The Year My Babies Grew Up

Wow, what a year it has been.  In 2011, my babies grew into amazing toddlers who can do so much.

 In 2011, they learned to talk- from 1 word to sentences; they learned to walk- from tentative first steps to full on running, galloping and jumping; they developed their own distinct personalities to turn into the most entertaining, lovable children. 

In 2011, I got comfortable doing this twin parenting thing on my own during daddy's work trips.  We said goodbye to bottles and acid reflux and hello to over 30 teeth.  We discovered our local children's museum and bought a yearly membership- we experienced the zoo, state fair swimming in a lake, going for boat rides and camping all for the first time.  We celebrated the one year milestone of Sam and Anna's birth. 

We got through 6 ear infections in 5 months, and tubes being placed in August.  Besides that, it was a relatively doctor free year (for Sam and Anna- although Daddy had his wisdom teeth removed and Mama had issues with her cornea resulting in a MRI at the end of the year), with no ER visits, no flu, no pink eye, no cardiologist visits for heart murmur checkups, no physical therapy, no chiropractor, no GI specialist appointments, nor issues with bulging fontanelles requiring CT scans- and for all that, I am VERY thankful!  I'm very hopeful that 2012 can be as healthy or even more than the last year has been!

2011 will be one of those years I that will always stick out in my memory- the year my babies grew up.  The year we weren't always just trying to figure things out (although, we still sometimes do and probably always will).  The year that we really got to know the two newest additions to our family.

Snapshots of 2011 by month

January reading books inside while it was cold outside

February in the snow

March celebrating first birthdays

April laundry basket rides

May at the zoo for the first time

June days at home with mom with lots of time for walks and playing

July swimming in the pool and lake

August at the fair

September enjoying fall colors

October trick or treating in the rain

November feeding chickens at Grandma's

December celebrating Christmas

With just minutes to go until 2012, here's to a wonderful new year filled with more phenomenal memories to make!

Christmas Part 2

Our second holiday celebration included just our little family of four.  Pre-kids, we used to travel to our families on Christmas Eve, attend parties and go to the midnight candlelight service at the church I was baptised at and grew up attending.  While I still miss the extra magical aura of that service, we stopped traveling before Christmas day the year I was on semi bedrest after a preterm labor scare at 26 weeks pregnant, the week before Christmas.  Now, we make a point of making Christmas Eve and Christmas morning our family time without extended relatives.  I want our children to know that Santa knows where they live and that our stockings hung on our fireplace will be filled in the morning.

Christmas Eve day was low key around our home.  We used the day as the calm before the storm of lots of hoopla, people, traveling and presents.  We attended our church's 4:30 service, because it was the one that best fit around nap, mealtime and bedtime.  We even planned ahead to get a good spot (after having to sit next to the outside doors on folding chairs last Christmas Eve) and got there what I thought was super early with the plan to let Sam and Anna play in the nursery until the service started.  What I was not prepared for was row after row being held for large families that weren't going to arrive for a half hour or so.  We managed to find one spot in the middle of a row, that, after everyone arrived that spots had been saved for, allotted us enough room for just the two of us adults to sit on the pew a child on each lap, shoulder to should with the old men on either side of us.  It was cramped to say the least.   Considering the situation and really, even if we had lots of room, Sam and Anna did outstandingly well.  I fed them lots of snacks, but they didn't have any problems in our pew at all.  We were able to keep them with us the entire time too.  I just love sharing that special part of the holiday season with them.

After attempting to take some photos afterwards (but really, who was I kidding to think we would get two toddlers sitting still, looking at the camera and smiling after staying in one spot for so long at the service?) we had a nice family dinner and normal bedtime, after reading the Night Before Christmas.   Anna especially loves that story- she will sit still for the entire thing every time I read it this month.  After stockings were full, I had just one more present to wrap and then we positioned the big present (Sam and Anna's new wooden kitchen) before going to bed ourselves. 

