... and babies make four: Our life with twins. : December 2015

The “terrible twos” are in full swing at our house, but along with those “terrible twos” there are a lot of fun things developing as well. I try not to dwell on the hard moments of the day because out of the entire day the ten minute tantrums are not that big of a portion. I admit though, that in the moment, the whole focus is on the tantrum. I feel like they are really testing my child psychology skills! There is so much good with the bad though. They officially have completely separate personalities, but they complement each other. Riley is adventurous. Landon is cautious. Riley is loud. Landon is quiet. Riley is apathetic. Landon is emotional. Anyone that knows the hubby and I can already tell which child has each of our traits… there is a lot of personality in those two tiny little bodies.

They each have their own little quirks that have developed recently that make me laugh. Landon has learned to give a thumbs up and he came at me out of nowhere with that one. I think I was helping him with a craft project and I put the glue on the paper and he gave me a thumbs up and a smile. Recently Riley has started “directing” me when I am carrying something for her. The only way I can describe it as if I was a car about to park and she was the guy with the orange wands telling me where to go. I am not sure how to feel about this one exactly… makes me feel like a bit of a wide load. Ha ha. They make me laugh when they call out for “Toodles” when they need help doing something. They also yell out “Idea!” when they have one and let me tell you that sometimes they shock me – like going to get the step stool to get something they want off the counter. Don’t try and shut a door on them anymore, they have them all figured out. Even if they don’t open the door on you they are going to stick their fingers under the door saying “tickle tickle.” They went through a phase where they wanted to diaper every toy in the house and some (ie Buzz Lightyear) presented a particular challenge. I ended up buying them small guitars after they found my full size guitar in the closet and enjoyed it so much. For that day they followed me around the house asking me to sing so they could play along and it still remains one of the favorite toys.

We have been busy this past month with all of our holiday activities and fun. We attended Jack and Will’s 3^rd birthday party and had a lot of fun bouncing around with all of our friends. My parents came to visit for Thanksgiving and we stayed busy. We took the kids to build their first build a bear and it was one of the cutest experiences ever with them. Landon went first and he melted my heart when he rubbed his little red heart on Riley before he put it inside of his Olaf. He considered himself to be such an expert after making his Olaf that he pushed Riley’s foot down on the pedal to assist her with making her bear. We went to see the lights at the Speedway on Thanksgiving and had our first “Santa test.” They did pretty good- Riley was actually the one that was uncertain, but she allowed us to be in the picture as well. We also saw the Christmas lights at the Botanical Garden with another Santa and they did great there and the lights were beautiful! We have done some shopping, some baking, arts and crafts, visited some breweries, decorated, school, saw some Christmas lights, went to Christmastown USA and visited the Aquarium. They love having the house decorated and they wake up almost every morning and ask me to turn the “Kissmass Tee” on so they can see the lights.

Landon likes to keep track of Riley and wants to hold her hand when we are out in public. He becomes upset if she does not want to hold his hand back – which is most of the time. We took them out shopping and running errands separately a few times and it went better when I had Landon with me as he is my emotional one. When we drove through Christmastown the other night, Landon was excited to lean out the window and yell “Mewy Kissmass” to all the people that were walking by. Landon’s current favorite show is Paw Patrol and he wants to watch it all day everyday. He has even been carrying around a figure with him for most of the week. He would prefer to eat peanut butter and jelly (aka jelly sandwich) for all meals of the day. He loves to play with trains and cars and make up stories about his characters and his cars. Landon struggles some this time of year with not feeling well. He tends to get respiratory infections and has had two bouts of coughs to deal with already in the last month. I would like for him to remain healthy, but my gut is telling me that respiratory infections are going to be a long term issue with my little buddy. (UPDATE: As I was writing this last night he woke up crying and a quick decision was made to take him to the ER. As we are visiting family in Atlanta area it was a bit unnerving to go to unfamiliar territory, but despite the massive amount of people in the ER they got him in fairly quickly once they witnessed his labored breathing. We left there five hours later after two breathing treatments and a steroid injection. Stupid croup)

It was a rough day... I didn't fight this one.

Helping daddy to build his work bench.

Riley is my little helper and wants to help with everything I do. She runs behind me and says “I help, I help. “ She even helps with Landon like the other day I caught her taking his shoes and socks off for him because he couldn’t get them off by himself. She never stops moving and doesn’t walk anywhere- she runs. She still carries her boppy around, but she is getting better about not wanting it all day long. She loves to eat cheese and yogurt (she calls it applesauce). Riley loves to play with her dolls and put together puzzles. She has recently decided that she likes to wear dresses and sparkly shoes. She wore her “Elsa” shoes for the whole day before we went to see Santa. She hums and or sings to herself a lot lately, she just seems to be discovering the different “noises” that she can make. She loves to sing and dance and take care of her baby dolls. She loves to do the crafts and will run right to her table if I suggest that we color or draw.