Emptying the camera

I love it when I go awhile before emptying the camera because it means nothing really exciting has happened, but I find pictures that I forgot I took. Well, there were some exciting things. We went to the zoo (but I didn't get great pictures of that) and we went to a raging first birthday party, but I didn't get any pictures of that.

At the park

Climbing up the stairs... This trick has officially made going to the park with them by myself an impossible feat.

The Zoo

Checking out the elephants But probably just seeing the cool fence. Kate pretending to make friends with a little girl, but really she was waiting for the right moment to steal her sippy cup. Atta girl!

Don't you wish you could do this sometimes? At a restaurant? After dessert? I do.

The said laundry basket ride.

Just us.

"See, Ethan, if you lift up this flap, there's a snowman." "Mom! I'm teaching Ethan to read!"

"And under here, you will find a kitty kat."

And that's the end. Thanks for stopping by

Walking

Walking is a funny thing. It's so fun for me to watch them learn. I guess every child learns in their own way, and mine are quite the example. Most kids probably learn more like Ethan. Standing first, then take their first steps that are a little bit more like tiiiimmmmmbberrrr and his feet move as fast as he can to try to keep upand learning to take more and more steps before the timber begins. He's up to about 3. Kate, on the other hand, was more like teaching a child to ride a bike. I ran along side her while her feet were moving until she was stable and then I would run ahead to catch her fall. She has since learned to stand and she'll even walk away from the couch now. She can pretty much walk as long as she wants as long as someone is standing in front of her giving encouragement. Her record is 21 steps (yes, like everything else in my life, I count). The stinky part about this is that I've been the only one around for all of this. Greg has been working insane hours lately (he billed 90 hours last week) and is rarely home to see the cute, wobbly steps. He was home for a couple hours yesterday and saw our progress, which was really fun for him. Point of this story is that it is nearly impossible to get a good video of steps being taken. This will have to do. It was taken a couple weeks ago.

Blushing Buttercream Pettiskirt GIVEAWAY!!!!

Kate wants this. She told me. Blushing Buttercream Pettiskirt GIVEAWAY!!!!

11 months

11 things you may not know about these little monkeys... 1. They love to stand up in the bath. Is this normal? 2. They're really good eaters (so far they will eat ANYTHING). Their favorites are yogurt, cheese, pasta with spaghetti sauce. 3. They're starting to understand "no." Ethan gives me this half-hearted smile that seems to say, "no, mom, it's okay," then he stops. Kate cries, then shakes her head and moves away from whatever she was doing. She also cries when I say no to Ethan and more than that, when Ethan is heading towards one of his more common offenses, she'll whine at him as if to say, "no, please don't Ethan, mommy will say no." She's going to be the rule-enforcer here. 4. Although it is next to impossible to have them in matching clothes, they ALWAYS have matching pajamas. 5. They're pretty good about letting me squirt their noses with saline. Their doctor is proud. 6. Unless they're tired or hungry, and even sometimes then, there are two things that always make them happy: books (we read probably 20 a day) and "hiding" under a blanket all together and then coming up for a good peek-a-boo (even though there's no one to peek-a-boo to). 7. They LOVE their daddy. Especially Ethan. Traitor. 8. They are officially done with binkies. Hooray! 9. Laundry day is their favorite day. Rides in the laundry basket, pushing the basket around the house, warm clothes dumped on them that they get to toss and throw, socks. Heaven. 10. They're not really afraid of strangers, they're intrigued. They always have to stare at someone for a few minutes before they will smile, wave, do any tricks, etc. (Well, there was this one time that a boy (probably 13) rubbed Kate the wrong way. He was at a table behind her at a restaurant and she kept turning around to look at him and then she would cry. He didn't even try to talk or wave to her. She just didn't like him. Other than that, we're good.) 11. They love the park. The swings and slides are really all they can do, but they get really excited for them. This rain has really been cramping our style. I think that's 11.

At the train station waiting for daddy to come home.

a story

Once upon a time, we went to the mall. They were happy. Like this: Then, we can home from the mall and they played with a ribbon they found on the floor. They were really happy. Like this: Funny faces came next: Then Ethan made Kate cry, like this: So they took a nap. Like this: And I, was happy, like this: The end.

Happy Valentine's Day!

I made these for Greg to take to work, but he forgot to take them and I couldn't get them to him, so guess who has had these for breakfast and lunch for the past 4 days? Yes, I have consumed two sticks of butter, a block and a half of cream cheese, and an entire box of powdered sugar, and that's just the frosting. The cupcakes call for an entire bottle of red food coloring- I think my insides are officially red. All for the sake of a Happy Valentine's Day! Oh, and I promise this awful pink will be gone tomorrow.

Game Day

It's a big day, folks. Duke vs. North Carolina. #3 vs. #5. First match up of the season. At Cameron Indoor Stadium. 9pm EST. The DVR is set. We're not nervous. Okay, we are. Just a little bit. Ethan couldn't even sleep last night in anticipation. Best of luck to our Dukies.

Could that be comforable?

Naps have been so unpredictable lately. I won't even go into it, but they often cry or talk themselves to sleep. Well, once the crying/talking stops, I always worry that it stopped for a bad reason, not that they actually fell asleep, so I have to go and check on them. Nothing bad has happened yet, but I always laugh at the positions I find them in. Corners of the bed, blankets and stuffed animals intertwined, etc. The other day, I just had to take a picture... I emailed it to Greg and he was worried about her (surprise, surprise). So, I went to check on her again... Believe it or not, this was one of her longer naps.

For Aunt Jane...

... who told me that my blog was seriously lacking lately. The funniest thing about my mobile children is how often I find them rightnexttoeachother. Now, if I could only get them to play nicely without taking each other's toys or pulling hair or knocking each other over... When my dad was eating pie the other day, they scooted themselves right next to him and he couldn't resist sharing some whipping cream. "Um, more please" And yet, another churching day. Only this time, Ethan thought he'd step up his game with a tie. As a side note, these little punks have been napping HORRIBLY lately. Kate gets up and talks and squeals and giggles at Ethan till they're both wired, no one is napping, and then they're grumpy for the rest of the day, or they fall asleep in the car. I seriously dread naptime (they still are great night sleepers, I'll give them that). Anyway, I don't like to do chores during my 30 minutes of freedom and I don't like to start projects because I know once I'm well into it, they will wake up, so usually I just play around on the computer or read till they wake up. Of course today, they're an hour and 47 minutes (but who's counting) into their naps and I've got nothing to show for it. And tomorrow, I'll try to make a new hair clip and they'll scream 10 minutes into it... That's life, I guess.