We LOVE our Cousins!

We went to visit my sister this weekend and got to meet the newest cousin - sooooo cute. We ventured out to the strawberry farm which was tons of fun for the kids and they can't get enough of the yummy strawberries. We also went to the base to check out some planes, and they loved that too. We only really got to spend Saturday with everybody since it was a 7+ hour a drive (with Atlanta traffic - blech), but I think we may be more apt to travel now (if those darn gas prices would stop rising so much) since it wasn't nearly as miserable on the road as I expected. We had a great time and I was so proud of our kids - they did fabulous (with no dvd player) both ways. They, of course, were grumpy at times, but for the most part were happy and content even if they were true to form and didn't sleep a wink on the way there or back. Katie is at the age where she just idolizes older girls, and for her, cousin Katelyn was just awesome. Tyler was the same way with cousin Joshua and the kids had so much fun playing with them while we got to visit with my sister and brother-in-law and the newest cousin, who is one of the cutest, sweetest and best babies ever. We are really, really behind on visiting them since this is our first time to Georgia and they are about to move, but we are so glad that we made it down before they are outta there because it was a great (but too short) weekend!

All the cousins, including Colby with his awesome big brother!

Cousins minus Colby.

The Boys

The Girls

Tyler loved picking strawberries, but didn't understand why we wanted him to wait to eat them!

Katie was in to it! She was very intent on picking the ones that were the "most red," and then showing them off before putting them in the basket.

So hungry...

One of things I appreciate most about my children is that they, so far, are not picky eaters. They like to eat and will try most everything. They are, of course, pretty vocal about things they don't like but luckily they are fruit fanatics, they will eat most vegetables (although if given an option they will choose the other things on their plates unless it is carrots or green beans), will eat most any meats, love broccoli and salad if it can be dipped, will eat anything with cheese, love milk and water, and even tried sushi the other day. The doctor said not to worry at all about the fat content of anything that they eat, so we usually just let them have whatever they like within reason - which usually means that they get a second cup of yogurt, another piece of cheese (on some days only yellow cheese will do, however), or another cup of fruit if they say please. So, I shouldn't have been surprised at what I heard when the other day I mentioned to their teachers that they would be in school early and would need to eat breakfast. I thought I was helping with their food numbers because the kids don't usually eat breakfast since they get there right at the cut-off and have breakfast at home and I though school might need to order two more breakfasts from the kitchen. When the teachers looked at me oddly and said oh, they eat breakfast every day -are you feeding them too? - I couldn't help but laugh. Yep, the munchkins have been having breakfast at 7:00 at home, and then at school I guess what they consider a mid-morning snack at 8:30, lunch at 10:45, and snack at 2:3o. Their teachers did say that they seem to pick and choose depending on if they really like something or not so I guess we will continue to give them breakfast and let them see what is offered for morning snack! We had a birthday party yesterday at Gymboree Play and Music and it was fabulous! The kids loved it. I was rushing around Saturday to take them after I got done with my tennis match only to find out from Lance (who was meeting me there) that it was actually on Sunday (the invitation said the date, but not the day and I stupidly just assumed that date was a Saturday). I was annoyed at the hassle of trying to get there on Sunday only one day after the Saturday debacle, but it was definitely worth it. The kids were laughing and dancing, and jumping and giggling the whole time and woke up this morning talking about things they did - so fun!

Finally Haircuts!

Well, we finally got haircuts for the kids. They did great - talked to the stylist, sat still when asked to, and didn't cause any trouble when waiting for the other to get done! Good thing they were on their best behaviour since I was braving it on my own! I took some pictures, but you can't really tell that they got cuts. Tyler was very curious about everything in her station and kept asking what the gel was so I let the girl give him a faux hawk. He loves it - keeps touching is hair, I'm not too crazy about it for an everyday look (of course) but it's fun when we aren't going in public :)! Katie is still in a bad hair stage so not much could be done with hers but since she refuses to keep a ponytail in we had to do something. We cut bangs to at least keep it out of her eyes. Of course when we got home she kept begging for a ponytail so even more it doesn't look much different! They got lollipops for being good and they are prominently displayed in the photos!

