Evan the soccer pro

Updates

Well I haven't really updated on what A&E are up to except a few things here and there so I thought I would let you know what they are up to now. They are so funny and silly lately.

They both love to wink. Really they are blinking both eyes but it is so cute. They also both have to have a kiss before bed each night. It is part of our bed-time routine and they always stand up in their crib to get a kiss and give me one. Too sweet!

Evan says "thank you" when I give him something (especially french fries which are a rare treat). It sounds like something with a b sound in it but he means thank you. :-) He is also a little brown-noser. He will fuss at Avery and get our attention if she is doing something she shouldn't. He gets into trouble himself though for alot of the same things. If I even mention the word time-out, he goes and sits in the spot (even when I am not talking to him). He also sits with Avery if she gets put in time-out. Silly boy!

Avery LOVES to count. She will only say 1, 2 right now and will walk around saying it over and over. She says 2 so funny (almost with a midwest accent). She also loves to sing her abc's. It sounds like alot of I's and O's so maybe it is a remix with Old Macdonald. She woke us up Saturday morning singing so loudly. She also likes to sit on the couch now like a big girl. She climbs up by herself and we are working on sitting and not standing or jumping. She also says help now and does the sign for it. I am really pushing using words instead of whining for something. She loves to wear hats around the house. I put their sun hats in their toy box and at least once a day she puts one on and wears it around. She is so funny.

They are very into books lately. They will get a book and just sit and "read" by themselves off and on throughout the day. I am very excited about this since I love to read too and I want them to be interested in reading.

I am trying to teach them their own names and each others. Avery said "Evan" the other day but she calls him Dee-Da and he calls her DayDay. Maybe that is their version of Evan and Avery. We are also working on saying I love you. Right now they only say I and then giggle. Evan has a southern accent and says I so country. I don't say it with a southern accent so I am not sure where he learned that.

We are working on drinking out of a regular cup and not having much luck yet. They miss their mouth when they do it themselves with no help so we are trying to practice every day. Evan is getting better with using a fork but Avery doesn't have much interest. I think she could do it IF she wanted too. She can do alot of things if she wants to. :-) Evan has putting his drink back on the table during the day down pat. He will put it on the table then clap for himself!

They are growing up so quickly and learning so much every day!

Babies

Avery has a "baby" that is actually a puppy dog that talks and sings. She calls it her "baby" and has no interest in the 1 babydoll she had. She started calling real dogs baby as well so I thought maybe it was time for some babydolls so she doesn't think dogs are babies.
So yesterday at Wal-mart, A&E got their very first cabbage patch dolls. They have newborn dolls now that are just too cute. They even feed their new babies.

Team spirit

For Stroller Strides Friday we were supposed to come showing our team spirit. A&E were ready in their PSU gear!





I had on my TC stuff since that is pretty much all I have since NFL teams are not allowed to be celebrated in our house (since I am anti-Redskins and Andy is anti-Cowboys).

SS was going pretty well considering I had a sore throat and headache. That is until we go to do basketball drills on the court. We had to do suicide drills for 3 minutes and I am a slow runner so I was trying to catch up and apparently got overly excited when I got to the edge of the court. I stepped too far and my foot slid in the wet grass by the court. My left ankle bent out and I fell. I felt something pop and my ankle started swelling and bruising immediately. I decided I was tough and would walk the 1/2 mile back home. Apparently that was temporary insanity.
By the time I got home, I was sweating and sick from the pain.

Elizabeth was awesome and came over with an ace bandage and I asked Marlena to come watch A&E so I could go get my ankle checked out. Our clinic on base was full so they sent me to urgent care where I spent my afternoon Friday. I was there 2 1/2 hours and they decided it is just a bad sprain and gave me some rx ibuprofen and told me to ice it and keep it elevated. The swelling has gone down quite a bit and I can hobble around with it wrapped. Hopefully A&E won't give me too hard of a time tomorrow when Andy is back at work. He has had 24/7 A&E care all weekend and done everything by himself. Since they think it is hilarious to run from me when it is time for a diaper change, keep your fingers crossed for me. I can't catch them now!!

