Half-way to Three!!

A.K.A., today is B&K's half birthday. On Friday the 13th. {just like their first birthday was on Friday the 13th. coooool.}

Lots of changes on the horizon over these next 6 months. In 2 weeks B&K will be moved into "big beds" -- we decided to go the real bed route and forgo toddler beds. So stay tuned for room makeover pictures. Then following that we'll attempt potty-training (though, personally,I don't mind if B&K stay in diapers until they are in kindergarten. Peer pressure will potty-train them, right? Yeah, soooo not looking forward to the PT stage).

In other big news, we learned yesterday that B&K have been accepted into the NEW 2 day program at BEARS preschool (when we got the email yesterday I told Tim it was like they've been accepted into Harvard or something. Too funny!). We've had them enrolled in a one day program since the spring, but there was such an interest this summer to add a 2nd day to the program that the administrators decided to give it a whirl. But enrollment into the 2nd day was first-come, first-serve, so we've been on pins & needles ever since we requested the 2nd day {Ok, not really, but it still was some excitement}. So now they will be in school Tuesday & Friday mornings starting in September (and yes, we are still keeping our wicked awesome nanny, Ashley. She'll just have some much deserved time to herself these mornings).

We were so excited to get the proofs from our mini session with Britt Lakin Photography earlier this week. Seriously, Britt is amazing. Let's just say one of our children (and I won't name names) wasn't in the mood to be photographed that day, but you would never know it based on this pictures. Ok, maybe in one of these pictures you could tell . . . but I LOVE it nonetheless! She captures their personalities so well! I highly, highly, highly recommend her if you live in the Columbus (or surrounding) area. And you should look her up on Facebook, too . . . she has these "mini-session" photo parties every so often and they are a great deal!

Wicked Fair Day

Last weekend was full of fun activities. A few of my bestest friends and I had been planning a fun day out for a while (actually, it started out as a weekend trip away, but for various reasons we ended up staying local). As I'm sure you can imagine, trying to coordinate the schedules of six uber busy MoMs was no small feat (esp. when you also need to coordinate with the dads so they can be on kid duty), so after months of discussion the 7th was the only day we could all make it happen. Brunch with mimosas, mani & pedis, staying in a hotel (for some of us), fun delicious dinner and seeing Wicked were all on the agenda. The weather was fabulous and we all had a great time catching up (several of us had not seen each other in MONTHS!). I've said this a million times before, but I would have lost what little sanity I have left a long, long time ago if it weren't for these BFFs.

A bit of pampering before our festivities:




The group of hot mamas (13, yes THIRTEEN, kids between the six of us. And for four of us our children were born within a month of each other!! So cool to have each other to turn to!):





While all of the girlie fun was going on, Tim was holding down the fort at home. And from what I understand, B&K and Tim had a fabulous time. He was brave enough to plan a trip to the Ohio State Fair (with Nana & Papa in tow) . . . especially noble considering, like me, Tim hates crowds (or as I like to say: I hate people!). It was on the hot side, but B&K had loads of fun riding rides and eating bad fair food and drinking slurpie frozen drinks. Some mother's nightmare (gasp!! A slurpie!?!), but for our kids it was a fun "treat". :)













We're gearing up for another fun, busy weekend! Aunt Elaine, Uncle Brian and Tim's cousin Brian are all coming to town for the weekend. We'll be shopping a bit, eating out and grilling at our house. Hopefully the 90+ degree weather takes a break for the weekend!

Behavior

This is a common scene around here. Buzz & Toodee are not just sitting on the couch. They are in "time out" -- Kendyll's new favorite game. She LOVES to put all of her dolls & friends in time out. It starts with a small pat on the bum (which I'm not sure where she gets this from as we don't normally spank); then she tells whomever that they are "bad" to go to "time out". She leaves them there for a second or two, then goes to rescue them and makes them tell everyone in the room they are sorry for whatever wrong they did. "Mommy, Toodee sorry!".

Where have we been??

Geesh here I go again being all MIA. Hmm, what's new . . .

B&K are still doing great in their own rooms. Kendyll has a bit of drama going to bed at night (mainly because she just doesn't want to stop playing), but otherwise all is hunky dory. Grandma & Grandpa Z came to town last weekend to hang with B&K while Tim had "Man Day" and I did a yard sale and went out with some friends Saturday night. This past week was super busy . . . things are heating up where I work (we're going through an acquisition) and I actually traveled for work this week. It was awesome!! Not only did I escape for a night of "me time", but I was also able to meet up with some great friends for dinner.

We had a mini session with Britt Lakin Photography today (she did the awesome pictures for B&K's 2nd birthday) and I can't wait to see how the photos turned out. Otherwise this weekend has been pretty low key. Kendyll woke up EARLY and refused to nap thanks to a runny nose and cough. I'm hoping this is just a mild thing.

Ok, enough babble. Here are a few random pictures to catch everyone up (these are all thanks to Ashley & her phone . . . I haven't taken and or uploaded pictures lately).

What'd you say?

