ABCs and 123s and sitter-uppers and the Zoo!

Look how proud he is!

Chad won two toys at school- one for knowing all of his letters, and one for knowing the numbers 1-20. I don't know how the test went down, or how he got them all, because whenever I try quizzing him on letters, he just says, "I don't know!" and gives up. I guess he stepped up his game when their were some plastic objects on the line. Or maybe his current BFF Mason was whispering the answers to him. He's also suddenly gotten good at telling you what letter words start with, instead of just guessing. AND, most of the time he can spell his name, although occasionally the H gets dropped.

He also had his first very supervised walk on the treadmill, because he wanted to try walking on the incline, and I figured letting him do it for two minutes would get me running on it quicker than arguing about it.

That treadmill is awfully dusty, but we really do use it all the time. Also, I think the contrast was overly edited in this picture, because our walls are not that yellow.

Theo and Natalie can't spell their names yet, but they've been busy learning things as well.
Here they are using one of their favorite inherited toys.

If you have a baby, you should have a music table.

And they have since graduated to playing with it sitting up unassisted. Natalie can sort of stand to play with it, but you have to be careful to catch her when she decides to just plop down.

Aren't they cute little sitters?

We sold tons and tons of outgrown baby paraphernalia at the Moms of Multiples sale. I was very insulted that not all of my maternity clothes sold, because I thought they were quite stylish and priced to sell. We sold our swing, an older car seat, their Boppy Lounger and sooo many boys clothes. (But not the cutest stuff, because that is getting shipped to Baby Klepeis!) It was fun to work at the sale  and I came away with lots of ca$h! And even better, I snagged some stellar finds to fill the voids of the old stuff. First, I got Chad the most wonderful birthday present there! I can't tell you what it is yet, because Chad doesn't know about it, and that just wouldn't be fair. But he is going to lose his mind when he sees it. (We'll make a video when he gets it.)
I also got Natalie her very first pair of boots!!!

Plus some overly-girly outfits like this one:

And yes, I sent her to school in it. Take that, Aida and Addison!

I bought her a Halloween costume, but I don't think I can actually use it. It was supposed to be a flower, but when I put it on her she looked more like a pastel lion.

Doesn't that look just ridiculous? I considered just drawing some whiskers on her and using it, but then Chad and I found a cheap replacement, so she has something cuter for her first Halloween.

Theo fits into Chad's old devil costume. It's so adorable on him.

Chad is going to be what every other 3-6-year-old boy in the country is going to be, at least judging by the difficulty I had with finding a place to order his request. Stay tuned for that...

The babies are getting pretty good at eating purees, with all the credit going to their teachers at school for this one. I've tried offering them Cheerios, but they have zero interest in that.

Pumpkin for dinner!

Yesterday we went to the zoo! The babies were really, really good the whole day. They let us see every exhibit in the Africa section, even taking time to see the monkeys, lemurs and lions twice before we left. They even hung out peacefully while Chad rode the carousel and took in the 4D Rio movie with Andy.

As you probably could have guessed, Chad has extensive knowledge on flamingos, which he readily shared with the lady next to him at the aviary.

To the left of the lioness is a pile of four lion cubs (two males and two females). There's a contest to name them, and names have to have something to do with Africa. Chad is the name of a country in Africa, so that's what I entered. Along with Mo(zambique), Mali and Sierra (Leone).

Andy is really good at finding wildlife in strange places. Like, scary good. Go on a nature hike with him sometime, and he will knock your socks off. He found this parrot hiding above us.

The dinosaur exhibit has moved on, but we saw giant moving bugs instead.

And then some real bugs like scorpions, tarantulas and the most disgusting giant centipede ever in the history of centipedes.

Happy end of September!