Divas in the Making ...

The girls had fun playing dress up tonight have being sick for the past week ... it has been lots of fun around our house oh yes ... They loved clicking around on the floor in mini-heels "like Mommy's".

Because the girls have been sick and the weather has been not so great, we haven't been up to a whole lot this past week. We did get to go to school today and I am very proud to report that for the past three weeks, the girls have actually participated in "circle time" with the other kids and their mommies. It is so much more fun for mommy to have the girls with her instead of having to sing "The Wheels on the Bus" by herself!!!

We have made some progress with the speech therapy issue. We have tentative appointments scheduled for evaluations through a private group on March 14th for Madison and March 21st for Alyssa ... I say tentative as I need to check with our insurance provider first. We are also on the waiting list for the program offered through the school district and paid for buy our tax dollars (so no extra fees for therapy) and it would be in our home over the summer. That evaluation cannot happen until May due to the staff shortage at the school currently though. I will keep everyone updated on which direction we end up going. I am leaning towards the private evaluation and then waiting for the therapy through the school district if insurance will not cover the private group, but we will see what is recommended before we make any final decisions. Of course, just because I started the ball rolling on therapy, Alyssa has started talking in the past few days ... this will not make me not get them evaluated though, but I found it kind of funny.

So, this has been a rather boring update ... but for being sick for the past week, what can you expect ...

Love & Hugs -

Amy

Speech Therapy ... Yes, No, Maybe ...

We saw Dr. Maus this morning to talk about the girls' speech, but concentrated mostly on Alyssa as she is further "behind" than Madison. Both girls have been given referrals to "Capable Kids" and we are on the waiting list for testing (hopefully this will happen in the next 2-3 weeks). I will find out recommendations for each girl based on their test scores and will keep everyone posted.

Just as an aside ... the girls were both weighed and measured:

Alyssa:

38" tall (96.5 cm)
32 lbs (14.51 kg)

Madison:

36" tall (91.4 cm)
26 lbs (11.79 kg)

Lastly ... just because bath night was fun tonight:


Love & Hugs -

Amy

Playdate with Christian!

Well, this morning mommy and the girls headed off to meet Tammy and Christian at the Eden Prairie Center Mall soft play area. The kiddos had a great time running around, climbing and going down slides.

After playing for a while, the kiddos rested a bit and enjoyed some cereal snacks and water before hitting the "ride" area.

After enjoying the rides, we decided to check out the sale at Old Navy then went for a walk around the mall for some exercise before heading off to the food court for lunch.

All the kiddos were so well behaved and had a great time!! Mommy and Tammy got some shopping done, some exercise in and actually got to talk a little bit in between all the activities ... definitely a good day!!

Love & Hugs -

Amy

How far would you go ...

to avoid eating two whole rings of Spaghetti-O's?

Seriously, give this some thought before reading the rest of this post ...

Alyssa, our selective eater, I say "selective" as she selects not to even try anything before turning it down flat. We would be thrilled if she would actually taste something and then decide she didn't like it ... but no, she can tell by simply looking at it, which brings us to what will now be know as the "Spaghetti-O Incident". For those of you reading this who are not from the United States, here is how the company who makes them describes them:

SpaghettiOs® Original pasta has tender little Os in a mild, delicious tomato and
cheese sauce that kids love. SpaghettiOs® Original pasta contains:A good source
of Vitamin A, four essential B-vitamins, Iron, Fiber and Only 1 g of fat per
serving.

Now that we all understand what we are dealing with, mommy and daddy took a stand today. For lunch, we withheld her favorite thing ... Milk. All we asked her to do to get her milk, was to eat two rings of Spaghetti-O's, we even placed two on a spoon for her. She refused to try them. She refused the rest of lunch and never got her milk.


She went down for a nap and was up and ready for a snack by 3:30 p.m. Her sister was presented with a typical snack and Miss Alyssa was presented with that same blue spoon with two Spaghetti-O's resting on it (mommy did reheat it). She refused, she got a glass of water and no snack.


Dinner time arrived and Miss Alyssa was excited for dinner. Our company (Terry & Lori), Madison, mommy, daddy and Alyssa proceeded to the dinner table. Everyone was happy to see food, until Miss Alyssa saw that all she had in front of her was a blue spoon with two refreshed Spaghetti-O's resting on it. She said "No" and walked away, had a tantrum in the other room and then wandered around between playing, peeking over the couch to watch us eat and crying.


Dinner ended and we got out dessert. Terry and Lori brought a French Silk Pie (chocolate pie) with them to share. Again, we offered that Alyssa could skip straight to milk and pie if she just ate those two Spaghetti-O's ... no deal ... She stared at us from the couch, wanting the pie but not wanting to give in. Her sister pleaded with her to eat the Spaghetti-O's, but to no avail.


At 8:00 p.m., Miss Alyssa went to bed that night with just some water in her tummy and nothing else since 10:00 a.m. that morning.


At 2:30 a.m., mommy was awoken by cries from a hungry Alyssa. I told her it was now night-night time and that it was not time to eat. She needed to go back to sleep.



At 3:30 a.m. mommy was again awoken by a hungry Alyssa. I gave her a drink of water and told her to go back to sleep.



At 4:30 a.m., mommy woke daddy up to go in and tell her that she missed her chance to eat and now she needed to wait until morning ... he did and she threw up ... so mommy had to change bedding and Alyssa got another drink of water and back to bed.



