will it be another girl???

BFF is going to have a new brother or sister any day now! We are curious if it will be another girl to add to the already girly group, or will it be a boy that I can imagine the three girls dressing up and (I'm sure) bossing around. We'll see soon! 

We've had LOTS and LOTS of fun with BFF this summer. We are so glad that we met her and her mama at the library this past winter. We see BFF 2, 3 sometimes 4 times a week. Whenever we leave the house, the girls always ask if we are going to go see BFF. Most of the time we are! We have enjoyed listening to music with BFF at the Town Green on Mondays, having pool parties in the backyard with her on Tuesday afternoons, going to the library for story time with her on Wednesday mornings and swimming at the swim pond with her on Thursdays or Fridays. It's been a great time and we look forward to having another BFF!

Here are some pics of the girls and BFF throughout the summer...

Water table fun on the deck. We were able to be outside in swimsuits in May! What an unbelievable summer!

Singing songs together while lounging on the deck.

Little Pie and BFF at the ECFE playground. So sweet!

All three girls at our neighborhood park. Everyone is doing their own thing. It's so funny how they are so excited to see each other, but then once they are together they just play on their own.

Picnic after our visit to Como Zoo. How come we only went there once this summer??? Too busy I guess...

The three girls cheering and clapping for the music at the Town Green. We LOVED meeting here for good music/performance (most of the time) and a yummy picnic lunch.

The sweeties posing together. I love how Little Bird took out her Nuk for the picture.

The girls looking for ducks in the 'lake'.  They were looking really hard but there actually weren't any there!

At the Splash Pad. BFF LOVED the splash pad (she's not afraid to try new things). They girls HATED it. I don't think they were a fan of the all the loud noisy big kids.

Again, at the Town Green on Monday mornings. Little Bird and BFF have fun climbing in the stroller together.

Adorable pic of BFF.

In our yard for a pool party. This was many of the 90+ days that we spent in the backyard playing with water.

The girlies listening and watching intently while some music group performs on the stage. (Eating fruit snacks also helps with the concentration).

Is this not the cutest??? The girls like to hold hands now.

So adorable right?? We got all three of them to hold hands at the park.

So this isn't as adorable. Do you notice that the three are all wearing their Adidas capri sweat suits? They are sure styling!

Our last time at the Town Green. We are really looking forward to doing this again next summer!

yep, she's my daughter

I've known for awhile now that Little Pie has inherited my incredible sense of direction (yes, I'm bragging about my sense of direction...it's good).  In fact, both girls are pretty good: they know when we are pulling into our neighborhood (either entrance) and say "HOME" really loud. They even know when we are at Nana and Papa's house, yelling "NANA HOME" really loud when we pull into the driveway. 

But today was the day that I was truly impressed with Little Pie's skills. After nap we needed to head to Target for some much needed groceries, so as always, I informed the girls of our plan and put on their shoes . Little Pie wasn't paying attention to me and when she finally had her shoes on she kept saying "swim pond". I'm not sure why she said this because we weren't wearing swim suits, but she was quite sure we were going to see BFF and "play water swim pond". We got in the car and headed to Target. As we were sitting at a stoplight (going straight would get us to the swim pond, while turning left would bring us to Target), Little Pie was chattering away about the swim pond. When the light turned green, we turned left and Little Pie started protesting. "No! Swim pond!" I couldn't believe it! Seriously??? The swim pond was still a few miles away, but she knew going straight would get us there. I was so impressed!

Little Pie also impressed me last week with her incredible skills (she's only 21 months!!). We went to play with Penny and Dakota for awhile, and as we were leaving I told the girls we needed to go to Sam's Club. We headed to Sam's which was also in the same direction as home. We passed the first entrance into our neighborhood and Little Pie yelled, "no! home!!!". I explained we needed to go to Sam's first which seemed to satisfy her. But then we passed by the second entrance to our neighborhood and she again yelled, "no!! home!!!". Holy cow! I can't believe how observant she is!

We are never going to be able to pull one past Little Pie. She is always going to know where she is and where she is headed. There is no tricking this girl!!

little blue truck

The girls have been in love with Little Blue Truck for about 2 months now. We stumbled upon it at the library when we were looking for truck books for Little Bird. She immediately took a liking to it before we even opened it up to read! When we did finally read it, both girls listened intently to the sweet message. It's the only book we read before bedtime! We've also exhausted our library renewals so I went out and purchased the book. :)

The girls love the pictures and the animal sounds we get to make. It is so fun for me to read too! Little Pie looks at me with a questionable expression when I change my voice to reflect the dump truck character. (She's already embarrassed of me!) Little Pie also pretty much has it memorized. If I pause while reading, she'll fill in the missing word(s).

