Friday, November 30, 2012

Happy 21 Months and 20 Month Updates

Well, the month of November was a very sick one for both Kate and Matthew.  A time of first sicknesses that all came in one month.   Both kids had the flu over Halloween, Matthew's ear tube surgery, colds that led into croup over Thanksgiving, double ear infections, and Matthew coming down with the start of pneumonia.  You can definitely say it was a rather tiring month consisting of lack of sleep, lots of Kleenex, many trips to the doctors, syringes filled with antibiotics and Ibp, and snuggling!  We are happy to report, the twins are on the mend and finally playing and gaining back their appetites.  This November we are thankful for doctors, medicine, and our children becoming healthy again.

Here are the updates on Kate and Matthew at 20 months.

Katherine Ilene:
October 27th - November 27th, 2012

* You were weighed around 28/29 lbs at your many doctors appointments this month.

* Your Halloween costume was a cup cake.

* Started walking down the stairs!  You are going down feet first while hanging onto the railing or wall.

* You are constantly asking for pizza, nuggets, or bananas.  Oh yeah, and "flies" (fries) as you say anytime we go through any drive-thru.

* You have more and more parts of your favorite books and songs memorized.

* You love to do puzzles and the shape sorter.  The circles are still your favorite.

* You definitely know what you want and can communicate that to us.  Especially the word NO!  If you don't want something you will immediately push it away and tell us repeatedly, "no, no, no, NO!" in your sweet little girl voice.  Might be a bit sassy, Katers!

* Along with being able to communicate, you can tell us what kind of food or drinks you want.  This is very helpful.  You tell us: juice, yilk (milk), nanas (bananas), applesauce, nuggets, loops (Fruit Loops), crackers, fish (Goldfish crackers), etc. 

* You hate taking medicine.  Such a battle!

* Have most of the regular songs sung on Mickey Mouse Clubhouse memorized.  You love to dance along as you sing.  It's so cute to watch you bust a move! :)

* You randomly will list all of the characters from Mickey Mouse Clubhouse.  I think Pete and Daisy are your favorites.  You will also start listing all of the members of our family.

* Always, always asking to brush your teeth.  We can walk past the bathroom or a toothbrush of any kind without hearing "teeth, teeth".  You think it's fun to get your toothbrush wet and put the toothpaste on all by yourself.

* Love to color and say "colors" when you want to draw. 

* Sick Month!  Had some of your first illnesses: the flu, croup, and double ear infection.  You were sick at Halloween with the flu and had croup at Thanksgiving.  We had to take you and Matthew into the ER back in Iowa Thanksgiving night/Friday morning for croup.

Matthew Edward:
October 27th - November 27th

* Weighed 23/24 lbs at your many doctor visits this month.

* Your favorite new word this month has been, "Uh, Oh!".  You say it all.of.the.time!!!

* This Halloween you were a lil' dragon.  You did get to go trick-or-treating with daddy around our neighborhood.  You absolutely loved it!  You could have gone all night.  The rest of the night you helped Grandpa Dufel pass out candy.

* Love, Love, Love to color and draw.  It's all you want to do!  You have colored on our walls and doors.  Definitely have to keep a close eye on you...and buy washable crayons and markers!

* Besides coloring and drawing, your other favorite activity is to roll or drop things down the basement steps.  You'll say, "Uh, Oh!" as you watch it roll down the steps.  It's always interesting to see what has accumulated at the bottom of the steps at the end of the day.

* Learned how to give 'fists'.

* Still love to open doors, turn on light switches, push the buttons to open the handicap doors, and open the garage door.

* You're wanting to get more of your meals and snacks at the table instead of in your highchair.

* When you're hungry or thirsty you will stand by the fridge for us to open so you can point out what you would like.

* Can put yourself to bed! :)  We will say time for night night and you'll climb into the rocking chair next to your bed and then from that climb into your crib.  You grab your blankets from the crib railing, give us kisses, and then lay down to be covered with blankets.  Adorable and you are such a big boy (who's a bit of a monkey).

* Had tubes put in your ears on November 15th.  We already knew the doctor because I taught his son a couple of years ago when I was teaching in WI.  Pretty cool to have already known the doctor and trust him with your surgery.

* Helps us build tall towers and then will immediately knock them down.  You think it's pretty funny!

