What I love about you today...Sam version

Twelve Things I love about you on 12/12/12:

1.  The crib full of stuff that you sleep with every night.  They include:

• two different doggies
• stuffed Pooh
• two Taggies blankies (That look like this)
• two other small blankies
• one blankie that was for your sister but she didn't like it

The pile of your blankies you take to bed every night.

2.  The fact that you know when you are missing something from your crib and request it.


3.  Your enthusiasm for holiday decorations.  We put up the Christmas treethe other night.  The lights are on but we haven't put up the ornaments yet.  You were so excited to see the tree this morning and all of the other decorations.  You definitely liked the singing stuffed animals.  You played with Rudolph on his sleigh and the singing bear all day.  The poor bear has seen better days and I had to take the batteries out because you kept coming to me because he was "broken".  You pushed them in the stroller, fed them food from the kitchen and showed them your cars.  Then you tried to take Rudolph to bed. 

4.  Your usually great appetite.  You normally eat pretty much anything.  You try new things and seem to even enjoy vegetables!  You loved edemame at Papa's and Nana's the other night.

5.  Your persistence with juice.  While you were sick a few weeks ago we were giving you watered down Gatorade.  Since then you try to request juice whenever you are thirsty, even though you only get water.  I gave you orange juice a couple of weeks ago for breakfast and you drank all yours quickly then helped Emily finish her's too. 

6.  Your snuggles.  You are becoming harder to keep still these days but I can still get some early morning or just after nap snuggles out of you.  Some nights after dad puts you into bed I come in to say goodnight and you request snuggles.  It is hard to say no.  You lay your head on my shoulder and kind of babble about what was important about today.  I try to comment on the words I recognize.

7.  Your eagerness to explore.  We went for a hike the other day, on the FIRST OF DECEMBER!  It was warm enough for no coats.  You didn't "hike" much because you were too interested in the rocks on the path.  I pointed out the prairie dogs too and you made sure your cousin Colton knew where they were.  This afternoon your dad was trying to put up Christmas lights and Emily and I were looking at animal pictures on Pinterest.  You were playing with the Mickey Mouse phone but then snuck out the garage to find dad.  Unfortunately you fell down the stairs.  You just wanted to go outside and help with the lights.  Lately it is hard for you to stay in the cart at the store.  You just want "out" or "down" so you can touch and feel all of the fun stuff that is everywhere.

8.  Your emerging mischievous side.  Lately you have been testing limits.  You want to really know what you can't do.  I'm having to really watch you with the Christmas decorations.  You have moved the angels from the alcove and ornaments from the tree.  You also knocked down the small tree upstairs, I'm pretty sure because you were trying to get a better look.

9.  Your helpfulness.  You want to help.  Tonight I was putting away clothes and I was trying to find tasks that you could do.  You wanted to do something to help.  We tried putting hangers into clothes, but that is hard work.  You brought me all the clothes to hang up in your closet, even though some of them were Emily's.  You did a great job hanging up Emily's clothes since you can reach.  Every night when I start talking about making dinner you start dragging in chairs so you can stand next to the counter to "help."

10.  Your concern for others.  Lately you have been reminding everyone to be careful.  You are mostly concerned about Emily.  Meg says that you remind Jack, Meg's dad, to be careful too.  She says you take great care of him.

11.  Your expanding vocabularly.  It seems like you're learning 10 new words a day some days.  You talk about "mama's plate" and all kinds of other two word combinations.  You mimic almost everything I say.  Tonight it was "noise truck" for noisey truck.  Over Thanksgiving you learned about praying.  Now when we eat at Papa and Nana's house you grab our hands and then exclaim, "Ameen."  It is pretty stinking cute.

12.  You love of music.  You still love to play your drum and now whenever I play "Little Drummer Boy" you go find your drum to play along.  You often sway or dance to the music you hear.

Today

What I want to remember about today:

1. Little Emily slept in our room last night.  I was nervous to have her so far away and being sick without a monitor on.  I wanted to be there if she had a coughing fit, cried after she coughed or woke up and needed comforting.  I thought she'd be up around 4 am when her last round of ibprophen wore off but she didn't wake up until I had to move the pack-n-play so I could get some socks.
2. Emily wanted to eat this morning!  Hooray.  Who cares if she just ate Jello and a few bites of a banana.  (I'm pretty sure all she ate today was: the Jello, banana, a cookie, a smoothie pouch, some grapes, a couple of OtterPops, and two mini packages of M&Ms.)
3. How great our babysitter Meg is.  She offered to watch the kids today even though E is sick.  The kids LOVE her.
4. A text from Meg today that reads, "Sam decided he wants to go on the potty today so he has a pair of pull-ups on and runs to the bathroom every 10 minutes. Ha!"  When I got home and went to the bathroom he came in and he wanted his diaper and pants off so he could sit on the potty.  Silly Boy!
5. After texting Meg back and forth I got nervous about how Emily was acting and not eating or drinking, when I went down to talk to the school nurse the first thing my principal asked was if I needed to leave.  This was after my teaching partner asked me if I needed to do something and he'd watch the kids.  It is great to have such a supportive and understanding workplace.
6. Pride for my 5th graders.  They have been really working hard on a region project where they are working in groups of 3 or 4 to make an iMovie.  They have done an AMAZING job.  I had my doubts but they proved me wrong.  They worked great in groups and were able to make great videos.  We might need to work on the content but they did a good job.  So proud of them!
7. Being able to go out with friends for a drink (of Diet Coke tonight) and good conversation.  I sure miss my old co-workers.
8. A smiley boy opening the door to the garage door saying, "Mama!"  What a great greeting.
9. Snuggles with my sick little girl.  I love that she wanted to be held when I got home.  I also love that Sam was able to get his socks and find one shoe and bring them to me while I held his sister.  It is amazing how much they understand these days.
10. That the first thing Sam said when he got home from the football game with his dad was LuLu?  I love that he thinks about his sister when she isn't around.

