Happy Holidaze!...um, I mean Holidays!

I think that Ian and I have officially earned our title of parents after the last week. We celebrated the week before Christmas with another first...our first vomit (and then, our second, third, fourth, fifth...and so on, about every 25 minutes for about five hours).



Some form of a stomach flu bug hit our house very hard - it began with Evaline (poor thing). She and I must have caught it at about the same time, because I had it within about an hour or so of her. Ian came down with it the next night as did my sister, Katie - who Evaline covered in projectile vomit...mere seconds after I handed her over - have I got great timing or what?? (I was paid back, however, when Evaline threw up later and with no vomit-catching-recepticle to be found within arms reach I substituted with my own cupped hands. That was something that I never saw myself doing pre-parenthood.) Ian's dad also came down with the bug, and also my brother, who is in town for the week from Nebraska. Apparently this thing was not only highly-gross, but also highly contagious. Cora, who must have some sort of freakishly strong immune system (something she did not inherit from her mother), because - although she spends most of her day sharing slobber with her sister - did not get sick.



But enough about that.



Christmas break officially began on Wednesday, and the rest of this week is full of family-fun! Then a full week off, with hopefully lots of time to relax and re-coup from one busy, hectic, but always entertaining year....although I have lots of school work to get done and Ian has a large stack of papers to grade. But...we are enjoying our time so far.

Good luck to everyone who has to travel - stay safe, and have a wonderful and joyful time with friends and family this holiday!

mmmmm....December....

Switching from bottles to sippies and real food has been much less of an ordeal than I had anticipated. I had visions of massive tantrums, eating strikes, you name it...but none of that has happened. There are, to be sure, times when the girls refuse what we serve - Evaline in particular - but they are infrequent, and usually undramatic. Previously, when Evaline didn't want something, or didn't want any more of something, she would drop it onto the floor. But she now will look at us, and sign and say "all done". So then we'll take the food away and she is much happier. However, if we leave the food in front of her for very long after she has announced that she is done, the food will end up on the floor. But we can't say that we weren't warned. :-)

Cora, always our sensitive soul, has some cute/interesting stories to share...although I'm not sure how funny they will be through this medium, primarily because I'm sure that I will waylaid and sidetracked and will have a difficult time just telling the story.

1.) Evaline likes to mess with the doors to the TV cabinet, and we try to discourage this. Not because it is necessarily dangerous, but because it has been extremely annoying while trying to watch TV (although we've changed some things...see the photos below). So we tell her "No". And since Evaline thinks that it is funny to test us (when we say "No" she thinks that it means to smile her devilishly cute smile and try again, and again, and again...and then to fake-us-out by pretending to do it and laughing), we sometimes have to say "No" a little forcefully. So, anyway, we told Evaline "No," and Cora's eyes welled up with tears. A little bit later, Cora went over, ever-so-cautiously, to look at and begin to play with the doors; and we said "Cora, no-no" very seriously, but not harshly. She turned and looked at us, her bottom lip stuck out and quavering then she burst into tears - no, sobs - and ran from the room. Evaline, standing nearby looked at her run off, looked at us, looked at her, looked at us, and then ran off to console her sister. Or to plot revenge.

2.) In a similar story, Cora was playing in the kitchen cabinet at my parents and somehow got a bag of chocolate chips opened (not a new bag, but one that had been secured with a twisty-tie). She guiltily brought the bag into the living room and my parents said "Oh Cora, what have you done?" And again, massive waterworks...obvious that she felt so bad for having spilt the chocolate chips. Evaline, however, wasted no time in racing to the kitchen to see if she could help clean up (aka, eat) the mess. Dad had to corral the girls while mom did the official cleaning up.

Related to chocolate chips (and the reason why the bag had ever been opened in the first place), this past weekend was a cookie-making-extravaganza over at my parents. My sister, my mom, and I made triple-batches of about four or five of our traditional Christmas cookies. A long day, but what fun! As you can see, this cookie-making tradition has been going on a LONG time..............

28 years ago, almost to the day...


and today (well, not today today, really this past Sunday). Not much changes, eh? I believe it is even the same mixing bowl...

