Happy Halloween

Have a safe and Happy Halloween!! E was flapper. Peanut is a koala bear and Squeakers is a polar bear. Hopefully they will stay still long enough to get a picture.

Happy first birthday

Today Peanut & Squeakers are one year old! I am amazed that this year has gone by so quickly. We had a party with family and friends and they were so good. We've been practicing singing "Happy Birthday" and I think that helped. M made all the food yesterday and I got all my cleaning done too. So today it was put food in crock pots and vacuum (just because of our dogs). My Dad came up early to help watch the boys so we could get cleaned up ourselves. We had a beautiful party and they got so many wonderful presents. A good time was had by all.

Squeakers & Peanut


Squeakers

Peanut


Peanut




Squeakers

In the last two pictures the boys are wearing t shirts I purchased from E.tsy. I had Peanut's done with a monkey and his name. Squeakers has a giraffe with his name. I am so happy with how they turned out.

E's lunches

Almost everyday this school year E takes her lunch. We got her a nifty new lunch bag with separate compartments that will keep her soup hot and sandwiches cold. I asked her why she is taking her lunch this year and she told me that it takes too long to get the school lunch. Plus I feel a homemade lunch is healthier and yummier (because it's made with lunch--oops love!). I used to bring my lunch to school everyday. Either a baloney sandwich (2 pieces of baloney--nothing else) or pb & j. E likes chicken noodle soup or a sandwich. The part I like the best is writing her a note. Today's note contained a riddle:
What do witches put in their hair?
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Scare spray!

So lucky

Peanut & Squeakers--more please!

I am blessed to have a beautiful and healthy family. I have a wonderful job teaching reading to first graders and I have my health. I am so lucky :-)
Today the babies and I went for a walk for about an hour. We walked all over town taking in the reds, yellows and oranges that mark my favorite season. The air is so crisp peppered with someone burning leaves or doing laundry. It was a good time.
Peanut and Squeakers are eating so much now. For lunch they had: 1 banana, half of an acorn squash, tortellinis and chicken. I think when they get older we will have to get some cows and chickens. It's amazing what they can pack away.

E's Beauty Salon

I am currently getting my hair done by E. She asked me if I thought she would be a hair dresser when she grows up. Who knows? As long as she doesn't put a big sequined bow in her clients hair. Lol!

Have you seen my iced latte?

G.eneral Foods has a quick and delicious way to make lattes: a packet of coffee plus flavoring (french vanilla or hazlenut) that you can add to water or milk. I use soy milk and it's sooo good. I was at Wally World and where my latte goodness was is now taken over by Keurig. Now that's all find and dandy for people who have those machines. But us low tech people (I use a French press when making a regular cup of coffee. Ok, ok. I do cheat now due to time issues and use Folger's instant. It's just like making a cup of tea) really like the ease of pouring in the coffee flavored powder and -voila!- instant latte right in the comfort of my own kitchen. I also looked in T.arget. They seem to have been taken over by the little k-cups as well. I can always order it on A.mazon, but I'm going to keep looking.

Baby sign language

I have always been interested in sign language. I was even a deaf ed major in school before switching to elem ed. My ASL teacher was so wonderful I didn't even mind going on Saturday mornings for 3 hours. I don't remember how I came across it but I thought it was so cool to teach E sign language. She knew the signs for cereal (c.heerios), dog, cat, light, moon, stars, more, drink, and a bunch more. My Mom was amazed that E could tell her when she was hungry or tired. E could tell us what she needed before she could talk. I started teaching Squeakers and Peanut a couple of months ago. Peanut picks up on the signs quicker than Squeakers but I know constantly signing is the key. I also found these great websites that are a great resource:

ALS Pro

Baby Sign Language Basics

These books are great too. We also have the ones for bedtime and my first baby signs. These are nice because they have pictures of babies doing the signs.

D.isney for two please

After much talking M and I decided that it would be E and myself going to D.isney. It wasn't the added expense (we would have gotten a suite) of taking the babies but the general care of them. Feeding them, naps, etc. Plus they wouldn't remember going. We told E and she was upset. She was excited to have them see the characters but after explaining to her that she would be able to do so much more I think she began to understand. We are going to book our trip this week. I am also going to make our reservations for the luau, breakfast with W.innie, hair and make-up at the Bibbity Bobbity Boo salon and maybe C.irque du Soleil. U.niversal is also on our list. I think we will go for two days. H.arry Potter being our main destination. E saw the pirate rooms at the Caribbean so I'm going to check those out for her. It does simplify things but I know it's going to be hard to leave Peanut and Squeakers. If they want to go in a couple of years we will take them. I think everyone should experience D.isney once. I went when I was 4 for the first time (I don't remember much) and again when I was 21. I had so much fun the second time. I'm looking forward to seeing E experience D.isney. I think she's at a good age. She is tall enough that she can go on all the rides but young enough that D.isney is still magical.

