Halloween fall fun used to mean seek out the scariest haunted house around town and see how many friends I can drag along for the ride. Nowadays, it means something different.....for the next few years at least.
In October, we went to Jacquemin Farms for a hayride and pumpkin patch. The kids loved the play area which consisted of corn kernels and trucks. There was even a small straw maze but the twins were too young for that as well as the bounce houses they had. Next year perhaps.
I had always wanted to take the twins to a county fair once they got older and this summer was perfect. All the distractions of the rides and people should provide enough entertainment that should lead to some good eating.
The kids were entertained but I'm not sure they ate as well as I'd liked.
Then they got sick some time later over the summer. Worse was that we were all sick and felt miserable. Here are pictures to show how desperate we got when they wouldn't stop crying during dinner.
Popsicles for dinner!!
Will had a quick dentist appointment and we ended up bringing the twins there with us. I never knew my dentist had a fun kids area.
After slowly accepting the reality that we will be expecting another baby and that traveling by ourselves might become a distant memory, we decided to take a trip to Orlando, Florida at the end of September. My sister was amazingly sweet to offer to keep them for a long weekend so that Will and I could get away. Florida worked out since it wasn't too far away and remained in the same time zone so we could Skype with the twins. Plus, we thought it would be fun to rub in their faces who we got to hang out with at dinner.
The best paella we had ever had was in Celebration, Florida. Even over the paella at Barcelona in Columbus, Ohio and the paella in Barcelona, Spain. I still dream of that paella.
Here was where we ate it - Columbia Restaurant.
Here was what it looked like. I left two bites because I had been diagnosed with gestational diabetes at this point and worried about how this heavenly seafood rice dish would affect my sugar. What a shame - my sugar rocked the entire long weekend.
It was an amazingly relaxing four days. We spent two days just laying out in the sun and enjoying jumping waves at Cocoa beach and spent the other days shopping. The kids didn't really miss us at all and were quite happy when we would all Skype together.
Many months ago when I found out I was pregnant at 91/2 weeks, both Will and I were shocked. I'm going into my 22nd week now and while the news have settled, so have many of the pregnancy discomforts. For one, I have gestational diabetes again and I can't blame it on twins this time like I did the last. The whole family has also come down with a nasty cold and the twins ended up with ear infections because of it. My c-section scar is stretching too which leads to the same, uncomfortable burning, sawing feeling I experienced during my recovery. The joys.
I took Ainsley to one of my appointments and she did great! It took some time and she was very patient throughout the weight. Of course, about 10 minutes before my OB showed up, Ainsley had a gigantic poop. Luckily, I had diapers and wipes with me and managed to change her in time. We listened to the heartbeat that day and Ainsley looked at the doctor and I very strangely.
The kids get pretty wild at night when they don't want to go to sleep. They'll play, wrestle and jump on Will. No jumping on me anymore now that I'm pregnant.
They will bring us their favorite books to read before bedtime and are particular about who reads what. Ainsley's favorite book is Gossie who is a gosling that loves to wear bright red boots. They also love to read about BooBoo who eats everything.
One of their Carter's favorite bedtime books is Another Monster at the End of the Book. It is hilarious because Carter actually gets scared when they meet the monster. He'll start getting antsy and move closer to you as you near the page.
Then when you get to it and the characters (and you) scream, he will quickly shut the book. He does it every time. So adorable.
So one of the common problems with twins is that they tend to bite a lot. Ainsley is always biting Carter when they fight for toys and he reciprocates as well. Their poor cousin, Alli, often gets caught in the mix since they play together every day so she has plenty of battle scars (i.e. bite marks)
So I had read that you can try to put a dab of some hot siracha sauce on the biter's tongue to deter the biting. Ainsley just made a face and licked her lips but no crying. When Will gave Carter a little dab of wasabi, Carter screamed and cried tears of pain.
We went to Wings and Rings for dinner and Will got himself a buffalo chicken sandwich. Ainsley took a bite and decided that she wanted the whole sandwich! Baby girl likes spicy, no wonder she wasn't afraid of the siracha sauce.
Ainsley is sitting nicely in Will's lap for dinner while Carter sleeps in his stroller. If Ainsley were in a high chair instead, we would be guaranteed to find one of her legs on the table. It's a really funny, weird habit that she has. She also hates her legs covered up under a blanket and will kick her blanket off at bedtime. As you can see here, Ainsley also likes to do things herself and wanted to assemble her own sandwich rather than have Will feed her. She turns her back to me because she knows I'm filming and she doesn't want me to get her tantrum on camera. Hilarious.
