The Secret's Path

Ben and Nikki have been busy over the past couple of months. Some of their new achievements are:

- Rolling over from their backs to their tummies. They are experts at this.
- Ben is/has been an expert at rolling over from his tummy to his back. Nikki is still working on this skill
- Talking. Both are very vocal. Ben has finally found and mastered his inside voice.
- Grabbing objects with both hands.
- Putting objects in their mouths.
- They have both found their feet and enjoy sucking on their toes.
- Eating solid foods.

Some of the things on which they are still working:

- While on their tummies, they can push themselves up into a push-up position. They can occasionally tuck their knees under their butts.
- They can stand for short periods (5 seconds or less) with minimal help from mom and dad. We help only with balance.
- We believe they are beginning to learn their names. We think it is a little more confusing for them since there are two babies.
- Petting the dogs. Nikki absolutely loves the dogs. She stares at them whenever they are around, and she loves to try to pet them.

Likes and dislikes:
Ben:
- Dislikes going sleep and waking up.
- Likes being swung around in the air.
- Likes going for walks/runs.
- Likes bathtime.
- Does not like feeding time to be interrupted for any reason.

Nikki:
- Likes being swung around in the air.
- Likes going for walks/runs.
- Is starting to like bathtime.
- Loves anything that involves food.
- Dislikes strangers. She would much rather be held by mom or dad.
- Likes the dogs. (Not that Ben doesn't like the dogs, he just doesn't seem too interested in them yet)

We're back! It was a great trip... so relaxing. I think everyone had a good time. The ride home was a little rough (Ben didn't like being in the car for that long), but, overall, it was a nice vacation.

Our friends Tiffany and Russ came over with their son, Zeke, for a night. It was good to see them again. He is a bundle of energy. It gave us an idea of what we're in for in a couple of years (he's 20 months old). Yikes. After they left, I realized I did not get any pictures of them! Oops!


Family footprints in the sand--Joe's is on the left, mine is on the right, Nikki's are above mine, and Ben's right foot prints are the scratch marks above Joe's foot print.

We left for our first family vacation on Saturday afternoon. After lots of driving and an overnight stay in a random hotel in South Carolina, we arrived in Daytona Beach yesterday.

We plan on doing nothing other than lounging and relaxing. So far, it's been exactly that. We did have to go to the store to get some supplies (peanut butter--a must for us, bagels, cereal...) and swimmie diapers for the kids.

Why do babies like the water so much? I am not sure, but for some reason, all kids love the water, regardless of their age. Even Nikki, who doesn't much care for baths, Loved the pool. That's with a capital "L." After spending roughly half an hour smearing them with sunscreen, putting on their swimmies, and packing our beach bag, we ventured out to the pool for some fun. We spent about 10 minutes in the kiddie pool before we were bombarded with little kids who were fascinated by our babies. So, we switched to the adult pool.

Both Ben and Nikki loved the pool. We spent almost 30 minutes in the water before calling it quits. Ben wasn't as excited as Nikki, but he had just woken from a nap before we went out. Nikki splashed around a lot, kicked her feet, splashed with her arms, tried to grab the bubbles, watched the waves, water, her feet, our feet, and whatever else she could see. She giggled almost non-stop. Ben managed to do some splashing, but he was generally still tired and was content to have Joe do most of the playing for him.

Afterwards, we had to go directly back to our room so that the kids could take a nap. That was almost 2 hours ago, and they are still sleeping. It sure didn't take much to wear them out!

(Silly me, I forgot to bring my cord to transfer pictures to the computer, so I'll have to share them later.)

Can you spot the baby?


Ben has mastered the art of playing with the dangling ball. Also, he finally found an inside voice!