Wordless Wednesday: For My Dad

I took these on a relatively cool June 1.  I dressed them in one of their few identical outfits and realized that they reminded me of my dad and what he wears to band practice.  It made me smile.

Owynn and Oliver

Owynn, he loves his and his brother's bear.

Oliver, for some reason he likes to love his bear by the neck.

Owynn

Oliver and Owynn and their teddys. 

Brought to you in part by:

all photos are property of doubleotwins.com

It's Been A Week!

It's been a long week over here.  Nothing major really happened, but between work and home I'm pretty worn out.  I'm really hoping our summer slow down is finally happening at work, it was slightly better this week.  I found this floating around facebook and it totally cracked me up.

I totally got chewed out by a lady this week because we didn't inform her that she was out of refills.

 The boys have been alternating between absolutely adorable and little stinkers getting into everything.  More so adorable though.  Tuesday Owynn woke up from his nap early before Oliver so we snuggled on the couch and watched some cartoons.  Too soon though I had to get up to make dinner, so he settled himself into my spot on the couch to quietly watch cartoons while waiting for Oliver to wake up.  He is surprisingly good about not trying to wake Oliver up when he's sleeping.

Owynn all comfy in my spot

 Wednesday we stopped at the grocery store in the morning before my late shift and I picked up a 2lb package of strawberries (yum!).  I didn't have time to clean them and cut them before work and the boys weren't too happy about that.  When they woke up from their nap they snuck into the fridge and ate one bite out of almost all the strawberries, then put them all back.  Awesome.  Friday Owynn  went up to Oliver, gave him a big hug and kiss, and said in his little toddler voice, your my best friend Oliver.  OMG cutest thing ever!!!

Friday was also my Mom's birthday.  Happy Birthday Mum!  I really wish we could be out there to help you celebrate, we miss you a lot!  I wish I had some pics of me when I was little on my computer, but I don't right now.  That's a big project for much later.  So here is one from our trip last year.

Happy Birthday Mum, we love and miss you!

First Movie for the Boys!

We had a big weekend this weekend!  I cut the boys hair on Friday night, it went pretty much as I expected.  Owynn sat there patiently while I cut it, his came out pretty well.  Oliver screamed bloody murder the whole time, his is shorter, but definitely messy around the edges. 


Saturday morning we got up early and went to the movies!  This was the first time we have taken the boys to the theater and I was pretty nervous about it.  In about 3 weeks they will be 2 & 1/2.  Originally I had planned on waiting until they were a bit older, but the opportunity presented itself and I didn't want to pass it up.  John's parent's insurance company puts on customer events every so often.  This weekend they had a 10am super discounted showing of Monsters University (awesome!). 

I found this by searching Google Images

 We woke the boys up early, got them dressed, and headed right out the door.  I was worried that we would have to take the boys out of the theater while we were there, but we didn't have to.  They did pretty well, better than I expected.   We arrived shortly before the movie started, got our popcorn, candy, and drinks, then found some seats.  They had little booster seats for the kids which was great.  The nice thing about going to an event like this was that there were several families with small children and the theater wasn't crowded even though it was opening weekend.  They sat still watching the movie for at least the first half.  Owynn sat in his booster seat and Oliver sat in my lap.  I think Oliver was a bit overwhelmed by the whole thing.  ( We did try talking to them about going to the movies beforehand, but I don't know how much they really understood.)  They were pretty excited to have popcorn and reese's pieces to snack on (breakfast of champions here).  That helped to keep them a bit distracted for awhile.  They did get antsy, but they did ok walking along our row of seats (we had a whole row to ourselves).  Owynn kept looking at the screen and saying "WOW".  It was pretty cute.  Overall we had a pretty good time, we really enjoyed Monsters University.  While it wasn't quite as good as the first, it was cute, and we laughed a whole lot.  It was neat to see a bit of back story for some of the other minor characters in Monsters Inc.  I would definitely recommend taking your family to see it. 

So So Tired, but Happy!

