Social Butterflies

This morning I was thinking that we didn't have enough head shots of the babies.  They have just started smiling and I thought I should try to catch that.  Max was smiling widely and adorably, right up until the nanosecond before I snapped this one:

Max 

Daniel was happy, but just too cool to show it:

Daniel

 Caroline did not smile adorably for the picture:

Caroline

but later her Grandpa made her smile for the camera:

Caroline 

We had cousins from both sides of Mommy's family come over to meet the babies.  Mommy loves showing the babies off, but she loves when the visitors help feed the babies even more!

Cousin Patty feeds Max
(check out his adorable SOCKS!)

Caroline falls asleep while Grandpa feeds her

Daniel tries to smile for the camera even as Cousin Ruth feeds him

 After the feeding, everyone had to have a little activity:

Max shows off how he can sit up in his "big boy" Bumbo chair while Daniel works out on the activity mat

 As I walked the last of the visitors out, there was a package on the steps - additions to the babies' wardrobes sent all the way from Wisconsin by the Taschners!  While the clothes won't fit the 'teenies for a while, the truly amazing muckluck boots slid halfway up their little calves and warmed their tootsies on this cold, cold day.

Sporting some fancy boots from the Taschners

Daniel is definitely a fan of the boots

Did I say it was cold? Not only cold, it was also rainy.  In the afternoon, Auntie LeeAnn came to visit and the babies were nice and slept all the way until their assigned feeding time a full FOUR HOURS after the previous one!  That's right - we're trying to start sleep training the babies.  They're nearly 10 weeks old and just about 10 pounds and it's time to start getting them on a schedule so that, maybe, just maybe, they'll be used to it by the time I go back to work in January.

The system calls for getting them up to four hours between feedings, which means they have to eat more, which they're doing.  The second and third feedings went well.  The fourth was a bit of a challenge.  We had to do about an hour and a half of tap dancing to keep them distracted from their mounting hunger and annoyance.  

Of course, that might have had something to do with the fact that they went out in their very first rainstorm today.  It was just a little drippy on the way out, but while we were at our destination the storm developed into a full thunder and lightning show, illuminating the windows and startling the babies.  Startling them so much that it seemed to literally scare the poop out of Daniel, who had to be quickly changed right before we headed home.  On the way from the car to the house the huge, splotchy raindrops pelted them and they did not return home nearly as rested as they usually do.  And yet they still made it four whole hours before the next feeding without a major meltdown!  

Fingers crossed progress continues.