butterflies and a carousel

Today we took our first trip to Como Zoo with the girls. They had a fabulous time riding around in their Radio Flyer looking at all the animals, birds and fishes. We went into the butterfly house with them and they enjoyed that very much since it gave them a chance to get out on their own and walk around a bit. Sophia really liked pointing out the butterflies while Anna had trouble keeping her hands off the plants and flowers. The highlight for each I would say was checking out the lily's in the pond. Sophia wanted to climb in and Anna got absolutely soaked from splashing in the water. To round things out we took them on their first carousel ride. The carousel made it's debut at the Minnesota State Fair way back in 1914 making it as old as the girls Great Grandpa Benson. It was rather exciting for Anna who was right on the edge of having a melt down just before things got underway. Sophia on the other hand was fairly calm until the ride got started. Needless to say she not much for Carousels, at least not yet.

Anna's up!..and Sophia's running!!

Well not exactly, Anna is standing up on her own unassisted. I personally haven't seen her take any steps yet, but Lisa has been fortunate enough to see her take her first steps just the other day. It was a bit wobbly and she has some honing to work on yet, but they were her first steps, HER FIRST STEPS!!! We are very proud and I have seen Anna's face when she has stood on her own and I see nothing but pride in her own eyes as well. Sophia, while not all out running yet is keeping active with walking as fast as she can and then slowing down to a walking crawl, then kicking back into a full speed walk. She is truely reveling in her physical abilities and I'm certain we have a future Track and Field star in our midst. Lisa calls her our little Prefontaine.

...and here we go

As we enter into the Labor Day weekend (what is generally considered the last weekend of the summer) I have the urge to begin a blog focusing on our girls Anna and Sophia. When the twins first entered into our lives nearly two years ago we spent the first couple months at the hospital watching them grow and waiting for the day that they would be ready to come home (as you may know they were born a bit early). Well during that time we took pleasure in documenting our experiences through a Caringbridge website that we set up for each of them. It gave us an opportunity to share with those we are close to the ups and downs we were going through and it was a truly rewarding experience not only for us to write about the girls but also for those interested in hearing about their circumstances. Soon after their birth we were given a gift of two journals that could be used to document and relay to our daughters some of the early childhood experiences they have had. It started out well with both Lisa and myself contributing frequently with stories that would one day be read by the girls (we had figured perhaps as a graduation gift ). However as time moved on I found myself contributing less and less, not that I didn't want to, I just found the drive to sit down and write is not something I could consciously allow time for. Part of the problem was the fact that I am a terrible speller, and another part was that I couldn't go back once something was written and revise. Well I think this will allow me those opportunities, while also being a great way to share some of our stories with others. I will try my best to make frequent entries and we will see how things go.