A visit from Memere

This past week I have had Eric's mom visiting us.  Life is so easy with her here, and I swear she can work miracles.  She seems to have so much energy, and everyday she is able to help me with the boys AND get cleaning done.  While she's been here she has done countless loads of laundry, washed all the windows on the first floor, and organized the babies' clothes.  Oh, and today she cleaned our bedroom and made our bed.  The place looks great, considering we have two infants and three adults living here!

We are still working on a nap schedule here.  Some days have gone incredibly well, with them both taking morning naps (at the same time) and an afternoon nap (at the same time).  When those days happen, it feels like life will be very manageable sometime soon.

In the past week, it seems like the boys have done a fair amount of growing and changing.  Benjamin LOVES the exersaucer, and he will stand and play in it for long periods of time.  This is great, because prior to the exersaucer, we had no way to leave Benjamin alone without him crying.  Now he seems happy and occupied.  Here is a picture of him in his exersaucer, watching Sesame Street.

And Asher loves the Jumperoo.  He jumps up and down, sometimes throwing his arms up while he jumps.  It is so adorable.  Asher also seems to smile non-stop.  He wakes up, and smiles at me.  He poops, and smiles.  You make eye contact with him, and he grins.  I guess he is a happy baby!  Benjamin is also smiling more, and he has started giggling at times, too.  His giggle is so wonderful to listen to!  Both boys now love bath time.  It only took four months, but now bath time is a pleasure for all of us.

Here is Benjamin and his memere, after she gave him a bath:

And for evidence he loves bath time:

Here is a picture of Asher and Eric, having a man-to-man talk:

On Monday night, Eric and I enjoyed a date night at a new restaurant in town.  We had a lovely night just the two of us, but it was hard to leave my angels!  They don't yet seem bothered by my leaving, but I miss them when I am gone.  Work is also difficult, and I am grateful that it is only 1 day a week and not more.  Our nanny is working out so well, she is wonderful with the boys and a sweet woman overall.

Today their memere leaves to go home to Maine.  We will all miss her so much, and I'm guessing she will miss her grandsons.  But we are on to our next adventure: the annual vacation to Cape Cod!  I have gone every summer since 1993 with my family.  In 2006 Eric joined us for the first time, and last summer I was 5-6 weeks pregnant when we went.  And this year, we go with the two newest members of the Landes family.  We have friends from Amherst coming on Friday to spend the weekend, and then my sister will be coming in from Cambodia on Saturday.  She hasn't seen the boys since they were 3 weeks old, so she will basically be seeing them for the first time, since the boys they are now are so different from the itty bitty infants she left in April.  I am excited to continue some of our old traditions with our new babies. 

I've also set a vacation goal for myself: eat ice cream everyday!  I like to set achievable goals.  When I went to Italy last year, my goal was to have gelato everyday, which I was able to do.  And my goal when we went to Maine was to have ice cream everyday, too, and I did that.  It seems that not only do I like achievable goals, I like goals that involve ice cream.