On Peacham Pond

The girls are now home from Vermont, having made the most of their week-plus on Peacham Pond. Hanging out on the dock, they heard loons for the first time (as opposed to simply living with them). Uncle Charles mesmerized both girls -- but especially Maggie -- with his many flutes played both alone and in concert with Grandma Joan on keyboard and Dave on a rented cello. Charles also honed his skills as a baby comic (Borscht Belt jokes interspersed with funny noises that elicited fits of giggles). Aunt Mary took the fabulous picture of Bea in the sink.

Spackled in Vermont

Rice cereal and squash adorn the girls' faces as they enjoy their vacation on Peacham Pond in Vermont. They were slightly more presentable when they met their cousins Virginia and Abbi. The pleasures of the pond include corn-shucking with Grandma Joan.

Six months young

Hooray and hoorah, Maggie and Bea are cumulatively a year old! Why, it seems like only yesterday... Now Bea lounges around with her legs up on her dad, and Maggie shows off the chair-sitting skills of a six-month old. They celebrated with the introduction of multi-grain mush, having mastered the fine art of sampling rice cereal and then the much more popular oatmeal last week.

The life aquatic

The girls received their first post-partum taste of that oceanic feeling this past weekend, compliments of Grandma Joan and her retirement community's swimming pool. Eschewing the controversies over high-tech skintight plastic swimsuits that dogged the world championships (and took 30 minutes to put on), Maggie and Bea went with a flouncy skirted one-piece and swimming diapers. They were neck and neck coming down the lane, touching out at the same time, albeit both with a fairly considerable assist from mother and grandmother.

Foot in mouth disease

We have been worried for some time that daily strolls around the Capitol might have some negative consequences, and now it appears that Maggie has caught this affliction that is chronic in so many politicians. But her symptoms are literal -- she takes great pleasure in putting her feet in her mouth. No mis-statements or faux pas for this young girl. While Bea is just starting to discover her feet, she also enjoys sitting up in her chair (on loan from Emma in Philadelphia). Here she demonstrates admirable head control in a fetching pose!

Four times the Bea

The girls had another action-packed weekend, this time in Lancaster County, where they met their Great-Grandma Stoltzfus, celebrated Grandma Stoltzfus' 60th birthday, spent the night with Grandma Erb, and then whiled away a lovely afternoon on a magic nap-inducing glider on Bill and Judy's side porch.

In other news, the girls had their six-month developmental screening last week. Maggie put on a show, rolling over for the first time (performance under pressure). Bea waited until we got home to whip out her latest trick--blowing raspberries--but as noted above, she gets extra credit for more than quadrupling her weight, now up to 12 and a half pounds. Maggie has more than tripled her weight to an impressive 14 and a half pounds. They're both just huge.

Musical babies

This series of photos manages to show most of the permutations of Maggie and Bea holding that went on Sunday evening when the little girls finally met the Anderson trio of Tala, Caleb and Avey. Bea is sporting the personalized onesie that the older kids made for her. Maggie, no longer able to fit in hers, had to make do wearing watermelon and other summer fruit.