Random

Here are some random goings on of our life recently...

The girls love to paint and draw on their easel - perhaps I should buy some smocks rather than making them do it naked.

Audrey had a bad case of hives. There was no obvious cause and the doctor chalked it up to hives associated with a virus. Fortunately it did not bother her at all as here she is pulling her socks up to her knees with glee. (weight for the girls at the doctor: A 27.75 lbs and B 31.25 lbs)

A visit from Granddaddy - here they are playing hide and seek (B is super bossy during this activity as she is the one who tells you whether you hide or count) and here they are getting read to in A's crib - it is the happening place to be. The girls get in there together before and after every bedtime and naptime - and it is always Audrey's crib.

I have finally moved them from their high chairs to sitting on boosters at the table...sigh, they are growing up so fast.

And for the truly hard-core fan, here is a video of the girls putting on big girl panties. We are gearing up for some major potty training here in the next couple of weeks. So to go along with that, we bought some panties. I don't know why, but I think that this video is very funny - probably cause it is a snap shot of life around here in all of its chaos and glory.

Valentine's Day

We went to a little Valentine's party with one of our playgroups on the Friday before Valentine's Day. It was especially fun as it was the first outing in a week due to the snow!!

Here are the girls working on their Valentine's bags.

Here are the girls in their Valentine's Day outfits - they were not very cooperative about taking pictures, so these are the best that I got. Notice that they are each wearing one red sock and one white sock. This is a recent trend.

This is for Crystal - I made these from your suggestion!

Happy Birthday D

Last Saturday was D's big 35th birthday. So of course, we went to a kiddie Valentine's party...how else would you celebrate? Seriously it was lots of fun - good food, good friends, and a bouncy castle!


Here are the girls singing Happy Birthday to D - they are rather quiet and it is just at the beginning.

Stir Crazy

Just as a recap: last Friday/Saturday we got 20+ inches of snow and then on Tuesday night we had a blizzard and got another 8 - 10 inches of snow. The DC area has now broken snow records that had been in place since the 1800's. So far this winter we have gotten 75+ inches (as compared to last winter when we got 8 inches!)

The girls and I were at home from last Friday to this Friday...much too long without social interaction (and this Friday when I went to leave, I did not back up correctly and got stuck - wheels spinning and rear bumper planted into a huge snow pile - and was effectively blocking the entire road, much to the chagrin of a lady down the street. She explained to me that she needed to be in court in 15 minutes as she was the lawyer - so of course I quit pretending that I was stuck and moved the car since she was in a hurry!! Though I can't be too mean as she is the one that got in my car and was able to move it back into my driveway!) . Actually the girls seemed fine, but I got a little stir crazy. So here are some things that we did to break up the boredom.

Brooke and Audrey playing in their new tent (which is WAY TOO BIG for our tiny house) that I got on sale at Target a few weeks ago. I was saving it for a special occasion and decided this was it.

Me body sledding down our little track in the back yard. Remarkably fun!

We built a snowman - a very difficult task depending on how wet the snow is. When it is all light and fluffy it is impossible to get it to pack down. So once it got a little icy we built a little snow gal.

Washing their dishes...which basically resulted in water all over the floor and Brooke drinking soapy water. The taste does not seem to bother her at all.

Doing some snow graffiti. I filled up some containers with some food colored water and let the girls go spray the snow.

Toilet Talk

Since the girls turned 2 in November, I have been thinking about when we are going to potty train. I originally was not going to go the tiny potty route and just use a little seat on the big potty, but as I thought about it, I realized that there are 2 of them and I really did not want to train one of them to go in the bathtub. Therefore, over Christmas I bought two little pink potties/step stools. (super cute with the little pink cushy seat) The girls love to use them as step stools.

We have not ventured to use them as potties at all - other than to explain that they will use the little potties and then we will dump them into the big potty. Which they were on board with cause they love to dump their poop from their diapers into the potty.

So since we have been stuck inside, I decided that we would try an intro course. Here is the timeline (though the days could be off since I am delirious with snow):

Sunday: While taking a bath, Audrey commented that she was tinkling. Then after the bath she said that she still needed to tinkle. So I put her on her potty - and she did literally 3 drops. Brooke also sat, but just to play.

Tuesday: While eating lunch, Brooke asked to get down from her high chair so that she could poop. I asked if she wanted to go on the potty. YES. So we ran to the bathroom (after getting Audrey down too - they both insist on sitting on the potty at the same time) and Brooke did her entire poop in the potty.

Tuesday continued: After eating dinner, the girls said they needed to go to the little potties. And unbelievably, Audrey did a full out tinkle in the potty!

Wednesday: All day the girls have told me that they need to go to the potty - which they really just want to go and take off their diapers and sit on the potties and ask for toilet paper and ask to be read to (seriously I can't read that The Way I Feel book again!). So we have gone numerous times to "try" though clearly they were not trying. Then tonight after their bath (after getting out of the tub several times each to tinkle in the potty - again just a fun game) Audrey sat down and actually tinkled. And then tonight before brushing teeth, Audrey tinkled again. HOORAY!!

Looks like we are on our way to potty training.

Epic snow of 2010

It started snowing at 9:30 on Friday morning and did not stop until about 5 pm Saturday. Fortunately it was above freezing for most of Friday so the snow did not start sticking until around 5 or 6pm. So far the snow has been lots of fun - we went out to play in it twice and D has done all of the shoveling! We shall see how long we are stuck inside to see how fun this really is. All I can say is that I am soooo glad that I bought ski bibs for the girls at the beginning of winter and got myself some boots earlier this week!

Here are some photos of our day:

It is so sad to work so hard shoveling and have it already covered again before you are through! We got around 2 feet total.





We were in the streets (at this point we had not shoveled anything and the girls weren't able to walk at all) which had been plowed during the night so the snow doesn't look that deep. Here is a video of D and Brooke falling into the snow.

Here is a video of us doing our redneck sledding - using a clear plastic storage container as our sled - down the little hill in the backyard. Both girls really liked sledding a lot! (though watching me and D pack down the snow was quite hilarious!)

Mid Week Snow

I may rename this blog to be Audrey and Brooke in the snow if this weather keeps up...

We had a mid-week snow as a little change of pace from our usual weekend snow. It started snowing Tuesday around 4:30 pm (about the time that I was taking the girls to the grocery store for our first grocery trip since getting back from Houston last week...talk about foraging for food in the house). It snowed all night and stopped early in the morning.

So that meant it was time for more shoveling. Let's go D...wait. He was out of town. OH NO! I had to shovel. Let me tell you, that is hard work - I had to change I was sweating so much. (Amber, I know that you are probably thinking that I don't even know what real snow looks like, but to us it has been a lot - we are supposed to be in the south!) I am sore today!

Here are pictures from that snow adventure:

Just to show D what it looked like

Brooke hearts snow

Audrey humors me in the snow

Our first - tiny - snowman!

Weekend Snow Continued...

It snowed all day last Saturday. We only thought we were going to get a couple of inches, but probably got somewhere between 6 - 8 inches. Which was unfortunate for D as he shoveled on Saturday after a couple of inches and it continued and therefore needed to be shoveled again on Sunday. Brooke is clearly our little snow bunny. She LOVES it. Audrey enjoys going outside but gets finished with it much sooner ("All done Mommy. Inside now. Inside") so there is little Audrey represented in these pics.

Here are pictures from the Sunday snow fun:

Brooke reveling in the snow


Brooke making her first snow ball...I wonder which parent taught her that?


Clearing the snow off of their car- just like Mommy and Daddy!