In honor of the first snow fall...and what a snow fall its been!...here are the girls' winter outfits. Please keep in mind that it is extremely difficult to get a good picture of both of them at the same time. And please also excuse the awful picture of me... I wouldn't normally put myself on display like this, but seriously, could these hats (not mine) be any cuter??? By the way...I took the girls outside today, and they don't like snow. Not. One. Bit. Screams. Tears. (for about an hour afterwards from Cora, too)

Here is our naughty, naughty Evaline...playing with the TV doors. Maybe she thinks its OK to do because she gets her picture taken when she does it...Do you see that grin? Do you have any idea how difficult it is to say "No" like you mean it when you are greated with that grin??

Here is the girls' new favorite place to play. Its where our TV used to be...you can see their old favorite place to play here or here.

We brought one of our (four) sets of carseats into the house to re-size for winter coats before we turned their seats around (!!!)...the girls thought it was the best jungle-gym EVER!

Happy Thanksgiving...

a few days early. I don't even pretend to be on top of it enough to get those wishes out any closer to the actual date. Its my first real day of break and I already feel overwhelmed with everything that needs to be done. Not that there is actually a lot of stuff that needs to be done, I just know how quickly this week goes and hard it is to get anything accomplished. On the upside, I did get the bathtub caulked and the babygate fixed, so I guess regardless of what else happens the week hasn't been totally shot.

On Friday night we got rid of all of the bottles. And the little that remained in our last can of formula. Whole milk and sippy cups it is for our little girls. So far, they've done really well. Cora hasn't really taken to the milk yet, and Evaline isn't great at drinking much...but I think they'll catch on pretty soon. The upside is that - so far anyway - they have been REALLY good eaters. Evaline refused her snack of peaches yesterday afternoon, so by dinner time gobbled up her meatloaf (which she had completely rejected on previous attempts with this dish) and spinach-feta pie. Cora is pretty good at eating a little bit of whatever we give her...she just eats so SLOWLY! It takes her a good half-hour to finish a small meal. I was expecting far worse at this endeavor, so am very happy with their progress into "big girls"...

In other news of "Big-Girl-ness" I am amazed at how much they have changed over the past year (yeah, yeah, I've said it before...just about every time I've posted, I know). Since Cora is just starting to wear 18 mos clothes (she weighed 22 lb 6oz at her 12 mo check up, so technically, according to the tags she should still be in 12 mo, but her belly is too big for them anymore :-)....Evaline weighted 21 lbs on the nose) these girls have gone through seven sizes of clothes in the past year! Holy cow! seven different wardrobes! Thank goodness for kind friends and hand-me-downs!

More developments - the girls are really starting to show that they understand what we say when we talk to them: things like "Where is the ball?" "Can you find your... baby... ball... ears... toes... etc?" "Please go give this to daddy" "Pick up your water and bring it with us into the living room" and so on get the appropriate the response! It is amazing! Now, for Evaline, things like "No! Do not play with the TV stand doors" get giggles and more playing with the TV stand doors. And for Cora things like "No Cora, I've already read you 15 stories. We are done for a while." gets broken-hearted sobs. But....all in all, we're on the right track.

Here are some recent pics...including some of their birthday party last weekend.

Cora in her party dress...with the doll that Ian and I gave her

Cora and her cake - she just crubled it up and played with it...I don't think that much was eaten

Evaline wouldn't really touch her cake until I cut it up for her. Then she just very nicely picked up the pieces and ate them

The girls LOVE their ball from their Aunt Katie...(below I've got some video of them laughing and laughing as their dad bounced it off the wall)

So many new toys...so little time

Caught! Red-handed!

Evaline and her baby

Exhausted after a busy, busy birthday party-day

Evaline has taken to sticking out her tounge...I couldn't decide whether the full-body or close up was cuter, so here they both are:

Cora, loving her musical push-toy


Just up from her nap - our "wild" child!

And here they are in action:

Happy, happy birthday, baby!

Evaline Jo Petersen - November 12, 2008

Cora Lynn Petersen - November 12, 2008

One year later...

11.5

Just pictures and captions this time...

I'm not sure why I like pictures of babies with messy faces. Maybe its because Ian has such a difficult time dealing with the messiness...but I think that there can't be much that is cuter...
(Evaline)


(Cora)


Posing for the pic!


I've said in previous posts that the girls love to play together...but rarely do this for the camera. I did happen to capture a couple instances, though. Recently Evaline has been very affectionate towards her sister, giving her all sorts of hugs and kisses (this usually just annoys Cora as the kisses are usually accompanied by some sort of eye-gouging). This is especially adorable when Evaline will go and hug and kiss Cora to comfort her when she's crying...I'm so glad they are friends!


