21 months + a leaf party!!

Mark and Elizabeth are 3 months away from turning 2!!!!!!!! Too soon to start party planning?? Here is Elizabeth at 21 months:

And Mark at 21 months:

We finally made it to the back yard to rake up all the huge leaves that had fallen back there. The kids had so much fun!!!! I came back from my run (yes you read that right, my 1st run since before I was pregnant with the twins, sad, but true) and saw them doing this:

At this age Mark and Elizabeth are a lot of fun and of course a bit challenging. I'll start with Little Mark.

MarkMark loves his Annie! He is always giving her slobbery kisses on the head, even when no one is looking! Right now he says her name like this: AAAAAAAAAAAAnnie. He really pronounces some of his words. He says most 2 and some 3 syllable words. At night we will hear him in his crib talking and saying new words that he learned that day (most recently rip and octopus and moose) or some of his favorites like (Annie, apple or red and blue). He can count to 3 and say ABC and he gets colors right about 1/2 the time. He learns so quickly and is pretty well behaved for his age. I rarely have to put him in time out. He just bit his sister for the first time today, it took him 21 months, can you believe that?! I think that's pretty good! Elizabeth is usually quite aggressive with him and he usually just sits there and looks at me, or laughs. He just recently started to fight back a little but only over something that he really, really, really wants! The rest of the time he will just come running over to us complaining/crying.

It is so cute when he shows us his proud smile! In the morning I have to go upstairs to settle Annie down for her nap and he usually follows me crying right outside the door. He recently learned how to open the door (which shocked me since it's round and has no handle) and you should've seen his face!! He thought he was so cool and was so proud of himself!! He LOVES his Daddy like crazy and will only be comforted by him at night, I no longer will do! Only during the day when Daddy is not here. Lately he has been looking for Daddy when he wakes up and I say he's at work and he'll say look and he'll run to the window to look, it's pretty sweet. He has also started to call Elizabeth, Beth!!!! This is a big break through for him since he always used to call her Mark and still does sometimes. I don't know if he thought they were one person or just didn't know how to say her name. The past 2 days they have been playing so nicely with each other and have started talking to each other in really long sentences that make no sense to us!

Mark LOVES singing and dancing and music!! He could listen and 'sing' along with us all day long if we could think of enough songs to do it! He loves to organize things in rows or stack things. He will still eat just about anything with Spaghetti still being his all time favorite. Lately he's been standing on the edge of things like the couch or chair and wanting to jump down! He LOVES to read and does so for a good part of his day. He's an all around cool kid that is sweet and smart and so dang cute!! We love you buddy!!!!

And now Elizabeth! The big news for this month is that we got rid of all the bottles!!!! It was a bitter sweet process. It feels good to not have to wash anymore of their bottles but it has been a bit sad to see Elizabeth give hers up. She got attached to hers just before Annie was born and up until that time we had never let them have their bottles in the crib. But she loved it and it made her sleep like a champ at a time that the rest of us really needed sleep too...but here we are 4 months after Annie was born and it was time. She had a hard time letting go, it took about 8 or 9 nights before she would go down without crying hysterically or without being rocked. She still has her blanket that she loves but now I want to get her a stuffed animal to see if that helps a little. For the most part we have allowed the kids to give things up or change things when we sense they are ready for it. I feel guilty for kind of pushing this one with her, Mark was ready and has done extremely well. I'll never push again, I don't care if that means she goes to school with her blankey or whatever else it may be!

Elizabeth is really funny and started off really strong with her language. Lately she has gone back to just saying part of the word. Instead of milk or Mark or sock she will just make the K sound. Or point and grunt. She will say words really quietly and since Mark talks over her all the time you don't realize how many words she knows until you get her alone! She is really smart with her colors and numbers (she can count to 3) and letters (mostly ABC). She loves to come over to the keyboard and find the letters! She also loves to dump, pour and put things in and out of bags. She's an AWESOME helper to me!!! She will drop whatever she is doing to go and get Annie her Bumbo or a toy (which she has learned to place on her stomach)!! She is always looking out for everyone and making sure that everyone is included and not forgotten. She loves to read and point to every single thing on every page!

