Dora 3rd Birthday Party

Funny how the month of June just flew by like that.  On the 21st, we celebrated the twins' 3rd birthday here at my mother's house.  The girls love watching Dora and I don't mind letting them since it is one of the more interactive, educational shows out there.  I decided it would be a good theme for the party.  Only, I didn't want it to be all Dora, all over the place.  I wanted the decorations to be more subtly Dora and concentrate more on the activities now that they are at the age where they can participate in party activities. 

We don't really know any local toddlers around the same age yet and my friends in San Diego with little ones have too far of a drive to make it worth their while.  So it was a nice family party with just the cousins.

I made a map for the three toddlers and we went through it like on Dora.  "Birdhouse, prize box, cake and presents!" and repeat two more times in your best map voice imitation.  Making the map was easy and quick.  I simply searched for what I wanted on google images and copied and pasted them into Paint. 

 

I tried to stick to a orange/purple/pink color theme for decorations but almost anything could be argued to work with the Dora theme.  So the green table cloth that Oma found in her collection and the flowers/bug decorations from Little H's 1st birthday party that my sister brought all worked out perfectly.  For food we had quiches with asparagus and tomato, deviled eggs, a veggie and cracker platter with hummus and shrimp with home made cocktail sauce.  The fruit and cake came later. 

 







 

After eating, we painted birdhouses.  All shirts came off so their would be no permanent messes. I got the birdhouses for a dollar each in the craft section of Walmart along with the acrylic paints and little paint brushes.  Being a full 8 months older gave Big H the edge in painting his bird house.  The girls mixed their paints a lot making their houses a muddle-colored mess.  Big H's turned out really well though; he was very careful to clean his brush between colors.  They all had fun painting.

 

 

 

After the birdhouses, we moved on to the prize/punch box.  I followed the tutorial over at Diapers and Heels.  It is a great idea for this age group instead of a piñata, although I supposed a piñata would go with the Dora theme better.  All the kids, except baby M, got three turns punching into the circles and pulling out prizes like flutes, maracas, whistles and bubbles (all Dora themed from Party City).

 

 

I baked two square strawberry cakes with a cool whip frosting.  I mixed blended mulberries into the frosting to give it a nice flavor and pink color.  I also piped a yellow T and D on the cakes so they would know whose was whose.  They each got three candles to blow out, but Big H jumped the gun and blew out D's.  She didn't exactly realize that he had done it.  She just looked surprised that her candles went out before she blew them.  Then when we congratulated her on blowing out the candles to avoid a fight, she looked suspicious until she decided she must have blown them out after all.

 

 

My big three year old girls!



Preparing to Move

I took a hiatus from blogging toward the end of the pregnancy and in the first two months of Baby M's life.  Hopefully I'm back, even if it is only in short, sporadic posts.  Currently all three of my adorable girls are sleeping and I am able to try to post something again.  I have started two drafts over the last two months and neither of them made it past the first paragraph so we'll see how this one goes.

 

Yesterday we had a yard sale and our first showing to sell the house.  We are now without all except the most necessary furniture.  Both the living room and play room are bare.  The kitchen is more roomy where the smaller of our tables used to be and I now get to sit on the floor while reading the girls to bed instead of in the rocking chair.   We still have beds to sleep in and a table to eat at.  And it will mean less work for us when we move in month and a half.

 

It has been really freeing to organize and get rid of so many things.  The house feels so much larger and tidier.  The previous mass of toys in the play room is now confined to one bin.  My craft stash that had been taking over my walk-in closet is now either packed away or donated.  I also put everything away as soon as I can after we use it, so the house is tidy in case we need to show it.  It feels good to have a clean, organized home.  I wish I could keep it up when we move to a new house, but I suspect I will have a remission into chaos when the constant fear of a showing is not driving me. 

 

The girls are dealing with the changes pretty well.  They are a little more fussy and clingy sometimes but that is understandable considering the adjustments they've already had to make with the new baby and now the move.  They know we are moving to California. We talk about it and have a count down going so it won't catch them by surprise.  I think that our previous visits and the presence of our family there is a huge help in making it a positive experience for them.  Plus they have each other which has really made the transition with their new baby sister go much better and will probably help with the move as well. 

