Allison Claire

Age:  3.5 Years Old

Personality: Serious at first, however once she has checked you out or has become familiar with the situation she is silly and goofy.  Really cares for and about others.

Favorite Food: Candy (i.e. her treat bag).  Yogurt, especially when mixed into a Smoothie. Chicken Nuggets with plenty of ranch dressing. Churros at Costco. Everything else can be hit or miss.

Likes: Building towers with blocks, playing dress-up, doing workbooks, playing games, doing puzzles, and watching TV. She is a bit of a homebody and would much rather stay home and veg.

Dislikes: Cleaning up her room, being told it is bed time and Mia hitting her with either her hands or innumerable thrown projectiles.

Relaxes by:  Having her back rubbed at bed time and snuggling with her Mom (and watching TV is high up there too.)  Also likes rubbing soft fabrics (like blankets or her pajamas) over her lips.

Allison is really into helping out in the kitchen when we are preparing meals. Once the meal is ready, she will announce to everyone that it is "Eating Time."

Amelia Ann

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Age: 2 years old

Personality:  Is full of personality, whether she is happy, sad, or mad.

Favorite Food:  As long as she doesn't hear Allison say "ewww" to a food, she is pretty much willing to try anything. She loves spaghetti and will usually have three bowls full - two for her and one for the floor. Also loves yogurt.

Likes:  Playing with her Little People sets.  Coloring (or more likely than not, tearing the paper off her color crayons.) Reading books in her crib at night. Singing songs at bedtime - she especially loves "Old McDonald" and the "Wheels on the Bus."  Making funny faces by sticking out her tongue and stretching her face with her hands.

Dislikes: Being told "No."

Relaxes by:  Looking at books and cuddling with her blankets. We have been able to get her to snap out of bad meltdowns by sitting in the rocking chair with her books and blankets.

Amelia loves life to the fullest. We will often see her dancing to the music that is playing in her head or twirling in circles over and over again. When she eats something she loves, she closes her eyes and expresses her delight by saying "yummm" with a big grin on her face. She loves giving kisses and has the best laugh.

When she is mad, watch out. She has some fierce temper tantrums, although we are learning ways we can deal with them, or more importantly, prevent them. She loves her blankets and has developed a "Linus habit" these past few weeks. She carries them around the house and wants to take them everywhere with her. Luckily at an early age, I started rotating her blankets with various receiving blankets, so hopefully we never have to worry about losing her one favorite must-have blanket.

Yes, We Are Crazy

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A few days ago I posted on my Facebook page "My girls are so darn cute, I can't stand it sometimes." It was an impromptu post.  Allison had just told me that she had to go potty and that Amelia was going to hold her hand. So off they went, shuffling along holding hands. Amelia looked so proud of herself being able to help out her big sister. If I want them to behave while we are out in public, I tell them to hold hands and they take this very seriously. Although sometimes only one of the girls will take it seriously, leaving the other sister either screaming "HOLD MY HAND!!!" (that would be Mia) or the other sister crumpled on the floor in a heap, crying "she won't hold my hand", truly distraught that her sister isn't cooperating (that would be Allison).

Watching the two of them interact has been so much fun. Allison has become more motherly these past few weeks. The other day, Amelia knocked her head on something and it made a loud noise. Allison quickly rushed to her side "Awww....hawney....you OK? It's OK hawney. Poor baby"   At dinner time, Allison is insistent that Amelia eats some of her dinner before Mia is allowed to drink her milk, she will go as far as to hide Mia's cup. 

Amelia is watching Allison intently and trying to figure out what she is doing. Sometimes she is fine sitting on the sidelines watching and other times Amelia has be be right there doing exactly when Allison is doing.

I would love to find all the people who told us that we were crazy to have the two so close in age. I would tell them we are crazy - crazy in love with these two adorable girls who are the light of our lives.

Happy New Year

Brian and I threw a little party for the girls to celebrate New Year's Eve. While Brian was at work earlier that day, the girls and I bought some decorations.  Allison knew we were going to have a party and kept asking all day when we could have the party and we told her after dinner.  We were originally going to go out to dinner that night and then look at Christmas lights but decided to stay home based on behaviors of going out to lunch the day prior (including me spilling ice-cold pop down my lap) and that both Brian and I were sick with colds.

