greetings

my shy, mommy-centric girl is becoming suddenly friendly. I don't know why it happened, but one day this past week we went to Target, just Violet and I, and she was saying hello to everyone.

Pushing her to the pharmacy in the cart, she shouts out "hi! hi! hi!" to the employee there. He doesn't hear (or chooses not to respond), so Violet says to me, "What that name?". I say, "um, pharmacist".

"HI, PHARMACIST! HI PHARMACIST!"

(only it come out more like "ha far-see!" over and over).

No reply.

Finally, I say, "Um, I'm sorry, but could you just say hello to her, because she's really wanting you to talk to her...".

I can't even imagine what kind of a helicopter mother they must have thought I was.

Unfortunately, usually after that, the employee goes on and on, "How are you? Are you having a good day? I like your hat!"; throughout all of which Violet has a blank stare at them.

Anyhow outside she'll yell to. People on my street who would never even make eye contact with me before are now forced to respond.

"HI! HI! HI! HI! HI MAN! HI MAN!"

You can ignore the haggard mother toting her two toddlers to her car, but you cannot escape the sweet call of my girl jumping on the sidewalk in front of you.

more favorites

the other night, Ben and I sat and looked at some old posts- how happy I am that I started this blog! One of favorite things to keep up with are the various and random "favorite things" or "favorite words" posts. LOVE seeing how much our two little bugs are growing!
So, here's a new inventory:

Oliver's favorites:

• 
  
  all things cars, trucks, bikes, trains. You get the picture. He really loves the movie "Cars" still, with his two favorite characters being Mack and Frank. Luckily for Ollie, he has a supercool dad who can do ALL of the voices!
• 
  
  our hose. O likes to spray the flowers, the toys, the playset, his sister, himself. His latest favorite thing is to fill the whole toy bucket up with water and then climb in too. Very cute.
• 
  
  ketchup (Ollie pronunciation = ketchkup). On everything from french fries to pancakes. It's a vegetable, right?compliments.
• SUCH a budding politician! "Mama, I like your green shirt!"
• 
  
  the Philadelphia Flyers, particularly Danny Briere. Ben became a fan this year, and Ollie was right there by his side. On a completely selfish note, I'm also pleased with this newfound love because of this:

  

  me, baby Auntie Miss and my dad, wearing a Rick MacLeish jersey

Violet's favorites:

• 
  
  peanut butter and jelly and "snacks" (Vi pronunciation = pea-buh-jeh-snack). She loves PB&J sandwiches (it's a fruit, right?) served with these snacks (again, vegetable....). She dunks the snack into the jelly and eats it.
• 
  
  still, animals. CRAZY for animals. Right now, she adores horses, which I credit Bullseye with. He is the horse from Toy Story 2, and V loves pretending she's Jessie the cowgirl riding Bullseye the horse (again, Supercool daddy). "Yee-haw!"
• 
  
  gnomes. Or in Violet's mind, goblins (Violet says  = Gawflins). She saw a goblin on Little Bear (still #1, all time favorite show) and then saw the slightly scary-looking garden gnomes on sale at Target, and is now obsessed. I have one hidden at our local store until it goes on clearance to buy it for her (who knew how expensive gawflins were?).
• shoes, shoes and shoes. My girl loves shoes. She wears them morning until night, including naptime and pool time.

see that sweet boy in the window? how can I not love looking up at that?

beautiful baby girl cousins playing games. such love.

a day in the life

I LOVE this age! I know we're only two months into year two, but so far, it's awesome! The twins are quickly becoming distinct individuals, and I love them so much. I love watching them play- usually parallel, but occasionally together now! They are both obsessed with this particular animal book we have right now- the cause of many a tussle. Violet loves saying the name of every animal, and we have come a long way from just 'dog' and 'cat'- her favorites right now are the cockatoo and koala (ko-la-la!). The video above is of that- hope you can understand her!

Ollie is still into his trains, big time. LOVES Thomas the train, and all of his friends. He lines them up, they talk to each other, dance (who knew train cars could dance?), and he "toot-toots" them all around the house. He has taken to singing to himself a lot, too, which is adorable. Below he is playing with his little sheep, duckling and bunny- so cute!




