Yesterday we visited the Minnesota Zoo. It's getting cold up here, I think winter has finally shown up. Luckily there are lots of things to do inside at the zoo.
First task was to attempt a photo of the kids, this is how it started, below. And the above photo was the end result. Luckily mom is a photographer and knows how to edit ;-) Two out of three smiling isn't bad, right?
Isaac loves climbing up on the rocks to be next to the penguins
Then we watched some of the snow monkeys play
We've been trying to teach Isaac to stop and look at me when I am trying to get a photo of him. He sometimes cooperates and most times not. But when he's in the mood for his picture to be taken he's great!
Snuggling lemurs:
The girls are started to get into the animals. it was really fun to watch their excitement. Here they were screaming "ISH! ISH!"
A little late getting this posted but I did get the photos on November 10th. Can't believe Thanksgiving is NEXT WEEK! The girls are growing like crazy and developing quite the personalities. Sweeter than ever of course! It's so fun to see them develop and learn everyday. They both understand us pretty well. When they are up to no good and get caught in the act Emma will usually throw whatever it is she has in her hands and take off running, while Mary will stop, give us a smirk and slowly continue whatever it was we asked her to stop. So both are quite ornery in their own unique way.
Mary picked up on baby sign language a little quicker than Emma. Signs "Please" "Thank you" "More" "water" and blows kisses. Mary is also our 'no' gal. This is a cute video of her saying no:
Emma has started speaking words in addition to her signs. She was a little slower to cooperate with signs. I know she knew them but she'd just grunt when she wanted something instead of signing "Please" or "More" when I asked her too. She now does both and is pretty proud about it. Emma is our 'yes' gal and usually gives us a long drawn out 'yesssss' when we hit the nail on the head with what it is she wants. It's nice that communication is started because we can figure out what they want faster. They both say Harpo, which comes out as "pa-po"
I tried to capture Emma saying yes a few times. I managed to get a definite head shake today:
They play together really well and also bicker a little, lots of toys being taken back and forth and Mary has even started a little hair pulling! :-/
They are both still good eaters. We've had so much variety I haven't really been able to tell if there's a favorite of anything. Fruit of course and muffins.
Mary plays really well by herself and Emma tends to stick close by myself or Isaac. They are both busy bees, loving the sensory table, puzzles, cars, legos, cooking in the kitchen, and wearing hats/dress up.
Emma is and always has been a big blankie girl, but now anytime she nurses she has to have it to snuggle with. So if we are in the living room she will run to her room to get it before she sets down with me. She usually brings Mary's to her, so even though Mary isn't big into her blankie she likes to have it when Emma has hers or reminds her about it.
They are both sitting on the potty and peeing a few times a week. Mary even pooped on the potty the other day, well after she dropped one in the tub she finished on the potty. She was pretty proud. It really upsets her when she poops in the tub. Mary seems to be sensitive lately as there was a few times Isaac has been upset and just seeing Isaac cry ignites tears in Mary.
They are getting more and more into books. We've always had a nighttime routine, but their interest is increasing, we can read a little longer of a book and some different ones. They let us know when they aren't interested in a book as they start to wiggle everywhere.
Just in the past few days they have wanting to help out with baking. Isaac has always been my helper when making pancakes, muffins, cookies, etc. The girls helped out yesterday and today with wanting to stand on the step stool and get a good look at what we were doing.
We have been in music class this semester (I think it's our 4th time doing it). Both girls love music, Emma really gets into it and dances in class, it's so cute. Instrument time is a favorite.
Here they are eating olives off their fingers, so cute I had to share:
It was pretty cute the other day when Isaac was pulling Mary in the box while Emma was pushing from behind. They started in the kitchen, but I didn't get a good photo, here they were once they made it to the living room.
Mary was pretty happy.
They all play so well together.
Since this post is taking me a while to get finished might as well add to it. This was last Tuesday as we played waiting for daddy to get home from Houston.
They love climbing up on the couch
Mary was lining up the cars so nicely
Emma loves sitting in the big dump truck and often times Mary will even push her around
I didn't schedule their 18 month check up until December so I could do Isaac's 4th birthday visit as well. So it will really be a 19 month growth check for the girls. I'll give their weight stats then.
Thursday was Isaac's last night of soccer. We were kinda ready for it to be done, I think it was hard with it being at 5:15 and on the night of a preschool day. He would be pretty tired by mid-soccer and hard of listening. And he wasn't thrilled about the last three practices being inside - due to the time change and it being dark out. Next year hopefully it works out with our schedule to sign him up earlier in the season (we were traveling this year so had to do Oct/Nov) or maybe even a Saturday morning one.
We showed up on time, Kyle had a late meeting so had to meet us there. He wasn't sure if he was going to be able to make it in time for the start so I 'starved' the girls (withholding snack), because I knew I'd need them to be occupied when we got there. I put them in the stroller with snack and they were so happy! Luckily Kyle wasn't late, so I didn't need to jump in but it was still nice to have the girls busy so I could watch Isaac. We were the only ones there at the start, the coach said "I don't think anyone else is coming, we'll start" The one-on-one time was nice. The coach tried to teach Isaac how to kick the ball with the side of his food instead of the front, which Isaac responded with "No, I kick with the front"... we'll have to work on that.
The girls even got to run around and play with some soccer balls for the first little bit. Which was perfect because by the time the other kids did show up (ten minutes late) they were tired and ready to eat more snack in the stroller. Emma was really good at kicking the ball and running after it like she saw her big brother doing.
Here's a video of him playing a game.
He did so good with hustling and 'jogging' which he learned in these past 6 weeks. Overall it was a great experience and got him out and active, which is the goal. Speaking of goal he kicked one last week and was super excited about it.
The girls actually really enjoyed watching Isaac play, which made my life easier. It's hard to entertain two 18 month olds in a small space for 45 minutes.
We visited the children's museum today (Saturday) in St Paul. We went ahead and got a membership since it would have been $50 for just today and the membership is $90. And since they are remodeling it's a 16 month meme ship instead of just 12. I figured the kids are in a prime stage to enjoy it as well and they did! I didn't get any good pics cuz they were having so much fun and unwilling to hold still. Isaac loved the pretend area where there was a worker station with blocks and a conveyor belt.
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