Never walk behind a swinging sister

I had to post this video because I think it is funny. Thanks to Uncle Jason for taking this with his new gadget since our camera is such a pain to post videos. (How many times will I complain about this?)

Poor Leah... It was so much fun til Hannah got in the swing.

Petting Farm

Laura and I took the girls to Oak Mountain State Park to visit their petting farm. The girls love the dogs and talking about animals that are in their books so we thought this would go well.

And it really did! Mainly the farm has goats and sheep and little lambs. The girls recognized the goats and called them by name. Hannah would even chase them calling out BAAAA in response to the animals BAAAS, as if she was saying "Hey! Come back! I am talking to you in your own language!"

The girls loved the little animals and showed them with hugs and kisses. And there was no fear. Except Leah really does not like walking in grass. I dont get it. Other than that, it was a wonderful morning!

Discipline

I have one child who wears her heart on her sleeve, and it is a very tender heart. Leah is tough. I can NOT hurt her feelings even when I am trying to get my point across.

Is the sound of my voice, raised at a much louder and forceful pitch funny? Because Leah obviously finds it hilarious.

Luckily Hannah will get offended and responds to an extent. Offended is a bad word. If I scold her, she throws herself on the floor in a heap of tears. Dramatic.

Our main issue right now is the girls LOVE to climb in kitchen chairs and those are not very stable. I do not mind if they sit down in the chairs but they stand up and turn around and shake the back of the chair. We have had many incidents because of this. And now they have started to climb on the table! Not only this, they move objects so they can climb up onto the bar stools.

We are really working on this but they find me funny. I pop their hands and Hannah doesnt like this. Leah is not phased in the least. I am a big fan of time outs but I dont see that working just yet. Plus I dont have a place to put them where they would stay and then I would have another discipline issue where they would not listen to me and stay put.

Maybe they will grow out of the climbing phase. Not likely, but maybe

Bite?

Tonight we had "Good Eats" on TV while the girls were playing. They had been asking for a snack for a little while but I was finishing up dinner.

Alton held up a fork full of food for the camera, and Hannah looked at it and fervently said "Bite?!?! Bite!?!?"

I just thought that was cute

Love for Melmo

Just a little note and I really wish I had a picture to go along with this.

The girls are not really TV fans. I would love the chance to let them watch a show for 30 minutes but Hannah is way too active to sit still for more than 1 and Leah would rather read a book. That is definitely a good thing. On a whim I bought an Elmo DVD because I did notice they like Elmos world when it comes on Sesame Street.

Leah is now obsessed. We have limited her to watching it only 2x a day. This afternoon I was having to change out the batteries in the smoke detectors and she asked for Melmo, so I put it on. She was so tired she was falling asleep, sitting up, struggling to keep her eyes open for her beloved red puppet.

Her love is so strong she kisses her diapers (only clean ones, dont worry) to love on Melmo who is on the front. I hear her talking about Melmo when she wakes up in the morning before I go get her from her crib. If I draw a red circle with two eyes it is automatically Melmo.

And I must thank Aunt Sara and Uncle Ben for the Kiss me Elmo. He is very important to bedtime.

I have to say I am really looking forward to the Disney trip in May because, though Melmo will not be there, Mickey and Minnie are close runner ups on Leah's love meter and it will be fun to see them in person!

Bubbles!! (aka... snow!)

Sunday morning we awoke to a gorgeous view outside. It has been a while since I have seen a nice white blanket of snow and something more than flurries coming from the sky. I opened the blinds in the kitchen to look at the good 4 inches that covered the deck and told Matt I am glad it does not snow here that much because when it actually does it is admired greatly. It really was pretty.

Of course we were excited to see the girls reaction to it. Matt made pancakes and white we all ate they looked out those kitchen windows with great curiosity. All they kept saying was "Bubble! Bubble!!" And I guess it really does look like a lot of bubbles when I thought about it.

We opened the back door to the deck to see what they would do, and they would not go near it, but really wanted to keep the door open. We decided it was time to go play so we bundled them up and headed out into the bubbles.

Hannah was just excited to go outside. Leah did not know what to think at first. Both girls walked the perimeter of the driveway without actually going into the snow covered grassy area. Leah really liked sticking out her tongue to catch the snowflakes. At one point I put her into the snow and that was obviously a bad idea. Hannah did eventually wander into it, I think to see her footprints .

We tried to get a picture of the girls together but Hannah was going a million miles an hour so we mainly just got Leah, who as I said liked standing in one spot trying to eat the snow.

We did not stay out too long but they had a good time. The snow was gone by the time they went down for their nap but we enjoyed it while it lasted, and at least we have some pictures of the girls first snow! (we had a little snow last year but I do not count it because they girls were way too little for us to go in it)