Both babies are learning manners: they're very good at saying "Please" and "Thank you", and Oliver has learned to say "Oliver's turn! Sissy's turn!" when they're sharing- a HUGE help! They love being outside; and finally it's a little cooler so we can get there! I'm trying to teach them to hold on to the stroller when they get out to walk, and they're doing pretty good with it. Does this mean I will actually be able to go everywhere alone-with-two-toddlers soon? Yee-ha!

new videos....

this one's for you, uncle adam....




Violet daydreaming...
(deciphered, it's: "monkey, ooh-ooh-ah-ah, frog, hop hop, horsie (oar-shee), polar bear, brown bear, cookie (we morph into Sesame Street words), elmo, cookie, tweet tweet tweet!)



what? You don't think Mozart practiced the piano in the buff?





Ollie wearing my flip flops (and very pleased with himself)...

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".

new updates...

*Violet is biting again. A LOT. Right now, Oliver literally has five huge welts/bite marks on his arms, and last night she bit him on the back while they were in the bath tub. I'm still doing the time-out chair, but Violet is pretty unaffected by the whole thing. Sigh.

*Oliver has two new favorite words: "truck" ("TUK!") and "tire" ("TAAAAHR!"). Trains, trucks, buses, pretty much anything with taaahrs have all become part of our daily activities. Every truck we see driving ("TUK!"), everything with wheels in our house, even talking a walk down our street, we get waylayed onto the curb in order to touch the tires of any car. I'm hoping to get him this for his birthday -they have one like it at the Please Touch Museum and he loves it.

*Violet took a terrible spill yesterday. So sad. She was throwing a ball and then running after it, but lost her footing and fell, face first, right to the ground. Poor little peanut! Her little nose is all scratched up now.

*My sweet girl said "I love you" yesterday. Yes, we know she has no idea what it means, but still heart-melting. She also counted to six the other day, on her own!

*Violet is obsessed with her belly button. No, honestly, obsessed. I think it's because it's suddenly too warm for onesies anymore, thus giving her easy access to the belly! Sometimes she walks into a room and her tummy is all red and blotchy; she's been poking too much!

*We were in the car the other day, and Oliver was in the back saying this mantra, "Mama! Dada! Sissy! Ollie!" over and over. I think he knows his family!


more soon....

the future diva....

I wonder if they'll accept "Elmo's Song" as an audition piece for the child in Madame Butterfly? :)




for those of don't know, the words are "la la la la Elmo's world!". Peanut's lyrics are more like "Elmo Mo!"

cuteness overload.....

Oliver LOVES his ravioli!

I really thought this might be their 1st kiss!!


who knew baths were so funny??

December stuff

First of all, I've been meaning to write down ALL the words that the babies are saying so far, mostly so I don't forget myself!

Both babies:
Mama
Dada
Bye Bye
Baba
Ball
Balloon
"ruff ruff" (when they see a doggie)
Shoe
Sock
Juice

Violet can also say:
Hi (her favorite, said ALL the time)
Up
Ollie (yes, it's as cute as you'd imagine!)
Dog
Apples

Oliver can also say:
Oh, no! (again, LOVES to say this)
Uh-oh!
No touch
Baby
"roar" (lion, giraffe, whatever...)


We've been trying hard to stay creative here lately- with the weather getting so cold, it's hard not to feel like we're under house arrest. Sometimes I let the babies climb both sets of stairs and run around, just for a change of scenery! Today, I let them play in the dryer (off, obviously) for 10 minutes, and they were THRILLED.
I was thinking today about how Peanut's biting seemed to have subsided, and how glad I was and, of course....


She then bit her brother big time! Our biggest dilemma lately is trying to stop Oliver from pushing/yanking/shoving/pulling/trampling his sister. I really thought that buying two of most toys would prevent this, but whatever the other has always looks better. Even if it's identical. And Oliver ALWAYS wants what Violet has. So hard to teach "sharing" at this age! We'll keep working on it. though- maybe SOMETHING will sink in!


Finally, a video I'm entitling "Who needs toys?"