"Hey Doggie!"

Milo would like to shout out to all his peeps with his standard greeting - "hey doggie!" Whether you are a Mom, Dad, other kid, teacher, Elmo, a cat, airplane, or -- yes -- a dog, Milo will likely shout you this happy greeting. Why? Who knows? He's two after all. I guess I should be a better parent and work on teaching him not to say it, but it's cute and funny and, after all, so what?

In recent news, Milo had his two-year follow-up clinic with the doctors at Alta Bates this past week. Remember that he's not technically a 2-year-old developmentally until September, nonetheless he appears to be almost completely caught up to 24 months. In most categories he tested in the normal range, though he was below the cut in a couple areas. A lot of the performance trouble was due to his lack of cooperation. The doctor had arrived 40 mins late due to unforeseen traffic, and Milo was pretty bored and tired by the time the assessment started. All in all, it was an unexpectedly great result -- especially given the circumstances. Maddy will go for her assessment in the late summer or early fall. I think we expect her to perform even a little better than Milo since she's definitely the better talker right now.

Photo courtesy of Sanford & Son Moving, Inc.

We are finally moved out of the old house and into the new digs. It involved lots of trips with a U-Haul trailer followed by one big trip with a moving van. Luckily, we finished up relocating all the stuff to the new joint in time to have a party for the kids over the 4th of July weekend. That gave us a chance to have a few friends by and break in the back yard. Cake was eaten, beers drank, and children froliced. I'll call it a success!

The singing of "Happy Birthday" with the help of good friends.

Milo shows off his super powers.

Notice in the above picture that Milo is hanging onto my thumbs without any help from me. It's crazy but the kid can hang on for about 25 seconds before he laughs so hard that he ends up letting go.

M&M take turns pushing each other around in their stroller cars.

Milo gives his friend Nicola a ride in his wagon. Maddy's not as angry as she looks, she just doesn't like taking turns.

But she does like cake -- a lot.

Milo showing off for Nicola...

...and flying high.

17 July 2010

This weekend the kids also had the chance to hang out with triplets Sophie, Gabby, & Faith and their parents, John and Carina. And I thought our grocery bill was getting rough. Good times!

17 July 2010 - "Mod Maddy" - the standard baby with sunglasses shot.

17 July 2010 - Milo looking humble

17 July 2010 - Maddy

All of a sudden Maddy really likes to make goofy faces for the camera. It's bound to make things more entertaining for future posts.

A slightly less silly shot taken moments later during the same meal.

If I haven't said it before, it's one of my greatest hopes that Maddy will eat exactly the same way she does now during her first date, i.e., attempt to cram absolutely everything she can into her mouth, chew until she doesn't feel like it any more, and then take the remainder out with her hand and fill her mouth again with something else off her plate. It's quite impressive. She and Milo both love to feed me and Elaine, but there's nothing worse then realizing she's just put something in my mouth that's been well chewed before. Mmmmmm...

My Lunch with Maddy.

Of late, Milo has begun telling jokes in an effort to keep us all entertained. His vocabulary is still pretty limited, so he goes for physical humor. Above is one of his favorite bits, the "Pretend Sneeze." It's cracks him (and us) up every time.

The parting shot. It's not always easy to tell whether the twins like each other very much. They play together a lot more these days and frequently greet each other enthusiastically in the morning, but they also argue over toys and hit and bite each other every so often too. It's nice to see an occasional hug just to make sure.