Pictures

Just a quick note that we (finally) made it around to posting some pictures :-)

They are in the gallery at the end of the 20-21 months folder and the new group of 22-23 months. How they are already this old is beyond me.

Exciting Times

Aside from the normal exciting life of parenting twins, lately there's been a lot of additional excitement around our house. Someone had their toy taken by Sister, someone needs to read THIS book (not THAT one), someone needs to be held NOW, someone bumped their head (which happens a LOT), someone broke the window...

Yes, that's right; someone -broke- the window. Well, I guess technically it wasn't someone so much as a chair that broke the window. But of course, the chair wouldn't have broken the window had Lila not tipped it over. :-) Luckily, it was a double paned window, and only the inside pane broke, so we aren't exposed to the environment, but we still need to get it fixed.

Aside from that excitement, Zella has recently become more aggressive - she's throwing, hitting, and wrestling a lot more than her sister. She'll run up behind Lila and wrestle her to the ground laughing the whole time. Sometimes Lila will enjoy the rough-housing, but more often than not, she will get upset (or hurt) from it. It could be because she's not been sleeping like she should lately - she refuses naps (unless we trick them with "Let's go for a ride in the car"), and she's been waking up about half way through the night, and won't go back to sleep unless you stay in the room with her for several hours. Daddy's been sleeping a lot at night on the floor in their room (his back isn't agreeing with it). Mommy's already got back issues that she's seeing the Dr. about.

The girls are becoming a lot more demanding for what they want - even if you don't understand what they are asking for (What? You don't know "DiSa" means Dinosaur? How stupid are you!?!) Whenever you don't know what they want, they tend to throw a tantrum. Lila LOVES collapsing for her tantrums, especially if you are trying to walk her somewhere, or pick her up. She goes completely limp and she slips right out of your hands. Zella just screams her head off at the top of her lungs with a "I'm in excruciating pain" cry. She knows that this cry eats at our very soul, so I'm sure that's why she uses it.

Well, time for bed, so we can get at least a little sleep before someone wakes up crying - but then we tell the cat to go back to sleep until one of the girls wakes up. BTW - if anyone who doesn't have kids, and wants a cat who -loves- attention, let us know :-)

Hi!

The new "Word of the Day" (everyday) around the Shaw household seems to now be "Hi!"

Both Zella and Lila are now constantly saying "Hi," and waiting for a response. If you don't respond within about .05 milliseconds, they say "Hi" again, and again, and again, until they get you to respond :-)

Both of the girl's are coming out with a definite Texas Twang. Zella is a little more obvious with the wonderful way she says "Dawg!" ("Dog" with a Twang, for those of you who don't speak Texan...) Not sure where they get it from, since Mommy and Daddy obviously couldn't have Texas accents (although they aren't as strong as Zella's).

We went to Daddy's yearly family reunion last weekend at Lake Murray in Oklahoma. The girls had a good time seeing all their extended family, after they warmed up to them. It was a pretty wet weekend, so we couldn't let the girls run around like they wanted, but they still managed to find plenty of mud :-)

It's always fun to put toddlers back in their beds in the middle of the night - especially when it's pitch black. You can't see who it is, where their bed is, or which bed already has a toddler in it. The best way I have to guess is weight - Zella is still a little bit heavier than Lila (by 1-2 lbs). I usually guess right, but before I lay her down, I always reach down to double check that no one is in the bed first - I don't want to wake up her sister by putting them in the same bed :-)

The girls have been doing very well in their toddler beds, but they still are taking a long time to get to sleep. So much so that they are often missing naps now. Of course, on days they miss their naps, they typically pass right out when it is bed time, but then can take an hour or more on other nights. Once they manage to go to sleep, they don't wake up too much in the middle of the night anymore, unless someone has a nightmare.

Happy Birthday Daddy!!

Today is Daddy's birthday!! Last night Mommy and Daddy had a date night. We had a nice dinner and went to see Blink 182 in concert. There were 3 opening bands including All American Rejects and Fall Out Boy. It was so nice to be kids again for the night.

I just want to take a moment to say thank you to Grandma and Grandpa Shaw for being so active in the kids lives especially Grandma. She is always willing to watch the girls when we need someone and so far she is the only one I can leave them with and not worry. So thank you.

BTW- We posted a lot of pics the other day in the 18/19 month folder and the 20/21 folder, so check them out.

Toddler Beds

So we moved the girls to their toddler beds tonight. On we go, check another milestone off the list.

