Decade Comes to A Close

It's amazing to think that this decade is almost over, especially the year 2009. Since I turned 20 in the year 2000, you could say that my entire adult life has been formed during this decade.

2000 - turned 20 leaving my teen years officially behind

2001 - turned 21, graduated from Harding University, moved to the Seattle area to start my first full time job as a computer programmer at ATS

2002 - began the first long-term romantic relationship of my life

2003 - married my best friend Barry Love, traveled to Hawaii twice

2004 - spent a summer traveling back and forth to San Diego to be with Barry; Barry finished his contract with the Navy in the fall

2005 - just working and traveling

2006 - moved to Hobbs, NM working from home; Barry started his new job at the Nuclear Enrichment Facility

2007 - quit my job as a computer programmer; we bought our first house; spent 2 months living in and traveling through Europe with Barry; got my first real pet, a dog named Henrey

2008 - gave birth to twins Ryan and Alyna

2009 has definitely been the defining year of my life so far. I love my new job as a stay at home mom even with all its stress and troubles. The joy my babies have brought into the house more than makes up for the sleepless nights and hair pulling days.

It's amazing to look back at how small they were at the beginning of the year. We seem to have hit all their major infant milestones in 2009, and it is such a blessing from God to watch them grow.




They learned to roll over at the beginning of the year. This led to much more interaction between them including wrestling.




They learned to sit up just shortly after their 6 month birthday. This is also at the time of their first road trip. We drove about 10 hours to Colorado to spend a week at Nana and Papa's house. At 8 months old they took their first bath in the big bath tub. Ryan was belly crawling and pulling up at 7 months old.


Alyna started crawling and pulling up at about 9 months old. Their interaction definitely changed when she could follow Ryan everywhere he went. We drove to Austin, TX in July to see Aunts and Uncles and play with cousins and new dogs. They love dogs.


They celebrated their first birthday in September, and their first Christmas where they were active participants. At 15 months old they are each other's best friends. They teach each other fun games and how to get into trouble.

God definitely blessed our family in 2009. I already know he has even more blessings in store for us in 2010, and look forward to all the changes it will bring.

May God comfort you as this year ends, and rain down blessings in your life during the next.

Christmas '09

Christmas with kids is a lot more fun...


Grandma and Grandpa Lee were visiting from Tennessee



Their stockings were filled with books, and plates/bowls/cups/utensils with pictures of cars and fairies.



They even helped unwrap the presents.



Cars with a race track ramp were sure to be a hit with Ryan.




Alyna loves her musical tea set.




Ryan had to help Daddy put the wagon together.




They loved cruising through the house in their new red wagon. Later they filled it with toys, and climbed in all over them.

Merry Christmas!

We are celebrating the special day a few days early this year because of Barry's work schedule. He took some time off at Thanksgiving, so he has to work his normal schedule next week which is the 23rd through the 26th. It turns out to work well for Grandpa and Grandma who are driving down from Tennessee to be with us for our Christmas, and can still make it over to Austin on Christmas day to celebrate with their other grandchildren.

I hope you've enjoyed my blog this year. As the kids grow there is so much we learn from them about love, life and laughter.

From our house to yours... have a very Merry Christmas!

Two front teeth...

The song "All I want for Christmas is my two front teeth," is taking on a new meaning in our house this year.

Until before Thanksgiving both of our 14 month olds still only had their two bottom teeth. One of Ryan's top front teeth came in over Thanksgiving, and the other popped down last week. Both of Alyna's front top teeth started bulging last week, and one broke through the skin yesterday.

This has definitely been a sleepless month in our house. Every time Ryan gets a new tooth he develops a cold. I guess it's just too much for his body to fight against all at once. Since I don't get any sleep while he's teething and has a cold, I end up with the cold too.

On to other news...

Both kids are loving this Christmas thing. Mommy bought them new books, wrapped the pictures in the living room with fun paper, and put up this tree with neat lights and little balls all over it. We were thinking of putting the tree in the play pen, but we were at several houses lately where the kids left the trees alone except for a little touching. They have done well so far. The worst thing has been that Ryan has tried to shake it. All the ornaments are out of reach... and none are glass.

I bought a few books from the store with Santa, Rudolph, and the nativity story so they can learn about the holiday season. They love the Santa book the best because the last page makes the "Ho ho ho" sounds.

