Here are the girls in the snow a couple weeks ago. Here is part 2 and part 3 of our outing. Bonus: Lena eating yogurt.

I actually got linked to someone else's mamablog. And I like it! The blog, as well as being linked. Chris will help me add more features so I can link to the few sites I have a chance to go to. Maybe I'll meet some more cool mama bloggers. And maybe I'll do a list of 100 things about me that will traumatize my girls in the future.

Currently I'm making stew #2, with mushrooms and onions this time. I'm not using lean beef. It's a big step for me, but I've adapted to butter pretty well. Lena is dancing to No Doubt
on a Daddy mix (Hey Baby Hey Baby Hey); the echoes of colic are fading, fading. (But was is a diet deficiency? I guess we'll see with the next bundle of joy--imaginary edd: December 2008).

OK--more days have passed. It's Saturday morning and we just did some breastfeeding advocacy-type stuff. I donated a pitiful 25 ccs of breastmilk to a study that is researching the effects of lactadherin. It's a cool part of breastmilk that helps reduce the effects of rotavirus in infants. Which is interesting, because they just had a short bout which was much less severe than the bout they had in December when I was dieting (connection to diet or to having had a rotavirus before?). Anyway, reading articles on the mothering Vaccination Forum helped me understand much more. I'm loving that I'm still learning so much stuff, especially without sitting in a classroom. Or writing theses.

But my ever-present worry over milk production has resurfaced. Only 25 ccs? Am I not making much milk? But the girls are getting bigger even though they ate nothing for a couple days this week. But I worry. Maybe they're just subsisting? Stop it, mama; everyone talks about how healthy they are. Let it be.

More new girly stuff:

• Now they can do the opposite nods--Lena has nodded affirmatively a couple times. Nico still prefers a heavy-headed assention, but has shaken her head no, too.
• "Bye-bye boobie" is getting clearer from both girls. And I asked Lena to say bubble the other morning and she did it perfectly--the first time she's actually said what I requested.
• Nico has the concept of pair. She brought me a pair of Uggs the other morning; I thought it was possibly a fluke. But the other day she brought me one of her lipstick-colored Bobux, and I said, "You need two shoes. Where's the other?" And she got it!
• They can identify books, too. They know which is Goodnight Moon.
• They way they sign flower is hilarious!
• Nico is getting a back molar; I can feel it! And Lena is getting the two bottom teeth to the outside of the first two.
• The mall is definitely too much for Lena after an hour. Seriously, it's too much for me after that long too. Screamfest that made Grandma D comment on the ego-effacing nature of raising children. But we had fun walking around with Grandma Dennison and almost buying several things. Today we are heading to the kid-friendly Atrium Mall. There's a play area, plus Pottery Barn Kids and Babystyle, where I've let the girls free to play once before.
  
• They can finally use pull toys! Lena's been pulling around this cute duck from Christine, and Nico's got the telephone that seems so archaic now (a sweet gift from Allyson next door).
• Oh, the sign for more definitelty also means me too. Me too, me too, me too.
  
• These girls love their books. They are trying to mimic some sounds. Dr. Suess rocks. Hop on Pop. But boards books are dangerous in the hands of toddlers. I have a scratch and a bruise on my forehead. But we will win the war against illiteracy!