Some cute pictures of Julie from Christmas Eve. We've discovered that Cheerios are a universal favorite.
I'm not a big fan of leftovers. Well, there are particular leftovers that I like - - but they are few and far between. Thanksgiving leftovers are at the top of my list, though. We wanted Christmas to be really low key, so we could just see how the girls took it all in and go with the flow. So, I decided to make a turkey on Christmas Eve, so we'd just have leftovers on Christmas. (Maybe this will be a new tradition?) It was a very pretty turkey, if I do say so myself.
Anyhow, after the eating fiasco earlier in the week, we decided that if the girls were insisting on feeding themselves, we were going to have to come up with food that they could have. And so, on Christmas Eve, we fed them turkey, stuffing, and cranberry sauce. (Oh, they also got a celery stick to gnaw on, which was easily their favorite part of the meal.) I swear, when we put the tray of food in front of them, they looked at us like they hadn't expected us to call their bluff. None of them ate a whole lot, but we all sat down at the table together, for the first time ever.
Emma thinks it's funny that we're trying to get her to eat something that's not pureed.
Julie's eating something. Or at least pretending to.
Emma's actual verdict.
Becca takes a taste here or there, but really preferred gnawing on the celery stick. Actually, the only reason she's going after the turkey here is that the celery stick was on the floor at this point.
Christmas was just right. After a Christmas breakfast of bottle, yogurt, and cheerios, we took the girls into the dining room to open presents. The girls are pretty much confined to the living room at the moment, so the dining room was a bit of a challenge - hasn't been babyproofed, no gates, etc. We could get about 3 presents open before the girls were crawling all over each other trying to play with everything all at the same time.
Christmas breakfast
The tree:
They got some ride-on toys that they are really excited about, but probably not quite ready for yet.
A pony!
Becca's car
Emma's trike
Our very own biker gang.
As expected, everything went into their mouths. Wrapping paper, presents, etc.
Becca opening presents with her teeth.
Julie taking a snack break.
Emma, getting into everything. She did rip the paper on that big box, but it may have been accidental, in her pursuit of the farm and the bead roller coaster.
Poor Dusty.
Lefty hiding in the tree. She's never gotten into the tree like that in the past. But this year, the cats love walking around on the presents, and I think they've been hiding back behind all the presents.
When we couldn't keep the order anymore, we shifted back to the living room, and have slowly been bringing their presents in to the living room for them to play with.
The girls took another good nap on Christmas. We definitely attempted to wear them out. We also went out to Starbucks later in the day, mostly to get us all out of the house.
Needless to say, we didn't get everything unwrapped on Christmas. So, Saturday became Christmas Part 2. And it went about like Christmas Part 1. We got 4 or 5 presents unwrapped before the girls were climbing everywhere and we couldn't reach them all anymore. So, now it's Monday night, and we still haven't unwrapped everything! Only Santa gifts are remaining, but we're pretty toy-ed out at the moment.
The cats decided to sit out round 2.
One of their favorite toys is this shopping cart. (Julie, Becca)
Emma joins in.
Emma loves this thing. We helped her figure out that it is a walker, and now there's no stopping her. She would push it around non-stop if she could. She hasn't figure out the whole turning-it-around-when-you-hit-the-couch thing yet, but she would be running with it if she could. And because she's Emma, when she hit the wall or a couch, she just pushes harder and from other angles.
Teamwork.
Becca and daddy.
Emma. I think she was clapping about something here.
Julie opening a glow worm (seahorse). "If this thing is supposed to make me go to sleep, you can take it back."
Becca and the farm both crash after a long day of hard playing.
Julie with a cheerio on her nose. Hey, she's happy about it! Or she's learning to be a ham for the camera.
Emma waving again.
So, the bead roller coaster. Not a walker, you say? Sigh. Yeah, Emma prefers it on it's side, and pushes it around like it's a walker. And it's almost as good at the shopping cart.
I'd have my hands full with this one alone.
Julie thinks, "Wow Emma, you're right. It is much more fun on its side!"
Now Julie's just being cute.
More cute Julie with her new giraffe.
On Saturday night, we took our first family trip to Target to check out the clearance stuff. We managed to get a few more boxes of LED lights for the tree. We finally switched over this year, with a couple of strands we got on clearance last year. We went to Panera for dinner afterward, and the girls did fine again. I hope that we are getting them used to being out in public. We were no louder than the family there with just one baby. I am finally starting to come to terms with constantly being stopped while we are out. "Are they tripets?" I feel like we're past the rude interruptions stage, and we're more likely to be stopped by other families with multiples, etc, who really are trying to lend support. (Of course, when we were walking around at the Christmas lights the other night, and I heard a parent(!) say, "Look, it's a baby train!" to his kid, I was fuming.) Anyhow, that may have always been the case, but it sure didn't feel like it. I just felt like we were being stared at by all these weirdos asking really rude questions. Now at least I'm convincing myself that we get noticed because the girls are so stinkin' adorable, and not because there are 3 of them.
We must have worn Emma out, because when we got back from dinner, they were all asleep in their carseats. Greg brought Emma into the house, and she never woke up. That NEVER happens, now that we've got the bigger carseats that stay in the car. We're constantly waking them up from naps. Becca has slept through it once or twice, but I've never ever known Emma to stay asleep.
On Sunday, we used our brand new Zoo passes (a Christmas gift!). There wasn't much for the girls to see, at this point. The angle from the stroller was a little funny, and if the animals weren't right in front of them, they couldn't really see them. And it's so exhausting to keep getting them all into and out of the stroller. They might have seen the elephants and the giraffes. The biggest hit was the goats, though I didn't get a picture. They were right at the girls' level, and it's basically a petting zoo, so the goats come right up to the fence. Unfortunately, this was on our way out, and the girls were starting to get antsy whenever we stopped pushing the strollers. We got a nice walk in, got familiar with the zoo, and have some ideas for next time.
Julie's enjoying herself, even if she can't see what we're pointing at.
Dad with the girls
Mom with the girls
Look, it's Sophie!
The ladies trying to avoid being eaten by the lion water fountain.
Becca decides that she will ride with her feet up, thank you very much. I wish I could say that it's the first time she's done this, but it's more likely that it's just the first time I caught it on camera.
Another one of the ladies
The fam.
Flamingos.
Emma checking out the pot bellied pig.
Our new feeding strategy has been to give the girls something that they can feed themselves first, while we're still getting everyone strapped in, bibbed, etc. Then we move on to jarred food. This way they can get some practice, and get a little frustrated before realizing how nice it is to have someone feeding you. So nice that you don't need to throw a fit or throw food everywhere. It's working ok so far. We tried ravioli on Christmas, and no one would eat it. But they sure gobbled up the jarred food afterwards. On Sunday, we tried little pieces of banana. Julie and Becca LOVED it. Julie needs the pieces cut pretty small or else she spits them out, but Becca is chomping them up like a champ. She'll eat as much banana as we put in front of her. Emma was in no mood to try something new, feed herself, etc. Greg managed to get a little banana in her mouth, and she liked it, but she still pouted and whined up until she got a bath. Tonight, we tried banana again, and they all ate it! Emma needed some prodding, and when she feeds herself, it's about a 75% chance that the food won't make it into her mouth. But it's definitely a step up from when she insisted on pureed banana.
Monday was back to the routine. The girls went back to daycare, and Greg and I worked from home. Word on the street is that Emma took a step at daycare when she didn't realize that someone wasn't holding her anymore. I have yet to see it myself - she's been too busy with toys this evening to show off her new moves. We'll keep you posted, though. I'm meaning to get some videos up of her waving and clapping, because it's just too sweet.
