Little angels show off their Easter dresses a bit early for their 22-Month photo.
Wednesday, March 28, 2007
Sunday, March 25, 2007
Let the Birthday Season Begin!
Well, the season has started... Ava and Tina's friends have started having their 2nd birthday parties. One of their closest friends, Dean, started it all off this year. Dean's parents were smart enough to host their party outside the home at a children's play place called Habitot (one of our favorite spots). Hilarious to watch a room full of little people run around and get high on sugar while Moms and Dads kick back with awe wondering how the time has flown. Here's a little montage that I put together for the Birthday Boy...
Friday, March 23, 2007
22 Months
Wow! Twenty-two months. Actually, it happened two days ago and I only just noticed now. That's good - we're finally getting ready to transition from counting their age by months and start with just years.
Here the girls are with their friends Brynn (2 yrs) and Brooke (almost 4 yrs and wearing the other fuzzy crown - also one of my god-daughters) who were visiting from Reno the other day.
So, what are the girls like now?
They love to put on (and take off) shoes. Those trendy Crocs shoes and rain boots are their favorites because they are so easy to do on their own. They know how to take off nearly every shoe, but they can put on the Crocs and rain boots by themselves as well. They also love to wear other people's shoes. Daddy's are the funniest to watch them wear since they look about as long as they are tall.
They love to feed themselves - give them the bowl of applesauce or yogert container and a spoon - they want to do it themselves. It's a big mess a lot of the time, but with the warm weather, just take off those clothes and put their toddler table outside. Not to worry - all you have to do is hose them off afterwards.
They still love their Wiggles - either VHS, DVD or CD. They dance, do the hand motions and sing along. Bettina is starting to be able to jump. Ava's way beyond that and has taken to skipping as well. They get a number of the words and phrases right. They have also started to import some of the Wiggles hand motions into their sign language vocabulary. Recently, they have shown interest in Little People videos as well.
They have started to put personality and stories into their play things. Graduating from just simply dumping out all the food/food utensils from the bins in their kitchen, they will pass out cups then come around with a tea pot to "fill them up." They get a kick out of hearing you slurping up the pretend tea. They will pick up play food and make eating noises to indicate they are pretending to eat it. Their bath tub animals and the animals from their Little People Farm move with hops and a "boing" or "clip-clop" sound. They will "stop" and make their animal noise (moo, neigh, ribbit, etc.). Their frog loves to "go night-night," hiding between the shower curtain and it's liner.
They love to name things - living at the ridge of the hills overlooking Oakland International Airport, we see a lot of airplanes as they run their landing patterns over the Bay. Everytime we go outside or into the car it's, "Airplane, airplane, airplane, car, car, birdie, birdie, neigh-neigh," etc. Today as we left the Nordstrom Rack parking lot, past all the new car dealerships, toward home, both of them excitedly exclaimed, "boo-dah, boo-dah (balloon)" for a whole 3 minutes straight.
They have taken a keen interest in gardening and bug-watching. They know what ants, bees and butterflies (called just plain "flies") are, but everything else is considered a bug. They love squatting down to watch ants move and get very excited when they find larger bugs. Tina has even gotten into the habit of looking under rocks for sow-bugs and beetles. Their idea of gardening is pulling off the flowers, which is probably what they think I'm going as I thin out the dead daffodils and prune other greenery so that the next set of bulbs (currently bearded irises and lilies) can come out. I bought a couple little windowsill vases for all the tiny flowers they bring me so we can enjoy them in the kitchen a bit longer than watching them wither on the ground. I don't worry too much about this bad habit of plucking flowers. I figure the garden will only get demo-ed in a couple months anyhow and by next year, I can teach them a more refined definition of helping in the garden.
Bettina surprized me when, at the doctor's, she weighed in at nearly 28 pounds! I though she was nearer to 26, which is probably more where Ava is. We have started to put away the 18-24 month clothes and most of their 2T dresses and shirts are unpacked and ready for wear. They have nearly all of their teeth, now. Ava's last set are coming through now. Bettina's got another set that need to break through, but both have very toothy smiles.
Here the girls are with their friends Brynn (2 yrs) and Brooke (almost 4 yrs and wearing the other fuzzy crown - also one of my god-daughters) who were visiting from Reno the other day.
So, what are the girls like now?
They love to put on (and take off) shoes. Those trendy Crocs shoes and rain boots are their favorites because they are so easy to do on their own. They know how to take off nearly every shoe, but they can put on the Crocs and rain boots by themselves as well. They also love to wear other people's shoes. Daddy's are the funniest to watch them wear since they look about as long as they are tall.
They love to feed themselves - give them the bowl of applesauce or yogert container and a spoon - they want to do it themselves. It's a big mess a lot of the time, but with the warm weather, just take off those clothes and put their toddler table outside. Not to worry - all you have to do is hose them off afterwards.
