Not Babies

Cork told the kids tonight that they had to go to sleep instead of play, or he'd take their babies. Arya told him "Ariel's not a baby neither is my giraffe."

Puke Fest

Arya was coloring a picture of a butterfly today. She told me "he got into a raccoon and then got to be a beautiful butterfly."

This was while we were at the library. We had to leave the library early because of a giant fit by Eiley. I made her stop coloring as punishment for purposely coloring on the table. She had just colored on the butcher block at home an hour earlier and was told how that isn't okay, blah blah blah. So she was having a break down since I wouldn't let her color. I got her calmed down and then we went to pick out a DVD. She wanted a Blue's DVD, then she didn't, then she did, then she didn't...do you see a pattern. I tried to help, but she wasn't having it. After twenty minutes of that and me suggesting other DVDs that she turned down, I finally just put one in the bag I thought she'd like and told her we were going to get books. That's when the total meltdown happened. It was one of the kicking, screaming, spitting, mucousy bubbles blowing from her mouth type of fits. I tried to get her to stop, but I couldn't talk her down. I don't normally like to make one of the kids leave when another is throwing a fit because then I feel like they are both being punished. I was wearing Zia on my front since she wasn't feeling well and there was no way I could pick Eiley's flailing body up and calm her. I held her hand and tried to walk down the stairs with her. Instead she freaked out that I was holding her hand, so I let go, and she freaked out that I wasn't holding her hand. We finally got out of the library, for her to scream at me the entire way home in the car. I lost it halfway home and yelled for her to stop, which of course didn't help anything. She finally calmed down after we got home. Sometimes these fits are triggered by being hungry or tired, but she was neither.

Arya wrote her name unprompted today. Pretty good.

We went on a walk this afternoon and saw deer bones.

Miss Zia puked all over me today. She is teething and has a cold, which means she is swallowing a ton of mucus. She gagged today and lost it. I had puke dripping off my clothes, on the floor, the fridge, and Zia thought it was all funny.

Chalk

We spent a good chunk of today outside. Zia enjoyed her time crawling through chalk drawings and trying to eat chalk.

She also spent some time in a swing for the first time.

The twins figured out how to stand on their swings today. Didn't take them long.

Arya was throwing a fit on the stairs tonight while I nursed Zia in her room. Eiley was on the stairs yelling down at her to "knock it off." Then Eiley came back to me and said "I was like 'knock it off' and Arya was like "noooooo!" I obviously use the word "like" too often and I am the guilty party for teaching them the saying "knock it off."

Zia Snuggles

Zia's second tooth broke through today. Between that and being sick again, she is not a happy camper. She rarely snuggles when she sleeps. While I would rather she not be sick, I enjoyed our little snuggles today.

Who wouldn't do this with their dolls?

Arya was flailing around on the floor today. I heard her say "That my mermaid mint. That how my tail get back to stuck together."Then she said, "Oh, my feet stuck back together," and started kicking her feet together while laying on her belly. I love the imagination at this age.

Mom Eiley

Eiley really did not want Zia to get into the cat bowls today. This makes me laugh, but Eiley can be really helpful. I rarely shower at home if no other adult is around. I happened to today. Zia did not want to nap and I wanted to shower so we could run a few errands. I put her in her room, locked her gate and took a quick shower. When I finished, I heard Zia screaming, so I went to see what was going on. Arya had opened the baby gate to Zia's room and Eiley basically had Zia tackled in the hall so she couldn't get to the stairs. I am so glad Eiley is protective and was watching out for Zia. I now know that I need to put a padlock or something on the gate if I have to shower when no one else is here.

Zia quickly bounces back from her sister's parenting.

The twins "flew" kites today. I think I spent more time pulling sticks out of the kite strings than they spent flying them, but we all had fun.

