Garage Door Rides

Today the girls did not take a nap so I thought we would take a walk to a neighbors house. I opened the door to the garage, pushed the button to the garage door and walked back into the kitchen to get something. The girls went into the garage when I opened the door cause they knew we were going to leave. We leave through the garage every. single. day.

As I was headed back toward the garage I heard Avery crying and Emerson calling to me to come. As I walked into the garage I saw Emerson first. She was standing just outside the garage looking up at the garage door (that was all the way up!). I followed her line of vision to see Avery hanging from the garage door crying. My first thought was "what the heck do I do?" I thought about pushing the button to get the door down again, and dismissed that as dumb cause the minute the door started moving she would most likely fall to the concrete below. Then I realized, "HEY! I can reach her!" Then I thought, "should I grab the camera?" I realized that if she fell while I was getting the camera I would feel like the WORST mommy ever. So I ran over and plucked her off the ceiling.

She grabbed me and cried and showed me her hands. They looked fine, but hurt from holding her entire body weight in the air via a piece of metal.

The minute she was safe I started laughing. I couldn't help it. I tried to joke with her about it, but she did not think it was funny. I was calling her spider-kid. She was less then amused. So I apologized and told her I was sorry she had such a scary thing happen to her, and I was glad she was ok. It must have been pretty scary for her cause she usually can see the humor in anything. Lets see if she can laugh about it tomorrow!

You know I always knew garage doors were dangerous coming down, but never thought I needed to warn the girls about them going up...

Spring Break

I scheduled us a vacation through Priceline, not usually an issue, cause we know what area we like to stay in. This time though I added in Clearwater as an option. Had a total meltdown and booked for the wrong dates. Have you ever made a mistake with Priceline? When you call the recorded voice tells you about 1000Xs that you cannot get a refund for errors made etc. They did right though and refunded when I re-booked for the correct dates.

A few weeks later we finally realized it was at the same resort we had stayed at in Clearwater last August. Julie was less then pleased. She did not like that the resort is not ON the beach. The other issue we had last vacation was that the girls were NOT happy to be away from home and wanted NOTHING to do with the beach. We dragged them to the beach one of the days last vacation and it was the most miserable hour EVER! This fact stayed the same this vacation but everything else was different. Same hotel, but we ALL had a great time, even Julie! We did realize later though that the problem last vacation was that Julie brought Julie with us on vacation.

We opted to just go with it and not go to the beach. Instead we went to little beach (Cypress Point) when we got home. The girls were old enough to hang out in Lisa's Club house, the kids area where they do crafts and activities. They made tie dye shirts, stayed for a pizza party so mommies could go out to dinner, and made a bag full of crafts at Lisa's clubhouse.

The girls had a great time playing in the pool. One of their favorite activities was what they named the "Silly Game". Why? Cause Julie kept saying to them, "This is a silly game." So they asked her repeatedly to play the Silly Game with them. It consisted of them jumping into the pool, Julie catching them, Julie pushing them toward the steps, they get out and jump into the pool. Rinse. Repeat.

We also enjoyed "cocktail hour" the girls loved watching the bartenders make drinks. They got to sample some of the fun frozen drinks (virgin of course!)

Here are some of the photos from our vacation:

"Picnik Show"

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Forced Cuddling and Other Stuff

So they like to cuddle before going to sleep. Not a problem. Totally understandable. Most times I like to cuddle with them as well. Some nights however...I'm just tired, I have a head ache and want them to go to sleep and let me leave without rubbing their face (Avery) or their back (Emerson).

So one night when I was sooooo very tired and just needed some alone time. I was in the midst of forced cuddle time and Emerson said, "Rub my back." I obliged for a few minutes but I was tired and said, "Can we just cuddle?" and she rolled over onto her back and I rapped my arm around her and relaxed for the first time in about 12 hours....Then she did it...she pulled up the front of her shirt so I could rub her stomach...and she did it so obvious yet slyly.

We are planning a vacation, short vacation, to the beach. The other day we had some time to kill so I thought I would treat the girls to their first pedicure. They puffy heart loved it!

I let them pick out the colors they wanted. Avery chose orange of course, it is her favorite color after all. Emerson chose blue. Why? Not sure, but it looks so much better then I thought it would! The lady doing their nails did Emerson's first and put a little flower on her big toe. When she was getting ready to do Avery's Avery kept saying she wanted a "shark" I kept making her repeat it and repeat it till Avery finally said, "You know, hop hop hop." While making her hand go hop like a frog. She was asking for a frog. She got a flower cause the flower was free. Maybe next time I will see if they can draw a frog.

We had a twin friends party last weekend. Petting zoo and pony rides and beer...who could ask for more?

"Picnik Show"

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Now for some entertaining thing that have happened lately.

