Happy Hannukah and a Major Announcement!

Happy Twins at the Children's Museum

Hi, everyone! Happy Hannukah to all of our Jewish friends and family! We celebrated the first night of Hannukah at Grammy's house last night, and had a wonderful time. Ross was mesmerized by the candles on the menorah, and after we finished singing the blessings, he was still chanting and singing in his tiny little voice. Riley was much more ready to be finished with the candles and start eating. The boys both had their first potato latkes (pancakes) and thoroughly enjoyed them. Between the menorah, dinner, and exchanging gifts, we didn't have time to get any pictures, but I promise you that all three boys looked adorable!

We also had a great time this weekend at the Children's Museum. We went with Grammy, Reid, Aunt Lys and Uncle Marc, and Uncle Marc's parents, who were in town visiting for the weekend. All three boys played and explored until they were exhausted! It was so much fun to see them all have such a good time, and Uncle Marc managed to get lots of great pictures.

And now for the major announcement: Ross took his first independent steps today! (I am totally weepy and emotional about this....my 2lb 8oz miracle is WALKING!!!) He has been holding onto my hands and going for 8-10 steps before he wants to get down and crawl. His DAFO's (braces) really do seem to help him with his balance. Then, today he took a couple of steps on his own during his PT session. Unfortunately, I was not home to see the big event, but I will try to catch it on video to share with all of you over the next couple of days. He has also invented a new mode of transportation for himself! For the past few days, he has been waiting until Riley starts to commando crawl, and then he has been climbing up onto his back and "riding" Riley across the room. He giggles the whole time and is clearly quite proud of himself for coming up with the idea!

Riley seems to be in a bit of a holding pattern with his gross motor development right now and hasn't been making a lot of gains lately. He is still working on crawling with his belly up off the floor, rather than commando crawling. (I don't really think that carrying his brother on his back is going to help him get his belly up, so maybe I should start discouraging Ross from riding him, huh?) He has been having fun inventing some new games to play with me. He likes to "hide" against my shoulder when I am holding him, and when I say "Where's Riley?" he whips his little head around and smiles at me, like "Here I am!" If I ask him where his head is, he reaches up with both hands and grabs his head and beams at me. Very cute.