So I think I'm finally out of my weird funk, so yay!  I feel normal again.  I don't know why it happened or really what changed, but I feel like myself again.  Last week at work was good surprisingly, I had thought we had finally hit out summer slow down.  Haha, think again.  This past week was crazy!  I have been extra worn out lately.  It's been pretty much work, come home, spend time with the kiddos, eat, sleep, repeat.  I feel like I've been neglecting my blog a bit, but man am I worn out.  I'm happy though, all seems right in my immediate little world here.  John is happy with his new job, and it seems to be going well so far.  The late nights took a bit for me to get used to, but it has been working out well.  The boys are doing great.  Oliver knows his alphabet now, I am way impressed by that.  Owynn has been saying all sorts of funny things.  His new favorite phrase is "Huh, what's going on here?"  It cracks me up every time!  They are such hams!

  

 

Owynn and Oliver

all photos are property of doubleotwins.com

I Used to Think I Had Lots of Patience, Now I Have Toddlers

I used to think I had lots of patience, really now I'm not so sure.  The boys are almost 2 1/2 now and pretty typical toddlers.  I feel like all I ever say is no.  "No no no no NO!", "Shut the Fridge", "Don't touch the trash", "Stop jumping on your bed", Don't climb on your changing table".  I'm trying to do my best as a parent, but I find myself wondering sometimes if I'm doing everything right, am I yelling too much?  I can't be the only parent who feels this way right???

Don't get me wrong, the boys can be total sweethearts.  Owynn now says "I luf you" which makes my heart melt.  Oliver really loves hugs and snuggles.  And they are pretty darn cute.

So not the most current photo, but I love this one. Oliver and Owynn their first Halloween 2011.

 

 

But then there are days like today where I was counting down the minutes to nap time, hoping that after they get up they will be in a better mood.  (Owynn didn't nap and is quietly hanging out with us in the living room playing with his kindle fire.  Oliver is sound asleep, he really needed it.) 
Or yesterday; the boys woke up and instead of going into the living room and turning on the tv or getting out their kindles, they decided they needed to raid the pantry.  They dumped corn meal all over the carpet in the living room.  Dumped out my baking soda on the kitchen floor, along with onion soup mix, yeast, and other baking supplies I keep in there.  They also got into my little baggie of hershey kisses I had saved from my baby shower that said "It's A Boy", which were almost 3 years old, there were bits of wrapper everywhere.  The boys also got into the birthday candles, we're hoping they didn't eat any of those.   
Or the day before yesterday.  They pushed Oliver's bed up against their dresser so they could reach the stuff on top.  They got down a small bottle of lotion and got it all over Owynn, Oliver's teddy bear, and the bed.

I've been told by other parents of multiples that things don't necessarily get easier, just different.  I can see that, but I'm still really hoping this stage will get a bit easier.  

It's That Random Time of the Week

Last week this awesome shirt came in the mail courtesy of our best friends.  Thanks again you guys, it means so much to me!  This is my new favorite shirt.

In support of all those affected by the bombings in Boston

The boys are definitely boys.  I went in to check on the boys before I went to bed the other night and found that Oliver had a poopy diaper.  Oliver stayed fairly asleep the whole time I changed him, until towards the end.  With his eyes closed and still half asleep he farted, smiled, and said "toot toot!" What a ham.  Owynn was jumping on our bed earlier this week when he farted and said "I poop on the bed!" Uh no, try again.  "How about you poop in the potty?" "No!" *sigh*

We've started potty training, but aren't like really pressing it right now.  We have two potty chairs in the living room and the boys sit on the potty a few times a day, but still haven't used them yet.  The boys know what they're for, they just don't have the attention span to sit still yet.  I'm afraid if we push too hard and they aren't quite ready yet that we will end up completely messing up this whole potty training thing.

John got a new job, he just started last week.  It's still brand new, so I don't want to say too much quite yet.  He is working part time, late at night.  John's first night I was all excited for some alone time.  Ya, the novelty wore off very quickly.  I remembered pretty fast that I'm not a huge fan of being along at night.  Not that I'm complaining, it's just something new I'm going to have to get used to.  I am very thankful for him and everything he does for us.

