Are You Happy?

Clap, Stomp, & Say Amen with us!

Curtain Peek-a-Boo and Bipers

This morning I walked into the girls' room and found this:

Apparently, the curtains make a great way to play peek-a-boo.

Peek-a-Boo, Emma!

Peek-a-Boo, Ella!

What fun it is to be 21 months old!

Aren't we cute?!?!

(Ella-left, Emma- right)

They have also developed a fascination with "bipers." (That's how they say diapers.) We have lots of toys, books, and even a slide and mini-trampoline to play with, but they prefer........ bipers.

Mud!

We had a couple of beautiful days last week, and the girls really loved playing in the backyard. They would run around, in and out of the house just giggling. They also love playing in the dirt. They try to pick it up and throw it. I figure, as long as they aren't throwing it at each other or anyone else, it'll be ok. (I do stop them from throwing rocks though.) We got a nice rain one day, and these pictures are from the day after that. They still wanted to throw the dirt, but they got into the mud a bit instead.

Ella getting ready to throw some mud.

(Doesn't Emma look mischievous in the background?)

Ella running around

Emma having fun

Emma would wipe her hands together to get the mud off, then go back for more.

Emma's muddy hands & Ella trying to make hers muddy too.

Laundry Helpers

Ella and Emma have recently become my little laundry helpers. They love to hand me clothes for the washer, put the wet clothes in the dryer, and put the dry clothes into the basket. They even help me "fold" sometimes. It's so fun to watch them as they are learning new skills. Right now they think laundry is FUN!! I hope it stays that way, at least for a while.

Pudding Paintings

How to Make Pudding Paintings:

1. Strip kids down and give them a piece of construction paper.

2. Drop big spoonful of pudding onto paper.

3. Have fun eating and painting with the pudding.

Emma Painting (above and below)

Ella painting and eating (above and below)

4. Let pudding dry completely (overnight) without touching it, unless you want fingerprints.

5. Display in a place of honor...

Like on your refrigerator.

Ella's Masterpiece

Emma's Masterpiece

We did this project at the end of January, and the girls had a great time. Ella wanted to eat the pudding more than paint, but Emma really enjoyed the finger painting. We are so proud of our girls' first masterpieces!

Update: A Bed Time Tale

The first night in toddler beds really went pretty well. A few incidents, but not as bad as it could have been. Bryan sat with them until they were almost asleep. Then, we went to check on them before we went to bed. When we did, this is what we found:

Emma, sound asleep on the floor.

We have no idea when she fell out of bed because we never heard her cry, but there she was. Bryan carefully picked her up and tucked her back in bed. She hardly even noticed he moved her.

About an hour later, we heard cries on the baby monitor. Bryan went to check and found Ella sitting on the floor by her bed with a very confused and sleepy look on her face. It looked like she was thinking, "How did I get here? And how do I get back in my bed?" He rocked her for a little bit before tucking her back in bed also. (We didn't get pictures of this.)

Around 6:00 a.m., Ella cried again because she couldn't find her horse. (However, when I went in, she was standing in her bed.) Even after I found it, she didn't want to go back to bed, so we slept together for a couple of hours on the couch. When I went to get Emma up, she was laying in sister's bed, just hanging out, until we came to get her.

I would call the first night in toddler beds a success. Hopefully, they will soon learn how to stay in the bed and not fall out.

A Bed Time Tale

This is the tale of 2 little girls and their bedtime adventures. It all began about a week ago when our baby monitor started making some really weird noises during morning nap one day. When I went to check, this is what I found:

Emma sitting on the changing table!

I quickly put her back in bed, told her this was not allowed, and left her to take her nap. She did go to sleep, but managed to get back on the changing table during her afternoon nap. So, since she was using the bumper in her crib as the step to get out, I immediately removed it. That seemed to do the trick. No more escaping... right?

Wrong! Yesterday, I heard a crash and loud cries. When I entered the room, the pad from the changing table was laying on the floor and Emma was standing there screaming. We began to rock, I began to wonder what to do next, and Ella began to climb out of her crib. OH NO!!! Now what? They can't be big enough for toddler beds, are they? I'm not ready for them to be big enough for toddler beds. That's for sure! But... for safety sake... we sure don't want someone to get hurt... so....

Here we are converting the cribs into toddler beds.

FREEDOM!!! They immediately went and climbed into each other's beds. The room must look different from sister's bed because neither wanted to check out their own beds.

Emma climbing into Ella's bed.

Ella climbing into Emma's bed.

Time to play! We had two little monkeys jumping on each other's beds. This was so much fun. They climbed in and out, jumped, sat, jumped, ran around the room, jumped, climbed in and out, jumped, laughed, jumped, laid down, and did I mention jumped.

They had so much fun for nearly an hour. By then it was time for their afternoon nap. They were so tired from all that jumping, they laid right down in their beds. I erroneously thought, "Wow, this is going to be easier than I thought." So, we left them to sleep. However, they were not as interested in sleep as we thought. After a while we peeked in and found this:

Not sure where they found the yarn, but they were knotted together with it.

Then later, after that had been taken care of:

Being able to get out of bed is great fun!

So, I helped them clean up their mess, put them in bed and sat on the floor in their room until:

Emma finally gave in.

Shortly thereafter, Ella did too.

Who knows what tonight will bring when it's bedtime? Hopefully, we will be able to make this transition fairly smoothly, but I'm not counting on it.