Happy Halloween 2009

I tell you, taking a good picture of two babies who haven't mastered sitting up yet is quite a task, but thanks to a little help from grandma, we were able to capture a cute moment. Happy Halloween from Meredith and Berkley!

Yummy

This week was a big week in the Manning home, our twins ate their first bowl of rice cereal on Tuesday. It was such a fun experience. Steven had Tuesday off, so we chose that day to start; just a week shy of their 6 month birthday. Steven fed Berkley and I fed Meredith, my mother and grandmother were present as well. Meredith wasn't quite so sure about it but she caught on quickly and Berkley, he opened wide for that first bite and then grabbed the spoon for the second bite. It's such a big milestone for the babies, it's just so hard for me to believe that they're nearly 6 months old already.




In other development news, Meredith said Mama twice this week but it wasn't on purpose or directed at me, but it was still mama:) Meredith can pivot up onto one knee so I feel like she'll be crawling first. Meredith has also discovered this hilarious deep grunting sound that I love to hear. I took Berkley back to physical therapy on Wednesday for his torticollis (tight neck muscle) and I'm going to have to start taking him once/week. Both babies are sitting up with assistance but of course, they're pretty wobbly.

I'm singing special music at Piney Grove on Sunday. I still don't know what I'm going to sing just yet. Sunday would be my sister's 31st birthday so I feel like I should sing something in her memory but I find that I don't want to constantly be reminding people of that sadness in my family's life, especially considering all of the joy we've had since the babies were born. All that matters really is singing a song that brings glory to the God who brings all things into my life, the good and the bad.

They're growing fast

I realized that it's been awhile since I really gave an update on how the babies are growing and changing. It's hard to think of everything that they're doing that's new or different. I need to do a better job of writing everything down. Let's see...Berkley has started this new thing where he smacks his lips like crazy after every bottle. Meredith can now roll over from her stomach to her back; I'm not sure if she's figured out that she's doing it, but she likes it. The babies are spending much more time on their tummies or in their bumbo seats and I can see that when they become mobile, I am going to have my hands full. Berkley can stand flat footed on the exersaucer, which is becoming a great tool for me to put him in an get some things done. Meredith likes to play in the exersaucer too but she can only reach on her tip-toes (which is so incredibly cute). Berkley likes putting one foot in his mouth but Meredith could care less about playing with her feet. Meredith just LOVES to squeal. Her new eating routine at bedtime is to try to put her thumb in her mouth with her bottle, which becomes very frustrating for her. When she's done with the bottle she talks to herself and squeals; it's precious. Meredith's hair is getting much thicker on top and Berkley's has sprouted just this week. Berkley is learning to make bubbles and loves to make gurgle sounds. They are really noticing each other now, but they never seem to notice one another at the same time. Our dog Larry is one of their favorite things to look at, I can always call him over to distract them when they're upset. Meredith has stolen a toy of Berkley twice already by accident - I hope it's not foreshadowing of things to come. We also had our first photo shoot this past month, or shall I say photo shoots. It took 3 visits to Sears to get pictures and that was after attempting to get something done at Portrait Innovations (long story, but to say the least we won't be going back there). A few of the pics are below, but unfortunately none of the pictures of the two of them turned out well because one of them was always crying. And finally on a medical front, Berkley is being treated for torticollis, which is simply a tight neck muscle. We're taking him to a physical therapist at PCMH and I'm doing excercises at home. You'll notice in his pictures that his head is leaning to one side, that's the tight muscle. Hopefully with the PT the muscle will loosen up and he'll relearn how to align his head correctly in the middle.

Sweet memory - we took the babies to homecoming at Steven's home church this past Sunday and had a wonderful time introducing the babies to everyone. Steven's parents were proud as peacocks walking into that church with their grand babies. Anyway, I had Berkley in the back trying to get him to sleep and of course, he wouldn't sleep. I was singing to him and holding his head flat on my chest. As I sang he look up at me with his big dark eyes, blinked really slowly and a smile crept across his face that nearly brought tears to my eyes. I told him I wanted to remember that look forever and hopefully writing it down will help Meredith's sweetest looks are in the morning when I wake her up - she's SO HAPPY first thing in the morning.
Here's a picture of the babies all dressed up at homecoming. You can't see it that great but Meredith's wearing a precious Winnie the Pooh dress and her first little pair of tights and Berkley was wearing overalls.