Snow Day!

You get two posts in a month! I'm on a roll! ;) 

Here we are at the end of February and we've gotten two back to back snow storms. The first one shut down school for the entire week last week. This one, I would imagine, will keep schools closed today and tomorrow. Since Brad was home today, we decided to take the girls outside this morning and build a snowman. The snow was perfect snowman snow! Brad made the snowman while the girls wandered around taking it all in. This picture just cracks me up. I don't know why, it just does!

Eleanor seemed to love the snow! She didn't really want to touch it but she kept making happy sounds and laughing, so something about it sure was amusing. She's really building her vocabulary and every couple of days she has a new word to say. We are working on it! I think she said "Mama" a few times. Her absolute favorite word is "Uh-oh!". Every time she sneezes, falls, or drops something she says it. It's super cute.

Some days Amelia and Eleanor have dropped the morning nap too. Other days they still want two naps. It makes it a bit of a challenge to plan the day sometimes because I never know if I'm going to get one long nap or two shorter naps. Usually, though, I aim for one nap and if two happens great! One nap days mean I have more time to do all those "fun toddler activities" Pinterest is all about.

Unfortunately, we are all (still) sick. It's been a source of major discontentment for me. It started with Eleanor and pink eye/cold that I talked about in my last post. Amelia eventually got both the pink eye and the cold. Then I got the cold. It's a bizarre respiratory virus, that's for sure. The girls had runny noses, but I never got that part. I felt a little stuffy and had some post nasal drip, but ultimately we all ended up with ear infections. Who gets an ear infection as an adult? I never felt that sick, but I also got a nasty dry cough. I was excited when it went away for like three days and then it came back the other night! Same with the girls. GO AWAY SICKNESS. It's just lingering and lingering and driving me crazy. Between the weather and this stupid cold, my race training is not going super well. Last weekend I wasn't able to do my 10 mile long run because everything was frozen solid. This weekend doesn't look too promising either. Guess I'm just going to have to suck it up and do 10 miles on the treadmill (gross).

Amelia was a little more apprehensive about the snow, but she did crawl around in it for awhile!  She's still not saying words much, but she's signing a lot more. I found out the other day that she's been holding out on us and totally knows the sign for "please". I didn't even ask her to do it and she just did it! We've only been able to go to speech therapy twice because of all the snow and illnesses (today's appointments were canceled) but I'm really happy with the direction things are going there. I think it will be good for Amelia and I think once we can be more consistent we will see a lot of success. Other than working on signs, Amelia is also working on climbing everything. She also started crawling around really fast with her forehead on the floor. She thinks it's hilarious but the rug burn she gets from it looks pretty bad. Oh well, it doesn't seem to bother her!

I thought I would do a quick update on my New Year's Goals to close out this post:
- I've lost 6 lbs since January, bringing my total weight loss to 40lbs. I'm proud of my progress but it's been discouraging not being able to workout and train as much as I would like due to illness and weather.
- I've read 4 books since January. Including "Cuckoo's Calling". Which was an awesome book.
- Some weeks it's a challenge to spend much time on the New City Catechism. I need to do better at this, but I've at least looked at each week's question and answer.
- I've been trying to read to the girls a couple times a week and I think I'm doing it at least 3 times a week. I don't keep track of this much though. I probably should.
- Brad and I have had a couple date nights already! We've also instituted "No Tech Tuesday"-- which means on Tuesday evenings we don't pick up our phones or get on the internet in the evenings so we have more meaningful conversations and play with the girls more. It's been pretty fun. :)

What We've Been Up To

I keep sitting down to write a blog post but I always either get distracted or start but never finish. I've been thinking about the direction I want to take the blog in. This started off as a way to keep people updated while I was in college. Then it focused on style files. And then pregnancy and the girls.  I want to focus on a few different topics, not just on the girls, but on our family life as a whole. I don't know what that's going to look like just yet.

I took these pictures on Sunday when we went to the park! It was 65 degrees out and absolutely beautiful. We've basically been sick with various things since Christmas, so it was nice to get out and do something. All of us, except Amelia, got a stomach bug a couple of weeks ago. Brad and I were sick at the same time and it was overall an unpleasant experience and not one I want to repeat any time soon. Then this last weekend Eleanor came down with pink eye (which is alive and kicking in these pictures if you look closely) and now both girls are sick with a cold. I guess this is what happens when you have small kids! Ha!

At their 15 month appointment, the Pediatrician referred us to speech therapy because both girls still had zero words, not even Mama or Dada. Speech delays are quite common with twins. After the evaluations it was evident that both of them had quite a few emerging skills but were still somewhat behind where they should be in regard to expressive communication. The evaluation happened in mid January and we just got in for actual speech therapy for the first time last week. Between the evaluation and the actual therapy appointment, Eleanor started saying "ball", "uh-oh", "baby", and "Hi". She also started using signs for "more" (which really means that she wants food), "eat", "milk" (which she had been using for quite some time), and "all done". Amelia picked up signs in the last couple of weeks. She does her own version of "eat", "more", "all done", and will make the sign for milk if I ask her if she wants a cup of milk. Both girls are showing progress and for right now, no one is concerned that there is anything more to their delay other than just not talking.

Other than the speech issue, they are right on target for where they should be. Both girls are running around, climbing on things, and in general being full-fledged toddlers. We are entering the picky eating phase. Since Eleanor was sick with the tummy bug she pretty much refuses to eat anything other than toast, crackers, granola bar thingies from the baby food aisle, and apple sauce. I'm trying not to make food a battle and just offer her lots of options and let her eat what she wants to eat. I don't ever want food to be a battle because I don't want food to ever be an issue of any kind. Honestly, the parents always lose battles about food anyway, so I refuse to make it a battle. As an adult, I simply don't eat what I don't like and I find something else to eat that I do like. So the same goes for my kids. If she doesn't eat the dinner I offer, I try to offer her something she will eat even if that means she eats cheddar bunnies and a cheese stick for dinner.

As a family we are enjoying the fact that Brad is not studying anymore. We have time to do a lot more things as a family and as a couple. We've instituted weekly dates that happen after the girls go to bed. Most of the time it's no big deal; we just watch a show or play a board game. Once a month we try to do a more special evening where we cook a special meal and eat after the girls are sleeping. There is wine usually involved. For February, we are doing our night in on Valentine's day. I'm not entirely sure what I'm making for dinner, but we are definitely having from-scratch brownies as a special treat.

I've been training for my half! I've had to skip a few runs here and there due to illness (on my part or because I have sick kids). Overall though it's going well! This weekend I'm slated to run 9 miles. I'm down 40 lbs and thanks to that weight loss I can wear my wedding set again! I was so excited that I was able to comfortably wear it again. I missed it a lot! I haven't been able to wear it since half-way through my pregnancy.

I think that's all I have to update on. Between being sick a lot and the weather being bad we just haven't really gone out to do much. I'm looking forward to sick season to be done!