Alyna started to really organize things this week. She likes to put toys inside boxes, or up on the ottoman. I think it means it's time to start playing the "clean up" game. She also amazed us by kicking the soccer ball across the back yard a few days ago. She was dribbling the ball with each foot as she walked. This was definitely on purpose. After a few steps she'd kick it even farther ahead and go get it. We just watched and encouraged her to keep doing it.

you can tell...

You can just tell when your toddlers aren't feeling well because they don't go play when they see their toys.

Ryan felt feverish all night, and kept waking up at least every 2 hours. Yes, he is teething. His other top front tooth is coming in just in time for Christmas. This morning his temperature was 99.7, and all he wanted to do was cuddle on the couch. I put "Mary Poppins" on after breakfast, and he just laid on my chest watching it while Alyna ran around playing and reading books. This picture is from when I had to get up to change Alyna's diaper. He fussed at first, but then he just sat there looking pitiful.



At this moment, he's taking a morning nap, and I had to put the baby gate up in the hallway so Alyna won't go wake him up. They don't know what to do without each other.

developing minds

I posted a couple different sets of pictures the last week, so if you haven't seen them be sure to scroll down and take a look...

The twins are constantly learning these days, and I thought I should share some of their new toddler tricks.

Ryan:
Ryan now practices walking backwards just like Alyna has been doing for a month now. And I credit watching Imagination Movers for his ability to turn in circles. I don't think many 14 month olds can do that. It's really funny when he gets dizzy and doesn't know why he's walking sideways.

The other day when I brought groceries home from WalMart, he helped out by taking things out of the bags and handing them to us. It was great. We just had to make sure all the bags of canned goods and jars were out of reach so he wouldn't drop them on his toes.

Ryan, the adventurer, also went down the slide on the playset by himself yesterday... feet down on his tummy.

Oh, and he loves the movie Cars... he sat on the couch and watched the second half today while Alyna ran around playing. Now he's off saying VRoom while playing with balls on a ramp.

Alyna:
Alyna has learned to shake her head no. It's really cute cause her shoulders move too.

She is following in her Mommy's footsteps by turning into a little fish. The one time we swam in a big pool this summer she loved laying on her back with us kicking her feet. It became how we rinsed her hair out in the bath tub. We lean her back and say "Kick, kick," and splash water on her head. Last week, she started to lay back in the water by herself. She even arches her back so all of her hair floats around her. When she's done, she'll roll to the side making sure to lift her face high enough not to be in the water... most of the time. Then she promptly lays back again. Ryan always wants to try it, but then becomes nervous when you start to lay him down.

She has also learned how to throw away trash. This morning I heard her trying to open the cabinet under the sink where the trash can is. Of course, it is childproofed so she couldn't get it to open. I saw that she had a small piece of paper in her hands that she was trying to throw away. So I opened the cabinet for her, let her put it in the trash can, and then told her to shut the door. She loves to open and shut doors. About ten minutes later she brought me a dryer sheet she found so we went to throw it away too. Ryan joined in by bringing something he found on the floor as well. What a lovely new game this is.

Alyna is perfecting the art of manipulation. When Ryan has a toy she wants she will bring him another one. He'll sometimes take that one and she can have what she wants and walk away before he notices. She did this yesterday outside. Ryan was on the red riding toy, and she wanted to get on. He wouldn't get off, and I told her it was his turn because he was on it. She walked away and got the ball, brought it to Ryan and then threw it on the ground. It bounced a couple feet away, and Ryan got off to pursue it. Alyna happily mounted the riding toy with a big grin on her face. When Ryan came back and was upset I told him, "you got off so it's Alyna's turn now." It was only fair because he was the one who got off to go get the ball. It's payback for all the times he just comes up and uses his superior strength to wrestle a toy away from her.

I've had two "slightly older" women friends tell me that she knows how to do that because she's a girl, and that it will get worse over the years. Something to look forward to...

Santa And Snow

On Friday night the twins met Santa Claus for the first time at Barry's company's Christmas party. They weren't even upset, though they were a little anxious just to get down and run around. They were wearing outfits from Grandma Lee. Thanks Grandma, they were very cute.

 

 

On Saturday morning we played outside in the snow that had fallen on Thursday and Friday.

 

 

Fall Crunches

I meant to post some pictures of crunching the fall leaves a few weeks ago... so here they are now.

Pictures say it all

Our dog Henrey thought we would feed him sooner if he performed some tricks.


Ryan's newest climbing spot. We had to remove the old computer from the desk because they just wouldn't leave the cords alone. Ryan re-purposed the cabinet quickly.


I brought out their old activity center from when they were 3-6 months old... it occupied them for at least 1/2 an hour.



These are some of the rejects from our Christmas card photo shoot this morning. We ended up with some great ones that I'll post later, but in a way these are more dear to my heart.




(In this last one, Ryan was bored with his book, so I had traded them... apparently Alyna wasn't done reading the blue one.)

a hectic sunday morning

This is what happens when Mommy tries to do dishes and get ready for church without putting a video on to entertain the twins.



Of course, I couldn't really be mad at them. I left the box of kleenex on the end table next to the couch, and I know Ryan can now climb up onto the couch by himself. It wasn't an issue all week because there were enough people around to watch it, and I forgot to move the box again when they left.

... so I grabbed the camera.

(Oh, and that small trash can was empty to begin with...)

preparations

We are in cleaning mode right now. A little bit yesterday, a little today, and finishing up tomorrow. Barry's parents, sister, brother and his wife will all be here Wednesday night through Saturday morning. I'm looking forward to it, but it's also a lot of work.

We'll eat some good food, do some household projects, and celebrate Joel's birthday (it's not until December, but still).

The kids going to have fun playing with everyone, and hopefully the extra dog will learn to be good with them.

complete thoughts

It always surprises me when the twins make another developmental leap... I know it shouldn't.

Ryan has been babbling complete sentences for weeks now; meaning that he babbles for 5 seconds but you can't pick out a single word. This morning he said two phrases very clearly. They were complete thoughts, at the right moment, and totally shocked me.

He was sitting in my lap, and Alyna was playing inside an end table next to the couch. He heard her playing, got off my lap, and headed in the opposite direction. When he heard a noise from her he quickly turned around and walked to where she was. He saw her and said, "There she is," with a big smile on his face. Every word was clearly articulated.

A little later I pulled the exercise mat out of the closet and helped them both do somersaults and back bends. I showed Ryan to put his head down and then lifted his hips to roll him over. On about the third time he popped right up and said, "I did it." Again it was very clear.

He also has a new habit of saying "ya, ya, ya, ya," when he's doing something that you're telling him not to do. It reminds me of the "yep, yep" aliens that used to be on "Sesame Street" (which they've never seen).

Alyna has been using her body language more these days to express herself. She points and makes hand gestures when she wants something/someone. She says a "ma" word that essentially means "mine."

Yesterday I rotated in a box of toys that had been put up a month ago. It was lots of fun seeing what they picked out to play with that they had missed. I think the rolling puppy dog will definitely stay out here from now on.

more childproofing

Since they turned 1 we had opened up the dining room and kitchen areas for the toddling twins to explore. They just weren't content to stay in the living room anymore. That led us to move things around, and put things away. Now we have to do it again. Things that they hadn't touched in 2 months are now in their sights.

We have a wooden stand holding a crock with a spout which holds 5 gallon jugs of purified water. Grandma warned me I'd have to put it up higher somewhere or they would let the water run everywhere. We actually have taught them that it is not for them to touch, and for the most part they obey.

Last night Ryan decided to put his hands on the stand and push... sure enough, the 19 pound strong man had enough leverage to tip the 30+ pound water stand... but fortunately it was caught by the bookshelf next to it before it tipped far enough to spill over. So we have moved it to the counter top where it is partially blocking a cabinet we don't use every day.

He also climbed up into the bookshelf next to that water jug for the first time yesterday. It's a pretty flimsy shelf unit, but we kept it so full of things for them to pull off that they actually hadn't played with the shelves. The 4 corners are poles, and Ryan managed to climb through the poles onto the shelf. His legs were still hanging out the end. When I saw it, I actually made him wait there fussing until I got a picture. Today, Alyna started trying to shake the whole shelf unit to get things off the top shelf... so away goes the bookshelf. We'll have to put our clutter somewhere else.

They also have started to pull out the low drawers and climb inside them. We thought it was fine at first until we realized they were actually bending the bottoms out of the drawers. Barry can fix them, but every time they climb in it breaks again.

There have been a couple other instances this week where the twins found things on the floor they shouldn't have...

Sometimes being a parent is very scary.

sweet stuff

The other night before bed, the four of use sat on the couch reading books. At this moment Ryan was in my lap, and Alyna was in Barry's lap. I reached over and stroked Barry's hair. Alyna glanced up with a curious look on her face. Then she reached up and stroked her Daddy's hair too. So I reached over and stroked her hair. She grinned, and went back to reading her book.

Ryan and Alyna woke up at 6 yesterday morning, and we were trying very hard to get them to go back to sleep. They have had colds for several days now, but keep waking up early and cranky. Barry finally decided to take Alyna into our room and see if she would sleep on his chest. I tried that with Ryan for about 30 seconds before he decided it would be more fun just to play there. So we tried the recliner in their room, and finally moved to the living room because he just wanted to play. He would lay with me on the couch for 5 minutes, then get up and run around the room for 5 minutes, and then come back for another snuggle. At one point he lifted his head off my chest and asked, "nina? dada?" I smiled and said, "Alyna and Daddy are sleeping," at which point he slid off the couch and started to run down the hallway to go wake them up. I had to rush to grab him. We snuggled, ate breakfast, and played together until about 8 o'clock when Alyna finally woke up and Daddy brought her out.

This morning they slept until 7... hooray for that.

Oh, and I'd like to say congratulations to my dad. Not only has he lost over 25 pounds and gotten off all his medications just since this summer, but he has also joined the online community full blast. He joined Facebook and a started a blog all in one week. If you know him or would like to find out about how he's gotten healthy, visit his blog.
Kerbe's Blog: Can You Hear God Singing

that's what parents do

As parents in our generation, there is lots of information available about where our children are "supposed" to be developmentally. In some ways this is a bad thing. We worry about when our children will reach the next milestone, whether they will be as smart as their peers, and whether they are growing to their full potential.

We know Alyna and Ryan are very smart because they are reaching milestones above their monthly age. They each say half a dozen words regularly and clearly. They are starting to follow directions and play games. They each have areas where they excel.

Our worry lately has been mostly in the growth area. Since the babies were only 5 lbs at birth we knew they had some catching up to do. All the books say that twins will catch up in every way by age 2. That is all well and good, but it doesn't make us feel better when we see our friend's 9 month old who is bigger than our 13 month olds.

Ryan is about an inch taller than Alyna, but she weighs half a pound more. She is the first of the two to officially cross the 20 pound mark. I checked this morning on the growth percentile chart and they seem to be fine. When they were born, both were in the 5-10 percentiles in weight, and Ryan was in the 10-25 percentile for height.

Ryan is in the 10-25 percentile for height, 5 percentile for weight.

Alyna is in the 5 percentile for height, 10-25 percentile for weight.

The doctor's are never worried. Our babies are healthy and growing. That's all you are supposed to look at. If they are growing and not dropping percentiles, then they are fine. So we have to be patient and know that God knows exactly how fast they should grow.

Nothing is safe

Ryan managed to pop off the bolt cap that covers the screw in the base of the toilet. Alyna managed to stuff it in her mouth, but couldn't get it back out so she came to me with all this cheerios drool dripping from her mouth.

I discovered Ryan can reach the lowest of the buttons now on the washer/dryer control panels. So the control lock button that I thought was useless 3 years ago is now a very nice feature to have.

Ugh, nothing is truly childproof it seems. The worst part is that you don't know about it until they get into it.




Oh, and I got 7 hours uninterrupted sleep last night (plus some snooze time) so I feel great this morning.

a tired house

It just seems that whenever the weather changes, the babies get restless and fussy. We had 2 or 3 really good nights sleep last week, but the past few days have been trying. They keep alternating waking up every couple hours which leaves Mommy with very few full sleep cycles. Last night we went to bed at 9:30 and I got 5 hours good sleep plus a couple naps before 6:15 wake up this morning.

And they are crying and cranky about everything.

They've been that way the last couple days. Ryan's got a front top tooth that's bulging and about to pop through. I know that must be painful, but he's also just tired because he wakes up before he should and just cries and won't go back to sleep.

In other news:

Ryan can now climb on the couch whenever he feels like it... and up on the back of the couch. He was very close to climbing into our front load washing machine yesterday before I pulled him out.

Alyna is giving kisses making the smooch sound now. I'm teaching her to blow kisses too.

At least one of them has figured out how to open the sliding glass door, so it must remain locked now.

They thought it was great fun the other night when we played at a friend's house and they could climb into his toddler bed all by themselves.