At 7:30 a.m., it was a new day and Alyssa ate breakfast ... only because the Spaghetti-O spoon had been retired. She did eat a good breakfast, a good lunch and when dinner time came on Saturday, she tried her grilled cheese without being asked and when offered that slice of pie she had missed out on the night before, she gladly ate two melon bites ...



I am not really sure who "won" this battle ... I know that the pie would have made me crack the first time offered. I guess we will find out the next time Spaghetti-O's are served ... will she remember and try them at least or will it be a sequel to ... "The Spaghetti-O Incident" ... stay tuned ...

Love & Hugs -
Amy

Happy Valentine's Day!!

Earlier in the week (before daddy returned home from his last trip), mommy and the girls made special valentines for their daddy, gaga (grandma), papa (grandpa) and anny (granny). The girls were exceptionally proud of themselves (especially Alyssa) when they presented their hearts to their daddy the day before Valentine's ... just because Alyssa couldn't wait. I have a feeling she will be one who cannot keep a secret down the road!!

The evening before Valentine's morning, mommy and daddy decorated little metal mailboxes for the girls and put handmade valentines inside of them (one each from mommy and daddy). We set those out on the table in the living room and put five Ty Beenie Babies with them (The Backyardigans set). When the girls got up on Valentine's Day, they saw them immediately and loved all of it!!!

After naps, we headed over to Granny's and Grandma & Grandpa's to deliver the girls' Valentines to each of them. We had a nice visit with Granny and when the girls finally made it to Grandma & Grandpa's house, they were greeted with lots of Valentine fun stuff!!

They had a great day and daddy is still talking about how special his first Valentines from his girls are ... isn't that sweet or what??!!

Love & Hugs -

Amy

Mama!! ... really??!!??

I thought it was funny when Miss Madison pointed out a picture of Crankshaft in the Sunday funnies a while back and referred to him as Grandpa ... funny enough to save the picture and present it to my father:

Although now that the shoe is on the other foot I am not seeing the humor. Although I am thoroughly impressed and in awe of not only the talent that this individual possessed but also how she survived through so much in her life, including polio; I am still a bit concerned about the unibrow and the implications therein ... what do you think? Miss Alyssa proudly exclaimed "mama" while pointing to this picture of Frida Kahlo while daddy was reading his paper today:

I guess I will be calling the salon this week for an appointment, just to be sure.

Love & Hugs -

Amy

Bad Mommy Moment ...

There are so, so many upsides to having twins ... espeically once you have moved past the sleepless nights, 16-20 bottles a day and you begin to see an end in sight to the non-stop diapering. However, last night, I experienced one of the downsides to having younger multiples and only one set of eyes to watch them.

The day was going well, we did Valentine crafts, had only a semi-fitful dinner and then we were off to have a bath. The girls love baths, so they were up the steps pratically before I finished the word. I followed them up, started the bath water and was fighting to keep Alyssa away from the hot tap until I got the temperature adjusted ... then "it" happened ...

Thump, thump, thump, thump, thump, thump, screams ...

My heart sank as I shoved my one daughter out of the way only to confirm my worst fear, Madison was laying spread eagle at the bottom of the staircase screaming.

A quick scan of her positioning reassured me that nothing looked bent the wrong way. She was upset and screaming "boo-boo mommy, boo-boo". I scooped her up, ran back upstairs were Alyssa was now screaming at the top of the steps and pointing at her sister. For every boo-boo that Madison pointed out and screamed about, Alyssa mimicked her and tried to give her a hug ... two screaming girls, one hurting and other feeling sympathetic ... one mommy trying to gain control and check for injuries.

I only found about five small cuts inside her mouth on her cheek where she likely bit herself during the fall. I got both girls calmed down, placed them in the tub with popicles to make "their" mouths feel better ...

a big dose of Tylenol for mommy ...

and she (or maybe I should say they) seemed fine after the popcicles and bath. I gave her some Tylenol before bed just in case she had a headache or she hurt. She slept through the night like, well, a baby ... I wish mommy could say the same ...

Love & Hugs -

Amy

Photo Shoot Impromtu

Just because we are stuck inside due the cold, have messy hair and are still in our pajamas at 4:00 in the afternoon ... mommy took some pictures of her girls:

Miss Madison:




Miss Alyssa:

Snow Day!!

Today the weather was ranging 25-30 degrees and the snow was beautiful. The girls took advantage of the weather and "helped" daddy shovel out the driveway ... apparently that includes sleds, a slide and wind twirlers!!

We love having our daddy home, especially on days like today!! Oh, yeah, mommy stayed in the house (except for taking the pictures) ... she says she is on duty when spring arrives ...

UPDATE: We managed a "turtle" free bath ... Whoot!! Whoot!!

Love & Hugs -

Amy

Heat Wave ... Well at least for February in Minnesota!!

Not much really happening here, but in honor of the weather reaching 30 degrees, yes I did say 30 degrees ... we decided that our mini-heat wave deserved some new sun glasses courtesy of yet another outing to our beloved Target store. Are we stylish or what??!!

To help break up our cabin fever, we have found new types of fun, like playing on the staircase, dressing up like summer bugs (again) and helium balloons from the Dollar Store ... is it spring yet??!!!

Love & Hugs -

Amy