PairSquared

Remembering New Mexico

noreply@blogger.com (MJ Lamon) — Tue, 17 Jan 2012 20:39:00 +0000

Thanks for the cool shirts Eva!

Surprise (At our children’s expense)…

noreply@blogger.com (MJ Lamon) — Tue, 03 Jan 2012 20:15:00 +0000

Brett did this…

And I did this…

Who do you think was more surprised?

Christmas–ALL of them!

noreply@blogger.com (MJ Lamon) — Fri, 30 Dec 2011 22:29:00 +0000

Brett got lasik on the 22nd of December. I decided that night we were going to have our family Christmas. The first present was flashlights. Not the best gift hours after eye surgery.

We headed to Lanesboro on the 23rd. We went to a tree farm on the 24th to pick up a Christmas tree. An activity for the kids. We thought it would be a good idea.

Didn’t realize that mom and dad no longer owned a tree stand so dad rigged one up. The tree looked a little questionable, but they sure had fun decorating it.

And of course there was presents!

We made it back to the cities for a Polson gathering on the 26th and Scott Christmas on the 28th!

Merry Christmas

noreply@blogger.com (MJ Lamon) — Mon, 26 Dec 2011 04:25:00 +0000

I know, I am totally one of those people that would have this awesome Christmas picture card out to everyone in the world at least 7 days prior to the day. However, I have never done this. I thought about doing it after I got married, seemed like a milestone worth mentioning, and despite how fun and action packed those years were prior to kids I still didn’t find myself creating a card. This year I even got some killer pictures of the family and still did not convince myself to create a collage with a holiday theme background and write a recap of what everyone did this year. I guess those that really want to know about the happenings within this entertaining household have already gotten the skinny on line so I am starting our official Blog It Card!

This 2011 was exciting!!

The boys didn’t learn how to potty train and the girls learned the word “mine”. Brett and I are still married and still have 4 children.

PairSquared is excited for Christmas!

noreply@blogger.com (MJ Lamon) — Sun, 25 Dec 2011 04:28:00 +0000

Swimming Lessons Second Round

noreply@blogger.com (MJ Lamon) — Wed, 21 Dec 2011 19:26:00 +0000

Brett signed both the girls and boys up for another round of swim lessons at the Y. Girls went first and the boys went to Kid’s Stuff. Then we got the girls out, changed, and dried ourselves off and switched to the boys. It worked. The girls in swim lessons sometimes felt like a punishment to us. Melissa the swim instructor essentially said that swim lessons for kids that young is really just training for parents. Clearly our girls are not afraid of the water. They cried because they wanted to do what they wanted to do and spent most of the 30 minutes climbing out the edge. We are not enrolling them in swim lessons next round.

Action shots…

Thanks Melissa!

KPT–Christmas Program

noreply@blogger.com (MJ Lamon) — Thu, 15 Dec 2011 22:57:00 +0000

Today was the last KPT day until the new year. Their finale was a program with singing. The boys didn’t do too much singing, but I was happy they didn’t pull their shirt up, sit down, or run away. Luckily Nanny Sarah came to help wrangle children so I could take pictures and videos for Brett. Bennett is in the front with the blue sweater and Ethan is behind him.

The kids are cute, but really E and B didn’t do much but stand there.

The girls are in the Yellow Ducks class and the boys in the Red Rabbits. They have wonderful teachers that care for them. These ladies are my heroes on Thursdays! And here is why:

Dearest Alisa, Andrea, AnneMarie, and Amy- December 15, 2011

A letter of appreciation to the extraordinary KPT teachers of my PairSquared clan. I am sure that I could of put together a little holiday mug filled with chocolate kisses, but let’s be honest I don’t get out of the house often. Amazon delivers frequently to my house. And maybe this note will be more memorable than the blur of this mom zipping in and out of the church. Yes, I know that I am one of the first to drop off and one of the last to exit the church, but wouldn’t you be too if you had the opportunity to unload 4 kids for a few hours? I am sure that there are many reasons that you elected to be a KPT teacher (I’m sure one of them is not the pay in poopy diapers) but I am going to continue to believe that it is for me! Curious, what I do when the 4 of them are in your care? Well, I will tell you….I go to a store without anyone staring at me, I eat lunch in the quiet, I can hear the TV (guilty, I do watch Days of Our Lives), I sew without the frequent break to settle a dispute over a toy, I prepare dinner without the girls pulling out all my pyrex from the pantry and utensils from the drawer, I pretend like life is easy even if it is just for that moment. 2:00pm comes fast on these days. I am exhausted after putting on the 8 socks and shoes, 4 jackets, 4 hats, and remember the 2 blankets. I sometimes wonder if all this work is worth it. Well it is. I leave the church more relaxed and like I am on top of the world!

All four of you have been so good to my kids. Learning their differences and what features identifies each child. Sorry I didn’t make it easy on you with the twin thing. I know that you love doing what you do and love the children. I’m don’t always remember everything, like tuition and the day the boys were supposed to wear red (you can probably just count us out for PJ day). It isn’t always perfect, like when you run out of diapers and I cross my fingers at pick up that the only biting the kids did was their sibling. Thursdays is not only a day that I look forward to, but I know that they do as well. And that is what counts.

So for whatever reason you work as a KPT teacher, thanks for doing it for me!

Your PairSquared Mom,

I really enjoy seeing their artwork and today I got to pick up gifts that they made for me. 4 ornaments with their pictures! Alisa and Andrea, I know that it is not by mistake that Jocelyn has a purple ornament and Aaliyah’s is pink.

Just so you ladies know, I hung them proudly today!

And their pictures right before nap time!

Thank you Peace Church and all the KPT teachers. My kids are happy!

Holiday Pictures with ATP

noreply@blogger.com (MJ Lamon) — Wed, 14 Dec 2011 21:08:00 +0000

Here are just a few that I picked to show off. There are a lot of good ones!

Ethan

Bennett

Aaliyah

Jossie

And of course she got a great picture of all 4.

A family picture you ask? Nailed it!

This winter Annie Torrini Photography got a studio so this is where we had all our pictures taken. She did a photo shoot for PairSquared Designs too. I’ll show them off soon!

The girls 18 month stats

noreply@blogger.com (MJ Lamon) — Thu, 08 Dec 2011 19:25:00 +0000

From the doctor’s report:

Aaliyah

Weight = 24lbs 8 oz – 54%

Length = 32.5 inches – 75%

Jocelyn

Weight = 21lbs 8 oz – 12%

Length = 32inches – 62%

The girls mostly fight over blankets but they do love each other. Sometimes you will find them giving each other a toy or blankie. They do share on occasion.

Great video I got of them yesterday!

YMCA–Swimming Lessons

noreply@blogger.com (MJ Lamon) — Mon, 05 Dec 2011 14:50:00 +0000

Ethan and Bennett started swim lessons this fall. We got a membership at the Y. It is clear that they love to play and jump in the zero entry level, but getting them to swim was a little different story. It started kind of like this…

But with a great swim instructor (Melissa), 2 parents, and one uncle we have gotten to this…

We are almost at the end of round 2 swim lessons. We also enrolled the girls. The fear of water does not live within them either. I feel like there tends to be a lot of screaming and hitting. Thank to Melissa. She is a sweet heart and really understanding of children.

Here is a video of the boys after they finally got that they could get around the pool on their own in the black tubes. It is kind of long.

Thanks to Bruce for going their last day and taking pictures for us!

Potty Training–Round 2

noreply@blogger.com (MJ Lamon) — Sun, 27 Nov 2011 20:45:00 +0000

I am going to give you a sum up of potty training – round 2. It took place Monday through Wednesday this last week. Thanksgiving couldn’t come fast enough. For 3 days I lived my life in 20 minute increments: 15 minutes off the toilet, 5 minutes on the toilet. We tried this very consistently for all waking hours of the day. The toilets were moved to the bathroom, nothing was worn from waist down, and the treat basket and toy prizes were significantly beefed up. Brett asked me on Monday night if I had really done this by myself for 3 days prior to this week. He thought it was exhausting so after 6 days of it I was prepared to give up electricity to have more money to invest into diapers. To say the least we did not have full success (my Aunt busted me on a FB picture). We had a few successes and I am truly convinced they know how to hold it. Back to diapers for now and we will try again in a month, mid December sounds good. Maybe it will be my Christmas present from the boys.

Little Boys are Thankful For…

noreply@blogger.com (MJ Lamon) — Wed, 23 Nov 2011 17:09:00 +0000

This was the boys craft at KPT last week.

Apparently Ethan forgot that Mommy and Daddy put a roof over his head.

