High Five!

I hope this video of Kate and Matt giving high fives brings joy to your Wednesday!

Swim trunks and TuTus

I love swim suits on little kids!  They are adorable!  I love the surfer wet shirt on Matthew and the cute skirt and spaghetti strap suit on Kate.  I love summer and have been looking forward to spending it with Matt and Kate now that they are toddlers.  I am going to treasure all of the outdoor exploring, stroller walks, water fun, parks, and fun field trip adventures. 

This past weekend was definitely a hot, humid one!  Perfect chance to blow up the two kiddie pools I had bought at the end of summer last year.  The twins were pumped for their very own pool. :)  Okay, maybe Mommy was a bit more excited to splash around. 

Both Kate and Matt enjoyed the water.  Katers was a bit more adventures and dove right in and sat down in the pool.  Matthew was more into filling the plastic bowls and cups with water and then dumping it on himself.  Oh yeah, the rocks.  Every time we are outside he has to play in the rocks.  And of course, some rocks had to end up in the pool, too.  He enjoyed watching them make their splash landing as he chucked them into the pool.  This kid has an arm!

It's going to be an awesome summer with these two fish! :)

15 Months and 14 Month Stats

Kate and Matthew turned 15 months on May 27th!  I took them last Wednesday, by myself, to the doctor for their 15 month appointment.  First off, I will never take them to a monthly check-up appointment by myself again if I can help it.  It was craziness!!  To top it off, the kids ended up getting two shots at this appointment which I had forgotten about.  At this age the kids are too busy for just me to try and coral and hold them both while trying to focus and answer the questions for the doctor.  Second, Kate and Matt are looking great - developing right on track.  I was a little worried with their verbal skills, but the doctor didn't seem concerned.  Kids this age only know on average of 3-6 words.  She's more concerned with the kids being able to comprehend what we are saying along with being able to communicate (verbal or non-verbally) what they want.  Check!  Both can let us know what they want by several different cues and can understand certain things we ask or tell them. 

These are their 15 month stats from their doctor's appointment:

Katherine:

Height: 31 3/4 inches - 85th %tile

Weight: 25 pounds - 80th %tile

Head: 19 1/2 cm - 97 %tile

Matthew:

Height: 31 1/2 inches - 60th %tile

Weight: 21 pounds - 7th %tile

Head: 18 1/2 cm - 45th %tile

Matthew continues to stay in the 7th %tile for weight.  He's such a little guy who's now wearing 12 month clothing all of the time.  The doctor tells us this is probably just going to be his body physique.

Here are the different things Kate and Matt have been up to or doing at 14 months:

(from April 27th-May 27th 2012)

Katherine Ilene:

* You learned how to steer you walking cart.  Now you can push it all over the house weaving around furniture and stopping and turning around when you get to the step down to the living room.  You aren't the best driver, but you can get around with it now.  But, your brother doesn't always allow you a lot of time to practice because he comes and steals it away when he sees you are playing with it.

* You started walking right at the end of 14 months!  You are still working on it and gaining more and more confidence at it everyday.  You still crawl but love to walk when you can!

* You started clapping and it's adorable.  We love to clap for you when you walk and you will join in and clap for yourself along with us.

* You've started throwing your food on the ground when you're done eating or when you don't like it. 

* For most of the month your favorite activity was holding our hands and walking around the house.

* You were sick Mother's Day weekend with high fevers.  Not sure what you were sick with.  Think maybe teething or a cold virus.

* Lindsay babysat you and Matthew while Mommy and Daddy went to the MN Twins baseball game for Mother's Day.

* You love the Mickey Mouse Club House T.V. show.  This is the only show we really let you watch.  You're favorite part of the show is the 'hot dog' dance at the end.  You've started rock your body like you're dancing to the music and jabber as if you're singing along.  Adorable!

* Grandma and Grandpa Dufel babysat you and Matthew while we went to Daddy's work Gala.

* You will give us kisses when we ask you.

* You can say two words: cheese and keys.  If we walk by the hook with the car keys you will point and say, "keys." 

* If you're not reading books then you're probably walking around the ottoman.  Now that's your favorite place to start walking from. 

* You started waving when we say "good-bye".

* Your new favorite food is grapes!  I just introduced them this month and you will gobble them up right away!  You still love Annie's Macaroni and Cheese, cheese, green beans, mandarin oranges, and strawberries the best.

* You on average take 2 naps a day, but sometimes if you have slept in in the morning you might take just an afternoon nap.

Matthew Edward:

* You love to be chased, especially by Daddy, all around the house.

* You still love to steal what your sister is playing with and her paci.

* You like to hand us objects/toys your are playing with like you're sharing.

* You got to try eating Greek yogurt with a spoon all by yourself.  Mommy held the yogurt for you while you dove into with the spoon.  It was very messy!  We had to give you a bath afterwards. 

* You've been having "conversations" with us.  We answer you and then you're respond back with a jibber jabber sounding sentence.  So cute - you think you're telling us something!  You especially talk during mealtimes. 

* Love wearing your shoes anytime you can.  You know when we are leaving or going to play outside when we put yourself on.  You will even go and get your shoes and bring them to us to put on as your way of telling us you want to play outside.

* You pat or rub our head along with Kate's, too!  We think you are imitating us when we rub your head and back.  Your way of showing us affection.

* You've been trying to climb out of your highchair when you're done eating.

* You continue to be a climber and managed (with supervision) to climb into your crimb from the rocking chair next to your crib.  It wasn't graceful, impressive though.  Daddy and I wanted to see if you could really do it, so we decided to let you try it when we first saw you wanting to attempt it.

* Teeth: 2 more bottom teeth came in.  You didn't sleep well while they were popping through.  You now have 8 teeth. 4 on the top and bottom.

* You had to go to the doctor because of an eczema skin patch on your back that got infected.  You were put on an oral med and a topical steroid cream.  You definitely have sensitive skin.  Mommy had to switch to fragrance free laundry detergent because you were breaking out with a skin irritant rash all over.

* You can throw a toy or ball in a forward motion.

* You love to put objects inside containers. 

* You don't have any words you officially can say yet, but we do know you are understanding what we say to you.  We tell to go get your blanket because it's time for bed and you will go and get it and motion for us to pick you up.  I also can ask if you want to eat breakfast/lunch etc and you will go to your high chair and point to show you want up there.  You do great at pointing at things you want or bring us something you want opened or taken apart.

* We got you the mega Lego blocks and you learned right away how to put them together.  You can stack three or more on top of each other by yourself.  Then you love to take the tower apart.

* Lindsay babysat you and Kate while Mommy and Daddy went to the MN Twins baseball game for Mother's Day.

* Grandma and Grandpa Dufel babysat you when we went to Daddy's work Gala.

* You on average take 2 naps a day, but sometimes if you have slept in in the morning you might take just an afternoon nap.  You still love to take some kind of toy or object with you to bed.

* You can tell you've been so proud of your sister learning how to walk.  You will clap for her and also try and hold her hand and walk with her like we do.  You can tell you're starting to want to play with her.

* You like to eat off a plate.  We will put you in our laps at the table while you eat and you do great at eating the food off the plate like a big boy. You think you're pretty neat stuff sitting at the table like us.

* Even though we don't have a dog, or any animals in fact, you seem to love dogs!  It surprises us you're not scared, no matter the size.  You get the biggest grin on your face when one comes by you to pet.

The post below has their 14 month pictures.  My friend, Rachel, took them and sent them to me via my Shutterfly account.  I can't figure out how to post them individually, so I posted the link to view them in a Shutterfly album.

Twins 14 Months - May 2012

Click here to view these pictures larger

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!

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.

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!