It's Potty Time! The Road to No More Diapers...

We introduced the girls to potty chairs today. They quickly learned the word “potty” and became very interested in getting on and off their potty chairs. They thought they were pretty cool to have their own toddler-sized chairs. Since they were interested, we stripped off their diapers and let them walk around without anything on the bottom. Olivia ended up going on the floor, but Violet actually went pee in the potty twice (by coincidence, since she was sitting on it) which made us pretty excited. Of course we had to do the “Hooray Violet” dance to make a big deal of it, and we let her help us dump her pee in the big toilet and flush it down. Hopefully the end of changing diapers is in sight!! :)

Otherwise, we had a pretty relaxing weekend at home. We spent a lot of time outside since the weather was so nice. The girls have developed a huge love of swinging. Sometimes we push them on the swings for an hour at a time, and they still get mad when we take them out. Olivia especially is not afraid to show her feelings. Yesterday, she lay on the ground kicking and screaming at the top of her lungs when I took her out of the swing after pushing her for an hour. Our neighbors even commented later in the day….“was that one of your girls screaming earlier?” Welcome to the word of tantrums!!

My friend Heather came over today and we did some scrapbooking. It was actually quite productive!! We worked for about five hours, and I actually was able to get quite a bit done. I don’t think I’ll ever be caught up, but at least I made some progress.

Earlier tonight, I was working on transferring some home videos of the girls. Jamie & I sat and watched some of the old home movies, and we just cracked up at how much the girls have changed from even just 6 months ago. It’s kind of sad that we barely remember those days. I don’t know if it’s because of sleep deprivation or our minds blocking it out, but time truly has just flown by. It’s just amazing how much they have changed and how much we’ve forgotten. Thank goodness we have our videos and pictures to remind us. Jamie expressed some concern that maybe they've missed out on the "normal oldest child bonding experience" with us since there are two of them, but hopefully they haven't been shorted or deprived with our affections. Life with twins has surely had its moments both good and bad, and there were times when we didn’t think we would survive, but watching the videos reminded us how lucky we are to be able to have such special experiences with our two little girls.

Olivia on her potty:

Violet on her potty:
The girls were looking at ducks in our yard out the window, and when the ducks walked away Daddy asked "Where did the ducks go?" This was their answer...shrugging an "I don't know."

Our Nephew & the State of Cheese

Jamie & I went to Madison, WI, over the holiday weekend to visit my sister Terri and her husband Aaron who just had a baby boy on May 9. We knew we entered Wisconsin when every gas station we saw advertised huge displays of beer and the best cheese in the state. We had a wonderful visit! We were so happy to meet our nephew William, he is quite a cutie. He doesn't quite have control of his arms yet, so we were cracking up at how he was waving them all over the place. He was very good during our stay, we hardly heard a peep out of him unless he was hungry or had a dirty diaper. We mostly hung out at their place, but we did venture out a bit to some local stores and to the mall. This was my sister's first outing with William, and he did pretty well although we joked that he already is a typical man who doesn't like shopping because he fussed a bit at first. Terri & Aaron live on the very edge of Madison, where it felt like being in the country. We took their dog Brinkley for a walk and it was very relaxing to take in the nice weather and scenery. They are moving back to the cities at the end of June, so as much as we like visiting them in Madison we look forward to having them back in our area very soon!

