These girls sure keep me busy. I continue to be amazed by the tornado of destruction that follows both girls. I can't imagine how Emily gets crumbs from every meal scattered 4 ft in each direction from her chair, but she does. Audrey is really enjoying working on using her spoon for things like applesauce and yogurt, so that combined with her continued preference of using her hair as a napkin makes her bathtime especially productive.
We had a great visit in Barnum last weekend. Travis helped his dad install some cabinets in their addition, and he kind of led the endeavor since his dad wasn't as fired up about doing as he is doing other aspects of home improvement projects. And I figured, since the guys had a project to do, so should the women! So Nancy and I worked on making a cushion for my fireplace hearth, where all the cold air just pours into the living room. I had bought everything for the project and brought it with me, but it turns out I needed probably half again the amount of material that I bought, and twice the thickness of the upholstery cord. We had to get creative, but it was really, really fun. Unfortunately, we didn't get time to finish it, so I left it there and Nancy said she'd finish it up. I feel quite guilty for dumping a project on her and then leaving, but we really had a good time together on Saturday working on it. The girls had a good time, too, although they both slept a lot due to the excitement of being there, and a cold that they've been fighting.
Audrey came home from daycare on Tuesday and slept nearly 3 hours, which is just unheard of for her. I left Emily at daycare, so I managed to get some work from home done anyway. She had some eye-boogers, which they were afraid was pinkeye, but is actually just her cold draining through her eyes. She still appreciated the nap at home, so it was just fine that she came home, except I'm getting a little antsy about keeping up with everything at work. My co-worker is nearing her 8th month of her twin pregnancy, so I'm always a little nervous that she won't be coming in the next day! Next week, we're getting a new person added to our group, so that'll be great. I've been selected as her new employee contact, basically doing her orientation. I'm actually a little bit pumped about it, because it could be a little managerial trial-run. If I do well on this, it can only do good things for me longterm!
Both girls have been cracking me up lately with funny weird things they've said and/or done. I wish I could capture them instantly, but when I get a chance to document things, such as this, I can't remember them. Audrey is walking a little more now, but still prefers crawling for general locomotion. She is very, very expressive, however! She says "ni-ni" at bedtime, and has even started participating in Emily's game of "Nighttime, Daytime," that's inspired by this video. It's like their own screwy version of peek-a-boo, and it's adorable. (also, penguins now say "batty-wack, battywack," and is their favored dance to do while eating lunch). Audrey knows when she sees something she wants that she can coo and flap and squeal until I put her within reach of it. I suppose I should be trying to channel all of this into either language or signs, but I'm turning out to be quite lazy lately. Preschool is teaching Emily counting and ABC's, so grilling her on things like that at home would just make things less fun at preschool. I'd rather teach her things like logic and problem-solving, like, "why do you think that happened?" or "what size bowl will I need if we're making a small box of muffin mix?" She was so proud of herself tonight because she mixed up the cornbread mix for our dinner. if you told her she was on her own to make pancakes, she would come up with something that really resembled pancake batter! Emily also likes to sit by herself with a book of "Twinkle, twinkle" and "Golden Slumbers" and just sing and sing and sing, and it's SO pretty. As for Audrey, I'd rather just enjoy her babyishness, because it's fading really fast.
I've got a wonderful little family here!
Wednesday, January 26, 2011
Monday, January 17, 2011
Nostalgia
Travis and I went on a date this weekend, so our conversation turned very nostalgic. It's pretty easy to do so, considering when we get a chance to talk to each other, the first thing that comes to mind is how long it's been since we've done that! or since I've had time to participate in a conversation without interruptions. It was fun - we left the kids with my brother and (very pregnant) sister-in-law, and we went downtown! We went a little crazy and ordered a bottle of wine and some classy stuff on the menu, then came back home because we decided that what we'd like to do most of all is hear about my brother's trip to India that he just got back from. I kinda felt like a couple of high school kids who were out pretending to be grown-ups. Except, we were remembering all kinds of things - trips we took, good times with friends, all that fun stuff. It was kind of fun to think that I used to be so interesting. :) The girls had fun with their babysitters, who had fun practice parenting, and we had fun being OUT. Win, win, win!
