A few of their favorite things...

Three and a half months, and they are beginning to show distinct preferences for certain toys. And not only do they seem so old when playing in this mature way, but they are quite cute (of course). The most adorable are the way they interact with their preferred stuffed animals. When given her lion, Cora loves to run her fingers along its mane, and to gently feel its fur (it also does wonders to help her get to sleep). If you hold the bunny in front of Evaline, she'll bring both of her arms up and encircle it and bring it in for a hug (as with Cora and her lion, this bunny is a great sleep/comfort tool).

It's been fun to watch them begin to interact with the "outside" world. The green and red ball (pictured below) seems to be a particularly great toy (thanks Steph!!) - its super easy to grasp, and they've begun to switch hands with it and pick it up off the floor independently of us!

Here's the evidence:

Cora with her lion:


Evaline with her bunny:


Cora with her rattle:


Evaline with her keys:


And the girls with the aforementioned ball (Cora first, then Evaline):

And if the title of this post is "favorite things," we should probably include one of our favorite things...some bellies, just for fun:

Et tu, Evaline?

Not to be outdone by her sister, Evaline decided to roll over today! Prior to last night, she performed during tummy time like a newborn - wouldn't pick her head up, even the slightest bit, for anything. Last night she decided that she would not only pick it up, but pick it up and hold it just as well as Cora ever has. This morning she decided that not only would she pick her head up, but she'd go ahead and roll over, too. She rolled over about four times this morning (when we didn't have the camera nearby), but she did it again this afternoon...and I caught most of it on tape (or, rather, memorycard). The footage only shows the last half of the roll - from her side to her back, but I swear that we laid her full on her tummy. I will post better footage when our camera-shy girl allows it.

For a sampling of her progress, here is her yesterday morning:

And last night:

And then straight to the roll-over. I'm such a proud mama.

Rollin', Rollin', Rollin'...

Cora is a-rollin'! What an exciting day! Cora rolled over for the first time today; she's gone from her tummy to her back, both to the left and to the right! She's rolled several times today, and luckily I had the camera near by. Here is a video of the third time she rolled:

The girls have actually been pretty busy learning new tricks here lately. (Cora's rolling over is probably the newest and most exciting, though.) They are both pretty much sleeping through the night. More times than not, Cora will sleep until 5:30 or 6 am. We usually bathe/feed them sometime around 7:30, then wake them up for a late feeding at 10:00. Last night, however, we decided not to wake Cora since she'd been taking so little at those feedings lately, and she slept until 6:30! then went back to sleep until 8:15! Evaline will often still wake up sometime around 4, but about half the time will make it to around 5:30 or 6!

It also appears that they might be starting to notice one another a little bit. We've caught Evaline watching her sister on a few occasions. I can't wait to see how this relationship develops. :-)

I thought there was something else to report as well...but it escapes me at the moment. If I think of it, I'll post again. :-) In the meantime, here are some pictures:

Evaline sitting...I didn't get the camera ready quite quick enough and she wasn't too interested after this:

Cora sitting...the camera was ready this time:

Cora, ready to roll...

And last but not least, the girls turned three months last Thursday (2/12). Comparison pics can be found here.

Busy, busy, busy...

We have broken out of our shell! Last Saturday we ventured out into public - a restaurant at the Amana's with Ian's extended family. The girls behaved beautifully. It was their first time out of the house that wasn't to the doctor's or Grandma/Grandpa's. There was no crying, no fussing, and only one dirty diaper (and thank goodness it wasn't Cora - see pics from a couple posts back if you don't understand the meaning behind the italics). It went so well, in fact, that we decided to make a similar performance today. Only today it was just Ian and me. We first went to a class that the hospital where we delivered has once a month for new parents, and then - since everyone was on their best behavior - we went out to dinner. What a treat! It was almost like we were real people again!

At the class thingy they weighed the girls. Cora was 11 lbs 11 oz, and Evaline was 10 lbs 3 oz. I can't believe how much they have grown...even though the two-month-old next to us was bigger than Evaline :-) (The girls will be three months on Thursday.)

We've taken quite a few photos recently...here are the highlights:

Here I am reading to the girls. They aren't paying any attention yet, but I figure I might as well start them young.


