Update on the Turkettes

The past few months have flown by with many great developments but unfortunately little time to blog about it. The girls have been learning like sponges, absorbing everything we say and do! Here are some of the exciting things the girls have been up to the past few months.

• Gymnastics at Club Jump: the girls LOVE being able to swing from the bars, jump on the trampoline and crawl through the tunnel. It is amazing to see how much their skills have developed just by participating in gymnastics once a week.
• Dancing at Fusion: along with their friends Blakely and Guiliana, the girls have started dancing at Fusion Dance Studio. Little dancing outfits, tiny tap and jazz shoes and a little bag complete the picture. It is hilarious to see the girls randomly trying out their dance moves at home from a tap, tap, tap to a heel, heel, heel and the odd hands on hips. Although the first few months brought tears at the beginning of each class, the girls have adjusting to 40 minutes of dance time while Mommy and her friends catch up over  a cup of tea!
• Daycare at Debbie's: Every Wednesday's the girls travel to Debbie's house for daycare! Their friend Blakely from dance is there so it is a great opportunity the girls to play together. Blakely even made the girls special birthday cupcakes!
• Playing in the Snow: last year the girls were only able to sit in the snow and enjoy a sleigh ride. This year, however, the girls have LOVED the snow! We've attempted to make snow angels, build snowballs, jump in piles of snow and had some good laughs as the girls attempt to walk and run in the snow. The snowsuits are definitely making the girls look like little munchkins. 
• Birthday Party: This year we held the girls' birthday party at Mount Carmel, Nana's home. They have a great basement hall that was perfect for the number of family and friends we had. The girls were able to sing Happy Birthday, enjoyed the Care Bear Cake and were overwhelmed by everyone's generosity!

We are so impressed, every day, with all of the things the girls' talents and abilities. They can count to ten and sing a variety of songs such as Jingle Bells, Happy Birthday, Frosty the Snowman, ABCs, Wheels on the Bus and Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star. Their level of communication and ability to repeat things is amazing. I recently asked Molly if she was a parrot because she was repeating me so often, her response. "I'm not a parrot, I'm Molly". LOL

We can't wait until Christmas time and all of fun we will have together!

The First Day of School Photo

Every September, children take a photograph to mark their first day of school! Thanks to the great idea of my teaching partner Kristin, the girls have their own adult t-shirts to recognize that they will be the graduating class of 2030! Hopefully we can repeat this picture every year!

September 2013

September 2014

The Play House

Watching the girls play can bring endless hours of entertainment. The water table is currently the best attention grabber for the girls. Endless toys have made their way through the water table and the girls are more than happy to scoop up some water in a cup to cool down your feet! The only toy that could possibly top the enthusiasm for the water table is the plastic play house. 

While venturing out on play dates this summer to visit the Vinc's, the Hulan's or the Gentile's the girls always made their way into the plastic play house. Molly in particular was quite taken with these homes and the girls would spend the majority of their visits walking in and out of the house, looking through the windows and playing with the gadgets inside. Thus began our quest to find a house for the girls to have at home. We tried Kijiji, the odd garage sale and finally posted our request for a play house on twitter. Shortly after one of our friends, Lazar, responded with a free house for the Turkettes. With the help of Greg and Nik we brought the DELUXE play house home! Assembling the house after the girls went to bed, we anxiously awaited their joyful reactions the next morning! Here are some pictures of the all the fun!

Loving the new house!

 Peek-a-boo!

Have your people call my people!

This is AWESOME!

Why Every Toddler Should Own One of These!

 Look at the absolute joy on these faces!

Screams and shouts of happiness!

Every toddler needs to experience this, including their parents. The sheer joy of hundreds of bubbles (effortlessly) flying through the air! You would hyperventilate before you could blow this many bubbles. The best part was sitting back, watching their wonder and awe as bubble were all around them. For under $10 the girls screamed, ran and chased bubbles all over our front porch...until the fish bubble maker was left out in the rain one unfortunate day.

Today She Said "No, No No!"

Five months ago, I sadly had to say "no" to blogging to maintain my sanity, the balancing act of working mommy became too much. As you can imagine, much has happened since my last post in March. Recently over the past few months, as the girls have become more curious and more active, a certain phrase has dominated our interactions; "no touch"! This phrase works wonders for all areas not baby proofed, while in the checkout line grocery shopping, when one little angel tries to steal a toy from her sister, when they are near the oven, or try to make a move for my cup of tea. The phrase was so effective, it would halt my daughters in their tracks, followed by big brown eyes searching for an explanation to which I would reply "Hot", or "Molly's", or "Careful".

Today however was different.

For the first time, and no less than 20 times today, Abigail told us NO! No she didn't want to be picked up, no she didn't want her towel and no she didn't want any more to eat. While this increased level of communication definitely makes her intentions more clearly known, she now also knows that I know what she means. After about a dozen NOs, it has become clear my daughter has no problem telling me all the things she doesn't want to do now that she's finally figured out how to tell me.

I'm sure it will only be a matter of time before Molly starts to echo her sentiments. Perhaps the terrible two's are upon us already!! What are we going to do about it? We have NO idea!!

Working Mommy = No Blogging

The omission of all stories and milestones for the months of January and February is very telling of my transition back to work. To put it mildly, life has been busy. So many amazing milestones have been reached since the Christmas Break. 

Two big milestones were when the girls successfully transitioned to only one bottle a night and only one nap a day. Both of these major events have made life a little bit easier. I almost can't remember how time consuming it was to make 12-14 bottles a day....almost. We have found it a lot easier to do things during the day with the girls when we only have to worry about one longer nap. 

Sadly, doing things with the girls during the day basically means Saturday's and Sunday's. While I'm really enjoying my new school and my students are a wonderful group of kids, it has been a gradual adjustment to leave the girls and re-enter the land of the working! One bonus of returning to work is how much time my parents get to spend with the girls (I don't know what we'd do without all of their help!) and the fact that everyday when I walk through the front door I'm am greeted with enthusiastic smiles and cheers from my daughters. It's a great way to end your work day!!

The most significant milestone the girls have approached is WALKING!!! While both girls have only taken a few steps at a time independently, both Molly and Abigail enjoy holding your hands and motoring around the living room and kitchen. Their cute little bodies moving around like mini Frankensteins is best thing I've ever seen!! Witnessing their learning curve develop each day is truly remarkable!

Some of their most recent talents include:

• Using baby sign language to sign "more" and "eat". 

• Being able to point to their "nose" and "ear" when asked.

• Playing a game called "Up and Down" on the couch where the girls stand up and fall down.

• Making random sound effects with their tongue (Molly especially finds this funny)

• The double eye wink (Abigail's current specialty)

• Chanting and clapping their own version of "Go Canada Go". (Thank you Olympics!) 

• Blowing kisses!

We're hoping one of their future talents will include the "fist pump", but this remains a work in progress!! Can't wait to see what the girls will be able to do next!!

 Dressed in "Team Canada" gear to show our pride during the Olympics!

 The girls just loved watching the Olympics! Wow some of those hockey games were nail biters!