Life With Twins – Two and Three Quarters

I check my Facebook every morning specifically for the post about my memories on that day over the past several years. Sometimes an old post will come up from my pregnancy or the first couple years of the twins’ lives and I like to read them again. It’s amazing how fast time has gone and what I’d forgotten.

In three months, these two will be THREE.

I just read over the last update to jolt my memory on what exactly I wrote about, and even in a short span of three months it’s amazing how much more the twins are like KIDS than toddlers.

We have conversations:

A grocery store trip with Miles:
Mommy, whats that? Chips
What’s that? Chips
What’s that? Chips
What’s that? Still chips
Oh, chips.
Mommy, what’s that? Chips

And so do they:

*Miles roars like a lion.*
Abby: that’s enough
Miles: stop it
Abby: no screaming
Miles: be quiet. 
It’s like I’m listening to myself, only in much cuter voices.

They really are smart. More often than not, they are using full, grammatically correct sentences. I’m talking plurals, possessives, verbs (past and present tense), adjectives, you name it. Yes, they still have bouts of meaningless babble, and that is what helps me hold onto their “baby-ness” just a little bit longer. They can both count to 20. Abby knows all upper and lowercase letters, along with some letter sounds. Miles knows all uppercase and a few lowercase. They sit at the big people table now. They drink out of regular (albeit plastic) cups. They watch movies (I’m pretty sure we’ve seen Inside Out about 50 times – no lie). They draw (scribbly) circles. They “make” pizza.

They’ve started eating a few vegetables again, but still prefer things like hot dogs (sigh) and macaroni and cheese. I make myself feel better by buying the organic kind. Organic junk. Mom of the year. Eggs, cereal, peanut butter, and of course sweets are also favorites. Abby LOVES ice cream.

They go to bed between 8-8:30 and wake up between 6-7, usually closer to 6. They still nap at daycare but not so much at home, unless they are in the car. If they don’t nap over a weekend we will put them to bed around 7, which usually works as long as we’ve been pretty busy all day. They still love to “go to school” but pitch a fit if they can’t “ride in the truck (SUV)”, for reasons that I don’t quite understand. We’ve visited McDonalds often lately to “play on the slide”.

Yes, they still throw tantrums:

It is 6:25am, and we have already had tantrums for the following reasons:
I won’t let them eat ranch flavored veggie straws for breakfast
Abby doesn’t want cereal
Abby doesn’t want peanut butter
Abby doesn’t want to be shut in the pantry
I yelled at Miles for shutting her in the pantry
We are out of eggs
Miles dropped his car
They want milk, like, yesterday
Nevermind, Abby doesn’t want milk

Where is my coffee?

No, they are still not potty trained. Ugh. Don’t even ask. #lazymom I *think* at least Miles is finally getting ready though, because several times he’s complained about being wet. (yet when I ask him if he wants to pee on the potty he screams NO PEE ON POTTY!!!!!)

I mean, they won’t go to kindergarten in diapers…..right?

It was a busy three months with Thanksgiving, Christmas, birthdays and a trip to Disney.

Picture summary:

• We have family pictures taken

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• My aunt visits and we explore downtown Summerville

 

• We enjoy Christmas presents (though still didn’t quite get the concept)

• Santa and Waffle House were pretty fun too

• Yes, Abby still loves food

• We ride (aka sit on rides) at the mall

• Still making funny faces

• Enjoying birthday parties

• And staying up late
• 

  I am asleep – do I look asleep?

  

  Zzzzz

  And finally, the best of all, DISNEY !

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A Walk With Toddlers

After breakfast, some playing, and maybe a movie (that they usually ignore half of) over the weekend, there typically comes a time when meltdowns start to happen and so its time to go outside. Miles likes to “go for a walk”.

Here is what a typical walk looks like:

Miles is excited and happily puts on his coat and shoes. Abby, who usually could care less, runs away. Once I ask Bryan to watch her so I can take Miles, she decides she wants to go, but as I’m putting on her coat, she plops onto the floor, exclaiming “no walk!”

So, I pull out the little stroller and strap her in. We make it down the driveway and one house down, where Abby then declares she wants out.

“I push!”

We, by some freak of nature, make it half way around the block when Miles, who has walking happily 10 seconds ago, decides he’s done.

I convince Abby to turn around and by that time, Miles forgets what he was protesting and joins us. He runs towards me saying “hold hand mommy!” Just as my heart is about to melt a little, I stick my finger out for him to hold and he says “no!” Abby stops to look at some acorns.

Then, he asks to cross the street, and I know what this means. Our walk has turned into a trek to grandmas. “Go to Gee-ma’s, mommy”.

Abby, who has been pushing the stroller still, begins to get frustrated the more it gets stuck, but when I try to help her, I am met with this:

Or a scream. Then suddenly I have the stroller:

That is until Miles wants it. Abby, who didn’t give two shits when I was pushing it, is suddenly chasing him screaming “mine!”

Finally, we make it to grandmas, where we fight over who gets to go inside first.

