Shoe Fetishes

Is it a developmental thing? Both the twins have developed a shoe fetish. Cari is obsessed with Lani's shoes and Arden's shoes. Arden wants to wear my shoes and her Daddy's shoes. Silly babies.

Shoes and Somersaults

See L

Blue, Cari, and Lani with her new page-boy hairdo people-watching.

Lani in the tub. Her hair was soooo long and she would fight brushing and didn't want it put up. That's why I had it cut short.

Messy Arden after self-feeding yogurt.

Eating Yogurt

ET Phone Home...

I have offered up some cute short clips below. Enjoy!

Videos

I have to post soon on Lani's troubles at school as well as the babies' recent visit to their ped. But for now, I am posting a slew of videos I hope you'll enjoy. These include a couple shot outside as we've had glorious days in the 60s! As you'll see, the twins have gotten a taste for being outside and now they don't want to be cooped up any more. Love, Jen

Arden and her Stroller

Did I post this video yet?

Milestones

Lani can: put on her own shirts and pants, button and unbutton tops, sing the alphabet song all the way through, swing on a monkey bars, jump and balance well

Lani loves: any new toy, puppets, her backpacks, her camera, Lulu, her star chart, her baby Lilly doll, playing pretend, having special time with mommy, playdates, fruit snacks, jelly beans, ice cream, kimi balls

Cari can: point at objects, say a few words, turn the light switch off and on, point to her head, nose, tongue and belly button, do a number of signs, dance, jump, climb onto the couch,

Cari loves: stuffed animals, Blue, her mommy, her paci, Brownie, books, pointing out pictures, wearing big girl shoes, tutus, purses, dancing, all fruit esp bananas and grapes, eggs, graham crackers, goldfish crackers, tortilla chips, cheddar cheese

Arden can: point at objects, say a number of words, tell you what a sheep says, point to her head, ears, nose, tongue, belly button, do a number of signs, dance, climb out of the tub,

Arden loves: her milk, manipulating objects with her hands, exploring, Cari's paci, Kissipoo, Lulu, Brownie, pushing the doll stroller, puzzles, walking, being in the grocery cart, "talking" all the time, kielbasa, chicken, tofu, eggs, graham crackers, goldfish crackers, tortilla chips, all cheese

Not sharing, Music Show

I get it. I'm paying for the fact that Lani was an easy 2.5 year old. Never threw tantrums. So communicative. Sigh. Now she's like a little Nazi guarding her toys during playdates. We had little 2 year old Liam and his parents over, and she was pretty difficult.

We did have a nice time prior to that though. We went to a free children's music show at a local library. It was very interactive and fun, a perfect venue for active kids. Our girls were in hog heaven. As usual Arden just took off to explore and do her own thing. See you mom and dad! She ended up stealing some other kid's toy, which we finally returned at the end of the show. Lani danced and laughed. The biggest surprise was Cari. Normally she is very shy and hangs by me or sits in my lap most of the time. This time, we let her bring a stuffed toy and that seemed to give her a sense of security. Within a few minutes, she was up and dancing and laughing with her big sister. She was spinning around so much ("dancing") that she lost her balance and twice fell on other audience members. They were moms, though, and they simply laughed and helped her regain her balance.

This video is from a few days ago.

I tried to get a picture of each of the girls. These photos represent my lame attempt.

Lani in her mismatched jammies. Lately she has attempted to wear her jammies all day.

Cari posing in a quintessential point (she loves to point point point)

Don't ask me what this look is about. Arden has a phobia of the camera, which results in these weird snapshots.

What the heck is this stuff? Yeah, I asked myself the same question. Lani (aka "The Hoarder") insists on carrying around 2 fully loaded backpacks and a purse. Lately, they have been packed so full that Lani can't carry them. They're just too heavy. So she makes me carry them up and down the stairs like a sherpa. I decided to take the initiative and clean them out while she was at school. The following represents about 1/3 of what was in her smaller backpack. Yes, that's a bell cookie-cutter and biscuit cutter, a dollar bill, random bits of paper, a handful of used glowsticks, a curious george party horn, 2 blue kids flossers, and a small square of bubble-wrap. Coo-coo!!

Tough days

Hi All,

Things have been a bit hard over here at Murphy Central. Arden has been teething hard and very fussy. Alana is having adjustment issues regarding her twins. Cari is the only one seemingly on an even keel at the moment. So, that's probably why there's been a dearth of pics for awhile. However, I've got two little vids for you all to make up for it.

Jas,

I have been thinking about you a lot. I am so excited. It's gonna be so great to have another baby (esp if it's not mine ha ha ;-) I know it's too early to plan anything, but...I want you to think about going to HI in late Oct/early Nov. I am planning to take all the girls for 6 weeks!! Woo hoo! Chris will probably be there for 1-2 weeks as well. And wouldn't it be great to have a mini-reunion with all the "cousins"...Mikey, Anela, Lani, Arden, Cari, and your baby girl??!!!

Love,

Jen

Arden stretching before a big run...

Mugging

I can hardly believe it. I witnessed a mugging the other day. The victim was knocked down and her property nearly ripped from her hand. The unusual thing was that the perp was under 3 feet tall. Yep, Cari ate all the goldfish in her snack cup in, like, 2 minutes, and so she decided to go after her sister's snack cup, which was still half full. Unfortunately, Arden still had a death-grip on the thing, so Cari then decided to up the ante and pushed her sister down while holding onto the cup handle. Arden screams brought me out of the kitchen to find them in the midst of a melee. Arden was flat on her back screaming bloody murder with her arm being pulled up by the two-handled snack cup. Cari had the other handle and was growling and pulling. It almost died laughing, but flash-forward 12 years and I won't be laughing then.

Anyway, not much else to report except that I can't find my camera ergo no pics and no videos. Oh well. It'll turn up...