Say Cheese....and Applesauce

When I was a kid, a family friend would mix cheese, applesauce and yogurt together. Sounds gross, but it was really good. Today, I mixed apple sauce, goat cheese and a few crushed chex for the girls. That's what they were eating when I took these pics. They were not as thrilled with it as I used to be. Notice their little pig tail? It's my attempt to keep their hair out of their eyes without cutting them bangs.

Sunday Stuff

The girls decided to give us a treat and sleep in until 6:15 today. They've been getting up really early lately. Their 5:00 am wake up on Saturday morning wasn't very appreciated. Their early wake up this morning meant we could do church, bring them swimming and be home by 10:30. They did not nap until 2:00 and then only for about an hour, so we had time to play and go for a walk as well.

We had burgers for dinner tonight. Eiley ate some of hers and then decided to suck the ketchup off of a big slab of meet.

Arya has been giving us all sorts of goofy faces lately. I just love them, but she rarely lets me capture them on camera.

Treat Whore

Sikozu has been pretty shy around the girls until recently. All of the sudden he's decided they may not skin him alive if he comes around them. Today, he even let Eiley touch him while she was eating dinner. One of the kids' new favorite activities is to give the cats treats. They both bang on the kitchen closet door, saying "t-t-t-t-", begging for treats. I think this may be what's winning Sikozu over as he'll do just about anything for a treat.

Lid Licker

This is what happens when one kid finishes a snack before the other. I get distracted and, in this case, Eiley has gotten into the lid from the almond butter.

Go Big Blue?

Uncle Jason gave the girls Michigan socks. Seeing that Cork and I both went to Madison, the kids would not own any Michigan gear if it wasn't for him. When he gave us the socks, he told us that we couldn't throw them out. We didn't, and I do let the kids wear them. I think the kids must be true Badger fans already since I found their Michigan socks shoved into their ball toy. LOL!

ABCs of Me

This is what happens to a house when 2 toddlers are allowed to roam free while their caregiver it too sick to watch them. I was just happy when the kids ate anything. They have not been fed as well this past week as I would normally feed them. Right now I just don't care where they eat or when. That would explain why I have pancake on my stairs and crushed chex on my family room floor.

Once I got things cleaned up a little, I taught A&E how to do somersaults. They can't slip themselves over yet, but not for lack of trying.



I was tagged in a blog hop type thing and feel obligated to do this. This is the type of thing I never send on when I get it via email, but I figured doing it once for the blog couldn't hurt.

A. Attached or single? Attached.

B. Best friend? Cork

C. Cake or pie? Ice cream really should be an option here

D. Day of Choice? Saturday

E. Essential Item? Chocolate

F. Favorite color? Blue

G. Gummy bears or worms? Worms…seriously, why are chocolate and ice cream left off lists like this?

H. Hometown? Rockford, IL

I. Favorite indulgence? Frozen Custard

J. January or July? July

K. Kids? 2 amazing, charismatic, energized 18 month olds

L. Life isn't complete without? My kids

M. Marriage Date? May 25th

N. Number of brothers and sisters? 7, 5 brothers and 2 sisters

O. Oranges or apples? Apples

P. Phobias? Stepping on grates in the sidewalk

Q. Quotes?

“Hopelessly lost, but making great time.”

R. Reasons to smile? I get to stay home with my children and help shape them into little people

S. Season of choice? Fall, I love the smell

T. Tag 5 people: I'm going to be a party pooper and not tag anyone. If anyone wants to do this one their blog, leave a comment and I'll read your responses on your blog.

U. Unknown fact about me? I can ride a unicycle, or could. I haven’t in years, but assume I could pick it back up.

W. Worst habit? Bite my nails

X. X-ray or ultrasound? Ultrasound

Y. Your favorite food? Ice cream, chocolate and bananas

Z. Zodiac sign? Sagitarius

Teething Hell

Eiley did not have a good day today. Usually teething isn't that bad, but today was different. She kept Arya up from taking a nap. She would scream at me if I held her, if I put her on the floor, if I put her in the crib and just about anything else I did. All in all, it was not a good day for us around here. I got her to sleep a couple times, but she would wake up within a couple minutes to start yelling at me again. All I wanted to do was sleep. The two sleeping pics included today are the couple minutes E napped. Each time I thought she was totally out and each time she was up less than 5 minutes later.

