blessings, circa 2011



moments of love, gentleness and sweetness.

generosity. Saydah doggy allows ANY of Violet's 'other' animals to dine with her.

impromptu piano concerts (played to a full house!)

leaves. and cousins.

a beautiful late fall day where daddy and Ollie can go play baseball

lizards in the backyard!



"maybe he like to sit in my hair!"

buddies so special that they let you snuggle in their new big-girl bed.

a random hug after frolicking all over with bambi and thumper, who needed a rest.



spiderman love (and again, cousins)

a spontaneous bedtime story on the stairs

my buggy, getting to share a meal with her Great-Grandpa!

Ollie and Great-Grandpa

 

the tandem bike at school! MADE for them!



TWO!!!!

a birthday celebration in three parts....









more photos to come!

Violet gets a face full of water...

I'm so sorry- I have been awful about posting on here, and even worse about keeping up with actual written updates. I'm going to try to write on here more often, with short blurbs rather than let so much time go by in between. SO much is happening with babes, but even more reason for me to be documenting every special thing.
Oliver's latest accomplishments/chuckle-worthy events:

*talking like crazy! now saying "oh, dear!" a lot- too cute. Loves to recite his family's names: "Mama! Dada! Oliver (Ahhh-ver)! Sissy!"

*OBSESSED with anything with wheels. This is truly a whole new world for me. Obviously I knew what a truck was, but who knew there were front loaders, back hoes, etc? Oliver exclaims over everything from approaching our own car ("CAAAAHH!") to a giant fire engine passing us with the sirens on ("TUUUK!"). Loves to read books about trucks, trains, buses, cars, and loves Thomas the Train videos. The other day he found a photo of he and Violet from last summer and got SO excited- he brought it over to me pointing and exclaiming. I thought he might have remembered the playground or something. No; in the corner of the photo, teeny-tiny was a bike....

*Yesterday, putting him in his car seat, I sighed, "Wow- this car is HOT!". He looked at me and blew out his lips- like when his food is hot and we want to cool it off. Sigh....

*Playing outside this weekend, O found an ant on the ground. "BUG!", he cried! He picked it up and tried to tickle it.... "tick-a-tick-a-tick-a"

*He is very social and friendly. When we play the Treehouse, I will often find him sitting on strangers' (other mommies!) laps, or bringing someone a book to read it to them. At music class last week, one little boy was wearing Thomas the Train pants, and Oliver gravitated to him and shared his mommy's lap for the whole class.
Violet's noteworthy and adorable accomplishments:

*Can count to 12!! It was a surprise to us. I knew she could get to 10 with a little prodding, but the other day after we got there, I said "11", and she said "12"...crazy! And too cute. She can also sing the whole ABC's, the "I love you" song, several songs from music class and the theme songs from our three favorite TV shows.

*She is talking a LOT. Reads whole books by herself- esp loves the Brown Bear and Polar Bear series. Every page goes, "Ah Bah Bear! Ah Bah Horsie! Ah Bah Kitty Cat!". Often Oliver listens in, so they must understand each other.

*Very busy and agile. She can slip under the gate blocking the stairs (horrifying!), under the railing separating our house from our neighbors, she can unlock the front gate to the sidewalk. I know any day I will hear her leap out of her crib.

* She loves art- loves drawing with chalk, loves her crayons and markers (all washable, thank goodness!), and makes artistic things out of brushes and water, utensils, etc. She can already do circles, which is very advanced! :)

*She's kind of into me fixing her hair! It's very cute. I give her pigtails or brush it and put a little barette in, and she sits very still (which NEVER happens), and then races over to the mirror, and admires herself! Smiles, coos, touches her ponytails...not sure if I should be encouraging this, but self-love is healthy, right?


Finally, Cute TWIN things:

* they are really enjoying playing with each other now! After each meal, they play this game where they chase each other from room to room, laughing, tickling (sometimes tackling, which,as you might imagine, does not usually end well). It is hilarious and adroable.

*We can finally play a real game of Ring-around-the Rosie, as they now acknowledge each other's presence in the circle and hold hands. Now if only they could agree on who gets to go "over" vs. "under".

quarantined

poor sick babies!

still busy when they can be!

another short update from the sick, sick house of Sheaffer. YUCK! As both babies seemed to be improving on Thursday night, I woke up early Friday morning VERY sick. I vomited all that morning and missed opening night of Turandot (VERY sad). Ben missed work to stay home with the babies, and my glorious mom came in to help with EVERYTHING!
By Sunday, things seemed better for all three of us, and we thought the bug might pass Ben by...but he called as I was at my matinee, and Oliver was throwing up again! I was so upset- not knowing if he'd re-caught the same bug, gotten something new, or simply was getting too many solids too quickly. Ben called the pediatrician, who said she was "on the fence" about bringing Ollie into CHOP (Children's Hospital of Philadelphia- one of the top five in the nation). Ugh. So, as of now, we're watching him like a hawk, counting wet diapers, measuring pedialyte like crazy...and praying. Poor little puppy.