Elizabeth LOVES to dance!! Most nights after dinner we crank up the tunes and have a dance party and she is always the 1st and last one dancing! She loves to color with crayons or chalk too. Elizabeth had about a week or so of just straight up crazy behaviour!!!! She would throw a tantrum and hit either Mark or Annie or throw herself on the floor!! It was not a fun time. But we learned that giving her a time out in the pack n play in the guest room is effective. And lots and lots of positive praise when she does anything remotely good (also works wonders with Mark too).

She is still a pretty picky eater but will now eat almost anything that comes off of my plate or Daddy's. For some reason if it's in her bowl it's no good! She still likes to take her time and still loves cheese, fruit and yogurt! She really loves her Mommy a lot but is almost equally attached to her Daddy, almost:) She will give hugs whenever we ask and is so smart, funny, cute and has the best laugh when you tickle her under her chin!!! We love you sissy!!!

Finger paint!

Last night I had to leave right before bed time started and so I got Mark and Elizabeth all set up to play with finger paints for basically the first time and told Mark good luck!!!!! I've been really nervous to do it with them. They had SO MUCH FUN!!!! I came home to find these treasures on the camera.

Here is some super concentrating painters:

And one unhappy painter who apparently got a little paint in her mouth and didn't like the taste, nor did she like being scrubbed clean in the bath after!

And here is what I came home too!!! I think Mark let them use up all 4 containers! He did get a hand print from each of them, that's about all that survived!

A crazed stupor

Mark and Elizabeth had been sick with a cold and finally feeling better last Wednesday. The sun has been shining in these parts, a very rare occasion for November, and I think it did something to me because I woke up Wednesday morning and decided that we were escaping and going to the zoo by myself with all the kids!! Where I was getting this energy or ambition I'll never know. The twins love butterfly's recently so I thought we would just go see the butterflies and play at the indoor play area called Zoomazium.

So out we went and here was my logistical plan. I wanted to keep Annie in her car seat in the stroller because I felt it would be too cold to carry her in the Bjorn and it's not easy to lift the twins in and out with her strapped on to my chest. That would leave room for one twin in the stroller and one out. We were only going to 2 places at the zoo and I thought I could get at least one of them to walk that distance with me. As a back up I brought monkey backpack leashes that we had never used before.

The trouble started with Little Mark chasing every bird and kid he saw and not staying anywhere close to me! I went with plan B and put the leash on him but since he had never worn it before he didn't understand how it worked. He would run, I couldn't keep up and then on his bum he would go! One time he fell on his bum and then hit his head (lightly) on the pavement so we were DONE with that, it lasted about 5 minutes!! So I swapped them out and hoped that Elizabeth would do better. She normally stays really close to us wherever we go....but today she wanted to be held...the entire time!!!! Which made pushing the stroller near impossible. So after seeing 2 tigers and 2 bears and not even making it to the butterfly house we high tailed it to Zoomazium!!

They had tons of fun in here!!! It's the only good part of our trip since convincing them to leave, at lunch time and past nap time equaled some pretty gnarly tantrums. I'm not sure how we made it back to the car and how I didn't cry once I get them all strapped in safely! On the plus side I learned A LOT about what to do and what not to do next time! And as soon as I got home I called Mark and told him we are getting a triplet stroller!! I'm going this weekend to test drive one at my friends house, wish me luck!

I will start off by saying that this little girl was PERFECT the entire time!!!! Not one little cry out of her!

Elizabeth would just sit down in the middle of the road and not move until I got too far away and then she would chase after me screaming!

But they were all smiles and giggles when we got to the play area!!

Straight'ish hair??

I'm always joking about straightening Elizabeth's hair just to see how long it is....I finally did it one day and felt so guilty the whole time...until I realized this is hair that can not be tamed or straightened for very long!!!! So here is the best I could do with my professional straightener and some wax to keep it from sticking straight up!

Her layers were all over the place! Good thing she went down for a nap right after this and woke up with her curls back!!