unit tests
- rethink and rewrite rules and procedures for classroom
- prepare to collect necessary documentation for evaluation rubric

This week, I am trying to focus on getting some of these started. I have taken Gabriel to the library to get registered. I have started my first week of Bible study, and I have started a plan for quiet times, memorization, and Gabriel's academic work. I also have been trying to feed the girls more finger food, and I have started to introduce the sippy cups. I will spend the remainder of this week continuing to do work on these. I also need to take all of the kids to the doctor. The girls have a normally scheduled appointment this week (although I will not be surprised if they end up on antibiotics again). Gabriel needs to be taken for several reasons including a spot of his scalp that I want to have checked. I will also be busy planning for the girls' first birthday party. At home, I am going to try to get the house cleaned. I think I will focus on deep cleaning the kitchen. For school work, I am focusing this week on focusing on my goals, rules, and procedures. I may also start working on the first unit.

Well, I am sure that you are thouroughly bored by now if you made it this far. As you can see, it is going to be a busy summer.