I also have been a bit nostalgic because I just had some DVD's burned of my old VHS tapes that were most precious to me: my senior recitals (high school and college), a couple of basketball games, and our wedding. I watched a few things with Emily, and while she kind of enjoyed the basketball game, and seeing if the girl with the ball was Mom, she most enjoyed the wedding ceremony because there were lots of people she knew in it. It was amazing to see how my grandparents have aged in 6 years, although I suppose passing the threshold of 90 will do that to ya. It was also fun to see how many people have had kids since then. We all looked so young and vivacious without our little monsters sucking the life out of us! The other interesting thing for me was the perspective I have gained in the 6 - 12 years since these events. Some things that I was really proud of at the time (my piano portion of my senior recital, for example) were not as impressive as other things (the trumpet solos I played - holey cow I had some breath control!) I had totally taken some things for granted and been focused on other things instead. Overall, though, I am very glad that I have documented what I used to be able to do, so that now while I'm focused on figuring out how to raise lovely little people, I can remember that it's okay if I feel unqualified to do so. My training is in playing musical instruments and shooting 3-pointers, not potty training children, obviously!
Audrey took a few more steps tonight, and actually started to get excited about it. I think she'll really only work on it if she's got me to fall onto, because she's kind of just moving her legs like crazy and then she's just amazed at what happens. She is SO TALL, though! I forget, because she's always cruising around with her little bottom wiggling back and forth (adorable!), but when she stands up, her legs are really long! She'll definitely be a bit of trouble here soon. She doesn't have much for words, but she sure gets her point across. She uses the word "Mama" for just about everything, which is so far pretty pleasant, or she "Oooo's" or sings and points. Once she starts howling, I'll push her into her vocabulary more, but for now I'm just enjoying the few babyish things left about her!!
Emily has started counting with enthusiasm. She's always been good at reciting the number sequence, but I think they've been doing a lot of counting at preschool and now she's getting the idea of assigning one number to each object until they've all been passed over. She can count to 6 or 7 pretty reliably, but higher than that she just rattles off numbers and stops at 14 or so. It's pretty fun! She's also starting to hear more different letters in words, as in, there are "B's" in Hobby Lobby and there's an M and an L in her name, in addition to E. It's pretty fun, letting her discover it on her own, rather than actively teaching it to her. It's amazing what there is to learn in the world if your only task is to discover what's there.
Speaking of learning, Travis has been spending many evenings downstairs in his cave doing a Spanish-language program that he found online. He started with a couple of CD's from the library, which he burned onto our ipod, but they were pretty basic and he decided he's really going to learn it, and be fluent. So, he's spending about an hour on it, nearly every night. I'm not really that surprised that he's this dedicated to it, because that's totally his character to have a project that he's obsessed with for a while, but it's still impressive. For a while, he was "trying things out" on me, and it's tremendously annoying since 99% of my communication with him is in-the-moment, need an answer now without thinking kind of stuff. It's annoying, to put it nicely, if he replies in his bizarro beginner Spanish. He's gotten better about it around me. :) And, I figured as long as he's working on this, I might as well too, so I'm trying to get through the CD's from the library. But I find that I'm not up for mental exercises at 9:00 at night, and I'd rather do it first thing in the morning when I get up to work out, but of course lately I've been sick and exhausted and that was the first thing to get cut from my schedule in an attempt to feel good. Last night, though, I slept uninterrupted from 10:00 until 7:30. It's been at least 18 months if not 2 years since I've slept that long and that well. I was beginning to think it could never happen for me until they leave for college! :)
I also have been a bit nostalgic because I just had some DVD's burned of my old VHS tapes that were most precious to me: my senior recitals (high school and college), a couple of basketball games, and our wedding. I watched a few things with Emily, and while she kind of enjoyed the basketball game, and seeing if the girl with the ball was Mom, she most enjoyed the wedding ceremony because there were lots of people she knew in it. It was amazing to see how my grandparents have aged in 6 years, although I suppose passing the threshold of 90 will do that to ya. It was also fun to see how many people have had kids since then. We all looked so young and vivacious without our little monsters sucking the life out of us! The other interesting thing for me was the perspective I have gained in the 6 - 12 years since these events. Some things that I was really proud of at the time (my piano portion of my senior recital, for example) were not as impressive as other things (the trumpet solos I played - holey cow I had some breath control!) I had totally taken some things for granted and been focused on other things instead. Overall, though, I am very glad that I have documented what I used to be able to do, so that now while I'm focused on figuring out how to raise lovely little people, I can remember that it's okay if I feel unqualified to do so. My training is in playing musical instruments and shooting 3-pointers, not potty training children, obviously!
Audrey took a few more steps tonight, and actually started to get excited about it. I think she'll really only work on it if she's got me to fall onto, because she's kind of just moving her legs like crazy and then she's just amazed at what happens. She is SO TALL, though! I forget, because she's always cruising around with her little bottom wiggling back and forth (adorable!), but when she stands up, her legs are really long! She'll definitely be a bit of trouble here soon. She doesn't have much for words, but she sure gets her point across. She uses the word "Mama" for just about everything, which is so far pretty pleasant, or she "Oooo's" or sings and points. Once she starts howling, I'll push her into her vocabulary more, but for now I'm just enjoying the few babyish things left about her!!
