Abandon Ship, Abandon Ship!!!

Okay, so what gives??!!?? The girls are 28 months old and so far, aside from the first few initial baths, we have enjoyed 28 months of happy, carefree bathing (or swimming as Madison likes to call it) ... then "it" happened ... yup, you know the saying "S*it happens" or to be more PC "Poop happens".

Mommy is/was mortified ... The girls were innocently taking a bath in mommy and daddy's bathroom with the garden tub (better able to swim in there), when daddy noticed that Madison was squatting like a duck in the tub. I have to give daddy credit here as he actually asked, "Madison are you pooping?" In my naivety, I quickly dismissed the thought, but then little pebbles began floating up around her like little turtles coming up for air ... On my gosh ... she did poop!! I yelled at daddy to "get them out of the tub" ... he immediately sat there looking at me stupidly and said "with what?" Huh??!! I screamed again, "Get the girls out of the tub ... there is poop in there!!" Then it clicked with daddy ... "Oh the girls, not the poop," like it would have been okay to let them continue their bathing as long as we scooped out the poop ... must be a "guy thing" ... ugggg

We grabbed the girls, mommy and Madison had a discussion about how it is not appropriate to poop in the bathtub, especially when sharing the bath with someone; meanwhile daddy collected all the "turtles" from the tub and drained it ... end of story ...

That is until bath night last night ... we opted for the regular size tube in the girls' bathroom and all was going well, until Miss Alyssa was seen squatting and yup, you guessed it, small turtles started surfacing around her ... holy crap (literally). Daddy was yelling to grab the girls this time and then promptly announced it was mommy's turn to collect the offensive turtles from the bath water and drain the tub ... Great ...

So, mommy and both girls had a talk about how pooping in the bathtub is naughty and that poop should really only go in the potty ... they both nodded in agreement, but still, I wonder ... what is in store for our next bath night ... I just hope it is "turtle" free ...

Love & Hugs -

Amy

Happy Birthday Grandma B!!!

Today Grandma B turned a whopping 58 ... I know it, so hard to believe!! To celebrate the occasion, we stopped by the local florist and picked up two dozen of her favorite flowers (carnations) from the girls and headed into Savage to have dinner with the family at Bonfire to help celebrate!!

We had a good dinner and it was fun to get to spend part of Grandma's birthday with her!! The girls also got to enjoy some ice cream in honor of the occasion, although I think one of the girls needs to work on her table manners a bit ...

We love you Grandma B!!!

Also ... just because the girls actually "posed" for a picture for me ... here they are modeling another Farmor purchase modified a bit by mommy. They are actually cute summer dresses, but I added under shirts and pants ... too cute!!!

Love & Hugs -

Amy

Send in the Calvaries!!

Grandma B came to babysit yesterday ... ishewas like a new toy to the girls. Still being stuck in the extreme cold front we are experiencing (currently -14 at 10:00 a.m.), the new "Grandma toy" was in their eyes new "fun" for the morning. It allowed mommy to be able to work and to get a small break from trying to entertain the girls, unfortunately, this only lasted until about noon, then I was back on duty again. Daddy gets home around noon today ... yippee!! Unfortunately, mommy needs to face the cold and attend a meeting for work and then get groceries, fun stuff ... but I will be out of the house!!


It is sad that our days excitement have become babysitters (albeit Grandma) and work events ... darn this cold anyway ...


Today we are once again reinforcing learning with episodes of The Backyardigans, Little Einsteins and currently Dora ... maybe that counts for a Spanish lesson ??!! The girls are happy for 26 minutes at least. Here they are sharing a chair, a snack and watching Dora:





The weatherman is predicting 30's for a couple of days this weekend ... please let him be right!! I am off to set up the PlayDoh table before Dora ends ...

Love & Hugs -

Amy

Baby, It's Cold Outside!!

-14 degrees F is what my thermometer is reading this morning at 9:00 a.m. I am not a big "winter person" to start with, but seriously ... -14 for like the fourth day in a row is enough already. If you think cabin fever is bad for adults, imagine a 2-year-old, or maybe two 2-year-olds ... okay then imagine the parents of two 2-year-olds ... do I even need to go into the gory details of the extent of our current bout of cabin fever??!!

We are quickly exhausting our library of Little Einsteins, The Backyardigans, Miss Spider and Dora ... we are even replaying old episodes of The Wonder Pets.

We have finger painted, colored, taken many baths, built towers out of blocks, chased the kitties, chased each other and have worn tracks in my carpeting running the "train" tracks on our main floor. Mommy (the engine) is choo-chooed out.

