Happy New Year!  I hope you had a good holiday.  October through December is such a busy time and I love it but I’m also always a little relieved in January when things slow down a bit and life gets back to normal.

School has been going really well for the girls. They have grown so much as individuals and I think much of it is because they are separated.  They’re making friends and their speech has dramatically improved. They are both still shy with their teachers but talk to their classmates, and at home they are never quiet. The “twin talk” has subsided and while the still use it with each other, they use regular words with everyone else.  They do still have their shorthand though.  Lately they’ve taken to calling Tim “D” instead of daddy.  I have no idea why they decided daddy was just too much effort to say.  😂  Their favorite days at school are Fridays because that’s when they have show and tell. They also like Wednesdays because they get to pick out a new book at the library.  They can count to 20 and know all the letters. They like to ask me what words start with and I’ll make the sound and they are getting good at recognizing things that way. For instance they’ll ask what pizza starts with and I’ll say “what letter goes puh?” and they’ll answer with P.

 

Pizza, by the way, is one of their favorite foods but they really only like to eat the topping. They prefer to leave the crust but I’ve started to get them to eat it because they can go through a large f they only eat the cheese. They really just don’t care for bread of any kind, which I find so strange because bread is awesome. They also aren’t big fans of potatoes. They would rather have rice or pasta as a side.  Rice and beans is by far their favorite meal. They love any bean but a green bean. Emi is also quite a carnivore but Taya could go meatless except for the occasional nugget but she usually gives most of hers to Emi.

Taya is very good about sharing. Emi can be quite stubborn and if Taya has a toy that Emi wants (mainly because Taya has it) Emi will throw some epic fits to try to get me to give it to her. I never do, but Taya usually gives it to her and then looks at Tim and I and declares, “I’m a good girl!”  It’s actually quite sweet. They will also go hug each other if one of them is upset about something, unless they are the ones that have done the upsetting. They will fight about the smallest little things. Right now, their biggest fight comes over who gets to sit behind me in the car.  It drives me insane and i know it’s all some power struggle with them and has nothing to do with me. It’s not like looking at the back of my head is some prize to be fought over, but they have been having this battle every time we get in the car for about 2 months now.  It doesn’t matter if Tim is in the car or not.  Apparently they find looking at the back of his head to be not nearly as pleasant because whoever ends up behind him is never happy.  I’ll be glad when this phase has run its course.

For Halloween this year, they wanted to be squirrels. I have no idea why.  I thought it was hilarious and way more interesting than a princess so we went for it. Tim made their costumes and they were fantastic. When we went out trick or treating they were squirrels, I was a nut and Tim went as pest control. I thought it was a pretty appropriate theme for our life.😃  They were completely in to trick or treating this year but it was slow going because they really didn’t want to put the candy in a bag.  They would go to a house and then insist on eating that candy before going to the next house.  At the beginning when not a lot of kids were out, many houses would let them choose what they got, so as the night went on if somebody handed them something they didn’t want they would say no and then point to what they wanted. I was mortified but they got away with it because they’re cute. Emi liked the packaging on the Snickers but didn’t want to eat them so she would either take 2 things or steal Taya’s M&Ms.

In November,  I started them in a new gymnastics program. This one is not a parks and rec thing but at a real gymnastics complex. It’s not mommy and me. They go by themselves and they aren’t in class together because I signed them up for different days.  I want them to have confidence in themselves as individuals, not always as a twin team. It’s also nice for us to have some one on one time with them. Tas has wrestling practice so the girl who’s not doing gymnastics gets to hang with Tim and they’ll play a game or something and I get to actually have a conversation with just one of them when we go to practice and sometimes we’ll go get a treat just the 2 of us. They both seem to really love it.  It’s still very age appropriate but they are actually learning some gymnastic skills vs just goofing around on gymnastic equipment.

December was a crazy blur.  The girls are 100% all in on Christmas and Santa.  They loved that we had the house all decorated and put lights up outside. We have a huge inflatable Mickey in a Santa costume that we put on the dock, and every morning they would run to the window and say hi to him. The first week in December we went to the mountains of North Carolina and stayed in this really cool log cabin. The reason we went is because they have a railroad that does Polar Express rides.  It was a lot of fun. Everyone wears their Christmas pjs and the train drives to the “North Pole.” On the train they tell a story and have actors that sing and dance.  You get served hot cocoa and cookies and then when you get to the North Pole it’s all lit up outside and Santa comes on board and gives each child a bell.  On the way back you sing Christmas carols. It was really great seeing a train car of kids that still believe in all the magic of Christmas.  The cabin we stayed in had a hot tub and they thought that was fantastic!  Emi said she wanted one at home. Me too,  but I don’t see it happening.  We also took them to a mini performance of the Nutcracker. One of our friends has an older daughter in dance and they put on a shortened version for preschoolers. It was only 25 minutes and was in a smaller area so it was perfect for their age. I had never seen it before and I really liked it , but the girls, Taya in particular, were enthralled.  Taya kept getting up and tried to copy the dance moves they were doing.  Emi would join her sometimes but Taya was studying them. I thought they would like it because they like having dance parties and watching videos with dancing in them.  Their favorite right now is Imagine Dragons “Thunder”. They like the weird contortionists in the video. They also really like to watch this male ballet dancer that did a video for Hoozier’s “Take me to Church” Third on the list is Gangnam Style, so they’ve got some eclectic taste in music. They’ve gotten real vocal about when they’d like me to turn the radio station and it made the trip to Iowa for Christmas frustrating at times. I can only listen to Post Malone, Adrianne Grande and Panic at the Disco so many times.  Emi’s favorite song is “Lucid Dreams” by Juice World. She doesn’t want anyone to talk when it’s on and needs it turned up loud please.

 

We spent Christmas with my sisters and their families in Iowa.  My kids are the youngest in the family by many years so everybody spoils them. This year was the year of Barbie. That’s what they both wanted for Christmas. All things Barbie. Emi also wanted a purple present. She didn’t care what came in it, just that she had a purple present.  And she wanted a duck. I have no idea where that random request came from but she said it everytime she was asked. Finding a stuffed duck was the hardest item on my list this year.  I couldn’t find one anywhere. I didn’t think it would be too hard but they must not be that popular.  She probably asked for it just to mess with me 😂  I finally found it and it is one of her favorite things- so I guess she knew what she was asking for.   They did get a ton of Barbie stuff, scooters, dress up clothes and then I did something either great or stupid depending on your perspective.  We gave them each a makeup bag with real makeup.  They love to do makeovers and everyone has been on the receiving end of one. Tim is their favorite to put makeup on because he’s bald so they can also decorate his head. We usually end up laughing til we cry on makeover days and then we hide the makeup for a while.  Emi likes a very painted lip and will use half a tube of lipstick, while Taya likes blush more.  Neither believe that less is more.  We also got them a karaoke machine. Not sure what I was thinking. They really don’t need to be amplified. This morning I was awakened at 6 am to a very loud rendition of “Let it Go” from Frozen. I’m definitely rethinking this one and the batteries may go missing if I get many more wake up calls like that.

 

On their birthday we went to an indoor water park in Dubuque.  It was perfect.  It wasn’t crowded and the girls were able to do all the rides.  The whole family went so when they wore someone out they could move on to the next. Their cousins are 16 so they did a lot of water slides with them, but even they wanted a break sometimes. The girls didn’t stop.  Thankfully there was a hot tub so we could get them to take breaks in there every now and then. They got some Frozen dolls and some more Barbie stuff as presents. I try really hard to not have their birthday be overshadowed by Christmas so we try to have it be more about doing something special. I also buy their birthday presents before I buy their Christmas presents, so they’re not an afterthought.  It doesn’t really matter now but I know it will in the future.  I’ve never met anyone who was born in December that didn’t feel like they got shortchanged on their birthday because they shared it with Christmas.  Plus they share it with each other.  I know some people actually do a party or celebration on their 1/2 birthday for December babies.  Maybe when they’re older I’ll give them that option.

I’m glad that you and your family enjoy these blogs.  Thank you for your kind words, I love being their mother and will forever be grateful that you chose me.