Amazing Progress

Today, the twins spent the entire day in undies. Real ones. Not those thick "training" underwear, that in my opinion don't really do anything anyway. They spent the morning practicing and peeing and learning good bathroom behaviors. (You can't unroll the toilet paper even though it does look so pretty all over the floor. It's not nice to pretend that you are still trying when your sister really has to go. You know, all the important little things.)

They have earned permission to go to the bathroom on their own as long as they tell me first (and they can't let Sarah play in the potty. Once is more than enough for this Mama).

This afternoon, we even went out for a quick errand at the local library and they didn't pee on all the books. We stopped in on Munga and Papa to share the good news and they successfully used the potty there and made it all the way back home again with dry pants!

Sarah is so jealous.

Take a Guess

OOPs. Seems I can't edit a post for later and have the other version still show on my blog. Sorry if you missed the chance to guess but here's the answer:



By way of answer, I will simply show you the only trick I know you can use to figure this out without doubt. Take a look.







Perhaps you need a bit of a closer look:









Still nothing? Lets get even closer to this adorable little girl, shall we?










Did you spot it yet?





Ah Ha! There's a beauty mark hiding out on this eyelid. Josie is the one with that tiny mark. That was a tough one, huh?!

Please Note: I did not use this method to figure it out for myself prior to posting. Nope. Honest. Really. But I did have to look through the whole series from that day and compare photos. Wanna see some? Here's Katie from the same day:





And, just so you can see I didn't plant a beauty mark via PhotoShop, here's a few pics of Josie from that day:









And here's another Katie (Isn't she sweet?)





And finally, A Sarah. I just love the look on her face here. (No children were harmed during the making of this post, but they were tickled to within an inch of their little lives.)





To be fair, I must warn you: This photo was taken several months ago. Sometime in early to mid September. So, after you are done admiring this beautiful little baby, captured in this moment of hysterical happiness . . . .







Take a guess: Katie or Josie?

Early Morning Love

It was only a matter of time, I suppose, before my twins discovered their new power. Nights in a toddler bed means there is a great deal more freedom than crib life offers. It has taken them weeks, maybe months even, to discover that it was possible to get out of bed in the middle of the night. So far, they have only used their powers for good!

The first time they ever got out of bed at night, they were having trouble falling asleep. They both came out at the same time about an hour after we had put them to bed, with big smiles on their faces. "We can't sleep, Mommy." Josie said. "And we didn't want to cry." Very kind of them to spare their already sleeping baby sister.

Last night, or should I say early this morning, I heard little feet enter my bedroom. I turned on my bedside lamp and saw Josie standing there staring at me. (This is a little disconcerting at 4:17 in the morning, especially when it doesn't happen often!) "What's the matter baby?" I asked, while pulling her a little closer. "I just needed some huggin'," she replied in her simple, sweet way, her little baby hand out to the side, emphasizing this fact. So I scooped her up into bed with me for a few minutes. Moments later, Katie was standing in the doorway. "I need huggins too, Mommy," she whispered loud enough for the neighbors to hear. So I scooped her up too. We snuggled in bed for a while, careful not to disturb Daddy, and finally, Josie said she was ready to go back to her own bigirl bed. I carefully and reluctantly brought them back to bed and tucked them in with extra kisses. They were both asleep again before I closed their door.

Life really is good!

Uh-oh!

I sat facing Josie, who was sitting on the couch. My back was to the rest of the room. Josie looked me in the eye and said simply, "Mommy, you don't turn your head around."

So, of course, I immediately turn my head to find Katie getting in trouble.

3:47 AM

Josie was crying. I stumbled out of bed to see what was wrong.
Josie stood up so I could hug her because it seems that she just needed some love and her sister was too asleep to help her out.

Moments later, Katie sat straight up and looked right at me with vacant eyes. "Chicken nuggets don't burn me!" And she flopped back to her pillow. A few beats later she sat up and looked at my shirt. "Mommy, you wearing a bathing suit?"

