I took B&K up to stay with my parents for a few days. We drove up on Saturday and let me tell you -- B&K were UBER excited to go to Grandma & Grandpa's house. They.had.a.BLAST!
Saturday we visited with my dad's side of the family and my cousin Rachel brought over her two little boys. Everyone had a super fun time playing. Once the kids were in bed, I drove back home as the next day Tim & I had "Big Kid Room Make-over 2010" planned (more on that - including pictures - to come this weekend!). Sunday the kids had fun going to church with my parents, visiting a park, hanging out with Uncle Mark and then going to a picnic at Aunt Anna Marie's house (I need to get them on video saying Aunt Anna Marie . . . it is a mouthful and super cute!).
Speaking of AAM, she - along with her husband Jim -- happen to be favorites among our little people. They scored this Step 2 play house at a Flea Market last weekend for TEN DOLLARS (!!!) and my aunt spent 3 hours cleaning it up for B&K. Sounds like they played with it a TON while at G & G's house! {Happy 10th Anniversary, Anna Marie & Jim!}
On Monday they took a trip to the Akron zoo and I'm told they had a blast there, too. The rest of their time was spent visiting workplaces of Grandma & AAM and just hanging out. They can't wait to go back again!
With Uncle Michael & Aunt Mary
In other news, B&K visited their preschool classrooms and met their teachers yesterday. (they will be going 2 days a week, so they have two different teachers and will be in two different rooms). They seemed to like it and were talking about it still when I got home from work yesterday. The only thing that makes me a bit (foolishly) nervous is that just about everyone we met at the kids open house and the parents orientation last night referred to them as "THE TWINS". We've never really run into this before . . . most people refer to them as B&K (or their full names) and even our family doesn't call them the twins. "The KIDS", yes, "TWINS", not so much. But after the 3rd or 4th time of being asked who's parent I was and after saying "Bennett & Kendyll" the response was always "Oh! The twins!!" I'm just a wee bit concerned. But I'm sure I'm being silly.
{Oh and for those of you wondering how I spent my "free" night this week while Tim & the kids were away . . . I'd love to say I had a spa night and a relaxing time, but honestly I ended up at a work function. I cancelled my plans with a friend last minute to attend a big "Welcome Reception" for my company. We were just acquired by a much, much, much larger company and I thought it might be best if I mingled with work peeps instead of enjoy the silence at my house. Oh well. But to answer the question I'm sure my friend Mary J will ask . .. I did have drinks. ;-) }
Ok, I will add a disclaimer here that nothing frustrates me more than the "mommy competition". What is this, you may ask? Well the "My Tommy is reading at a 4th grade level and he is only 2 1/2" and the "Oh yeah, well my Susie is speaking 7 languages at age 3". You know that kind of stuff. But I started this blog to document progress for B&K (because I'm too lazy to do their baby books) . . . so here goes -- a bit of a brag on my kids type of post:
It is a bit amazing how B&K have developed recently. They've been mini chatterboxes for a while now (well, they spoke some other language for a long time, but now we can finally understand bits and pieces). But it is becoming very obvious that they remember stuff now. Like crazy remember things. Good example . . . a few weeks ago we were over at Tim's parents house and the kids were in the back yard. They were searching all over and we couldn't figure out what they were looking for. So I asked, and their reply was: "where's the eggs, mama?". And it took second for me to even remember, but what they were doing was looking for EASTER eggs -- we had an egg hunt in their backyard on Easter. And they remembered it. MONTHS later. Freaky (basically because I had totally forgotten about it!).
Another example of their development -- yesterday as I got home from work I was doing the typical "download" with our nanny, Ashley. Bennett came up to me and kept repeating "I go to Leslie's house" louder & louder until I stopped talking and said "B, no, we aren't going to Leslie's house" (Leslie is A's awesome friend who cuts B&K's hair . . . we love her, too!). So Ashley then says "Yeah, B, we went to Leslie's house today". He wasn't ASKING to go to Leslie's house but rather TELLING me what they did that day!!! (normally I ask them every day what they did, but it usually consists of a bunch of random words that don't really explain anything). :) So I asked him "what did you do at Leslie's house" and he replied "I play with puppy". I asked "what is the puppy's name" and he stopped for a second. From the other room I hear Kendyll yell "Levi!!!!". Then B chimes in "oh yeah, Levi. Levi the puppy". Who the hell are these kids??
The other big saying/question in our house these days is "what's that?". About eleventy billion zillion times a day. Sometimes we answer the question. Sometime we throw it back at them (especially when we know they know what the answer is). But yeah, that question is becoming a bit tiresome.
B&K are also testing their boundaries with what they call Tim & me. Some days I'm mommy. "Mom" is a recent one, spouted mainly by Kendyll (like she is some 13yr old or something). They also like "Daddy Tim" . .. they say that one a lot. And a lot of times I'm just Sara (pronounce Sar-wa) . . . this morning as I left for work it was "bye-bye, Sar-wa!" as K let me out the door and shut it behind me (oh yeah, they are masters of getting in & out the back door -- unlocking the deadbolt & all. Which is a good thing -- like when we are being lazy and don't want to let Tabasco in or out -- but it can also be a bad thing. Thankfully we have our yard fenced, but still . . . ). They also know their first & last names and will tell you that when prompted.
So yeah, they are becoming baby geniuses. Or maybe they are finally catching up to where they should be based on their prematurity (something I don't ever talk about because in my mind I never really bought into the preemie stuff). In any event, it seems like a lot of progress in a short period of time. And it really just makes us realize we have little people living in our house -- not babies.
And because I can't have a post without pictures . . . here are a couple (crappy phone) pictures from last weekend. God bless the Step 2 sand/water table (which is just a water table at our house . . . who has the time to clean up sandy messes?!?).
Our pedi suggested that, since B&K have historically been tiny peanuts, we might want to bring them in for a weight check when they hit 2.5 years. And since I had to drop off preschool paperwork earlier this week we figured we would "kill 2 birds with 1 stone" and bring B&K with us for their weight check when the forms were ready for pick up.
All sounds like a good plan, right? Yeah well, it used to be the office had "weight check" hours each day and you could just bring your child in, wait a few minutes, strip them down, get weighed and you were out the door. Easy, peasy. Apparently some time in the year or so since we've "dropped in" for a weight check our dr's office decided to start charging a fricken co-pay for this service. Wonderful. So we just paid $40 to have a nurse in our pedi's office do what we could do for free at home (as Tim politely put it). Whatever. All is cool and we left the office without any meltdowns (well, that is until Bennett had to give up the Veggie Tales book) and they gave us the normal percentile / weight / height form we get at an office visit. Coolio.
So here goes (and I've updated the stats to the left over there, too):
Bennett:
Weight: 26lbs, 14 oz, 16th percentile (up from 23 lbs, 11oz, 6th at 2 years)
Height: 36.75 inches, 60th percentile (35.25 inches and 75th at 2 years)
Kendyll:
Weight: 26lbs, 13oz, 27th percentile (up from 23lbs, 13oz, 11th at 2 years)
Height: 35.75 inches, 50th percentile (33.75 inches, 49th at 2 years)
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! 
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!
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!". 
