Trick-Or-Treat!

October got away from us and we forgot to post about our Halloween happenings. The girls had a lot of fun getting dressed up in their respective costumes, eating pizza and pre-partying with their cousins Talia and Levi, and trick-or-treating around the neighborhood with friends and family.

Lena was a lamb for the third time, something we are quite proud of, kind of like her finishing high school with a 4.0 or never missing a day of elementary school. Clara wore a bear costume that Lena wore when she was 18 months, and Maia was the perfect red ripe strawberry, a discarded costume from her friend Beatrice. See The Little Mouse, The Big Hungry Bear, and The Red Ripe Strawberry. Admittedly, Lena should have been a mouse this year, but, we were just too excited for her to be a lamb.

She Speaks!

After literally 12 months of trying to get Clara and Maia to use sign language, they have finally figured it out and started signing for"more". And in rare form, Clara beat Maia and mastered this sign two weeks ahead of her sister. Impressive!

Dan and I are very excited about the progress Clara and Maia have made in their communication skills this month. In addition to the "more" sign they have also started saying "bye bye", "hi", "ball", "baby", "mine", "mama", and "dada". We're a bit unsure but believe Clara's first word may have been "ball", and Maia's may have been "mine".

Yesterday we fed them steamed mixed vegetables for dinner. Daniel gave them each a handful of carrots, peas, corn, and green beans. Clara ate all of the carrots and green beans and Maia ate the peas and the corn. Each left on her plate what the other sister had eaten; yet more evidence that these two are as different as night and day.

Despite their differences which are evident, even at this young an age, the twins get along quite well (when they're not fighting over who gets to hold what toy/book/food/sippy cup/stuffed animal/instrument/person). They have started to play with each other and it's been wonderful when we've caught them giggling together over something indiscernible to us, but clearly hilarious to them.

And She's Off!

Clara is walking! Finally at 14 months, despite reluctance, she is taking steps, four to five at a time, and pushing herself up to standing as well. She seems thrilled by her newfound mobility, but she is also still quite cautious, choosing to crawl unless urged to walk by mama or daddy.

We have brought up a toy walker from the basement and Clara has been happily using it to get around the house. The toy has caused quite a few arguments between all three girls, as they all seem to want to use it. We've tried to explain to Lena and Maia that they know how to walk already, and that Clara needs the walker, but they don't really understand. So there's been plenty of screaming and crying and pulling and pushing and tugging, all caused by this toy walker. But it's so fun to see Clara cruising around with it that we've decided to keep it upstairs, and play referee instead.

A few weeks later....

We had to take the walker away. Clara was depending on it to move around instead of walking on her own and the toy was causing too many fights for us to manage. Since then Clara has continued to walk more and more, although really only when urged to. She can now walk across the room, taking 10, 15, and 20 steps at a time. If she falls she generally continues crawling, rather than getting herself back up again, but this too is changing fast. She knows how to get herself back up, she just chooses to crawl instead. It's really only a matter of time.

A "Big Girl Bed" For Lena

Lena made an important transition this week from sleeping in a crib, to sleeping in a "big girl bed"!

After several days of insisting she no longer wanted to sleep in a crib, Lena finally decided, she'd had enough, and climbed out! Not without falling of course with a big thud to the floor. As she had never in three years tried to climb out of her crib, we knew she meant business, and promptly took off the front of her crib to make it into what we call, and she believes, is a "big girl bed".

The pictures below do a pretty excellent job of capturing the exciting moment when Lena walked into her bedroom and climbed in for the first time into her very own bed. She was thrilled to be free, although we've been very clear that if she doesn't stay in her bed we will have to take it away. Just the thought of being back in her crib makes her shiver and she's only gotten out twice this week on her own. She has also fallen out a couple of times in her sleep, but that doesn't count.

Duckie's Great Adventure

Lena's beloved stuffed duck, "Ducky", took a field trip this weekend. Unbeknownst to us, Lena brought Ducky to the park yesterday where her friends Stella and Oliver were celebrating their third birthday. We all, including Ducky apparently, had a great time swimming in the park pool and playing on the playground with our friends.

After cake we headed home for naps, where it became apparent that Ducky was missing. Although Lena has a spare duck for these sorts of situations, she was not pleased with the replacement (we're not sure how she knows which duck is which since they are exactly the same) and instead unhappily chose to sleep with "Blanky", "Giraffy", and "Big Bird".

Ducky goes missing every once in a while, usually accidentally left behind at school or at a friend's house, so we didn't think much of it when we couldn't find him yesterday afternoon. But last night we received a phone call from Auntie Naomi to let us know that a man had contacted her about a missing duck. Apparently Ducky was left behind at the park earlier that day and a nice gentleman picked him up and was able to track down Naomi using the Lena Spirn name on Ducky's tag and the internet.

Ducky is home safe, thank goodness! Below are the reunited friends.

And We've Got A Biped

Maia has been practicing her walking skills for the past month since she took her first steps in May. She is so funny because she started taking steps even before she knew how to stand up by herself. She's always on the go this little one and has never been able to stand still long enough to well, stand still. So instead she just goes. And falls after two steps or so.

She's improved quite a bit though since she first started practicing, and today she can walk alone for about 10 to 15 steps without falling. She walks from Mama to Daddy, and from coffee table to sofa, even from the living room into the kitchen. She is quite happy about her newfound mobility, and likes to clap for herself when she makes it to her desired destination. Her balance is quite extraordinary and she sometimes walks sideways, almost like a little shuffle... we wonder how she's able to keep going, but she does! 

Clara has not learned to walk or stand by herself, and yesterday seemed quite annoyed with her inability to move like her sister. We are trying to work with her, and for now we have her practicing standing on her own, which she will sometimes do (unlike her sister), and walking with us holding her hands. Clara still needs to learn how to bend her knees when taking steps, and hasn't quite acquired the balancing act. She'll get there, but a little more slowly than Maia. To each her own time. We love them both for their unique personalities and qualities and talents. More about this later. 

Here is video of Maia walking.

We Made It!

Clara and Maia turned ONE year old this past Saturday. We celebrated with a laid back morning birthday party at our house. Dad bought donuts from A Baker's Wife, a fabulous bakery in South Minneapolis, and Mom made a fancy fruit salad with organic strawberries, blueberries, and mangoes, and yummy cupcakes. About thirty or so friends and family members joined us to sing happy birthday to C and M and toast to a fantastic healthy and beautiful year.

Clara and Maia have grown up so much this year. We now have babies who crawl all over the house, climb up and down the stairs and furniture, babble incommunicable words, eat solid foods, sleep through the night, almost walk, clap their hands, swim in the bathtub, shriek with delight at anything funny, giggle for no reason, play with their older sister, talk amongst themselves in their own baby language, and clearly love us and each other. Happy Happy Birthday to our beautiful littlest girls.

One Month To Go

We're a month away from Clara and Maia's birthday and three days into May, and it's snowing! This spring has really tested everybody's patience, and the entire state of Minnesota is ready to move to California if the warmer weather doesn't show up, AND stick around.

Last week in fact, we had a couple of beautiful warm days that made me remember what it feels like to have the sun beaming onto my shoulders. I even worked up the courage to take ALL three girls for a walk together. We leisurely strolled down to the playground by Lake Calhoun where we played for an hour, before returning back home to meet up with Daddy. Lena was very well behaved and I am lucky she likes to stay close to Mommy and her sisters.

It now feels like months have past since that lovely spring day, though it was only last week. Outside the roofs are covered in white and the trees are blowing in the stormy wind. The birds and other animals have hidden somewhere, I don't know where, and all those people who came out in droves last week to experience the final arrival of spring (it has literally taken months) are hanging their heads low, and turning up the heat at home.

Three Teeth!

I was starting to worry that Clara and Maia would never get teeth. Their cousin Zev, two month younger, has had four shiny little white teeth for several months now, and Lena's bottom teeth came in at around 6 months, if I remember correctly. C. and M. have done a pretty good job at gumming up their solid food, but still, was it going to take 14 months, like another baby I know, to get one little tooth? 

My fears were abated last week when Maia, without warning, popped out two little bottom teeth. And Clara, true to form (she's always a week or two behind Maia), has been teething this week, with one bottom tooth through and another possibly on it's way. Only took ten and a half months! 

Both girls have also starting clapping and waving bye-bye, which is very cute to watch.

Clara and Maia are growing up so fast. They are almost one year old. Only a month and a half to go and I need to start planning their party. It's a big milestone, for them, but more importantly I think, for us. We've almost made it through this incredibly challenging year. 

And the newest and most disruptive development in the Spirn household is Lena's new pastime, dumping out all the toys in her toy bins and stacking the bins. This is done several times a week, and requires quite a bit patience from Mom and Dad. See picture below. Clara and Maia also like to join in this fun. I can't even imagine what the next two years are going to be like!

Portraits of a Ballerina