Year in Review

This is usually my most time consuming post of the year. Trying to go back and pick one picture from each month is hard. It's even harder now that we have added Zia to our family. I've said it before, but we couldn't have asked for a better addition. She more than makes up for the extra time she now adds to this post.
January

February

March

April

May

June

July

August

September

October

 November

December

Sister Picnic

Happy New Years Eve. I took the girls to a grocery store today and a woman there had me trapped while in line to check out. She kept talking about Zia and how she was going to be tortured by her sisters and how mean her sisters were going to be to her. I tried to be nice and eventually just ignored her. I wanted to tell the lady that I hoped to be a better parent than her if she allowed that much to go on in her house, but I resisted. I'm sure they will have a normal amount of sibling disagreements, but I don't think Arya and Eiley will be cruel to her.

When we got home from the store, we had a little picnic of blackberries, pretzels and hummus, on the family room floor while we watched Daniel Tiger. Even Zia joined in and had a taste of the blackberries.

Wasn't Me

The twins have been making messes and then claiming they didn't do it when asked to clean up. They are blaming everything on their toys, like the My Little Ponies. I think we have April to thank for this. We got them to clean up the shoes they threw all around today, or so we thought. When I went upstairs I found them all in a cabinet in the hall.

B-Sami

Eiley got herself ready to go this morning. Can you tell?

Overall, the twins speak very well, especially considering how long it took them to really start talking. They do some funny things though. Right now they love to add a hard B sound on the front of words. So salami is "B-sami".

Sleigh Ride Dance Off

We took the kids to a winter festival today. It was a little painful for Cork and me, but the kids had a great time. Arya and I are a little sick, so she was very subdued. There were rides at the festival that she would normally love. Today she wasn't very excited to ride them. Even the mini train didn't hold much excitement for her. Poor kid.

We gave the girls these dance babies for Xmas. Being as immature as I am, I like to turn them on tat the same time and watch they have a dance off. They stay upright if they aren't too close, but the second one nudges the other at least one goes down. The girls put them in the sleigh this morning for a dance off. Neither would stay standing in the sleigh unless she wasn't dancing. They kept asking me to put her back in though and had a great time watching the sleigh ride dance off.

Insanity

I did an insanity workout video this morning. The twins joined in.

Backpack. Backpack. Backpack. Backpack. The girls now play Dora around the house. Eiley is Dora, Arya is Boots and they run around singing the Backpack song while wearing their backpacks. Today, They couldn't figure out where they needed to go because they couldn't find Map.

Zia doesn't eat solids, but since she's the youngest she's offered lots of things. Probably more things that she should be.

Siri

Eiley picked up my phone this afternoon and started talking to Siri. She asked Siri all sorts of questions. They were all repeats of things Cork and I have asked Siri, but it was still very cute to watch. "Siwi, what you name?"

I gave Zia a regular cup of milk today. She did really good but then started playing with it, so I moved the milk to a sippy cup. She did okay, but had more fun playing than actually drinking the milk.

Merry Christmas

Merry Christmas! Arya and Eiley woke up around 6:00 this morning and I could hear them having a discussion in their bedroom about how early or late it was and if they could get up yet. Eiley fell back to sleep, but Arya didn't. I didn't hear her, but all of a sudden I could sense she was behind me, staring at me. I rolled over in bed and invited her in. A couple minutes later Zia was up, so the three of us climbed out of bed. Eiley slept for awhile longer and then we went and woke her up.

I had an amazing time watching the kids all day long. They were so happy. They loved having so many people in the house and opening all their presents. Arya, Eiley and I stole away from everyone and sang Happy Birthday to Jesus a few times. I was so busy making dinner and talking to other people, I felt like I wasn't giving them enough attention. They loved out little time away and no one missed us while we were gone...or heard me singing off key in the bathroom.

The twins were given a bottle of sparkling grape juice by Mema and Bepa. Eiley opened it and said "alcohol". Hilarious!

Espresso Beans

We had a great Christmas eve today. We originally planned on going to the 6:00 church service, but it just is a hard time to get there with trying to eat dinner and be in time to get a seat. That, plus the fact that the kids ate a bunch of chocolate covered espresso beans, made us decide that the 10:00 service would be better. All of the kids were up later than they should have been and slept through the entire service. We did cookies for santa and carrots for reindeer before we left for church so we could put the kids to bed right when we got home with no distractions. It didn't matter. Both barely stirred and just wanted to be tucked into bed.

