Six Months Old

The girls' half-birthday falls on Valentine's Day so I thought these adorable outfits from their Gigi would be fitting.  It is getting tricky to photograph both of them on the same mat without anyone poking the other, haha.

 

Elsie

 

 

Leonie

 

 

Both girls are getting stronger each day and can now sit up pretty well.  Here they are playing in their high chairs. Elsie is on the left.

 

 

The weather has been beautiful so we've been able to get outside a little and enjoy it.  Here we are with our friend Jamie taking a walk at a nearby park. Elsie is on the left.

 

 

We've started a mommy and me dance class, which the girls love, and afterwards we meet Matthew for lunch.  We also met daddy for lunch on his birthday.  The girls are great about going out to eat and we get lots of compliments.  They also are enthralled by our eating and drinking, especially water glasses. Elsie is barely letting me drink!

 

Like any good horse mom the girls are getting some time with the ponies too.  Here Elsie is saying Hi to Mow.

 

 

And Leonie checks out Peanut.

 

Elsie getting a little cart ride around the yard.

 

 

Leonie's turn.

 

Daddy decided to take the girls in the jogging stroller while I drove Peanut down the road.  It was nice to all get out of the house!

 

Here Louie helps soothe Elsie for nap time and Bagheera checks up on both of them.  The cats are very tolerant of the girls and the girls absolutely love the cats.

 

 

We even brought in one of our cute baby bunnies for a little photo shoot.  Here's Leonie.

 

And Elsie.

 

Tummy time is no longer quite as unpopular since both girls can roll in both directions.  In fact, I turned around one morning and found them like this.  Plotting against their parents no doubt! Leonie is on the left.

 

 

Can't resist these cuties!  Elsie on the left.

 

 

To help get through the "witching hour" at the end of the day we've been doing some Naked Time.  The girls, naturally, love it and it is a great chance for them to put their feet in their mouths.  Here's Leonie showing off her flexibility.

 

 

Elsie is also enthusiastic about her tasty toes.

 

We've been working on sitting and both girls can hold themselves up for short periods of time by propping up with their hands on their legs.  Here's Elsie.

 

 

And Leonie. Note the adorable unicorn toes on her jammies (the only outfit I've purchased so far!)

 

One last picture, my new favorite photo of Leonie.

 

 

And a couple of videos of this month's cuteness. 

 

Leonie rolling back to front.

 

 

 

Elsie mostly rolling over.  They never want to cooperate when I'm videoing!

 

 

Leonie having a ball in the bouncy seat

 

And both girls chatting with Louie.  I stopped the video just as Leonie barrel-rolled into him, a trick she is starting to do consistently to get around.

 

 

Super Museum Sunday

Yesterday we took the girls out to the aquarium on Skidaway Island where I used to work for Super Museum Sunday.  They love the fish tank at home so we thought that they'd really enjoy an aquarium.  They did enjoy it, but not for the fish!  They mostly liked watching the people and kids who were also visiting and trying to touch their feet when we sat them by the tanks.  Here Leonie gets up close to a diamondback terrapin.

 

Elsie liked the Gray's Reef animals who are a little more brightly colored.

 

 

It was such a beautiful day that we also took them for a walk along the 1.5 mile nature trail.

 

It was nice to be out in nature for a while and the girls were easily entertained.  Just touching a palm frond was exciting!

Five Months Old

The girls turned five months old today!  They are looking less like babies and more like toddlers every day.  They are also getting more coordinated with their hands and even their feet.  Elsie has now rolled over as well although neither one roll very often.  Their vocabularies are gaining new sounds and screeches and the giggles are more predictable. Here are their monthly blanket photos.

 

 

Leonie

 

Elsie

 

The girls had many visitors in the past month including a short weekend visit from Richard and Jane (Pop & Nanny).  We didn't get a photo of them last time but remembered this time. Nanny is holding Elsie.

