10 months

Olivia,
My dear where has the time gone? I can hardly believe your 1 year birthday is just around the corner. Here is a short run down of what you are doing these days and your likes and dislikes.
~You can clap your hands together and wave bye bye.
~You can say nah nah and da da
~You can give us kisses when we ask for them. Wide open mouth kisses with a lot of tongue. The best kind! You don’t always do it on command but you can. Your daddy taught you that. I will have to give him credit for it I guess!
~You get down on your belly to look for things that have gone up under couches and chairs
~You have got the cruising thing down and can stand for a few seconds at a time with out holding onto anything. You don’t do it to often but you can do it.

~You grab at everything within arms (or fingers) length and you have a strong grip
~Everything under the sun goes in your mouth. Here’s a short list of some things I have dug out:
      *Paper. Lots and lots and lots of paper
      *Lint
      *Squeenkies (And I have held true to my promise to your sister and thrown them away if I dig them                 out of your mouth. The first time it happened, oh boy. I didn’t think she’d ever recover! But she learned her lesson fairly well and it’s only happened once more.)
      *A FLY. That was so gross
      * Popcorn kernels ( twins are no longer allowed to eat pop corn on the floor)

     
     

~You love to watch Mickey Mouse, Baby Einstein and pretty much any thing else the twins like to
~You love your Minnie Mouse doll and have started crawling around with it in your hand. So cute! It’s also the first thing that I told you to go get and you went and got it.
~You talk to books and love to be read to
~You HATE the play yard. So much so you scream cry every time I put you in it. I’m not sure why though because it has plenty of toys and plenty of room for you to crawl around in. And you used to like it up till about 2 months ago. The play house was even in there but that still didn’t help. So I put the house in the living room and have pretty much given up on the play yard and will be taking it down soon. Since I put the house in the living room you adore it and will play with it for ever.

~You are an attention hog. And I do mean it!! But then who can blame you when every one in this house pretty much attends to your every need at the moment you need it.
~ You screech worse than a screech owl when you want attention or when somethings not going your way.
~ You are an attention hog. Oops, did I already say that? Well, you are. If we are at the supper table and no one is paying you any attention you start screeching until someone looks at you or talks to you.
~You love to stand at the window in the living room and look out.

The only time thighs and bootay cellulite like this are adorable!!

Oh Olivia I don’t want you to grow up. I am enjoying our life with you SO MUCH!! And this stage in particular because you are such a little mama’s girl right now! Oh you love you some daddy and you get excited when you see him and you tease him by turning away from him when he tries to kiss you while you have a HUGE grin on your face. But, you love me! I am definitely your #1 choice and I wouldn’t trade that for any thing in the whole wide world!! I love you to the moon and back, sweet darling baby girl.

Smurf Mom

James started Smurf t-ball up at the rec department here in Cairo this week and he loves it so far. He got a little fidgety the first night, when he wasn’t getting any action, and told his daddy “Why isn’t any body giving me a turn? That’s not fair" and then "I am so done with t-ball.”  I wonder where in the world he could of possibly learned the phrase “I am so done with so and so” and how he knows the correct content to us it in.

Even though it’s been real hot, he has had a blast. He’s a hustler and doesn’t mind running in to home plate all the way from the out field just to try and get the ball. But then again, none of those little Smurf’s mind doing that. You want to talk about quality entertainment, just throw a bunch of preschoolers out on a baseball field and tell them to get the ball. It’s hilarious to watch them all go after it at the same time. We have games on Monday’s and Thursday’s at 6:00 starting next week and going through the end of May. Needless to say, they aren’t taking swim lessons any more!

To top it all off Cason, James’ very bestest friend in the whole world, is on his team! A few people have asked me why Audrey isn’t playing and my first response is because she is doing dance and doesn’t need another activity, swimming was enough. But the more I think about it, I just can’t see Audrey out on a baseball field runnin after a ball, hitting a ball and actually having fun standing out in the heat. We’ve only been out to the field 2x and she “gets so bored” and drives me a little batty by constantly saying “when is it going to be over? I’m so bored. Mama, I’m so thirsty. Mama, I don’t want to sit on the ground. Mama, mama, mama.” I have to keep reminding her that her brother comes to her dance class every week and sits patiently and watches her dance. To which she just lets out a big old sigh and if she were a little bit older would probably roll her eyes at me. She may change her mind (and her ways) in later years but right now Audge podge is too girly to play ball!!

Shower time

Monday night I was helping Audrey take a shower (she’s not the best at getting all the soap out of her hair just yet) and Olivia was crawling around on the bathroom floor. The next thing I knew she was half way into the shower, clothes and all, so I just let her keep on going. She’s a mess!!

9 months

Olivia,
Sweet Olivia. You have a new “word” nah nah. It’s how you get my attention so looks like I am going to be nah nah for a while. Maybe even forever. Last night at the supper table you were trying to get my attention so badly that you started screeching nah nah so loud we all stopped talking and looked at you. Your screech was so intense we thought something was wrong but just as soon as I looked at you and asked “what?” you started cheesing it up. We think know that you are a little lot spoiled. And an attention hog.

You have officially started cruising and can stand for about 15 seconds with out holding on to anything. You try and talk so hard to us and already have so many different sounds when you talk. You get very intense about things and will study something hard and then turn and look at me and try your best to talk about what you just saw. You have two teeth and there is no food that you wont eat. Well, except for yogurt but only because it’s cold. You’re not a fan of cold stuff yet.

You love to stand at the window and talk to the world out side. You love to tear all the magazines to shreds and you love trying to find ways to escape the barricade I had to create in the living room to contain you. You’ve already gotten stuck between the couch and playpen twice and you got stuck on a table. You dance at the music from your piano and start talking really loud when it comes on. Sometimes you talk really loud when I am rocking you to sleep and I have begun to think that you are trying to sing when you do this.

My absolute favorite thing that you do though is play hide and seek with me. For instance, you will be in your bed crying your eyes out (not really because you rarely have tears) like the whole world is crashing in upon you and the moment I open the door and you see my face, you take a nose dive for the corner of your bed, hide your face, and pull it up slowly to look at me with a big grin and then you find the corner again. You definitely have a little whit about you already. You think so many things are funny and if we laugh at something you do, you laugh and do it again to make us laugh some more. If my predictions are correct, you will be our little clown.

James and Audrey still think you are the cats meow and love to entertain you and play with you and just everything about you. James loves to get in your face and make funny faces and you most always laugh at him. Audrey is still obsessed with your feet. And I do mean obsessed. She told me the other day that if she could, she would cute your feet off and eat them because they are so yummy. Wowza.

The trials of a 4 year old

In a previous post about the YMCA I mentioned the issues a certain member of our family has with the nursery. I will elaborate on that today. When I first found out that there was a nursery I could hardly contain my excitement! I had become an avid gym member at our local gym 3-4 nights a week a couple years ago and really got in to it. Jon was a sweetie to take the bath/bedtime shift so I could go after supper. Then I got pregnant with Olivia and all desires of exercising or exerting myself more than was necessary went out the window. Period. During my pregnancy Jon decided to go back to school and get his master’s degree so after Olivia was born the night time routine was all me and at the end of that the last thing I wanted to do was go run a few miles. So when I discovered the nursery at a place that had far more weights and exercise equipment than our local gym has ever dreamed of providing and where I was definitely going to be coming at least 2 times a week I said “Where’s the dotted line?”

When I first explained to the twins what we were going to do they weren’t quite sure of it. After all, this would be the closest they’ve been to day care! They had been seeing the play ground and that intrigued them slightly. Then when we got in there and they saw all the toys they were even more intrigued. But even though I had been talking it up for a day or two and made sure they understood that I was coming back and that all the grownups that worked there were nice or I wouldn’t leave them in their care, James started to cry a little. I reminded him he was going to get to swim afterwards and that helped. It also helped that he had Audrey by his side who seemed untouched by the fact that I was leaving them in a strange place with lots of strangers.

