Amidst all their talking and toy skill development in these past few weeks, our babies have become masters at hanging out!  This brings their parents no end of joy and pride — we love hanging out!  They hang out together every day, but that isn’t always a happy time, given the required toy sharing and endless waiting for the other twin to get what they need too.  It’s important to hang out with others, even just for the change of pace!

So we give the people what they want!  On August 6, I went to hear my good friend’s dissertation defense.  Congratulations to Dr. Georgia!  Nina came to babysit so that I could go (even though Georgia’s topic was incredibly interesting and a huge step forward in the world of fMRI research, I doubt it would have entertained the babies if I had brought them!) and then Nina spent the day with us!  I’ve been dying to take the babies to the Puddle, the tiny tot swimming pool at our waterpark that has about 4 inches of water and a couple fountains for little ones.  However, I can’t figure out how to keep them both safe in the water with just me so I was waiting for some help.  Nina agreed to go and we headed to the Puddle!  It was awesome.  The babies loved chewing on the bath toys and splashing in the fountain.  The water is shallow enough that they can safely crawl!  It is so fun for me to have a friend to hang out with during the day and to have the extra help!  Thanks, Nina!

          

 

    

On Friday, August 8, some dear friends came back to Chambana to close on their house (yay!!!) and our entire covenant group (we were missing one person) was able to meet at Dos Reales to celebrate their return!  There are 5 babies in this Bible study and another one is about to pop out any day now, and there will be more after that!  Dos Reales is so family-friendly and they really go out of their way to make kids welcome, which is rare for a restaurant.  And their food is delicioso!!!!

     

On Saturday, August 9, we attended Georgia’s completion of her Ph.D. party!  Georgia was a student in the lab I worked at before the babies arrived and it was SO fun to go somewhere that we were known as Jaime and Matt rather than Mommy and Daddy.  I saw many friends from the lab and my former boss hosted the party, so it was wonderful to see her and her husband!  And of course, the babies were adorable and well-received!  Another doctoral candidate from the lab, Yihe, and I were pregnant at the same time last year and we gave birth a few weeks apart, even though I was very early and she was a little late!  I got to meet Andy and it was fun to see her older-and-much-taller-than-the-last-time-I-saw-him son, Adam.

    

 

    

To complete a busy week, on Sunday, August 10, I went up to the Chicago suburbs to attend my sister’s baby shower.  It was a ton of fun and as I made the 2.5 hour drive by myself, I kept thinking, “It’s quiet… no one needs me right this second… I’m by myself… I can think… ahhhhhh.”  I’m really excited to meet Baby Boy Henry when he arrives!  Mari is gorgeous anyway, but she follows the Poulos girl trend of being her most adorable when pregnant!  And Ryan was excited to try on the bibs for his son!  I met some of their friends, including a mom and dad with 18 month old twins who said, “How did you get out of the house without your kids?  You were able to drive up here BY YOURSELF?  Where are they???”  It was so great to share that I could do that because Matt is an excellent Daddy and was at home by himself with our kids, carting them off to a barbecue with our covenant group!

On Tuesday, August 12, we went to the library baby time and you already know that Zach said his first word there with many witnesses.  He has said “bye-bye” two more times since then and said “uh-oh” yesterday when he dropped something at church and couldn’t reach it.  “Uh-oh” was Matt’s first word, so this was quite a thrill!  Is there a genetic “uh-oh” connection?  There may be!

On Wednesday, August 13, we went to a play group.  I venture into these on rare occasions… I prefer a randomly planned/we’ll-see-if-we-make-it-there type of play date more than an established group, so we randomly stopped by to visit an established group.  How do you like that?  The babies were 2 of 7 total babies and it was only chaotic if you stepped back and looked at the whole picture.  For me, it was a typical play session from every day… keeping an eye on what my two little ones put in their mouths except for one bonus… other adults to talk to!  We had fun.

On Thursday, August 14, we ran an errand to a friend’s house to drop off some luggage.  We stayed just long enough for the babies’ friend Maria to show Rissa where to find her belly button and then to show off her own.  They became fast friends sitting next to each other at Dos Reales last week.  They both have a “let’s do it my way” stubborn streak and when their strong personalities collide, they manage to work it out and find a way to compromise.  Amazing social skills are being developed right before our eyes!

     

So we had 8 days jam-packed with social engagements!  All this hanging out makes Zach and Rissa very tired!