Monday, January 31, 2011

Thunder Snow

Last week we had our first (and hopefully last) big snow of the season. It started snowing Wednesday around 3 pm and finished up around 9 pm. During that time we got a little over 8 inches. It was coming down like crazy - it was basically a thunderstorm but with snow. The snow was super wet and icy and subsequently was very heavy - limbs, and some small trees, were cracking and falling all night. Not to mention it is awful to shovel the next day! Wed night the roads were awful D left work around 5 pm Wed and made it home around 9 pm...and we only live around 8 miles away. We lost power around 8 pm but it was fortunately back on around noon the next day. Fortunately, because when we woke up Thursday morning it was a chilly 55 degrees in the house. We spent the morning shoveling the snow. We live on a hill and it is impossible to get traction right in front of our house so we also shoveled a big chunk of the road too. D went to work after that and the girls and I spent the day Thursday with our friends Kate and Abby, who live pretty close and had power. Here are some pictures of our adventures:


We went out and played in the Thunder Snow! Notice how much snow Audrey has on her hood in the second picture. And they seriously request to shovel the snow.


Our beautiful snow bunnies!


Just watching us shovel was exhausting!


Our attempt at a snowman



Playing with Abby


Holding giant snowballs

Gingerbread House

One of the advantages of having little kids is that they don't know that you usually do a gingerbread house before Christmas. So a couple of weekends ago we were looking for an activity and I remembered that we never did make the gingerbread house that we got early December. They really liked making it - and eating the candy that went on it.


Brooke directing Audrey on how to decorate


Brooke directing Daddy on how to decorate


Audrey's finished side


Brooke's finished side

Wednesday, January 19, 2011

This and That


Happy New Year...at least it was in Italy when we toasted at 6pm!

Just a little post to document some of the things that are going on with them at this age.
  • When they eat, name the order they are going to eat it in. I am not sure where this started from but without fail at each meal they discuss what they are going to eat first, second, third, and last. The key item is what they are going to eat last.
  • Now when we finish meals, they are responsible to put their drink in fridge and PLACE their plate in sink.
  • They are napkin obsessed. Each meal they each go through about 5 napkins. One is for this mess, then wiping their fingers, and then it is too dirty, and one is for their fork to sit on, and one for their drink to sit on, and then of course a new one to wipe their hands and face again. It is ridiculous.

With their friend Lorelei at Frostival - a little event with rides and crafts for preschoolers
  • For their birthday and Christmas they got the Bitty Twin dolls and some associated American girl paraphernalia. At first they weren't real sure about them - especially since they each already had one baby doll (from when they turned 1). But they now LOVE their new dolls who they have named Kate (Audrey's) and Kayla (Brooke's). And the best part is that they got diaper bags complete with changing pads and wipes to go with the dolls. I cannot emphasize how many diaper changes we do around here on a daily basis. For sure more than we ever did with the real twin babies.
  • The girls are obsessed with middle names. They love to find out middle names and they love to call each other by their middle names. Darren started this craziness by calling them Elise and Elizabeth during their nighttime routine. Today at the grocery store they were talking to the guy stocking the juice and asked him his name. Fine. Then they ask him his middle name. He was clearly taken aback. Then they are telling him their middle name, Darren's middle name, my two middle names (another exciting thing about middle names). You could tell that he thought this was all rather odd.
  • Speaking of names, they now consistently call Darren by his name of Darren rather than Daddy. They even will say Mommy and Darren.
  • They love to play pretend now with their animals, dolls, little people, etc. But here recently they have started to talk for them in little voices. It is precious.
  • Audrey has now starting saying "dude." Hilarious!

