Foot Fetish

The girls are completely obsessed with their feet. I dont know if it is because we play "This Little Piggy" on their toes or what the deal is. They both just LOVE feet. It doesnt even have to be their feet. They are more than happy to show you where your "piggies" are any time you ask them.

I previously thought that the girls had a shoe obsession. They could be entertained for hours taking shoes on and off. If I ever need them to come to me, all I have to do is pull out a pair of their shoes and tell them we want to put them on. It was like the pied piper is calling them. I have to actually hide their shoes from them so that they wont play with them all day and misplace them, like they do so many other toys. Occasionally they can reach them on their tip toes and I walk in to this.

They are very focused when they are putting their shoes on. They havent quite mastered the skill yet. It isnt just putting their shoes on their own feet, they think it is fun to put their shoes on my feet. Below was courtesy of Ruthie.

Heaven forbid we leave our bedroom door open because this is what I walk into every time that accidentally happens.

They do try to walk in our shoes, but they obviously dont get too far. I am actually a little concerned about the summer months with all of the slip on/toes exposed shoes that every one wears. I know that the girls will just walking around pointing at toes and trying to take other peoples shoes off so they can play with them.

You are probably reading this thinking, "Sounds like a shoe obsession to me, so why did she say she previously thought it was a shoe obsession?" Ok, so maybe you werent thinking that, but I will elaborate none-the-less.

I have decided that the girls are obsessed with putting ANYTHING on their feet. It was confirmed this morning by the following observation.

Those are snack-traps that Ruthie had decided to wear. And it gets better. See the video below.



The angle wasnt great because I couldnt grab my camera fast enough to record her walking around with the snack-traps on her feet. I am interested to see what she finds next to put on her feet.

In Like a Lion, Out Like a Lamb

We have had some great weather here in Nashville over the past few weeks. Lately it has been a lot of rain, which has makes me appreciate those gorgeous days even more. Since we live on a hill that is a complete death wish for our children to try to play on, we have headed to the park quite a bit. We found a park back in a subdivison that is a few roads down from ours that NO ONE is ever at! It is a great place for me to take the girls since I dont have to worry about big kids knocking them over. They are at a great age where they can climb up themselves and go down the slides all by themselves. I just have to monitor them not falling off or pushing the other one. Big difference from last year where they would only swing!

The slide is always a big hit!

Mark taught them how to hang, so we can lift them up and they hang all by themselves. They dont look like they are enjoying it at the time, but when they are done hanging, they just want to be lifted up to hang some more.

Then, of course, there is the swings. I LOVE this picture of Maddie because she is laughing so hard as she is being pushed.




I am looking forward to when they actually smile at the camera and not give me confused looks as I am making weird noises trying to get them to smile.

Below is as good as pictures of 18 month old twins gets. They are both looking at me, somewhat close to each other and not crying. Those are my Kodak moments.

Blasted Spoons!

The girls have been using forks for quite a while. We have started being more and more consistent about putting food on plates, instead of trays, and giving them forks to stab their food with. They really get a kick out of using their forks when they can get food to stay on it. So, of course, the natural progression was to incorporate a spoon.


The problem with spoons is that spoons are used for more liquid type substances. You see, I hate when my kids get messy. So, for that reason, I have been feeding them myself when it comes to yogurt, icecream, soup, etc. I know it is time to let go and let them get messy and learn to use a spoon. It is just so gross. Here is attempt #1 with a spoon and yogurt.



It actually started out pretty decent. Most of the yogurt made it to their mouths.

And then it just stopped going into their mouths completely.

So gross. I am actually considering not teaching them spoon use and letting them be surprised in kindergarten when they are given this weird object to eat with.

Ruthie and Maddie meet Ruthie and Maddie

Some of you may not know that we own a cow. That is right, one whole cow. Mark's grandfather owns many cows and they live on the farm that is behind their house.

They breed the cows and sell the babies so that you can eat at McDonalds.

We got a call yesterday that one of Grandaddy Ewin's cows gave birth to twin female heifers. There is debate if granddaddy Ewin or Poppie (Mark's dad) named the calves, but either way I'm sure you can guess what the new additions were named.

Meet Ruthie and Maddie.

This is Ruthie and Maddie's momma with her 2 day old babies.

