Water Fun

I thought I might be able to leave the kids alone today for a few seconds to use the bathroom. Nope. In the few seconds it took me to urinate and wash my hands, Arya had climbed the changing table and sprayed water everywhere. We use cloth wipes when we are home, so there is always a water bottle by their changing table that I used to wet the wipes. Both kids know it's there and it's their new favorite toy.

We got packed up after the water incident and went to the zoo. While there, the kids shared a banana. Arya always has to hold the peel if they are sharing a banana. Most of the time I cut or break the banana in half and Eiley will take the half without the peel. Eiley said she didn't want any, then she started staring at Arya.

Arya offered the banana.

Eiley tried to take a bite.

Arya moved it away though.

Finally she let Eiley have a bite.

When we got home, our food wars continued. Arya would not touch her lunch and I wouldn't let her have anything else until she at least took a bite. She stared down that spoon forever before she finally picked it up....and then she dumped it. She never ate it though and went from 10:00, when she had her banana, until dinner without eating. She ate a lot of dinner though.

Food Wars

The food wars have begun. Breakfast usually goes well, but every other meal is a challenge around here. The kids sit and pout or scream that they don't want what is being served. They beg for crackers "yah yahs" between meals and are definitely hungry. I've started to regulate how much they get for a snack in the afternoon because they would fill up on snacks and ignore every meal if they could. They eat good food at snack time, so it's not like they are getting fruit snacks and other junk. I don't want them getting used to not eating meals and only snacking all day long.

I'm a hard ass mom and am not above putting them to bed hungry. If they honestly don't like something then I'm not going to make them eat it. Arya has gagged every time she's eaten goat yogurt or chevre cheese. She obviously doesn't like them with that type of response. Eiley's dreaded food seems to be mango. She hates that right now. If they won't even taste what is being served (and it's not one of the foods I know they hate), then they don't get anything else. The two of them play off of each other, which makes things worse. Today they both wanted lunch at 10:50. I held them off until 11:15 and then gave them pasta from last night. The neighbors probably wondered what was going on in this house with the amount of protesting each kid did. Eiley started it and Arya quickly joined in. Eiley wanted her blueberry yogurt smoothy that she didn't finish yesterday. I try to pick my battles and give them a variety of foods. I know that if I gave her the smoothy that would be all she ate/drank. It wouldn't keep her full though and 20 minutes after going down for her nap she'd be up screaming from hunger. She wouldn't nap after that and we'd spend the rest of the day between her yelling from being over tired and her yelling for crackers.


Unrelated to this, A&E finally started climbing the outside of the staircase today. I've discouraged it so far, but knew this day would come soon.

After the huge fit they threw, they both got put in their cribs to chill out. Five minutes later they were ready to come back down and try the lunch thing again. By noon they were both happily eating pasta, salad and broccoli in their chairs. They didn't dislike anything I was feeding them, they just would have preferred jelly beans and cookies to the real food. I totally understand that, given my huge sweet tooth, but they aren't getting jelly beans or cookies unless they've eaten something nutritious first.

Cabinet Invaders

A&E are getting too tall to sit under the cabinets in our kitchen :( I have loved letting them sit up there while I cook. I guess their getting too tall has come at about the right time. Today was the first time they've tried to crawl all over and stand up while on the counters. It looks like they'll have to stand on chairs by the counters soon. They do this sometimes, but they climb onto the counters from the chairs and get into the cabinets and drawers. Sitting them under the cabinets has been a much better solution for all of us until now.

Crib Climbers

Most people have to make sure that their books and magazines are hidden from their small children. We have to also make sure they are hidden from Ingogh. He is obsessed with paper as a toy.

Arya and Eiley are quick to help load the dishwasher. Some days, they help a little too much.

The kids were playing in their room today and i realized they were really quiet. I went to check on them and found this. They couldn't figure out how to climb in all the way, so we may have time before they try to climb out.

Bath Signs

Both kids are really starting to name things as they point at them in books. Today, Eiley was obsessed with the bath page in one of her books. She signed bath over and over again.

Shades and Ladders

Both kids were up late last night and needed a nap before, instead of after, lunch today. Eiley woke up first and was done eating by the time Arya woke up. She wanted to help feed Arya, but couldn't be bothered to take off her sunglasses.

After their snack, Eiley decided to take off up the ladder Cork was using to install a new light.

