Goobye Spring, Hello Summer

For those of us in the USA, Memorial Day weekend (always the last weekend in May) marks the "official" beginning of summer. This is when we trek downstairs to liberate those boxes of summer clothes (and hope they still fit or are even lose), open our outdoor pools, begin wearing white, and rush to get pedis because we finally break out the sandals.

It's hard to believe that this was the Twinks' first Memorial Day. It's fun to think that over the next few months, they're about to experience so many firsts - smells of burgers and hot dogs cooking on the grill, seeing their first fireworks, splashing in a baby pool in the back yard, and inhaling the scent of fresh-cut grass after a rain storm. Oh, it's so WONDERFUL to discover the world!

The babies are growing so fast. They are infants, quickly going on toddlers:

Smilingfor the camera!



Who's cuter? Me or my puppy? Me thinks me!

This weekend I cleared out all the 3-6 month clothes to make room for the 6-9 month outfits. Goodbye long pants, sweaters and long sleeves, hello hats and sun dresses, t-shirts, rompers, shorts and overalls with nothing underneath! Or, maybe sometimes when they can talk us into it, just a diaper! (Good thing they passed the six-month mark and can start wearing sunscreen too!

Last week, G started rolling from her back to front intentionally. She doesn't do it often, but I can stop being the "nutso" mama for awhile who is constantly looking on the internet to ensure her skills are "on-track." Her balance to "tripod" is coming along and I think she might be siting up on her own before her brother. She is also starting to understand that she can use her toes to bounce in the Jumperoo. Over the last few days, she will also sometimes shake her head from left-to-right as if she's saying "No" (but it's random and doesn't appear to correspond to a thought). We're going to have to start working on "Yes" very, very soon.

Within the last week, both Twinks have proved that they can hold their own bottles and understand that they have to tip it up to get the milk. They sometimes get bored and let go...but other times they hold and drink an entire bottle by themselves.

We have added many new foods to their diet - avocados (F's newest favorite - he nearly ate a whole one by himself), mangoes, string beans and sweet potatoes. F has such good dexterity that I tried puffs, but he thought they were yucky and spit them out. He also gave his nanny a yellow zucchini facial - definitely not his favorite. G has yet to meet a food she doesn't like (although she does have her favorites - bananas, mangoes and pretty much anything sweet). She has gained more control of her tongue, but still opens her mouth and squawks like a little baby bird if it doesn't come fast enough (which is most of the time).

About two weeks ago, F's two bottom teeth finally peeked through. I tried to take a picture, but he wasn't having any of it - this is the face he made instead:

To keep with the summer theme, we have a public pool in our neighborhood and took the babies swimming for the first time. At times, it looked like they thought it was amazing to be in a "bathtub" with Mom and Dad, and at other times they didn't quite know what to make of it. F sneezed a couple of times and his face went into the water, but he didn't cry. In typical F fashion, he remembered he is part-frog and kicked and kicked and kicked underwater. G liked best to lay on her back and float (with Mom or Dad holding her, of course).

Even though we couldn't get any shots of them in the pool (because we were both in there too), we did get some before and after shots:

BEFORE:

Brotherly and Sisterly Love



G practicing her swim strokes while her bro practices his smile to pick-up chicks





Only about 19 years until I can do this professionally



AND AFTER:

We didn't even wait until we were in our car seats to fall asleep...we fell asleep as Mom and Dad carried us from the pool to the car.

For the past few years, my DH has been taking exams to gain his CFA designation. In our house, somewhere between October and January marks the beginning of  "study season" and the first Saturday in June is D-Day. April and May are "don't disturb me - I have to study" weekends. This weekend, F decided that if Dad could do it, he could too - so he wanted in on the action:

Explaining to Dad how to value the price of an option contract if the EPS has been declining3% per year for the past five years, the risk is inversely proportional to the CPI, and the intrinsic P/E ratio has a beta of  0.125 basis points. I don't know if Dad understood, but I did!

Hope you had a great summer kick-off too and are looking forward to a terrific June!