End of February Update

Miss Paula visits & poses with Jovi

     Here's and update of fewer words and more pictures to chronicle some Jovi & Jez'ness before February marches on out the door on us.

     It's always great when Miss Paula stops by. Grandma and Grammy live in opposite ends of the eastern seaboard, so they don't get as much grandmotherly love as they'd like to. Last week, Miss Paula stopped by and of course can't resist "squeezing those babies"! Well, with Jovi as cute as she is, who can resist, right?!

     Jezreel wasn't available for comment at the time, but he's gotten his fair share of shutter time. Promise. More Jez photos to come later in the post. For now, it's the Jovi Show!!!

Uncle Sal takes a break from classes and poses with Jovi

     Uncle Sal only lives one town away, but with all he has going on at work and in school, it's tough to make a breakaway. So, we're always grateful when he finds some time to sneak on by to see us.

     We're trying to discourage her from sitting in the laps of anyone wearing a hat for a particular team based in New York that rhymes with "stankies". But, for Uncle Sal, I guess we can make an exception. Go, SOX!

     What's with the "staring off to space" look? Oh, yeah, that's Jovi. She's our "deep thinker". Good thing, too - with Presleigh and Jezreel running around like gangbusters, it's good to know we have at least one child on the young side of the spectrum who can be entertained for hours with a book and a comfy chair, even at this age! Perhaps she'll take up her Uncle Sal's propensity for numbers, math, and accounting. She could be a world class bean-counter yet!

While we're at it, let's have Presleigh pose with Jovi, too!

      I'm hard pressed to decide whether to post this next picture on the twins' blog or Presleigh's - they're both equally cute in this photo!

     You can't see it from this angle, but Jovi's got two (very sharp!!!) bottom teeth and two big chompers on top. The bottoms are clear from here, but beware those cutie top teeth.

     Those cute, little "love nibbles" she used to give you on your chin, your nose, or fingertips? Don't even think about them anymore, unless you're prepared to lose a pound of flesh. Presleigh's been upgraded to "chief chomper" status for quite a long time now. Actually, been brushing her own teeth for a while now, too. (Let's not rush things with the twins, though...)

     Presleigh's still trying to figure out how to hold her brother and sister - they're small enough to be toys, but react very differently when thrown into the play stroller or picked up by her big Presleigh-bear hug around the waist. Jovi still just cracks up when her bigger sister tries to give her hugs and kisses. As witnessed here.

Samuel visits and takes a while to get acclimated to the bunch. He really did stop crying at some point.

     This photo already showed up on Facebook a few weeks ago. But, with highs in the 70s today, the last day of February, I couldn't resist reminiscing the great temps that made a walk in the triple-stroller possible. Wow. We LOVE Hot-lanta weather sometimes!\      To think that three weeks prior there was snow on the ground in this very spot and here they're enjoying low 60s. Awesome. Give that groundhog a cookie this year!

     We hope to outfit this cool stroller with some new tires so we can put a few thousand miles on it as the spring and summer weather allows. What a cool invention this thing is! Only two months before the community pool opens up! Fun in the sun is just around the corner!

Catching Up with the Twins

     Well, 8 months came and went... and, so did 9 months! You haven't heard about Jovi and Jezreel since before Christmas! They've been traveling all across the South Land. (Well, GA and the Carolinas, but that's quite a lot of riding around for these two!) They both got the two most iconic presents for Christmas (two front teeth and snow on the ground) and though they won't remember it, it's preserved right here on their blog so they can at least see what it looked like years from now. Gotta love Blogger!

     WOW! Hundreds of photos here in iPhoto... We've got a lot of catching up to do, don't we? Let's dive in...

     Christmas came twice this year at our home. Presleigh, Jovi, and Jezreel all got a chance to open presents here from Granma, Uncle Sal, Uncle Rudy, and Nana & RC (their great-grandparents) before we'd head off on our Christmas road trip. Side note - maybe we'll just do Christmas in Atlanta next year... Anyway, the twins went through half a present each before we decided that presents should not be opened with their cute, slobbering, two-front-teeth mouths. We passed that responsibility on to Presleigh, who was more than happy to play the Grand Pooh-Bah of gift giving.

Jez in the Jumpah vs. Inevitable Sleep

Timing is always an issue with the babies - you've got to plan events around their nap schedule. If you wait too long to do something (like open gifts, no matter how exciting it may be), they could either fall asleep on you or get really cranky before the next nap time. Blessing it was that they decided on the former this Christmas. In the video footage, you can see Jezreel falling asleep in the jumper (or the Jumpah-jumpah-jumpah! as we call it.) He's so steadfast, trying to hold out and keep jumping, but his little body was more tired than the will would allow. Classic Jez footage here.

     Jovi chose her nappy spot to be the swing. Oh, this wouldn't slow down progress, though. Not as far as Presleigh the Presentmeister was concerned. She gladly opened Jovi's' presents for her and was thoughtful enough to stack them on her little, sleeping sister so Jovi could wake up to Christmas dreams come true. (I was just having the most wonderful dream about a laughing dollie and an alphabet-singing train... and now they're here!!!)
     Toddlers can be so thoughtful, can't they? Jovi had a lovely nap and now can attest that dreams really do come true.

     A delightful Christmas-before-Christmas was had at the Pina household before the road-trip. I'm pleased to say the packing of the van went remarkably well and was surprisingly free from the typical angst one would expect pre-roadtrip. Perhaps it's because we were all so excited and filled with anticipation for the twins' first trip to North Carolina!

 ***INSERT "On The Road Again", by Willie Nelson, but NOT "Gone to Carolina in my Mind", because Mommy hates James Taylor!***

Jezreel, meet Jeremy. Uncle Jeremy, meet Jez!

     Grammy and Uncle Jeremy didn't get to meet the twins until they were already 8 months old. That's what happens when there's 1,000 miles between them and 8 months from their birthday to Christmas, right? Well, Pina Party of 6 loaded up the man-van and headed up to Aunt Shanua's in Charlotte to celebrate Christmas. Rumor had it, it would be the first white Christmas in Atlanta history since the late 1800's. I didn't want to miss it! Thankfully, the same snow that fell on Atlanta made its way up to Charlotte and gave us more than a wee dusting. Merry White Christmas, no?

     Well, Grammy and Uncle Jay were delighted to see the real live version of what they'd only witnessed in photo and on the phone. They were clearly enamored by the now 20 lb versions of Jovi and Jezreel. Lucky for them, we'd all decided it would be a "kids only" Christmas, so all of the kids got spoiled for the day. The fashion show was amazing - new feety pajamas for Jez, cuter than cute outfits for Jovi,

    Perhaps one of Mommy and Papa's favorite gifts were the two big boxes of diapers that Uncle Jeremy was so wise to procure on behalf of the wee babes. Here's a photo of Jovi, a bit confused about why everyone was so excited by the boxes, rather than the festive paper in which they were wrapped... She's either saying "I could poop through these in a New York minute." or "I don't get it... I've already got one of these at home..." We'll explain it to Jovi later. (P.S. We're over the 3,500 diaper mark at this stage. No, that doesn't include Presleigh. Wow. Twindom. Amazing. Praise God!

     More photos to come next week from our trip to South Carolina for New Year's weekend!