So, please, all of you readers of this blog who are experiencing any "warm" weather above say 10 degrees F (yes I did say 10 degrees F), please send it our way ... fast ... we need to be able to play outside without frost bite warnings being shouted from the PC and TV speakers ...

Please ... help ... us ...

Oh yeah ... and GO PACK!!!

UPDATE: As for the Packers, there is always next year ...

Love & Hugs -

Amy

Can You Tell Me How To Get To Sesame Street?

Yes ... just take 169 North, 394 East straight into downtown Minneapolis ...

Where even though the sky outside was gray and overcast and the high temperature of the day was a whopping 6 degrees ... the sun was shinning and the lights were bright on Sesame Street, courtesy of The Target Center and the Sesame Street Live show "When Elmo Grows Up."



After a quick breakfast and an equally fast grooming session, we got the girls loaded into the car and headed North to Minneapolis for a 10:30 a.m. show. Not knowing how much traffic would be a factor, we left early ... too early and arrived at 9:20 a.m. After a short tour of riverside, we found parking and headed into the show, not before taking time to stand in the skyway over First Avenue and watch the cars and buses drive under us!! I think the girls would have been happy with their outing if that would have been it and we would have went back home.

When we finally made our way into the Target Center, we still had time so we took a walk in the lobby ways and even rode the escalators up two floors (each girl getting on and off by herself just holding mommy's or daddy's hands). They were pretty proud of themselves and this accomplishment!!

Here we are waiting in our seats for the show to start ... in just a few minutes mommy will cave and go spend an additional $30 for two battery powered Elmo light spinners ... yeah I am a sucker ... but they, you spring for main floor seats just off the stage, why not make your kids' day with an Elmo spinner too, right??!!




So, the show is about to start and Big Bird's voice comes booming over the speakers and nearly sends Alyssa running for cover like we were being invaded or something. I managed to get her out from between my legs long enough to pay for our popcorn and make our way back to daddy.

Finally, the show starts and it is AMAZING ... the girls are in awe!!! Until, of course, a "Honker", meaning well, came by and patted Alyssa on the head ... oops wrong girl for this (may I refer you back to the pictures with Santa Clause for a moment ... ). After reassuring her that it was okay that he patted her head, she spent much time repeatedly pointing at him and tapping her head accusingly. She still enjoyed the show, but cringed and hid her head whenever other characters came near us.



By the time intermission came, they were a bit antsy (toddler energy amazes me) ... but we survived the longest 15 minutes in the history of world and finally the show was about to begin again. Here are the girls enjoying some cuddles with Elmo and Grover during intermission:

After intermission, we got to enjoy a few more songs and dances by some of our favorite characters. We especially liked Elmo and Abby Cadabby below, but cookie monster was another big hit with the girls:

After the show, we decided to leave downtown Minneapolis and find a restaurant for lunch as it was already after noon. We ended up choosing TGI Fridays and had a really fun lunch with the girls, but of course the only way to top off grilled cheese and french fries is with a hot fudge sundae!!!

Ice cream smiles with daddy:

Ice cream smiles with mommy:

Needless to say, it was a long, full day and we had some very tired girls when bedtime arrived; but not too tired to remember to take their light up Elmo battery charged spinners to bed with them ...

Love & Hugs -

Amy

Farmor Fashion Show Take #3

Today was school day again, so time to model another Farmor fashion:

Please forgive the look on Alyssa's face ... I chased her around the house for 20 minutes trying to get a picture of her and this was the best shot!!

We had a good day at school today. The theme this week was "I am very special". We got to do arts and crafts including making a face out of construction paper with yarn hair and doing hand prints on a special poem. One of the girls' favorite activity was "washing" the baby doll in the water trough which was a makeshift bathtub this week. Alyssa took over the activity. Madison really wanted to do it too, so much so that she went and found her own "baby" and ended up dunking a "not so waterproof" cloth doll into the tank before I could stop her ... poor doll had to be hung up to dry.

Other than that, the day was rather uneventful. It was -4 degrees when we left for school and a blazing 10 degrees when we returned home after grocery shopping ... too cold to be playing outside ... maybe tomorrow, or the next day, or maybe like April some time ...

Love & Hugs -

Amy

A Conversation with Two Sisters

Mommy: Alyssa, what is your name?
Alyssa: Baby.
Mommy: No, your name is Alyssa.
Alyssa: NO!! Baby!!
Mommy: Okay baby, what color are your eyes?
Alyssa: Yellow.
Mommy: No, your eyes are brown (actually hazel but hey, I went for easy).
Alyssa: NO!!! Yellow!!

Okay then ... I will try the other sister for back-up/reinforcement ...