Sam had other plans for the night, or maybe he was just waiting for Santa- but regardless, he had an unusually rough night.  About the time we were falling asleep, he woke up and was awake despite our best efforts until about 4 am.   This really messed with our plans to try to open presents, pack the car, eat breakfast and be out the door at 9 am the next morning.  We let him sleep as long as possible to try to recoup some of the lost sleep figuring we'd just roll with the punches and adjust our travel/nap schedule (because we don't have car sleepers, it makes it difficult to travel long ways)  and he ended up getting up about 9 am.  (Okay, maybe we needed at least a few hours of sleep to get through lots of travel and relatives, too.)

The look on Sam's face once he saw his stuffed stocking with doll sticking out of the top was exactly the kind of thing you see in the movies. It was perfect happiness. Anna's look was almost as good. They were thrilled with each little thing that came out of the stockings from Santa.

(Anna finished opening presents one handed because she wouldn't take the play oven mitt off)

And then we moved onto the wrapped presents from us.  Neither one noticed the large kitchen sitting by the tree until all the other things were unwrapped and we finally moved it closer to them.  I couldn't get a single shot of their faces because they were that into the kitchen.  We even had a hard time tearing them away from it to eat breakfast... causing some minor temper tantrums.

Not to mention the temper tantrums from both wanting to play with the same new toy at the same time.

(The day after Christmas, I went shopping to buy a second stroller for Sam's doll, along with a second Cookir Monster doll, thanks to the only one recieved as a gift.  Still in search of a second Elmo doll.)

Daddy made some Rudolph pancakes for Christmas breakfast, idea courtesy of pinterest.  They were delicious, and, I think, a new Christmas morning tradition.

Then we loaded up the car, cleaned up the present and wrapping paper carnage quickly (how is it possible that they each had only 3 wrapped presents, but it still looked like a bomb went off in our living room?) and headed off to the grandparents for Christmas part 3, only an hour and a half off schedule.

Merry Christmas From Two Cheese Balls!

They might not often look like twins, but I'd say they've got the same cheesy face down!

Holiday Lights Display

Another (free!) holiday event we went to this year was a holiday lights display at a zoo about 45 minutes from our home.  It's a small zoo, with only North American animals represented and we actually didn't make any effort to see them this time.  (I have to remember to go when it gets warmer, though!)  Sam and Anna had a great time seeing all the lights however- there were a lot of "Wow!"s exclaimed.  Totally worth the over an hour late bedtime, I think.  But ask me again tomorrow if my little rascals don't sleep at least a little in!

Wordless Wednesday- "Gingerbread" Houses

Special  (free) gingerbread house making event at the public library!

Christmas Part 1

This past weekend, we dove headfirst into our first holiday celebration with my MIL and step FIL.  They came out to our place, which, although requires major cleaning, allows us all to get much better sleep and avoid the 7+ hours of roadtrip driving!

Sam and Anna were enthralled with their visiting grandparents and their gifts.  I must say, although the wrapping paper love with no care for what was inside was so cute to watch last year at 9 months old, this year was much better.  Sam and Anna actually understood that what was inside the packages was more fun that the wrapping paper on the outside (although that was fun too!).  The looks on their faces, the grins that don't fade as they play, are better than any material gifts could be.

Sam's big gift was the Fisher-Price Wheelies Stand and Play Rampway.  It came in a boring brown box and required some assembly, which was fine because Sam and Anna are still at an age that all gifts kind of belong to both of them anyway, so they just both played with Anna's big gift until Daddy was done putting the ramp together.  Once it was, oh, the fun!  Grandma was smart and bought extra cars so there was no shortage of vehicles to slide down the ramps. With two separate ramps to play on, this one seems like it was made for twins!  No fighting earned this gift a gold star in my book (okay, so maybe it was my suggestion in the first place...)  And when you’re 2, making it a chubby little car that flies down a hill is about as good as it gets. 

