Sharing is caring

Sharing in our household has come a verrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrry lonnnnnnnnnnngggg way.

As you can imagine, they had to learn sharing early on. Well at least Ava did; at one-year-old. And today, I can say, she is the best sharer I know. In ballet class today, they had a Halloween party. One of the little girls' moms prepared a bunch of Halloween goodie bags for the ballerinas. Well Emma is not a ballerina anymore due to her shyness/age and did not receive a bag.

Ava was so willing to share with Emma today. I asked her to share with her and she did it... like above and beyond. She gave Emma the only chocolate candy (M&Ms) and shared the 2-pack Starburst candies with her too! I was so proud and smiling from ear-to-ear.

She is the perfect big sister and the perfect sister for Emma. Because if all of that sharing didn't happen, Emma would of been rolling on the ground whining, crying for candy with snotty, red eyes.

Potty girl Emma!

What's up with child #2 doing and wanting to do everything early? And especially if it's your last??!!

That's Miss Emma I'm talking about. I swear she was just born last year. She's going to be 2 soon! So obviously- we're thinking about potty training. Ava is fully potty trained and has the occasional accident at night since she sleeps in her big girl underwear.

Emma has been requesting to wear big girl underwear lately with her soft-spoken words. Last night she pulls off her underwear (not the traditional way, she pulls down from the front and looks down and is surprised why it's not off yet) and pulls off her diaper. She then proceeds to say "pee pee" and sits down on the potty. This girl wanted to sit on the potty with no diaper on for a half an hour. Girlfriend!!!! I don't have 30 minutes! It's bed time! ;) I have a million things to do! (Like watch TV right up until daddy gets home and I gotta make his dinner. haha)

I'm ready with the skills I need to get the girl trained. But I'm not ready emotionally for my baby to be potty trained.

Two under two-and-a-half

Hi, my name is Amory and my husband's name is Martin, and we have a two-and-a-half-year-old; and a one-and-a-half-year-old. WOW! How did that happen?!

Here's an update on our amazing girls' stats!!!

Ava

You are amazing! You are finally potty trained to the max. Sleep in big girl underwear and have zero accidents during the day (we are working on the nighttime). You are in a big girl bed since you just figured out how to climb out of yours just a few weeks ago! The transition was a lot easier than I had expected! And I want to thank Emma for that, because when you were trying to abuse your freedom-- you'd just innocently open the door softy and shut it softy. :)

You talk so much! Show and vocalize great concern for others and others' feelings. My favorites are you say "thank you," "you're welcome," "sorry," etc. without any prompting. And you say "bless you" when someone sneezes-- one of my favorites. Another one of my favorites is when I ask Emma something and you follow with "you okay, Emma?! You okay???" You are shy around others, but aren't shy to give hugs when prompted to. You LOVE your grandparents and great-grandparents. You and your Nana have a great bond too. Well, both your Papas (Papa Ouchie-wah-wah and Papa Abuelo), you have great bonds with too.

We are working on clean-up time and not physically fighting with your sister.

Emma

You are amazing too!!! You have grown so much in the past six months. In the past month!!!! You say words, but it's still in baby worded talk. You have mastered "MINE" and "NO!" though. You follow and do everything Ava does. You try and put your shoes on when we are leaving. It's just amazing what you do!!!

You LOVE animals. You stop dead in your tracks when you see another dog when we're getting into the car. You love your Lucy and kitty. You love your Papas and have grown closer to your Nana. You don't like it when I leave you places.... like you are going through separate anxiety again at a later age. You run and you are fast!!! You really understood Christmas-- for what a one-and-a-half-year-old can understand. You point out Santa and say it over and over again. And you pulled tiny little pieces of wrapping paper and handed them off on every, single present. It was fun to watch. :)

We are working on not pulling hair and saying "please" and thank you." :)

Photo credit: Elevenorchids (They do AMAZING work. Check them out at Elevenorchids.com)

Mine

Mine mine mine mine mine mine mine minemine minemineminemineminemine!!!!!!!!

Sorry had to get that out because that's all I hear nowadays. From both of them.

