Screaming like a banshee!

So, once again it's been a while since I've updated. We had our colds (in turns) and we now are all sniffly again. Still no sign of teeth from either Adriana or Isabella, but we still have signs of teething - lots of drool and banshee-like screams. (Hey, they're just in time for Halloween!)

We've had lots of fun things happen since the last post. Great Aunt Toril and Great Uncle Per Olaf came to visit the girls, which was great fun. It was really nice of them to come out to Reading to see us all, and we all (including our Somerset visitors) went out for a lovely lunch at TGI Friday's. There were a few ideas about next year's travel plans, including a Christmas trip to Norway, so it'll be interesting to see if we're actually able to do that. I think the girls would really enjoy seeing Norway.

The girls also turned six months old recently, and I can barely believe how quickly the time has gone. And it's even harder to believe how tiny they once were! They're both above 16lbs now, and although Izzy is a little bit smaller than Adriana now, they're both developing so well. Izzy is rolling over and back and scooting all over the place. Adriana still has no interest in rolling over, but she does have such strong legs and loves standing. One of the most fun bits to change recently is how much the girls are interacting with one another. Really it's happened in just the past few days, but I had a huge giggle when I went to the kitchen to grab a glass of water last night and overheard the girls 'talking' to one another. I tried to sneak in and video it, but they were wise to my tricks and stopped to look at me.

Our experiments with solid foods have continued. We've added lots of foods to our list - bananas, apples, pears, peaches, raspberries, blueberries, carrots, potatoes, mangos (mangoes?), sweet potatoes, spinach, peas, squash and chicken - and we're adding more all of the time. I think next up, we'll try some pumpkin! Every morning, they've had their baby cereal, and now that they're six months, we've been able to give them porridge (oatmeal). I recently tried adding cinnamon into the mix, and they seem to love it! I took this video to show Daddy, but it's cute so I thought I'd share.

We're also trying to do a bit of sleep training. It's so hard to listen to them cry, but they say we need to teach them how to sleep on their own. So last night was the first official night of it. I was on my own, so I tried very hard to discipline myself. And I did it! (OK, I picked them up a few times, but still ...) After about 40 minutes of fussing, I had two babies, both asleep in their very own beds in their very own rooms! I still had a hard time falling asleep/staying asleep, but I'm sure I'll stop worrying so much at some point. (Hey! It could happen ...) We'll see if this can be repeated or not, but hopefully it's a start toward all of us - even Mommy - getting more sleep. :)

To celebrate six months, we went and had a little photoshoot. The girls were very obliging and put up with almost a whole hour of photographs. They only cried a bit - it was lunch time for them, and the could smell me I suppose, so we had to pause the shoot for me to feed them. But we're really excited to see the results! We took a little sneaky pic after the shoot ended, but it was just a quick one so not posed or anything.

Special delivery!

After the photo session, we went out for a nice family meal at a local pub. The place is great - free refills, very friendly people and a great atmosphere. They even had a baby spoon for the girls to eat their food - blueberries, bananas and vanilla. Adriana hung out on Daddy's lap while he had his burger. Good times!

One day, she'll have a go at a burger like that!

 And another thing to celebrate - the girls are officially Americans! And not only that, they are officially able to travel on their US passports!!!! We're so excited for our upcoming trip, and I think it's going to be such an adventure for the girls to be able travel so much. I wonder how long it's going to take them to fill up their first passport.

Daddy with his little Americans

Momma and her little Americans

The last bit to share is that the girls have a new toy - a jumperoo! We were going to hire one from the toy library, but instead of being patient, we thought we'd just go ahead and buy one. We got a really good deal on it, and so far the girls seem to love it.

Make you wanna jump, jump!

 And one more thing - I think I'm already getting the moody girl looks from the girls. Uh oh ...

A not-too-impressed Adriana staring at Momma