Pictures from Hudson and Fynn's 2nd Birthday Party

                                       My attempt to be crafty, I had a cuter banner ordered from Etsy but hubby  threw it in the garbage because he didn't know what it was :(

                                You probably can't tell but these were collages of the boys over the year in the shape of the number 2

            The boys are obsessed with all things cars and trucks so that was our theme

                                               Hudson's collage, I take terrible pictures

                                             Fynn's Collage

                          Canada Olympic hats and Cheetos make a great gift :)

                                               Fynn learning to blow out a candle

                                                 Pictures of the brothers together

                             Grandma and Grandpa were home for the party :)

                                              Hudson has cool shades for his party

                                               They loved playing with the balloons :)

19 months and barely hanging on

Some days I feel like we are holding on by a thread. Yesterday was a thin thread day. Actually it was the scariest day since the boys were born. Fynn managed to break into our cleaning cupboard, that had a baby proofed lock on it, and drink a gulp of Pine Sol. Yep, not going to be winning The Mother of the Year Award around here. Please do me a favour and move you cleaning products to the highest shelf in your house. He is fine but it was terrifying.
I say it every month but my boys are busy and some might describe them as terrors. They climb constantly and find anything they aren't supposed to get into. They smash their heads into walls or the ceramic floor if I say no and have temper tantrums daily. Give me strength!!!  When we go to the park all they want to do is throw rocks or sand.
Sometimes i feel like an abused woman. They hit me, they pull my hair and occasionally they bite me. This is not a fun stage.
I can't go to the bathroom without them loosing their minds and throwing themselves violently at the door. If I let them come in they try to put the toilet brush in their mouths and bang the baby proofed doors as loud as they can. They also whack me with the toilet seat by trying to open and shut it.Lets's not even get started on the toilet paper.
 I can't even sweep the floor they scream to hold the broom, step in the dirt or try to eat the crumbs. When I feed them they throw their food on the floor, take the lid off of their sippy cups and dump it in the floor, kick the bottom of their food trays and scream bloody murder.
Even our sacred bath time is no longer peaceful. They are obsessed with taking the plug out of the bottom of the bath, they scream and throw fits if they can't play with it. They try to drink their body wash and I have to sit on the edge of the bath or they climb up and try to stand on the edge.
I take them out at least twice a day because if they are constantly stimulated they behave much better. Luckily they nap well and sleep 12 hour a night or I would be in an institute.
I know they are frustrated because they aren't able to communicate their needs so hopefully an end is in sight. Plus once their attention span is longer than 5 minutes maybe I can keep them stimulated in the house longer. They are physical guys and they are constantly on the go, what the heck am I going to do in the winter. Don't get me wrong I have drop in programs we can go to almost every day but without the park where will they get all of their energy out.

Toddlers

It's official these guys are toddlers, I have been saying it for a while but seriously they look so grown up :(

Brothers

 Big Chair

 New Coats

 Giving Diego a drink

 At the park and a little drool

 On the teeter totter, his favourite

 Fynn Blue Eyes

 Best Buds

 Beautiful day at the park

 Wagon Ride

 Indoor playground

 Big boy

 New trampoline

Slide

Two Good Days in a Row!

We are in an "Interesting" stage here. The boys have been whining a lot and if they don't like something I say they bang their heads on the floor or wall. NOT FUN!!!!!!!! I think it is their frustration with not being able to communicate and express themselves. Speech is still coming but not fast enough for them.
On a positive note they have had two great days with very minimal whining. Thank goodness because it was getting on my last nerve

Stay at Home Mom (SAHM)

I had never imagined myself as a stay at home mom. Hubby doesn't make a ton of money and kids are expensive, plus I love teaching. So today when I made the final decision not to return to work I panicked. Up until now I have always seen myself as being on an extended maternity leave. However, now it is official, I have no job to go back to and it is damn scary. Teaching jobs here are very difficult to come by and I am risking my career to take another year off. We can't sustain the family on one income for longer than that so this is a bit of a risk. I had always pictured myself as a kick ass stong working mom that could balance both, ugh what a hard decision.

Epic Fail!!!!

