Tuesday, August 31, 2010

We went to the zoo one morning last week. It was early, so it was still in the low 70s. The animals seemed to enjoy the nice weather just as much as we did.

I'd say this bear was pretty relaxed...


The gorillas were out and active, which was really neat. However, I had quite a scare when this gorilla suddenly made eye contact with me, ran over, pounded his fist on the wooden post on the left of the picture and ran off. Addison and Fischer seemed to like the activity though!


In addition to a fun day at the zoo, Addison and Fischer got a new ride over the weekend.



They seem to love it, and I love that I found it at a consignment sale for just $5! They are already practicing for when they have to share a car in 15 years. :)

Sunday, August 29, 2010

Last Sunday was our last day in Pennsylvania. We spent the day outlet shopping (where Addison and Fisher got their first Minnie Mouse and Mickey Mouse stuffed animals), then relaxing at home. We were going to drive all night again to come home, so we tried to rest up a little bit for our trip. We left around 7:15 pm again, and got home around 5 am. We were exhausted, but once again, Addison and Fischer did great on the drive!

When we got home, there was a package waiting for us.  On and off, for the past year or so, I've searched for replacement "wubbies" for Addison and Fischer. They each received one as a gift before they were born. Once they started using them, I realized that it would be a good idea to purchase identical ones to have as back ups. I finally found one for Addison, so she finally has two. This is a great thing, because she has become extremely attached to her "wee-wee" and it's getting nastier by the day. I'm having to wash it a lot more now, so it's nice to have another one so that I don't have to rush between naps to get it washed! I'm still searching for Fischer's twin wubby! Here are Addison's - the new one on the left is so soft, and the colors are still so bright.


Other than that, things are getting back to normal around here after our trip. It takes awhile to get unpacked and caught up on laundry. It's taken a little longer to get back on track this time because Addison and Fischer have had colds for several days. Hopefully they are feeling all better very soon!

Friday, August 27, 2010

Last Saturday was an exciting day. We went to an amusement park near Scott's mom's called Dutch Wonderland. I was so excited to take Addison and Fischer on some rides. They had several rides that kids their size/age could go on, as long as Scott and I went also.  It ended up being extremely crowded, so we didn't get to ride as many rides as I was hoping to because the lines were so long. Standing in line with 2 wiggly toddlers isn't much fun. :)

This is the first ride we all went on. Addison and Fischer had fun driving the trucks! Addison kept turning around to check on Fischer, who was behind us.




We also rode on boats, which was fun. All 4 of us got to go in the same boat. It was hard taking pictures, since I was holding onto Addison so she wouldn't suddenly jump out of the little boat. :)


We then rode a train around the entire park. Addison rode with Grandma K.


It was a fun day! I hope to go back when they are a little bit bigger so they can enjoy even more of the rides! Here are a few more pictures from the day:



Thursday, August 26, 2010

Friday morning in PA, we woke up feeling rested and ready to go! Our only planned thing for the day was to go visit Scott's Grandmom. I think she enjoyed watching Addison and Fischer run around for a couple of hours!


Afterwards, we went to lunch, where Addison cuddled with her noodles. :) Then, we went back to the park close to Scott's mom's house and went swimming. The water was pretty cold, but we had fun once we got used to the temperature. Addison and Fischer still enjoy drinking pool water, which I always worry about. There is just no stopping them though!

Later in the evening, Scott's sister and her family arrived. Addison and Fischer enjoyed playing with their 3 older cousins. They were worn out by bedtime!

Here is Grandma K with all 5 of her grandkids. It's so nice for when they can all be together!

Wednesday, August 25, 2010

As I mentioned, we recently made the trip up to PA to visit Scott's family. We knew it was a gamble doing the 10 hour drive overnight, but we figured we'd never know how it would go until we tried.  So, Wednesday night, we had dinner, did baths for Addison and Fischer, gave them their pre-bedtime snack, then put them in the car. Fischer started crying immediately, so we were worried it would be a long night. Luckily, as soon as we were all in the car he stopped. I think he was confused!  Here they are, ready to get on the road!



We were pleasantly surprised at how well Addison and Fischer did on the trip. They fell asleep about an hour into the drive, and woke up only a couple of times throughout the entire 10 hours.  We arrived at Scott's mom's house shortly after 5 am. Scott and I were exhausted, but Addison and Fischer were well rested and ready to play. We managed to stay awake until their  9 am nap time, then we took naps as well.

After naps, we went to lunch so Addison and Fischer could try their first cheese steak sandwiches. I think they loved them!



After lunch, we just spent time with Scott's mom for the rest of the day. We went to a park close to her house, which is always fun.




It was a fun day, but we were all pretty tired from our long night of driving. Needless to say, we went to bed early so we could rest up for Friday!

