Easter 2014

Easter was so fun this year.  This is the first holiday the girls have really anticipated and kept asking each day if it was Easter.  They would wake up and Aria would say 'Bunny Easter come?'  It was cute to see they remembered that candy was to be found in the Easter Eggs, and they even knew that Easter was remembering Jesus.  So I would say it was a great holiday, but let's recap.

Saturday we had our annual neighborhood Easter egg hunt.  Last year I said there were over 1,000 eggs. Well this year the organizer told us there are actually over 5000 eggs.  So to say there are a lot of eggs, is an understatement.  We invited Jeff, Whitney, Max and Owen to come over and hunt eggs with us.  Afterwards they serve lunch and ice cream.  It was a hit.

That afternoon we dyed Easter eggs.  I'm pretty sure the girls thought it was the coolest magic trick they had ever seen and were pretty excited to see eggs turn colors.

We even found some Robin candy eggs that come with a coloring markers that are safe to eat.  So they girls had fun coloring some of those eggs as well for a little present to their Dad.

That night as we were getting ready for bed, I said "Guess who is coming tonight?" Thinking for sure they would be so excited for the Easter bunny to come.  Aria quickly replied 'Jeffer!!' (meaning their Aunt Jennifer)  I had to just reply 'No sorry, just the Easter bunny.'  lol.  They sure do love their Aunt Jennifer.

Sunday morning they were so excited that the Easter bunny not only gave them a few presents but also hid all their eggs.  Jaron got one egg to shake, a tshirt, book and truck.  The girls got new PJs, books, a church picture book, sidewalk chalk and bubbles.  And of course candy!

We went to church and had a good day at church learning about the true meaning of Easter and then headed off to Grandma and Grandpa's for yet another egg hunt and dinner.

And now 2 weeks later, the girls still ask about if the bunny Easter is coming and every night Siena says good night to Mr. Owl (he's practically a member of our family these days) she says "good night Mr. Owl, Happy Easter."  I would say Easter was a hit!

Jaron - 9 Months

Another month has gone by already!  Jaron is 9 months old.

We had a 9 month check up, no shots this time...yay!
Weight - 19 lbs 11 oz - 50%
Height - 29 1/2 inches - 90%
Head - 75%

Right when Jaron turned 8 months, he started scooting forward on his tummy.  All month he has just gotten faster and faster.  He goes from room to room and he does this cute little rowing motion from side to side. So he pushes with his right hand back and then switches to his left, back and forth.  It's so funny to watch. Whenever he's on the move it's usually to come find me, then as soon as he sees me he cries the rest of the way until he reaches me.  A few times he would get there and just lay his head down on my feet, it was so funny.  He's a mama's boy which I love most the time.  He started getting stuck as he crawls through things but has been doing better at that lately as well.

He started pulling up to his knees pretty fast and just before he turned 9 months last week he pulled up to a stand for the first time.  His all time favorite thing to do and has been for more then a month now is to stand up against the couch. Hence his 9 month picture I had to take in that position.

Much to his sisters dismay he can now play with all their toys, and he's so excited to finally explore all these things he's seen for 8 months.  The screeching has increased and now he can't even look in their direction even across the entire room and they are yelling at him not to get their toys. I can't tell you how many times I've come into a room to see their strollers up on the couch or their table.  ha ha.  But they also think now he's old enough to do whatever they want with them.  So all of the sudden they have started being a lot more rough, wrestling, laying on top of him, which he doesn't really appreciate either. Siblings I tell ya...

He got the pincer grasp down this month and is in love with feeding himself.  We've given him lots of puffs, he's tried a few strawberries and some bread this month.

Sleeping at night is still great...naps are still hit and miss around here.  I don't know if he'll ever really nap consistently good.  My sister says it will come, I'm not convinced.

Baby proofing take 2 has commenced!

I did it...I potty trained twins!

I did it and I'm actually kind of proud of myself.  I think I dreaded this stage the most when I found out I was having twins, that and doing 2 girls hair every morning (I'm not good at doing hair.)  Anyways, I potty trained twins!!!  Can you believe it???  I still can't.

Let's not act all happy and rosy about the whole thing, because I'm not going to lie, it was HARD.  I prepared a lot and it was still just as hard as I imagined.  I read up on potty training, potty training twins, checked out a book for me, checked out DVD's and books for them, bought treats, presents, etc. etc.  So let's just give a quick run down of how it all happened.