 

Wintertime

We had an ice storm over the weekend while much of the country was also dealing with winter weather.  Luckily we did not lose power like last year.  We have remained toasty inside while the temperatures have stayed below freezing.

We did go outside for a little bit once the storm had past.  The girls don't really remember last year's snow, so this felt like a new experience for them.  They were disappointed that they couldn't make a snowman and name him Frosty (you can tell what we watched recently).  It was mostly ice and did not want to be shaped into a snow ball.  Maybe we'll get some real snow this winter for them to play in before we move back to southern California and minimize our chance of every seeing much snow again.

 

 

They got to hold icicles for a bit which made me a little wary, but we kept a close eye on them.  Poking out their own eyes or each others luckily did not cross their minds.



I knitted them some mittens last spring, planning ahead for this winter.  They are still a bit big for them and awkward but at least they helped keep their hands warm.  It was cold out there!

 

The mittens have different fair isle patterns on them but the pastel colors make it hard to see unless you are looking at them closely.  I can't decide whether I am happy with my color choice or not.  Most of the time I like to knit bright colors for them.

 

The girls and I haven't ventured out since Thursday and tomorrow is also not looking good unless it really warms up in the afternoon.  Both our driveway and our cul-de-sac is steep and getting out to the main roads is difficult.  I also don't really know what I'd do if we got stuck.  Digging our car out of ice and snow was hard enough in New York, when I was in great shape.  I really don't see myself able to do much a few weeks away from delivering a baby.

 

 

33 Weeks and 2 Days

This day in the pregnancy is an important memory for me because this was the point I was at in the last pregnancy when the girls were born.  They were 7 weeks early but healthy.  They spent 4 weeks in the NICU learning to nurse, putting on weight (although they were a good size for their gestational age, my little chunks) and spending time under the bili light (only the first week luckily, pesky jaundice).  Although my husband and I half-lived in the hospital during those weeks, I was always thankful I could go home when I needed to without worrying there would be an emergency and something would happen with one of the girl's health while I was gone.  I know some parents are not that lucky.

First time holding T

This pregnancy, I am so thankful I am not carrying twins.  I am so much more healthy, comfortable and able to do things that I could not handle at this point last time.  Although we have someone coming to clean twice a month now to help me keep the house livable, I have enough energy to take care of the girls throughout the daily routine and still manage to get out with them to story times and playgrounds.  I am still sleeping reasonably well at night and have gained less than half of the weight I had last time by this point.  The difference in how I feel is amazing.  I seriously look back on the twin pregnancy, wondering how I did it. 

First time holding D

 

 I love my beautiful twin girls but am so thankful it is just one this time round!

Potty Training

I had read blog posts about potty training a toddler in 2 or 3 days and always imagined doing that when the girls were ready.  However, at the same time because they were cloth diapered and could easily feel when they got wet, we have been potty training since last fall.  That is when I started introducing the potty to them and trying to get them on it in time when they asked.  This spring I made going to the potty part of the bedtime routine, and D got pretty consistent going on the potty in the evening.

After our trip to California in June, I was planning on getting serious.  I thought I'd pick a few days in a row where we were not doing much and have them mostly trained by the end of it.  I completely underestimated how much energy it takes to potty train two just-turned-two years olds and overestimated how much energy I had in the first trimester of pregnancy.  I would get them on the potty first thing in the morning, spend the morning in the tile rooms waiting for the success/accident to happen and a few hours later have them in diapers or training pants because I just wanted to lay on the couch in the living room. 

So I decided the gradual approach was more for us.  We were already doing potty time in our night routine, so I added mornings to the mix.  After a week or so, they started hanging out in their big girl panties (with Dora the Explorer on them) for an hour or two in the mornings and if they hadn't peed on the potty, we would move to the tile rooms just in case.  There were accidents (there still are accidents).  T took longer to get the idea of going on the potty.  D had it down for the most part from nights and mornings but would still have accidents. 

Then about two weeks ago it all clicked together.  When home, if they aren't sleeping, they are usually in their big girl panties (except when they haven't pooped in awhile or in the evenings when I'm tired and don't want to clean up a mess).  They are much more consistent going pee than poo.  They are generally progressing with the occasional bad day.  I finally washed the diaper laundry after a little over a week even though they still have clean diapers because I didn't like the thought of the dirty diapers sitting that long.  They still wear diapers or training pants when we go out somewhere.  But most of the time they either ask to go potty while out or are dry when we come back. 

