Big Breakthrough

Well, this is pretty cool. Yesterday, Emily had her first full day without a diaper! Technically, we put one on her when we went to the park to meet a friend for a couple hours, but otherwise, she didn't need it. And what's even more amazing - she slept through the night last night without a diaper. No accidents!! And furthermore, we're almost done with the day today, and still no diaper!

Gymnastics Class

On the Friday before Christmas, we took the girls to Miyagi Gym in Auburn. They teach gymnastics for people from 18 months to 18 years and I think even older. We went to the Parent and Toddler class, which is 18-36 months. They are four week sessions. The first time you go, they let you "tryout" for free. Friday's class was the last one of the year and the end of that 4-week session.

The class started at 9:15 am and went for 45 minutes. Sarah and I went together. There were probably 6-7 other children in the class. There was one other dad. We recognized one of the mom's from Placer High School. She was a grade or two above us. I think her name was Tina May (Sarah remembered her more than I did). It took our girls the typical 15-20 minutes to warm up, but then they were playing like everyone else.


The first activity was a warm-up, which was just running around the mat on a white line. After 3-4 laps, they began what I would consider the more structured activities. They had the children run an obstacle course that involved climbing up pads, hopping down, crawling through tunnels, riding a see-saw, and walking two different directions on a balance beam. The girls still weren't totally into it, but they had fun.

Next was another, more involved obstacle course. The children had to climb up a ladder, hop onto a pad, run up a padded ramp, go belly-first onto a hexagonal "log," roll along the log and do a somersault off, hop backwards about 5 feet, then climb across horizontal bars. It was great fun, especially the backwards hopping. The girls did a Great job. I was surprised at how well they went up the ladder and across the horizontal bars. We have some video of them hopping backwards, too.

Emily:

Ella:

After several laps for each child, the teacher brought out a parachute, and we played various games, all of them involving balloons. At the end of the parachute games, the children got about 5 minutes of free play. Here's a quick video of Ella (white and pink) and Emily (blue and grey) playing with the balloons on top of the parachute.

And here are a few stills from the class.

Here are a couple shots, and more to come

Because I promised to add some pics this weekend, here are a few teasers, but I have more updates coming this week. Here's what's coming:

• Christmas lights and parade
• Grandpa Bud's and the piano
• Gymnastics class
• Making cookies

And there will be some short videos, too. I'll have these updated and posted by Christmas Day.

Christmas Tree Decorating

This weekend we started putting up Christmas. Sherri came over and helped Sarah put up houses on Friday. Sarah and I put the tree together on Saturday, and we decorated it on Sunday. Sarah and the twins got up early on Sunday to make their first garland. This one was out of paper.

Quick Update - Halloween, Forts, and the Phone

Okay, so this is going to be quick since it's almost bed time. I will post some pictures over the weekend and probably modify this post.

Halloween:
We had a great Halloween with over 100 trick-or-treaters at our door. Ella dressed up as Dorothy and Emily was Little Red Ridinghood.


Forts:
Yesterday, Sarah and the girls built their first fort. I think that is so cool!

Phone:
Today on the phone, Emily was talking to Doug and I asked her to give the phone to Ella. For the first time, Emily said to the person on the phone, "Here's Ella." Also really cool.

Bandon Trip, Day 3: Let the Harvest Begin!

Sorry for the no-post last night. Internet wasn't working. Here you go a little late.

Well, the bug bit both Darryl and Steven last night. At around 9:00 or 9:15, they hopped in their SUV and high-tailed it to the docks. In about 3-3.5 hours, they came home with 24 crabs!!! Sarah and I had called them around 10:30 or so and knew they had a half-dozen crabs, so we put a pot on the stove and started it heating before the boys came home. I believe they said they got home around 1:30 am. I remember waking up to the smell of smoke and cooking. (Steven and Darryl told us later that they almost set off the smoke alarm.) Anyway, Sarah and I woke up to a fridge shelf and vegetable bin full of crabs.



Good times! Those of you who've known me for a while know that I'm not a big fan of seafood historically. However, Sarah's been gradually winning me over to things like salmon and shrimp. Crab is still one that I'm working on. I like crab meat, but the shells that one sometimes gets mixed in with the meat are not so great. Having said that, there's more than a little satisfaction in catching the little guys (you can only keep the males) and then "living off nature." I know that sounds corny, but I like it. Needless to say we had crab for lunch and dinner. In fact, Darryl and Steven had crab for breakfast, too.

After discovering the crabs, the first thing we did in the morning was all head down to the beach below our house. The tide was pretty low, so we were able to find some star fish, sand crabs, and other cool little sea "things". We made some sand castles, too. Aside from the wind, the weather here is great.


After the beach, we all headed in to town and went to a few shops - mostly the Toy Room (where we bought a few things for the girls and ourselves) and the Cranberry Sweets factory outlet (where we samples everything we could and bought a few treats). We had a great time and then headed home for lunch. Lunch consisted of crab sandwiches. The girls went down for a nap as did I. :) I think everyone but Sarah took a nap.

When dinner rolled around, we had crab salad. Good stuff, really. We didn't do much until it was time to put the girls down for the night. Before doing that, Darryl got an urge to get a Dairy Queen Blizzard, so us three boys hopped on our bikes and rode to DQ. We bought four Blizzards, put three of them in our water bottle holders (the fourth I carried in my windbreaker pouch) and headed home. When we arrived, the girls were still awake, so I put my Blizzard and Sarah's in the fridge (more on that later) and helped to put them to bed. When I came out, everyone was playing Mille Bornes, which is a card game.

I grabbed my Blizzard and sat down to join them. Come to find out that while I was putting the girls to bed, Sarah went to the freezer to find her Blizzard. (Remember, I put them in the fridge, not the freezer.) She saw that the one she thought was hers was half-eaten. She thought I had eaten it (it was really Steven's) so she decided as revenge, she would eat MY Blizzard half-way (which was actually Darryl's). So she sat down (the boys were still doing other things before starting the card game) and started to devour what she thought was my Blizzard. Shortly thereafter, Darryl opened the freezer to get his Blizzard and exclaimed in bewilderment, "Where's my Blizzard?!" at which time his heart sank. He thought the mean lizard-like Godblizzah had stolen his creamy, frozen goodness. Sarah said, "Oh, no" and quickly apologized. But it was too late; the damage was done. When it was all said and done, everyone but Darryl got their full Blizzards, and Darryl was the one who really wanted one. :(

Now I owe Darryl a Nerf football and a Blizzard.

Oh, I almost forgot that Ella and Emily started a new game. They were making pretend tacos and sharing with each other.

Learning to Count

Yesterday, the girls went to Sherri's so that Sarah and I could pack for our vacation this week. Sherri told us about a neat thing that happened while they were there. She had some Cheetos on a plate for the twins to eat. At one point, Sherri told Emily to give two Cheetos to Ella. Emily picked up three and gave them all to Ella. Ella took one from her hand and actually gave it back to Emily. How AWESOME because it shows that there is some sharing, and not only are they learning to count, but they know what the numbers mean. Cool!

Now I know what you all really want. Here are a couple recent pictures.

Toddler Talk, Part 2

The twins are saying so many new words, but they also say a lot of "adapted" words - words that are shortened or changed from their adult version. I know if I don't write some of these down, we'll forget them.
Toddler = Adult
Wiwi = Wiggle
Ganpa = Grandpa
Gama = Grandma
Blankie = Blanket
Wawa = Water
Rara = Rabbit
Hep = Help
Ps = Please (basically, take out all the vowels and the "l")
Dwa = Draw
Many = Medicine

I know there are more, so I'll work them in with the list of new words they are saying. Speaking of that, here are some new words from this week:
Uncle
Rabbit - They finally got this down, sort of
Shhh - They can make that soft sh sound; whereas, before, it was just the S

Their First Song

Well, this morning marked another first. Sarah taught the twins to sing "Tomorrow" from Annie. I may have the title wrong, but it's the one that goes:

"Tomorrow, tomorrow
I love ya' tomorrow
You're only a day away"

They both sang it after dinner together, with Sarah leading. Very cute. I got a little on video with my small digital camera, which I will upload later.

More New Words

I have to keep these short if I'm going to hope to keep them up on a regular basis. :)

On Tuesday, I was buckling Ella in her car seat when she asked for her drawing toy. It wasn't in the car, so I said, "I'm sorry, it's inside. We'll get it later." I swear she said, "Sheesh" to me. As in, "Geez, papa, you didn't think to bring it." Sarah thinks it was more a coincidence because I had said sheesh a minute earlier. Either way, that was her new word.

Then yesterday, we were watching TV and someone said "shucks." I swear Ella and Emily just copied that person exactly. I thought it was funny.

Today's New Word

We went to Cafe Delicias for dinner, and the twins sat in a booth - no booster seat or anything. They're still a bit young, but Cafe D. already had other babies using them. Anyway, Emily was next to me - I was on the outside of the booth and she was on the inside near the wall. I pointed to a space between the wall and the booth and said "hole." She repeated it, so that was her new word for today.

Also, on Sunday, Emily wanted to sit on the Potty Chair. She didn't do anything, but it was the first time she said she needed to use it. About 10 minutes after we took her off, she went potty in her diaper. So, she's getting close.

The Potty Chair

As you might guess from the title, we have potty trainer for the twins. Literally minutes ago, Ella used it for the first time tonight. Sarah was giving them a bath when Ella stood up and indicated she had to use the potty. Sure enough, she went # 2. A few minutes later, after she was in the bath again, she said she had to use it again. This time she went # 1. Of course, we're very excited. And she did it while Emily was in the bath watching, so I'm sure Emily will use it soon. Maybe even tonight - the twins are still in the bath with Sarah now.

Today's New Words

I'm going to start a series of posts , starting with this one, that list new words that I hear the twins say for the first time. Today, there are two:
Garbage
Stay

Toddler Talk

Okay, so Sarah really encouraged me to post this, so you'll need to thank her. The twins are starting to make sentences. I think they max out at three words, but it's very exciting!

Last Monday, something miraculous happened. Ella and Emily were sitting on the couch next to Sarah. I was in my favorite chair. The twins were drawing in their little notepads. Ella asked Sarah to draw in her notepad by saying "Mama" and pointing to her pad. Then Emily started drawing in Ella's notepad, too, but then stopped. Next thing we heard was Ella asking Emily to ,"Draw here please" or "Emily, draw please" and then she would tap the page in her notepad.

Yesterday, Ella and Emily were rocking in my blue Lay-Z-Boy recliner. Emily got up and went around to the back of the recliner to play. Next thing Sarah heard was Ella patting the empty spot on the chair next to her and saying, "Emily, sit please." Oh, I was so bummed I missed it, but it was wonderful to hear Sarah describe it.

Emily is close behind her, too. We think she almost put three words together today, so it should happen any day now.

Counting

This morning Sarah and the twins were in the front room watching some birds outside. Sarah asked Ella how many birds there were, and she said, "One. Two..." Sarah leaped for joy since this is the first time they've counted like that. She carried both girls in here and asked them to count. With a little encouragement, they counted to two. Not to three, yet.

Another First - Big Girl Cups

Last night at dinner, we gave the twins milk from a small (non-sippy) cup. We let them drink it using their own hands. That is a first - we've given them drinks from cups, but we always held it ourselves. It was probably more of a thrill for us than the girls. For the most part, they drank it fine. Ella spilled some towards the end on her shirt and in her lap.

A couple other quick updates:
The girls slept 10 hours straight last night, from 8:30 - 6:50.
They are saying words a lot more now, like "up" when they want to be picked up, and "more" when they want more to eat, and I think the newest is "help" when they want something. Also, I've heard Emily say Abby (one of our dog's names). They're saying so much now, it's sometimes hard to keep track.

More Teeth!

Last weekend, Sarah noticed that the twins were getting some more teeth. Now Ella is getting three more and Emily one or two.

Also, the twins are really saying words now - Dada, Mama, and even Ella (sort of). Emily I think is a little too hard still. But what's even cooler is that they are trying to say lots of other words and they are doing it without us prompting. Like today I was saying the word "dip" and they started repeating it. They've also been imitating animal sounds for the past several days. Cow, cat, dog.

Some More Firsts

I think I'm ready to say that work should officially be a bit less hectic for me next week and my goal is three new posts a week.

This week, we had a couple more firsts. Ella has been using the sign for fish. We don't know how she learned it. I mean, we assume someone taught her as opposed to her just picking it up from seeing how fish swim. In any case, when she sees a fish in a book, she makes the sign. FYI, for anyone interested, this is the website Sarah and I visit when we want to learn a sign. http://commtechlab.msu.edu/SITES/ASLWEB/browser.htm

The other first was today - I swear Emily is saying "daddy" and "hi daddy." They sign so much now, which is AWESOME, so it's been a while since I've really heard a true new word sound from them. I'm going to try and list all the signs they know (go to the above website if you want to see some of them):
Mother
Father
Water
Milk
Eat
Apple
Banana
More
Please
Thank you
You're welcome
Hat
Change
Cat
Dog
Fish
Shh (as in be quiet)
Bed (we use this for going to sleep)

They know a ton of words, because they can understand when we say, "Take your sock to papa" or "Get a book, we'll read" or "Put the toy in the box." It's sooo cool.

Alright, that's it for tonight. Take care everyone.

California State Fair

Yesterday afternoon, we all went to the California State Fair. It was great! Sarah, Sherri, the twins, Darryl, and I went. We went to the petting zoo, walked through the farm and jungle areas, saw the county exhibits, etc. This was the twin's first fair.

Ella on the left with Emily and Smokey!


Smelling the orchids(?) in the rainforrest display.



On the lawn for dinner. Emily didn't want Darryl to let go of her.



Ella had a ball walking on the grass.


Ella with Sherri after dinner.

Quick Update

Emily has started standing on her own as of yesterday. Until yesterday, she needed help standing. She'd crawl to the couch or a toy and pull herself up. Now she can do it on her own. I have some pictures, which I'll upload later. They are kind of blurry, but you'll get the idea. Similar to what Ella did a couple weeks ago.

Today we're going to Lake Tahoe to visit my dad and step-mom at the CCFC family reunion. Hopefully we'll get some pictures of the girls at the beach.