Traumatic Santa Experience 2010!

This year we have been talking about Santa a lot, and Nate and Lilly were sooo excited to go see him!  Even in the car on the way there, they were all smiles and "I want Santa Clause!".  Of course that changed when the fat bearded man was front and center LIVE and they were forced to sit in his lap!  Lilly was screaming before I even sat her down and Nate was staring at Santa and tugging on his beard.  Once we got Nate's attention so he would turn around and look at the camera, Lilly was in full-on panic mode reaching out for me!   

We thought Nate was ok, but when we picked him up he was a little shaky too.

All in all, the experience was fairly painless for us and hopefully they will not remember the trauma and be forever frightened of Santa Clause.  I have the picture up and every time Lilly walks by it, she says "Lilly crying!" 

Just for future references- Nate, you were not allergic to the sun when you were a toddler.  You were not really this pale. I'm not sure why your face is as white as Lilly's tights unless you were just that frightened.

Oh my WORDS!

We have some serious talkers on our hands lately.  Some of it I have NO idea where they pick it up, but mst of the time it sounds VERY familliar!  Especially Lilly, she repeats, repeats, repeats!!! 

Some favorites:

"I want..(fill in here- particular movie, toy,  food, drink, or parent of choice at that moment)!!!"
"Mattie, no, no!  No, no, Mattie!" while pointing and shaking finger at Mattie (actually they do this to each other too)..
"Sit down!" - when they want you to stop running around and come sit down by them.. I love this one!
"Ahh MAN!"  - Nate says this and he got it from me, for sure!

Birthday Party at The Little Gym!

I downloaded all these pictures to a post and then forgot to actually post them! 

Last weekend we had a great time at a birthday party for another set of twins who just turned two!  The party was at The Little Gym, which they LOVE, so it was a HIT!

Daddy and Lilly..

One of the birthday boys with his Mommy..

Lilly stood in the middle of the matt for a while and watched everything going on around her while she sucked on her fingers.

Nate shooting some hoops..

BUBBLES everywhere!

The other birthday bot (with PINK EYE)!  Poor thing!

So typical!

After a while, she started to jump up and fall down, and she was having a blast..

Nate joined in..

But it was only a few minutes before the fun was deflated!

My little Mary Lou Retton

WEEEE!!

"Ummm.. what am I supposed to do now that I'm up here??"

A couple of the cuties by the tree after we got home..

If potty training was a marathon..

..I'd be on about the second mile, both my knees already blown out, limping along until I finally fall to the ground and lay there as my friends trample over my lifeless body while they laugh and run energetically...

WARNING- lots of pee pee and poo poo talk coming up..

Oh man, I make myself laugh sometimes.. Ok, I know that was a bit dark, but SERIOUSLY!!  How exhausting is this anyway?! How do people do this?  And we are not even being consistent!  We haven't even had MAJOR-throw your clothes in the trash-accidents or anything, and I'm still put out! We tried to potty train yesterday and today (oh, and one day a few weeks ago), and we are making progress, but it is like TEENY TINY progress.  I am too impatient for this!  I don't like being held captive in my bathroom all day because Nate tells me he has to go when he really doesn't!  To be honest, I don't even know if he knows what he is confessing to when he says "go potty".  That boy just loves to sit on the toilet and read books- typical man!! Lilly seems to be a little further ahead than Nate at this point.  I don't really know what "technique" we are using, we just threw underwear on them in the morning and followed them around all day.  I have to admit Brian was better at paying attention to their signs than I am.  Maybe he is the potty whisperer.  He caught both of them mid stream a couple of times!  By mid-day today Lilly was telling me she needed to tee-tee, and actually going on the potty. YAAAAY!!!!  I never knew I could get so excited over hearing a little tinkle.  Man, I need to get a life!  I think Nate may have even had a drop or two come out by the end of the day.  I don't know how many times we would sit in the bathroom for 20 minutes, only to get him off the potty and have him run out in the living room and be standing in a puddle of pee the very next minute.  SO FRUSTRATING!  And you want to be like "What's wrong with you??  You don't pee on yourself!!" But they are too little (duh) and they just don't get it yet.  A lot of it is my fault because I am not being consistent.  I'm like, let's practice wearing big kid underwear, but only after you have had your morning poop, and during nap times and at night we are going to put the diapers back on, so pee away!!!  I know, I know.. BABY STEPS for me too, okay? :)

Alright, I feel better now.  I think I can see a light at the end of the tunnel, albeit the size of a dime.  I can see it!

I may also be tired because we tried to take a family Christmas picture, and everyone knows how that goes!!  Here is a sneak peek at my soon to be potty-goers..

Love these sweet babies!!

Midnight Showdown

We sure did have it good for a while (getting a full night of sleep, I mean).. Lately I have felt like we were back in the infant stage of getting no sleep!  I shouldn't say that because Nate has still been doing pretty good but Lilly does not want to stay in her bed!  The last few nights have been a bit better, but there were a few nights there where she would bust out of her door screaming and crying and I had to just keep turning around and putting her back in her bed (yes, I had visions of Supper Nanny cheering me on in my head!!).  Last night she only woke up once (she wanted me to change her diaper.. ) so that's not bad. She has also been waking up SUPER early and running to our bedroom (kinda creepy when you're not used to that, seeing your two year old just standing at the foot of your bed)!  Nate is ok, but lately when I check on them before I go to bed, he has several books and toys in bed with him that were not there when I put him in there.  Which leads me to believe he isn't going to sleep when we put him in bed!  But he doesn't fuss or come out of the room, so I really think he probably reads books for a few minutes and then falls asleep.  We decided to push their bed times back a bit to 8 or 8:15, so we'll see if that helps.

I MISS MY CRIBS!! I told my mom I wanted to invent twin beds with some kind of jail all the way around them, like all the way up to a ceiling (hmm.. that sounds kinda like a cage, doesn't it?). LOL..Oh well.. I just miss them being all trapped and safe and cozy and SLEEPING! Now they can just get up and run out whenever they want!

I took these a few months ago, their very last night in the cribs.. 

Nate had his arms out to give me a big hug

 Lilly always laid right down like this., Then she would look up and give me a kiss through the bars (Nate did that too).. I miss that!!

Here's to getting good sleep again.. SOME DAY.

Playing Outside with Mattie

We have had some pretty cold days here lately, so I think it is safe to say the we can put away the shorts and short sleeves at least for a couple months! We did have a nice evening with mild temps couple days ago, so we went and played in the back yard with Mattie when we got home. I think they really love working off some of their energy because they are always in better moods afterwards! And I would much rather be sitting outside than inside watchng a movie I have seen ten million times!

I took this in the morning- It started out a bit chillier so we had our hats on!

 Mattie loves when we come outside!

 Doing some troubleshooting on the lawn mower..

 A few tweaks..

 And ready to go!

 Pointing out an airplane he saw in the sky..

 Nate even threw the bone to Mattie a few times!

 Resting at their picnic table