They like to have cage fighting sessions in one of the cribs playing with the mobile and wrestling with each other. Alyna actually grabs the crib and wants in whenever we are in their room... but only if Ryan is going to be in there too.

Alyna follows the dog around the yard with tennis balls to give him. She thinks it's hilarious when he takes them from her hand.

Play time fun

The twins are definitely starting to show their imaginations more.

Everything goes "Vroom". As Ryan is running through the house, no toys in hand, he trills his lips. He loves to push the cars all over the house, and our wood floors are great for it. He will definitely be getting more cars for Christmas.

Everything is a phone. Alyna and Ryan both put any random toy up to their ear and babble into it. It's precious, and a little scary. They have our two old cell phones to play with, and fight over them often (yes, even though there are 2).

Everything is food and drink. Alyna likes to feed people. She will hold food and toys up to our mouths and wait for us to say "Mmmm" or "Yummy". Then she pulls it away and giggles. I think she'll be getting a tea set for Christmas.



Alyna loves the peg puzzles now, and mostly can match up the pieces to where they go even if she can't always situate them right to go in.

The blue tub that we use to hold the miscellaneous toys is now most often used as a boat. They dump everything out and sit in it.



They are starting to grasp the game of chase. When we're outside in the yard and they are a few feet away we turn and say "I'm gonna get you," as we run at them. Ryan will even laugh and run the other wait laughing even more as you reach him. Then we turn and say, "you can't get me," and pretend to run the other way. He will chase after you. Alyna is a little slower at this game because her favorite part is the hug and tickle when you catch her. Of course, this also backfires because they are starting to run away in situations where we are trying to teach them to stay put.

They wrestle a lot with each other and Daddy, and they still love to play peek-a-boo in the curtains. It's so much fun to watch them grow.

Let's Go

One of the twin's favorite phrases to hear is "Let's Go" whether it's to go outside, go bye bye, or just to their room to play. They love to go to another place. During the day they have the run of the living room, kitchen, and dining room, but that is never enough. We dread the cold days of winter ahead, and are trying to get the garage in shape for kids to play in on those days.

I'm glad they like to go places (especially Alyna). She is perfectly content to sit in a cart for an hour as long as we're moving. She doesn't like being stationary very long, and loves to see all the people along the way. She has started to point at pictures of things on items in the grocery store like dogs, babies, and cheerios. Ryan likes to go places, but he's more uncertain once we get there. He's too active to enjoy riding around in the cart for very long.

Yesterday morning we went to the MOPS play group, and as I got them in the car I realized we would be a full 14 minutes early. I left the time I usually leave for church not accounting for the fact that the MOPS meeting place is only a 2 minute drive and I didn't have a reason to be 5 minutes early. So we just drove around for a while, and they were content to watch the world go by.

It was Barry's sleeping day for night shift, and he usually gets up around 4:30 pm. So at 4, I decided to load the kids up and go fill the water jugs and pick up a Papa Murphy's take and bake pizza. As I put on their shoes and socks they were very excited. Ryan giggled as I put him in his car seat. Then as we pulled out of the driveway Alyna gave a full belly laugh.

... Oh, and both Ryan and Alyna slept from 7:30 pm until 6 am, with just a quick diaper change for Alyna at 4:30 am... no fussing. And no I didn't really change anything except Alyna slept through the 9 pm feed.

a better night

Just wanted to let you know we had a better night last night. At least I did. It was Barry's night to stay up all night to prepare for night shift, and now he's asleep, so I don't know how many times he went in to the room. I just know that I went to sleep before 10, and didn't wake up again until 4:08 am. I heard Barry check on Alyna, so used the bathroom and went back to bed. At 4:30 she was crying again/still... so I went to help.

Barry had changed her diaper, and was trying to put her back to sleep. In the past we've given in with a bottle too much and are trying not to do that anymore. We gave her gas-x and teething tablets to cover the bases. Then Ryan woke up too, and we changed his diaper. We picked up and put down until 5. Alyna thought that the rocking to sleep the previous night would be a much better way for Mommy to do things. "Not gonna happen." Eventually she was worn out and gave in.

Ryan cried again 5 minutes after I left the room. I went back in because I could tell it was his "I have to pee" cry. He really does hate the feeling. So I held him while he peed, and then changed his diaper... again.

They both slept until 6:30, which is normal this week because of the time change. I gave them bottles and put them back in their cribs, but they weren't happy about that. Ryan kept saying his "I ditty ditty." I think it's this week's version of potty. So I took them out to the potty chairs, and sure enough he peed in the potty 4 minutes later. Now Mommy just needs to start being less selfish with her time and add potty breaks regularly during the day too.

