Lessons about sand

This morning I let the kids on the deck to play in the sandbox. After a while I had to go upstairs to check on Annie. I was gone for a couple minutes and when I came back down the twins were sitting on the stairs with a guilty grin on their faces, care to guess why?

Yup, if you follow the trail of sand it will lead you up the stairs (there was an identical trail on the other side of the staircase hallway, they split off!)!

They filled up their teacups and brought them inside! I sure am learning a lot about owning a sandbox and we are starting to be a little clearer on what toys stay outside and which ones stay inside! On the up side...I had been wanting to vacuum my stairs anyway and they ran around upstairs playing peek a boo with each other and making farting noises with their mouths as I did it!!

Someone's getting big!

This morning, after a lot of practice, Elizabeth finally got one of her legs into her pants all by herself!!! I helped her with the other one and even though they were on backwards I was so proud of her!

Not to be outdone by his sister....MarkMark got his leg into his pants too!!!! These two practice all the time. They usually get a pant leg on their arm and not their leg, so today was a proud day!

My babies are growing up... independence here we come!

12 weeks

Yes she is!!! It has been 12 weeks since she was born and she is getting so big! She is a happy, happy, baby and we love her to bits!!

Innocent bystander

Well not always innocent I guess...but this poor guy falls victim to Elizabeth's frustrations and anger all the time! Even when he's not at fault!! Believe it or not this little angel already knows how to push her buttons though. Elizabeth went through a week of biting Mark but has now moved on to pinching. Not just any kind of pinching, face pinching! She even goes for his eyes! Look at how scratched up his face is!

Sorry MarkMark, we're trying to redirect her anger...in the meantime I will try to cut her fingernails for you!

Cheerios on the patio

I was feeding the twins some Cheerios for a morning snack and I noticed that Elizabeth was outside being really quiet. I went to check on her and she was standing in the empty pool eating her Cheerios one by one! I sent Mark out there to eat his with her and next thing I know they are coming in every 30 seconds to ask for more Cheerios in their bowl! I knew they were making some kind of mess but it was making them really happy! I followed the Cheerio trail out the door and found this:

It was especially funny when some landed in the area by the sandbox and Elizabeth tried to eat them...she kept trying to spit the Cheerio and sand out by putting her finger in, but her fingers were covered in sand too! It was a hilariously vicious cycle!! Hopefully the squirrels will come and eat them up for me soon!

A morning of laughs: Part 1

The twins woke up at a more normal time today, 7 am, AND they woke up happy, that's always a good thing!!! When I walked in they both started jumping up and down on their mattresses like it's a trampoline and I had my first laugh of the day! Then I got Elizabeth out and she was pointing to the wall and saying something (I don't know what). I always open their blinds when I come in and the sun was shining and making shadows on their wall. She wanted to run over and see what was going on! I had to run down and get the camera because they were making me laugh as I did hand puppets on the wall. Here is Elizabeth's fro:

Mark was trying to catch my hand:

Pretty fun way to start the day!

While we were playing with shadows, Annie was chilling on her play mat that she loves. She was blowing bubbles:

And sorry for the up the nose angle...but I wanted to show how she sucks on her bottom lip ALL the time!!!! Another thing that makes me laugh!

Then it was time for breakfast and to eat their oatmeal. They usually wear bibs for this because they feed themselves and always spill. I threw them on their highchairs and told them to put them on while I got their oatmeal ready. When I came over to put it on their trays this is what I found:

Elizabeth had put hers on (with her neck holding it up, it was hilarious to see her try and look up at me while still keeping her bib 'on'!!!) and look at how close Mark came:

These two are ALWAYS making me laugh!!

Our morning

Sometimes I feel like I'm raising hormonal teenagers. One second they are happy, then mad, then laughing, then sad....it's an exhausting roller coaster of emotions around here all day long times 2 (well 3 if you add me into the mix, haha!)!!! Like this morning for example. Mark and Elizabeth were awake at 5 am talking. They sometimes do this but then go back to sleep. Today I don't think they went back to sleep because they were grumpy all morning!!!!! I went in at 6:30 am and about 1.5 hours later Mark started melting and he continued to slowly melt until he finally crashed at 11 am ( I was trying to hold him out until 11:30)!! Here they are pre-meltdown, I had gone in my room to get dressed and this is what I found when I came back in to get them:

They climbed up somehow and Mark was saying, 'rock, rock'! It was so cute! He also added a new element to his tantrum routine today...the head bang. I have to try not to laugh because he gets on the floor, thinks about hitting his head on it and tries it out a couple times without connecting, then he will do a light one and then he'll do a real one and come crying to me (this isn't the part I'm laughing at)! There was NOTHING I could do to help this guy out this morning. It didn't help that Elizabeth was annoyed and frustrated and always takes it out on him, even when it wasn't his fault! Lately she has moved on from biting to pinching his face, especially his eyes. I finally had enough of it and took them in their cribs, gave them some books and said I'll be right back with your milk....this is what happened in that 2 minute time period:

Here's to hoping he sleeps for 4 hours, or 1...I'll take 1 hour!

Cheap fun

Who needs big, fancy, expensive toys? We give these two a hose and a bucket and they are happy for hours!

Can you see the big owie on Elizabeth's knee? She had her first big fall going down the sidewalk pushing the coupe car, it got ahead of her somehow and she didn't want to let go of it, down she went and there was her first knee scrape! She didn't cry too much, she just wanted to keep poking it and touching the blood, it was a little tricky keeping her dirty hands off of it!

Helpful or not?

The twins are really helpful most days, especially with laundry. They love it when I hand them there shirts and pants to put away in there drawers. The other morning Mark was up before Elizabeth and I was cleaning so he helped me out!

It helps that he's not afraid of the Robot vacuum like Elizabeth!

Then there are other days when things like this happen (notice the 'I'm busted' look on her face):

The kids got the hot chocolate box from the pantry, opened it and then opened a package... by them I mean Elizabeth, I think...Mark came in to eat up the chocolate from the floor!

Mark and his Face

Here is Mark at 18 months showing off his facial parts. Well for as long as I could keep his attention anyway....he was more interested in looking at the camera!

Annie at 2 months

Annie Sophia:

10 lbs. 8.5 oz (25%)

22.5 in (50%)

Annie is such a great baby!!! I say it a hundred times a day but it's so true. She smiles at me as soon as I walk in the room and is happy all the time, but always when she first wakes up. She will only cry really good when she's in the car, she hates the car! Luckily it's not everytime, just most of the time! She will fuss a little if she's overtired or hungry but it's only for a minute. She prefers to be cradle held when she falls asleep and she loves to be walked around too. She is still waking up a couple times to eat at night but has a long stretch that lasts a good 5 or so hours. She blows bubbles, talks and is lifting her head up really good!

We love you little Annie and are so happy you are here with us!

Here are a few pictures we had taken in her blessing outfit:

Annie laughs!!!!

2 days ago I was laying in bed with Annie and I tried tickling her under her neck and she started laughing!!!!!!! She is super ticklish, has some cute dimples, her whole body shakes (think jolly'ish like Santa) and she sometimes even closes her eyes....it's heaven to watch and listen to!!!!! The following clip is from that night, just a few minutes after her first laugh. This girl melts me!

Show off

This is just a quick update on some of the things that Elizabeth (with a little help from Mark) can do at 18 months. They are almost 19 months so I might take some more video this week, stay tuned for the bragfest, haha!!!