We had several activities for Halloween.  First, we carved pumpkins.  We had our friends, Owen and Paige over for pumpkin carving.  This was Emilie's first pumpkin she's ever carved.  Then we baked the seeds, umm, good.  For the toddler class, Alex and Julie dressed up along with all the other little toddlers.  They had a toddler parade and it was adroable. Later in the week, we went to Microsoft for the annual Trick or Treating.  We mostly just wanted to see people and their kids rather than get candy.  We went to Susan's building and then to Marc's building.  A lot of people left candy outside of their offices and left for the day because traffic gets horrible with all the extra people on campus.  It was still fun though to walk around and see the kids get candy.  On Halloween, we dressed Julie and Alex up again and they went Trick or Treating in the neighborhood.  This was true Trick or Treating with going up to houses and getting candy from people.  We went to about 6 houses overall, but that was fun.  At Microsoft and in the neighborhood the Octopus costumes were a big hit.

As Julie and Alex were growing up, we took pictures of them every month on the same day and on the same big brown chair.  I thought it would be fun to put together a collage of pictures from each month so you can watch them grow up right before your eyes.  By their first birthday it became really difficult getting them both to sit still for the picture, so we decided to stop the monthly picture taking.  Hopefully we'll remember to take their picture in the chair every birthday (for as long as we have the chair).

 

The first set of pictures were with the whole chair in view, to help demonstrate how much they had grown.  Unfortunately the chair is pretty plush so the twins would just sink into the chair making it harder to tell how much bigger they had grown.  The second set of pictures are zoomed in so you can see how their faces changed, losing their baby cheeks, getting hair on their heads, and growing teeth.  Enjoy!

Our friends Mike and Audrey also have two twins (Mathew and Bella) who celebrated their 2nd birthday this week.  They had a great birthday party for the kids at a local park that is also a farm/petting zoo.  Alex and Julie had a blast, from petting the bunnies, goats and sheep, to eating cupcakes and making a huge mess.  We took some cute pictures of the event and here is a video of the twins around the animals. 

Here are a bunch of videos we took on our trip to Yellowstone. 

 

Old Faithful: Video Link

Buffalo Herd: Video Link

Norse Geyser Basin: Video Link

Tour of RV: Video Link

Twins Breakfast: Video Link

Yellowstone River - Lower Falls: Video Link

Great Fountain Geyser: Video Link

Grotto Geyser: Video Link

Sawmill Geyser: Video Link

Dragon's Mouth Spring: Video Link

 

 

Julie and Alex have both said their first words! 

 

Alex's first word is da-da, and yes, he says it whenever he sees Marc.  He can say da-dee as well, but I don't think he calls Marc that yet. 

 

Julie's first word is turtle!  Why turtle, you may ask?  We have several toy turtles, so she's heard the word many times and yesterday, she was pointing at a wooden turtle we got in the Galapagos.  I told her "turtle" and she repeated it.  We did that several times.  We weren't too sure if she was just imitating or if she was putting meaning to the word.  Today she pointed at the turtle and called it turtle on her own.

 

We’re back from our RV trip to Yellowstone and we had such a great time.  The weather was wonderful (mid 70’s with blue skies) and the RV made traveling with Alex and Julie so much easier.   The hardest part of the trip was probably the airplane ride because it threw off the twins' nap schedule, and now that they can walk, they really don’t like sitting in one place for very long.  It helped that many of the people around us on the plane were either parents or grandparents who just loved observing Alex and Julie in action.  At Yellowstone it was the same thing, probably 75% of the people visiting the park were retired and we had so many people come up to us and chat about Alex and Julie and tell us about the ages of their grandkids.  When we let Alex and Julie walk around in a public area, they did a great job looking adorable and working the crowds so no one seemed to mind when they occasionally blocked a path or walked up to someone.  With so much natural beauty at Yellowstone it was surprising to see so many people just watching the twins.

We started our trip by flying into Jackson, Wyoming where we rented an RV to drive up to Yellowstone.  Susan did some research and found a place in Jackson that rented baby stuff (pack-n-plays etc.) that made our trip so much easier because we didn’t have to haul everything with us on the plane.  The RV was great because it allowed us to feed the twins or put them down for a nap any time we wanted.  We established a really good routine where we all woke up around 7 a.m.  The babies would get bottles of milk while the adults showered and dressed.  We would all eat breakfast around 8:30 and then we would let the twins play until they started getting sleepy, usually around 9:30.  We would then pack up the RV and prepare it for travel.  Conveniently the RV park we stayed at was centrally located in Yellowstone and about 1 hr away from most of the big attractions we wanted to see.   The babies would nap in their car seats while we drove and they usually woke up just as we were arriving at our destination.  Depending on the terrain at the location we would sometimes put them in a jogging stroller, or put them in backpack carriers when there were stairs.  Around noon we would stop for lunch and then see a few more sites before taking a nap around 3.  Adults took advantage of this time to either nap, read or sometimes we would drive to another location while they slept.  Once they woke from their nap we would feed them a snack and then explore another part of the park until around 6 when we would head back to the RV Park.  Often we had dinner on the way back, usually pulling off to the side of the road that had a beautiful view and make dinner as the twins played in the RV. 

We saw so many beautiful and amazing things in the park and took a ton of pictures.  A few of highlights were the buffalo, the elk, quite a few geysers, steam vents and boiling pools.  Here is a link to some of the pictures we took: Link to photos 

Videos will be posted soon.

We were very lucky to have Aunt Kristi come out and take care of the twins while we are between Au Pairs.   Alex and Julie loved having Kristi around and really had a great time all week.  We realized on the last day that we forgot to take pictures so we quickly snapped a couple that I've posted to the site.

The rain has started to fall in Seattle, signaling the end of summer and the start of the 9 month rainy season.  Fortunately Alex and Julie are all set in their cute new rain gear.  We posted a few pictures of them in their rain coats, but their feet are still a little too small to fit in their matching boots.  No worries that the rain may stop falling before everything fits, so look for additional pictures posted of the full ensemble. 

Finally figured out how to post HD videos onto YouTube, so the video quality should be a lot better than the stuff we've been posting.  The videos below are in the order they were taken.

 

The first video is the much anticipated one of Alex and Julie eating their first birthday cake (cupcakes).  Link to video

 

This video is of Alex riding on the rollercoaster toy we got the twins for their birthday.  He was a little scared at the end of his ride.  When you're only a 1 year old, that first drop probably feels pretty huge.  Link to video

 

Here is Julie on the rollercoaster, and she was all smiles.  Link to video

 

Here is video of Julie on the day she started taking her first steps. Link to video

 

Here is Alex taking his first steps.  Link to video

Laure has been working with Alex quite a lot to get him walking.  Today, he took several steps on his own!

 

Julie is walking 95% of the time now.  She looks a little like Frankenstein, but she gets better every day.  She only has one bruise on her forehead from falling this week... as compared to last week where she continually had 3-4 bruises across her head. 

 

This past weekend, we took the babies to Etta's for lunch and the Pike Place Market.  They did really well in the restaurant and we now know that Alex likes Cornbread Pudding (it was yummy!).  Julie didn't like it, but that's ok.  We realized that for our next restaurant outing we need to take our own placemats or at least bowls/plates that stick to the table.  There was a lot of banging the plates at the restaurant.

I reported before that Julie had taken a few stumbling steps forward on her own.  Today, she walked for real!  Laure called me up at work so I could watch through the Nanny Cam.  She would stand Julie up and move away.  Julie would then take several steps to get to her.  In the evening, she started walking on her own from one place to another.  A few steps at first, then half way down the hall.  She looks like Frankenstein, but it's so adorable and she's so proud of herself.

 

We have lots of pictures to post and are getting behind.  Soapbox decided to not let us host our video there anymore, so we've been moving it all over to YouTube.  We wanted to use all Microsoft products, but Microsoft has failed us.  We will get the pictures over the last few weeks and new video up soon!

Alex and Julie went to the doctor today for their one year check up.  They are doing great! (of course :-)  The doctor said that they were really healthy and no longer show any signs of being a month pre-mature developmentally.  Here are their stats.:

 

Julie (perfect proportions):

19 lbs. 10 oz. (25-50%)

28.5 in. tall (25-50%)

46.5 cm head circumference (90%)

 

Alex (lean, mean, fightin' machine):

21 lbs. 6 oz. (25-50%)

30.75 in. tall (75%)

49.5 cm head circumference (>97%) - they measured twice to make sure his head really is humungous!

 

When Julie was born, she was in the 3% for weight.  Alex was at 10% for weight.  So, they've come a long way!

Today is Julie and Alex's first birthday.  A year ago, around 5 am, we were up getting ready to go to the hospital.  At 7:56am, Baby A, aka Julie, was born via c-section.  Baby B, aka Alex, decided that he wanted to do some somersaults before making his entrance into the world at 7:58am.  They both ended up being breach.  Mom spent most of the rest of the day sleeping and taking pain meds.  Dad spent most of the day going to the NICU to visit Alex and Julie and brought back videos for mom to see.  Late afternoon, Alex, then Julie, were out of the NICU and joined us in the hospital room.  They were healthy and weighed in at 4 lbs. 10 oz. and 5 lbs. 5 oz.  Talk about tiny!

 

Fast forward one year... Julie and Alex got up around 7:20 am.  They were once again sleeping in the same room as mom and dad because it is super hot in Seattle this week and our room has A/C.  They woke, started babbling and stood up.  They have learned so much in one year.  It's been amazing to see how much work it is to learn how to sit, then to learn how to crawl, learn how to talk....  But they are doing great.  They're both crawling and cruising and actually starting to play some together.  They still babble, but I'm sure one of these days it will turn into words with meaning.  I swear Julie was trying to say turtle the other day, "tt, tt".  Tomorrow we find out their official height and weight.

 

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All bets have been on Alex that he walked first.  I had my money on him that he would walk first as well.  But.... it was Julie!  She stumbles forward a few steps, and I think it's because she learned to pull herself up on the cars and push them.  The car would start moving and she would stumble forward while still trying to stand.  She mastered that technique and is now transferring it to walking without assistance.  Alex still likes something to hold on to, but he really doesn't need much help.

 

Lots of pictures coming!  I won't be posting today though since it currently reads 106 degrees out and we'll be hiding in our two rooms that have A/C.  No computer tonight!

We generally have one week in the summer where it's blazing hot.  For this year, it's this week.  We're getting into the 90's and we're supposed to hit a record on Wednesday, 100's maybe?  They're also predicting an all time Seattle record of not going below 70 at night for the first time ever this week.  Now, this is standard weather where Marc and Susan grew up, but we're weak now.  10 years in Seattle enjoying temperate weather has made it more difficult to deal with the heat.  Luckily Microsoft is air-conditioned.  We also bought a new air conditioner for the play room for this year.  We took our old air conditioner that didn't work too well and put that in our room where it's shaded from the afternoon sun.  So, we have our 2 room sanctuary.  Julie and Alex slept in our room last night and it worked out well.  They don't make noise through the whole night any more, but they do wake up at 7am and pop up instantly chatting away. 

I don't want to spoil the surprise of who, but somebody took 2 steps on their own today! 

 

Alex and Julie have had different techniques leading up to this.  Julie has gotten really good at pushing the little cars around.  Alex has been playing "look ma no hands" and standing for 15-20 seconds on his own.  Both are cruising around the furniture like crazy.  So, does car pushing or standing on your own work better for walking preparation?  I'll let everyone guess....

A couple of weeks ago, Laure was on vacation, so the Schnipke Grandparents came out to take care of Julie and Alex.  It's so much better to have family help out than backup nannies who don't care about your kids.  Julie and Alex had a great week.  They developed a lot during the week which is always cool to see.  They loved climbing all over their grandpa and listening to their grandma read to them.  They got to go to the park and Julie really loved swinging.  All in all, a great week!  Thank you Grandma and Grandpa!

On Monday, we celebrated Julie and Alex's first birthday.  No, they're not 1 until the end of the month, but Grandma and Grandpa Schnipke were in town, so we had a family celebration.  They got their first round of gifts which they really seem to like.  They also got to eat CHOCOLATE for the first time.  I got them each their very own cupcake to eat and destroy.  Alex kept cramming it into his mouth.  Julie put some in her mouth but mostly liked destroying the cupcake.  I think we'll have some great video, but I need to go through it and pick out some good bits.  I'll post some pictures to hold you over.

We have two little push cars and a little push cart for Alex and Julie.  They really love riding on the cars.  They put their feet up a little so they don't drag and we push them up and down the hallway.  They get the biggest grins and squeal.  Julie has also started pushing the cars herself.  At first, when she would try to stand up behind a car, she would fall because it would move.  She has since figured out how to use the car to pull herself up without it moving away from her.  And, she's getting really good a walking and pushing the car.  Alex really likes to ride on the car, so we try to get Julie to push the car while Alex is riding.  It's a win-win-win = Julie gets to push, Alex gets to ride, Mom & Dad don't kill their backs bending over to push the car.  When we try to switch Alex and Julie and have Alex push, he just cries.  I don't think he likes the idea of pushing his sister.

 

Videos: