Muddling Through

Greetings again from Pruetz-land. Once again, I have gone way too long between posts. Like I said in my last post, I am working as a co-director for our church's yearly women's ACTS Retreat and as we draw nearer to the weekend of the event, I find myself more and more consumed with the job. I'm loving every minute of it and can't wait for the retreat to get here, but it's a lot of work and it's leaving little time for anything else -- including blogging.

Things are pretty status quo around here, though. Todd starts a new job at Southwest Research Institute on Monday and we're all very excited for him. It's been so much fun having him around, enjoying family time, but now it's time to go back to reality. I'm so thankful for the time we had, though.

The shortest Pruetzes are doing well, too. Devin's antics are the same, although he's recently picked up on a trend of being very verbally affectionate and physically snuggly. I'm getting lots of, "I love you, Mommy. I think you're cute." Oh it just makes my heart swell. It's hard to believe that he's nearly four years old. Where did my baby go?

The girls are doing great, too. They've been pulling up on things here and there, namely me if I'm sitting on the floor, or low window sills. But yesterday, it seemed to "click" with both of them, as they both started to pull up on everything. At one time, Todd was washing dishes at the sink and Gracie pulled up on his leg. It was like watching a cartoon - "Domestic Man and His Trusty Sidekick, Washer Girl!"

This morning, too, Gracie was standing at the coffee table. She reached out a chubby arm, grasped the edge of the couch and made her way over there. The first signs of cruising. Holy smokes.

I'm not quite prepared for this, for a number of reasons. First of all, Devin didn't take his first, unassisted steps until he was 14-and-a-half months old. He was just learning to pull up on his first birthday. That experience led me to believe that I had a few more months before the terror of walking twins began.

Secondly, the twins' first year has gone so much faster than Devin's first year. I guess that is because, with your first, you're totally focused on them and every little thing they do. With your second (and third, as the case may be), you are much more distracted and can't make a big deal out of every coo and wiggle and therefore, the time goes even faster.

Lastly, though, it's hard for me to grasp that Faith and Grace are nearly a year old because of their size. They are both now wearing 3-6 month clothes, which leads me to believe that they are about the size of a six-month-old. When you see a baby that size, you just don't expect for them to be pulling up and cruising. You expect them to be sitting and crawling and all of this just leads to another, "This can't be happening," moment for me.

On top of all of this, the girls are starting to talk. We've wondered for awhile if some form of "Daddy" and "Kitty" were coming out of their mouths, but now there is no mistaking it. Gracie is definitely saying, "Mama," and "Dada" and possibly, "Devin" (which sounds more like, "Daba"). We're not quite so sure about Faith's babbling, but I'm positive that she did the sign for Mama yesterday when she saw me. Fingers splayed out, thumb tapping in the chin. It was awesome!

That's about all from our neck of the woods. I'm not sure how much posting I'll get done between now and the retreat (which is the 12th - 15th), but I'll be back at some point.

E