Boots and Begging

Arya is definitely better. She went all day without napping and ate a ton. She devoured pancakes all morning long. She wasn't above begging for a drop or two of syrup on the pancake pieces she carried around. I was too sick to care of she dropped crumbs everywhere. I was just happy she was finally eating again.

Eiley and I are both still under the weather. I definitely have what they had. Looks like we won't be going anywhere for a while yet. Eiley took 2 naps today, which she hasn't done in a long time. She also decided she didn't want to wear her pants, but did want boots on. I figured we were home, so she could wear whatever she wanted.

Poopoo Moomoos and Tutus

Arya had her first solid poop today in almost a week. Woohoo! She then proceeded to eat 3 bananas. The girl must know what she needs to eat to stay stopped up.

She is definitely feeling much better. She has a tutu in her toychest that she knows the cat loves. She went to get it this morning and threw it onto Ingogh's back. Of course he gave her the reaction she wanted when he went crazy playing with it. She really loves that cat.

E is wearing a moo moo today. I maybe mentioned this before, but I love how her little girl dress is cute on her, but easily could be considered a moo moo if an adult was wearing it.

Enough is Enough

Today is day 5 of sick kids. Arya was definitely feeling better today, but not 100% yet. Eiley started having diarrhea this morning and continued throughout the day. She ate every meal, but neither kid has much of an appetite. I looked around my kitchen today and realized that they have both been sick since I went to the grocery store last. Usually by five days after going to the store, we'd be running out of some fruits and veggies. I still have a whole pineapple as well as a bunch of bananas, pears, apples and cut melon.

We tried to decide this morning what to do with the kids. I am sick of being cooped up in the house. We finally decided to go to a little ethnic grocery store, just to bum around. It wasn't exciting, but it got us out of the house. All the other things we came up with were either ruined by the snow/rain/sleet we were having or were places with lots of other kids that we didn't want to expose to our germs.

This afternoon, both kids were having a little snack...which quickly ran through Eiley by the way. We noticed that E's feet were nice and blue. She was sitting on them, and since she refuses to wear socks, they were also cold. This doesn't look comfortable to me, but she seemed content to keep her feet where they were.

Ladybugs Everywhere

I hosted a baby shower today for a friend. I've had so much fun making things and getting ready for the shower. I attempted, and succeeded, at decorating my first cut out cookies with royal icing. While it took awhile to do, the icing was a lot of fun and I'd love to do it again.

Thankfully my mom was at the shower and could help with the girls. Neither was feeling well and they were held most of the day. My poor kids have been sick for days. I really hope they feel better tomorrow. A woke up this morning with a diaper full of something totally disgusting. E woke up with a crib full of puke. She had vomited some time during the night and hadn't cried or anything. We didn't find it until she'd rolled in it and it was nice and crusted into her hair, pajamas, pacifier and everywhere else it could be.

Still Sick

We had a very dull day today. Neither kid is feeling well. We stayed home and spent a lot of time on the couch. Arya also spent some time in the cat bed.

Hershey Squirts

Arya was not feeling really well today. She woke up with a little loose stool in her diaper and was eventually filling her pants with diarrhea by the end of the day. I heard the kids take off up the stairs and quickly followed. I trapped them at the end of the hall and could smell Arya a mile away. I said "Wow" and she responded "uh-oh, poopoo". I couldn't help but laugh.

By dinner, she was not feeling up to eating. She sat in her chair, sucking her pacifier, taking periodic sips of her pedialyte (sp?).

Mood Swings

How quickly they go from this



to this.
Arya ate a huge breakfast this morning and then refused to eat any food until dinner. Even then, she barely touched anything. She wasn't acting sick, but she did take a really long nap today, almost 2 hours. This makes me wonder if she's not feeling well.

Fail!

