100 Days and Social Distancing Continued

Al and Teo are 100 days old!  This is a very symbolic date in Chinese culture for babies - it's generally viewed as a time when they are a bit stronger and bigger and is the time for celebrations.

 

 Lots of families will host a 100 day celebration party.  In this day and age, of course, that's absolutely verboten.
 

The boys have seemed to grow a lot in recent days - they are actively making eye contact and smiling.  My favorite is when they make these chirping and gurgling sounds like they're trying to talk - it is so cute!  Both boys have great hand control and can grasp some of their toys.

Here, Al and Teo showing off their arm strength, woot woot.

They love being held and when I come near them they will often turn to follow my voice, or start whimpering and fussing to be held.  The other night my mom was holding Teo and when I came close he started to whimper and fuss.  Same with Al - he was resting comfortably but then when I came close he started to wail.

Here is Al:

 Here is Teo:
 
The other day, Al made all of us laugh because he was sobbing so hard during his exercises.  Then he abruptly stopped, opened his eyes to double check if anyone was around, as if to say, "How come no one is picking me up?!" then quickly squeezed his eyes shut and started sobbing again.  He hates tummy time!  Teo is less dramatic and can usually lounge for a long time, with his eyes wide open, just looking around.  He tends to coo and talk a little bit more.  But as soon as I try to video tape him, he gets quiet and stares curiously at my phone instead.

Currently they are early risers and their favorite time is probably early in the morning - they are like two little songbirds from the hours of 5 to 7 am.  They don't eat much during this period, and instead like to play and chatter.  Conversely, their crankiest time is probably early in the evening - the witching hours of 6 to 8 pm are when they are fussy and can't sleep or eat well.

As I mentioned in my previous post about hanging out with Lola, here are some pictures from our adventures - taking walks, playing elaborate skits and scenes with dolls, reading, etc.  We also make pizza, water our tomato plants, and lately, eat (or anticipate eating) strawberry ice cream.

The girl insists on walking with her own umbrella by herself, even though it's nearly as big as she is and it obscures her view:

 We build elaborate Duplo "castles" and then arrange all the dolls around in circles, singing, dancing, cooking, eating...until one of her temper tantrums abruptly blows through like a toddler hurricane and she wrecks the creations in angry swipes.

 We also read about bears, take trips to My Gym, go to the library (her bedroom) and the museum (my bedroom)...the nice thing about this is I often don't change out of my pajamas to do it all of it!