Oooh, Aaah, Wow!

It's just not a birthday around here without an oooh, an aaah, or a wow! when we open a gift from Aunt Vicki. She didn't disappoint when it came to Marin and Silje's birthday presents ... and Ailey's birthday present that Aunt Vicki gave her permission to open a few months early.

Oh, Aunt Vicki, you done good!

First, all Marin and Silje would have to do is walk into an Aunt-Vicki-attended-event in these outfits for everyone there to know they are related to Aunt Vicki herself! Classic! They will be donning these outfits at the first frost next fall!Second, Ailey's early birthday present is definitely meant to be heard, not just seen. Yes, that's what I said ... a clothing item meant to be listened to, or more specifically, danced to. So here is a video of it in action:


What was that you heard in the background? Why, that was Ailey's new skirt, feathers and all, singing the Chicken Dance!
The skirt is a hit! It's been worn continuously - except for meals and bedtime - since it came out of the gift bag. :) Thank you, Aunt Vicki!

Birthday! Birthday!

I was baking the couple days before the "big party", then didn't bother to get a picture of all my hard work spread out on the table the day of. I at least got this one the night before. I suppose I took it so I would have a reminder - just for myself - of the time-consuming choice I made for Marin and Silje's birthday "cake". A cupcake cake. The picture in the book was, of course, prettier than my own completed masterpiece (and it appeared to be the easiest creation of them all, oi!). By the time I finished the cupcake cake I was calling it the "pile of cupcakes"! Oh well. I make no apologies. I don't claim to be good at creative decorating. I just enjoy it! Here it is sitting amongst the mess that helped me assemble it:

They were really good cupcakes, if I may say so myself. Not just because of the yummy boxed mix by Pillsbury ... ah-hem ... but the frosting was amazing. My neighbor made this frosting for her daughter's 1st birthday party two weeks ago (yes, Marin and Silje have the perfect playmate right across the street!), and, though I'm not usually one for the frosting part of a cake, I devoured her cupcakes just for this frosting! YUM! I will wince every time I put store-bought frosting on a pastry again!

Anyway, on to the main event. Here are Marin and Silje in their Birthday Girl shirts. Too cute!

Both girls dug into their cake right away. They seemed to like the frosting too. Marin seems to have liked the feel of it....

... While Silje sucked it off her fingers.Andy's Grandma Elsie enjoyed a front row seat. I didn't even think about it at the time, but she is lucky Marin liked her cake, because she's the one who throws her food when she's done, right where Elsie was sitting!

Marin and Silje always love cheering and clapping. Who knows if they knew all the attention was actually for them.

Marin the Birthday Girl:

Silje the Birthday Girl:

Parker and Ailey enjoyed cupcakes as well. Actually, I think Ailey enjoyed two. Aahh well.

And now we're done....

Marin and Silje seemed to enjoy turning 1. They got into the present opening a little too, and definitely enjoyed what came out of the gift bags and boxes - you know, the tissue paper and ribbons and all!

Now we're on to our second year with twins. Have I mentioned Marin and Silje fight over toys? That Marin grabs toys from Silje and runs? And Silje pulls Marin's hair? That they like to do what they've been told not to? Yeah, we're on to our second year with twins....

Happy Birthday, Marin & Silje!

We had a really fun 1st Birthday Party for Marin and Silje today. I don't have the time (read: energy) to post all about it right now, so I will write more tomorrow and post some pictures. Until then, here is a video of the birthday girls having "Happy Birthday" sung to them, and then one of them eating their very first birthday cake. Enjoy!

"Happy Birthday To You...!"

"How's that cake?!"

Frankenstein in a Sun Hat

Marin started walking, what, a week ago. That video of her up, down and all around was the start of it. She hasn't quit. She walks slower than she crawls, but if she wants to get somewhere, she puts in the effort - rolls onto her feet, sticks her butt up in the air and springs to attention. She's a walker now. Still a drunken walker, but a walker nonetheless. Actually, the "drunken sailor" image doesn't quite do it justice. She's a Frankenstein walker. Straight legs, stiff knees, swaying side-to-side. But she's proud of what she's doing ... Oh so proud! And she's still doing laps. Practicing, as we call it.