I'm a Princess

I don't know where she gets it, but Katie is the girliest little girl! She loves to twirl, and calls herself a princess, loves to wear dresses, always likes to carry a purse of some sort (like the cup in this picture), is obsessed with shoes (especially her princess dress-up heels) and had her best potty training day the other day because she didn't want to mess up her "pretty dress." For Easter I think the Bunny is going to bring her a tutu because she has one at school that she wears constantly and refuses to let anyone else even touch. Her dancing, though, isn't quite ballet yet!

Tyler is still amazing us with his grasp of vocabulary. He has such "adult-like" conversations and seems to have awesome recall. We went to dinner with some friends of Ray-Ray and So-So and when he saw her in the parking lot he pointed her out by name even though we haven't seen them in a few months. He needs a haircut, again and I think I am going to get Katie one too - I am just tired of it being in her eyes!

Today I got home a bit early so we went to the park at the school nearby. We went this weekend too and the kids absolutely love it. It is designed for bigger children so it makes me nervous but the big slides are a hit with them both. It is pretty fun to listen to them on the playground talking to each other about where they are going next and encouraging the other to come with them. They are, this week (ha - since it is only Tuesday) getting along pretty well - I'm not holding my breath that it will last!

Katie kind of looks crazy in this one, but it shows the shoes. She is surprisingly agile in those things - she can still jump, climb the stairs and run even though they are heels and too big!

Not Literally!

Still don't have pictures, but I had to share a funny story. We have noticed that Tyler appreciates having things explained to him and really talking about why we are doing something - i.e. we don't want you to climb on the table because you might get hurt. To which Tyler responds with something like oh, don't climb on table I don't wanna get hurt - which works much better than the former method of a stern no and time out and him just giving you a mischevious look when he is released and doing it again. So, his teacher at school said that he is staying dry and going on the potty frequently and that she thinks he is ready to really start training too which means that on the way to school/work this morning I decided to talk to Tyler about telling his teacher when he has to go and not to pee pee in his undies, etc., etc. He seemed to understand and said that he wanted to wear undies and that he wouldn't go in them, and that he would tell us when he needed to go. A few minutes after that conversation he said - momma I have to poopoo. I said thank you for telling me and asked him if he could hold it since we weren't that far from school. He looked at me kind of quizically, but said yes. I went back to driving and then looked back to Tyler being somewhat of a contortionist trying to do something with his hands while still buckled in the carseat - yep, he was trying to "hold" his poop like I asked him to. Luckily, he didn't manage to figure out how to do it - but it was a good lesson for me, Tyler has always been very literal and I need to remember that when giving instructions!

Things are starting to get very busy, but I will get some pictures taken one weekend soon - there are sure to be opportunities since I need to get the kids enrolled in swim lessons again, I know they are going to want to ride the train at the zoo and see the trains at Cheekwood in April, and we are doing some traveling to see family and my new nephew soon! With all that goes on in the Spring/Summer at work and at home it would be so easy to just say that I don't have time for tennis right now (especially considering that the club I play at has new policies which mean too many new fees), but I love, love playing in this league and at this time of year and with these ladies, not to mention that it is the only exercise that I seem to be able to find the time for, so I'm not giving up yet! Needless to say, posting may be a bit sporadic in the next few months, but I'll try to keep you updated - now that the kids can have conversations with us we are realizing that they are both pretty funny little munchkins so I'm sure I'll have lots to share!