I get the pizza and cozy coupe, but “rocks” and “rabbits”???

Potty Training–Day #3

noreply@blogger.com (MJ Lamon) — Thu, 17 Nov 2011 02:55:00 +0000

Not going to lie, I am still glad that today is over as well. I made it to lunch time with only 4 underwear changes and then it all broke lose. So I quit after lunch and made them try one more time before their nap. I again did get a few tinkles in the potty today, but nothing of the brownish color. Without going into to much detail about Ethan’s BM issues, I think there might be something going on that is against my odds of successful potty training. Never fear Miralax is working on this issue. Before bed time we got one more success and then I put on their “night time diaper”. I am not ultimately disappointed with today. You probably wouldn’t believe that I never really checked into how you actually potty train a child until today. “They” say that twins are not necessarily more difficult but take more attention and there are way more accidents (obviously!). The recommendation was to have 409 on hand. But ultimately I got the general statement that “all children are different and train differently”! So I guess I just need to figure out what method is Ethan/Bennett’s method. I am thinking of going with more bribery. Apparantly fruit snacks are not a short commodity around here. The next 2 days is daycare for the boys so I am thinking that the daycares won’t be interested in catering to the boys potty needs right now. Back to diapers for the moment. Probably looking at starting it up again on Monday. Initially I decided to go to underwear right away so I am thinking that next week we may go nothing on the bottom half and shorter frequent stops on the potty. My spirits are not broken…but my washing machine smells like poop and my hands are chapped from washing them so much.

I am not going to bore you with yet another picture of the boys on their frogs. But there was a pretty funny video I got today. Enjoy!

Potty Training–Day #2

noreply@blogger.com (MJ Lamon) — Wed, 16 Nov 2011 02:45:00 +0000

I am sitting here trying to decide how today went. I know it didn’t go better than yesterday so now I just need to figure out if it was worse than yesterday. I guess overall I had less dirty underwear and actually saw mellow yellow in the frog potty chair. If the load of laundry tells the truth there was 9 pairs of underwear so 9 changes today. A couple of times I did put a diaper over the underwear to limit a few clean ups. It was shocking how they could spend 45 minutes on the potty and then get off and within 10 minutes they were going. This makes me feel like they know what they are doing.

It is a balancing act of not getting upset and frustrated when they go in their underpants to prevent this experience from being negative. But when you only get to do the potty dance 3 times a day it is difficult to be positive the whole day. I seriously stocked Ethan for an hour because I knew he was going to go and when I turned my head for a moment the puddle was already there. I’m not giving up yet. I think they can do it, but I may not be able to keep up with this pace. There might be a break in my future.

We had a dress change today. Not for good reasons.

I know it seems kind of odd when I say the boys sat on the potty for 45 minutes. As you can see in the background I don’t do it on my own.

So what are the chances of the girls potty training before the boys?

Little Ladies are now 18 months old

noreply@blogger.com (MJ Lamon) — Tue, 15 Nov 2011 03:43:00 +0000

We made it! Aaliyah and Jocelyn hit the 18 month mark this month. These ladies are a hoot. I think a more accurate way to describe them would be spit fires. After Brett watched Aaliyah hit Jocelyn, pull her hair, and then head butt her he believes that she has a future in the UFC. We are blessed to have adorable, sweet, and often times dramatic girls. They have beaten Bennett’s record for time outs in one day and still make us laugh. Seriously look at those smiles. I can sense you smiling right now.

So I need to document how much the girls are talking. A short list of words from the girls, mostly Aaliyah.

1. Caillou On 2. Milk 3. Up Please 4. Apple 5. Ball 6. Jackson 7. Baby 8. Nose 9. Mouth 10. Blankie 11. Monkey 12. Doggie 13. Water 14. Hi 15. Bye 16. Cheese 17. Mommy 18. Daddy 19. Bubble 20. Hot

I love you girls!

Potty Training–Day #1…….FINALLY OVER!

noreply@blogger.com (MJ Lamon) — Tue, 15 Nov 2011 03:02:00 +0000

Two little 2 year olds hanging out on the froggie potty chairs. Yeah, it looks cute but trust me today was no picnic!

