Thursday, November 21, 2013

Two and a Half

So we've reached the halfway mark of the girls' third year.  I've heard from numerous friends that the half ages have proven to be difficult as far as temperament, whining and tantrums is concerned.  It's disconcerting when people put the fear of God in you about "this age" and "that age".  I'm choosing to take it all in stride (for now!)  To be honest, I enjoy the girls more and more as they get older.  I, personally, was not a huge fan of the twin newborn stage, and 12-18 months was quite challenging as well (I'm sure getting their molars and incisors was a big reason for that).  They are so much fun now, and I love seeing them learn and explore the world.  So, I say "meh" to all the nay-sayers.  Two and a half, give me what you've got! (Hopefully I'm not eating crow in a few months!)

Kendall



Height: 40.5"
Weight: 35 lbs (guessing)
Favorite color: Purple
Favorite item/toy: Right now it's her horse "Pinto" that she got last weekend as a potty training prize.
Favorite song:  This week (because it changes weekly, actually daily sometimes) - "What Makes You Beautiful" by One Direction
What does she want to be when she grows up:  This actually comes with a story.  This morning Kevin was taking the girls over to Rachel's.  They were driving past the hospital, and Kendall said "I wanna be a doctor.  I wanna make people feel better."  WHAT?!?!  I can't believe that came out of a two year old's mouth.  Kevin called me at work and and had her tell me what she just said.  Can these girls get any cuter?

Kendall is doing great.  She amazes me with the things she says and thinks.  I would guess that she's right on track or above for a two and a half year old, but I'm not an "expert"!   She's going sloooooow with potty training, but has gone a few times this week.  I'm off for about two weeks over Christmas, and I plan on dropping the hammer then.  Merry Christmas!  Clean up some pee! :)


Kylie



Height:  37.5"
Weight:  31 lbs (guessing)
Favorite color: Orange
Favorite item/toy:  "Pink" her blankie
Favorite song: same as Kendall - One Direction
What does she want to be when she grows up:  A doctor.  But, I think only because Kendall said she wanted to be a doctor.  It's sweet.

Kylie is doing awesome as well.  She is extremely social and verbal.  This can hinder our communication with Kendall at times because Kylie always talks and answers for her.  She is always interjecting when we talk to or about Kendall.  "What about Ky Ky?!?"

Kylie is pretty much 100% day potty trained.  She only gets a diaper at night, and that's usually dry when she wakes up in the morning.  She's had a mishap here and there, but nothing significant.  I'm really proud of her.  We are planning on night training once we take the sides off their cribs.  Probably after Christmas sometime.

Another funny thing both girls do is refer to everything as a color.  Netflix is "Red", Spotify is "Green", and the music channel we listen to on DirecTV during dinner is "Blue".  They love selecting music to listen to, so I cannot tell you how many times we hear "I wanna watch GREEN!"  Kevin and I have even referred to the DirecTV music channels as "blue" on occasion when talking to each other.  Too funny!  The comedy show never ends with these two.


Monday, November 18, 2013

Christmas Card Pictures

Even though our wonderful photographer (seen here) was offering Christmas Card mini-sessions, I decided I was going to take our main Christmas card picture instead.  We purchased some "props" and went over to this really cool church about 5 minutes from our house.  It was actually the same place we had K&K's first year pictures taken.

Anyway, the girls were grouchy that morning, Kevin was critiquing (with love, and was correct with his pointers), and I was just in a bad mood due to all the above.  I think I yelled "Can you both just SMILE PLEASE?!?!?" about 500 times.  I got one shot I was happy with.  But, I guess one is all you need.  I'm going to save that one until the cards go out, but in the meantime...please enjoy the outtakes...

Yeah...that smile is a winner, Ky.

Girls!  Look at ME!!!

Sigh.  Soft focus.  Just no.

Anyone who can successfully take great pictures of two year olds deserves all the accolades in the world!

