Annabelle Stands

This is a quick and dirty stop motion video I just made with Annabelle playing with one of her new Christmas toys and Katherine rolling about in delight in the background.

Annabelle Stands from Sam Thompson on Vimeo.
Annabelle experiences one of her awesome new Christmas presents for the first time!

Christmas in Bellingham

Here are some pictures from our Christmas Eve/Christmas morn in Bellingham this weekend, where we all had lots of fun.  As you can see, Katherine's teeth are growing like crazy and she has 4 now!  Annabelle still has none, but she's very much on the move.  We're having a very busy week this week with Kirsten working 6 days straight, but trying to recharge as much as we can from all the Christmas activity with quiet evenings.

Our First Christmas

Our First Christmas from Sam Thompson on Vimeo.
This is our very first Christmas with the girls, and they LOVED opening all their fun presents.  (We loved watching them too...)

Merry Merry Christmas!

We've had a busy week here in Seattle, and unfortunately Kirsten and I have been sick for all of it... yet another cold in our house.  Fortunately we're on the upswing now and the girls seem to have dodged it other than runny noses.  Yesterday evening we celebrated our own new little family's Christmas with opening presents and a visit to the Bellevue Botanical Garden Christmas Lights display.  The girls were thrilled with opening presents and are beside themselves with exploring all their new toys and outfits.  The lights were really incredible too, despite a fairly steady rain.  The girls loved being outside and seeing all the sparkly beauty.  It's funny- Kirsten and I had talked about going out to see these lights for the past several years and never made it.  Now that we have babies to share it with, we're finally motivated enough to make the trip out there!  Merry Christmas to you all!

Annabelle Claps

I've been remiss in posting videos of late, but here's a short and sweet one capturing Annabelle discovering the art of clapping last night. 


Annabelle Claps from Sam Thompson on Vimeo.
On 12/15/2010, Annabelle was playing and snuggling with Kirsten on the couch and decided to give clapping a whirl for the first time ever.  Fortunately the camera was nearby and I got it on video!  Needless to say, she's very proud of herself.

It's Beginning to look a lot like Christmas...

As I'm sure everyone is these days with Christmas coming up, we've been busy lately, and having lots of fun enjoying various Christmas festivities.  The girls have both been sleeping really well lately (knock on wood...), which has been really nice... perhaps all this Christmas fun is tiring them out a bit more.  Here are some pictures of decorating our first tree.  We also went downtown last night for a fun nightly indoor snow event (fake snow, but still really fun).  They play Christmas tunes and drop snow from the heavens.  Kirsten and I danced in the snow with the girls for a while and they just loved it!

Our First Christmas Tree

We'd had every intention of going out and cutting down our own Christmas tree with the girls this year.  The reality of life became a quick trip down to Home Depot yesterday with the girls.  Ah well.  We picked a good one, the girls had fun, the house smells delightful, and we'll go out to the woods to get one maybe next year... or the next.  This way certainly was easy!

Yep, this one's a winner, Mom!

Picasso... and Friday Dress-up Pics

Last night we braved the crowds once more to take the girls downtown to the SAM to see the huge Picasso exhibit.  This time I got tickets in advance online, and we went straight in with no problem!  The vastness of the exhibit was almost overwhelming- this is just a sampling of his work, but Picasso was incredibly prolific in all mediums.  The girls really enjoyed the first several galleries, but soon became very very restless (largely I think because it was very crowded and got really warm in there).  So, we probably weren't able to spend the time at the remaining exhibition rooms that Picasso is due, but we did the best we could and still had fun seeing such iconic works in person, even if briefly and in a somewhat hectic manner.  There were no photos allowed in the exhibit, and the girls were in no mood for photos anyway, but here are some photos from today when we were playing dress-up with some fun new clothes and hats.

 

Healthy Family and Back to the Zoo

Well, the whole Thompson gang is finally healthy again, and boy are we happy!  Kirsten's feeling much better, I'm better, and the girls' congestion and runny noses are pretty much gone too.  Whew!  Annabelle had a really rough patch over the past few weeks of not sleeping well at all during the night, which was very negatively impacting our sleep too, but all is well again... at least for now.  We now have Annabelle in the guest room by herself in the pack and play and Katherine in her own crib in their room.  Hopefully we can transition Annabelle back to their room for sleeping again soon. 

Yesterday, the Seattle rain let up a bit, so we headed to the zoo.  The zoo is really fun in the winter- hardly anyone is there and many of the animals are far more active and fun to watch- yesterday we hung with the gorillas and jaguar for a while and the girls got a kick out of getting so close to them.   Oh, and yes- this is a new blog layout.  Bigger pictures, a more fun background... the old layout was just too boring.

Our First Race... and Big Win!

Yesterday the girls and I ventured out into the chilly winter weather to brave our first big race in the Chariot running stroller.  They've been excited all week, and after bundling up like crazy and a good pre-race milk meal, we were on the road.  We were running the low-key Seattle Ghost Half Marathon that runs right along Lake Washington here in Seattle.  We got there late, but fortunately the race started late too, so we ran up just as folks were taking off, which was perfect.  We started in the very back (which was good since we were the only stroller), but quickly made our way up toward the front.  The rain held off, and it was a lovely cool, gray winter day.  Katherine and Annabelle did amazingly well, and were actually awake and taking it all in for much of the race.  Despite Dad's stops for photos, baby adjusting, etc., we still managed to finish strong and the girls tied each other for 2nd woman overall (though Katherine claims she leaned into the tape at the finish...)!  I'm fairly certain we took the twin stroller division quite handily as well.  The girls didn't want to quit, so we did a bonus loop of 4 or so more miles, then hung out and got warm by the fire post-race and enjoyed some well-earned recovery milk.  It was a delightful day, and Kirsten really enjoyed sleeping in and relaxing a bit!

Happy Thanksgiving!

Here are a few quick shots of what now greets us in the girls' room when Annabelle wakes up from a nap (or in the middle of the night...).  She's figured out how to pull herself up and is quite proud of herself.  I'm sure Katherine won't be far behind!  Happy Thanksgiving!

Our First Snow Day!

It's been a rough last week or so here at the Thompson home, but we've been having a great Monday snow day today.  The girls have been sick and not sleeping well at night, and Kirsten and I have been getting sick on and off as well as the germs move around the family.  (Lucy the dog, fortunately, seems quite healthy.)  It started snowing yesterday here in Seattle, which isn't all that normal, and it's been snowing most of today.  So despite all of us feeling a bit lousy, the girls really wanted to go out and see the snow.  So we headed down to our favorite neighborhood park for a hike and some playtime in the snow.  We offered the girls snow to eat, but they weren't that into it.  They got a kick out of the falling snow though, and Katherine couldn't seem to stop laughing.  Hopefully the breath of fresh air will be good for all of us, and we'll all be feeling better very soon.  Tired Mommy and Daddy are certainly hoping for more sleep again sometime soon. 

9 months plus!

Sorry, no pictures today, but just a little update from our 9 month doctor's checkup on Monday.  The girls have now been out in the big world longer than they were in the womb!  They're growing incredibly concordantly and the doctor thought they looked just great.  They are a little small and have dropped a few curves on the weight growth chart, but apparently this is normal for breast-fed babies.  Anyway, we are working hard at adding plenty of butter and oil to their yummy solid foods and hopefully we'll get these lean little athletes a little chubbier pretty soon!  Annabelle caught up to Katherine and is now 1/4 inch taller and 1 oz. heavier.  Katherine weighs 16 lbs, 1 oz, and Annabelle is 16 lbs, 2 oz.  Katherine is 27 inches tall and Annabelle is 27 and a 1/4 inches.  We're branching out with solids a lot lately, and the girls eat really well.  For example, yesterday they had roasted red pepper and goat cheese puree!  They're liking most everything so far, which is great.  Just gotta keep these little lean girls growing!

Bath Time Fun

These videos were taken a week or so ago, but I just got around to some quick editing down to a manageable version (although it's still almost 2 minutes!).  As you can see, the girls love their bath time. 

Bath Time Fun from Sam Thompson on Vimeo.
The girls LOVE taking their nightly baths, and are loving them even more now that we've added bubbles to the mix. 

Our 2nd Plane Trip

Well, we packed up our entourage and headed down to the Bay Area this past weekend for an unexpected trip.  My Grandma Ruth had a stroke and is not doing well, so we decided to go down for a quick visit.  The girls did great on the plane, and it was really a very smooth trip.  These are pictures with Grandma, Grandpa, Great Grandma Ruth, Great Aunt Eda, and Aunt Helen.  The girls had some big firsts this weekend too.  Annabelle officially crawled for the first time on the floor in Great Grandma Ruth's hospital room, which was really sweet (that's the pic on the blue blanket).  And Katherine and Annabelle had their first big girl meal in a restaurant in high chairs.  They did great and loved being part of the action.