Adventures

I come in from taking Kona and Logan outside early this morning. I see Peanut high tailing it through our baby gate and crawling underneath the kitchen table. M was just about out the door to go to D & D -we run on D.unkin ;-) - and I ask him, "Didn't you put Peanut in the exersaucer?" "Yes" Amazing. We don't know how exactly he got out. M said it was going to happen sooner or later. I would prefer the latter because I put them in there when I have to go to the bathroom.
I don't think Squeakers would do that. He's so happy and content where ever he is. He was pushing a book around the living room and Peanut is taking clothes out of the plastic drawers. We had to turn around said drawers because he shut the drawer on his fingers. Oh boy.
E has her cheerleading camp today. She told me she wants to do cheerleading next year. This is something I can see her doing. The cheering, routines and fancy uniforms are right up her alley. She went to her first football game last night and loved it. She went with one of her friends from class and met up with other friends. She made confetti, watched the cheerleaders and had red, white and blue stars on her face. Sparkly stars of course. After her camp the girls put on a routine for the parents.

Weaning

I was very determined to nurse both my babies. I really enjoyed nursing E even though we got off to a very rocky start. I did nurse Peanut and Squeakers in the hospital but also supplemented with formula. I just wanted them to gain weight so they could come home. M helped me with the babies for their first two weeks home. He would ask me who he could feed and more times than not I told him Squeakers. So I blame myself for him not nursing like Peanut did. I do wish I could go back and do things differently. It's affected me more than him. I continually tried to nurse him but after a few months he would turn his head away. He's very content to drink out of a bottle. And now so is Peanut. He's becoming so independent. He likes to hold his own bottle and take a swig. The only time he really nurses is at night. Then you have E who loved her boobies and nursed until 2 1/2 years old. I really thought my nursing relationship with my babies would be like that. My children are all their own person with their likes and dislikes. What makes them move.
As a parent you do the best you can for them. Even though they may not understand or like you for it at the time. E has a hard time understanding why we are more strict with her than the other kid's parents in our neighborhood. Why we don't tolerate being mouthy and having an attitude. It is my job to be the best parent I can be for them, not their best friend. I just want them to grow to be happy, healthy and respectful of people and their world. I think that's what any parent wants. Right?

Catching up

Squeakers

Peanut

Peanut & Squeakers


Peanut and Squeakers turned 11 months on Sept 29. Walking along furniture, standing for a few seconds at a time, pointing to things, doing sign language (for light and ball) and letting you know what they want. They both loving feeding themselves (Peanut loves drinking from a bottle--so different when he only wanted to nurse). Squeakers will play by himself for a while. He will sit and intently look at a toy, take it apart and play with it. Peanut meanwhile is scaling the gates and falling into the toy chest. They are so different. Not that I expected them to be exactly alike because they are twins. I really try hard not to dress them alike because they are two separate people. I took them to school last week to pick E up and one of the moms asked me if they are alike and I said no. That they are both their own person. Peanut is more outgoing and quickly warms up to people. Squeakers is my cuddle bug and takes some time to check things/people out before he lets loose.
E started karate about 2-3 weeks ago and now she wants to quit. M told her to think about it. It seems like she likes it but she told me she wants to play with her friends. The neighborhood kids aren't involved in anything now. So she sees them playing. I think it would be good for her. I let her play with them when we get home from karate. M told her she has to decide by Monday. We'll see.
We are currently planning a trip to D.isney for the end of March with M's sister and her family. I must be out of my mind to travel with two babies that will be almost 1 1/2 years old. We met with the travel agent today. We want a separate bedroom so that the babies could sleep in there without being disturbed. They call it a suite. None of the moderate resorts have it. So we have to go with the value resort or spend a lot of money on a villa. I think it's so silly that they can't make suites on all resort levels. When M gets home from the gym we're going to look at the rooms together. Do you have tips/suggestions for D.isney?
I was doing p90x but I stopped. I wasn't happy with the cardio and other workouts. I thought I would see changes but not so much. I'm still at my pre-pregnancy weight but I'm not where I would like to be with my body. I take the babies for a walk almost everyday. I know to lose weight I have to workout for about an 1 1./2. All in due time I guess. I wish I had a magic wand ;-)