Four going on FIVE

My girl, Victoria, turned four on Wednesday of last week. Yet, she was telling everyone that she'll be turning five soon.

 2012-5-20

Please don't turn five, yet. Turning four already made my heart melt. Where has the time gone?

We had cupcakes in a neighborhood park.

 2012-5-20

She really didn't need any instructions on blowing out the candle.

 2012-5-20

She certainly wasn't doing that on her own this time last year.

 2012-5-20

Her sister was present. She and her sister would have consumed ALL the cupcakes (all FORTY-EIGHT of them), if we had turned our backs.

 2012-5-20

And plenty of friends came to celebrate with us.

And Grandma was able to make it, too!

Happy, happy birthday, dear, sweet, beloved Victoria.

2012-5-20

She's been asking me why birthdays are so short.

Telling her that birthdays are only one day out of many, many days in a year, does not seem to suffice.

In which the twins sample rice cereal for the first time

The day before yesterday, Monday the 14th, the twins tried rice cereal for the first time. Mixed with freshly expressed breast milk. Actually worked better than the girls' first time with rice cereal; fewer dirty looks and more of it was consumed. I'm chalking it up to using freshly expressed breast milk, instead of frozen breast milk or water, mixed with the baby rice cereal.

First to try was Christine.

 2012-5-14

And then Christian.

 2012-5-12

 

Thank you very much to my dear friend Amy, for helping me document their first rice cereal tasting.

Jump!

 The girls were invited to a birthday party for a boy who is a day or two older than my second born. The party was yesterday, at Jump Street. A father-to-be, whom I saw later, at a graduation party, asked how I could be tired, since the children were the ones doing the running and jumping. Just you wait, dude. Once you are a parent, you will see. Or, uh, maybe it's just me.

My girls had a grand time. That's all that matters. My girls were running around and jumping like monkeys.

 2012-5-13

Jump! Jump!!

Victoria couldn't have enough of sliding down the shark.

A lovely neighbor and her younger son.

 2012-5-13

And friends who were eager to assist in holding the twins, after lunch.

 2012-5-13

Like I said, Victoria couldn't get enough of sliding down the shark. She LOVED it.

 2012-5-13

Time to exercise and be limber

 My children have been limber from an extremely young age. When Isabella was learning to sit up on her own, if memory serves correctly, she would lay on her belly and gradually bring her legs from behind her towards her front, into a sitting position. Victoria was also extremely flexible. Now, her body's growing and she's trying to figure out, almost on a daily basis for the last week , what her body can and cannot do. At times, she's a bit clumsy, because her body is growing so quickly. Christine is also growing at her own pace and milestones. She's busy trying to make contact and touch everything around her.

Here, Victoria's copying her big sister in exercising.

 2012-4-27

 Isabella's merrily showing off some of the exercises she's been learning in physical education in kindergarten.

 2012-4-27

And making her youngest sister laugh.

 2012-4-27

Christine and Christian regularly practice flying, by lifting their hands and feet off the ground simultaneously. However, I must say, such an activity makes moving and reaching desired objects a bit more difficult. But, I think Christine has figured that one out.

2012-4-27