Micken after a bath

This is Micken (Evelyn) after a bath tonight. She loves to grab her toes and can even pull them up to her mouth. My sister got a hilarious picture of her with her toe in her mouth the other day.

I love how she is beginning to fill out. She's eating some solid food now and is catching up to Rowan. At their doctor's visit last Thursday, Evey weighed 14lbs 1 oz, and Rowan weighed 15lbs 9 oz. Rowan is 26 1/2 inches long and is in the 75% for her age. Evey is 25 1/4 inches long and is in the 50% for her age. Both girls had their DTAP and Rotovirus vaccines, as well as their flu shots. Rowan didn't cry at all.

Both girls are healthy and are doing well. I can't believe they are 6 months old already. They are really happy babies. They laugh all the time and are very silly. They will laugh at everything. Evey looks so serious when she's not smiling so people always comment that she must be the serious one. But really she laughs so much at such random things that she can't possibly be "the serious one." Both girls are especially fond of dogs. Rowan gets so excited to pet the dog that she can hardly stand it. She'll squeal and grab at the air while her whole body jumps.

Both girls are trying to crawl. Rowan can push herself backwards, but she can't go forward yet. Evey is very good at moving in a circle. She has a lot of fine motor skills. She can hold her own bottle very well and she can pick up small objects. The girls like to pick up their pacifiers and they also like to steal each others. I've also seen them both pull each others' hair if they get a chance. But mostly they seem to enjoy being close. They will hold hands off and on while they eat in their high chairs and they play together a lot. Its very cute.

I play a lot of games with the girls. We've been working on "contrasts." So I'll hold the baby up to the mirror really close and say, "near" then move back a bit and say "far"--in a kind of a Grover Sesame Street kind of way. They love it and laugh like crazy. I do this over and over in English and Spanish. And the same thing with up and down. The girls like watching themselves in the mirror. We're also learning about "off" and "on" with the light switches. Lately I've been going over parts of the face. With the baby clutching my finger, I'll touch my nose with their fist and say, "nose", then mouth, eyes, ears, etc. They always laugh at my ears. I don't know if they're trying to tell me something...

Everything is a game around here. And we sing lots of songs and read books. My girls, of course, must know all of the Texas songs, old cowboy songs, and summer camp songs. Andre loves to play the chanter for them. They love it too and will listen to him very calmly. The only time I've ever heard Evelyn protest is when he plays "Rowan Tree" (which is the song Rowan was named after). Here's a picture of Rowan with her dad after her bath tonight.

We're having so much fun with the girls. They are such wonderful little people.