Emma just says it to say it. Everything is hers. Wait, everything is Ava's. Now-- actually it's mommies and daddies. :) Especially our phones and the remote control.

A WOO HOO!

Well! We've made it! We've made it to no longer preparing and washing bottles for Emma AND no more pull-ups for Ava!!!!!!!!!!

A WOO HOO!

One of the happiest days of my life was today at lunch when I realized that these two things no longer exist in my world!

Ava has been doing great peeing on the potty (poop in another thing for some reason, she stopped doing it on the potty when we put the 'big girl' underwear on her). Three things I learned: 1) Thick underwear only makes them think they are wearing diapers, you have to put the big girl underwear on only (daddy figured this one out!); 2) you have to have a variety of candy for them to choose one, including ALL of their faves; 3) peer pressure is very important when potty training. If one does it, they all do it. This was proven to me when we were visiting one of my friends' house with a little girl the same age who was introduced to the potty, but not yet in the pull-ups. Well she peed three times on that potty while we were there! Same with my niece-- everytime she went on the potty, Ava HAD to too!

I'm hoping Emma will be quick to learn! As you know, she joins the party everytime we hit the bathroom and gets very mad if we leave her with daddy in her high chair at a restaurant. :)

Emma was a piece of cake to take off the bottle, which we did about 2 months ago. The nighttime bottle I kept, because, well because, I thought she was soothed by it and loved it. That ended this past weekend and there was no fuss. What a good girl! :)

What is weird, is that I miss hitting the baby section of Target. I miss shopping for baby foods and I miss shopping and thumbing through my coupons for the best deal on wipes and diapers!!! I am so bizarre, I know it! :) And no, no pictures of my girl on the potty to show on the page. They are still on the digital camera waiting to be downloaded. :)

Gotta have a variety!

Ava has now been sans Pull-Ups as of Wednesday and is doing great!!!!! Upon pick-up Tuesday night, Paola, our lovely day care provider, informed me that Ava had been wearing 'big girl underwear' all day without any accidents. So Wednesday was the day! The first two days weren't the funniest, and I *almost* put her back in the diapers/Pull-Ups, but I didn't.

Wednesday was the worst of it. Seriously. We were running around shopping for Christmas presents and our last stop was Costco. She peed right on the toy isle. Nice. I was embarassed and husband was d-o-n-e. It was only her first day, poor little girl. So we continue running the girl to the store potty, changing her clothes in the parking lot, and sitting in dirty restrooms waiting for her to go 'pee-pee in tha pottay!'

One word of advice for those that are training.... given up on training for a while... or are going to start soon. GET A VARIETY OF CANDY!!!! M&M's will work for a while, lollipops will work but will make a messy baby! Reese's are the fave right now, but weren't doing it on Saturday. So my advice to all you mommies and daddies-- get a variety of candy! Skittles, M&M's, Whoopers, Reese's, Tootsie rolls, etc. because your child will get bored with the same old sticker/M&M dance. Trust me. :)

Ava did and I accommodated her resisting and now she's having less accidents by day. WOO HOO! Let's keep this going little girl and hopefully Miss Emma will be a piece of cake.

Slippers, tutus and princess shoes

So I think we're about to embark on the "I only want to wear my princess dress-up gear and slippers to day care" round with Ava.

Is this when it's suppose to start? I mean, I love that she wants to wear her tutu around the house when she dances. Or that she LOVES her Princess Belle shoes and wears them constantly.

But really? Really at 7:58 a.m. when we should of left at 7:55 a.m., you want to throw a tantrum on the floor because I won't let you wear your kitty slippers to day care??!!!"

Is this happening to anyone else? Or when did this start to happen? Help!!!! All advice will be taken and used. :) And how do you keep your composer without yelling at the poor little princess, because I sure did fail at that one!

And little sweet Emma, just sits and drinks her milk and holds her duckie (lovie) and waits by the door while all of this is going on. Gotta love 16 month old girls with older sisters. Because I know she'll be acting up like that in no time!

Stats!

