the rosier rundown

down by the bay

2012-02-14T16:32:00.001-05:00

Rosier Visit

2012-02-13T19:37:00.000-05:00

Linda (Wes' mom) and Philip (Wes' brother) came down for a visit this past weekend. We went out to dinner, did a little shopping, and played lots of games at the house. But the highlight of the weekend was Sunday when we went out to breakfast for Wes' birthday (which was actually today). The kiddos ate pancakes and scrambled eggs and loved every bit of it.

The best part was when they brought out an ice cream sundae for Wes' birthday and sang a loud birthday song with lots of clapping. We thought the twins would LOVE it, but they were really in shock the whole time.

They weren't shy about eating the ice cream and feeding it to other people.

Come back again soon!

Canned Ravioli

2012-02-12T06:00:00.000-05:00

We recently gave G & V a can of ravioli to split at dinner. They LOOOVED it. In fact, this was Gavin's exact response:

G: "I so proud of you, Mom."
Me: "Why?"
G: "I really like this dinner. It so good. I so proud of you."
Me: "I'm glad you like it."
G: "It my favorite. This my favorite ever in my life, Mom."

Sticker Mania

2012-02-11T09:21:00.000-05:00

Our house has been invaded by stickers. They are everywhere.

And we can pretty much guarantee that the little Miss Viv is to blame.

Construction

2012-02-10T09:17:00.002-05:00

Our house has been under construction for the last 3 weeks or so. You see, our basement was flooding just about every time it rained, so a trench (or something) had to be built in our back yard up against the back of the house. This also meant that our back deck had to be torn down (tear) and then put back up (yay!). Well, it's done now and we love the finished product!

Shockingly, the best part about this construction has been that Gavin and Vivian (but mostly Gavin) have been watching the "guys" do their work everyday. Gavin is completely fascinated by them.

Every weekday morning, he runs to the window and counts how many guys are working. Then, he proceeds to tell us about it, "Guys breaking boards, Daddy" and "Guys getting more nails in their truck" were common reports. He waved at them (and they sometimes waved back), talked to them through the glass, and reported on every single thing they did. He loved it.

Vivi, on the other hand, would sometimes yell at the guys, telling them, "I see you! You breaking deck! You bad boi! You go time out!" She was interested from time to time, but not like Gavin. He would spend hours a day watching them out the window.

Now that they're gone, he asks us, "Where my guys? Where they go?" Poor kiddo.

Recent Loves

2012-02-09T13:42:00.001-05:00

G & V love all kinds of things and they tend to love a lot of the same things. Lately, they've been in love with:

Kiwi

Chef Boyardee Ravioli

Dancing

Playing hide-and-seek

Watching Dora the Explorer

Popcorn

Playing matching games

Raisins and dried cranberries

Reading to one of us at bedtime instead of listening to us read to them

Helping with dinner

Icing

2012-02-07T07:14:00.000-05:00

G & V were heard whispering in the kitchen this morning by Wes. Specifically, Vivi was telling Gavin to "be quiet... shhh!" When Wes asked what they were doing, they both yelled, "nothing!" He went in the kitchen to find the freezer open and each of them sucking down their own individual package of toaster strudel icing. Of course.

Little Helpers

2012-02-06T07:23:00.000-05:00

G & V have been really into helping me make dinner lately. They ask every night if they can help out. We bring in two chairs from the dining room, they climb up, and I give them a job.

The other day, we were making a shrimp dinner. So, I had the kiddos rip off the tails for me. They took this very seriously and actually did a really good job.

They also got ahold of two lemon slices. Gavin immediately made a sour face and gave it back to me. But Vivi really liked her piece, almost eating the entire thing.

Ponytails & Barrettes

2012-02-05T08:49:00.004-05:00

Luckily, Miss Vivian has recently shown some interest in letting me do her hair. This is a completely new experience for us. Vivian has never liked having her hair done. Sure, she's let me put her hair in a ponytail before, but she rarely keeps it for longer than 10 or 15 minutes. Well, it looks like times are a changin'.

Not only has she kept her hair style (whatever it may be) for hours and hours, but she even asks me to do her hair on a regular basis! Here are a few of these "hair-dos" (as Viv likes to say).

