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Oh the words this child learns! Her latest obsession is with the word “spider”. She has the book “Itsy-Bitsy Spider” which we have read to her for a few months, and on Friday evening I was trying to calm her down after a bit of post-vaccination fussiness by singing her the itsy-bitsy spider and doing the hand motions. Little did I know that she was paying RAPT attention and would pick up the word spider and request me to sing and dance for her FOR THE REST OF THE WEEKEND.

So, about that Doctors appointment on Friday. I told her we were going to the doctor that morning, and everytime that day I said Doctor, she repeated it. The appointment went pretty well, Lily is 32.5″ tall and weighs 27lbs. Pretty much 90-95%th percentile for everything. She had two shots, but they almost seemed to bother her more than normal afterwards. She usually handles the shots pretty well but this time there was some definite fussiness that evening. I think it’s the combination of the shots plus teething (I think she’s getting her molars in), and this round of teething has been horrible. She’s been clingier than normal and has been very difficult to put to sleep lately. I can’t wait for these teeth to break through and hope we get back to the “normal” good-sleeping routine I’ve gotten used to!

Lily saw a different Doctor on Friday because Dr. Pepper is on maternity leave (woohoo!). Lily was more outgoing than she ever has been at the Dr’s office, and the new Doctor was quite impressed! Lily kept trying to put her clothes back on, and showed the Dr. her sock and said “Dock! (sock)”. Plus Lily kept grabbing at the stethoscope so the Doctor handed her the end that you usually put on your chest, etc, and asked Lily to help her. Lily looked at her and nodded, then put the stethoscope right up to her heart. It was so cute!

Other than that, we are loving the spring weather and spending lots of time outside and at the park. Lily spends most of the day at daycare outside as well, and she is absolutely loving it! She cries when we come inside, and tries to push the door open again. Her Daycare woman (Jen) gave me a starter pack of Amish Friendship Bread last week, and this weekend I baked the final product. It’s really good! Lily loves it, too, of course because it has cinnamon and sugar on it. We might have a play date or two coming up this next week/weekend, but everything is still pretty tentative right now.

Here is a little video of one of the thousands and thousands of performances of “itsy-bitsy spider” this weekend. Please ignore my voice! By the way, when Lily stopped doing the “sun” action, and I asked her where the sun was - she pointed to a picture of the Last Supper that was behind me on the wall (get it - Jesus. sun/son. yeah.). I found it quite humorous! If you listen closely, at the end she says “Mom? do spider!”. You may not understand it, but hear it 994859485749759849584985 times like I have, and you will soon!

spider from Jill W on Vimeo.

Finally, this is Lily’s “spider” (hanging in our Living Room):

Playing House

March 16, 2009 Blog, Lily, twins 1 Comment

What a fantastic weekend! The weather was absolutely gorgeous, and Lily and I took full advantage of it! On Saturday, Lisa (along with Claire and Abby) picked me up and we went out to breakfast and the “Mothers of Multiples” garage sale. They had lots of good stuff there, but Lily really didn’t need any clothes or toys, so I got a baby gate for $5 to block off the kitchen when needed, and a big stuffed horse for $0.50. Lisa got a bunch of toys, clothes, and movies, and we even picked up a bunch of big toys for Grandma and Grandpa’s house!

After the sale, Lisa and I went to my parents house (they were out at the casino) to drop off their toys and put the twins down for a nap. While they were napping (or pretending to nap), Lisa and I got to sit and chat - just the two of us! We also played a few games on the Wii. It was a lot of fun, and something Lisa and I have needed to do together for far too long! After naptime, Lisa fed the girls lunch and we headed over to my house to let Claire and Abby play with Lily, then took all three girls out for a walk and to the park. After the park we ordered in chinese food and sat and tried to watch a show together.

It was a really, really fun day.

On Sunday, we wanted to take another walk and go to the park again because we needed to get out in the sun and enjoy this weather. We walked out of our house and almost literally bumped into Tracey (and her daughters Molly and Emily), and Tracey’s friend Leah (and her kids Henry and Ali), on their way to the park! We decided to join them and do our walk afterwards, so Lily had another day playing at the park with friends! It was so funny to see the difference between her playing there with the twins the day before, and playing with the “big kids” on Sunday. She definitely tries to keep up with the big kids and doesn’t realize that she’s just too small for some things yet. It was fun to watch her interact with other kids. Also, apparently Lily has forgotten about swings during the long, cold winter and where she used to LOVE them, she now starts to whine when she’s in the swing for more than 2 minutes. The twins weren’t too impressed with them either and I don’t know what’s up with that!

