Laney loves to put on shoes. Even better if the shoes are adult sized so it’s all that much easier for her to put them on. Boots are best, because they give her a little more stability, but she’ll take whatever is around. We were at a Super Bowl party on Sunday and when I couldn’t find her, she was in the entry way trying on boots.

Since the holidays, our weekends have all been very low key. I used to plan something for every weekend. Some activity, some outing, something to get us out of the house. But now that the girls go to daycare, I don’t feel the need to get out on the weekends. Part of it is that the girls don’t play with their toys much during the week, so they’re still “fun” to play with on the weekends. And part of it is I’ve already put them in and out of their carseats all week, I’m not keen to do it over and over again on the weekends. Getting two toddlers anywhere in the winter is no easy feat! So we’ve been staying home more which has been nice, but makes for some boring blog posts.

On top of that, the girls are still battling illness. They’ll run random fevers of 101 that are almost always gone by morning. Their noses are snotty, they’re coughing, but not really sick. They still run around and play, they aren’t lethargic, so I’m guessing it’s just a long lasting cold? Either way, I’ll be happy when it’s over and we can all get some decent sleep.

On top of all of THAT, Caden lost her bankie Saturday morning. She’s lost it twice previously and since I didn’t enjoy the frantic hunt for bankie, I’ve been keeping a closer eye on him. But we were all tired Saturday morning and I wasn’t on my game, come naptime I had no idea where he was. Even worse, we’d played upstairs, downstairs, in my room, in their room – everywhere! I searched, the babysitter searched, I searched again. We traded ideas as to where it might be, but I couldn’t find it. Tonight I did one more search of the downstairs playroom. I thought she might have put it in her purse, but it wasn’t there. I looked by the cabinet in that room and as I was scanning up and down, I saw it on the floor under a toy. HOORAY! You have no idea the cloud the missing bankie put over our house. Naps sucked, nighttime sleep sucked, it was no fun. Bankie will now find himself restricted to the crib whenever possible. Since they started daycare, I’ve been letting her take him anywhere, but we can’t lose him again. Even though she has a backup bankie, it’s not the same, only the real bankie will do. Lesson learned!

After breakfast, Delaney smeared her syrupy hands all over her hair, making it one sticky mess. I really didn’t want to do a full blown bath, so I took the spray bottle with just water in it and sprayed her hair down. Then I combed it, and dried it with a towel. It worked! And then Caden wanted me to spray her hair too, which of course I did.

Apparently, Maddy wanted to be groomed as well. If you shake this particular straw cup, water will drip out. Caden would shake it onto Maddy, and then comb her hair. Maddy was in Heaven.

My parents bought the girls a tiny doll crib from Ikea for Christmas. We had gotten enough toys, and since this one required assembly, it stayed downstairs in its box. But, when my mom saw that, she immediately made my dad put it together. The girls were very helpful.

Both girls love it. Caden is very into her babies right now, so she loves to put them in the crib and feed them, or cover them with blankets. They both also like to climb into the crib. Sometimes it goes not so well, but mostly they played really well together in it. It’s so fun to see them having so much fun together.

Also? For as much as they play together when they’re home (which is all the time) that’s how much they’re apart at daycare. I peek in at some point every day and they are never together. They rarely even sit next to each other for meals! Is it weird that I assume they are best buds at school?

Delaney has been teetering on the edge of sick the last few days. When daycare said she slept for two hours on Wednesday, I knew it was close. She was running a 102 fever by the time bathtime rolled around and was none too thrilled to have to get in the tub. I knew then that no matter how she was feeling in the morning, I would keep her home. But that didn’t mean Caden had to miss school did it?

When Caden and I were sick a few weeks ago, I vaguely considered taking Delaney into daycare. But, that was before she was really comfortable and I knew she wouldn’t do well without her sister there. On the other hand, none of us were concerned about Caden being on her own. In fact, I wondered if she would even notice her sister was missing!

I let the girls sleep in and them fed them breakfast at home. They were so excited to have cereal in milk! They kept saying “Cereal! Cereal!” and they both ate the entire bowl. On the way downtown I told both of them what would happen. Delaney would come home with me, and Caden would stay at school by herself. I took Caden’s coat off, she waved goodbye, and went off to play. Delaney happily came with me to grab my laptop from my office.

