... and babies make four: Our life with twins. : February 2018

So, the last time we “chatted” was about 2 months ago and approximately 7 million things have happened since then, but I remember about 20. (Pregnancy brain lasts for years after pregnancy apparently). To pick up where I left off… December was spent in a whirlwind of holiday festivities. We spent a few days in Atlanta and drove back up here on Christmas day. It wasn’t my ideal scenario as I have always stood firm on wanting the kids to wake up in their own beds on Christmas and let them “schedule” the opening and playing as it should be about them, but living in an apartment this year threw off the plans a little. We had a surprise of presents still at the apartment for them when we arrived home and they spent the night playing. (Mommy did have to make a quick trip out for batteries that Santa forgot to include and picking up the traditional frozen appetizer dinner from your local Walgreens freezer as I also forgot to have a meal planned in my excitement to get home) While in Atlanta area we did attend the lights and Christmas festival at Stone Mountain Park and it was beautiful! I am a sucker for Christmas lights and this one did not disappoint. The rest of the year was spent cleaning and organizing the apartment to allow room for the new toys! We did attend a very prestigious Noon Years Eve party which involved glitter falling for the ceiling, so the kids were impressed.

There have been trips to Discovery Place Kids and trips to the aquarium. We went bouncing at Defy Gravity a few times spent some time in the McDonald’s play place. We attended a few story times, one of which was lead by a ballerina and Riley was in love! Birthday party at Bounce U and one at a stable during which they each got to ride a horse! Mommy finally found a play group and we have been having a lot of fun joining them on activities! (Of course, I would find a local play group right before we are moving – my kind of luck. :/ ) There has been A LOT of furniture shopping and the kids of done well – they are finally big enough/potty trained and can go into the play center at IKEA. One hour of kid free shopping came in handy the other night when we filled up THREE CARTS. We have watched the house progress and the BIG NEWS is we close on Tuesday! So now our life for the next week will be spent waiting packing the apartment and waiting on deliveries at the house. My parents and Trey are coming for a visit and to help with the set up – and shopping. J I am sure they will be grateful to get away from the snow… we did have one good snow here this winter. The kids and I went outside to play and it was nice to not have to worry about getting out of the driveway! Overall, it appears we have been busy. I am also still working part time, doing some contract work, and then I am taking 7 credit hours this semester online – but I am surviving. The kids are getting a little more time at home – and maybe a little more screen time- so I can balance it all and get some homework done. Once we get in the house though I plan to be able to open the back door and tell them to go play outside!

I think the current favorite movie for both of them is Sing. They have developed an elaborate song and dance sequence for the final performance and it can only get better when they have more room. They also love the movie Trolls – again for the music and dancing. Most of the time they play well together, but they have wanted to spend more time playing alone lately and that can be challenging when one wants to play alone and the other does not. It is fun watching them play together and have their imaginations creating an entire world I cannot see. The current favorite TV show for both seems to be Shimmer and Shine and Landon can sing the entire theme song. Curious George still holds a close second though, despite the fact they have seen each episode about 100 times. We have been working with them on their letters using white boards and the magnet letters. They really are improving! I will admit I have not done well with keeping up with any of the lesson plans I developed- my own classes have taken up much of my free time and there just aren’t enough hours in the day! I am hoping to find them preschool program a couple days a week once we get moved. We also signed them up for the local soccer program.

Riley gets herself dressed every morning and it has made for some interesting outfits, but we just roll with it. I have been growing her bangs out and it is an epic battle daily for me to pull her hair out of her eyes. She loves to run and jump and does not sit still for long, which makes it challenging to do any type of school work with her, but she is improving. She loves to any type of animal and we carry a toy animal with us wherever we go. She wants to be increasingly independent: pouring her own juice, helping me with laundry and dishes, getting her food ready, buckling the car seat, etc. She likes to color and draw and put puzzles together. She dresses and undresses her Barbies a couple times a day. She likes to be read too and once she memorizes the book, she wants to read it to you too. Her favorite foods remain cheese and yogurt and she has developed an affinity for cranberry juice. She still loves to snuggle in with me and will drag her red blanket over and ask to sit in my lap. Riley has made amazing strides on the potty with the assistance of a Pediatric GI. She has helped us to find the right balance of medications to help and our “accidents” since then have been minimal.

Landon talks non-stop, especially in the car. He talks about everything we drive by and asks questions, so we spend some of our time researching how things work because he asked. (Like why milk jugs have indents on the side) He loves cars and building tracks with his Matchbox sets – I think daddy might like that too. He plays with his super heroes and Rescue Bots and typically will take 2-3 toys with us every time we leave the house. Food has become a bit of a challenge. He is a VERY SLOW eater and spent 2 hours the other night eating one hot dog. His favorite food is peanut butter and jelly with chocolate milk. He also loves to “read” books and have books read to him. We have been working with him to stand up while going potty and that has been interesting as well as encouraging him to go during the night. During this whole process, we taught him the anatomically correct word for his anatomy. As a result, the word has become a favorite at times and it is not a surprise if he will ask me about a particular animal having a “penis” (which sounds more like peanut) or a “butt.” He does have a little bit of a lisp when he talks, like with the word sleep. The sl- sounds more like a thl- and well it is pretty cute. He makes up “jokes” to make me laugh – which is usually just him saying the word “butt” and laughing at himself so then I laugh too.