Lollipops

The girls and I were at the grocery store today when an older man asked if he could give them a sucker. I said he could, and then he handed over the biggest suckers in the world. Arya and Eiley were in heaven.

They are constantly doing things now that crack me up. After dinner tonight, I opened the basement door, looked down the stairs and this is what I saw. Later in the night, Arya had brushed her teeth and was rinsing her toothbrush in the bathroom. The water was running longer than usual, so I peeked in on her. She was drinking out of the faucet. This is not something she's seen either Cork or I do.

Christmas Gumballs

We decorated our Christmas tree with the kids tonight. We only had 3 ornament casualties, which I think is pretty good with two 2 year olds getting their hands on every ornament they could.  I expected we'd have a ton of ornaments at the bottom of the tree, but we have way less than I thought we would. Arya was all about putting thing "uh tah" or I would say, up top. She was taking ornaments off the bottom branches and demanding to be picked up so she could put them higher. Eiley on the otherhand was obsessed with an ornament I LOVED as a kid. It's a mini gumball machine with actual gumballs inside. She didn't know they were gum or I'm sure we would have had an even bigger fight taking it away from her. She ripped the string out of the plastic during her admiration hour.

The Peanut Jar

Kids just know when their parents are busy and it's a good time to get into something. Cork was outside putting up Christmas lights and I was making toffee. I was almost done, so I couldn't leave it boiling on the stove. The girls decided that was a good time to introduce themselves to a jar of peanuts.

That Twin Thing

Arya asked this morning if she could wear her "go buppy" outfit. Of course we were happy to let them wear their Badger outfits considering the Big 10 Championship is tonight. Cork went to help paint at my brother's house this morning and it was raining outside. The girls and I went on a date at Panera. They got to pick whatever they wanted and both picked a cookie with mini M&Ms on it. Then they both wanted to eat my bagel before they finished their cookies. We always get comments while we are out, but we got so many more than usual today. I assume that's because we were at Panera during what seemed to be their Geriatric hour and because the girls were dressed the same, which they rarely are anymore. One women who talked to us let us know that she has 9 kids and in those 9 are 3 sets of fraternal twins. I've said before that I absolutely love having twins. Their bond is amazing and they are hilarious to watch together. I also don't have a huge desire to have another set. If we did, which we won't, we'd handle it and learn to love it again, but I really don't want those first 9 months of twins again. I especially don't want a twin pregnancy while I'm taking care of toddlers.

Tonight, Arya was tormenting one of the cats and as Cork was pulling her away the cat bit at her. He didn't try to break her skin, it was just a warning snap. I know that sounds bad and if I was reading this I would think he wasn't safe to have around kids. He really is safe with them and really wasn't trying to bite. He'll do the same thing to Cork periodically. He's more putting her closed teeth on a hand rather than biting. It's his warning when he's really annoyed, but he's never drawn blood or even scratched someone doing this...except maybe my dad, but Ingogh seems to have a love hate relationship with my dad. Anyway, Eiley and I were reading a book when this happened. Cork yelled at the cat, which scared Arya and she started to cry. I asked Eiley what was wrong and she said that Arya was hurt.
V: Did Arya hurt her tummy?
E: No
V: Did she hurt her arm?
E: No
V: Did she hurt her hand?
E: Yeah!
I'm amazed that she knew what Arya hurt since she didn't see what happened. This may have been coincidence that she answered yet, but I purposely started with the wrong body part to see if she'd know.

To Dairy or not to Dairy

Arya is not a big fan of dairy products. She'll eat ice cream and would eat sugar filled yogurt if I bought it. She won't eat plain yogurt, whip cream, cream cheese or any of the other dairy products Eiley loves. We went out to dinner tonight and Eiley happily ate a cream puff at the end of the meal. I believe it was by far her favorite part of the meal. Arya chose to eat a slice of white cake with a little chocolate filling. She stayed far away from the whip cream puff.

While they share almost all of their DNA, our two kids are very different and remind me of this every day. Eiley threw one of her fits in the car today while Arya was yelling "No Eiley" at her. This afternoon, Eiley threw a 30 minute fit in her room while Arya snuggled with Cork on the couch. We put the kids to bed tonight and they wanted to lay as they always do. Eiley likes to sleep with just her blanky covering her. She refuses to let us cover her with her sheet, blanket or bedspread from her bed. Arya on the other hand likes to be covered with the sheet, blanket and bedspread and likes to hold her blanky next to her.

While they are different, they also are very similar. We went to my brother's new house today and they instantly started running around the open spaces, screaming and laughing in the same exact voices.

Mustache

The girls got into my make up today. While they know they aren't supposed to, it is hard not to laugh when I find liquid eye liner and lip gloss all over their faces. I figured since they'd already trashed my room, we would pick up and then stay and play. Eventually, I decided to try to get them to nap. I laid down with them on my bed. While I could have easily fallen asleep, they were happy to slide off the bed from a sitting position. Of course this evolved into trying to slide off the bed head first, so that put an end to our trying to nap.

Clean Up Mama

Eiley was goofing off this morning and put a stocking on her foot. She thought it was hilarious and couldn't stop laughing.

Two days ago I mentioned Arya peeing in the potty. Today, she took her diaper off and proceeded to pee on the family room floor then come tell me to clean it up. The joys of having a toddler who is getting ready to potty train.

This is what happens when you let two 2 year olds help make popovers. You get 6 popovers that are all different sizes and only some that actually puff up.