We waited until after our trip to Disneyland.  We had been talking about it for a while and had them practicing sitting on the toilet.  I sat them straight on the toilet cuz I didn't want to clean out 2 little potties.  It worked for them and I'm glad.  I knew they were ready and I also knew Siena was a little more ready than Aria.  'They' tell you train one at a time but how are you supposed to reward one of them when you haven't even given the opportunity to the other one to earn the same reward?  A constant struggle in my life, trying to be fair.  I know life isn't fair but I still try to give them the same opportunities when I can.  ugh...so we started with both of them and I was happy when only after 2 hours Aria wanted her diaper back on.  Great.  So we concentrated on Siena and there were a lot of tears from Aria when she didn't get a treat, but she still refused to try.  But then something great happened on day 2. Siena started sharing her treats with Aria.  It was so cute to watch.  I would give the treat to Siena, they would run to their play house where Siena would pass out the candy to each other.  This kept up for 3 weeks (well I didn't pass out treats for 3 weeks, although we do need a major candy detox in this house right now.)  But Aria had zero interest in wearing panties for 3 weeks.  She would cheer her sister on like no other cheerleader you've seen but could have cared less about herself.

 Then one day, she wanted panties, and just like that I had 2-2 1/2 year olds needing to use the potty.  Siena actually regressed a little I think because for a week she had to go potty whenever Aria went, no matter if she really had to go or not or had just gone 10 minutes before that.  Thankfully we have 2 bathrooms on the main floor because we use both of them at the same time A LOT right now.

So here we are, they both have accidents here and there.  As of this point Siena has gone 9 days and Aria has gone 5 without an accident so I'm feeling like we're doing really good.  Here's after a bad day.

Hardest parts of potty training...1 - when they have to go poop and try to use the potty every 10 minutes for hours until they actually poop.  It makes feel claustrophobic to sit in the bathroom that much and I'm not claustrophobic at all.  2 - Teaching them to wash their hands...why has no one ever told me it's almost as hard to teach them to wash their hands as it is the teach them to go potty? Oh my patience wears thin at this subject.  I'm holding strong though and they're getting it, all of it.

And then just like that they started waking up dry every morning so we do no pull ups, no diapers, we're just in panties around here.  Although let the record show there have been several times I have begged them to put on a pull up or diaper and they flat out refused.

We talk about the potty a lot around here, there is no shortage of praise or cheers from us or each other. The still cheer and clap for each other every day like it's the first time they've done it.  It's the cutest thing there is about potty training twins, if there is such a thing.  So 5 weeks in and we have more good days then bad, but we still have some tough times.  But we move on and cheer each other on and when they get a treat, so do I!

Jaron - 8 Months

Didn’t I just write his 7 month post?  Here we are at 8 months.

A couple major milestones this month.  One, he is now officially unswaddled.  Hallelujah.  Right after 7 months I decided to try unswaddling him for nighttime.  Everywhere I read said to start with naps and work up to the nighttime.  For Jaron, is was exact opposite he did great at night.  He would fall right asleep and didn’t seem bothered at all by not being swaddled.  However, for naps he still needed to be swaddled, but I started unswaddling him little by little, if he didn’t fall asleep then I would swaddle him and try again the next day.  It only took about 5 days and we haven’t swaddled him since.  Yay.  Doesn't he look so happy to be free?

The other major milestone is that he started rolling all over the place and also turning in circles. He's scooting backwards a little but as of his 8 month mark is not moving forward.

Other than that he’s had a long month of being more ignored then usual since I was potty training his sisters. I have been feeling guilty about that but I know it won’t always be like that.

I’m in love with his 8 month picture and want to get it framed.  We put this tie on him for the first time for church last Sunday and I don’t think there’s a cuter 8 month old around.  Such a handsome boy, even if I’m the biased mom.  I love him to pieces!

Car accidents and blessings

This last year we've been very fortunate that Shane's mom has allowed us to use her Minivan.  We needed a bigger car but weren't quite ready to buy something yet.  She had gotten a new car and told us we could use her's until we were ready.

Well this last week we finally decided we were ready to buy a new van.  We looked and test drove a few different kinds and had finally found the one we wanted.  It's a 2013 Chrysler Town and Country.  We were going to pick it up on Saturday.

Well the day before, Brigitte invited us over for a little play date.  I was just about to start telling the girls we were going to get ready to do when Tyler called down the basement to me that my car had been hit.  What? I come upstairs to find this.... (ours is the white van)

The lady, who was super nice, got distracted moving a book off her seat, looked down and ran smack into the back of the van.  Her airbags deployed and burned her arm, but otherwise she was ok.  The police, fire truck, and paramedics all showed up.  It was quite the scene.  Both cars had to be towed.

Holland was pretty upset that our car was 'ruined' and had to go to the car hospital, but it extended their play date and they got to eat lunch on the front lawn while they watched the police and tow trucks do their jobs.

Overall, it couldn't have been better timing.  We were going to sell that car for Shane's mom and list it the very next day.  We had our new van ready to be picked up the next morning and when all was said and done we got 3 new car seats out of it and Shane's mom got a nice check from the insurance when they told us her car ended up being totaled.  I guess it's nice we didn't have to try and sell it after all of that.