Pumpkin Carving

Tonight we carved pumpkins.  Paul is at a Bob Dylan concert with a friend so I called Papa and Nana for some extra help.  I sat Sam and Emily in their chairs so that they could help with the digging out of pumpkin insides.  I thought they might like the slimy-ness.  Well I was wrong. 

Neither Sam nor Emily wanted to put their hand inside the pumpkin.  They both did, however, "help" with a spoon.  Sam was mainly searching for seeds while Emily just went through the motions.  Sam proclaimed that he was all done just minutes into the who process but we got him to stay put. 

They both got to do a little bit of drawing on the pumpkins which they liked.  And they seemed pretty interested in the faces we carved. 

Once I found a light Sam wanted it to be dark so we could look at the pumpkins.  I'm pretty sure he'll be talking about them all day tomorrow. 

Punkeys

This past weekend we planned on going to get pumpkins at the pumpkin patch.  We had been there already when they opened for the season but we were ill prepared and didn't have any cash.  It was also a zoo so we just planned on going back.  We thought about going Saturday night but Paul got back late from the state cross country meet, the kids slept until almost 5 pm, and we were headed to a friend's house. 

Sunday morning I got up, fed the kids and waited for Dada to get up.  He did about 9 and then we headed to Starbucks.  We were out of coffee syrup and the kids needed a snack so I somehow convinced Paul to stop on our way.

Once we got to Osborn Farm we grabbed a wagon, well once we got Sam away from the big pumpkins he was trying to lift.  We put the kids in the wagon but that didn't last long and we headed in the wrong direction.

We were redirected and ditched the wagon and started on our walk to the patch.  Sam was side-tracked by the pond and Paul had to make sure he didn't run down and get right in.  We had to stop by the hay bale and check out those pumpkins and then redirect Sam again so he didn't end up next to the tractors.  It took us awhile but we made it to the patch.

Emily immediately found some dirt to play in.  You'd think the girl never got outside.  We started walking through the patch which was pretty sparse.  Preschools and kindergartens had been through and found a lot of the good stuff.  I helped Emily find a gourd and she soon had two to carry around.  Sam on the other hand was busy picking himself up off the ground.  The plowed field was difficult to navigate.  He didn't seem to mind though and he just walked and talked about the punkeys.  He'd find something, carry it for a very short time and throw it to the ground.  (Paul found a couple of caterpillars and showed the kids.  Sam promptly tried to pick one up and nearly killed it.)

We finally found the small pumpkin area and picked out a couple of pumpkins.  I think Sam would have wandered around all day out there.  Emily also was pretty happy.  Between her goards and the dirt she was entertained.  Sam, of course, had some fun in the dirt too.  It was too bad that it ended up in his eye.  Poor kid had mud mascara for a little bit. 

Overall it was a great trip.  Next time we might reconsider the decision to leave the wheelbarrow behind.

Time Out

Since you turned 18 months we have been trying timeout to help with Emily and her hitting.  When she gets mad or frustrated she just reaches out and whacks someone or anything that is nearby.  Unfortunately it is usually Sam.  Sam is so easy going to he rarely reacts anymore, unless she happens to have something in her hand when she hits.  I hate that Sam cowers when she raises her hand and that he so easily gives up what he has to her.  She still sometimes hits me but that is becoming less frequent. 

When we first started timeouts I had to physically hold her in the chair.  She wouldn't stay and would try to squirm away.  Now she sits in the timeout chair and talks to herself.  From what I gather it sounds like she is telling the story about what happened and why she is there.  Most of the time there is a lot of babble and then a "no, no".  (I really should get it on video... it is pretty cute even though she is in trouble.)

I'm not sure timeout is really working.  I know she needs to learn other ways to get rid of her frustration and since she is not REALLY verbal, like Sam, she doesn't really have the words yet.  I know the timeouts are designed to help her regulate her emotions and to calm herself down.  I like that it also makes it so she doesn't get what she wants when she is hitting Sam.  I also know that this is likely a stage and she will grow out of it.  I sure hope it is a stage...

