hi mama!

stuck in the basket

all smiles

concentrating on getting that dog into his mouth


making the bed

please read me this book? how can you resist this face?

i'm not really sure what's going on here, but it's pretty funny.

tree trimming and yummy food.

we had a great time putting up the tree. thanksgiving was pretty hard for us, being away from our families. we went down to our landlord's for thanksgiving dinner (which was so yummy) in the evening. but before that, i'll admit, i was pretty sad. ben sent me out to go to a movie by myself so i could have a break and on the train i decided i would go get our tree instead. so i got off, bought a push cart, a 7 foot tree, and hoped for the best getting on the bus. i wasn't sure the driver would let me on, and was prepared to walk the few miles home. but he was feeling the christmas spirit and i was home in no time flat to surprise everyone. ben was most surprised (the girls were kinda scared, actually) and i think pretty grateful that he didn't have to go get it.
our great friends, the aplins came over the following day with their little girl susannah for snacks and tasty beverages. i love the tree. it's my favorite part of christmas. my grandmother, helen, was an amazing needle-pointer and hand-made most of the ornaments on our tree. handy, since they aren't breakable. although, the girls haven't paid too much attention to the tree thankfully. we blocked it off anyway. and then saturday i made thanksgiving dinner for the five of us. i got ben good. we went around saying what we were thankful for (for the girls we suggested what they might be grateful for - books, each other, raf raf, judah, etc). and then when it was my turn i announced that i am especially thankful for the baby i have in my tummy. his upper lip started sweating - it was awesome. (i'm not, by the way).

putting the lights on

tangled up in lights

tree trimming with the aplins

hanging an ornament

i do love our tree

our first thanksgiving - just the 5 of us

dinner in front of the tree

and the stockings were hung

judah giggles and coos

i was trying to add this to the last post but it wouldn't work. so here it is.

judah laughs from Anna Thomas on Vimeo.

hilina walks

i'm sorry i haven't been posting too much. our computer has been on the fritz thanks to hilina dropping it off the couch. but it's feeling better and so i hope to be able to update more. the last few months have been amazing. i can't believe how quickly everything seems to be changing. the girls are getting so big and learning so much. i think most parents hope their kids will love to read. i know i had visions of my little ones toddling over to my lap, book in hand, and i promised myself no matter how busy i got i would read to them for at least 20 minutes every day. i just never imagined they would do it 15 thousand times a day. especially saida. every time i sit down and sometimes when i'm changing a diaper or whatever, i look down and there she is with hop on pop or goodnight gorilla or brown bear and phew. hilina's occupational therapist is jamaican and it never fails that when she's working, saida drops a book in her lap. she says, "now miss saidie i'm not going to read you no more brown bear, brown bear going to have to take a rest now miss sadie". if you can picture that being said in a booming accent with andrea laughing and saida then making fun of andrea laughing, you'll think it's funnier. anyway, it's awesome how much they love to "read" to themselves now too, and it's helping them learn more words and doesn't involve going outside so i'm happy as a clam. saida now can say with meaning "mama, dada, dog, night night, mouth, nose, no, judah, hi, bye, cheese, milk, dog, pop pop, and raf raf (her stuffed animal's name). she's started saying hina but doesn't use it you know what i mean? she is loving dancing and has started running and has cut 5 teeth in the last few weeks which was freaking horrible.
hilina is turning into a total spaz. now that she's more mobile (she can crawl as fast as saida walks now), she's into everything. surprisingly, she's the trouble make of the two. she's a dancing fool. she gets her arms up in this chicken move and shakes them back and forth making the weirdest intense face like she's concentrating so hard and then she yells "wooooooooooa" likes she's really been breaking it down. i've tried to get it on video but you know how that goes. she's also learned a lot of words in the last few months: mama, dada, da (for saida), ju (for judah), woof woof (for hound dog), NO! which she uses all the time, it's awesome, hi, bye, etc. she's also got some made up words like bia bia which, trust me, you don't want to be on the receiving end of one of her bia bia outbursts - it means she's really mad. whenever i get a few minutes alone with her she wants to talk. and boy does she say what's on her mind. she tells entire stories if you just keep asking her questions she will go on and on. it's made me really excited about them getting older and anxiously awaiting when they speak in sentences so i can find out what's really going on inside their minds. she's really doing great in therapy as you can see here:

i'll be out of the city for 2 weeks with lots of extra hands on deck and sammy has said to just walk with her all over the place. so hopefully she will really get it in the next month. the first steps she took were beautiful (not the ones on video) and i cried like a little baby i was so happy.
judah just had his 4 month check up and the boy is 17 lbs already. that's how big saida was when we brought her home. crazy for me to think about. he's brought so much joy to our family. he's started rolling over and smiling at just about everything. his favorite pastimes currently include: chewing on his fingers, eating, sleeping, looking at himself in the mirror, watching his sisters, being sung to, and practicing standing.

