Mochas and Babisis

For the past few weeks Anna has been going around saying something that sounds like "mocha mocha" over and over. I don't think they've ever heard that word, but I haven't been able to figure out what she meant - until yesterday. I'm pretty sure it's "man cub" from their love of Jungle Book video clips. Because of course "man cub man cub" makes much more sense than "mocha mocha." Kara says it too.

Not content to use actual words, Kara started calling babies "babisis" and Daddy is now "Dadisi" - a slight improvement from "Dadabushtu" ?? Anna has followed suit.

Dadisi, sort of.

Randoms, with a mention of "babisi" for good measure - the rest is looking at the Bible we had on the chair and Jesus with "ows" (on the cross), their new favorite thing to look at. More about that as we get closer to Easter. :)

Disclaimer: I took these videos when they were (supposed to be) eating, and too late at night...hence the fingers in the mouth and not paying much attention to me. I always forget to try to take pictures or videos until after Andrew's home, at which point the girls are already in crazy evening mode. Oh well.

Love You, Bunnies

In the duck bathtub at Nana and Pop's house. They loved this thing. Kara was mad about Anna climbing in there with her (and her toes touching her), but she got over it.

Two firsts in the past couple days - they finally figured out how to put up 2 fingers to make "bunnies," so we do Little Bunny Foo Foo a lot. They're really excited about their bunnies. Tonight as I was snuggling with them before bed, I told them to say "love you" and they actually both said it (I try to get them to repeat it all the time). Not sure anyone else would know it was love you they were saying, but they told me and Andrew love you before they went to bed tonight. So sweet.

Others: We've been praying every night before bed and letting the girls say who they want to pray for - apart from Anna and Kara, and mama's baby, we've been through a Nana and Pop phase, and Stu and Mandy phase, and now are in a Michael and Grandma phase. Their current joke is that Grandma lives in the freezer - we have some cookies in the freezer and Anna was at the fridge trying to reach up there and get some, saying something that sounded like "grandma," so we now talk about that a lot.

Now that they can communicate better (lots more sentences/sentence fragments) I've been noticing more differences in what they like and want, since they tell me. Today at Panera after swimming Anna wanted a muffin, and Kara wanted a cookie. I don't know why that amazed me, but it did. :)

If You're Happy and You Know It...

Tell mom, apparently. Lately if one has a temper tantrum or is otherwise crying, the other will tell me over and over that they are happy. I guess they don't want to miss out on the attention. At first it was really annoying to try to calm one down and also have to tell the other one, "I'm glad you're happy, but _____ is sad," but it's growing on me, like all of my sweeties' oddities.

I think these pictures are funny - they might regret me posting them one day, though...they were trying to smile. :)

Kara: is my temper tantrum queen lately if she doesn't get her way. This week they haven't been falling asleep when they nurse, so I've been laying down with them to get them to sleep. Kara screams for at least 10 minutes and just keeps trying to sit up (I either hold her down or lay her back down), while Anna just lays there perfectly calm and doesn't try to get up once,even though she's wide awake (and of course tells me she's happy). Kara also originated the "game" (we'll just call it that) of saying "no" and throwing anything in sight when she doesn't get what she wants. That's better than tantrums. On the plus side, she's been doing a lot better with the potty.

Anna: seems better behaved than Kara in part because she is a total mama's girl lately. She won't eat when her dad feeds her, cries and screams if I'm not in the room with her, and if she wakes up in the middle of the night, will only sleep if I'm there. It's kind of maddening at times, since she'll be screaming her head off for Andrew and I'll come and do the exact same thing he did and she'll stop entirely. I do find it a little endearing, of course. She does Kara's "no" thing, and if she does have a tantrum, it's usually a jumping tantrum...she's a good jumper.

Are These My Daughters?

The past couple of days we've been going out on the back deck for a few minutes instead of getting clothes and shoes on and going out front to the yard/down the street, which allows us to be outside and still continue potty training and also avoids tantrums when we don't have long to go out. They had a lot of fun throwing sticks over the side, jumping so that the the grill jingled, etc. Then yesterday they discovered that the best thing to do on the deck is dump dirt on your head. Of course! They both for a few months have been really into moving things around - transferring all of their Little People from one part of the house to another, moving leaves from our yard onto the sidewalk, etc. It's cute how determined they are to complete their task. Yesterday they started by transferring dirt between flowerless pots (at which point I removed their dresses), then Kara remembered that she thinks it's funny to dump things on her head lately. Anna followed suit. I tried to get them to stop, then it was too late, so just grabbed the camera. Not sure we'll be heading out to the deck unless it's right before bath time!