Anna's big gift was the Fisher-Price My First Doll House.  While unwrapping the parts, I noticed there was a little plastic toilet and the thought crossed my mind that it was a dumb use of plastic, when there wasn't even a bed included in the furniture.  But Anna didn't think so!  Besides the little baby doll, the toilet has proven to be the biggest attraction of the toy so far.  Right away, Anna flipped up the lid and declared "Mama stinky!" while plopping the mama doll on the toilet.  Nice in front of the in-laws, huh?  Then she said "bye bye poop!" and proceeded to have all the other family doll members take a turn on the commode.  Baby Jesus may or may not have taken a turn as well, but I'm not admitting to anything...

I'm excited for toys that seemed to be big hits out of the fence, but have longevity potential.  I'm not so thrilled about this just being the beginning of the onslaught of new toys with no where to put them.  I'm pretty good about retiring toys once they aren't played with anymore- and there just aren't many that don't get cycled through pretty regularly around.  We're running out of room to house all the toys though and I need a better organizational system for a house full of toddler toys!

(Getting "caught" in Grandpa's gift- a landing net)

21 Months

Mama Loves the Reason for the Season

Mama Loves is a linky party where mamas can share anything that has made your life easier as a mama.

Maybe you've found:

• a toy or book that captivates your child(ren)
• gear you just can't live without
• a recipe your choosy toddler gobbles down
• a parenting book that you've found perspective changing
• an activity that wears your kid(s) out (these lead to good naps, which we all love)
• an outfit that flatters your post-baby body and makes you feel fabulous
• or anything else you're loving--creativity welcome!

To link your own Mama Loves post up, head on over to Julia's blog, Pontifications of a Twin Mom

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Being a kindergarten teacher in a public school, I'm used to the very secular side of December holidays with kids.  We spend time talking about Santa and reindeer, but also Hanukkah, Kwanzaa, Las Posadas and  St. Lucia Day.  What I'm not so used to is talking freely about the true reason for the season with small children, but that is something I very much want to do with my own kids. 

One of my friends posted on facebook some time ago that she was bringing out the Little People Nativity set for the year.  I immediately googled (since Sam and Anna are very much into Little People right now) and was delighted with what I saw- then ordered it within minutes after comparison shopping online for the best deal.

Sam and Anna have been having a ball playing with "Mama Mary" "Daddy Joseph" "Baby Jesus" the angel, and of course the animals.  I'm happy there is a way beyond books and church services to tell the Christmas story to a child even as young as Sam and Anna.  I'm also happy that I stumbled upon something I didn't know I was looking for!

Now I just need to beef up my age appropriate book selections on the same topic...

Monsters

It is not a new thing that Sam and Anna LOVE apples.  We recently started giving them the entire apple to eat, and they will both devour the apple down the the core.  Anna chips away at it like a beaver, while Sam gets impatient in his usual style, bites a big chunk off, and then eats the piece before returning the the whole apple.  They ask for apples or applesauce at almost every meal.  It's a good thing both us and grandma made a lot of homemade applesauce this fall!

Check out Sam's apple monster voice in the videos below. 

Anna doesn't do the monster voice, but you can see her cheesy grin in the last video while Sam responds to our question in the background.

Senior Sing Along

I asked my husband nicely if he would take time off from work to go with Sam and Anna and their day care provider to the senior citizen holiday sing-along for toddler music (since I couldn't) and he agreed to go and take some pictures and video snippets for me.  We weren't sure how well they would turn out once Sam and Anna noticed that he was there, but he did get some okay ones. 

 Look closely and you'll see Anna is front and center in front of the leader on the floor.  Most of the kids hung out around the edges, and the ones closer to her age even stayed next to their adult.

Sam is a big grandma lover, and so he decided to adopt this nice lady as his "Gran-ma!" du jour while they were there.  I guess he climbed up into her lap and stayed there for a while... apparently the little old lady just loved it.

Anna participated along to every song and motion, just like the big kids.  Sam was a little more hit and miss.

I think it is hilarious how Sam and Anna wave goodbye in the song, and then take off for the door!