Don't you wish life was that simple :-)

First off, the girls LOVED their new beds. Maybe it was the fact there were Princesses all over them; maybe it was the new teddy bears on them. Maybe it was because it was something different. Mabye it was because they weren't the same and they could chose their own.

Or maybe it was because they knew they could *GET OUT* !!!

And they did. I counted something like 50 times back to bed per girl. That's 100 pick ups and lay downs. And all in the span of about an 1 hour while Mommy was cleaning the kitchen and picking up thousands upon thousands of toys (or at least it seems that way).

I'm exhausted.

Lila thought it was the coolest game to crawl out of bed (in the almost pitch black room) and try to find Daddy. Then giggle, and go back to bed.

Zella thought up the game of "Let's find Daddy, and try to hit him in the head." Luckily, she can't see very well in the dark.

This worked well, until Zella realized that I was serious about bedtime. Then the tantrum started. The screaming. The wailing. The gnashing of teeth. The walking into walls (it was VERY dark, after all, and you -have- to try to get away from the man trying to put you back in bed). After an eternity or two, she settled down, gave up, and decided that she -was- tired. Lila decided about this time that it was time for her to go to sleep too.

That was about it. Zella just half-woke up a minute ago asking for her -new- bear friend, but when I went back in there, both her and Lila were half on the bed with their legs hanging off. I put their legs back in bed, covered them with their blanket, and gave Zella her bear back, and all is well in the Shaw household.

I guess we'll see how the rest of the night goes.

We got lots of pictures, but because of a wrong setting on an overly complicated camera, we ended up with a lot of blurry pictures. It's always good to have two cameras (plus the video camera rolling) :-)

We need to post more pictures, and hopefully should be able to soon. But until then here's some of their new big-girl beds. In case you didn't notice, the beds aren't the same. One was given to us, and we thought we had enough identical things anyways. The girls didn't fight over them, and enjoyed picking which one was theirs.

18 Month Checkup

Today the girls had their 18 month checkup:

Twin A: Lila Rose Shaw
21 LBS - She is in the 11% on weight
32" Tall - She is in the 58% on height

Twin B: Zella Grace Shaw
23 LBS - She is in the 35% on weight
33" Tall - She is in the 79% on height

They apparently recently had a growth spirt, and they both have pretty much all their teeth now - they have the premolars left.

Zella didn't cry at all when she got her shot today. The nurse said that was the -first time- a baby didn't cry when she gave them a shot. Then Zella started crying in empathy after Lila SCREAMED from her shot. Either empathy, or some sort of telepathic link - with Twins you never know :-).

Happy Half-Birthday!

Happy Half-Birthday to the girls!!

Today is their half-birthday; they are 18 months old (1 and a half years for those of you who can't add) ;-)

We can't believe that they are this old. Here's a picture of what they looked like a year ago - seems like it was so long ago, yet not very long ago, if that makes any sense...

And now here's a current picture of them:

Congrats!

Our good friend Corrie just had her second baby girl on Saturday night - Annabelle Grace arrived at 6:12pm, weighing in at 8lbs 9 ounces.

Congratulations!!

We posted some new pictures in the 16-17 month folder - including our visit to see Annie.

Grandma and Grandpa Shaw got the girls their first cars - a "half birthday" present. We posted pictures of these too. Tomorrow is the girls' half birthday - 18 months old!! Can't believe they are already a year and a half old. We definitely agree with the saying "These are the longest days, but the shortest years."

We got to have a double-date on Saturday night with the Dittlingers to celebrate Father's Day(coincidentally when Corrie was in labor, but obviously we didn't know at the time). We had an awesome time actually eating and having good conversation during dinner (as opposed to chowing down as fast as we can before the girls start throwing their plates across the room).

Pictures

Check out our new pictures - they go all the way back to Easter.

Yes, Easter.

First Family Trip

We know, it has been a long time since we posted but better late than never, right?

Well, let's see what all has been going on.

The girls have gone from walking to running (running away from us, running into each other, running towards Elmo...). They have gone from liking Elmo to having a love-affair with that little red monster. Zella now asks for Elmo by name (usually comes out like "Elmo, Melmo, Melmo!") when asked what she wants to watch. Lila will shake her head vigorously if you ask her if she wants to watch Elmo.

We just took our very first family trip (notice, we didn't use the term "vacation"...) since the girls have been born. We spent about 5 days visiting Ashley's Aunt Trish ("Auntie") and Uncle Ray down in Victoria, but actually spent most the time in their camper down in Port Lavaca by the beach.

