Potty Training (aka Big Girls Part 3)

To say that I prepared for this transition would be an understatement. Yes, I get it, no baby goes off to university wearing diapers. HOWEVER, this transition was going to be a big one and since I had already maximized my stress levels on the career front, I figured the entire family would benefit from as smooth of a transition as possible for this one! 

After much research and mommy chats with trusted friends we decided on a "plan of attack" that went something like this. Put your family on lock down for at least four days in a row, kids are naked from the waist down, potties were in the living room and we watched a lot of Disney flicks. All joking aside, our March Break did end up a lot like this, let me fill you in on how it happened!

The Warm Up
First the girls received their very own potty from Auntie Monique! Complete with their own roll of toilet paper, this birthday present was just what the girls need to get the conversation going! Lots of potty books (Thanks Elmo!) and some great videos (thanks to one of my students, Eoghan!) Check out Listen to Your Body (Go in the Potty). The girls and I would sing and dance this song on many occasions. I must have watched this video at least 100 times.

The Countdown
This is where it got serious. No more fun and games, we were counting it down! With March Break fast approaching, it was time to start making the girls aware of just how quickly their world was about to get rocked! LOL 

 

We started a countdown right on their bedroom door! 17 days until the fun would begin. Each night the girls and I would take a heart off the door and count to see how many hearts/days were left until all the diapers were gone! For our own amusement and also because this was when we could commit to at least four days in a row at home with no interruptions, we scheduled to start potty training on St. Patrick's Day!

The Party
Nothing raises the stakes about a situation like a party! Celebrating the beginning of potty training with an underwear party was an idea I heard from another friend Mom! So party we did! Grandma, Nana, and Papa were all invited over for dinner and a big celebration complete with presents! The girls opened gift after gift all of underwear!! Frozen, Strawberry Shortcake, fun designs, how could you not be motivated to try to potty?

 

 The girls were excited to open their underwear, even if they didn't want to wear it! Hahaha!

Mommy and Daddy brought back an appropriate gift from Vegas!

 

Here Molly shows off her new Potty Training shirt!

Game On!
Tuesday, March 17th, 2015...Potty Training Day 1. I almost felt like this was a Parenting Boot Camp. Survive the next few days potty training twins and you can survive anything!! The girls were great, we cheered in the morning, took the sign completely down, turned up the heat in our house and removed the girls' clothing from the waste down! The potties were in the living room so the girls could easily use them and then the real fun began. Nothing could have prepared me for the "hyper-awareness" I was about to experience. Every toe curl, facial strain or shaking knees I was instantly questioning "Do you need to go pee-pee?"By 11am I was certain is was nearing supper time, LOL.  We spent time time sitting on the potty, playing near the potty and having lots and lots of accidents. The first successful potty attempt brought on many cheers and much relief as well as a well earned Frozen jelly bean for Molly. Well that certainly got their attention. Frozen jelly beans exist? They most certainly do and I'm not sure if it was their great taste or the dislike of warm urine running down their leg but wouldn't you know it, the girls started getting the hang of it. 

Day 1 Hanging on the Potty while watching Disney Movies (Snow White, Tangled, Frozen)

In fact, most of Day 1 was spent hanging out ON or NEAR the potty, to get the "feel" for it!

BUT, it was St. Patrick's Day, so a visit from Auntie Moe resulted in come awesome stickers, flashing mugs, hair clips and a few Irish Car Bombs from Mommy and Daddy. Yes, it was a long day, but a fun one, and while we did spend a lot of time cleaning up accidents during the first portion of the day, we did have a lot of time to potty like a rock star!

Most of Day 1 was spent in some form of dress resembling this outfit! (Thank you Tiff!)

Sometimes a few party favours can make all the difference!

Day 2 Shenanigans!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Growing a bit tired of the whole potty training thing!