So hubby had a very rare weekend off. He works at a Golf Course so he literally works every weekend so when he managed to score this weekend off we wanted to plan something special. We decided to head to Niagara Falls for a fun filled weekend. We loaded the boys in the car and headed out. They did a fantastic job in the car and we had an amazing day. HOWEVER, they refused to sleep in the very nice hotel room we booked. We are usually bargain shoppers and never pay retail for anything and this time we splurged. We got a two bedroom suite with a separate living room and it SHOULD have been perfect. Well, not so much. I should say that I am a schedule person. Not in my regular life but in my twin mommy life. The boys generally only nap in their cribs, I have made a point of not napping them in car seats or stroller and taught them to self sooth early on. The result is they are awesome sleepers. I can plop them in their cribs and they roll over and go to sleep (for as long as I can remember). They barely ever fight a nap and if anything sometimes we have to wake them up from naps so that bedtime isn't pushed back. So my first mistake was probably not napping the boys at home in the morning. Basically by 6pm we had overtired boys who had napped about 45 minutes all day (they usually nap about 4 hours). Our assumption that they would be exhausted and fall into their cribs was VERY wrong. They lost their minds and we ended up having to leave the hotel and 3am to head home. I am so sick about it because we had an entire day planned today and missed out on so much fun. Plus, what a waste of money.
Anyways, live and learn and we did make some memories.

18 months

I feel like I literally just did my 17 month post, partly because I did it late and also because time is flying like always. I don't think we have had any major milestones this past month. Although you are using a spoon to eat your yogurt in the morning (still pretty messy but getting better on a daily basis) and drinking from cups.   I have been dreading the 18 month milestone for some reason. It seems that suddenly there seem to be a ton of expectations and unlike in the early months some of them we aren't meeting, specifically  language milestones.

Here is the list I have been looking at for language:

1. Understand the meaning of in and out, off and on?
I am actually not too sure about this one. The boys put things in and out of containers when we are playing together or when they are playing by themselves. However I am not sure if when I say "put the ball in the box" that they know the word "in" or if it is repitition. Honestly we haven't really worked with "on and off"

2. Points to more than 2 body parts.
We have been working on this for the past couple of weeks and they get feet 100% of the time but only point to their head and tummy about 60% of the time when I que them. Sometimes I say "where is your head" and they point to their mouths, eyes, or ears.

3. Use at least 20 words consistently?
Well they use about 15 sounds/words consistently although not every day. I would say in a day they probably use 10 of their words. Furthermore the "words" are more like sounds. Like mentioned in previous posts cookie sounds is just cook, or cracker is just crk (more like a sound). They still say dis instead of this, dat instead of that and call everything that moves a cark (car)  or cruck (truck)

4. Respond with words or gestures to simple questions (Where’s teddy? What’s that?)?
They do point to things when I ask where they are but they don't say anthing. If I say where is the bear they will generally bring it to me or gesture over to it. They might on a very rare occassion gesture and say dat (that)

5. Demonstrate some pretend play with toys (gives teddy bear a drink, pretends a bowl is a hat)?
YES!!!! They do this :)

6. Make at least four different consonant sounds (p ,b, m, n, d, g, w, h)?
YES!!! This one too!!!!

7. Enjoy being read to and sharing simple books with you?
Well if by enjoying they mean constantly bringing me books, sitting on my lap, flipping 3 pages, pointing out some objects and then quickly running away then yes they love doing this

8. Point to pictures using one finger?
Yes they do point to pictures and when I say the name of the item they seem to nod or just look at me intently. They don't try to repeat it or anything. Although sometimes they will say book, truck, or car when I point to it but this is VERY rare.


Here are the 17 month milestones that we should have exceeded:


1. Uses a handful of words regularly
Well if we count sounds as word then yes. They do say ba (ball), cark (car), Cruck (truck), Crck (cracker), cook (cookie), dis (this), dat (that) etc. regularly. I would assume a hand full is 5 right

2. Responds to directions (e.g. "Sit down")
YES, we can do this !!!!

3. Dances to music
For sure they looooooooove to dance!

4. Enjoys pretend games
Is peekaboo a pretend game? If so then heck yah. They also like to bring my pretend food from their play kitchen and I pretend to eat it and pretend to eat it too. They like to put random things on their head too pretending it is a hat and thinking they are silly.

5. Feeds doll-I just tried when I saw this and they think it is hilarious to put a spoon up to their stuffed animals mouth.

6. Sorts toys by colour, shape, or size
Not even close. Colour, holy poop they don't have a clue what a colour is! Shape, well okay they do collect balls or cars and pile them up.

7. Likes riding toys
Heck yeah since they were about 10 months

8. Talks more clearly
Well it is all relative but yes more clearly than last month

9. Kicks ball forward
yep, but only once or twice ever. They are pretty coordinated though.

I know I sound like some crazy mom who is obsessed with Milestones and that isn't 100% the truth. I always say I just want happy kids and I really do mean that. I just want to make sure I am doing everything to facilitate their learning and if they need extra assistance I want to identify it early on. Anyways, I love these guys and they make me laugh all of the time. They play together really well and are real characters. As the months progress we really get to see their personalities emerge and it is so much fun.