One...Two...Nine...Ten!

Counting is the new thing, now. One of their favorite books is "Rainbow Fish Counting" - it was included in the free tote bags that CPMC gave out to all the babies born at their hospital. Attached to it was a flyer about reading early and often to your baby. The girls especially like it when Daddy reads this book because he likes to count and point to the sea-animals on the page really fast and loud - like it is a race. His erratic and exaggerated counting always gets them giggling.

Even when Daddy isn't home, the girls will pick up that book, open it and start counting like they were Daddy. You can tell they're counting because of their methodic, monotones and synchronized pointing. When they read, they're not in any race, but, like Daddy, they often count the same animal multiple times and miss other ones entirely!

We also count when we're waiting for the milk to warm in the microwave. Tina will stand at the foot of the microwave, her finger pointing and waving methodically up and down saying a combination of gibberish and numbers. I suppose this ritual gives her some comfort or distraction of how soon the milk will actually come to her. When the timer finally beeps, both girls throw their wiggling hands in the air and say, "Yea!" just like their sign language.

From their car seats, they have also starting counting. The more they practice, the better they get. They know that to start counting, they use the word "one." They also know that "two" comes after "one." However, after that, they get a bit lost and just make up a bunch of numbers. The funny thing is, though, that when they're getting done with their counting, they always end with "nine, ten!"

Christmas Morning

How many presents can one child (times 2) get for Christmas?? So many that we felt it would be best to open only a few a day...

Here's the beginning of the gifts on Christmas morning...the "big" gifts too big to wrap... their play kitchen, wagon and tricycles!! Watch them as they come out of their rooms Christmas morning.

Note how Bettina steals the phone from Ava straight away. Ava just stamps her feet in frustration and finds something else to play with. You can hear the sizzle sound when she puts the fry pan on the "stove." The pot makes a boiling water sound (so cool!).


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To view more pictures of the day and the following festivities, click here.

For Christmas, Why don't you Elf Yourself!

This is a pretty funny website...We sent our an email saying that these clips had unfortunately ended up on the floor of the editing room before "Elf," the movie was released, but these long-lost video clips are still pretty funny.....

Here's Tina's: click here

For Ava's, click here.

We even did one for Daddy!! (shh!) Look here.

Month 19 - Bettina Shows Real Preferance

Tina loves animals. She's quite clear about it. This little bunny was not allowed to leave Tina's lap without her screeching for it to return. Fortunately, this bunny is very special as he enjoys attention from people and was grateful for the opportunity to fall asleep on Tina's lap. She's in heaven as she watches him snuggle into her jacket while she ever-so-gently strokes his fluffy angora fur.


Tina and Ava both have also found new joy out of visiting the doctor as Dr. Maria has added a pot-bellied pig to the menagerie in her waiting room. Besides the pig, a chihuahua dog, a snake, guinea pig and fish populate the waiting room. My girls play with the animals more than they do the train table and toys. This week we visited the doctor and "Basil" the pig was running around the waiting room, not confined to his pen just now. Smiles spread across two little faces and 2 sets of feet go running down the hall toward the little pink snout and a new word, "pig," is exclaimed in stereo.

This is why I love this pediatrician - I'm not sure how I got to be so lucky to find her. Not only does she love animals and give kids an opportunity to forget their fears/hurts by touching and playing with them, but she also has twin children (B/G, now much older), gives out her home and cell phone numbers as well as excellent behavior advice. I'm usually discussing the later with her after we rule out any physical reason for powerful temper tantrums. The biting and low-frustration level and intense tantrums of Tina has us trying soy formula instead of milk (only thing we could point to was a grumbly tummy).

Month 18 Week 3 - Tots in Toyland

Today Tina, Ava and I hosted a holiday themed toddler party. Since we'd decided that regular ornaments (particularly glass ones) were out this year, we thought we'd make our own...and invited some friends who we thought might be in the same boat.

Here are some of the things we did:
Playing in the back yard: Tina and Ava teeter with Anna's tottering - Lauren & Will in the backround
















Gingerbread cookie decorating:
Matthew works on a couple of yummy masterpieces














Ornament Making, Stamping (with washable inks) and Crayons, and

Decorating Santa's Village (sort of like a less-strick version of Pin the Tail on the Donkey with contact paper and decorations):


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Just too cool!
So, does this mean that I've already got one of those kids who's got all "the" cool gadgets before she's 12 years old and has more people in her address book that I do? Will she insist on her Starbucks Grande hot chocolate before she is dropped off at school and prefer to get a Jamba Juice over a $1.25 scoop of ice cream?
Boy, we may be in trouble here soon....

It's beginning to feel a lot like Christmas!