I tried to get them to both look at me at the same time by telling them to hold hands...Anna was uninterested, Kara tried really hard.

They were both so happy...are these MY sweet girls? I don't even like to get my hands dirty...as I have long attested, if you go by things that make kids "boys," I have two. :)

Hmm...

I think we need to start weaning soon...after I swept in the kitchen just now I tried to dustbust the pile of dirt and it sounded like the dustbuster needed to be plugged in. I told the girls it sounded "sleepy." Anna told me, knowingly, that it needed "muhs." Too funny. Yes Anna, we do always get milk before you go to sleep. :)

Move Please

They were not really in the mood to talk to me, as you can tell by fingers in the mouth, but I wanted to at least try to capture them saying "move please," which I hear more often than anything else during the day. Kara has it mastered, but Anna prefers to say some slur of move and a buzzing sound...sometimes it's just "muz" for brevity, which cracks us all up. Anna's new thing has been telling my hair to move...I've been wearing it down and apparently she hates it. When I ask her if I should cut it, she always wholeheartedly agrees. :)

Loves of the Week

1. Eggs. They have a book they really like where a boy gets an egg at the end (Bumpety Bump! thanks Nana and Pop!) and so I thought they'd like to try eggs - we did yolks when they were little, but haven't tried since, mostly because I hadn't thought of it. So, they "helped" me hard boil eggs (i.e. cracked them as they placed them in the pan) and they've eaten an egg a day since. Kara likes them; Anna LOVES them...she'll gobble up the whites and then gets mad if she doesn't get to eat Kara's whites that she can see on her tray. Working on getting them to eat the yolks too...they're still baby enough that they need the fat - currently they feed them to me. Bananas work much the same way between Anna and Kara.

2. Arthur, as in Arthur the aardvaark, the PBS show (not sure that's even still on, I remember it from years ago). We have one Arthur book we got from someone - Arthur's Thanksgiving - and it's never one that Andrew and I wanted to read them (it's about a Thanksgiving play). Lately, though, it's all they'll let me read them. They are amazingly good at saying Arthur and have picked up a few more words by reading it, including turkey, Muffy, Buster, Binky, dentist, paper, peek, and DW. They're getting to where they'll tell me the story, at least in part. And they think the new baby should be named Binky. Awesome.

3. Sunglasses. Nana got them sunglasses and they started wearing them around the house last weekend (the lenses don't pop out of these ones), then earlier this week it was pretty hot out (almost 80), so they wore them outside a lot too. Cuties.

Kara styled these herself. :)

4. Swimming. This one isn't new like the others - but just HOW much they love it was news to us. We finally took them to a Y parent-kid swimming class this morning. I haven't seen them that happy for a long time, it was pretty ridiculous. No pictures, as we were both in the water, of course. Kara had a huge temper tantrum when it was time to get out. Definitely need to get to the pool this summer, which we neglected to do last summer, even though it's walking distance. Aunt Sarah, are you going to come help?

Little Mister in 3-D

Here's our little sweetie on March 9th (24.5 weeks). Thanks Nana and Pop! I can't decide who he looks like - my guess is more like Anna, since Kara's nose looked a lot different from hers when she was born, but it's hard to tell. Some K and A newborn pics at the bottom - any thoughts?

I was assured his nose only looks this upturned because of his movements during the US (it makes a composite of all of the still shots to create the 3-D image).

Here are Kara and Anna just born.

They were so little (well, not for twins, but in general, at 6 lbs 11 oz and 5 lbs 15 oz), and I can't imagine this one will be that small - it will be interesting to have a bigger baby (and of course, only 1!)

Christmas at the Shenks' (from December...I'm slow)

We started off with little stockings on our doors - Andrew put them on the girls' feet after they got their reindeers out, and Anna wondered why she had only one on.

Anna with an Uncle Matt-placed bow, Kara holding Uncle Peter's bike handles on Aunt Sarah's head.

Anna opened with me and Kara with Andrew. Exciting stocking presents included a ton of Little People and new big girl silverware. They both modeled new fur-lined Crocs over their footed PJs.

Their big "Santa" present (we're not going to do Santa, but my parents do) was these twin babies (now dubbed "bow babies" since they have bows on them) and accessories - a double swing that converts to double high chair, stroller, and baby bed. They had a lot of fun pushing the swing together. Anna wanted to push the stroller with Kara, but as you can see Kara was a little upset about that idea.

