Not to be outdone..

This definitely falls in the category of "stuff the girls will be totally embarrassed by someday" but I'm going to share it anyway. Tonight before baths, the girls were spending their playtime on their potties, which has become their new routine. And Saoirse christened hers...and she didn't pee, ifyouknowwhatImean. (and I think you do) Maybe the Japanese have the right idea. (I've heard that they start potty training at like 12 months)

Jack o' lanterns...

We carved pumpkins last night. Saoirse and Rowan picked out some pumpkins from Great Grandma and Grandpa R's place a couple weeks ago, and we laid out cardboard on the kitchen floor to try to contain the mess.

The girls had fun. Rowan loved trying to get the seeds out of the pumpkin, Saoirse loved playing with the seeds in the bowl I gave them. They like taking things out of something and transferring them (blocks, laundry) so I thought they would do okay as long as they thought they were helping. It went pretty well.

Also, I didn't know until while we were doing it, this was Chris's first time actually doing the carving. He said his dad always did it, then he was too old to care. So it was the first time for all three of them. I think he did well, considering. :)




Seriously?...

The other day I was at BRU and there was a sale going on, so I picked up a couple Bjorn potties (pink, of course). I read somewhere that around 18 months old you should put them in the bathroom so the kids can start getting accustomed to them well before you actually expect them to use them. Plus, the girls (especially Rowan) have been alerting me to needing their diapers changed lately, so they seem to be starting to be aware of the whole potty thing.

Tonight, before their baths, on night two of potties being in the bathroom, Rowan pulled at her diaper and when Chris took it off she sat down and peed on the potty. Then she got up and pointed it out to him. Wow! I'm not crazy, I don't think this is going to mean she's in panties anytime soon. She's 17 months old, for crying out loud. But I'm pretty impressed.

Uh, no photos, for what I hope are obvious reasons.

Halloween!

Last year we didn't dress the girls up. I was just flat out too tired to care that it was Halloween. This year we decided to take them to the party that the twin club throws here in A2, so we got some costumes. This morning was the party, and I have to say it was adorable. Now I'm kind of sorry I didn't do it last year. The girls ate snacks, ran around, played with a bunch of other little twins. They were totally indifferent to the magician who was there to entertain the kids. Maybe in a year or two.

Here's Saoirse, our little pirate:

Here she is checking out her sword:

Here's Rowan as a monster:

And again:

Here's the best shot I got of both of them posing. Saoirse's face is pretty tearstained, she wasn't thrilled about sitting still even for a minute.







So fun! It's going to be even more awesome when they're ready for all the night time stuff, like trick or treating and haunted houses.

To be fair

Since I showed off Rowan's first pigtails, here are Saoirse's. They lasted about an hour before she pulled them out. Now we know what Chris would have looked like as a little girl. :)




Here's just some of the trouble the girls have already been in this morning. I let them do this in hopes of getting five minutes on the computer. Since I'm right now writing this to the soundtrack of earsplitting shrieks...it didn't work. What there is not a photo of, due to the danger, is the sight that greeted me this morning when I went to get Rowan out of bed. She was sitting on the railing of her crib, straddling it like she was riding a horse. She was clearly contemplating getting down, but hadn't worked up the nerve yet to take the drop. I'm proud and horrified all at once.

San Diego

So I haven't written in a while. Sorry about that. Chris and I went away for an entire week to San Diego and left the girls with Grandma and Grandpa. It was the longest we've ever been away from them. We both missed them terribly, although of course it was nice to have a break and spend time with each other. We talked more on the trip out there than we have in six months. I hung out in the spa, got a fantastic massage, we walked on the beach, I read about 8 books, ate more food than I can believe, and went to a really beautiful wedding on the Pacific Ocean.





Now we're home. While we were away, Rowan learned how to lean out from behind something and say "Boo!" They both learned to say "buck-buck" to "what does the chicken say?" and "Moo" to "what does the cow say?" I swear their hair grew like an inch, and they got even cuter. How is that possible?



Oh, and also while we were gone, the girls got a new second cousin, Ava Ryan, who lives in Texas. And another set of awesome twin friends, Sareena and Sahil, who have been so long awaited!

A hairstyle!!...

I realized the other day that Rowan's hair was pretty long, and decided to try to put it in pigtails yesterday. I know these pigtails are pretty ghetto, because I don't really know what I'm doing yet. So little, such fine hair, so much wiggling. But I thought it turned out pretty adorable. :) She looks like such a little girl.




Puppy love

Rowan loves dogs. Does she do this just to torture me? I had plenty of pets growing up. Dogs, cats, a bird at one point, gerbils or hamsters, even mice I think. Am I remembering this right? Also lambs, although at the end of the year they were eaten. So...maybe you can't count those. But still. The point is I have taken care of animals. Chris, meanwhile, has never had a pet in his life. This makes him think of it with longing...and not much realism. I love having a house with no pet hair, no pet smell. I love not having to feed and water and clean up after yet another living thing.


But Rowan loves dogs. I can see this getting out of hand. She can't even talk in sentences yet, but "dog" was like her second word. And by far her most used word at this point. Followed only by "car" which makes me worry because it reminds me of her Uncle Blake, but I digress. She points out every dog in the neighborhood, and some days I feel like there are more dogs than people around here. She follows them. She kicks and screams and lies down on the ground and cries when they walk away from her, or when I stop her from getting too close.


The other day when we were getting ready to go for a walk a neighbor stopped by to say hello, and her dog is a really sweet 12 year old golden retriever. Rowan was in love. Good thing the dog was gentle, because Rowan got friendly.





I do not want a dog, damn it. How long before she realizes that we could have one of our own if she convinced me?

Apple picking

Okay, so I'm like a week behind here. But last weekend Saoirse went to spend a few days with Grandma and Grandpa, leaving Rowan to have some alone time with Mom and Dad. On Sunday we went to Wiard's Orchard. It has really expanded since the days I was an undergrad here. Back then it was just a place to pick apples and eat cider and donuts. Now there's a "country fair" there on the weekends in the fall, and it's a big family destination. We went in a bouncy castle, Rowan rode a small tractor. Rowan went on her first pony ride, which she absolutely loved. She wasn't scared at all, grabbed right on to the saddle, even leaned forward to pet the pony's mane. She was bouncing along with the motion and singing. Very fun. We went through a corn maze, which would be scary as hell at night, but in the afternoon is pretty full of families, so not scary at all. Just hot and dusty. Chris shot an apple cannon, but didn't win anything. We went on a hayride. Rowan loved being right up behind the farmer driving the tractor. And, of course, we did pick some apples and eat some cider and donuts. Rowan caught right on to gathering apples and filling the bag. She kept picking apples up off the ground and adding them, though. So we were both adding apples from the trees and emptying the ones we didn't want behind her back. We were all exhausted after several hours of that, Rowan was asleep by about 7:30 that night. We plan on taking both girls later this month, when Saoirse can come too. It's so cool that the girls are getting old enough to do this stuff now.