Giggle Gulch

I didn't take a picture today. It's the first day that I've forgotten to take a picture all year. I took the kids to a local pool with a zero entrance. They had so much fun, but were exhausted. They both slept for two hours and 20 minutes after the pool. I think I could count on one hand how many times they've taken a 2 hour nap in their lifetime. I was starting to think we'd hit the very first 2.5 hour mark, but they weren't having it. After their nap, we headed out with a bunch of friends to a local concert series. It was a long tiring day, but so much fun.

I don't have a picture, but I do have a video. Just click on the link.

When Good Toys Go Bad

A&E think it's funny when we play with their toys. Sometimes, I think we would all be better off if the toys were left alone.

Hairspray

We've had a really busy weekend. We topped it off today with a trip into IKEA and then a long swim in our neighbor's pool. The girls were troopers. We took E's helmet off to go swimming and gave both a bath before dinner. Bad idea! Both needed a new scrubbing after they finished their meal.

Love is in the Air

How could anyone not love this child?

And how could anyone not laugh at two babies trying their hardest to get up the stairs.

Reasons Why

Reason why we usually use cloth diapers at night:
Reason I usually shower at the gym:
Reason I usually do my hair and makeup at the gym:

Reason why I usually try to cook during a nap:Reason why I usually try to clean up cooking during a nap:
Reason why I love staying home:

Freaky Thursday

The kids were wearing the cutest dresses today that were made by the wife of someone I used to work with. They were eating strawberries and watermelon at lunch, so they got stripped down. I used to look at babies with no clothes on and wonder why the parents didn't put clothes on them. Now I know why. A&E were having a blast crawling around without the dresses. One would stand up and the other would squat every single time I tried to take a picture. Later this afternoon, A was playing in the cat bed and E was playing on their toy horse. At the exact same time they got up and switched without even looking at each other. Shortly after they switched again without looking. It freaks me out a little when they do stuff like this.

Cats & Dogs

As always, the girls are continuing to put things in their mouths that probably shouldn't be there. Today's favorites were the cat brush and the dog chain. Yum!

Bonus: 2 of 4

A&E and I were in the backyard today. I was trying to pull overgrown stuff out of the garden. They were climbing the slide, eating basil and terrorizing the cats. In between pulling them off the slide, making sure they weren't choking on huge basil leaves and rescuing the cats, I found two four leaf clovers. I used to love looking for these as a child. I'd run around and stop if I thought I saw one, even if I was in the middle of a soccer practice or some other activity. I'm not big on picking flowers, but whenever I found a 4 leaf clover, I always put it in water and keep it in my kitchen.

Bowling for Twins

A&E have been eating snacks like peas and corn out of a bowl for a while, but they always do that on the floor. I decided they needed to start using a bowl in their high chairs. It went really well, until this happened.

I wasn't sure who would be the first to throw the bowl, but E beat A to it. At least she'd finished most of her snack before she let the bowl fly. She was loving the corn, but was not into the sauteed mushrooms and let it fly when she mainly had mushrooms left.

Comb Appeal

A&E have begun combing their hair. They basically mess it up, but they have a great time while doing it. Today, A was playing with a toy brush and was beyond excited about it.

Blue Sued Shoes

We went to get the girls their first pair of shoes today. We didn't end up getting any as the sales person wasn't very helpful and they didn't have many options in the girls size. I thought Cork was snapping pics, but he wasn't and we didn't take any other pics all day. I wish we had some or even better, I wish we had some video of them with the shoes on. Their wore Robeez last winter, but haven't worn anything on their feet in months. They were like a dog when you put something on its feet. Neither knew how to stand and when we held them standing they kept lifting one leg and then the other, shaking the one off the ground.

Billygoats

The girls are climbing everything. Today, they got on our fireplace hearth and right away figured out that the rocks on the back wall could be climbed.

Walk Like a Man

E walked for the first time today. My mom, little bro and I all got to see it. Both kids have been standing up on their own without holding on to anything for about a week. She was standing in the middle of the room and I moved a laundry basket away from her. She decided she wanted it, so she started walking toward it. It was so cute to see her pick up those skinny little legs and go. I don't think Arya will be far behind. C was able to coax E into taking a few more steps once he got home, so he got to experience it as well.