So there is definitely a lot of progress.  There are also times where they go all day on the potty like good girls and then pee on the bathroom floor a few feet away from the potty in the evening.  I just don't get it.  But it is a long process and they are only two and still learning lots of basic life skills.  We aren't anywhere near being fully potty trained where they can go by themselves without any accidents but so far potty training is definitely a success.

Toddler Beds

Well, now that pacifiers are gone, the next step to accomplish this summer was transitioning to toddler beds. This weekend we busted out the Allen wrenches and a power drill and got to work turning the girls' cribs into beds with a small and ineffectual railing on the front. 

At bedtime, I put the girls to bed as usual, walked away and grabbed a snack thinking, "that wasn't bad."  Then the screams started.  We had put the gate up so they couldn't leave the room, but Miss D pulled open the door and stood at the gate crying.  Miss T remained in bed throughout the extra hour and a half it took for them to fall asleep but she cried a lot too.  After two separate attempts on my husband's and my part, I ended up sitting on the floor near the door until they fell asleep.

Then around midnight, T started screaming again.  I went in there and discovered them both on the floor next to their beds.  T was screaming for me while D was snoring, completely oblivious to the fact that she rolled out of bed.  Later that morning, D woke up to go potty and didn't go back to bed for a good hour or so with me sitting on the floor by the door.  They woke up at 5am, so this momma did not get much sleep.

Luckily last night went much better.  They went to bed without a peep.  T woke up twice during the night because she rolled out of bed but didn't take long to go back to sleep.  I need to do something about her railing.  For now I'll roll up a towel and stick it under the sheet along the edge.  Hopefully that will help keep her from tumbling out.  I need to find another railing that runs at least the majority of the length of the bed.

I'm sure like with the pacifier, we will have good nights and bad nights as they adjust to the new beds and new freedom.   Hopefully the next few nights will be good ones.

No More Pacifiers

I think at times there is a misconception out there that twins, if not identical, still have similar looks and tastes.  The girls, however, are definitely very different from each other.  They really are just siblings who happened to share the womb at the same time.  Pacifiers versus thumb-sucking, for example.  As soon as Miss D was able to reliably get her thumb into her mouth and keep it there, there was no turning back and she has a callus on her right thumb to prove it.  D had her pacifiers and would request one every once in a while when she would see her sister sucking on one.  But in general, she would suck her thumb and hold the pacifier in her other hand instead.

Miss T, on the other hand, needed her pacifier for nap time and bedtime, otherwise she would scream herself silly.  If I had given it to her during the day she would have been happy to suck on it 24/7.  Luckily, I did make that a rule early on that each pacifier is relinquished upon leaving the crib and only returned when it is time to sleep.  That made this transition a little bit easier at least.

Last week the girls "threw" their pacifiers away in the "trash".  They had a great birthday present from their aunt that I hadn't opened for them yet because I needed a pump to blow them up.  They are inflatable horses to ride and bounce on.  I blew them up upstairs while my husband was busy playing with the girls downstairs.  I fixed a small trash can up with a regular shopping bag to catch the pacifiers so they wouldn't get yucky (the girls' doctor recommended throwing them away for real so I wouldn't be tempted to cave, but that seemed wasteful and I am made of sterner stuff than that [or at least I am when I feel I am doing it for their own good]).  Then I gave the girls their pacifier.  I let them suck on them for a minute or two.  I brought the horses downstairs and explained to them that to get the horses they need to throw away their pacifier and they would never get them back.  I'm sure they didn't actually understand the deal they were making with me.  They both eagerly tossed their pacifiers in the trash and played with their new toys.

That night D crashed out as usual with her thumb in her mouth and T cried for almost an hour.  It was not fun to sit there an listen to her beg for her pacifier but it was for the best so I did not cave.  I finally stood next to her crib holding her hand while she fell asleep.  She slept the whole night through without waking up.  The next day at nap time, we were out and busy and running them around all morning and got back a little late.  She passed out easily because she was so tired and only fussed a minute or two for her pacifier.  That night she fussed a little and requested her pacifier a couple times during our bedtime routine but fell asleep without problems. 