The girls stayed at our home with Jamie's mom, sister, and brother who came down to watch them. I guess they had a blast! We are very appreciative of all the work Jamie's family went through. When we got home yesterday our carpets were shampooed, our laundry was done, our floors were scrubbed, and the whole house was clean. It was wonderful. Apparently the girls developed a love of dusting and helped out with cleaning the house. The bad news was that the girls had been battling fevers all weekend, so we decided to try to take them to urgent care to be checked out. My mom rode back with us from Madison (she had taken the bus there the week before), so she and I took the girls to two urgent cares in the area and both were closed despite the fact that their automated phone messages said they were open. Violet looked terrible in the car and ended up vomiting everywhere. She perked up a bit once we got home and gave her a bath. We all made it through the night in one piece, and were up early this morning to try to get to urgent care right when they opened at 7 am. My mom went with me and the girls to the doctor. They actually did extremely well with the doctor, it was the best they have ever done. Usually they cry as soon as the doctor comes in the room, but today they did great. Olivia did not cry at all when the doctor looked in her ears and listened to her lungs, and Violet cried very little. We found out they both have double ear infection so they were put on an oral antibiotic. They had ear infections two weeks ago, and the doctor thinks it never completely cleared up. Thankfully my mom stayed to help us out and watched the girls today since they couldn't go to daycare. We are so thankful that she was able to help us, it really bailed us out since both Jamie & I have had to use up a lot of vacation to stay home with sick children. We are very lucky to have such generous families!

Here are some recent pictures.

Violet:

Olivia:William Stephen Browne (he has his Daddy's sideburns!):
Me & Jamie with our nephew William:

A Morning In The Life Of....

Here is a glimpse into a typical morning for me.

I wake up when the girls do which is usually between 6:00 and 6:30. They normally don’t cry when they wake up anymore; now they like to talk. The other day, I woke up to Olivia yelling “sister” across the room at Violet. After they wake up, they go into their chairs for breakfast. Sometimes they will take up to 45 minutes to eat. They usually have fruit, cereal, toast and milk. Violet usually drinks about three glasses of milk, and she signs “more” in between each glass. Half of their cereal usually ends up on the floor. They usually smear jelly all over their faces and hair.

I get ready for work while they eat breakfast. Jamie leaves the house at 7:00 in order to catch his bus to work, so I try to be ready before he leaves otherwise it’s tough to do anything. Even if the girls are done eating breakfast, sometimes they will be content to sit in their chairs and talk to each other until I am ready for work. If they want to get out of their chairs before I am ready, then I know it’s going to be a tough morning because I can’t get anything done while they are on the loose.

Once I’m ready, it’s time for me to get the girls dressed. They usually let me strip them down to their diaper, but then they want to run around and don’t want to put clothes on. They are easily distracted, especially if the neighbor’s dogs are out in their yard. They stand at the window saying “puppy” and they start panting like a dog. Once I finally chase them down and get them dressed, I attempt to fix their hair. They do not like this either. Olivia says “owie, owie, owie” while I comb her hair and they both shake their heads back and forth as I try to put in ponytails. But now – for the good part! They love to put on their shoes because then they know it’s almost time to go. Violet says “shoes on,” so that’s what we do. They usually pull their shoes back off and say “uh-oh” so I have to put them back on again. Then I gather up their lunches, my briefcase and my purse so we can head out the door. Lately both girls have to bring a treasure with them. For Olivia, it’s been her blanket. For Violet, it’s been a baby or teddy bear. They drag these things with them as we head out the door.

I help them step out onto the front porch, and they are in heaven being outside. It is hard for me to get them to move. They stand on the porch and point and anything and everything and say what it is. Today, there was a ball in our neighbor’s yard across the street, so they stood on our porch pointing and saying “ball” for about five minutes. I usually tell them to say “bye-bye” to the ball (or whatever it is) and then they wave and say “bye-bye ball” for another five minutes before we can finally make our way to the car.

On our way to daycare, we practice saying names of family members. Once we arrive at daycare, we go through the same outdoor routine. Once I get them out of the car, they like to stand on the sidewalk and again point to everything. Usually there is an airplane flying overhead or another car in the parking lot that they have to point to and say the name of. Once I convince them to walk in the front door at daycare, they have to stop at this huge picture of Noah’s Ark and point to each animal and say “that” (meaning what’s that?). So we have to go through animal names while I put in our security code for the inside door. Once the secure door opens, I usually have to stand there holding it for five minutes before I can drag them away from the Noah’s Ark picture. Luckily, the door to their daycare room is the first one in the hall so I can usually get them to go straight there. The exception to this is if they see their favorite teacher in the hallway, then they have to run and give her a hug. Once I get them into their room and drop off their lunches, they stand at the door and wave bye-bye to me.

