Pics

I've posted lots of pictures of the girls being messy while eating - now, here are two where they are kinda, sorta eating like normal people.  Kate can actually eat a whole bowl of cereal with a spoon - not that she choses to do so very often, but she can.   

Here's one of Maya playing and smiling - something that's been in short supply over the past week.  She's been sick with Roseola and a cold, plus has been cutting four new teeth (only four more to go!).  She's finally feeling better and is almost back to her normal, happy self.

A Date with Kate

Today, we all had "date afternoon" - this is kind of like "date night" but instead of going out to dinner and a movie with each other, Josh and I each took a kid out to do something special one on one.  I took Kate out and Josh took Maya.  Sadly, I don't think (or can't remember) ever doing anything with Kate when Maya isn't around except when Kate wakes up from her nap earlier than Maya. 

Josh took Maya out to lunch for pizza and then to a ski resort where they walked around.  Kate and I had a nice relaxed lunch at home, spent some time out on the driveway running around and playing with snow and then headed out to get coffee (me) and steamed milk (Kate) at a local cafe.  It was so much fun hanging out with just Kate - and, oh my, so much easier to have just one toddler to deal with.  Kate sat peacefully in the high chair, drank her milk and then happily ran around the cafe and waved at everyone.  We then walked around downtown - without a stroller!  I just let Kate walk around on her own and followed her to make sure she didn't run into traffic or get into something she shouldn't be in.  She just loved the freedom - something that is very difficult to do when there are two of them.  (Even when there are two adults, it's quite difficult to let two 15 month olds have free rein because inevitably they will run in opposite directions and unless we want to all get split up, we have to keep them in the same vicinity.)  Kate then fell asleep in the car (she skipped her morning nap), and I didn't have to worry about what to do with one kid who is awake and wants to get home and one who is asleep and needs to keep sleeping.  I just drove out to a local reservoir and watched it snow and listened to the radio while Kate snoozed.  All in all, it was a pretty perfect first date with Kate. 

Josh and I both realize that we really need to split the girls up more than we have been doing.  It's fun for everyone and  it lets both girls develop a relationship with each of us independent of her twin.  So, hopefully next weekend I can have a fun date with Maya.  I can't wait!

Laying down the law...

We ventured back to the river walk/duck pond again today - this time with Josh.  It was another lovely winter day, though, Kate was not as peaceful as the last time we went on the walk by the river.  Instead of just quietly watching the world go by and saying "hi" to the many dogs, Kate decided to spend a good part of the walk twisting and turning in her stroller restraints and screaming/screeching very loudly. 

Kate is intelligent, curious, generous, beautiful, funny, fearless, musical - all sorts of great things.  One thing she is not is quiet.  I'm not sure where she got her loud, booming voice from - neither Josh nor I have particularly loud voices - but, she surely does have a loud voice.  I've reached the point where I've kind of decided that I can't keep coddling her and trying to figure out what she wants when she screeches.  I usually respond to her when she complains/screams by offering her water, snacks, cuddles, singing, etc. - and it never really helps.    Everyone says you can't spoil a baby and I've tried to keep that in mind when dealing with the girls.  However, I'm pretty sure you can spoil a toddler and I'm starting to think that maybe my responding to her everytime she shrieks is actually encouraging her to shriek.  She still doesn't speak a lot, but she knows a lot of baby sign language and understands almost everything we're saying - so, it's not like she has to screech to get her point across.  So, I'm trying to ignore the shrieking and pay lots of attention to her when she is being quiet (er) and nice.  We'll see how it goes! 

Kate hanging out with the ducks

I love stores that have "double" carts.  The double carts are a big reason I do most of my grocery shopping at Costco.  Today I discovered that not only does Home Depot have double carts, but they have double carts with steering wheels.  How cool is that?  Kate and Maya loved it and made "vrooming" noises as we wheeled around Home Depot today. 

Duck, Duck, Goose

Kate, Maya and I took advantage of the break in the weather to go on a long walk with the BOB stroller today.  We took an almost two hour walk along a paved path that ran through a park and by a river.  It was kind of cold today, but lovely nonetheless and Kate and Maya really seemed to enjoy themselves.  We saw numerous dogs (each of whom Maya enthusiastically greeted with a "HI DAG!"), joggers, geese flying around, fisherman, etc.  Besides dog greetings the girls didn't make a peep the whole walk - they just watched the scenery and seemed fascinated by it.  I know winter really just began, but it made me think of all the fun things we'll be able to do this spring and summer and how beautiful the walk will be when the trees are blooming. 