Since then she has only had the occasional problem getting to sleep and she only asks for the pacifier every once in awhile.  The process went so much better than I had expected.  A few nights before I took them away, T woke me up twice during the night because she couldn't find her pacifier.  I was really dreading taking them away because I thought she would be doing that a few times a night and taking forever to get back to bed.  But there hasn't been any of that, and she falls asleep just fine when she does wake up at night.  Hurray! 

Things I think that helped:
--Having a consistent bedtime routine
--Letting her be the one to throw it away so I could remind her that she did it, not me
--Reminding her that she has a horse she can ride instead
--I touched on that she was a big girl now and that pacifiers are for babies but I didn't want to stress it too much because I was afraid of meeting a lot of resistance or regression with all the big girl changes that will be going on in the next few months (potty training, toddler bed, more independence in general)

So there you have it.  Success and with relatively few tears!

Two for Two

The girls celebrated their second birthday party in California.  We flew back the day before their birthday so one could still sit in my lap and I only needed to get two plane tickets.  Their actual birthday we were just relaxing and recovering at home.  But their party in California was a nice celebration with family and one of my friends made it with his little boy.

I chose a rainbow theme this year because I figured it would be easy to pick up decorations for once I got California.   I saw a rainbow backdrop idea on Pinterest and really liked how it looked and how recyclable it is.  I bought 2 yards of tulle in every color (except Walmart didn't have orange tulle and I never made it to Joann's).  I put them together in order, tied the top with a rubber band and then taped it on the wall.  Then I spaced out the bottom how I wanted and taped it as well.  I put white balloons as clouds to cover up the tape (and a blue one because I only had two white ones in the pack).  It was easy, looks good and I can still use the tulle for future tutus.

For food we did brunch with hash browns, French toast casserole, frittata muffins, fresh fruit and baked oatmeal jam bars.  My sister helped me out so much with the food (along with having the party at her house), thank you! 

 

The fresh fruit tray turned out gorgeous following the theme with watermelon, raspberries, cantaloupe, pineapple, green grapes and blue berries (that we picked ourselves).  A big thank you to Nea for cutting so much fruit up to help us out.  I made rainbow layered jello, which looked really neat but was not well set.  I'm not sure if it was something I did wrong while making it or if we just left it out too long and it got a little too warm.  At least it still looked pretty, even though we couldn't really eat it.

For their birthday cake I decided to stick to cupcakes.  I used a store-bought white cake mix and divided it up into six portions that I dyed with food coloring.  Then I layered the colors as best as I could in the cupcake wrappers. They turned out nice and the kids thought they were delicious.

I kept decorations easy, mostly balloons and streamers.  But I did have the nifty idea to hang umbrellas upside down and tie rainbow colored balloons so they were streaming down out of them.  It turned out really cute and I must say I am rather proud of coming up with that one myself instead of getting the idea from Pinterest. 

I slapped together a bunting banner with the girls names on it at last minute and it turned out cute.  I had been planning it for a couple weeks but just did not have the interest in actually doing it until the night before/ morning of the party.  It still looked great though.  I cut the bunting from felt that Oma had on hand and printed out rainbow colored letters for the girls names.  Then I taped it all together on a rainbow colored ribbon.   Some pieces fell apart every so often but were easy to fix.  It worked out well since it wasn't roughly handled.  Oma will still be able to use the felt pieces for her projects so it was another decoration that will be easily recycled. 

 

I ordered adorable rainbow tie-dye dresses for the girls to wear from Zulily and their Leila got matching bows from a friend of hers that makes them.  The girls looked adorable.   

 

 

The dresses were such a pain though.  I ordered size 3T to be on the safe side since the girls are chunks and they were tiny.  I ended up having to cut all the elastic out of the back and change the straps to a halter for it fit them.  It was way too skinny and short for 3T.  Why can't the fashion industry come up with standardized sizes.  It makes it so hard shopping for little kids!  Anyway, the girls looked cute, so everything worked out fine.

 

The girls got to take some pictures with their baby cousin who wore one of their beautiful frilly dresses from when they were 5 months old (aww, the memories).  She was all smiles compared to my serious little girls and it wasn't even her birthday!