Monday, November 11, 2013

Zoo in November?

We were sitting at the table finishing up breakfast this morning, when I mentioned that it had been a while since we had been to the zoo.  Kevin said, why don't we go?  Well, it's cold out.  And for me, being outside for long periods of time when it is below 60 degrees is not my idea of a good time.  But, after thinking about it I decided we should do it.  The girls would have a blast, and we didn't have anything planned anyway.  So off we went to the zoo.

Let me tell you, going on a Sunday morning when it was 45 degrees out was actually perfect!  There were no crowds, and we got to get up close with every exhibit (which made camera-happy me very excited!)

And here are the pictures!

We look like we're the only ones here!




Late Fall sky


My favorite pic of the day!





This is a white fox,  When we told the girls this was a fox, Kendall yelled "What does the fox say?!?"  The girl next to us started cracking up!



Getting ready for wildlights!



Kylie was initially not going to go on the carousel, but decided to go on!  Good thing, because she had a blast!





Saturday, November 9, 2013

This is Bananas

I love bananas.  I seriously ate one every single morning during my pregnancy.  I never grew tired of them, and they never triggered my gag reflex.

Do you hate when bananas start going brown?  I do.  I'm one of those people that likes bananas when they are still a little bit green on the edges of the peel.

This is a good example of my banana scale below:


Unfortunately, we had five bananas that were a 7, so I decided to make some bread and muffins yesterday while the girls were taking a nap.  Mmmm.  I'm not a huge baked goods person, but I love banana bread.  Especially banana bread made from scratch without all the preservatives and sweeteners added.

Kendall loves muffins, so I decided to make banana / chocolate chip muffins.  I found this recipe on pinterest:
http://jessienextdoor.com/2011/10/09/banana-chocolate-chip-muffins/

Banana Chocolate Chip Muffins
Recipe adapted from www.epicurious.com
Serves 12
Ingredients
1 1/2 cups all purpose flour
2/3 cup sugar
1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
3 medium ripe bananas, mashed
1 large egg
1/2 cup unsalted butter, melted
1 tsp vanilla extract
1/4 cup almond milk
1/2 cup semisweet mini chocolate chips, as well as more for sprinkling
Directions
Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Line 12 muffin cups with paper or foil liners.
Mix the flour, sugar, baking powder and salt in a large bowl. In a separate medium bowl, mix the mashed bananas, egg, butter, vanilla extract and milk. Stir the banana mixture into the dry ingredients just until combined (do not overmix). Stir in chocolate chips.
Fill muffin liners about 3/4 full (you can also choose to decrease the number of muffins if you like larger muffins). Sprinkle extra chocolate chips on top, if desired.
Bake for about 32 minutes, or until toothpick inserted into the center is free of crumbs. Cool on a wire rack.

The only thing I changed was that I used almond milk in place of cows milk, and I cut the amount of chocolate chips in half.  One cup of chocolate chips was a bit excessive (in my humble opinion!)



YUM!  Kendall kept dragging the bar stools over to the counter to try and hoist herself up to get these.  She LOVES muffins! 
When the muffins were in the oven, I started on the Jamaican Banana Bread.  Bananas with lime, coconut and rum?  Count me in!  Kevin and I went to Jamaica for our fifth wedding anniversary (right before we found out I was pregnant), and I am still pretty much obsessed with anything Jamaican.  You can read about our trip if you're so inclined on my old (janky) blog.   Anyway, this banana bread is fantastic.  The glaze absolutely makes it.  So tasty!  And it's a Cooking Light recipe, so you can't beat it!  Make this right now!

Cooking Light Jamaican Banana Bread

I omitted the pecans from the actual bread itself.  For some reason, I am always highly offended by nuts in things (brownies, breads, cakes, etc).  I still did use them for the glaze, and it was perfect.



And just because I can't do a post without the girls being included:

Kendall on the iPad

Kylie and Kevin rocking out :)



Enjoy!

Tuesday, November 5, 2013

Glamorous

On Saturday morning we woke up and did our normal ritual.  I went down and let the dogs out, fed them and the cats, got the girls out of bed, changed diapers (and changed Kylie into underwear), and the girls ran into our room to wake up daddy.  We all always sit on our bed and watch a show that the girls select (usually either Curious George or Special Agent Oso) while we enjoy coffee, milk (Kendall) and yogurt (Kylie).  When we were done we all headed downstairs and Kendall stated she had to go "pee on the potty". 

Kylie initially flipped out because Kendall sat on the coveted Minnie potty which she has repeatedly claimed as her own.  I grabbed the (second tier) Princess potty and relocated Kendall.  She put up a fuss for about 2.2 seconds and then got over it.  We left them in there chatting and playing with their "phones"  for a little while.  Finally Kylie called out that she peed.  I went in and Kylie said "Kendall peed too!"  And sure enough, she did.  We threw a party and she got a (ginormous) sticker and a piece of candy.


She went again on Sunday, and once yesterday at Rachel's.  She's progressing slowly, but progressing! 

Kylie closed the door for "privacy"

Then there was this morning.  She woke up fine, and was watching TV on our bed.  She seemed to be in a really good mood.  When we were getting ready to all go downstairs (so I could leave) she started whimpering and said that her butt hurt.  And then asked us to kiss it (LOL!!!).  They always want us to kiss their boo-boos to make them feel better.  Anyway, I asked her if she had to poop and she said yes.  We put her on the potty and she went a little bit.  It wasn't the most solid, but she was happy and earned her piece of candy and sticker.  I then left for work.

After I left, things got a little more interesting.  I guess she started whimpering again and said that her butt and belly hurt.  Again came the requests for Kevin to "kiss it"!  She said that she didn't want breakfast either (which is very odd for her).  Kevin put her back on the potty.  She was in there for  a little while when Kylie went in to check on her.  Kendall came out with her pants around her ankles.  Kylie started yelling "Look, Dad!  Kendall pooped!"  Then, she proceeded to bring the potty out of the bathroom to show him.  And dropped it.  And it was not solid by any means.  O.M.G.  If I was there I probably would have passed out from a panic/germaphobe attack.   

Poor Kevin, bless his heart, managed to get the girls hands washed, walls washed, floor washed, dog paws wiped (with antibacterial wipes), and potty cleaned up.  Poor guy!  These things only happen to him!

I am happy to report that Kendall was much better after her ill-fated trip to the bathroom.  She scarfed down breakfast at lightning speed and there were no more requests to "kiss her butt"!  Fergie said it best...being a parent is G-L-A-M-O-R-O-U-S.

Kylie's chart

Kendall's chart!

On a positive note, Kylie is pretty much day trained.  She has only had three accidents in the last two weeks.  Two were during nap and one was because playing was more important than going to the potty.  Oh well, she's still doing awesome!  We aren't going to work on night training until they are in toddler beds. (Which I'm not planning on moving to for another couple months.  Cribs for life!!)

Potty training twins...not for the faint of heart.  Or stomach

Sunday, November 3, 2013

Weekend and Trick or Treat Part Deaux

So, our trick-or-treat was rescheduled for Saturday night because of rain and wind on Thursday.  We got the girls an early dinner, got them dressed up, and took them to the next-door neighbors house...


And then....

Rain.  Whomp whomp
Kevin had an idea of how to keep them dry.  Take them in the wagon!

Sorry...crappy cell pic!
Anyway, the girls had a great time.  They came back shivering, but were excited to break into their candy!  I allowed them one piece when they got back inside.
Checking out their loot

Kendall chose M&Ms (shocker)


Kylie chose Rolo's
Today, I took them outside to try out a zoom lens I rented.  Our burning bushes are in full bloom, and they are GORGEOUS right now.  I'm going to be so sad when they lose their leaves.





LOVE