Birthday Stats

A&E had their 12 month appointment today. E decided not to nap at all before getting in the car to drive over there. Her short 10 minute nap would be her only nap of the day. A napped for less than an hour before I had to wake her up to go to the appointment. That was her only nap for the day.

They continue to be tiny little peanuts, but each has tripled her birth weight. They continue to stay at the bottom of the growth chart.

A: 16 lbs 14 oz, 28.25"
E: 17 lbs 10 oz, 27.75"

Phone Home

The girls have had a demo cell phone from Verizon for a few months. Cork was back at Verizon this week and picked up 5 more phones for them. They can now have their pick between all sorts of different phones. Today, A started talking on one of them for the first time. All she needed was a little laugh of encouragement from me and she continued to do it.

The Stand

A&E have both figured out how to stand without holding onto anything. Arya did it first last week while holding 2 greenbeans in our back yard. I honestly don't remember when Eiley did it the first time. Today they were practicing it over and over again. Eiley tried to take a step, but didn't even get one in before she was back on her butt.

Tai Chi

Arya has begun to practice Tai Chi.

I am trying to get the girls to nap once per day. Their napping is horrible, so I thought maybe if they take one nap they will sleep for more than 30 minutes at a time. I sat Arya on the floor today, ran into the kitchen to grab stuff out of the fridge for lunch and found her like this less than a minute later. Little stinker. I got her up right away to eat lunch and her 30 second power nap charged her batteries enough that she put up her usual resistance when I put her down for a nap an hour later.

If You Want To Be A Badger

Recipe for disaster:
2 kids who are dairy intolerant
2 huge red velvet cupcakes made with buttermilk
Top cupcakes with frosting with dairy in them
Tons and Tons of corn


The final product is not suitable to post on the blog. Lets just say it's 'loads' of incredibly disgusting smelling diapers filled with neon-dayglow corn...instead of pictures of that, I'll be sharing pics from the zoo today.

Happy Birthday To You

We had A&E's first birthday party today. Originally we were going to have people for cake in the afternoon, but their nap schedules have been so unpredictable lately that we decided dinner and cake after that would be better. It's a good thing too because the girls had an extremely long day Friday and napped today during the time we originally thought we'd do the party. They would have been a cranky mess.I thought the party was a success. I didn't get to talk to everyone as much as I'd like, but I think that's typical when you're hosting and busy cooking. We had veggie burgers from a Moosewood Lodge cooking. I'll be posting my version of that recipe on my Ladies' End food blog. With it we had baked beans, corn, tossed salad and we also had hot dogs for the carnivorous among the group. Dessert was red velvet and buttermilk cup cakes layed out to look like the hungry caterpillar.
The girls absolutely love the veggies burgers and thought the cake was amazing. They weren't too into the actual present opening, but did enjoy playing with their gifts. Our family room has an explosion of new things.

Survivor: Roe Island

Happy Birthday to my two favorite daughters.

We survived our first year. Woot! The first few months were crazy and I can't imagine how we would have done it without the help of family. The next few months were crazy, but we were able to do it on our own. I wasn't looking forward to mobility, but honestly, things go so much easier once the kids figured out how to move on their own. I have to chase after them, but there is a lot less screaming now that they can go where they want and entertain themselves and each other. This has been the hardest and best year of our lives. I know that just about every child goes through the same stages in their first year, but it's still been amazing and so much fun to watch them change and bloom into individuals.

Arya was born at 6:04 pm. She was pulled out screaming and had a little paralysis on the right side of her face from being so compressed in the womb. She's still my little face maker today. She's quick to smile and easily laughs.


Eiley was born at 6:05 pm. She was much quieter at birth. She took a breath and then needed coaxing from the nurses to take another. She still won't do anything she doesn't want to do. She has a little temper and really lets us know when she wants or doesn't want something.

I was baking today, getting ready for their birthday party which is tomorrow. Chocolate must have fallen out of the cupboard and I didn't notice it. I did notice when Eiley had been awfully quiet for a few minutes. I peeked around the kitchen counter to find her thoroughly enjoying a block of Trader Joe's dark chocolate. Temper tantrums and a love of dark chocolate...she really is my child.

