Our Kids

We’ve been trying to take more videos lately because the girls are just so interactive. I’ve uploaded a couple new ones… if I were better at this blogging thing I’d embed them in the page, but I’m too lazy right now

Jumping Bed

Reading

Enjoy!

Well we had a big day and I did not even expect it.  We have been going to story time at the library pretty regularly for about a year.  The girls just sit quietly and enjoy all the singing, dancing and book reading.  They know all the songs and sing them at home over and over but at the library mum is the word.  Today they sang where is thumbkin and did the movements AND they went up and got their own jingle bells for the dancing with the Wiggles songs.  It was very cool, they were so good and well behaved (which I expected) and went right up and got their bells and came back and sat down.  They even did the freeze parts of the song on their own.  Such big girls.

I have been reading bits and pieces here and there and something is trying to root in my mind and I am hoping that writing it down will help.  I read an article about how children don’t learn from what our parents try to teach us through books, talking, discipline etc., but children learn from what we do.  I know it sounds logical but it really isn’t.  For example, if you are married and in a relationship that is not so great but stable and you love your kids and things work, what they are really learning is that it is okay to settle and be in something that is not so great as long as things go along okay.  It really is a hard thing to get your head around as a parent.  This means that my kids are looking at me to see if I love ME as much as I love them, because if I don’t love me, then they won’t love themselves no matter how much I love them and/or tell them how special they are.

Sometimes I think as women we spend a lot of time giving and caring and we let ourselves slide in different ways, little ways.  I am not talking about our weight, or our hairstyle or whatever but our spiritual being our souls.  If I take all the love I have and I pour it into my kids, they are learning that they are loved but not how to love themselves.  In order for our kids to love themselves we have to show them that we love ourselves.  It really is a tall order and a bit daunting in my eyes but I signed up for it when I decided to become a parent, I just hope I am up for the task.

So Jason and I are guilty of falling again into the parent trap. I think we fell in pretty good about a year ago when we started rocking the girls to sleep for no good reason and within 4-5 months our backs were killing us and we were wondering how we fell into this trap. Well it happened again, the same trap even! LOL! Recently we found ourselves going back into the girls room umpteen times and last night was the worst. Their bedtime dragged on for over 1.5 hours, they never get out of bed (thank goodness) but they do call to us. Needless to say by then I was frustrated enough to go to the garage and dig out our healthy sleep habits book. After reading just a few paragraphs I was overcome with the urge to say “ARGGHHHH”, how did this happen AGAIN!

Tonight armed with a new plan things went much, much better. First of all we got a digital clock with BIG numbers to put in their room. Then we went to the Discovery Store and bought a glow in the dark solar system mobile thingie and about 350 stars. Jason built and hung the solar system and most of the bigger stars and then I came in and put up the little teeny stars that give the ceiling depth. At 7PM we started getting the girls ready for bed and then from 7:11 to 7:30 PM we talked to them, sang to them, read to them and kept pointing out the clock and telling them when they saw a 7 – 3 and 0 then it was bed time. Every 5 min or so they would look at the clock and see that it did not say 7:30 and we would read or sing more. Then at 7:30 we turned out the lights and sang Twinkle Twinkle Little Star a couple times, told them the stars would keep them company and that it was time for bed. Phew! It worked (for tonight at least). It just goes to show that we need to guide them and show them in terms they can understand what bedtime is, when it happens and that mommy and daddy are serious about it. It is so easy to get sucked in to reading one more book, going to the potty, getting a drink and all the rest, it is only their nature but I guess that is why we are the parents and they are the cute, adorable, loving chitlens:)

Lela used to swing for days, loved it, could not get enough of it, had to have it.  All of a sudden she doesn’t want to swing at all.  She will say she wants to swing but as soon as you put her on it she starts saying, all donealldonealldone!  She is the same with the carousel, now that Piper likes to ride it, Lela won’t even sit on any of the animals.  I did get her to ride on the bench seat where Piper used to ride.  It’s a funny thing, all the sudden she has an aversion to motion in certain circumstances.  She still likes to ride on the train and in the car.  I am wondering if she is going through some sort of fear thing or if she has been bitten by a bit of the motion sickness bug.  Hmmmm….guess we will have to wait and see.

