New Playset!

New Playset!

This is what I started on Friday night. It's the frame for a bazillion-piece playset. Once it was spotted by the kids Saturday morning, it became critical (to them) to finish it. So, most of Saturday was spent putting this beast together.

It was supposed to rain all day Saturday, but the rain held off and I finished everything except the lower siding. We had Amryn, Phoebe, and Torrin come over to play for lunch on Father's Day (Sunday), but the Saturday rain came late and arrived Sunday morning, so nobody ventured outside to play. They only got to admire it from afar.

It's a kit from Toys-R-Us. If you've assembled Legos, then you kind of know how this went: connect A19 to B23 using 6 S2 screws, repeat X 1000. I assembled the frame on the patio and then moved it to the back of the yard before adding the siding, roof, and swing arm. It's surprisingly light-weight wood and was really easy to move.

I got most of the work done before the twins noticed what I was doing and then while they were on a walk and later when they were napping. Between the drill, ladder, screws, and elevated platform, it was a bit dodgy trying to maintain a safe work environment with their help. It's still not finished, but nobody seems to care about the last few pieces of trim.

So far, so great. Vi and Luke really want to use the monkey bars and are just too short to reach them. Olivia instantly wanted to paint the entire thing and has already started carving into the wood with a spare screw. We brought the chalk down last night and some of it ended up on the chalk board.

Snow Day

Livvie’s been asking for snow for several weeks and we keep explaining to her that we can’t manufacture that sort of thing on demand.  We hadn’t seen any news or weather reports for several days, so we were completely surprised by the snow.  I gather that everyone else in Portland was also surprised based on the news reports, so we were glad that we were all at home with no where to be.

The snow was much more manageable this year.  Luke and Violet got all suited up and had no trouble walking in the 2-3 inches we got yesterday.  In last year’s snow they could barely move.  Neither one could grab anything with their waterproof mittens on, though.  Violet couldn’t take it and just kept trying to get her mittens off.

 

Olivia was very excited to build a snowman and then knocked it down later because she wanted to make giant snowballs.  It probably didn’t help that a couple of guys up the street built a 6’ high snowman.  You could tell that she was clearly disappointed with our snowman-making efforts after seeing that one.  We also spent a lot of time explaining why we couldn’t build an igloo/snow fort just like last year.  “There is enough snow!  Look at all the snow on the bushes and trees!” - Olivia

Of course we got the sleds out, but the new Christmas sleds weren’t used (they’re not as easy to pull 3 kids on at the same time).  We had the big sleds and they were all happy to share a ride together.  Michael was less happy to pull all 3 at the same time in the sticky, wet snow.

Vi had to make an early exit due to cold hands while Luke and Olivia went to the top of the next block and sledded down the middle of street where the car tracks made it super slick (uh, sure, it was safe, yeah, I was watching).  Liv even pulled Luke down the hill skeleton-style at the end.

The snow is all gone today and we had terrible tears this morning when Liv realized that there would be no igloo this year.

 

Harold

We have an attic monster named Harold.

Harold likes to eat spiders.

Harold also likes to spread butter on his spiders.

We let Harold use our butter at night.  Sometimes, he uses too much.

Livvie keeps calling to Harold when we open the attic door.  She'd like to meet him.

He's a nice attic monster, but shy.

He likes the dark spaces and is very hard to see.  He might be on the other side of the house, in the other attic.

Harold moved into this house with us from our old house, but he really likes it here and might not move again.

No more little boy curls

Luke got his 2nd haircut yesterday.  Here are a couple of before and after photos.  He’s still got a lot of “product” in his hair still in the after photo.

It is maybe a little shorter than we intended.  I’ll have to get a shot of the back of his hair which is pretty short and squared-off in the back.  It’ll probably be a little while before he gets another one.  We both like the skater-punk, mop-top, curly hair better.

The twins at 15 months

We’re not exactly sure why the twins get one appointment at 15 months and then another one at 18 months but, whatever, they had their 15 month appointment last week.

Luke -   25lbs. (51%), 32.5 in. (80%), Head 48 1/2 cm. (81%)

Violet – 21 lbs. 13 oz. (27%), 30.5 in. (42%), Head 47 cm. (76%)

Beagle – still overweight, but she missed breakfast yesterday…

Highlights from the “Special Instructions” we get from the doctor included these gems:

“PLAYTIME : Don’t expect your child to share toys with other children.”

and

“SAFETY: This can be a challenging age.”

ah, so true.

How’s everybody doing?

Luke and Violet have just recently decided that they like books.  We are getting hunted and then poked with books on a regular basis.  It’s funny to see the switch when their wee brains decide that books are interesting and fun.  Down by the Station and Baby Einstein: Jane's Animal Expedition are a couple of favorites (at the moment).  There is still some competition to hold the book when we read with both of them at the same time.  It’s quite exciting to referee the battle for the book while attempting to teach them how to turn pages in the correct direction and pointing out the different objects to notice on each page (they love to mimic us doing that: point point point).

Luke loves to wield the extension for the vacuum cleaner as a weapon (example below).  There have been a few close calls with the TV and Violet’s noggin, so it’s still a supervised-only “toy”.

Livvie’s had a great time lately.  Between playing at Karsten’s house at the Super Bowl and a day with Lana at babbo’s office (not this babbo, the other babbo, Mr. Matt), she’s been playing a lot.  She went to a birthday party for Marissa (friend from school) at Pump It Up last Sunday.  It was all she could talk about for days.  She’d hold up the invitation and talk about how much fun she was going to have.  Apparently, it didn’t disappoint. 

This is a shot of a calm moment in the movie room during the Super Bowl.

Scarred for Life?

I hope I’m not doing some sort of irreparable harm to my poor kids, but we still have them sleeping in the same crib at night.  The thing is, they sleep together so well.  The twins have been sleeping together since they were born.  It isn’t always hugs and sunshine in the crib; they’ve come out with war wounds each. 

I know it’s weird to say irreparable harm, but I can remember an attic door in my childhood home that was right next to my bed.  I somehow came to convince myself that I had to sleep up against that door to keep it shut (hey, I was young and imaginary monsters are scary).  That turned into years of sleeping up against a wall in any bed I found myself sleeping in.  I could make it a night or two if necessary, but I preferred to find my way back to beds up against walls.  I’m doing fine, now, thanks for asking.  It took some therapy and some healing time, but I’m off the wall.

What kind of harm might I do to these poor twins?  Imagine that they have to sleep with one hand constantly touching each other.  That turns into relationships where they must sleep touching their partner in the night.  They could lose a chance at Mr. or Mrs. Right just because they are a night-toucher.  The horror…  All due to their parents who let them sleep in the same crib for too long.

We need to work on getting some Toddler beds this year.

Sporty Liv

Livvie loves the climbing gym, The Circuit. It is basically just a warehouse of climbing rocks.  They have a kids area where the hand-holds are a little easier and closer together. 

Livvie, Kieran, and Aiden are amazing climbers.  They scamper up, over, and down the slide and do it all over again (and again, no breaks!).  It’s pretty cold in the morning in the climbing gym (it’s a large unheated space), but she didn’t seem to mind much.  We even ate lunch at the gym when Kieran and Aiden arrived.

 

Here’s Livvie hamming it up at the top of the kids area.

The camera started freaking out at one point.  I was afraid the bubble-effect below was permanent, but it came back to normal later.  I don’t know what the bubbles are about.  Condensation on the inside of the lens maybe?  Very strange.  It sort of looks like it’s snowing or raining in the gym, but I can assure you it is not.

 

Bowling

A couple of days later, Liv, Jen, Cat went bowling.  Livvie announced that she was “all done” after 3 frames.  We let her choose to go bowling or swimming and she picked bowling, go figure.

We put a short, bowling video up on Youtube

 

Violet goes sledding

I’ve been asked a couple of times this week with our huge snowstorm, “Did you take Luke and Violet out to enjoy the snow?”  Let’s just say that a couple of feet of snow is just not much fun when you’re only 1 year old.  I mean, really, is this the face of someone who is enjoying themselves?

You can’t tell, but she is perched atop Livvie’s snow fort “with a real life tunnel to crawl through!”  Violet was the only twin that braved the elements for a sleigh ride.  Luke slept through the fun.  Violet wishes she was so lucky.  This was after Michael pulled her and Olivia up and down the street for awhile. 

Olivia did a great job of holding onto her sister while sledding.  We bought a big purple sled for just this purpose, but I really didn’t think it was going to see so much action so soon.  Usually, any meaningful sledding involves a trip to Mt. Hood.  Very thankful we bought sleds early this year.  We’ve learned the hard way that in Portland there’s a short window to buy sleds, mittens and children’s snow boots.

This might be considered a smile…..perhaps.

Sledding

Michael, Papster, and Olivia went sledding on Saturday.  Michael, Jen, and Olivia went sledding again on Sunday.  And then, Michael and Olivia went again on Monday!

This hill might not look steep from this angle, but it was perfect for us.  We were on the leeward side of Franklin school which meant we weren't blasted by the wind ("it's so blustery" says Olivia).  There was also a nice arc to the hill that kept us out of 52nd (well, most of the time it did). There wasn't much snow yet, but we got plenty more in the next couple of days.

 

The twins haven't been out in the snow since Winter Storm #1 (we're on #3, but #2 was such a bust it's hard to count it).  They have made some major milestones of their own this week.  Violet is now signing "out" back to us which makes all of the months of signing to them worth it.  Luke and Violet are also making major strides across the room.  They are both comfortable walking and have been really showing off for Grammy and Papster (except when they need to get somewhere fast).

Violet has figured out how to put the big blocks together and takes short breaks from dismantling them to actually do a little assembly. 

Weather drama

Poor Eliz was forced to drive up from San Francisco.  She missed a connection in Dallas and basically couldn't get another flight into Portland before Christmas.  She was able to get to SFO, spend the night at Schnerbs' house, and then drive up without a problem today.  Deb decided to wait it out in Arcada another day and hope for a break tomorrow.  Cat's flight into Portland is late Wed. and we are due for more snow Wed. morning.  We are only thinking positive weather thoughts.

Snowing in Portland!

It doesn't snow often in Portland and when it does it tends to cripple the city. So, it was a big surprise to wake up to a couple of inches of snow this morning! The city doesn't have any plows and state law doesn't allow salt to be used on the roads, but the biggest problem is the people who abandon their cars. We're not sure where the people go once they get out of their car in a snowstorm, we've just seen the empty cars on the highway.  They don't even pull over, they just abandon their cars in the lane.

It took about 45 minutes of prep to get snowsuits, shoes, jackets, and gloves located and on.  Violet lasted about 5 minutes once we got outside. She was not amused. In this photo, you can see how they both ditched the gloves pretty quick and no amount of conversation could change their minds. Neither Luke nor Violet liked walking in hard shoes, so they attempted to crawl on naked hands. Violet complained quickly, but Luke lasted a little longer because his hands slipped inside his jacket and he crawled around on his sleeves down the street. No walking. I guess we will have to wait till next year for snow angels in triplicate.

Livvie had fun, snowballs, snow angels, writing in the snow, playing chase. But she soon was too cold and retreated inside for hot chocolate. It's cold, real cold, about 10 degrees with the wind chill. We're out of practice with this kind of gusty, frozen weather.

Naturally, we didn't have enough milk and eggs. The lack of whole milk is quite a problem when 2 members of the household still get most of their calories from milk. The first snow storm of the year and we were flat-footed and under-prepared. At least we can claim Michael's "surgery" as out excuse for not preparing for the biggest (only) snow storm of the year! Lucky for us we're only a block from the store.

For the video fans, there is a little taste of our lovely snow day over at YouTube.

MudBowl

The annual MudBowl was held in the park between Amryn and Phoebe's house on Saturday.  We arrived late (typical) and didn't play in the game, but we had a great time with the girls.  Deb left the game at half-time to join us playing catch-ball.  Olivia is starting to make up new games and new rules.  Catch-ball's rules vary by day.

 

Amryn and Olivia took Violet for a "walk".  It was maybe a tad quick for poor Violet, but I think it was mostly enjoyable because of the attention from the older girls.  We hit the playground next.  Luke and Violet got to go for a swing.  You can see how ecstatic Luke was about the opportunity below.

Luke and Violet had to endure the chilly weather without an afternoon nap.  Violet does better at this than Luke.  It started to get cold as the sun set, but we got this nice family portrait almost by accident as it went down.  Another beautiful day in Oregon!

 

Festival of Trees

The Festival of Trees at the convention center was not quite what we had in mind, but the kids didn't seem to notice. They had model trains, a craft area, face painting, Santa pictures, very amateur singing and dancing (and baton twirling!), an ambulance (the event was sponsored by a health system - not Legacy, the OTHER health system), and a teddy bear hospital. Teddy Bear hospital was the favorite. This picture belies how crowded in there it was. 

Michael rescued the twins from the chaos of patiently waiting to bandage, mask, and prepare for surgery Olivia's newest best friend, Harry (his name was later changed to Rudolph for seasonal reasons). Poor little guy was covered head-to-toe in bandages and band-aids by the end. While Livvie enjoyed all the kiddie events with her cousins, friends and Aunt Deb, the twins spent much of their time crawling around in the corner of the room or ruthlessly pulling their parents hair whilst being carried on shoulders. Goldfish, a couple bottles of milk, a chance to get out and walk around, staying out well past their "normal" bedtime - actually, it was a banner night for them. I'm not sure what I'm complaining about. We met a bunch of friends there and every single kid had a great time at this event, it's worth the four bucks.

Ok, Olivia wasn't really happy at this moment in time, but the girl was just told that she had to leave this magical wonderland. You'd be grumpy, too. Even if you had a lovely commemorative snowman on your cheek.

Some days things work out really well with the twins. After staying up that night for the Festival of Trees, the twins slept in until 9am the next morning.  They were awake by 8am actually, but they hang out in the crib talking to each other softly.  It is really sweet to lay in bed and listen to them, there are worse ways to wake up.  We went in to get them when Olivia hopped out of bed and came upstairs to briefly snuggle and then harass us out of bed.

Zoo Lights

We took the entire crew to Zoo Lights tonight.  Mark, Ceyriss, and Amryn met us at the zoo along with Claire, John, and Phoebe.  That was in addition to our 5 plus Nana and Papa.  Big crew.

We had a beautiful night for the lights.  Dry, cool (but, not cold), dark, with a cool spooky moon.  We arrived early (tip: if you plan to go, go early; parking was a mess as we left).

There aren't many animals out and about at the zoo during Zoo Lights, but we did get to see the tigers.  They were out wandering around and playing which is big change from their usual sloth-like behavior during the day.  We also had another treat, seeing the new baby elephant.

Livvie's favorites were the gingerbread house and the little submarine inside the rotating fish pond (we have no pictures of these things, though).  She spent a lot of time looking for the peacock and we finally had to explain (again) that the peacock doesn't live at the zoo anymore (it wasn't being very nice to the children, story here).  We did spot the peacock in lights, actually two peacocks in lights.

The twins enjoyed themselves and were exhausted by the end.  They chose to skip the second nap today, but stayed awake for the entire trip by eating goldfish and pretzels the whole time.

Olivia's room

Oops, I think it's time for Olivia to get a haircut!

Luke and Violet like to get on to Livvie's bed and bounce (no doubt emulating what they see her doing).  The bedrail that Luke is holding onto is remarkably strong (and thoroughly tested). 

We're not out of the small objects in the mouth stage yet.  Violet has been caught a couple of times this week with Olivia's jewels (small plastic irregularly shaped objects) in her mouth.  Olivia has been incredible about not leaving anything small where they can reach it.  Both times this week, the jewels  showed up in her mouth after we had other kids come over and play in her room.

Livvie has been warned about the jewels and other small objects (i.e., Polly Pocket anything) and how they will become "ours" if we find them on the floor.  Once they are ours, we leave them on the counter and she has never tried to take them back.  After a couple of days, we usually get a very polite, "is it time for the crown (or whatever object was taken) to be mine again?"  Naturally, we've forgotten the item was even present by this time.

The Twins' 1st Birthday

Luke and Violet enjoyed their 1st birthday celebration yesterday.  We waited for this special day to introduce them to chocolate.  Jen made banana cake with dark chocolate buttercream frosting from scratch, and it was a big hit. Here's the before shot...

Violet got a little more excited about the chocolate.  The texture was just right to smear into the hair.  Perfect.  Bath time!  Despite the fact that they each had huge pieces, they felt compelled to steal cake from each other.  Ah, siblings.  Needless to say, the post-cake-sugar-high was something to behold.

There's a little more of this on YouTube.

 

We'll slowly start adding some more goodies to their diet over the next couple of weeks: whole milk, cheese, butter (technically, not new to them), eggs and berries.

Naturally, the wrapping paper was the favorite new toy.

The paper or the boxes...

 

Luke put on a show with their new walk-behind toy.  Thanks Grammy and Papster!

Too much Love?

More videos today.  Livvie loves the twins.  Here's a little example of just how much she loves to hold Violet.

 

You can catch a glimpse of the cut Luke gave himself on the nose below.  Well, maybe he gave it to himself.  It's hard to tell.  There's lots of yelling that goes on upstairs when they go to bed and we let them work most it out on their own.  You've got to stay on top of those fingernails, they grow fast.

Barriers don't work very well with the twins now (Violet is climbing over one below).  They attempt to climb everything and are getting pretty good at it.  They are both getting more demanding about being picked up and held, too.  I guess the view is just better from above.

They are both actively trying to figure out how to go down stairs.  Up is easy, but the technique is trickier in reverse.  Violet tries to finesse her way down, Luke likes to lead with his head.

Finally, here's a short video of Luke's dismount from the couch.  Violet had a similar smooth exit earlier in the day (not caught on video) when Jen let her play on the couch and got distracted. 

Serendipity

We've been having a good time dancing around the house with the kids for the last couple of days.  It started with an odd rock band, with a lead singer from Ukraine, called Gogol Bordello.  They sing a song called Start Wearing Purple (click to hear the song online) that is kind of catchy and the kids enjoy the accordion (who doesn't - Michael also has a soft spot for nacrocorridos, but we're not talking about that right now). 

Completely unrelated, we put a movie called Everything Is Illuminated about a Jewish kid's (very rigid) search for a woman that saved his grandfather during WWII.  It turns out that one of the main characters is actually the Ukrainian lead singer and the purple song makes an appearance during the closing credits. 

The movie is premium (You have to see it get the two inside jokes in this post).  We'd definitely recommend it, but it does mix crazy and weird with a darker side at the end.  The back story of the grandfather is a little thin and apparently explained a little better in the book.  Alex (this lead singer guy) is such a funny character in the movie that it's hard to imagine some of that in print.  It's worth seeing.  You never know what can happen with a Netflix queue!

Movie Night

Last night was movie night at Rich and Erika's.  Yes, cheesesticks and popcorn were basically what all of the kids ate for dinner.  We've given up trying to enforce proper nutrition during playdates, it doesn't work.

The kids watched The Sword in the Stone and then Shrek the Third.  We've been hearing all about what Shrek did all day today.

The end of night is always hard.  Livvie typically breaks down with inconsolable weeping when we leave tell her it's after midnight and the party's over.  Karsten ended the night upright and asleep on the couch with the movie-music blaring.  That's a kid who knows how to party right there.

 

Luke and Violet went to bed without any fuss at 8 o'clock and let us enjoy adult time.  They are great about sleeping while we're out as long as we put them in two separate pack n' plays.  At home they sleep together at night, but most naps are done separately now (one up and one down).  The pack n' plays are smaller and there's just too much mauling that occurs in close-quarters.

I know there are some kids that wake up at 6am, but all three of ours slept-in until 9am for us.  Wahoo!