Of course one of the animals in the book is a toad but we had to replace it with frog since the girls don't seem to understand the similarity of those animals. For example, towards the end of the book:

They couldn't quite budge

that heavy load.

Then who hopped up 

but the big green toad.

was changed to...

They couldn't quite budge

that heavy log.

Then who hopped up

but the big green FROG.

Note:  Both girls scream FROG with all their might!

I love it when I find great books!

pretty big weekend

It was a pretty fun filled, busy weekend for the mg twins! Daddy went to Las Vegas with his friends, so the girls and I headed to Nana and Papa's house. While we were there, we celebrated Uncle's birthday (a month late) and my cousin's birthday (a month early). The girls were on their best behavior and we all had a blast.

Unfortunately it rained most of Friday so it was hard to entertain the girls indoors when they would longingly look outside. Maybe we should move the swing so they can't see it from the window? Ha! They kept themselves busy by helping Nana do her hair, playing with Mommy's old Sesame Street toy, reading books and playing the piano.

The girls were very serious about helping Nana with the curlers.

This toy was so great! They played with it for HOURS. They didn't even realize that there wasn't an Elmo!

Obviously Little Bird was EXCITED about this Froggy book. Apparently there is a whole series about Froggy. We'll have to check it out.

There was a break in the rain, so while Papa was mowing the neighbor's lawn, the girls wanted to go outside and watch. They also kept busy "watering" the flowers. Soon they realized that it was actually really fun to play with the hose. Needless to say they got drenched! They didn't mind though; it was another super hot day.

I have actually never laughed so hard a Little Bird's shenanigans before; (Little Pie is known for her silliness, but Little Bird is a little more shy and reserved) but I couldn't help myself. Little Bird was using the hose to fill up her watering can. However, while she did this, the watering can was tipped in such a way that the water just went in one way and out the other. The look on her face was the most hysterical; it was like she was so impatient and couldn't believe how long it was taking to fill the watering can. Nana and I couldn't stop laughing.

OK, so the water comes out of this hose and we put it in our cans.

I don't know, that doesn't look like it's going to work too well.

For some reason, as I'm putting the water in this end, it comes out the other!

 

OK, this is getting ridiculous. I've been here for 5 minutes and it's not getting full.

Can you believe this mom!?!?

All I can do is wait...

On Saturday, Nana and I took the girls to a park to play, but only stayed 10 minutes. It was just too darn hot. They girls weren't too upset that we had to leave. 

Hurry up and take my picture, it's hot out here!

I'm going to hurry down this slide and then go in the shade.

This weekend, we had an unbelievable accomplishment...Little Pie ate a sandwich and Little Bird almost ate a sandwich!!! This is big. I've been trying to get them to eat a sandwich forever. Lunch has been a challenge because we have 2 or 3 picnics a week and you can't pack mac 'n cheese in a cooler. Maybe we just needed to try this new "sandwich concept" at Nana's. While eating this new thing called a sandwich, the girls started to play footsie with each other. I don't think they were really aware that they were doing it, but it was so ADORABLE!

To end our fun weekend at Nana's and Papa's, we had a picnic birthday party for Uncle and mommy's cousin. It was finally a BEAUTIFUL day. We even had to put sweatshirts on in the morning. The girls had a lot of fun seeing family members and before we left to go home, they went around and gave EVERYONE a hug and kiss goodbye. They sure like giving hugs and kisses!!

More Sesame Street fun!

Eating "frufarts" instead of taking a nap. (Yes, she calls fruit snacks, frufarts).

Snacking with Nana. Little Pie took a nap, but when she woke she was so surprised that there were so many people there! It took a while to get comfortable, so she had to sit with Nana for awhile.

Having fun with Lobo and K.

CHEESE with the birthday girl.

The girls are really good at the beanbag game. As you can see, Little Pie gets it in the hole every time!

We all had a lot of fun this weekend. The girls played really well, ate pretty well and slept really well. I can't complain!!

how many cans does it take to fill the bucket?

HOT! It's hot again and we are melting. We are trying everything to stay cool and dry amongst all this heat and scattered showers. This is definitely summer!

