Dear Blogtrotters,

The Lady Babies will be 18 months this week (Friday I think). That's a bid deal! They are doing great in general. They learned how to give high fives, which is pretty awesome. The new big word they have is "cookie", or at least they say a word with a hard "c" sound that means "give me a cookie! I don't like waiting!! And 'yes' I do need one for my other hand." The first set of pictures from this week's installment illustrate my point better than words. We went the arboretum today. It was a beautiful, but the the arboretum is in a time of flux in mid-January. (That's a nice way of saying there weren't many living plants there.) Didn't matter the girls still had a great time.

Pics: first five are what happens when Abby tries to sleep in one day per week. The ladies find a bag of cookies. The sixth picture is the result of me taking the cookies away. Ellie is in blue with the sweet boots and Tilly is in pink sitting on her throne eating. Both are wearing their poodle vests)
Arboretum: first two are E. Tilly in the window by herself. Tiggeman on the deer looking regal. Ellie standing in front of Spiderman and Tilly by the baby deer.
PS that kid in the Spiderman suit was awesome. He ran around nonstop and refused to answer any questions that were not directed to "Spiderman" his job was to round up his brothers and sisters.
The video is of the girls yelling/talking to the deer. They have about 20 little animal sculptures around the place and the girls give each one a good talking too. Tilly is the one who starts by the deer and Ellie comes in next. If you're no good at playing the shell game and lose track, Tilly has the cup with the yellow lid.

Say Hey Bloggtrotters,

It was a wonderful break in December. We had a great time in San Antonio. The girls' vocabulary is exploding! They can still say the old favorites (ball, flower and bird), but now they can really say cheese, shoes (sounds like ssssssshhuze), owl and socks. They are understanding so much more too. They can execute simple commands like "Go get the book" and often they will do it. Tilly was able to "Go get the remote" which is one of the Parents Of The Year qualifiers. They can also communicate with their sign language so much more than just a week ago. Tilly will tell you constantly that it is both time to eat and time to sleep. (except we no longer refer to nap time as "nap time." A more accurate term is "crib time.")
All ladies in the house are sick or at least trying to get over it. I also am sick, but I won't elaborate what I'm sick of since this is a family blog. We're extremely thankful because if they had gotten this RSV last year, then would have been back in the NICU at the hospital. This year it just means we've had a really bad week. Last year at this time they were still premies, but now their just little ladies.
Congrats to my parents for getting a new car! Take that 1993! We hope you feel better Nana.
PICS: Ellie is on the right for the first two and on the left for the last three (coming second she is the sinister twin for all you latin lovers)
That is Ellie with the granola bars. She's been playing with these for the past 3 days. As you can see in the video she puts them in different baskets and carts them around, takes them out, organizes them, puts them in the cabinet drawer, takes them out and moves them to another location. The good news is we no longer have to do the expensive DNA tests to see if she inherited the "crazy" gene. The odds were very likely since both Abby and I are carriers.
Video: turn the sound up on the last one so you can hear Abby asking them the questions. Tilly knows all the things as well, but only Ellie was participating.

Dearest Bloggtrotters,

For your viewing pleasure tonight I offer you scenes from the Dallas Arboretum. The girls had a great time. I was a little disappointed in the reindeer. I think it is cheating to use a word that has the same singular and plural (sheep, deer, fish, spaghetti) to imply that there might be many reindeer at a certain location at a certain time and then only have one surly deer. Oh, well more Yuletide disillusionment. Anyways, the girls had a great time at the arboretum.
The girls really talking up a storm Tilly says "flower" really well. It sounds like "FLOUUUrrrr" with a really soft R at the end, almost like and after taste. She was able to use this new information quite a bit today.
Pics Tilly has a pink shirt on under her coat and Ellie's is white. look hard. The second picture is my new favorite! Can I humbly suggest you click on the fourth and fifth pictures to enlarge them. It's Tilly by the way. In the last two videos Tilly is in white and Ellie in blue.

Say Hey Blogtrotters,

Sorry we haven't updated the blog in forever. Brooms now out number people in the house. With so many people helping, it's a wonder why our house is always a mess.
Tilly is in the purple print and Ellie is in the red pants. In the first video Tilly is wearing white socks and Ellie is wearing purple socks. They both have brooms.

Say Hey Blogtrotters,

Here are some pics from arboretum again, and then from around the house. The girls are doing great and getting bigger all the time. They're really talking up a storm. Abby says they can say "bird, cat, pretty, baby, ball and sesquipedalian and archipelago" The only problem is the pronounce it ARCH-a-pelago instead of ARK-a-pelago.

Pics: Tilly in green and Ellie in red; Tilly in her pink poodle vest (I assume we're all thinking of Mr. Burns' "See my vest" parody song) In their chairs Isadora Welty and Sirus Tiggeman; Ellie in purple and Tills in blue (By the way those chairs look innocent, but they are dangerous toys)

Video: I think Tilly is in purple and brown with Ellie in red/pink

Say Hey Bloggtrotters,

The girls and my parents went to the pumpkin patch with Eisley, Beck and Jami Schweers and my parents. They had fun. It was a beautiful day. We went to the local Autumfest the next day where the two ladies got to ride a pony, each. ok. That's it I suppose. We had a wonderful weekend!

Pics: At the pumpkin patch: Ellie in white(flower hedgehog) and Tilly in pink (mushroom)
Tilly is covering her eyes, on the swing, in the pink poodle vest. Ellie is the one in the highchair with the finger. I think you should look up Bernini's damned soul. That's what I think Tilly looks like with her hair in the shower (minus the pained expression of course. FYI Bernini used himself as a model for that sculpture.)