Vocabulary

Having two year olds has caused several changes in my vocabulary. I find myself asking grown adults where the "potty" is, I am unable to leave without announcing that I am "going bye-bye" and I have completely forgotten that my real name is Kristen and not just Mommy. There have also been several words that have been removed from my vocabulary, partially due to the fact that the girls might as well be parrots, but also because they just no longer exist in my daily terminology. For example: Privacy. I am sorry. Can you repeat that? Can I get a definition please? Orgin? Maybe Latin translation?

In all honesty, how can you expect privacy when they literally live INSIDE you for 10 months, then as soon as they pop out you stick them on your boob and repeat every 3 hours for x-amount-of time. Now that they are independently mobile, and VERY curious, nothing is sacred. If they can get in the drawer, climb on a chair to get to, stand on their tip toes, etc. then it is theirs. I am running out of places to hide things that they can not see or some how manage access to. Until now....

Check out these bad boys!
I could write a love song to the inventor of these door knob covers. Besides the one we have on the basement door to help keep them from escaping, we have put one on our bedroom door. That is right! A WHOLE room that they can not get into! Ha! I love it!

No, just keep trying Maddie. I'm sure you can get it....


That's right. Put ALL your body weight into it. Surely that will open it!


It does keep them out, but it doesnt keep them from crying and banging on the door. Can you see the frustration in Ruthie's eyes above? I guess I cant expect privacy and quiet...

Happy Holidays, Matey!

Arrrggg! And Merry Christmas from the Sullivan's!

Look familiar? Let me refresh your memories. http://www.simplysullivan.blogspot.com/2008/10/arrrrrgggg.html

The patch is back! I noticed Ruthie having some difficulty with her glasses, so I took her back in, and lo and behold! She is not using her right eye! Now, if she would look properly through her bifocals, then she would be forced to use both of her eyes. But, if any of you have seen Ruthie in her glasses, she normally looks like this:

Poor little thing looks like a librarian in training. She wears them like a champ, but just not properly. Apparently there is no way to force her to wear them properly either. So, the solution is patching for 2-4 hours a day to try and strengthen her right eye. If that doesnt work, then it is back to surgery!

We have been attempting to get in the holiday spirit around here. I hate Christmas, so this has been very difficult for me.

The girls went and saw Santa Claus at our church Christmas party this past Wednesday. Maddie was miserable because she did not nap that day. Oh! Did I mention we are basically not napping now? Merry Christmas to Momma! I think that is the parental equivalent to a lump of coal in your stocking.

I finally put up our obnoxious, fake tree that I hate. If you cant tell, I put ALL of the ornaments out of reach of little hands. Apparently one of the girls thought the bottom of the tree was missing something...

This was the same bear that was on the potty in the previous post. He mysteriously gets around.

Hope every one has a great holiday season! I will attempt to post more of the holiday festivities, but no promises!

Potty Time!

I openly admit that I have been obsessed with potty training since the girls were born. The count down began for them to turn 2 so the potty training could begin. My niece, Lily, was trained within 1 week of being 2, so I knew it was possible. At 18 months I began the subliminal potty messages. We watched Elmo's Potty Time, I brought them in with me to go to the bathroom, when I changed their diapers I talked about being wet and poopy and going in the potty, etc. When they were 20 months I got them their own potty's to sit on while Mommy was going potty. Then I started putting them on the potty after their bath, and was fairly successful since they always peed on the carpet after their bath, it seemed like an intelligent idea. Then they turned 2! Potty Boot Camp!

Maddie was completely interested. Ruthie on the other hand didnt care at all. That actually worked better for me so I could focus on one child at a time. I did a day of Potty Boot Camp with Maddie and she wasnt quite there, but it sparked an interest. From that point on she has been asking to go to the potty and going on there the majority of the time when we are home. I think if I did one more day of bootcamp with her she could possibly be trained.

But, now that I am in the throws of potty training, all of a sudden diapers are seeming better and better. Yes, they are expensive little suckers, but SO CONVENIENT. Every time we leave the house I make Maddie go on the potty, but it never fails. 5 minutes into the car ride, "Pee-Pee potty, Momma!" Oh, for the days I could just let you pee in your diaper....

Maddie needs some entertainment while using the potty, so she has begun bringing in her coloring with her.

I walked into the bathroom and saw this the other day. I guess even teddy bears need to potty.

To Make You Smile

This is why they are my favorite people...EVER.



Please excuse the choice of music. I dont normally let my girls dance to a Britney Spears song about three-somes. Ok, maybe sometimes.

Halloween

I have officially become one of those bloggers I hate. Sorry! Oh, for the days where I had time to sit down and blog about mundane things. Instead we are in the throws of potty training and new words every day. Starting a new business has cut into my blogging time tremendously. Here is hoping it will at least pay for pre-school next year!

To ease my shame and embarrassment for my poor blogging I will include a photo of the girls from Trunk or Treat at church on Wednesday. This is probably the last year they wont have an opinion on their costumes, so I took advantage of that!

