For the first time in Alex and Josie history, the girls are the exact same size! They both have a head circumference of 19 inches, are 34 inches tall, and weigh 24lbs!
They did ***awesome*** at the doctor's office. Josie went first and cried a little when the tape measure came out (??) to measure her head, but when that was no big deal, she went along with the rest while Alex watched. We doled out the praise big time for every step (measurement, weight, etc.) especially when she stood nicely on the big girl scale. Alex watched and then when it was her turn, was so proud of herself at every step, even had a little smirky grin when she was standing on the big girl scale!
I am going to highly recommend a pretend doctor kit - we just got one for their birthday and we used it to talk a lot about the doctor looking in their ears and mouth and nose, so when it was all happening, they seemed very ok with it.
Then the girls got the flu shot, and get this insanity: neither of them cried!!! What!? Crazy.
The Doctor was very impressed with their skills, especially Josie's sentence structure and Alex's story telling (how she relates past events to share how she is feeling now). And I was shocked to hear we don't go back until next year. What?! I felt like I lived in that office the first year of their lives, and close to it this year. Wonderful!
Thank you to everyone who is in the girls' lives lately, our village is definitely helping to raise two beautiful, polite, sweet, caring, smart, and wonderful little girls!
What a year it has been! It has seriously flown by. Looking at photos from their birth, 1st birthday, and 2nd birthday, I have to wonder which year brought the most change - year one or two? Last year we ended with two little girls who had just starting eating real foods and crawling. So in the last year we ditched bottles, started walking, started talking, talking a lot!, started recognizing their surroundings and interacting on a social level, made real friends and now have opinions, likes and dislikes. I really think this year brought way more change, or maybe a year ago is just too distant to remember.
Alex and Josie had a wonderful pirate themed party this year, with their park friends, family, and some of mom and dad's friends. There was a 5 foot long sub sandwich and enough pasta salad to ensure Josie had leftovers. In true fashion, they flipped on me, and Josie was outgoing and having a blast while Alexandra wanted to be in my arms and played shy. Ah well! Keeping us on our toes.
Alex is definitely showing more signs of entering her "twos" - as always, she has followed the book with meeting milestones right on time and this is no exception. Her way right now please. At least she is polite about it. I can't get over them saying "thank you mommy" for every little thing, its very nice. Josie loves to hold her sister's hand and walk around, and gets super mad when Alex decides she's done playing that game.
The girls are professional gift openers now. Josie even exclaimed "OOH COOL" when opening a few of her gifts: she really likes Duplo, apparently. Once a few Duplo items were opened, she had no more interest in opening anything else.
Josie and Alex ate their weight in Oreo cookies and pirate cookies during the party. I also underestimated how much Pirate's Booty toddlers eat (I accidentally doubled my order yet we didn't have any left!). Alex couldn't wait for cupcakes and then didn't want to eat hers - I guess she is a "cake haver." Josie, on the other hand, dove right in: "cake eater."
Josie reorganizing some napkins
Alex really did want "money" for her birthday.
Starting to set up.
These poofs were too fun to pass up.
The pirate tent from Aunt Laurie was PERFECT!
James got this cardboard ship you can play in AND color!
Home made cupcakes! Thanks to my friend
Missy for helping with decorating!
Wrapped gifts - I found the least Christmassy and most girly gift wrap I could find!
More set up photos!
The pirate ship cupcake display
These adorable little cookies were delicious!
Thanks Etsy for this stuff, its so fun!
This shirt, the story:
I had picked out new outfits for the girls to wear a few weeks back. I ran to the store to get ice and when I came back they were wearing them. They were awful, way too big and not cute. I rummaged through our drawers and found the red striped top for Josie, thank goodness. But nothing similar for Alex. I finally pulled out this red Santa t-shirt and flipped it inside out and with 20 minutes before people were arriving, drew on a skull and cross-bones. Party 911. And, in the end, I actually liked the outfits they were in better than the ones I had picked for them!
More set up
The blow up drink cooler! Perfect!
The girls helped me fill it with sodas and water!
Alex modeling her shirt and saying cheese with a mouth full of Oreo!
My pirate garb. In the extremely messy playroom!
Josie modeling her outfit and "sleep eating" an Oreo.
She thinks its hilarious to eat with her eyes closed lol.
She giggles through the whole thing!
Holding hands!
A picture with mama!
opening gifts!
Happy Birthday to You!
Alex kept blowing out the candles before we could stop singing lol
James covering Alex's mouth so she couldn't blow out the candles!
After Christmas we had a very relaxing weekend before hoping on a flight back to Los Angeles. We hung out at Grandma and Papa's home and had leftover Christmas dinner and soaked in each other's company. The girls ran around the property and we all piled into the rental car and went for a walk around the reservoir. Alex's little Terrible Twos independence got the best of her and she wanted to get out and walk and push the stroller and "do myself" and whip off her gloves and hat. Oh toddlers lol. We let her until we couldn't walk that slowly anymore and James popped her up on his shoulders.
We were truly sad to leave and head back.
Monday morning we got up at 4:30 a.m. and packed the car on the coldest day we had while we were out there. Our flights went very smoothly with very little drama and the girls were just perfect the whole day. They napped in the car on the way home from the airport and that helped them get back on track with their schedule here (for the most part - the mid day nap has been a bit early but otherwise they've been perfect!), we put them to bed right on time at 8.
For travel, I learned what I absolutely need and don't need, and was able to take one less carry on than last time. We learned that equal length flights are better than one short one and one long one. We learned that early morning travel is better for us. We learned that we should just get the luggage carts even though they cost a bit of money ($10 for two) for such a short time of use - its still worth it. We learned that people are more patient with little ones than we expected.
Checking out the falls
Josie pushing her stroller
Alex doing it "myself" with the assistance of Grandma
Little Josie
Settling in for our first flight.
Josie enjoys the view at Bradley
After take off, we can put the girls in their seat together.
They enjoyed a snack and an episode of Daniel Tiger.