This morning is playtime with the MOPS moms. We go to the nursery and let the kids play while we talk. I'm really looking forward to it.

night troubles

We've had lots of restless nights lately, and I'm seriously in need of advice from other moms. So please comment if you have anything that may help.

Alyna still wakes up with gas pains about 5 hours after her last bottle. Yes, we still do a bottle at bedtime, and Alyna still gets a 9 pm bottle too. If we don't give her that extra bottle, the wakeup is about midnight. If we give her that bottle it is pushed to 2 or 3 am. We've switched off formula to powdered goat's milk which is supposed to be easier to digest.

Alyna woke at 2:20 am, and would go back to sleep after about 15-20 minutes of crying, but then would cry out in pain every 5-10 minutes. We gave her some Gas-X and teething tablets during this time. After about an hour of that she fully awoke again and cried, and I went in to comfort her. She calmed down as I held her but her breathing was irregular like it is with the gas pains. She gasps in short breaths, and then breathes out again pausing before gasping in breathes again. After 20 minutes of putting her down when she calmed down and having her start crying again, I gave in and held her in the recliner until her breathing became regular again. So at 4 am I finally went back to sleep.

Their diet is mostly meat, fruits, veggies, and cheerios. I just don't know what else to do to help her sleep without the pains coming. She does have some nights where she doesn't do this, but there doesn't seem to be a pattern.

I'm really tired and exhausted.

Fall Fun Fest

We dressed the twins up in their costumes for the Fall Fun Fest at church. The church rented a bouncy house which was a big hit, but the twins were too small this year for it. Maybe next year. There were hot dogs, popcorn, and drinks.

Alyna was a butterfly and Ryan was a monkey. (They were out of butterfly costumes, so a fairy costume had to do.)



Ryan liked to play with the balls from the basketball hoop booth.




Alyna helped Miss Karen and me give out candy for memory verses. Some of the older kids racked up 20+ points for candy and prizes by saying longer sections like the Lord's prayer and the 23rd Psalm. The younger kids were able to say "Jesus wept" or "God is Love" for candy.

another shift goes by

Tonight is the last night of another shift. Another 4 1/2 days of essentially single parenting is gone, and we'll have another 4 1/2 days of full time Daddy. I feel blessed during those days when he is home though they are often busier than our days when he is working. When he is on shift the twins see him less than an hour a day.

We are starting to look forward to using his off time for more trips with the twins. There are a lot of places we can visit with the twins in a 4 day period. As they get older it gets easier to take them on outings. They can eat food from almost any restaurant we go to. Alyna especially loves to go new places, and see all the people and things out in the world.

Alyna has started practicing walking backwards. She understands more words now and follows simple directions quite well.



Ryan is climbing on everything now. He can climb onto our patio chairs, and the coffee table. He also figured out that if the bean bag chair is in front of the living room chair he can climb onto it. He can pull himself up onto the couch by stepping on our feet and using our legs as footholds. His newest word is "stick". He even played tug with our dog Henrey yesterday with a stick. I was watching very closely, but Henrey even let Ryan win some.







They are learning animal names and sounds. The make a high pitched "ah ah" sound when you talk about dogs. Alyna can find dogs, birds, balls, and elephants on pages of books. They both love pictures of babies.

roller coaster day

Today was a very moody day. I don't mean I was moody, the day was moody. One minute would be filled with joy and 20 minutes later everything had moved past frustrating.

The twins didn't sleep well... for whatever reason. We were up several times with them. Then Ryan woke up at 6:45, I changed his diaper, but he didn't go back to sleep. He soon woke Alyna up too, and I got them out of bed at 7:30. This wouldn't be that bad except that we are suppossed to have moved our time schedules 1/2 hour in preparation for the time change. Bedtime is 8 pm so wake up time should be closer to 7:30. So I had two happy, playful kids who didn't get enough sleep the night before.

They played, ate pancakes for breakfast, played some more, and watched a short video while I did dishes.

The highlight of the morning was inspired by my watching Alyna playing. She opened a cloth book and placed it on top of her head. It gave me the thought to go get out my hat collection from the hall closet. We spent a giggly 15 minutes putting on all different hats on each others heads. Ryan especially liked to try on all the different hats and walk around the room. Yes, they were women's hats... but I didn't take pictures, and he doesn't know the difference.