After about a week or so of going he started to complain when I’d say they were going. Here’s how that first investigative conversation went and many more after that:
James: Mama!!! I don’t want to go to the nursery!!!
Me: Why not????
James: Because I don’t like it there!!!
Me: Why not?
James: Because it’s not fun there!!
Me: But I thought you liked it??
James: No. I don’t like it.
Me: Well, you have to give me a reason
James: That mean boy said we were babies
Audrey: Yeah!!!! He said we were babies and we’re not!!!!
Me: Well, when he starts to tease you just go play somewhere else

A couple visits later.....
James: I don’t want to go to the nursery!!
Me: Why not???
James: Because it’s not fun there
Me: Why not? There’s tons of toys and a play ground
James: But that mean baby pinched me on the face!!!!!
Audrey: Yeah!!! And that mean kid called us babies!!
Me: He called you babies again???
James: No.

A couple visits later......
James: I don’t want to go to the nursery!!!
Me: Why not????
James: Because it’s not fun there!!!
Me: But every time I come pick you up you are always having fun. I can see you!!!
James: There’s nothing but baby toys there and it’s not fun!! And that baby pinched me.
Audrey: Yeah!!! And that mean kid called us babies!!!

A couple visits later....
James: I don’t want to go to the nursery!!!!
Me: Well, you are going. End of story.
James: But it’s not fun there!! (crying now) It’s all baby toys!! No big kid toys!!!
Audrey: But James, I like the nursery.
Me: Rolling my eyes and seriously tired of the same argument every single time

A couple visits later....
James: I don’t want to go to the nursery!!!
Audrey: But James it’s fun there!!
James: No it’s not
Me: James, has the big kids picked on you any more?
James: No
Me: James, has the baby pinched you any more?
James: No
Me: James, do the grownups let you watch t.v., give you snacks, do arts and crafts with you and let you go outside most of the time?
James: Yes
Me: Well, you need to forgot about the “bad” things that happened to you and just enjoy all the fun things that you get to do. Can you do this for me? I really like to workout.
James: OK

Every single time I say we are going we have pretty much the same conversations. Audrey likes it and James does not. James got a bad taste in his mouth those first few times and now it’s just a stigma he has. However, now that the weather is always pleasant at the end of the day and since we have changed times they are always out on the play ground when we get there. This has seemed to help a little perhaps. He left a toy there on Monday and is so excited to be going today so he can get his toy! Even though it’s been rather tiresome having to have the same conversation and hear the same whiney complaints time after time, I’m glad we have encountered this experience at this point in his life. And I feel like I have to say that all the ladies that work in the nursery that oversee the care of James and Audrey (and Olivia too) are wonderful ladies. Any parent can “sneak up” at any point and time to “watch” how their children are being treated and I have never once encountered a child being mistreated or seen someone turn a blind eye to inappropriate behavior (such as big kids picking on little kids). I feel very confident in this and if I for a moment thought James had been or was being improperly taken care of for the short hour I leave them there, I wouldn’t leave them. Seriously, James just doesn’t forget things and takes things very personal!!

Graduation

Maybe the title should be “advancement” but whatever. James and Audrey graduated (or advanced) from their Pike class to a Guppy class in swim lessons. They are doing so great and love every single minute of it!!! Last month we switched days and got a different teacher and I am so glad that we did. Coach Amber is beyond wonderful. The kids adore her, respect her and have learned so much in just the month we’ve known her! Audrey has come so far, so, so far. I am so proud of her as she now jumps off the diving board into the 12 feet deep water and swims to the bottom in the shallow water to get toys. And James continues to amaze me at his natural skill. He picks up every new thing almost instantly and glides through the water like a pro. I think I can see a swim team in his future!! The downside of advancing? The Guppy class starts 40 minutes later than the Pike class and lasts about 15 minutes longer so our Monday’s and Wednesday’s just got a lot longer! But, it’s well worth it.

Michael Jr. in position :)

James’ best bud in the whole world started lessons

last month and the 3 of them had such a blast together.

But Cason started about 4 months behind them so he is still in 

Pike classes. But they still get to splash around together for

a few minutes anyway!

(

Just Sayin'

And they wonder why I don’t let them check out books from the library any more.