Other fun gifts: toothbrushes, book from Aunt Sarah, lots of puzzles (this one is how they started saying "octopus" and their version of "whale" is entertaining too, since it and most W words sound like "wow"), and their favorite, "Melmo." He runs through batteries pretty quickly, so they like to tell me that he needs batteries in his foot, and for some reason they think Michael is going to do it and they say "Michael Michael" when we talk about needing to change the batteries...

My cuties in new dresses, and finding a new use for the baby swing in their new tights with "shoes" on them. We had a fun Christmas in Cleveland, spoiled girls especially - thanks Grandma and Grandpa!

Best Sisses

They are being really nice to each other lately, which is so sweet and makes us all so happy. If one is crying the other will give her kisses to try to get her to stop, and go get toys that she likes to get her to be happy. And if one really wants the toy that the other has, oftentimes sister will bestow it upon her with a big smile (not always of course, but often enough to deserve mention). Anna in particular seems to take great joy in making Kara feel better and sharing the toys that Kara wants.

Glad that there's some sweetness interspersed with their obsession with tears and people/animals being "bad" and lately, injuries and blood. On the way down to Arkansas the only thing that consistently kept them happy was looking at pictures on flashcards/in books of when monkeys had "ows" (one on his knee, one had a tear because she ate too much). I had to get blood drawn again today and they were so happy to watch and really wanted my bloody cotton ball and bandaid afterward.

Cracking Up

The girls repeating what I say has me cracking up a lot of the day - this weekend it was church and bra that had me laughing, in addition to "move please" (which wasn't a repeating, I taught them - sisters sit on each other a lot) - especially when they told Andrew. Just now they both started saying backpack many times in a row. Talking is fun. :)

Happy Bartoo

This one is a little clearer, but I'm in the background at the end telling Andrew to hurry up because I get frustrated at Blogger taking so long to upload even really short videos. And because I was being mean - sorry Andrew!

A Series with Dad

A couple weekends ago Kara got up from a nap before Anna and I did and she and dad got some snuggle time. :)

Kisses for everyone, of course.

Opposites - Updated

The word of the day is "opposites," apparently. They now have to have their high chairs facing opposite directions to eat or they just laugh at each other and don't listen to anything I say, nor do they eat. After I asked if they needed to sit opposite they ran around the rest of the morning saying "opposites." And pointed out and carried around their Opposites book.

Other opposites: After her rough start, Anna is now the potty queen - when naked she has very few accidents - she's getting there with taking her diaper off to use the potty as need be, with underwear she can't get it off in time. Kara hasn't been having accidents either, but is having a hard time figuring out how to translate her need to use the potty (which she recognizes quite well) to actually using it. I feel sad for her - Anna will get 5 or 6 stickers and she won't have any. Luckily Anna shares old stickers. :) I have been having lots of thoughts and dreams about pre-term labor, which I hope is opposite. I don't really want to meet this mister until July.

We have AR pictures and some others I need to upload, including 3D ultrasound ones of little, but I'll work on that later. Other favorite words the girls say that sound like opposites - hospital and octopus. I also need to try to get a video of their happy birthday attempts - we have settled in on "happy bartoo," and they did it in time for the big day.

They're 20 months today - happy terrible 20s! In addition to increased cuteness that comes with increased talking abilities, we've had lots more tempers lately.

Update: Here's Anna saying opposite - they've started saying "opposite bad" since they know they have to sit opposite when they're being "bad."

Most of their words, like this one, still need some translation from a skilled A and K translator, but the 3 (sometimes 4) of us know what they mean, and they are making lots of progress and picking up lots of new words, so I'm proud of them.

Happy Birthday Andrew and Update

Andrew's birthday is Sunday, but we're going out of town tomorrow and won't be back till late Monday night, so I thought I'd wish him a happy birthday now. I've said lots of times that he's the best dad and husband, and that remains true, of course. He's my love. I'm looking forward to seeing him interact with our new little one (who he finally felt kick a couple weeks ago) and love seeing him interact with our growing girls. They told me they're going to give him kisses and hugs for his birthday, and that we're going to eat cake (they like the song on Bill Cosby's chocolate cake sketch - 5:30 on here if you haven't heard it). They can say "happy" and "birthday" but not quite "happy birthday." We're working on it. Maybe by Sunday. :)

Last year this time - I think this is one of the cutest pictures ever of the girls so couldn't resist re-posting it. Not sure our little mister will even need to wear one of these next year! This year we're in a stretch of days in the 60s and 70s and are headed down to Arkansas to see Andrew's family, where it will be near 80 tomorrow.

