Swing Time

Who doesn't love a swing?

Naked...

As an learning environment...

As a great place to nap...

Or show off the wonder that are your newly discovered feet...

See that? That's my foot!

No, seriously, look at it! See the toes?

Or just to visit with friends...

To show off your socks...

Or just your smile...

Or just to look plain beautiful!

A necessary catch up

It's been a long time since we have had time to put an update on the blog, and we do apologize for that. Needless to say, we've been busy, but in any good ways!

Andre returned to work full time and Kristin returned to work about 3/4s time on July 7th. Kristin's parents came out to help out and visit while we transitioned back, as did André's parents. 

Transitioning back to work and trying to take advantage if getting to spend time with out of town family has kept us busy!

But everything is going really well. Kristin's health continues to hold strong, we are both slowly beginning to catch up on our fatigue as the kids start to transition to sleeping for longer intervals, and we are settling into our new routine (just in time for it to change as they start rolling over, teething, crawling and eating food!).

Most importantly, the kids are thriving and an absolute joy. Both are cooing, laughing, beginning to babble and smiling their hearts out. They are growing well and hitting all their benchmarks. They are also just plain fun: they enjoy us and each other, like to hold hands and "talk" to each other and self soothe well. It's so fun to watch them learn new things and trying to master new skills. Luka began rolling front to back a few weeks ago, and just yesterday, Annika didn so for the first time too.

We are also now helped by our amazing and caring nanny, Ansebe:

 Anse has experience as a twins nanny and worked in an infant care center with a 4 to 1 ratio. She is a model of calm and knows so much about their developmental needs too. She is really more of a loving teacher than 'sitter.' The only hard part is seeing how happy they are with her while we're gone. It doesn't seem like they miss us much! ;-)

We have learned a lot from her and feel good knowing they are getting as much attention and care with her as they would with us. There is no transition in their being loved and cared for. What a relief! It's been fun to get to know her and her husband Max too.

  

Thank you, Anse and Max!

So, with so much going on, we will try and set up several catch up blog posts with pics from the last month or so, but in the meantime we thought we would start to give you a few new pics too. Enjoy!

Portfolio shots: (not) candid photography

Some months ago, we received these adorable outfits at the North Carolina  baby shower:

We couldn't help but notice how much they looked like something that our friends Sascha and Gilberto (who are both actors) would wear:

Of course, Annika and Luka weren't on the outside yet to try them on, and only now do they finally fit them. 

Well, here's a photographic tribute to our actor friends, their sartorial tastes, and professional portfolios:

Luka: Look at my hands; they are ginormous!

Annika: seriously, aren't they huge?!

Luka: No, no, seriously, don't take the picture...

Annika: take the picture!!!

Portfolio shots:

Okay, okay, we get it. The outfits are excessively cute!!! But look how happy they are! Wouldn't you have taken a bunch of pictures too? Even if they didn't look like your actor friend's portfolios shots?

A silver screen smile!

You got some potential, kid!

Summer dress and summer smile

Annika smiling in the morning

Just how did two night owls makes these morning children? 

Social hours

Getting to know Tía Carla. Look at that smile! Carla claims not to have handled a baby in 20+ years, but she was a natural, and so good with them! It was a mutual path into each other's hearts, no doubt.

Annika with our friend Nick...

Who is getting the feel for this again, as soon he will be holding his own new little one! Good on ya', Nick, Whitney and Nina!

Here's his firstborn, Nina, hilding Annika with Kristin, practicing no doubt.

Visiting with Hannah...

Hey. Hey! Did you see how cute she is? She looks like she just stepped off a movie the set of a John Hughes film! I ain't missing this!

Then again, it is nap time...

And...

Her mother Helene with Annika. Quite a jump from the size of these two when she and her husband Doug jumped in on the night watches when Annika and Luka were just about a week old. Now look at them!

Babies can apparently tell nice, kind, good people from the not nice ones. Here's Luka with our friend John. He's got this one right!

But look at that, he's funny too! 

You're nice, man, AND you're fun! Too cool.