"Naptime"

Sorry that I don't have any pictures - will work on that for the next post! I wished I had my camera on Sunday as Katie was walking around in her play high heels (that she now will not take off) saying she is a pink princess, or Saturday at the zoo when Tyler realized that the carousel might not be too bad - but, alas I couldnt' find it and/or didn't have it with me! The kids are still trying to exert their will and give up naps - we may have to transition to thinking of it as rest time rather than naptime, but either way they definitely need time to decompress. They especially needed it on Saturday - they stayed at Ray-Ray and So-So's house on Friday night (we went out for my birthday and had a great time) and apparently Tyler decided that he wanted to do a little "reading" in the middle of the night and then still get up with his sister at 5:30am! We then went to the zoo on a gorgeous day and came home right at naptime when we thought they would surely be exhausted and not fight napping as strenuously as usual. We were wrong - Tyler fell asleep in the car, but would not fall asleep after being moved and Katie didn't get to sleep until 2:00 which meant we had to wake her at 3:30 to allow for her sleeping at night! On Sunday, I was pretty certain that we wouldn't get good sleep results because they slept late Sunday morning due to the time change. I took them to Target (Lance was working) in an effort to keep them entertained and hopefully tire them out a bit, and let them pick out one small toy (used my birthday money - that's how desperate I am to find something that they enjoy more than fighting and beating each other up :)). The toys they picked out they loved (the play heels for Katie, Matchbox cars for Tyler) - the naps, not so much. I went in numerous times to tell them to settle down, to change diapers (since they have figured out if they yell that they have pooped I will come in - even if it is not true), etc. to no avail. When Lance got home he suggested we separate them (even though containing them in another room is not really an option anymore) since they were jumping and laughing and talking and really doing everything but trying to sleep. He went up to move Tyler and found Katie with her blue jeans on her head dancing around saying that she was a pirate while Tyler said Arghhh! Lance did good trying not to laugh and being stern, but it was difficult not to giggle at Katie the Clown. The move resulted in no nap at all for Tyler again and Katie falling asleep at 3:00. I wouldn't mind them skipping it if it weren't for how grumpy and irritable, at us and each other, they are when they are tired and it is so obvious that they are tired and NEED to sleep. If we ever get around to changing their beds we will probably have other issues compounding the problem so I guess I just might need to allow them to have books and lay quietly and hope that they fall asleep or at least get some rest to re-charge.

Potty training is going ok - I think I am going to try to pick up some of those Gerber cloth training pants instead of pull-ups. I just think the pull-ups are confusing them - they aren't supposed to go, but they can and it isn't really different than a diaper, etc. They are both doing really well going when you put them on, but as long as they are wearing pull-ups I don't think they are going to learn how uncomfortable it is when they don't go to the potty. Right now it just seems like they understand what to do when we put them on the potty, but don't understand why they can't just go in their diaper/pull-up if they have one on. So, everyone says that they "get" the connection once you move them into the training pants (which absorb a little more than regular underwear to make small accidents not always result in a complete outfit change) and just ditch diapers and pull-ups all together (well, except for at night in our case). We'll see - I am still not claiming no blame since I just haven't trained myself to take them every thirty minutes - that could work too :)!

Come On Summer!

It seems that the kids have been coughing with runny noses for months, literally months! We have gotten so used to it that this week when the winter sniffles escalated into a full blown cold we didn't realize it right away. Tyler was super grumpy, with a deep cough and low grade fever early this week but as is his nature, he didn't seem really sick. It wasn't until Katie got it that we understood that he was being tough guy again, because it was obvious that she did not feel well at all. She had a temperature last night of almost 103, for the last few days she has been very sleepy and irritable and not eating well. She woke this morning with no fever and after a night of coughing almost constantly, the cough seems to have subsided somewhat. We have just had miserable weather that is cold and rainy, or semi-warm and stormy - but either way means that they are stuck indoors and more susceptible to germs. Luckily, they seem to be on the tail end of it all - just in time for the time change (which hopefully means more outside time) AND their overnight at So-So and Ray Ray's! Yep, tomorrow night they are staying with their grandparents and I am excited to have a night out - I just hope that they are all better by then and in better moods! To be fair, though, they haven't been too irritable lately other than this week and I think they can be forgiven for their crankiness since I imagine that they are super annoyed at not feeling well!