One and a half!

Holy cow. I can't believe Killian and Payton are 18 months old today! Not only are they signing up a storm (they sign about 90 words), they are talking SO MUCH! One day, about 5 or 6 weeks ago, they just woke up one day and started saying all these words. I think they are speaking close to 70 or 80 words. They are like little parrots. They repeat everything we say to them. They even say "blueberry" and "medicine" and "emergency". Okay they don't say it perfectly - but they try! It's like that Dairy Queen commercial where the baby says "antidisestablishmentarianism". American Sign Language continues to be their first language, but their verbal skills are catching up. I especially think it's cool that the speaking has not replaced the signing. If they say a word that they sign, they do both together. So, if they say "more" they are signing it and saying the word at the same time.

Jacey and Bryleigh have been keeping busy with summer camp. Jacey attended softball camp last week. And next week she will be going to a sleep-away YMCA camp for 8 days and Bryleigh will be attending a local horseback riding camp for the week. They go swimming every day at their regular camp, and go on a weekly field trip. So far this summer they have been to the zoo, the beach, Knotts Berry Farm and Raging Waters.

It's been crazy getting them all in different places every morning before work. There have been two weeks so far this summer that I have three separate drop-offs and pick-ups before and after work. Thank goodness I have the best job ever and they are so accommodating. It doesn't hurt that I work at a school too, so the summer hours are super flexible. I guess it's just good practice for the upcoming school year, where I will have three different drop-offs (two different schools for the girls, and my moms for the twins) every morning.

Chris and I went on vacation last week! Just the two of us! That is the first time we've gone away for more than 24 hours in over 2 years. The twins stayed with my mom for two nights and 3 days. We went to Havasu for one of our best friend's 30th birthday. It was a lot of fun and very relaxing. Although it was nice to get away and have a break, I was so ready to come home. I missed the kids more than I can describe. The five hour drive home was terrible, I just wanted to get back to them as soon as possible. The twins have so much fun at Grandma and Papa's house, I don't think they realized we were gone for so long. And Chris and I are very strict with them, so they had a lot of fun at Grandma's where they can get away with a lot more. :)

We had a bit of an emergency yesterday. Payton had an accident while playing outside at my mom's house. Not 5 minutes after arriving for my mom's birthday party, Payton walked into Bryleigh's spinning hula hoop. It hit her eyelid and cut it. We spent a few hours in the emergency room. She didn't need stitches, the doctor just taped it up. I think it looks a lot worse than it is or feels to her. She doesn't seem to be in any pain, although it does look very uncomfortable. Payton is a tough kid. She's totally crazy and wild and seems to have a high tolerance for pain. She jumps off of furniture, sometimes head first, and she loves to play rough. While in the waiting room at the ER, she was climbing onto the tables & chairs and doing headstands on the ground - all while her eye is bleeding and swelling. Although I hope this was the last trip to the ER we'll have to make with her, I wouldn't bet on that. I didn't put pictures of her injury on this page, as some of you may not want to see it. But if you do, you can go here to see them. A warning that if you are squeamish when it comes to injuries, you may not want to look at them.

I have A LOT of pictures on this post. Enjoy....

Eating with our new "big kid" plates.

Payton's bath time.

Signing "dirty"

Cuties

At Uncle Sean and Aunt Dena's house.

Payton loves to collect things

Guitar Hero

Playing with Daddy

Killian with his cousin Michael (1 month old)

Grandma's birthday present. Canvases with each of the kids' handprints. From redenvelope.com

Cuteness

Shenanigans

First; Catching up - Here are a few pictures of Jacey's 6th grade promotion from last month.

Jacey is in the middle, being recognized for community service.


Getting her diploma from the principal. Can you see how happy this lady is that she doesn't have to deal with Jacey's shenanigans anymore?!


Jacey and me.



Okay, some big news! We have a new baby nephew / cousin! Michael Dominick Ryan was born on June 18, 2008, weighing in at a healthy 8 lbs., 14 oz.! He's SO freak'n cute an we love him so much. Mommy and Daddy (Dena and Sean) are doing well. We took a trip down to see him when he was 10 days old. Killian and Payton just loved him. They pat his head, touched his feet, tried to give him cups of water and were very interested in his bottle! Here are a couple pictures of the new little dude.







Our 4th of July was pretty mellow. I had it in my head that we just had to do something "fun" during the day, so Chris and I decided to take Killian and Payton to the LA Zoo. My first choice would have been to go the Long Beach Aquarium, because it was supposed to be pretty warm, in the 90s, and the aquarium is mostly indoors so you stay cool on hot days. Well, that's like 45 minutes away on a good day. We decided not to take our chances with traffic on the 5 on a holiday, and we stayed local. The LA Zoo is less than 10 minutes from us. And I had free passes to the zoo that I got back in January when we were going to take K&P on their first birthday, but got rained out. So anyway, we were out the door by 11:30, and by the time we got to the zoo it wasn't too hot yet.

If you have never been to the LA Zoo, this place is a concrete jungle. There is NO breeze in the entire zoo, it's all uphill (I don't know how that's possible, but it's seriously ALL UPHILL!), and like 50% of it is under construction right now. (BTW; If you haven't been in over a year, they tore down the reptile house due to termite infestation! I suppose they are rebuilding it, but that was one of my favorite things there.) Okay, so we're in the pits of hell at the zoo, it's like 101 degrees, Killian and Payton are NOT happy that they have to get in an out of the stroller to see an empty lot of dirt where an animal should be but their not because they are smart enough to hide in their cool indoor eating area, and they are sweating and red and very very pissed (K&P, not the animals). I don't remember exactly what I said to prompt it, but Chris responded, "Do you want to leave?" and I jumped all over that! We were in and out of the zoo within an hour. Back at home by 1:00 in our air conditioned living room, popped in a DVD and did nothing for the rest of the day!

