Happy Birthday Daddy!

It's Mike's birthday and while JJ and Alexis are seemingly unaware, I'm sure that deep down in their subconscious they're humming happy birthday to their dad.

It has been almost two months since we posted anything... I've been busy with work and trying to get their "first year" videos done.  I've come up with some come-backs for the PC guy on those Mac commercials. Though nothing that would pass the FCC. iMovie is definitely not logical on first use ... I spent over two months working on piecing their video clips together then almost lost it all.  Fortunately I recovered the edited movies and will post them here as individual chapters (the total movie is 40 minutes long and don't want to subject anyone but grandparents to the full thing at once!). I'll post the movie in the next blog.

We just got back from another trip to Utah--JJ and Alexis enjoyed the family time and a trip to the zoo.  They got to see a bird show where two different eagles flew strait over their heads (one even brushed their Grandma Crowns hair, it was that close!).  A flock of doves also flew down over the audience a few times and JJ, though slow, would try to lunge for them.  Mike and I had a nice night away from the kids--perhaps our favorite new tradition when we go to Utah.

So much has happened to JJ and Alexis the past two months--they both learned to walk and shuffle-run, though JJ still "pivots" on one foot to turn around.  It's interested that JJ learned to crawl first and within a week or two Alexis watched her brother and started crawling too. With walking, it was Alexis who perfected her balance over a one or two month time period She would let go and stand, then fall.  Then she would slowly stand for longer periods of time, then she finally started to try to step and she'd try one or two steps then revert to crawling--but she wouldn't fall down, she would lower herself carefully from the standing position.  This lead to excellent balance so when she finally took more than two steps at a time, she was off.  Once she started walking, JJ realized that there was another method of navigation besides crawling.  He would watch Alexis sooooo closely.  He realized that she held her hands up in the air for balance, so JJ started walking on his knees but with his hands in the air to mimic her.  Within a week, he was letting go while standing up and lunging himself forward, able to take 4-5 steps before planting his face into the ground.  His "walk" started out pretty frankenstein-ish, and he still takes quite a few bumbles, but they chase each other (and us) around the house with gusto. This age is incredibly fun but also extremely exhausting.  We're glad their still on two naps a day!  We also successfully transitioned them off daytime bottles, though we still "top them off" before bed--it also gives us 5 minutes of precious cuddling time... they have no time to sit still otherwise!

They also talk so much more in the last couple of months.  They're still not speaking in full sentences (which is when we'll finally declare they're "talking"), but they sign and "say" a lot of words.  Alexis' favorite sign is "all done" so she can get out of her high chair, whereas JJ has perfected the banana sign and does it excitedly whenever we start peeling one--he wants to do it himself however, though he chooses to eat the peel more than the actual fruit.  They say a lot of words now, though for the most part they just use the first or last syllable of the word, like "ba" for ball, or "pa" for grandpa.  They're learning their body parts and by far their favorite body part is the belly button.  We all spend a lot of time poking each other in the stomach much to their delight.  JJ even will grab alexis' hand and direct her finger toward his belly button and giggle.  A close second in terms of favorite body parts is JJ's "ah-hem" (for both JJ AND Alexis).  Diaper changes and bath time have become increasingly interesting.  

JJ learned an odd word (at least, to us it's odd for one of his first words): light.  Only he pronounces it "tha'ight" with an inflection as though he's asking, "that's a light?."  Every room he comes into or when he wakes up in the morning, he points to the light fixture and exclaims, "tha'ight?"  Although it is interesting to note that it's one of the few "words" he says that starts and ends with a consonant sound.

Alexis seems to have assumed she's in charge... we ask them occasionally "where's JJ/Alexis?" and they point to each other or themselves, or "where's daddy" and they point to Mike.  When we ask Alexis "Where's mommy" she immediately points to herself.  She has not once pointed to me, go figure.  Sometimes, when I'm home with them before Mike's also back from work, I'll ask, "where's daddy?" and they both look toward the back door expectantly.  I have to be careful, though, because if Alexis is anxious to see Mike, she'll run toward the door and be mightily disappointed that he's not really home.

I'll try to update a little more frequently, but in the meantime, I uploaded two months worth of pictures and videos to dropshots:  Enjoy!