Other A and K Updates: They have been very disobedient and tantruming lately and we had to have a talk about being "big girls" (which they love to say) a few days ago; we frequently revisit how a baby acts (temper tantrums, not listening, etc.) vs. how a big girl acts and the things that big girls get to do that babies don't. This has been fairly effective so far. My big girl Anna has pooped on the potty of her own initiative 3 days in a row now. Kara seems to have lost interest a little. My biggest struggle with them right now is discipline. They've decided that it's funny to disobey, and that it's funny when I discipline them (I thought that wouldn't come until they were older!). When I speak to them in a stern tone of voice they just laugh and laugh. This is not helped by twins - even if one wasn't going to laugh, the other will give her a look that means "let's laugh at mom right now." Working on how to handle this - separation worked when Andrew was home yesterday, not so feasible by myself. In happier news, they are adding a lot of 2 word phrases to their repertoire, some favorites being "one more" and "this way," in addition to "hi" or "bye bye" plus whoever's name, which they'd been saying for a while.

Little Mister Update: One of these days I'll get a belly picture. I feel like I look as big as I did with twins - my body definitely relaxed muscles, moved bones, etc. really early on this time. He kicks all the time, often violently, which I love. A couple times he's moved so that I feel "kicks" in 2 places at once, which reminds me of the good old days of 2 in there. We're having another ultrasound on Monday (perks of Pop being an OB), so we'll get to see him again and see how he's doing. We haven't picked a name yet - I think Andrew's just waiting for me to get on board with the one we had picked before we knew what we were having last time. We'll see.

Basket Babies

A little bigger than the last time we took basket baby pictures...

Kara was happy to rest in there, but Anna had to crash the party, of course.

Pockets

They love putting their hands in their pockets. They also love doing "pocket shimmies" - I should try to get a video - Andrew really likes them.

From December: Kara's mad that she doesn't have pockets on her sweatshirt. :)

A Few More for Memories' Sake

I realized we had been working on letters without ever singing the ABCs. So, we have been singing them pretty frequently. Anna started saying "ah-buh-ses" at the appropriate time at the end of the song and Kara followed suit, so they say that all the time now. However, what I wish I could capture was Kara requesting the ABCs - she asks for "ABs" and I think it's so cute. They also love the book Chicka Chicka Boom Boom - almost exclusively because j and k get tears (of course). They tell me "kakaka" and show me tears a lot.

A few other recent funnies I wanted to capture - Anna randomly started saying "Tuesday" one day and it's stuck. This was the first time I heard Kara say it. When someone spilled something on their tummy the other day I "shaved" them and we talked about (for some reason) that daddy's chest is hairy, and they started saying that a lot. I wanted their ways of saying potty too - though since then Anna has started actually saying potty like Kara.

This is what they consider winking. They try at least. Anna started doing this in the middle of one of the videos I didn't post and cracked us all up, so they both started doing it.

Little Miss Fix-Its

They have been loving their Little People dollhouse and were actually getting into some imaginative play, so I decided to finally put batteries in a few weeks ago to let them hear the phone ring, toilet flush, etc. Well, they became enamored with screwdrivers instead. Anna walked over to dad's toolbox and grabbed one for each of them (even correctly picking Phillips head), and now most of the time instead of playing with the dollhouse they flip it over for some repair work. I took these pictures the first time they did it, mostly for dad's benefit.

Doctor Recap

I tried to take a lot of videos the other night since we don't have many since they've been more verbal/communicative. Not their best efforts, as they were more interested in their laughings I posted yesterday, but close to what we've talked about many many times since their appointment.

Anna, Kara. I love how they maintain that they were happy when they got pokes. Happy to them is anything other than crying. I get told many times a day when someone is happy or has a tear (apparently the only 2 emotions). That originated from One Fish Two Fish - "one was sad, one was glad (happy), one was very very bad." It's cute that they are concerned now not just with when people have tears, but also how to make each other happy - by giving each other toys/their babies mostly. The past few days they have been telling me they have to take medicine so they can be happy, too. :)

The other thing they've been stuck on since the doctor. The nurse took their pulses (and their babies') and to keep them entertained during I told them what their heart said/did.