Tuesday, August 24, 2010

Addison and Fischer played with shaving cream today. They had a great time!


We just got back from a trip to Pennsylvania to visit Scott's family.  We drove overnight both there and back, and it was a success. Addison and Fischer did awesome, and I was so proud of them! I will post more about our trip soon!

While we were there, Addison and Fischer turned 18 months old. 18 months. A year and a half. I can't believe it. Now we are creeping up on them turning 2, which sort of terrifies me. :)  Here they are,  on their 18 month "birthday" playing on the porch at Grandma K's house.


At 18 months, they seem to be doing great. We don't have their checkup for a few more weeks, so I won't have their "stats" or official information until then.

Here are a few updates:

I think Fischer weighs more than Addison, and I know that he is taller than her.
They are both wearing 12-18 month clothes and size 4 shoes.
They wear size 4 diapers during the day, and size 5 at night.
Fischer has 16 teeth and Addison has her 14th coming in.
They both love food and love to drink water.
They still don't drink much juice at all.
They still get milk 3 times a day... Addison is still drinking soy milk. We are planning to try her on whole milk again this week or next week. We will just put a little whole milk in with her soy milk, and slowly increase the amount to see how she tolerates it.
They still nap twice a day.
They are sleeping pretty well - one will occasionally wake up, but it's been better over the past few weeks. They go to bed around 7:30 and wake up between 6:30 and 7.
They love watching Mickey Mouse Clubhouse and Sesame Street.

I think their differences are becoming more and more clear each day as they get older. Fischer seems to be all boy, and wants to play rough most of the time. He loves playing with dirt and rocks when we go outside. Addison seems to be all girl, and loves cuddling toys and stuffed animals. She has even started saying "awww" or "ohhhh baby" as she holds them. And she will cuddle almost anything. The other day at lunch, they were eating lo mein. She took a noodle, held it against her stomach, wrapped her arms around it and cuddled it. Yep, a noodle. Then she ate it. :)  She is slowly filling up her crib with her "babies" so it's getting quite crowded in there. Right now, she is napping with Minnie Mouse, her turtle, her pig, her bear, her blanket and her wubbie.

Another difference I've noticed is how they react to us telling them "no." Fischer will go to do something he knows he isn't supposed to do, look at us, and walk away as soon as we say no (most of the time). Addison, on the other hand, looks at us and gives us a big smile while continuing to do whatever it is she isn't supposed to be doing! And it is SOO hard to keep a straight face when she does that.

They are saying more and more words these days (their newest being "nano" for piano, since Grandma K has a piano). Fischer also has his own little language that he talks in a lot.  Addison has also said a couple of two word phrases: "oh baby" as mentioned above, and "bye bye, bear."  They are both very stubborn about saying "please" and "thank you" but we are continuing to work on that.

These updates could go on and on, since they are doing so much right now, but I will stop for now.

Stay tuned for pictures from our trip!

Tuesday, August 17, 2010

Are we getting close to potty-training time? I have no idea. But, I do know that Addison has told me 3 times over the past 2 days that her diaper was dirty. The first time, she stopped playing, waited a second (I'm assuming this is when she peed), said "uh-oh" then pointed to her diaper.  The second and third times, she alerted me when she went number 2, and pulled at her diaper.

To be honest, I have barely read anything about potty-training. I know there is a checklist floating around out there that shows signs to look for showing that they are ready, but I haven't really looked at it. I don't want to put too much pressure on the issue, and I just don't know if Scott and I are ready to tackle the task. I guess we'll just see what happens next!

I know that was probably too much information for some of you, but these are things I want to remember. :)

In other news, Addison now has tooth number 13. She is getting close to having a mouth full of teeth, just like her brother! Speaking of Fischer, it is becoming very clear just how much he loves being outside. With the weather cooling off just a little (it's been in the low 90s) we've been spending more time outside. He gets so excited and loves running around. Addison enjoys it too, but I'm farily sure that Fischer would stay out all day if we let him. Addison will eventually walk up to the backdoor, knock on it, and call for Bo. :)  I suppose this is her signal that she's ready to go in! They definitely keep me laughing. :)

Monday, August 16, 2010

Monday again.... the weekends go by so fast! We didn't do much over the weekend, but it was nice! We did managed to play outside some, despite the heat. On Saturday, we played in the rain for a little while. Addison just kept laughing as it hit her head. I think Fischer would stay outside for hours if we let him. Hopefully when it finally cools off, we can stay out for much longer!

We are gearing up for a road trip this week to see Grandma Komarnicki... we are going to attempt to leave at Addison and Fischer's bedtime and drive all night. I'm nervous, but we won't know how it is until we actually try it. Depending on how it goes will determine what time we leave for our drive home next week. We have some fun things planned during our trip, and I'll be sure to take a lot of pictures.

