madcap recap

Annnnd it's catch-up time again here on the Hewitt blog. Rather than try to sum up our lives in the past month and a half, I'll rely on pictures...

When we were down in Beevile just before Christmas, Grandad built the twins a swing. Lily loves swinging so much that she can barely stand it when they come up in conversation.

Noah opted for a stroll--er, crawl--along the boards Grandad stacked for him to play on.

Gemma, Noah, and cousin Elijah

Some of the Christmas takings...

Elijah, practicing his Texish:

Standing around while Christmas tree shopping, and the salesperson just happened to snap a picture...

Enjoying more Christmas spoils...

Noah's really good at defying gravity. Or I just don't know how to rotate a picture.

Back at home, dressed in Christmas trappings:

Christmas morning festivities almost didn't make it past the stockings, once the youngun's realized there were suckers sticking out of the top. "SUCK! SUCK!" demands Lily:

"TEET! NAANEE!!" exclaims Noah:

Lily demonstrates the proper way to eat pumpkin pie: Scrape off the cool-whip, and toss the rest.

Noah, on the other hand (literally), demonstrates his pumpkin-pie-on-a-stick technique.

This is how you do it, right?

Winterwear, for the bone-chilling 50-degree weather:

New non-infant hooded towels, which the twins call "hats". Butterfly:

...and frog:

In early January, we headed up to Michigan for my brother Michael's wedding. Contrary to my fears, the twins did really well on the plane--no freak-outs, vomiting, or other excitement for us. Mother Nature celebrated our arrival with record-breaking lake-effect snowfall. No kidding. 38 inches over three days. Early in the frozen precipitation melee, I took the kids outside for some winter revelry. We gleefully celebrated...

...made snow angels...

...and trudged around in the snow for about 3 more minutes before giving up completely. The kiddos were fascinated by the snow until they touched it, and it was COLD.

As far as the rest of the trip (like the wedding), I am severely lacking in photographs. But it was beautiful and very happy, and we're glad we were able to go!

small wonder

So we're not really potty training at the Hewitt house, but the level of potty awareness is fairly high these days. Mostly, this means that Scott and I get applause for using the restroom, as well as a couple of eager toilet-flushing assistants. And every evening before getting into the tub, the kiddos insist on having a seat in their potty chairs and attempting to go "tee-tee".

The results have been fairly hysterical, if a bit lackluster in the success department. Noah usually sits for about two seconds, then gets up and inspects the bowl of the potty--to no avail of course. I'm not sure how that child is ever going to have the patience to execute a complete tinkle.

Lily, on the other hand, has had a bit more success--she's actually managed to pee in the potty several times. She seems to think that peeing involves a great deal of straining and grunting, which usually yields little but some stifled giggles from Mommy. But for the past four nights in a row, she's gotten an added bonus:

At the risk of being a little too vulgar, I give you the Tiniest Turd Ever... version 4.0. She's made a similar-sized creation four nights in a row, and it's really cracking me up. Now that I know she's figured out at least something related to bodily functions, I need to start getting her on the toilet during her regular poo times. Too bad we're leaving for Michigan in three days... maybe once we get back, though!

In completely unrelated cuteness, the babies are beginning to understand that we need to be quiet when someone is sleeping. Sort of. Mostly this involves barging into the bedroom when Daddy is asleep after working all night, pointing at him, and then spitting "SSSSCCCCHHHHH!!" as loudly as possible with a finger to their lips.

Noah is especially aware that people's eyes are closed when they are sleeping, and that some of our favorite books feature sleeping animals and people. He points out aaaaallll the figures with closed eyes and sprays them with his "SSSSSCCCCHHH!!". Every one. Unfortunately, since mommy likes Sandra Boynton books which feature many dancing animals, and Ms. Boynton feels that animals tend to dance with their eyes closed, this is a lot of spitting.

And sometimes Mommy can barely stop giggling enough to finish the story...