Happy Birthday to Ben!!

2 years ago today, at 12:20pm Ben made his way into the world. It is amazing how much he has changed in the past two years, although he still looks exactly the same, only bigger.

The highlight of Ben's day today (besides seeing Daddy after two days apart) was opening his package of Thomas trains from Me-Mom. And he enjoyed listening to Grandma sing to him over the phone. Our independent little Benny even walked right up to Chuck E Cheese today and gave him a big high five. My baby isn't grown yet but he certainly is growing up fast.

We love you, Benny! We are so excited to watch you grow during your "terrific two's"!

Happy Birthday to Ace!!

2 years ago today, at 12:18pm Ace was born. Over the last two years, we've had the joy of watching him grow from a tiny infant to the sweet little toddler that he is today.

Ace enjoyed his second birthday. He talked to Grandma on the phone (but ran away from the phone when she sang "Happy Birthday" - sorry Grandma!) and then opened his presents that had arrived in the mail over the week. Daddy surprised us by cutting his business / golf trip short and was home before the buddies woke from their nap. We enjoyed a family dinner at Chuck E Cheese's where Ace loved riding in the cars and climbing on the play scape.

Thanks for two incredible years, Ace! Mommy and Daddy love you!

Family Time

We enjoyed some special family time this weekend. Grandma, Grandpa, Aunt Carlee, and Cousin Michael came to play and wish the buddies a happy birthday. We played hard all day yesterday and ended the day with birthday cake and presents.



Ace and Ben, digging, dumping, splashing, and making a mess in their sand and water table. ---->







<---- Ben loves Grandpa Mike!
















What fun to have Aunt Carlee and Cousin Michael in town! ---->







<----- Grandma, reading "Goodnight Moon" to two sleepy boys.

A Trip to the Austin Zoo

Who is wilder: a) Zoo animals or b) A hoard of families with multiples, embarking on the Austin Zoo? After today, I can say with certainty that the answer is B.

The Austin Zoo is a non-profit rescue zoo, with about 300 animals and approximately 100 species. Over 90% of the animals are rescued. This small zoo doesn't compare to the zoos that Steve and I grew up around - you won't see any elephants or giraffes and if you're lucky you'll spot the one lion (we didn't - he was hiding). But it is a funny little place that is perfect for a bunch of toddlers and pre-schoolers.

Each spring, the Austin Mothers of Multiples sponsors a day at the zoo for all members and their families. This year, it was my job to plan the event. It was a success! 160 people showed up to take part in the festivities. We studied the animals, fed the goats, deer, hogs, and llama's in the petting zoo, had a BYOS (Bring Your Own Sandwich) picnic lunch, and ended the day with a train ride.

Our buddies loved feeding the animals, especially the goats and deer. One of the hogs put Ace's whole hand in his mouth. Ace didn't feed the hogs again after that. Ben loved running around the zoo and jumping down the steps in the dirt path. He LOVED the train ride and tried to sneak back on for an encore ride but his mean mom wouldn't let him. Below are some of my favorite pictures from the day:

3 generations of men

Ben jumping down the path

Ben feeding the deer

Ace feeding a goat

Family Time

Choo-choo!

Two fine men, in the caboose

A Surprise Birthday Party Playdate

It was our turn to host our playgroup today. Since the buddies' birthday is just around the corner, we decided to throw a surprise party. The surprise part was for our friends, since I couldn't trust them not to bring gifts otherwise.

So, when everyone arrived for our playdate, we invited them to have cake with us and celebrate the near- completion of Ace and Ben's second year. 8 mommies and 16 kiddo's shared in the fun. It was a wild and noisy party.


<----- Check out cake #1 from my cake decorating class.

Family Update

Many of our faithful readers have been asking me how Ace's speech therapy is going and then that leads to questions about Ben, and then to Steve and I, so I thought I'd post an update on the "behind the scenes" of our household.

ACE
Ace is doing wonderfully in speech therapy! The progress he has made is amazing! I keep a word log for him and as of this evening, he is up to 32 words. It is obvious that he really wants to talk and that's half the battle. We've discovered that he is particularly interested in animal sounds (meow, woof-woof, baaa) and environmental sounds (beep-beep, toot-toot) and those account for about half of his vocabulary. Our therapist taught me to give him lots of choices during play and that encourages him to use words. For example, I'll hold a ball and ask, "Do you want it to bounce, or roll? Bounce or roll?" instead of just asking yes/no questions like "Do you want it to bounce?" It seems very logical but I'll be darned if I would have thought of that on my own. And the best part is that he loves these games so therapy is actually FUN! Ace is such a sweet kid. He loves his brother like crazy and has the best belly laugh in the world.