Mad Hatter

I think I may have put a few too many things on the girls' heads over the last couple months. I was trying to get them to stack blocks today and instead, Eiley kept putting the blocks on her head. She was putting all sorts of other toys up there during a play group this morning as well. My little genius.

On a side note: I mixed up the kids last night. Cork asked who was who and I wasn't really paying attention. We put helmets on them and then held them to calm them down for bed. A few minutes later the one I was holding looked up at me and I instantly knew it was Arya and not Eiley as I had thought. I cracked up, which made her smile huge and the number of teeth confirmed it.

Bonus: Helmet Free

As of today, Arya is virtually helmet free. She has to wear it while she sleeps, like a child would wear a retainer after braces. A month from now she should be done with wearing it at night. When we started this, one of their measurements showed that her symmetry was off by 13 mm. Now, she's off by 2mm. I never imagined we'd get to that number as much higher than that is still within the normal range. I tried to take an after picture of her head today, but she's a busy kid and did not want to stand still. Her hair makes the back of her head look a little lopsided, but it's not. I've re-posted her before pic here as well.

After
Before

Eiley isn't as lucky as her sister. We knew going into this that her head shape would be the harder of the 2 to correct. She probably has at least 2 months left and possibly as many as 6. Each month we will evaluate how much her had has grown to see if it's beneficial to keep the helmet on or if her head is as good as it will get. At least she's making the most out of our money since the helmets are a flat fee and it doesn't change if you need a second helmet or if your child is in it for a really long time.

Way Back Wednesday

The girls are quickly coming up on their first birthday. I was updating their baby books the other night and found their wrist and ankle bands from the hospital. I can't believe how small they were. This is a comparison of the diapers they wore a year ago and what they wear today.

Sardines

We had sardines for lunch today. The kids liked them, but didn't love them. They've had other types of fish that they really liked. I'll have to try them again soon to get the girls used to them.

Sardines are one of those things that my family ate when I was a child, so they seem normal to me to eat. We also ate kipper snacks. Yum!

He Said, She Said

Things said around this house recently:
-Eiley, you don't follow directions very well.

-Back on the horse. Back on the horse. Back on the horse. Back on the horse. (This is Cork trying to distract one of the kids. It wasn't working.)

-Arya, keep your diaper on.

-She's eating a cracker off the floor.
+Wonderful
-She eats shoes, so why not a cracker.

-Your sister is not a step.

-No licking the table.

-Eiley. Eiley!
+That's Arya.
-Okay, Arya.

-Do not eat the ottoman.

-Eiley's forehead is looking more like Arya's....wait, that is Arya.


Both girls figured out how to turn sideways to get out of our sliding door. I often leave it cracked when the cats are outside and the kids are inside. Looks like that's not going to work any longer.

Up

There is a lot of looking up going on around here. It's about time for our monthly helmet appointment. Both kids have to look up to see just about anything. I feel bad, but they are used to it and it shouldn't last much longer.

Wedding Clothes

Cork and I went to the wedding of a good high school friend today. We had so much fun. The bride requested that we all wear bad/old wedding party type clothes. The top of my dress was cute, but it got bad fast as you looked down it. It was so short and poofy that I had to wear shorts under it. For some reason the back was cut shorter than the front. My purple pleather shoes didn't even make it through the ceremony before they were falling apart. I really wish they hadn't as they would have been great to wear for another party later on. You just don't find royal purple heels with bows every day.
Cork's suite was genuine 100% polyester. It and my dress were about as breathable as you'd expect. I'm not sure which of us was worse off, him in the polyester or me with all the layers of tulle under my skirt.
People got really into the outfits. There were all sorts of sequence, polyester, sparkles and bows. One couple even showed up dressed as Amish.

Fork Queue

I gave the twinks forks today for the first time. Eiley immediately tried to use it correctly. After a couple stabs with no luck, she gave up and proceeded to use her fingers instead. Usually I give them a spoon for meals, but they don't ever try to use it to eat, they just play with it. I told Cork that I thought we needed a second set of flatware for the kids and his response was that they were going to be a very expensive set. The sets come from IKEA and we can't seem to go there and only get the few things on our list.