Backseat Drivers

And so it begins. My little backseat drivers have made themselves known. A few weeks ago we had the flashing red light incidents. Today we were going to meet some friends at a park and the road we needed to take was closed. I pulled over to look at a map on my phone to figure out how to get around the closed road. I wasn't familiar with the area and we were out in the country, so I did not want to try to take a road and just hope it went through. The questions started flying from the peanut gallery as soon as I stopped. "Are we lost?" "Do you know where you are going?" "Did you go the wrong way?" "Are you sure you went the right way?" "How do you know the road is closed?" The questions did not stop when I turned around and found our way to the park. They were very concerned that I did not know where I was going. Poor kids have no clue that I'm lost half of the time I'm behind the wheel. I wonder at what age they will figure this our or when I will let on that I have the city completely backwards in my mind and every time I get in the car I have to think about the fact that the lake is in the opposite direction I think it is.

I did not want them to fall asleep on the way home, so I did what every good mom would do. I told them they could talk about poop. Eiley looked at Arya and said "Let's say something." Then, at the exact same time, they broke out with "Mother, Father, Son, and Daughter. There's a place for me in God's fam-poop." How they knew what they were going to say and to only add poop at the end of family is beyond me. All I know is that it kept them awake for the 25 minute drive home and they both went to bed easily tonight.

Zia clapped today for the first time. She was playing in the living room and I walked in. She looked at me and clapped. Then she clapped every couple minutes the rest of the day. It was so cute. I don't think the twins ever clapped like this. She's so proud of herself.

The picture above cracks me up. Arya and Eiley were typing on my laptop while I was feeding Zia. They typing and then hitting enter and sending things to facebook. I kept telling them to stop, but I was laughing. I put Zia down when she was done and she instantly crawled over to the computer. Eiley got so mad.

Baby Jail

We almost always stay for open gym on Wednesdays after school. Zia has decided she is no longer happy to sit with me while I chat with other moms and the twins run crazy. Now she wants to crawl around the equipment and go down the slides. I have to stay with her, so my social hour has disappeared. I was busy with her today when I heard one of the other moms calling my name. I turned around to see Arya with her pan.ts do.w.n. Lovely! The other mom had fixed them once, but she had purposely done it again. I went over to help her out and drag her away from the play equipment to explain why this wasn't okay. A quick and quiet explanation was extremely effective. She was obviously embarrassed and I don't think she'll be doing that again. This is something they do at home often and I am always working on it, but today was a first in public.

We were eating a snack today and Zia decided she wanted some too. She crawled over to her highchair, pulled herself to standing, started yelling at us, and banged on her seat. She was going to make sure we knew exactly what she wanted.

Zia in baby jail.

Vinegar and Baking Soda

It was a yucky rainy day, so we went to one of our usual Tuesday hang outs. We spent a few hours at the kids museum. Once home, the twins were acting like we hadn't done anything all day. I got out all the baking soda I had and poured it into pie plates. I then put food coloring into little bowls of vinegar and let them play. They were so fun to watch and it kept them busy for a full half hour. It might have been the best cheap activity ever. It would have been even better if I hadn't spent the entire time pulling Zia away while trying to get some dinner prep done.

I love three year old fashion sense.

Dead Octopus

The girls wanted to see the octopus at the zoo today. I told them I wasn't sure if it was there or not, but we would go take a look at see. Arya asked me if it died. I told her that I didn't think it died. We went to look for it and it wasn't there. She announced that she was sure it had died and when I told her not all animals that aren't in their cage died, she said "can we look in your phone and see if he died?"

I talked to the girls' preschool teacher today about school for next year. I wanted to get a teachers perspective. I'm sure I wrote a few months ago about requesting they be in different classes. I keep second guessing myself. I really think it's probably the best thing for them as individuals, but it is still so hard to do since they are such buddies. Their teacher didn't know which way I was leaning. She said that if we keep them together, then one more year should be the max. She used to teach at a small private school and they only had one class for each grade, so twins were not separated. She basically voiced all my reasons for separating them and that made me feel better about my decision. She agrees that it is hard for a teacher to separate one individual from the other. She has seen teachers give grades to the wrong twin when they could not tell who was who in the same class. She also noted how Eiley in particular still says "EileyArya" when referring to herself. This is something I think is cute, but I have been wondering if it was time to start correcting her. Since her teacher mentioned it, not in a bad way at all, I decided it was definitely time to say something. When she said it later today, I explained that she was just Eiley and she could use just her name or I/me in place of "EileyArya". She totally understood too because we were at the zoo this afternoon and she used her own name instead of the entity EileyArya.

