Busy week- sharing, words and moving furniture!

Last weekend the girls spent Saturday night at their grandma and grandpa's house in Front Royal while Ben and I went to a concert. On our way to the concert we got stuck in traffic because of the motorcade moving Ted Kennedy's body from the Capitol to Arlington Cemetery. Now, seeing a motorcade like that is not something I would probably ever seek out, but it was an interesting thing to see. I have somewhat of an obsession with the Kennedy family, mainly JFK's assassination, but it has spread somewhat to the rest of that generation of Kennedys. It is hard for me to believe that that generation of Kennedys is almost gone. Teddy was the last brother, but he has been since 1968, and now there is only one sister left. Considering my obsession with the Kennedys, I was actually really excited when we got stopped and realized that we might get to see the motorcade. We saw it from a distance and it wasn't really much to see- just vehicles driving down a road- but it was knowing that it was Ted Kennedy in that hearse that made it something to see. Now one of these days I'm going to have to make the trek to Arlington Cemetery again. I haven't been there in years even though I have been to three funerals there. Anyway, this has nothing to do with the girls, so I'll stop rambling.

The concert we went to see was "The Hold Steady" and they were awesome! If you ever get a chance to see them live- go! Even if you don't really know the music, they just put on an amazing performance. But, back to the girls...

They had a great time up on the mountain and even slept well for my parents. Paige had a little run in with the gravel at the end of my parents' driveway, but she's recovering well from that little scrape. Unfortunately, I don't have any pictures from the girls' weekend with their grandparents, but I know they had fun.

Sunday after the girls came home they decided they wanted to rearrange some furniture. Well, really just one piece- their picnic table. Normally their picnic table is in the living room- on the foam alphabet mat. But Paige and Virginia decided that it should be in the dining room with the other table, so they moved it. It was mainly Paige, but Virginia did help out some. You can see in this picture where the table normally is (on the mat) and, if you look closely, you can see where the table was moved to- on the other side of the dining room table next to the french doors.

Paige moving furniture

We try to teach the girls to share- mainly toys and Mommy- but we really want them to be able to share pretty much everything. There are some things, though, that they don't like to share. One of the things that Virginia does not like to share is her big white bear from her Uncle Lloyd. We have two of these bears that Lloyd gave the girls the first time he came to see them, when they were still in the NICU, but Virginia loves them both and doesn't like it when Paige tries to play with them. One spends all of its time in Virginia's crib, while the other one hangs out in the living room where Virginia can cuddle with it during the day. She actually is holding on to it right now. Here's a picture of her carrying her bear around with her.

Okay, so I said we want the girls to share pretty much everything, right? Well, we mainly want that sharing to go on with one another, but this week they were nice enough to share something with their mommy- their fevers from last week! On Monday I started feeling pretty poorly- my throat hurt and I couldn't seem to stay comfortable- one minute I was hot, the next I was shivering. I took my temperature before dinner and it was 101.0! I took some Tylenol and, thankfully, that took care of my fever, but the next day my throat still really hurt. I stayed home from work on Tuesday (and Wednesday) and my mom came up to watch the girls. My mom encouraged me to go get a strep test done, so I did. My rapid strep test came back negative, but the doctor said that my throat looked like I had strep, so he put me on antibiotics. The antibiotics worked wonders and now I feel like myself again! Somehow I just need to teach the girls to keep their germs to themselves...

Wednesday I stayed home from work so that I wouldn't spread germs to my coworkers and so that I could rest and Ben's mom came over and watched the girls. Here's a picture of Paige curled up on her Mimi's lap.
When my mom came up on Tuesday she brought the girls a bag of new toys from Toys R Us. They love their new toys! She brought toy cell phones for each of the girls and those are their new favorite toys. They carry them around with them and open them and close them and chew on them. Virginia was laying on the floor with hers the other night and I thought she looked way too much like a teenager texting, so I took a picture. Just ignore the fact that the phone is upside down...

And, lastly, words! On Wednesday Ben's mom and I are convinced Paige started to say the word "cat." It's not perfectly clear, but she says it when she sees the cat, so that's definitely what she's trying to say. Ben's mom told me that Paige is also trying to say "dog" but that's not nearly as clear as cat. Paige is making a lot more sounds that sound kind of like words, but are not yet words. She's putting consonants and vowels together pretty well. Virginia is still just babbling, but I have a feeling she won't be far behind her sister. These girls may have 3 words by 15 months after all!