For the Love of Friday...

Friday is here again (all too quickly, might I add...time just needs to SLOW down), which means it's time for a peek at the things I'm loving today (sorry for the lack of pictures...we are still very much without a camera...something that I am [NOT] loving today)

1. Skuggles, hugs, and kisses from my girls...even at 3 o'clock in the morning as I'm getting pushed out of my own bed

2. Spending the evening at home with Doug

3. Catching up on family members' blogs and seeing all the fun [and some not-so-fun] things they've been up to....hey, it's the best way to stay in the loop when I live so far away from so much of my family

4. The beautiful bouquet of sunflowers sitting on our dining room table, filling our house with a little extra sunshine

5. Even better, the $3 price tag for said bouquet of sunflowers

6. Clear skies, cool weather, and fun wind storms...even if it means that my car is now filthy and in desperate need of a wash

7. Listening to Roo sing along with anything and everything she hears

8. Watching AK and Roo each develop their separate talents - AK loves to read and will often sit down with all her stuffed animals and read to them; Roo loves crayons, markers, and all things "artsy"... she's gone through so many coloring books and stacks of paper lately, it's quite amusing.

9. Seeing the simple joy a $5 pair of flipflops and a $2 bottle of new toenail polish can bring 3 year-old twins girls

10. Having AK tell me "Mama, you my bestest friend..." to which Roo responds "Yeah....and sisty, you MY bestest friend" to which I respond with "You are BOTH my best friends....I have the two best girls in the whole wide world" [while grabbing both in a tremendous bear hug and hearing their sweet giggles as they fall on my lap]

Bummer...

Our camera is officially broken, which means no pics of the twinsers for a while. Lately, the girls have shown great interest in photography, which means they would try to sneak the camera whenever I wasn't looking and snap a few shots even though they knew they weren't supposed to play with it. Well, at some point yesterday afternoon the girls got hold of the camera and by the time I recovered it from them, it was broken. This means that until we can muster up the funds for a new camera, we will simply have to go without. No fun. No fun at all.

For The Love of Friday....

Let's face it...life can get pretty chaotic at times, especially with two vivacious toddlers running around just being themselves. I am slowly realizing that I can either get upset by all the chaos, causing myself way more stress and worry than is worth it, or simply look at the madness from a different perspective and take something good from it. My life simply wouldn't be what it is without the chaos....as frustrating as it may be to deal with at times, the chaos is inter-related with the things [and people] who bring me my greatest joy and happiness. So, here is a glimpse into the past week, ranging from the good, to the bad, to those moments when you can't help but cry "Oh, for the love of..."

1. The Up-Chucks: Roo caught some kind of bug at the beginning of the week, which resulted in an unfortunate case of the up-chucks. Throughout Monday and Tuesday, she would randomly throw up - no new foods or anything, just something that was bugging her stomach. AK then dealt with the up-chucks on Wednesday....fortunately her stomach settled back down a little sooner than her sisters. As much fun as it is [not] to clean up puke for 3 days, it did give me the opportunity to milk some GOOD skuggles from the girls.

2. New Art-work: Roo loves crayons. Roo loves markers. Roo loves to sneak said crayons and markers out of their box when mama's not looking, resulting in new and surprising works of art found throughout the apartment. This week, these new art pieces showed up [literally] on the coffee table, the dining room chair, the fridge door, the vinyl flooring and on Roo, herself. Luckily, I have learned to keep wet wipes, Mr. Clean Magic Erasers, and nail polish remover on hand at ALL times. Another reason why it's pointless to invest in expensive furniture while you still have young children at home....thank you IKEA and craigslist for your affordable furnishing solutions.

3. Cooking. I would be lying if I told you I enjoy cooking. I have done it since I was a child, but it has never been something I enjoyed. I will never measure up to the standards of Gordon Ramsey, Betty Crocker, or even my own mother, but recently I have been putting forth an effort to cook and prepare balanced meals for the girls rather than opt for the all-too-easy-way-out by indulging in any variety of convenient and affordable fast-food dollar menus. A surprising reward of this is that my always-picky AK is now finally starting to branch out and eat different foods. It's been a battle with her for as long as I can remember, and while she is still skeptical about many foods, she has expanded her pallet from the previous "chicken-french fries-milk" demands. Although it resulted previously in a lot of good food being put down the disposal or thrown into the garbage can, our persistence has finally paid off.

