10 months

This is the girls at 10 months a lot of the time. They are not laughing at me, but at their big sis. Abby Jane is chief entertainer and my best assistant.

Here is an outtake. I think Abby Jane got distracted from her photo assistant duties.

Blythe, Blythe, Blythe. The girl is everywhere, crawling, pulling up, walking holding onto your fingers, and chewing on anything she can get her hands on. Blythe FINALLY started visibly cutting a tooth yesterday! Lack of teeth has no impact on her eating, though. The girl has a hollow leg and usually finishes off whatever Joy leaves on her tray! That appetite also includes any shoes not put away and ANY sort of vegetation she can grab when we're outside- grass, leaves, bark, etc.
This is classic Blythe- teething, and... do you notice anything missing behind her? Yes, we hung those letters at that height totally assuming we'd be out of this house before the girls were pulling up and able to reach anything!

Despite her adventurous spirit, Blythe is in the attachment phase and likes to be near Mama a lot of the time. Her favorite perch when I'm sitting on the floor is standing on my leg with one arm around me and the rest of her body facing away, too busy and independent to snuggle.

These two are big buddies- Blythe loves to follow Abby Jane and Abby Jane loves it. I often get reports ("Mama, Blythe's getting the ____!" Insert cord, TV, shoes, etc.)

Sweet Joy still only has those two teeth she got back in June. She is still not crawling, but somehow does migrate around. I predict a crawler in the next two weeks. She launches herself forward, falls, then pushes up to sitting- and ends up getting around somehow. Joy loves being read to and tries to sing along with you. She waves, claps, and plays "Where's Joy?"

She is working on pulling up, and can stand for a little while holding onto your fingers. She bounces and kicks when she gets excited. We hope she learns to crawl soon- she often gets left in whatever room everyone started in when Blythe and Abby Jane take off!

Here is Abby Jane wearing the same dress at just under 9 months. Can you tell they're sisters?!

Fav toys right now- rattles, balls, Alphabet Paul caterpillar, activity table, books with textures.

Eating schedule (for my records- sorry!): breakfast (nursing, then fruits with oatmeal, then finger foods), mid-morning snack (fruit crisps and multigrain cheerios), lunch (veggies, some variety of applesauce, finger foods, nursing), after nap nursing, dinner (veggies, meat, applesauce), finger foods to keep them busy while we eat, then bedtime nursing.

Fav finger foods: blueberries, ANY kind of chopped fruit or veggies (sometimes turn down carrots randomly), multigrain cheerios (don't like plain as much), cheese, turkey, Puffs, rice cakes.

Nap schedule: morning nap- would sleep almost 2 hours if I'd let them, but I usually get them up after an hour or hour and a half so we can actually go somewhere. Afternoon nap- 3-4 hours! It's amazing. I do have a theory that they require more sleep than a lot of only-child babies b/c they are constantly overstimulated by their doting big sister! Bless their baby hearts! We love these girls!

Visiting the Lloyds

Last Thursday, we went on our first big roadtrip as a family of five to go visit our precious friends the Lloyds in Pensacola. Whitney and I met in 5th grade and have been the dearest of friends ever since! Everyone did fabulously on the road, even our pottytrainer...

At the last minute, we decided we couldn't pass Auburn without making a stop for a very early lunch at Byron's...
And the world's most beautiful spot for a stretch break... before getting back on the road. Wish we had planned better and could have seen some of y'all- glad we get to in a few weeks!Meet Isabella, the world's smiliest four-month-old! She is such a bundle of delight, and we treasured getting to love on this young lady we all prayed for so much!

Abby Jane was enthralled, and just said this morning, "Can we go back to Isabella's house soon?"

Whit and Jeremy gave our girls lots of special attention, too! It's so precious to love on best friends' babies, isn't it?

It rained all weekend long, but that didn't stop us from going on an adventure for a beach picnic...

and making a dash out to the beach amongst storm clouds...
for a few minutes by the water we love so much!
We also did a trip to the park in the rain- see four swings for four girls...
Aunt Whit showed Abby Jane all the fun things to do...
while Blythe blew her first kisses ever to Jeremy!
We tried this photo shoot a few times- Isabella was much more patient with the process than the twins! Whitney got better shots than I did of this one...
One of the highlights of the trip was that Whit and I got to go on two runs together- in the rain! We've been running together since 9th grade, so it was so sweet to get that hangout time doing what we love to do! Isabella came along in her jogging stroller, covered in towels- she's learning young!

Right before saying goodbye early Sunday morning! What sweet memories we made- we sure love y'all!

One of the highlights of my parental life...

At dinner last night, Abby Jane said, "Dad, did you know it's almost football season?"

Yes, our work here is done. 2 1/2 years of brainwashing is paying off, and I couldn't be prouder.

Other quotables in the last 24 hours:

At Publix yesterday afternoon, we saw a Middle Eastern woman in the traditional headcoverings, etc. Abby Jane POINTS at her from about 30 feet away and said, "Look, Mom, she's being Mary!"

At dinner last night, she dropped a spaghetti noodle, and I said, "It's OK, Abby Jane, you didn't mean to. He was just a sneaky guy." A minute later, she pointed to her bib and said, "Help, Mom, it's another sneaky guy!" If only she'll have that discernment as a teenager...

Just now, before going down for her nap, for some reason she said she didn't want to be by herself. I told her that she wasn't by herself, that she has her babydolls for company and that Jesus is with her all the time. She said, "No, Mom, YOU'RE with me all the time." This is true, too.

Get your Game Face on!

Or at least a few gameday dresses out of these fun fabrics! All five of us are going to be in Auburn to tailgate for Clemson game (not going to attempt the actual game, which is at bedtime), and Jake and I are going to the Georgia game, sans little people. We can't wait to see lots of your precious faces those two weekends!

Also coming soon on a Gross girl near you...

How fun are these fabrics? I've got my work cut out for me!

Community Fun

This weekend was the Pigs and Peaches Festival, and our expectations were far exceeded.

We spent about 1 1/2 hours there, and came away with a free BBQ lunch, a free bottle of amazing BBQ marinade, the best (and free-est) Krispy Kreme donut I've ever had,

1/4 peck of peaches from our favorite Blue Ridge orchard (Mercier), one cheek painted,

about 1 hour and 15 min. of free jumping time in various bouncy houses, and three sweaty, happy girls.

Today was the first game of KSU's women's soccer team in their amazing new facility. Jake got free tickets, so we went to the first half with Mimi and Bop Bop.

Abby Jane paid close attention to the soccer, and the babies paid close attention to the free inaugural cups belonging to the people behind us that were in just the right range for grabbing and trying to teethe on...

I'm a big fan of fall, and fall festivities have begun!

Field Day and Visiting Daddy

Another lovely morning at our field yesterday...

We watch human nature acted out in front of us every day...

Today we visited Jake at work- casual Fridays are nice, relaxed days to show up over there with our crew! If we had no family nearby, I would kidnap Jake's office manager, Judy, and take her home with me. She is absolutely precious and loves on all three of our girls every time we visit!Blythe and Joy make themselves at home crawling all over Daddy...

and his office!

And look who was sitting up in her crib when I went in to get them up from their naps this morning! Her first time to go from lying down to sitting up on her own. Sweet Joy!

Tonight Jake and I are off to our biannual CPOMC (Cobb Parents of Multiples Club) consignment sale date! Get excited! Seriously.

Points of Reference

Sandy said I should blog this. I think I will, but don't make too much fun.

I believe there's no reason not to get your kids to eat really healthily from the start- the less junk you introduce, the less they know they're missing out on. For instance, if Abby Jane wants a treat, the way she usually asks for it is, "Can I have a _____ after my vegetables?" because she knows that's a non-negotiable every night.

Makes me feel like a veggie Nazi.

But she doesn't know that that's not how kids normally ask for treats.

SOO yesterday morning, Abby Jane's mid-morning snack was banana she dipped in toasted flaxseed (you can get it at Trader Joe's).

Then for lunch, another recipe from Deceptively Delicious, and definitely the most "out there" in the book... tofu nuggets. Now Jane LOVES tofu burgers, but the reason this whole thing is notable is that the binder from the tofu to the breading part is a PEA PUREE. It totally does not look pretty. But the kid eats them like they're her last meal. No, I will not post a photo.

So it all comes back to your kid's point of reference. She thinks this is normal eating.

Someday, she'll find out that it is not. But as long as I can keep her liking the healthy stuff, I will.

Now, to poke fun at myself, I will show the following pictures of my kids, courtesy of my sister. She says my kids are orange. I always thought Abby Jane was just tan in California, and I think that was part of it as we practically lived outdoors, but I asked the doctor about Blythe and Joy's coloring on Monday... and she said she noticed, too, and that it wasn't a bad thing.

She said their slightly orange tint is due to their vegetable intake- of all colors, not just yellows and oranges.

So these are so you can laugh at my orange, veggie-filled children (Abby Jane at her 10 month Christmas)

A pic from Jodi from 4th of July weekend- check out the twins' coloring in comparison to Maggie...

Now that I've written all that, I'm thinking that what Sandy wanted me to post was the tuna wrap I told her about. See, this is what happens when I should have gone to bed when Jake did two hours ago. Anywho, this tuna was easy and awesome- we skipped the olives b/c I had none on hand.

How's that for a random post?