Later that day, her barrette and ponytail turned into just a ponytail...

And here she is with her hair in a ponytail with multiple barrettes. (FYI: She's pretending to be a baby here, which is why she's sucking her thumb. She's really a paci-kind-of-girl.)

I just hope that her willingness to let me do her hair continues.

me & v

2012-02-04T18:23:00.002-05:00

2012-02-03T19:46:00.000-05:00

Boots & Dancing

2012-01-30T04:00:00.000-05:00

Playtime

2012-01-29T09:48:00.000-05:00

Here are two funny stories from this morning:

Like her brother, Vivian loves dinosaurs. She's been running around the house with one of her toy dinos making it roar (rather ferociously) at everything for the last 20 minutes.

Apparently, it was too much. She just told her dino, "You not being nice! You too mean! You go time-out, now! Two minutes!" And she put him in time-out.

~~~~~

While watching "Go Diego, Go!" (a tv show), Diego was riding his horse and told the audience, "You can ride one of my other horses."

Gavin quickly responded with, "I no need your horse. I have my own horse in my playroom." Then, he brought his rocking horse into the living room.

Noodles

2012-01-29T04:00:00.000-05:00

"Painted" Nails & Tiger Stripes

2012-01-28T14:55:00.001-05:00

As we all know, Vivian is obsessed with coloring (see HERE, HERE, and HERE). And, she's been this way for a while. She probably asks to color at least 10 times a day.

Well lately, she's been asking to color with her dry erase markers so that she can... get ready for it... "paint" her nails. The little girl's nails are "painted" with dry erase markers just about every day. And she's very serious about it.

Gavin, on the other hand, has become interested in drawing "tiger stripes" on his hands and arms with his markers. It's ridiculous.

Crazy kids.

Tiger Tracks

2012-01-26T07:44:00.000-05:00

Yesterday, we were playing on the front porch before heading off to Walmart when Vivi noticed a lot of muddy foot prints on the concrete. This was the conversation that ensued:

Vivi: "Mom! I found twacks (tracks)!"
Me: "Wow!"
Vivi: "I have fowow (follow) dem (them)."
Me: "Okay. Who do you think they're from? Are they people tracks or animal tracks?"
Vivi: "Anmal (animal) twacks!"
Me: "Okay. What kind of animal?"
Vivi: "They tiger twacks!!!! I have go find tiger. Tiger, where are you?!!!"

Then we all proceeded to look in every bush and tree to find the tiger.

Recent Comical Statements

2012-01-23T04:00:00.000-05:00

Okay, so this post is mostly for me and Wes to remember some of the funny things that Gavin and Vivian have said lately. Saying that, some of these things may not be very funny to you, but they are hilarious to us.

Vivian

(While coming out from hiding) "Here me be! Me be right here!"

"I need wip gwoss (lip gloss) now, Mom. I reawy (really) need it!"

"We wuv (love) you, horse! No cry! We wuv you!"

While doing flash cards with me, we get to the "Umpire" card- which is Elmo dressed up like an umpire. Viv: "Ummmmm... Elmo!" Me: "Yes, but what is Elmo dressed up as?" Viv: (While holding the card out towards her toy Elmo) "Elmo, what you doing here? You know?"

After putting them to bed and listening to them yell and scream at one another for 30 minutes or so, Wes went upstairs to try and settle them down. Vivi said, in her sweetest little baby girl voice, "Daddy, you come lay wif (with) me, please? I need you, please. C'mon, Daddy."

Took Vivi to Starbucks recently and got her a cake pop. When the guy behind the counter leaned over and handed it to her, she yelled, "OH MY GOODNESS!" Then, she ate the entire thing with a huge smile on her face.

Viv found one of her old shoes. It's a few sizes too small, but she continued to try and put it on. While doing this, she screamed, "Oh no! No fit me, shoe!"

Gavin

While holding his ears, Gav said "I have my listen ears. Calm down now, pweas (please)."

"Where you go, Dad? I come, too. I come wit (with) you, pweas (please)."

"What you got? Lemme see it."

"What you have? Lemme see it."

"What you eating? Lemme have some."

"We goin' on venchure (adventure). You not coming wif (with) us. You stay here. We goin' on venchure wif horsies."

After politely asking Gavin to not take his pants off, he did it anyway. Then, I asked him to keep his diaper on. He said, "No, Mom! I love my penis!"

While running around the house completely naked and holding onto his penis, Gavin yelled, "He comin' to get you!"

First Snow of 2012

2012-01-22T04:00:00.000-05:00

Yesterday, we woke up to less than an inch of snow. But, it was more than enough to get G & V excited about playing in it!

They came back inside to warm milk and chocolate chip cookies, which they were ridiculously excited about!

Half Way There

2012-01-21T07:53:00.002-05:00

Today marks the end of my 20th week of pregnancy; half way to the end! And this time around, things are a bit different.

For instance, I had more uncomfortable symptoms during the first half of my last pregnancy than I have had with this one. With the twins, I was nauseous, exhausted, plagued by terrible headaches and toothaches on a daily basis, experiencing charlie horses at night, and had severe digestive pains. Luckily (ha!), I've only really been ridiculously tired the whole time and a little nauseous in the beginning. Well, I did have a doozy of a charlie horse the other night, but I'm hoping it's the only one for a while.

As for cravings, those are about the same. I never (and still haven't) craved anything out of the ordinary or weird. Instead, I tend to crave things that I already like and would likely eat regularly, but I just seem to really want/need it right then and there. Like last time around, I really LOVE oranges and orange juice. In fact, I think I eat 2-5 clementines a day. They are soooo good. Other than that, I just tend to crave different things at different times; nothing else is consistent.

I also feel and look just about as big as I was at 20 weeks during my last pregnancy. I'll start with the side profiles soon. I promise.

Something else that's different is feeling Chocolate Marker move around. I started feeling him/her about 2 weeks ago. But I didn't feel the Ralphs until week 21.

In other related news, we have our second ultrasound on Wednesday and we're very excited to see little Chocolate Marker again. He or she will be joining this crazy crew in no time!

The Story of Chocolate Marker

2012-01-17T04:00:00.000-05:00

When we were pregnant with the twins, we didn't share their names (or any name ideas we had) prior to their birth. Instead, we decided to name them "The Ralphs" so that we didn't have to keep saying "the babies, the babies, the babies" or "the twins, the twins, the twins." We chose the name Ralph because of my dad. And you can read the full story HERE.

Well, this time around, we wanted to do the same thing (i.e. come up with some name for the baby while not sharing our real potential baby names). So naturally, we decided to let our 2.5 year-old twins figure it out.

We told them that we were going to have another baby a few months ago and recently asked them what they thought the name should be. Gavin immediately yelled, "Chocolate!" and Vivi quickly followed with, "Marker!" Thus, we will be calling baby #3 "Chocolate Marker" on the blog until he or she is born.

We know it's ridiculous, but we love it.

A Visit from GG & Max

2012-01-16T04:00:00.000-05:00

On Friday, GG & Max (my mom and her fiance) drove down from MD for a visit. We didn't see them on Friday night because they got to their hotel rather late, but my mom came over bright and early (around 7:45am) on Saturday morning to play with the kiddos.

My mom and I took Gavin and Vivian grocery shopping and then made it back to our house around 9 to get ready for our next event- SWIMMING! GG & Max's hotel had a pool. G & V got in their wetsuits from Grandma Renee and were ready to go! We played in the baby pool for a while before heading into the big pool. The kids had SOOO much fun!

After a nap and a LOT of playtime with GG & Max in the afternoon, we went out to dinner.

GG & Max headed back to MD
after dinner on Saturday night.

It was the perfect little visit!

How We Told Our Family

2012-01-15T08:06:00.004-05:00

I keep forgetting to write about this. Back in October (here's part one and here's part two of that visit), Wes' parents and brother, my sister and then boyfriend (now fiance!), and my mom traveled down to Harrisonburg for a some October fun.

Well, one of the things that I failed to mention to our blog readers was that we also revealed our pregnancy to our families that weekend. And this is how we did it...

My colleague from work (Alison) and her boyfriend came over "by surprise" just to "hang out." You see, I had told Alison about the pregnancy a week or so earlier. Before she left, I asked her if she could take a photo of the whole family out front. She "agreed" and we all went outside. The plan was for Alison to tell us to "say cheese" and take the initial photo. Then, I was going to say that I was blinking and to take another. This time, Alison said, "Say Jennie and Wes are having another baby!" And then she took sequential photos of everyone's reactions. It worked out perfectly!