BEN
So what does Ben do, during our speech therapy sessions? He climbs in our therapist's lap, brings books to her, repeats the words that she's practicing with Ace, and joins in on all the games. Both of our therapists are really sweet and always include Ben. He is quite the charmer so it isn't as if they really have a choice. And I can't talk about Ben without mentioning that he is in a train-phase. Ace likes trains too, but Ben really likes them. If you came upon Ben at any time of day, you could wait five minutes and you'd surely hear him say, "toot-toot!". He only wants to talk about trains, play with trains, watch movies about trains, etc. I even made train-shaped sandwiches for dinner tonight and he sat at the table shouting, "toot-toot!".

STEVE
Steve is doing great. His job with Cisco is still going really well. He has worked there for almost nine years now, with the same guys, who are among our best friends. He's one of those rare people that truly loves his job. His hours are flexible, so he spends a few hours with the buddies each morning, then goes into work, and returns home after they are asleep for the night. The schedule works well for us and we don't mind having a family breakfast each day instead of a family dinner. Steve is playing in a softball league and a soccer league and he still plays golf every chance he gets (which isn't that often).

ME
It is hard to believe that I've been a stay-at-home mom for almost two years now. It is the hardest, yet most rewarding job I've ever had. I never thought I'd come up with so many ways to fill my time, but I am busier (and happier) than I ever have been. I was recently elected to the Board of AMOM, my twin mom's group. In addition to that, I am the Family Activities Coordinator and have been working on our annual trip to the Austin Zoo (coming this weekend!). I also co-coordinate our NW AMOM playgroup where we meet weekly with our kids, have a babysitting swap, and a monthly Mom's Night Out. It is an awesome group of moms and kids. I've also joined the Guild of the Christ Child at our church, which is a group of moms that get together once a month for fellowship and periodically meets for playdates. I joined their Spring Bible Study and will complete it in a few weeks, but have discovered that I am not the Bible Study type. Even so, I've made some more friends, and that can't be bad. :) For fun, I play Bunko once a month with the ladies in my neighborhood and I'm taking a cake-decorating class at Michael's this month with a few friends. We have massive amounts of homework before each class. Last week, my friend Stef and I got together to do our homework. We whipped up three different consistencies of icing, colored it, leveled our cakes, iced our cakes, cursed, drank wine, and totally wrecked my kitchen. Three hours later, we were done.

OUR FAMILY
That's a glimpse of each of us and what's going on in our lives. We spend a lot of time at parks on weekends, where Steve teaches the buddies to climb on things that make my heart stop. They love it, of course, and so far haven't attempted anything too dangerous while they're on their own with me during the week. We're looking forward to summer, when the pools and spray grounds open. It won't be long!

Choo Choo!

Have I mentioned before that the buddies are obsessed with trains? They wake in the morning saying, "toot, toot!" Then, they play with trains all day long and surely dream about them at night.

Today, we decided to treat them to a ride on the real thing, a train named "Sophie". Sophie is a 1/4 scale miniature train who takes kids of all ages on a 1.3 mile ride around Williamson County Regional Park. Parts of the ride were really lovely with trees creating an arch overhead. The buddies liked the ride well enough, but the unusually chilly (and very windy) April weather kept them from enjoying it too much.

They sat on the ride, shivering, and barely seemed to notice that they were on a train. The funny thing is, when we arrived home, Ben sat on my lap looking at our pictures on the computer screen and he was really excited about the train from the comfort of our home. So, I guess, for an almost two year old, a picture of a train is as good as a ride on the real thing. I'm sure that will change before too long.

We enjoyed our picnic lunch on our living room floor in the warmth of our home and considered the afternoon a success.

Our 5th Anniversary

Steve and I celebrated our 5th anniversary today, Friday, April 13th. Neither of us are superstitious, but as we set the date almost 6 years ago, we did discuss the ramifications of anniversaries on Friday, the 13th. Looking back, I remember discussing that our first "unlucky" anniversary would be our 5th and that even if it was a terrible day, we'd have five years of solid foundation under our belts and therefore our marriage would survive.

Today was not a terrible day! In fact, it was a pretty good day. The buddies and I had a good time during the day and were even able to work in a good deed by delivering dinner to a friend with two sick kids and a sick husband. Steve made it home from work in time to spend some time with the buddies and then help me cook our anniversary dinner. The menu was Beef Wellington, Shrimp Scampi Bake, and Parmesan Green Beans. It was delicious and I ate too much, but my kind husband is in the kitchen doing the dishes while I type this and let the food settle.

Since traditional 5th anniversary presents are supposed to be made of wood, I gave Steve two pictures of the buddies in wooden picture frames for his desk at work and he gave me a nice card (paper is made from wood, after all).

All in all, it was a happy anniversary and I can honestly say that each year of marriage has been better than the last.

