Growing up

Our little baby is really turning into a little girl.  She definitely knows what is going on -- ask her to give something to Timothy and she'll turn around and hand it right to him; tell her to sit down in the bath tub and she (usually) does it; ask "where's Elphie?" and she'll play peekaboo with you; and tell her to clean up and she'll start to pick up her toys.  Really, it's pretty cool to realize how much she understands.

She's definitely starting to assert her independence as well -- wanting to feed herself, climbing up so she can be a big kid just like Timothy.  It makes my heart so happy.  I love watching her grow and learn.

Oh and she's getting the communication thing too.  She only really says mama, dadda, and uh oh.  But the other night she said "night, night" and she is great at signing.  She signs "more" and "all done" and the teachers at school said she signed "circle" the other day.  Such a big girl!

Feeding herself

Looking like a big girl

Climbing up-- she'll be ready to help make brownies soon!



And here she is signing "more"

 

Work

I've had to work pretty much all day, every day for the last two weeks -- meaning I have not even had weekends to spend with the kids.

Sunday evening went something like this when I was putting Timothy to bed ---

Timmy:  You go to work mommy?
Me:  Yes baby.  I've been working.
Timmy:  Yeah Mommy.
Me: [Heart breaks]

A special thanks to Mark who has been a super single dad for the last two weeks.

And few recent pictures of the babies who were both feeling a bit under the weather this weekend with a stomach bug.  Elphie is sleeping on the floor at Mark's office cause she was too sick for daycare and Mark and I both had to work.  Bring your kid to work day for Mark!  Timothy munching on some dinner --he fought a fever throughout the weekend and although he was upbeat you could just tell he wasn't quite himself.

House Rules

Bradby House Rule:  When the hot chocolate song comes on during the movie The Polar Express, you must dance and sing on top of the coffee table.  See below (sorry kind of long).  Timothy has been abiding by this rule since he started watching The Polar Express.  Elphie just started following the rule now that she is big enough to get up on the table.

Dress Up

Timothy,

Last night I was looking at the monitor and it looked like you had a flashlight in bed.  I asked your dad if you did indeed go to bed with a flashlight.  He explained to me that, no, you were just wearing your fireman jacket and the light was the reflectors from the jacket.  A week ago you would only go to bed wearing your shoes.  You are so silly.  I love that. 

Love,

Mom

P.S. I do not love getting kicked by said shoes when you crawl into my bed in the middle of the night.

First Ponytail

The other day Miss Elphie came home from daycare with her first ponytail.  It was such a cute little spike.  I loved it!

Rocking her ponytail-- such a big girl:)

And while this post should be given entirely to E - it's hard not to compare her first ponytail with Timothy's first ponytail. Elphie's was around 13 months. Tim's around 3 months.

"Rocking" his ponytail --while still baby enough to be in his bouncer!

How Does He Know?

It's interesting how Timothy seems to know what things are considered "boy" things and what things are considered "girl" things.  Alright, it's not that amazing considering that our society impresses these classifications upon kids since day 1 of life and I'm sure its reinforced over and over in daycare.  But still, it's interesting to me.  Last night at the grocery story Timothy walked past one of those Tummy Tickler juices that costs approximately $200 dollars for no reason other than the fact that they are in a fancy container.  Well he saw one with Buzz Lightyear and of course had to have it.  Not that I wanted to spend the money but since we were going to do it, I told him to pick one out for his sister too.  He came back with a pink Hello Kitty one--- see what I mean?  He knows these things!


 Tim's drink top Elphie's drink top

Side note -- he also insists on using Elphie's pink sippy cups that Aunt Amanda bought for her. He tells me that they are "special" cups. So -- maybe he doesn't know these things or he's just very diverse and accepting of his feminine side.

Cowboy Camp

Last night I was reading Timothy one of his new favorite books before bed - "Cowboy Camp."  Timothy decided to imitate the main character of the book.  It was hiliarious and a dead on impression.  Tim even took his paci out to do it.  See what you think

Feeding Ducks

The other day we decided to go to Echo Lake to feed the ducks.  It was a scorcher.  But the kids really enjoyed feeding the ducks.  Well Elphie enjoyed feeding herself more than feeding the ducks!



Checking out the quack quacks

Feeding my little duck



For the love of ... please just sleep babies.

When I first thought of writing this post, we only had one child giving us sleep issues.  Sadly, over the last week, Elphie seemed to hop on board and follow Timothy's lead in resisting sleep.  So here it is:

Timothy.

The child has never been a good sleeper.  He started off well enough as a newborn waking every two to three hours to eat.  Sadly, this never developed much further.  We were stuck at two to three hour increments for a while.  When he started day care and would be so distracted during the day he wouldn't drink too much from his bottles so he was up at night.  Then, just as we were getting ready to really try some sleep training the ear infections started.  And they lasted.  He had a consistent ear infection from December until May.  After he got tubes we seemed to have our problem solved.  He slept through the night the next week.  Yet, this too was short lived.  It lasted from about June to October.  I was trying to think about this time and I was so confused because I could not remember for the life of me getting full nights of sleep.  Then I realized why.  Of course as soon as he started sleeping through the night Elphie came along and was up throughout the night as newborns are supposed to do. 

