Is it tummy time again?

Whoever invented tummy time for babies must have been an evil genius. Sure, it is a necessary step in infant development, helping them build their strength, sharpen their vision, turn their heads, and get ready for crawling, et cetera, et cetera... all kinds of good stuff. But the babies do not like it. Not one bit. I guess when you don't exactly have any biceps to speak of, it must be an awkward feeling to be stuck face-down on the floor. Back time isn't always much better, either, even despite being on a totally fun play mat, as you can see from the chagrined expressions above. So as much as we hate upsetting our babies so much, we do want them to crawl and even eventually walk someday! Fortunately, the babies recently received a great tummy time mat which they don't seem to entirely hate, which allows for a somewhat less frustrating tummy time. So naturally, we had to capture these rare calm tummy moments on camera! Liam is on the right, and Coralie is on the left (circa 9 weeks - and pardon the poor quality of my camera phone). Aren't you impressed with the head control on these little guys?!

The babies go wine tasting

Guess what? This weekend we discovered a new baby-friendly activity: wine tasting! Who knew?! Auntie Julie was in town for the Memorial Day weekend, and made us promise to figure out something fun to do other than sitting at home playing with babies... and as much as we love doing that, we had to agree that it was high time to venture out on a bona-fide family excursion (discounting our excursions to Trader Joe's, Target, and Babies 'r' Us, of course :-). Little did we know that in as quickly as 40 minutes from our house, you can find yourself in the quaint Virginia countryside, surrounded by horse farms and wineries. And thanks to a recommendation from our good friend Anne, we paid a visit to the Swedenburg Estate Vineyard in Middleburg, Virginia. After all, since the babies are now 11 weeks old, we figured there was no better time to take them wine tasting for the first time. :-) We spent a lovely afternoon sampling the vineyard's five varieties of wine, before settling on a bottle of rosé to sip under an umbrella in the sun. The babies enjoyed themselves immensely, and created as much of a spectacle among the visiting wine connoiseurs as the actual wines themselves. We ended the day touring around historic Middleburg, a charming little gem of town that seems almost too picturesque to be touched by the real world. Naturally, we couldn't resist taking tons of adorable photos of the babies at the winery - including some of our favorites of "Super Buddy" - a.k.a. Liam - soaring above us with his bib as a cape, and our junior gymnast/yoga instructor Coralie showing off her legendary backbends. (And no, I am not just dangling her in the air like that... she actually gets herself into this position to stretch!) Click here to check them out!

Birth announcements have arrived!

As you probably know, we finally sent out our birth announcements last week. And yes, we know what you're probably thinking... even though the babies' birth is not news to anyone at this point, we figured it was only fair that they receive an "official" announcement in paper form. Unfortunately, it just took two months to make it happen!

To the left is the front and back of the announcement proof. You like?! We found this great design shop to do it for us - Paper and Ink Studio, at http://www.paperandinkstudio.com/. It was such a challenge to find a design that had enough space for info for two babies, so we were really happy when we came across this one. We have a few extras, so if yours somehow did not make it to your mailbox, or if we don't have your address and you would like us to send you one, just send me an email to scrites -at- gmail -dot- com.

We also wanted to share some of the funnier photos of the babies from the photo shoot which did not make the cut for the birth announcement. Keep in mind that these were taken when they were 5 weeks old, so they are definitely bigger now!

Liam: "Are you listening to me?!?!"
Coralie: "What? I can't hear you!!!"

Clearly, this must be a fascinating conversation that they are having.

It's official. Too much photo-taking has clearly pushed Coralie over the edge, and has turned Liam catatonic.

Simultaneous yawns. Nap time!

Now, isn't it amazing that we were able to capture a photo of two calm babies to even make this birth announcement?!

That's right. This is how we roll.

It's probably no surprise that most activities with twins are quite a production. Going for a simple stroll through the neighborhood is no exception. Since it is pretty funny to us, we just wanted you to see how we look on a family walk. Yep, we've got the double stroller, a dog, and one (sometimes two) adult chaperones. Needless to say, we occupy most of the sidewalk wherever we go! Surely the neighbors must love us. :-) Case in point: on the left are the kiddos in their stroller, and on the right is my mom with the stroller and the dog, just returning from a walk a few weeks back.