"No, baby. Go back to sleep." I put Josie back in bed with her sleepy, silly sister and went to bed laughing.

Nap time here has become a bit of a battle. Unless I make the twins run endless circles around the back yard for most of the morning, they aren't tired enough to fall right asleep. So they play with each other. A lot.

Yesterday I didn't feel very well and I really wanted/needed a nap myself. Of course, because it had been raining and there had been a decided lack of running laps in the morning, the twins refused to go to sleep.

Annoyed at having to give up my dream of afternoon rest, I went downstairs to finish up some laundry. The dryer happens to be directly below the twins room. They were yelling and laughing and being generally contrary. Momentarily consumed by my frustration, I banged twice on the floor joists above my head.

Silence.

"Whooo iiiis iiiit?!"

Josie, with three little words, had managed to completely melt my growing anger. I was reduced to a puddle of giggles which I tried to muffle so I could hear what she said next.

"Whooo iiiis iiiit?!" She said again. "Mommy . . . Where are you!"

Sorry I was gone for a while, Josie. Thanks for bringing me back!

What's Happening Here?

What . . . No one has any guesses? Give it a try. What do you think these two are up to?

Twin Fun

This morning, when I went in to get Katie & Josie up, Josie was crying.

"What's wrong, Josie?" I asked.
Katie replied in a very sweet and concerned voice, "Josie is sad, 'cause I took her orange paint brush."
"What orange paint brush. Can you show me?"
"This one!" Katie proudly held up her hand, clutching an imaginary paint brush.
"Oh. Is that the problem, Josie?" She nodded in the most pitiful way she could manage.
In the greatest theatrical performance their bedroom had seen in hours, I stooped down to the floor, picked up a giant, heavy, bright orange paint brush, told Josie to brace herself for her bigger, better prize and heaved it into their crib.
"Is that better, Josie?"
With a big grin, Josie nodded, tucked her big paint brush under one arm and swept away her tears.

Co-sleeping your Toddler Twins

At first they just wanted to switch cribs. So for about a week, Katie slept in Josie's bed and Josie slept in Katie's bed. Then, Katie wanted to switch back again, but Josie wasn't ready. I put her back in her own crib anyway, since Katie should be allowed to decide if she wants to give up her own bed or not, and ended up having to give Josie a bath. So, after much discussion, Katie agreed to let Josie sleep with her, in Katie's bed. It's been a little over a week now and they are still sleeping together in Katie's crib. It's sweet. They sleep better. They snuggle into each other and absolutely love it. I just keep going over this in my mind, trying to figure out if this is a good thing, or if there is some habit here that I'm going to have to break later on. Is there some down side to this that I haven't seen yet?

For now, though, my twins are sleeping exactly as they were created.

"Make It" Monday: Toddler Project

We were able to do this great project today, thanks to Aunt Beckie!

We had some brightly colored wooden beads that the twins put onto a spare shoelace. Once the lace was full, we fashioned temporary necklaces from them. Then we took them apart and started all over again. A full hour of fun!







They discovered that there are other ways to have fun with these beads too!

All Wet

I've been putting Katie & Josie in underwear for a few hours at a time the past couple of days. We faithfully sit on the potty, waiting and trying not to play with the toilet paper. Nothing happens. They will sit there for 30 minutes or more, happily chatting away. Then they get down and pee on the floor.

I'm hoping that somewhere along the way this will happen on the potty and they'll realize why we're sitting there all day. But so far, we're just wet.

Belles of the Ball

There is so much to learn about when you are 2. And just when you think you've got things figured out, those silly adults throw you for a loop . . . again.

While preparing dinner the other night, Katie came to me and asked "Whatcha doin', Mommy?"

"I'm making meatballs," I enunciated carefully. After much rejoicing and bouncing about, because Katie loves meatballs, she practiced saying the words: Meat Balls!