 While Day 2 was a bit easier on Mommy and Daddy, the girls were growing a bit tired of keeping their butts planted on their potties. The girls spent most of their time naked from waist down and we did A LOT of crafts and watched a lot of Disney: Tangled, Frozen, Cinderella, 101 Dalmatians, and Snow White to name a few! The girls were also a big fan of Cars!

Doing crafts to pass the time!

 Even though the girls were getting a bit of cabin fever, they really started to get the hang of the whole potty business! We had a few funny incidents that will forever be ingrained in my memory from over-the-top celebrations to what we found in the potty to one of the girls claiming "they were all done" as they ran around the kitchen with a poop hanging from their little butt. I wouldn't lie, by the end of Day 2 I was slightly wondering if perhaps we had made the right decision. I was tracking potty business using the pee/poop/accident ratio thanks to my friend Beth. This at least let us realize we were making progress over the first few days. By Friday the girls were accident free and had started wearing underwear during the day. On the weekend we started adding pants, which brought on a few occurrences of the girls sitting on the potty to use it (AWESOME) only to pee right through their underwear and pants (NOT AWESOME). Thankfully the girls REALLY didn't enjoy this sensation and the they quickly mastered either telling us they had to go potty and asking for help or pulling down their own pants and underwear. By the end of March Break the girls were celebrating the season opening of the Avondale Dairy Bar with a milkshake...and they were fully dressed!

Abigail

Molly

 

 

 When Monday morning came and March Break was over, it was the first time I've ever been happy to see a return to work, LOL. It was such a relief to be able to relax and not worry about my girls bodily functions!! (Thank you Grandma and Papa for taking over!!!) 

It has just been over two weeks since the girls have said goodbye to diapers. We still use a pull-up for naps and bedtime, but we just refer to it as "big girl underwear" or "sleeping underwear". The girls are virtually accident free and have really impressed us. We passed another big milestone yesterday when after SEVEN tries at the Kilt n' Clover the girls finally used the portable princess potty (it's a folding seat that covers a big toilet). This was a HUGE milestone because previously the girls would refuse to use anything but their own potty. To the point that Molly would only use the red potty and Abigail would only use the green potty! BUT, this little gem which repeated itself today at the Merritton Arena! 

While this milestone was definitely the hardest to achieve, thus far it has been the most rewarding. Bye-bye diaper genie and change tables!! Whoo hoo parenting win!

The Turkettes are Big Girls (Part 2)

Due to our successful eliminating of the soother during the Christmas holidays, my parenting confidence was at a high! Why not conquer the bottle next!

This time, I took a bit more of a planned and prepared approach. I started talking to the girls on a regular basis about what big girls they were and how they were growing up! Our neighbour Renee had just recently bought the girls baby dolls and strollers for their birthday. This worked well into my conversation that "babies" used bottles, not big girls. We also visited with our "very pregnant with twins" friend Stefania. I explained to the girls that these babies would need bottles so we would have to pass our bottles on to them! When Sofia and Quinn arrived we couldn't be more excited. The girls and I packed up our presents for the babies along with a bottle for each one. The girls spent a lot of time explaining to Stefania that they were big girls now, and her babies could use the bottles! Once again the girls shared their experiences with anyone that would listen. If they were asked "How are you?" or "What's new?" the girls would immediately explain "I a big girl now, I gave my bottles to the babies!"

This transition was a lot smoother than the elimination of the soothers. Since the girls were drinking milk during the day, they never really asked for the bottle at bedtime and we didn't have to replace it with milk before bed, it sort of just disappeared. The best disappearance was the washing of the bottles each night!! AWESOME!

Convincing The Turkettes They Are "Big Girls Now"! Part 1

As 2014 was drawing to a close, my husband and I reflected on our comfortable, cozy life with Molly and Abigial. Routine, routine, routine was our mantra and the girls were thriving, but CHANGE was upon us. Not the simple change, where you decide to wear a different shirt. But the life-altering kind of change where you know the end product is going to be worth it, but you're uncertain of the journey. Now that the girls were two we realized we had four major transitions to survive. Eliminating the bottle, the soother, the diaper and the crib. I've listed them in the order we thought was going to best to attack them. 

We chose the bottle as the first transition for a few reasons; the soother seemed like a battle I didn't feel like waging over the Christmas holidays and potty training or playing the "get back in bed game" didn't seem all that fun either. So the bottle was our first plan of attack. (It helped that we were both tired of cleaning them, LOL.) It was also becoming increasingly obvious that the girls didn't need or sometimes even want milk before bed anymore. We set the date, Saturday, December 20th, our first day of Christmas vacation and my god-daughter's birthday!

Of course, that's when the girls thought it would be best to throw us a curve ball. After a great birthday party with lots of fun entertainment for the girls we arrived home to make two glaring discoveries that put a halt to our plan. Our first discovery, the girls were having so much fun playing at the party, they barely did any eating at the party! When we started getting the girls for bed they started asking for their bottles. We were just discussing the option of retracting our plan and giving them a bottle anyway when Shawn discovered one of the soothers had been chewed almost 
completely through. Since we were down to two soothers and if they've started chewing them, they're just going to continue, I decided at that moment that it was time for "no more soothers".

Talk about a plan diversion! No warning for us or for the girls...(maybe band-aids are better ripped off quickly!) we just gave the girls their bottle and then calmly explained that their soothers, or sue-sues as they affectionately referred to them, were broken and we had to throw them out. For the first few minutes the girls were very logical, thing that were broken needed to be thrown out, makes sense. But then the cute pleas from Molly came, "Daddy, fix it. Fix my sue-sue!" I'm not exactly sure how Shawn managed not to cave or run out to Shoppers and buy a replacement but we held our ground. Thankfully the girls only used their soothers for naps and bedtime so we only had two tricky times to overcome. Each time a nap or bedtime approached we would calmly explain that their soothers were broken and they were big girls now. The first three days were the hardest as the girls would complain a bit in bed before falling asleep. Then there was the sharing of their feelings where everyone from Grandma to the cashier at Zehrs had to hear the story about how the sue-sues were broken, Daddy couldn't fix it and they were big girls now.

It took about a week for the girls to stop talking about it on a daily basis. We thought it was going to be a painful journey but now that I'm not searching endlessly under a crib with a flashlight and a mini hockey stick for a soother at two in the morning, it was worth the transition!!

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

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!

1st Time Playing in the Snow!

While I can't remember my own first experience with snow, I'll never forget Molly and Abigail's first sleigh ride, first time in a snowsuit or first time playing in the snow...even if they just sat in the snow and laughed a lot!

The girls received a beautiful wagon/sleigh from Nana for their birthday and the snowfall the following weekend was the perfect opportunity to try it out! Our Sunday afternoon of playing in the snow was filled with laughter as the girls couldn't stop grabbing at each others toques and hoods. The sleigh ride brought lots of singing and shouting while playing in the snow brought a lot of cheering and laughing together! It was a great day together as a family, looking forward to future snow falls... (for snow playing purposes only!!)

Laughing at what they are wearing for the first time!

Taking it all in as Daddy pulls the sleigh.

Hanging out with my sister! (cool snow effect from Mommy's phone!)

Laughing together in the snow!

Performing the macarena?

Happy Birthday Abigail & Molly

Our baby girls have turned one year old! We spent a lot of time talking about how we can't believe how far the girls have come in one year and how far we have come as parents. We were a bit sentimental as we talked about our "last supper" before babies, how we walked into the hospital on December 11th a year ago to admitting claiming our reason for the visit was to become parents!! Oh how little we knew! But with each passing month, we become a little bit more comfortable with our new role in life and the girls continue to amazing us with their growth and development.

