The Babies B

Friday, June 12, 2009

Morocco-09

Here's a first batch of pictures from Morocco, it takes about ten minutes per uploading five pictures, so not a fast and easy process. These first pictures are from when we went to see Sanae's kids' tennis lessons, it looks like the French open with clay courts. Iman enjoyed checking the court conditions and then wiping her hands of any clay.

These photos are of Iman in the courtyard of Amine's parents' house.

We have made three day trips to the beach so far this trip. Bibi loves the surf and sand, laughing hysterically when waves come crashing into him and diving into holes Amine has dug in the sand for him. Iman on the other hand is totally freaked out by the feel of the sand and curls her feet and pulls her legs up in an attempt of avoiding standing on it. She finally had some fun playing with a bucket full of water, but we definitely have one Benali and one Tremblay in the beach department.

The widow sills of Amine's parents' house are deep enough for the kids to hang out in, like a little fort.

or prison....

The kids enjoyed some Moroccan tunes and dancing with the ladies.

Bibi's turn to explore the courtyard.

Amine always becomes a human jungle gym with his nephews and cousins.

My link to the English speaking world...

These photos are from our first trip to the beach where we discovered it's high time the kids had a sandbox.

Iman loves sitting on the bottom stair, her little seat.

When we visited Sanae, we took a walk to the golf course that she lives on and walked through the hotel lobby near there. I love these painted doors.

A picture from Sanae's house.

These photos are from our visit to Tehta's house. Amine's aunt who is over 100 years old, she has a really beautiful house with an interior courtyard that keeps it cool all summer long. Also showing the un-babyproof stairs of death that exist in every house over here.

The Babies B asleep in their giant crib on the floor of our bedroom.

Thursday, June 11, 2009

baby foosball

Again, we will see how frustrated I get with this post... I tried uploading this clip to the last post and finally gave up, but it's pretty cute, so I thought I would give it a second chance. Here Amine and I are playing the brand new sport baby foosball. Clearly Amine is taking it more seriously and might run the risk of becoming a soccer dad.

Monday, June 8, 2009

Hanane's visit

So updating the blog from Morocco seems like a great idea, I have plenty of down time. Amine can watch the kids while I am uploading the pictures, the only problem is the slow internet connection that bumps me in and out every two minutes. I wanted to show the rest of the photos from Hanane's visit to Boston and if the internet situation resolves I may be able to post some Morocco pictures before we return... we will see.

Some Memorial Day backyard picnic pictures

Iman's favorite book

We love our new seats, plenty of room for us and a guest to keep us company in the backseat

The first pictures are from when we met Amine for lunch at one of our favorite Indian restaurants on Newbury street and then went to the Tob of the Hub for great views of Boston as well as the best darn plate of warm cookies I have ever had.

mmm, cookies

We also visited the Aquarium which the babies as well as Hanane loved. The babies loved walking up to the glass and seeing the sea lions swim right up to them. Hanane also took some great pictures of the jellyfish. Please ignore the fact that the photos are out of sequence I am going on day three of trying to get this post out and I can't be bothered to futz with it anymore. We had a great visit with Hanane, the visit went by too quickly.

Feats of Strength and Wits

5.13.08- Iman rolls over... recorded on video
6.2.08 & 6.3.08- Tayeb sleeps through the night... two nights in a row
6.27.08- without jinxing things, Bibi consistently sleeps through the night, last night breaking a record....9 hours, now if only he could talk to his sister

7.23.08- Babies first solid meal of rice cereal. Iman eats more avidly than Bibi, much to our surprise

8.1.08- Bibi and Iman learn to roll over back to tummy while in Morocco. They also found their feet. Both feats were learned within a day of each other.

8.18.08- Iman starts crawling, or rather scooting on all fours more like an inchworm

8.30.08- Iman's first tooth begins to break through

9.17.08- Bibi says Dada, although we are not sure if it should count as his first word, since it applies to everything right now

9.22.08- Iman's second tooth begins to show right next to the first

10.15.08- Bibi discovers his pee pee, typical man, can't stop playing with it now that he has found it

10.16.08- Bibi's first tooth breaks through the gums, finally all that drooling has paid off

10.20.08- Bibi's second tooth breaks through, right next to the first. Although he has gotten a later start than his sister, he has caught up to her in record time

11.4.08- Determined to make it to the voting booths, Bibi begins to crawl. He has a military style of staying as low as possible and pulling himself with his arms.

11.12.08- Bibi pulls himself to standing in the crib for the first time

11.12.08- Three new foods in one day- plum, yogurt and avocado

11.14.08- Iman's third tooth breaks through, the first one on top

11.16.08- Bibi slept through the night for the first time in a VERY long time, hopefully he will keep up the good work...I mean sleep

11.22.08- Iman slept through the night for the first time. They have taken turns since then, but haven't been nice enough to do it on the same night yet.

12.9.08- First cheese for babies and Iman starts more finger foods

12.11.08- Iman stands for 10 seconds without holding anything, repeated several times the next day... should I encourage this?

12.14.08- Iman waves while we are out and about in Cambridge, I am trying to remember now, but I think it may have been the first time she clapped as well

12.24.08- Bibi claps for the first time

12.27.08- Iman is up to seven teeth now, four on top and a third one joins the first two on the bottom. I am starting to feel like a slacker not documenting any of this. Bibi is also getting two teeth on top. One has already broken through. Iman also can stand on her own for much longer now, but no walking yet, she just leaps from standing to my arms. Other updates... both babies say Dada and Baba, but Bibi especially says Dada all the time and Iman has said Mama, but I still don't think they are connecting me to Mama and Amine to Dada quite yet.

1.10.09- Bibi stands on his own for the first time a few days ago, he is repeating it more often, but still only for a second or so at a time. Today Iman took her first very shaky unassisted step after a lot of encouragement and a day full of standing and playing with Sylvie (these two will be nothing but trouble together)

2.4.09- Babies first taste of Harrira and Iman takes a few steps unassisted. Bibi stands on his own for 10-20 seconds, or until he starts laughing.

2.8.09- Babies try couscous for the first time, their faces were priceless... let's just say it wasn't love at first bite.

2.9.09- Bibi has slept through the night three nights in a row. Last night he went down at 7:30 and Amine went to check on him at 7 am to find him awake and quietly hanging out in his crib. Iman is getting close only waking up once through the night, so she sleeps for two long chunks.

3.2.09- Bibi and Iman both take a few steps unassisted a few days ago, but often leading to the "trust fall" game where they leap forward assuming we will catch them. They also play peek-a-boo which for Iman means covering her eyes when we ask "Where is Iman?" and then moving them away and smiling. Bibi's interpretation is slightly different, he covers his ears when we say "Where is Bibi?", so the two of them look like hear no evil and see no evil... we just need to teach Sylvie to do speak no evil and then we can take this trick on the road.

3.7.09- While Amine finishes the base trim in the kitchen, Iman starts walking, the next day she looks like a pro, much more steady than Bibi, taking 10 controlled steps from Amine to me. Bibi does 3-5 steps, more of a running pace, falling into our arms.

3.10.09- Mama finally breaks down and feeds the babies some chicken

3.11.09- First act of twin on twin violence, Bibi bites Iman on the cheek

9.28.09-

list of English words: Baba, Mama, Bibi, ears, eyes, nose, mouth, toes, shoes, hat, no, apple, cookie, bird, horse, cat, cow, moon, balloon, ball, hi, hello, bye bye, bus, up, baby, this, what's that?, all gone

list of Arabic words: doh, lebass

list of their version of words: mimi (feed me), numas (I want to nurse), tehta (take this, here) weeohh weeohh (siren noise-ambulance, or fire truck), woof woof (dog), nana (banana), boo boo

list of expressions: uh-oh, oh no, foufou (hot!), wow, yucky

10.19.09-

Adding to word list: bus, knees, eyebrows, meat, monkey,owl, moose, donkey, boots, bear, mess, juice, house, car

Coordinating animals with noises: monkey, donkey, cat, bear

11.1.09

Iman's first sentence: (when Jon & Kate plus 8 goes to commercial) "Where the babies go?" it has since been translated to fit Curious George "Where the monkey go?", very cute and I need to get off my butt to video babies talking