They still love their Wiggles - either VHS, DVD or CD. They dance, do the hand motions and sing along. Bettina is starting to be able to jump. Ava's way beyond that and has taken to skipping as well. They get a number of the words and phrases right. They have also started to import some of the Wiggles hand motions into their sign language vocabulary. Recently, they have shown interest in Little People videos as well.
They have started to put personality and stories into their play things. Graduating from just simply dumping out all the food/food utensils from the bins in their kitchen, they will pass out cups then come around with a tea pot to "fill them up." They get a kick out of hearing you slurping up the pretend tea. They will pick up play food and make eating noises to indicate they are pretending to eat it. Their bath tub animals and the animals from their Little People Farm move with hops and a "boing" or "clip-clop" sound. They will "stop" and make their animal noise (moo, neigh, ribbit, etc.). Their frog loves to "go night-night," hiding between the shower curtain and it's liner.
They love to name things - living at the ridge of the hills overlooking Oakland International Airport, we see a lot of airplanes as they run their landing patterns over the Bay. Everytime we go outside or into the car it's, "Airplane, airplane, airplane, car, car, birdie, birdie, neigh-neigh," etc. Today as we left the Nordstrom Rack parking lot, past all the new car dealerships, toward home, both of them excitedly exclaimed, "boo-dah, boo-dah (balloon)" for a whole 3 minutes straight.
They have taken a keen interest in gardening and bug-watching. They know what ants, bees and butterflies (called just plain "flies") are, but everything else is considered a bug. They love squatting down to watch ants move and get very excited when they find larger bugs. Tina has even gotten into the habit of looking under rocks for sow-bugs and beetles. Their idea of gardening is pulling off the flowers, which is probably what they think I'm going as I thin out the dead daffodils and prune other greenery so that the next set of bulbs (currently bearded irises and lilies) can come out. I bought a couple little windowsill vases for all the tiny flowers they bring me so we can enjoy them in the kitchen a bit longer than watching them wither on the ground. I don't worry too much about this bad habit of plucking flowers. I figure the garden will only get demo-ed in a couple months anyhow and by next year, I can teach them a more refined definition of helping in the garden.
Bettina surprized me when, at the doctor's, she weighed in at nearly 28 pounds! I though she was nearer to 26, which is probably more where Ava is. We have started to put away the 18-24 month clothes and most of their 2T dresses and shirts are unpacked and ready for wear. They have nearly all of their teeth, now. Ava's last set are coming through now. Bettina's got another set that need to break through, but both have very toothy smiles.
Sunday, March 18, 2007
Things I Learned at the Doctors This Week
Just a cute picture of Tina wearing my 3-inch espadrille shoes. There are another 4-frames or so after this picture in various states of falling forward and out of the shoes, swiftly followed by her putting them on and attempting to walk in them again.Last week was tough - the girls (and I) were sick and had fevers. We decided to take them to "The Wiggles" concert anyhow and still they had fun. They spent the first half swaying, dancing and wiggling in the aisles to the music. The second half, they were worn out and just watched from our laps. They were cold-asleep by the time we left the parking lot. They clearly had fun, but I'm sure would have had much more fun had they been feeling their best.
Two days later, Tina hadn't shaken her fever, so I took her in to the doctor. I told the doctor about Tina's fever (Ava's only lasted 2 days) and learned something new: when you take a kid's temperature under the arm, you are really suppossed to adjust the result up a degree. I was floored that I had allowed Tina to have a temperature of 103 for 2 days (I thought it was really only 101.9). I was embarrassed and shamed still to find that on top of that, she'd been suffering from painful ear infection as well. "She hasn't been complaining about any pain?" the doctor asks. (Now, we're talking about a girl who will run straight into the wall without blinking and only adjust her angle to go off again.) "No," I responded, "but her sister has been saying her ear hurts." Two prescriptions of antibiotics later, we're heading to the pharmacy. While there, I looked into getting a vaporizor to help the girls sleep. They had some vaporizers, but not any that had the matching medicine buckets. So, I decided to buy these vapor-scented inserts that fit into a nightlight. A much cheeper solution, even if they only last one night. They worked wonders and I'm glad we tried them.
Thursday, March 08, 2007
Spring Fever
Three girls on a horse... we won't be able to fit well for much longer. We may have to start using Lolly's (the barn manager's) two little ponies sometime next year -- perhaps Lolly's girls will have outgrown them by then?
Our house is next to a couple of barns. We drive by them and everyday, the girls ask to see "neigh-neighs." They want to stop, pet and feed them "flowers." Grass does much better.
Today we went down to our barn to visit and ride Misty. Lolly watches the girls while I get to saddle up and ride. While I got to wander the Pacifica hills, florecent yellow with sour grass, and feel the breezes staight off the ocean water, the girls got to spend time with the brand new litter of rabbits and some goat-kids only 2-weeks old. After Mommy's ride, each girl gets to take a stroll down the lane riding Misty-mare with Mommy . They love it (and so I!!) click here to see more barnyard photos, including the baby bunnies and goats
With the weather warming up, and the girls interested enough in the barnyard animals, we will start to make these regular "therapy" sessions for mommy and play dates for the girls.
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