The past few weeks have been exciting as the girls are pulling themselves up in the crib, on the couches and tables in the living room and Abigail seems to enjoy trying in out in the bathtub! Bath time continues to be a riot with lots of new tub toys from their birthday and Christmas. The girls are eating all regular food now which has made holiday visiting so much easier. While we are still enjoying two bottles a day (one to start the day and one to end the day) the best milestone we've reached this month is NO MORE FORMULA!!! Words cannot describe the amount of joy this brings to our lives!!! LOL The girls are now drinking homogenized milk and they drink through 4L at an alarming rate! This is HUGE for us as we no longer have the hassle or the EXPENSE of making and buying formula. Ironically, we are almost on our last box of diapers from our Diaper Party last year so while one expense is being eliminated, another one will begin!!!

The girls' birthday party was wonderful! Since the girls had no input and zero friends to invite, I figure this will be one of more easy birthday parties to plan for girls. (I can't say I'm looking forward to planning kid birthday parties, they seem so extravagant then what I was used to growing up!) Using the upstairs room at Henry of Pelham with lots of space and a large fireplace, we were able to replicate the cozy at home feeling we wanted, just with a lot more room. The girls looked beautiful in their dresses from my Mom's good friend Sandy. They showed off their crawling and happily were passed around by friends and family. I think the singing of Happy Birthday with a lit candle on a cake in front of them was the most exciting part for them as they both just stared at everyone singing!! While opening gifts the girls spent a lot of time reading their cards like books and I'm sure had no idea of the wonderful toys that would be coming home with us. 

Everyday Shawn and I are so grateful for all of the love and support we have for our little girls. Our friends and family are always so generous. As the saying goes, "It takes a village to raise a child."

Here are some pictures of the girls birthday party and actual birthday.

 

 Molly, Sophie and Abigail

The Birthday Girls Molly & Abigail

Molly with the finger test!

Now the official taste test!

Abigail enjoying her birthday cupcake

Investigating their birthday presents

Up She Goes!

Yesterday, Molly pulled herself up in the crib!! It was such a surprise I quickly called Shawn into their room. The past few weeks both girls have been bouncing on their knees and pulling themselves up to their knees using couches and tables. The past few days however Molly has been showing off her Captain Morgan pose on a regular basis! Today while we played together in the living room, Molly pulled herself up on the hardwood floor using the toy chest! After my first day back at school, it was wonderful to see her show off her new talent. With new heights there will be bigger falls, I think we may have some bumps and bruises in our future!!

It's Officially Over...

Upon learning about my blog, I often was asked the question "Where do you find the time?". A month ago I would have told you during naps or once they were in bed for the night. However, this past month with the end of my maternity leave approaching, things have gotten a little more busy in the Turcotte household. 

Since my last post about our trip to Ottawa the girls have changed so much. It was actually interesting for me to reflect upon all they have done in the past month. The girls continue to cut teeth with Molly sporting 8 teeth and Abigail showing off 5 chiclets. In Flavour Town the girls are virtually done eating pureed food, minus the yogurt and apple sauce they seem to enjoy. It is amazing to see how developed their pincer grasp has become, the girls are efficient little eaters now! We have also started them on a bit of homo-milk which they seem to enjoy. Both girls have fully mastered drinking through the straw on their sippy cups. Their motor skill development has also been amazing to watch. Abigail has fully abandoned her combat-army-worm crawl and is racing around on all fours. The girls now clap and stomp their feet while we sing "If You're Happy and You Know It". Pulling up to their knees and reaching for objects on coffee tables and sofas is common place, with a few attempts at pulling themselves upright. One of the most entertaining developments is the girls enjoyment of  playing peek-a-boo with one another while hiding underneath my black bathing suit sarong wrap. The girls will laugh and laugh together as they peek through the sheer material.

Our last big milestone is the elimination of our "Whale of a Good Time" baby bathtub. The girls are now happily playing and bathing together in the big tub. If we let them, I think the girls would play in the tub for hours. They scream, splash and shriek at one another while exploring the water, especially when it is pouring out of the faucet. It is definitely the highlight of our evenings!