Ants 1, Evan 0

So Evan did it. He stuck his hand right in that huge ant hill yesterday. I was even sitting where I could watch and make sure he didn't touch it and he snuck around the back of the patio and stuck his hand right in the top of it before I could stop him.
See the handprint?


He had 15-20 ants on one hand by the time I ran over to him. I was smacking them off him and trying to get him away from the anthill and he was of course bawling. He only has about 6 bites on one hand and 3 or 4 on the other. I only got a couple in the process so we actually did pretty well considering.....
We have antibiotic cream we had from the pediatrician to put on it. Luckily he doesn't act like they bother him. My bites on the other hand are awful. I must be allergic.

Needless to say we did not go out back to play today. I am making sure they are gone before we play out there again. I put more ant killing stuff on the hill. I hate those things!

His poor hands.

Sneak preview of pics

I am sooo excited. Renee posted a sneak preview of our pics on her blog. Go here to check them out! She is obviously a genius to have gotten this many good shots. :-)

http://reneereedy.blogspot.com/2008/09/klines.html

Monday Adventures

This week is a night week for Andy so he doesn't go in until the afternoon and gets home late at night.

We spent today at home (except for Stroller Strides this morning). They played with each other very well all afternoon. They went in the playroom and it was really quiet for a while so I went to check on them and found this!




I guess Avery was reading a book to Evan. It was so sweet! They sat like that for 5-10 minutes looking at the book together.

We went outside to play later since the weather was really cool today. We discovered this HUGE fire ant hill right beside our patio.



Of course Joey walks through it and gets the ants all stirred up and Evan can't resist but to go over and want to touch it. We had to go inside (with promises of the Wiggles on tv). I put some ant stuff on it and hopefully it gets them all. That thing is ginormous and there were thousands of ants in it!!!

Happy 17 months!

Today A&E are 17 months old! We celebrated by meeting with some local twins for a new twins club! There were 6 or 7 sets there between the ages of 8 months-2 years. It was fun! I think we are going to try to get together once a month for the kids to play and the parents to talk. Thanks for organizing it all Erika!

Playing outside then (1 year ago at 5 months old)


Playing outside now (today at 17 months old)

A&E = Best buds

A&E are buddies now. For the past few days, they haven't been fighting over things and they have been playing nicely together and loving each other (I hope I didn't just jinx it!).

Yesterday when we got back from Stroller Strides, Avery was tickling Evan in the stroller. It was so cute. Today when we got back from our walk, she leaned over to lay in his lap. He thought it was funny and she did too! He was patting her side. Tonight was the best though. They were both sitting on my lap in the floor and Evan slid down to lay his head on my legs. Avery leaned over and was hugging his head and gave him a kiss on his forehead. Then she laid her head on his mouth trying to get him to kiss her on her cheek. Talk about melting a mom's heart. They loved on each other for a few minutes and it was the sweetest thing I think I have ever seen. So on my next bad day (or bad bathtime episode which is a whole other post) I need to remember that moment. I hope they love each other like this forever and are best buds for life.

Here is a pic of Avery laying on Evan in the stroller today. She did it long enough for me to run in the house and grab my camera.


Here they are laying in the floor together tonight watching tv.

Our zoo trip

Saturday we decided to go to the Tupelo Buffalo Park and Zoo on a whim. It was supposed to be cooler than usual and we had no plans. We headed there after their afternoon nap. The "zoo" was actually some random animals behind a couple fences. We made the best of it though. We let A&E walk through since they were complaining about riding in the stroller. They loved the play areas. I think Andy and Evan played hide-and-seek in the fort for 15 minutes straight! It wasn't busy at all (maybe because of the price).
Afterwards, we went to the mall and out to dinner. A&E had their first cookie from Great American Cookie Factory and we had to get pics of that too. I had so many cute pics that I had to put it in a slideshow. You can see Avery's scratched up nose from the table incident.
Check out Zelda the Zeedonk in the pics. I was amazed by that thing for some reason. It was a zebra/donkey mix and pretty funny looking. Also pay attention to Avery's action shot of her running. It is hilarious!