The girls asked me today what the sign for butterfly is. I showed them and then tried to get them to do it. Their interpretation of the sign looked a lot more like the sign for BS than the sign for butterfly. Of course I laughed, then I took a picture and sent it to Cork at work so he could enjoy their new word.

We went to the zoo this afternoon. It was nice, but super windy. I couldn't stop laughing at the peacock. He kept trying to show off to two peahens. The wind kept foiling him and he just looked like he was getting angry. I don't think the females were impressed at all.

A Big Snack

I asked Cork to pack a small snack for the girls to eat before church today. I cracked up when I saw this. This is a meal for them, not a snack. There is no way they would eat lunch if they ate this as a snack, and this was after they each had breakfast and 2 cuties.

Zia is still barely eating solids. She sits in her high chair for at least two meals a day. She eats a few bites and really enjoys what she eats, but she just doesn't need many solids yet.

Zuzu and ZiZi

Eiley was so tired today. She passed out and it took me so long to wake her up. I took this photo and then realized it looks sort of morbid. It's how she was sleeping though, so I kept it. Despite it taking forever to wake her, she played for a long time tonight before finally falling asleep. I think tomorrow will probably be another rough day from lack of sleep.

Zia just loves Sikozu so much. It's cute how much he tolerates her. I wanted to take a picture of her basically laying on him. She grabs him and tries to give him kisses. Most of the time he sits and takes it without moving. Once I squatted down to take a photo he saw an opportunity to get pet by me, so he walked away before I could get a photo of her on top of him.

Lots of Fits

We were supposed to meet up with a friend for some photos today. I sent her a message yesterday letting her know that none of the kids felt great and I didn't think they were going to cooperate for photos. We decided to postpone it. Arya had this performance today. She was throwing a huge fit right about the time the photos were supposed to have been, so I sent this photo to my friend. Of course we had many breakdowns today, so I took a photo of another one and sent that too. The friend has two little kids of her own, so she knows how days like this can be. She was laughing, but was also glad we had postponed our photo session. I know Arya must not be feeling well, so I tried to be as overly sweet as possible with her.

Despite the fits, we still managed to eat a good lunch and have some fun this afternoon. Between the fits we hung out, read books, and played memory. Today's lunch was a salami and mayonaise sandwich, roasted chickpeas, leftover sauteed mushrooms, leftover bacon, and apple once they finished all of that.

Air High Five

Arya was full of good lines today.
"I wipe my nose with a Kleenex, not lickin' it or pickin' it."

When I asked her to pick up scissors she did, then she ran past me yelling "air high five" with her hand in the air, but too far away from me to touch her. I found out later that this is something Cork does with them when he's not close enough to give them an actual high five without one of them moving toward the other.

We were having pretend tea in the basement. She told me that she was serving me "princess chocolate marshmallow tea."

Today's lunch was sauteed peppers and mushrooms with garlic, wine, and beef broth, mango, and pretzels with hummus. Both ended their meal with some coconut yogurt and goat cheese.

Sick Zia

Today was day three of Zia having a fever. I decided it was time to take her into the doctor. We went three and a half years without a sick visit and then had two within a week. Her fever was high, but not dangerously so. She spent all day in the Ergo again today. When I called the doctor's office, I told the nurse I was pretty sure she had an ear infection. The nurse asked if she was tugging on her ear. She wasn't. She actually wasn't doing anything that would normally make a parent think their child has an ear infection. She just wasn't her normal happy self. She needed to be held almost every minute of the day. The Ergo is comfortable, but after wearing a child for about 10 hours, three days in a row, it was bit uncomfortable. I took her in as much for my benefit as for hers. I also need a decent night sleep. After having sick kids for a week, I am drained. I was up half  the night with her last night as she didn't want to lay down. The bit I slept was mostly done sitting up while holding her.

