Balance

Poor fish, I wonder what it feels like to have taken on too much to swallow???!!!!??
Bwhahahaha.....................
*Halloween pictures of the "Sweet-Sweets" coming soon!

Grapefest

It's not much put I have managed to upload a few pictures of the "Sweet-Sweets" on an all-day outing to the Niagara Grape Festival where Mommy enjoyed copious amounts of "grapes", good food and good company, plus an eager "Auntie" Marie made the all-day affair a huge success.

Sophia (below): "Do ya think we should trust that camera crazed Momma to take us anywhere? She seems a little high strung."

Alyssa: "Jeez, I don't know Sophia...let's just stand here and pretend we're frozen."

Me: Sighing.....this is so typical , the girls standing "frozen" on the front porch waiting to be escorted rather than use their God given legs which are perfectly coordinated with the rest of their body parts and can somersault, pose, dance, run, skip, hop, and too-many-to-mention other physical feats, but God forbid should they walk down those 5 steps to the van!

Auntie Marie was our angel for the day and entertained the girls. The girls LOVED her and all the attention.

My girls love their stuffed animals, any size or shape doesn't matter. Adversely, they detest dolls. Soft cuddly dolls, hard plastic dolls, Barbie dolls, you name it they dislike them. Dolls usually become projectile objects in our house followed by Sophia or Alyssa exclaiming, "I don't wannit" or "I no likeit". This throws me for a loop because I LOVED dolls, all kinds but I am not exactly sure what age I was when my love affair with dolls began.

I, being the over-analytical sort, wonder if this has anything to do with their orphanage experience and the competition with the other "babies" there for the Nannies attention.

I will always wonder what sort of affect those first 9 months of orphanage life has had on them.

Like Weeds......

The little tykes are a-growing so fast Momma doesn't have time to keep up. Solution: When your waist is tiny but your legs are a- sproutin' just add DUST RUFFLES. Check it out for yourself..not bad...even kinda cute. What do YOU think? Have I told you how much I LOVE my new sewing machine? Just bought it because I nearly had a heart attack when I found out how much they were going to charge me for S + A's bedroom drapes. So to save the $300 in drapes I bought a $300+ sewing machine and made the drapes myself. Wanna see?
Sophia is modelling her new look below.

PMS

Okay just another thing to add to the following list of things NOT to do when PMSing:

1. Shop for clothes.

2. Get a hair cut, colour, new style......stay AWAY from the SALON

3. Stay away from nasty beauty regimes like getting waxed (hurts more, really, esthetician told me so, and it DID)

4. Discuss finances with hubby

5. Discuss anything with hubby, avoid him at all costs to spare him.....after all he's innocent.

6. SHOULD sleep in separate beds, helps alleviate some of the above problems.

7. Go grocery shopping.

8. Step on a weigh scale..........

9. Let MIL talk you into getting your kids hair cut..............

Right, you heard me............I took S + A on a whim to MIL's at -home hairdresser, who lives around the corner and is FREE, as in available right now. But she just had to call and double check. Sure enough, self-taught hair dresser was free to take the twins RIGHT THEN, so I thought , could it be so bad? S + A's bangs were getting so long they were past their chins and hung in their eyes...they were banging into things from poor visibility (just joking about the last one), but really anyone could see they were in desperate need of a TRIM. Did I say TRIM? I'm pretty sure that's what I set out to get done.....but they got chopped. They got the cute short, short, cut, that I think is so cute on other babies, but I wasn't going to get for S + A. I did manage to save the bangs from getting chopped, (just barely). At one point I remember yelling "NO". It's really all a blur now. I think I asphyxiated on the old lady permanent smell.....as we walked down the steep narrow stairs into the basement. I knew we were in for some trouble when I felt Sophia's body stiffening up as we started to descend those stairs...........heck, mine did! That was the beginning, they took one look at the faded, blonde, garlic fire- breathing dragon and the old lady responsible for the smell permeating from her head... and cried and hollered in unison. A crying toddler is one thing, manageable, but a crying toddler HOLLERING NO, NO, NO, is quite another. We again persevered and they ended up with this short cut.........just when I was mourning the loss of the babies, this had to happen, now they look even more grown-up. My poor heart.

Above pictures of the girls having fun on their slide, oblivious to the more aerodynamic do.



Picture to the left shows just how short their hair is from the back. It will grow right?

Just A Year

Sophia modelling her new swimsuit in 2006 (left), and today she is still able to wear it. (We do remove the pants before swimming )

Neighbourhood walks have a whole new meaning in 2007 (right picture) vs. 2006 (picture above).

Nonno can manage to hold only one the girls on his birthday in 2007, which in this case is Alyssa. In 2006 Alyssa uses a pacifer, today she uses her thumb.

When we were waiting for our girls, a year was an eternity. Now that we have our girls, a year was like the blink of an eye. This is absolutely the truth. If you are a family-in-waiting I encourage you to really enjoy those long luxurious baths, the walks with your husband after the sun sets, the romantic dinners, the uninterrupted "quiet" times with your spouse, spontaneous get-aways, and visits with friends. Maximize and relish those trips to the hairdressers, manicurists, pedicurists, unique gift shops and especially the MALL . Yes, even the visits to the doctors, dentists and other such appointments need to be appreciated. Because I am telling you that the word spontaneous as it relates in your present world will not be the same after you receive your little one. Double this if you are hoping for multiples. Your lovely child (ren) is /are going to be all consuming and you, who used to be first, will now somehow become last on the list. And when you get your child cherish every minute because they will grow up so fast right before your very eyes. If you can stay at home longer, (and that is your thing), do it. I did and I am not the SAHM type but I saw every little developmental milestone that S + A experienced. I don't regret it for one minute. I feel that I deserved to be a full-time SAHM longer as my justification for the rivers of tears I have cried trying to get to our two angels.

Our trip to Collingwood last year, precisely one year to the weekend this year...exemplified that time is clearly flying bye and just how quickly our girls are growing up.

Last year the girls were mainly crawling everywhere, standing up with assistive devices, taking a few baby steps, napping twice a day, not eating on their own and not talking. Fast forward to this year, the girls are walking, running, jumping, talking (2-3 word sentences), singing, eating on their own crawling out of their Pack N' Plays, napping only in the afternoon, drawing, colouring, blowing kisses, giving bear hugs, and the list goes on.

They are truly toddlers now, no longer babies and a part of me misses the babies I once had. This stage is also fantastically fun and entertaining but I just wish time would slow down, (sorry to all the waiting parents), just a wee bit for these little tykes Too much "growing up" for mommy to handle in "just a year".