In the end, we covered 3 tenths of a mile in about 20 minutes.

Who wants to join us next time?

Pee Potty Lollipop

Before the twins were born, I SWORE I would not be someone who waits until their kids are three to potty train. I didn’t want to deal with diapers longer than necessary, and dang it my kids were going to be SMART and train EARLY.

Today, they are 5 months away from turning 3 and, you guessed it, not trained. Miles has had a couple successes, and both will “try”, but largely the sh*t still hits the pull up.

Sadly though, the reason why they aren’t trained isn’t because they aren’t SMART and couldn’t train EARLY. Both get the concept.

Mom is lazy.

I am lazy.

I like waking up in the morning without having to rush someone to the toilet.

I like taking them for walks without worrying about when the last potty break was, or having to figure out how I’m going to run BOTH of them home when we get a block away and someone declares he has to pee.

I like taking them in the car for the same reason.

I like being able to let them play in chick fil a without having to drag both toddlers, one peeing, one screaming, because I simply can’t leave one in the play area alone while I take the other to pee.

Still, this has to happen sometime, right? We did kinda try this attempt once a couple months back, and then once last weekend. What we learned was that Abby is a stealth pee-er, and while Miles doesn’t appreciate peeing on himself, it isn’t enough to motivate him to stop.

Tonight, Miles declares he has to pee potty. Hooray! I think. So we will pull out his potty and he declares:

“Pee potty, lollapop” (lollipop)

Because in the past, I’ve given them one for just sitting on it, and now he thinks all he has to do is sit on it and he gets one.

“Pee potty lollapop, mommy”

“Sorry buddy” I say, “but if you want a lollipop, you actually have to pee IN the potty.”

He is silent

“Peeeee potttttyy lolllllapoooooop”

Sigh.

“Is there pee in the potty? You can have a lollipop if you pee IN the potty.”

He is starting to lose it now.

“PEEEEEEE POTTTTTTTY LOLLLLLLLOPOOOOOPPP!!!!!!”

Sigh.

There was no pee potty. There was no lollipop. My kid went to bed unhappy, and we have reached failed attempt number 2387293649827643.

Hand me a pull up.

I Can S-P-E-L-L

We’ve reached the spelling age.

No, not the age where the twins are spelling, though actually Abby can spell a few words, we are at the age where WE are spelling.

You know what I’m talking about.

Hey, should we go to the p-a-r-k?

Or how about c-h-i-c-k-f-i-l-a for dinner?

Miles wants a l-o-l-l-i-p-o-p, has he had one today yet?

Because once you SAY these key spelled words, its over.

You MUST go to the park.  You MUST go to Chick-fil-a (not that I’d ever complain about that). You MUST give the child a lollipop. Or else the world.is.over. I’ve taken to calling macaroni and cheese M & C, because who really wants to spell all that?

So, Saturday my parents, my aunt and myself took the twins downtown during Small Business Saturday. The twins mostly pushed their strollers around and we took turns in stores. My dad decided he wanted to take the twins by the drug store and get Abby some ice cream (I’m sorry i-c-e-c-r-e-a-m).

Me: Abby, G-pa is going to take you for some i-c-e-c-r-e-a-m. Good thing you don’t know how to spell that yet!

Abby: Ice cream!

 

Till the Brown Leaves Town

The twins are rapidly approaching (many would say are probably already there) potty training age. Me, the one who swore up and town she was potty training early, has been lazy. Clearly, dealing with diapers is less annoying than dealing with all of the fun early potty training brings, like wondering if I should even bother leaving the house because one will be bound to say he has to use the potty as we turn out of the neighborhood.

Still, I don’t want the twins to be the only untrained ones in their daycare class, and while we were “trapped” in the house this weekend I thought we might give the”run around naked watch like a hawk and carry to potty when someone starts to pee” method.

Saturday, after my run, I thought.

No, after nap.

Ok, Sunday.

I meant Monday.

Monday I really did finally rip a diaper off Abby and proceed to stare at my 2 year olds butt more than I ever stared before. Ironically, it was then that Miles decided he, too, needed his diaper off. He actually sat on the potty a couple of times but of course nothing happened.

All day long I said the word potty more than I ever cared to. Bryan found potty songs on you tube, and we played them until I heard this:

I feel it, I feel it, I feel it. I know what to do when I have to poop. I go to the potty, pull my underwear down then I sit & wait sit & wait sit & wait till the poop plops down. Then I wipe & wipe till brown leaves town, put it in the toilet & flush it down. Bye, bye poop. Bye bye poop. Then I pull up my pants wash my hands wash my hands & do the potty dance (instumentla)) I DID IT !

I’m sorry, but till the brown leaves town? No. NO NO NO.

No.

I never realized how much time my kid spent sitting on the couch until I found myself hoping she wouldn’t pee on it. It was after the millionth “no pee on potty!” exclamation that I put a diaper back on her before I left town (ha).