* Sick Month! Had the flu and croup for the first time. You were sick at Halloween with the flu and had croup at Thanksgiving. We had to take you and Katherine into the ER back in Iowa Thanksgiving night/Friday morning for croup.  Then the next week took you back into the doctor here and found out you now had a double ear infection and the start of pneumonia.  We had to use a nebulizer for breathing treatments to help your lungs.  Thankfully you are a trooper at taking medicine!

Tuesday, November 20, 2012

New Playroom

Kevin and I have been working on cleaning out and organizing all of the stuff in our basement to make the area into a playroom for the twins.  Amazing how fast you accumulate stuff over time and after having kids!
 
We moved their outdoor toys (swing set, slide, cars) downstairs.  Worked out to be a great place to store it for the winter and then Matthew can still enjoy his slide and big, red car.  I also brought in the water table and converted it into a 'sensory table' for indoors.  Bringing back the teacher in me. 
 
The kids love the space to run around, and it works nicely to have another area to play during the days at home.  Now I'm working on how I want to decorate it and what other shelving I'd like to add.  Always a work in progress.
 
Playing so nicely together

stuffing the pom poms into the funnel



Matty's favorite spot - loves to watch stuff spiral down



I filled the table with fun tinsel pom poms, fall stickers, measuring cups and spoons.  Going to change it out with stuff for the seasons and holidays.  The tinsel pom poms were fun while they lasted.  Matthew thought it was a fun idea to start pulling all of the tinsel off which then was alllllll ovvvver our carpet!!!  {What was I thinking when I bought them?  Pulling them a part is an obvious thing he's do!}  A month later, and we are still picking up pieces of the sparkly, shiny tinsel out of our carpet downstairs and up. -sigh-

Both Kate and Matt love using the measuring spoons


Katers and the swing.  So cute when she says "weeeee" which sounds like "yeeeee" as she is swinging.

All smiles from this little man!

{We are going to have a fun winter by bringing the outside downstairs!}

Sunday, November 18, 2012

Halloween 2012

Well, Halloween went a little differently then planned this year.  I was soooo looking forward to taking the twins trick-or-treating since they were too little last year.  Unfortunately, I came down with the flu the Sunday before Halloween and was sick for most of that whole week.  Matthew then came down with it Monday afternoon but was feeling better by Halloween so he was able to go out and trick-or-treat in the neighborhood with Daddy.  But Katers, not so lucky.  She came down with the flu in the middle of the night Tuesday and wasn't well enough to enjoy the holiday with her dad and brother.  
 
Since I was sick and wasn't getting better along with both Kate and Matthew now having the flu, my dad decided to come up to help out Kevin take care of all of us.  He arrived Wednesday, Halloween, afternoon.  We prayed he wouldn't get the nasty flu that was going around our house.  (Which he did end up getting sick the evening he came home, and then my mom came down with it two days later.  Felt horrible that they caught it.)
 
Halloween night, my dad passed out candy at our house and Daddy and Matthew went trick-or-treating.  I did get some pictures of the action....then headed back to the couch to lay back down.

Getting ready to head out and trick-or-treat
 


excited boys
 
Daddy said Matthew LOVED going house to house getting candy.  After watching Daddy at the first house, Matty knew exactly what to do the rest of the way. He could have kept going all night, but his little hands and face were getting cold so Daddy called it a night. 

Stopping by our house, too!

So many choices

All done trick-or-treating

Katers' Halloween

going through his lute with grandpa

of course my dad said he has to have one piece of his Halloween candy

picking out which one he wants

chocolate bar, yum!

helping Grandpa pass out candy, still in his dragon costume - he wore the costume all night.  I think he would have gone to bed in it. :)



checking out the candy bowl for the trick-or-treaters....

and placing it in his pumpkin bowl.  tricky, tricky little man!

This little dragon had a great Halloween!  Next year hopefully you and Kate will get to trick-or-treat together! :)

Monday, November 12, 2012

20 Months & 19 Month updates


The pictures are ones my friend took at Monster Mash the Friday before Halloween. We met our friends Steve and Rachel and their twin daughters, Fiona and Julia.  Matthew's costume is a dragon and Kater a cupcake. The kids had so much fun playing games, jumping in the jump house, and rockin' out to the kids' band.
 
