Wednesday, June 14, 2006

Our Living Dolls.





Aren't they sweet? (Leah's in Pink, Paige in the Flowers.)

These were taken on Sunday - what a great - albeit busy - weekend we had.

My vaccuum cleaner broke down last weekend, so a quick call to Electrolux, and a *cough* little bit of cash later, and I've got Central Vac!! Oh my gosh, I vaccuumed for almost 4 hours on Saturday! I love it! (Yeah, I know that love affair wont last long!!)

Saturday night we went to Dianne T's house - she was holding a little going-away party for Eric and Ann H - who are relocating to Edmonton this summer :(

Sunday, my I went SHOPPING! Like, to a mall! Like, for the first time in over three months!! My mom & I took the twins while Paul stayed home with missy P and I so thoroughly enjoyed it. As did the girls - well, Paige slept the entire time, while Leah was just a little curious monkey. Of course, everything I bought was for either the twins or Peyton - oh, I did get myself the Feist CD (which I LOVE, btw.) But it was all about the outing. Then I took the twins out to Chantal & Colin's place - for a birthday celebration - Chantal's (ahem) 29th. Paul chose to keep the busy two year old home, especially seeing as Chantal informed us earlier in the day that the other invitees w/toddlers had all cancelled that afternoon. Yeah, C&C have a nice home with lots of nice things...not the most 2 yr. old friendly joint, at this point. Well, they don't care, but being mom & dad of a bulldozer in a china ware store is a bit nerve wracking. So the twins and I were met by many capable and willing (and wanting) hands, and my arms were baby free for the SECOND evening in a row.
I returned home just in time to tuck the monster in bed. And oh-my-gosh, did she have me in tears! So we read to her. A lot. Like we're supposed to, I know - but we do indeed get a lot of joy out of it, and Peyton LOVES her books. And we know she listens and follows the story and all, and she's even read along with us, and while sitting on the can, she's even read simpler stories to herself, cover to cover. Like Brown Bear, what do you see? Or Polar Bear, what do you hear? Very simple, repetitive books. But on Sunday, when I was tucking her in, she asked me to read "Kiss Good night, Sam" to her. So I did. And then she asked if she could read it to me. Well, this book is a lot more wordy than the others she's read in the past, so I thought I'd let her give it a shot. And in her sweet little 2 year old toddler voice, she read page-by-page the entire book to me. With lots of expression and sound effects (wind blowing, rain splattering, kissing...etc.) And I did my best to stiffle my giggles and the result was tears, just streaming down my face. Peyton knew I was tearing up and she just smuggly grinned at me and continued on with the story. Ah, this is what parenting is ALL about, I tell ya. So proud of my girl. Now if I could only get her to do this to her daddy. Or sing "You are my sunshine" or any of her other 15 million songs to Paul's parents - she just "shies" up when you ask her to!

They really are sponges, literally absorbing and retaining every little thing that happens. Paul's dad has been taking her to playgroup for a couple of weeks, and home she comes singing a song that I didn't teach her - it's hilarious. But even MORE funny is when I catch her using *my* expressions, or mannerisms. I guess I tend to put people (or maybe just her) off quite a bit, because it seems that whenever I ask her to do something, she responds "OK, give me two seconds!" I hardly think she's grasped the concept of time yet (or maybe she has??) Or her everyday good-bye now includes "see you soon!" Yup, me again. Love it. I could eat her up some days. Which is great, because there are a lot of "trying" and challenging times with a two year old, so the good things make the not-so-good times a little easier to get through (this too shall pass.)

The twins have been great - not too many changes to write about. Leah's going through something really weird right now that we're working to resolve - she drinks about 2oz of her bottle, then refuses the rest. I'm not sure what the problem is - I've tried to solve the issue by changing the nipples - we've tried about 5 now. We make sure she's well burped (that's definitely not the issue.) We hold her in a variety of positions. We don't overfeed - I never wake them to feed, we wait for them to fuss before we offer the bottles. I'm at a loss...? She's always been the worst spitter-upper (of the two) but that's been since birth, and I really don't think I'm dealing with a reflux issue. I wonder if her teeth are starting to come, and maybe her mouth hurts. Peyton didn't get her first until 11 months, so that would be odd for us, but every kid's different, right? And I don't think 3 months is too early to teethe. Anyway, we are managing to get her feed into her, it just takes upwards of an hour sometimes. And unfortunately, I'm finding it's getting harder instead of easier with each feed. But she IS eating, so I've got no reason to see the doc yet. We're scheduled for a 3 month exam at the end of the month, so hopefully we can make it until then. Frustrating, though. Particularly at 4:00 AM.

We've had them down to the lake a couple times recently - they're happy to be out for a walk if they're in the carriers (the bums!) Fresh air does wonders for everyone - me too :) Peyton got out and fed the ducks THREE TIMES yesterday. Jenna & I took her out at 7:30 last night, and the ducks were like "ugh, we're SOOO full." I swear, the bread we threw was untouched! The ducks in this lake are being VERY well taken care of, I tell ya.

Anyway, signing off now - but not before I post a link to TRISTAN'S passion http://media.putfile.com/Tristan-and-Shadow
She was in a competition on Saturday and WON FIVE RIBBONS!! Congrats, sweetie - we're proud of you and we'll make it out to one of your competitions one day soon!!

Kari
(xoxoxox)

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