 Today's randomness is brought to you in part by Stacy 


 

I Have the Monday Blues, But It Was a Good Weekend

It's Sunday night I am seem to be in a funk.  Monday is almost here and I find myself almost dreading it.  Work lately has been hard and it seems as if it's really been getting to me lately.  I go and do my best to deal with it, but it's gotten to a point where it's wearing me down.  I find myself some nights staying up really late, telling John if I go to bed it will just make the next day come faster and I'm not ready for it yet.  *Sigh*  I'm hoping things get better soon.

This weekend though was fun and relaxing, and totally what I needed it to be.  Friday night we swung by my MIL's work just before closing to say hi.  When we were leaving the boys decided they wanted to go with Grandma and Grandpa, not us.  The boys climbed into their van and Owynn said "My buckle me" (buckle me in) and then after awhile he said "my close me" (shut the door).  Alrighty then, apparently I'm not as fun as Grandma and Grandpa.  So we followed them home and they boys had a lot of fun playing.  Grandma took these pics.

Owynn and Oliver

Owynn and Oliver

Owynn

 
Saturday we spent the day over at my in-laws again.  One of the nice things about having a very long summer that starts early is that the pool is already open (yay!)  All Owynn could talk about Saturday morning was going to swim.  We didn't spend too much time in the pool because we haven't gotten any floaties for the boys yet, and they think they can swim (they really really can't).  So it was a bit stressful.  We spent awhile though having a good time on the playground.  The boys thought it was very silly of Mommy to go down the slides after them.  Then we played with chalk and dirt again, and then had to have a bath (man they were dirty).

Today my boys took me shopping at Kohl's, they are sweethearts.  I was finally able to use the rest of my gift cards from Christmas and my birthday.  I'm very happy about getting some nice summer clothes that fit.  As much as I love t-shirts, I want to have a nicer option when I want.  And I got super cute sandals!

  Sorry the image is kind of blurry, I found it by searching google images.  I bought these, except the straps and flowers are an adorable teal color.  I wanted something a bit dressier than my Nike flip flops that I can wear with a sundress or something similar if I wanted to. 

Twin Confusion

Since the boys were tiny babies we have kind of color coded them.  I know some parents of multiples swear by color coding and really go all out.  It started when they were infants and the bottles we bought came in blue, green, and purple.  The boys came home from the NICU on two feedings a day of Neocate which provides extra nutrition for preemies.  At 2 months old our doctor said Oliver no longer needed it, but Owynn still did.  We decided to keep the 2 formula feedings a day for Oliver because 1-Owynn still was on it 2-we were all used to the 2 formula bottle schedule (I nursed the boys for their other feedings) and 3-I had no idea how long I would be able to nurse twins and we wanted a possible switch to only formula to go smoothly.  Oliver's new formula came in a blue container, so we decided that should be his color and Owynn had green.  It helped a lot when they drank out of bottles because we always knew whose bottle was whose.  The colors stuck and now if the boys get something similar but not identical we try to get one in green and one in blue.  Like the Easter bunny brought the boys Mickey Mouse hats, but where EB got them from they only had the hats in blue and red.  So Oliver got blue and Owynn ended up with red.  We still color code with their sippy cup lids.  The boys don't really care whose cup they drink out of, but it helps us keep track.

Anyways, Sunday we were in a hurry to get everyone ready and out the door to John's parents' house.  I grabbed the first couple of shirts I saw in the basket of clean laundry and they happened to be blue and green.  But the blue shirt was in Owynn's size and the green in Oliver's.  I didn't think much of it, because really we don't find the color coding absolutely necessary, it's more for our convenience at knowing whose things are whose.  But I was totally messed up all day.  Having their colors reversed totally threw me.  I kept mixing the two of them up all day and it really frustrated me.  Apparently I rely on this way more than I thought (even though like 85% of the time it's only for their sippy cups).  That or we've just been doing it for so long that I'm really used to it.  Either was I wasn't very happy with myself for repeatedly mistaking one kid for the other.           

Wordless Wednesday: Late nights

This was another tough night when the boys did not want to go to sleep.  I took these at almost midnight that night.  Which is better than they are doing today.  It's 12:30am and they are still fighting sleep.  The poor kiddos though, I think they may be coming down with yet another cold and don't feel very good.  