Happy Easter

The Easter Bunny brought the buddies all kinds of goodies this year. He was kind enough to hide their eggs indoors, since Austin experienced record low temperatures. We even had snow flurries and sleet early Easter morning and you'll notice in our pictures that the buddies are dressed in their winter pj's. I had almost packed them away for the season a week ago.
Two stuffed bunnies, four baskets filled with goodies, and one inflatable bunny rabbit made for two happy little boys.

Ben likes marshmallow peeps for breakfast.

Ace thought it was great fun to eat candy for breakfast.

Yes, Aunt Carlee, the Easter Bunny remembered to hide eggs in their shoes. Ben LOVED that!

An Egg Hunt Play Date

This morning, the buddies and I met some of our friends at a park for a play date and Easter egg hunt. First, everyone played on the play- ground equipment. As usual, our two loved climbing and sliding.

Once everyone had arrived, the big kids hid the eggs for the little kids and we had our hunt. Ace filled his bucket fast and then started putting eggs in Ben's bucket. Ben was collecting eggs too, but he'd stop every few seconds to open one or slide down a slide or play with dirt. Ace also tasted his first chocolate candy (a Hershey Kiss) and immediately said and signed, "more, more, more".

Once the egg- hunting festivities were complete, we had a nice picnic lunch and let the kids play some more. Ace and Ben discovered a big puddle under the picnic area and had a blast jumping and splashing. I thought it was a hoot and took lots of pictures. Then, some of the other kids came over to join in on the fun and their moms said, "Oh no. We don't splash in puddles." Really? Are kids not supposed to get dirty any more? Granted, I did have strip off Ben's soaking wet shorts and have him ride home in his diaper. But, it seemed worth the smiles to me.

Coloring Easter Eggs

In last month's edition of Parents Magazine, a mom wrote in with this tip for coloring Easter eggs with toddlers: Do it in the bathtub! I love it!

So, this afternoon, the buddies and I headed upstairs with three cups filled with egg dye and 12 hard- boiled eggs. I cleared the bathroom of all our bath time toys, rugs, and towels, draped the shower curtain up high, dressed myself in old clothes, and stripped the buddies down to their diapers. What fun they had! It took them about 5 seconds to figure it out and then they were dunking away.


When they'd colored all twelve eggs, I just stripped off their diapers and filled the tub with water to scrub them down. Easy and relatively mess- free! Of course, both boys are still speckled with red, blue, and yellow dye. Ben even has a big pink spot on the back of his head and Ace's feet look just like our eggs (thanks to Ben dumping the entire cup of blue dye on them). I'll have some explaining to do at Ace's 9:00 speech therapy appointment tomorrow morning.

New Blog Feature

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Our (Practice) Bluebonnet Photo Shoot

My twin mom's group hired a professional photographer to take bluebonnet photos of our families this weekend. Our time slot is late tomorrow morning but we had a practice run today. Tonight, we'll give haircuts to the buddies, iron our outfits, whiten our teeth, and be ready to look good tomorrow. If the photographer can capture all four of us with our eyes open, looking in the same direction, and smiling tomorrow, he'll be a hero.

Hunting Easter Eggs

The buddies enjoyed their first Easter egg hunt this morning at their friend Mia's house. They were good egg hunters! Ace ran quickly and efficiently from egg to egg, scooping them up and putting them in his bucket. When he had an overflowing bucket with no room for more eggs, he solved the problem by shaking his bucket so all the eggs flew out. Then, he started over, quickly scooping them back up.

Ben was also a quick egg- gatherer, although he did stop a few times to play with his HESS truck that we couldn't get away from him before we left our house. He'd pick up a few eggs and then stop for a few minutes to scooch his truck around the yard.


After the yard was cleared of all the eggs, the buddies chowed on jelly beans and cake and decorated Easter door- hangers. Then, we headed home for a quick nap before our afternoon festivities began.

Buddy Day

Every day is Buddy Day in our house, but today was even more so. We started our day with a trip to Georgetown to join our friends for a play date. They played with trains (imagine that!), made a cute Easter egg craft, and ate snacks just like Daddy does (while hovering over the kitchen counter). Their friends had a learning tower, a cool contraption that allows toddlers to stand at counter-level to "help" mommy cook. I'm not sure that we're ready for one of these at our house (there is a reason toddlers are short!), but they sure thought it was fun to stand so tall.

Then, the sun came out late this afternoon after weeks and weeks of rain. I decided to rake the leaves in our backyard and the buddies helped me load my piles into bags. When they grew bored of that, they decided to have their first swim of the season. Since it was an impromptu decision, so they swam sans-swimsuits. We'll have to remember to clean up our act before we hit the public pools this summer.

Rain, Rain, Go Away? Nah, let's play!

