Misc. Pics

I haven't posted any pics of the twins lately and so I took a few candid shots of a typical morning around here when we're not in school. When Lily goes down for her morning nap, I usually bring out the arts & crafts activities. Today, the kids wanted to play with Play-doh, one of their favorite things. Although during our time today, Jake asked to make cookies so we'll probably do that later this week.

Jake loves anything that he can squeeze play-doh with, crazy boy!

Abby usually says she wants to play with play-doh, but then will just hold her ball of play-doh the entire time. She'll talk to it, hug it, even tell it she loves it, but she will not squish it, roll it out, or even squeeze it!

Next, we move on to a little light reading. Notice Jake's book. Can you tell we're getting close to potty training?

I just love these next two shots. Abby was pointing out a lady bug to Jake and they were both actually sharing the book, not screaming trying to tear it away from the other!!

Then they decided to pose for the camera. Only Jake hasn't gotten that you have to stand a bit away from the camera. He tries to stand as close as he can saying "Cheese!". Then my shots come out blurry!!

I think this is one of the best candid shots I've gotten of the two of them together in a long time. They never want to stand next to each other for pics anymore. Notice Jake is slightly in front of Abby though, they kept "leap frogging" each other to be in front. :-)

A Great Weekend

Saturday was a pretty busy day for us (and of course I didn't take a single picture of the days events, still trying to figure out how to manage three kids and take pictures :-).
Once everyone was up, we loaded the car and headed out to the Leatherman family reunion. We actually got everyone ready to go on time and I was super impressed. I even managed to get the kids backpacks filled with activities and make some mac N cheese (John cut up the watermelon the night before). Once we got there, we unloaded and let the kids loose. They loved running in a figure 8 around the kitchen island and the main dining area. This was all fine and dandy until more people started showing up and actually using the kitchen. As with any reunion, there are older people who just aren't used to watching out for little ones and I was sure someone would be pulling a hot dish out of the oven, turn around and trip over the kids. Once my SIL and gang got there, we tried to set them up at a little table with plenty of colors, puzzles and books, but my two thought running was more interesting (they had been cooped up in a car for 2 hours so I can't blame them really). It was time to feed Lily so John was on kid duty. He finally came and asked to put the kids in a small room with all their stuff vs. the larger dining area as he was getting tired of chasing them. Abby really got into coloring and sat and colored most of the time with another little girl. In the back room, there was less distractions so she could really focus on coloring and loved it. Jake was still into running, but once I showed him a new hot wheels car I was saving for a "special" occasion (aka mom needs a break and this is the only thing that will occupy his time for more than 2 seconds) he was happy playing with his car.
We have a potluck every year and this year was really good. We got the kids plates first then went back to get our food. But by the time we got to our chairs, the kids had eaten everything off their plates and ready for seconds! Jake ended up eating 3 platefuls of food (mac n cheese and blueberries where his favorites).
After lunch the picture ceremony began. It really is funny to watch that many people get together for group shots. First they do everyone, then all the different family branches. Since our "branch" has 11 under 4, we got to go first :-). Then we packed up and headed out as it was all the little ones nap time and everyone was self destructing.

Once we got home, John wanted to take the kids down to the pool. I was super excited and so we all got dressed. Although we had to move mountains just to get us out the door. One thing after another kept happening. Anyway, we finally got out and headed to the pool. We stayed in the baby pool since there were plenty of big kids playing in the main pool, but the kids had a blast. The baby pool is 1-1/2 ft deep so it comes to their chest. They could jump, swim or even float in their rings at this depth. They opted to jumped up and down in the water for an hour and a half, loving every minute of course. We had to tear them away from the water to head back. I wore Lily and just waded in the water with the kids or sat on the side while John was in the water with them. She actually slept the whole time.
Every time we drive by the pool now though, Jake asks to swim. We don't have a concept of time yet, but we're working on it. I keep telling them we'll get to swim at Nana's this weekend.

Pink Passion

Okay, I know it's supposed to be purple passion, but that wouldn't have gone with this blog :-)

In the past 3 months or so, Abby has been very vocal on what her favorite color is...pink. Anything that is pink is hers by definition (Addy better watch out!). She has to drink out of pink cups, eat off pink plates/bowls and wear pink clothes. She has several pink shirt/short outfits, but she had been asking for a pink dress to wear to church and believe it or not, the girl did not have any pink dresses! I don't know how though. Addy loves pink and is really into clothes and we've gotten most, if not all, of her hand-me-downs. Anyway, the other night I ran out to Kohls to get a few things for me (they had a great sale last weekend...50% of everything in the store) and of course, since I'm now a mom, no shopping trip is complete without a stop in the kids department. As I walk up, there hangs a pink and white gingham dress in her size. I snatch it up and look around to see if there's any other pink dresses that I might want instead. But I didn't see any...that was the only pink dress. God must like pink too, so I got the dress.
On Sunday morning, I pulled the dress out for Abby and showed it to her. "Wow!" Thank you Mommy!" was her response. She had the biggest smile and was so proud of her pink dress.

School is a HIT!

Everyone's been wondering how MDO is going this week and I'm happy to say it's a HIT! The kids LOVE going to school and I love it too! Abby cried a bit last week when dropping her off, but this week there have been no more tears. They quickly learned the way to their classroom and so after we all get in the building I can turn them loose and they run down the hall to their room (at least that's what I'm hoping and praying as I walk with them running about 15 feet ahead of me :-). They're really getting their independence and no longer want to hold mommy's hand in the parking lot, but they don't understand the dangers of cars yet and aren't really willing to wait on me as I unload everyone and everything thing so there's lots of cries as I hold their hands walking across the parking lot. Hopefully soon they'll learn to wait by the car as I get the others in and out. I'm trying to teach them to touch the car when they aren't holding my hand, but let me know if you have any other tips too!
They're doing lots of arts and crafts so everyday I think I come home with a gazillion projects. On Monday this week they learned about space, stars and the moon. When I walked up to their classroom, the lights were all off and the kids were all running around with flashlights. Abby LOVES flashlights and knows they're supposed to help you see in the dark so I knew she would be excited about the morning's activities. The entire ride home she talked about seeing in the dark and stars. It was really cute.
The kids are also doing well in class. They don't follow directions the best yet, but the teachers said they're 2, not many 2 year olds do follow directions well, and since this is their first MDO experience of any sort it's to be expected. The teachers are also great. They even "saddle" the kids up with their backpacks and gear when I come up as they know my hands are full with Lily. The kids' backpacks have handles and I actually use those to guide the kids sometimes.
The kids are starting to ask for school on the days they don't have it and so I can't wait until the fall when they go 3 days a week vs. 2. They're only in school for 3-1/2 hours, but it's a perfect fit for us. Lily gets some one on one time with me while they're out, I get some stuff done during Lily's morning nap and the kids come home super excited about their morning and look forward to an afternoon of playing with mommy and Lily.

Lily's Four Months Old

So I had a great post to go along with these pics, but it got deleted (sometimes I just hate technology! A pencil would have NEVER erased stuff on paper by itself!). I don't remember everything I said but here's the gist...

I can't believe Lily is four months old! She is growing like crazy and I'm loving every minute of it. It's so different this time around...she is an "easy" baby, rarely cries and is very content (if no one else is crying in the room :-). She's on a great schedule now, taking 3 naps during the day and sleeping 12 hours at night, but she's super flexible. So if I need to tote her around with the twins, she's fine with that. She just sleeps on the go in her sling. It's great! She has to have a hat on to sleep (helps block out all the distractions), but come nap time I just put the hat on and she's out like a light.
Her favorite song is "Twinkle, Twinkle" and her favorite word is "wow". Yes, she has a favorite word. She cracks up everytime I say this to her. There's also a tie between her favorite toy between her cow and her bear. She loves both, but I can't tell which she's more attached to. She's also a very big mommies girl mainly becausing I'm BFing. I guess I should pump and try a bottle so if I ever need to go somewhere without her John can feed her if she gets hungry. I should also let someone else try to put her down for a nap or bedtime b/c right now it's all mommy. I'm afraid her world would come crashing down (at least for a while :-) without me. John's never put her down since he's gone during the days and I nurse her right before bed. Oh well, we'll cross that bridge when we get there.
We went to the doctor Monday for her checkup and she weighs 14.5 pounds and is 24-1/4" long. Although the nurses and I think she's taller than that...it's just really hard to measure a wiggly baby! She's in the 50 - 75% for weight and height, but our pedi was surprised she wasn't bigger. He's not concerned, just surprised. She's only 2 or 3 ounces bigger than Abby was at this age, and a 1/4" shorter. We dropped a feeding during the day a few weeks ago so I may add that back in, but she is very content and doesn't act hungry. It just may be what she's supposed to weigh. Oh well.
This time around I also took her while the kids were in school. I can't tell you how easy it was to take one non-mobile child somewhere! No stroller, no hands grabbing things, etc. It was great! Last time I went for her two month check I had all three kids with me...and pedi's offices aren't baby proofed! I was trying to keep the twins occupied, in the room and out of the cabinets where the big rolls of paper where all while holding a baby down for shots. CRAZY!!
Anyway, I took a few pics this morning of our growing girl. Enjoy!

First day of school

Well, the kids started "school" today! We found a great summer MDO program and signed them up 2 days a week. They go Mondays and Wednesdays from 9 - 12:30. I got them cute lunch boxes and backpacks too for the special occasion. However, Abby's was on back order and just shipped today. Oh, well. The kids have been waiting for "school" and today I finally packed their lunch and said, it's time to go to school. They grabbed their lunch boxes and stood by the door waiting to get in the car and go. They were too cute!
I'm happy John has this week off so he can see them off to their first day of school too. Plus it was nice to have help getting the kids in to school for the first time. I'll have to figure out how to do it next week all by myself with no leashes or stroller, three kids, 2 lunchboxes, 2 backpacks and 2 arms! Ahhh!
We got to our room and the kids ran in to play with things. The back door was open however and Abby ran straight through the room into another room. I quickly chased her down, brought her back into the right room and shut the other door. Ahh! I had nightmares my kids would escape from MDO. I just knew they'd climb the fence at recess or open the door to their room and take off running while the teachers weren't looking.
I kept my phone close by during the day in case the school called, but we didn't hear anything.
12:30 came and we went to pick them up. As we walk up to their room, I hear Abby yelling "Mine!" as she's holding a block trying to keep another kid from playing on it. I guess she got over her fears and warmed up. :-)
They said they had fun and I think they did. We got some coloring pages they did during the day and they did one art project too, but the teachers had to cut some stuff out before sending everything home. There's probably 10 kids or so in their class with three teachers and I think Jake & Abby are one of the youngest. Their class is made up of 2 and 3 year olds and I'm hoping they pick up some good habits from the older kids.
Abby also appears to be our social butterfly, even though she's shy without me or John around. While we were waiting for the doors to open, she made a friend (who ended up being in her class too). She's such a nature lover and so while we were waiting outside, she picked up leaves and sticks. She had the other girl picking up stuff too. Then they tried to open the locked door to the building. Abby kept telling the other girl you had to push a button or the door to open it. They were really cute together.
I'm really excited they're starting this new chapter and hope we all get some benefits from attending. I know I'll be able to catch up on some house work that I can't get done with them around and I'm going to try to do a little scrapbooking too.