Pulling the Plug, 2

Nap - Nov. 1st
Both girls talked about 30 minutes and then Ava fell asleep. It took Cate an additional 15 and they slept about an hour.

Night - Nov 1st
Last night went pretty well, the girls went down fussing, but went to sleep within about 15 minutes.

Nap - Nov 2nd
The pain has begun. As I type Ava is hysterically crying and Cate just stopped crying, but is talking a lot. Neither one wanted to get in their cribs and they both asked about the paci. Ava kept saying "broken, trash, all gone". And Cate "fix it". I knew it was a little too good to be true, so I am not the least bit surprised by this, but it is no fun. I hope they get at least a little nap in or we are going to have a long evening! My parents are keeping the girls tonight so we can go to Community Group. I feel guilty leaving them to deal with this mess, but we can't give in now. We are too far in to it!

Edited: Ok, it took Ava about 20 minutes and she got quiet. Cate is now singing, which is common. Hopefully she will at least rest. It is the best sleeping weather - cold and rainy!

Pulling the Plug

We literally pulled the plug. Since the girls turned 2 on the 23rd we thought it was finally time to completely get rid of the pacifier. Ava refers to it as "Patsy" and Cate "Boppy". When they turned one we cut it back to cribs only, nowhere else, no exception. Not even the car! For the past year I have dreaded taking it away during sleep because they have been so obsessed with them. They ask for them when they get tired and have to take a couple of last sucks each morning before they will get out of their cribs. They LOVED them. I wanted to jot down how the transition is going because I have been so bad at keeping records for their baby books etc.

Night 1: Friday, October 29th
Cut the tip off the paci. When they got in their cribs they both said "broken". We said oh no, it's broken. Then asked if they wanted to throw them in the trash. They said yes, trash. So we took them and walked to the door and they lost it (especially Cate). We told them they could either throw them away or hold them. Ava decided to hold hers, but Cate was torn and kept going back and forth while crying. She ultimately decided to hold hers too. We left and they didn't cry. Ava went to sleep, but Cate talked and sang for 2 hours. From 7:20 to 9:20. (This isn't unusual for her. She does this quite often any way.) Erick went in at 9:20 and told her night night and she went to sleep. They slept through the night.

Nap 1: Saturday, October 30th
They got in their cribs and tried the paci again and said broken. Same discussion from night one occurred and we left their room. Cate talked nearly her whole nap and cried for me to get her a book. I don't think she really slept at all. Ava went right down and slept about an hour.

Night 2: Saturday, October 30th
They still chose to hold them, so we let them keep them in their cribs. They both went down relatively easy and slept all night.

Nap 2: Sunday, October 31st
Put them down and they both talked through their entire nap. I don't think either fell asleep, but we kept them in their cribs about 1.5 hours so we did still get a naptime break, just not a completely quiet one. When I went to get them, they both told me their paci's were broken and I asked if they wanted to throw them in the trash again and they said "yes". I took them both downstairs and they threw them in the kitchen trash and walked in to the living room and did not think about it again.

Night 3: Sunday, October 31st
Put them in the crib with no paci in sight. They both asked for them and we told them they were broken and they threw them in the trash and they were all gone. They were both a little distraught and asked for other stuffed animals we let them each have one and left the room. Ava cried for me for about a minute and then it was all quiet. They went right to sleep. It has been about an hour and they are still asleep, so I hope they make it through the night.

All in all, so far so good, and I hope it continues. I am aware they can regress so I am not holding my breath, just hopeful!!!!

Free at Last!

After 8 weeks and 4 days, Ava is out of a cast!!!! We went today and the bones look good, so no more cast. She is supposed to take it easy for the next two weeks (no playgrounds, bounce houses, etc.). I told the Dr. "You mean she wasn't supposed to be doing these things with the cast?" She told me no, but Ava has not slowed down one bit and I confessed I was a bad mom and let her go wild as usual. Oh well, it healed anyway. She had her first bath tonight without having to hold it out of the tub with plastic wrap and she was in heaven. She got so mad when she had to get out and laid on the bottom of the empty wet tub and threw a little tantrum.

First Day of School

The girls started preschool on Tuesday. A much needed break for me. They go from 9-12 on Tuesdays and Thursdays so I can get some cleaning and errands done ALONE!!! They did really well, no tears that I know of, but I also dropped and ran w/o saying goodbye. Not sure if that is the wrong way to do it, but it works for me. They used to be in daycare, they go to the church nursery, and have each other, so I don't think they minded much.

I was so excited I got a couple of pictures of them. They do not like to cooperate these days and are hit or miss on letting me do their hair. You will notice they have their princess flip flops on. They are obsessed with these shoes (thanks Carrie)! They did not actually wear these, but they always have to put these on until we get in the car. They then take them right off and when we get to our destination I put on the shoes I want them to wear. I love these, but they are a little big and they don't walk very well in them for every day wear. Anyway, the pictures (out of order)!