I gave them a snack and we continued to play inside because it is a windy day today and I wasn't sure what the temperature was.

We ate lunch right at noon, but Alyna actually fell asleep in her high chair about half-way through eating just as I finished preparing my own lunch. I tried to keep her awake to eat more, but she was in a deep sleep. Ryan was fussy too and had stopped eating, so I took both of them to their cribs. (not having eaten even a bite of the hot food on my plate)



It took 20 minutes of crying to get him to go to sleep. He had a cold 2 weeks ago and couldn't sleep lying down very easily so we held him a lot to get him to sleep. Now he thinks that should be standard procedure, and we've been fighting for a week to get him to soothe himself to sleep again. Too bad Grandma isn't here...

I reheated and ate my lunch, and then went to bed to try to take a short nap.

He woke up after an hour (I slept about 20 minutes), and thankfully Alyna slept for the 15 minutes it took to get Ryan back to sleep. Then I took my shower, and Alyna woke up just as I finished dressing and brushing my wet hair. I estimate she slept about 1 hour 45 minutes, which is good. Ryan slept a little longer for a nap of about an hour and 20 minutes. This means he'll be cranky this evening for sure.

I put them back in their high chairs after nap because neither one had eaten much. Then we played outside for about 45 minutes, and are now playing inside and eating an afternoon snack.

When they are happy it is a fun age... when they are not happy it is a frustrating age. And they aren't even 2 yet!

What's in a name?

The other night we figured out why my husband insists that our dog have full name.

We brought our dog home from a shelter when he was a year old, so he already knew his name was Henrey. Barry started calling him Henrey Dog, and then said that he should have a middle initial... like "J". Thus we have Henrey J. Dog who is now almost 3 years old.

The other night Barry was watching "Rocky and Bullwinkle" (the old cartoon show) on the Netflix website. In the introduction was the name Rocky J. Squirrel.

So there you have it. The influence of a children's cartoon can last well into their adulthood.

how's the weather?

It's that time of year in southern New Mexico when you have to check the weather forecast often, and change clothes several times a day. We have to have the heater on at night because the temperature outside drops into the 40's. The mornings are cool and require long sleeves and jackets for playing outside, but the afternoon sun warms the air up into the 70s. Storms often roll through in the evenings so we have to be sure to watch the sky. We usually walk our dog after dinner, but when a storm is rolling in we have to change the schedule. The bad thing about it is that when he is walked in the afternoon he still wants a walk in the evening.

Our beagle Henrey has started playing a lot more lately. I think he has been kind of depressed the last year that we haven't had the time or energy to play tug and fetch with him. He loves when we take the twins outside to play. They giggle as he runs past them. He's too fast for them to really chase right now, but it won't be long before that is their favorite game.

We finally cleaned out the storage room on the back porch so that we can store the outside toys away when they are not used. Our sun is very hot and can damage the plastic, and our storms are accompanied by heavy winds that blow everything far around.

In other news, Alyna has peed on the potty 3 mornings in a row when we've first gotten up from bed. Ryan hasn't done it in a while, but it's just a timing issue. We've been trying to keep them in their cribs until after 7:30 am to adjust for the time change. He often wakes up before that and fusses. If I got him to the potty right away he would probably go.

It's been a whole week of moving bedtime from 7:30 pm to 7:50 or after. They've finally started sleeping past 7:15 in the morning. When the time changes in November we'll have to do it again 1 or 2 more times to get bedtime back to 7:30 pm. I don't like this time change stuff.

more potty news

Alyna peed in the potty chair after nap today. It was her first time, but I could tell she actually knew what she was doing because she leaned forward and grunted a little.

I'm getting practice putting diapers on while their standing up, but I think we may try some pull-ups in the next few weeks. Ryan knows how to undo the straps on the diapers so I can't just let him walk around that way, and with 2 on potty chairs it gets kinda crazy dressing them again when they decide they're done.

We've used the generic diapers for a long time now, but the more generic White Cloud pull-ups aren't really that much cheaper than the Pampers or Huggies. So I'll be collecting coupons if anyone wants to send them my way.

Ryan's had a rough couple days and nights. He had a runny nose that is now draining into his throat and chest. I was in with him from 10 to midnight last night because every time he would start to go to sleep, he would cough. Drinking actually made the cough worse because it broke up some of the congestion. I've tried giving him a little honey on a spoon, and he likes it, but it doesn't cut all the phlegm in his chest.

This has also happened at nap times the past two days, so I'm worn out. Barry actually let Ryan sleep on his chest in the recliner in the nursery for an hour because Ryan couldn't sleep lying down flat. (It's one of Barry's days to sleep because he has night shift.)

I don't think it warrants a doctor's visit yet, but if it continues into next week we may go. He doesn't have a fever, and he's playing okay when he's awake except that he is more tired/whiney than normal from his sleep troubles. We'll be watching him carefully because there have been several young children in town who have come down with serious cases of pneumonia. It's enough to make us want to keep them home all winter.

Adventures in being 1

Being 1 is tough stuff. There's lots of falling down, learning how everything works, finding out what Mommy won't let you touch or eat, and not always knowing what is going on.

A few months ago the babies started to cry every time the phone rang. I think this stems from the day Barry went to the hospital in Lubbock for his kidney infection, and I was on the phone all day long. They've pretty much gotten over that now because we've been working on "Ring ring... Say Hi Grandma/Daddy/Nana."

Now it's the doorbell. A couple times when the doorbell rang, Mommy soon left the building. Now they cry at the chime even if it's just the UPS guy. Guess we're gonna have to practice that one with Daddy next week.

The adventures outside are growing every day. Ryan has found several bushes along our fence that he can walk behind. They are like his secret passage ways. He's starting to show them to Alyna too. She's more timid about it, but finally walked behind them yesterday. She went through a phase the last couple weeks where she wouldn't stand up by herself when she fell on the grass. It was prickly, and she'd rather sit there for 10 minutes until Mommy gave in and came to stand her up. She got over that today... finally. And I got to sit on the porch while they walked around, and only had to go out a couple times to stop them from eating the pecan shells and leaves.

Ryan peed in his potty chair again this morning when he woke up. Then after lunch, he pooped in the potty. Funny how these are acceptable things to talk about with toddlers. Alyna just hasn't been on the potty at the right time yet.

Ryan seems to be having trouble napping this week. I know they are both in another growth spurt because they've been eating like crazy the past couple days.

Guess I need to start shopping for the next size of clothing.

Like a big boy

At about 8 am this morning, 30 minutes after breakfast, Ryan followed me down the hallway into the kitchen fussing and pulling on his shirt. Lately he's been pulling on his shirt a little before he wants a diaper change.

As I picked him up I said, "do you need to potty?" He continued to fuss, and I felt his diaper and he wasn't wet yet. So I took him into our 1/2 bath by the living room, took off his jeans and his diaper and set him on the potty chair.

3 minutes later he leaned forward to grab a new book, and then he leaned forward to stand up. I reached to grab him as he stood up afraid he would pee on the floor, but he had already peed in the seat.

Hooray!

For only about 3 days now we've been sitting them on the potty chairs for about 5 minutes when they wake up in the morning. This morning when I got them out of the cribs at 6:45 this morning I didn't do it right away, and he got really fussy to get out the door. We didn't know why he was fussing. By the time I changed their diapers, clothes, and we made it to the potty chairs they both had peed in their clean diapers. That'll teach me.

This is all from what I read in the "Baby Whisperer" book that I've gone to for advice since they were born. She actually recommends starting this kind of low pressure potty training at 9 months old, but we were taking long vacations at 10 months, and 12 months old... plus there are two of them. So I waited until they were walking, and we were back from vacation.

It's low pressure. We will still wear diapers and not worry about wetting diapers. We won't worry about it when we go out... but when they give the signs at home, we will use the potty chairs. I also bought the smallest potty chairs I could find because of their size, and they work great. It's the baby bjorn "little potty". They both have been sitting on them to read books since we got them before their birthday. Now they love to play in the bathroom with them.

What a milestone this is! I'm so proud of Ryan.

fall is in the air

For some reason, when I step outside and smell the fall air I remember my travels in Europe when Barry and I were there for his work. That was 2 years ago, so I had to wonder why the smell would so vividly skip a year of memories.

Well, duh, I was a little bit out of it last fall. Staying mostly inside, sleeping whenever I could, and taking care of newborn twins.

In my mind, I think I skipped the whole autumnal season last year.

This year I am chasing 2 toddlers around a huge back yard making sure they don't eat the fallen leaves or get into the thorny rose bushes. The smell will trigger even more memories next year.