Scraps

It's been a busy couple of months and not everything made it into the blog.
Looking back through our photos, I see a few to remember.

Daddy and the girls at H's and L's Halloween party. The girls were in terrible moods when we arrived. Wearing their costumes only made it worse. Turns out, they just needed a few kilos of food to make everything happy.

Later that evening, Roo left her mark on the dog's water bowl.


Then, we had the privilege of attending Mallory's and Kelby's first birthday celebration. What miracles they are!

Em and Roo discovered a deep and abiding love for popcorn recently. And, also, for wearing Daddy's cycling bandanna. They ask J over and over to wear his "ya-yow hat".

Em and Roo bounced their booties off at R's and C's 2nd birthday party. Fun! Roo kept checking in with me to make sure I was where she left me. Love her little "Hi, Mama!" Hi has 8 syllables and Mama barely has 2. (note to self: must get that on video)



Saturday morning snuggle time with Daddy the day after the decorations went up.

This is the picture I thought we would have to use on our Christmas cards. Fortunately Roo and Em showed us mercy later that day when we tried again.

Ask and Receive

Feeding Roo has always been fraught with difficulties. From the beginning.

*When she was born, she was too weak to suck and was tube fed. Then, her nursing latch was very immature, so I pumped milk and bottle fed her.

As Roo grew and became stronger, those issues evened out, but then she had horrible reflux. There were many many feedings during which she threw up almost the entire intake.


When she was 6 months old, her doctor ordered an upper GI to explore the reflux issues. What a nightmare procedure.
The absolute closest I've ever come to punching someone. Those poor techs were doing their jobs most professionally, but they were causing my baby pain!
It came back clear, but Roo was still throwing up large amounts of her feedings. So, she was started on two serious reflux medications. That tamed the problem, but never conclusively solved it.

Roo didn't like to eat from a spoon. Foods seemed to feel wrong in her mouth. Moving to solid foods proved even more frustrating than the milk feeding/reflux problems. At times, even the slightest bit of new texture in her mouth made her gag and vomit the contents of her tiny tummy. So, I began to explore the possibility of sensory integration issues to explain Roo's food aversions.

Along the way, we switched from formula to whole milk. A month later she had the worst diaper rash ever. I believe our pediatrician coined it the "diaper rash from hell". Three months, a skin biopsy, allergy testing and a food elimination protocol later, it seemed she had a milk and soy protein intolerance. (Which exacerbated the reflux and was why the meds never really fixed the problem).

Now, Roo has entered the toddler years of exerting her independence. So, it's always a guessing game to determine if she is not eating because she is not hungry, having food-related sensory issues or just plain being a two year old who says "NO!" because she can.

With all of that history in her short two and a half years, you might understand how excited I was to have this conversation with her at lunch time one day.

Mommy: Lunch time. Here's a peanut butter sandwich.
Roo: Sandwich. Sandwich and apple?
Mommy: Sure! I'll get an apple right now.
Em: Grapes!
Mommy: Ok. Grapes and apples. Coming right up. Roo? Grapes or apples?
Roo: Um... Strawberries. Ok? Ok?
Mommy: I only have frozen strawberries. Want to try them?
Roo: STRAWBERRIES! Ok! Ok!

She asked for fruit! She thought about her choices, thought of something better, and asked for it. And she ate it!


*Same situation for Em

Try Try Again

Many many hours and tears went into this year's Christmas photo card. Most of them were Mommy's and Daddy's. I hear, from my other toddler twin mom friends that this seems to be the norm in all of their households. Lovely.

At first everything started off fine. We sat by the fire and read a story. Look how focused and calm Em and Roo seem to be.


Then, Daddy tried to pose the girls by themselves.

It did not go well.
We finally gave up for the night. It was exhausting.

The next morning, I changed the location. Perhaps the fireplace was freaking them out.
No go. Em unhappily stood still and Roo refused to even come outside.


Third try's the charm, right?
Well, it would have been if the camera settings had been correct.

Ok, fourth try. Roo was ready!


Wait! Come back Em!
Alright! That's what we're talking about!

Oh, the love. Sisterly love. Finally! I'm crazy about Em's little closed eyes in this picture.

Here's one that almost made the cut for the Christmas card.
You'll have to wait and see the final product, though.

Decorating with Help

alternate title: put down the camera already and help me!



Em tried her hardest to blow out these "candles".

Roo was a little (ok, a lot!) annoyed that Daddy wouldn't let her take the Cookie Monster ornament to bed that night.

Em worked so hard to master those little loops and hooks and help put everything on the tree. This is a big change from last year!


Here's a quick little video of this year's assembly process.

Practicing

Soon they'll be ready to go herping with mom!

Touche

Em threw a fit today because I told her no.

She rolled on the floor and kicked and screamed.

I talked for her. "Emme says, 'I'm mad! I'm mad!'".

Roo came walking by just then and casually added, "and loud".

Recap

Recapping last week with Mammaw won't take long (unfortunately).

We were sick. She was sick. We went to the doctor. She went to the doctor.

We took a lot of medicine, slept and snuggled

and cried
and laughed and slept some more.

And towards the end, we felt a little better.

So we went to IKEA to play.