Tonight I was playing around with Marin and Silje trying to get them to wear a hat of Ailey's. Hat on ... hat off. Hat on ... hat off. That's how it goes with babies, right? Then Marin decided wearing the hat was what she wanted to do. Forget sharing with her sister, or even her mom. Wear the hat, walk laps. Sheesh. What's cuter than a baby in a too-big hat?!

And a video of it, of course:

Ailey's Sleeping Bag

Ailey's bedtime is 8:00pm, but lately (the past month or so) she hasn't been falling asleep right away like she's almost always done. That means we've spent the past month or so tweeking rules and the way her room is set-up to at least get her to stay in bed until she does fall asleep.

The #1 rule remains the same: Stay in bed! But now we've added
#2: Don't turn on your room light
#3: No going into Mom and Dad's room
#4: No shaking pom-poms - they're too loud
#5: Turn off your new bedside lamp when you're done reading
(We don't actually have these rules printed up or anything, and if we ask Ailey what the rule is at bedtime she repeats only #1. The others have been repeated a few times though.)

The new bedside lamp was to encourage her to stay in bed and read instead of getting out of bed, turning on her room light, and sitting in her chair to read books. It's worked for rules 1-4, if not for helping her fall asleep sooner. Ailey has always been well occupied by books, so usually she falls asleep reading, books everywhere. I find books surrounding her and even under her.

But sometimes she finds other creative ways to fall asleep. Like snuggling up on her bear chair (see "Sleepy Ailey" post from 12/16/08). Or sleeping in my bed (we didn't hear a thing!). And twice now we've found her snuggled into her pillowcase. The first time I went in to check on her and saw this position I think I actually laughed out loud. Good thing she's a hard sleeper. It wasn't until the next day that she was telling me about her new "sleeping bag". Last night we found her in her "sleeping bag" again and remembered to take a picture.

A Vicki Dress

Ailey, Marin and Silje have clothes. And then they have "Aunt Vicki clothes". Aunt Vicki loves to find fantastic clothes for the girls, usually dresses. Ailey LOVES her Aunt Vicki Dresses. Today we went to our neighbor's birthday party. When I told Ailey she could wear a party dress she immediately picked one of the dresses she got for Christmas: the ultimate Vicki Dress! It's a great dress for twirling, so we took a video of Ailey twirling and curtsying. Don't forget to watch the video, Aunt Vicki!

If At First She Don't Succeed ...

... Marin will Try and Try Again! Holy Cow, this girl is hilarious. Today Marin decided, in the space of about 60 seconds, that she could stand up and walk. Since Christmas Day she has "officially" been taking steps. ("Cruising" has been going on for a long time.) After a few days of obligingly walking when we would stand her up and let go, she lost interest and would usually just fall to her knees and crawl where ever. However, today something clicked and now she can't get enough of her new skill - or skills - stand up, walk, fall down, stand up, walk, fall down, stand up ... over and over and over....

I was doing my usual torture of standing her up and trying to coax her into taking those few steps. She was having fun with it, then we both all of a sudden realized she had just stood up on her own, i.e. not using furniture or a person to push up on. She was very proud, as she always is when she stands-no-hands, and she continued for about the next 15 minutes to "practice" standing up, then walking. She did this obsessive thing when she first learned to sit herself up. I think I have a video of that comedy too - sit-up, hands-and-knees, sit-up, hands-and-knees, over and over and over....

This latest Marin comedy had Ailey and me cracking up - imagine the "drunken sailor" and you'll get the picture. Better yet, watch the video: (a 3 minute video, but how better to see how repetitive and obsessive it was!)

Even funnier was at the end of those 15 mintues of "practice", when she was so tired out all she could do was stand up, fall down, stand up, fall down. After a bit of rest and some dinner she was able to perform for Andy when he got home. Good girl!

And not to leave Silje out, she is a super-fast crawler so we were expecting her to keep doing that for a while longer. But maybe Marin has inspired her, or maybe it's just her time too, because the past couple days she has been taking a few steps of her own: (a short 5 second video)

Jumping Beans

These babies make me laugh! I think they were excited about the New Year....