So I realize I keep promising a proper update. And honestly this is more for me than anyone else, mainly because I never kept a baby book and this has sort of become my documentation of B&K's first few years. So here goes . . .

They have been full-on talkers for quite some time. I think the full sentences started somewhere around Tim's first trip to Germany back in April. He was gone for 3 weeks and when he returned we had little chatterboxes on our hands (not that they weren't always babbling, but now they actually make sense and can sort of carry on a real conversation). They can say both of their names, although K's name sounds more like "tendell". They like to talk about themselves in 3rd person (i.e. "Bennett crying" is a common statement uttered by B-dude). "No-No mommy!" is another favorite saying around here. Or "Bennett (or mommy or daddy or tendell) Funny!" and "Baco sit down!" are other favorites. It is fun when they start to put together a 4 - 5+ word sentence because it starts out one thing and goes on for a while.

They both love to sing and now that they no longer share a room it isn't uncommon to hear one or both of them sing "Wheels on the Bus" to put themselves to sleep. They are expert counters (especially Bennett) and the alphabet is starting to come pretty quickly too. They know all of their colors and shapes and are pretty quick to point them out. Kendyll's favorite color is blue. Bennett seems to like Pink (which is sometimes Red) . . . how is that for gender non-bias? :)

We're needing to get creative with some child-proofing, which is ironic since we've never really child-proofed much before (that's not to say our house is dangerous, just that we've kept an eye on B&K and taught them where they can & cannot go). They have both mastered turning doornobs for quite some time now, but they have recently grown enought to reach the deadbolt on our back door. Oh what fun it is to unlock & open the back door and run out to play in our water table & pool! Um, not cool when mommy & daddy or A are not around. So the escapees have landed themselves in time out a few too many times. I think we will now need to resort to one of those horrendus door knob safety thingies. Yuck.

What else . . . Bennett LOVES to draw, color and write. He is quite the circle maker. He loves to use the easel and the magna doodle to create new masterpieces.




Kendyll is quite the girlie girl. She loves to brush other's hair, cook something in the kitchen or put on mommy & daddy's shoes. She also loves to be a glamor girl with her mommy-like shades.




They also still love to help with Tabasco (here they are brushing him).






We're gearing up for a low-key weekend. I've decided to do a garage sale next week (esp. with all of the crap we need to unload thanks to "Big boy/girl room swap 2010"). So I'll be busy tagging & sorting. Fun times.

Separate, but together

We had a HUGE change this weekend. Given the debacle that was "toddler bed conversion in same room" a couple of weekends ago we decided to move B&K into their own rooms asap. We went from having 2 spare rooms and the nursery, to two big kid rooms and one guest room (which was the former nursery). Which sounds easy enough, but 4 closet moves, tearing down and re-building 2 cribs, moving out a queen sized bed and moving 3 heavy pieces of furniture around was no easy task. But Tim & I took on the challenge and I'm happy to report we've had nothing but success (oh and thanks to Papa Sam for help on the heavy lifting!)!!!

First, I should admit that we were TOTALLY prepared for a night of sleepless hell Friday (which we had, but it was thanks to our douche dog, Tabasco, getting up hourly to go outside. B&K were perfect angels!). B&K fussed for about 3 minutes Friday night and then they were silent. We even put them to bed a bit early expecting a lot of resistance. But by 7:30 it was quiet and not a peep was heard until the next morning. B&K had been waking - on average - around 6:30 lately. However Saturday morning I had to go in and wake their butts up at 8:30! It was a Christmas miracle!

And it didn't stop there! They took awesome naps on Saturday - not a peep again when we closed the door on their "big kid rooms". And last night was a success again. Makes us sort of wonder why we didn't do this a long time ago!?

We still need to move them back into toddler beds, which will happen much sooner than later. And I still need to put some finishing touches on decorations (and the rooms will stay pretty bare until we get them used to sleeping in big kid beds without it being a play time).

Miss Kendyll, upon walking into her room and turning the clock radio on the rap/hip-hop station:






Bennett immediate begged to go into his bed as soon as he walked in his new room:




And this is why we'll be moving to toddler beds REAL soon (never mind the fact that they are both so tall we'll probably move to full-sized beds before their 3rd birthdays):



Kendyll, still sleeping past 8:30 on Saturday morning:

Whew!!

We had a crazy busy weekend. UA 4th of July parade on Saturday. Then Tim's 16 year HS reunion 2 hours away (yeah, you read that right. 16!) . We spent the night with my parents and then drove back on Sunday to host an impromptu picnic at our house with a few of our friends. Then yesterday afternoon we had a picnic at the house of one of Tim's co-workers where the kids played on this giant water slide/pool thing and were occupied by kids older than them (hmmm, maybe having a few 8 - 10 year olds around wouldn't be a bad thing!). Whew! I am exhausted (and I was off on Friday, too!). All in all a very fun weekend, though.


The theme at the UA parade this year is one that would make my Dad & Aunt Kathy very happy -- BUCKEYES!! Here are a few pictures and a little video I shot from the parade (the video is dedicated to my dad & aunt K . . . that is the OSU alumni band playing in the background).