Merry Christmas!

Merry Christmas to all!

Update

Ah, the oft neglected blog. Anyway, here's the latest update. I love having potty trained children. But, I admit, I miss the days of not having to worry about when the last time they went to the bathroom was before we get in the car, the timing of the car ride, etc. Diapers were definitely more convenient. Sylvia will still have accidents occasionally at school during nap time, but she's fine at home. Mya has even been good at night, but we still put both of them in diapers for overnight.

They say the funniest things and I really need to start documenting them. I'm terrible at remembering exactly what it was they said. They constantly crack me up, though.

Their latest interests are hockey, snow, dinosaurs, animals, breakfast bars, oatmeal, waffles, christmas lights, counting, playing with "mommy and baby" toys, guinea pigs, clothes (skirts, scarves, tights, cozy pants, jammies), reading books and lots of music.

Here are a few recent pictures:

Poppi (my dad), Sylvia, me, Mya, Mendy w/ the Stanley Cup

Mya, Sylvia

Mya, Sylvia @ Strawberry Fields

Sylvia, Mya in Central Park

Potty Trained!

I'm going to say this with a good amount of confidence... Sylvia and Mya are potty trained! At just over 3, I expect accidents here and there, but they have consistently napped and gone overnight with no accidents. They tell us when they have to go and they can hold it for a short period of time when we are out and have to find a bathroom! I'm so proud of them! It was WAY easier than I expected it to be. I guess since we didn't stress it, they didn't feel stressed out.

Now, if only stopping them from whining was so easy...

Hiking!

We took a trip to Sleeping Giant the other day. I'm really surprised at how well the girls did. Sylvia loved hiking and I think Mya did well because she wanted to be with Sylvia! Ha! Anyways, here are a few pics from the trip:

Sylvia running up the trail

Mya in pink, wanting to rock climb:

Taking a drink break:

Mya walking Gaia:

Sylvia with Gaia:



At their 3 year well visit, Mya weighed in at exactly 27lbs and 36". Sylvia weighed in at 26lbs 12oz and 35 3/4". Just a touch smaller than Mya. They were both finally on the chart between the 5th and 10th percentile. My little pumpkins are minis! They go back to school on Thursday. And I go back on Monday. Mendy went all this week but then has off until Thursday, so she'll be with the girls until Wednesday. Another year begins for us.

3-year Update!

Hi Everyone!


Sylvia, Mya Sylvia, Mya

Can you believe we just turned three? And we can show you on our fingers, too! We did quite a bit of growing this year, in all sorts of ways. This year, we went to daycare and socialized with our friends. We've really begun to play WITH our friends, not just next to them. When we went on vacation to Florida and Georgia last month, we even learned how to swim by ourselves (with our tube floats).


Mya, Sylvia

We love to repeat whatever our mommies say (whether good or bad!) and they think we come up with some pretty funny things on our own. We really like to discover the world around us. We have definitely started to develop different personalities. Sylvia seems to be more sensitive, but she is also the leader and likes things her way.


Sylvia

Mya tends to be more independent from her mommies, but she follows along with whatever Sylvia wants to do.


Mya

Both of us love attention, but we also really like to play by ourselves. Our imaginations have really started growing and that's fun when we play together, but sometimes it's a little scary because we've started having some bad dreams. Mama is pretty good at explaining shadows and things to us, so we're still comfortable going to sleep. Speaking of sleep, we finally sleep a good 10 hours at night and still take our afternoon nap. At naptime, Sylvia falls asleep very quickly, and Mya needs to move around A LOT before she gets comfortable enough to sleep. At bedtime, we fall asleep on our own, but we have to have all of our stuffed animals with us and Mommies have to read us a book or sing songs. We love how Mommy reads the "monster" book (about Grover) and we love books about trains and dinosaurs and families and well, really, we love any book.


Sylvia, Mya

We know our ABCs and can count to 10. We like to sing songs (especially the itsy-bitsy spider, twinkle twinkle little star, old macdonald, and the wheels on the bus) and even make up our own songs about things that are going on around us. We like to do yoga and forward rolls. Most of all, we love to wear underwear! Mommies are just starting to let us wear it out of the house because sometimes we still have accidents, but we're getting good at telling Mommies when we have to go!


Mya, Sylvia

Well, that's about it from us for this year... Mommy edited and realized we stepped into the third person on occasion, but it's hard to speak on behalf of both of us... she's smart like that. :D

Love,
Sylvia & Mya

Memorial Day '08

We are having some gorgeous weather here this Memorial Day. This morning, we took out the backyard water park and the girls went nuts. They had fun splashing around and going down the slide (which really needed some baby oil or something... it was slow). This evening, we'll be going over to my parents' house for dinner and visiting with my sisters and their kids.

A few pictures of this morning's fun...









And yesterday, we went to Bassett Park. The girls had their first ice cream truck experience (as well as their first popsicle)! Needless to say, they enjoyed it.