Cork gets a fail. I told him this weekend, when he installed cabinet locks in our bathroom, that one of them wasn't right. He bent it a little and said it was just fine. Nope, not fine. The girls were playing in our room yesterday and came out with toothbrushes I had thrown out. I threw them into another garbage and bent the lock a little more. Today, I cleaned up lunch and then walked in on them sharing an empty tube of toothpaste that I'd thrown out this morning. Wonderful! Yep, I still say that Cork gets a fail on that one. LOL.

I just love this picture. I honestly don't remember if we were dancing or jumping, but they both are so goofy.

Slow and Steady

I found Arya climbing the changing table today. Cork and I have both seen Eiley and her on the bottom shelf, but have always pulled them off. She scrambled up here today pretty fast. Of course I grabbed the camera and took Eiley down before snapping the picture. I figured it could hold Arya's weight, but not both.

Speaking of weight, the girls had their 18 month appointment today. Eiley is now 20 lbs 11 oz and Arya is 19 lbs 6 oz. I'm amazed at how little they still are. They are staying steady on their growth curve though while most kids drop off between 12 and 18 months and then get back on track by 24 months. Hopefully that means they'll continue to grow and gain slowly be steady.

Polar Bear Antics

The kiddos are 18 months old today. As any parent knows, the time flies by. I do have to admit that the last 9 months have gone much faster than the first 9 months. While we have our challenging days, I love the time we spend together. Today, we all went to the zoo. It was beautiful outside today, so we had to take advantage of that. We went to the zoo a lot this past summer and fall. I think in all the times we were there, we only saw the polar bear once and he wasn't a happy camper. The rest of the time he was hanging out inside. Today, he was enjoying the cool temps, playing in his pool, pushing a ball all around. I'm not sure if the kids or I enjoyed watching him more. He was like a kid in the water, pushing the ball under and trying to hold it down, quickly swimming after it each time it bobbed back to the surface.

Mad Dash

Sometimes the girls are faster than I am. I opened the freezer and they made a mad dash to grab things from the freezer door. I thought I'd grabbed everything back from them, until I found them in a chair, happily playing with a container of jam.

Power Struggles

The girls and I are having a little power struggle lately. Having two makes some things easier. I try to buy things in different colors, so they have a choice between a brown and green coat, pink or tan boots, punk or purple hat and things like that. Today, that didn't matter. Neither wanted her boots on after going to kidcare at the gym. They both emphatically said "no" and then threw a fit as I put boots and a coat on each. Arya did not want to go into her car seat. After trying to talk her into it for way too long, I eventually physically made her sit down. I hate to do that, but sometimes it's the only thing I can do. We got home from the gym and both refused a snack even though they were hungry. They then refused to eat what I was serving for lunch. They both quickly ran to the stairs when I told them it was naptime. Arya quickly went to sleep after they played for a little bit, but Eiley screamed for an hour. She kept yelling "no nigh night". I tried rocking her to sleep, but every time she fell asleep she'd wake up as soon as I tried to lay her down. Eventually, I brought her downstairs and just stood her in the middle of the room. She gave me tons of stink eye before finally melting and climbing into my lap. After 30 minutes of rocking (2 hours after she initially went down for a nap), she was finally out. I don't think either of us won this battle.

Thief

Eiley kept stealing this soap today. No matter where I put it on the counter, she would get it and bring it around with her. I finally gave up and just let her have it.

Toddlers & Tiaras

We were cooped up in the house most of the day today. We got out a little, but it was cold and none of us wanted to be outside.

We started out day with breakfast, as usual. I can't remember if I've mentioned that sometimes the kids eat at the table with us and don't use their trays. This works well until they decide to climb all over their highchairs.

Before the gym, we covered ourselves in stickers. Well, they covered themselves in stickers and I found stickers on me after I got to the gym.

After lunch, we were looking for some things to keep us occupied until nap time. We decided to play toddlers & tiaras. Shhhh. Don't tell Cork. The girls love lotion and hand sanitizer, so why not make up. They look like little train wrecks. LOL. I took the makeup off as soon as I had a picture of each of them.

They were both faster than me though and grabbed their pacifiers before I had their lipstick off.