 

From their Leila and Pho Pho, the girls received tricycles.  They were so excited, especially Miss T.  They are a bit too bulky to bring back to Arkansas and the girls still need to grow into them anyway.  So the trikes are waiting at Leila and Pho Pho's house until next summer.  They got to play with them for one day though and T was all smiles and bouncing with delight.  

Blowing out the candles was a collaborative effort between the girls and their cousin, with Big H doing most of the work.  The girls haven't quite gotten that skill down yet.

 

 

After blowing out the candles, all of the toddlers got to be the center of attention as they ate their cupcakes and even got seconds.

 



 

I did goody bags this year even though the kids are still so young.  I customized brown paper bags just by running them through the printer.  Figuring out the right margins was annoying but it was fairly easy to do and I like how it turned out.  Plus it helped keep the toddlers busy on car rides and for flights, so a good plus there. 

 

The party was a great success.  Small enough to be manageable but still so nice to see everyone who came.  

 

Keeping Busy

So Wednesday morning came along and between the girls waking up early and having nothing outside the house planned, the hours seemed to stretch on til lunch time.  So I decided to try out something I saw on Pinterest to keep the girls entertained.

I took two of the girls' play buckets upstairs to our office filled them with shredded paper.  Then I added a few toys in as surprises for the girls to find. Miss D has been spending a lot of time tearing up paper anyway so this just expanded the possibilities for her.

They spent a good half an hour playing around with the paper and then the toys they found mixed in.  The dining room looked a bit like disaster area.  But seeing as it took them awhile to pick up the paper and put it away (along with dumping it back out again and picking it up again), the mess turned out to be a good thing.  A good chunk of the morning was spent happily.

Afterward they colored and played with stickers for a little while.  Coloring doesn't hold their attention for too long and usually leads to random surfaces getting covered with crayon marks but it is a little break and they do enjoy it while it holds their attention. 

 



 

They love stickers.  I end up rationing them out because they go through them so fast.  Dora, peace signs and rainbows now cover their papers and the table.  We made it to lunch time (and after that nap time!) all in happy moods.  Hurray!

Be Mine, Valentine

The girls have colds yet again. So Valentine's Day was full of tired, cranky fussing this year. Miss D had a fever and both girls' noses were running like crazy. But I did manage to get some cute shots of them dressed up for Valentine's Day and even got a smile or two out of poor D.

I did not have an outfit picked out, but when I looked in their closet for something with hearts for them to wear, I found these adorable dresses. They had been a birthday gift from a friend of my mother in law and I had completely forgotten that they were bedecked with hearts. You can't see the pink hearts on D's dress but they are there and look adorable. A friend of mine crocheted the heart headbands for them last year. They fit them better now and look so cute.

The day before Valentine's we painted cards for Daddy and the grandparents. The girls and I made thumbprint hearts.  Miss T was not a fan. She still needs to take her time getting used to having paint on her hands and I wasn't about to let her play with acrylic paint. D loved it but was so eager to paint that trying to position her thumb to make the heart before she slammed her thumb down was hard. After making a few thumbprints, we moved on to heart stamps. I taped a toilet paper tube in the shape of a heart and dipped it in paint for them to stamp. I held on to it too and guided them, mainly because I was afraid of the paint ending up all over.

I had the oven going for awhile in the afternoon. The first thing was roasting a whole chicken. I saw the idea of putting on a bundt pan on Pinterest and wanted to try it out. I cut potatoes and sweet potatoes to place along the bottom of the pan and then stood the chicken on up over the hole. I had foil underneath just in case but nothing leaked.

I was afraid the skin would burn so after letting it brown for 20-30 minutes, I placed aluminium foil over the top like I do with the turkey every year. That worked fine. The chicken turned out fine but there really wasn't much of a difference between baking it flat on the cookie sheet and doing it this way. Some of the potatoes on the top ended up really dry because I didn't bother to oil them since I thought they would soak up all the chicken juices. The ones on the bottom were delicious so I would recommend a few less potatoes/sweet potatoes or oiling them first. All in all the vertical roasted chicken is not a Pinterest fail, but I am feeling rather meh about it.

