Pasta Play

Part of their program includes playing with things that have cool textures and are just fun to experiment with. Here they are playing with pasta.

Hummus

Sylvia LOVES hummus. I mean LOVES it! If it's all she could eat at every meal, she would. She ate almost this entire bowl.

Just Plain Ol' Cute

I'm definitely a fan of this toddler phase. They are so cute and fun to play with. And, they are downright silly all the time.

Pumpkin Patch

We visited a low key pumpkin patch with our friend Wyatt (and his Mom, Julia) and had a great time seeing the animals and playing with their toys. Notice Wyatt trying to sneak a kiss from Sylvia.

Picnic

The girls enjoyed a picnic last week when the cleaners came. It has been incredibly nice here and we've spent our entire weekend in the yard.

Pudding Paint

We cracked out the pudding for a little pudding painting (since they still are inclined to eat everything we stick with pudding, not paint).

Max The Fish

The girls got a new fish, his name is Maximus Aurelius (since Betas are fighting fish). We are calling him Max. They girls love to make fish faces now.

Sand Box

Grandpa Benson made the girls a 10ftx8ft sandbox. It has already provided an outlet for lots of fun and sandy mess. Thank you Grandpa!

New Car

The girls got a new car! They love it, even though they don't really know how to work it.

Toddler Activities

The girls like to do things over and over. This weekend they put the sugar packets in the box about 100 times.

Big Boy Shoes

Grandpa came to visit for nearly a week and did sooo much for us! He put in a workbench, shelving and pegboard in the garage, shelves in the basement, fixed everything that needed fixing, made a sandbox for the girls, programmed our garage openers. You name it, he did it! Sylvia loved trying on his big shoes.

Do 17 Month Olds Need An iPad?

The girls are super spoiled! We don't let them run around like brats, but there are a lot of people who love them very much and give them gifts. For example, Grandpa brought the girls a 64 gig iPad. Yes, a totally insane gift for 17 month olds. We have downloaded some incredible apps and will continue to do so. It's a great supplemental learning tool and what a splurge. Thank you Grandpa, you're too good to us!

Reston Zoo

When Grandpa was here, we visited the Reston Zoo. They have a large petting zoo--girls were a little unsure about all that!

HATS!

I've mentioned this before, but they LOVE to wear hats. These are just too cute!

2 Little Monkeys Sitting on a Wall

They just love to sit on the ledge in front of the fireplace.

Playing Together

Evelyn and Sylvia are super cute when they play together. They loved looking at eachother through the glass door. Silly!

Preparing for Winter

The girls have new snow suits! Their friend Wyatt came over and tried his on too.

New Friend

The girls got a new friend, Kermit. And, he talks. They love him. He says he's a carribean amphibian!

Cutie! Red Head?

Sylvia has great hair. It's got the right amount of curl, just in the back. And, it is sort of turning red.

Tavern Toddlers

The girls go to a program called Tavern Toddlers at Gadsby's Tavern in Old Town. It's a old building (circa 1700) which hosted notables of the time, including all the signers of the Declaration of Independence. It now hosts a museum and restaurant. The program is for walkers through 36 months and includes crafts, playtime and overall good times! They love it. Below is the craft they made this week (Firehouse dogs).

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Fun with Spices

The girls have discovered the lazy susan and it's contents. Since there's nothing toxic in there, I let them play and taste. Sylvia grabbed a box of black pepper and quickly realized she didn't want to eat it. Evelyn, on the other hand, loves garlic salt!

Trouble with Toilet Paper

I'm not kidding you, every roll of toilet paper in the powder room is pulled off the roll. They wander away for a minute and then come back to me with a whole roll trailing behind them. It's cute and they love it, but now I shut the powder room door.

Half Marathon For Evelyn and Sylvia

Mommy ran a half marathon (13.1 miles) for the girls. It was a good race and the girls were there with Daddy rooting her on at miles 5, 8 and at the finish! She paced 10 minute miles, which is good!

Olives

Sylvia LOVES to eat olives. Evelyn loves them on her fingers and enjoys chewing them and spitting them out. They are definitely our children because both of our families LOVE olives.

Silly

These girls are just silly!

Bath Time -- Not So Fun Today

Bath time was great until the end. Daddy was away so it's always a little tricky making sure one stays in the tub while the other one is dried off and dressed. Sylvia has having such a good time in the tub so I decided to take Evelyn first. We sang songs, acted silly and then it was Sylvia's time to get out of the tub.
After she was all dry, I went to drain the water. I noted something strange in the tub. I went to grab it, but quickly realized I didn't want to touch it. Little Miss S went poopie in the tub!
I'm sure this happens to everyone's kids, but I totally wasn't expecting it. I thought it was sooo gross, but kind of funny at the same time. I quickly wondered how long it was there, did they need another bath, did they drink some of the water, will they be sick? Yes, I'm neurotic about a lot of things. This may have been a valid reason.

Wonderful New Habit

Most kids suck their thumbs...I did it, my brother's did it (well, Gage used to suck his left middle and ring finger, but he's a weird-o!). My little one, Evelyn, sucks on her arm! This is a new habit that developed when we moved to the new house. When she was getting molars and we didn't know it! So, she self soothed by sucking on her arm. Giving herself lovely hickeys and a few times little blisters!

For 2 weeks now, we have wrap her arms at naps and bedtime with gauze to prevent it. Once day, she found the top of her arm (by her shoulder) and sucked that! Crazy baby.

So, per the doctor's instruction, I got some natural nail biting/thumb sucking cream. It tastes horrible (had to test it!). I got it off Amazon and was anxious for it to arrive. I put it on the top of her hand (we now dress her in long sleeves at night so she really can only suck on her hand). Even before bedtime, she licked it and came over to me with the most disgusted face -- drooling, spitting, etc. I felt terrible, but sorry baby girl, it's for your own good!

Let's hope it works. Doc says if it doesn't try any number of gross things -- soap, hot sauce (well, I love hot sauce, but a baby might not!). Any other gross ideas?

Poor Little Evelyn Hospitalized (She's Fine!)

This weekend was not very fun. We had plans to catch up with friends we hadn't seen for a while on both Saturday and Sunday, but that didn't happen. After going to the arts festival in Old Town on Saturday, we discovered Evelyn's arm and hand were a little puffy. We thought maybe she was bitten by a bug, so we gave her motrin and put her down for her nap. She wasn't bothered by it and slept over 2 hours. When she woke, it was worse. We took her to the ER and they diagnosed her with cellulitis (a bacterial infection caused most often by a scratch getting infected with staph or a bug bite) and transferred us to another hospital, which specialized in pediatrics. Evelyn and Mommy arrived at 6pm and after she ripped out her IV, they tried 7 times to put in another only to "blow" 2 veins in the process. Finally they just gave her 2 shots of antibiotics and decided to admit her overnight for observation.

We finally got a room in the pediatrics ward at 11:30pm! Can you say this little girl was TIRED?! She finally went down at midnight and slept only 6.5 hours. The doc came in the AM and gave her 2 more shots and then discharged us. Daddy took her to the doctor this AM as another follow-up and now she's on a 5 day series of more antibiotics. Unless it worsens, we don't have to go back. Phew!

After googling, we realized that if the bacteria was a certain type it is flesh eating! I think they wanted to make sure she was being treated properly and it was a minor infection (as the blood results said) and nothing very serious.

This was really just a fluke it happened to her. We will never know what caused it, but apparently tons of nasty bacteria exist on our skin and it's just sometimes the bad stuff finds it's way into a scrape, bite, etc.

Thankfully, she's on the mend. And, besides a little sleep deprivation, she was totally fine and in good spirits. It was a long 18 hours though, but Mommy was happy to spend lots of quality time alone with Little Evelyn. We don't get much alone time with the girls and let me just tell you...having one kid would be sooooo easy for us!

Sylvia made Evelyn an adorable little welcome home sign that said "I Love you Evelyn," which we all loved and thought was soooo thoughtful. I hope to post a picture of it.

Flour Play

Evelyn and Sylvia are playing with flour this morning. Evelyn is a major priss about getting her hands dirty, so she isn't really very into it, but Sylvia is!

Cute Videos

The girls are just so big -- totally into coloring, magadoodles, playdough, trying to put on shoes, feeding each other and just being incredibly cute.

Evelyn's New Expression

"Mommy, I know I'm doing something bad and this is how you look at me."

Play

Just some cute play time pictures. They met a fireman when Sylvia hit her head hard at a playground. They gave them these adorable hats, which they love. Well, they love all hats!

Discovering New Places

The girls love to discover their new house. They have found all sorts of cool things in drawers and places to read.

More Teeth

Well, the big ones came -- both got their upper 1 year molars at the same time! And, during the move! We thought they were screaming because of their new environment, but they were really screaming because of their teeth!

They both now have 8 teeth! And, they are working on their lower 1 year molars. It was a rough 10 days!

Yard

Here's tiny Evelyn running around the yard.

Bad Influence Already

Sylvia can be a bad influence on Evelyn and vice versa. Here are two good examples. First, Sylvia, then Evelyn.

Moving Videos

We have been BUSY! We've moved to a new house on August 25th! Here's the link if you want to see it. We love it. Our townhouse is rented and we are pretty much moved in. It has a HUGE yard and tons of space for the girls to roam. We love it!

Here are some videos of our move. Pictures to come.