Today's lunch was grilled cheese, blackberries, and pretzels with hummus. They each ate some carrots and a bunch of mango after they finished off all of this.

Who Needs Toys?

I've been trying to make lunches a little more interesting around here. The girls are open to eating a variety of foods most days, so I have been taking advantage of that. Today's lunch consisted of fake meat skewers, banana "sushi" with peanut butter and puffed millet, cucumbers with home made hummus, and popcorn.

Who needs toys when you have a twin and a laundry basket?

I was feeding Zia and had to take a picture of the twins. Eiley was playing in the jumper and Arya was crawling around with the popcorn popper box on her head. How could I not laugh at that?

Poor Z still doesn't feel well. The Ergo is our best friend right now. She just keeps moving from my front to my back all day long.

Sick Ergo Baby

Zia woke up with pink eye today. She spent most of her day sleeping on me or riding in the Ergo. She had a fever and was pretty uncomfortable all day. I didn't take a picture of her. She was just too miserable.

Right Meow?

Corky asked the girls to do something this morning while they were acting like cats. Eiley responded with "Right meow?"

We were driving today and passed a McDonalds.
E: Old Mcdonald's!
A: (not seeing the restaurant) Had a farm
Together: EIEIO

Tea Party

I went to a tea today at my parents' church with my mom and all three of my girls. We had a great time. The girls were exhausted from not sleeping last night and super hungry since the tea didn't start until 1:00. Eiley was having a typical Eiley breakdown until we got some food into her. Zia did awesome until the ladies started playing hand bells. She danced around so much on my lap that she hit her head on the chair. She was overtired already, so she cried and wouldn't stop right away. I took her out because I didn't want her bothering other people. She and I stood just outside of the room listening to the rest of the performance. She danced the entire time and even sang along a bit.

Zia is 10 months old today. She is by far the happiest baby I know. I am always amazed at how content she is. She has started fake laughing when she hears someone laugh and she fake coughs now too. I'm pretty sure she's trying to say kitty. Every time she sees Sikozu, she makes a K sound. She also says "momma" but I don't know if I consider it an actual word yet. She does not more often when she wants to get picked up. I don't know if that's because it's the sound she makes when angry or if it's actually her calling me.

Kippered Herring

Cork took a half day off of work today and we drove to my parents house. It was nice to spend a relaxing afternoon there. Of course the kids refused to sleep, like they always do when we travel. I think the older two finally went to bed between 9 and 9:30. Before we left, we had lunch at home. Eiley wanted "little fish" for lunch, so I opened a can of kippered herring and she at almost half of the can. This is the first time I've been able to get either girl to eat them. They will try them, but have never loved them. Score one for me.

Sick Kid

We made it 3.5 years without going to the Dr for a sick visit. The older two have had the rotovirus and RSV but both corresponded with well visits. Arya's right eye has been a little funky for a couple days and she's seemed more tired than normal. She woke up today with both eyes glued shut with goop and I decided it was time to take her in. I did not want to take her to the Dr and pay an outrageous fee to be told she just has a cold. Thankfully I will be paying an outrageous fee for a double ear infection and two eyes with pinkeye. Lovely. She got a couple prescriptions and as long as she has no fever, her Dr. said she's fine to go to school tomorrow. We spent most of our day today just sitting around and watching cartoons. Too many days like this would drive me a bit bonkers, but today wasn't bad. We did a lot of cuddling and watching Zia crawl all over. We watched a Baby Einstein signing video three times and even Zia watched some of it. She was funny to watch because she got excited each time people signed "milk" on the video.

Zia's new favorite toy. She follows me around while I vacuum. It's pretty cute.