Camping Part 2

We decided to take a walk in the woods after playing at the playground.  Grandma Weidner has a tree there so we hiked out to try to find her tree.  Hiking time was during nap time so N2 were a little tired and needed to be carried for most of the time.  They did walk a little bit but the ground was uneven or there was horse poop or we had to cross a stream so they needed to be carried.  They were troopers but unfortunately we never found Grandma's tree.  Brian thinks we took the wrong path.

We headed back to our campsites and decided to try to get N2 to rest in the tent.  We didn't expect them to sleep but we did want them to get some quiet time as they were really showing signs of being tired.  N2 thought the tent was a really fun place to play!  We heard lots of giggling and we saw parts of the tent bulging out in places.  Then finally we saw this:

They figured out the zippers and found it really fun to find all the zippers all over the tent to play with them.  Clearly that was the end of rest time!
More to come later!

Camping Part 1

Brian has been wanting to take N2 camping for a couple months now.  His father's day present was camping gear.  We had a day set up in the summer to go camping at Starved Rock.  The date arrived and we had to cancel due to the weather forecast-about a 90% chance of thunderstorms.  Guess how many thunderstorms there were?  ZERO.  But we had canceled the site so we couldn't even go.  We couldn't find another time to go this summer.  Brian decided for his birthday that he wanted to go camping.  His parents and siblings met us at Lake Le-Aqua-Na State Park on Saturday.  We had 8 adults and 3 children under 3 on 3 camp sites.

We set up our tent and had a picnic lunch.  N2 were great helpers (or at least they tried to be!).  They were so excited because Grandma and Grandpa brought their big wheels!  So they rode those for part of the time while we were setting up.  They were hungry though so they kept coming over to me and asking to eat.

After lunch we headed to the playground which consisted of a metal slide, a merry go round and swings.  Apparently the equipment is the same from when Brian and his family went camping when they were kids.  However N2 loved the merry go round and the slide.  They liked to ride and push the merry go round.  They wanted daddy to ride the merry go round and Brian was sport enough to ride even though he HATES going round and round.

More to come another day.

Better Safe Than Sorry

I came home from work the other day and N2 were riding their bikes (tricycles and little bike) on the driveway with daddy watching them.  I drove up to see Natalie wearing her bicycle helmet while riding her bike.  I guess you can never be too safe!

In the past she has thrown fits wearing it in the trailer on Brian's bike so I have no idea why she decided she should wear it on her bike!

Twins are fun

We get a lot of fighting around here because Natalie wants to play with what Noah has and vice versa.  It's frustrating for everyone involved.  But we also have some really fun moments that could only happen with twins or siblings really close in age.  The other day Natalie and Noah decided to give each other rides in their shopping carts.  I'm not sure how it started but they had a great time and they even took turns with who was pushing and who was riding.  It seemed harmless enough so I let it continue.  I think it may have ended in the shopping cart tipping but oh well, it was fun while it lasted!

Noah's photography

After seeing Natalie take pictures Noah decided he needed to take pictures.  He's more about pushing the button rather than looking into the screen to see if he is taking a picture of anything.  Most of his pictures are of nothing except for his lap which turn out really blurry because it's way too close!  I helped him to take some photos and he decided to study the bookcases and the backpacks.

 When we were at the train museum in Union Noah snapped this picture while we were riding the train.

A Study in Composition

Natalie has begun to love taking pictures with my digital camera.  She will grab the camera, look at the picture on the screen and start snapping.  She's following in her cousin Amelia's footsteps of being a good photographer.  She takes pictures of something rather than just pushing the button like her brother.  A while ago she decided to study the composition of the laundry basket and shot it at different angles.  Quite interesting.  I like how the laundry basket is offset in each photo.  What are your thoughts?  Do you have a favorite photo?

Balance

N2 have learned how to balance things on their heads and they practice all the time, well mainly at meal times.  Empty bowls and cups end up on their heads and sometimes their sippy cups (those are generally not empty).  The think their sippy cups make good party hats and then they may start to sing happy birthday.  I would really like to know the inner workings of a 2 year old's mind.  Anyhow, here are my munchkins practicing their balancing act.  (These pictures are from the end of July-so just a little old!)

Crime Scene?

Natalie and Noah love to play with sidewalk chalk.  They also love to lay down on the driveway and be traced.  The other day I traced them and then they would go lay face down on the driveway in the outline.  Maybe it's bad but it kind of reminded me of a crime scene.  Take a look.

What do you think?

Big Kid Beds

It is well past time to transition N2 out of their cribs and into big kid beds. They have been able to climb out of their cribs for a couple months now (even though Grandpa Weidner lowered the cribs even further than the predrilled holes).  These cribs are as low as they can go and my little monkeys can still climb out.  It's actually kind of amazing to watch.  They just scale the slats of the crib.  They do it safely and cautiously but still it was time.  We waited until now to transition them because we knew they would be sleeping at childcare in cots and that they would learn to stay on their cots during nap time. This weekend was the best time to transition them because we had 3 nights and Brian was actually home!

Last night they watched daddy take apart their beds and they "helped."  We did some sweeping/vaccuuming (I'm sorry to say that it should have been done a LONG time ago!) and moved around the furniture.  We had to change where Natalie was sleeping because of the air return.  It was a long process.  But they were both very excited to have big girl and big boy beds.  We told them the rules-that they needed to stay in their bed until mommy or daddy came to get them, no jumping and no playing with the CD player (specific to Natalie).  We are so proud of them that they stayed in their beds all night long.  Natalie even stayed in her bed for about 45 minutes after she woke up.  She didn't want to get out of bed!

Before you ask, yes big kid beds are just their crib mattress on the floor.  We'll get them twin mattresses when they get used to sleeping without a crib.

Naps today have not gone so smoothly.  Natalie asked to take a nap so I put her down around 12:30 (she was kind of cranky this morning).  She was relatively quiet so I thought maybe we had gone to sleep.  Brian got home and put Noah down around 1:45.  Natalie was not asleep but Brian announced to me "good news-she's not asleep but at least she's still on her bed."  Well that completely changed when Noah was put down!  I went up shortly thereafter and Noah was carrying the cd player and Natalie was playing with the cd that should have been inside the cd player.  Both were out of their bed.  We returned them to their respective beds and told them that if they got out of bed again we would put the cribs back together.  I had to go back up not long after because I heard footsteps.  I enter the room to find Natalie hurtling herself back onto her bed and Noah on his bed with the cd player in his arms.  I think Natalie had taken him the cd player.  I put Natalie in the pack n' play and told her she was going to have to sleep in a crib again because she couldn't be a big girl.  I tucked Noah back in.  Natalie has climbed out of the play n' play several times and I have put her back in.  She is asleep finally.  I'm not sure about Noah.  Big kid beds have not been a rousing success here.  Got to think about where to go from here.  My thought is to keep them in big kid beds at night as long as they sleep like they did last night and then let Noah sleep in the big kid bed for naps and have Natalie sleep in the pack n play.  I'm also investigating a cot and trying that out in the guest bedroom.  I don't want to split them into separate rooms but I may have to if they can't nap together in the same room in big kid beds.

A Glimpse Into the Teenage Years

Many times we have to wake Natalie up from her naps-mostly because she takes so long to fall asleep.  She's NOT an easy one to wake up from naps.  It's much better if she wakes up on her own.  Here's my conversation with her today after her nap (mind you she was up off and on from 10:30-2:30 with me (more often awake and crying than asleep) and we woke her up around 9 so we could go to the zoo and we didn't get them down for naps until 3:00 or later).

Natalie was asleep in the pack n' play when I went in at 5:30.  I opened the door, turned off the white noise and opened the shade.  It was overcast so not very bright.  Natalie opened her eyes but remained under the covers and didn't move.  Her eyes were barely open.
Me: Natalie, it's time to get up.
Natalie: No.
Me: Time to wake up sweet pea.  It's almost dinnertime.
Natalie: No.
She closes her eyes again.
Me: Do you want pizza for dinner?
Natalie: No.  Sleep.
Me: Do you want to go downstairs and play?
Natalie: No.  Stay in bed.
Me: But it's time for dinner.
Natalie: No.  Sleep.
I started to rub her cheeks and try to pull the blanket off her.  She immediately pulled the blanket back up.
Me: Let's go downstairs.
Natalie: No.  Stay in bed.  Go sleep.
Me: It's time to get up.
I pulled off the blanket and she grabbed it and pulled it up and closed her eyes.  I picked her and her blanket up and took her out of bed.

This is not the first time this has happened.  She often times will grab the blanket, pull it over her head and roll over.  Can you just picture her as a teenager??