The first photo (above) is the original picture (pre baby announcement), and the photos below are what happened after the announcement. If you look carefully at the first few pics, you can tell that no one believed us (everyone just thinks that Alison is being funny) until I turned around and said, "For real- we're having a baby!"

Good times!

Bagel-Making Helpers

2012-01-13T10:52:00.002-05:00

He's a Naked Man

2012-01-12T04:00:00.001-05:00

If he could have it his way, Gavin would be completely naked (or at least pants-less) every single second of the day. In fact, we find him completely naked several times a day.

Just last week, Wes put the kiddos to bed. When he came downstairs, Gavin started yelling at the door for him to return. He only yelled out twice, so we ignored it. Then, it was quiet. They went to sleep.

About 30 minutes later, Wes went back upstairs to move Gavin in case he had fallen asleep on the floor at their bedroom door (which he does 1-3 times a week). When he opened the door, Gavin was not only not at the door, but he was in his bed with his head actually on his pillow (which is a great feat for Mr. G). The only problem was that he was completely naked.

He also loves de-robing during the day in another room (for ex: the playroom while we are in the living room) and then running back into wherever we are yelling, "TA-DA!"

Still there are other times when he plays quietly in another room after stripping down to nothing for several minutes until we realize how unusually quiet he's being and find him in-the-buff.

In fact, just last night I politely asked Gavin to NOT take his pants off. He did it anyway and so I asked him to keep his diaper on. He responded by yelling, "No, Mom! I love my penis!"

Come to think of it, he's always hated clothes.

She's a Late Talker

2012-01-11T08:01:00.003-05:00

While Gavin's been talking up a storm for several moths now, Viv has been keeping quite for the most part. Apparently, she was just waiting for something important to say.

Like many of their developments (ex: crawling, walking, etc.), Gavin usually learns to do something first, but Viv tends to learn the behavior much faster. For instance, Gavin started really trying to crawl around 5.5 months and then wasn't actually successful until 7 months. Vivi, on the other hand, started to try around 7 months and then actually did it only a few weeks later.

The same thing happened with walking.

And it seems that it has happened with talking as well. Gavin has been jabber-jawing for what seems like forever. And, Vivi has been quietly listening. Let me clarify: she hasn't been silent by any means, just way less talkative than the never quiet Mr. Gavin.

What does this say about our twins? I've come to a few conclusions. First, Gavin is either more capable than Vivian when it comes to this kind of stuff or he's just too damn impatient to wait until he's ready. Second, Vivian is either less capable than Gavin or she's smarter than him; waiting until she figures out how she's going to achieve her goals before she takes action.

Anyhow, Little Miss Viv's minimal speech phase is officially over. In the last few weeks, Vivi has really started talking and talking and talking about anything and everything. It seems like she doesn't stop, with one long stream of consciousness. She also HIGHLY enjoys repeating sentences that we say that she thinks are funny. Some of her favorite things to say these days include:

"Oh No!!!"
"Silly, Mom/Dad/Budder!"
"What are you doing?"
"Budder taking my [fill-in-the-blank]!"
"Dis too hard, Dad!" (To which we respond with "You can try harder, Viv.")
"Hold on! I be right back!"

Vivi has also gotten really good at being funny. And it's not that we just think she's funny either. She knows she's being funny, too. We know that she knows because she laughs hilariously afterwards or she'll even say "I so funny!" right after that funny statement. Here are a few examples:

Viv: "Mom, I need snack."
Me: "Okay, I'll give you a snack if you tell me your whole name."
Viv: "No!"
Me: "C'mon, say your whole name."
Viv: "WHOLE NAME! Hahahahahahahaha!"

Viv: "You bad, Mom."
Me: "What? Why?"
Viv: "You bad boi!"
Me: "Why, Viv?"
Viv: (while smiling) "You time-out now!"

She's also really good at tattle-tailing (on her Budder, of course), repeating, bossing, and whining. I guess the days of quiet car rides, mealtimes, and shopping trips are officially over.