Saturday we went to a Family Fun day at Arbor Lakes. We weren't sure what to expect, but we had a blast. Little Bird was really into checking out all of the fun booths and displays, while Little Pie was off running as fast as she could. Little Bird talked with a fireman, got a fire hat, looked at a fire truck, got a tattoo (a duck), petted some baby animals and danced with the DJ. After all that (and Little Pie's running adventure), we went to meet (drum roll...) CURIOUS GEORGE! Both girls were super excited to meet him. Little Bird was very excited to give him (several) high fives, while Little Pie was a bit more hesitant. We got some great pics so I think I'll have them printed and post them somewhere around the house. 

Little Bird as a firefighter!

Little Bird LOVED meeting Curious George. She wanted to get really close to him and give him a lot of high fives (but she still wanted me to hold her).

Little Pie was a bit more hesitant. She just wanted to look at him. But as soon as we left, she couldn't stop talking about George. (She pronounces his name so well too!)

It's kind of sad that this is the only picture of the four of us since last Christmas. I guess George is one of the family now.

Since Saturday afternoon was SO HOT and we didn't feel like playing outside, we went to the mall to run around. I hate wasting a summer day at the mall, but I just wasn't in the mood to be outside. The girls had a blast playing in the indoor play area so I guess it was a worthwhile trip.

Of course Little Bird was in love with all of the cars.

I asked the girls if they were going to get a convertible when they turned 16, and they both nodded yes!

While they were sitting in this red convertible all I could think of was the twins in the Sweet Valley High books that drove a red Fiat convertible. Totally random...
(I wonder which one would be Elizabeth and which one would be Jessica?)

Sunday was another hot day too, so we decided to go to the swim pond in the morning. Daddy loves going to the swim pond with his girls, so we thought we should go since it was the weekend. The girls got new swim suits and looked adorable! As usual Little Pie ran straight for the water. Little Bird was in the water a lot more than usual. Little Pie really wanted to "swim" today so I took her around while she kicked and splashed. We even blew bubbles in the water and she loved it. It was a great way to cool off this morning.

Filling our buckets with our cans.

It seems like it always takes 10 cans to fill the bucket!

Finally, what hot summer day wouldn't be complete with a trip to the Dairy Queen!?!?! 

 Little Bird is not a lover of ice cream. She had one bite of Daddy's Blizzard and that was enough.

CHEESE! Little Pie ate most of mine!

this is what i've been waiting for

Today was another great day. The weather was BEAUTIFUL. So much better than the hot and muggy (disgusting) weather we've had recently. In the morning we went to the swim pond with our twin friends Mr. H. and Ms. M. We had a GREAT time. All the kiddos did really well and the mommies enjoyed their time outdoors. I thought Little Bird would want to sit on the edge again and just play with the sand, but today she ventured into the water. Little Pie wanted me to splash her until she was soaked. She especially liked it when I got her face and hat drenched. Every time the water I splashed would hit her, she would plop herself down into the water. She LOVED it. We enjoyed a nice picnic lunch and then headed home for a bath and nap. A terrific morning! 

This afternoon we headed to Target to get some new swim suits on clearance. Their current ones won't make it through fall swimming lessons (if we end up doing those), so I thought Target's clearance would be perfect. On our way home we stopped to visit Penny and Dakota. Little Pie just loves to rub her face in hands in their noses. I hope they don't mind!!

After dinner the girls were being hilarious. They have been so nice to each other, I've been waiting for the other shoe to drop. But, as I'm folding towels, I hear the sweetest giggles and look up to see that they are running around the kitchen holding hands. Since the day we found out we were having two girls, I always envisioned them walking around hand in hand. Now that day is finally here! 

As you can see it was so adorable to watch them run hand in hand! Little Bird wanted to keep going (you can see she starts yelling "hand!"), but Little Pie had to come check out my camera.

a really good day until...

 Can you tell that they are both saying "CHEESE" as loud (and long) as they can??!??

Today the girls and I went to Nana and Papa's house for the day. We got to see them as well as Uncle, Gramcracker, Boompa, and Great Grandma. It was a BEAUTIFUL day today so we ALL enjoyed (finally) being able to be outside comfortably. The girls were so well behaved today. Not at all like last week. Whew!! They played so nicely with each other and took turns so well. It was like they were putting on a show for their elders..."see we are nice little girls and are very well behaved; Mommy is doing a good job raising us"... Little Pie was also very generous with hugs and kisses which certainly put a smile on a lot of peoples' faces. It was also a nice day for me because OTHER people were entertaining the girls (and making their meals) and I could sit back and just enjoy watching them. Both girls took a WONDERFUL nap and woke up HAPPY (we haven't seen that in a while). They were ready to start playing again and to keep showing off their new found language skills. After a trip to a park and more fun playing with toys, we ate a quick dinner, took a bath, put our jammies on and got set in the car to head home. It was such a wonderful day; I couldn't wait to get home and tell Daddy all about it. But then...

