Dada's Stuff

I was down in our pots and pans cabinet trying to find the bread pans to make banana bread when Amelia says,

"Whatcha doin' Mama? That's Dada's stuff."

So obviously the girls think I am inept in the kitchen since they always see Mike cook.

My response...."Dada said Mama can use it. He is sharing his stuff with me. Is that ok?"

Her response, "Of course you can Mama, of course you can."


I wonder if she thinks the broom and cleaning supplies are "Mama's stuff"?


Side note......I hope to post some new photos tomorrow!

And so it begins..........

First off I apologize for not updating this blog lately. May is a busy month with 4 family birthdays and not to mention mother's day. I did receive the best gift in the world this year. My wonderful husband accomplished a task that I have been avoiding for the past 2 years. He surprised me with professional pictures of the girls. This was their first professional photo shoot. Taking the girls is a feat in itself. Getting them ready in pretty dresses and tights is a whole other story. He even managed coordinating barrettes! His sister was kind enough to chaperone the big event. I heard that there was much crying by everyone. But all survived and the photos are great. So good in fact that I said he now can have the photo shoot duty every year!

I intend to post some new photos soon. Life will be better once I am done teaching for the year. I look at other blogs and wonder..where do people find time to keep up with this?

Many funny things have been happening around here. Mostly in the form of new things and ideas that the girls are talking about. They had developmental testing today and are right on track for their age. In fact they are speaking at a level closer to a three year old. The only thing they are a bit behind on is gross motor skills. This means they are not good at things like climbing, running and jumping. Personally, they can stay behind for years if that means I can keep them from going two different directions from me. For those of you who like to follow weights here it goes..

Natalie at birth 1 lb 14 1/2 oz.................Now 25 lbs. 15 oz (25th percentile with other 2 yr olds)
Amelia at birth 2 lbs. 2 oz.......................Now 27 lbs. 14oz (50th percentile with other 2 yr olds)

To end this post I want to relate what happened at 8:45 tonight. The girls went to bed at 7:30 and were still laughing and giggling from their separate cribs at 8:30. So Mike went up to use the ever-so-handy Dad voice and tell them to go to sleep. Do you want to guess what he found????

A completely naked Amelia! Yep, she had removed her pajamas, stripped off her diaper, and then wet the bed in her excitement.

I read that this could happen. One of my "raising twins" books mentioned that the only way one Mom could keep diapers on her twins at night was duct tape.

So only time will tell if our bedtime routine will now include brushing teeth, reading books, and applying duct tape.

Dumb idea

One of our latest pictures. The girls love to be covered up in their many blankets. Especially Amelia who has a pattern that you must follow. In her world the blankets must we applied in a particular order.

Natalie and Amelia also love to play in cribs and pack and plays. Which is great for us because it keeps them out of trouble. This photo was taken one weekend morning in the pack and play. Unfortunately for them they are getting a bit big to be in there together along with 6 blankets.

Notice the pacifiers....ummmmmmm...honestly the girls did not use these as babies...much to our dismay. Twin infants should be required to use pacifiers. Well at 21 months I discovered some in a drawer and gave them to the girls to play with. Dumb idea. Because now they like to have them. Especially Natalie who has a preference for the one she has that is attached to a stuffed duck. (Check out the photo- Amelia is holding one that is attached to a blue horse. Natalie's is similar except it is a duck.)

For the most part we have limited the pacifier to sleeping time. The girls go pacifier free at daycare. (Though Natalie has been known to steal one or two from babies...oops!)

So now at 26 1/2 months. Our "big girls" look like "babies". We know it is not a great thing, and for the record we are not worried about it, but we figure we should be able to enjoy the benefits of a "quiet pacified child" at some point. If it didn't happen in infanthood...why not take advantage of it now......we would be dumb not to! : )

Constant Narration

Our house is filled with constant narration. It goes something like this...

"Mama eat"

"Dada eat"

"Kitty eat"

"Naten (Natalie) kick ball"

"Meme (Amelia) play puzzle"

"Meme cover up"

"Naten sleep in crib"

"Dada drink water in cup"

"Mama go potty"

.....and on and on and on............

It's like turning on the visually impaired function on the t.v. we get a play by play narration of everything that is happening...even though we can see it the girls like to tell us everything they see. The constant narration is funny......constant.......and always at volume level 11 on a 10 point scale.

Pizza Time!

This past weekend Mike came up with the idea of having the girls make their own pizzas. I'll admit I was not too excited about the idea of two year-olds working with pizza sauce and shredded cheese. I imagined a cheese filled floor and sauce filled hair. However I ended up being worried about nothing. The girls did a great job. Hooray for Dad! Great idea!

Amelia placing pepperoni.

Notice the pizza sauce around Amelia's lips. She enjoyed dipping the pepperoni in the sauce and then licking it off. Anyone who eats pizza at our house from now on will wonder if all the pepperoni was pre-licked......only we will know the truth : )

Future Pizza Girls?

Natalie sprinkling cheese.

And for dessert........COOKIES!

Yes, we cheated and did not make them from scratch. Pizza sauce, shredded cheese and homemade cookie dough would have been too much for Mom to handle!

Hair

So I will be honest one of the reasons I was so happy to have girls was all the fun clothes I could dress them in and the cute hairdos they could have. To my disappointment both Natalie and Amelia are like me and are VERY slow to grow hair. I longingly look upon other two year-olds with cute pigtails and wonder...when will the girls be able to have those? I jokingly tell people that they may have their first hair cut when they are 12 at the rate it is growing.

The debate in our house is whether or not the girls will have curly hair. For those of you who don't know Mike he has VERY curly hair and it is a trait that runs in his family. I, on the other hand, have stick straight hair. Something that frustrates me daily. Due to my frustrations I hope and pray (not really I know there are more important things in life) that the girls have curly hair. After bath time when it is wet it is a mass of curls. However once it dries...it looks like a ragamuffin mop! And most of the time they will not let me put in any "pretties" to make it look better.

The following pictures show some of our hairdo successes and debacles.

Amelia's post-bath curls

This is what happens when you let Natalie put
pretty stretchy headbands on herself.

Of course Amelia had to apply her own "pretties" too.

Now it was Mom's turn to help put them on!

Amazing what a difference adult help makes.

If I can't have cute pigtails I guess
I will have to settle for cute little sprouting tails!

Spring Fun!

Last weekend before the snow flew (hopefully for the last time) we enjoyed the warm weather. Here are some of our latest pics.

A favorite activity: picking up sticks with Dad

Bike riding girls

Biker Natalie

Riding Amelia