4. Potty-training: Speaking of persistence, we are still tackling the whole potty-training thing. As much as I would love to have the girls completely out of pull-ups and into big girls panties, I have learned to accept that it will happen in their own due time. They know what the potty is, and they use it when they see fit. Sometimes they just get too busy playing and being toddlers, so until they decide to completely forgo the security of their pull-ups for undies, I will [patiently] wait. Every child is different, and the girls will become potty-trained when they finally decide it's worth it.

5. Scrapping: Digi-scrapping, that is. I've been a busy bee this week scrapping with some new products from Pixie Perfect Designs. I was accepted onto PPD's creative team this week, which means I will be creating lots of cute pages with her adorable products in the future (more on this later in a separate post, but here are the pages I completed this week):

Erin Go Bragh...

I don't know the exact percentage of my Irish heritage, but I've always presumed I'm Irish enough to justify celebrating St. Patrick's Day. The girls and I made sure to wear green today....we even went and bought festive green nail polish (which they later changed their minds on wearing) and got "special treats" (shaved ice with green syrup....apple or honeydew melon or some such flavor). Oh...and we can't forget about the green eggs we made for dinner (yes...eggs for dinner - it's what the girls wanted), which I am proud to report that both girls ate. All-in-all, we had a pretty fun St. Patty's day...we hope you did, too!

So....

As you may or may not have noticed, there hasn't been much blogging activity on our little family page. My apologies, but there just hasn't been much going on with us. Our lives (the girls and mine) have consisted of homework, playing around on the patio, dancing around the house, afternoon stops for ice-cream, potty training, digital scrapbooking (maybe a little too much - but I'm having a blast), and enjoying the outdoors [before the temps get too hot] by going to as many parks as possible; Doug has been up to the usual, which is work, school, and jiu jitsu. Doug did break away from his normal routine a little this past weekend when his friend Sean came out for a little bit o' skateboarding in the hotlands. I'm pretty sure he had fun hanging out with "the guys"...I'm just glad he didn't suffer any injuries. He took the camera with him, but I'm not sure if he took any pictures or not - if he did, I'll see if I can sneak some of the photos on here so you can all see Doug's cool skater moves...

Today, the girls and I joined up with some of their cousins at "Bounce U" - an indoor bounce emporium. We were there for about 2 1/2 hours and the girls moved NONSTOP the entire time...it was seriously tiring just watching them! I wasn't able to take any pics (Doug still has the camera in his truck from this past weekend), but my SIL took some on her very awesome new camera [YIPPEEE - she's been wanting one for a while so this is a very exciting thing] ...maybe I can sweet talk her into emailing me some so you can see just how much fun they had. After all, pictures speak so much louder than words!

Speaking of the girls, it's now time to get them to bed. Doug has been patiently reading them storied while while I typed away on this thing....but after about 10-15 stories, I think his patience is gone.

To Potty Train, or Not To Potty Train....

Okay, so this little post is more of a plea to all you mothers out there who have survived the whole potty training ordeal. The girls have hit a standstill....and are showing absolutely no inclination to further their potty independence. They use the potty when they want to, and don't use the potty when they don't want to. No amount of bribing, pleading, reminding, or rewarding appears to be able to change that (seriously....where, oh WHERE did these little girls get such stubbornness and independence from?). A few days ago, I read a magazine article on this very matter - potty training. In the article, it mentioned that sometimes it is necessary to take a complete break from the whole PT endeavor and simply go back to diapers for a week, 2 weeks, a month....etc.

This is where my plea comes in - do you wise and all-knowing PT Veterans out there agree with this suggestion? Do you think taking a break from the daily fights and hassle of PT and regressing back to diapers is a good idea? Part of me welcomes this idea with open arms - I would love a break from the broken-record dialogue of "Do you need to use the potty?" which is usually followed with screaming and the running away of two cute little booties. But, at the same time, I feel like such a break might totally destroy all of our efforts and advancements up to this point. If you advise against the break, perhaps you could suggest a few tips and tricks that worked out for your little tykes? So far, we have tried pull-ups and no pull-ups; panties and bare booties; sticker charts; candy treats, rewards and bribes; and princess panties and magic potties. I have read about using timers, but haven't yet tried it....I also thought about trying money jars, but since I don't use cash too often, I just need to make a trip to the bank to get some penny, nickel, and quarter rolls. Seriously...I am at a loss right now. I know the girls will get it eventually - they're smart little gals, they just don't have an interest in using the "big girl" potties right now.

So, to all you wise and knowledgeable mothers out there who have successfully endured this same struggle with your little ones, any tips, tricks, suggestions, or advice would be deeply and greatly appreciated right now. And, on that note, here's a little potty humor I found that pretty much sums up the bulk of how we spend our days...