Heading South

This past weekend we headed south to have a belated Christmas with my grandma in Gainesville, GA and then continued on to Atlanta for the remainder of the weekend. It was a whirlwind weekend but we had a wonderful time seeing everyone.

We haven't travled since the babies have been off of bottles, and we weren't sure how they would be in the car once they woke up from their nap, ate lunch, and had to go back into their carseats for another hour or so. Luckily they did great and were very entertained with their toys. We got to Grandma's mid Friday afternoon and Olivia ran right to her. It took Luke about 10 minutes to warm up, and then they were off exploring her house, pulling books off of shelves and finding new tupperware to play with. We opened presents before dinner, and once the babies were in bed we stayed up chatting until almost midnight. Luke and Olivia did great sleeping in their pack n plays and we had a nice breakfast the next morning. Granny (Grandma's name for Luke and Olivia) really enjoyed seeing the babies walking and "talking" and hated to see us leave, as we hated to leave as well. It was a great visit.

Mid morning Saturday we headed to Atlanta to see some of our friends as well as Luke and Olivia's friends. We stayed with Jen and Marica and their twin boys, and it was so cool to see 4 little one year olds, two sets of twins no less, playing together. The babies have literally been friends since birth, and seeing their progression over the past year has been amazing. We took all of the babies to the park for the afternoon since it was such a pretty day, and then Dan and I went to a dinner party with some other friends while Luke and Olivia slept at our Jen and Marica's house. Another late night for us, but a great time nonetheless. The next day, Sunday, we had planned to get together with some other folks as well. So around 2pm, 2 more babies (for a total of 6 one year olds) and some friends came over for the afternoon. We went to the park again for a little bit, and it made me so happy to see all of the babies playing together. We were quite a sight for sure! We fed Luke and Olivia dinner and headed for home late Sunday evening. We got home around midnight and went right to bed. A fun, full weekend with lots of good friends. Times like those make me miss living in Atlanta, but we are thankful our family can see Luke and Olivia growing up as well.

Lots of changes

The new year has brought lots of changes to the Bartlett household. Several milestones have been achieved, and there are still lots more to come.

One of the biggest changes has been the conversion from formula/bottles to milk/sippy cups. A couple of weeks ago, we stared the transition. It took us about a week of mixing formula with whole milk, lessening the amount of fomula and increasing the amount of milk everyday, to make the complete switch to 100% whole milk. I have to admit, I thought it would be a little more difficult than it was, but our babies did wonderfully! Luke went on a bit of a milk strike for a couple of days, but by the end of the week, we had two milk converts on our hands. We were still giving them a night bottle with whole milk, and we knew that would be our next hurdle to cross.

This past weekend, we thought it was time to eliminate bottles completely. For Dan, this was a happy day as he was ready to have them on sippys only. For me, being a mom, it was a little bittersweet to think we were past the bottle phase in our parenting lives. Unless something unexpected happens, we will no longer revisit this phase ever again! Our usual routine was to feed Luke and Olivia dinner around 6:30pm, give them some playtime before bathtime and then give them their bottle around 8pm. It was rare that Olivia would fall asleep after her bottle, but more times than not Luke would pass out. We wanted to keep their routine pretty consistent. We moved their dinner time to about 6:45pm, playtime and bathtime is the same, but instead of a night bottle we now each read them a story and put them in bed around 8:15pm. All things considered, they have done great!!! The first two nights Luke woke up about an hour after being in bed but fell back asleep after abour 30 minutes. Olivia has fallen asleep on her own every night since Saturday, and they have both been sleeping pretty well and not waking up hungry. In fact, whoever gets up first has to wait on the other one to wake up so we can feed them breakfast at the same time. They are quite content to play and don't seem overly hungry, which gives us comfort in knowing they are getting enough nutrition throughout the day. They eat breakfast, lunch and dinner along with 2 snacks and drink water or milk throughout the day. We are SO lucky that they aren't very picky eaters, even eating and seeming to like broccoli and spinach.

The new year has also brought us 2 walkers. I thought they were fast crawlers, but this has brought a whole new set of challenges. Usually they find things of interest in opposite directions, and poor Piper cat just can't seem to hide from them. Olivia is a walker 100% of the time, and Luke is walking more and more everyday. He is still a little unsteady on his balance, but he is doing great and really gaining his confidence. I think in another week or two they will be walking hand in hand quietly and peacefully around the house. Hey, a mom can dream, can't she?

With their newfound independence also comes some stubborness. They sometimes test their boundaries of what they can and cannot touch, and they do not like to have toys taken from them. Usually it's Olivia who does the taking from Luke, but he is starting to take toys from her as well. They are learning about sharing, which is tough for any child to learn. Luke and Olivia point at objects they see, talk to one another in a language only they can understand, have temper tantrums when they feed the need, and give the best hugs in the world. They are typical 13 month old babies, whom I can't call babies for much longer (even though they will forever be my babies). Our next hurdle to conquer with be the pacis, but we'll save that for another day...

Snow Day

Here are some pics we took the day after Christmas in the snow. Luke and Olivia had fun touching the snow, but got too tired before we were able to build a snowman. We sure hope it snows again soon!

Happy New Year

It seems as if everyone is asking the question "what happened to 2010?" We sure are! Moving and adjusting to parenthood sure helped the year fly by even faster than usual.

We rang in the new year with our good friends Marc, Sabrina, and her family, as well as Luke and Olivia. Actually, Luke and Olivia didn't make it until midnight, but they hung in there until almost 10pm. It was so nice and relaxing to not be out on the town fighting the crowds and crazy people. Good friends, champagne, and watching the ball drop on TV...a perfect way to start a new year.

Happy 2011! And I was just getting used to writing 2010 on everything...