Happy birthday Bubbas!!

Its time to reflect on the two best presents I have received;

Safiya; My little giggle pots, thanks for making mummy laugh with your infectious giggle, mischievous eyes and screeches of delight. Your latest efforts at walking started with a running tackle - taking out your brother of course :). To strangers you come across shy but quietly check out the scene and take mental notes for later use. You have a quiet determination and always surprise us with a new skill you seem to have picked up overnight. I love the way u clap with delight and smile when your favorite bedtime story begins.

Sol; my smiley, happy boy with the cute curls. You have such a gentle nature, a love of books and an inquistive mind, quietly checking out the latest object with your index finger. You are forever trailing objects around the house, one in each hand, the latest being a black and red pair of Safiya's stockings. Not to be detered when you trip over them and very protective if anyone in the family should come near your precious goodies! I love our games of chase and catch even if you don't run away very far before coming back to check if we are still near by.

Thanks for making my every day a brighter place, happy birthday to my two rays of sunshine,
love you lots
Mummy

christmas is fast approaching - 10.5 months

Our bubs are progressing along well and getting into more mischief each day. Yesterday they managed to pull all the stacks of Nappies off the shelves then Safiya used them to climb on top of to get to what was on the second shelf in the bathroom. They seem to be really enjoying their new found climbing ability and their new skill of getting on to their tippy toes to pull things off benches. They even managed to pull apart an envelope and DVD yesterday and were trailing a magnet of Henry I didn't even realise I had across the kitchen floor :).
They are fast approaching the walking milestone and Sol took his first tiny steps in the bath tub the other night. Our babysitter commented today that Sol was stomping his feet because he wanted her to help him walk to a bench even though she was occupied changing Safiya's nappy.
They are also starting to wave and Safiya managed a very funny Hello back to mine this morning.
We have had a couple of trying weeks when they both had a cold and Safiya developed some eczema on her back. The colds are gone now however and I have removed eggs and cow's milk from Safiya's diet and her eczema is disappearing. I will try cow's milk again when all the eczema has gone as I have a sneaking suspicion it is just eggs she is currently intolerant to.
We have been spending afternoons at the park when the weather permits and recently had a successful photo shoot with some of the last leaves of Autumn - some of these pics are already up on facebook.
Shammy and I enjoyed one of our few evenings out together last week, something we are trying do more often, it is that much loved quality time and we have signed up to do our annual 10km run together which of course we skipped out on last February. It will be interesting to see how I go in comparison to my previous runs. I'll have the added motivation of getting back in time for our babysitter :).

First snow of the season

Well being forever the Australian I completely down played the fact that it would snow this weekend, being that it is only October, thinking it was just media hype. But no, we probably have about 6 inches outside at the moment, its being snowing all day and it is still snowing!

So besides a brief outing this morning we have had a fun filled indoors day with some dancing to Hindi music and some oatmeal play time.

Sol and Safiya were initially fascinated by this fluffy white stuff that floated down outside but they soon lost interest and were happy to concentrate on what mischief they could get up to inside.

It is so cute watching them follow each other around and they are becoming very good at playing together and as long as they are fed and not tired, are pretty happy to roam around doing their own thing.

Sol can now stand up without holding onto something and will stay upright for a good amount of time, which of course we get excited about which eventually brings him plopping down. Their chatter to each other and in general has increased and of course there are heaps of "dada daddy's" coming out but only one mmmmMum to date from Sol.

They are now only drinking cow's milk and eating their regular meals each day. At our regular Dr's visit they kept asking about how much formula they were drinking so eventually I just said they were drinking milk and surprisingly they were okay with this, I feel the Dr I saw was on much the same wavelength as we are when it comes to the influence of the formula companies.

Shammy is beginning the process of applying for Electrophysiology fellowships and I am still keeping my usual work schedule although I seem to be picking up a few extra days lately.

Aleesha our babysitter is still fabulous and we now have weekend baby sitter options if needed with the ladies at the gym offering to do the occassional weekend sit if we need it.

Survived Minneapolis, 8.5 months

Flying with two 8 and a half month olds, with stopovers between 2, 1.5 hour flights. Not too difficult you would think. Lets just say draining and it took a couple of days of the following week to recover :). The flights themselves were okay, it was more the time change and lack of sleep at night with the change in sleeping environments for Sol and Safiya that wiped me out. I think the next time we travel for a conference I'll only go if Shammy doesn't "attend" the conference all day as it just makes things a little less full-on during the day.

I discovered Sol and Safiya only like my home cooking, anything bought was not up to their standards besides a spinach, mushroom curry I picked up from a take away :).

On the Sunday I managed to get out and have a look along the riverside, stone arch bridge and the local museums with the bubs. They were very well behaved and seemed to enjoy the german dancing on display. I also wandered across some farmer's markets so I got to try some local vegetable empanadas, yum!

I think Minneapolis would definitely be a summer city, not a place to be venturing to in the winter months, coming back to Allentown afterwards it felt so warm in comparison.