 

Here is a picture of the girls playing away in the tub together! With my maternity leave coming to an end this weekend, fun times in the bathtub will something I look forward to every night with my girls!

Longest Road Trip Yet!

They're older now, they should be able to handle a longer road trip!

One of the unexpected surprises of our trip to Ottawa, Remembrance Day Weekend, was the Flavour Town adventure the girls experienced. Salina and Andrea introduced the girls to a variety of foods we hadn't thought to try with the girls. Cottage cheese, tofu, zucchini, and pumpkin soup were all on the menu, plus the girls had a lot of their food in small pieces as we continued to move away from some of the pureed food. It really is a marketing accomplishment that companies are able to convince parents to buy a baby bullet or special equipment to make baby food, when really the time spent eating pureed baby food is so short.

One thing illustrated by our road trip, was how beneficial having a routine is!! (Yes this is yet another post promoting routines!!) We were able to predict when the girls would need a nap or need to eat, which made planning very easy. The girls surprisingly transitioned well from place to place and slept will in the playpens.

A definite highlight of the trip for the girls was playing with Avea and Declan! The girls loved all of the new toys to play with and spent a lot of time watching to see what Avea and Declan would do. The experience also gave us a chance to see what to expect in the next few months! Life is going to get busy once they are on two feet!

While driving meltdowns seem to be the norm for our extended road trips, we made it five hours outside of Ottawa before Abigail started to lose her mind. In hindsight, thinking about how we frantically pulled over of the 407 with me trying to comfort a sobbing child, Shawn shouting for me to get back in the car before we get killed, us trying to find an exit to find a place to feed the girls, the whole scene was quite comical. As always, the humour is noted well after the experience! LOL As we drove the remaining hour home in blissful silence, we apologized to each other for losing our minds as much as Abigail did! Chalk this road trip up to another great adventure full of learning experiences.

The Feeding Frenzy Continues!

I clearly remember a time when the girls ate seven-eight times a day. Most days back then were a vicious cycle of formula mixing, baby feeding, bottle cleaning, sanitizing, repeat! It seemed endless and felt as though it consumed most of my days. There was nothing worse then getting ready to crawl into bed when you suddenly realized we needed to make formula for the next day. 

This week however, with the weaning of their afternoon bottle, the girls are down to just two bottles a day, one first thing in the morning and another one before bed. Although I haven't done as much reading on the topic of weaning as I would have liked, so far the girls have done really well. The removal of the afternoon bottle came as a result of me following their lead. Most days they seemed disinterested in stopping their play for a bottle and even then would only drink about a third of what I was offering. Now that we're down another bottle, the feeding frenzy has reach new heights!

New additions to the girls diet include cheese, cherry tomatoes, grapes, spaghetti with chicken (oh this goes down so much better now!) and toast strips. While the girls still hide more cheerios in their high chair than they eat, they are becoming masters of the pincer grasp!

 Abby loved spaghetti!

 Has anyone been as happy about eating spaghetti as Molly?

The Sippy Cup Selection

As the girls are approaching 11 months of age, we have begun introducing the sippy cup! I can almost see the light at the end of the tunnel. The end of formula making and bottle cleaning will likely be the greatest milestone accomplishment, second only to successful potty training!!

It's remarkable the endless sippy cup selection available to infants. Not only by colour, but some have handles, others have straws, sometimes you can put your child's name on them! When I attended an Eating Workshop put on by the Ontario Early Years Centre and Niagara Public Health they talked a lot about transitioning to drinking from a cup as early as 6 months. We have been trying water in a cup and it is super cute to see the girls make progress with this skill. 

Here is the selection of drinking cups we've tried with the girls, some were gifts, others we purchased ourselves for the girls to try.

