Words

This weekend, Cooper spoke a few more words. He is now saying, ball, ruff ruff, water, paci, babies, Mama (my favorite), book, and uh oh. Chloe points to everything and says this or that. She also says Dada and uh oh.

They spent Saturday evening at Nana's house while we were at Maddie's volleyball tournament. My mom has photos lined up along the fire place. When she would ask Chloe, "Where's Mama? Where's Maddie?", she would point to the right picture and hug it. Chloe's hugs are when she lays her head on someone or something (doll, picture, etc.) and says, "ahhhhh." Simply precious!

Picture from Nana's house, I'm sure Todd will make a comment about Cooper having a doll in his hand.

And, speaking of Maddie. She is becoming quite the volleyball player! Her team did fabulous at this weekend's tournament. Go Maddie! We have a few pictures from the previous tournament but I need to weed out the bad ones. I'll post as soon as I can.

Random Pictures

Hello family and friends! The holidays are over and we are getting back to the daily grind. Here are a few random pictures from this past week. I have a funny story to share though, the babies are eating mostly table food now and Chloe isn't loving her veggies. She eats peas pretty well but not green beans. She is very independent with her eating and wants to feed herself. This evening, instead of feeding herself the green beans, she would tilt her head up at me with a big smile and thrust it at me. She wanted to feed ME her green beans! What a smart girl! She is trying to be cute and "share" so that we won't notice she's not eating her veggies! No worries, we'll keep trying!

Cooper and Chloe went to their friend Zachary's 1st birthday party at the Little Gym last weekend. I'm sure more pictures will be posted soon on the Caraway's blog. But, I had to share this funny picture. Isn't he looking like he's too cool for words...so Todd...

Playing in the bouncy thing...

The babies are feeling a little more independent these days. They are wanting to walk from the car to the door and they get so excited doing it. Cooper is giving the grass a try. You should see how he carefully steps on the grass. When he falls, he tries desperately not to touch it with his hands.

My little cutie pie is loving dresses these days and Mommy is too! We had to stop putting dresses on Chloe while she was crawling because she would get so frustrated with the loose fabric getting caught by her knees. So, here come the dresses! She adds a little prance to her steps too when she is dressed up. She's excited and clapping her hands because we are letting her walk up to the door.

I must confess, I hate toys! Okay, hate is a strong word but they really are driving me bonkers. They are everywhere! I went to the Container Store to see if I could find a solution for organizing/storing all the toys. They didn't have anything that would work and not cost me a fortune. Todd bought this unit when he was single for Madison's toy room (now babies' room). When we were clearing the room out for the babies we reconfigured it so that it would fit in Madison's closet. We made it work because there was nowhere else to put it. We are definitely out growing this house. There is no room in any of the closets or bedrooms to store toys. I decided to move it out into the living room and tuck it in the corner. It's actually works very well. The toys have a "home" and the babies already know what each bin holds. They especially know which bin holds their favorite books and before going to bed they dig out the books and bring them to us to read. For now, I'm okay with this new piece of furniture in my living room!

It's all good!

Babies are happy! Bottles are gone! It's definitely bittersweet! They have already started to increase the amount of fluids(milk and water) they are taking with a sippy cup. All is well!

Morning of Day 5 of no bottle, second day back on schedule...

An improvement from yesteday! This morning they were both very happy and ate really well for breakfast. Chloe went to sleep last night around 6:15 and woke up this morning at 6:15! Cooper fell asleep (being held of course) starting around 6:30 but everytime we tried putting him in his bed he would wake right back up. We would go back to the rocking chair and he would snuggle in and go right back to sleep! He finally went down for the evening at 10:00 in his bed. YIKES! Hopefully, this will get better soon! He was really happy this morning which is a very good sign that we are moving past the you know what! We don't say the word "bottle" at our house! It will be interesting to see today what they do when the baby at Ms. Shelley's house is given his bottle...Dr. Brown bottle...same as Cooper and Chloe's bottle! He wasn't there yesterday.

Day 4 of no bottles...

A tad bit cranky, harder to fall asleep at night, but all is well! Chloe is actually eating more food which is good. The girl didn't eat much before. Today at the babysitter, they both had their OWN peanut butter and jelly sandwich! We typically split everything we give them. Cooper will not drink milk out of the sippy cup but will drink lots of water. Chloe will drink milk if you hold a regular cup for her. She drank about 8 ounces out of a regular cup last night at dinner. She has the milk mustache working! She doesn't drink as much water but will from the sippy cup. Cooper is taking good naps during the day, eating about the same (he was an eater with or without bottles) but for the last two nights it's been a booger to get him to sleep for the night. Chloe's naps have been sporatic and it's taken her a littlle longer to fall asleep. However, once she's down for the night she has stayed down. Cooper also started walking around with his hands folded behind his back like an old man. It's like he's pondering over something. He has a couple of times gone to the kitchen and looked up at the counter where our bottle station is located. Poor baby! Today they went back to Ms. Shelley's and they both took a nap at the regular time she puts them down. I'm thinking now that we are back to our regular schedule, maybe the naps and bedtime will get back on track. It's official, my babies (AKA little people) are off the bottle! I'm packing them up this evening!

Happy 2010!

Happy New Year Everyone!

We hope that 2010 brings you lots of love, happiness and the simple things that matter the most!

She's going glam in 2010...

We took Maddie and the babies to have their pictures taken at JC Penney. I never imagined that sports pictures could turn out as beautiful as these. We only scanned two of the MANY pictures we bought.

1 year old pictures!

These are just a few of the pictures we bought as well.

The babies had their 1 year old check up on New Year's Eve! I know, what a way to celebrate, huh? They had four shots and have been off and on fussy since. We were told to wean them off the bottles as soon as possible. We were down to two bottles a day, one in the morning and one right before bed and she nicely told us that we needed to stop that schedule. So, this morning instead of making a bottle for them we immediately fed them breakfast. They were a little fussy and we felt like they definitely were missing it. Tonight, they ate a very hearty meal and Cooper fell asleep without a bottle. He's had two good naps today and went to bed around 8:00. Little Miss, she's still walking around fighting sleep and it's now 9:00 and has not taken a nap today. Is that because of the bottle? Stay tuned...

She also kindly told us to give up the things they were sucking on while we were visiting. Hello, I gave them their pacifiers because they were going to get shots! She did tell us not to give up bottles and the pacifier together which I knew I wasn't even going to try that. When we are past the bottle thing, I'll tackle the pacifier. Sniff sniff...my babies aren't babies anymore. She called them little people.

They both have lost a little weight since walking. Here are their stats:
Chloe: 20.13 lbs (26%) and 28 inches tall (10%; she hasn't grown any taller since the 9/8/09 doctor visit)

Cooper: 23.88 lbs (58%) and 30.5 inches tall (61%)

A few pics from today...

They have discovered the TV!