Saturday, November 30, 2013

Evelyn FINALLY Walks!

It has been like pulling teeth to get Evelyn to try to walk.  She has been an avid crawler for quite some time now, but just seems to lack the motivation to walk, even though she has pretty good balance and strength.  It has been (and continues to be) a bit maddening, because we go to playgrounds almost every weekday, and it would be so nice for her to be able to walk across the mulch or mud instead of crawling through it (not to mention that she is wearing out the knees of all of her pants).

A couple weeks ago, we finally got her to take 5 or 6 consecutive steps without falling.  It was so fun to see her finally take some solid steps.  But in the past couple of weeks, she has probably done this less than 10 times, and every time she does it we have to coax it out of her.  She seems to consider it on her own every now and then, but then she just drops down to her knees and crawls to whatever she is after.  She seems to have figured out that crawling will get her there more quickly, and she seems more interested in efficiency than advancement (which isn't incredibly surprising).  She loves to walk behind things, but just still doesn't take initiative to try to walk on her own much.

So she can virtually quote Shakespeare and sing an opera (well, her language isn't THAT good yet), but she won't walk.  I guess everybody has to be bad at something.  :)

Thursday, November 14, 2013

Potty Training

Potty training has been... well, unpleasant for all of us, I think.  Twins give you twice the love and fun, but also twice the opportunity for potty training accidents and twice as many pairs of pants and underwear to pull up and down and up and down.  They also give you twice as many diapers, though, so getting out of diapers was high on my "to do" list.

After quite a few months, we're virtually accident-free with pee.  That's incredible, because for a while there, I thought we would never arrive at this place.  Vivienne even went #2 in the big potty yesterday (which was the first time EVER)!  Whoohoo! 

Both kids love their little potty., but honestly that thing just grosses me out.  Pouring their business into the toilet to flush it and then cleaning out the little potty is not my favorite thing to do.  However, if that will give them enough of a thrill to use the potty, then I will gladly deal with it instead of dealing with their diapers.  But I'm glad to see that we're getting closer to more use of the regular toilet.  Maybe someday...

(I literally just heard, "Mommy, I need to go poopy!" from the top of the stairs.  I went up and she went again on the big potty!  Make that TWO times that we have poop in the big potty!)

Miles still insists on pooping in a diaper.  This is frustrating for me, but I think this is fairly common and the general consensus seems to be to not make a big deal out of it.  He should outgrow this eventually. 

So, we're getting there.  I have to say that potty training has not been fun, but I think we're past the hump. 

Friday, November 1, 2013

Happy Halloween 2013!

Halloween this year was an absolute blast.  Evelyn wasn't too keen on it yet, but Miles and Vivienne were very aware of what was going to take place and they were ridiculously excited about it.  Leading up to Halloween, Miles decided that he wanted to be a space shuttle.  (He will literally watch about 45 minutes of real space shuttle launches on YouTube and then ask for more.  Can we say "obsessed"?)  I spend a few nights making Miles a homemade space shuttle costume, and I think it turned out great.  I even put the flag backwards on the right-hand side of it.  And it said "Miles" on the right wing where the names of the shuttles usually are (well, depending on which shuttle pain job you referece... on the Endeavor, for example).  While he refused to wear it at first, he quickly warmed up to it and absolutely fell in love with it.  I put it a lot of time into it, and it was so nice when people complemented me on it.  Quite a few people told me that they thought it was the best costume they had ever seen.  It made me so happy that it made him so happy.





Vivienne said that she wanted to be a princess, so I bought her a box of princess dress-up clothes on Craigslist for $10.  Of course, the day before Halloween, she watched a Dora Halloween special and was inspired to be a bee like Dora.  After chasing down a bee costume, she decided to stick with princess for the morning and Piglet (loaned from a friend) in the evening.  For her princess costume, I curled her hair and pinned it up (first time wearing hair pins) and put on a *tiny* bit of mascara and blush.  She looked adorable.


Halloween morning, our friend, Julia, had an amazing party at her neighborhood club house.  They had ghost bowling with pumpkins, a bean bag toss into a pumpkin and a costume parade, not to mention a ton of delicious Halloween treats and story time.  Julia is an amazing photographer and got a beautiful shot of me and my kids (a rare treat, seriously like a once-a-year treat).




 After the Halloween bash, we came home for naps.  Then I woke Miles up a little early (because Viv and Evelyn were ready to go) and we went to Jason's work to trick-or-treat at the cubicles.  The kids had a blast and loaded up on tons of candy.  They really liked being at Daddy's work, and they really liked the candy.

Then we came home and were greeted by Grandma, who is probably their favorite person in the world, so that made their day.  They played with her and showed her their costumes for a while before we headed over to Hippsley Manor (our new neighbors from Ireland) for a little pre-trick-or-treating fun.  For the evening events, Vivienne decided to dress up as Piglet (who is the same character as her precious lovey, Bea).


Then Jessica and Nathan came over to join us for the biggest event of the day - trick-or-treating.  Miles and Vivienne were absolutely delighted to run from house to house and get their treats.  Miles kept his space shuttle costume on the entire time, and he would run back from a house and show us his pumpkin and say, "Mommy, Mommy!  I got MORE candy!"

This photo is terribly out of focus, but you can see the joy in her face as she runs.


Eventually Evelyn tired out, so Jason brought her back home for some one-on-one time with Daddy and bedtime.  Miles, Vivienne, Jessica, Nathan and I made the round until about 7:45.  One of the last houses we went to had a really spooky voice and a guy that jumped out of the bushes, and that was about enough for Vivienne.  By the time we got home, the kids had probably walked about a mile (with Miles wearing his space shuttle nearly the entire time).  Their pumpkins were so full of candy that they asked us to help them carry them. 

Halloween this year was probably one of the most fun days that the kids have ever had.  It was a blast all day for them, and Miles woke up this morning and asked, "Can we go trick-or-treat again?"  Next year, buddy.  Next year.