Finally, today - I got a bonus weekend day! We got a call this morning that our daycare woman’s daughter was sick (fever and vomiting) so she was taking a sick day. Since we didn’t have anyone else to watch Lily, I also ended up taking a sick day to stay home with her. And what a fabulous day to stay home! It was 66 degrees out and we spent almost the entire day (other than nap time) outside. Lily LOVED it! In the morning we went out for a walk and went to the park. Then she had lunch and napped, and after she woke up we went BACK to the park! We ran into Alix and Sebastian on the way to the park and they agreed to meet us there, so Lily got 3 days in a row of playing at the park with friends! Of course, I don’t think she knows what to think about Sebastian yet and they didn’t really “play together” but they did both play and it was fun to see Alix and Sebastian out and about again. This winter has been far too long, and I’m so happy its over!! All in all, it was such a nice day today and I felt like I got to pretend to be a stay-at-home Mom for the day. Of course I know that if I stayed home every day it probably wouldn’t be so enjoyable.

Let’s see if there is anything else “Lily-related” to tell you. Her new favorite word is “uh oh” and she probably says it at least 40 times a day. She has totally discovered the magic of dipping her food in things, and will almost not eat anything if it isn’t dipped in SOMETHING. This afternoon her snack (cheese and crackers) had to be dipped in applesauce for her to eat it. She is a pretty stubborn little girl and knows EXACTLY what she wants, and how she wants it. I’m hoping this is more a sign of this particular age than it is of her personality… please someone reassure me on that! I still do love this age, though! I wish she would never lose that squeal and laugh and the undeniable “whole-heartedness” with which she shows her emotions. That’s might not be the right word, but basically I mean her emotion is so innocent and so honest, and she shows what she feels with everything she has. She puts her whole body into her laugh and you know she feels it through and through with every fiber of her being. I’m not explaining it well, but I know what I mean and I hope some of you do, too!

Now I’ll leave you with a cute video of Lily and Abby dancing, laughing, kissing, and pushing.
Have a great week, everyone! It’s back to work for me…

Lily and Abby Dancing from Jill W on Vimeo.

Super Powers

March 10, 2009 Blog, Lily, twins 1 Comment

Have I told you about Lily’s super powers yet? No? Well, it’s quite impressive, really. She has the ability to turn her entire body into liquid at her very whim. (She also commonly has the ability to turn other people into a puddle of goo, but that’s another story.) Try to take away something she wants to have, and watch her melt right into the floor. Try to pick her up and carry her somewhere she doesn’t want to go, and watch her liquefy and slip through your fingers. Who knew toddlers were so talented?

Toddlers are also KLUTZY! The above picture is Lily oh-so-happily showing off her lovely bruise, courtesy of a fall and bump on the head last Friday morning. She dealt with it pretty well - she cried, then ran over to me and I picked her up and she was immediately fine. Sometimes I do love being “Mama”! Have I mentioned, by the way, that she hates the camera lately??

This past weekend we got to spend a little bit of time with Grandma and Grandpa, Uncle Greggy, Auntie Lisa, Uncle Ryan, and Cousins Claire and Abby! Lily got to spend a little bit of quality time reading with Auntie Lisa, which she loved! But, then she repaid her by completely beating up her daughters. I don’t know why she was being so mean, but she was pushing the twins over, scratching their faces, and jumping on top of them. Granted, sometimes she was doing these things in order to give them a kiss (which was adorable), but mostly she was being just too rough. I’m not too worried about this behavior yet because I hear it’s pretty common at this age, but I always feel so bad for the other kids and can’t apologize enough to their parents! Lily got her very first time-out on Sunday just for this very behavior. I wasn’t expecting much, because she is so young, but she actually did seem to “get it” and her behavior improved a little bit.

