Month: March 2017

Twin Tuesday- 18 months old!

This edition of Twin Tuesday is about our sweet now 18-month old twins!

 

They had their 18 month well child visit this week and are growing like weeds! They definitely have a bit of the ‘stranger danger’ phase going on right now and they clung to me like never before. Thank goodness no shots this time!

We are definitely in that odd time period where they don’t have the vocabulary to express everything they want which results in a lot of whining all the time. I remember this time as being difficult with Eli and with two of them whining for things of which I have no idea, it is even more difficult! We are doing our best to learn new words and a bit of patience.

So far, Luke is more vocal than Reid which doesn’t surprise me. Reid has always been the first to do physical things (crawling, walking, going up/down the stairs) and Luke is usually the first to do the rest (talking, pointing, smiling, etc). Our doctor is not concerned that Reid is a bit slower to talk at this point and neither are we. I’ve heard to remember with twins that they are still two individual people and each are on their own timelines! So far we’ve heard from one or both of them: cheese, mama, dada, bath, go, moo, nodding yes and no, out, up, done. Luke has started saying owie to express his objection to just about anything he doesn’t like. It’s pretty hysterical.

They are giving hugs and kisses freely which is one of the best things ever. They hug each other to say sorry although sometimes a little too fiercely and both end up on the floor. We think that part is pretty funny but they don’t really so much. Speaking of being on the floor though, they have definitely picked up the fighting over toys lately which frequently ends up in a mini-wrestling match over said toy.

 

Much to my surprise, they both self-weaned at about 17 months. I didn’t really have a plan with these guys for stopping and kind of just thought I would let them do their own thing as long as they wanted. I’m so very happy that I was able to nurse them as long as I did and I’d be lying if I said I didn’t miss that cuddle time with each of them (but I suppose that’s a post for another day). Most of the time, they are pretty good eaters and will try just about any type of food we put in front of them.

This winter has sort of been their first real winter since we didn’t leave the house much at all when they were itty bitty. We’ve definitely been paying for it with seemingly constant sickies including a car vomiting incident while waiting in the school pick-up line. I can’t even type it without my stomach turning. Spring is coming soon and we hope with it some healthier days!

 

Reid has had a particularly hard couple of months with some teeth coming in and a constant runny nose that is driving him nuts. Sometimes lately it seems like we can’t even put our finger on what is bothering him but I’m actually starting to wonder if it could either be a combination of everything going on (including frustration with not being able to express himself quite yet) or just a bad case of CABIN FEVER. Of which I can’t even blame him. This winter has been hard!

They are sleeping about 11-12 hours at night and a 2-3 hour nap. Sometimes they stay up after I lay them down or wake up early and spend their time chatting, giggling and jumping in their beds together. It really it the sweetest thing to watch.

We love these little guys so much and they are becoming so much fun as they get older. I have to say though.. I’m starting to understand the wiser twin mommas who say it doesn’t really get easier, just a different kind of hard. I so get that! We have our own special kind of crazy chaos all day long every day! Honestly I would go back and do it all again over and over because at the end of every day there is so, so much more good than bad!

Twin Tuesday – Baseball Themed Twin Birthday Party

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I realize my twins are 18 months old, but today’s Twin Tuesday is all about their first birthday party! I’ve been wanting to throw a baseball themed party for awhile and decided a double first birthday was the perfect occasion.

I designed their invitations in Photoshop and loved the cute ticket idea. (I obviously erased our address for posting here so the original invitation didn’t have as much white space. 😉 )

 

 

Our older boys both have birthdays in the winter so we usually have their parties at our house or rent a place to hold it. This is our first experience at a fall birthday party so we decided to chance the October weather and plan for a backyard party. We are so glad we did! The weather was beautiful and we all had the best day.

I made this birthday banner for them using plain blue cardstock from Hobby Lobby and used this free template from Cap Creations to cut the triangles. I created a quick file in photoshop (or could be done free in Picmonkey) to place all the letters on baseballs graphics I found and punched them out using my large circle punch. I glued them on, punched holes in them and strung them up. (I love using this punch to string banners. I think it looks cuter than the standard circle hole punch and the string almost completely covers the small holes.)

 

 

I loved our ‘Concessions’ table and wanted to really make it baseball game worthy. We served hot dogs with all the fixings in stadium hot dog trays found here. We had popcorn in carnival bags (found here) and small chip bags strung up with clothespins. The concessions banner sign was found here (via Aspen Jay) and hung in front of red and blue twisted party streamers.

 

 

I made smash cakes for the babies (can I still call them babies now? Whatever.. they are my babies 😉 ) using this 6 inch cake pan. I frosted it white and piped on some baseball laces with red frosting. Here’s the part where my twin brain set in because I never took a picture of the two cakes together! And as you will see… there was nothing left to take a picture of after.

 

 

I think it’s safe to say that they loved them? Or at least loved playing in them. Luke really got into it!

 

 

For everyone else, I made vanilla baseball cupcakes and chocolate grass cupcakes. I frosted the vanilla with white frosting and piped on the red lacing like I did for the smash cakes. I piped green icing on the chocolate cupcakes using this Wilton grass tip. They looked so cute on the tray and I took the time to arrange them to alternate patterns… but did I take the time for a picture? Twin brain says no… but at least I snapped one mid-party.

 

 

Since it was a baseball party, we of course had to dress as a baseball team. I bought shirts (and onesies for the babies!) for a few dollars each at Hobby Lobby. I designed a ‘Team Cook’ logo on coollogo.com and printed it on this iron on paper with our regular home printer. I also used font ‘All Star’ and printed our ages for the back of our shirts on the same paper.

 

Love that sweet Reid is the only one of the three actually looking in this picture. 😉

 

 

 

They had such a great day! Josh’s parents gave them a wagon which is there new favorite thing in the world and they spent half their party begging for rides around the yard from anyone willing.

 

 

Love these sweet boys. The first birthday is such a milestone- especially with multiples! Josh and I cleaned up from the party, put the kids to bed, poured a glass of champagne and gave each other a high five for officially surviving the first year! Excited to see what is to come!

 

 

We loved our baseball party- be sure to pin for your next birthday idea!