20 Months

*as always these are for me (and the girls) to remember so don't feel pressured to read*

Foods They Like:  They love almost all fruit.  They are less inclined to cheese but still like it.  They are getting better at eating meat.  They like pizza, bread, orange juice, bananas, enchiladas, etc.

Foods They Don't:  Mostly vegetables and odd textures.  I'm trying to offer veggies first when they are hungry to get more exposure.

Favorite Things:   They love water, going on walks (stroller or on foot), dogs of all sizes.  Playing in the back yard and with bugs and dirt.  They love playing with cousins.  They love going to the park.  Seren will slide down the big kid spiral slide like a champ and Kendall will try to climb on anything she can get a step on.

Favorite toy:  shoes (does that count?)...they love their own shoes, dress up shoes and any other shoe found lying around.  Still like the tunnel and love their word books.

Dislikes:  Being hungry and tired.  Teething.  Possible nightmares for Seren (waking up to screams from her in the middle of the night...this has gotten better the last few days).  Being told what to do or not to do (independent tantrums starting).

Their Accomplishments:  Walking and running.  Stairs up and down...we've taken the gate off now and even allow them to go up and down the spiral stairs. Understanding and talking more. Learning body parts.  Kendall is very good at pointing to different objects and animals in her books when asked.  Seren seems more active and not wanting to be bothered with this type of game.

Verbal:  They are talking and imitating more.  Still a little worried about this but I think they are catching on.

Teeth:  Seren is missing her canines and 2 year molars.  Kendall getting in her last molar and missing canines and 2 year molars.  Both seem to be teething although they are usually in good moods during the day despite this.

Sleep:  We've had trouble sleeping lately (as mentioned with Sleep Training post).  But this seems to be improving.  Teething is throwing them off though and causing most sleep trouble now I think.

Looking forward to:  Looking forward to more words and verbal skills.  They understand so much and are starting to catch on to speech.  Think of the coming seasons with them and how winter will be fun and next summer they'll be able to do more.  Still really want to move to our own home again.  We heard again on the short sale and have approval from all parties so should have a contract soon (please please please)

Kendall after pulling out two pigtails...
at least her hair is starting to come in finally.  It makes her happy to have barettes and pig tails

Seren with her hair up...this never lasts long.  She hates things in her hair and always yanks them out.

The Gatsby Girls... Seren, Kendall, H__, L__ at the aquarium Sept 1, 2012
We hang out with this group of friends (and our kids) at least once a month and have taken to calling them "Gatsby Nights"

Sleep Training...Again??

So the story goes...the girls had a somewhat rough adjustment to sleeping when we moved in with the in-laws.  This only lasted about a week or two and they were back on track.  But for the past month Seren has woken up and grumped in the middle of the night.  We mostly let her go and if she fussed for more then 10 minutes or so we would go get her, usually out of worry for Kendall waking up.  Sometimes Kendall would sleep through this but generally the moment we went to get Seren, Kendall was up as well.  We started stretching out the time we'd wait to get them which seemed to stretch the days between getting them up.  But for the last week Seren has screamed bloody murder.  Her arm getting cut off type of bloody murder.  The first time she did it I literally jumped out of bed and nearly ran to their room.  Scared the crap out of me.  But nothing was wrong beyond a little girl who wanted to get attention and maybe a midnight snack before going back to bed.  She didn't cry after we got her up and she acted perfectly happy and healthy the next morning and day.  No concerns.  The next night it happened again and again after that.  By the end of the week we wondered if there was something wrong or if she was just teething or having nightmares.  We contacted our doctor.  And the recommendation was to sleep train her again...let her cry for up to an hour.  Train her to go back to sleep on her own.  Possibly move Kendall to another room if possible.  Lovely.

Sleep training...this worked like a charm when they were 5 or 6 months old.  But the thought of letting her scream bloody murder night after night doesn't appeal to me.  Their ped. did say we could ease her back into it (checking on her, etc) but that could take several weeks to get her back on track.   I figure I will check on her a little this week and then wean and stretch the time between checks again.  No picking up.  No cuddles.  Lay her back down and comfort her and then leave.  I'm not against children "crying it out" to a point...I just hope we don't reach that point after a week or two.  So here we go again...wish us luck (oh and tips or tricks if you have any).

Redefining Goals

For those of you stopping in or new I started a list of 101 goals to accomplish in 1,001 days a couple years ago.  Surprisingly time has gone by so quickly with this.  I started on this list before we were officially starting our donor IVF cycle that resulted in Kendall and Seren.  I remember that I started it because I wanted to have other things to work towards besides starting our family...especially if things didn't work.  But they did and now I am very behind in getting these goals accomplished.  I have accomplished others but ones I can't check off of a list.

We are still living with Jeff's parents for the time being.  We have an offer on a short sale for a home that I love but it has taken months to go anywhere.  We keep hoping we'll get a contract any day now...that is the supposed next step as we've been told everything is verbally accepted.  But living here feels like a wrench in my plans to accomplish more of these goals sometimes.  I guess I could get creative.

But in the meantime I'm considering an extension or a re-writing of the list.  Adding in new goals possibly and focusing energy on things I've discovered that I really enjoy (sewing, home decor, DIY projects, etc).  Anyway just a random rambling and reminder to myself to get back on the horse with this idea because I really do like it.