Other than that, we haven’t been doing too much exciting stuff. Lily is sick (again!) with a pretty bad cold so we’ve been laying low a bit and trying to get her healthy again. Unfortunately, this cold has completely screwed up her sleeping schedule so we’ve been fighting her at bedtime the last few nights, which gets old very, very quickly! We are all VERY sick of winter (and it’s snowing outside as I type this), and more than ready for spring to arrive already! We have managed to get outside a bit more on the few nice days we’ve had, but are anxious for more consistent good weather. This weekend we are hanging out with Auntie Lisa and Claire and Abby again, and going to a “Mother’s of Multiples” garage-type sale since my sister belongs to the group. Hope everyone else is doing well and staying healthy!

Here’s a short video of Lily coloring one of her coloring books. Mostly she seems to like coloring the page of words in the very front, more than the pictures themselves. That, and eating the crayons of course!

Lily Coloring from Jill W on Vimeo.

Camera Shy

March 2, 2009 Lily, twins 3 Comments

It’s March! Is it spring yet? Our little lamb (heh) is just as adorable and amazing as always. I know, I brag too much - but isn’t that the point of this blog?!? I am really, really enjoying this age! Lily has all these little behaviors that make me laugh and smile, and play like little movies in my head when I’m away from her, which sometimes gets me through the day. A lot of times when I put Lily on her changing table to change her diaper I will sing her a little tune, or something random. A few weeks ago I didn’t have any particular song in my head so I just sang “baby, baby, baby” to some made-up tune. She smiled and laughed, so I did the same thing next time. She just loves it! So now when I put her on the changing table she looks at me and smiles and says “baby”, asking me to sing. So I sing “baby, baby, baby” and she smiles and claps, I think more excited that I understood what she wanted than she is about my actual singing!

Lily is getting really good at saying certain words, and right now the words she says most often are probably “duck, sock, yuck, and no”. The first 3 sound almost exactly the same, so we usually have to pay a little more attention to the situation to figure out exactly what she’s saying! The first time she said “sock” I was getting her dressed and I thought she kept saying “duck! duck!” and so, of course, I said “where’s the duck?”, which was just so wrong (obviously). Once I finally got it and said “ooohhh! SOCK!”, Lily looked at me and smiled and said “DUCK (sock)!”. She learned yuck from the Bing book “YUK!”, given to her by Derek, Alix, and Sebastian for her birthday! She loves that book, and now if you say Tomato she will giggle and say “yuck!” (even though she really does like tomatoes). She also says “book, block, butt, and bellybutton”, all of which sound pretty much the same (”bop”).

Another of her favorite tricks lately are RUNNING (yikes), walking backwards, spinning in circles, and dancing to music constantly. Tonight she was playing with her helicopter toy and it played “B-I-N-G-O” so she ran over and grabbed her radio toy (current favorite), turned the dial to the dog icon and played “B-I-N-G-O” on it, too! I think it must have just been coincidence that she happened to play the same song, but I do think hearing the song on the helicopter did remind her of her radio, which is why she ran to grab it.

One of the less adorable parts of this stage Lily is in is that she is so uncooperative with any type of Camera, so I can’t capture all of this cuteness to cherish forever! Check out this video I tried to take of her playing her harmonica - I think we did 4 takes and this was the only one that actually had her playing the harmonica AT ALL, and that was only because her back was turned so she wasn’t even aware that the camera was running!

Harmonica from Jill W on Vimeo.

So, our biggest excitement this past weekend was going to the Science Museum on Saturday with Auntie Lisa, Uncle Ryan, Cousins Claire and Abby, Claire and Abby’s Grandpa Rich, and Uncle Greggy. We all had a fun time, even though the kids are too young to really appreciate the content of the museum, they did like being out and around people and each other. Lily is getting a little bit harder to control in public areas like that because she doesn’t want to be in her stroller for very long, but won’t walk around holding our hands, and we can’t carry her for too long. We kept just alternating her between the stroller, our shoulders, our hips, and let her walk around a bit with Jason or I following right behind her. She tends to just run wherever and crash into people, or run right into someone’s way, so we try to limit her running around as much as possible but sometimes I think she just needs to get some energy out! Now to look forward to this next weekend, though I have to do some work from home, then on Sunday we have a CamFam Dinner! Hope everyone has a great week!