stringing 3 words together?

I think I read somewhere that at 24 months, most babies are stringing 2 words together, and some even doing 3. Tonight while I was getting the girls ready for bed, I couldn't locate Thing 1's PJ shirt. I asked them both to help me look. Thing 2 puts her hands on her cheeks and said, "Oh no!" Seconds later she found the shirt. "There it is! Here you go Mayee [Mommy]!" she told me. Stringing 3 words? Phooeee. We go straight to 7. I'm just sayin'.

the pool is now open!

Nana's pool has been open for a couple of weeks and this is the girls' second time. With their swim vest and the ring, they have been quite comfortable floating around by themselves. Though it takes them time to warm up to that point. Before then, they grab onto Daddy or me for their dear lives.

Thing 2 is using the pink floaty and Thing 1 is on the green

After warming up to the pool, Thing 2 is quite comfortable to wander on by herself. She also is comfortable enough to swim to Daddy when she's sick of me.

The girls hitch a ride on the Mommy Tug Boat.

Thing 2 lodges a complaint when Curious George uses her leg as a floating noodle.

Thing 1 is especially clingy in the pool and screams when she is not allowed to grab onto my bathing suit or Daddy shirt. But when she gets comfortable, she is happy to grab some of the floating bugs.

Curious George and Cousin C have fun in the pool. With Curious George's swim vest, he requires very little supervision on the pool.

As is common with Curious George, he attaches himself like a leach to the nearest relative. Although it should be noted that he has equally attached himself to a boy at Nana's church. This boy (about 12 years old) should dare not disappear without letting Curious George know or his inner volcano will erupt without warning.

a major milestone for Curious George

Curious George's current favorite book is his cousin's Lego catalog. He brings it with him everywhere and 'reads' it and plans his future with it. It is falling apart and some pages are no longer attached, so sometimes we all must hunt for the missing pages. He points to the Legos and says he wants this for Christmas, and that for next Christmas and that one for the Christmas after and this one for when Daddy gets a new job. We tell him they are expensive and the mini Legos for about $5 he says he can get because he has money in his money bag (a coin purse I gave him). Some of them are hard to find so when I saw one of the ones he wanted, I bought it for him. He built it himself immediately! He has many other Lego but his has always asked for helped from his Daddy. But this time, he only asked for help a couple of times - once because he couldn't manage to get something attached, and the other because he got ahead of himself and skipped a step while looking at the direction.

This is a 64-piece mini off-roader Lego that could be built into 2 more other things. In fact, he has already broken this one and made something else.

oh the faces she makes

This is Thing 1 while we're eating at the mall while at home in VA. She made the exact same face that Thing 2 usually makes. She was just drinking her juice and made the silly face. I'd like to know what she's thinking about though.

Big feet

Thing 1 and I are back at home in VA for her 2-yr old well baby check. She weighs in at 32.2 lbs and 34 3/4 inches tall. She is on the 75th percentile which is awesome! I can remember when she was barely at 30th percentile.

I took her to Stride Rite after since both her and Thing 2's shoes are getting harder to put on. Her current shoes is size 6 1/2. Today her feet measured in at 8 1/2! We are torturing her by stuffing her feet in shoes that are 2 whole sizes too small!

This is a cute one. And thankfully for me it comes in pink for Thing 2. The time will come when they will pick their own clothing style and shoes (in fact they are starting to do that now) but for now it'll drive me crazy for them not to have matching things.

Sent from my Verizon Wireless BlackBerry

twin playtime

The girls enjoy playing ring around the rosey ever since I taught it to them. They don't know the words, but as soon as anyone sings it, they hold hands and start going in a circle. Thing is though, Thing 1 doesn't want to fall!!



You can hear Daddy in the background giving a very concise description of our lives. :)

Here is Thing 2 lounging in her chair surrounded by books. She loves to look at the books and pretend to identify the letters. Sometimes she points at everything and says, "effffff!"