It went something like this….ok, boys today we are going to wear underwear instead of a diaper [Insert temper tantrum here]. But look there is Thomas and Diego on your underwear [Insert Ethan asking for Lighting McQueen and Finn McMissle]. Bennett didn’t even make it downstairs to breakfast without going pee in his pants first. Change underwear #1. After breakfast they sat on the potties watching Diego. Play time upstairs, Bennett came down and said “dirty pants”. Put him on the potty which doesn’t make any sense since he already went poop. Change underwear #2. Ethan came downstairs dirty pants. Sit on the potty, again not sure why. Change underwear #3. Everyone upstairs to play with Geotrax. I sat on the floor to set up a killer track and found where Bennett must have been located when he took his first pee. Not really sure what I was thinking about not going to look for the wet spot. In the AM change underwear #4 to #8 must of happened. After lunch, I was feeding Jackson and heard the boys laughing in the dining room. Turned around to find Ethan standing in a puddle of pee and Bennett jumping into the puddle like it had just rained. Underwear change #9 (and shirt change). The boys managed to take underwear change #10, #11, and #12 with small poops. I caught them mid grunt and got them on the potty asap. They probably spent their whole afternoon on the potty. Time for their nap. I decided to call the diaper a “nap time diaper” hopefully to differentiate between a normal diaper and a diaper just for nap time. It couldn’t of been more than 10 minutes after I changed Ethan that I caught him in the corner finishing the duty he started earlier in the day. Put him back on the potty for 30 minutes. Pretty sure that Ethan knew exactly what he was doing. He held the poop until I put the diaper on him. After afternoon nap I didn’t even bother with underwear. I had already ran my washing machine twice. The thing that sucks the most is that they did not even go once in the potty. On my floor, yes but not on the adorable green frog.

Score:

Ethan/Bennett = 12 (diaper changes)

Mommy = zero of anything in the potty

This potty chair design might not be in my favor…

Potty training is not going to be easy.

Playing on what use to be my nice couch

noreply@blogger.com (MJ Lamon) — Tue, 15 Nov 2011 02:35:00 +0000

This is how I wear them out so that they will take naps in the afternoon. Watch how Ethan can’t get over so Bennett comes to his rescue. Kind of long video feel free to cut it short.

I probably pick up the couch cushions 8 times a day.

Your morning crack…

noreply@blogger.com (MJ Lamon) — Thu, 10 Nov 2011 18:23:00 +0000

You have been warned!!

Don’t leave Jocelyn alone in just her diaper.

Another picture for the wedding reception slide show.

At least he is reading

noreply@blogger.com (MJ Lamon) — Tue, 08 Nov 2011 19:42:00 +0000

Bennett found a comfy spot in the sunlight to read a nice book.

Food on the Floor

noreply@blogger.com (MJ Lamon) — Tue, 08 Nov 2011 19:34:00 +0000

Remember how I said I sometimes get sick of cleaning up the floor after mealtime. Jocelyn must of heard me…

Boring? I think not…

noreply@blogger.com (MJ Lamon) — Wed, 02 Nov 2011 19:10:00 +0000

Just a regular day at lunch time. They were playing peek a boo through their legs.

Yes they are still in their pj’s. It only took me about 4 weeks before I stopped putting clothes on them every day (sorry Nanny Molly and Nanny Sarah). Sometimes I take off the old pj’s and put on a clean pair of pj’s in the morning. Don’t judge me.

Start the Day

noreply@blogger.com (MJ Lamon) — Tue, 01 Nov 2011 03:20:00 +0000

This is how my day starts every morning…

4 sippy cups

4 water bottles

1 baby bottle

1 cup of coffee

Halloween 2011

noreply@blogger.com (MJ Lamon) — Tue, 01 Nov 2011 03:07:00 +0000

We did not go trick or treating tonight. Yesterday our church had an event called Trunk or Treat. It was held inside due to weather, but was a success. The PairSquared Gnomes visited the event!

Sleeping Styles

noreply@blogger.com (MJ Lamon) — Mon, 24 Oct 2011 20:20:00 +0000

I just took these pictures of the boys sleeping. Yes they took a nap today!! I think it had something to do with the flu shot that they got this morning.

Seems like Ethan fell asleep in the middle of playing with his cars and Bennett knows how to kick back and relax.

Please Baby Please

noreply@blogger.com (MJ Lamon) — Mon, 24 Oct 2011 20:15:00 +0000

All parents think their kids are so smart, but this kid really is! He learned how to read! Ok, he learned how to memorize. Still pretty cute.