Somebody noticed!

My BFF from Arcadia just posted this as her Fb status and tagged me in it:

"Megan Shafer Press has a whole new respect for single moms. Single moms with twins get some sort of hero worship. I'm lookin' at you Shawnna Pomeroy."

I am just touched and moved that she would acknowledge me in that way. Every time I go back and look at it, it makes me cry. 8 people, including mutual friends and her mom have "liked" it, which is also cool.

Anyway, I just wanted to record this for all posterity!

It's 2011!

Ok, so it's already February, but I figured that I would at least update what's been going on.

2x started daycare a few weeks ago, so I've been dealing with colds, ear infections, bronchiolitis, antibiotics, fantastic diarrhea, projectile vomiting (I survived!), more words, a little bit of stubbornness...it's been busy!

My boss' pedi told her that 18 months, she only expects boys to have about 6 words. I think this is going to be the new standard I go with! The words are coming fast and furious! Max is picking up a LOT in daycare, "NO!" (generally accompanied by a push or slap), being the most obvious and most frustrating. But he's also picked up "Tay too" (thank you) which is as adorable as it sounds. Last night I was blowing bubbles for them while they were in the bath and, clear as day, he said "bubble!" and then said it 4 or 5 more times, so I think it's a keeper. I've been trying to keep a list of their words and here's what I can remember:

Max - See, see dat (see that), ball, mom, cookie, shoe, go, ray go (ready to go), golgi (goldfish or any cracker or anything that tastes like cheese), wa (water)

Alex - cookie, golgi, bye bye, mom, see

They also both wave hi/bye and blow kisses. Alex has been "giving kisses" (more like open mouth, stick out tongue, slobber on mom) for a couple of weeks now and Max just started the other day.

They know what the following animals say: cow, sheep, doggy (favorite!), bird, lion, fish (basically opening/closing their mouths to make a pop noise), duck

Alex put two pieces of their chunky puzzle in place and that was the first time he'd done that. He also seems like he might be trying to put his shoes on.

They're both getting better about feeding themselves; they will keep their plates on the table and are learning to use spoons at school. I'm not really brave enough to let them have spoons at home yet!

Jess and Denise/Bill are going to watch 2x while I go to DC for work in July. This should be interesting! Hopefully, everything will go well, then. It should be interesting to see how Jesse does on overnights and having to get up early in the morning!

Merry Christmas 2010!

I now have 2 walking children. I could write my own version of the 12 Days of Christmas but just in twos...along the lines of 2 toddlers toddling, 2 babies leaping, 2 boys a-dancing, 2 toys a-breaking...you get my drift!

Max is developing quite a vocabulary: ball, uh-oh, OH!, see, mommy, cookie, turkey, yogurt, milk, and I think he says book or block (or maybe both?) but it's hard to tell. There are other words he uses sometimes, but that aren't consistent yet. Sometimes hi, bye-bye, ni-ni and a few others. He also points to everything he's interested in, coupled with "see?!" sometimes "see dat?!"

Alex doesn't talk as much as Max, but he definitely has cookie, uh-oh, mommy and OH! He says bye-bye too and more consistently than Max does. He invented his own toy by putting a ball on the lid of the shape sorter and spinning the ball until it falls off (see video).

They both love to stack blocks and read books. They like to dump out their toy bins and sit in them, or just sit right on top of the toys or books.

I brought home some balloons for them the other day and it was like the best day ever! They looooooove balloons, so when these were buy one, get one free, I just couldn't resist.

Anyone can whistle!

Max is obsessed with whistling. If I blow across the end of one of his pop beads, I can make it whistle (like you can do with a soda/beer bottle), and he wants me to do it ALL the time. And then he puts it in his mouth and makes a "hoooo" noise like he's trying to make it whistle. He also has these shapes with holes in them and he figured out that if he blows into them, they will whistle too. Well, the other day, I hear him making a slight whistling noise, like when he blows in the shape, and I look over and he's doing it by himself! I admit, at first, I thought it was his nose, because it was so quiet! But then he did it the other day when I was leaving the house, and then again this morning when I was getting him out of his crib, so he was closer to eye level, you know? And I could see his lips were pursed up in a whistling position and he whistled a couple of times!