We're loving our new van and are super grateful no one, especially the kids, were in the back of our van when it was hit.  And a good reminder how easily accidents happen and how easily people and you can be distracted.

Secret Leprechaun pays us a visit

The Secret Leprechaun made his annual visit to our house the Saturday before St. Patrick's Day.  We had a few books about St. Patrick's Day and I had been prepping them that we have a little Leprechaun that comes to visit and leaves little green treats for us.  They were pretty excited when we looked out on our doorstep and it was covered in presents.  You would've thought it was Christmas morning they were so excited and went from toy to toy to candy.  Their favorite was the Minnie Mouse matching game they got. Jaron's favorite is the shape sorter cube that he loves to shake and pound on the ground.  They stopped long enough to pose for a picture and we were very spoiled with some fun games, toys, book and candy.

All day long they kept talking about the leprechaun and how nice he was.  About 5 days later I was doing something and out of nowhere Aria came up to me and said 'Mom' when I turned and looked at her she said 'Leprechaun nice.'

Thank you to the secret leprechaun that comes every year to our home!

Terrible and Terrific Two's

The girls (I love calling them the girls still) turned 2 1/2 this month.  I thought I would write a little bit about what they're up to these days.

They call it the terrible 2's and I can certainly see why, although I still think the 15-22 month range was the hardest age so far.  But boy or boy do we have our doozy of days.  The fighting between 2, 2 year olds is never ending.  They're either best of friends or fighting.  They still take toys from each other and the screaming has only gotten louder and more intense.  And the whining is non stop most days.  They have no concept of please talk quietly because Jaron is sleeping.  However, if I want to get someone to come to me all I have to say is 'who wants to go first' and they both come running, which then ends up in tears from the person who is 2nd.  But it gets them both to come.   :)  

The independent stage is in full swing and although I love to see their desire to be independent, sometimes it makes me want to hit my head into a wall.  I try....try to be patient but it takes a very conscious effort on my part. Siena says 'No touch you' (aka don't touch me I will do it myself) but if I try to walk away they get so mad because as they say 'watch you' meaning sit here and watch me struggle to put my pants on for 15 minutes but don't touch, try to help or offer any words of advice or encouragement or it makes me mad.

Ok there's the frustrating part of this age but there are so many cute things about this age.  I love that they get the words 'you' and 'me' mixed up.  Like when they want to go somewhere I am going they always say 'come with me'  or when they burp 'excuse you'  Their vocabulary in general is so cute right now.  They are repeating everything I say and Aria has this cute 'uh huh' or her very firm 'Yes!' Siena has started saying 'Tank to Mom' without any coaching on my part.  It makes my heart melt. 

  

They are both obsessed with jumping but Aria by far jumps more, further and higher.  She has no fear of jumping.  They are obsessed with learning letters and if they see a sign or anything with writing they immediately have to tell me 'mom, ABC's'  Siena recognizes a few more letters than Aria but we focus on one letter a week right now and both are picking up on them really fast.

They started singing this month and I can't get enough of it.  Their favorite songs to sing are: Wheels on the Bus, ABC's, Once there was a snowman, Ring around the rosies, What Makes You Beautiful (One Direction but they call it the Na Na Na song cuz of the Na Na Na's at the end of the song).  They also have started reading books to themselves with the books they have memorized and it's cute when I see them read books to each other as well.  They love Little Bunny Foo Foo right now and want me to either read it or sing it to them often and they know all the words to it as well.

They switched this last month that instead of us reading them a book before bed they want us to tell them a story and they always must tell us the subject and it's usually what our focus is at that time.  So for awhile all stories had to be about Mr. Owl, then about Mickey and Minnie and now they want a story about the Potty..well Minnie and the potty.  Yes we're potty training.  Another post about that soon.

They must repeat every prayer we say and they already have a few key phrases memorized.  It's cute when the other day I looked over and Aria had her head bowed and was saying her little prayer as she waited for me to bring her lunch.

They love Jaron and more and more want him to join in on their activities like playing in their play house. Siena loves to make Jaron laugh and is always doing silly things to see if she can get him laughing and I have some cute videos of him belly laughing hysterical at something she has done.  It's usually something simple like throwing a stuffed animal off the couch hitting the ground close to him.  Although it's going to be a rude awakening when he starts crawling this next month and can get into their things.

They still like to sit on my lap to read a book or watch a show and they still laugh a ton at each other and run around like crazy little girls most the day. More and more I see them playing with each other not just next to each other.  I consider it a privilege to watch them grow and play together.  I can just see the bond forming stronger and stronger between them.  

For sure the good outweighs the bad of this age.  We certainly have our days, or hours that feel like days but I am loving this cute age they are at!