Anyway - at the young age of 21 months Timothy decided to transition himself to a big boy bed.  Unfortunately, because he was so young he did not get the concept of stay in bed.  So he would consistently get out of bed at night and come into our room.  After weeks and months of this (plus getting up with a newborn), we got to the point around January where we were too tired to walk him back to his room and would just pull him into our bed.  And this my friends is where it all went bad.  Timothy is now so used to sleeping with us he doesn't do well sleeping on his own.  A typical night he will go to bed around 8:30 (depending how much of a fight he puts up) and then come in to our room about 2 am where he will sleep until it's time to start the day.  This is not pleasant.  I'm telling you.  Timothy in the bed and often a dog or two, plus getting up occasionally with Elphie.  It's not okay.  I have tried to "take back our bed" but each time I get so exhausted after 4 days or so I give in.  We need a solution.  I'm sad to say that I think we are going to have to try the baby gate approach, i.e. placing a baby gate at the door to Tim's room so he can't get out.  But that has problems in itself.  First, the dogs like to go into Timothy's room and sleep with him so the gate will prevent them from coming and going as they please and they will scratch and wine.  Second, Timothy will cry and could wake up Elphie.  Third, - when Timothy cries so much he gets worked up and almost always ends up vomiting.  Fourth - I can't deal with the unpleasantness of it all. 

So that's where we are.  Oh and don't get me started with his struggles to actually get him to go to bed at night.  That's an entirely different issue.

Anyone see a problem here -- this shows Timothy's bed but Annie's the only one in his bed.

Timothy-- why can't you sleep on your own?  Such a snuggler.

Elphie.

I can't really complaint.  She was better than Timothy from the start.  Would do four or five hour stretches off the bat.  Plus when I got up with her I would only be up for 15 or 20 minutes max.  I had hopes this would lead to 8 hour stretches.  Yet -- this too never developed.  Although we got to the point where we were pretty consistent with only once a night wake ups and even the occasional sleeping through the night.  Unfortunately, this last week -- not so much.  Up two and three times a night plus up for 45 minutes to an hour at a time.  I can't do it.  I'm too old.  Plus when I try to come back to bed after getting her to sleep, Timothy's in my spot and I have to push him aside.  Ugh.  She seems to be teething.  Please keep your fingers crossed we are nearing an end there.  All I can do is turn to Tylenol. 

And that's where we are with Elphie.  We will see what develops.  For both.  These kids are lucky they are so cute and sweet. 

Elphie in her child's pose.  Usually can't get pics of her sleeping cause she wakes up with the flash.

Moving on up!

We have upgraded the kiddos to new car seats - well new for each of them at least.  After MUCH research and stress we got Timothy a new Maxi Cosi convertible car seat.  I looked at the car seats that were the 3 in ones and go into a booster seat, but I just wasn't sure.  I wanted to make sure his car seat reclined enough so that he could sleep in the car - very important for longer trips when we leave at bed time!  Of course I did not want a car seat that he would only be in for another year either, these babies are expensive - but his new convertible is supposed to hold him up until 70 lbs.  And Elphie, much to my relief, is finally out of her infant carrier.  Not that she was complaining, but in my always overempathetic way I felt uncomfortable for her.  She upgraded to Timothy's car seat -- which should hold up until 40 lbs.  They both look so much smaller in their new seats!  Anyway - without further ado, here they are ------



Elphie before ----

Elphie after -- yes she doesn't have a shirt on here -



Timothy before - he likes to wear this bucket on his head

Timothy after - thankfully that head thing doesn't bother him

First Steps - 6/4/13

Here they are ladies and gentleman -- Ms. Elphie's first steps!  Last night Mark was stuck at work latish and when he came up to see us after baths Elphie decided to do a little walking.  She took a few more than this at one point but of course we didn't catch that on video.  We will see where she goes from here.  It's a start!

A Few Self Portraits (with mommy and iphone's help)

Love these babes -


Elphie self portraits  -

 

Self portrait of Timmy's bed time (yes, I get it can't be a self portrait if there are 3 "selfs" in it)

 

 

And wrapping up with Timmy and mommy - 

 



Happy Birthday Hunter!

Our adorable nephew Hunter turned the big ONE on May 6th and we were fortunate to head up to Maryland to celebrate with him.  He had quite the bash - it was in an awesome open park where the kids could run free (and Timothy did) and where the adults could hang out and enjoy each other's company.  Bridget and Tony provided some delicious food and in addition to having a fabulous birthday cake also had an awesome ice cream sundae bar.  How cool.  I want to steal that idea for one of the kids bdays in the future:)  Oh and did I mention that the park had a carousel.  The kiddos loved it.  I think it may have been Elphie's first time on the carousel -- success!

Happy Birthday Hunter -- we love you!

Check out this face -- how cute is he?

 Yum - Cake!

 

The kiddos playing! 

Hunter seemed to love the swings -- Tim liked them for 2 min.

Cousins!

 

Soon Hunter and Elphie will be up there with Tim!
 

 The Carousel --

 

 

 

 

 

 

There was also a train but it was too rainy for the conductor to let the kids go on it - next time.

 



Baptism

We finally got the kiddos baptized!  Both Elphie and Timothy were baptized on May 12, 2013 (mother's day).  When Timothy was born we did not belong to a church.  A few months after he was born we started to attend Christ's Church Episcopal per the recommendation of Alevia.  Thanks so much to Alevia and TJ for introducing us to this church.  It is very family friendly and feels like home.  I really like it.  Looking forward to enjoying the community that it offers. 

 

The kids were a bit rowdy at the baptism.  Shocker - I know.  Following the baptism Elphie was especially rowdy considering she is usually the good one.  We figured she was just moved by the Holy Spirit.  Ha!  Also special thanks to our family and friends who agreed to be Elphie and Timothy's Godparents.  It really means a lot to us!  Timothy's Godparents are Amanda and Kim.  Elphie's Godparents are Kristin and Tony.  Thank you, thank you, thank you!

 

Tried to catch a few pictures of the babes all dressed up but they would not cooperate.  Oh well.  Below is what we got.

"Sad Choices"

Timothy is pretty good at repeating what he hears and doing so in context. I've heard one of his favorite teachers telling the kids at school that they are making "sad choices" when they are doing something bad -- i.e. coloring on the table or not listening, etc.  The other morning I was trying to get Timothy dressed for the day and he wasn't into it.  (What's new?)  Anyway, I had his clothes picked out and they were in my room ready to be put on him.  Since Timothy decided he did not want to get dressed, he picked up all of his clothes (shorts, shirts, shoes, socks) and took them into his room where he threw them on the floor the whole time repeatedly saying "No, no. Sad choices, mommy, sad choices mommy."  I, of course, had to laugh out loud.

His same favorite teacher also started speaking a few words of Spanish to him -- especially after learning that his Brazilian grandmother has taught him some Portuguese phrases.  The other day I wanted him to do something -- who knows what now -- and it lead to a melt down.  Amongst the tears, screams and general whining you could hear the phrase "non gracias, non gracias, non gracias."  At least the kid is polite.

Don't have a picture of any tantrums -- so here's one of the kiddos playing nicely together this morning before work.

Like Elphaba's

Timothy is all boy, all the time.  We are currently going through a trucks, digger, etc. phase.  As part of this phase we have a new bedtime book.  Goodnight Construction Site.  It's a really cute book.  The other night we were reading it and I pointed out to Timothy that when the cement mixer truck goes to bed it has a blanket.  After I pointed to the blanket Timothy said "like Elphaba's."  And he's right.  The cement mixer has a taggie blankie just like Elphie's!  Good eye, Tim!

Elphie's taggie -- waiting for her in her carseat

Tim's book!

Daddy

These kiddos love their daddy.  And their mommy loves to make them pose with daddy.  Frequently.  One day we will capture the perfect picture.  We are getting close.... we just need those darn pacis as a crutch!




Timothy loves to wear socks on his hands - just go with it.  We do.

Love Elphie's stare at Tim



And the winner -- Daddy and kiddos!

 

 

Lovely Evenings

I love it when evenings just fall into place.  Nothing extraordinary happened tonight but we just had such a nice relaxing time getting the kids ready for bed.  Maybe that's because I wasn't up for a fight and let Timothy pass on his bath.  Maybe it's because Mark and I both had to leave work a bit early for a meeting at the house so we weren't rushed walking in the door.  Maybe it's because we all hung out together upstairs during Elphie's bath time instead of being scattered throughout the house.  Who knows why, but we'll take it!

 

This little lady loves her baths! If only I could keep her in there longer to tire her out more. Unfortunatley, usually I'm trying to juggle both Tim and Elphie during bath time so she is the first to come out since she cannot be trusted not to stand up while my back is turned:)

 

As I said I gave Timothy a pass on his bath because I just didn't want to fight. Besides Timothy had other things in mind (as he often does) -- he was all about his fireman costume. But if only you could see what was underneath the costume ....

 

 

That's our boy --

 

And after Elphie went to bed, Timothy and I watched a bit of the Polar Express. This was his face during the part where the train is on the ice. He stayed like this for a good 5 minutes. Then when the train made it off the ice he told me "all better mommy." What a sweetheart that kid! And yes I know he is wearing Halloween PJs in May. But when can you do?