Every other blog I read does an age/month milestone and I'm going to copy them. Since this blog, which I hope people enjoy and read, is for my memory. Since after birthing two children, I have lost! :)

Ava, when people ask me how old you are, I immediately say two! because you are, in fact, two years old (27 months). Adjusted age you are just over two years old (25 months) since for those of you don't know, she was born at 32 weeks and the docs go by her "adjusted age."

Ava, you are amazing! AMAZING! You sing songs in the car when we are driving. Your faves are the Beatles and Lady Gaga. You love to sing the 'alright!' song (Here Comes the Sun) and Miss Lady Gaga's "Bad Romance." You can do a full summer salt (summersalt?? sp?). You like to jump and have "dance parties" where you strip all of your clothes off and run in circles around the room. You say a huge amount of words. You ask a lot of questions. You share great concern for Emma when she is crying or when she gets hurt. But you don't hesitate to shove her out of your way if you want what she has. You love to talk to her when you first wake up in the morning. Your favorite foods are 'eggies' and toast in the morning and you love a big glass of milk. You love pizza and have associated 'daddy pizza.' You are the little mommy of the house and repeat everything I say when disciplining your sister! We love you so much and we are so proud of you that you have overcome obstacles since the first minute you were born. You are our sunshine!

Emma! Emma you are now 15 months and you are mobile! You have started to get the hang of running/walking fast. You now don't like to be held unless you are tired. You take priviledge in walking from our house to the car without assistance. You are the sweetest little sister Ava could of ever asked for. You are, in fact, her little shadow. When it's time to go 'pee pee on tha pottay' you are the first one in the bathroom sitting on the little stool. You sign 'more' when you want more of something and you can say 'kittttttiiieeee,' 'ump ump' (pumpkin), mama, dada, 'sssssss' (Lucy) and more. I think 'ump kin' is our favorite. You have started sleeping through the night! WOO HOO!! You sleep with your butt up in the air and not with many blankets. You have taken to your ducky lovey that Auntie Kirsten bought for you (the cow that Ava carries around is from Auntie Kirsten too!) You aren't much of a sweets girl, but you love french fries, pizza, peaches, peas and a good, warm glass of milk! We love you Emma. You are a blessing that at first, was in disguise, but we cannot imagine our lives without you.

Terrible twos, threes and fours

Now, having a 2- and 1-year-old, is much different than having a 2- and 4- year old. In my opinion, of a momma of Irish twins. (Which at any age, kids are hard and have different levels of terrible whatever!)

When Emma came home from the hospital when Ava turned one just a couple days before, Ava immediately turned into the terrible twos, little girl. She was biting, hitting, grinding her teeth, etc. because she didn't know what 'jealous' was or what it meant.. obviously! She was ONLY one-year-old!!!!

Now having Emma who is almost 15 months, while her sister is two-years-old, Emma is going through the terrible twos. Why? Because her sister is two. And she mimics EVERYTHING her sister does. I'm guessing? How is this fair??

Now for the record, everyone should know that Emma is a blessing from above and has graced our presence with much laughter and love. But she was not planned. I was on the 'mini' pill you take when you are breastfeeding which is not exactly 99% effective, it's not even 95%. I think it's 92% effective. So in no way we planned her pregnancy, but embraced it. So I'm just rambling about something that I have/had no control of (their ages so close together).

Now we all hear and anticipate with horror the 'terrible twos,' but I've heard it gets harder. Harder each year! Does anyone agree? How does it get harder? What are we suppose to anticipate?

I will anticipate that every year the girls get bigger and older, it will get harder. But we will master shortcuts. But as I watch the two of them right now, the play together. They fight. But they also love each other. They hug each other, kiss each other and show concern for the other. Ava makes sure that Emma is awake every morning. Emma follows Ava around everywhere.

And we love it.

We have (had) a walker

Just a reminder to myself-- we haven't had a crawler in about a month in a half-- she officially started walking Aug. 12. Dashing from couch to couch.. and now.... she is veryyy fast! And sneaky! That little girl was just shy of 13 months and was a walker. Ava started walking at 14 months.

When did your kids start walking?

Did it seem as soon as your kids turned one year old, everyone and their mom starting asking-- so is she/he walking yet??!?!