Later, after dinner was over, Josie wanted to sit on the potty. (Aside: Nothing happened. We are still waiting for them to figure out what the potty is for . . .) Whenever one of them wants to sit there, the other babies invariably follow us. So Josie sat on the potty while Katie and Sarah explored the room. Katie happened upon a bag of cotton balls and she showed them to me. She proudly explained to me what they were: "Cotton Meat Balls!"

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We have little basket balls for playing with at bath time and Josie just loves them. They even squirt water! And every bath we have, Josie reminds me to get the 'baket balls' for her to play with.

Today, while shopping at BJ's (grocery store) we walked up the produce aisle and passed all kinds of different fruits. "Baket Ball!" Josie shouted and began pointing excitedly at the fruit. It took me a moment to realize that she was pointing at the watermelons!

"Cat-ah-woo!"

Josie said it over and over again, bouncing a multi-colored bear on my leg. "Cat-ah-woo!"

I asked her what she was saying after I removed the Binky from her mouth. She repeated "cat-ah-woo" and looked at me like I was crazy for not getting it.

"Is this a cat-ah-woo?" I asked as I held up the bear.

Eyebrows furrowed in confusion she said "No . . ."

She continued to bounce the bear and say this word over and over. I finally asked Katie if she knew because sometimes I can hear it better from one or the other of them. So, she said: "Cat-Ah-Woo" very carefully enunciated. It really didn't help.

The next evening, looking at a book, Katie said it again! She was looking at . . .


A Kangaroo!


Josie was making the bear jump like a kangaroo!

Sam and I both looked at each other excited that we finally figured it out. Katie and Josie were very unimpressed.

Just A Half Inch More

They slept for three and a half hours. Through their sister crying. Through Mommy and Daddy coming to check on them. Through the light being turned and left on. Their fan being turned off. A nap for them just doesn't usually take that long. Two hours is the norm. But yesterday they were very busy while they slept.

When they got up, something about Katie was different. She looked a little thinner. Maybe a little taller? So I measured her. She had just been measured last week at the doctor, so I nice recent number to compare the new one to.

She had grown a half an inch during nap. I'm not kidding. Josie grew a little more than a quarter of an inch in the same time. And then they ate a huge dinner!

Name Games

After bath last night, I took Josie out of the tub and wrapped her up in her towel. I showed her the name embroidered there and explained that we call her Josie, but her whole name is Josephine. "Josie-feen!" She looked at Katie's towel and then at me, waiting for me to explain Katie's full name.

"Yours says Josephine, so what do you think Katie's says?"

She waited a moment.

"Katie-feen!"

Then I sent her out to her waiting Daddy, who had already diapered Sarah and I heard her say "Hi, Fwawa-feen!" (They don't say Sarah yet.) Minutes later, Katie and Josie excitedly fitted Mommy and Daddy with similar endings to their usual names!

"Is This Mommy's Nose?"

It's a game we play, usually at the dinner table, where I point to a part of my face and ask if it's my nose. "Noooooooo," Josie and Katie will say (Mostly Josie) and then they will name the part of the face I've actually pointed to.

During this game recently, I pointed to my forehead, forgetting that they hadn't learned what that was yet. "Nooooooooo," they said. Then they stared at me. So I told them what it was and they happily repeated the word.

The following day, I asked Katie and Josie to point to their forehead. Josie pointed appropriately and told me "Two-head!"

"No, Josie," I said. "Forehead"

"Two-head!" she said emphatically.

Though I continue to try to correct her, she insists that we all have two-heads. Not four!

Counting Sheep . . .

. . . And everything else in sight.

Mommy: One . . .

Katie: Two . . . tree . . .

Josie: four . . . thicks . . .

Mommy: You forgot five!

Josie: . . . thicks . . . seben . eight . nine . . .

Katie and Josie: Ten!

Josie: ‘leben . . . eighteen!

So they skip a number here and there and they need a little help getting started, but I think being able to count is a pretty awesome accomplishment for two twenty-month-olds!


(Yes, I'm aware that the above dialogue is a bit 'Josie' heavy, but the fact is that she usually says six seven eight and nine so fast that Katie doesn't have time to jump in. She does it well on her own, though.)