Tupelo Buffalo Park

There is also strength in numbers

Today was a very busy day. We had our first kindermusik class (thanks Grammy Hilles for helping us out with the classes), then I had a chiropractor appt, and this afternoon I had an orthodontist appt (thanks Elizabeth for helping out AGAIN).

We went to Kindermusik and I had convinced myself that I wasn't going to chase them around and make a big deal about them trying to explore. I wasn't going to wear myself out and I would just let them be kids. They were playing with a big fold up table that was propped against the wall and I kept thinking they might pinch their fingers but I stayed where I was and just watched them. The music teacher was moving chairs around so she could move the table away when all of a sudden, A&E pulled the table over. I have never had a scare like that in my life. I think both of their lives flashed before my eyes because that thing was heavy.

It hit Avery but she wasn't under it. She has a scratch across the bridge of her nose. It hit Evan, knocked him down, then landed on top of him. He just has a red spot above his eyebrow and on the back of his neck. I was so relieved when he cried because I was sure it had knocked him out or something. I was doubly relieved when we got the table off him and he didn't have any cuts or gashes.

I swear it happened in slow motion. It is an absolutely horrifying experience to watch something like that knowing you can't stop it in time. I am way overprotective as it is and I hover ALOT so this was a nightmare for me. If I could put them in a bubble forever, I would! I will probably have nightmares about it for the rest of my life.

So they cried for a few minutes (and I was a big girl and didn't cry in front of everyone). Evan actually recovered first and was off and playing. Avery took a bit longer and Ms Cathy was nice enough to find a stuffed animal for her to hold.

I felt like the worst mommy in the world at that moment. I never thought they would be strong enough to pull it over but there is strength in numbers apparently..... Their teacher even called me this evening to check on them.

They were fine the rest of class and had a good time. I personally was traumatized and somewhat sick to my stomach.

They loved the songs and using the musical instruments and scarves. They even put them back when it was time without putting up a fuss. Avery did really well with participating and doing the motions to songs. Evan was more into walking around the room and exploring but he joined in sometimes too.
They are the youngest in the class. It is for 18 months old-3 years old so they are still a bit young, but they were ready for this type of class. I am very glad we have the opportunity to do this class because they love music so much and they can get some interaction with older kids (and good role models).

As for my appointments, they were crabby at the chiro today while we did a reassessment to see how I am doing. They stayed at home to play with Elizabeth and Jackson while I went to the orthodontist since they had to do a few things there. I will just say my teeth HURT! No wonder teenagers are so surly. If they have braces, I am sure that is the reason. I better have a perfect smile after all this.......

Photo session madness

Today we finally did our family photo session that I have been meaning to schedule since A&E turned one (I am only 4 1/2 months late). I would love to do nice family photos every year (outdoor, candid type photos and not Sears or Olan Mills photos). So I researched photographers in our area and their is actually a great one that goes to our church!

So we met this morning at the Riverwalk all ready to go in our finery (well we didn't dress up that much but you know what I mean). We tried getting a pic on the bench, A&E weren't having it. We tried to go get some pics as a family in the grass, A&E weren't having it. We tried to get an adorable pic of all of us walking together holding hands, A&E weren't having it. Get the idea? This proceeded throughout the entire photo shoot. I was sweating by the time we left. All A&E wanted to do was run wild through the outdoors.

Renee was patient and I hope we didn't scar her for life and make her never want children. I am just sincerely hoping we got at least a few good shots to make it worth our time and money. We came home and put our two wild, grumpy toddlers in bed. In fact, they are down right now for their second nap of the day so I think it at least wore them out......