Two Years Old and Counting

We have officially entered the "terrible twos." I'm not sure when our babies turned into little kids, but we can see it every day in how they interact with one another. How they play together, how they fight, how they play on their own, and how they interact with us. It's wonderful to watch. And then I look around the house and see a disaster zone. Not only do they play with their toys all over the house, but their new thing is standing up on whatever they can find and getting things off of the counters. They learned how to get up onto the kitchen table a long time ago but this is new. Almost nothing in the house is free from their grasps now and that's scary. I feel like we're always running after one (or both) of them trying to keep them from getting into too much trouble. But in general, they are good boys. We're at a hard time right now because they want to be running around all the time. When we're running errands they're no longer content sitting in the stroller or shopping cart, but they are still a little too young to walk along side so that has become a frustration when we go out and about, but we're working on that. I need to learn that it's ok for me not to have them strapped down or be holding their hands all the time when we're out and about too. If I never let them walk around on their own, they will never learn what "stay close to me" means and they'll never learn that they can't stray too far. When I get together with my other mom friends we "practice." It's a perfect environment to let them run around without me when there are lots of other moms there watching out for them. So we're getting better.

With plans of moving back to Colorado in our minds these days, Chase and I have been wanting to soak up Pittsburgh living while we're still here. There are a lot of things we want to do as a family as well as just the two of us before we leave. One of the things we have always wanted to do here is ride the incline in the city. Its an old coal mining track that runs from the top of Mt. Washington down to the Monongahela river. It was used for bringing coal down from the mines to the boats that would haul it away years ago and now it is used as a means of transportation for people who live or work up on Mt. Washington. It's also a tourist attraction because Mt. Washington has the best views of the city. In fact, USA today voted the view of Pittsburgh from Mt. Washington one of the top 10 views of a cityscape in the world. Pretty neat huh? We went during the day with the boys back in March and spent a nice afternoon exploring. The views were really great. Chase and I would like to go back at night so we can see the city all lit up if we ever get the chance. The boys had a lot of fun on the incline and we had a nice lunch at one of the restaurants up on Mt. Washington.

Their second birthday was March 30th. We had a train themed party for them at the house which was a lot of fun. Lots of people came to help us celebrate and there were no melt downs! The boys were really well behaved and let the other kiddos play with all of their toys. It was a cool day so we weren't able to play outside, but the boys got a train table from mom and dad and that was pretty much enough to keep everyone entertained all afternoon.

April was a very warm month. We were spoiled by the whether for sure and we took advantage of it as ofter as we could. My mom's group does a lot outside which is great. A few days before Easter, we went to Simmons Farm for an Easter egg hunt and a picnic lunch. It was their first Easter egg hunt and they did great. It was so cute watching them fumbling around in the orchard chasing after the eggs and each other, tripping over sticks, filling their bags and dumping them out again. This was one of the examples of a time that the boys were able to run around without me holding onto them or pushing them in the stroller. I almost didn't even go because I was so worried about losing one (or both) of them. But Lori convinced me to go and I am so happy that I did. They strayed pretty far from me at times which made me nervous, but would come back when I called to them or if they couldn't see me. All the kids were allowed 12 eggs. At the end of the hunt they could exchange their eggs for candy. Since they boys don't get candy we didn't exchange them for anything but they had fun looking for the eggs and since they never eat candy, not getting it in exchange for the eggs didn't bother them. See how that works?:) After the egg hunt we had a picnic lunch up at the farm which was really nice. All the kids would eat for a while and then run off down the hill and play in amongst the trees, then run back up to their moms and get a few more bites before venturing off again to play. After lunch we went into the "petting zoo" that they have there. Which is really just a big fenced in area with ducks, chickens, pigs, goats and sheep that the kids can pet...and inevitable chase. The boys are really brave around the animals. Just walking past the baby goats and running their hands across their backs, going into the chicken coop and trying to go into the duck inclosure. Maybe someday they can help gather eggs from our chickens.....but first I have to get these little ones under control.

Easter Sunday was a really nice day here. Perfect weather to be outside as a family. We went to church in the morning which was nice. Chase and I took the boys up to the daycare when we got there because they were really squirmy. They were really excited when they saw all the toys waiting for them. After the service we came home and they took a good nap. While they were napping we cleaned up the yard and cut the grass and hid the eggs that they were going to find once they woke up. Since Chase wasn't able to be with us at Simmons he was excited to watch them find the eggs that we "hid." This time we put some candy and trail mix and Crasins in the eggs for them and once they figured out that the eggs weren't empty, progress slowed quite a bit, but they eventually found all the eggs proudly carried them around in their Easter baskets. It was the perfect Easter.

After Easter it got cold again. It froze a couple of nights killing a lot of the flowers and reminding us that it's not summer yet. We got quite a lot of rain and spent a lot of time inside. I'd like to say that during that time I was able to completely potty train the boys. But alas, that is far from the truth. Has it really been two months since I started? Well I'll be the first to admit that I have not been very diligent. But anyone who has ever potty trained a kiddo (let along twins) knows how exhausting it is. Another word I like to use is frustrating....and disheartening....and yes, messy. Liam has made pretty good progress. He is to the point where he will stop what he's doing and run over to the potty and go pee or poop. Well, he was to that point and then I needed to take a break. I've found that I can hit it hard for about three days, and then I need to take a break that is usually at least that long and that is where I'm losing him. But he rarely has an accident as long as I'm watching him. He'll come up to me and I can tell that he needs to sit on the potty. Landon is another story entirely. He will go through the motions with us, but will not pee in his potty. Today I thought I had a break through with him, and maybe I did, but after peeing on his potty two times, and enough to flush down the toilet, he just let it go and peed a big puddle on the floor. That's the disheartening part. It's kind of a thankless endeavor when things like that happen. But I want to kick it up. I need to get them to the next level and I will have a renewed confidence. But for me to get them to that level, I need to buckle down. I'm planning on just focusing on Potty training for a week straight. Wish me luck! Hopefully I can get at least four days in a row before taking my break this time. But I'm shooting for seven.

Chase and I had a rare weekend away last weekend. We had a babysitter watch the boys Saturday night and we did another one of those things that you need to do if you live out here. We went to Fallingwater, which is an incredible architectural wonder about an hour and a half south of here. It is a house build on a water fall for an aristocratic family that lived in Pittsburgh in the 1930s. Frank Lloyd Wright designed the house for the Kaufmann family as a summer home and it is now a national historic landmark and has earned many other accolades over the years. We went on a cool and wet day but spent most of the time inside the house. We went on an in depth tour and learned so much about the house, Frank Lloyd Wright and the Kaufmanns. I highly recommend checking this house out if you're ever in the Pittsburgh area. It was such a fun day. After the tour we went to dinner at what may be my favorite restaurant out here. We ate there last May when we went to the Laural Highlands for my birthday. We tried to go to the house then but didn't know that we needed to buy our tickets in advance. Anyway, we wanted to go back to this restaurant because it was so great. It's a privately owned restaurant that's cutie fancy and is BYOB, as many places are out here. So we bought a bottle of wine, called and made reservations and enjoyed a romantic dinner of delicious food after a day of exploring a national treasure. We actually felt like adults again!

Now that we're back to reality, Chase is working a lot and I'm...not working on potty training. This week was a lot of fun for us. Monday we went to one of the many parks around here and played for hours with a big group of women. It was the last MOPS meeting of the year and it was nice to jsut get outside and let all of our kiddos play together. Tuesday, we went to the zoo. I could go on and on about the zoo because it was such a long day. We had a really good time and the weather was perfect. Not too hot, but we did have to put sunscreen on twice and the boys sucked down two water bottles. Liam wasn't having the stroller at all so he walked almost the entire time. I was so impressed! He was so cute just strolling along behind us talking to himself, playing in the grass, looking at the animals and running around. He would come up to me every now and then and hold my hand, but mostly he liked being on his own. Landon, however, was more than happy in the stroller, I would take him out so he could better see the animals and see if he wanted to walk but I think the number of people around made him nervous. We went with my mommy group and there were so many kiddos with us! After lunch Liam was a little tired and was happier in the stroller and Landon had worked up the courage to get out and walk with me. They were so tired by the time we got to the car. They conked out shortly after we left. It was a really great day.

Now they're both napping which is a rare occurrence these days, but I've really been dying to get a chance to write another blog post. Hopefully by my next entry, potty training will have progressed more. That's my goal between then and now. I also know that it will happen when it happens and that notion calms me down a bit. As with everything so far, once we're over a stage and onto the next, I miss it. These boys are growing up too fast.