After a successful trip to the pediatric dentist this morning, the buddies and I treated ourselves to a playdate at Brushy Creek Lake Park. It's one of our favorite summertime parks because of an awesome sprayground, but today our plan was to explore the play area in dry clothes.
That plan really didn't work out for us. It was drizzling rain when we arrived and every few minutes it would really pour. All of our little friends huddled together in the covered picnic area, either because their moms told them to or because they just didn't want to get wet. What did Ace and Ben do? They ran around in the rain, yelping with joy. They stomped and splashed in the puddles. They slid down the wet slide (fast!). And they asked for swing rides in the wet swings. When we left, I had two very wet, but very happy little boys in the car.

Fun with Daddy

The buddies spent a lot of time with just Daddy last weekend since I spent Saturday morning at my cooking club and Saturday evening with friends at a movie. They learn some unusual things from their dad. Here's what Steve and the buddies proudly showed me when I returned:

Steve: How does the train go?
Buddies: Choo-choo (pumping arms)

Steve: How does a car go?
Buddies: Beep-beep! (arms out front as if honking horns)

Steve: How does Brian Westbrook go?
Buddies: Ta-da! translation: touchdown! (arms held high above heads)

Steve: How does Reggie Brown go?
Buddies: Silent but waving arms in the sign for first down.

Can anyone guess which lessons they learned from their dad and which from me? Hmmm...

Spring Break at Grandma and Grandpa's House

The buddies and I are home after four fun- filled days at Grandma and Grandpa's house on Lake Texoma. We arrived on Sunday afternoon and began to unpack our suitcase filled with swimsuits and sunblock only to see Grandma shake her head and get jackets for all of us. It was definitely too cold for swimming, even in the kiddie pool, but we had several beautiful days nonetheless.

Grandma had lots of activities set up for the buddies. By far, their favorite activity was jumping on the inflatable aqua trampoline that was set up in front of the house. They bounced and bounced. Ben can't wait until summer when we can put it in the water and let them jump off and splash.

We went for lots of walks while we were there. We left the strollers behind and let the buddies roam free. Ace loved his horsey tire swing at Granny Jean's swing park and both boys thought it was fun to walk up and down her bridge that Grandpa helped build. Another favorite spot was Buncomb Creek Park, where Grandma had loaded the big sandbox with lots and lots of trucks. Anyone that knows the buddies knows that they love cars, trucks, and trains. If it has wheels, they want to play with it.

We enjoyed lots of family time with Aunt Carlee, cousin Michael (who the buddies adore!), Great- Granny, Great- Gramps, Grandma and Grandpa. Ben followed Micheal around quite a bit and Michael was very sweet to him.

We are happy to be back home and in our normal routine, but I think it's safe to say that the buddies love going to Grandma and Grandpa's house!

Happy Birthday to Matthew

The buddies attended another birthday party this afternoon. Their friend, Matthew turned 2! Matthew has older twin brothers and his mom is a pro at showing kids a good time. There were fun things for kids of all ages at the party. Ace and Ben were so occupied that Steve and I were able to relax, chat with friends, and even drink a few beers.

Ace loved the backyard, where there was a huge play scape with a rock- climbing wall (yes, he could climb it!), several tall slides, a basketball goal, a sandbox, swings, and lots of tricycles. He was in heaven running around back there. He is starting to talk (of course - now that we have him in speech therapy!) and ran around jibbering to himself and anyone who would listen.

Ben, who is our more methodical boy, eyed the train table in the playroom and played quietly there for most of the afternoon. While he played he sang, "choo- choo". He was so obsessed with the trains that he wouldn't eat dinner and wasn't even interested in birthday cake. Steve finally convinced him to check out the backyard and he decided that was fun too. But, after 5 minutes of playing outside, he realized how hungry he was so he sat at the kiddie picnic table and helped himself to some other toddler's big plate of food. It's a good thing we're not afraid of cooties.

Our Tax Dollars at Work

Since the buddies are almost two (!) and still not talking a whole lot, Steve and I decided to have them evaluated for a speech delay. Speech delays are quite common in twins, due to prematurity (not us!), shared time with caregivers, and my favorite reason: twin-speak. The buddies do have their own little language and as my wise, fellow twin-mommy friend says, "Why should I talk if my best friend understands me?".

Two wonderful therapists from ECI came to our home and played with the buddies for close to 3 hours. They tested each boy's vision, hearing, self-help / adaptive skills, cognitive skills, fine motor skills, gross motor skills, expressive communication, receptive communication, and social & emotional skills. After the comprehensive evaluation, they concluded that Ace qualifies for services but Ben does not. Ace is a little delayed in expressive communication but doing well in all other areas (including receptive communication - he understands everything!). So, twice a month, our therapists will come to our house and play with Ace (while Ben eavesdrops on the fun, I'm sure).