Christmas season is tradition season.

We don't have a lot of traditions in our little family yet. A few for birthdays and really just one for Christmas.

Every year since we have been married we go to Tannenbaum Farms to cut down a Christmas tree. Usually we go the weekend after Thanksgiving because we are always out of town Thanksgiving weekend. Which means the trees are already a bit picked over, but that just adds to the fun.

This year we bundled Audrey up in fleece lined tights, pants, three shirts, a coat, hat, mittens, and boots. She seemed to be pretty toasty, also it was pretty warm and the ground was dry. You may recall that we did not do so well in this department last year. Yay for learning lessons.

Audrey enjoyed the wagon ride out to the tree fields. She didn't stop talking the whole way. She also really enjoyed Ollie the reindeer. We got to watch him eat an apple which she thought was pretty much the coolest thing ever. "He picks it up and eats it." "Look it mama, he picks it up!" We visited Ollie twice, before we cut our tree and after while waiting for the wagon back. The second visit she sat down right next to the pen and said "I'm going to sit here and watch." Animal lover that one.

The main event, of course, was picking and cutting a tree. We had to walk for what seemed like forever to me, but was in reality a very short distance, to get to the cutting fields. But I made it both ways. Victory!

We let Audrey help pick our little tree. She found one she liked that was just the right size for our smallish living room.

She even helped dad cut it down.

 

Which means she talked to him, poked him, and stood over him the whole time he was cutting.

  

 

He did manage to avoid having the tree fall on her so I think everyone won in the cutting department.

She also enjoyed holding the saw, though she was not so good at holding the handle.

After we got done with the tree we stopped in to see Santa. Audrey was not at all interested in talking to or approaching him until she saw he had candy. Good lesson there. Strangers are totally cool if they give you candy. Either way I got a quick picture of her Santa interaction and we called our day of tradition a success.

 

Audrey also helped put the ornaments on the tree. She loves the ornaments. She loves to point at them and say "look it, a star, look it Olaf, look it a monkey!" etc. etc. So far she has been really good about looking with her eyes, and Lincoln hasn't even climbed the tree once. We'll see how long that lasts.

Quick twin update: everything looks great! Both boys were around 4 pounds at our ultrasound two weeks ago and my body is holding up pretty darn well. We were even given the go ahead to go enjoy Christmas with my family as long as nothing changes for me between now and then. Thank you boys for your "concordant growth," as they say, and thank you body for holding up so far. Less than 2 months to go!

And then we ate Elmo cake.

I am not a big birthday party kind of mom. Sorry Audrey. When you start asking we will talk. In the meantime we celebrate with family at Thanksgiving because we are already with family, and it is close enough to her birthday. Simple, simple family, a little food, a fun cake, and the minimum amount of presents possible.

To me a birthday equals you get whatever dinner you want and mom will make you whatever super fun cake you want. This year Audrey could not decide between chicken nuggets and fries and pizza, so I let her have chicken nuggets for lunch and pizza for dinner, so spoiled I know. She knew what she wanted for her cake though, ELMO!

I grew up with these two traditions and I loved them, so I want to keep them going for my kids. Even if it means decorating an Elmo cake while 30 weeks pregnant with twins. Thank you mom for making the cakes and frosting, that was a big help. I did shape and decorate Elmo though.

And thank you Baba Nancy for taking care of all the other party stuff, because as mentioned above, just not my thing.

Because we do not have Audrey's birthday party on her birthday she got her birthday meal and a cupcake on her actual birthday.

She had to wait for her Elmo cake. She was really excited for it though, she had been talking about her Elmo cake for weeks before her birthday.

She doesn't look so excited while we are singing her happy birthday. Perhaps because she hates it when we sing. I was impressed that she did not hold up her hand and yell "Stop! No, mama no singing!" Which is what she normally does if JT or I dare sing near her.

But you can see how happy she was when she got to start eating Elmo.

She was even happier later when we let her keep grabbing handfuls of cake from the table all afternoon. Her party her rules.

Lots of wonderful gifts were opened after the cake was eaten and Audrey was a happy little two year old. Bedtime could have been easier, but it was worth it for the joy she got from eating all that cake. Love you so much little dooter.

I will get a two year update done soon Ms. Audrey, I promise.

Aunts are fun

This post is so late.

A month ago aunt Jen came to visit and we had a super fun day the Children's Museum in Grand Rapids.

It was the first time we have gone to a Children's Museum or Science Museum when Audrey has been big enough to really enjoy all of the different things. We pretty much had to drag her out of there.

She loved the bubble table.

The bank was a favorite. She really liked the drive through window, but the ATM was the best part of the bank.  She loved putting money in and taking it out.

 She also liked riding in the car with daddy, though she didn't really want to drive. Weirdo.

There were a ton of other really fun things. We had a super fun time, next time we will plan a longer trip.

Not only did Audrey really enjoy the Children's Museum, she also really enjoyed spending time with her aunt Jen. Every time we were crossing the street or walking in a parking lot she chose to hold Jen's hand rather than mom or dad's. She also chose to have Jen read her stories before nap. Basically she chose Jen for everything possible.

The best of buds. Unfortunately I failed to get any pictures. Next time.

Happy Halloween

Audrey had a lot of Halloween fun this year, it just didn't happen on Halloween. She had a very fun day at daycare today, which means she was exhausted when she got home. She was laying on the couch, for like an hour. That basically never happens.

Also, it was snowing outside. And super windy. And we have to either walk a bit or drive to trick-or-treating. And when we asked Audrey if she wanted to go trick-or-treating she said no. So, we put her dragonfly costume on for a couple pictures in the awful overcast, evening light of our living room, gave her some candy corn and called it good. She didn't seem to mind.

She did get to have a very fun Halloween day with dad last Saturday. Unfortunately, I was working so I did not get to join in the fun. They went to the nature center down the road and had what appeared to be a wonderful time.

JT was a super good sport and agreed to take lots of pictures because he knew I was sad I couldn't go. Unfortunately, he did not realize I had the exposure settings on the camera on manual as he basically never uses it unless I set it up and give it to him. So, the pictures are a bit overexposed and a few are blurry, but he captured the moments perfectly, bless his heart.

At the nature center doots the dragonfly played ring toss on the witch's hat.

She got a pumpkin tattoo on her hand.

She ran through the woods.

 She ran through the bat tunnel.

She frolicked in a field.

And she chose a pumpkin from the pumpkin patch.

Plenty of Halloween fun all in one day.

Grumpy McDooter was not in a celebrating mood tonight.

Pumpkin patch.

Last weekend we went to pick out pumpkins at the pumpkin patch. It was a great time for the whole family.

Audrey enjoyed riding in, and pulling the wagon out to the pumpkin patch.

She also enjoyed walking around the patch trying to decide which pumpkins to pick. She finally chose a pumpkin with a fat top and a skinny bottom.

The pumpkin part was fun, but so were the ducks, turkeys, and slide.

Audrey loved the ducks. She wanted to watch them and chase them around their pen all day. She had a blast quacking and trying to stay as close to them as possible.

She also thought the turkeys were pretty cool. She went right up to the side of the pen and got a close look.

There was a playground with plastic tube slides. One on a gradual incline, one much steeper. I'm sure you'll never guess which Audrey preferred. She went down the "little kids" slide one time and was totally over it. To be fair, she had to scoot herself down it was so gradual.

As soon as she got done she said she wanted to go on the big slide. The one on the hill so steep she could not climb it without help. That's my girl. Her kind father helped her up and she went down as many times as we would let her. She shot out the bottom with a huge smile on her face every time. She is her mothers daughter, that one.

The pumpkin patch part was so fun I'm sure Audrey won't mind that I forgot the pumpkins were still in the back of the car. They proceeded to bang all over the place while I was like, what the heck is back there. Oh yeah, pumpkins! Then when I opened the back to rescue the bruised pumpkins Audrey's fell out and bounced around the mall parking lot. It did not break, but it is not in carving shape. I think we could maybe carve one of three. It is the thought that counts right?

