Just recently we wrote about how we switched strollers from the Graco Double Snap n Go to the Peg Perego Twin Aria. The Twin Aria seemed decent because it was light and it was narrow enough to fit through most doorways. It worked great when I took the kids out shopping with me–the stroller fit between the various displays at the bookstore without trouble. Unfortunately, it broke.

Yesterday we took the girls out to lunch, and as we were putting the girls back into their stroller, we noticed that Miranda had somehow pushed her arm through the back of the seat. The seat back is held in place by two pieces of webbing that are stitched around the stroller frame. Stitched webbing is usually quite strong if done correctly, but we found that one side of the seat back had come unstitched completely. The seat back was barely holding Miranda in place. We took Miranda out of the stroller and carried her back with us to the car.

We got our stroller as a gift off of our baby registry, and when I called Amazon to see if they would replace it, we were informed that Amazon no longer carries Babies R Us products as of July 1st. They were willing to accept the stroller as a return and send us a gift certificate for the full value of the purchase though. They’re going to mail us a prepaid shipping label and send us the gift certificate when they receive the stroller. I thought that was an example of great customer service. The stroller is eleven months old and it’s not something Amazon even stocks, but they’re willing to accept the return. We do enough shopping on Amazon that I’m sure we’ll end up using the gift certificate eventually.

This leaves us without a usable stroller though. We’re going to need one tomorrow when I take the girls to daycare by myself and when Agnes picks them up from daycare by herself. I guess we’ll have to go shopping this evening for a new twin stroller. We’re thinking that we’re going to pick up a different stroller–the Twin Aria has a few issues that we would like to avoid (aside from the dangerously poor stitching). The Peg Perego Twin Aria has tiny sunshades and we felt like our girls were constantly squinting. The stroller sometimes got stuck going over very minor bumps in the sidewalk. The left wheel brake would partially engage on its own and make a clicking noise as we pushed the stroller. The “Aria” sticker on the side of the stroller started peeling off. We’re not sure what we’re going to get instead yet, but we’re considering a twin stroller by Maclaren. We welcome any suggestions people might have.

It’s been a busy month for the girls. We’ve posted the photos for the month.

We flew cross-country for Peggy and Sean’s wedding, which was quite an adventure. A chunk of this month’s pictures came from that weekend. The girls did great overall, but we were all tired at the end of the trip.

Miranda and Eleanor both cut their first teeth this month. Within a day of each other, they each had their bottom left tooth. Then a couple weeks later, Miranda had her top two teeth and Eleanor had her top left tooth. We don’t have pictures of their teeth yet–top teeth are hard to photograph if you don’t want to take a picture up their noses.

Miranda and Eleanor continue to improve in eating solids. Miranda seems to be able to handle most foods now. She can pick up larger pieces of food and bite off a piece, if it’s soft enough. Lately though, she seems to have decided that she can’t have chunky food on a spoon. She’ll push it out of her mouth with her tongue, and then pick up the pieces with her fingers. Eleanor has been doing great. She also prefers to pick up her own food, rather than have us spoon-feed her. We need to put food on her tray one item at a time though, because she forcefully and quickly puts everything she can reach into her mouth. She ends up with a mouth so full of food that she has trouble chewing and swallowing. Still, it’s quite an improvement over last month. Both of them have been doing well with drinking from a sippy cup too.

Eleanor has been pretty interested in our shape-sorting box of blocks. She can put each of the shapes through the corresponding holes, but she hasn’t quite figured out which shape goes with which hole yet. She also plays a game with Agnes where she takes each block out of the box and hands it to Agnes, then takes back each block one at a time to put back into the box.

Miranda hasn’t been as interested in the shape sorting. Instead, she seems more interested in walking. I’ve been walking her around the room, holding both her hands. Recently, I’ve been lowering my hands more and more, giving her less and less support. She knows she’s less stable this way, but she’s still determined to try to walk around.

The girls both finally added their “M” sound this month. That means they can say “ma”. Unfortunately, they seem to do this most when they’re whining. Hopefully they’ll start to use “mama” for Agnes and “dada” for me soon. It may still be a while since I think they need to learn to point first. The girls know to clap when we say to clap (in Taiwanese). They also raise their arms when we ask if they’re finished eating, though I don’t think they know how to indicate that they actually are not done eating yet. Miranda more consistently waves bye, but it’s Eleanor that seems to get upset when we leave the room.

Next month, the girls reach their one year birthday. We’re not sure yet what we’re doing for their birthday, but we’ll think of something. Most likely anything we do will be pretty small.