Abby peed a total of three times during my experiment. The first time, it was turing the 2 minutes I spent cleaning up lunch, when Miles announced “Abby pee on floor!” The second time was during nap (diaper on, thank you), and the third time was in the high chair.

Clearly they  I am not ready for this.

Universe: 3        Me: 0

Whiny Mc Whinerson

There is something about whining. Something about it that makes me absolutely crazy.

Ladies and gentleman, I have a whiner. I have a kid who reacts to whatever the latest reason I told him “no” (one cookie is enough, please don’t climb on the stove, don’t poke your sister in the eye) with an ear piercing, throw his head back cry or whine or kick or sometimes all of the above. Sometimes, even when he asks for things, he whines. (mooooooooore peeeeeeeeeeeeese)

Unfortunately for me, he isn’t quite old enough yet to understand the concept to “use his big boy voice” or “I don’t understanding whining”. I mean, he is two. And don’t get me wrong, he is truly the sweetest little boy. He keeps an eye on Abby at all times, calls for her when she’s in a different room, brings her crackers and cookies before he gets his own. It’s like that saying or book – when he is good he is very very good, but when he is bad he is……..whiny.

if I’m going to be completely honest, I’m not entirely sure if its the whining that makes me crazy, or my reaction to it. Because I know that I do not react well. It is like fingernails on a chalkboard to me, and after the 2nd or 4th or 239847932th time, I find myself yelling “stop whining!”.

P.S. That doesn’t help. Just in case you were wondering.

Every age has brought with it its challenges, and honestly overall I enjoy toddlerhood much much more than I thought I would. The things they say are hilarious (Miles pointed to my sisters parakeet on my head over the weekend and said “its a bird hat!”), and really, he is just being two.

I just its probably me who needs a few extra deep breaths (and glasses of wine).

Pleeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeese.

No

A two year old’s favorite word is no. At the very least, it comes in right behind another word we hear often: MINE.

I have kids at work that say no to everything, which after awhile can become quite frustrating. So, instead ending up on a never ending train of “do you want this?” “no”, I just ask questions that end up with funny answers.

For example (and pardon the fact that I look like crap):

I’ve even tried “do you want a cooke?”, except every once in awhile this catches their attention and they respond with a “COOKIE!” and then I am in trouble.

Abby, who tends to say things a week or so behind Miles, started the same trend recently. Yesterday, after we returned home from a birthday party, Abby decided to go for a swim. As she sits there, I say “Abby, did you decide to swim? With all your clothes on?”

“No”

Say What? – Part 2 (and Jord Giveaway Winner)

2 year olds are interesting beings. The things they learn, and how quickly they learn them can be really astonishing.

Last week, both twins and I were sitting in the family room. I put together a car track for Miles and their favorite nursery rhymes (courtesy of You Tube and Little Baby Bum) were playing in the background. My parents bought the car track a few months ago and this was the first time he was really excited to play with it. I started to take a video of him playing with them when I realized Abby was reciting the ABC’s.

Miles names 4 numbers. Abby knows 7. Like, they can look at them and tell me what they are. I was amazed.

But, the funny ones are still my favorite.

This past weekend all of us were spending some time outside. Miles came over, exclaiming “bug!” (another one I didn’t know he knew) “its a bug!” Excitedly, he opens his small hand and releases a dead bug into mine.

Ew.

“It’s all done,” he says.

Yup, buddy. It sure is.

*For those of you who entered the watch giveaway – we have a winner! Kristy Hanselman – an email is coming your way! Congratulations!

Toddlers are …..Can be…..A-Holes

A friend of mine often tells me that when she leaves her kid with other people, they rave about how good he is, how well he listens, and how much fun he is to watch. But somehow, when he gets home, a switch goes off and he’s a completely different (sometimes mouthy) kid.

I get it now.

Miles’ daycare teachers love him. Every day they talk about what a great kid he is. I am always relieved to hear this of course (because who wants to be the one with the kid that causes all the trouble?) and we all drive home, happy.

The door opens, and more often than not: boom. He’s throwing cups, spoons, food at the dogs. He’s throwing a tantrum because I want him to ask me “please” to open the gate. He wants and cookie – I say no and the world as he knows it comes to an end. I’ve read before that kids tend to act the worst around their parents because they are the ones they know they can trust. They know, even if not consciously, that they can push and push and push your buttons and you will still love and cuddle them. I appreciate this sentiment. But sometimes man, when I’ve had a long day, I’d just love the kid to calm the heck down.

Today, Bryan tells me that Miles hits him. Not once, not twice, but three times. And the third time (after he was warned and stopped twice) he was put in time out, where he naturally threw a fit.

They are two. i get it. I love them, but for the love of Pete sometimes dude.  IT ISN’T THE END OF HUMANITY!

I do bedtime routine and take a shower. In my search for my missing hairbrush, I walk past their room, just in time to hear Miles say (in just about the sweetest voice ever) “Night night Abby”.

Sigh.

(Don’t forget to enter my Jord Watch giveaway!)