Climbing Furniture & Harry Potter

Silliness has prevailed in the Lim household the last two nights, much as it does many nights with our two girls.

First, Caroline learned to climb into our recliner chair two nights ago -- her first official climb into furniture. It's no surprise, of course, that Caroline the Fearless would be the first to climb furniture.

Once in the chair, Caroline spent the remainder of the night climbing in and out of the chair. The climbing out we need to work on -- she still insists on trying to dive head first out of the chair.

Caroline the Fearless Climbs Her First Piece of Furniture(click on photo for larger view)

Success!(click on photo for larger view)

Then tonight, Katherine found these Harry Potter glasses I received at the midnight book debut of the last Harry Potter book. Somehow, the glasses were at the bottom of a toy basket, and Katherine found them.

We put them on her, thinking she'd rip them off. Turns out she loves wearing them, and carried them around for a good part of the night asking us to put them on her after they'd fall off (her nose isn't big enough to hold up the glasses!).

I can't wait until the girls are old enough for me to read Harry Potter to them, they are great books.

Harry Potter Must Not Return to Hogwarts!(click on photo for larger view)

My Brown Eyed Girls

"Do you remember when we used to sing,

Sha la la la la la la la la la la te da"

- Van Morrison

"Brown Eyed Girl"

Driving the girls to daycare Wednesday morning, I was pretty tired. The girls had given us a long night. Then they had fussed over getting dressed for daycare. Then they cried when I put them in their car seats.

As I was driving across the bridge, Van Morrison's song came on the radio.

When the chorus was sung, "Sha la la la la la la la la la la te da" the girls laughed and clapped their hands madly.

I went from being pretty tired and cranky to being pretty happy pretty quickly. Nothing like seeing your girls happy to remind you about the joys of parenthood.

First Word

This is big news, so no preamble necessary:

Katherine said her first word this weekend.

It happened on Saturday morning, just as the household was waking up.

Now, the girls have been saying "Ma ma" and "Da Da" for some time now. However, since they are as likely to call the refrigerator "Ma ma" or the car "Da da", we are not officially calling those phrases their first words.

And for a while now, the girls have been using the proper inflections on certain exclamations. "Uh-oh" has been around for a while.

But Saturday morning was the first official, "no doubt about it" word from Miss Katherine.

Katherine and I were laying on the couch in the living room. She was looking out of our patio door at our cat Tabby, who was sitting by the door waiting for her food.

I remarked to Katherine as I have for the past few months, "Look, Katherine, it's your kitty cat, Tabby."

Katherine replied, "Kee Ka!"

Not sure I heard right, I asked her, "What did you say?"

Katherine obligingly repeated, "Kee Ka!"

For the rest of the weekend, she would seek out Tabby any time she saw her outside, and would alternately call her "Da da!" or "Kee Ka!"

In hindsight, it's no surprise that kitty cat is her first word. Katherine LOVES looking at Tabby, and Tabby seems equally interested in Katherine.

Congrats to our little girl on her first official "word". I sure the flood gates are open now!

Katherine with her "Kee Ka" Tabby(click on photo for larger view)

Caroline the Fearless

It is amazing how the girls continue to develop unique personalities, even though they are twins. People expect them to be the same, and I admit I was one of them before they were born. But each day they prove that they are entirely different little girls.

Caroline is fearless. She will walk into a dark room in a strange house just to see what's there. She loves to climb, to grab, to push -- you name it, she'll do it.

Katherine is not afraid, but she is much more cautious. When she sees a dark room, for example, she will come find Mommy or Daddy and take them by the hand and cautiously lead them into the room.

As evidence of Caroline's fearlessness, I present to you the following photo story:

First, in this photo, I caught Caroline trying to squeeze between our coffee table and the wall, after we placed the coffee table as a barrier to prevent the girls from reaching a section of our bedroom. In this photo, she has conveniently gotten STUCK between the table and the wall. True to her fearless nature, she does not cry out immediately, but continues to grunt, and pull, and struggle for a good five minutes, until . . .

(click on photo for larger view)

. . . in this photo, she is admitting defeat, and yelling at me to put down the camera and "COME RESCUE ME!"

(click on photo for larger view)

Finally, in this photo, you have an example of Caroline the Fearless stuck in our laundry basket. She climbs in, but hasn't figured out how to climb out. Rather than cry for help, however, she'll just sit there for a LONG time with that look on her face that pretends, "I could get out if I want to, but I don't, so THERE!"

(click on photo for larger view)

Graphic Injury Caught On Film!

We went to Seattle this weekend for a friends wedding. It was the girls first airplane trip (more on this in a later post).

While at the hotel, the girls had a great time playing in the room.

Over the past two weeks, the amount of time they play together has increased dramatically. Rather than just play NEXT to each other, the girls now chase each other around, share/fight for toys, and generally laugh at each other's silliness.

So in the hotel, they were playing "you chase me, I chase you" (a game they think they invented), when I decided to snap my camera to capture this joyous moment of their infancy.

Let me set the scene for you:

Just as I snapped the photo, Caroline had caught Katherine from behind, and was in the process of pulling her backward by her shirt.

Now mind you, they play this game ALL THE TIME. They are so small, that pulling each other usually results in them falling into each other in a small but harmless heap, both of them laughing hysterically.

They do it at home on HARDWOOD FLOOR and never get hurt.

But this time, as Daddy snapped the photo, as Caroline tugged Katherine back onto her, Katherine's head met Caroline's mouth.

Katherine has a hard head.

Hard head met soft gums.

Soft gums started bleeding.

Quickly.

Profusely.

Laughter turned to crying very quickly.

We rushed over to Caroline. Mouth full of blood.

Her first significant "bleeding" injury.

We rinsed out her mouth, gave her some water, then juice.

Happily, within ten minutes, the girls were back to laughing and playing, "you chase me, I chase you" as if nothing bad had happened.

Daddy went to find a beer.

But later, remembering the photo I took just prior to the injury, I looked at the photo:

First Sports Injury.
(click on photo for larger view)

If you look real closely (or zoom in on Caroline's mouth if you can), you can see the blood.

(By the way, in case you noticed that Katherine is also crying, she was fine. She started crying because Caroline started crying.)

This photo is something of a rarity, I think.

I mean, what parent is going to take the time to take a picture of their child while they are bleeding? No one would, that's nuts.

The only way you get a picture like this is if you snap the camera as the incident occurs.

This kind of action photo is rare indeed.

I'm thinking of sending the photograph to Sports Illustrated.