I keep meaning to post but am having a hard time sitting down for long enough chunks to get my thoughts together! Sorry! Things are getting crazy again! Here are some bits and pieces of what's happening, written in little chunks so not altogether cohesive. Alas.
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The girls are walking so much! Elsie stands up and walks about 75% of the time now, when going from here to there. Delia still mostly crawls but will walk on occasion spontaneously and usually will with encouragement. This afternoon actually she started practicing all on her own and I think went totally around our "loop" (the living room/hallway/kitchen). They are so proud and happy to be walking!
I recently had my first experience with walking a baby from the car to our destination and it was great! We had parked a few houses down from where we were going and I didn't want to lug the giant stroller just for that (we couldn't take it in the house we were going anyway). But with my backpack and a second bag of food for the kids I couldn't carry them both! So, Elsie walked holding my hand while I carried Delia in the other (Emma walked along beside us, of course). It was great, but slow going! But once we got to steps I had to shuttle them in several trips. Luckily they are great on steps now so I can just sit them on the top and not worry.
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We also are having tons of CLIMBING. Which has been going on now for quite awhile but is ramping up again as their skills improve. While I was packing last week to get us out of town, I heard squawking in the kitchen. It sounded like normal fussing that they do with each other when someone has a toy the other wants, etc, so I didn't investigate right away. When I walked in Elsie was IN her high chair (which means she scaled the built in tray that is always on and somehow got herself seated properly and Delia was dangling OFF THE KITCHEN TABLE with her body on the table and her legs between the table and the high chair where Elsie was.
About a month ago I had to banish stools (which the girls used to love to push around as walkers) because they had figured out how to push them up to the fridge and get water to come out AND had pushed it up to the stove and were banging on the heating elements. In the case of the high chair & table scaling, they had pushed Emma's booster seat over, used it to get onto a regular kitchen chair, and from there climbed onto the high chair and table. OMG. I am pretty sure the lightbulb is going to go off very soon that they can push the regular chairs anywhere and get on the counters, which is going to be a huge PITA indeed.
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Teeth! Right now we are in Molar Land and whee, is it fun to have two teething at the same time! Luckily they are pretty good sports about it and aren't in misery like some kids, at least most of the time. Just a bit clingier during the day and crappy sleep at night. What's new? Elsie's two bottom ones have broken through and Delia's are coming soon. 2 down, 6 to go, wish us luck! Once they are gone I am hoping the nighttime wake-ups start disappearing again, as they did for a glorious 2 or so weeks back in early July.
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Remember my post awhile back about the biting? Well, for awhile it had almost disappeared, but its now back, and now Delia is hip to the scene and is serving up some of the same medicine for Elsie! Ah well. But also now we have hitting, toy throwing and OMG bloody murder screaming and screeching at each other or me whenever one or the other has a toy or bike or chair or stool or a cup or a snack that the other wants. They even complain about space, if the other is too close or in their way. Holler holler cry cry cry. It is kinda funny sometimes and often I just ignore it (especially the complaining and screaming, not the violent parts so much), but man it is exhausting too and I feel like I am mediating or moving and distracting one baby or another all day long. Not to mention Emma, which is a whole 'nother kettle of fish I will not go into now (though knock on wood the past week has been quite a bit better...)
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But I can't complain TOO much because they are also quite delightful a lot of the time. Here are some pics from our visit to my parents a few weeks ago. Delia is in red and orange, Elsie in yellow. More photos in the gallery here, in better quality than the slideshow I posted previously.
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