31 Weeks - Guest Blog by Stephanie!

I’m so excited to be the guest blogger on the Crocket Family Blog this week! Steve and I are visiting for a week and so far we’re having a blast.

Josie and Aunt Stephanie

The last time I visited LA was back in March and oh boy, the girls are really different! Back in March Josie had yet to smile, and now it seems that’s all she wants to do. It’s an absolute joy seeing her gummy smile as you throw her up into the air or make silly faces at her. Josie also LOVES to look outside, especially at the wind blowing through the trees and the cars passing by. She can’t get enough of it!

Uncle Steve and Alexandra

Uncle Steve, Josie and Alex

The fam

Uncle Steve and Alex

Alex and her wizard hat (Josie has done this too)

Josie getting a diaper change

Meanwhile, Alex is the opposite - in March she was all smiles and now she’s more cautious and selective with her smiles. She’s very serious and mature, always looking around with curious eyes trying to figure everything out, completely unamused by our tactics to get her to smile. Although if you catch her at the right time she’ll let out the loudest squeal you’ve ever heard! She also LOVES looking at Uncle Steve. Although that might be because he wears loud, red t-shirts all the time.

Josie is quite the squirmer. It’s hard to get her to sit still when you’re feeding her because she wants to look at anything and everything. If you put her on her belly, she’ll army crawl around the room to get the toys she wants (usually the ones Alex is playing with). Alex has yet to learn to move away from the wrath of Josie, so you have to watch that Josie doesn’t steal all her toys away! Josie also does what I call “baby yoga.” She’s mastered downward dog, cat pose, and the cobra. It’s only a matter of time before she learns to crawl for real. As for Lexie, well… the only baby yoga I’ve seen her do is savasana (aka dead body pose). I kid, I kid! (Well, kinda). Alex is perfectly content lying on her back and sucking on her toes and will roll around once or twice to get what she wants. I’m sure she’ll be squirming around the room in her own time. 

As for Steve and I, we’re enjoying our time with our nieces and the rest of our family. We had a little bit too much sun at the beach the other day but it was totally worth it to play in the waves. We’re looking forward to the rest of our stay which includes lunch with the whole family sometime this weekend and a trip to the Endeavour space shuttle. Can’t wait!

xoxo
Aunt Stephanie (aka Roxanne’s youngest sister)

Cute for a Friday

We sat in the grass last night and listened to music while the girls discovered being outside.

More sitting and crawling videos - SO CLOSE!!!

She is so close - doing the crawl sway!

Not sure WHAT this is but glad I got it on camera!

Alex is awesome! She is sitting up with the nicest posture! 

What a difference from just one week ago!

30 Weeks (btw, wow, 30 weeks!)

Well it has happened - we have internet!

Yesterday was the first Saturday since the girls were born that I didn't wake up and write the blog. I'm writing it today, Sunday. I used the opportunity, since we didn't have internet anyway yesterday, to do some more unpacking. Rest assured that the photos are from Saturday at 9 a.m., as they are every week, so they are accurate presentations of the girls' week to week growth.

I'm in this one

About that unpacking - we're really getting there, big time. We had kept our entertainment console stuff packed so the cable could be put in easily, but now that that is done, we can unpack books, DVDs, etc. Babies' room, living room, dining room and kitchen are done. The two remaining rooms to tackle are the x-box/guest room and our master bedroom, and I think we should get there with those today.

contemplative...

Look mom, I found my paci!!

The x-box room is getting moved to the top of the list since we have a happy surprise of my brother Steve and sister Stephanie visiting from Ottawa tomorrow! My brother has never met the girls so this will be a real treat :) Stephanie hasn't seen them since they were fairly non-responsive babies back in March.

Alex looks so much like my grandmother here. 

So what about the girls? They are in a race to crawl. Josie is right there, on her knees and hands, swaying front to back. When I think Alex is not even close since she isn't doing the crawl-sway, she surprises us by popping up and getting her feet under her. So basically if the girls were to combine their efforts, they would have it.

What is this...

I'm in this one, too...

 

Things are getting SO MUCH easier with them - its almost like overnight they are independent little people and not babies. They are super content just hanging out on the floor with a few toys, playing or watching us clean or put things away. Frankly it seems like they don't want us playing with them anymore - Alex pushes us away as if to say 'go away mom, I'm playing!' and they both try to wiggle out of your arms to move on to the next toy. That said, Josie still loves to be carried around as she cranes her neck up like a Meerkat to watch what everyone is doing.

This was the Bing home page this past week - spot on Josie pose

With this evolution in their playing and personality, it is now easier for James or I to do the baby thing alone. Twice this week I did baths, bottles and bed time and it was easy peasy - I even read them a story! I'm finally feeling less like a jerk about leaving James with them solo and went and got my nails done and am getting my hair done today.

They are both officially loving real food - they gobbled up some pureed sweet potatoes, green beans, banana and mango yesterday and then even had a few little Gerber star shaped cereal that they have to "chew." No teeth yet though and really no sign of them either.

Hopefully lots of pictures this week now that we have internet and cell phone service!