Phew! Then I breath a sigh of relief that we made it out the door, again, in one piece.

But I wouldn’t have it any other way.

On The Road Again...

We were happy to pick up our German friend Esther from the airport last Thursday afternoon. She flew to Minnesota to celebrate Jamie's parent's 40th wedding anniversary with us. She stayed at our house on Thursday night, and she was able to experience the full wrath of our girls. Olivia decided to throw a huge fit at suppertime...we had no idea what got into her. The only thing she wanted to eat was ketchup, which has never happened before. I think it was good birth control for Esther. :) We did get to spend some time outside together though, which was fun. We all drove up north together on Friday morning (Jamie & I had the day off from work). On our way up, we stopped at Jamie's sister Janell's house to meet our newborn niece Claire. She is quite an adorable little girl. Olivia & Violet both loved her; they kept pointing to her and saying "baby" over and over. The girls slept for only 20 minutes on the drive up, so we tried to lay them down for naps at Janell's house. They slept for only about another 15 minutes, so we tried to forge ahead basically without naps.

From there, we went to Jamie's sister Jill's house to see her and her kids. It was fun to visit with them for awhile. Jamie & Esther stayed at her house while the girls and I headed to my parent's farm for the evening. We arrived at my parent's around 5:30 pm, and we had left the cities at about 9:30 am, so the girls were very sick of being transported in and out of the vehicle. So they were happy to run around outside for awhile! Their cousin Emma took them for a spin in the motorized Escalade, and then we all had supper together. The girls ended up staying awake until almost 9:00, which was pretty good considering they basically didn't have a nap.

On Saturday, we had a big 40th wedding anniversary party for Jamie's mom and dad in Millerville. It was a lot of fun! We served almost 300 people, so there was a great turnout. We had an open house from 1:00 to 5:00, and around 2:00 we had a little surprise for Jamie's mom. A priest came and renewed their vows and provided a marital blessing. Paul & Gayle stood up front on a stage with the best man and maid of honor, which was very special. We all got a little teary-eyed! My mom and dad brought the girls to the party after their nap, so they arrived around 3:00. Thank you to my mom and sister Rhonda for getting them ready...they looked very cute! They were quite overwhelmed with the hall full of people, so they wanted to spend most of their time outside. We tried to take a few pictures, but they had no patience for it. At least we got a few where they weren't crying!! It was a fun party, I think everyone had a good time. Around 6:00, I headed to the Suchy farm with the girls to feed them supper and get them ready for bed while everyone else stayed to clean up the hall. It was a late night for the cleanup crew - I appreciate all the hard work they went through!!

On Sunday morning, the girls helped Grandpa Suchy feed the chickens on the Suchy farm. They totally loved it! They had handfuls of corn that they would throw onto the ground for the chickens. Olivia got into it the most, she was trying to chase down chickens to get them to eat the corn out of her hand. She finally gave up and threw the corn on the ground with force.

We left the Suchy farm around 10:00 am, and headed to my sister Nikki's house. We really made the rounds! The girls played outside with their cousins Maya, Alex & Evan, and Nikki & Brian made us a very delicious dinner. We had a very nice visit. The next time we see them, they will probably have a new baby in the family! My sister Nikki is due with her fourth child on June 3rd. We left their house around 1:30 and got home around 3:30. The girls conked out for the whole drive home, I think they were pooped. I don't blame them!! They were all rested up for Grandma Thronson, who arrived at our house shortly after we did. She stayed overnight at our house and headed out the following morning to visit my sister in Madison, WI, who just had a baby boy. The girls had fun with Granny, they went to the park and played in the sandbox. They were in bed early though because they were extremely tired!

