Morning Routine

Every morning Shilah eats cereal at her little table and turns on her laptop computer. It's really neat-- it has a little mouse, along with different letter and number games. She can recognize almost all the letters of the alphabet! We're working on numbers lately. If we ask her to do something while she's on her computer, she says, "Shilah's working!" :)

Serena Crawling: Live from Conifer!

Here are a couple of videos of Serena. In the first one she's trying very hard to crawl to the ball. Shilah thinks the sounds Serena is making are coming from the camera and she wants to hear :)
In the second video, Serena crawls towards her toy! By this time, Shilah has lost interest and tends to her baby.

Serena is Crawling!

Serena started crawling today! As you can see, she's very proud of herself!

















"Look at me!"

















Crawling is hard work...

Playgroup at the Zoo

Shilah, Serena and I met our playgroup at the zoo this morning. Although the girls don't look too excited in this picture, they had a lot of fun!

Here's Shilah with two of her friends from playgroup...

The first exhibit we saw was the lions-- how majestic! What was even more cool is the lion started to roar which made the lioness roar too!

It was neat to see the kangaroo hopping towards us!

Shilah's main request was to see the hippos. If only life was this relaxing...

Shilah enjoyed watching the deer "kiss" each other...

Frosty the Snowman

Here's Shilah next to a snowman we built (Serena was sleeping in her carseat nearby). The great thing about Colorado is even if it snows a lot, usually the next day is beautiful! This snowman melted pretty quickly, and Shilah kept asking "Where's Frosty?"
Well, as the song goes, "He'll be back again someday!"

Happy eater

Serena continues to do well with solid foods! Below this picture is a video right after her first experience with yams. Her facial expressions crack us up!

Serena the Scooter

I sat Serena down in the kitchen the other day, then I turned around & she had scooted a few inches over to the dishwasher! So it won't be long now until she goes from scooting to crawling. Here she is just being happy...

Wrestling with Daddy!

Shilah loves to wrestle with her daddy after dinner! Here's a cute video of them, with Serena watching. It's a great way to get Shilah tired for bedtime :)

Speaking of Shanti, we just added a link on our blog that takes you to another blog of Shanti's papers & publications: http://shantipubs.blogspot.com/2008/02/current-publications.html

Fun with Daddy!

Shilah and Serena look forward to daddy coming home so they can play! Shanti does a great job playing with them after dinner on those days when I need a little break.

Bath Time!

It's nice that Serena is at an age where she can take a bath with Shilah! That way it's double the fun (and double the splashing). Plus it's a good way to save water!

Dinner Time!

Last night Shilah helped to make a dish called "The Enchanted Broccoli Forest" (which is also the name of the cookbook from which we got the recipe). It's broccoli spears "planted" in herbed rice pilaf. Yum! We ate it with tofu "crab" cakes. I try to make one or two new recipes per week, and then type up the ones that we like. If you'd like to see my collection of vegetarian recipes, just send me an email!

7 Months

Serena turned 7 months old today!

Potty Time!

Shilah has been doing a great job on the potty, and has finally been going #2! Way to go, Shilah!
(I never in a million years thought I'd be this excited about poop...)

Happy Valentine's Day!

Here are the girls in some heart-themed outfits...




















Shilah made Valentine cards for her playgroup this past Monday. It was really cute to see her hand them out to her little friends!

6 Month Stats

Although Serena is nearly 7 months, she had her 6 month check-up yesterday. I kept having to postpone it because she kept having runny noses on the day of the appointment (kids should be "well" to have their immunizations). Actually both girls have coughs and runny noses, but I took Serena in anyways (so I need to take her back for her shots). Anyways, she weighs 15 pounds, 4 ounces and is just below the 50th percentile. The doctor said she jumped up a curve on the growth chart! He also said Serena has good head control for her age, and that overall she's doing great. Way to go, Serena!

Mr. Tinkles

Here is our cat Tinkles-- we took him in as a stray when we lived in Golden about 7 years ago. He's a pretty old cat, at least 15 we think. Tinks has some issues that come with getting old, including a leaky bladder. Ha ha-- his name has nothing to do with his bladder actually... we named him after the evil kitty from the movie Cats and Dogs since they look alike. We've been keeping an eye on him to make sure he's not having too much discomfort, but so far he keeps bouncing back!

Schedules

Well, I think I've finally gotten Serena on a feeding schedule! She's been eating solid foods between nursings, about 2-3 times per day at about the same time. This is kind of nice since I can plan around that, but it's also nice since Serena is pretty flexible too.

















Prunes are yummy but pretty messy...















"Applesauce isn't my favorite..."













Serena also seems to be on a pretty consistent napping schedule, which is amazing since we are on the go so much! She has a fairly short morning nap (probably because we are usually out & about in the mornings with Jazzercise or playgroup). Then she will usually take a long nap at about the same time Shilah naps. I'm not sure how I managed to coordinate that, but I'm not complaining!
Still working on sleeping through the night...

Back Home in Beautiful Colorado

Shanti got back yesterday from a trip to Pittsburgh. He was part of a training session for a medical group on making hospitals more energy efficient. So he has been giving lots of presentations recently on energy efficiency! Below is a link to a website on Greensburg, the town on which Shanti is doing the most work right now.
http://www.greensburggreentown.org/
Also below is a picture of the sunrise from our deck...

Singing & Dancing

Below is a series of videos of Shilah singing & dancing to various kid songs. Enjoy!

Itsy Bitsy Spider

Wheels on the Bus

Shake Your Sillies Out

Super Bowl Sadness

We went to Gabe & Andrea's house to watch the Super Bowl, and of course we're all a little sad the Patriots lost. But Shilah and Serena had fun hanging out with their uncles, aunts, & cousin!

Serena with Uncle Keith and Aunt Lauren













Shilah with Aunt Andrea & Cousin Emory
















The girls with Shanti and Uncle Gabe... notice how the guys couldn't take their eyes off the TV!

Daddy's Girls

Below is a link to an article about the rebuilding of Greensburg, Kansas. Shanti has been traveling there a lot as an energy efficiency consultant. Shanti was interviewed for the article, but unfortunately didn't make the cut. We love him anyways!
http://www.time.com/time/world/article/0,8599,1709542,00.html

Playing

Here's Serena in one of her favorite Christmas presents-- an exersaucer! And Shilah still enjoys playing with her dolls.

Getting Stronger

Serena loves to pull herself up to standing with our help! On the other hand, she really dislikes being on her belly, so she doesn't roll over very often. Instead, she's getting ready for crawling by reaching for something and going onto her hands and knees from a sitting position. The last picture is one of Shilah in a similar stance at about exactly the same age as Serena (6 and a half months).