Backing up a bit, as we were putting everyone to bed last night, VIOLET starting vomiting again! I thought I would lose my mind. Poor baby. She seems a bit better this morning, and only threw up once last night, so, again, we're keeping our fingers crossed.

To top everything off- who can guess where this is going??- BEN woke up during the night, sick as a dog. As of now, 9:50 am, he is still vomiting, and I'm seriously hoping to stay well, if only to take care of my family, sanitize my house, and not miss any more performances. I feel as though I have puke seeping from my pores at this point, and plan on cloroxing my house from top to bottom, as soon as my nursing duties are on hiatus.




I'm adding some "sick photos". Really, how can they still be so cute when they feel so rotten? The video is Oliver eating a "Pedialyte popsicle". He usually isn't a fan of icy things, so I think he wasn't sure what to do....
(oh yeah- and I put it in a sock. Genius mommy!)

and...exhale!

the only thing better than playing in the ball pit, is playing under the ball pit??

telling secrets. I love these babies so much.

snuggle time with daddy

the first snowfall! not quite enough to play in, but we brought some in and filled the water table. they loved it!

sweet baby puppy.

I am finally back on planet Earth now, after a full week of a terrible flu. Thank GOD I opted to get the babies the flu shots this year! Next year, Ben and I will be getting them too. The timing really could not have been worse- I had just started rehearsals for Turandot (and I make it a point to NEVER have a sick day!!), my Pop Pop's funeral was Wednesday, and my mom was occupied with that, and Ben was under an enormous deadline at work, working twelve-hour days all week. Luckily, the babies were very could, and content to watch many Baby Einstein videos when mommy was laying on the floor.
Anyhow- I am feeling SO much better. I am back to rehearsals tonight, with much catching-up to do, my Pop Pop's funeral was emotional, but gave the twins the chance to meet the WHOLE Pilgermayer clan (almost), and Ben finds out today if he makes "Super Starter" at work (thus the deadline- please keep your fingers crossed!).
We're still working on the biting issues, and have started using a "time out" chair. So far, Peanut sits in the chair and hangs out, and then Oliver stops crying and goes and sits with her...

As a non-twin note, but one very important to our babies' future, we are so proud to be American today. Congratulations, President Obama!!

happy halloween!

posing in Halloween shirts in the morning. have I mentioned on here that Oliver has been obsessed with pumpkins this year?

"hey, you have antennae!"
"hey, you have antennae, too!"


elephant riding a pony....

it was a very sober Halloween
but I'll take blank stares of confusion over last year...

so tiny and upset!





Ruby in the ball pit- so sweet!

Mollie, Scott and Eli aka "Larry", with Violet looking on

playing in our neighbor's light maze

Oliver was a little scared of the Incredible Hulk (and yes, that is a diamond stud in the 4-year-old Hulk's ear. Reason #62 why O and V won't be growing up in this neighborhood).

Ezra is a big boy (and big monkey), and was bursting out of his costume! Too cute.

we had the BEST Halloween! A very busy and exciting day, and the babies had a wonderful time! Actually, so did mom and dad!
in the morning, cousins Trevor and Ruby came over (Ava was celebrating in school!), and we played and posed for photos in costume. It was hilarious! The babies loved looking at each other in costume, Trevor loved his trunk ("shrunk"), and everyone loved looking at Ruby.
Daddy got off from work early; in fact, he was one of two employees to even show up at work, because of the World Series Champion Phillies' parade. We met him at the playground, and had a great time- it was 65 degrees on Halloween! A weird thing there, too- I usually think that seeing a ladybug is kind of a rare thing- at least here in Philadelphia. At the playground on this day, though, they were everywhere flying on us, all over the slides and swings- SWARMS of them! Pretty cool, since Violet was dressing as a ladybug!
That evening, our friends Scott and Mollie came over with their sons, Eli and Ezra. Now, generally, I don't have a lot of positive things to say about our neighborhood, but Halloween is the best night of the year here. Everyone sits on their porch, adults dress up to play with the kids, one neighbor shows a movie on the front of his house. We had such fun! It was almost-three-year-old Eli's first time trick-or-treating, and Oliver and Violet tagged along. 10-month-old Ezra the Curious George monkey fell asleep on his dad's back. Eli was Larry the Cucumber from Veggie Tales, and was adorable.
We had some good laughs and the best Halloween!

The next day we went to play at this awesome new playhouse, called the Smith Playhouse in Philadelphia- we LOVED it!

Shoot- I can't believe I didn't think of "Branch" and "Baby" for my twins' names!?

finally, a little laundry action....