Sprinkler Park Terrors

While Erica was in town this week, we decided to take Cara and Nora to a local sprinkler park. They like their little baby pool and water tables, so I figured they might like a sprinkler park, right? Wrong! Nora was terrified, and Cara wouldn't even touch most of the sprinklers. Oh well, maybe they'll come around to them in time. We were there almost 2 hours and they were slowly warming up to the idea, I think.













Kirby put up a new porch swing on our back porch, and it's a big hit with the kids:


The girls had their 18 month appointment on Thursday, and Cara now weighs 24 lbs 2 oz and Nora weighs 26 lbs 12 oz. They're both in the same percentiles they've been in for a while, 50% for C and 80% for N. Healthy girls! Cara has added some new words to her vocabulary:
outside - sa-sigh
teeth - gee
diaper - gan-kee
swing - sssing

House Projects!

House projects are extremely difficult for us to accomplish since the twins came along, and we finally this week got around to picking out paint colors and hiring painters to paint the outside of our house. I'm so glad we did; I love it! Here is the before from when we first moved in:


And after:



Like? Dislike? I was a little worried about using black.

Our next project is to finish off our 2nd story loft into a 4th bedroom. Hopefully that will be accomplished sometime this summer. The day that the painters pressure washed the house, Nora freaked! She's such a sweet little 'fraidy cat.

I think we're overdue some new pictures of Cara and Nora, so here are some recent ones. I'm really going to try to update this blog more!












They are loving the backyard lately, and I've just realized how brilliant west-facing homes are in Texas. From about 2:30 on, we have tons of shade in the backyard from the 2 story house! Cara really likes their baby pool, and Nora looooves watching bubbles. She occasionally catches them, but it always seems to shock her when they pop. :)

Chatty Cara!

Over the past week or so, Cara has started saying lots of words. Her first real word was Daddy, which she says like "daht-eeeeee". She says "momom" for momma. Now she can also say:

• eyes - "iceee"
• ball - "bawwwl"
  
• Babo (her lovey)
• bubble - "bubba"
• cracker - "cracka"
• more - usually said while signing more
• banana - "nana"
  

It seems like there are others that I'm just forgetting... but anyway. It's exciting to know she's starting to interact with us with words. Nora's not quite there yet, still preferring to babble or shriek to communicate, but that's okay. She'll get there!

Both girls put their hands on their heads when you say "head", and Cara also knows where her shoulders are and will point to those. They love doing the motions to Twinkle Twinkle Little Star as well as some others that are sung at our local library storytime. They're just so interactive and fun! And annoyingly inquisitive and into everything. ;)

Kirby and I are celebrating 4 years of marriage today! Who knew when we married that we'd end up with 18 month old twins by now? Craziness.

The past few days we've had the outside of our house painted, the siding and trim. It was cream and dark green and in desperate need of a new paint job. Now it's white with black trim, and I think it looks awesome with our red brick. The girls were NOT fans of the first day when they pressure washed the house, and Nora especially was a clingy little monster.

I have some photos to upload sometime soon... maybe tomorrow!

The Joy of Toddlers

Cara and Nora are enjoying climbing on everything these days, getting into all sorts of trouble, and keeping me quite busy. Yesterday at a friend's house Nora got stuck in a large plastic bin, and when she started crying, all we could see were her two little feet. Hopefully she forgave me for laughing while I helped her out. ;)

They both love kitchen utensils, especially spatulas, and walk around the house with them. Cara pushed hers down the slide a few times today, and Nora ate dinner with hers in one hand. What goofy girls! We switched from their big, traditional high chairs to space saver high chairs this week just to, well, save some space in the kitchen, and the trays on these have two cup holders on each side. Cara likes to organize her food in some little toddler system. She'll put a few blueberries in one, then switch and put more in the other. Then she eats them. She does this with lots of foods now.

I'm constantly amazed by how quickly they're growing. They will be 17 months old tomorrow!


Look at all of Cara's curls now!






Nora's sunscreen hair, eww!


Tumbling over the same object


and sitting (for just a moment before running away) in bluebonnets

Toddler Bully

It seems Kirby and I have created a little maniacal Cara monster. She thinks it's hilarious to chase Nora and push her down. This morning she even pushed her off of her beloved sit 'n spin zebra, and trust me, Nora did not enjoy that fall one bit. My poor tender hearted Nora!

They are getting so big, so fast. Yesterday we played in a friend's backyard, complete with a water table, baby pool, and sprinkler. Nora wasn't a fan of all the cold water, but Cara loved running through the sprinkler.

Here are some pictures of their recent outdoor excursions:

Springtime, Where Are You?

The weather is killing me lately! We'll have a beautiful, warm day, followed by a blustery cold one. We need more warm weather so the girls and I can get outside more. They're walking so well now, and they love going to the park. They especially love swinging, and no matter how long they swing, Nora always cries when I take her out.

Cara's become really good at following directions. She will dance, twirl, stomp, give kisses, and say cheese on command. Nora will clap, stomp, and dance, but she's not big on following directions. I think we can attribute this to her attitude. ;)

Here are a few recent photos of the growing munchkins. They're looking like such little girls now!

Just Dance

I know I've really neglected this blog. Sorry! The girls are growing quickly and are learning so much.

Cara loves dancing when you tell her to dance now. Afterward we always clap and say "good job!" and she claps along with us. She loves dancing on command, although I suspect it's really the attention she enjoys. She will also stomp when asked to stomp. As you may recall from previous posts, Cara's favorite lovey is an Ugly Doll named Babo. She knows him by name and when asked to find Babo, she'll search the room for him and bring him back to me. I can't believe she understands as much language as she does.

Nora has started clapping, and she loves dancing anytime music is playing. She loves catching things rolled to her now, and she's actually pretty darn good at it! She definitely didn't get any athletic ability from me. Nora loves playing peekaboo and has started holding things up in front of her face to hide. We have a plastic pasta strainer that lives in the toy bins in the living room, and Nora will hold it up in front of her face, then peek around. She could play peekaboo for hours, I'm sure. She can throw some truly epic tantrums, but I try not to remember those...

We had a pretty rough Christmas, and spent the holiday snowed in at a hotel in Wichita Falls. It didn't really go as planned and unfortunately Cara and Nora didn't get to spend much time at all with their great grandmas, but they did get some great presents and are enjoying those daily. Here are the girls hanging out in the hotel on Christmas Eve:


And here are a few Christmas photos we had taken by a photographer friend:






Both girls are walking now:




Cara has been walking for months, but Nora just within the past few weeks has started walking a lot. She can make it across a room now.

Don't worry - I haven't forgotten about their birthday from November! I do have pictures that I'll upload at some point in the future... hopefully sooner. We'll see. Cara has an ear infection and Nora has a sinus infection, so they've been pretty unhappy, clingy little babies lately.