The best part of the walk for the girls, though, was the geese and ducks we encountered and fed.  The trail passes by a pond at which bird feeding is allowed (one of the few in the area) and thus there are hundreds of Canadian geese and ducks milling around waiting for toddlers with triscuits.  Within seconds of appearing next to the pond with our big red stroller, we were surrounded by hundreds of honking geese and quacking ducks.  Maya just stared in open mouthed astonishment at the proceedings and Kate laughed and squawked in excitement.  I let Kate roam around a bit outside the stroller and she ran right at the flock not minding that the geese, which are still a lot larger than she is, were baring their "teeth" and making threatening sounding hissing noises.  Maya was content strapped securily in the stroller and didn't ask to be placed on the ground - which was a good thing because it's pretty much impossible to herd both babies in an open space these days.  I wish I had my camera with me because it was a very photo worthy moment with Kate standing smiling in the middle of a huge flock of geese and ducks.

"M"

Today was the first* time that someone other than a family member watched Kate and Maya for the whole day.   I am still working a little bit and need some uninterrupted time to get stuff done - naptime just isn't long enough anymore.  The babysitter, I'll call her "M", is a lovely woman and was highly recommended by other some other moms I know so I feel comfortable leaving the girls with her.  *well, I guess it was really the second time, but the first time "M" watched the girls I spent most of the day with them

The girls were happy as clams with "M" as long as I stayed out of sight.  I worked upstairs for much of the day and could hear them downstairs giggling, playing and generally being happy. However if I made an appearance for any reason (a cup of coffee, for example),  the girls would run full speed towards me with their arms outstretched, screaming hysterically and cling to me like a staticky sock on fleece pajamas.  I'd then have to peel them off of me and quickly retreat back upstairs while "M" kept them from trying to chase me up the stairs.  After a few of these incidents, coffee or whatever other business I had downstairs didn't seem worth the hysteria, so I spent the most of the afternoon hiding out in our bedroom.  I guess this is a good thing because it keeps me from taking too many "coffee breaks". 

When "M" left for the day Kate spent the rest of the evening babbling at me in a very loud and angry voice.  I imagine she was exclaiming over how I could leave her all day with a veritable stranger and hoping that I would not do this again anytime soon.  Both girls were completely exhausted from the day and were pulling out their sleeping gear (sleep sacks, blankies, etc.) and trying to crawl into their cribs by 7 PM.

We're still here!

Sorry about that last kind of depressing post. I seem to post more when I'm in a bad mood than when I'm happy. Really, I'm happy most of the time - even if it doesn't seem like it according to my blog. New Year's got much better after I wrote that post - we met some friends to go swimming which was a lot of fun and went out to a nice dinner. So, yes, I guess I am still one year closer to oblivion, but at least I'm having fun in the meantime.

It's funny the things that make toddlers happy. Today I bought them some stacking cups for $1 at a consignment store figuring they'd play with them for a few minutes before getting bored. But, no, they spent a good 45 minutes of quiet, concentrated play with the cups - stacking them together, building towers, carrying them around and putting them on various surfaces. They even kind of played with the cups together in what could almost be called *gasp* "sharing".  Sometimes the simplest toys are the best toys.  I think they played more with the stacking cups in an afternoon than with the fancy play kitchen I bought them a month ago! 

Bah humbug

It's 2010 - yay.

That's about as much enthusiasm as I can muster today. I guess I'm not much of a New Year's celebrator. To me, New Year's and birthdays are events that are there just to remind you that you're getting old and are that much closer to oblivion. And, as I get older those birthdays and New Year's Days seem to be coming faster and faster - which, you know, means oblivion is really just around the corner. Oh well, at least Josh gets a day off.

Maybe I'm in a not so great mood because some neighbors decided to shot off fireworks and make all sorts of noise around midnight. This freaked out Kate and she woke up screaming at the top of her lungs - and not in the "Happy New Year" kind of way. So, New Year's 2010 started off eerily like New Year's 2009 did - feeding a screaming baby at 12:30 and then listening to the other baby start to cry because "hey, someone is getting fed in here and it's not me". This is the first time that both babies have wanted to be fed at night in many moons and it did not make me happy.

I know, I really should just let them "cry it out", but once they are up for more than a few minutes they will not go back to sleep unless they get a bottle. I tried a week ago with Maya and she spent three hours crying until I finally gave in and gave her a bottle. It might work better if I could let the screaming baby cry it out in her own crib, but I just can't do this because then she'd wake up her peacefully sleeping sister and then I'd have two screaming babies. And, there is no way in heck that two screaming babies in the same room are going to be able to "cry it out".

Luckily, though, it's not very often that they wake up enough at night to realize that they are feeling a little peckish, so hopefully this won't become a habit.