happy thanksgiving

my fatty

so smiley

"JUDAH!" her mantra

the girls, their gaga, and their favorite pastime

bedtime

sittin' on the counter eating patty pan squash

being such a good helper!

i took this picture while walking

we took a stroll

we went out for our favorite pizza!

another fun lesson in music history

nightly dance party

much belated halloween photos

one proud flamingo


poppop and the queen of the jungle


our ferocious lion?


look at that tail!


sweet saida. this was before she was decided the parade was okay and took off trying to steal candy out of big kid's buckets


sunset on the walk to the parade

before the parade


the grumpy pumpkin

STOP CHECKING THE BLOG - GO VOTE!

HILINA IS HAPPY THAT WE ARE ALREADY BACK!

best of edition

i was uploading photos from my phone into iphoto, and somehow pictures i thought had been lost in a phone mishap suddenly showed up. it was funny to watch them upload because it was totally out of order and one would be saida drinking from a bottle (seems like so long ago) and another of judah 3 days old. i present to you, the best of the camera phone pictures:
when she was still small enough to fit in the bumbo. look what a chub-rock she was.

totally asleep like his uncle matt.


i love this picture.

typical morning and a great attitude from me as always. i was sweet and kind each day of my pregnancy.

wow.

oh, hilina. yikes, baby.


christmas tree in gondar, ethiopia. looks like they just threw the decorations on and said ah! perfect!

it's already november, wha?!?!!?!

i know, i know, you're hungry for pictures. well, here check these two out:



is that better? heeheee. anyway, haven't been posting much because, guess what?!?!?! no, i am not pregnant. but i am having knee surgery on tuesday! whoo-hooo! so life's been a little complicated as of late, but workable as it somehow always is. it's just not possible to explain to little babies that mama's in a lot of pain and can you please not jump on my knee, thanks. i've tried every which way but loose and they just have the memory of a gnat. it's got me thinking though, this surgery, about our year. and how if you told me last year at this time that i would bring home two babies, learn how to be a parent while pregnant, move, find out my oldest has cerebral palsy and epilepsy, have to deliver via c-section, worry about the financial collapse (the russians are optimistic), and have knee surgery while taking care of 3 babies, i would have taken a rain check for the year 2008. the craziest thing is, this has been the best year of my life. my most freaking awesome friend grace has a photo album called, "i really love my kids" and there are so many times that phrase runs through my head. yesterday morning i had all the babies in bed with me. it was cold outside but the radiators were on, i had my coffee on the dresser next to me and everyone was in their pjs reading an easter book over and over and i thought to myself for like the millionth time, i really love my kids.

last weekend our friend hosted a party and all five of us went. there aren't very many good pictures because we were having so much fun we forgot to take a lot. it's funny, with the bum knee i get out even less (though we have established date nights on thursday and we go out for like 3 whole hours, it's awesome). i digress. my point is, i think i've forgotten how to conduct myself in public - catch many flies?
we had a great time at the party, here saida is literally bouncing off the walls:
she's discovered chase, although sometimes she gets so excited she gets confused and runs to you instead of away. hilina has started getting in on the action although it's not pictured here because she was busy stalking sam the cat. she'd never seen a cat before i realized and was fascinated.

GaGa is here saving the week AGAIN. her amazing super powers conjured up like 40 coolers worth of food. mmmmm food. she and PopPop helped us go to the children's parade in park slope yesterday. i have a ton of pictures to upload - it was really a lot of fun once the girls stopped being scared of each other dressed in costume. i wish i had gotten a video of earlier in the week when we tried their costumes on them. when they looked in the mirror, they laughed and laughed. but when they turned and looked at each other - oh the horror!