Tuesday, May 22, 2012

Look who's taking some steps!

Tonight when Daddy got home from work he started having Kate work on walking.  Lately she has been loving holding our hands and walking around the house.  That's all she wants to do.  She looks so proud of herself especially when she walks past her brother.  She also likes to walk with her cart, but Matthew is quick to steal it away from her once he sees she has it.  Stinker!  And poor Kate can't use the cart and she's the one who needs it! 

Well, with a little help from Daddy, Miss Katers started taking some steps!  She is still a bit unsure and is quick to sit down after too many steps.  Watch out world {and Matthew}, this girl is going to be fully taking off in these next couple of days! 

We're so proud of Kate and look forward to watching her continue to master walking.

My absolute favorite part of the video is when she claps for herself at the end.  She looks so stinkin' cute clapping and getting excited for herself and seeing us gleaming with pride!  We love you, Tater!


Monday, May 21, 2012

What's been happening here

The Willms Family has been busy these past few weeks.

For my Mother's Day gift, I got to go to my first Minnesota Twins baseball game at the new stadium.  Kevin and I went to the game Saturday of the weekend of Mother's Day.  Our friend, Lindsay, babysat Kate and Matt for us that evening.  We even got to go out to eat downtown before the game, just the two of us!  I love, LOVED being able to eat my meal in peace, not having to share every bite, ate at my own pace, and didn't worrying about other people getting fed for once. ;)

Here are a few pictures I took at the game.


The PwC building, the company who Kevin works for, is in the skyline in the background.  (It looks really small in the picture.)  It's the one on the left that has a rounded top.  He doesn't work downtown too often because he usually is at the client's site who he's auditing.



MN Twins are #1...are so are Moms on Mother's Day!

I told Kevin to take a picture of me looking like I'm holding the Twins' Target Field sign and this is what he ended up taking.  I guess I didn't need to be in the picture. :)

For that dumb move I was quick to sneak a picture of him since he didn't want to pose for any.

The night of the game, Kate wasn't feeling the best.  When we left her with Lindsay she had a start of a temp and just wanted to sleep all day.  Poor thing.  Felt bad leaving her.  That night after we got home, she ended up waking up around 1:00 a.m. with a high temp.  She cried for quite  awhile not being able to get comfortable.  You could tell she didn't feel well.  I ended up sleeping with her out in the living room for the night.  But she was up a lot throughout the night.

The next morning, you could still tell she didn't feel the best, but her temp was better.  We decided to still go and run our errands for the day.  Kevin wanted to look for a new suit and I had some shopping I wanted to do.  Kate was a trouper through it all, but by supper time she had had enough.  Her temp started to rise again so this made our supper plans of grilling for supper a bit tough.  I wanted steaks, but decided on doing just hamburgers because we had stuff on hand for that already.  We quick ate and then tended to Kate for the night.  I wanted to get a picture of myself with the twins for Mother's Day but that didn't work out this year.  The poor girl ended up having a pretty high temp through the night, but finally by morning she started feeling better.  It was another rough night of sleep for us.  We're not use to those up all nights any more. :)  Not really sure what she was sick with.  Maybe a virus or something with teething?

Wednesday night, Kevin's Aunt Mary came up to stay with us for the night.  We were nice and had the kids stay up a bit later so she could see them before they went to bed.  :)  She stayed the night and then headed on to Fargo the next afternoon to watch Heimy run in the Fargo Marathon race this weekend.  I heard the race went well and we are so proud of her accomplishing her second marathon!  Way to go Heimy! 

This past weekend, my parents came up to visit and babysit for us.  They arrived Thursday night and stayed through Sunday.  I had a lot of projects planned for my parents to help me with.  Friday we got a lot accomplished!  My dad power washed our house and windows and screens on the outside while I cleaned them inside the house.  Then my mom and I (and with some help from my dad) picked out flowers and planted them in the front of our house.  Feels good to have my flowers planted for the season.  I don't know much about the different types of flowers/plants so it was nice to have help from my mom. 

Saturday I wanted to go to IKEA to get a bookshelf and a few other things since my dad had his truck to haul it.  This shopping trip took awhile, too many things to look at in this store!  Kevin stayed home with the kids to help make the shopping mission a little less stressful.  Later that afternoon all of us played outside while Kevin mowed.  Kate and Matt love being outside.  If Matt finds his shoes he will bring them to you to put on him to show us he wants to go outside. 

Matt especially liked playing in the rocks.  He would pick up a rock and place it in Grandpa's bucket.




Grandpa Dufel and Miss Kater


Love her expression - she has the best belly giggle to go with that BIG smile!

Matt sitting in "his" own chair



Had to pick up all of the 'stuff' in the cracks of the driveway and occasionally that 'stuff' would end up in Grandpa's bucket, too.