We had it all planned out, we would wait until bedtime, then load the girls in the car and make the 6-7 hour drive from 7pm until 1am with them sleeping the whole way. Then they would sleep soundly in the pack-and-play every night, and keep on their bedtime schedule. Then we would come back at bedtime, and make the drive back with them sleeping.

Man, I don't know what dreamworld we were living in when we came up with that plan. We ended up having to leave mid-day due to complications with the car we took (had to stop south of Dallas to get a spare tire - the only place that had one the size we needed in stock). So we had dinner, then we spent most of the drive down consoling sleepy babies who couldn't sleep. I think we had about 1 hour total quiet time.

Then, the girls of course didn't want to sleep in their pack-and-play, so they ended up going to sleep in our arms about 3 hours late every night. On the way back, we ended up playing Elmo and Blue's Clues for the girls most of the way home.

But, the plus side is that the girls LOVED the beach - once they got used to the idea of playing in the sand and surf.

Unfortunately the girls have had quite a few injuries lately and our trip was no exception, nothing major, just many. They must take after their father's clumsiness. The most memorable one on our trip was when Zella fell forward into a bucket on Uncle's boat and broke the bucket and cut her skin on the bridge of her nose. Mainly the girls just run into things and each other or fall down. This past weekend Zella decided to chase after Mommy as she we went to answer the door and fell straight on her face onto the tile. Well she got her first bloody nose. We feel so bad for them but I guess that is just part of being a toddler.

Well, our previous family vehicle is now in the classifieds. We had decided (and decided, and decided) against our own wants and wishes that we had to get a minivan, and couldn't find a way around it because of price and utility. We then tried to buy a minivan - twice! - and the first time the vehicle was sold out from under us after signing all the paperwork, the second time the vehicle was apparently sold before it was posted online (sounds like a bait and switch to me). But, I guess when dealerships and car companies are going out of business/getting forced out of business, morals tend to go out the window.

So then we ran across an affordable Dodge Durango. But it was an 06, and we decided against it because it was a good deal, but not a great deal. Then after we got home, we looked online and discovered that they had mis-labeled it as an 06 - it was actually an 07! I called, and they double checked the Vin, and it was an 07, and they would honor the deal they made - that changed a good deal to a GREAT deal. Sooooooo, we were right! We're not ready for a minivan (yet...).

We are excited that we are still "cool" :-) and we are pretty happy with our purchase.

Let's see, what else...

Tornado season is in full swing in Texas. Always fun to pull two sleeping babies out of their cribs and bring them downstairs to the hall bathroom when the sirens go off. It sounds like Grandma and Grandpa Shaw lost part if not all of their big tree in the back yard while they were over here visiting tonight.

Walking

In case you're not keeping track, the girls are 14 months as of today. The time goes too quick.

The girls are both good walkers now, although they still fall occasionally - case in point, Zella took a face plant into the concrete yesterday, and it left her a little scuffed up on the forehead and nose. Lila is pretty funny when she walks, kind of like a zombie with her arms stretched out forward to keep her balance :-)

Both girls are able to get up without pulling themselves up on anything.

They sometimes like to sit with us (at least for a couple of minutes) and watch their favorite cartoons - Veggie Tales and Elmo.

They are more interested in shape sorting, but then they get frustrated when the triangle won't go through the same hole that the circle just did. If we show them where to put the triangle, then they are able to figure it out.

They are starting to say more words; just kind of a random patchwork of words right now though. They will surprise us sometime with things they say - banana, Lila, 'Ella (I guess the Z is still a little difficult), and "There he is!" to name a few. They can nod both "Yes" and "No" now, but will only say "No" verbally - and seem to like "No" better...

We'll post some new pictures soon - including one of Zella's battle scars from the concrete.

Finally!

YEAH! We got around to putting more pictures online!

Sorry we haven't posted since before Thanksgiving. We don't really have an excuse, except "twins," out of town visitors, holidays, and parties. Not really a good excuse, but we're sticking to it. :-)

So, the first year is now over (don't know how it's over, but nevertheless). It seems like we were just discussing what to name two girls, and now we can't imagine life without a Lila and Zella. The first few months (and all the sleepless nights) seemed to never end. But now the time has flown buy. The girls have teeth, they're walking, and can say a few words (Mama, Dadda, dog, and NO! among others).

They are no longer "on the bottle," as of the beginning of the year. They are big girls now, eating the same things that Mommy and Daddy eat.

Thanks for everyone's support during the girls's first year. And remember, Elmo Loves YOU! :-) For those of you without kids, that's what Elmo says a lot!