Sugar and Toy Overload

We had an awesome Christmas. Grandma came Christmas eve and stayed till Saturday. The LGs and grandma made cookies and I cooked dinner. Julie picked up the Honey Baked ham earlier that day. If you've never been to Honey Baked during Xmas DONT! Its bedlam. After dinner we went to see some lights. We went to a place on Rawls Rd in Tampa. It was AMAZING! If you haven't gone you must. The lights are set to music and there are thousands and thousands. When we first got there Emerson was a little scared and did not want to be put down. After about 10 mins she asked to be put down and a few minutes later her and her sister were dancing to the music and enjoying it thoroughly. When we went to leave Emerson cried the whole way to the car and did not want to leave. After we got home Grandma read The Night Before Christmas to the girls and they woke in the morning to a butt-load of toys. It took us about four hours to open all the presents. The main reason for this is the LGs had to play with every toy they opened and try on every piece of clothing before they would move on to the next. AND, before they could play with a toy we had to get it out of the box. To do this we had to remove about 500 twist ties. They people who package toys have to be just plain mean.

Some noteworthy presents:


Santa got them a play house that they ADORE!!! it has a doorbell that works and they ring the doorbell before walking in every. time. now. So cute!


Grandma bought them this FurReal puppy that barks and walks. Well, at first they loved it. Then for some reason Emerson is now scared to death of the thing. We had to hide it in a closet.

Uncle Ted sent them a gift certificate to Toys R Us and we took them to pick out some toys. Well, Emerson picked out this Microwave and she is in total love with it. It lights up and the table inside turns and it beeps. Too cute.

Bouncy horses they received from Grandma. These were a big hit and Avery likes to bounce with her Pink Hat (although in the video she is wearing both her hat and her sisters!) she received from her cousin Cameron. Her favorite thing is to make her hat fly off!


I got a small camera to fit into the diaper bag. Yes, that means even MORE pictures. I swear these are the most photographed twins since Mary Kate and Ashley! I also got a bunch of stuff for scrap-booking (Im only a year behind right now! YIKES!) My Aunt (in law) sent me loads of cut-outs. It must have taken her for ever to do them all.



Last night before bed Avery had to say goodnight to all her new toys. This meant that she had to hug each one too. This took quite a while.


Emerson has learned what chocolate is and calls it ChiChi. NOT A GOOD THING! She is asking for ChiChi every hour.

All in all a great Christmas. I haven't EVER had a Christmas THIS fun!

Sleeping Arangements

About a month ago we moved the LGs into toddler beds. I call it the king sized toddler bed cause I have them side by side. They LOVE them. And the transition has not been that hard...with the exception of naps. Naps are another story all together. I have found that I have to do the opposite of what I used to do with the crib.



With the crib I had to put them in there. Cover them up with their blanket say "night night" and walk out closing the door behind me not to return unless ABSOLUTELY necessary. Like I just heard a bomb explode in there, should I go check???




The first few days I tried the same technique and close the door behind me. BIG MISTAKE! They trashed the joint like rock stars. They actually pulled the door OFF THE CLOSET! Its a big freaking wooden slider door! It could have killed them had it fallen on them.



I decided I should try leaving the door open till they fall asleep. As soon as I was out of site they started playing and they got smart about it. They learned to trash their room quietly. They never tried to leave their room they would just pull ever piece of clothing out of the drawers and every toy out of the closet. Their favorite thing was to pull all the rubber bands out of their box. These are little tiny rubber bands I use for their hair. Do you have any idea how f*cking tedious picking up hundreds of little rubber bands up is?




At night it seemed a little different. I could walk away and they would stay in bed if the door was open and go to sleep. Then the other night I heard the door slam shut. I went in there to see what was going on and they were both in bed. I walked away leaving the door open and a few minutes later heard it slam. Seeing as how last time I checked after the door was shut they were in bed I decided to let it be. About an hour later I heard something. Walked in to discover they had trashed the place. Back to bed they went and the door stayed open.




I am SOOOOOOOOOOOOOO VERY NOT ready to give up naps and I know they need them VERY much. So, something had to change or I was going to break out the duct tape and keep their asses in the bed that way. So I started sitting in front of the door with a book or the laptop. It worked perfect. They would stay in bed and fall asleep then I would get up close their door and go do my own thing. Then one day I grabbed a pillow and decided to lay on the floor while I was watching them and of course I fell asleep. So for the last 3 days I have been taking a 20 min nap in the hall on the floor. Then today I was awakened to a door slamming lass then a foot away from my face. Lets just say this is one of the absolute worst ways to wake up. I immediately opened the door to see Avery climbing back into bed. I decided to close the door seeing as how she was headed into bed she obviously would go to sleep. Right???



You guessed it! The room was TRASHED!

Here are a few pictures we took the first night in their new beds:

Then a few hours later:

Here's Avery...just being Avery:
Here is Emerson helping put the beds together:

"Other Side!" (said in a sing song voice)

It all started one day when the LGs were nursing and decided to switch sides. I said "other side" and somehow it stuck in Their heads and now we cant go a nursing session with out someone saying "Other Side!" in a sing song voice. This has become somewhat annoying as it takes them a long time to coordinate the switch, therefore all nursing sessions seem to take longer.

The real problem is that this has become a game and it has bled into other aspects of our daily lives. When we went to dinner the other evening someone said, "other side" and they both got up and switched sides of the table. This for most people would not be a big deal, but because they are less then 3 feet tall they need help getting into their booster seats and you have to spot them when they get down. ANNOYING!

I really want this game to end soon. We are now in the ignore it phase and hoping they get bored with this game.

Last night Emerson decided to re-purpose one of their toys they have had for over a year. The Ball Popper is an annoying but beloved toy. If you are not familiar with the Ball Popper you will understand part of it's annoyance by the noise it makes...BUT, that's not all! It also launches balls across the room and you always loose them.

I must say this "New" use seems much less annoying.

Missing Mom

Julie has been working really late for the last few weeks. Most of the time she only sees the LGs in the morning getting home after they have gone to bed.

Last night Avery was playing with her Magna Doodle and she handed it to me. She wanted me to draw her something. I started with a cat. She said "Mom." I drew another cat. She said "Mom!" So I drew "Mom". Curly hair, big eyes, HUGE smile... showed it to her and she seemed satisfied. (Julie is Mom Im Mommy or MAMA as they like to call me)She did the sign for more and said "Mom" again, so I drew her again. After doing this for what seemed like forever I suggested we call Mom. This suggestion was met with excitement so wee went into the Kitchen and called her.

Lately when someone is on the phone the LGs have been clamming up. They get all excited to talk on the phone then they act like they are afraid of it. The same was true this time except when I said to Avery, "say hi Mom." She actually said it, but very softly.

Julie decided to shut down her computer and rush home to see them before bed. When she got home I opened the door for the girls to run out and greet her. Avery gave her a big hug. Emerson went screaming down the driveway. It was the cutest thing.

Julie played with them and read to them. Avery kept kissing and hugging her. She is not usually the kissing type. She likes to hug but she's not that big a fan of kissing. You have to bribe her into it, or tell her NOT to kiss you. That works sometimes too. Needless to say Julie was very happy she came home and saw her kids before bed.

Avery will kiss her sister though...