Happy Fourth and Happy 18 Months!

The girls are 18 months old now. They are babbling like crazy and even saying a few words. Both of them say "no" and in the appropriate context. Same with "up." Frankly I am kind of over "up" and having to carry them, since the alternative is ignoring the "up" request and having a crying baby holding your legs. I try to remind myself that one day I wont be able to carry them at all. It helps a little, but still. 

These two characters!

I keep calling them the babies, which I guess I shouldn't as they aren't babies anymore. We have a friend due with a baby on January 6, which makes me realize that their baby will be two years younger than ours - TWO YEARS. How is that possible?! 

Alex and Josie have kind of stopped growing, well they are getting a bit taller, but for the first time ever I had to buy more clothes of the size that they have been in forever because they have destroyed the clothes they had. Until now they grew out of clothes before items were too gross to be seen in public. Oh well, can't complain about having to buy cute girly outfits! 

The girls are also randomly picky. Today they will devour the BBQ chicken and watermelon you give them. Tomorrow, that gets thrown on the floor with a forceful "NO." Today, NO CHEESE. But tomorrow, give me all of that cheese. Josie loves pasta, picks out the meatballs. Alex loves meatballs, picks out the pasta. No one likes vegetables, even covered in melted cheese. How the heck is a cook supposed to work with that? Its frustrating. I sometimes feel like I should just skip the meal prep and clean up and throw food directly in the trash. Unless its a squeeze pouch - then its devoured in 10 seconds with cries for "MORE" after its gone. Or a banana - bananas are always a hit. 

Watermelon = vampire baby

We had a very fun Fourth of July. James and I are insane and, when it looked like nothing was going on on the 4th, we decided to throw a party. We had friends bring food and we were surrounded by tons of love, lovely people, happy times, baby pools, water balloons, and squirt guns, toddlers having fun and getting messy, good eats and drinks, s'mores, a fire pit, and a tree top view of some fireworks (sorta, if you looked really hard.) Either people are just being nice or everyone actually had fun. 

Set up!

Water balloons!

Photo credit: Kenchy

Photo credit: Kenchy

Photo credit: Kenchy

Hanging with mom

Later in the evening

S'mores

I was commenting to someone - a year ago I would have NEVER ever thought I would throw a party this year. And surely, I would not have thought it would go so well. But the girls were having a blast playing in the yard during set up and clean up, and now that I can cook and clean while they are awake, its really no problem. We also took them grocery shopping with us for supplies and they were awesome.

Having small children is a bit like being benched. We are slowly getting off the sidelines as the girls get a bit older and their abilities and needs change. Its fun to be getting back in the game - though the game is a bit different than it was before!