Mommy: Madison, can you say Alyssa?
Madison: Sister.
Mommy: No, can you say Alyssa?
Madison: Sister.
Mommy: What color are your eyes?
Madison: Blue. (Correct)
Mommy: What color are daddy's eyes:
Madison: Dede I blue. (Correct)
Mommy: What color are Mommy's eyes?
Madison: Green. (Correct)
Mommy: Madison, what color are Alyssa's eyes?
Madison: Yellow. (Not so much so)

I give up ...

Daddy gets frustrated with me as I do not argue with the girls (mind you Alyssa is very adamant and very upset, as far as she is concerned her name IS Baby and she DOES have yellow eyes). I say as long as she answers me when addressed Alyssa and I do have to address her "Baby", that one day she will look in the mirror and realize, hey mom, my eyes really are brown/hazel, not yellow ... you really DO know everything ...

I can dream right??!!

Love & Hugs -

Amy

A Playdate with the Three Amigos

Aunt Tammy and Christian came over this morning for a playdate!! The kiddos had lots of fun and did a fairly good job at the "sharing" notion, especially for two 28 month olds and one 22 month-old. We played with lots of toys, watched an episode of the Wonder Pets and had a really good lunch before saying good-bye as it was nap time for everyone (including Aunt Tammy and mommy).

After nap time, we are off to hopefully see the Packers win their playoff game against Seattle ... wish us luck!!!

UPDATE -

PACKERS WON!!!! Whoot! Whoot!

Love & Hugs -

Amy

Back to School After Winter Break

Well, the dreaded winter break has ended that forced us to be away from the girls once a week trip to the classroom for three weeks ... (is it wrong of me to insert a big YEAH!!! here??!!)

At any rate, Tuesday we got to head back to class and boy were mommy and the girls all ready to go!! To celebrate the big occasion, we dressed up in one of our new outfits sent for Christmas from Farmor:

It was fun because we always get so many compliments on the girls clothes, but only when they are wearing Farmor purchases, it must be obvious they do not look like everything else here in the States. The black butterfly dresses were a hit and mommy got lucky and found matching shirts at Target to wear under them.

The girls were in excellent form upon arriving at school, waving their arms and announcing "kool" like it was news to mommy where we were arriving. We acted like parade stars as we made our way through the parking lot on foot to the entrance, stopping to shout "Hiiiiiiiiiiiiiii, Hiiiiiiiiiiiii" and wave at everyone we passed.

They completely remembered their way to their classroom and ran in and immediately began playing without even taking their coats off. They had an excellent morning at school and were even agreeable to letting mommy go to the grown up class alone without so much as a whimper, just an enthusiastic bye-bye and an agreeable head nod ...

At the end of mommy's class, I went back to pick them up and got the "rockstar" welcome from them both ... some days it is great to be the mommy ...

Love & Hugs -

Amy

Happy 2008!!

As daddy and I sit and laugh at how truly uneventful our New Year's Eves have become since becoming parents (dinner in, a movie, glass of wine, DVR recording of last week's Amazing Race and finally the last two minutes of the Dick Clark count down to midnight ... then bed about two minutes later) ...

We also remember how hard we worked to get to the point in our life that we are at. We never got to experience the innocent joy in deciding to have a child and then miraculously conceiving within the first month, second month, third month, twelve months (I think you get where I am going here). We lost the chance to think that conception and birth were wonders that just happen without thought to couples who want them ... instead we got more educated about our bodies, our beliefs, our limits and our love for each other than we ever imagined we would have by just making the decision to start a family way back in April 2001 and finally seeing that ever elusive "positive" pregnancy test in February 2005.

As we fondly remember the New Year's Eves spent at the Dakota Jazz Club having four course dinners, front row tables to the jazz entertainment, wine, champagne, a live count down to midnight and a kiss ... we also remember the New Year's Eve that included all this plus a frantic and panicked tour of downtown Minneapolis pharmacies looking for the correct size needle to perform the HCG trigger shot for our planned IUI the next morning ... yes we finally found one and then continued our night, although no pregnancy was rewarded due to our valiant efforts.

The last New Year's Eve we spent out on the town was one with our families; my parents, my sister and brother-in-law, Peter's mom and Peter's brother. That was in 2004, just a few weeks before starting our IVF cycle. I still remember proudly showing off my cupboard full of medications and syringes to anyone who wanted to look, it was truly an amazing amount of medication ... the IVF worked and we were blessed with twin daughters and no more New Year's Eves out on the town (at least for a few years).

Which brings me back to my 2007/2008 New Year's Eve spent on the couch watching the Amazing Race replay and thinking, really, how amazing ...

Happy 2008 Everyone!

Love & Hugs -

Amy