The girls of course got to meet the baby cows up close and personal.

The human Ruthie and Maddie were given a very limited walking area due to cow poop being everywhere. The bovine Ruthie and Maddie were allowed to roam free. Since we wouldnt let the human Ruthie and Maddie wander, we brought the babies up close for them to play with.

You'll notice that Maddie "loving" the cow is similar to Maddie "loving" the goat in the zoo post. She only referred to the cows as "dog-ga" one time, which I see as progress!


Special thanks to Grandaddy Ewin for taking the girls to meet the new baby cows!

Entitlement Issues

We have been very fortunate that no one has learned the word "mine" in this house. Just because they dont know the word to say, doesnt mean they dont think items in this house are theirs. Anything new that is brought into this house is assumed to have been brought into this house for their entertainment. This also includes people that are brought into this house. Clearly they are only there to play with them. I will say that most of the time this is the case, but there are rare occasions that it is not true. Case in point, the new dog bed

We got new couches from some friends since ours were disgusting. We are not allowing the dogs on these couches. Any of you that know my dogs know that they think they are human. So, by not allowing them to sleep on the couches any more, we had taken their bed away. The floor was not a suitable option for them. So, luckily, we were able to score a new doggie bed for free!

Bailey was thrilled.

This is her thrilled face, trust me.

Bailey was thrilled until.......Maddie claimed the bed.

This is Bailey's not-so-thrilled face.



I really dont know who to place my money on for who will win the battle of the bed. I am actually leaning towards Bailey for this one.

The Nashville Zoo

So, the girls and I ventured out to the Nashville Zoo this week. It was my first time there, and obviously their first time.

I didnt know if they would enjoy themselves yet, but they really did enjoy all of the animals that they could actually see from their stroller.

A couple of lessons I learned from our first visit to the zoo.

Lesson #1: No hairbows at the zoo.

This was the first picture taken at the zoo, and you will see all four hairbows in tact. This is the last picture you will see all four hairbows. Ruthie pulled hers out and then headed for Maddie's bows. Then Maddie fed one of her bows to a duck, so I was only able to recover 3 hairbows to return home with. Next time will be a hairbow free visit.

Lesson #2: Bring more snacks!

I thought I had packed a good number of snacks, but I was mistaken. I ended up stopping at almost every snack stand along the paths at the zoo to get extra animal crackers, or milk, etc. In the above picture, Ruthie has resorted to even stealing Rachel's snacks out of her tray. Meanwhile, Maddie was reaching over and stealing out of Ruthie's tray. It was a vicious cycle. As long as they had food, they were happy to sit in their stroller and ride along.

Lesson #3: Dress appropriately

This has nothing to do with us, but just an observation. Some white baby tigers are on display for a few months at the zoo, so we had to stop by there.

While we were looking at the tigers we saw this.

Really?

Lesson #4: Hands on is more fun!

We were not able to go into a lot of the hands on exhibits because they were "no stroller" buildings. Next time I have an extra set of hands with me, we will go in there. We were able to go to the petting zoo part of the park though. It was fenced in, so I felt ok letting the girls out by myself. They immediately found a baby goat.

Maddie kept "loving" the goat which is her version of a hug.

Ruthie befriended the baby goat also.

They had brushes out for you to brush the goat, but Ruthie just wanted to wear it as a bracelet. We hit the Purell station after the goat loving.

It is hard to see in this picture, but this is the meerkat exhibit. The girls really enjoyed watching them run around and dig.

Mommy enjoyed the meerkat exhibit also! (you would climb up into the exhibit! I kicked out a 4 year old for this shot!)

Lesson #5: Animal identification

I knew that there would be one issue before we even got there. That issue is that Maddie calls EVERY animal she sees a "dog-ga". I was just waiting for the looks from the other zoo visitors as my daughter called EVERY animal a "dog-ga". She did pretty well though. I would say that only 80% of the animals were a "dog-ga" . I took some pictures of the "dog-ga" as labeled by Maddie.

(I think in this picture she convinced Ruthie that it really was a "dog-ga" because they were both calling it a "dog-ga" even though it clearly is a bird).

Ok, so the Alpaca you cant really blame her for. It is a big furry animal that walks on all fours. It very well could be a "dog-ga".

Overall a good trip! I think we will be going back to visit very soon!