Addison and Fischer have been staying busy chattering away (although we don't understand most of what they are saying).  Addison has been on an "uh-oh" kick and must say it at least 100 times a day. She has also started to really love stuffed animals. She is currently napping with a turtle, pig, and a bear, along with her wubbie and a blanket. Her crib is getting quite crowded. It's so cute to see her hug and kiss her stuffed animals, and call them baby "bebe."

A funny story about the stuffed bear she is sleeping with... it has a button where you press the paw and make it snore. Once she insisted on taking it to bed with her, we took the batteries out so that we wouldn't hear it snoring at all hours of the night (there wasn't an on/off swtich).  Then the other night, after baths, we heard her saying "hi" over and over in her crib.  We walked in and she was holding the battery case (while hanging out of the bear by wires) up to her ear and using it as a cell phone. So Scott had to further operate on the bear and cut all of the wires out. She still loves and cuddles the bear though, even without his insides. :)

The kids make me laugh more and more everyday!!

Friday, August 13, 2010

We took Fischer to get his first "real" hair cut today. You may recall that Scott gave him a trim back in March, but we decided to have it done professionally this time.  Fischer did such a good job, and didn't cry one single tear. I am so proud of our big boy!

They gave him a Sesame Street toy (which he loved!) and some animal crackers (which he didn't care for) to keep him entertained! His stylist worked very fast - I guess she has some experience with squirmy little boys. :)

He has some challenging hair to work with, but I think it looks good and he looks like such a little boy and not a baby. We knew he had 3 cow licks, but we found out about a 4th one today. He will have these forever! She told us that we need to train his hair in the front to fall to the side in order to work with the cow licks.

Addison went along too, but just for moral support. They both got to play in the waiting area until Fischer's name was called. Next time we go, whenever that may be, she will be getting a trim of her own!

Here they are in the play area:



Finally they called Fischer's name. Here he is getting all strapped in...


Addison sat quietly in her stroller and watched (and ate a few animal crackers)...


His stylist, Yolanda, got to work. He kept leaning to the sides, but she would just follow him with the scissors...



All done...


Time to go get some lunch. Fischer is tired from getting his hair cut. :)

Thursday, August 12, 2010

Raising two toddlers does not come without challenges.  Some days I feel like a broken record... "No, Addison." "No, Fischer." "No, No, No, No...." You get the point. I try my best to redirect their attention, but that's not always easy.  They are very determined little things!

Fights over toys have emerged as well, so the lessons on sharing have started. I don't think they understand the concept of sharing just yet, but it can't hurt anything by trying to teach them about it! These toy arguments can get quite heated - I think we have two stubborn children on our hands!

There are also some yucky things that have started - we are now dealing with nose-picking. This is one thing that I can't stand, so I'm trying hard to curb this behavior! Fischer has recently started gagging himself too. Where did he learn to do that?! And why does he think it's funny?! Addison has done it a couple times, but I think she is just doing the whole copy-cat thing. They tend to do that a lot too.

And lastly, biting has reared its ugly head again. After taking at least a month off from biting, Fischer has started again. I have no idea why he quit (although I'd like to say it was due to my parenting skills :) ), and I have no idea why he started again. We are just trying to stay on top of it, and hopefully it will go away sooner rather than later.

While there are challenges, there are also many rewards. There is nothing like watching Addison and Fischer give each other a kiss goodnight.  Or walking into a room to find them playing well and giggling together.  Or finding them quietly sitting on the couch reading a book to themselves. And when they say new words, without any prompting, it is very gratifying! And I love it when they come across the room just to crawl in my lap or give me a kiss.  These rewards always outweigh the challenges!

Wednesday, August 11, 2010

Addison and I had a little mommy/daughter time yesterday while I painted her toe nails. :) I ordered some natural, non-toxic nail polish from www.piggypaint.com, and it finally came. At first she jerked her foot away, but then realized what I was doing and sat pretty still for me.


And are her painted nails...


Fischer stood and watched me... I was worried he'd get jealous and I would have to do his too in order to avoid a fit, but he just happily watched as I painted her nails, then went about his business.  Addison then had fun pointing at her toes for the rest of the day. :)

After our painting fun, we went to the Ronald McDonald House of Columbia to drop off a bag of beverage tabs. I also had some toiletries from our vacation to drop off - they are always in need of toiletries, so I brought all the ones from our hotels home to donate!

The lady who was working also gave me several of these tab collection houses...


It's now sitting in our pantry, and when it's full of tabs, I will go drop them off. It's such an easy and cheap (because you most likely drink those drinks anyway) way to do something for others.  If anyone wants one of these little houses for their house or office, let me know - I have plenty!

Tuesday, August 10, 2010

Yesterday, I broke out the finger paints and finally let Addison and Fischer give painting a try. After last week's shaving cream play time, I thought it might work out well to put them in their boosters seats so that they couldn't walk around painting everything in the room!