Our niece, Claire Elizabeth Kraemer, born May 8th:

Olivia, Jamie & Claire:

My hubby & me:

Me, Jill, Gayle, Janell & Esther:

The Suchy family:

Grandpa & Grandma Suchy with their five grandchildren:
Violet & Olivia:

Jamie & Olivia, me & Violet:

Olivia feeding the chickens:

Violet, Chelsey & Joey feeding the chickens:

Maya & Olivia going down the slide:

Alex & Violet riding in a Jeep:

More Babies To Love!

First of all, we just have to say how proud we are to welcome two new babies into our family. Jamie's sister Janell & her husband Luke had a girl, Claire Elizabeth, on Friday morning and my sister Terri & her husband Aaron had a boy, William Stephen, on Saturday night. We are extremely happy and proud to be an aunt and uncle again! We are already trying to teach the girls how to be kind and gentle to a baby....but their curiosity usually gets the best of them, so we'll see how it goes in real life.

Otherwise, we had a nice weekend. We took the girls to get their first haircuts on Saturday. They did pretty well. Olivia cried a little bit at the beginning, but she got over it pretty quickly. They just got a trim, I figured it was time since their bangs were hanging in their eyes. We also spent a lot of time outside. Both girls have learned how to go down our slide on their own, so they have worn out a path in the grass from the end of the slide around to the ladder to climb up the slide again. We help them climb up the ladder, but they go down all on their own. They could be outside for hours between going down the slide and riding in the swing.

They have also started being able to pick out things and say the name of it on their own, both in books and if they see it live, without us saying anything. Mainly...banana, duck, puppy, ball and tractor. They also love to say hello, bye-bye, Granny ("Nanny"), Grandpa ("Ba-Pa"), and each other's names ("Dee-yah" for Olivia and "Dad-it" for Violet). They will repeat pretty much anything we say now, so we have to start being careful what words come out of our mouth. They also know what a donkey says (they say "haw-hee") and what a crocodile does (they clap their arms up and down like jaws). We are so lucky to have two very fun girls! We are quite proud of them, even if they do have spunky attitudes sometimes! :)

Olivia & Violet brushing their teeth:

Violet getting her first haircut:

Olivia getting her first haircut:

Our Weekend

We had a very nice and enjoyable weekend. Jamie & I went out on Saturday night to celebrate our 7-year wedding anniversary. We hired a babysitter that the girls hadn't met before, so we were a little unsure of how they would react. The babysitter is somebody that Jamie knows from work, and the girls took to her right away. Within five minutes of her arrival, they were sitting on her lap and reading a book. We were very relieved that they liked her right away. We went out for a nice dinner at Red Stag Supper Club, and then we walked up to The Bulldog for a few drinks. We were home by 10:30, but it was nice to have an evening out together. We aren't able to go out on a date very often, so sometimes I forget how much fun it can be hanging out with my hubby!

We paid for it the next day though, because Violet was up at 5 a.m. Maybe that was our punishment for being gone night before! Sunday was a beautiful day, so we spent most of our time outside. In the morning, we took the girls to the park by our house. They were like little monkeys climbing on all of the equipment. They loved the slides, and the swings were quite popular too. We also went for a walk, Violet was so tired she started nodding off in the stroller so we decided it was time to go home. The girls had their afternoon snack outside on their little picnic table, which was fun. Then we took them for a treat and got custard from Culver's. The girls get sweets very seldom, so they loved getting a few bites of our custard. They would take a bite and then do the sign for "more" right away.

Today was our actual 7-year anniversary. It turned out to be quite an interesting day. Olivia was sent home from daycare in the afternoon because she was sick, I took her to the doctor and found out she has an ear infection that is probably causing pink eye. So she had to stay home from swimming lessons tonight with Daddy. Violet & I went though, and she had a blast. She did not cry at all this time, which was awesome. She was leaping off the edge of the pool into my arms, splashing around like crazy, and letting me help her learn some floating techniques. She absolutely had a blast. It was so much fun.

Here are a few pictures from the weekend.

Violet & Olivia having an afternoon snack:

Olivia:

Violet:

Violet: