Bach's Cello Suite No. 1

I just love this song so much. It is absolutely beautiful. I was reminded of it when I watched the preview of The Soloist. Here is a performance of the song by Yo-Yo Ma.

Yo-Yo Ma Plays the prelude from Bach's Cello Suite No.1

Favorite Picture

Okay, so I've written a dozen posts today to make up for lost time. This should finish things off. I just wanted to post my favorite picture of the bubs together taken in the past 3 months. Maeryn's on the left, and Afton on the right.

Bubs Having Fun

Hooray! I figured out how to upload videos. I tried in the past, and for some reason I could never get a video to fully upload. So, now that I've figured it out, here is a cute video of the bubs one night after their bath, just before bed. They are typically very wound up right before bed, so here's a glimpse of the Lloyd home around 8:00 p.m. each night.

Easter

We did have a nice Easter, the highlight of which was the annual Northridge Easter Egg Hunt, held in my parents' neighborhood. Spencer acted as cameraman to help us get some footage of the event. It was pretty quick because the rain started to pour right as the hunt began. The bubs thought it was great, and Afton was crying "eggs! eggs!" as we carried them inside. I think she would have stayed outside until she was soaked through if we let her.

Hats

The bubs think anything and everything is a hat. I have found various "hats" on their heads including bowls, blankets, washcloths, dishtowels, purses, baby wipes, tights, and the most difficult to remove, the container that holds their plastic pipes.
As a little sidenote, how funny that they are wearing their green shirts in all of these pictures. They were not taken on the same day!

Afton

Afton (a.k.a. Crunch or Crunchin' - I know, silly nicknames) is quite the little character. She loves her movies, particularly "elle" which means Giselle, a.k.a. "Enchanted", "enchantin" which means "Ella Enchanted", and "paces", otherwise known as Baby Einstein's "Baby's Favorite Places". She likes to boss Maeryn around a bit, as I have mentioned, she loves to go "bye bye" and has been known to throw quite a fit when it's time to come home, she is very quick going up and down the stairs up to our condo now, and she is a HUGE fan of string cheese. Her record is 5 in one day. I know, I should have said "no" at some point. Anyway, she's an independent little Crunch and we love her to pieces. I have found that I often have more pictures of Maeryn than Afton just because Afton won't often hold still long enough for me to take a picture, so I've got plenty of blurry images and plenty of pictures featuring Afton reaching up to the camera (one is included here). Here are some recent favorite pictures of the Crunch.

Maeryn

Maeryn (a.k.a. Nutchabee - I know, again, a silly nickname) has become quite proficient in the art of saying "no", which most often takes the form of "nope" when she says it. She can be a bit of a whiner at times, most often crying because if she had it her way, she would be held, cuddled, and have your full attention 24/7. She quite often asks for a "big hug" or asks me to rock her in the rocking chair, "rock ya." She likes to put things on her head - everything becomes a hat, and wear little purses, and has even figured out how to put her shoes on all by herself. She is a huge fan of Grandpa, Opa, Daddy, and Uncle Spencer. So, she'll ask me for the big hugs when she's stuck at home with me, but if any of the above four are available, I'm history.
It seems that Maeryn has inherited something from her Opa - a love of dips, sauces, and condiments. Her favorite is BBQ sauce. The other day I went into the other room for a moment while the bubs were working on some Wendy's. When I came back, I found Maeryn thus. You can see the chain of events in the pictures here . . .

Cousins

I am so grateful that the bubs have SO many cousins to play with. They ask for many of them by name. When Jess was in town with her girls, Daphne and Naomi, in February, we took this picture of all of the little girl cousins after a round of dress-up at Grandma and Grandpa's. You'll note that most of their cousins are girls, which makes for a lot of fun and potentially a lot of drama. :)

Long Time, No Write

Well, here we are and nearly three months have passed since I last posted! We have experienced some colds/allergies in the past few months (Maeryn poses here on the couch - this is what we do when we're sick), we have enjoyed visiting with Jessica, Daphne, and Naomi from Washington (once in February and once in April), and Brandon, Amy, and Benjamin, also from Washington. We have enjoyed nice weather, and then the return of bad weather before Spring could truly begin.

It seems I have spent nearly every spare minute reading throughout March and April. I have been on a reading rampage! With one great book after another I just couldn't get enough! Since I last posted I have read Austenland by Shannon Hale, The Goose Girl also by Shannon Hale, Uglies by Scott Westerfeld, A Girl Named Zippy by Haven Kimmel, and These Is My Words by Nancy E. Turner. They were all great books, and all quick reads as well. Now I'm back to the classics, reading Little Dorrit by Charles Dickens. It's going to take me a while to finish this one, but so far I am thoroughly enjoying it.

The bubs have been talking up a storm. They repeat everything I say and are eager to learn new things. They've got all of their shapes, colors, and animals/animal sounds down. We're working on their numbers and letters, and they have started surprising me with a few multi-syllabic phrases. If they can't see each other at any given moment, you will hear strings of, "Where are you? Where is she?" over and over around the house or wherever they are. Afton can be a bit bossy, so when she loses sight of Maeryn you'll hear "Maeryn! Where are you? Come back here! Right now!" It's quite amusing. Maeryn took her turn being the little mom the other day when Afton was throwing a tantrum in the kitchen. Maeryn ran right up to her and said, in her face, "Time Out!" I guess they know what that means. :) Time-Outs have become much more frequent these days and it's certainly not uncommon to hear "No!" or "Nope!" in response to anything I ask them to do. They love to go "bye bye", and especially love to go to "the park", or "the big slide". I'm grateful that Spring is here because I have to admit that I have nearly every Barbie and Baby Einstein DVD memorized - time for a change of scenery!