Cute things my children have done recently...

This might be the world's most boring blog entry unless you are directly related (as in grandmother) to Kate and Maya. So, Grammy and Nana this one is for you...

• I took the girls out to their music class this afternoon in blizzard (we were the only ones who showed up!) and didn't want to deal with the double stroller in the six+ inches of slush in the parking lot.  So, I just pulled both girls out and decided to carry them into class.  I ended up having to hold both them in one arm (that's almost 50 pounds of baby in one arm) while I locked the car.  The girls thought this was funny and were laughing and giggling.  I guess don't know why I thought this was so cute but we must have made quite a sight. Good thing I have long arms!
• When I bring Kate down from a nap and Maya is already awake Maya says "KATE!".  (Kind of like the people did on "Cheers" when Norm walked in - wow, did I just date myself or what?). 
• Kate will give Maya a little push when she's on the slide (see below video).
• This morning I babysat a friend's kid, "A", who is exactly the same age as Kate and Maya.  When A's mom left and she was crying, both Kate and Maya walked up to her to give her a kiss and pat her on the head.  I'm not sure if "A" appreciated this, but it was a very sweet gesture.  

Sliding

My cuties

Video!

I haven't posted a video in a while, so here's a new one.  If you listen carefully, you can hear Maya saying "car" and "airplane" while she's reading.  She also is making the sign for airplane.  She's so smart, isn't she?

There is also a bit of video of Kate - she was kind of whiny today and was making that "uhh uhh uhh" noise all day long.  I've been trying to get her to "use her words" more instead of just whining and throwing tantrums.  She just gets so frustrated - she wants so many things and wants to say so much, but is still limited by her 17 month old vocabulary.

Kate with her baby and blankie...

The joy of twins

I've written a lot over the past 16.5 months about how difficult it is dealing with baby twins.  For me, it was hard to find any benefits of having twins in the first year or so.  Yeah, there were a few benefits -  including the considerable cuteness factor of two babies the same age and all the attention we got (though, sometimes this was a negative, too).  However, for me, the double crying, double diapers, double feedings, double car seats - pretty much double everything definitely overshadowed the good parts of having baby twins.

However, now that the girls are getting older, I am finally getting a glimpse of how amazing and fun it is to have twins.  They have become so sweet with each other in the last month or two - giving each other kisses, bringing each other their blankies when the other one is upset, washing each other's back in the tub, giggling together, etc.  They generally stick together at playgroups or when we're out in public and because of their constant companion they seem more confident and less shy than some of the "singletons" we encounter.  I think they are becoming each other's best friend - I love it.  

All in all, life is good and getting better.

In other news, Nana and Grandpa visited today and helped take the girls to toddler gym and hang out with us.  Kate adores her grandpa and wanted to sit in his lap, snuggle and hold his hand all day.  Here's a picture of Kate being very happy to sit on grandpa's lap at lunch.

Pics

Kate finally seems to be recovered from her bout of Roseola so we took the opportunity of relative health and relative good weather (a rarity this winter) to do some fun outdoor activities.

Saturday we all went to a nice, easy sledding hill and tried out our new sleds.  This was actually a more successful outing than I expected and the girls seemed to enjoy sledding - until Kate got blindsided by a little girl in an out of control saucer.   Kate was fine - just scared and was pretty much done with sledding after that.

Today we went out to breakfast at a little breakfast place near the lake and then enjoyed the sunshine and the view of the lake from the deck.  It was actually relatively warm in the sun and we got a glimpse of how great it's going to be this summer.  I can't wait until the snow is melted and we can play outside all day.

Here are some pics from this weekend.  I don't have any of sledding because, well, two toddlers and two adults = no one to play cameraman.

TGIF

It's been a tough week and I'm so glad it's finally over! It turned out that Kate didn't have an ear infection, but instead had a nasty case of roseola.  Maya had it a month or so ago and had a high fever for a day or two but wasn't noticeably cranky and got better very quickly.  Kate, on the other hand, has spent almost every waking moment since Sunday crying and fussing, refused to eat anything except milk and an occasional blueberry and wanted to be held and carried around constantly.  It was kind of like having a 23 pound newborn.  We spent a lot of time cuddled in the rocking chair watching the Wiggles and Baby Einstein.   (this meant that I was awake all night last night with Wiggles songs running through my head - I'll be happy if I never have to watch the Wiggles ever again).

Unfortunately, Josh had to be away for work for four nights this week, so we didn't have DADA around to help out.  However, we did have the next best thing to DADA -  that would be NANA (aka "The grandmother formerly known as Grandma").  I was so grateful to my mom  for spending two nights and a full day with us.  She basically took over caring for Maya all day Wednesday while Kate and I were ensconced in the rocking chair the watching the Wiggles. Nana took Maya to toddler gym, feed her dinner, played with her, etc.

I've been feeling very lucky and grateful these days to have so much support and help.  Between my parents, my aunt and uncle, friends and neighbors and "M" (the babysitter) I really only had a few hours by myself with both girls this week even though Josh was away.  Aunt Bonnie and Uncle Maury even came over to babysit Maya at the last minute when we took Kate to the ER on Sunday night.

So, thanks mom, dad, Aunt Bonnie, Uncle Maury, and Claire for helping us out this week!  I don't know what we'd do without you!

Is cold season over yet?

Yet again minor illness has descended upon our house - we had a lovely three week reprieve from illness while we were in Hawaii and while the latest round of germs were incubating.  I swear that every single time we go out with the girls where there are other children somebody gets sick.  When they are healthy,  I make sure to go to lots of activities to get our fill of socializing because I know it's just a matter of time before they get sick again and we are once again quarantined.  I can't wait until spring and the end of cold, flu and mystery virus season.  The pediatrician says things should start to get better around April - just one more month!

This time Kate has come down with a nasty ear infection which required a trip to the ER last night when her fever spiked to 105.2 (or if you trust temporal artery thermometers: 105.6).  Luckily it was a quick and uneventful trip.  They basically looked in her ear, told us she had an ear infection, gave us some antibiotics, dosed her with Tylenol and sent us on our way.  I didn't want to be the hysterical new parent taking her kid into the ER over some minor illness, but even our pediatrician seemed alarmed at how high Kate's fever was and recommended that we take her in.  She was a lot better today but still spiked a fever around 4 PM again - this time it only went to 102.9.  I hope tomorrow she'll be even better.


Here are a few pictures I took today of both girls (before Kate's fever came back).  They have learned how to climb into the rocking chair and I finally decided to just let them climb in there and hang out as long as they want instead of shooing them off in fear that they'll somehow fall out of it and hurt themselves.  They were both very excited to be able to sit in the chair by themselves and spent almost 30 minutes reading books and just sitting there looking pleased with themselves.