The girls really wanting to take their pigtails out. My girls seriously have bangs in their eyes 99% of the time, and they refuse to wear bows. :(
Cate in the car (still in the garage) saying "No Picture!" Notice the shoes are already off.

Ava saying "Cheese!" Shoes also off. About 5 seconds later Ava had both her pigtails out. Drives me nuts!!!

A little nervous. Ava twirling her hair and Cate biting her nails.

"Here we go!"

Sweet girls! Love them!

Ava still in the cast. Hopefully it will come off on Monday.

Halloween Costumes

I saw these costumes and thought they were perfect "coordinating" costumes for the girls. I can't wait for Halloween so they can wear them.

Pics of the Cast

The girls hiding from mommy! Ava in the pretty purple cast she got today. And, my sweet Cate. A better view of the cast.

Her temporary cast and "purse". I kept calling the sling a purse so she would wear it. She LOVES purses.

The morning after it happened (about 12 hours later). It did not phase her one bit.

Cate also got a sling so she would not feel left out. The whole ordeal was kind of tramatic for her. She is such a sweetheart.

So that's how she broke it?????

Ok, I was looking at pictures on my camera from the last month or so and it shocks me that Ava broke her arm falling off my bed while I was right there. Here are some pictures of the "normal" stuff she does on a daily basis. I don't have a picture of her breaking through the gate at the bottom of our stairs and getting 3/4 the way up before I caught her, but she does that too. And the broken arm hasn't stopped her. She is also escaping from her car seat while I drive no matter how tight it is. She is a mess!!

It could have happened when she escaped from her from her high chair.Or when she strolled her baby on the couch.Or while riding her horse!Maybe even balancing on her toy bin.

Or even while she was trying to make our bed! Could have been trying to climb up our TV stand to get something I took away from her. (Excuse the bare behind) Or when she jumped on Cate. Cate pushed her off right after I took this.

Could have been when she pushed her stroller in my heels with her shirt around her knees. That is a new favorite of theirs (getting undressed). No, it had to be when she was on my back. I feel like the worst mom in the world!!!

Ava Broke Her Arm

My sweet baby girl Ava broke her arm Thursday night. Erick was out of town and I had just given the girls their bath and we went downstairs to get some clean PJ's. As a treat I decided they could get on our bed and I would change them there. I was sitting about a foot from the edge and had finished with Ava and was working on Cate. As I was putting on her pants, Ava was jumping right next to me and decided she wanted to ride piggy back so she got on my back. I told her to get down and the next thing I knew she had fallen behind me on to the floor. I put Cate on the ground and picked Ava up. She was crying, but not screaming or anything. I looked her over and when I looked at her left arm it was obvious it was broken. My stomach sank and I ran to find my phone. I was so frazzled I couldn't even think. It looked awful!!! I called Erick to let him know and then my friend Kristen who lives really close to us. She came over and helped me take the girls to the hospital (Las Colinas Medical Center). My mom met us there.

Ava did really well. Cate was the one crying and carrying on. Right after it happened I made Ava an ice pack and Cate threw a fit because she wanted one, too. My mom took her home, but she had a really hard time getting to sleep that night. She kept crying for Kiki (Sissy). Ava also kept asking for Date (Cate) but did not get too upset. That's the thing about twins, since they are NEVER apart they freak out when they get split up - at least mine do!

The hospital took x-rays and it looked pretty bad. They did not feel comfortable setting it there, so they had us transported to Children's in Dallas. Ava did great in the ambulance even though I could not sit in the back with her. They were able to set it without sedating her, which was a blessing, and put her in a cast. We go back Monday when she gets to pick a color. I think we are going with TCU purple - ha!!!

She's doing great, but it is crazy to think she broke her arm before she is even 2! I will have to say, nobody is surprised that it happened to Ava. I think she led the daycare in accident reports. She is not really clumsy, just really active.

Cate was a little jealous of the attention and had to have her own bandaid and arm sling. She kept pointing to her arm saying boo-boo.

I'll post pictures when I get them uploaded. I did not have my camera at the hospital, though I wish I did. I was in such a frenzy when we left that it was the last thing on my mind.

New Job!!!

That's right, I now have a new full-time job. Beginning June 5th I will officially be a stay-at-home mom! I am really excited about this new venture, but also a little nervous. My part-time job was perfect for getting some me/adult time, but we decided that staying home is what is best for our family.

Now, I need to get organized at home and come up with a good schedule for the girls and me. I work best on a schedule, and I think the girls do much better when we have a lot of activities planned with not a lot of down time.

So long, corporate world!

18 months

Ok, so the girls are 19 months old now, but I jotted this down about a month ago. Here is an update on what we were/are doing.

18-Months – What are we up to these days???