 

Every baby is different but so far our girls seem to be most successful with cups with handles. They don't seem to understand the concept of having to suck on the spout to get the water out. Perhaps this is because they have been drinking out of little cups with help so they are used to the water just flowing. Whatever the reason, the girls seem to really like the Avent Revolutionary cup. It claims no spout, no straw, no mess...and while the first are true, we have had some wet pajamas from the girls releasing some water and then enthusiastically shaking their cup all around! LOL All joking aside, what I do like about the most recent addition to our sipply cup repertoire is that the girls can easily mimic drinking from a cup on their own by holding the handles and bringing the cup to their lips, when their upper lip gently presses on the release valve, water enters the cup drinking area and the girls can drink water exactly as if they were drinking from a cup. 

Here are the girls showing off their latest accomplishment!

 Abigail trying out her new green sippy cup!

 Molly mastering the art of sippy cup drinking!

Sharing a drink of water together!

Mini Vacation in Niagara Falls

This past week, the girls and I joined Daddy at his work conference to vacation in Niagara Falls! LOL The girls had a ton of fun exploring their new space (why is it they can always find the cords and electrical outlets???) I felt like a Sherpa carrying a 4 day supply of baby belongings up to our room, but I guess that's the price you pay for vacation with babies less than a year old! 

The Bumbo chairs make feeding time a lot easier when you're away from home and this hotel table had a convenient serving drawer! The girls really enjoy holding their own spoon during meals.

 This was the first time girls had ever seen Niagara Falls and it motivated a lot of standing and Abigail even pulled herself up!

 Molly standing on her own, enjoying the view!

 Abigail getting her first view of the Falls!

 Abigail standing on her own, looking at the Falls!

The girls looking out the window, Abigail has pulled herself up to get a better view!

The girls really enjoyed all of the exploring they were able to do in the hotel, plus they were a huge hit with Daddy's colleagues and all of the hotel staff!!

The girls are always making people smile, wherever they go!!

Turkette Talents

For the longest time the girls' talent list included sitting with assistance, rolling, pushing up on their arms, smiling and laughing. It felt as though months had passed at this phase of "staying in one place". Suddenly with the girls first attempts at crawling in mid-September, we've had an explosion of activity. With a little movement and exploring, the past three weeks the girls have mastered sitting unassisted, have perfected their crawling styles (Abigail is doing a modified worm and Molly is often up on all fours and moving with some speed), and exploring has reached new heights - who needs toys when there are vents and door stoppers to be had! It is amazing to watch the girls turn pages of board books (with one finger, ET style), they also move easily from sitting to crawling and back to sitting which we really appreciate because Abigail in particular had trouble mastering this skill resulting in transitions from sitting to crawling ending with a loud BONK! Quite possibly the most amazing thing to watch is the girls interacting with one another. They have just started to play peek-a-boo when under the table and chairs or around corners. We love hearing them laugh at one another especially if you're not in the room and have to go discover what they are finding so funny.

This morning the girls have been discovering the land of baby gates and lowered cribs. These safety precautions along with mounting the video camera monitors have resulted from our curious girls reaching so many new milestones in the past few weeks. With less than two months remaining in my maternity leave I'm looking forward to many new milestones in the coming weeks!

Put Your Hands Together

Clap, clap, clap, clap your hands! This week brings the art of clapping! Ever since the girls have figured out their hands can make noise when they smack them together, being in the sitting position brings on lots of clapping! I'm not sure what is more entertaining, listening to them clap or watching them laugh at each other once they start clapping together!!

A Week of Firsts!

This past week has been an exciting one for the girls, filled with many first time experiences. On Tuesday, the girls had their first ever swimming lesson at the St. Catharines Kiwanis Aquatic Centre! During class we realized we had a few friends in our class, Beth and Owen from our Baby and Mommy Yoga Class plus Edge and Darla with their twin boys! It's great to run into so many of our friends at different events for the girls.

The girls also returned their library books, got their own library card and signed out new books this week! Here is Abigail happily signing out new books for her and Molly!

Other new adventures this week include going to church and staying awake the entire time, trying yogurt and sitting independently for more than a few seconds. While there is still the unexpected tumble over while sitting, the girls are becoming much better at playing and sitting! Here are a few of our attempts this week!