Here is Thing 1 showing us the proper way to lounge.

critters aplenty

In May, we took the kids to a kiddie festival where Curious George got his first pet, a goldfish. He was so excited, especially since he has been asking for a pet of his own. So we came home with Punky (I have no how CG came up with this name but it's very fitting since Punky has a black streak on top near his head and looks like a punk). Before we even got home, we had a fish tank kit and some accessories.

Here is Punky now thriving in his ever cloudy water.



Punky has been a part of the family, he even plays with Curious George. But he isn't quite playful on this video though. We figured he was hungry.

Then, Curious George got into frogs. He found one in the backyard and nearly gave me a heart attack when he showed it to me. Thankfully, we've been able to convince the boy to let it go at the end of the day. But then one day, while CG and I were out of town, Daddy found a Grey tree frog. As a surprise for CG, Daddy and Nana bought a tank and a supply of crickets to feed it. Curious George was so excited! He named the tree frog, Cricket. He has found many frogs after Cricket, but we've only kept Cricket so far as the others seem to be very common.

Tonight, while catching fireflies (we've been catching fireflies most nights for a few weeks!) Curious George found a Grey tree frog on his own. Daddy caught the little critter and placed it with Cricket. Now Cricket has a friend, Grasshopper. CG came up with this name, but kept forgetting it. So while in bed, too excited to sleep, Grasshopper's name was changed to Hopper.

Here is Hopper after he was placed with Cricket. Daddy gave him a cricket to eat but he was too afraid. Cricket ate it instead. Cricket hunting for his crickets have been a source of amusement for all of us. (Of course I can say this since they're inside a cage where they can't jump on me!!)



Oh, I almost forgot about the lizzard Daddy caught. Curious George was playing with it while it was in a container and it bit him. I don't think he was too enthused about it after that. Yay for me!

doing the slide

Thing 2 is wearing green, Thing 1 is wearing pink.
They have been in a slide before but this is the first time they've been truly into it. They slid down what seemed like 50+ times!

Curious George decides to join in on the "little" fun.

Thing 1 takes the short cut and goes up the slide.

The day before, Curious George and his cousins went to a fishing derby with their Nana and Papaw. Curious George caught 4 fish by himself, which got him very excited. The next day, we we went again and this time with the girls. The girls enjoyed the playground. They went up and down this little slide so much they were dripping sweat when it was time to leave.

who's who?

While Thing 2 was on the nebulizer this morning, Thing 1 kept herself occupied by trying to get my BlackBerry that was attached to my pant waist. She tugged and pulled and turned, but wasn't able to get it. Then she noticed her reflection on the little camera picture window. She pointed at it and said, "Dodo!"

"That's not Jojo. That's Katie!" I corrected her.

She looked at me with annoyed face and pointed to Thing 2 on the nebulizer and shouted, "No! That's Dodo!"

Alrighty then. Even when I agree with her she finds a way to get angry with me. I'd hate to see what the teen years would be like.

It's a Party!

The girls are going to be two years old on the 4th, but we had to have their party today since Daddy is leaving tomorrow for a job interview. They woke up with runny noses but they still enjoyed the presents. :)

For the cake, it was Duncan Hines all the way. Would you believe both the cake and the icing are milk-free!!! Daddy had a hand in decorating them. :)

The birthday tiara design is courtesy of Curious George and I. It says, "Katelyn is Two" and "Jordan is Two". (Thing 1 on the left, Thing 2 on the right)


Thing 1 gobbled up her cake without using any utensils. Thing 2 wasn't in the mood for cake.

The bikes are courtesy of the Grandma's gift money. Nana & Papaw got them a folding foam/bed chair, clothes and coloring books. (Thing 1 on the left, Thing 2 on the right)

Being the good big brother that he is, Curious George helped Thing 1 open presents. She didn't quite know what to do with the wrapper.

In the middle of the party, Curious George his care package from his Grandma. He requested dried mango a couple of weeks back. He was grinning like a fool!

The girls in their birthday dress. I didn't put them on since I was anticipating messy clothes smeared by cake like last year. Backless! Gotta love it.
(Thing 2 standing, Thing 1 sitting)

Thing 1 eats some Chex cereal for an afternoon snack.