• Today Emerson said she had to go "tee tee" she went in the bathroom came out with no pants or panties on. This is not an unusual thing in this house. They do that all the time. She then asked me to lift her up to get something out of the high pantry. I picked her up and had her sitting on my chest. She decided she did not want anything and I put her down. A few seconds latter I was smelling poop. I asked her if she pooped and she said yes. So I told her to head to the bathroom so I could wipe her. We get in there and she has poop smeared up her back. I clean her up and am commenting on how poorly she wiped and that she needs to let me know next time so I can help her all while I'm preparing to wash her and my hands. I look into the mirror and see a thick skid mark on my sweater, my favorite sweater...
• We took the car to get an oil change at Midas. They have a keurig machine there and the girls LOVE the hot chocolate so good times at Midas, but on this day they also had biscottis! WOW who could ask for more? I gave them each a biscotti and found out it was going to take an hour for them to just get my car in. I really needed to get this done before vacation so I figured we would also walk over to Office Depot while we waited. As we were walking into the parking lot Avery had one bite of her biscotti left. I grabbed Avery's hand and she went to grab her sisters hand (they know we all have to be holding SOMEones hand in parking lots. Well she couldn't grab her sister hand with the piece of biscotti in her hand so she handed it to her sister. He sister took it and pooped it into her mouth and started to chew and Avery started to yell. Emerson pulled it out of her mouth and put it in her sisters hand with out ever letting go of her sisters hand. Then Avery popped it into her mouth and ate it.
• The other night Michelle one of our favorite babysitters watched the girls and had to put them to bed so that Julie and I had a much needed date night. She later told me that Emerson was very calm and relaxed for bed, but Avery was crying and upset. They were laying in bed and Avery was crying. Emerson reached over and held Avery's hand and Avery calmed down started sucking her fingers and they both fell a sleep.
  

I am constantly amazed at how well they get along, how much they love each other. They really genuinely like each other. I have never had to worry about one of them hitting the other one. I mean there has been the occasional sitting on her sister cause she wanted to sleep in the hole, but for the most part they never fight and always play well together. Is it an identical thing or am I just lucky?

Little Artists

I have to share (and chronicle) some of the girls artistic accomplishments.

Avery makes some of the prettiest finger paintings I have ever seen:

This one is my favorite!

At the Y on Wednesday they colored with crayons and brought the papers home. I noticed that Avery had attempted to stay inside the lines. I was very impressed.

The other day Avery was drawing at her easel and I asked her if she was drawing a person. She said, "yes, here is the body..." Me, "cool. are you going to give it eyes?" She said yes and proceeded to give it 8 as I counted them out. Then she gave it 2 arms, 6 legs, curly hair (at which point I said, "oh, curly hair just like mom." Then she said, "and a hat like mom. This is mom." I'm sure you can see the resemblance!

Then Emerson wanted to draw me. She narrated what she was doing, "head, eye, eye patch..." I have since seen her do this numerous times and each and every time the person she was drawing gets an eye patch. Every time the eye patch consists of a her scribbling over the eye she just drew. Let's not discuss the lower half of my body in this picture... facebook friends have taken care of that!

The other day they asked me if I would play with them. I said sure and they said they wanted me to build a butterfly with their tinker toys...luckily there is one on the side of the bin so I used it as an example. I'm rather proud obviously...I took a picture and am now sharing it with you!

Escalator Issues

Thought I would take them to the mall play area to burn off some energy cause it is rainy and yucky out. I usually park in the parking garage of Nordstroms', but on the lower level. The lower level is where the play area is. Today the lower level of the garage was packed (probably due to the rain...) I parked on the 2nd level.

When we got into Nordstroms we came face to face with the escalators. The girls and I have managed escalators before so I asked them if they wanted to take them down. They both said yes. Avery stepped on before I could think. So then Emerson and I are both at the top watching Avery go. I kind of panicked thinking I did not want Avery to be alone at the bottom. I hop on and and Emerson does not hop on with me. Now I'm headed down and Emerson is stuck at the top. She starts crying. I turn around and try to run up the escalator that is headed down. I can't do it. I had to have looked like a cartoon character getting no where. This very nice lady with a toddler and a stroller asks me if she can help Emerson on. I say, "YES, please!!! thank YOU!!!" Emerson immediate jumps away from the lady like she is the devil. The only option I had was to ride down, then ride up and retrieve Emerson all with Avery in tow as well. It was rather amusing. Thankfully this set of escalators were side by side. SO GLAD I cannot even imagine having to run to the other side of the store to catch the up one and then running to the down one again.

Needless to say We all took the elevator once I had Emerson. The nice lady that had offered to help stood there with Emerson while I made my way back to her. Apparently it was a memorable experience for others as well. About an hour and a half later we were headed through Nordstroms and this guy commented that Emerson wants nothing to do with the escalator now!

To add insult to injury as we past through the lingerie section Emerson ran up to the most slutty, loud nighty and yelled, "I like this ONE!!!" Praying her tastes change before puberty.

Gasparilla 2010

Just realized I had not blogged our annual Gasparilla parade experience!

This year it was COLD!!!! The good thing though was I went out the day before and found us a place to park that was not 35 miles away... I only exaggerate slightly. We only had to walk .07 miles to the parade and we got there nice and early so we were right up front. The kids had a great time. Poor Graham fell asleep right before the parade actually started and managed to sleep through the entire parade. He did have a great time though before the parade...except when I made him cry! Mean Patty... Sorry Graham, I love you.

"Gasparilla 2011"

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To keep warm Pam and Katy came up with a fun little shtick that the kids LOVED!!!

Sleeping

Do you remember back when Avery was scaling her crib and I would play "where did she end up?" Kind of had a week like that last week.

She insisted she was not sleepy at nap-time. Clearly she was not....

Here is the original July 2009...

Then the other morning when I got up here is where I found her.

She apparently was on her way to our room, which happens most nights between 3am and 4am... If I remind them they are not to come to our room till the sun comes up they don't. Unfortunately if it was JUST one of them I would be able to sleep with her in my bed, but because they both usually end up coming in they flank me and I feel claustrophobic and cant sleep restfully. Well, this night she did not quite make it... not sure what happened cause she was obviously walking, she had to open her door and our room is only 3 feet from where she is laying. She even has her blanket.


Here is her sleeping with Julie last weekend. I love how they both have the same position going on here.