Owynn is asleep right up against the door, I couldn't even open it.  I had to stick my camera in and around the door to snap this.

Oliver, how sweet is this? He fell asleep reading his book.

Wordless Wednesday brought to you in part by:

 all photos are property of doubleotwins.com

Learning To Walk

I recently re-found a video we got of Oliver as he was learning to walk, just after he turned 1.  I can't get over how much they have changed!  We don't have a cute video of Owynn learning how to walk unfortunately.  He would practice walking in his room when he didn't think we were watching.  He actually started walking on our trip to NY last Easter.  One morning while we there I was changing his diaper and he just took off.  Owynn pulled himself up on the couch, turned, and slowly started toddling toward me.  He stopped just out of arms reach, gave me his mischievous smile, turned, then took off in the other direction!  And that was it, he decided he was ready to walk and hasn't stopped since.  We do have this video of Oliver though.  He took his first steps at their first birthday party.

Almost Perfect Saturday and Parenting Fails

Friday night the boys did NOT want to sleep and didn't until almost midnight.  Which meant they slept until about 11:30am (woohoo!).  They played quietly in their room until I decided that we had had enough of being lazy and got everyone up and moving at about 1pm (but oh man the morning was glorious).  While getting the boys milk they decided that they wanted an apple for breakfast so they just took one while I was focused on their milk.  The boys actually ate their apples really well, a little too well.  Parenting fail #1 for the day:  Apparently we weren't watching Owynn close enough because we think he ate his entire apple.  Core, seeds, stem, everything.  We looked all around for the core, but couldn't find anything (crap!).   

John's mom got stuck working on her day off so we decided to head over and visit and bring her some ice cream (ok I really wanted Dairy Queen and blizzards are buy one get one for $0.99 right now).  While getting the boys out of the house and into the car Owynn fell into some mud.  So I put him in his car seat and spent awhile cleaning him all up.  Then I gave him his fuzzy winter hat, got in the car and off we went.  Just down the street from our house I heard Owynn talking in the back, and it took me a minute to realize he was saying "Buckle! Wait!"  Oh sh*t!  We stopped when we got to Dairy Queen which was only like a half mile up the road.  I was laughing and crying at the same time, I don't know if I was crying from laughing so hard or laughing to try and keep myself from crying so much.  Either way I felt absolutely terrible; parenting fail #2, poor Owynn.  I buckle him in and tell him I am so so sorry, then go get our ice cream.  I come out and this exchange happens:

Owynn: Cream Cream Cream!!!
Me: Owynn we will eat our ice cream when we get to Nama's work
Owynn: CREAM CREAM CREAM!!!
John: Owynn hush, we will eat our ice cream soon
Owynn: Hey! NO!
Me: giggling, trying not to laugh hysterically. 

The look on John's face was priceless.  Owynn has become full of sass lately and has been saying some pretty funny things.  John's mom fed the boys their ice cream while I finished mine, but when I tried to feed it to them Owynn says: No! Nama hold it!  Alrighty then.  We went to Sam's club afterwards and the boys had fun trying all the free samples.  It still surprises me how much they like going out to the store.  After a lazy morning and fun afternoon out we came home, ordered a pizza and had a nice evening.  That is until John's PS3 decided to kick the bucket, which stinks a whole lot.  We plan on replacing it, it's more of a question of when.  John plays games sometimes at night to help him unwind, and we use it a whole lot to watch blu-rays and netflix.  Big bummer.  Oh well, I still count this weekend as a nice relaxing one overall. 

Cute Things My Kids Say vol. 1

The boys have been talking a lot more lately, and they are starting to say some pretty cute and funny things. Owynn is at the point where he is starting to put small sentences together.