Grandma Carol and Matthew





Little cutie

That Saturday night my parent's babysat the twins while we attended Kevin's work Gala for PwC at the Minnesota Institute of Arts.  It was nice to have a night downtown, get dressed up, see some of our friends, and meet more of Kevin's co-workers.  We had a good time and enjoyed this year's Gala a lot more than last year's.  Last May we were definitely very sleep deprived and were walking zombies.  What a difference a year can make.




Thanks Mom and Dad for babysitting and for all of your help around the house.  We had a great weekend with you and Kate and Matt loved spending the weekend with you...showing off all of their new tricks/skills.

Thursday, May 10, 2012

Video Updates

I caught Kate's two new skills on video: learning how to wave and saying her first word "cheese".  She now will start to wave if she hears you say "hi" or "bye-bye".  And of course, her first word would be her favorite food.  She knows exactly what it is.  When I go to the fridge and take out a packet of string cheese she will immediately start telling me, "Cheese!" 

(The video is a little all over the place.  I was recording it myself and trying to hold Katers off from the camera.)



I also was able to get a short video of Matthew's new skill.  He learned how to connect the linking beads to each other.  I showed him a few times first, then a little exploration time on his own, and  he was able to put the two correct ends together.  He loves to connect them.  Once he puts them together he will then hand them to me, make his "umm" sound, and I take them apart from him.  He then takes them and starts the process again.



One to None!  The twins were down to one bottle at night right before bed.  Now we can officially say a little over a week ago they had their last one.  I wasn't planning at that certain time specifically to be done.  It was more of a decision made on impulse after watching my son pour out most of his bottle all over Kate's cushion chair.  I told him right then that this was going to be his last one, no more bottles for him! (I was just a little upset.)  They are now only using sippy cups.  I will not miss having to wash the bottles and all of their parts.  For some reason sippy cups just seem a whole lot easier! 

You're growing up so fast Katers and Matty!


Monday, May 7, 2012

Giving it a try

I thought we would try for the first letting Matthew use a spoon to feed himself.  I knew it was going to be messy, to say the least.  I just wanted to see how he would do, and I needed to relax about the thought of the mess it could make.  But two kids getting messy at meal time 3x's a day isn't fun to clean up after.  We gave him some Greek yogurt to eat (it's nice and thick).  I held the yogurt container and Matthew took the spoon.  I showed him a few times how to bring the spoon to his mouth and he just took off the the idea. 

Big boy taking a spoonful.  He enjoyed having the spoon for himself.


Maybe not the complete correct way, but he was catching on....it was getting to his mouth.  Pretty good for his first time.



I think more of it might of ended up under his chin and on his bib.

"What else can I pick up with my spoon?"


Got a picture of Katers, too!  She'll get her chance with a spoon, but not yet.  One messy kid at a time. ;)



I let him hold the container once it was empty. 

I think he could be in an advertisement for Chobani yogurt! Look at that smile!

I think I found his favorite flavor of Greek yogurt, Pineapple.  Got to lick out every last bite!

Another one of Miss Katherine

I think his first time using a spoon was a success.  I'm not planning on having him use one all of the time, but thought I would start to introduce more often in the upcoming weeks. 

Since this guy got so messy, it was bath time!  We've been having Kate and Matt take one together.  Fun for them, and easier for Mommy and Daddy.  Both kids love their baths.  They would stay in there all night if they could.  What they don't like is the after part - getting dried off and lotioned up.  It's a bit of a struggle at times.

Some how while we were getting stuff ready for their bath, Matthew found a bottle of Listerine mouthwash.  Like I said, Matthew has to find some kind of object to carry a long with him and bring to bed and now to bath time.  The kids were fighting over it in the tub, so I found a little bottle of Scope so they'd each have one.

Kate

Why have bath toys when have Listerine!



You make us laugh, kiddos!

Thursday, May 3, 2012

Backyard Fun

Kevin was able to get home earlier tonight which allowed us to have a family dinner and playtime with the kids out in the backyard.  Kate and Matt loved roaming around in the grassy yard.  We brought a few toys outside for them, but they were happy with playing in the grass and leaves and running around. 




For some reason he was wanting to push the fire truck on his knees.  Guess mommy needs to learn the tricks of how to get grass stains out of clothes.

Such a pretty girl!

He's lifting up the fire truck  up over the cement ledge...this little man is strong!

As you can see, Miss Katers got very dirty crawling around outside.


Tummy Tickle!

Silly Willms boys!

'Little Kevin' and 'Big Kevin'




Trying to be strong like daddy and lift Katers up, but she is definitely a lot heavier than bro!

Rushing over to Wiggles right after taking pictures with Kate to get leaves and dirt out of his mouth.

Had to watch this guy.  Everything started to go in his mouth.

Check out that hair in the back!  It's so wild and long.  Not sure if we need to start cutting it, but it's starting to look crazy. :)  We call it his 'old man' hair!

Our little man is starting to look like a toddler!

The night of playing outside ended with a much needed bath!