A Christmas Miracle (of Sorts)

Much to my surprise and delight, we were able to get a (nice!) picture with Santa! L has been very anti-photos the last few months and, despite a few attempts, definitely did NOT want her picture taken with Santa. A, on the other hand, was all over it. Thought I would give it one last try and here is the result...

Not sure why what made the difference, I'm just happy that we got a nice picture and they were happy to see Santa.

In contrast, here is what last year's picture looked like...

They were so freaked out by Santa that the only way to get a picture was to back the stroller up to Santa without them seeing him. LOL.

And, just for fun, here is their first Christmas picture with Santa.

We have had the same great Santa for all three pictures. :) L is on the left and A on the right in all of the pictures.

Happy Holidays!

Love,

L&A

Giving Thanks

This is such a special time of year to stop and take stock of what we are thankful for.

Here are pictures of two special little people I am particularly thankful for having in my life.

Happy Thanksgiving, everyone.

Hallowen Pics, Part II

Our Other Little Pumpkin

Taking a post-trick-or-treating break

Checking out their loot

Halloween Pics, Part I

"Boo"

Going trick-or-treating

NICU Reunion Halloween Party

On Sunday we attended a NICU reunion Halloween party at the hospital where the girls were born. It was wonderful to see the head neonatal doctor that had cared for the girls and had visited mommy frequently during her long hospital stay prior to their delivery. There were over 400 people there, both former patients and their families. Wow! And this was only the infants to 2 year olds!

The party was also a great trial run for wearing this year's Halloween costume -- monkeys, of course!

We had a GREAT Halloween. The girls really got into it and were very disappointed that first thing yesterday morning they couldn't put on their costumes and go outside to go trick-or-treating! More to come (as soon as the pictures get downloaded)!

Pumpkins

Mommy and the girls went to Silverman's Farm in Easton, CT with Grandma C. earlier this month. It was one of those beautiful fall days in New England ... except for the 86 degree weather! Never thought I would be taking pictures of my kids with pumpkins in their summer clothes!

L&A

A

L

(Not sure why the resolution on my pictures is so fuzzy... I will try to get that worked out.)

"Monkey See, Monkey Do"

First off, how cute are these shirts?? And very fitting as we are totally in what I call their "monkey see, monkey do" phase. They copy what the other one is doing constantly. It is pretty cute. I am so enamored with this phase that for Halloween the girls are going to be... monkeys, of course! I even got buttons to pin on their costume that have the same design as what is on their t-shirts.

Their evaluation went very well. Both of them really did great considering they were at a strange place, with a strange person, and being asked to do tasks that were unfamiliar with them. They were evaluated separately. The nurse doing the evaluation commented on how amazingly close they scored on everything. Even with twins there is usually more of a variation in where they are at with certain developmental milestones. The evaluation focused on fine and gross motor skills, language, and cognitive ability. They both scored ahead on cognitive as well as abstract thinking, which wasn't even being tested. They are both doing really well with language -- both have a large vocab -- but we need to work on getting longer sentences out of them. They mostly do two- and three-word sentences. So all is well with our little ladies' development.

The girls had their first dentist visit last week. That was interesting. LOL. They LOVED the waiting area which had lots of toys to keep them busy. They didn't even mind the first part of the visit which involved new Dora toothbrushes and a goodie bag for each of them. The exam by the dentist? Not so much. The big bummer is that the dentist confirmed what we thought -- L is missing one of her lateral incisors, which is one of the top teeth next to the two front teeth. There is nothing really that can be done until her permanent teeth come in. The dentist won't even do x-rays to see if she has the permanent tooth until she is 5.

Sisters and Best Friends

The girls had their child development center evaluation last Friday. Details to follow...

Sisterly Love

Okay, my apologies for this pathetic excuse of a blog. Will try to do better to provide more regular updates. In the meantime, how cute is this picture?!?

Silly Self Portraits

One night, Mommy and the girls decided to get silly and take some "self portraits". The results...

A Rite of Passage?

Is it a requirement that every young child do THIS at some point during their toddler years??

Artwork: "Crayola on Yellow" by Miss L.

I gave L a (minor) scolding and they both cried. Must be a twin thing. And I guess the scolding didn't work because some suspicious crayola-like markings appeared on the very same piece of wall some days after...

"Shoe"

As I mentioned, the girls really have developed quite a large vocabulary. And they LOVE to show that off. Objects are constantly being pointed at and named without any prompting. And almost always they accurately identify a particular object.

Almost always.

For their birthday, the girls each received a baseball set: a bag with a soft baseball, a bat and a mitt. Despite showing the girls how to use a baseball mitt, including that it goes on your hand, Miss L was quite adamant in insisting that her mitt is a "shoe." And the above picture proves it. Not only does L have her foot in the mitt to show that it is a shoe, she is saying "shoe". LOL.

Stats

The girls had their 2-year ped. appt. a couple of days after their birthday. They are doing great!

A was 33 1/2" (50th percentile) and 26lbs, 12oz, and
L was 34 1/2" (75th percentile) and 27lbs, 2oz.

We could tell that L was a tad taller but didn't think it was a whole inch. Wonder if that is unusual for identical twins...