Disney!

The girls have officially had their first visit to the Disney's Magic Kingdom. We spent a week in Orlando and did Magic Kingdom on Monday and Animal Kingdom on Wednesday. I can honestly say that I could not have asked for a better trip. The girls did GREAT! We stayed in a house with my sister and her family and my mom. So, that is three 2 year olds, 1 princess obsessed 4.5 year old and 5 adults in one house. Although it sounds like a nightmare on paper, it worked out great! This post will just be Magic Kingdom, and hopefully I can get some other posts up.



You can not go to Disney without getting this classic shot. You will notice Ruthie doesnt have her glasses in any of these pictures. We didnt want to risk bringing them with the rides and all of the commotion. We would rather her run into things than pay another $250. Does that make us bad parents?

The first ride we hit was It's a Small World.

This is the first of several pictures we have of Maddie with her finger shoved up her nose.

Both of the girls really liked the ride. I considered the day a success that we made it in there and through one ride without a melt down.

Oh, look! Maddie has her finger up her nose again.

Speaking of it being a small world, look who we ran into!

We had no idea the Benders were in Disney that week also! It was great to see them, and run into them AGAIN when were in Animal Kingdom!

We really wanted to take the girls on the Dumbo ride but the line was ridiculous all day. So, we just put them on the stationary Dumbo next to the ride and pretended like we actually went on it. Why they dont have a fastpass for this ride is beyond me.

And, of course the teacups.



And what would a trip to Disney World be without the lovely princesses? I thought this was where they might freak out, but they seemed perfectly fine.

By the time they got to Belle they were a little leery of these strange women.

And, of course, what would be a visit to Disney without seeing Mickey and Minnie. I dont think they girls had ever even seen Mickey and Minnie until that day.



Little did we know the monster we were creating from this photo shoot. The girls have officially drank the Disney World kool-aid. They are hooked on Mickey and Minnie. My mother bought them stuffed animals of Mickey and Minnie along with some other figurines and they are the new hot item in this house. We are now daily watchers (and DVR'ers) of Mickey Mouse Clubhouse. The multi-billion dollar Disney industry has secured 2 new fans.

We of course attempted anther cousins shot. This one wasnt too bad. We are making progress each time.

We attempted a 3-D show with the girls. We lasted less than three minutes when Maddie began yelling, "No, no Ducky" to Donald. We made a quick exit after that. Interestingly enough, from that point on, every time she saw Donald she said, "No, no Ducky!"

And, they sleep....

The girls took a great nap in the stroller in the afternoon. They were just pooped! It was a great refresher for them to make it the rest of the day. I think if they hadnt been able to sleep we would not have made it as long as we did.

Besides the ridiculous heat and humidity, we could not have asked for a better visit to Disney.

Happy Early Birthday!

It is that time again! Birthday time! I cant believe the girls will be 2 on Friday. Time has truly flown by. And, oh, how things have changed here.

I was reading my post from a year ago with the fiasco with the Wiggles birthday cake, and how everything had to be *perfect* for their first birthday. This year I did a store bought cake, went to Party City and grabbed some Elmo stuff, called family and a few friends 4 days before and, TA-DA! I guess Ruthie and Maddie arent the only ones that have changed in the past year.

Since we are going to be in FL for the girls actual birthday, we had some family and friends over to celebrate early. I went with an Elmo theme this year to change it up from the Wiggles. Variety is the spice of life and all. I bought an Elmo cake from Publix, some pizza, some rotel, some fruit and was good to go. When I got home Mark said, "Who's Naddie?" I had no idea what he was talking about until he pointed at the cake.

Crap. To be completely honest, there was a part of me that was fine just leaving it like this because it isnt like Maddie can actual read it. The guilty mother side of me won out though and back to Publix I went.

Ok, much better. Let's party!

My $15 decorations. I am a big spender.....

Hindsight is 20/20 in regards to my decorating. I bought the decorations because that was what I thought I was supposed to do for a 2 year olds birthday party. Little did I know that this would result in the girls spending the rest of the night pointing out every Elmo that they could find to anyone that would listen. Next year I am seriously considering just doing a colors only party. Maddie's personal favorite was the table cloth because she could just walk down the length of the table pointing at several Elmo's.

Neither of my girls were really into their cake at their first birthday, so I was excited about them maybe getting into it this year.

Maddie didnt like the crowd of people singing to her and lost it (I am seeing a pattern with her, and I am not liking it).....

Ruthie was unphased by the entire thing and continued eating.

She even found time to feed Elmo some cake.

Presents went alot smoother this year since the girls could help open their boxes and their bags. They were really cute as they "Ohhhhhh" and "Awwww" at each present.

But in all honesty, why do people keep spending money on actual gifts for these girls? Because when it all comes down to it, all that they want to do is play with the boxes.

