Girls Update

So I think the last time I posted Lily was learning to walk. Well we have successfully achieved that! Both girls are amazing! They are sweet to each other (sometimes) and love to give hugs and kisses to each other and to mom and dad and anyone else who wants them.

Sophie (baby A):

Soph is the more dominant twin. She is very physical. She loves to climb and can already jump picking both feet up off the ground. She loves to dance. She is busy and can be quick to anger but is also easy to redirect and distract. She loves to sing and we love Dora. She likes to sing and will sing along with you. She is becoming more chatty and has quiet a few words. She loves to say "I stuck" because she is often. She has a wonderful belly laugh and thinks so much is funny. She loves to give cuddles and loves Daddy, PopPop and Pappy. She loves balls and is my little hoarder. She will grab all kinds of toys and try to take them all over with her. She is very social and enjoys trying to play with older kids.

Lily (baby B):

Lily is my little peanut. She is a few inches shorter then her sister and is still in a size 12 months (sometimes 18). She is very verbal. The child has a full vocabulary at 18 months. It is a little scary. She said to me yesterday "Mama Sophie wants bubbles too." She does not always use full sentences and does sometimes still fill in with jibber jabber, but she is amazing. She is a copy cat and Daddy got in trouble for saying damn it when Lil repeated it perfectly. Her favorite word is cute, everything is cute. She likes to tattle already. She will come up to you and say "mama Sophie..." and tell us something naughty Sophie did. She calls Sophie Soapy and Sophie calls her YeYe. She calls bushes butches, and so many other little cute things. She likes to sing too and she will repeat the last word you sing. She likes to say the end of her prayers. I say God Bless and she fills in the names of our family and then says amen. We love to categorize, naming everyone in the family and the neighbors' family and all her aunts and uncles and grandparents. She names people on shows. We know everyone in Dora and in Fresh Beat Band and Umi Zoomi. She counts to 12, on her own, and I caught her counting the stairs in Spanish today (not as accurately as her English).

Both girls love to sing Ittsy Bittsy spider, Old MacDonald (but only with a cow), row row, twinkle twinkle and Bingo. They are good at body parts and animal noises. We are working on colors.

They are so much fun but also insanely challenging. They love to fight over silly toys and to pick on each other. But they also love each other and still love to cuddle. They are smart and funny but LOVE to throw tantrums. I think this is my favorite age but I've said that about all the ages!

I am what I am

This is a writing prompt that I do with my creative writing students. It always inspires them to write quiet a bit.

I am what I am. I am a mother of twins, a phrase that inspires awe in some or strange looks in others. I am strict and impatient at times, but fun loving and giggly at others. I am what I am. I am mother, microwave chef, chauffer, housekeeper, disciplinarian, nurse, teacher, police, judge, executioner. I am full of mistakes, redos, almosts. I am a well educated, overly educated, teacher of future generations. A writer, a knitter, a quilter, a painter, a reader, an eater. I am a pinterest addict, facebook lover, twitter tweeter, blog posting bitch. I have patience and am quick to like and to trust. I have been burned by others and changed but learned. I teach the future, I invest in my students but I call them my kids. I watch them grow. I am what I am. I am a survivor. I have over come the dark recesses of post partum depression. I let post partum obsessive compulsive disorder take over my life, but sought help on my own. I take meds but I am happy. I am what I am. I overcame my fears and I am a happy mother. A mother who will be there for her girls and celebrate their lives. I am a mother but also a teacher and wife and woman. I am what I am.

Nice to see everyone again. My goal this summer is to come back full force!

Walking!

I can't believe it! L is walking. She was always very steady on her feet, and when she started standing she stood solid. She could go up and down and squat. Now she is off, and she loves it! She loves getting the yays and hugs. Where did my baby go?!

Happy Birthday!

My sweet sweet girls,

I love you more than I could ever explain. You grew inside me and I knew the instant I saw the two little pink lines on that stick that you were mine and that you would be perfect. I remember feeling you wiggle inside of me and the little rythmic bumps against my pelvis when you got the hiccups.

I waited, holding my breath, begging God to hear your cries before Dr. S pulled you out. How proud your daddy was of you both. I've never seen him smile so much. We held you and cried. You both have been a challenge but I know your dad and I think you are the best thing that ever happened to us. Your little smiles and the laughs, the ones that start in your belly and make you wiggle and shriek in delight. They bring joy to my heart and make me feel like I am doing everything right. The silly Popeye faces you make and the little adventures that you find- climbing and opening drawers. I love being able to see life from your little eyes. I love that you miss me when I'm gone because I miss you so much too. I love singing songs at the top of our lungs in the car (which is mostly me but you both like to sing along too). I love hearing you wake up in the morning and talk to each other.