We took the kids to visit their new friend, baby Noah. While Noah is only fourth months and a bit young to play, the twins immediately made themselves at home with his toys.
Ainsley is fascinated by baby Noah. I've been pointing to my stomach and telling her about the baby in there so I think she is fascinated with anything baby now.
Let's hope Ainsley doesn't play with babies the way she plays with doggie.
The kids are now 18 months. Ainsley is about 25th percentile at around 20 lbs and Carter is still 0 percentile at around 18.5 lbs. We took them to pick out crocs and let them walk around the block for exercise. Today, they were both obsessed by some cattail-like weeds from a yard and so Will gave each of them one to walk with. Ainsley held onto hers but lost interest while Carter kept smacking his on the ground like a whip and laughing as he walked. It was 86 degrees this evening so we turned back once halfway around the block. When we got inside, Ainsley melted my heart by removing her crocs at the front door.
The kids love to run up and down the hall to the mud room. I have to remember to close the door or else they will go in and shut themselves in a dark room and play in there. This has rendered time-outs in a dark bathroom useless for my kids though. Doesn't scare them a bit.
A couple of weeks ago, Will had Corporate Challenge tennis and so I brought the twins to watch their dad play at Elysium tennis courts. They were more interested in playing with the rocks lining the court.
The kids got bored after an hour or so passes. Fortunately, Elysium courts had this contained courts outside next to where we were. This contained area was for platform tennis and so I took the kids in there where they can run to their hearts delight. We took the kids down to Cincinnati after the tennis match. What a fun weekend it was for them as they got to play with their buddies Mackenzie and Mackayla. Sorry for the lack of pictures for that-we were too busy catching up with our friends to take any.
About five months ago, I was really starting to pick up my workout to try to lose the rest of my baby weight. I had rediscovered my love for hot yoga and coincidentally, so had my instructor. She had just returned from a retreat in Mexico where yoga was done in 100 degree weather so that was how her class was going to be. Yoga was fast paced and I was sweating buckets! I would force myself to eat salads for lunch but the weight was not dropping. One evening, my friend and I were driving to yoga when we were talking about another friend getting pregnant with her third. We both agreed that two was a good number and when I mentioned to her how I can't seem to lose the baby weight, she said "What if you're pregnant?!" Oh no no, I shook my head and our conversation went back to how much easier two is compared to three.
Another class where pounds of sweat were exerted and I woke up several times to use the bathroom at night. This was a trend that had recently started so I began to wonder. The following morning, I took a pregnancy test just to rule it out. Left it on the floor and went to brush my teeth. Will walks into the room and looks at the test. Then he comes out of there with his face completely ashened.
"Quit messing around, it hasn't been two minutes yet," I said.
He nervously keeps shaking his head and points to the test. It said pregnant. I attributed this to the test being expired and said I'll take the test again later after we buy some new ones.
Carter had rockstar long hair but with his pretty features, he was starting to get mistaken for a little girl. So we decided it was time for him to get his first haircut. My salon has a wonderful special for their customers where a baby's first haircut is free. Combine that with their summer trial of opening one Sunday a month, we thought it would be the perfect opportunity. We scheduled last minute and arrived to find that we were the only customers at that time since it was not a regularly scheduled day for them.
A baby's first haircut there was an event where they had a little studio set up to take the before picture. Carter has never liked photo shoots and perched precariously on the stool in front of the backdrop.
Isn't this the face of happiness?
Carter cried when we sat him down in the salon chair so the stylist suggested that Will wear a cape and have Carter sit on his lap. Genius! They've done this before. This allies Carter's fears a little though he still did not like what was going on. With the promotion of their Sunday hours, they had a display of fresh strawberries and a chocolate fondue fountain. The strawberries pacified Carter enough to last him through his haircut.
Ainsley's hair can grow out a bit more before we have to get it cut but she got to have some fun too.Walking around the empty salon and wandering in and out of the nail room. There was a customer there so when Ainsley exercised her favorite past time of shutting the door to the nail room, I had to explain to her that she was too young for a manicure but promised lots of mommy/daughter mani/pedi dates in the future.
Finally, Carter's haircut is complete and the transformation was astounding to us. He looks like such a grown little boy now! What do you think?