This morning, we took the kids swimming. Cork took Zia into the locker room with him. I took Arya and Eiley in the room with me. Arya was on a roll. While we were getting ready, I told the twins we needed to hurry because Zia would be getting mad. Arya said "yeah, cause she wants boob." Yes, Arya has been listening to her father too much. Then she told me that my pants weren't going to fit anymore because I'm getting older and bigger and my butt is going to be too big. Wonderful. Such a delight on Christmas eve. She just kept chatting away in the locker room and I could hear people laughing at our conversations.

Ballerinas

My little ballerinas.

And my little troublemaker. She was sitting, but she threw herself to the side so she could pull clean clothes out of a laundry basket.

Target has everything. Including some things they shouldn't.

ChooChoo

We took the girls to see a Christmas exhibit downtown today. They were in love with all the stuffed animals and the train. When we left, they were very unhappy. The only thing that made them happy was the promise of going Christmas shopping for some family members.

Sweets

The girls dressed in the wrong letter shirts this morning and would only answer to the wrong name. They totally crack me up.

Arya sat on Eiley and Eiley said "Arya, your gina did that to me" and then showed Arya how she was sat on. Sometimes I love that they are speaking so well and other times I have to shake my head at the things they say.

The older 2 had suckers today from Trader Joe's. I was cooking, looked around and see that they are both taking turns feeding the suckers to Zia. Poor Z. She wasn't sure what to think about them. One was orange and one was lemon and I think the slightly sour lemon sucker was just a little too much for her. One of my sisters fed me part of a sucker when I was pretty young. I've seen a picture of it, but don't remember how old I was. I know I enjoyed that sucker way more than Zia enjoyed these. Maybe she didn't get my love of sweets.

Diaper Head

The girls and I went and bought Cork a gift today. We had many conversations after about how we were not going to tell Daddy where we had gone, what we had bought, that we bought anything etc. Of course three year olds can't keep a secret. We sat down for dinner and Arya says "Daddy we bought you a present today at Home Depot." Thanks kid! Cork laughed and said "Is that supposed to be a secret?" Arya: "Yeah for Christmas". Thanks again kid. At least she doesn't know what it is, so she couldn't tell him that.

April grew fins last night. The girls liked her before, they LOVE her now and won't leave her alone. Poor Elf may never have feet again.

I LOVE this picture of Zia. She cracks me up. This just sums up her personality. She loves attention and is learning to entertain. Obviously she didn't put the diaper on her head, I did that, but she knows something is there and that she's getting extra attention because of it.

Tongues

April made the girls a snowman last night. It's a little scary, but I guess that's what happens when she uses tomatoes instead of something black for the eyes.

The things three year olds say crack me up. They are trying to use big words and talk constantly. When we were at the kid museum today, Arya told me the slide was "adorable" and "silly". There's a preschool area at the museum. Arya and Eiley are getting old for it now, but Zia is still a little young for it. There is one of the projection units there that goes on the floor with water, fish, turtles, frogs, and leaves. When you walk on it, the water ripples. I put Zia on the ground and she was fascinated with all the animals swimming around her.

Zia spit up on me tonight, so I took our picture to show that I got tagged. After I took it, I realized that both she and I had our tongues out of our mouths. She definitely got this trait from me.

Snow Biking

My mom and I spent most of today making cookies. We now both have more cookies than we could possibly use for Christmas. I'll freeze mine and use them as dessert for the next few months, or possibly longer, like until next November. I have a lot of cookies.

We got our first snow of the season today. What does every kid want to do when it snows? If they're my kids, they want to ride their Strider bikes. LOL. We rode up and down the sidewalk today until it got a little too slick to be out there. They had on winter coats, tights, and dress up dresses. Very appropriate outfits for riding bikes in the snow.

We had chili for dinner tonight. Eiley threw a fit in the beginning of the meal because she didn't want chili. Once we got her to actually sit down and eat it, she enjoyed it. When she was on her last bite, she turned to my mom and said "hey Nana, I need help with my last little bite." It was more of a demand than a request, but it was pretty funny. She knew exactly who to go to that would help and not ignore her demand.

