Summertime

It's almost here....summertime!  With the heat we've had this week, I'd go ahead and say it's here.  Forget the "official start of summer."  It's here.  In the meantime, the girls reminded me of one reason I love summer.....perfect temp for a picnic breakfast outside with my girls! :-)

And the afternoon picnics designed by none other than 2 twin toddlers......

Tender Moments

My blogging comes in spurts, I suppose.  I don't blog for weeks at a time, then suddenly I just unload.  But, the bittersweet knowledge that if I don't write these things down, I will forget dominates my mind.   So, I unload another quick story.

For 3 solid days now, Savannah has not used a diaper.  In the daytime, both of my girls are completely potty trained! Yay!  Panties all day from the moment they wake up.  No diapers until nighttime, sometimes at nap time.   But, for 3 solid days now, whenever I do put a diaper on Savannah, she has woken up with a completely bone dried diaper - she is potty trained!!  Madeline will wake up with a tiny bit of wetness in her diaper, so she's almost there, but for the most part, I can safely say SHE'S potty trained too!!! With just a tiny bit more to go.  Oh what a boost to mommy and daddy's pockets that will be.

This morning, Savannah went #2 in the potty.  Now, we have stopped giving treats and stickers for going potty because it became too much, and these girls were beginning to manipulate mommy and daddy with "POOPY! POTTY! QUICK!" just to go get a treat.  So, we put a stop to it.  But #2, now when they do that, they are still getting a treat.  This morning, Savannah had her moment and got 2 jelly belly's, the treat of choice.  Madeline wanted to go next, so she sat, and sat, and sat....nothing.  She screamed "TREAT! POOPY! TREAT!" but there was no poopy.  She got off the potty dejected, bless her heart.  

Just a few minutes later, I heard tiny voices "talking" and then heard Madeline say "Dank You, Sissy!", and she turned and showed me one jelly belly.  Savannah just beamed from ear to ear.  I said, "Savannah!  Did you give Sissy one of your treats?"  She smiled BIG and said "Ya, I did!"  And Madeline just beamed and said again, "Dank you, Sissy!"  And that was it!

For Savannah to share her treat was HUGE.  How sweet.  These sweet little tender hearts of my girls!!!!!!!!

It happened again the other way around later this morning.  When Madeline gave Savannah her second jelly belly, Savannah said "OH! Dank you, Sissy!!" and Madeline looked at me with the biggest smile and said "Sweeep!  Sweeep!" because, she knew, I was about to say (and I did) "Sweet, Madeline.  Sweet."

Sweep girls.

Pack Rat

Oh no.  Oh no.  Panic is setting in.  In light of our upcoming move, Chris and I have been determined to rid of extra "stuff" we have that we just don't need anymore....clothes, books, papers, documents, picture frames, decorative pictures, candles we haven't used since before I got married, you know, all the stuff you keep lugging around thinking that one day you just might have a room that would be perfect for that item!  We are committed.  So, I started by posting some baby items on Craig's List.  I mean, reality is that we aren't planning to have anymore children, so why move ALL OF THESE THINGS just to keep them in storage for keepsake purposes?  So, I posted some items.

Today, I got an offer on one of our Bumbo seats and literally felt a lump in my throat suddenly appear and suffocate me. I can't get rid of the girls' Bumbo seat!!  Oh no.  

Lump.....

in my....

THROAT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

How do I get rid of these things that hold such sweet memories?????!!!!

Oh no.  I'm a pack rat.  Even rats have mom's.

Dank You Sissy!

The girls are playing with a little ball this morning.  They are actually getting the whole "taking turns and sharing" thing today.  For now...they are for now.  I've been watching them run around in the living room, tossing the ball back and forth and each time the other would get the ball, she'll say "Dank you, Sissy!" then switch places, toss it back to the other and the other will just beam from ear to ear and say "Dank you, Sissy!!"  

And we haven't even had breakfast yet. Yipee!! Oh wait....Savannah is sitting on my lap, grabbing my chin now saying "MY TUUUURRN" over a slap wrist toy...hmmm...short lived, but maybe I'll get them back on track again before breakfast...the life of two 2 year olds! 

The Potty Seat

This morning the girls were in the best mood - just running around, acting silly.  I turned to head towards the bathroom where the girls were making lots of commotion to find Madeline running out of the bathroom with the potty seat on top of her head, like a wreath, just giggling away!  "Madeline, take the potty seat off your head.  That's dirty Madeline!  Take it off!"  The more I told her, the more she laughed and pulled down tighter on the seat with those lovely handles on each side.  And then it happened.  It popped all the way down around her little neck.

For a minute there, she laughed, and I did not.  I sat down on the floor to help her get it off her head, but it wouldn't.  It was stuck.  I pulled and she started crying.  Here was this sweet little face with a look of worry surrounded by a pink potty seat.  I called Chris to come quick, we had a problem.  

He stepped out of his office to find Madeline and I struggling to get this potty seat off her head. (Is this really happening??) It wouldn't budge!  We could get it up over her face, but when it got to her forehead, it just wouldn't come off!  We turned it every imaginable way and pulled and pulled, nothing.  Chris went to get the soap.

He lathered her little head and forehead with soap to try to lubricate the seat over her head.  Now she was really screaming.  With a soapy head, he pulled while I held her still.  Nothing.  Now panic was starting to set in as Madeline began crying "ALL DONE!  ALL DONE!"  Sorry Madeline, we're not all done.  It's not just gonna come off!

I found myself laughing and crying my eyes out, all at the same time!  I laughed at the image of us heading to the ER with a 2 year old wrapped in a potty seat around her head.  Just to look at this situation from a birds eye view made me laugh hysterically!  But at the exact same time, I couldn't stop crying because my child was in pain!! Every time Chris would pull on the seat, her little forehead would stretch and then be left with awful little indention marks!  This made me bawl my eyes out.  What in the world were we going to do?!

Finally, the seat popped up and off of her little head, thanks to a very controlled daddy who did what it took to pull that little seat off her head.  She immediately grabbed me and wrapped her arms around my neck and would NOT let go. I just kept holding her and loving on her, then tried to rinse the soap out of her hair, but NO!!! She wouldn't let me pull her away long enough to rinse it off, so she just laid that sweet little soapy head on my shoulder and held tight.

As I was walking around the house with little Madeline wrapped tight around me, I heard this little tiny voice say out of the clear blue, "Children, obey...." she started reciting her memory verse!! Colossians 3:20 -- "Children, obey your parents in everything."  Oh child!!!  You have made the perfect ending to a story that will stick with you for the rest of your sweet life!!!!!

She's still wrapped around my neck, now fast asleep as I write this.  The smell of apples and the stickiness of the soap still in her hair, laying on my neck fills my senses as she sweetly sleeps, not letting go.  I wonder if she'll let go when she wakes up?

Lesson learned in that memory verse she and her sissy have vigilantly (and oh so cutely) been reciting to me for the last week.  

The Heart of my Twins

With each new day, my girls are growing in their ability to comprehend, understand, listen, and feel.  Where to begin!

Yesterday we were at a friends house after church, and as we were leaving, Chris accidentally set off the alarm of his car just as their little 2 year old girl Alana was standing right next to it.  She jumped, bless her heart, and then just cried!  My girls were already buckled in the car, but saw all this happen as her mommy held her to help soothe her from being scared!  After making sure Alana was ok, I got in the car to find the girls with the biggest look of worry on their little faces!  "Lana sad.  Lana sad, mommy.  Lana SAD!!" I told her she was ok now, and that everything was fine.  

Today, as the girls were playing, they would randomly stop with the most serious expression across their little face and say "Lana sad.  Lana sad.  Lana scared." I kept telling them that Lana was happy now, and they would smile and say "Lana happy!"  Just before leaving their room at bedtime, they stopped and burrowed their little brows and said "Lana sad.  Lana HAPPY!" and that was it.  Their concern for their little friends is beyond warming to this momma's heart. 

As they say their bedtime prayers now, they will "fill in the blanks".  "Dear Jesus...thank you for my..." and the girls will start saying everything they are thankful for!  In their little inquisitive voices, they'll say "Mommy...and Daddy....and Sissy....and Bailey.....and" they'll go down the entire list of all of our family...grandparents, aunts, uncles, they'll say them all.  Tonight, they skipped that part.  Tonight, their prayer - without us even talking about my niece Caitlin and Jennifer today, was "Dear Jesus, Cay Cay?  Cay Cay?  Cay Cay sick?  Cay Cay's Mommy sick.  Cay Cay's Mommy sick.  Better! Ayhmen."  Their hearts were in tune with Jennifer and the fight she is going through...and for Caitlin who needs prayers too! OH their hearts....oh their little hearts of gold.

And finally, all on their own, the girls have completely comprehended the whole "Sabbath" thing....the one day out of the entire busy, crazy week that we set aside for Him. Tuesday morning they were getting a bath and said "Church!",  "No girls, it's Tuesday....we don't go to church on Tuesday!  What day do we go to church?" and they both, in unison said "SABBATH!!"  "Daddy preach."  They will be so confused when we move and daddy doesn't preach on Sabbath mornings anymore!  But, they always say "Church! Daddy preach! Good girl."  They know when he preaches I ask them to be good girls and sit still in church.  Too funny.  They also don't ask to watch Barney on Sabbath morning like they do every other morning of the week.  They know that Sabbath morning means lots of fun Jesus songs "The B-I-B-L-E" is their favorite....and "Zacheus was a Wee Little Man....", and ok, lots of other little Jesus songs.  They will even say "Barney, no. SABBATH!!"  To know that these two little girls are excited to have a day that puts Jesus before Barney blows my mind.  I am so thankful to God for showing Chris and I how to raise these little ones to put their hearts on Him - and be more excited about it than Barney!!!! Oh their little hearts....those precious, beautiful little hearts.