Those of you that follow the girls will know which of my girls has the more “stubborn” gene:)  Yes, it’s Piper.  Well she has taken to sleeping on the floor recently which is very cute and silly at the same time.  For her naps I let her sleep there and at night I tell her I will put her in her bed when she falls asleep and she seems okay with that.  It is so funny but she is dead set that on the floor is where she should sleep so I don’t fight it, she sleeps the same amount of time and for all I know she is cooler down there.  LOL!

Yesterday the girls were in a mood in the morning.  They were fighting over every little thing, screeching at the top of their lungs, snatching running and doing all the things that sisters do to torment each other.  Finally I had had about enough and packed us up and went out to a new park.  The park was incredible with soo much to do, they ran and played and drove cars and had a great time, getting exhausted in the process.  After about two hours we headed for the car, I packed up our snacks and such and started walking away.  When I turned around they were holding their drinks and holding hands walking along like they were in love.  It was so cute because I did not tell them to hold hands, they were just having a moment.  They walked hand and hand all the way to the car and it was no short hike, someone passed and asked if they were friends or sisters and I said twins, friends and sisters with a tear in my eye.  Those are my little angels

Seems like I post once a week lately.  It’s odd because contrary to what it seems like the girls are actually more fun, more interesting and more everything and I have less to say!  I know, I know, me with less to say, yeah right, where is the catch.  Well I guess the catch is that we are busy!  LOL!  Two, two and a half year olds need lots of adventure and excitement to stay happy two and a half year olds!  LOL!  So when I get a chance to catch my breath during their nap, you can find me vegging out staring at a blank computer screen or plopped half dead on the sofa.  Sometimes I do clean and cook but during those times I wish I was plopped on the sofa.

I have come to appreciate silence since having the girls.  They are not rowdy or loud but constant.  I swear I have listened to the “Five Little Monkies” song about 500+ times.  It is the ONLY song that we can play in the car, EVER, and they MUST have it on anytime we are in the car.  I feel like I have tuned it out but I am betting it is like those folks that live near a train track, your mind tunes it out but your body still hears it and it does some deep psychological damage, LOL!

The girls are talking in sentences, repeating everything.  It is so cute to hear them saying things that I say and so telling, if I ever wanted to scream at them I am certain they would scream at Jason the minute he walked in and he would know exactly what happened that day.  Instead they say things like, Thanks!, come on buddy, okay okay okay (I say this a lot when I am trying to get them to stop asking me for the milk I am pouring over and over), Otto lay down and all the other things I say during the day.

The girls absolutely love the library, checking out books and DVDs, story time, watching the kids and everything that goes along with our trip.  This week we are doing library time on Tuesday, the park on Wednesday, a new play cafe for kids and adults on Thursday and maybe the zoo on Friday.  Busy times for busy gals.  Today I decided to clean the sheets, so I stripped the beds and now the place is a wreck and guess what…..the sheets are not in the wash!  HA!  But the girls are happy, rested and fed so I guess the sheets are in their rightful place in the pecking order…..dead last.

Over the weekend Mystique bought me a few new t-shirts. I was happily trying them on in the bedroom and coming out to the family room to show her and the girls. It was all going so well until I put on a charcoal-gray shirt with some skater logo on it. The minute I walked into the family room, Piper started laughing and actually said (and signed) “daddy silly.” I was shocked. I gave her my best “shocked” look and she just laughed again and said “daddy shirt. silly.” Multiple times.

Wow. I was expecting later on in life that the girls would laugh at how I dressed but I didn’t expect it quite yet. Oh well.

I returned that t-shirt.