I just went and picked him up and whistled at him again (I can barely whistle myself, so I don't know where this obsession came from!) and he did it back! I didn't realize they could learn to whistle so early! It's such a weird, random thing to do!

I will keep trying to get it on video and if/when I do, I will definitely post it!

I just found Alex eating a...

...rock. Yes, the boy who won't eat mac & cheese, spaghetti, pizza, or any other "normal" kid food was happily crunching away on a rock, face covered in dirt. I have two thoughts about this.

1. Where did the rock come from? He was in the BCA; no rocks there that I'm aware of.
2. Why didn't I have the wherewithal to take a photo before I cleaned his dirt covered face?

On the other hand, I think he is finally on his way to walking. Yesterday, he took 3 unassisted steps to Jess and I've noticed that he's standing on his own quite a bit more the past couple of days which is what Max started doing first too.

Jess and I took the boys to the Desert Botanical Gardens yesterday. I bought a year membership at a 50% discount through Groupon, so we can go through next November (although I doubt we'll be visiting much from April-October!). It was the last weekend of the butterfly pavilion exhibit, which is one of the main reasons I bought the pass. The boys definitely were watching the butterflies fly around, it was pretty cool. They only have Monarchs in the fall and I learned the difference between male/female Monarchs.

We tried to get a photo of the 3 of us in front of the poinsettia tree, but 2X were not cooperating!

Max is getting so big!

I swear that they each have their own chair.

Jess, Alex and the goat

"You see what I have to put up with?" - disgruntled goat

Max walks

My son walks. Not well, but it's definitely walking. He reminds me a lot of Frankenstein's monster because he has that "walk" and he also makes monster noises as he takes steps. If I could teach him to say "braaaaaiiiiins" as he walks, I could have a new YouTube sensation!

I am feeling pretty smug because I have somehow not only managed to bring a child (two, even) into the world, but I have taught him how to walk upright (amongst other things). I always thought one of the best things about having a child was the opportunity to basically teach it anything I wanted. I had this vague idea in the back of my head about always dying mashed potatoes green so that when the child went somewhere else and saw white potatoes he would be freaked out. Well, unfortunately, my children don't like potatoes and I've realized that doing something like this would be WAY more complicated than I have time for! Oh well, the best laid plans and all that.

Not only is he walking, but he "talks" constantly and has started mimicking too. He says a couple of words pretty well: cookie, yogurt, doggy, mama. All two syllable words...odd? I have no idea.

Alex is not far behind. He is standing more and lowering himself with control. He "talks" a lot more too. But I think that, for awhile, he's going to be slightly behind Max. But he's definitely the more laid back of the two. We went to the carnival and the zoo this past weekend and he loves going on the rides, whereas Max is a scaredy cat.

I'm currently in an insane nap transition from two to one nap. I'm trying to get the boys on the day care schedule so that when they go in January, there won't be too much in the way of schedule change. I will miss the nanny, but I am looking forward to saving $500/month on day care. Maybe I can pull my ass out of this money sucking hole I'm in finally!

My friend came up with a nickname for the boys, "dos equis". I think it's hilarious and I wonder why it took a YEAR for someone to figure that out.

Halloween was fun. I had a brilliant costume idea, if I do say so myself. Clark Kent and Superman! I know! Identical twins! I may have to do it again next year when they can walk and keep the glasses on, but I will switch and let Alex be Superman and Max will be Clark.

Here are some Halloween photos. I love the 2nd one of Alex with the glasses in his mouth; couldn't have posed that if I tried. And also a video of Max starting to walk.

It's been a year...

The boys are ONE. I can't believe it. This year has flown by unbelievably quickly, and, in many ways I'm glad because it's been the toughest year of my life, by far. Everyone who told me the first four months would be the hardest were right. That part is a blur to me now, but, in a way, I'm glad because I do remember a lot of tears (on all of our parts), a lot of frustration and a lot of sleepless nights.

The boys finally sleeping through the night at about 10 months old has been, I think, my biggest success so far. Being able to have predictable sleep myself has definitely made a difference on my quality of life!

We had fun up in WA with the family. The boys loved crawling all over, exploring the new place. Here are some photos from the boys' birthday and the cupcakes.