Emily has started counting with enthusiasm. She's always been good at reciting the number sequence, but I think they've been doing a lot of counting at preschool and now she's getting the idea of assigning one number to each object until they've all been passed over. She can count to 6 or 7 pretty reliably, but higher than that she just rattles off numbers and stops at 14 or so. It's pretty fun! She's also starting to hear more different letters in words, as in, there are "B's" in Hobby Lobby and there's an M and an L in her name, in addition to E. It's pretty fun, letting her discover it on her own, rather than actively teaching it to her. It's amazing what there is to learn in the world if your only task is to discover what's there.
Speaking of learning, Travis has been spending many evenings downstairs in his cave doing a Spanish-language program that he found online. He started with a couple of CD's from the library, which he burned onto our ipod, but they were pretty basic and he decided he's really going to learn it, and be fluent. So, he's spending about an hour on it, nearly every night. I'm not really that surprised that he's this dedicated to it, because that's totally his character to have a project that he's obsessed with for a while, but it's still impressive. For a while, he was "trying things out" on me, and it's tremendously annoying since 99% of my communication with him is in-the-moment, need an answer now without thinking kind of stuff. It's annoying, to put it nicely, if he replies in his bizarro beginner Spanish. He's gotten better about it around me. :) And, I figured as long as he's working on this, I might as well too, so I'm trying to get through the CD's from the library. But I find that I'm not up for mental exercises at 9:00 at night, and I'd rather do it first thing in the morning when I get up to work out, but of course lately I've been sick and exhausted and that was the first thing to get cut from my schedule in an attempt to feel good. Last night, though, I slept uninterrupted from 10:00 until 7:30. It's been at least 18 months if not 2 years since I've slept that long and that well. I was beginning to think it could never happen for me until they leave for college! :)
Saturday, January 8, 2011
January, back to normal
I guess I haven't posted during 2011 yet. I was kind of hoping to post that Audrey has started walking, but alas, she has chosen to do other things first. She's really communicating now, and she's so expressive that it's pretty easy to tell what it is she wants. She has started working with forks and spoons, and although she doesn't actually get much food to her mouth that way, she really likes going through the motions, imitating the rest of us. And sometimes it works for her, so she likes that! She also is starting to play with puzzles, and today she was using a crayon. You could tell she thought she was hot stuff, sitting up at the table with Emily and going through the motions of coloring. Emily pushed her around on the little green ride-on tractor on the porch today, and they both squealed and loved it.
But, if we try to get her to take a step, she'll just stand there, solid as a rock. She may take one step before she falls into my arms, and the other night she did a funny little shuffle, but she will not walk. I really think she's going to wait until she can do it flawlessly, as though she's never going to fall. I still enjoy her crawling very much, as she throws her head back and sings with each "step," so it's all just fine with me, but I'm a little tired of her clinging to me while standing, because I either am stuck in position or risk the wrath of her vocal protest. And, like I said, she's really letting her preferences be known now!
Emily is in the process of memorizing every song she hears. She got a Wee Sing casette tape that came with a little booklet, and even though she can't read the words or the notes, she likes to hold the book and turn the pages while she sings along. She begs me to put in her CD of music from her daycare, and she even sings along with the songs in her Spot videos. She's a little bit into the digital media now, but I don't mind because I love to hear her sing!
We had a really nice New Year's celebration over at a friend's house, and the next day we went to my niece's 7th birthday party in Ames. It was nice to see friends and family all in one weekend before we started to get back to normal. The girls were fine going back to daycare, and I think we're back into the swing of things.
But, if we try to get her to take a step, she'll just stand there, solid as a rock. She may take one step before she falls into my arms, and the other night she did a funny little shuffle, but she will not walk. I really think she's going to wait until she can do it flawlessly, as though she's never going to fall. I still enjoy her crawling very much, as she throws her head back and sings with each "step," so it's all just fine with me, but I'm a little tired of her clinging to me while standing, because I either am stuck in position or risk the wrath of her vocal protest. And, like I said, she's really letting her preferences be known now!
Emily is in the process of memorizing every song she hears. She got a Wee Sing casette tape that came with a little booklet, and even though she can't read the words or the notes, she likes to hold the book and turn the pages while she sings along. She begs me to put in her CD of music from her daycare, and she even sings along with the songs in her Spot videos. She's a little bit into the digital media now, but I don't mind because I love to hear her sing!
We had a really nice New Year's celebration over at a friend's house, and the next day we went to my niece's 7th birthday party in Ames. It was nice to see friends and family all in one weekend before we started to get back to normal. The girls were fine going back to daycare, and I think we're back into the swing of things.
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