Sol and Safiya are both crawling well now and are now standing up on any piece of furniture, leg, object they can get their hands on. Safiya seems the more courageous of the two and because of this has had her fair share of mishaps. Sol is not happy just to stand still but wants to bop around or have you walk him everywhere. A lot of sounds are coming out their mouths but nothing really sensible yet. They are starting to understand basic commands though and certainly know when Mummy wants them to be nice and share rather than grab each others toys out of their hands. There is never a dull moment.

Wet weather

So the last couple of weeks have been pretty wet with some Hurricanes off the east coast having the area on constant flood warnings. Hurricane Irene caused a lot of power cuts, luckily not for us, and a lot of local flooding. Some people are just getting power in our area now and that is 2 weeks later. There has been more rain this week with Hurricane Katia and another tropical depression in the area, which is making driving conditions to Hershey interesting for Shammy. We also have the relay marathon this weekend so it could be an interesting and very muddy one, hoping it stops raining on the day so at least the bubs can come out and enjoy also.

With the wet weather we have been having some fun indoor days, hence the spaghetti fun and I think its time to buy a few indoor play mats before the carpets here are annihilated :).

Sol and Safiya are really getting more mobile now which is making things very interesting, hence the cots have been lowered and the gates are up high as they are grabbing onto everything and using things to stand up. Safiya in particular is enjoying sitting up in her cot and I find it most amusing walking into the bedroom to see if she has gone to sleep to find her sitting up smiling at me.

Its time to install safety measures as I'm quickly realising already I am finding them in some interesting places and once they start crawling there will be no controlling them. They also seem to like tugging on our pants now to let us know they want to be picked up.

I think the term "silence is deadly" is most appropriate as you can be sure they are up to something they shouldn't be!

In a couple of weeks we are all off for our first plane flight together to Minneapolis for a conference Shammy has. I'm as excited as always to see a new place and hopefully this will the start of some more exploring for us.

Just when you think you have it figured out it all changes :)

Hmmm how do think this works Sol

Nothing could be truer when it comes to babies. These two definitely keep me on my toes. I guess when you think about it their growth is so rapid its not surprising that change is happening so quickly.

It seems another tooth is on the way for each of them and combine that with a little too much stimulation at the picnic this afternoon and not enough nap time and it equals a good hour to get them both to bed when normally they both go straight down. Of course one would just about drop off and then the other would wake them up again, it certainly made for an interesting skype conversation with Lee-Anne.

Safiya is sitting by herself now, but I put a bean bag behind to stop the occasional fall, Sol hasn't quite got there yet, very close, but maybe its that little bum holding him back :). He is however constantly in crawl position but hasn't quite worked out how to go forward yet. Safiya also seems to like her hand and knees at the moment.

I seem to be getting into a nice routine, only thrown out by lack of sleep or should I say more than the usual lack of sleep. They are both still loving their swim time and today Shammy and I took them for our first family run together.

They both were quite happy in the stroller and seemed to like Shammy's pace, even though they had to stop and start a few times while they waited for Mummy. We are doing the relay marathon again this year and it has been a good motivation for me to get back into running again.

a new water and food proof mat, lets check it out

Its also been nice to have Shammy around more on the weekends as last year it was practically every 2nd weekend plus at least one week night he was working. Having said that he is on call tonight :).

They are both so much fun though, and smile so much we love just spending time with them and every day brings another laugh.

We love you Nanny!

Well it was with a few tears from everyone, Sol and Safiya included, that we said goodbye to Nanny this morning. We have loved having her here so much and Sol and Safiya always had big smiles for Nanny and I know have already gained so much from being with her for the last 6 months.

Shameer and I feel very lucky to have had sooo much help and another friend to share our life with.

We are staying positive though and it will be good for Shammy and I to make our own way through the ups and downs of parenthood, with lots of laughter and I'm sure a few tears along the way. I'm crossing my fingers that they give us a good respite at night time so that we are fresh and ready for the new day :).

They are both pretty happy bubs and are developing little personalities and love their food. Safiya has decided that crying is pointless to get what you want, why not let out a big screech instead :). Sol meanwhile will give her a look like what is that all about and continue playing happily by himself.

They are getting better at sitting but still need support around them and seem to be developing some crawl like motion even if on Sol's part it ends up in a head plant on the ground.

We have Miss Aleesha lined up to cover the 2 mornings I work a week and then a couple of hours on another morning to give me some time out. I'm also planning in enrolling them at the creche at the gym so that they can have some fun playing somewhere different and I can get my exercise in.

We have been making the most of summer with lots of walks at the Lehigh valley parkway and we are now taking the bubs to the pool to have a splash along with us. I'm happy to report that they seem to enjoy this.

With Mum's departure, Shammy has also finished his first year of fellowship, YEY, so hopefully we will be seeing more of him at home. He has an away rotation coming up at Hershey and we will have to work out if this means some exploring at the end of the week for the rest of the family also.

The first 6 months with the twins has been a whirlwind and we look forward to beginning a new stage together and are already looking forward to seeing Nanny in Macungie next Autumn! Safe journey Nanny and give all our cousins in Australia big hugs and kisses and even those that are due soon :)