The whole ride home Delaney asked where Caden was. Once we got home she kept asking for Caden. But, once we had lunch, she seemed to forget about it a bit until I brought it up after naptime. Daycare reported that when they put the kids in the buggies to go for a walk, Caden asked for Laney. Awww. She did miss her sister! And she got a little sad around naptime. I think that’s when she realized she was on her own. She was very happy to see us when we picked her up.

Some cute pictures to end with. I love hoods. Luckily, the girls love hoods as well.

Caden’s card from daycare on Wednesday –

A super day for Caden! She is a dancing machine! Any music, anything we sing … she dances!

Both girls cards often spoke of them rolling around and I kept thinking – rolling? On the floor? Is that like rolling down the hill? I couldn’t figure it out so I finally asked one of the teachers what all of the rolling was about. Turns out, both girls (especially Caden) love the library corner. There are pillows over there and the girls will grab books and then roll around on the floor while reading them. Translation? They’re lounging. Just like they do at home.

The girls got an art easel and supplies for Christmas. We’ve used the magnetic letters, the chalk, and colored on paper, but we hadn’t busted out the water color paints yet. Since my parents were up visiting on Sunday, I figured it was the perfect time to try them out. I put their art aprons on, got them a bowl full of water, and let them get to it.

Grammy, Caden, Delaney
Caden was mostly interested in the water. She didn’t get a lot of color going.

My mom would direct her to the paints, but she just kept going back and getting more water on her brush.

Delaney totally figured out the color! She was very busy, and finally wanted her own space and went to the paper on the other side of the easel. Every night she asks me to paint again. I feel bad because they had so much fun, but it’s not a quick project!

As a bonus, you get a little Delaney happy feet, as well as a very Minnesotan “You betcha!” by me. You’re welcome.

I had missed my smiley girl, but she’s back!

I’m vaguely contemplating doing photo birthday invitations again this year, so Saturday morning I put on the girls new dresses and tried to get a good shot of the two of them together. There was great natural light coming in our front window, so it was perfect timing. I tried having them sit on the couch, but that didn’t work. Fine then, stand on the couch! Not that either, although I can’t blame them for everything. I was having technical difficulties as well. I tried sitting them on the floor, and sure, they’re both looking at me, but they’re leaning back and their bloomers are showing and no, not a shot I could use.

Finally I said “Give your sister a hug!” Magic words.

Laney is very into taking your hand and leading you to what she wants. So when I asked them to hold hands, she was in.

Then she told Caden to “Walk! Walk!” and marched her around the house.

We certainly have a morning scramble as well, but our mornings are relatively calm. I get showered and ready, then go into the girls room. They wake lazily and usually happily, and I get them dressed. We all watch Mickey and crew, and eat some cereal. Coats on, into the car, off we go. I think because no one has had coffee yet, it’s mostly calm. I do throw out a few Let’s go! We’re late!’s on the way to the car, but we get out the door in a timely fashion.

Evenings though. Evenings are my achilles heel right now. Pick up rarely goes well. If the girls don’t cry when they see me, they’re crying by the time we leave. Getting back to the car goes much better now that I take the more direct route, and Delaney knows I mean business about holding hands in the ramp. The car ride home has also gone better lately. I’m packing different snacks these days, and these snacks are going over much better than the previous snacks. But once we get off the freeway and hit the streets near our house, it’s like it all falls apart.

Caden starts crying because she’s finished her snacks and she’s hungry. Delaney still has snacks and so taunts her sister with them. Once in the house, everyone is HUNGRY. MUST EAT NOW. I hate this part. We had just gotten to the point where we didn’t need to eat dinner at 5:15, and now we’re back to the very hungry children stage.

Daycare does snack at 3:30, which is fine. It means the girls are hungry for dinner. Except they are hungry for dinner right now, and dinner is never ready at that moment. I end up scrambling to try to put something on the table quickly, which always results in more mess than it should. Where they used to watch a DVD while I cooked, now they come into the kitchen and cry for food. I don’t want to do a more substantial snack, because I’m afraid they won’t eat dinner. I feel like if anything, dinner needs to happen faster. Maybe I just reheat at night, instead of cooking? Although that won’t work for everything.