Bribery

I wanted to get a pic of both girls standing still for once. I asked them to stand at the oven and then told them I'd give them a chocolate chip if they smiled. I made the mistake of giving a CC to Eiley for standing at the oven and not waiting until she smiled. The result was lots of Arya hamming it up to get some chocolate and Eiley completely ignoring me since she was already happily enjoying chocolate. Bribery may not be the best parenting skill, but it's the only way I know how to make them stand still right now.

ETA: These outfits are backwards! This was the first time the shirts were worn. As soon as I had them on, I knew that they should be on the opposite kid. I should have just switched them. All day long I got the kids confused when I could only see their clothes and not their faces. I don't know why, but some things just seem to work for one and not for the other child.

Kicking it Old School

The kids have been playing in the exersaucer and baby swings at the gym kidcare. I got out our exersaucer and jumper today for them. They were more than excited and would have happily spent all night long playing in them.


We had ruben sandwiches for dinner with broccoli and asparagus on the side. Neither was thrilled at first, but decided to try it when they realized that was it. Poor Eiley had to wait and wait and wait for dessert while Arya packed in forkfuls of broccoli. Dessert was chocolate chip cookie dough cupcakes. Wow! They were really good.

A Walk Down Memory Lane

These pics are for my parents. Arya was the first to do it and Eiley quickly followed when I laughed.



I made the dresses they are wearing today. I got the idea from the Tea Rose Home blog. Someone gave me this link recently. I haven't had time to really look through her site, but the few projects I've seen from here are great. Obviously I changed things since the girls have dresses and not tunics. I made the dresses a little long with the hope that I can make them short sleeved in a couple months and they could wear them this summer. The 2 dresses together, with the shirts and material, cost less then $8 and I have material left over to make other fun things for them.

Heavy Sleeper

When the girls wake up from their nap, and have slept enough, they usually let me know they are awake by jumping in their cribs. Today, I heard jumping and a little voice yelling "mama". I went upstairs assuming that both kids were awake. I went into their room to find Arya wide awake and Eiley still passed out. Arya informed me "uh oh poopoo" and as soon as I picked her up, it was obvious she wasn't the one full of poo. Eiley proved that she can not only sleep through the noise of Arya jumping, laughing and yelling "mama", but she can also sleep through a very full diaper.

Wawa Baba

The girls can both say "wawa" now for water, but for a long time Eiley said "baba". Now, they both tend to say "wawa baba wawa baba" etc. when they want water. Eiley walked up to Ingogh today saying this and then kept offering him her water bottle.

Dance Party

The girls took their first ever 3 hour nap today. Neither is sick as far as I can tell. I think they were just exhausted from not napping much and doing a lot of activities lately. After their nap, they were ready to move, so Cork put on some kid videos from Youtube and let them dance away.

Crash!

My laptop crashed. The hard drive is dead and I dont' have the software I need to get the operating system up and running with a new hard drive. I called Sony to purchase the software and had a very frustrating conversation with a woman in India. The software I need is back ordered and I probably won't receive it for 12 to 15 business days. After I get the software, I still need to get my hard drive replaced. This means it may be awhile before the blog is updated again unless I use another person's computer.

Daddy's Touch

Arya still isn't feeling well. I finally got back to the painting I started weeks ago, so I didn't want to stop that and console her. Cork took her instead and after mentioning the Ergo a few times, I told him his life would be much easier if her just put her in it. He finally got the Ergo and Arya stopped screaming and was asleep in about 30 seconds.

Arya rediscovered the kitchen faucet today.


We fed the kids pizza and icecream for dinner tonight. It was like being at a birthday party. They loved it. We'll find out tomorrow if the dairy is still an issue.

Chris Farley

I fed the kids lentil burgers, quinoa with veggies, and sweet potato fries for dinner yesterday. WOW! It's amazing what that will do to a kid's diaper. I took pics and sent them to Cork at work. I'm just not sure I should add them to the blog though.


Eiley was throwing a fit and Arya wanted to be right in on it.
We painted today. The painting on paper didn't last very long. They quickly started painting themselves.

And this might be the best photo I've ever taken. I couldn't stop laughing when Eiley, who wanted out of her pajamas, came downstairs wearing this hairband as a bowtie. All I could think of was Chris Farley from SNL.

Cousins

This picture of Eiley reminds me so much of her cousin. Not only is she wearing her cousin's shirt, but I've seen a pic of her cousin around the same age, making the same facial expression.

Stroller Demonstration

Arya demonstrates how a shorty gets into a stroller by herself.