We had a secret twin exchange again this year with the ladies on my twin message board I am on. One of the ladies is from Australia and her twins, Mia and Zoe, sent the girls Wiggle's panties! I LOVED IT!

Of course they went straight on their head, so we have a little work to do on proper wearing of big girl panties.

The girls are definitely all set with their UT paraphernalia all the way through basketball season.

It has been a crazy ride this past 2 years, but I wouldnt trade it for anything.

Team Work!

You would think team work would be an excellent concept to teach 2 year olds. Maybe it is. Just not in this house. Anything that these two seem to agree on, and work together on, ends up in disaster for me. Exhibit A:

The dogs were less than thrilled, since that was their dinner.

Sorry for the shortage of posts. I have gone back to work a few days a week and it has become all consuming! We are heading to Disney next week so I will be able to post while on vacation hopefully.

One Year

One year ago today....

God is good.

Oh, the Irony!

So, have I mentioned that my children love the Wiggles? Maybe you might have picked that up in a couple of my posts. Last year, when the girls were not even 1 year old we took them to go and see the Wiggles live. It went really well, even though they fell asleep for the last 15 minutes of it. So, of course, when I heard the Wiggles were coming back to town I had to get tickets. So, I convinced my mother to get them an early present and buy floor seats for the live show. You have seen the video of them dancing at our house, so I was so excited about them being able to dance in the aisles with the other kids at the show.

My dreams were almost ruined when I get an email confirmation from Ticketmaster confirming the show that day with a reminder email that all children over 1 year old must be ticketed. I had only bough 2 floor seats since the girls were going to be sitting in our laps. I frantically called the venue and a nice lady there came up with the ingenious idea for when we get to the show to just buy 2 of the cheapest balcony seats they have ($20 a pop) to get in the door and then keep them on our laps at our floor seats. Crisis averted.

We headed downtown for the show.

Did our pose in front of Anthony's drumset again....


and waited for the show to start. Some brilliant marketing guy had put programs on all of the seats that had games and pictures for the kids. It was the perfect diversion for our children until the show started.


Maddie was pointing at the Wiggles sign that was lighting up that she was obsessed with.

Then the show started! Lights down, music on and out come the characters! We had PHENOMENAL seat.

Look how close we were to our Aussie friends!

What could possibly ruin this family moment for us?

>Madilyn Jane.

The moment the lights went down and the music came on the child completely lost it! I am talking screaming, clinging on to me for dear life yelling, "No, Mamma, No!" in between the tears. The first song they sang was "Rock-A-Bye-Your-Bear" and there was nothing but blood curdling screaming. So, I took her out in the hall to try and calm her down. Minutes later I was followed out by my husband who was sopping wet. Ruthie had peed all over his shirt. So, he took his shirt off and had his undershirt on with Maddie while I changed Ruthie. By the time I made it out of the bathroom with Ruthie, Mark was outside the bathroom drenched again. Maddie had peed on his undershirt...and was still screaming. So, I sent my pee-soaked husband back into the show with Ruthie and stayed out with Maddie.

She did ok out in the hallway for a little bit. She kept trying to peek around the curtain when she would hear the songs. Then I would ask her, "Do you want to see the Wiggles?" and she would burst into tears and scream, "No, Mamma, no!" Then Maddie decided she wanted her "sissy", but she didnt want to go back into the show. It was a dilemma for a 2 year old, so her solution was to have a complete meltdown. I went in and got Mark and we left 30 minutes into the show.

Parenting lessons learned from this adventure.

#1. Never assume your children will like anything based on a previous behavior

#2. Bring a change of clothes for Mark when going out on family adventure

#3. Priceless moments actually do have a pricetag. This one was $135.

The Beach

When I thought about vacation this year at the lake I was so excited about the girls playing on the beach and in the lake. They love swimming and water. They love buckets. It is the perfect combination. Considering I spent my entire childhood playing at this lake, it felt like life was coming full circle. One of those memories I would cherish forever. Instead, this is what I got.

They hated playing in the lake. In fact, they wouldnt even go near the water without screaming. And the sand! Wow! You would think I was making them walk on shards of glass when they had to put their feet in the sand. It was a disaster. I was determined that we were going to have family time at the beach, if they liked it or not.

We were able to distract Ruthie with some sort of a game that involved collecting rocks on the beach and putting them in a cup. That held her attention and stopped the screaming for about 20 minutes.

Me: "Here Maddie! Play with the rocks with Sissy!"

Maddie: "AHHHHHHHHH......NO! AHHHHHHHHHH....NO!"

Maddie: "Oh, play with rocks? I thought you said socks! I will play with rocks."

Maddie: "Wait! I hate rocks! And socks! AHHHHHHHH.....NO!"

She was finally made content by sitting in the chair with Maddie Mostoller eating Cheetos.

The one thing that was a big hit with both of the girls was the jet skis.

Who knows? Maybe next year will go a little better on the beach! If not I will just bring more Cheetos.