Mirror Images and Picture Images!

Last night we went out to dinner with my family, and the hostess was immediately drawn to our girls. She told us that she's a twin too, and when we asked if her twin is identical, she told us that they're actually mirror-image twins. I think I've mentioned this before on here, but T and E are mirror-image twins too, so we had fun talking with her about what it's like! One of them will be right-handed, and the other will be left-handed. We can tell that they're mirror images by the direction their hair swirls on the back of their heads: one is clockwise and one is counter-clockwise. My guess is that T will be our right-handed girl and E will be left-handed (I have several complex reasons for this), but we've been told it's technically too early to tell. (That's also what the doctor told us when the nurse had announced that they would be identical super early on - and it turns out the nurse was right!) The hostess told us that being a twin is the best thing ever, and that she and her sister talk about nine times a day! She said that one time one of them was coming from California and the other from Mississippi, and when they met up they were wearing the exact same dress! She also told us that one can NEVER look better than the other! We had such a good time talking with her, and she loved seeing our girls. It's times like these when I really love taking the girls out in public. 

Speaking of that, whenever I venture out without the twins, sometimes I catch myself wondering why I'm not getting nearly as much attention as I typically do - then I remember they're not with me! Ha!

Today is a day for pictures around here - shocker, I know! First of all, when we went to visit Chris's family in Jackson, we had the girls' pictures taken by Jana Rodrigues, a very talented photographer who just so happens to live next door to Chris's mom! Her 2-year-old girl, Natalie, was on hand to help with the picture-taking process. She just loved giving the girls their wubbanubs between shots and making them giggle! They, of course, thought she was extra cool because she's a big girl compared to them! :)

Benchwarmers - E in the pink bow and T in the white

I love their sweet faces in this one!  

Tamsie Pearl, AKA T-Dot

Evangelyn Rose, AKA Evesteroni. She's got her daddy's smile:

See what I mean? (Vaf, 6/14/08)

You can see it here too, despite the peppermint costume. (Vaf, 10/31/07) (This is what happens when the Vaf attempts to attend a Halloween party sans costume. That is totally JJ in the background, in her 80s finest, as I recall!)

They're serious about playtime! Notice they are in a fenced-in area. Laugh if you wish, but it had to happen.

Evie stayed up late to watch the opening ceremony of the Olympics at her grandma and grandpa's house. Tamsie, on the other hand, couldn't make it past about 9.

Hanging out with Aunt Jennifer and Uncle Tyler at a wedding shower on Saturday afternoon

We took the girls to their first baseball game Sunday night to see the Redbirds with Roy, Carissa and Cliff! As usual, Cliff only has eyes for Evie.

See what I mean?

In honor of this very blog, Melissa came and took some pictures of the girls a couple of weeks ago. Here are some favorites, starting with Tamsie and the sweet smile she was giving me.

Evie was giving me a sweet smile too.

Rock star baby playing her lollipop like a guitar! They had both just started sitting up pretty well, but I was close by in case of a collapse - and collapses DID happen!

You should know that the lollipops were covered in plastic wrap, so no actual sugar consumption was going on - much to the girls' dismay.

Still smiling behind her lollipop!

Investigating...

I think the lollipops passed their inspection!

Chomp!

These outfits are from my mom. I think they perfectly capture the personality of each girl, and they look super cute together!

Tamsie must have been talking to Melissa at this point!

Evie may seem sweet... but she's got some spice in there too!

Trying a dainty approach to the lollipop...

Typical Evie face

Melissa must have said something that took her by surprise!

I was probably attempting to get a laugh out of them... instead they were looking at me like I was crazy!

"E, what is Mom doing over there?" - T

Girl talk!

The cold shoulder

I love this little series of faces!

This is what Evie does when she wants to be picked up. She is probably about to say, "Up!" in this picture.

Evie tries to claim both lollipops...

... but decides on just one.

That tongue!

Chow time!

T is distracted by something off-camera...

People ask how I tell them apart. To me, their smiles are totally different! Evie has the long squiggly one, and Tamsie just opens her mouth really big!