My great-grandma knitted these hats before she passed away a few years ago. I love the way they make the girls look like little 1950s babies!


Cora and Evaline watching us make dinner in their "bumbo" chairs (thanks to John and Megan!!)


Ian likes the smug/arrogant smile on Cora in this picture. (I think it reminds him of himself.)

Cora, almost smiling....

Here it is! (Notice the hair...we'll have to wait and see, but I think she might be a red-head!)

The girls are in the habit of being fussy (read: screaming their heads off) every evening from about 5 to 6 pm. When they take breaks from the screaming, though, they have very cute pouty faces, as pictured below.

What do you think???

My friend Katie put something like this up on her blog, and I liked the idea. So...what do you think - do these girls look Ian or me or neither or both?


Baby Ian:



Baby Merry:



Baby Evaline:



Baby Cora:

Gray squirrel, gray squirrel, swish your bushy tail...

Ok, so the squirrel wasn't gray. It was brown with a black face and paws. But it definately had a bushy tail. And it was definately scurrying all over my house.

Ian was away grading papers this morning (as he always seems to be when exciting things happen), and the girls and I had a little visitor. I heard a noise like someone moving around downstairs and went to investigate. Next thing I know a big, fat squirrel (we live in an old part of town with lots of walnut and oak trees...these squirrels are seriously obese) was running up and down the screens in our bay window at the top of the stairs. After a startling scream, my mama-bear instincts kicked in and I made sure my little cubs were safely locked in the bedroom and proceeded to chase the squirrel down the stairs and out the front door. I would have loved to have been a fly on the wall watching that one. The big question remains, however, how the heck did it get in?? We checked the attic, the chimney, the basement...all show no signs of squirrel entry. I imagine this will remain one of the great mysteries of the Petersen family.

In other news...I went back to work this week and I was right: it was bittersweet. I miss my girls and it is sad knowing that I will likely miss many "firsts" with them now (the first roll-over, the first laugh, etc). But I do like my job and I do like getting back into the swing of things. In all honesty, as much I love them I sometimes got a bit bored and longed for grown-up (or at least 15-year-old) conversation. I'm sure this had quite a bit to do with the 10 weeks of bed-rest leading up to their birth. I mean, I love Ian and all...but it is nice to have someone else to talk to.

Evaline and Cora are getting cuter and cuter each day. Today they were in a particularly good mood. For the first time I attempted to shower when I was alone with them. I plopped them both in bouncy seats and went about my business and they were happy and content amusing themselves for over an hour! Such big, mature girlies! We've got some pictures of them below...we were much better the past week or so about getting the camera at the ready for something adorable to happen...and as you can see from the selection below, Cora had a slightly cuter week than Evaline :-)

They may think that tummy time is akin to torture, but as we see here with Cora, it is paying off...

Here are the girls, enthralled by the shower curtain, as I got ready for my bout of squirrel chasing this morning:

Sisterly love...please note the position of Cora's right hand. She didn't put it there. I did. But isn't it cute?

Showing off their grins (Evaline left, Cora right):

Kicking and playing during jammie-time:

Cora - sharing the love:

And finally...Ian made me include this one. We were so amazed that our little girl could produce something so vile, we had to record it for posterity.

More two month stuff...

We had our two-month doctor appointment today, and I was pretty right-on about their weights. Evaline is 8 lbs 2 oz and Cora is 9 lbs 13 oz, which puts Evaline in the 5th percentile for weight and Cora in the 25th...but those numbers don't take into account that they were born three weeks early.

Other exciting news: Cora slept through the night last night!!! From 10 pm to 7 am!! I don't anticipate this becoming routine yet, but this may be a signal that a break is just around the corner.

But the real reason for this posting: Although (as I said in the last post) I didn't take any pictures to purposely show how they are growing, I figured out a way to show this. I have an early picture of the girls in their carseats, and we've just taken another (see below). The best way to really see their size difference is to look at how and where the clasp on the seatbelt hits them. The two-month picture also shows their ever-changing personality/roles as twins. The several weeks preceding this week, Evaline has been a bit of a handful and Cora's been a "textbook" baby. But this week, Evaline is all smiles and fun and Cora...well, you never know with her if she's going to be happy, mad, crying, etc. (In this picture she's about to burst into a rather large crying fit.)

Newborn:

Two months: