Two 2-year olds

Parks and Marlee turned 2 today.  I can't look at them without seeing babies, and at the same time I see them and can't believe how big they are.  They are actual KIDS.  I can talk to them and they understand.  They follow directions and LOVE to follow the leader/play simon-says and show off all the things they know.

Marlee is talking so much these days.  She will repeat anything and everything, and it is the cutest thing in the world...especially when she tries big words like spaghetti and refrigerator.  She identifies everything she sees and will point it out and repeat it until you acknowledge that you see it too.  I think I mentioned it in the past, but she loves greeting strangers too.  It's hilarious how she does it, because she waits until it is past the normal point of greeting someone, and just as they begin to walk past and ignore her, she says (extremely loud and clear) "HI!!!!"  They have no choice but to respond.  I love it when it is a tough guy or a coooool teenager.  She counts to ten in English, Spanish and is pretty good in German, and can get into the alphabet through about "K" on a good day.  Her favorite songs are "Bayou (Bayou Bayou Baby)," ""Bitsy-Bitsy (Itsy Bitsy Spider)" and "Pay Cake (Patty Cake, Patty Cake)."

Parks is such a boy.  He would rather jump back and forth from the ottoman and sofa for an hour than talk or count or sing.  He really enjoys follow the leader, but isn't really very into practicing his speech. He loves milk, running, outside, hammering things and his mommy and daddy.  Every single time I go into his room to get him up from sleep, he looks at me with huge eyes and says "HI!" in a really high pitched and excited sound.  I stinkin' love it.  It's the sweetest sound in the world and makes me excited to go get him each time.  His teachers at Children's Morning Out say he is a good leader and loves to do all the hand motions to the songs they sing.  My favorite Parks-ism is how he loves to be held and will come up to me unprovoked and grab my head to give me a kiss.  Melts.My.Heart.

I'm no good with words, but I love these two kiddos with all my heart and am so thankful for them daily.  They mean the world to me!

Happy Birthday, Parks and Marlee!!

Shayla in Elmo Shoes

Babymoon Pictures

I posted about the trip Mikey and I took to Orlando for our Babymoon, but I couldn't remember how to pull the pictures off instagram to post here until I asked Kim...AGAIN.

So, as promised...

At Rainforest Cafe...had to get this pic for Parks

Mikey at Universal Boardwalk, carrying my purse

Elephant Twins

This was just the APPETIZER at Bubba Gump's

Sprinkles

This morning I got the kids up for breakfast and took them downstairs.  Then I BRIEFLY walked back up the stairs to get their clothes and came back to find this...

Yes, they are sitting on the end table.

At least they are sharing, right?

Babymoon

Mikey and I had the opportunity (thanks to our wonderful parents) to take a weekend trip...just the two of us!  My mom offered to watch the kids for a couple of nights so we could get away and relax for a bit.  Um...YES PLEASE!!

We've been wanting to go to Charleston for-ev-er to visit some friends, Jessica and Ed.  We had it all worked out...down to the departure time and all the restaurants and hot spots we wanted to hit.  However, and very Unfortunately, the weather looked TERRIBLE for the weekend we had scheduled, AND Jessica and Ed had a pretty full schedule that weekend with work and a race they had already registered for.  So...we decided the stars were not aligning and we'd save our trip to Charleston for better weather and more available time with our buddies.

Of course canceling the trip to Charleston was a bummer...but we still had to use the time without kids to our full advantage.  We scoped the weather in the Southeast (and even checked some flights to a few spots) and it turned out that the rain was pretty much South Georgia and above, so we ended up setting our sites on Orlando.  We did priceline on Wednesday night - left Thursday night - spent the night in Lake City - arrived in Orlando Friday morning and had a blast.

We honestly did nothing but lay by the pool and go out to eat, but it was fabulous.  The weather was in the high 80s the entire time, and felt so good.  We thought about the kids a ton (how can you not in Orlando, FL with Disney at every corner...not to mention our hotel was super-duper kid-friendly with an awesome toddler pool area).  It was great and relaxing to only have to care for ourselves for the weekend.

My mom and Mikey's mom had been wanting to take the twins to the GA aquarium for a while now, and the timing worked out for them to go on the Friday we were gone.  They took turns watching the kiddos during the day and had lots of fun with Grandma and Grandpa.

GOOD STUFF.

Peeing and Sleeping

Update from last week's post...

Parks continues to pee on the potty every day...and Marlee finally did for the first time on Wednesday night.  I am thinking about ordering another potty so we can have one upstairs and one downstairs because there is zero chance that I will go up and down the stairs with both kids 20 times per day to use one potty.

Marlee is sleeping so great in the big girl bed.  She is really impressing me.  For the first couple of days I sang her to sleep...then I just sang to her until she was sleepy (which was really fast).  The first couple times she chased me to the door, but I would watch her on the monitor and she would go right back to her bed and lay down.  Now she just wimpers a little when I lean over to kiss her because she knows I am leaving...but she stays in her bed and is usually asleep in less than 2 minutes.

I'm at 27 weeks today.  Baby boy is about 2 pounds...that's half of a newborn baby Marlee!!  :)

Big Milestone Day

Yesterday was a big day for Parks and Marlee:

Parks peed in the potty for the first time!!

I haven't been trying to potty train yet since we will have a newborn in about 3 months to keep us busy...and I don't want to put the work in now and then have the twins regress and have to re-train them later.  However, I did buy a potty and let them sit on it to get used to it (usually at bath time).  Parks peed right away and was so proud of himself, but not as proud as I was.  :-)  He did it again tonight at bath time.  Woo-hoo.



Marlee escaped her crib...twice!!

Not so great.  I went in to get them up from their nap yesterday, and she was walking around the room and throwing a bunch of stuffed animals in Parks' crib.  I was so shocked.  Then, I put them to bed last night and a few minutes later saw her walking around the room on the baby monitor.  Needless to say, we did some rearranging and have moved Parks into his own room (still in a crib) and put a mattress on the floor for Marlee's "big girl bed."  She actually took a really good nap on it today with no hiccups and I put her to bed a little while ago...we will see how tonight goes.  I did have to sing her to sleep for her nap and bed time, but that should only last during this transition phase.



I am 26 weeks preggo today!!

I feel like I am 36 weeks, which doesn't bode well, but things have been going pretty well.  This little guy gets very active in the evenings when I FINALLY sit down to relax.  My feet ache when I am standing a lot during the day and the heartburn is awful at night (I usually wake up every hour at night with unbearable burning).  I am starting a rx heartburn med today, so hopefully I can make it through the night tonight.  Other than that, I can't complain much and have been so thankful to have all positive doctor reports so far.  I do my glucose test in 2 weeks and after that I have to start my checkups every 2 weeks instead of 4 weeks.  I feel like I am so busy that I haven't been spending as much time mentally preparing for our new addition, but once in a while it hits me and I am just so excited and grateful for this miracle of life.  I love him already.  Now...does anyone have a perfect name suggestion???