I must have finally gotten them to laugh.

Tamsie can hardly contain herself.

Working it...

Trying to communicate something spectacular, I think!

The sticky end of the lollipop? 

Rare moment of sisterly generosity?

Never mind. T is after E's.

"If I could just move that elbow out of the way..." 

The girls just love getting their pictures taken, and their photo sessions are always so much fun!

When Naptimes Are Wonky...

... I blog! The girls keep taking mini naps today and waking each other up, and now I have them both well on their way to dreamland. I can't think of a better time to blog! :) Of course, by the time this thing actually goes up, it will probably be tomorrow sometime. {And yes, this is going up the day after I initially started working on it.} That's how things get done around here these days. But I'll chip away at it while I can.

First of all, I would like to present The Evie Show! Evie is the star of two videos today.

The first shows what happens when you put rattles on her feet. But what's a video of one girl without a cameo from the other? Luckily Tamsie makes an appearance in her jumperoo at one point. I apologize in advance for my voice, which I am never a fan of hearing on a video. I'm including this one because it's pretty typical of our daytime activities right now:

Also, this one just melts my heart every time. It's Evie saying "Mama." Tamsie decides to close out the video with a cry.

And now, may I present... The Tamsie Show! Tamsie growls constantly these days, all day long, and now she has started growling words. Rather than saying "Mama," she usually prefers to growl it. I set out to capture this on video today, but anytime I'd start to record, she'd stop. She generally just stops and smiles when she realizes she has an audience. This is the best I could do. You won't hear the "Mama" growl until the VERY end, but here it is:

OK, so I JUST got this video that shows it off pretty well:

And now it's picture time!

Twins can discover innovative ways to play with toys that were designed for one baby at a time!

Peekaboo!

Haven't I seen you around here before?

Tamsie reaches up and provides Evie with some free entertainment.

Evie thinks she'll check it out now.

Tamsie ran her first fever ever this past weekend. We took her to see the doctor to confirm that she didn't have a UTI (because of her kidney issues), and thankfully she didn't - it was just a little virus! Of course Evie caught it the next day. But in this picture, Tamsie was the sick one and Evie was cheering her up. I have a video of this that I put on facebook, but I'm refraining from adding yet another video to the blog today!

Make 'em laugh, make 'em laugh, make 'em laugh!

And she's done.

Poor Evie's face developed a little rash while she was under the weather. We're thinking it must have been related to the fever. I'm just glad both girls recovered so quickly! :)

Earlier this week we went to visit our friends Rachael and Ben and to meet their new addition and our girls' newest buddy, Caroline! We met these sweet friends at church in Louisville, because they had also moved to town for seminary. Now Ben has graduated (yay!) and is serving at a church near Collierville, and we are so excited to be back in the same town with them!

I do realize this is the most socially awkward photo I think I've ever posted (and I do realize that's saying something), and I so should have just asked Chris to take it for me - but I think he was busy changing Tamsie at the time. There was some Tamsie-related reason why he couldn't. I just wanted to show off how huge the girls are in relation to us these days. They are some stubborn things, and they can be hard to hold when they want to squirm around or when they don't want to be held! However, it seems they want to be held more than ever lately. Separation anxiety has started to set in, and they want to be by their mama (said in a growly Tamsie voice) all the time. This is certainly a challenge when there are two of them!

Other recent updates that I failed to take pictures of:

* Melissa came and took some gorgeous pictures of the girls with lollipops - and then turned two of them into the lovely blog header you see up at the top of the page! I will try to include some funny outtakes next time.

* Becky came for a visit last weekend, and we had such a good time hanging out and going to the Trolley Stop Market and Muddy's. It was just like old times - complete with my lack of directional skills and yes, a Starbuck's trip too! I don't think it's possible for us to hang out and not go to Starbuck's. After all, that's how we became such good friends in the first place - hanging out at the Starbuck's at OBU! I just love that girl.

* This weekend we'll be hanging out with Chris's family!

Well that's all for today. Happy Friday, everyone! :)