We have tried redirection.  We have tried telling her no and redirection, but she can be very difficult to redirect once she has her mind on something. 

We have definitely moved to the parenting stage and it is hard to know if what you are doing is "right".

Swimming Lessons Day 1

Today we started swimming lessons.  I finally decided yesterday that we should try it.  I was hoping for Saturday lessons but the pool with the warm water doesn't have Saturday lessons.

Everyone in our house is feeling a little under the weather.  Sam has a runny nose, Paul is stuffy, I have a sore throat and Emily is just mad so something isn't right with her either.  So the events leading up to arriving at the pool involve a lot of Emily crying.  But we made it with time to spare.

Once we got to the pool the kids were ready to get in.  The Mountain View swimming pool has a slide that is a big frog.  Sam was super excited and was ready to go down right away but we needed to do the first day of lessons talk.  Our class was called and we met our teacher, Courtney.

We were able to get right into the pool.  I'm so glad we are taking lessons there where the water is warm. It felt like a nice warm bath.  Sam got to slide down the slide to get in and he was pretty happy about it.  Then we played with toys for a little bit.  Sam sat in my lap for most of the play time and played with the rings and then started throwing all the balls.  Silly boy... He was throwing them away from us and then saying, "Bye, bye."  Emily was playing with the rings for awhile and then found the watering cans.  Lately in the bath she has been loving to dump the watering cans over her head.  So she was trying but was getting more water on the poor little girl behind her.  The other little boy in class was "blowing bubbles so Emily decided she should too. She mostly just dipped her face in.We sang The Wheels on the Bus and did fun water movements with it. 

Then we headed over to where the adults could stand, phew.  We did some jumping in from the side.  Sam actually starting "jumping" in on his own.  It was more of a walk in.  Emily was just too excited to jump on her own.  I would do the countdown and she would squeal.  I love that she gets so excited.  Courtney came over and had Emily jump for her.  She also had her practice climbing out.  She did the same for Sam too. 

Then we got balls and practiced our arms while we "swam" after them.  Sam's throwing was all over.  He was doing a great job of kicking his feet towards the ball and he did some arm movement.  Emily used her arms if you showed her or reminded her to use them.  Sam wasn't so interested in letting Courtney hold him while he threw the ball.

Then we practiced our back floats.  Emily really has never allowed me to have her float on her back.  If I'm lucky I would get half a second with her head on my shoulder.  She did amazing tonight.  She just laid back and looked up at the ceiling, which had balls stuck in it.  Courtney came by and said that she was running her hands through her hair as she was laying on her back.  Too funny.  I even was able to just hold her head and almost let go of her back before she got nervous and wanted to sit up.  Emily wasn't so interested in floating on her back with Dad.  She just cried.  Sam did great too.  I have, at one point in time, been able to get him to float on his back while I just held his head.  He too was interested in the ball in the ceiling.  After we were done floating he wanted to put his ears under.  So he was practicing his breathing position.  Ha ha!

It was time for a little more playing so Sam went down the slide a bunch more times.  Emily tried it but wasn't a fan.  The slide has a not so slick spot about 6 inches from the top and Sam would finally start to go and then get stuck and he would have to scootch (not sure if that is a word) down until the slick spot again.  It was pretty cute.

We tried to beat the big kids into the locker room.  Emily is not a fan of the shower.  She did quietly sit in the corner with her towels on and watched the big kids while I got dressed. 

I'm so glad we decided to do lessons.  I really just want the kids to stay in the water.  I know that without having to pay we are unlikely to make it to the pool much this fall and winter.  They both love the water and I want it to stay that way.

And now some unrelated pictures... (The downfall of having twins is that you never have a photographer.  I was a little jealous of the two dads who were taking pictures of their little ones.  That combined with my broken lens means no pictures for us.)

How do you play with cars?  While sitting in a plastic tub of course.

Trying out Emily's headband until someone schedules a haircut for me.

A Case of the Mondays

It isn't Monday yet but I already know that I'll have a case of the Mondays. The end of the weekend is hard for me. Some weeks are easier than others. This weekend was pretty quiet but it was good. The hardest weeks are when we have weekends like this past weekend. I got to spend good quality time with Sam and Emily. We didn't really have anything planned for Saturday or Sunday, we didn't have too many errands to run and our house is FINALLY to a point where we don't have to work on it every free moment. I spend most of my time today sitting on the floor with a baby toddler (or two) in my lap or at least within a few inches. We read books, we played with cars, we made things out of blocks and then we did it all over again. There wasn't much fighting (except when I left the room for too long) and everyone was pretty happy. Emily even ate the chicken we had for dinner. Overall it was a success. These are the days I imagined when I thought about being a mom. Quiet, peaceful days full of reading, playing and little people walking in between my legs.

**Of course I am choosing to block out the 10 minutes yesterday when I went upstairs to change and when I came back down, Paul , who I thought was watching the kids, didn't know where they were and we found them in the study playing with my camera. Needless to say I now need a new lens.