white christmas

My parents came for a visit just in time for Boston's first real snow storm of the season.  Even so, they got to spend some quality time with the grandkids which is obviously the point of the visit.

Here are Bibi and Sylvie enjoying a meal together and looking more like twins than Bibi and Iman do.

After Beau and Katie split town for Chicago, we headed down to Connecticut for the day to visit with Aunt Janet, Alicia, Nikki and Wes and Ben.   We got to see their new kitchen and Nikki about to burst with a bundle of joy of her very own.

Grammy and Iman during one of her now very rare quiet times.  When she was a newborn, Iman took many naps in my arms and Grammy's.  It has been a while, but it looks like she and Grammy fell right into the groove again.

Grampa or Pepere... or "The Man", hopefully he will decide on one name for his grandkids to call him before any of them is talking.  Personally, I think he will hear them say Pepere a lot sooner than "The Man".  I still remember Beau calling our grandfather Pepper.

And then of course for your viewing pleasure please find (wording I always used way back when I had a job and wrote transmittals) posted below a few videos that show us all in varying states of foolish as we coo and goo and gaw at the babies.  Thankfully, I don't have footage showing all the babies tricks.  Iman and Tayeb both are clapping now and it never failed that every time one of them clapped we all did the same in glee.  I think we are definitely the ones performing tricks to entertain the babies.

What it would be like if I had triplets instead of twins and video number two is Bibi the somewhat willing participant in a dance routine.

This is just plain funny because my father is singing in a little girl voice mainly because he had no idea I was filming rather than just taking a picture.  If only he were singing "I feel pretty", that would be priceless.  I guess I have to wait for the next visit for that.

And last but certainly not least, Iman beginning her brain washing for Notre Dame football.  The babies brought the Irish a bit of good luck, they won their first bowl game in over ten years, too bad it was the Tidy Bowl.

belated thanks

Since the babies were born I have not sent one thank you note.  I write this in shame, I have several written and the list of who to thank grows ever longer as the babies get older, but I have not addressed, stamped and sent these thank you's.  I still have hopes that I will eventually get these cards out... what's the Emily Post on this one, do I have a year like the wedding gift rule?  Do I have some twin exemption?  Anyway, I have a few photo thank you's below.  Maybe I can do them all this way, more fun all around.

We went almost nine months without matching each other, but here we are thanks to Christiane, "the perfect pair".

Here is Miss Iman playing with her Ugly dolls (it's really their name, I am not being mean) thanks to Dawn.  It seems like she is having words with them and is generally upset that they aren't responding.

Here we are at our last day of our Caterpillar class at Isis.  Bibi and Iman were two of the oldest babies in the class and often showed the other babies and mommies what was coming soon... giddyap!

I have asked my mom to find baby pictures of me that show that Iman takes after me and not her dad, but so far I have only seen a 1973 version of Bibi in purple outfits.

Cool hand Bibi chilling with his daddy.

He has practiced his bongo playing, pretty much everything becomes a drum, the table, his booster seat tray and even Amine's face.  It all works out since Iman is more of a dancer, she needs someone to lay down the beat.

Dr. Evil

I forgot that I also had this footage of Amine and Iman hatching their evil plot.... to take over the world!

shadow puppets

The little lady found her shadow the other day....

She decided to invite it to play and found an alligator...

and a frog.  Yet another twin that will be with her always, at least when it's sunny.

Her shadow, a fair weather friend.

Bibi grabs the bull by the horns, quite literally.

Amine came home early on Friday and spent a little quality time with Iman.

Today we went to Amine's cousin's house to celebrate the birth of his daughter.  This lady is dancing on a table, if you are curious.  You would think we were in Morocco, not Methuen.

It's in the computer

Here's a current photo of my family, chilling before bedtime.  We had a few firsts this week, Bibi is now crawling, he pulls himself to standing in his crib and he slept through the night last night.  Iman is getting her first top tooth and is cruising and climbing up a storm, and most definitely not sleeping through the night.  We are trying to get into more of a routine.  I usually leave the house with them for one activity a day.  Mondays we have a class at Isis and Fridays I go to baby and me yoga.  This week we also tried out story time at the nearby JP library which the babies and I enjoyed except for the part where I had to carry them both down to the library basement at the same time.  I think I may have to bring a Bjorn or some other baby carrier because car seat with one baby and one baby in my other arm is getting to be quite the workout.  The rest of the week plays out depending on our mood and the weather.  We had a lovely fauxsgiving last night and of course I don't have a single photo of that, the downfall of twins.  Hopefully Lisa or Katie will post something on that evening.

For those of you familiar with the movie Zoolander, here is Bibi acting out one of the final scenes, for the rest of you, I guess you should rent Zoolander so you will know what I am talking about.

