22 Months!

I tried 2 different days to take pictures of the twins for this 22 month post but both were fails.

It's been too cold to be outside, but we did it anyway and went to the park because I thought they would have fun playing and I could just snap away. But Connor hasn't been feeling well lately and he just wasted in the mood. And then yesterday, I thought I could get a picture of them in front of the tree, but they were too busy watching tv and wouldn't take their binks out or even look at me. So I'm just doing the best with what I got.

She kept saying "Come on Momma!" She was ready to slide!

 

So here we go...

Connor and Chloe are 22 months!

 

Connor:

(Sleepy, fussy Connor)

He is still my sweet cuddle bug, but goes from being super silly to throwing a huge toddler tantrum. Loves Mickey Mouse, Nemo, Elmo, and Buzz Lightyear.

Loves trucks and airplanes.

Loves his puzzle.

Loves to swing and slide at the park (even if it doesn't look like it on this day...).

Lately he has been fighting bedtime and I've had to let him cry it out all over again. But it usually only lasts 5-10 minutes and he's out.

Loves books and to be read to.

Still loves his binkie and his blankie.

Loves to help momma in the kitchen and with laundry.

Loves to play Ring Around the Rosie but doesn't "fall down".

I've trimmed his hair 3 times but it's getting out of control and I think it's time for a real hair cut. Just trying to prepare myself for losing his curls :(

Loves looking at pictures and naming the all of the people in them and he's finally figured out the baby pictures of them are "baby Connor and baby Chloe" instead of just "babies!".

 

Chloe:

Sassy, sweet, smart girl that loves her momma.

Loves her hair to be in a pony tail or pig tails lately.

Loves her baby dolls and stuffed animals and will rock them to sleep.

Loves puzzles and books and pretends to read them. Lately she wants to sleep with the book "Goodnight Moon" every night.

Loves going to dance class with momma. If you ask her if she went to dance, she will immediately say "with Momma!"

Loves to climb on everything like a little Monkey.

Loves playing upstairs by herself.

Loves turning the lights on and off.

Loves TV, but only cartoons and if you turn it off cartoons she will say "uh oh" over and over again until you turn it back.

Yesterday when I picked her up from school, her teacher told me that she went around all day yesterday saying "I cute!"

 

These are the pictures I attempted to take the second day.

Do you see the attitude I got?!

This is usually what they do when they get home from school. Veg out in front of the tv like a couple of teenagers. But it helps me to be able to cook dinner so I'm ok with it. You do what you gotta do!

Putting the tree up

We started putting our Christmas decorations up this weekend.  I started with the tree and did a few other things but I'm far from finished.  I hope to do a little bit every night this week to be completely finished by this weekend.

I wanted Connor and Chloe to help me with the tree this year.  I know they are still too little to really understand what's going on, but I had gotten them a Christmas book that has Santa in it and we talked alot about Santa before we went to see him.  The book also has a Christmas tree in it and reindeer and elves. 

 

When I started putting the tree up, both kids were upstairs playing in the play room.  But when I got the ornaments out, I called for them to come downstairs to see what I had.  Connor came (like a good little boy listening to his momma!), but I got a "No!" from Chloe upstairs. 

So it was just Connor helping me for a while. He watched what I was doing and then he started grabbing ornaments and placing them on the tree.

Yes, they were all going in one spot. But I just went with it. I figured I would let him do this and I would fix it when they went down for their nap.

Then Chloe came down to see what we were up to. She saw the tree, ran over to the book and turned the page to the Christmas tree. She knew what it was! She keeps calling it "Momma's Tree".

Of course she just added to Connor's pile of ornaments in the one spot on the tree.

Santa Visit 2013

This is our second year to visit Santa. I always like to go before Thanksgiving because 1)there are no lines 2)I can get a photo gift ornament ready for everyone before we visit family at Thanksgiving and 3)there is just no time in December!

I love the Santa at our mall. He has a real beard and just looks so nice and jolly! This year he said "Bye Connor. Bye Chloe. I love you."

 

Here is our Santa picture from last year.

And here is our Santa picture from this year.

Connor and Chloe are in a phase where they cling to Momma, especially when there are strangers around. So I fully expected them to be screaming with arms out reaching for me in our picture this year. But that didn't happen.