Santa's Request

I made these for the girls' teachers. I figured they get a ton of cookies around Christmas time and a clipboard should be something they use. One of them was very excited. I don't know about the other as she did not open hers in front of us.

Zia loves to take a nap toward dinner time. When she does, she goes to bed really late. Today she fell asleep close to 5:00. I tried so hard to wake her, but she had other plans. Thankfully I was able to get her up within 10 or 15 minutes, so she only went to bed about 90 minutes after she should. She's just like her older sisters. If she has a quick recharge she has no interest in going to bed. She only took one other nap today for just over an hour. She's a little trooper and is still happy even when she's over tired.

April will think twice the next time she turns down a request from Santa.

Green Eggs and Ham

Cork: Arya do you need some daddy time?
Eiley: No Dadda. I'm not Arya.

Zia talks to us, a lot. Her version of talking is a whole lot of screaming. It's pretty funny to listen to. She's scream and scream until someone looks at her and then she does this high pitched screeching sound. Tonight she figured out how to make some consonant sounds. I was busy and let her take a nap around 4:30 tonight, which is just a really bad idea. So she refused to go to sleep. She and Cork were on the floor around 9:00 and she was babbling away with lots of G, B and D sounds.

I think having little kids in the house must mean you have to have a constant battle over food. We don't really fight, but we eat a pretty diverse diet and I want the kids to at least try everything we eat. Tonight we had roasted beets with goat cheese with dinner. We haven't had them in a few months and neither Arya nor Eiley wanted to try them. I let them know they were being like Green Eggs and Ham and they both agreed to try. And like with so many other things they finally try, they liked it.

Water Cup

Zia is so excited about drinking out of a cup. Every time I have a cup of water she begs for it, so I've been letter her drink recently and she's really good at it.

Happy Birthday to Me

Happy Birthday to ME! I had a conversation with Arya today about how old I am.
A: Mom, how old are you?
V: 35
A: Soon I'll be 35.
V: Probably not for another 32 years or so.
A: Yeah, like after Christmas.

Zia is 6 months old today. I can't believe how fast the last 6 months went compared to the first 6 months with twins. Lately she has decided that she doesn't need sleep. She's up more at night, staying up later and getting up way before the sun. When your child is ready for a nap by 6:30 am, she's getting up way too early. She wanted to nap today at 2:00 and I wouldn't let her. She tried again at 4:00 and I let her sleep about 10 minutes. She was happy once she got up and then was thankfully ready for bed at 7:00 and not 9:30 like last night. She's getting really good at sitting. I can leave her and most of the time if she falls she can control her body enough that she doesn't bang her head. Of course I don't leave her on a hard floor, but she's fine on carpet or a rug. I fed her peas for the first time today. It went pretty much like avocado. She gets super excited when she tastes it, but then has no clue what to do with it. She swallows a little and then gags. I wanted to try something other than avocado to make sure it wasn't just that she didn't like what I was feeding her. She does enjoy tasting things even if she doesn't really eat it. Today she happily sucked on a slice of apple, tasted some mashed turnips and drank water from a cup. She loves to drink from a regular cup and gets so excited if I'm holding her and I'm drinking water.

Breakfast Cookies

Every day the girls beg for cookies and candy after breakfast. If I ask what they want for breakfast, most days they start by saying cookies. They finished breakfast today and Arya asked for a cookie. I told her "no" and yet again explained that we don't eat cookies or candy int he morning. She then told me "it's still kind of night night time". She was right. It was still sort of dark out. I laughed, told her "nice try", but she still didn't get her cookie.

I tried to feed Zia avocado today at about 9:00 pm. I wondered if she was hungry and maybe that's why she wasn't sleeping. Nope. She just wasn't ready to sleep. She didn't gag on it until she'd taken a few bites, but she wasn't loving it. She happily nursed about 15 minutes later, so she was hungry.

Night Night

I had three very tired girls on my hands today. Tuesdays are usually the day I let Arya and Eiley pick all day long what we do. Not today. After a morning of fits and screaming at me, I made them take a nap. It took a long time to get them down, but once they fell asleep they were out. The older two took a much needed 75 minute nap. Zia slept about 90 minutes. I used the time to my advantage and ran around like crazy getting stuff done.

Baby wearing, 3 year old style. Who needs a carrier when you can raid the front closet for scarfs.