Last Friday I had the day off for my birthday and we spent a good part of the day grocery shopping.  (I wanted to spend the day with my boys, Saturday night John and I had a fun date night.)  Anyways.  After spending several hours at two different stores we finally hit one of our local grocery stores on the way home.  We go there a lot because it is right up the street from our house and they usually have some pretty good prices.  The boys were asleep when we got there, but woke up when we went inside.  They had done really good all day, but when we got into the store Oliver demanded "cookie, cookie, cookie!"  So we headed off to the bakery and got them each a cookie and they were good as gold for the rest of our shopping.  Oliver knew where we were, and exactly what he wanted. 

We were over at John's parents on Saturday dropping the boys off, and we were talking about how my brother-in-law's birthday was coming up in a few days.  Last time we saw him was Christmas. He's going to school in another state right now and we don't get to see him as often as we' like.  As we were talking Owynn all of a sudden said "JoJo home far far away." I was like oooooh, that is so sweet.  They really enjoy it when uncle JoJo comes to visit.  (You should come and visit again this summer =)   ).  I was pretty shocked though because he said a full sentence, and we hadn't talked about JoJo living far away for a few weeks.     

Tonight John ran to the store, and ended up coming home with a dozen donuts.  The boys adore donuts, but we don't have them terribly often.  John walked in the door with the box and Oliver says "pizzi?" (pizza), then a second later Owynn says "dont!!!!" (donuts).  And then we had two super excited toddlers on our hands, yelling "dont dont dont!!" Which I guess may not be the best thing for them to be yelling... 

I just can't get over how much they're talking now.  Owynn today kept saying "my teddy is? my teddy is?"  The poor kiddo had to sleep without teddy last night because teddy managed to get peed on last night while I was at work.  So I gave bear a "bath" as soon as I got home this afternoon and since then Owynn has been watching teddy very closely (well as best as a 2 year old can).  So every time Owynn put teddy down today and forgot where he left him, he would come running over and ask where "my teddy is?"  I felt bad, he was pretty upset teddy needed a bath and couldn't snuggle with him.   

Wordless Wednesday: We're Ready for Baseball Season!

Everyone here is very excited for the coming baseball season!  Happy Wednesday!

Owynn and Oliver

Oliver

Owynn

Wordless Wednesday with

all photos are property of doubleotwins.com

Big Boy Beds: Update

The boys have been in their new beds for about two months now.  They have been enjoying their new freedom a whole lot.  It has been a challenge though trying to get them to stay in bed at night and especially at nap time.

Nap time right now is the hardest.  They still need a good nap every day, but they have decided that naps are over rated.  It just depends on the day and how tired they are, if they wind up napping.  If they don't nap they usually will play in their room for a couple of hours.  But on no nap days we usually end up with two very grumpy toddlers and Oliver like this during dinner:

Oliver asleep during dinner...again

Bedtime is a bit easier.  We still have to go in and tuck them in a few times before they finally fall asleep.  It usually takes them close to an hour to finally wear themselves out and fall asleep.  Tonight went quickly though.  They didn't nap, were exhausted, and John sat in their room with them until they fell asleep.  Which was a very welcome change from Saturday night when the boys decided that jumping on their beds was a good idea (it was in fact a very bad idea.)  The boys sleep in the same bed just about every night now.  Owynn likes his space, but Oliver always winds up in bed with Owynn one way or another.  I have found though that they sleep much better when they are together.  Owynn used to wake up around 3am every night, but he rarely does anymore.  They also are able to comfort each other better this way.  Occasionally Owynn will wake up crying and 90% of the time Oliver will comfort him and they will fall right back asleep without one of us having to go in to tend to them.  Plus they are super cute snuggled up in bed together!  All in all making the switch to toddler beds hasn't been nearly as bad as I had feared. 

Owynn and Oliver

Oliver at the top and Owynn.  I don't know how Oliver managed to get into bed with Owynn like this without waking him up.

This night was a struggle.  They are both asleep, with Oliver literally on top of Owynn.

Oliver and Owynn.  Owynn declared my socks were his, took them off my feet, and put them on his.  He slept with my socks on over his jammies all night.

Owynn and Oliver

all photos are property of doubleotwins.com

Their Twin Bond Makes My Heart Melt

Some days having two toddlers drives me nuts, but I can't imagine life without them.  They do some pretty adorable things sometimes that makes my heart feel like it's going to burst with love.