I got really nervous when it was time to set them down on his lap. I was all prepared to set them down and run. I was prepping David to do it as fast as he could and to not let Connor see Santa before getting on his lap. But we set them down and they looked around and looked at us and looked at Santa.

 And since there was no line, we got to sit there and make silly faces and yell in really high pitched voices for as long as we wanted while the photographer snapped away trying to get one with them both looking. It's pretty impossible. But we got close.

Connor came home with a fever the day before and we had spent over 2 hours in Urgent Care that night so I think he still looks a little sick. But I'm happy with it.

 

Here is another outtake I got.

Chloe was checking out what had a hold of her.

 

And my mom caught this moment of Chloe giving Santa the stink eye.

 

After our visit with Santa, we rode the Carousel, visited the Disney store where the kids were ready to jump out of their seats they were so excited, and rode a few other little rides.

Family Pictures 2013

I've already talked about our experience with family pictures this year. Chloe hated every second of it and wouldn't let go of me and Connor acted like he was having his head shots made for his Gap audition.

We ended up getting way more than I expected, which always happens. CC Miller is a miracle worker!

Here are a few of my favorites.

Her smile is so funny in this one! I know that's why CC included it!

This is where she started getting her attitude.

I was trying to do everything I could to get her to smile and have fun. I think we were singing the itsy bitsy spider here.

This one just makes me laugh. I'm not sure what I'm looking at and Chloe has her tongue out!

And this is where it turned really ugly. I told Chloe that if she sat down next to Connor that I would give her a sucker. Well, she went and sat down and cried for her sucker!

Playing in the leaves

We don't have very many trees, but our neighbors do so we get a lot of their leaves in our yard. I've never really paid much attention to it until this year.

 So the other day, when the kids and I got home, I ran over to the leaves and told the kids to run through them.

They were so excited. They would say "Ready...GO!" but then do nothing until I said "Ready...Go!" and then they would take off through the leaves. Then we would just do it over and over again.

Parent-Teacher Conference

This morning, I had a Parent-Teacher Conference over the phone with Connor and Chloe's teacher. I was so excited to hear what an outside person had to say about my precious babies!

 

She said:

They are right on track.

Connor is talking more and more every day and Chloe has been talking for a while now.

  Every day when Chloe wakes up from her nap she sits straight up and yells "Good Morning!" The teacher said she thinks she does this because of an exercise the class did together where they pretended to go night night and then wake up in the morning and say Good Morning.

They love to learn and love story time and art time.

Chloe loves to count. The teacher will count each child as they come in from outside and Chloe stands right next to her and counts along with her.

 

I asked her if they share well with the other kids because they don't share very well at home. She said that they don't take toys away from other but but they get really upset when others take their toys and that she is trying to work with Chloe on using her words when this happens because Chloe gets REALLY upset and screams. She also said that Chloe hoards toys, like she grabs a bunch of toys at once to play with.

 

I also asked her if they interact with each other or do they ignore each other and she said that they love on each other all the time. They give each other hugs and hold hands all the time! I can't believe it! I knew they actually liked each other! They just don't play with each other at home because they've been loving on each other all day and they are over it! HA! Who knows. But this made me happy to hear.

She also said that they nap close to each other and when one wakes up they will go over to the other one and wake them up by patting them on the back.

Trick-or-Treating

Yesterday, the kids were allowed to wear their costumes to school. But, I felt like Connor's Mickey costume was a little too bulky to wear all day and I didn't want them to get dirty before we went trick-or-treating. So instead, they wore matching "Thing 1" and "Thing 2" shirts.

They had kind of a rough morning so they wouldn't let me take their pictures.

This is all I could get...

She was actually really excited about her outfit because she got to wear a tutu and a bow to school. And David said that once they got to school and saw everyone else dressed up, they were in better moods.

 

Last night, we went to David's grandparents house to trick-or-treat. Their town closes down main street and you just go door to door to all of the businesses.

Once again, we brought along the wagon because I just knew we would be carrying them most of the way.

Connor was content on just riding in the wagon and trying to open all of his candy.

Chloe enjoyed walking around (and having me carry her), so she could trick-or-treat. After the first few stops, she had the hang of it and would go up and hold her bucket out.

 

OK, so pay no attention to this person handing out candy. I have no idea who they are supposed to be, but I'm pretty sure it might be offensive? Not sure. Anyway, I didn't actually see it until I downloaded this picture to my computer.

 Just focus on the cute little Minnie Mouse.