...5 minutes after being in the car (on the freeway), Froggy accidentally fell out of Little Bird's car seat and onto the floor. Fortunately it was in a position that I could reach (although it was quite a stretch).

...5 seconds after returning Froggy to her owner, Bunny intentionally fell to the floor. Again, it was in a location that I could reach (still quite a stretch and getting a little dangerous).

...5 seconds after returning Bunny to her owner, both Bunny and Froggy intentionally fell to the floor. Again, both were in a location that I could stretch (to the max!) and reach, but I instead focused on driving and left them to enjoy the rest of the ride with all the cracker crumbs that are accumulating on the floor.

...20 minutes later I have pulled most of my hair out and turned the radio up as loud as I thought my passengers could safely handle. Constant yelling for "B" and "Fwaggy" along with fake and real cries were getting to me (we still had 40 minutes to go) so I finally reached back (when I thought the other drivers on the road were safe enough from my erratic driving) and threw Bunny and Froggy to their respective owners. Little Pie clutched Bunny as if she was never going to let her go, but poor Little Bird isn't as good at catching and Froggy went flying over to the OTHER side of her seat.

We were in trouble now. Seeing that Little Pie's Bunny was safe and sound, Little Bird let out a cry to let me know she wasn't happy (she must think it was a poor toss on my part...hmmmm). So I pulled off the highway, into a McDonald's parking lot and unhappily retrieved Froggy for her. She nervously laughed as I closed the door and got back into the car. The next 10 minutes was pure silence. YES! Mommy wins! But then...

...the rest of the ride consisted of real and fake cries, screams by Little Pie whenever the rays of sun touched any part of her body, a play by play of all the cars, trucks and big trucks that went by, more screaming whenever the rays of sun touched Little Pie, "singing", screaming for Baby (who had now fallen to the floor), moans and groans and finally screams whenever the rays of sun touched any part of Little Pie's body. Ack!

Fortunately Daddy had just gotten home when we pulled into the driveway so all of sudden both girls were HAPPY as can be.

Mommy is happy too now...thanks to the big glass of wine. :)

the terrible twos?

We have had a pretty rough few days. Mommy was home alone with the girls for 4 days and 3 nights while Daddy was out of town for work. It was a LONG week. Nana came for some relief on Wednesday which was VERY nice. All in all, I'd have to say I was challenged quite a bit!!

The girls are almost 21 months old and I think that they reach some pretty huge milestones every 3 months or so. I'm pretty sure the milestone they are reaching this time is talking. They are saying about thousand new words; ok, maybe not that many but a least 4 or 5 new words a day. They even say 3 and 4 word sentences. It seems like one morning they woke up and could talk! It is pretty humorous to hear their "conversations". But along with this new ability comes some unrest. And I mean literally no rest. Sleep has been terrible. Naps are a huge struggle and almost every night for the past week, one or both girls have woken up in the middle of the night and stayed awake for too long. (Tuesday night, both girls were awake from 11:30 until 2:30; argh!).

Along with terrible sleep issues comes terrible tantrums. The girls fight over any and all toys. They fight over my attention, daddy's attention, anybody's attentions! Mood swings are all over the place and our visit to Northfield this weekend was a disaster when Little Pie threw the biggest tantrum of her life. (Sorry Auntie ABCD!) I'm hoping this transition to their new language ability ends pretty soon; I can't take much more! 

Now, of course since they are talking more they are saying more hilarious things. I'm really excited about this because whenever Auntie ABCD talks about the things that Mr. S. says, I just die with laughter. I hope the girls are as funny as he is! After church today, we talked in the car about how the girls were good girls at church. Little Pie then said "E-ie good girl church" (4 word sentence!). Little Bird responded with "Phie good girl church". Yes! Both of you were good girls at church today! Then Little Bird said, "Daddy good girl church!". Ha! Yes he was! :)

And good thing we are seeing BFF tomorrow because Little Pie can't stop talking about her. :)

Finally, Little Bird is very into accessorizing her look lately. Right now her obsession is bracelets. Check out her style!

Little Bird and her bracelets. 

Counting her bracelets. Both girls can count to 10 although Little Bird skips 7. I thought I had a video of her counting her bracelets; but apparently I didn't hit the record button! Of course, she didn't want to do it again for me. :(