After dinner, we played some games including Wii, which was the first time Allison played it at our house. She learned how to play the Go Diego Go game that Santa had brought her and Amelia.  We then changed into our PJs and the girls tested out their noise makers which was hilarious because they couldn't get any sound out of them at first. Promptly at 8 pm, we had our countdown and had some fun throwing the "confetti". The girls had a ball.

After we put the girls to bed, Brian and I made some appetizers for dinner and had some drinks. Around 11 pm, I cried "Uncle" and admitted defeat and went off to bed.

I Would Like a Refund Please...

these noise makers don't seem to work.

Bedtime Songs

One of my favorite times of day is bedtime. I love our routine of reading books, singing songs, and cuddling. I also love listening to Amelia on the baby monitor after we put her to bed. 

To prepare herself to fall asleep, Allison will pull up the collar of her PJs and rub them against her lips. She likes to cuddle with her blanket and zone out.  Amelia, on the other hand, needs to get out any last minute talking or stories she may have stored up during the day. Since she has been able to sit up on her own, we have always had to put a small toy or book in bed with her and give her some time to play on her own.

The past few weeks she has been really active at bedtime. I crack up each night listening to her talk. A few weeks ago, I could hear Allison call out for Amelia and Amelia responded back by shouting "dada?" (a.k.a. Allison).  This went back and forth a few times until Amelia yelled out "I'm in my room!" in response to Allison calling out for her. I'm still waiting for the start of Allison venturing out of her room for some late night visits to Amelia's room.

Bedtime was a little chaotic tonight, so we didn't sing bedtime songs. After we put the girls to bed, we had the baby monitor on and we could hear Amelia talking to herself.  All of sudden we head "nkle nkle little starrrrr, how I pause pause"  "bove the world so high, like a diamon in the sky, nkle, nkle, little starrrrr, how I pause pause"  And then we heard  "eee, I, eeh, I, ohh. With a moo moo here and a moo moo there."  There's nothing like a toddler's tune to put things right in our hectic world.

A Christmas Celebration

We had a wonderful Christmas this year. We kicked off Christmas Eve morning by giving the girls their Christmas PJs. We hope to make this an annual tradition. Allison and Amelia then wrote their letters to Santa Claus and picked out cookies for him.  After naptime, we headed to my parents' house for a big turkey dinner and a family celebration. The girls had a blast playing with all their cousins.  We then headed back to our house - luckily for the first time in several years the weather was nice and the trip took about an hour and a half.

On Christmas morning we woke up and had breakfast. The girls didn't realize that Santa had brought them presents, as our tree is located in the basement rec room. This gave us some time to relax and enjoy breakfast.

When we headed downstairs, the girls we shocked to find a train table in the rec room. They had fun opening their presents.  After nap, we headed over to Brian's parents house where we celebrated with his family, including his brother and family who had flown in from Arizona to celebrate the holidays with the family. It was nice being able to celebrate Christmas with them after a two-year hiatus.

We were very blessed to be able to celebrate Christmas with both of our families. I love that our girls are able to grow up with extended families that care about them so much and are able to experience such wonderful Christmas memories.

A Call to Santa

Hi Santa, it's me Allison.



"So, you are saying that I should be good and share my toys?"

"I can't hear you anymore Santa. I think we have a bad connection."



Here Mia, the phone is for you!



Nite Lights

A few weeks ago, we brought the girls to Nite Lites, a Christmas light display at the local baseball stadium. The driving path is about a mile long and has over a million lights.  When we paid our admission, the gentleman told us that we could go through a second time if we wanted; all we needed to do was tell him our favorite display.  The girls really liked the displays and were excited to see all the lights. After we made our first trip through, we drove back to the admission booth and told the attendant that we liked the dragon and the dinosaur displays the best and he let us through for a second viewing. About 10 seconds in, just past the point of no return, Allison started whining that she didn't want to go through again and that she wanted a snack.  I didn't think to pack anything along since we had stopped for dinner immediately before coming to Nite Lites.  It didn't take 30 seconds of listening to her whine when I began to frantically search through the diaper bag for any kind of snack. Luckily I found two rolls of Smarties.   I turned around and gave the candy to each of the girls and said "HERE! EAT YOUR CANDY, BE QUIET, AND LOOK AT THE PRETTY CHRISTMAS LIGHTS."  And with that, I sat back in my seat, turned on Christmas music, and enjoyed the rest of the show.