It's a Snow Day

5 days till Christmas and we finally got some snow... Wahoooo...

Here's some of the fun that we've been having today...

Girls and I got up and had bowls of Cheerios together... it was so much fun and even more fun when i found the contents of one bowl on the floor.. oh well ... there was no milk in the bowl (I give it to them dry) so it was easy enough to pick up..

Elmo had breakfast with us today.. Lily fed him some cereal bar and possibly some pancake too.. it's so great to see her imagination growing by leaps and bounds already.

Lily and Anna had a great time twirling with Daddy in the living room.. I tried to get it on the video camera but I was a little late..

Since Daddy slept in... I couldn't make us all pancakes for breakfast so instead I made everyone pizza for lunch.. I had gotten a pizza kit at the grocery store yesterday.. It came out so great and we ate the entire thing..

While the girls napped I turned our bedroom into a wrapping area and got all the presents wrapped for Lily, Anna, S and D. Then I attacked the girls closet and took out all the clothing that we should still be able to wear in the spring or early summer. Plus I think a few people have gotten them some clothing for the holidays so I needed to make room for that in their closet.

While I was working on the closet, Lily got a chance to look out the window in their room at the snow on the ground.. she had a great time doing that.. especially when I took an empty laundry basket and turned it over for her to stand on at the window.

We've had some cute moments today in toddler speak.. They were watching Sesame Street on On Demand and they got to their favorite part (Elmo's World) and at the end Elmo told his fish Dorothy to say "goodbye" and both Anna and Lily said "Buh Bye" and "Bye Bye".

Maybe by our next snowy day the girls will be able to go out and play in the snow..

Long time no Blog Posts

Sorry about that... time has been scarce lately... with Holiday preparations and trying to get my knitting done and then finding out that Lily needs glasses to hopefully fix her eyes (she's farsighted) and trying to get her to wear them (unsuccessful so far).. so what shall I post? I'm pretty close to finishing one of the knitted party dresses. I'm looking forward to being done so I can concentrate more on dress #2 which will be pink and yellow with some white mixed in. I also want to move on to a new project.. maybe a hat this time.. my local knitting store is collecting helmet liners for the troops that are currently in Iraq or was it Afganistan. I so want to be able to make at least 1 to send but at the rate that I knit the war might be over by the time I finish or get a chance to start.

The girls and I had a few fun moments today in the car.. we were leaving daycare and on our way to Grandma's when it started.. the little mouth noises.. Anna was doing them first and then Lily joined in.. before I knew it Anna switched to blowing "raspberries" and then Lily joined in blowing them too.. I couldn't help myself and I blew some back at them which started about 4 or 5 more rounds of raspberries being blown. I had such a fit of the giggles with this... As we got on our way home Anna and Lily started blowing the raspberries again.. such cuteness. It was hard to not join in again..

Both Anna and Lily are getting to be creatures of habit.. as we drove home from Grandma's tonight and turned down our street, they started to very excitedly say... "Dada... Daddy... Dada... Daddy" over and over.. I felt bad bursting their bubbles with the news that Daddy wouldn't be home when we got there. They seemed to be ok with this but it was amazing for me to realize that they know that when we get home from daycare (usually) that Daddy will be there waiting for us and will come and help us up to the apartment.

It's only words...

These are the words that Anna and Lily can currently say:

Momma

Dada

Anna

Ball

Baby

Hi

Kitty

Cat

Hi there

Hi Baby

Hi Kitty

washcloth (said by Lily in the tub tonight)

Ducky

Mommy

Mom

Daddy

something that sounds like Grandma or Nana

Baba (our word for Bottle or Cup)

Baby baby = Baby Signing Time dvd

Elmo

More

Eiya (daycare lady's daughter)

Uh-Oh

Bye Bye

No

Sit

Yeah Yeah





They can also sing or get the tune for the following songs :

ABCD (alphabet song)

Twinkle Twinkle

Row Row (Row your Boat)

Baby Baby (Baby Signing Time)

Over the Road (a lap ride song that we do at a music class)

Trot Trot to Boston (lap ride)


I think that there are more... but I just can't remember them all right now..

Anna is the best Big Sister

Poor Lily and Anna... we got our H1N1 shot, Seasonal Flu shot and HepA shot on Tuesday... they both didn't react very well afterwards.. ok they fell asleep in the car on the way home and had some discomfort but we've always had that happen. Wednesday Lily was a mess and Anna was ok (or seemed to be) so Anna went to daycare by herself while I went to work at Carter's for a few hours. Not too long after I got to Carter's Lee called to tell me that daycare had called to tell him that Anna wasn't acting like herself at all.. screaming and just not a happy kid.. I told Lee that if he had to, he could call my mom to watch Lily while he went to go get Anna. I wound up getting her myself on my way home after my shift was over.. That evening Anna was really great to Lily (heck she always is) and helped Daddy get a blanket for Lily and even rubbed her back and brought her the Elmo balloon that we got them a couple of weeks ago to play with.

So fast forward to this afternoon... Lily was having a hard day after a hard night and early morning. I brought the girls over to Grandma's for our weekly dinner and fun night. We got back and Grandma had Lily in the rocking chair in their room. Anna is following me around and trying to be helpful and sees that Lily is sleeping on Grandma and goes to investigate. Grandma told her that Lily is sick and sleeping.. Anna (good sister that she is) goes to Lily's crib and pulls down Lily's Pooh Bear blanket and brings it to Grandma for Lily.. what a nice sister she is.

Knitting Progress

I am finally feeling some progress is being made on the dresses that I am knitting for Anna and Lily. I finished the front piece the other night though I want to get the opinions of my knitting friends on Wed night since I think that the front and the back might not exactly match lengthwise on the neck pieces.. In the meantime I have decided to forge ahead and started the sleeves for dress #1. It seems to be moving quickly. I am still not in love with doing Picot Rows but I think that I am getting better at them.. I might actually have a chance at having most of the first dress done by Christmas. Dress #2 I know won't be done in time at all since I am barely even done with the skirt part on the back piece.

Here's a couple pictures of Dress #1....

Front

Back

Tantrums R Us

Awww yes... we have entered Tantrum land now that the girls are 18m old. Actually Lily isn't too bad.. mostly will get overly upset when I try to leave her or go out of her sight. It's Anna that is having the full blown tantrums. I swear in the last week or so we have hardly gone a full day without her having a tantrum for what seems like no reason at all. It's such a joy to go through. I can hardly wait till she can actually tell us why she is upset. Till then we will do our best to get through the food flings and the full body throwdowns that she does. They are hard for me to ignore (ped's advice) and make me feel like the world's worst mom ever at times. Eventually my smiley happy girl returns but I never really know when she's going to have a tantrum. I hope that this is just a phase...

Fun at the Zoo

What a fun day we had today... We were supposed to go out somewhere yesterday but it was Pouring Rain most of the day and it just didn't seem worth getting the girls in and out in the rain so we put off outside plans till today. So once I woke up (yeah I slept in till almost noon - it was nice) we quickly decided to try to go somewhere... we wound up at the Stone Zoo.. I tried to put in a vote for the Franklin Park Zoo but I got voted down. Plus it was 1:30 by the time everyone was dressed and ready. Anyway.. we had a nice time.. Lily loves animals so we wanted to see her and Anna's reactions to the animals. They seemed to like the exhibits but the clear favorite was the Bear exhibit since we could get their strollers close to the glass and the bears kept walking past them and looking at them. The squeals of delight were so nice to hear as was hearing Anna say "Ted..Teddy" as she looked at the bears. Hope we can go back soon since Zoo Lights starts the day after Thanksgiving . Hopefully we can buy a Membership in the near future. Hmmm that might make a really nice gift for our family for Christmas.

Almost 18m old

Oh boy are we getting to be Big Girls or what? We (ok I) got sick and tired of having the girls riding backwards in the car and all the crying and whining that I would hear.. So about a week or so ago I took the time to take the carseats out, redo the belt paths and then reinstalled the carseats so that they now face forward. Oh yeah... Anna and Lily love the new view... They look like such big girls back there.

They are also now officially big kids at daycare.. since there is a new kid at daycare that is only a couple of months old. Anna likes to help feed the baby and both girls say 'Hi Baby' when they see her (ok they also say it to each other and whenever they see themselves in a reflective surface).

We survived Halloween. They went to 3 parties and then did Trick or Treat (approx 5 houses in my mom's neighborhood). Anna didn't want to do her costume on Halloween but once we got her into it and outside, she was fine and did great. Both girls even walked a little bit of the distances between the houses that we went to.

Looking forward to Thanksgiving and Christmas this year... already have a few ideas brewing for toys as presents from Santa.

No no no no no said the babies

Oh yes these are the words that we are hearing now more than ever from the girls.. which is so fun... not. Funny but I did a little experiment with this and to see if the girls are really paying attention... at dinner the other night I offered them many many things and kept getting the no no no response... I finally asked if they wanted milk and got a Yeah from them...

In other news... Lily is totally walking now.. she's getting good at it.. though she has a small issue with her eyes now,... her eyes are starting to cross at times. We'll definitely be asking Dr P about this at our 18 month appt with him. Let's all hope that she doesn't need to wear glasses..I don't know how she'll ever keep them on.

Lily is starting to make small sentences.. she's always loved our kitty Nora and Nora is very tolerant of Lily's love to her. Lately when she sees Nora (or Squirt) she will say "Hi Kitty".. It's really really cute. Anna cracks us up on a nightly basis.. she resists going to bed sometimes, so for a good 30 to 45 minutes we get her renditions of the ABC song , Twinkle Twinkle and what I call her Beatles tribute song (Yeah Yeah Yeah)..

We Love the Swings...

Here's the picture from the Melrose Weekly News that was published on Sept 11th 2009.

They could not be any cuter can they????

The Smoke is clearing

Ahhh where to start??? I feel like I haven't been here in forever to post anything.. Mommy has been really busy lately.. Last week I finished the back piece of the first of the two knitted dresses that I'm making for the girls and then promptly started the back piece of dress #2. It's coming along really well I'm almost done with the 4th inch of 14 inches on the skirt. I think it helps that I have been trying my best to work on it everyday and to take it everywhere with me just in case I have time to knit.

Lily has finally decided to start walking and she literally went from tentatively taking 1 or 2 steps at a time to taking 5 or 6 before she drops down to the floor. She's still much more comfortable getting places with her fisher price walking toy but she's very slowly giving it up..and I do mean s-l-o-w-l-y. It's great seeing her standing on her own also.. she's finally getting to be a big girl just like Anna. She just had to do it on her own in true Lily fashion. So now that I've stopped obsessing about that I can move on to other things to obsess over. Such as how to keep Lily from rocking her chair in the kitchen back. I usually catch her and get her righted before she can flip it back far enough to make the chair fall over but this past Friday morning I didn't see her do it and I heard a thud and then nothing for a couple of seconds and then the screaming started.. Lee and I paniced and called the Pedi who told us to get her to the hospital ASAP to be checked out just in case and that she might need a CAT Scan.. how do you ever do one on a baby/toddler btw.. so we flew into action. Got the girls changed into clothes and grabbed what we could and stuffed things into the diaper bag (I later found out that we had only brought 1 diaper with us for 2 babies) and got ourselves to Winchester Hospital's Pediatric ER. Two and a half hours later (most of it due to waiting) we were told that she was fine and to keep an eye on her and to return if she didn't seem to be ok. Thankfully she has been totally herself since then.. heck she's even walking more.. but I'm quite sure that this will not be our only ER experience with these two girls.

Anna has been learning all sorts of new vocabulary words.. we thought that she had added "sh*&" to her vocab but on closer listening it's actually "sit" (but it sounds like the other word).. I have already talked to the person with the worst potty mouth (it's not me, Lee or our daycare lady) and she said that she'd stop but then 5 seconds later that person said a word that I really don't want the girls to be repeating. ARGH.. She also has been saying "jamma jamma jamma" alot and then I realized that she's reciting a line from one of our bedtime books (Pajama Time)... the line is 'Jamma Jamma Jamma PJ!' and apparently she likes that line since she says it while getting her pajamas on at night.

Just an Old fashioned Love Song

Lately Anna has been a bear when i try to get her into her car seat... so I've taken to playing CDs in the car and trying to find things that she likes while she is in her car seat.. Today I had to go to Michael's to return some things that I had bought too much of for a recent cake project and I brought her along with me to give Lee a break since Lily was taking a much needed nap (Anna had taken one while i was out earlier with Lily). She was fine with being in her seat on the way there but on the way back she was not a happy camper. So I threw on the CD that was in the player.. it happened to be 3 Dog Night... and the song that was on was 'Just an Old Fashioned Love Song' I happened to look into the rear view and she was dancing and clapping along...so I hit repeat.. Thank goodness it's one of my favorites too. It kept her happy and she even played Peek A Boo with herself while it played.. Let's hope that I continue to be this lucky in the future with her.

Just keep swimming

I think that was the advice given by Dory in Finding Nemo... though after watching Meet the Robinsons with Lee yesterday afternoon I might adopt.. Keep Moving Forward.. as a new mantra.

I have been working diligently on a knitted dress for the girls (I'm making one each).. Thursday I finally finished the back skirt on dress #1 and on Friday I figured out how to successfully knit the yoke and the skirt together (attempt #1 failed but I was able to fix it).. I even figured out how to move stitches that I'm currently not working with onto a stitch holder. Yes I'm coming up in the knitting world.. I might have the courage to start dress #2 soon. Christmas is in 97 days.. I might make it... Keep moving forward...

This is The Box that Lee Built

I have to give Lee his due (and I actually forgot about this in the Goodbye Summer post below) he can build some cool stuff. Exhibit A... the box. Lately he's been building up a collection of items for camping. We have a tent, a camp shower, some mosquito coils and other various things that you need for successful camping experiences. They only thing we didn't have was a place to put it all where it would not get ruined by ourselves, the cats and the Babies.. so Lee got out some paper and started measuring. When he was done he had some really great plans for a wooden box that would house all our camping stuff. There were trips to Home Depot for wood, fasteners and hinges. There was a ton of sanding being done (thanks to a new handy dandy sander) and there was a plan hatched by the little ladies to turn the box into a clubhouse complete with pillows from the big people's bed (we have pictures somewhere of this). This gave us an idea but I'll talk more about that at a later date. Eventually we were able to evict the girls from the clubhouse and put some doors on the box. I got the super important job to drill the holes for and attach the knobs to the box. It came out really great and it fits nicely in our bedroom on top of Lee's chest of drawers.

Our next project is to make the girls a playhouse. We're not sure how big it's going to be yet so we are making a model first so we can make all the modifications that we need without wasting time and money on supplies and labor.

Goodbye Summer

We had a fabulous summer.. we played in the sun, we swam in our blow-up pool, played with a water table (thanks Uncle Steve for both of them), went to daycare for the first time (and made new friends while there), had our first family vacation (and survived the 6 hr drive to and from), went to the Aquarium, said goodbye to friends that moved away, made new friends, went to a beach (Lily loved being in the water and Anna wasn't exactly a fan of the water; she liked the sand much better), played in the sandbox at the park for the first time, got our picture taken for the paper (if it gets published I will make sure to post it here) while on the swings at the park, learned to walk (Anna) and decided to think about trying to take a first step (Lily).
Mommy took up running, got glasses, knitted herself a summer top, and started the ambitious project of knitting a dress each for Anna and Lily.
Daddy is getting closer to having a driver's license (hopefully before the Permit expires in November), made new friends while we were on vacation and has been fanatical about keeping the apartment clean..

But now it's time for Fall... so I will be starting to take the summer clothes out of the closets and replacing them with clothing to wear in the Fall and Winter. I think my own closet will be the last to be turned over since I'm usually very warm (though I did drink some Hot Chocolate after I got home from Knitting Group tonight since I was freezing) and I hate having to change out my clothes. Both Lee and I need to step up our search for new jobs. I've actually been sending out resumes all summer with very few bites in response. I'm thinking of trying to do something with my cakes.. I've been leaving postcards at various places (like the library and the grocery store). Hopefully I'll get some bites with that since there are tons of reasons to celebrate with cake (not just birthdays).

Mommy's got some new accessories

I've been having a ton of headaches lately and I finally decided that it could possibly be vision related.. so we all went to Cambridge Eye Doctors almost 2 weeks ago and I got my eyes checked. Guess who needs Glasses... Me.... They arrived on Saturday so I went down and picked them up... wow what a difference... I'm supposed to wear them as much as I can and especially when I am knitting or scrapbooking.. I'm still not used to having them yet.. but I will.. eventually.

Want to see them.... Lily helped me to model them...

What a Big Girl...

Yes they are growing up... too fast at times for this mommy of twins.. Our latest Big Girl moment... I had been on the phone with a friend tonight and once off the phone I noticed the time and realized that the girls needed to get ready for bed... So I went into the main room (aka the living room) and announced that it was time for bed... Anna got up and walked over to their bedroom door and tried to get in (she can't totally reach the knob yet).. we were so surprised.. we knew that she had figured out that we eat in the kitchen and play in the living room but we had no clue that she had made the connection between saying Bed Time and going to their room to change into jammies and getting into bed. She also gave me zero problems with getting into jammies and going to her crib. Lily just followed the open door and then tried to put her own jammie top on her own head when I was changing her.

They also are giving us less and less problems with going to bed or anything else that we ask of them lately. When did my babies grow up??? Anna likes to walk on her own now.. though sometimes crawling is faster and Lily likes to talk... she loves our daycare provider's daughter and says her name alot lately. She also loves to call for me.. Momma... Momma... Mommy.. While at Grandma's over the weekend I pulled out the blow up pool that my brother and his family had gotten them for their birthday... Anna loved trying to hold the hose while we filled the pool up.. and whenever Lily got wet and didn't like it she'd hold on to Anna... so cute (well till I found a slight bite mark on Anna's back). I also finally opened the Water Table that we got for their birthday. I think S&D played with it more than Anna and Lily did. Oh and Anna was too cute with the water hose.. she clearly was very upset when I tried to put it away. She wanted to hold the hose even when there was clearly not any water coming out of it.. and was so confused by that since she knew that water could and should come out of it. Someday she'll understand it..

Catching up Blog Post

First off I had a birthday... I am officially 35... The actual day was really nice.. The girls went to Music Class and then to daycare and I got a few things done at home. That evening I wore my new knitted top...yes I finished it) and Lee took me out for dinner. Afterwards we stopped by my knitting group where one of the ladies there presented me with some very very yummy Rice Krispy Treats... my favorite. The next day I worked on a cake for myself, mom and D since our birthdays are soo close together. I also made a cake for my daycare provider's son who just turned 5. The cake came out sooo well. S&D were spending the weekend at Grandma's so the girls and I joined them on Friday afternoon and spent the night so all 4 kids could play together. We had a great time even though Grandma and I didn't agree about a few things.

Here's the new top...

I heart Sock Monkeys

Yes I love Sock monkeys... and after watching Mr Magorium's Magical Emporium tonight with Lee I decided that I want to make sock monkeys for Anna and Lily.. I actually already have the supplies needed...though I need to find some thread, a needle and some straight pins. I had bought the supplies (ok it's a kit)... some time ago.. when having babies was on the horizon but not a reality yet. Heck I like to plan ahead.. I might need some assistance though from my mom. She made me a sock monkey when I was approx 6 years old. The ones I will be making are mini sized ones so we'll see how it goes.

I also want to make the sock monkeys at this point in time since one of my favorite kid clothing stores is coming out with a line who's theme is Sock Monkeys (though I'm not supposed to know this info already but I have reliable sources) and I am thrilled to pieces about this.. So I NEED to make Anna and Lily their own sock monkeys.. I may need to figure out a different way to do the eyes though since Googly eyes aren't safe for babies and that is what is in the kit.. I may also use some of my yarn in my knitting stash for the ribbon that goes around the monkey's neck instead of the ribbon given in the kit..

Wish me luck???

Walking , Talking and Teething

Wow I am so amazed by Anna's progress in trying to be more and more mobile over time. Today she has decided to try to start walking. She took 4 steps at one point at Grandma's today and then has taken up to 2 or 3 steps here at the apartment. We did get at least one of those steps on video today... Once again though I am left wondering how long it will take Lily to catch up to Anna and start taking steps herself (without anyone holding them as they take steps).

Talking has started.. I've heard so many words lately... "Thank you, Kitty (or Kitty cat), Momma, mommy, Dada, Daddy, Duck, Cat, Cup"... and these are the ones I can remember hearing them say.

As for the teeth.. I was trying (in vain) to count the teeth that we have yesterday. It didn't go well. I can definitely tell that Anna has at least 8 teeth that I can see but I can't tell if her 1 year molars have arrived yet. Lily I know has 10 teeth which includes her 1 year molars on the bottom but today she wouldn't let me check any of her teeth and instead showed me her tongue.. Lovely. Thanks baby.. I love you.

Two Years already.. (warning: TMI at moments)

I was driving last weekend with a friend to see the new Harry Potter movie and we were talking about kids and our journeys to having them...as we talked I realized that I was coming up on 2 years from when I started my journey to have Anna and Lily.

I did my first shots on July 31st 2007 and came home with the BIG BAG of drugs a couple days before that. That bag was a scary propositon for me. Up until the day that the BAG arrived in my life I was truly hoping to go low-tech for my babies. Unfortunately for us... Low-Tech wasn't working so we had to step our efforts up a notch and go High-Tech and eventually do an IVF cycle. This involved Birth Control pills (what an oxymoron when you're trying to GET pregnant) and the HUGE Bag of Drugs. I picked it up during my lunch hour and I swear I practically cried all the way back to the office. I was tempted to go through the bag at the office but somehow I was able to wait till I got home from work to go through the bag. The contents included: Lupron, Gonal-f, Repronex (the Gonal-f and the Repronex had to be taken together), HCG, Cefoxitin, Doxycycline, Valium,PIO (Progesterone in Oil) and Vivelle Patches.

The reason I remember the date was coming up was because I had heard that the Beach Boys were coming to Boston for a FREE concert (on 7/25/09) and it triggered the memory of being at the Free Concert that they's had 2 years ago (8/18/07)and how I had to scramble to get home to take my last Gonal-f and Repronex shot since I was scheduled to have blood drawn and an Ultrasound the next day (which was my 33rd birthday). I also remember the date because in true Cheryl fashion, I scrapbooked every little thing about our one and only IVF cycle that led to our Twin Pregnancy. I doubt that I'll ever be Pregnant again so I made sure to document everything that I could.

Quack Quack Waddle Waddle

anyone else remember that McDonald's commercial besides me...

Anyway.. Lee and I took the girls to the Children's Museum in Boston today ... the weather wasn't perfect (torrential downpours at some points) but it started out as a nice day. The girls seemed to have a fabulous day since after we left the museum they both took naps in the umbrella strollers that we had them in.. When we left the musuem the rain had cleared up and Lee took us for a small stroll down to the Harbor via the Harbor Walk. Before we got too far though I realized that one of my Dad's buildings (Fed Reserve) was just about perfectly aligned from where we were and I couldn't pass up the photo opportunity (photos to come soon) since it means so much to me.. (heck we might even need to do this many more times in the future as they get older). We eventually wound up at the NEAq's (New England Aquarium) Harbor Seal exhibit. Lily totally was in love with the seals and I bet could have watched them for the rest of the day if we had let her.. eventually we wandered down to Fanueil Hall for cookies from the Chipyard and happened to see an exhibit of some sort for the Wii Sports Resort game. Oh yeah we had to definitely stop and play. Lee is much better at Canoeing than I am but we are both spookily good at Archery. I wanted to do the Bowling game but the line was long and we wanted to go to Haymarket to get some fresh Fruits and Veggies. We got that done and then were literally heading to the car (at Wellington station - I don't drive into Boston unless I absolutely have to) when we noticed that it was about to rain again. We barely got the girls into the car and Boom ... here comes the rain. I got totally soaking wet and it had barely let up when we got back to the apartment and then it started downpouring once again when I went back out to the car to get the fruits and veggies we had bought.

Quack Quack Waddle Waddle... I feel like a duck today...

They <3 Rubber Ducks

So we used to have a blow-up frog spout cover in the tub. But recently someone (Lily) bit it and it just hasn't been the same. So I knew I needed to go to Target to get something that they couldn't bite and make useless. At my mom's house, she had gotten a duck spout cover when S was little and took tons of baths at Grandma's house. So I knew that they loved that one and that I needed to find something similar.. I found the perfect one today and I couldn't wait to give them a bath tonight so they'd see it.

The reaction was hilarious... they saw it and got all excited and started talking to it like it was a long lost friend.. They were so into it they would barely let me wash their faces.. which were covered with spaghetti sauce from dinner. They just wanted to talk to the "uck".. Anna must have been overly excited.. I was washing Lily's body and I happen to look at the water... Ewww (I'll you guess what she did). I had to call for Lee to help me get the girls out so I could let the water out and clean the tub before I re-ran the water and finished washing the girls while Lee took care of washing the toys that had been in the tub with them.

I'm so glad that I saw and bought a 3D Rubber Duck cake mold for their 2nd birthday (yes I know that it's like 10 months away but i had a coupon and it was on sale). I guess that Rubber Ducks will definitely be the theme of that party.

Please hand me a Brick...

Someone is growing up almost too fast for her momma's liking... Today Anna, Lily and I were in their room and I was trying to get them into the living room so I grabbed just one of Anna's hands and had Lily in my other arm.. Holy Canolis the girl walked with me just holding the one hand.. I tried to get it on video but I'm not sure if I was able to get it when she tried with Lee. I'm sure that there will be other opportunities to catch it along with the money shot of her walking all alone without our hands at all. I'm in shock and in Awe. My Baby is growing up.. and I'm not ready for that yet.. but at the same time I keep seeing Facebook statuses from my friends stating that their babies (some of them younger than mine) are taking 1st steps, I do get a little jealous.
I guess for now Lily will continue to be my Baby Baby. Then again she is starting to do all sorts of new things too. She's turning pages in her books as she "reads" them. Vocalizes all the time and is starting to say more and more everyday. I love hearing her call for me with "Momma" and "Mommy". She's also saying so many new things I can barely keep up with her. I think I heard the following from her: "Kitty", "Ball" (her favorite word ever), possibly "Grandma", "More", "Thank You" and many others that I can barely remember.
Anna is also adding to her vocabulary on a daily basis. Last week we heard something that sounded like "Hi Lily" and she said it more than once. She also says "Momma" and "Mommy" along with "Daddy" and "Dada" (Lily says Daddy and Dada also). I thought I heard "Grandma" and she definitely says "Thank you" and "Ball".

I wish I could keep them this little forever.. I guess that is why video is so important to have.

Something's Missing In My Kitchen

So while we were in NY/VT with our friends the girls tried out some new to them seating in the kitchen since my friend had sold her 4 highchairs in a garage sale that she'd had and had kept her booster seats to have on hand for my girls. They loved it. They got to sit AT THE TABLE with the Triplets and their older sister. I'm very sure that they felt like such big kids with those booster seats. Our friends offered the booster seats to us to take home to Boston with us but we declined since the car was already packed to the gills.

When we got home we found out how much our girls liked the booster seats as they basically balked at being put into the highchairs to eat when we got home. So I found the gift cards that Lee's brother had sent them for their birthday to BRU and went in search of Booster Seats for my girls after dropping them off at Grandma's so I could shop by myself. Once home with both the girls and the new seats, I set the Booster seats up and gave them their dinner in them. It was a hit. So once they were in bed, Lee and I cleaned up the kitchen and decided that having the highchairs still in the kitchen was overload (plus it made the kitchen feel so crowded). So we folded up the highchairs and brought them down to the basement for storage in case we have friends over that have little ones that might need a highchair to sit in. Doing that totally opened up the kitchen.. there is so much room to walk in the kitchen now. I still have moments though when I look in there and can almost hear the 'One of these things' song from Sesame Street playing in my head to figure out what is missing from the landscape of the kitchen. It was a good run. 14 months of having highchairs in the kitchen for the girls to eat on. it was also time for a change. They love sitting in the Booster seats and have no problem being strapped into them at all. We even went and bought them plastic plates from the Dollar store to celebrate sitting at the table like the Big Girls that they are. They love having their own plates to eat from at the table instead of a tray. The Boosters that we got have their own trays that are detachable so if needed we can use the trays too for their food and they also fold up so we can take them with us when we travel places. Very Cool.

What a week we've had

I no sooner finished my last post and the next day I got a phone call from my mom.. It went something like this " Hey Cheryl Mom here. Just got off the phone with Steve and he told me some really sad news. Mr Salamance died yesterday. Can you go online to get his obit for me?" There was alot more to the conversation that we had but that news alone floored me. Now we are in no way related to the Salamanca family but my brother is very good friends with one of the sons and the youngest son and I were friends growing up even though he was one school year ahead of me. The reason that I was so floored by the news is that not even 3 months ago (in Mid-April) Mrs Salamanca died somewhat unexpectedly. So the family had been slowly adjusting to her death and now they have to adjust to the fact that both of their parents are deceased. The funeral was today and there were quite a few tears shed by many in attendance.

Monday also brought Anna and Lily's first week in daycare. They seem to like it quite a bit already. There are 4 other kids (it's an in home daycare) and they love the attention that they get from them. The daycare lady is wonderful.. she realizes that I am nervous about leaving my babies somewhere with someone I barely even know for a majority of the day. Our first day I barely had the girls there at all. I got them there around 9am and stayed till 10am with them and then left for a couple of hours and then came back to get them at around 12:15 but stayed to let them play for a little while till 1pmish. Tuesday I had planned to basically do the same but the daycare lady convinced me to let them stay since I had an appt and it would be less disruptive to their day. They did so well. Didn't sleep much but that was to be expected. Since Wed though they've been staying the whole day 9:30am till 3:30 or 4pm.

What else has been happening lately this week? Lee and I have been taking advantage of not having small people around the apartment while we try to get the apartment clean by working on different projects around the apartment and getting other errands done. One such project was putting the big A/C in the living room window after we moved my desk to near the doorway to the girl's bedroom. It's amazing to see how much more open the living room feels with this somewhat small change in the layout. We also we able to get our baby corral/gate up somewhat permanently without us needing to test our hurdling skills on a daily basis since the corral I got has a section that opens like a door with a latch. So now we can open and close the gate to our content without worrying that the babies will make a break for it. There's one other big change around here but that's better left for another post.

I almost forgot something.. I ran with the Melrose Running Club for the first time on Tuesday. It was a great run even though I had no clue where we were going to be running the route. So I just did my best to run as much as I could and to keep an eye on the people in front of me and hope that they were going the same direction that I wanted to go also. Once the run was over, I decided to join the club right away. They gave me a prorated rate for the remainder of the year of $13 (way better than $25). With my membership I found out that I now get a discount at the local running supply store.. Very Cool.. I love to save money as much as I can. I can't wait to do the run again this coming Tuesday. Now that I know the route that we will be running, I might even be able to do it much easier this coming Tuesday evening.

From 47:32 to 36:55 in just over 2 months

Have I told you all that I have taken up Running??? Really I have... please stop laughing... I'm being serious.

Ok so with everything that had happened in February I decided that I needed an outlet for myself besides Knitting and Scrapbooking. So I took up Running. I did the best I could to get some training in before my 1st race on Mother's Day. I felt like I didn't do too badly for my first race with a time of 47:32 (47 minutes and 32 seconds). I knew that it wasn't the best result but it was my 1st race and I was happy with it. I then signed up for another race (which was today) and hoped that my time would be much better than my 1st race.

There were a couple of differences in the two races besides my times. On Mother's Day the weather was slightly cool and I felt good running with a Jog Bra and a T-shirt over it. Today the weather was still cool but the sun was beating down on me. I was so warm I felt like taking my t-shirt off and revealing the Jog Bra but that would have meant also revealing part of my belly that hasn't totally recovered from having twins in it. I'm so not ready for that. Another big difference was that I didn't really get a chance to train much for today's race. Unless you want to define training as constantly chasing twins, going up and down 3 flights of stairs numerous times in a day usually with a baby in my arms or hauling bags of luggage, laundry or groceries, going for walks with and without a double stroller around town and on vacation, lifting 20 lb babies (sometimes both at once) and walking places while holding a baby. So in essence I did squat training wise.

Somehow though I actually had a respectable time during the race with 36:55. My splits at 1 mile and 2 miles were great 10:?? and 22:??. It wasn't till I reached Mile 3 and got that split that I realized I might just beat my 1st race's time. I think it was something like 33 or 34:?? . Anyway as I crossed the line and my chip beeped (that was another big difference.. there were chips to make sure that all the times were accurate), I saw that I really had beat my time by almost 10 minutes. I was so ecstatic but also tired.. and sore. After chatting with some friends that had also run the race and cheered me on as I crossed the finish line, I decided that I needed a shower and some breakfast. So I headed home to Lee and the girls but not before being invited to join my friends who had also run today's race in the Running Club that they are part of. Cool. I might just do it.. It will keep me honest and make me accountable in my training for future 5Ks.

Current Score: Lily 2 - Anna 1

It has begun... the one part of Toddlerhood that I HATE with a passion. They have started biting.... each other. The first bites happened while we were away... one morning the girls (6 girls ranging in age from 5y , almost 3y -trips and 13.5m) were all playing nicely and out of the blue Anna started crying and was in consolable. Neither Lee or myself could figure out why she was so upset. Later that day we found a bite mark on her arm... ouch.. looking at the marks we figured out that it had to be Lily that bit her since the Triplets and their sister are past the age of biting in frustration or whatever reason she initially bit Anna. So we kept what we thought was a pretty close eye on Lily and tried to redirect her before she could bite again. Wouldn't you know it we found another (but not as bad) bitemark on Anna (this time on the back of her leg) while still away. Argh.. So fast forward to tonight.. we'd had a pretty good day.. took the girls to Breakheart Reservation to try out the beach area and the water. Got home and was letting the girls play while I got things squared away and Lee tried to keep an eye on them while playing on the computer. Before we know it, Lily is screaming and we can't figure out why... I figured that she was tired and possibly not feeling too clean so I gave her and Anna a bath after dinner. Get her into the tub and notice a little something on her back.. Oh no... Here we go again. Call Lee over to take a look too. Yup she has a bitemark on her back from Anna. I think it's time to pull out the teething rings again since it seems like this is just the beginning of the next round of teething.

We're gonna need a bigger car

We just got back from our 1st family vacation... We drove up to VT/NY to visit with and finally meet an internet friend of mine and her family. So we loaded up the car and made the drive up. Six hours later we arrived with a car that was packed to the gills. The line from the movie Jaws came to mind many times during the trip that "we need a bigger boat". At least we now know for the future what we possibly need to bring and what we should leave at home. You'll probably be shocked to hear that I could have done without my bulky double stroller. It took up so much room in the trunk. Having the single umbrella strollers might have been a better idea for us. Maybe I need to find a double stroller that folds like an umbrella stroller and doesn't take up a large percentage of the trunk area. OR I could just get a bigger car.

I do have photos of the trip but haven't loaded them yet. I'll share once I have them on the computer. Hopefully soon.

Party Pictures...

So I had promised pictures from the Birthday Party that we had for the girls at my mom's house. Everyone had a great time. So many friends came and brought their kids also.


Anna trying to liberate Lauren as Lauren gets ready to head home




Anna checking out the Busy Box from Mommy and Daddy



Our friend Anna... she and her mommy had a great time..


Anna with Natalie... Auntie Noreen's twin sister




Who needs a vacuum? We had Lily on the Clean Up Committee


Cousin Maddie.. Her mommy is my Cousin and her Grandpa is my Uncle


Lily really enjoyed eating her cake. It was everywhere on her.



There are a ton more pictures on my Facebook page.. Click the link to see them

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2025312&id=1334719224&l=fd18f404e8

Go Go Lillian Grace

Wahooooo! I am so happy... Lily has finally figured out how to PULL HERSELF UP TO STANDING... I am such a happy mommy. She hasn't exactly figured out the getting herself down part yet and gets stuck easily...but that will come. But I have to admit I was worried big time over this.. I kept comparing her to Anna (I know I know I shouldn't be comparing them at all). Anna has done so many things early.. she crawled first, she pulled herself up first and figured out how to get back down without being stuck.

What I think is truly amazing though is that Lily is quickly trying to take steps... not on her own.. way too early for that. But she will walk herself forward if you hold her hands. Anna will take steps also but she was more hesitant to take those first little steps so soon after figuring out how to pull herself up. So now the official race is on as to who will be the first to walk completely on their own. I have a feeling that trying to reach a kitty will be part of that equation.

That reminds me... Lily is obsessed with the cats. Since we've been on the 3rd floor she is constantly crawling after the cats. Nora especially. Poor Nora. Squirt on the other hand is safe for now though I have to admit that Squirt is really loving sitting near Lily's highchair at meals. We've been recently worried about Squirt's weight and lack there of lately. Then Squirt figured out that Lily drops her food quite a bit. So Squirt now loves to sit and wait for Lily to drop her some food. We're trying to stop this behavior (Lily dropping the food) but at the same time are happy that Squirt might gain some weight from eating what Lily drops.

Knitting Post

Yes I still knit... heck it keeps me sane most of the time..

I made baby kimono sweaters for the girls' birthday...

I also just finished working on the blanket that I started a couple of months before the girls were born. I had taken some time off of working on it so it literally didn't take me 14 months to make... It just seems that way..

I have plans to make the girls a knitted party dress each for Christmas.. and I even started to knit one of them and then I made some major mistakes in a row that has a pattern to it (probably the only pattern row in the whole project) so I ripped out (technical term is Frogged) the whole thing.

Instead I am finally making myself something knitted.... a summer tank top. I hope that it goes well and fits me when it's done. So if I'm not around too much you can safely assume that I'm probably knitting or the girls have figured out how to tie me up...

Party Palooza

We are officially One now... wahoo... it's been fun to be one so far. The girls got totally spoiled with presents at their party. They got a TON of clothes, DVDs, some new toys to play with, a water table and a totally awesome Pool from their uncle and his family. We've already worn a few of the outfits and even tried out the new pool. The toys are so much fun.


The party went relatively well...


I made their cakes...


Everyone at the party was impressed that I not only made them but also decorated them.

They came out so well and are so adorable..









and speaking of adorable....

Look at the girls now that they are ONE...


Lillian Grace Ringen

Born 5-12-09
@ 4:52pm







Anastasia Elizabeth Ringen

Born 5-12-09
@ 4:32 pm









I love this picture so much...







BUT....



This picture totally cracks everyone up who sees it since the expression on Anna's face is just so her. I'm glad that the photographer was able to get it.






I have not downloaded the party pictures yet... But once I do I will make sure to put them up here. The girls loved the cakes and totally enjoyed smearing them all over themselves.

Just 17 more hours till the Big One

I think.... anyway... almost one year ago at 4:32pm and 4:52pm respectively Anna and Lily came into our lives and nothing has been the same since. For the past almost 365 days it's been quite the ride. Plenty of ups and downs over the past year. But I wouldn't have traded this past year for anything. The smiles that we get in the mornings and the hugs / cuddles that happen all day long are worth everything we have gone through. We're having a party on Saturday at my mom's house. I can't wait.

I finally had my very first Mother's Day yesterday. It was great. I had missed out last year by 16 hours or so. It was a great day. I ran in a 5k road race, got a few cards and spent a really great day with the girls and Lee at the Stone Zoo. Lee and I were kidding each other that it must be twin day at the zoo since we saw so many pairs of twins. The girls and I got in for Free and Lee had to pay. Not too bad. Hopefully another time we can go to Franklin Park Zoo to see more animals.

and on the 360th day.....

Lily crawled forward and Mommy saw it and declared that it was good.

I swear she's going to be the child that makes me pull my hair out.. She's sweet as anything but I think she FINALLY got the memo that her birthday is only 5 days away and that it's time to start to crawl with her tummy up off the ground. The amount of worry that she has put me through lately. I'm surprised that it took her this long. Now we need to work on pulling herself up to standing.. Otherwise I need to call EI for her to be evaluated.

Time for an Update

I've been busy lately... a bit busier than normal. So sorry that I've been lax about updating things here. I was away this past weekend in the mountains of NH with some of the ladies from church. It was nice to not have to deal with the girls for 48 hours and to have time for me to recharge my batteries. They had a great time with Grandma and were so happy to see me when I got back.

I'm also knee deep in party preparations for the First Birthday Party on May 16th. I can hardly believe that my babies will be 1 soon. It went by so fast. Faster than I thought it would at times. I'm looking forward to the next stages... the starting to walk and talk stuff and getting to do more stuff with them. It's been a fun yet exhausting year for all of us.

I've been knitting quite a bit lately.. my goal is to finish the second sweater so I can put both sweaters together before their party and give them to them while everyone is here to see them. My next project is dresses for them and then to finish the blanket I started while pregnant.

Happy Easter

Wahoo.... we made it to Easter Sunday... also known as the day the girls are officially 11 months old. We had such a great weekend. Yesterday I took the girls to the Zoo for Bunny Bonanzoo for a couple of hours. They got to see the Easter Bunny and sat on EB's lap and didn't cry at all. I of course bought the pictures that were taken since they came out so well.

Today we went to church and got to sit with the bigger kids during the story time. They seemed to love doing that. Anna had a great time flirting with the people behind us and the people in the row behind them also.

After church I took them to my brother's house to see my brother, his wife and their girls (S&D). S & D were so excited to see the babies and even had a really cute egg hunt set up for them to do. Inside the eggs my SIL and nieces had put Toddler Fruit Bars, Yogurt Drops and Baby Biter Biscuits. They also gave them an Easter Basket with more Biscuits, Yogurt Drops, Fruit Bars, an outfit each for the summer and a stuffed animal each.

Lily is doing awesome at trying to crawl. She can now move herself forward in a crawling motion if you don't exactly watch her and can also move herself forward by doing belly flop moves.

Anna is attempting to take steps forward while holding onto furniture (ie the coffee table and couch) and attempting to stand on her own without holding anything. This last part is resulting in some falls backward already. She'll get there eventually... the learning curve is still being determined for that.

I can hardly believe by the way that my daughters are now 11 months old. Where has the time gone? Can it truly have been just a year ago at this time that I was pregnant as anything and looking so forward to the birth of my little girls and wondering what they would actually look like and how I would ever be able to care for two babies at once? Now here we are a year later with two eleven month old babies that are growing each and every day. I looked back at some of their photos the other day from when they were first born and I can hardly believe that they were once so small. It's quite the trip to see how big they've gotten over time. I'm so glad that I've been taking monthly pictures to document their growth. I've also been around quite a few newborns lately and it constantly amazes me how little those babies are in comparison to Anna and Lily now.

I'm starting to plan their birthday party already. I made the invitations myself and I'll also be making their cakes (Pooh and Tigger) for the event. I'm inviting a few of their baby friends, along with a few relatives of ours. It should be a fun day.

Update on sweaters

I finally finished the first of the baby kimono sweaters... It's not totally sewn together yet. But I have started sweater #2 already.. Hoping to have them both done by their birthday. That is totally done and sewn together. Wish me luck on that.

News from Twinville

Poor poor Anna.. she's been having tons of pain lately in relation to her teeth... I happened to get her to laugh and show her mouth and she has 3 (three) teeth coming in at the moment. No wonder why she's been in pain.. But at least she will be catching up to Lily who seems to still have 8 teeth.

Anna has also been working on taking some steps.. She won't do them on her own yet.. she has to be holding on to something or someone but she is getting close.

Lily is finally starting to crawl or move forward. It's been a very slow process..but she's getting there... Lily is actually doing better with speech lately. Our EI lady was here and was playing with her and was telling her Down and Up and one of the times that Nancy was bringing her up Lily said 'uppp' . We looked at each other and tried again to do Down and Up with her and once again Lily said 'uppp' and then continued with the "p" sound of ppppp. Since then she has been calling for her bottle by saying baa (I call it a baba) and even signing "milk".

Not to be outdone (she is older by 20 min) Anna has been saying 'ook' for Book and has been continuing to say Dada and Mama... tonight I swear I heard her say "Ni Ni". Not sure what it means yet (maybe night night since she was dressed for bed and ready to go) but hopefully we'll figure it out soon.

It still floors me that they will be 11 months next week and then next month they'll be having their FIRST BIRTHDAY. How did this past year go so quickly???? Yikes. Momma is not ready for that milestone at all.

We Heart Our Cousins

So last weekend we went up to my brother's house on Saturday since my mom was there taking care of S and D while S and J were away. We had quite a bit of fun.... We had a picnic on the floor in the TV room, took a walk around the neighborhood and played on the swings.... We also sang a few songs for Anna and Lily. One of them was Trot Trot to Boston.... I'm not sure if D had heard it before since I later found her playing a computer game and singing to herself 'Trot trot to Boston, trot trot Lynn, watch out Lily you fall in'... very cute...

Oh Baby Baby, Mommy is exhausted

Twins are fun.. really. Lately though I'm so exhausted from trying to keep up with them. Thankfully noone is walking yet. But that Anna sure can crawl rather quickly. Especially to places I don't want her to explore yet. Speaking of crawling, there was a Baby Fair in Boston last weekend and my mom and I took the girls. We had fun. Got some free duckies, and entered Anna in the crawling contests. She did ok... 3rd place in her first race (with 8 other babies) and then 7th (with 6 other babies) in the crawl off since the people running the race messed up and registered 18 babies instead of 9 babies. Oh well.. She had fun. Lily and grandma had fun cheering from the sideline.

I took the girls to a new playspace yesterday in Arlington. It's called Together in Motion and the girls seemed to have fun since they fell asleep on the way home. It's a gym for little ones and their parents. We went to the Tiny Tot Time (0-24 months). Anna had fun exploring with her friends Erica and Autumn. Next time I'm bringing the camera. Lily was content to just watch. Hopefully soon enough she will be mobile enough to enjoy playing there too.

Mommy so needs a nap.... maybe this afternoon when and if the girls take a nap.

Just slightly frustrated

I love my mom.... really I do.. but lately... she's getting on my last nerves. Between the comments about how I parent the girls and her comments about Lee and my relationship as of late, I am so ready to run away.... far far away. I'd even bring the girls with me. Thankfully I am able to get out often and take the girls with me when I can. I can't wait to eventually go HOME.. I'm dying to see the apartment and to see how Lee has set it up. I want to see my kitties. I want MY BED. I miss Lee so much.. I think we have set a record for time apart. Before now the longest we haven't had contact was 11 years ago when Lee went to Kenya with his male family members for 2 weeks.

At least I'm getting quite a bit of knitting done. I might even have one of the baby kimono sweaters done soon. That will be exciting... then I can possibly go back to the blanket project or start baby kimono sweater #2 or start the dresses that I want to make for the girls.

Growing like weeds

My babies are growing bigger everyday.. i went to dress them this morning and quickly found out that the green jumper I was going to have Anna wear wouldn't button up... I could have dealt with this but this was right on the heels of the onesie that i had picked out for her didn't fit either. This led to me going through the clothes AGAIN and weeding out anything that was smaller than 12 months in size. I filled a size 4 diaper box... yikes.

Let's Do the Time Warp Again...

First things first..... I have not fallen off the planet.... I've just been really busy for the last almost month with personal stuff. I've also had quite the social calendar lately. Last weekend I went to my friend C's daughter's Bat Mitzvah. It was mostly in Hebrew which is so not a language that I know or understand. Thankfully the party that night was in English and was amazingly fun. I was so in awe of how poised and grown up MAG has become over the years that I have known her and I've known her since she was basically just a twinkle in C's eye. It's amazing to think that 13 years have passed so quickly. It makes me appreciate my girls so much more. It still floors me that Anna and Lily are 10 months old already. I'm so in awe that less than a year ago they arrived. They were so tiny back then. I can't believe that my little 5lb 9oz and 5lb 6oz babies are now starting to tip the scales at 20lbs each. Before I know it, May will be here along with their first birthday.

Anna (purple sleeves) & Lily (pink sleeves)

Kid Updates

So let's see it's been a while since I've been here to blog.. life has been extremely complicated so I'm not going into it here right now... but for this post at least I'm going to focus on my girls and how they are doing and what they are currently up to.

We had our 9 month appt on Feb 19th and the girls are healthy as anything. Anna weighed in at exactly 19 pounds and Lily weighed in at 18 pounds 9 ounces. They have definitely grown since the 6 month appt back in November. Thankfully at the 9 month appt we had no shots at all so the girls were in a good mood before and after the appt.

Anna has some huge milestones to report. She can crawl, she can pull herself to standing, is starting to cruise the furniture and is no longer eating baby food. She is now a table food eater. She truly enjoys eating real food. She also is starting to sprout some teeth. I finally saw one coming through on the top. So we might be up to 3 teeth for her with maybe 3 more on the way. Anna is starting to talk, just the other day she added the word Mama to her repertoire. This is in addition to Dada and a really exaggerated Ok.

Lily is working on the crawling thing still. She is starting to go backwards. She'll get it eventually. She has joined Anna in the revolt of all things Baby Food related. Though she hasn't figured out that it means that she has to eat real food and not just her bottles of formula. We've recently learned that if you don't look at her while she's eating that she might actually eat something that you put in front of her. She's also starting to fight back when Anna takes toys from her now. Go baby go. Lily is starting to talk a little bit too. Not as much as Anna but she's making her needs known. Thank goodness I am doing Baby Signs with both of the girls. It's been so helpful to know what the girls need and want.

Gated Community

Well with one baby crawling and one baby not, it is finally time for some gates around here. Especially since I have found Anna in quite a few weird places lately. A friend of mine that is also a twin mom offered me one of her gates and I took her up on the offer. I love this gate. It's pressure mounted so that means that I don't have to worry about ruining the walls with holes and such since we live in an apartment. It also does a great job of keeping Anna in one room. Though now she tears up the living room area on a regular basis. I also found that it keeps my mom out... seriously she can't get over the gate and she's only a couple of inches shorter than me and I can just make it over the gate ok. The cats have already perfected their way over the gate. It was funny to watch them try to figure it out the first time but now they know that they need to do a jump to make it.

In other news, the packing is going ok. I'm starting to doubt if I have enough boxes. Lee's book collection (have you seen how many books the boy owns) is huge. My books (ok I used smaller boxes) took up 3 or 4 boxes alone and I know he has way more books than I do. I'm doing my best to get some packing done each day if I can. I think we are shooting for a move date of March 1st so our landlord can get in here and do the necessary work needed to make our current apartment nice for the next tenants.

Lily Lily Lily get your Lily Update here

Yes i am a mother... using old schoolhouse rock songs to get people's attention.

Anyway I wanted to do a quick update on Lily since I only talked about Anna below. Lily is doing great... she is slower to moving on her own and I swear spends her days watching Anna and taking notes as to how to do things eventually. I asked my mom and apparently I was slower to get going also. But once I did... I did it all at once. We have a 9 month checkup scheduled for next week so I'll be sure to ask the Ped about this when we see him. Hopefully she'll catch up to Anna soon enough.

Lily is doing great... she is so cuddly and loves to snuggle with whoever has her.. She has a bad case of seperation anxiety and usually can't bear to see me go out the door without her. Lots of mommy guilt on that one. She has the greatest little smile though... I love seeing it and making her laugh so I can see it often.

The Boxes have arrived

It's real... we are moving... how do I know??? The boxes have arrived... a friend of mine that I go out and knit with moved last weekend and gave me her boxes for packing. For now they are in the hallway outside our apartment but soon enough I'll be working my way through them and bringing them inside. I've already packed 4 boxes.. 3 in the kitchen and 1 with some of my books in the bedroom. There is sooo much to do.. I may need to bring the girls to my mom's for a few days (one day at a time) and spend time alone here packing and cleaning. I think it's the only way that I'll be done in time for the move. Not that we have a date yet or anything. I have a feeling though that it will be the weekend of March 1st and if not then we'll be moving on March 8th.

Little Miss Troublemaker

So Anna has truly found her mobility and along with that has become very curious. I actually just had to rescue her 4 times in the last 30 minutes... 1) the bathroom, 2) the cats' water bowl and food, 3) the hallway cabinet and 4) the vacuum bags that Lee had put behind the vacuum. I seriously need to baby proof but it seems illogical since we are moving pretty soon. I guess that I'll just need to 1) keep the bathroom door closed, 2) make sure she can't get to the water bowl and food too quickly, 3) put a rubber band on the knobs of the cabinets (she can still open it but not as far and it springs back rather quickly) and 4) move the vacuum bags to the hall closet.

Clarity

It's been a weird week or two here and I'm still not going into the details since the net can be way more public than i like at times. But I'm happy to say that I am finally seeing things clearly for the first time in a small while. I'm feeling tons better in so many ways. Lee and I clearly love each other and are much more committed to our relationship than we have been in a long while (just my opinion though). I feel like I've also grown and matured more lately because of the situation I was in the past few weeks. I'm enjoying my babies more than I have in the past.. they are at such a fun and great age now. We can do so many new and fun things together now.

On Sunday I was at our church and the sermon felt like it was written just for me this week. The topic was on Forgiveness and Responsibility, two things that had been lacking as of late in my life so the words really spoke to me and made me think about things further than I have. But now things are much more clear in my mind and I've now done my best to reach out to the person that I possibly hurt emotionally last week. I hope that they realize that I am sincere and that the situation hopefully won't repeat itself again.

A List of Randomness

Ok so I am totally addicted to Facebook and it seems like everyone is doing the 25 Random Things lists lately. I did one but I've thought of many more since my original list. So in no particular order..

1. I like doing these things... yes I'm weird.
2. I am head over heels in love with 2 special little girls named Anastasia and Lillian
3. I am the world's best Auntie ... according to Samantha and Danielle
4. I am awful with my own money. Yet somehow my investments are doing pretty well.
5. I am an Obama Mama
6. I miss my Dad everyday and think of him often since he would have been a really good Grandfather to my girls and my nieces.
7. My mom still lives in the house I grew up in.
8. I am loving my newest hobby.. knitting
9. I love to scrapbook and have more scrapbooks than I know what to do with
10. Saying and thinking the words President Obama still makes me tingle and slightly drool
11. I'm not too shabby at math
12. I studied to be a teacher but haven't taught in a long time
13. I love being a mommy
14. My husband and I have been together for almost 16 years (February) and married for almost 10 years (April)
15. I hope that we will married for almost as long as his parents were (60 years)
16. We are moving for the first time in almost 10 years sometime at the end of February and I can't wait to have more space.
17. I have strange dreams that make me think too much
18. I so hate to clean but it's a necessary evil
19. My husband is 15 years older than me and I am now one year older than he was when I met him
20. I hope that someday he will walk both our daughters down the aisle on their wedding days
21. I worry more than I should at times about too many things
22. Someday I want to own a house
23. I am sometimes awkward in social settings
24. Sometimes nap time is my favorite time of day and I'm not ashamed to admit it
25. I have a great job that I enjoy immensely (besides being a mommy)
26. I daydream about running away but then a baby smiles or laughs and I'm ok again
28. I wish that I'd had more time with my Dad and known him better
29. My cats drive me bananas everyday
30. I always need to be reading a book of some sort
31. I have a great sense of humor
32. I'm extremely more social than my husband
33. I love to shop for just about anything
34. I'm very proud of my accomplishments
35. I'm addicted to the internet
36. I never thought I'd be a mommy since my journey to mommyhood was very long and involved
37. I'm grateful for my good health and general wellness
38. I love to help others out even when I don't have the means to do so
39. My husband and I kiss before he goes to work in the morning and any time that we have to leave each other
40. When I am really upset or mad I am known to get my cleaning groove on
41. I will do anything to make my daughters laugh and smile
42. I love to dance and sing and I don't usually care who hears or sees me
43. Sometimes I wonder what my girls think about me and how goofy I am
44. I secretly miss being pregnant
45. I understand now why everyone says that pregnancy is the easiest part of being a parent
46. Watching my girls sleep fills me with joy and awe
47. I can't imagine my life without my girls in it
48. If the phone rings at home, it's usually for me
49. I love playdates and going to the park
50. In my ideal world, every day would be warm and sunny and everyone would get along

She did it!!!!

The she being Anna and the it being Crawling forwards. She's had Backwards down for a little while now and had been working on getting the coordination going to get herself going forward. Well she did it today.. while we were at a playgroup at the Family Network. I doubt if I've ever been prouder of one of my girls. The funny thing is that she did it on the bare floor at first and I immediately thought she's just sliding herself forward.. not a big deal but then she made it onto the carpet and kept going. I was so excited I went and got the director of the Network to see my girl in motion. It was quite the celebration.. now we need to get Lily mobile. Hopefully it won't be too long for her to get the hang of it and then I will most probably will be needing to split myself in two to keep up with both Anna and Lily.

Slow and Steady Progress

When Lee and I were in Key West almost 4 years ago for our anniversary there was this guy with trained cats that did a show at Sunset (I can't remember if I've talked about him before). Anyway we got a kick out of hearing him say to the cats... "Hurry up Take your time" over and over. I swear this has totally become my mantra lately.
I want the next month or so to hurry up and get here so I can get the apartment packed up (we don't have a move in date yet) but at the same time I want to enjoy the time that we have. Have I confused you yet??? I'm in a weird place lately. I feel like I'm making progress in some areas of my life and stalled out in others. The PPD is getting better. It sounds stupid but I read a book about being a new mom that was written by a new mom and it totally made sense to me and I feel like I'm coming out of that fog but then entering another one with Lee and our relationship. It's too personal to put here for everyone to read and comment on. I will say though that some days are great for us and then there are the days that I find myself going down a road that is rocky at best. As most things in my life go I have absolute faith that things will work out for the best and am hoping that noone gets hurt unnecessarily in the process of figuring things out.

On the Move

It has finally happened.. or at least I feel like it's happened enough lately that I can claim it as a milestone. Anna can crawl.. Backwards. This means that she is getting stuck in many places and can get places I don't want her to be with things that she shouldn't be touching. It's getting harder to keep her contained too.
Anna is also working on standing while being held. She's getting good at it too.

Lily is doing her own thing as usual. Taking her own time to do things..

Mesmerized

I think we have entered the phase known as Mesmerization brought to you by Sesame Street. They love watching Sesame Street.. We're on our second program of it today... thank goodness for On Demand. I'm not complaining.. I grew up on Sesame Street and I turned out ok for the most part.

What else... Anna is slowly figuring out how to crawl and she wants to stand up alot lately... It won't be too long now... the real question is how long will it take Lily to catch up?

8 Months Old yesterday

Ummm how did that happen? I swear it was only just a few weeks ago that I gave birth to these two little ones.. How the heck have we gotten this far along in the journey of parenting already? Before I know it I'm going to be planning a Birthday Party for my girls.


I so wish that I could freeze them at this stage for a little longer. Anna is starting to figure out the being mobile thing. Lily so far isn't trying to move too much but I know that she's not too far behind her sister. I've been counting down the days and weeks till Anna finally gets mobile and starts crawling. Tomorrow I get to go and visit with an old friend of mine who just had her 1st baby. I feel like her baby and my babies are going to be the new version of her and me when we were growing up. I was born first and 6 almost 7 months later Sharon arrived. Fast forward way too many years to admit and I'm having my babies and then being told to call Sharon ASAP so that she can tell me that she is pregnant and will be having a baby 7 months after I did. I'm bringing her a few things. Presents for the baby.. just a couple of outfits and then since I need to clean the basement anyway... 2 boxes of baby clothing that my girls have grown out of and I won't be needing hopefully ever again. My girls barely even wore some of it.

So you're probably wondering (especially if you really and truly know me) why was Cheryl cleaning the basement? Ummm well because we are moving.. Not far.. just upstairs to the 3rd floor so that we can have some additional space and finally give the girls a room of their own. So our apartment is getting listed by the landlord and it needs to be cleaned for prospective renters to take a look at. This has been the proverbial kick in the pants that I've needed to get some much needed cleaning done around here.. I'm doing a little bit at a time. Hopefully that will work out and then once we are upstairs my goal will be to keep messes to a minimum. Time will tell as to how well that will work out.