Here is my attempt at showing Iman cruising along the couch which bears a very close resemblance to Beau's Melon head series, imagine if Iman had the Tremblay head.

Our first Halloween

Here is a little game of peek-a-boo and our daughter the dolphin.

The Babies B got dressed in their costumes and off we went to yoga, the grocery store to buy some candy and then to the nearby park to meet up with other families. 

 Who says having kids ages you?

It turned out to be quite a gathering, there were four sets of twins and probably twenty other kids. 

 Of course I only took pictures of my kids, but we met some nice people and Iman was digging on baby Giovanni... Amine is applying for his gun license tomorrow.

I am afraid Iman is aware of her cute factor

Fall Festival in the Arboretum

The ever photogenic Tremblay family

Beau, Katie and Sylvie came for a visit today as well as Jen, Franz and Larry and Lisa Lepionka.  We were going to head over to the Arboretum for the fall festival, but by the time we had some tea and cookies and made our way to Peter's Hill to enjoy the view of Boston, we were catching the tail end of the festivities and people had to start heading back, but we did enjoy a beautiful fall day.  

Jen communing with nature

Bibi and I took a closer look at some purple berries

Iman socialized with some scrappy dogs, one who thought a proper introduction included backing his bum onto my lap.  His owner thought it was cute, me... not so much.

Piscine

Uncle Adnane returned from his trip to Paris and brought presents from Tata Hanane and Amine's mom.  Here is Iman sporting her first Beret.
On Saturday the Babies B took their first dip in the local pool.  We happened upon a baby swim class, so they had their first swim lesson which included dunking underwater.  Iman was down with all of it and Bibi was a good sport for the first two dunks, but dunk number three was one too many.  He then had Kung Fu death grip until we got out of the water.  He did feel very buoyant and liked splashing his hand down in the water.  Iman was ready to climb out of the pool on her own as you can see from the "look Ma, no hands" shot.  She held the edge of the pool and tried climbing her feet up the wall.  Swimming was also a magic sleep inducer.Today I got a few shots of Bibi playing with his hand in the light and shadow and petting his favorite kitty, Tali.

Turn down the volume, Bibi is screeching like a dolphin

Montreal

Petra finally meets Iman and Tayeb

The Babies B headed north to Montreal this past weekend to celebrate Mark Gage's wedding.  Of course what was supposed to be a six hour drive was more than seven hours due to traffic, but the babies travelled really well with the occasional pop out of the car seat for a little num num or staring out the window time.  We stopped in Montpelier for a lovely apple inspired dinner and very yummy homemade warm applesauce.  On Friday I went out to meet folks once we got in while Amine stayed in the hotel with the babies.  Saturday we toured around old Montreal which reminds me a bit of Savannah and a bit of Boston.  I got to see a lot of old friends from school and had a great time at the wedding, Gage even made me cry.  I wasn't prepared to hear the gushy emotional stuff from him, but I guess if it ever happens, it is on your wedding day. 

Gage-the groom

Michael-the groom

 The Inn where the wedding was held

Sunday we stopped by the Inn to say our last goodbyes before heading out on an even longer ride home due to unexplainable Sunday afternoon traffic.  Then the weekend took a sharp turn for the worse when the Red Sox lost and I got a nasty case of food poisoning yesterday.  We are all feeling better today, maxing and relaxing waiting for a nice weekend with no plans.

The innkeeper's bird showed Bibi and Iman a few tricks

Iman from the block

Here are a few more images, some showing the trouble Iman is getting into as she trains for the circus and some showing her star power visiting with Dawn.

The Great Pumpkin

Beware of the image search... this is what I found when researching "The Great Pumpkin".

At first I thought this was a cute picture of a baby's bottom, but on closer inspection, I am thinking it is a big person's big bottom, not nearly as cute. So much for putting a cute image of classic Charlie Brown. Sorry to involve other innocent onlookers, I really just wanted to post cute pictures of my babies and Sylvie so why don't I get to that.  (The Babies B blog was censored this morning, it seems the other editor found my late night humor inappropriate, you can do your own image search if you are curious what profanity leads to censoring.)

Iman and Vince inspecting pumpkins

Here we are at Smolak Farms for our cute baby photo op around pumpkins and assorted other props of fall.  

Bibi and Sylvie

Is this my bongo?

Bibi stopping to smell the roses, or eat the flowers

We had a lovely day with many other friends and babies as well as most of Eastern Massachusetts.  It seems we weren't the only ones with the bright idea to bring their kids to a pumpkin patch.  I actually couldn't bear to stand in line for a pumpkin, so besides photos and good times, all I have to show for our outing is food now stuffed in my belly.... cider doughnuts, pumpkin ice cream, warm apple crisp and a cup of chowder.  Thank goodness I am eating for three.

Farmer Iman chewing on a piece of hay