 

My parents (Grumps and Grandma Sue) also came for a visit.  Here Grumps reads to Elsie.

 

Daddy reading to Leonie.  We are developing a better nighttime routine, which includes books, and the girls are sleeping better because of it.

 

After Christmas Matthew's sister Cecilia came for a visit and our twin nieces Ingrid and Maggie met Elsie and Leonie.

 

Along with better hand coordination, the girls are getting better at sitting up.  They also prefer to sit up some days over laying on their play mat.  Since there is only one of me I have found ways to keep them more upright without holding them both.  Here Leonie enjoys teething on toys while propped up in a boppy pillow.

 

 

They can also do short stretches in the high chairs from Emily and Miran.  Here is Elsie playing with one of their new toys.  Both girls are starting to show interest in what we are eating so we know that using high chairs for solid foods is just around the corner.

 

 

Along with sitting up comes riding in a stroller!  This might make shopping trips a little easier for me and the girls seem to enjoy it.

 

 

We also took Margaret's old jogging stroller for a spin around the pastures and it seemed to work well. It has been too cold the last few days to do much outside but I'm looking forward to getting out of the house a bit more.

 

 

Finally, here's a short video of Elsie playing in the high chair.

 

Snowmageddon 2018

Last Wednesday a strange thing happened here in coastal Georgia - we got snow! A lot of snow!  It started out as freezing rain after a night that dipped into the low 20s.  Then it switched to snow around 10am.  The big flakes actually stuck because the ground was already frozen.

 

The view out of the kitchen window a few minutes after starting to snow.

 

Part-way through the day.

 

It stopped snowing around 3:30pm and we accumulated just over three inches!

 

It felt like I was back in Michigan!  We took the girls out during the snowfall and they didn't seem too fazed.

 

 

Our house.

 

Peanut isn't bothered by a little snow.  He's so well insulated it doesn't even melt on him.

 

Mow and Rabi have also seen snow before but it has been a while.

 

I covered my weaker bee hive and hopefully they both weathered the cold temps okay!  Matthew had two days off of work and the snow stuck around until Monday of the following week.  The ice made bridges and roadways tricky for these southern drivers!

Christmas

We celebrated Christmas again this year with my parents but things were a little different with the girls around!  Here is our skinny tree with my parent's' cat Casper snoozing under it (he is a big cat, but our tree was a little smaller this year...)

 

On Christmas Eve the girls "opened" their first gifts.  Mostly they just played with the ribbon and tried to put it in their mouths!  Elsie is on the right.

 

Christmas morning, Elsie is opening her star ornament gift from Anthony and Michael.

 

Matthew reading a new Sandra Boyton book from Uncle Nathan to Leonie.

 

They liked the colorful wrapping paper!  And thanks Aunt Emily for the cute outfits.

 

The cute little high chairs from Emily and Miran made perfect seats for gift opening.  The girls are almost strong enough to hold themselves up but still need a little support.

 

Playing with their gifts.

 

A Bertch family tradition was to take a photo of all our gifts each year.  It is fun to look back and see when some of the beloved toys entered our family.  Here are the girls with most of their gifts!  (We missed a few that got opened later)

 

Grandma Sue got them their first Breyer horses as stocking stuffers.

 

Taking a break to cheer up Leonie with Super Baby before trying another family photo op.

 

We didn't really get a good photo of all of us looking at the camera, but I like this one instead!

 

Grumps with Leonie and Grandma Sue with Elsie.

 

Another Bertch tradition - cutout cookies!  These are my Grandma's recipe (my mom's mom).  The girls didn't get to participate much this year but they enjoyed watching the production and testing out the cookie cutters.

 

Another tradition of ours is making ornaments each year.  My mom and I decided to make cross stitch ornaments similar to my first ornament in 1986.

 

 

Finally, a photo of mom and I riding.  We didn't end up going on Christmas or Christmas Eve like usual, but we did make it out during their visit.