Always know that you have made my life better just by being here. I will always love you both, no matter what.
Happy Birthday sweet girls.

Love you,

Mama

Summer break

Well I took a little break (it was supposed to be little). This was mostly just supposed to happen while we were at the beach. My aunt and uncle don't have much of an internet connection. Well then I was out of the habit so well you know what happened.


I'm back at work and teaching creative writing and yearbook. I am only part time, yay! It is weird to leave everyday at 11:30. I have lots of updates to share and I do a lot of writing with my students so hopefully I will be posting more.

Upcoming posts will hopefully include: a summer recap (with super cute beach pics), a one year photo session, birthday letters and pictures, pics of my freshly designed house!, plus some other things that have been on my mind lately! So to entice you to come back here is a sneak peak of the girls birthday pics.

portraits were taken at Portrait Innovations.

I pink puffy heart Target

Ok I'm obsessed with Target, always have been (and no they do not pay me, but Target feel free to send me an email about that at any time). In one of our apartments we lived across the street from Target, no joke. It was like heaven. In our current house I could probably walk to Target if I really wanted to, but having twins makes you really tired.


So ever since we found out we were pregnant with the girls I've kind of been the queen of finding deals, well other than my mother in law. She's pretty good too. I cut coupons, I love outlets (I bought 3 outfits for me, my husband and the girls for under $200 at the Gap Outlet. I also love them. I put the wrong address on an internet order and they resent me all the clothes no cost to me. They rock. Again Gap feel free to email me about advertisements :-), I shop the sales racks and read the ads in the newspaper and get the emails about coupons.



Anyway, the point of all this: I've found some awesome deals lately I just had to share. Since most stores are currently shifting their inventory to fall stuff all the summer stuff is on sale. So I've been searching the sales racks, and look at what I found:

I got even more than this. Like I have two of the pink dresses and the pink elephant top with the brown shorts, I have two of those. Any way everything was under $4 (like the entire outfits were). Most of this came from Target, a few of the shorts are from Gymboree. All from the sales racks, and everything is for next year so hopefully the girls will be in 24 months by then. If not oh well, because the black shorts and two tank tops cost 75 cents, the two graphic t-shirts were $1, the dress was less then $3 (and a dress should fit). I love the black and white outfit! I think it is 2T though. Keep your fingers crossed for me! I love a good bargin :-)

The Crap You Need on Hand for Child Rearing

I know a lot of people who are currently pregnant or brand new parents. So I have decided to put together a list of must haves for new parents.

1. A screw driver
Seriously everything the baby needs has to be put together. J and I got in more fights cusing over how to put together the crib then we did in our first year of marriage (which they say is the hardest which is total crap. The hardest year on a marriage is the first year of your first child's life. A if you were wondering our marriage has survived- at least so far, I don't think J is ready to move out yet :-) You need a freaking screw driver just to put new batteries in the swing, which sucks when the swing is the only thing that will get your child to take a nap and it dies and you have to leave the screaming baby to run downstairs and dig the screw driver out of your husband's tool box. Then you have to dig the batteries out of the drawer in the kitchen or maybe they are in the tool box too. All the while the baby is screaming.

2. Batteries
We had the worst snow storms ever this year and in Virginia when you are supposed to get a blizzard people freak the F out. They run and buy toilet paper and milk and eggs. I ran to the grocery store and stood in line for hours to get none of those (they were already out) not diapers or formula but batteries because god forbid that we ran out of batteries. You need them for everything. Every toy, the swing, the bouncy chair, everything. We took batteries out of remotes even, and if you knew J that is a big freaking deal.

3. Ear plugs
At around 5 every day the baby will most likely scream it's head off for no reason. It's a scientific fact. Mommy's even have a special name for it- the witching hour. These will also come in handy when your child is old enough to do cry it out, if you so choose- we did. It's the only way S would go to sleep, sue us. A tv and bad reality shows also work, just crank it up- in the basement, two floors below your screaming child (only if they are safely in their crib :-) although I do know a mom that took her not yet moving on their own child down to the basement and let him sleep on the floor on a blanket with no monitor because it was the only way he and everyone else in their house would sleep- I say do what you have to, so long as the child is safe. (promise it wasn't me)

4. baby jail, or a playpen
Because really sometimes mommy just has to pee.

5. card board box
When they are old enough this will provide limitless amounts of entertainment. We have every toy available for children under 12 months and some sort of card board container (including a 6 pack beer holder) is way more entertaining then the $20 music table.


I'm sure I will have more of these fantastic tidbits as my girls continue to educate me in all that is toddlerness.