Safety

Setting: Doctor's office after an hour's wait. 6:10 pm Tuesday

Mommy (to Mya and Sylvia): Do you think the sun will still be up when we go outside or will it be dark?

Sylvia (to Mommy): It dark outside. It scare me.

Mommy (to Sylvia): Why does it scare you?

Sylvia (to Mommy): The monsters.

Mommy (to Sylvia): There's no monsters.

Sylvia (to Mommy): You save me?

Mya (to Sylvia): No, the moon save you.

Sylvia (to Mya): Oh, the moon. You save me?

Mya (to Sylvia): No, I not a mommy.

My kids know how the world works. And honestly, what can keep you more safe in your sleep than a pile of stuffed animals?

Gum

Ok, who knew gum could be so cute? They were dying to chew it and they know how to spit it out, so I let them go for it (supervised because i'm nervous like that). They looked like little valley girls, so I had to get it on tape! I also love how they know the camera and were yelling "cheese" as if to say "take the dang picture already!"

Spring has Sprung

If it wasn't official before, it is now. I'm no good at keeping up on here. But I won't give up! If for nothing else, I feel like I need somewhere to record all of the happenings with my little ones so that I don't forget in the "mommyhaze". It's really hard for me to believe that they will grow up to be women, independent of Mendy and me. At the same time, I know that day will come like a bullet train and before I know it, they'll be out on their own.

Here's a random aside for you: Why is it that experiences we share as human beings stay the same generation after generation and our human development stops it from becoming innate? I mean, every mother has this feeling at some point, but none know how to "handle" it until it's done... they try to pass on the knowledge to younger mothers, but they won't get it until they live through it themselves? What is so necessary about the actual experience?

Enough philosophy.

Cute things the girls do: they like to ride their bikes outside (which really means push off the ground, not the pedals), go to birthday parties (everytime they see a cake, they sing happy birthday to themselves), jump off of things, eat pizza, play in the big sandbox at the park, play "catch" (also known as "I throw, You chase"), pet animals, run, "swim", do yoga with me.

Cute things the girls say: well, they say a lot of cute stuff. Most of the time they have little conversations that mimic what Mendy and I say. They are starting to have more pretend play, so they get more in depth in their games of "kitchen" and "talking on the phone".

We haven't watched nearly as much TV lately now that the weather is nicer... THANK GOD. I really thought Connecticut was going to be the death of me this year. I was GA homesick quite a bit... thinking about all the Piedmont Park time the girls are missing!

Well, that's that and I hope I get better at posting (really).

ABCs

I don't have a lot of time to post tonight, but I wanted to stop by with the latest accomplishement. Here it is!

Valentine's Day

Happy Valentine's Day to all!
Love,
Mya and Sylvia





These girls have a blast whatever they do. I'm so proud of them. They're getting much more expressive and understanding of the world. It makes me so happy to watch them grow and become little people. Watch out world, here they come!

Update: long overdue.

Well, it's been quite a while since I've updated the Mommyblog. I guess that's what happens when the lights of your life become increasing mobile and excited about every new opportunity! The girls have been a joy to watch in the past few months. They have become very attached to each other as friends and playmates, but will still play well with the other kids at their daycare. They seem to be happy any time they get to experience something new. Definitely my kids! They are having a difficult time handling all the indoor time here in Connecticut in the cold weather, but we try to make things as fun as possible. Lots of trips to the mall playgrounds and indoor playscapes. Trips to Grandma and Poppi's house and to see their cousins. They're learning to speak their minds and not give in. These are great qualities and ones I hope to foster as adults... but let me tell you, it kind of sucks when they're two and a half!!

Anyway, they absolutely enjoyed their Christmas this year. They really understood the whole "santa" thing this year. Every tree they saw, they said "Oooh! Presents... For me?!" Great, now I have little materialistic children! They got to fly in an airplane to see Papaw and Nana in Georgia. They were quite well behaved, especially for being off-schedule. As luck would have it, Sylvia ended up with a little stomach bug on our last day, but seemed to sleep it off pretty quickly and was okay for the flight home.


We spent New Year's Eve with their cousins and had fun wearing hats and blowing noise makers until all hours of the night... (which for me , lately, means 12:01).


Some of the cute things I've missed updating are the sayings they've come up with. They call ketchup, "kepitch". They tell you to "shhh! quiet, I'm on the phone" when they play with our cell phones. They tell you, "better go to sleep, the train is coming!" because if you're not sleeping, the Polar Express won't pick you up. They say, "listen, Mommy, no touch, it's hot... okay?" when they make food in their kitchen for us and they make very concerned faces... especially Sylvia.

Sylvia seems to be the serious of the two and Mya seems to be the jokester. But on the whole, they're both very silly girls. Mya is still the heavier of the two and I think they're pretty much the same height at this point.

I'll try to get on here more often to post... try being the operative word.

My life is good.