They are really doing great developmentally. They seem to have totally caught up to their full-term peers. They have a big vocabulary and use short sentences. They love to count objects -- often beyond 10 now. They love to sing songs and dance. They know their colors -- their favorite seems to be "yeyyow". And they are now working on learning shapes.

They do still do some tip-toe walking but the ped. said theirs is totally normal: they don't have tightening in their muscles and they also stand flat on their feet and often walk heel-to-toe.

They are both cutting their eye teeth, as well as a couple of other teeth, so they have been pretty grouchy lately -- poor babies (and poor mommy & daddy)!

Happy 2nd Birthday!

Mother's Day 2007

L, Mommy & A

Mother's Day 2007

Ready For Her Close Up?

Guess we have some work to do in perfecting eating with utensils... When eating yogurt with a spoon is just not cutting it, just take the bowl and try to "drink" the yogurt.

Some Big Shoes to Fill

Putting on mommy and daddy's shoes has become a popular activity for L&A. (Hope this isn't the first step towards developing a shoe obsession. LOL. )

Now, I have average sized feet. But it's funny how you can feel like you have ginormous clown feet a la JoJo (for all you Playhouse Disney watchers) when your toddlers decide to "wear" your shoes.

They Clean Up Good

Here are the girls in their Easter finery. Why yes, I am just a tad late in posting this picture given that Easter was a month ago. (L is on the left.) They don't wear dresses very often but when they do, boy do they look cute (not that I am biased).

Lots of developmental changes going on. Their vocabulary is growing like crazy, so quickly that I have stopped counting how many words they can say. They get great pleasure out of pointing to people and things and naming them. They also can count objects up to ten. And sing the alphabet song. In fact, they love to sing along to any song. Their latest feat is identifying colors.

Their new favorite show is Little Einsteins.

Hard to believe it but they will be 2 the end of this month! Wow.

May I Take Your Order?

The girls got an awesome play kitchen from their aunt and uncle for Christmas. We just set it up and they are having a blast with it. They don't really "get" the idea of a kitchen and cooking but it sure is fun to scatter the play food and pots & pans all over the place.

Snow Bunnies

So Much Better Than an Alarm Clock

Rather than the buzz or loud music of an alarm clock, this morning I awoke to the sound (heard over the baby monitor) of one of the twins in her crib, in a perfectly clear little voice, counting from 1 to 10.

It doesn't get better than that.

Before January Comes to an End...

I figured I should attempt a post.

No good excuse for the lack of posting other than to say... where the heck did this month go?

So, in summary: Other than a week that some kind of stomach bug came to visit our house, the girls are doing great. They are 20 months old. A year ago at this time they were just starting to master sitting up and now they walk -- scratch that -- RUN everywhere. They continue to LOVE books (if only we could just get A to stop chomping on them -- when will the teething end??). The last few weeks we have really seen a big jump in their vocabulary. They love to try to sing along to Barney and Wiggles songs. And they even have started counting!

Christmas Highlights

Here are the pictures to go along with the Christmas summary...

Top to bottom:

L by her aunt's front door (and looking more like a little girl than a baby...)

A going through her aunt's kitchen cabinets

L inspecting Barney

A with the drum lid

L & A's favorite Christmas moment :)

Maybe Next Year: A Summary of Christmas 2006

To say that Christmas with the girls was a bit of a disappointment is an understatement. I was fully prepared for them not to "get" Christmas -- they are, after all, only 19 mos old. But I did think some of the toys -- or at least the wrapping paper, for goodness sake - would have had some appeal. Nope.

Christmas Eve
We spent the evening at my sister-in-law's. My parents came as well. Perfect as it is across the street from us. An easy escape with cranky babies and parents who offered to stay with them after bedtime while we spent more time across the street. Boy have I learned the importance of a good nap before such occasions. L did not nap well and was a crab apple for most of the evening. She was at the front door quite a bit. I suppose an appeal to go home. A enjoyed rifling through her aunt's kitchen cabinets and scattering their contents all over the floor. L did a bit better at dinner until... Santa paid us a visit. With his jolly red suit and his "ho ho ho" he came into the house and into the dining room. L started hysterically crying, to the point that she almost made herself throw up. Fun stuff. (Although I have to admit that it will make a good story to tease her with when she gets older.) They were ready for bed before any gifts were opened. In fact, we ended up just bringing them home and saving them for Christmas morning.

Christmas Morning
Despite the girls' lack of interest in all things Christmas the night before, I still had rather high hopes for opening gifts on Christmas morning . In addition to a few fun bigger toys, we had gotten them each a plush Barney doll, which was sure to be a hit as they are HUGE Barney fans these days. With visions of them snuggling their Barneys for the rest of the day we took them into the living room. First, they bypassed all gifts in favor of running around between the living room and dining room -- rooms they do not usually spend much time in. When they finally showed interest in any of their gifts, it was a drum full of instruments and they were most interested in carrying around the lid/top of the drum. When Barney was finally noticed by L, she took him out of her stocking, gave him the once over, and dropped him on the floor. A's never left her stocking. You get the idea.

Christmas Dinner
If you have made it through reading the above, you can use your imagination as to how the rest of the day went. Let's just say that we again went home with unopened gifts. I think their favorite part of the day was the nice nap they took at Grandma & Grandpa T's.

Maybe next year...