We had a busy weekend and so the boys didn't get a nap either day.  (They were surprisingly well behaved though.)  Saturday we spent over at John's parents getting caught up on laundry.  The boys really enjoy going over and spending time with Nama and Papa.  Sunday we spent the day running errands and grocery shopping.  We stopped by the toy store, saw one of our good friends, and left with more toys than we came in with.  The highlight of the day was going to the pet store and picking out more fish for our new fish tank.  The boys love it!

We got home and the plan was to have an early dinner then put the boys to bed extra early.  Poor Oliver was so tired that at dinner he drank all his milk then immediately fell asleep in his high chair without actually eating dinner.  So we let him nap there for awhile while I colored with Owynn.  It's not terribly often that we get to spend one on one time with them.  At about 8:30pm we started getting them ready for bed.  As soon as I put on Owynn's jammies he immediately fell asleep on my lap.  And not just kind of asleep, the kiddo was totally out.  So we put him to bed and spent some time playing with now wide awake Oliver.  Play time didn't last long though, Oliver was upset that Owynn was asleep in bed and he was gated out of their room.  Finally Oliver got his point across that although he wasn't tired or ready for bed yet he wanted his jammies on and to be put in his room too.  He was much happier playing quietly (you know for a 2 year old) in his room while Owynn slept, than to play with us in the living room and watch cartoons.  We gave him strict instructions not to wake up his brother, and he didn't.  He can be such a sweetheart.  I can't get over how much the two of them love each other so much.

Right now it's nap time, Owynn is sound asleep and Oliver is just happily playing in their room.  Satisfied because he is with his brother.  He is usually the one who ends up crawling into bed with his brother at night too.  Every once in awhile he'll open the door just to make sure we are still out here.   

Happy 2nd Birthday to My Two Favorite Little Men!

On January 14 my two favorite little people turned 2!  (A little late I know, it took me much longer than I thought to gather all my pics together in one spot.  And time, I feel like I never have enough time in the day for everything.)  They were born early at 34 weeks and 5 days and weighed just 4lbs 7.8oz (Owynn) and 5lbs 2 oz (Oliver).  When we went to the Dr. last month Owynn was 26lbs and Oliver 28lbs.  They are finally catching up and are close to the size of your average 2 year old.

I really can't believe how fast the time has gone by and just how much they've changed.  Over the past 2 years we have moved 3 times, and driven to NY twice.  They have gone from tiny little fragile babies to rambunctious toddlers.  In the past year they have learned to talk, to walk and run; and have become crazy climbing monkeys with no fear.  Right now they love Mickey Mouse Clubhouse, Owynn calls Goofy goosey.  Owynn is farther along with his speech, but Oliver is very smart with electronic-y things.  He has my phone all figured out and has almost got angry birds down.  They love to read, well more so look at books and have me read to them; but they really do love books.  I wish they would stay little longer, they are growing so fast.  When I was pregnant and people told me that the time would go by fast and that I would love them in a way I didn't know I could, I didn't believe them.  I do now though, they are the best things to ever happen to us.   

Let me show you how much my wonderful and adorable little boys have grown!  (I may be a bit biased though.)

The pictures are a bit out of order, I still haven't quite gotten the hang of moving pictures around on here. 

Owynn the day we brought him home.  I would have been 36 weeks pregnant.

Oliver the day we brought the boys home.  He is wearing 0-3 month jammies.

Owynn and Oliver 5 1/2 months

Owynn 5 1/2 months

Oliver 6 months

Oliver 5 1/2 months

Owynn 7 1/2 months

Oliver 7 1/2 months

Owynn 11 months

Oliver 18 months

Owynn 13 months

Oliver 15 months

Oliver, Daddy, Owynn 15 months

Owynn and Oliver's First Birthday Party

Owynn, Mommy, Oliver 4 months

Oliver and Owynn 9 months First Halloween

This is Owynn's angry face 10 months

Owynn and Oliver 11 months.  First Christmas Eve.

Oliver 21 months

Owynn 21 months

Oliver 23 months

all photos are property of doubleotwins.com