The girls LOVE to be outside. We play outside about 2 hours a day when it is nice and I am home with them. They tell us to get their shoes so they can go play. They still love the wagon and I go on 1 to 2 walks a day with them. They are starting to get a little antsy and want to get out and walk, so I do have to cut those walks short some days. I have been taking them to the Galleria to play on the playground on Friday mornings and they are starting to do really well climbing on everything. They are obsessed with shoes and love to take them off and put them back on. Cate also loves to play dress up and puts on layer of clothes when the laundry is out. The one thing we have been working really hard on lately is sharing. It used to be a little easier when Cate would give everything to Ava, but she is starting to get her own voice and stand up for herself. I am proud of her, but it does make my life more interesting. This whole discipline thing is so HARD!!!

Cate is still such a sweet girl. She gives hugs and kisses and will pat you on the back. She has the cutest belly laugh and when she gets excited she turns in circles and does her “happy dance”. She is pretty laid back but copies Ava when she does something to get in trouble. Cate thinks this is so funny. She loves to read books and will look at the book and babble like she is reading it out loud. She is really outgoing in public and is not afraid to leave my side. She is really careful when she tries something new, but she is willing to try most anything.

Ava is a sweet little snuggler. She loves mommy right now and likes to sit in my lap and be held. She likes to carry her blanket around and put everyone to nigh-nigh and pat their backs. Ava has tons of energy and likes to be going all the time. She is strong-willed and knows what she wants. She does not give up easily when I tell her no or take something from her. She is really shy in public and with new people. She clings to me until she gets warmed up, but then she is back to Ava! She still loves to carry purses around and puts anything with a strap on her arm and says bye-bye. She loves to tell trucks bye-bye as well. She really just loves to tell everyone bye-bye and wave.

They are starting to say more words and they try to mimick phrases. Ava will repeat I love you, Cate, but it really just sounds like a lot of syllables with Date on the end. And Cate tries to say Come on, Aya. So cute! They do have some twin talk, but it is not too bad. They sometimes have conversations with each other and laugh really hard, but we have no clue what they are saying. Sometimes I repeat some of their “words” and they laugh so hard. Not sure what it means, but it does mean something to them!

Cate

First word – duck

Aya (Ava)
Sis-Sis (Sissy)
Dog/Doggy/Woof Woof (Dog)
More
Help
Dada
Mama/Mommy
Ball
Peese (Please)
No
Yes
Sus/Dues (Shoes)
Kitty Cat
Mil (Milk)
Boo (Book)
Uh-Oh
Hi
bubbles
bobbles (waffles)

Ava

First word – Uh-Oh
No
Yes
Date (Cate)
Dis-Dis (Sissy)
More
Help
Nigh-Nigh (Night Night)
Dada
Mama
Dog/Woof Woof
Ball
Tide (outside)
Shoes
Ditty Dat (Kitty Cat)
Milckck (Milk) She does this gurgling sound to try and say the K on the end of book and milk
Boockck (Book)
Uh-Oh
Hi

Some Pics

Ok, so I started this post about 3 weeks ago and I am not finished with it, but I thought I would go ahead and post the pics I have downloaded. Here they are.

Bathtime Cate loving Ava

Playing so well together

Snow Day

Playing in the bathroom

Ava on Easter

Checking out what they hunted

Kitty Cate

The family watching some Frogs baseball

Cate and Daddy

Ava and Daddy

Go Frogs!!!

Sweet Sisters!

Ava

Cate

Eating at the mall

Cheese!

Yum-Yum

Disorganized!!!

Yes, that's me. I am not one of those people who have to have everything marked off my list before I can sleep at night. I have a mental list of the things I need to get done and the most important things do get mentally marked off. Downloading, organizing and posting pictures of my sweet angels is not one of those things. I have not written anything in their baby books, but I do have a huge stack of post-its with those fun milestones waiting for me to get my act together and get organized. I have one folder of pictures from the girls first year that takes about 5 minutes to open b/c there are probably 3,000 in there. I have not gone through it to pick out my favorites, to delete the bad ones, or to organize and group them. I have only printed maybe 50 total. This is the primary reason I never blog, so I appoligize to anyone who actually comes by to see if I might have added anything (Jenn). So, here are some pictures of our little monkeys. They are old, but new to the blog!

Ava and the cut on her face. Bad mommy let her fall off a chair while I was getting sister out of the bushes.Family Christmas picture.One of the only pictures I could find with both girls looking. They just got finished eating, so Ava has some food on her chest.Ava using her car to get on the couch. She can already open doors. She is one determined little girls who I have to constantly watch. See picture 1. Cate double fisting.

The "bugs" on Halloween Cate the LadybugAva the bumble bee

Helping mama with laundry. Sweet Cate patting Ava's back.Sweet sisters. This is an old picture. We are now off the bottle completely and I am so glad!!!