 Abigail practices her sitting while looking at a book

Molly sitting and playing with a new toy

The new toy pictured with Molly was a great find at the Annual Mom to Mom sale by POMBA. This $5 race car has already proven to be a welcome addition to our toy supplies as the sound effects are highly entertaining. No one ever told me how sick I would get of hearing the same tunes over and over again. Now the girls can drive a race car, fill up for gas, get pulled over by the police and honk their horn....I give myself about a week before I regret this purchase. LOL

Our new car turned out to be the perfect motivation for Abigail to make some serious crawling attempts. Not to be outdone by Molly, Abigail is also pushing up on her knees with a bit of rocking. They both seem to be stuck in the wounded soldier drag at the moment. Abigail also cut her two bottom teeth this weekend (the same two Molly has), the first one came as a total surprise and was found when she decided to chop down on my finger yesterday! This morning we saw the second one coming through. Poor girl is in a bit of teething pain, but she's taking it like a champ!

Great week of firsts with the Turkettes, can't wait to see what next week brings!

1st Attempts at Crawling (and life before it!)

Life with the girls has hit a smooth patch. We know when they're hungry, we know when their tired! Sleeping through the night (with the odd teething difficulties) has become the norm, along with cereal and bananas as their breakfast. Our current daily discoveries include the odd new food, we just had a broccoli, pea, apple, brown rice combo that went over very well and we introduce a few new toys now and then. When I'm home alone with the girls as they play in the living room I've had the luxury of running downstairs to throw in a load of laundry, heading upstairs to the bathroom or making food in the kitchen. In July and August, Shawn and I could put the girls outside on their play mats with some toys and swim in the pool playing peek-a-boo with the girls. Oh the joys when they can't MOVE!

Then it happened....the rolling. Suddenly, hanging out on our bed or lounging by the pool became a distant reality. I would go into the kitchen and return to find one of the girls had rolled a few feet! We were warned "Wait until they start crawling!" You know what that means, baby gates, baby proofing, lots of baby chasing. So we spent a lot of time acknowledging our short-lived freedom! Our next noticeable progress was the girls using furniture and the carpet to either pull themselves or objects toward them. Our crafty little girls made us even more aware that our relaxing days were numbered. 

I've had fleeting thoughts of writing this post and baby proofing the house but yesterday I realized those thoughts need to be put into action. As we hung out with our friend Stefania, Molly, likely motivated by my cell phone, lap top mouse and chai tea latte, made a break for it. She made her first attempts at crawling towards the desired objects! A little pushing up with her knee, she was able to shove herself forward. After much excitement from Mommy and Daddy, the video camera was out and Molly was enticed with my cell phone. She managed to push herself up on all fours, do a little bit of rocking and move forward a couple of feet. It was totally awesome!!! What an amazing thing to see them trying something new and struggling with figuring it out.

Here are some pictures of Molly's crawling attempts in action!

 The "up on all fours, wow, check me out"

The "lunge forward" (female pushup position)

 The "face plant" need to try again phase

Time for me to start crawling around my living room so I know what needs to be baby proofed! Life as we know it is about to change again!

Predicting a Tooth's Arrival

Monday morning, we woke to discover a second tooth had made an appearance in Molly's mouth! She now proudly sports both of her lower central incisors, more commonly referred to as her bottom middle teeth! Although one is more visible, you can certainly feel both of them and they are surprisingly sharp! No wonder they hurt so much coming through.

The arrival of Molly's second tooth could have been predicted by her poor moaning in the middle of the night. It was clear she was in pain and needed a bit more comfort than usual to settle back down to sleep! The Hyland's Teething Tablets have been a big help, but this night called for a little baby Tylenol to help her through the pain!

Tonight, Abigail has been fussing several times with very similar moaning, "I'm in pain Mommy!" sounds. If I had to predict what was going on, I'd guess we can expect Abigail to be sporting a chiclet in the near future!!