Avery & Aiden Update

Okay, to satisfy the twin mother in me who cringes when I here "the twins" I will do a short individual update and then them together. I mean they are identical twins, they actually do have a lot in common. :)

Avery is very funny and pretty sensitive. She loves to say "Nnnnnnnno" dragging out the word like that when we ask her a question. Usually something like, are you ready to take a bath, go to bed, get in your car seat? She likes to make us laugh with her goofy faces and games. Avery is a great eater and she recently discovered she likes salad. She has preferences about which clothes she wears and which car seat she uses. Her favorite phrase is, "No, I don't want to!"

Aiden gets my attention by screaming "Mommy!" at me all day while hitting me for effect. I recently read that Aiden means fiery one or little fire, and she is living up to her name. Aiden tries to stop Brandon from going to work in the morning by blocking the door and she must give August a hug goodbye as she leaves for school or she's extremely distressed. Aiden gives the sweetest kisses and great big hugs.

Okay, now for the pair of them...they refer to each other as "Sissy." Isn't that the cutest? I absolutely love it. It's Sissy this, and Sissy that all day long. Aiden can actually say Avery's name...Avey is how it usually comes out, but Sissy is by far her favorite way to refer to her sis. They also have started tattling on one another and are constantly summoning Brandon and I to come check out the latest way their sister has outraged them. They love coloring, anything Elmo, watching Sesame Street & Caillou, and they could watch the movie Up all day long if I let them. They are starting to play really well together during the day. It's fun to catch them sitting side by side in their room holding their baby dolls. They are talking a lot now. They were a little slow getting started, but now they can always get their point across. Over Easter my mom gave them their first real haircuts. They had that baby hair mullet going on, so we took care of that. They look so grown up, like little girls, not babies anymore. At nap time they still curl up on my lap with their blankies to fall asleep. I love it! They are so much fun and I can't imagine our family without them. I'm posting pictures of their nighttime ritual...totally destroying their bedroom. I started tying the closet door shut and that seems to help. They just want to play all night, I don't blame them, being twins that share a room is like having a sleepover with your best friend every night. :)

Addison Update

Addison turned 5 last month and is in preschool and dance lessons. She still loves to sit on her bed and look through books. She is very interested in reading and is pretty good at sounding out words and has some of the sight words figured out. She loves animals and said she'll be a veterinarian if she can take care of "nice" animals.

Last Saturday when I got out of the shower August informed me that she couldn't find Addison anywhere. Hmmm. We started yelling for her and looking in all her usual hiding places. In the meantime Brandon came home and Brooke came over. We sent August to the Finlaysons to see if she had gone over to play, and we kept looking everywhere else. Well, August came back crying saying that she wasn't there. At this point it had probably been 15 minutes of this. Brandon was heading out to cruise the neighborhood, and I looked behind the couch again. As I knelt on the couch I felt movement under the pillows and guess what...there was our sweet, adorable,severely in trouble, Addison! I wanted to kiss and spank her at the same time! The funniest thing was that August kept telling us the last place she saw Addie was on the couch. Well, that was accurate! Brandon made Addison apologize to August because she was really upset. While we were looking August kept walking through the house yelling (while sobbing), "Addison, please come out! You won't be in trouble." I can't believe she laid there so still and for so long, and that nothing we were saying compelled her to show herself! That's a good story to illustrate Addison's personality. She usually does what she wants, when she wants, regardless of the consequences! Sigh.

The other day Addison told me she wants to take guitar lessons. I think that would be cool, because I actually want to take lessons too! Maybe if I go to her lessons with her I can figure it out. She said that she won't complain about lessons like August always does. I thought that was funny. Does anyone know the right age for starting guitar lessons? Or a good teacher?

Addison's best friend is Anaya from next door. They are so funny together! They play dress up and like to make up songs and dances to perform for us.

Addie lost her first tooth on Sunday and that sort of blew our minds. Is she old enough for that to happen? Of course she is, but for some reason she is stuck in my mind at about 3 yrs. old. Nope, she'll start kindergarten in the fall. Yep, we're old!!

So long old friend!!!

Today we said goodbye to a piece of furniture that has been a part of our home for the last 7 years. Our crib...that's right, our daredevil 2 yr. olds have consistently climbed out of their cribs all day today. (Our second crib was on loan, and is now heading back to Grandma's.) No naps today! If that isn't bad enough, I'm really nervous about bedtime. How is this going to work? I soooooo look forward to bedtime! Our other girls never attempted climbing out of the crib, and they were both older before transitioning to big girl beds. For the time being we're just going to let them sleep on their mattresses on the floor. When the basement gets finished they'll inherit the trundle bed from the older girls.


Update: I started writing this yesterday and last night was a little crazy. Initially they didn't want to stay in the beds, but we (when I say we I mean Brandon, I needed a break. Thanks Bran!) used Super Nanny's technique of not talking to them and sitting on the floor in their room until they fell asleep. That probably took about 10 minutes because they were so tired. Brandon works tonight so I'm flying solo. I hope I can do as well as he did! This morning we heard them wake up and start playing with their toys at 5:30am. I'm thinking I should start hiding the musical toys before they go to bed. :) Then there was a stretch of quiet and then Avery came into our room at 6:40. I went to check on Aiden and I found her asleep on Avery's bed...sort of. (refer to picture) Notice the state of their room, it was clean when they went to bed. Good thing they are so sweet because sheesh...change is hard on me. Talk about some major adjustments! My babies got rid of their binkies, turned 2, and started using big girl beds all within a couple of weeks. Sniff Sniff :(

P.S. I finally quit being lazy and found the cord for my new camera, hence pictures shall be coming in the future. I know some aunts that will be happy! :)

Update #2: Just got them to bed tonight by myself! 5 minutes flat!!! I love Super Nanny...and it didn't hurt that they were t-t-t-tired from getting up too early and not taking naps today, yet again. Oh well, I'll take what I can get!

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August Update

Instead of back-tracking too much I decided to spotlight each of the girls in the next few days...or weeks. We got a blog book for Christmas and now we'll be doing that every year. It's awesome and eases my guilty conscience concerning the documentation of my children's lives!
So basically this is for my posterity and anyone else this interests. :)

August turned 7 in October. Is it just me, or does 7 seem a lot older than 6? She is in 1st grade and loves it. She has never had her clip pulled (equivalent to having your name on the board) in her whole elementary school career. She likes to remind us of this on a regular basis. I'm a little concerned about what will happen when she does. Can you say perfectionist? She is mini-me I'm afraid, and I feel like my life has come full circle. The things she says I remember saying, and the things I say I remember my mom saying. Yikes! August is our little comedian. She has a pretty mature sense of humor. She likes to banter with Brandon when he teases her and she comes up with some pretty witty responses. At parent-teacher conference her teacher told us that she can always count on August to understand and laugh her jokes even when it goes over the other kids' heads. August still loves anything creative. She loves to design things and paint and color. We are trying to get our basement finished this year and on one of our trips to home depot we were checking out light fixtures. August spotted one and commented that she really liked that one because it had a lot of detail. I just agreed and tried not to laugh out loud. She totally caught me off guard with that one. What a character! We recently started chore charts with the older girls and August loves it. She's all about marking things off and getting credit where credit is due. She is still in dance lessons and I started teaching her piano lessons a couple of months ago. She is doing really well. I think it's more fun for me though. August is a great big sister and a big help to me. She is always giving us hugs and telling us she loves us. Just so people don't think this sounds too good to be true, I'll just say she contributes her fair share of drama to the Larsen home but we'll take it because the good far outweighs the bad! Love you Auggie!