Like with the shaving cream, they were a little confused at first. Addison tasted the paint right away too, which must have tasted better than the shaving cream because she didn't start drooling everywhere! They still didn't sit and play for too long, but they seemed to have a little fun with it.

Here are a few pictures from our art session... Fischer painted himself a little too.



Monday, August 9, 2010

We went to the beach over the weekend.  Beach trips aren't relaxing like they used to be, but they are just as fun.... laying out by the water with a book and a cold beverage has been replaced with chasing two active toddlers up and down the beach, and in and out of the water, while trying to limit the amount of sand they eat.  Addison and Fischer had a great time playing in the sand and in the water, and really weren't afraid of it at all! I didn't get too many pictures (because of all the chasing I had to do) but I managed to get a couple.


The purpose of posting this family picture is to show just how active Addison and Fischer were being - Addison was trying to leap out of my arms, and Fischer wouldn't hold still at all. :)


We stayed with our friend Rett, and he had stairs in his condo. Addison and Fischer were obsessed with them, which also gave Scott and I quite a workout. Here they are on one of their many trips up.... They aren't fully clothed because their clothes were soaking wet from the chairs out on the porch.






Friday, August 6, 2010

I helped Addison and Fischer make a sticker picture for Scott... it was their first time playing with stickers, and I think they enjoyed it. Scott's picture is now proudly hanging above his computer in his office. :)


Here is the finished product...


Addison and Fischer have been trying new things lately. We've been working on their jumping skills, which is pretty funny. They get very excited and try to say "jump" while going up on the tips of their toes.  The other day, Addison was trying every harder, and would lift one foot up off the floor, then the other, but you could tell she thought she was jumping!

They are both also smelling flowers now. Whenever we see pictures of flowers in their books, they sniff the page. Fischer sniffs correctly, but Addison is still blowing on the page, but thinks she is sniffing it. They have both done it outside too, with real flowers!

They are also answering questions more and more. Fischer likes to answer "nah" to almost everything. This morning, however, Addison answered yes to something! She had a dirty diaper, so I said "Addison, is your diaper poopy?" She looked at me and shook her head yes!

Unfortunately, as they are getting older and more verbal, they are starting to fight over toys more. They get very frustrated with each other! Sometimes we let them work it out on their own, but if it starts getting out of control, we step in. I've already had to take many toys away because they weren't sharing well.

Speaking of unfortunate events... we went to dinner with friends last night. Addison and Fischer did not behave well, and Scott and I were both pretty embarrassed. Luckily, our friends didn't seem to mind too much, but hopefully they are willing to go out with us again eventually. :) I know this is going to happen, and it's all part of having young children, but I don't think we were prepared because they are generally well behaved when we go out. I hope this isn't the start of a new phase... and if it is a phase, I hope it's a short one!

We are off to the beach this weekend, and I can't wait to see how they react to the water! They loved it back in March, so we'll see if they still love it now!

Wednesday, August 4, 2010

I ordered Addison and Fischer a picnic table last week, and have been so excited for it to arrive. It finally came and I set it up yesterday. My plan is to have this table be our arts and crafts table. Addison and Fischer are getting old enough to do some little projects, and I thought the table would be the perfect place. Also, it can easily be moved inside or outside... right now it will stay set up in our air-conditioned sunroom until it cools off and we can do more outside.

Here they are sitting at their table for the first time!


We gave them some shaving cream to play with...


Addison immediately put it in her mouth. She started drooling and was trying her best to spit it all out. I guess Fischer realized her reaction wasn't good because he never tasted any of it.


I expected Fischer to dive right in and get messy, but he was pretty hesitant...


It wasn't long before they strayed from the table and touched almost everything in the sunroom with their cream-covered hands. Then, it was bath time. After a bath, they relaxed on the couch and watched some Mickey Mouse Clubhouse.


I can't wait to try some more projects with them!

Monday, August 2, 2010

Saturday, after visiting a local farmer's market, we decided to head to the zoo. It was "only" in the mid 80's, so it seemed like perfect zoo weather!

The animals were pretty active because of it being a little cooler, so that was fun. We went into the Kangaroo Walkabout for the first time, and a kangaroo hopped right out in front of us. We were so close!


We also let Addison and Fischer help us feed the goats, which they enjoyed. They seem to really like the farm animals.

Since Scott was with me, we even got to ride the carousel! Fischer seemed ok with it, but Addison didn't love it. Here they are on their animals that went up and down (Addison has a death grip on my back in our picture)...



Addison started crying, so we moved to a bench that didn't go up and down and she seemed to like that better. Scott and Fischer joined us after a few minutes...


We really enjoyed the cooler temperatures over the weekend. I can't wait for it to stay cool so we can do more outside!