Note to self: Don't even think that taking K&P to the zoo is a good idea until they are at least 4 years old and it's exactly 68 degrees.

At 9:00 at night we walked outside to the sidewalk and watched the fireworks from the local high school. K&P actually liked them. They got bored with them about half way through, when they started being very interested in the other people standing around, a trash can, and a car across the street. No pictures were taken, no cute 4th of July shirts were worn. What is wrong with me? Am I losing it!? I'll make up for it on Halloween! :)

Here are some pictures of Killian enjoying some yogurt, and Payton with Jacey's shoes, to hold you over.

Easily Amused

It's so funny how excited I get about the little things these days. Okay, I've always been very easily amused, but life with twins has taken that to an entirely new level. Every day they are saying new words, signing new words, loving new foods and doing tons of new things. New words they are saying this week include Mess, Please, Rice, Nemo (as in Finding Nemo), Red, Orange, the letter "O", Turtle, Bye-Bye and Mine! Not only do they say "mine", but they point to themselves as they say it, so they understand what it means. I've added a few more words to their signing list too. They follow two commands at a time, like "Get your blanket and bring it to Mommy" or "Find your water and put it in the diaper bag". They are also signing two or more words together and signing mini sentences. Like, "More Banana Please" or "Daddy's Car".

The most exciting thing that happened this week was they went down in their cribs for a nap! This has never happened before. (Have you noticed that the most exciting things that happen in our house have to do with sleep?) Since getting rid of the swing, I have been putting them down for their mid-day naps in their infant car seats. Usually in front of a Baby Einstein DVD. Every once in a while I would try to put them in their cribs, but they would cry and cry so I would eventually just go get them and then nap time was all screwed up for the rest of the day. Well, yesterday I had it with the short naps they were taking (which makes for very grumpy toddlers at about 4pm), and I put them in their cribs, turned some soft music on, told them that they were going to lay down and take a nap, gave them kisses, and left the room. Killian cried for a while, I went in to check on them once, and within 10 minutes they were both sound asleep! Oh My Gosh! I thought I was in a Twilight Zone or something. They were actually taking naps in their cribs in the middle of the day! I wanted to call everyone and tell them what an amazing feat this was! I did call Chris and tell him - he didn't think it was as cool as I did. LOL.

The nighttime sleeping is going well, although they've been waking up at about 4:30am the last few days. Needless to say, by 3:00 in the afternoon I'm wiped out. Payton had a bit of a setback with the going to sleep in her crib a few nights ago, but it was short lived, and she's back to laying down and going to sleep at bedtime now.

We haven't dropped that morning bottle yet - I actually haven't even attempted it. I'm not looking forward to how that's going to work. The pediatrician says they should be off the bottle by 18 months, so I still have about 4 weeks before they hit that age.

I took a day off work last week and we all went to the Aquarium of the Pacific . K&P LOVED putting their hands in the touch pools and touching the starfish, sea urchins, rays and sharks! Yes - they touched the sharks. They loved it! :) Besides the touching pools, I think Payton's favorite exhibit was the puffins, and Killian's was watching the SCUBA diver. Jacey and Bryleigh fed the Lorikeets and they had birds landing on them. Killian really wanted to touch one of the birds, but he didn't have sugar water, so they didn't want anything to do with him. I'm pretty bummed I didn't get many pictures of them enjoying it. It's hard to take pictures while trying to keep them from diving into the touching pools at the same time. I bought an annual family pass, so we will be going back a lot this year. I'm sure I'll get some good pictures eventually.

Oh, and thank you so much to my friends Tanya and Jill who took me out to dinner for my 32nd birthday! I had an awesome time! I love you guys!

Diaper dilemma

Yes, two posts in one day, and no, I'm not sick, I just don't feel like editing the previous post. This is a funny a story, I thought you may want to laugh at my expense.

This morning was rough. Killian didn't sleep well last night, which means I didn't sleep well either. We were all cranky and tired and by the time their morning nap time came around, I was ready to take one too! I was really looking forward to it actually. So, at 10:30, they'd eaten breakfast and were ready for their nap. I put them down and they would not stop screaming, especially Killian. I went and checked on them every 5 minutes, then after the third check-in, I realized that Killian was crying because he was pooping. I knew there were no diapers downstairs because I had to use the two in the diaper bag earlier in the morning, so I went into the girls' room to get another pack. Well, there weren't any!

Someone else in the house must have pulled the last pack of diapers from my usually well-stocked stash, therefore I didn't know we were using the last of them. And my monthly delivery of diapers from diapers. com was not scheduled to arrive until at least tomorrow!

So, I have two very tired babies, one with poop - oops - make that TWO with poop by this time - one tired mommy who is still in her pajamas and hasn't brushed her teeth, and we all have to make a very necessary trip to the grocery store.

Thank goodness that I didn't pack up and give to charity the lot of cloth diapers I used as burp rags for the first year! I was able to make temporary diapers out of them, held up by their shorts. I think they actually liked them too! I'm sure they were more comfortable than the disposables. For a second I thought, "I should switch to cloth diapers for the remainder of their diaper days." But, then I remembered Jacey's time in cloth diapers - and then I came back to reality!

Okay, so we made it to the store and back....with no accidents....the make-shift diapers worked)!

Here they are FINALLY sleeping in their stroller after we returned. And I didn't get my nap. :)