The Instant Family » the first months

Awake Sleepers!

Jeff — Tue, 19 Aug 2008 02:02:21 +0000

On fortunate days of serendipity, the girls will both take their naps at the same time in the afternoon, allowing us a little time to get some housework done. But that doesn’t always happen. Sometimes one falls asleep and the other wants to play

Oh well, that’s ok. The other one usually gets her revenge later…

M-I-C-K-E-Y M-O-U-S-E

Adriene — Thu, 24 Jul 2008 01:48:27 +0000

Way back in early 2007, right after we found out we were having a baby (and when we were still blissfully unaware that it was really TWO babies), Jeff and I took a trip to Disney World. While we were there, we indulged ourselves and bought “the baby” a set of Mickey ears. They’d sat on a shelf in the nursery for the past year and a half, and I’d pretty much forgotten about them until I was cleaning the girls’ room this past weekend and ran across them. So, needless to say, I couldn’t resist the urge to put them on the girls and make Jeff take pictures of them:

We’re fast approaching the end of year one with the girls… time has flown! We’re having their first birthday party at the end of August.

Vacation!

Adriene — Mon, 09 Jun 2008 18:44:50 +0000

This past week, we took the girls on their very first trip to the beach! They had lots of fun playing in the ocean and visiting with Granny and PaPa. It almost seems like the trip was too short, but we are glad to be back home and in our usual routine again. Here are some pics of the fun we had!

The girls playing on the beach:

Gracie splashing at the pool (her FAVORITE thing to do):

Erin chillin’ in the cabana:

Hanging out with Granny and PaPa at the Myrtle Beach Pelicans game:

Baptism

Adriene — Mon, 09 Jun 2008 18:34:16 +0000

The girls were baptized on May 25, 2008 at Due West UMC, where we both pledged to raise the girls in the church and to do all we can to show them the way of Christ. They are now officially members of the church! (Next step: confirmation, in a few years.)

Pastor Ken and one of the girls (I think it’s Gracie):

The Holland Fam:

Oh, dear.

Adriene — Fri, 23 May 2008 19:41:22 +0000

Looks like it’s time to lower the mattresses in the cribs!

Frills and Bows on Mother’s Day

Adriene — Fri, 16 May 2008 02:26:11 +0000

One of the best things about being the mother of two little girls is getting to dress them up. I think the girls already own more outfits than I do, and are well on their way to rivaling my shoe collection.

Granny and Papa aren’t doing much to help this situation – they like to buy the girls clothes (I think it’s Granny more than Papa, actually), and always have something new and cute for the girls when they visit. These dresses were a present brought when Granny and Papa visited at Easter, and we haven’t had much of a chance to put the girls in them until now, so we dressed them up prettily for Mother’s Day when we were on our way to visit Poppy at her retirement home.

Gracie:

Erin:

Gracie and Poppy:

Erin and Aunt Mandy:

Playtime!

Adriene — Mon, 12 May 2008 19:46:10 +0000

The girls are now in the phase where they LOVE to play, especially with mommy, daddy, or each other. Which also means they are now in the phase where they crack us up on a daily basis.

In this picture, it may seem like Erin is simply showing Gracie how the pacifier clip works. In reality, she’s actually swinging said pacifier clip at Gracie’s head (ignore mommy in the background).

Gracie LOVES to play with mommy. As you can see below.

Erin mostly likes to go places she’s not supposed to.

It’s starting to hit us that our little babies are going to be a year old in three and a half months. I find myself looking at pictures of them right after they were born and just being astounded at how small they were, and how helpless they were. Now they’re laughing, crawling, sitting up, playing, and darn near pulling up on furniture these days… time flies!

Teeth!

Adriene — Wed, 23 Apr 2008 14:26:58 +0000

Well, after several months of “false alarms,” it seems we have our first set of teeth coming in! This morning while I (Adriene) was feeding Erin her first bottle, Gracie crawled up to my feet and started gnawing on my foot. I started to move her away (because, ew, who wants their kid gnawing on feet that have been on the floor?), but then she bit down HARD and there was definitely something there more than gums.

Sure enough, I ran my finger along her lower gums, Gracie’s two bottom middle teeth are coming in! Erin’s still a toothless wonder, but I’m willing to bet they’ll start coming in soon, too – both Jeff and I cut our teeth around seven or eight months as well.

(We’ll post a pic of them once there’s something to see. Right now, her gums just look bumpy!)

Slowly transitioning from infants to toddlers

Jeff — Sun, 20 Apr 2008 17:07:22 +0000

The changes are subtle, but the girls are slowly growing up and doing things on their own.

Gracie is able to sit up on her own now. She scoots across the floor and crawling is not far away.

Erin has started to hold the bottle on her own when we feed her. She amuses us by grabbing the bottle out of our hands and pulling it into her mouth when we hold it near her.

We’ve started a new set on the Flickr account for them for the six months before their first birthday. Check out the pictures here!

Shutterbugs

Adriene — Sun, 13 Apr 2008 18:09:41 +0000

The girls have gotten to where they respond rather quickly when they see Daddy with his camera! They’ve both become hams for the camera, as you can see below:

And sometimes, Erin even butts in on her sister’s photo shoots: