You Say You Want a Resolution...

Here we go... my resolutions for 2011. I hope that I get most of them done.. I'm trying to be realistic.

Running will be a bigger commitment this year. I am making my goal of 2011 to RUN the Tufts 10K in October 2o11. That's 6.2 miles or 2 5Ks back to back. I can do it.. I know that I can. I need to make the time to do it and make it a priority. I also want to run as many races as I possibly can (financially and timewise). I want to set a few PRs of my own.

Exercise will be a big commitment also.. I'm under doctor's orders on this one. Jillian Michaels will be my new BFF very soon.

Get out of Malden by December 2011. This one depends on us being able to afford to move. I feel that the girls need more room for running around than what a 2 bed apt can give them.

Knitting.. I love to knit and I want to be a better knitter, start working on more complicated patterns and to use up my stash of yarn since I recently inherited my MIL's yarn stash after our trip to California this fall. I need to finish the 2 blankets that I've been working on for a while now. Make my nieces and my girls some sweaters from a pattern that my aunt gave me somewhat recently (within the past year or so).

I will not be vanquished

I've been battling the sock quite a bit lately. Thankfully tonight was knitting night.. and even more thankfully my knitting knight in shining Alpaca wool, Aaron was in attendance tonight and was really really helpful to getting my sock back on track. I owe him BIG.

Everyone that came to knit tonight was really surprised that I am sticking with my sock and that I wouldn't give up (I had brought a blanket to knit just in case).. the thing is.. I was so ready to throw this project into the proverbial closet and give it a timeout but then it wins.. and that is not me. I am stubborn..unyielding...relentless. I try not to give up easily even when I get really frustrated. I am a knitter.. hear me roar (scream, cry and shout). I will not be bested by a ball of yarn. I have knitting needles and I know how to use them.. I also have the best group of knitters in my corner to help me along when I'm starting to limp along with my projects or I am lost in a pattern.

By the way, the pattern for these socks officially suck.. I am far from being able to write a set of knitting instructions at all, yet I think that I could have written the pattern for these socks much better than the company that published the pattern could at this point. My pattern has so many little notes and post-its on it for when I knit the next sock of this pair that hopefully the second sock will go much better than this first one has. I can't believe that it's taken me over 3 months for this one sock to get to the point that it's at currently (working on the gusset and instep).

I might need to buy the group a round of drinks* when they are done.

* Drinks refers to coffee, hot chocolate, lattes since we meet at a Starbucks

ReCalculating

So I got a GPS for Christmas from my nieces (yeah right Steve).. and I love it already. I've taken it to my Mom's and to our sledding adventure today at Mt Hood. It also went to knitting with me tonight. Going home was interesting since I am used to MY way of going home from knitting and I really didn't feel the need to take the highway home. I wanted to go past the Zoo so I could see the lights. I lost count of the times that it (I still need to name her) told me that it was recalculating the route. In a very perverse way it was fun. I actually enjoyed hearing her say it. Yeah I'm weird that way.

Christmas Reflections

So we made it through Christmas... the girls got completely spoiled.. We made our Reindeer Cupcakes yesterday. That turned into a candy/sugar fest since I needed Nilla Wafer cookies, Tootsie Rolls, pretzels and M&M's to make them. Oh and don't forget the cupcakes themselves and the chocolate frosting. The girls had fun helping me make them and eating some of the ingredients here and there.

Here's the link for making them...
http://familyfun.go.com/recipes/rudolph-and-friends-953325/

We brought them to Uncle Stephen's house to share and then brought the leftovers home for Santa. We also made Chocolate Chip Cookies for sharing at Uncle Steve's too and left a few at home for Santa. We couldn't forget the reindeer so we left them some carrots. We almost forgot the glass of milk. Thank goodness Lee remembered before Santa made his stop here.

In the morning we found a note from Santa thanking the girls for the Milk, Cookies, Cupcake and the carrots for the reindeer and for them to enjoy the presents that he left. He totally spoiled us and them. They got a great PNP type bed for their baby dolls, new doll strollers, a toy stove and kitchen accessories (from my employers at the toystore), some new puzzles, new baby dolls, coloring books, crayons, a PillowPet each (from their cousins), bath time toys, a stuffed Grinch and a stuffed character from the book A Wocket in my Pocket. Clothing... oh the clothing. I think my family cleaned out a few clothing stores while shopping this year. It's not over yet... my best friend went shopping and got them a few things too.

The girls (Lily especially) are enraptured with the doll bed. Lily has been carrying it around the apartment quite a bit today. She finally settled on having it near her crib while she is sleeping tonight. They also tried out the new bath toys tonight. The Painting in the tub set wasn't as big a hit as I thought it might be but they adored the Fashion in theTub Dolls that they got. They stick to the wall in the tub area and have clothing that you can stick on them. It was a huge hit.. they barely wanted to get out of the tub. They also loved the new Duckys that were in their stockings and had a ball telling me that they were Baby Anna Ducky and Baby Lily Ducky and that the Ducky that we have to protect them from the faucet is the Mommy Ducky. Apparently these new additions have made Bath Time the best time... or as Anna said it, "I love bath time".

The only really bad thing that happened this Christmas is that my digital camera fell and broke right before we left to go to Uncle Steve's house. Thankfully I had my cell phone on me and was able to get some pictures with that over the holiday. Guess I'll be checking out the ads tomorrow for a new one.

He's Here He's Here

No not Santa... that would be nice the girls are getting impatient for him to arrive.. My brother is here... He missed Christmas last year. So I am so happy to have him home and here so that he can see the girls.. The last time he was here was when they were 7 months old for their first Christmas. They had no clue what was going on or why they were getting things to try to open. They enjoyed the toys that they got that year but they didn't get it... This time though it's different. They totally get it and understand that Santa will be visiting us and leaving presents. We will be making some Reindeer Cupcakes tomorrow and some Chocolate Chip Cookies for the family gathering that will happen at my oldest brother's house. We will leave a few cookies for Santa to consume and maybe even a cupcake along with the glass of milk. I can't wait to see their reaction to him and Dave's reaction to them. I will have my video camera hopefully going to capture it.

On a More Positive Note....

Christmas is coming "and it's beginning to SNOW" (still my favorite line from RENT).

I can't wait to see the girls faces when they see what Santa brought them. We finally went and saw the big guy today at the mall (Square One). It went rather well. The line was small and they did rather well with the wait. The actual event??? I think the picture sums it up rather well... Anna is reaching out to Lee and I, Lily just wants down and Santa just looks shell-shocked. They took 2 other pictures but they were not that great. In one Lily has her Baby Doll in Santa's face. But it's done and is crossed off the list till next year.

They actually did better with the Santa that our Ward's Councillor brought down our street earlier in the month.

The Santa even looked great. Mommy not so much. Next year I'll get Daddy to join us.

For Comparison... here's last year's Santa picture. Santa is happy, kids are happy. No tears at all like today. Then again last year they didn't know better plus they got Candy Canes for the effort. This year.. no candy canes.. maybe we waited too long to go see Santa. Next year we'll try Pine Banks or go back to the Burlington Mall.

To our credit, we took them right after we entered the mall. It might have been too soon (the decorations were so big and impressive to a 2.5 year old) and they might have been hungry and tired. After seeing Santa we headed to the food court where we got them some Chicken Nuggets, Apple Fries and Milk. On our way back downstairs we stopped to see the Giant Tree and they spotted Santa and started blowing kisses, waving to him and saying "Hi Santa".

Merry Christmas to all and to all a Good Night.

Nagging Negatives

I get it... I have twins and I will hear all sorts of comments about them because of this fact. I truly do wish though that more of the comments would be more on the positive side and not the negative.. I understand that not all twins and other multiples are well behaved in public. I also understand that having multiples is hard work. I realize that many people are glad that they aren't me (a mother/parent of multiples).

I do realize that even having 1 baby is hard work (and secretly I sometimes wish that I had 1 kid at a time too). Must I hear this almost every time I go out (even when I'm out with only one kiddo or by myself) ? Do they think that I am not sick of it? So I've started to retaliate..

• When I get asked "Are they twins?", I've started to say... "No..they're triplets...oh no I left one home alone".
• When they say "Double Trouble", I reply with "Twice as Nice" or "Double the Love".
• When they ask how I wound up with them... I so want to say 'I had infertility problems and after many years of trying we finally tried IVF and got lucky..do you need my doctor's number?' but I do usually just say "I guess I got lucky".

I've also been much more aware of people who are out with their own multiples and making sure that I comment positively or commend them on how great a job they are doing (even if the reality is far from that for them).

So you might be wondering why I am blogging about this tonight. Well something happened tonight while I was out getting groceries with Lily. We had scored a Car Shopping Cart (I've only seen 2 at our Stop n Shop and they are usually being used by kids that really don't need them) and Lily was having a great time sitting in the car section and turning the steering wheel and beeping the horn. She was also leaning out every so often and I was having to remind her to "Please sit up Lillian Grace" when she would do it. She only threw her hat out of the cart once (and luckily someone retrieved it for me). As we were leaving though someone commented about her (I can't even remember what they said) and I commented that we were heading home to Daddy and her twin and they were basically floored and commented about them being Double Trouble. People who don't even know us or have met Anna just figured that if Lily was acting up (she was at that moment) that her twin must be just as bad or didn't deserve the opportunity to go out with Mommy too. In truth, Lily was having a not so good day and it was easier to bring her with me than to leave her at home to have a fit with Daddy since I had taken the opportunity to do some last minute shopping for the holidays with my mom and was gone for a few hours today. These comments just aren't fair. So if you've made it this far into my rambling on this posting, please be kind to parents of multiple children. We need to hear it.

Christmas is coming

Ummm have you noticed the calendar lately? It's the 15th of December which means 10 more days till Christmas Day and seven more days till my brother is home for the holidays. I can barely wait.. I still have some shopping to do and a tree to decorate... and presents to wrap... and our Christmas cards are going into the mail tomorrow.. Hooray.

I can't wait to see the girls excited faces when they get their presents. There are some really great presents heading their way..

My Sock almost has a heel

So after too many months of trying to get the Lace Sock going... I am so proud to announce that I got the sock to be 10" long... I posted on Facebook about it... I then realized that I needed to start the heel.. but that I had no clue how to proceed since I've never knit using the Magic Loop method before.. not a huge problem and probably one that I could have figured out on my own and probably did since I researched it to death.. but I did my usual thing.. I brought it to Knitting Group... someone there would know or should know.. right.. well out of the 5 knitters there tonight noone had done Magic Loop... so they told me to pick a side and follow my instructions... well once again the instructions are Wrong... I'd already known that there was a correction to the second row instructions that was needed. Tonight I found that the 3rd row instructions were wrong too.. Thank goodness for my friend Christine.. who helped me figure it out and gave me better instructions.

I am currently an inch or an inch and a half into making the heel flap... I'm thinking of bringing it to work over the next couple of days to work on.. better than sitting around waiting for people to want to come in and shop for toys... maybe I'll be ready to start picking up stitches by next week..

Hey Good Looking...

So here is the lace sock that has been giving me fits beyond belief as of late. In this picture it is 5.5" long and I was about to start shaping the leg.. since the picture was taken I've already done another 1.5" or so of knitting.

I really like this sock... and the pattern.. It's fun doing a lace pattern.. and I like using the circular needle and using the Magic Loop method... I'm nervous though about what I will need to do when I get to the heel and need to start working on that. I've only made heels when I was knitting on douple pointed needles (dpns). My knitting group friends though have promised that they will help me figure it out..

In other news... Christmas is getting closer and I am so not prepared at all. Presents still need to be bought... at least our cards are all set now.. I just need to print off the letters and pick up the photo cards. Print the labels and mail them out... oh wait.. I need to buy stamps too..

I just found out that my brother is coming home this year for Christmas... I can't wait to see him.. He didn't come home last year and he was truly missed. At least by me... since I can't speak for anyone else in the family. I can't wait to see the reactions that Anna and Lily have when they meet Uncle Dave again. The last time that they saw him they were 7 months old and that was almost 2 years ago. They might be a little hesitant at first but I'm sure that they will warm up quickly to him. Everyone loves Uncle David.

Tis the Season

So now that we are just past Thanksgiving my mind has finally realized that Christmas is just 4 weeks away.. So I went out shopping today and got absolutely nothing except for some great ideas for my girls, my nieces, husband and my mom. I had already spent a little bit of time on Amazon this morning getting Matchbox garbage trucks for Lily since she is totally obsessed with the Garbage and Recycling trucks that come down our street. I had to make it worth the shipping charge so I also bought them a DVD that I hope they will enjoy, a book for the girls to share and a book for Lee that I recall him telling me about (and I hope that he doesn't already own). Most of it will be here in time (the book for the girls won't be here till between Jan and March) for Christmas. In the meantime I need to get them some dress up stuff since Anna likes to pretend that she is a Princess or a Ballerina. They also need a couple more tops/ outfits. Lee is looking for PJs to get him through the winter. I saw a couple of things that my nieces might be excited about. I have a feeling that most of what I get toy-wise will be coming from the toystore that just opened in my hometown that I am working at currently.

I still need to figure what we are using for a card this year... I'm leaning towards a photo card this year to go with our yearly letter. In true procrastination fashion I still need to take or find a good photo(s) for the card. There are a few contenders already but I just can't decide. Hopefully next weekend once my mom's tree is up and the house is decorated I can get a nice picture of the girls there that will hopefully work.

Lily Drumming

I just figured out how to post this on FaceBook and thought I'd annoy people on my blog with it too... but she sure is cute...

We were playing around at my Brother's house with the drumset from the Wii Rockband and my brother happened to get this on video for me...

Fourth Time might be the charm

I am so my father's daughter.... he was extremely stubborn and so am I. I hate being bested by an inanimate object like a sock. I have casted on my first of the lace socks for the fourth time. So far so good... well not exactly good... more like ok.. I casted on the 84 stitches that I needed on my circular needles... halved them for Magic Looping and somehow wound up with 85 stitches. I decided to roll with it since once I got the first 1.5" of K1P1 ribbing done I would need to increase the number of stitches anyway so I just did 5 stitch increases instead of 6 and called it acceptable. So far the pattern seems to be shaping up ok since I'm only 5 rounds into the 6 round pattern as of this writing... and I have many more rounds to go before I get to the next section of rounds where I will need to decrease my stitches and get to the same spot that I was in on my 1st attempt at these socks before I wound up ripping out my work. I might need to start learning about how to use lifelines in my knitting so that I don't wind up ripping everything out if any other calamities come my way with these socks.

The picture above is from the Patons website for the Lace Socks http://www.patonsyarns.com/patternbook.php?PBS=500863. I really hope that I eventually get to the point where I get to wear them..

Mornings with Mommy and Lily

I took Lily out the next day while Anna was at school to the Mall.


She really loved seeing the Puppies at the Pet Store



and playing on the Mechanical toys too



Ok how do I drive this thing again???



Ok Mommy that's $5 for the burger and fries



What's this button for???

Mornings out with Mommy... Anna edition

Anna and I went to Dunkin Donuts for some Apple Juice and a Blueberry Muffin
last week..



Yummy



Drinking her juice like a 'big kid'



she had to have a napkin to clean up her spills.

Sorry we've been sick here

It started with Grandma... yes I'm blaming my mom... she wasn't feeling well and asked me to get her some Jello since she was unable to keep anything down... so I went... Two days (or was it one day) later I brought the girlies to see Grandma quickly since it's our Thursday thing to see Grandma after EI playgroup is over... Everyone was feeling fine till Saturday morning.. like 3am morning.. when I heard Anna crying over the monitor... at first I ignored but my Mommy Radar was screaming for me to get up... I ran into the girls' room to see Anna throw up something rather fiercely.. so I shouted for Lee to grab her so I could commence Operation Clean Up.. he stripped her and put her in new jammies.. I cleaned and stripped the crib... we put her back to bed with some water in a sippie and tried to lie back down... but the Mommy Radar wasn't done with me and neither was Anna's tummy... So we repeated what we had just done and this time I kept Anna up with me just in case.. she told me that her tummy was ok and then retched all over my pillowcase... daddy wasn't too smart and gave her milk.. so i called the Pediatrician office to be told to give her little sips of water to help her tummy settle and keep an eye on things.. and maybe go out and get some Pedialyte for her. While I was in the shower at 6:45am, Anna decided to heave again and bought herself a ticket to the ER where she earned 2 stickers, a chance to wear a child size johnnie, a Zofran (to make her tummy feel much better), a popsicle and some Playhouse Disney. Meanwhile I was starting to not feel so good myself but I kept chugging away... I had too much to do...

Later that day while at the Harvest Fair I was feeling rather icky and decided to pack our family up and head home. Good move cause I took a nap at the same time as the girls and then started my own heaving cycle which didn't last very long.. but I had Lee call my mom to bring us some Jello. Fast forward to Tuesday and guess who's sick now... Miss Lily. She didn't fair as well as Anna... she got a trip to the Pedi office. They gave her a Zofran and some juice. She took one sip of the juice and gave me her best sleepy look before passing out in the car on the ride home... she eventually felt better but it took a few smidges longer than Anna and me..

And then ... you knew it was coming... Lee got sick on Thursday... and the world stopped spinning somehow.. or so it seemed. Thankfully he recovered somewhat quickly but it felt like a really long time to me..

Everyone is better now.. and we are back to our regular programming...

It isn't You it's Me

Or is it really you... my second pair of socks are giving me fits.. they started out great... my friend Aaron taught me about using the Magic Loop method and all was going well till I encountered a mistake in the pattern... I tried to get help from my favorite knitting shop and at first they were helpful till I figured out that they had steered me wrong and that had I gone to the website for the pattern all would have been well and good and I might have an almost completed sock by now... but alas.. I got frustrated and ripped the sock apart and started over with a different sock yarn hoping that it would go better... and it started to... till I hit a stupid snag and wound up dropping stitches all over the place... tried to get help from same knitting shop and this time they barely even tried to help me.. so I tried in vain and wound up ripping it all again... thought that maybe it's the method I was using... so I switched to dpns (double pointed needles for the non-knitters).. and somehow I didn't join the sock correctly (thankfully I noticed after 3 rounds so the ripping out process wasn't as gut wrenching as the previous 2) and that got ripped out also and I have put the project away for the time being.

Instead I have pulled out one of two blankets that I had moved to the back burner of my projects. The one that I selected to work on ... it's a nice project and the pattern is easy enough to do... but it's just not socks... yet it needs love too. Once things calm down I'll be able to go back to the sock project that I was really loving.. and hopefully with the original yarn that I was using since I do have 2 skeins of it (the first skein is in a heap in my closet - protected from my cats,kids and myself in a big Ziploc bag- and currently in a timeout).

So maybe it's you, maybe it's me... maybe it's just the rhythm of the sea..

Halloween wrap up

I have to admit.... Halloween was great this year... we attended the Chamber of Commerce Halloween Event in my hometown on Friday and it was fun... We picked up Grandma at her house and instead of driving (good choice) took the wagon that the girls had gotten for their birthday to go for a walk to the Downtown area. Anna was smart and rode in the wagon (and even snuck a few pieces of candy)... Lily was stubborn and refused to ride... she wanted to WALK... and walk she did.. almost 2 miles total between walking from my mom's house to the Downtown area..up one side of Main Street and down the other side and halfway back to Grandma's before she finally relented to sitting in the wagon with Anna. The next day we went to our Church's Halloween Party (mommy and daddy dressed up too) and then Sunday was the big event of Trick or Treating with Mommy and Daddy in Grandma's hood. The girls scored big on candy.. Mommy and Daddy are enjoying the benefits of that..

One quick photo ..

California Highlights

Lee and Alan on the Carousel with Lily and Anna

Our Family with Grandma Ringen

Anna with Debbie and Alan

Anna and Lily playing carefully by the doors to the yard

Lily barging in on Anna's bed

Anna with Alan and Debbie getting her feet buried by the waves

Making Lemonade

Look at the size of that Lemon !!!

Lee and his Mom..

Anna's alter ego...Princess Anna... this is the outfit (tiara and boa) that was her "I cute" outfit

Ribbit Ribbit

I frogged the sock.... yes the entire sock... maybe I shouldn't have done that since it was looking really good but I got really frustrated while I was frogging one of the rounds and wound up with fewer stitches than should have been on the needles and I SUCK at finding and fixing that type of stuff... so i started ripping and before I knew it the whole thing was gone... and then I started to roll the yarn up and even that didn't go very well... so I put my sock yarn (that skein only) into a ziplock bag and put it into timeout in my bedroom closet and then pulled out a really pretty sock yarn skein that I bought some time ago and hadn't used yet, waited a day and then restarted on the lace sock...

I was able to get help on the sock on Thursday last week but I then figured out that the help I got wasn't correct... I should have gone to the Patons website sooner and found out that the pattern had a few mistakes in it... I printed the correct info out but too late for my sock at that point. Plus I still needed to take a round or two out at that point... At least I know have the correct information for when I get back to that point in the pattern again.

Top Ten Reasons....

I saw this on my Twin Mommy Board today and just had to share it...

Top Ten Reasons Why Halloween is Better Than Sex

10. You are guaranteed to get at least a little something in the sack.

9. If you get tired, you can wait 10 minutes and go at it again.

8. The uglier you look, the easier it is to get some.

7. You don't have to compliment the person who gives you some.

6. It's OK when the person you're with fantasizes you're someone else, because you are.

5. Forty years from now you'll still enjoy candy.

4. If you don't like what you get, you can always go next door.

3. It doesn't matter if the kids hear you moaning and groaning.

2. Less guilt the morning after.

1. You can do the whole neighborhood.

Back to Reality

Yep we are HOME... and back to all the things that are home... and that includes my knitting projects..

I got an email this past week that a friend of mine will be at knitting group on the 27th to pick up the 9" squares that we have made for some charity knitting.. That was an "Oh Sugar" moment because I have been working on one (1) but with all my sock knitting I haven't been working on it... so after knitting group tonight I made the time and finished it. I even worked in all the ends too like she asked.. and then I contemplated my sock and it's pattern... which lately is throwing me for a loop lately.

I did really great on the first pattern part... 6 rounds/rows make the pattern and after 8 times of the pattern repeat I was finally at the 5.5" mark that I needed to be at so that I could start the second pattern part... this one has 12 rounds/rows that need to be repeated somehow.. here's what is getting me confused... the 1st round has a decrease in it as does the 7th round.. Do I go back to round 8 and do the repeats from there?? I looked ahead to the next section of the pattern and according to what I can figure out, I'm supposed to have 72 stitches (36 + 36 = 72 ) total and I already have that number of stitches on my needles.. and my work to this point needs to equal 10" or 25.5 cm . I'm only at 7" after doing the 12 rounds in the pattern. I'm thinking that there will be a trip to my local knitting shop in the morning to help me figure this out.

I can't wait to start trying to figure out the heel while doing Magic Loop... where did I put my white flag of surrender???

Little pieces of things I forgot

There were the big memories of the trip away (see the other 2 posts below) and then there were the smaller moments and memories...

Like how on our first night there or was it the second.. Anna was pushing on the glass doors and saying "I Cute" and getting to the door that was actually open and how she slowly fell to the ground and out the door.. her very first pratfall..

Or how we were watching our SteveSongs DVD and Alan sat down to watch and within minutes his feet and hands were tapping along to the songs... and when we got to the If you want to Fly song that Debbie draped the girls with the boas for their wings...

How much the girls loved playing with the Brio trains from their cousins.

The fabulous meals that Debbie cooked for us...I got the recipe for the Rice Pilaf...

The amount of relaxation that occurred for all of us..

How I couldn't find the door to the bathroom for my first shower till after the shower was over..

How well behaved the girls were on this trip.. especially on the planes..

The yarn..... I'm getting a whole bunch of yarn being sent to me that used to be my MIL's... I am so stoked... and a sweater that she started but had not finished yet.. If I can figure it out then I might be able to finish it.. If not maybe I can restart it...

I know that there is more... maybe I'll remember later... but these are the little moments that I want to remember for a while.

More tripping in California

Friday brought a day that we were mostly on our own... Debbie had to go to work and Alan had Jury Duty for the day. So after the girls were up and fed, we decided to take a walk around the neighborhood.. It was a nice walk... we saw Eucalyptus trees and lemon trees. We also saw quite a few rose bushes on our walk. The walk took us approximately an hour to complete. We had some lunch (Alan came home and ate with us) and then headed over to the Venturan to see Grandma Ringen. The girls had a nice visit with her. Lily got rather attached to a statue in the foyer of a puppy dog holding a shoe and of a tricycle with two children on it (a boy and a girl). She also rather enjoyed watching the digital picture frame in Grandma's room. Thankfully I knew who a majority of the people on it are so I was able to help her name them. While Daddy and Anna visited with Grandma outside, Lily had fun walking the halls of the Venturan. She really liked getting a chance to play Balloon Toss with some of the residents and batting at a very large balloon with a pool noodle. At the end of the game she was even given the balloon to play with on her own. Anna also enjoyed walking the halls but liked listening to the music that was being played and eventually she convinced Daddy, Lily and Grandma to join us in listening for a while.

Saturday brought a trip to a Farmer's Market ,while Alan went on a 60 mile bike ride, with Aunt Debbie. We had a great time looking over the fresh produce and getting all sorts of fruits and veggies for dinner. Debbie bought a whole bunch of peaches for a pie that she made for our dessert. Later in the day while Daddy and Alan went to visit Shirley and then to the storage unit to go through some boxes from their parents, Debbie and I brought the girls to Ventura Harbor to have some Beach time and to ride the Carousel. Once again Anna was all over the water and had no problem being in it... Lily was not happy about the sand and trying to walk on it and didn't want anything to do with the water and was happiest in Mommy's arms while we walked. Both girls though were really happy with the Carousel and wanted more than one ride but we had to get back to the house for dinner. We promised them another ride for the next day if possible.

Sunday brought church and it turned out to be quite the adventure since one of the gentlemen in the Choir got hurt during rehearsal before the service began. The girls were great about going into and staying in the Nursery room without Mommy or Daddy being with them. After service we went back to the house and had some lunch before Lee and I went to go visit Shirley without the girls in tow. It was an emotional visit for Lee since his mom talked to us quite a few times and when we left she gave him a hug that made him cry. Meanwhile Debbie and Alan took care of Anna and Lily for us and got them to nap. Dinner was Italian out at Ventura Harbor and the girls got their promised ride on the Carousel with Daddy and Uncle Alan. We also finally got some shopping time in for souvenirs of our trip (t-shirts and a magnet).

Monday brought a last trip to see Shirley till whomever knows when.. so we made sure to take lots of pictures of the girls with Grandma Ringen and of Daddy and his girls with Grandma. We also made time to go to a park and played at 2 play areas before heading home for dinner and a quick nap for the girls. Later that evening we made our way back to the airport and eventually home to Boston.

I'm so glad that we are home and back to our lives here but there is a part of me that wishes that we lived closer so that we could be closer to Shirley and to Al and Debbie especially at the moment. Hopefully should anything happen to Shirley it won't be for a long time so that the girls and I can go also but I totally understand if the girls and I get left behind for that trip.

California Tripping

So I've already told you all about how the traveling went... but what did we actually DO on this trip and who did we see??? Well wonder no more... I'm about to tell you....

So we traveled on a Wednesday into the evening so that day was a total travel day.. I learned quite quickly how to install the carseats using seatbelts as opposed to the LATCH system that I usually use and am pretty good at.. Turns out that I am good at that installation method too.. Once at their Uncle's house we quickly got the girls to bed... they were beyond exhausted even though they had gotten a little bit of sleep on the plane and in the car. Auntie had put two twin beds together for them and we laid them down and prayed for the best since they had not slept in twin size big girl beds yet (Toddler beds -yes but true big girl beds not so much). We also left the bathroom light on since we knew that they needed a nightlight for security in case they woke up while we were asleep. The next morning they woke up around 6am-ish which would be 9am in Boston.. I woke around 3am and then again around 5:30am.. I took a really great shower (HOT water rocks) and then got the girls up and going along with Lee so we could go downstairs for breakfast... Debbie was already up, dressed and cooking everyone some pancakes.. Yummy.. Debbie showed us where to find glasses, plates, milk, tea bags and the coffee so we could help ourselves while we were there. Once Alan came back from his workout and ate with us we made plans to go see Lee and Alan's mom at the Venturan before lunch. What I didn't know was that once we got the girls into the car that I would be driving and not Alan.. umm dude did my loveable hubby tell you about how I drive??? I'm a Boston driver for goodness sake. So with plenty of coaching and instruction from Alan, I made my way to the Venturan and really really made Alan nervous. But not too nervous since he made me drive back to his house.. that took a ton of faith in my driving abilities. Anyway.. we got to the Venturan and visited with Shirley.. we got out the bubbles and blew them for my girls' and Shirley's enjoyment. I had brought the video camera along with the regular camera and took quite a few pictures and some video. Once I finally sat down and said a proper 'Hello' to Shirley she seemed to recognize me and know that I was there. We stayed for a small bit and then headed back to the hosue for lunch and a nap for the girls.. after nap we decided that we all needed a trip to the beach.. Once again I drove but with Lee as my copilot.. We wound up at Ventura State Beach and Anna had a fabulous time standing in the surf and letting her feet get buried in the sand. Lily wasn't a big fan of the waves that came crashing in and opted for her Mommy's arms till we strolled down the beach a bit and found 3 dogs and she wanted down to pet them. We headed back to the house after a while and had our dinner and then put the girls to bed. While the girls napped earlier in the day, Lee and I discovered that there is a Lemon Tree in Al and Debbie's yard. Lee felt the need to make some fresh lemonade. So we picked quite a few lemons, washed them, cut them and then squeezed them in the juicer. We wound up with just over 5 cups of lemon juice.. so we made 2 pitchers of lemonade and still had some left over for other endeavors such as Sangria (which we never got around to making).. I also learned how to get to the supermarket since we needed to purchase some Pull Ups as I was quickly running out of them. That evening I got introduced to a wonderful show that I quickly learned to like quite a bit (Bones). By 10pm I was toast and went up to bed since I wasn't sure how the girls would sleep nor how early they might be up the next day.

We Did It !!!

We successfully traveled with twin toddlers in tow... We learned quite a bit about traveling with small people as we did it. We also learned all about how important it is to have an up to date Passport or Photo ID.. We had a great time.. Let's back up... We left from Logan.. the taxi ride was great... so easy.. Once there we grabbed a cart to help us move the carseats around the terminal.. grabbed some food from Burger King and headed to Security.. Mistake #1.. Carts aren't allowed through Security. Ok so we went to the JetBlue counter for help. The lovely lady there was awesome and helped us with the carseats till we all realized that you can't bring liquids through security either.. Mistake #2... So we found a table and ate and drank and then got our new friend from JetBlue for another try. Third time was the charm ... Get to the Gate and Lily had tons of fun running around the gate area and away from us... Argh... Finally get to the plane with help from the crew to our seats.. Girls were great on takeoff and eventually dozed off but in between Lily screamed so much (I want Juice... I want Milk... I want UP... I want Mommy I want Daddy...) that eventually one of the flight attendants told me that I could come to the Galley with Lily and let her walk up and down the aisle with me. While in the Galley she got extra cookies and a pair of Junior Flight Crew wings. Once at LAX things got tons better since Lee's brother was there to pick us up and help with our bags and the carseats.



On the way home we used our new knowledge for navigating the airport after Alan dropped us off and helped us with the luggage cart and getting everything to balance. We successfully checked our bags in and then put the carseats on our backs and strolled the girls to Security. Lee's passport is no longer valid and we now know that we need to get it renewed ASAP. Got to the gate and found out that our flight was delayed due to the weather in Boston.. so we hung out at the airport for an extra hour and made all sorts of new friends. The gate crew was small but I think when they saw how many kids that would need assistance to and from the plane, they all jumped into action and helped all the parents on our flight. Thankfully both Lily and Anna fell asleep just as we got into the air and stayed that way for part of the flight.. they might have slept longer had the 7m old in front of us hadn't decided that 5am would be a great time to have a screamfest that woke most of the plane. In all the hubbub of getting our stuff once we landed, we somehow lost a sippy cup... Not a big deal but I REALLY liked that particular one since it was a cool color and I liked how much it didn't leak unless you put the top on incorrectly (which is easy to do). Hopefully I can find a replacement since it worked out great for the trip to and from and I like it quite a bit.

The flight crew on this leg wasn't as nice when I needed to get Lily changed and had to wait in the Galley. Maybe they were as tired as we were but to tell me that I shouldn't be sitting on the floor with my child went a little too far in my book. Also they didn't have any milk for my Dunkin Donuts Tea so it was like drinking tea flavored and sugary water. Also it made my stomach feel icky as we landed and I've never ever felt airsick on a plane before. Thankfully I didn't hurl. Once on firm ground the wonderful crew got all the kids and parents deplaned successfully and we headed to Baggage Claim. I was able to get all our bags quickly and easily and then we rented another cart to get our stuff to the taxi stand. From Logan we headed back to my mom's house to get our car and have Breakfast at my mom's and then finally back to our apartment.

I'll post again soon about our California adventures... but for now we know that we can fly successfully with twin toddlers and can do it again if needed.

On our Way... Soon

I must admit... I have an awesome sense of adventure.. I love to travel.. I truly do.. I've been traveling since I was 2.5 years old myself.

We went to Florida for the first time in 1977... My grandparents (Dad's parents) had moved there sometime in 1976 and this would be our first and only visit as a family since the following Summer of '78 Nana and Papa came up to visit us and at the very beginning of that visit, Papa died (@ Logan)... Anyway.. my 1st plane trip was Florida in 1977. According to family stories, I looked out the window during takeoff, turned to my Daddy and said "Daddy Plane Go Up" and then promptly fell asleep for the entire flight. Apparently a stewardess attempted to serve me some Milk.. but she was warned that if the stewardesses woke me that I would be their problem (go Mom) and I continued to slumber all the way to Orlando. My next plane trip was to California in 1980 for my 6th birthday.. We left really early in the morning (it was still dark out when we left our house) and i think I slept on the flight again since I don't remember much about it except that there was a layover in Denver.. The trip home though I do remember since my brother Steve had snuck on a helmet full of CANDY and I got to sit next to him and we had a feast.. Also there are pictures of us gorgjng ourselves somewhere..

Over the years I have taken trips back to Florida to visit Nana and much later for a cruise, many trips to California to meet and visit Lee's family, Aruba, Pennsylvania to scrapbook with friends and another trip for a family wedding, Ohio to see relatives, Key West for a belated Honeymoon with Lee (ok our 6th anniversary) and a trip to Texas to visit my brother while I was in college and he was in Business School.

Until now I have never traveled with children... that changes this week.. I am up for the challenge though. I've consulted websites and friends to get tips for traveling with Toddlers, what to pack, what not to pack.. what to buy once there (diapers/training pants), what to bring under penalty of death by said Toddlers. If only the weather in California would stabilize i'd be a really happy mommy.. I've packed the girls at least twice so far.. once because we were told that the weather would probably be cool and a second time when we were told that Summer had finally arrived in California.. I'll do another look through the bag that I am packing for the girls after I do a final load of laundry for them tomorrow (or is that today) and make final selections and cuts. I do know that we have the option of doing laundry while there.. thank goodness for staying with family.

Hopefully the next time that I post to this blog I will have tons to tell about our adventure in California with Twin Toddlers and what they do and say on their first airplane trip.

So tired

I am tired... exhausted really... not in the I'm not getting enough sleep category but the I'm doing what feels like everything exhausted category..

Case in point.. we are taking the girls on a vacation soon to see their relatives in California.. I have been running around trying to get everything ready.. figuring out clothing for the girls..keeping track of the weather... trying to figure out transportation to and from the airport. How to do this trip logistically..getting all the fun new items for the girls to use while on the plane. I am exhausted from trying to figure this all out..

Also case in point... I took the girls over to my brother's house so that my SIL could cut the girls' hair for me.. and play... noone got a nap (and it was sorely needed)..thankfully the girls fell asleep on the way home moments after we left but they only got about 30 min max of sleep (not truly enough).. Then when we got home they both woke up and I would up giving them a nice warm bath to calm them down and then let them run around the apartment in their pull up training pants and watch OnDemand programs of The Wiggles. Lee helped me get the girls from the car to the apartment and helped with the bath but hasn't done the dishes that are in the sink like he promised he would when I left for my brother's house this morning.. which means that after the girls go to bed and before I go out to spend some time with my friends from HS at a local bar that I might have to do them myself... maybe I should go on strike and not do them.. unfortunately the girls' dishes and cups are in there and we really really need them to be clean.

I realize that Lee is making an effort.. the other day I almost posted on a board that I frequent that he wasn't pulling his weight and all I really wanted was some acknowledgement that I have been doing alot lately and some "Thank yous" for getting stuff done when I realized that i had been getting the acknowledgement that I was craving so I deleted the post before I even pressed Submit. I also realize that we both are doing better at not starting petty fights with each other since in the past we have done this when things start to get tense. A friend of mine recently posted a reminder of the 5.5.5.5.5 plan.. Before getting upset with your spouse ask yourself will what you are mad about matter in 5 minutes, 5 hours, 5 days, 5 weeks or 5 months? Once you get a No then you can drop the issue. Pretty good advice.. and btw... my anger at Lee didn't get very far since I currently can hear him washing the dishes that are in the sink as I type...

I love Magic Loop ..... so far

I just started the second pair of socks... these ones are being made via the Magic Loop method.. so far so good. I'm enjoying the experience so far. My friend Aaron taught me how to knit using this method last week at the weekly knit gathering. I have to admit that I was mildly intimidated by the idea of doing this. Apparently I am in the gifted class when it comes to this method. I had already casted on the required number of stitches before arriving at knitting group and had already even pulled the cable connecting the needle ends so that the number of stitches on each end was the same so there really wasn't much for Aaron to show me. Instead he got me started on the actual knitting part and showed me how to move the stitches so that they are ready to be knitted once I emptied an end of the needle.

In the week since though I have already gotten the first 1.5 inches of ribbing done and moved on to the actual pattern. So far it looks great but it has been quite challenging already. As Aaron would say it already has a design element since I somehow had an extra stitch after doing one of the pattern rows and I decided to just wing it and hope for the best after counting the stitches that I should have had on the needles. I'm excited to show everyone my progress and get confirmation that I did one of the pattern rows correctly since it had an instruction that I didn't exactly understand. It looks correct but I'd rather check before I go too much further and bring it to California with us for a few days.

Oh yeah did I mention that we are going to California for a few days???? I didn't... well we had no clue that we were going till Saturday when Lee's brother called and made the plans for us to come out and visit with him and Lee's mother. It came up very suddenly via Lee's SIL wanting us to come out and visit with his mom and for the girls to finally meet their Grandma Ringen. We didn't expect the trip to come together so quickly. This will be Anna and Lily's first airplane trip going anywhere. I am nervous about it and have been working hard to get everything together that we will need for the trip. Thankfully my internet and in real life friends have been great about giving me advice and helping me relax about the trip itself so that I can enjoy the trip.

Evaluation time

Lily has been getting services through EI (Early Intervention) for the past few months.. Today was her evaluation day since it has been approx 6 months since they last came to evaluate and assess how she is doing. She passed on most areas.. She's still having trouble with expression but that might be because she lets Anna basically speak for her at times. She also showed that she is very stubborn and does things on her own schedule. They wanted her to find a hidden teddy bear figure (under a washcloth)... she wasn't doing that.. they tried using three washcloths and having her watch them hide it and then figure out which washcloth it was under.. They got hands on the hips for that one.

When the evaluation was over they told us that she no longer qualifies for EI services. She would have had to scored a 20m (since they are 28m now) in the different areas and the lowest that she got was a 21m . We'll still be able to bring her and Anna to EI Toddler playgroup as Community kids though. We are also going to be sending Anna by herself one day a week and Lily by herself one day a week in addition to the Toddler Group that they already attend together on Thursdays.

We also discussed her eyes and how we need to work on getting Lily to wear her glasses. We'll probably be bringing the glasses with us to Toddler group to see if the teachers there can help us get her to wear them consistently. Let's hope that they can help us get it done.

Sight Word or Just Word Recognition

Today was a Primary Day for voting in Massachusetts... so I had to go and vote.. I tried in vain to go byself... I wound up taking Anna, Lily and Lee with me.. We actually walked to and from the school that we vote at without too much drama. On the way there we saw two school buses... this made both girls very excited. On the way home we saw the same buses but this time Anna noticed the stop sign that folds in and very excitedly pointed it out to us... (remember that she loves to tell us her letters)

Anna: Mommy Bus..

Me: yes I see the bus sweetie

Anna: Stop... S -T- O -P... Stop

Me (proud and amazed): great job Anna... umm Lee did she really read that or was it just letter recognition gone wild????

I think that I'm going to be in trouble soon.. since my mom and I will spell PARK in front of them to determine if we should go there or not.. my little smarty is going to figure it out really really soon.

Here we go again

So I finished my socks... aren't they pretty???

I'm very proud of myself... so proud that I'm ready to make more..

This time I'm going to do them on Magic Loop which is a method of knitting socks and other objects on one circular needle. I have no clue how to do this and thankfully I have some good friends that will teach me. Also this time I am going to knit them in a pattern.. The pattern is rated as Easy so we'll see how well I do with it. There will be plenty of challenges though since they are Lace Socks.. that means plenty of knit together, purl together, slipped stitches and passing slipped stitch overs (PSSO) and yarn forwards.. I'm totally ready...

Of Baby Washcloths and Hooded Towels

I admit it... I have a hard time letting go. This goes for stuff and people... I could probably do a whole tangent post about the people part but for today I'll stick with the Stuff.

When I pregnant with the girls like most Mommies to be I went and registered for baby stuff. I actually even received quite a bit of the stuff that I requested. I especially liked having baby sized washcloths and hooded towels to dry the girls off and keep them warm while doing so. The girls always looked so cute in the towels. Over time though the towels have been used for more than just drying them off. The use that happens a majority of the time is to use them as capes for the girls alternate personalities.. Super Anna and Super Lily . I keep the towels in an area that the girls can get into easily so we get to see quite a bit of our caped crusaders. Because I am never absolutely sure which towels have been used for these adventures, I feel like I am forever refolding or washing the hooded towels so they are starting to get smaller as the girls grow bigger. I know that I need to give up using the hooded towels to towel off the girls after bath times but I just can't seem to do it.

It's the same with the washcloths.
I love to use them for the girls during bath.. they are the perfect size for them to wash themselves or for me to get into those little crevices that dirt loves to hide in. I admit it, Lee and I use them for ourselves every so often on really hot days or nights and we need a quick cool down and they've also come in handy for teething when the regular teething stuff wouldn't do.

But at what point do I finally move on and take the towels and the washcloths out of the rotation and move them on to bigger towels and washcloths made for bigger kids or even bathrobes? Do I save a couple for posterity of the baby days since we aren't going to be having any other kids? Or do I make a clean break and get rid of them all via donating or selling them?

I already know my mother's opinion on this subject since she removed all the baby washcloths and hooded towels and replaced them with adult sized washcloths and slightly bigger hooded towels that have a Monster face on the hood, hand mitt areas and a cute tail quite a few months ago (she got them at Target btw). But how long till she deems Anna and Lily to be really big girls that don't need even these Monster towels that they like quite a bit?

I'm not sure what the answers are to my questions (I'll take any advice out there) but I'm not looking forward to the day when I have to bite the bullet and just do it. I bet that I'll not be happy about doing it and I'll probably cry while I do it like I did when I had to go through their infant clothing and put it away to be sold or given to friends with kids that are younger than my girls. I have a bin that is FULL of outfits that I can't part with because they are too special to me and I have even saved one diaper each from when they wore Newborn size diapers. See I have a really hard time letting go. I admit it.

I can do this.... I think...

I am at the end of my second sock already... it seems like it went tons faster than the first sock did. I did the last rounds tonight after the girls went to bed and then prepared myself to do the grafting of the toes. I had my instructions from my friend that helped me with the 1st sock but I just couldn't figure out how to get it started... So I put it off to the side and figured that I can ask a knitting friend on Wednesday night. But I want to figure it out myself... I'm an adult I should be able to figure this stuff out. Then I remembered that I had help just a few keystrokes away.. so once Lee and I switched rooms I got busy looking for the solution (ok not right away since I really needed to check my email and FaceBook). I watched a video on knittinghelp.com (http://www.knittinghelp.com/) and then looked at some instructions that another friend sent me(http://www.cometosilver.com/socks/SockClass_Toes2.htm). I think I can do this... but I'll wait till the morning to actually do it. I'm too tired right this moment to try.. Hopefully I'll have a picture of the second sock to share very soon.

This blog is brought to you by the letter "H", "P", "O", "A"...

Guess who is starting to recognize letters????

Did you guess Anna???

You are correct... we went out today and she saw a sign for a Hospital (the big blue signs with an H on it) and told us "I see H".. and she was so proud of herself... I was pretty proud too... earlier in the day she had grouped her alphabet letters on the fridge by color and was going through the vowels (they all are red). There was a little confusion on A versus U (which she named easily but I wanted her to find the A). She did find all 5 vowels that I asked her for. After nap we played some games on the sesamestreet.org site and she did really great at the keyboard games (she selected a letter or number and Elmo would show an object that starts with the letter or count to the number pressed). I found that she really likes the O key and the P key. Lily really liked playing these games also but wasn't getting as many chances at playing since at age 2 it's really hard to take turns doing anything. I need to remember to give her alone time for these games.. Anna has a tendency to take over.

Speaking of Lily, she's been totally surprising me lately. She has been wanting to sit on the potty with a naked bum. And this is on her own... not with me coaxing her to go and sit or try. Still no pee-pee in the potty but we're doing this on their terms for now. I do have a stash of M&Ms though if needed (then again it's a very delicious stash).. and plenty of stickers in the basement from my time as a teacher.

Lily can also somewhat dress herself. We are still allowed to put on her Pull Up and pants or shorts but when it comes to shoes and shirts Lily wants to do it herself. Not everything goes on correctly and we've had to help her fix it at times (shirts that are backwards are sometimes left if done at bedtime or if we are not going out somewhere). The funniest are the nightgowns that are backwards and inside out. I felt honored that she let me put her dress on today twice (we went swimming today) without telling me "I do it Mommy". I'm taking what I can get these days... then again Anna still lets me dress her completely though she has begun to fight me on getting dressed on the Changing Table. So far letting her stand up has been a good way to win that fight. The ramifications of that though is another post.. this one is getting long enough and Mommy is tired and needs to be up early tomorrow.

How to get to Sesame Street

Ok I admit that I LOVE Sesame Street and that I always have loved it since I was old enough to watch it way back before Elmo was the main star of the show. I love the songs, the Muppets, the people and heck my oldest brother does a great Cookie Monster impersonation. I also have 2 little girls that LOVE to watch Sesame Street quite a bit if only to catch a glimpse of their lovable and furry red friend ELMO (who Anna lately has been calling Elmo-head). Lily can sing parts of the theme song (the old school one).. and both Anna and Lily can identify Big Bird, Oscar, Cookie and Elmo with very little prompting.


So the other day the girls and I were watching a Sesame Street DVD and checking out the previews of some of the other DVDs that Sesame Street has... and I was looking up the various titles on our library's webpage to see if they have any of them on their shelves.. while doing this I found an interesting looking book and decided that I needed to read this book.. since it was all about the beginnings of Sesame Street and how it came to be and has evolved over the past 40 years. So I requested the book on a Friday (Street Gang: The Complete History of Sesame Street by Michael Davis) and picked it up the following Monday. I must admit that the book itself terrified me at first by the size of it. I was expecting something a bit fluffier but once I started to read the book and got into it I was hooked. It's been an amazing read so far... Lee has even picked it up and started reading it too as evidenced by the presence of 2 bookmarks in the book (3 if you count the one that I'm using in the Notes section).

I've learned quite a bit about Sesame Street and gained so much insight... I even started to watch some of the first episodes via youtube. Both Anna and Lily have been enjoying this also and we might be the proud owners of the Sesame Street Old School DVDs soon since the girls are totally into the old episodes too.

Maybe just maybe we can eventually make a trip to Sesame Place before the girls outgrow watching Sesame Street. Then again I never really have so there might be plenty of time for that trip.

Chugging along on Sock #2

Tonight at knitting group I turned the heel on Sock #2 and picked up stitches with the help of my friend Aaron who in my world is a knitting god... He totally knows what he is doing and if he doesn't...well he has this really awesome book by Cookie A (yes that is a real person) to help find the answers to my endless questions about sock knitting.

Once home and fed I started to work on the Gusset part of the sock... thankfully another knitting friend of mine (Susan) helped me with figuring out how to do that when I was working sock #1 (and she included illustrations - which is great for a visual learner like me) and I'm already two rounds into working on the Gusset already before Lee and I switched rooms so I could use the computer and watch TV. I am hopeful that I will be well on my way to getting this second sock done so that I can work on my next project or try to spend some time working on the two (2) blankets that I've been trying to work on lately... then again Aaron told me tonight that when I start my next pair of socks that he's going to teach me how to knit socks using the Magic Loop method.. sounds fun.

Sock #1

I finally was able to snap a couple pictures of my first sock...

This one is a little closer...

Meanwhile Sock #2 is ambling along... I am up to the Heel Flap.. I am determined to NOT break a needle while knitting this part (I broke 2 of my double pointed needles on sock #1 at this point). Maybe I'll be ready for turning the heel by Wednesday when I go to knitting group. I know that I'll need help with picking up the stitches that aren't currently live on my needles.

The Gods are Crazy

I swear these girls are giving me a run for my money lately.. but to their credit they are cute little buggers and that saves me from running far far away from them.

• Since we switched the beds at Grandma's house they have not taken a nap in them... I tried and failed on Saturday... I finally took them home after taking them for a walk around the block in Grandma's 'hood. They did eventually nap but it was late and we didn't let them sleep long..

• Sunday Anna did not nap at all.. instead she serenaded us (and eventually just Lee since I needed to get groceries) but went to sleep easily at bedtime.. Unfortunately tonight it took her 3 hrs to settle in to sleep. I had to remove quite a few things from her crib and change a poopy diaper before she gave in.

• Anna has attempted a break out here at home from the crib but we have been thwarting her everytime since we don't have Toddler beds here yet and probably won't for a bit longer..

• Both girls are totally digging watching Sesame Street's 35th Anniversary DVD (The Street We Live On) and can probably sing (recite) quite a few of the songs and words now. I think that it's adorable as anything and love to listen to Lily count to TEN.. (ok 'Ten' is not exactly in her vocab yet when she counts but she's getting really close).

• Lily has become a Barney convert... we have one (1) Barney book here and she has watched very little Barney on TV but she knows who he is and is enamored by him very much..

• Lily has also started finding little hiding holes for all sorts of objects.. If we are missing a cup, juice box or toy; we now know to look in her hiding places... on a small tangent she hid her Elmo doll today and actually was knocking on the door to get him back... I'm thinking that she thought that Elmo might actually open the door himself for her (like on the Elmo Potty DVD that she watches). I had to tell her that Elmo wanted her to open the door so he could see her.

End of an Era at Grandma's

Today's nap was the last nap that Anna and Lily would take at Grandma's house in a crib... from now on they will be napping in Toddler beds. We had been talking about it but hadn't done anything till today. Today Anna had a huge fit at nap time and decided to hook her leg up and then pulled the other leg up too and almost fell out.. I got her down and back in and closed the door.. then we decided to give them a fan since it was so warm in my old room.. Thank goodness that I went back in.. Anna was trying to escape again.. I put her back down and left the room and sat on the stairs waiting for a THUD or some other noise to tell me that she had fallen out or escaped.. Thankfully I heard nothing and went downstairs for a while. When I went to check on her a couple hours later she was still in the crib but awake.. so I took her downstairs with me while Lily slept a little longer.

Once Lily got up we got busy with taking the drop side of the crib off and converting the crib to a Toddler Bed... so glad that their Uncle left the conversion kit at Grandma's just in case. Since we were converting Anna's crib we figured that we might as well do Lily's also even though it doesn't convert at all. So we took the crib down (took a little bit to figure out) and I went to the basement to get S and D's old Toddler Bed. We gave it a quick cleaning with some antibacterial wipes and put the crib mattress on the frame.

Both Anna and Lily seem to be ok with the switch. They both had a ball playing on both beds...
The big test will be sometime next week when I bring the girls over and they take their nap. At the worst we can put the baby gate at the door so they can still open the door but not get out of the room. It's been done before with S and D and probably even with me when I was really little (though I doubt that one).

So it's the end of an era... no more cribs at Grandma's house... no more babies too cause we are BIG girls now.

Pirate Lily

So we've been working on Lily's eyes for a few months now... we tried Glasses... she wouldn't wear them... we tried eye drops to help dilate her eye that crosses.. we even tried just doing nothing at all. Our 2 year Pedi appt though didn't go well and the Pedi (who we love and respect) didn't like how her eyes were aligning.. so we called our pedi eye doctor and she recommended doing patches.. 2 hours a day on her left eye.. come back in a month for a follow up.

Surprisingly the patches are going well... we've missed a couple of days due to logistics but she seems to tolerate them pretty well. The first few days and weeks were hard on Lily.. we'd put the patch on and she'd cry... and after a while (and a little extra Caillou with On Demand) she'd calm down and be ok. Lately when we put the patch on we get a moment or two of Lily being upset with us but she's calming down much quicker and we don't need to rely on putting on Caillou for her. The two hours used to drag by but now it's going much quicker...

Sock Two

So I've been working on sock #2 for a couple of weeks now... the joining and the ribbing was giving me fits... I think I casted on at least 3 times before I got it joined correctly.. I am very thankful for my knitting friends for talking me through... the ribbing wasn't too bad or tricky but it can be a bit tedious to do.. since I've been known to forget what I'm doing and do something horribly wrong.. thankfully that didn't happen but the possibility was there.

So I'm currently at the part where I just need to keep on knitting and knitting and knitting till I have 5 1/2 inches of length before I start to work on the heel flap part.. I was such a dork tonight at knitting group since I got so excited over my knitting and watching the colors change as I knitted away (the yarn I'm using stripes itself as you go along). I commend my knitting friends for looking at my work even though they were trying to work on their own stuff..

Sock Part Deux

I finished sock #1 last week... It was a momentous occasion... ok it really wasn't but hey I finished the first sock... This week I started sock #2 after numerous attempts to join the ends so I could start the ribbing. Apparently I didn't need to worry so much about how loose it looked to me. Apparently it would take care of itself.

I never thought I'd ever say this but I LIKED knitting a sock.. I don't know why I waited so long to even try to knit one.. yeah some of the parts were hard for me to figure out what I was supposed to be doing...but with help from my knitting friends.. I got it done. I even learned how to do the Kitchner stitch.. It wasn't hard to do.. just took a bit of concentration on my part to learn.

Now I just hope that the medicine that I'm on at the moment leaves my eyes alone.. or at least I hope it's the medicine and not something else entirely.. I've never felt this tired ever (even after having the girls) or felt like my eyes hurt 24/7 (except when I am sleeping). It's affecting my knitting badly.. I so want to knit but my eyes won't let me.

But at least I have a sock..

Fourth of July Piggies

How cute is Miss Anna???? These two shots are from the Fourth of July celebration that we attended at the park near Grandma's house... I was so happy that for the first time ever Anna let me do her hair in pigtails and then put in bow barrettes. I had a set ready for Miss Lily also but she wasn't really in the mood for me to try to do her hair (the little that she currently has at the moment).

We had a fun time even though the heat was truly opressive.. not long after the parade was over (we entered with a decorated wagon) we played on the playground and then retreated to Grandma's to cool off from the heat.

Comments

Just realized that people could view the last few posts but couldn't post a comment... that is now fixed... So hopefully if anyone would like to comment on the posts here, they now can..

Wading Pool Fun

Today we went to a state park with our twin group for the Annual Summer Picnic... We had such a great time... It was the first time that the girls had ever been to a wading pool and I think that they really really liked it. In fact at the end of the day after I got the girls rediapered and dressed, Anna made a bee line for the wading pool even though she was wearing her sandals. She totally thought that she was being funny.. unfortunately I was not all that amused and we made sure to leave as quickly as we could after that...

We took plenty of pictures and here they are... Enjoy..

Lily enjoying the wading pool...

Figuring out how the wading pool worked

Hanging out with Mommy by the Turtle sprinkler...

Daddy and Anna

There are tons more.... maybe I'll just put in the facebook album link instead...

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2063148&id=1334719224&l=d1a1dd63cd

Hopefully we can go back there again sometime soon... I just need to remember to bring plastic bags for the diapers and our other bits of trash.

In Sickness and In Health

I have to admit.. Lee and I did not do the traditional wedding vows when we got married a little over 11 years ago.. or at least not that I remember at this moment...I'll check the videotape later. But anyway we've spent the past 7 days or so really and truly honoring those words and learning the true meaning of them.

Last week Lee started to not feel so great... At first I chalked it up to the usual type of Man Cold sickness that most men have or are prone to get (I think there is a youtube video that helps illustrate what I mean... you'll need to look it up - man cold is the title). But by Saturday I knew that something was really wrong and that he needed to go to the ER.. So we went (the girls were already at grandma's since I just HAD to go out somewhere for a couple hours).. after a couple of hours of being there we are told that he has a Kidney Infection and had possibly passed a Kidney Stone. We got a Rx for some Motrin and headed home... By Wednesday morning (today) I knew that we needed to go back to get him checked out again. After quite a few hours of Lee being in the ER, he called to let me know that they were going to admit him overnight... then we found out that they were able to get him an appt with a PCP for Friday afternoon and would be releasing him instead of keeping him overnight.

Meanwhile (with the help of my mom at times - thank goodness that I have her nearby) I've been taking care of the girls basically on my own. I have to admit that I am not a saint and that I will probably never will be. I'll also admit that I didn't exactly take to being the only parent on deck well either. I never lost my cool with the girls even though there were many times that felt like I was about to lose it. But I do truly get and understand the words "In sickness and In health" now..

Cuteness in kid form

So I've been sitting here surfing the net while the girls watch Sprout Channel... and a commercial or Ad came up for the Sunny Side Up Show (the morning programming section) that featured Chica the Chick and one of the 3 adults that are on that program.. Usually the only time that we see Chica during the day is while we are watching the Goodnight Show and that day's birthdays are being shown (Sunny Side Up Show does a daily birthday section). So Lily sees it and comments "Happy Birthday"... "to you". It totally made me laugh.



Another thing that they've been doing lately is giving each other (and us) spontaneous hugs.. That truly warms my heart and makes me feel so good as a mom..

A short message from the other half

Hi this is Lee, Cheryl's husband. Looks like some loony toon is posting on her site. I've been handed five hard copies of evidence of a cowards rantings about how ugly our family is especially the crossed eyed one. Can you believe a human would insult a 2 year old baby ? I'd like to put my spin on some of the wonderful things she enjoys. For her birthday ( not till Aug. ) I surprised her with a grandfathered re membership to Curves. I remembered how much she enjoyed the social engagement she had with the people there. Even the owner after 2 years remembered her as one of there honor roll members. Wednesday night is daddies night with the girls. 3 years ago at our churches silent auction I got Cheryl knitting lessons. She took to this like a duck to water. This warmed my heart because I'll always will remember my mother sitting in her rocker knitting . She had learned from her mom during the depression. Why is Wed. daddies night with the girls? About 8 ladies and one gentleman gather in a Starbucks to share tips . I'm so proud that in 3 years she's now knitting socks with a type of yarn I swear looks like you could use it for needlepoint. Then Thursday night is grandma's night. That's when Cheryl and the girls go to grandmas for dinner and I get my turn at adult time. ( I usually watch a guy film with things blowing up instead of Elmo for a change). As to the postings from someone lacking in social decorum ranting on about our family I always tell Cheryl one thing. Don't listen to others, look at the girls. Are they healthy? Are they happy?All in all we are very blessed with 2 wonderful and healthy little girls and a marriage that is stronger than ever. As to the poster one will never know.