Putting the kids to work shoveling the snow.
  • Brooke has clearly grasped the concept that she is bigger than Audrey (a point I frequently have to make regarding fitting into clothes and shoes.) She will now tell Audrey "you can do it when you get big like me." So funny! Also when we look at baby pictures, Brooke always points to the babies and says "that one is bigger so that is Brooke. that one is smaller so that is Audrey." We have to work on scale though cause I have a set of pictures of each of them in the bath when they were around one and the picture of Audrey is zoomed in more. Brooke is convinced that it is Brooke cause she is bigger.
  • The girls love to play games. Their favorite by far is Zingo (it is actually quite fun and is a quick game to play.) Here recently we got a game of Go Fish (where the cards are of animals - mainly marine animals) and the girls LOVE to play it. At first there was some confusion about who would need to get a card when they said Go Fish, but now they are masters at it. Except for the fact that they spread their cards out on the floor so they can see them and then announce what they get each time they draw. It is so funny to play with them.
  • They like to pretend to be babies - which I can't stand. They crawl around and say Ga Ga and won't respond cause they are babies. Irritating.
  • They have gotten very good at reading a digital clock - just calling out the numbers like five, four, three. This makes it quite handy when they have to sit down after getting in trouble cause they manage their time themselves.
  • I had the parent teacher conference with their teachers last week. Embarrassing to say, but I was nervous going into the meeting. As it turns out, there was no need to worry. The teachers were totally complementary of both girls. A brief summary: Audrey is independent and basically runs the play kitchen area. Brooke is a leader in the class and makes sure other people know what they are supposed to be doing. They said that both of them were helpful and that they had great vocabularies.
  • Two funny little conversations. Audrey was playing and her Barbie was feeding the penguin. So I asked her if she knew what penguins ate. She looked at me and responded, matter-of-factly, that penguins eat snow. I said that penguins ate fish. So she said "penguins eat fish and snow."
  • I was getting ready to cook dinner so it was time for the girls to select their movie (which is really dvr'ed shows from disney or pbs). This has gotten touchier lately mainly because Audrey no longer always just acquiesces to what Brooke wants. So I read them their choices and Brooke decided that she wanted Agent Oso. Well Audrey decided that she wanted (don't remember but probably Handy Manny, Super Why, or Dinosaur Train). So they are both chanting their choices and are adamant that they are not going to change their mind. Brooke grabs by face and says "Mom, Oso now. Audrey will get happy later." It was hilarious!

Getting ready for The Big Show at their Little Gym dance/gymnastics class. I took video but it is currently trapped on our camcorder. So here is a picture with their friend Falyn.

Tuesday, January 11, 2011

Singing

Today after school, I was asking the girls what they did that day (always an interesting event). I always ask them if they sang anything and usually they say that they sang the All My Friends song. But today in addition to that they said that they sang another song and proceeded to sing it. So tonight I got them to sing it again for Dad. Here it is and it is ADORABLE! Please ignore the fact that Audrey is not wearing any pants, but she is wearing her favorite Abby Cadabby panties.


Pajama Day



Today is pajama day at school. Which sounds like a great idea as that eliminates one whole step in the getting ready process, but when I looked at the girls' favorite pj's it was apparent that none of them are really outside of the house appropriate....unless wearing too small, belly revealing pj's has suddenly become appropriate. Santa brought them some new footie (aka zip-ups according to Audrey) but Brooke claims that she gets "sfeaty" in them and Audrey won't wear the new ones...only her well worn old zip-ups. (as an aside at some point I am going to go back and fill in Thanksgiving and Christmas, but until then: Santa brought the girls some new panties in their stockings also and every time they go to get them out of their drawer, they jump up and down and yell excitedly that these are the panties from Santa. it is so adorable. at some point Santa may have to step up his game, but now it is cute that they love it so much!)

Back in October when it started to get cool, I bought a set of new elephant pj's from Target. The type that has two shirts and two pants and they all coordinate. I have tried no less than 15 times to convince the girls to wear these new adorable pj's. With ZERO luck. I don't know why they steadfastly refuse to wear them at all. So last night I was filled with inspiration (and possibly motivation) and I convinced the girls that the elephants on the pj's were Gerald (the elephant from the elephant and piggie books that they currently LOVE by Mo Willems...super good and I highly recommend them) That did the trick. They put on the pj's. Brooke took more convincing, but I assured her that if she wanted to change in the morning that she could do it. And conveniently this morning, she forgot.

The absurd thing about all of this is the ridiculous level of satisfaction, and I will even say pride, that I got from managing to get two three year olds to do what I wanted. I am still glowing with it! And that in summary is how you know life is never the same once you are a mom.


Totally unrelated picture: The girls looking so cute as they got ready to cheer for FSU in the game against South Carolina and Steve Spurrier.