Back on October 27th, the twins turned 20 months. What! Only 4 months away from being 2 years old already! I better start the party planning. :)

Unfortunately, I didn't get this blog post done as soon as I would have liked. The week of Halloween our family, except for Kevin, had the flu. It was a time for firsts. First time for me to be sick as a mommy and first time our little ones to have the flu. Thankfully, Kevin didn't get sick and was super dad and took off work to take care of all of us! So happy that experience is over and we are all back to normal health at our household. For now....tis' the season I guess.

Here are the new things Kate and Matthew have been up to at 19 months (the best I can remember now, so it might be shorter).

Katherine Ilene:

(September 27th - October 27th)

* You can now say the three best words a parent can't wait to hear: "Love you, Mama" and "Love you, Daddy". When we say I love you at bedtime you will go down the list of family members saying you love them too.

* You can say Grandpa and Grandma

* Your talking has really taken off this month! You are saying a lot of 3-4 word sentences. You love to mimic what we say. We now have a little echo in the room with us.

* We went back to Iowa at the end of September and you went to your 2nd cousin, Beau's, 1st birthday party. You also went to a pumpkin farm with Grandma Joyce, Grandma Carol, and Aunt Jenny.

* You're still a little book-worm. Your favorite books are: Argggghhhh Spider, Brown Bear, Brown Bear, The Very Hungry Caterpillar, Goodnight Moon, and any Mickey and Minnie Mouse book.  You like to read the books out loud to yourself.  You are starting to have parts of those books memorized.

* You can point to and say "circle".

* You can also point to and say the body parts: nose, mouth, head, feet.

* You can make an animal sound for a sheep, elephant, cow, cat, dog, frog owl, bear.

* You love to tell people hi, good-bye, and see ya.

* Your favorite foods this month were: Lil' Crunchies or kid Cheetos (you ask for them constantly), peanut butter toast, pudding, cheese, milk, and turkey dogs.

* Mommy and Daddy have been church hunting this past month, so you have been going to church up here for the first time. You love to sit with us during the service. You are awesome during the service and sit and look at books and clap along to the music.

* Your top left molar came in! I knew you were working on a new tooth and was surprised to see it was one of your molars.
 
Matthew Edward:
(September 27th - October 27th)

* You had your first haircut at Kids' Hair on October 13th. You were scared sitting in the chair while the hair cut was happening, but you were brave and made it through. Mommy took you to the salon.

* You started a speech program through the school district in our county. You qualified for the program since you aren't verbally using your words. Your receptive language and motor skills are right on track, so this is to help you with talking and using your words. Once a week the speech teacher comes out to our house and works with you. So far you have had 2 sessions. You really like Jill, your teacher, and enjoy "playing" with her. I'm learning some great and helpful teaching skills to help you use your words along with some sign language.

* Along with language development, we went and had a hearing test done at an ENT to make sure you were hearing okay per the speech assessment team. You were also suffering with a cold for over a month at this time, so we took you to the doctor for a check-up. You had your first ear infection. Since the fluid didn't go away after two different antibiotics, you are going to have tubes put in your ears this month on the 15th. Hopefully this will also help your hearing which will in turn help with talking since you're not hearing the best with the constant fluid.

* You randomly like to walk backwards around the house. Come to find out you figured out how to walk backwards down the step in the living room.

* The words at this time you can say are bye-bye, hi, and see ya. The words we have been working on signing in speech are please, all done, and more. You do try and say please and more when you signing.  You're awesome at following our directions!

* Love puzzles and can do a lot of them by yourself now.

* Loves to help me put lids or caps back onto bottles.  You know what you're doing with all of that now!

* Loves to walk in and out of a room telling us "good-bye, see ya".  So cute!  You'll keep waving at us until you can no longer see us.

* You now have all of your teeth up to your 2 year molars. So glad the molars are finally in! Not fun!

* We went back to Iowa at the end of September and you went to your 2nd cousin Beau's 1st birthday party. Beau got a John Deere motorized gator and the two of you loved to sit in it together.  You also went to a pumpkin farm with Grandma Joyce, Grandma Carol, and Aunt Jenny.

* You have been an awesome sleeper! You aren't waking up at all most nights and are taking a 2 to 2.5 hour nap during the day. You go down for a nap around 12:30/1:00ish.

* You learned how to climb into your highchair. Ugh! You also love to climb up onto the dinning table. What a monkey!  Nothing is safe on the table or edges of counter tops. 

* Your favorite foods this past month were: bananas, waffles, cheese, strawberries, watermelon, and Greek yogurt.