Quick twin update: the boys looked great on our ultrasound last week. All the anatomy they couldn't see last time looked good and they are only measuring about an ounce apart, which is perfect. The estimated weight is a pound and a half for each little man right now, but the estimates are pretty variable so I try not to put to much stock in them. But still, three pounds of baby in my 24 week pregnant belly, oofta. Everything else is going well. Nothing of concern for them or me at this point. I am incubating those boys as best I can. My only request to you little dudes is to please change your position, they are currently in the "bunk bed" meaning they are laying horizontally one above the other, foot to head. Obviously, I want them to switch to head down so they can come out the old fashioned way, but also the horizontal thing is exceptionally uncomfortable. There is just not that much room horizontally, not to mention they keep kicking each other in the face, or at least they were on the ultrasound. Dr. appointments sure do take a lot longer with twins, gone are the days of 15 minute appointments they now take hours. Yay, hours at the doctor every month.

Fall Fun

This weekend we went to a local autumn festival.

We took a horse drawn wagon ride.

Audrey thought it was fun to watch the horses and to look at all the cars. However, she did not want to sit by herself on the bench.

She also decorated a pumpkin. She was very excited to bring it home. She loves looking at it and saying "pumpkin!"

We had cider and doughnuts and played on the playground. A wonderful fall day.

I think Audrey liked the doughnut best. Although, she was very worried about her pumpkin making it into the car. We had to show her several times before she believed it was coming home with us, so maybe painting was the best part of the day.

On an unrelated note, Audrey has really started to communicate like a real person. Including picking up on what is happening around her. Which is very fun, but also a bit surprising at times.

For example, when we were at the doctor for the ultrasound Audrey was with us. When I was crying she kept saying, "wipe, wipe." No one was really paying her much attention, however, at some point I figured out what she was talking about and said, "yes your are right mama needs a wipe." Then she went over to the counter and got a tissue for me, it was such a genuinely kind gesture.

Just the sweetest girl. Stay kind little lady, it will make life so much more enjoyable.

Send help, or money! Just kidding, sort of.

We had our 20 week ultrasound yesterday. Our first ultrasound of the pregnancy. We had made the big decision to find out the gender of the baby, everyone was excited. As we started the ultrasound tech asked if it was our first ultrasound and I said, "Yes. We have a running joke that it is twins so it would be great if you could confirm there is only one in there."

She did not respond.

Then there were two pictures on the screen.

She wrote baby A. I thought why on earth does it have an A after it.

Then she wrote baby B. Twins!!!

I said are you serious? She said, yes. I started sobbing. JT stared on in a mixture of disbelief and vindication that he had been correct the whole time. He was convinced it was twins from the beginning. I was so sick, I was so big already, he was right. I chose to chalk the signs up to each pregnancy is different. I was wrong.

Twin boys, by the way.

The rest of our appointment went by in a haze of shock and disbelief. When I started crying again while waiting to see our doctor the nurse told me she found out she was having twins in the very same way with a child under two at the appointment. She said she cried for 3 days and then everything was fine. It was very nice to hear, because I felt like a total jerk for crying. Here we are blessed with two healthy babies - everything looked great on the ultrasound. But twins, three kids under 3!! That is a lot to take in. Two babies. Three car seats. We need a van, shit.

We were excited to have this pregnancy and birth thing down pretty well. To not be going in blind like the first time. Well, everything is different with a twin pregnancy, and I know nothing. So, alas blind we are.

We have begun to move on from shock to planning. I have ordered books and begun to reach out to other twin mothers. We will be fine. It will be fun. In fact my biggest concern right now is for Audrey. Will she feel like an outsider all the time with twin brothers, how will we make time for just her, what did we do to my poor sweet baby girl?

But again it will be fine, it will be fun. I am sure we will not want to change a thing once everyone is here. 

Seriously though, if you want to send some help our way we won't say no ;-)