Then on to the cookies. I have made these chocolate chip cookies once before and they were so delicious. So I decided to try to give them a Valentine's look but that was basically a fail. I did have the expectation that they would not keep their shape that well but I was really hoping that I would be wrong. The problem was the cookies are so thick -- each cookie takes a third of a cup of dough.

They looked like cute hearts when I cut them out but spread out into a not quite heart shape while baking.

Some look pretty close to a heart but hassling with the cookie cutter was not worth the final shape. I also unfortunately got distracted by fussy, sick babies and let them bake a little too long so they are not to die for like last time. Disappointing but still not a bad cookie. Next time I will have to be more careful.

My husband has been really busy with work the past few weeks with long hours and no weekends off. So I gave him a break and bought myself tulips from him. They are so pretty. I always prefer tulips on Valentine's to roses. Something about having the bulbs to replant and renew versus cut roses that just die seems a better symbol of love to me.

Hope everyone had a happy Valentine's Day!

Finger Painting

Today I decided to try out finger paints with the girls.  Now we have done some painting in the bathtub with pudding, so this wasn't something completely foreign to them.  But having a variety of colors and painting on paper at their high chairs was definitely something new and different.

I made the edible finger paints in a pot with 1/2 cup cornstarch, 3 tablespoons sugar, 2 cups of water and food coloring following a recipe I found on Pinterest.  Heat it up on medium heat and take it off the heat when it reaches a thin pudding consistency.  I let it go too long because I was not paying it as much attention as I should have.  But I just thinned it out with more water and it was fine. 

It turned out much sweeter than I expected.  I was worried the girls would be more interested in eating it than in painting with it.  Luckily they are past the worst of that stage.  Although some ended up in their mouth, they were too busy playing with it to be that interested.

 

I taped down some blank card stock with painter's tape thinking the tape wouldn't tear the paper but it did unfortunately.   I also cut out some masking tape heart shapes to block the color to make little Valentine's Day cards.  I will still salvage the paintings with some modgepodge, but that idea is a fail.   Bummer.

I made it easy on myself and gave the girls both red and blue but yellow only to D and green only to T.  This way I can tell whose is whose even though I haven't labelled them yet.  I always make sure to do something like that otherwise it gets too confusing.

After the girls had fun for awhile (including getting some paint in their hair, on their face and mixing the paint together in the cups), I decided it was bath time.  I wiped their hands and brought them and the paint up to the bathtub for some more fun.  I got some cute videos of them painting the walls and each other.  Then I washed it all away and scrubbed them up.  We had a good time and though it was a bit of work, at least it kept them busy for a long time and did not end up being too messy.

California is Sunny and Warm

The flights weren't too bad.  On the way there, Miss D skipped her nap unfortunately which made the three hour flight from Houston to Orange County unpleasant.  At least there was an empty seat so we were able to sit all together in one row.  The way back went much better with the two 2 hour flights and a lengthy lay over in Denver where the girls could eat and get some exercise.  Both girls napped a little under an hour on the first flight and we also were able to sit together in a row of three seats on the second flight.  This summer will be interesting with me flying alone with the girls. 

We had a wonderful time staying in Yorba Linda with Kevin's parents. Leila and Pho Pho were so happy to see the girls and play with them. On the day after we arrived Oma, my sis and the girls' cousin H visited for a little while which was really nice for them.

On Wednesday we went to the Buddhist temple and the girls were blessed by a senior monk.  It is the first time they really got to learn anything about their religion.  I think one of their favorite parts about it were the two little dogs and a sweet cat that lived at the monastery.  Understandable for one and a half year olds.

 

The girls got to wear the cutest little outfits for a family photo.  They looked just adorable!

 





We spent a lot of time out doors in the warm sunshine.  The first two days were a little cool but after that it was such nice weather there.  We walked with the girls, went to the park, played in the back yard and on the swings.  The girls are now demanding to go outside here in the cold which isn't always feasible. 

 

On Sunday was my sister's baby shower.  So the girls, Leila and I headed down to Temecula and had a really nice time.  The girls missed their nap but stayed in pretty good moods throughout the day.  They got to play with H and a few other kids that came around their age.  The party was really nice and I am so glad my sister's friend offered to organize it this time.  She did a great job and I didn't have to stress. 

 

Girls got to dress up in a cute little outfits from their Leila and got a few pictures playing with a Burmese tea set.