happy half birthday

We celebrated the Babies B half birthday with their first professional photo shoot since they were four days old.  They did great, in the shots from the hospital we were lucky to get their eyes open without crying.  I probably sent an email to most of the blog viewers with a link to all the photos on Snapfish, but for those of you I may have missed and for posterity, here are a few of the images.  We also happened by the Cheesecake Factory and got a wonderful Dulce de Leche cheesecake on their behalf.

Dada

First words seem to be more ambiguous than I thought they would be.  Bibi said "Ahgoo" months ago.  I am not sure what language he was speaking, but it was definitely a word.  Wednesday evening (9.17.08) he started to say Dada, it started with a string of ada dada, but then later when Amine came home he said a few clear Dada's.  Yesterday and today he said it plenty of times, not yet for the camera unfortunately.  So is it his first word?  I am not sure.  He says it to me, to Amine, when he was in Sylvie's jumperoo, so maybe he has just discovered the "D" sound and happens to follow it with the "A" vowel, but it's Dada, it should count.  I didn't count Iman's first roll over because I assumed it was a fluke, like her first smile, just a stroke of luck and not intentional, and maybe Bibi's Dada is the same thing, but now that he's saying it, it's only a matter of time and convincing that he learns that everything isn't Dada, just Amine.

Quick trip

The babies and I took a road trip by ourselves to CT to visit Aunt Janet.  Iman loved her bling which made Grammy happy that she will have someone to buy jewelry for in the future.  Nikki and Alicia were also able to stop by and visit.  We learned that Nikki is going to have a little girl, so everyone had guessed right, we are very excited for her.  I am only thinking of it now, but it was the first time I traveled with the babies by myself other than little outings in the Boston area.  

     We also stopped by to visit Amy, Ron and baby Juliana.  She is almost exactly a year older than the Babies B.  It's amazing to see her and know that my kids will be doing all the things she is doing in a year.  Walking around, talking and feeding herself... unfortunately there are still diapers involved, but other than that it seems that this year will bring a lot of changes.  

     I can't believe they are already close to 6 months old.  Every day they seem to have a new trick.  Iman started her booty shake move down in CT and yesterday was doing a perfect downward dog yoga pose.  Bibi is sitting up on his own without slouching forward to his toes like he did before.  He still has the occasional tip over when his toy or item of interest is on one side.  Yesterday he was having a great time playing with his tongue, more rock star in the making.  Today when we visited Amine for lunch we gave them each a teething biscuit to try, they loved it.  In an attempt to promote more night time sleeping we have finally moved each baby to his/her own crib.  I think Bibi likes his new pad.  It's too late at night, I can't figure out how to move the pictures so they coordinate with what I wrote, I am sure you can match the appropriate photo with the text.... goodnight.

locomotion

Iman has been doing her inchworm crawling for a week or two.  Today she got up in full crawl position, so here is the first footage showing our little mover and shaker.  Pardon the pumping noise in the background, it's part of the joy of feeding them solid foods.

I'm the king of bongo

It was open mike night at the Benali household.  Iman, as usual, is very serious about her efforts.

Bibi, as usual, is much more laid back in his efforts.  Iman is more than a little upset that she has to share the bongos... clearly she believes she is queen of the bongo.

Not to be upstaged, Bibi shows his rock star ways making sure he looks good for the camera and of course producing a grand finale.