New beginings

In honor of Passover, spring cleaning, and breaking 250 posts, it was time for the blog to undergo a makeover. I hope you enjoy the new layout!

Now that you've been able to catch up on videos and pictures of the kids (and yes, there are still more to come) let me tell you a bit about what's been going on with the girls.

They're much more verbal. They talk plenty and are starting to connect two words into little sentences, but only just starting that (love you, hi abba, etc.) I know not all of you will agree but we've decided to send them to an English language gan (daycare) next year. Their English is really just about to take off and I want them to have a strong basis in one language before we confuse them too much in another. As it is twins tend to be slower in developing their language skills and children raised in bilingual environments even more so. It's not like they don't hear plenty of Hebrew. We listen to and sing Hebrew songs, read Hebrew story books, and they hear it outside plenty. But English is their primary language and we'll give it a year, maybe two, to really flow then put them in Hebrew gan. They'll still be young enough to not be far behind and to pick it up quickly. Since Shawn and I are both fluently bilingual that should help the process.

They have very clear opinions about what they want to wear, thus the many tutus over the last few months. I'm a little embarrassed sometimes when i send my kids out the door but I think it's more important for them to be able to be creative and express themselves so as long as it's weather appropriate I pretty much let them wear what they want, except their shabbat shoes, which are special and for shabbat kodesh only.

We now shop for four since they are of course full fledged eaters, and don't buy them anything special except for the things they like more than anyone else (Eliana scarfs pickles and olives like there's no tomorrow, Bracha is still crazy for baby corn) and both love veggie hot dogs, granny smith apples, oatmeal, mini-muffins, orange juice, eggs, peanut butter sandwiches, pizza, felafel, and more. They still have bottles for nap and bed times (with water only) and don't drink milk at all except for then they slurp down the leftover in their morning bowl(s) of cereal. My kids went through fifteen boxes of Shreddies in about seven weeks!!!

They nap once a day, early in the morning, and are firecrackers after that, full of playful energy. It's summer here now so they'll get to run around outside a ton and we're going to try and make weekly zoo trips, still our favorite family outing.

I love the people they are growing in to. They love animals, singing, dancing, drawing, reading books, and the occasional Disney movie. They're funny, loving, adventurous, and just very happy children. I couldn't be prouder.