As a gesture of love (or ornery-ness) Evaline is in the process of shutting Cora in the cupboard.


Cora is now walking - I've got a bit of footage at the end. She's also VERY protective of the book you see here...she LOVES this thing, and will sit for a good half hour pouring over the pages. She is, after all, her mother's daughter.


I just thought she looked cute :-)

After escaping the cupboard, Cora sees the camera and gives a MONSTER grin...along with a high-pitched, but super-sweet-sounding, screech. (her usual "I'm happy and/or excited right now" display)

And now for some video...

A few of Cora's favorite things:

Cora (again) this time walking!

And finally...a bit of the girls playing...

Just one more month until one year...

Holy smokes how time flies on by! I cannot believe that these little girls were born almost an entire year ago...and yet...how can it only have been (almost) one year? More than once this thought has brought tears to my eyes. Ian usually laughs as, through sobs, I complain that the girls will be graduating high school and college sooner than we can imagine.

But they are fun...oh-so-much-fun. Ian and I are really enjoying this age - Evaline is a real, actual toddler now (according to the weekly emails I get from St. Luke's - the hospital where I delivered - a baby becomes a toddler once (s)he walks, or should I say...toddle). Cora took her first, few timid steps on Sunday...or so her father says. No one else was there and I have a difficult time believing that she would accomplish such a big feat without her mommy around to see it. On Tuesday when I picked her up from my parents she took a few steps right into my arms, so, as far I'm concerned, those were her first. :-) Both of the girls will walk quite a distance when holding on to a helping hand...I can't believe how quickly they are growing!

It's becoming clear that they understand more of what we say and they are finding ways to communicate with us. They both wave (Evaline likes to wave "Hi" more than "Bye"...and, acutally, "Hi" was her first -- and for right now, only -- word!!) and LOVE to play patty-cake. But, like with everything else, they do it differently. Cora loves to - with a very serious look and lots of concentration - clap her hands (or to help us clap our hands), and Evaline waits with a huge grin and bated breath to "throw it in the oven" tossing her hands high above her head. When we ask how big they are, they show us "SO BIG" by stretching out hands and feet as far as they will go. They play - even initiate - peek-a-boo, both with us and with each other. They wrestle and play and are so very excited when they see one another after getting up from a nap or being separated in some other way.

In other news...well, there really isn't any. Work has been keeping us busy, particularly the past couple of weeks (conferences, papers and tests to grade, etc). As I think I've posted before, this new job is requiring more from me...there's more work and less time to do it in...this isn't a complaint, because I really like my job...just a statement that it takes a bit more.

I finally have some photos to post, too. A combination of the girls just not taking very good pics lately (below I have an example of what almost every picture of Cora looks like), and me just not taking the time to get them off the camera and re-size them to go on the website has left this blog a little lonely for images. But...here we go, hopefully this will make up a bit for lost time.

This is what Cora looks like when her dad dresses her...oh my...


Evaline - just relaxing after a hard day of playing, playing, playing...


Eating snacks like big girls while watching Baby Mozart...probably breeding bad habits...


Super-cute jogging suits (although not quite jogging yet - thank goodness!)

Cora found out how to crawl onto the shelf under the TV (and so it begins...)

Ah yes, Evaline figured out the shelf thing, too...

We're thinking that Cora might be a dentist...she LOVES to examine teeth! (what a weird-o!)

Evaline took a tumble into the toy-basket...

but found her bunny in the process, so all was good!

Cora REALLY wants the camera...

Eating...

More eating...

The next two pics are of what we USUALLY get when we break out the camera...kinda cute, but you can only want so many of these...

Evaline is our "nook and cranny" girls...every little crack she want to try and squeeze through!

Just playing...

Here are some of Evaline's first steps...which were actually about a month ago...she's much better at it now...

I promised Ian that I wouldn't post this one - he feels he is too much of a featured player in it...but I don't that it is fair to have the video of Evaline and not one of Cora. So, sorry Ian....here are some of Cora's latest tricks...

Baby steps...

I logged on today and realized that it has been exactly one month since I last posted. I imagine most of my loyal followers have given up on me...but I'll continue this post, anyway. And, like most of my other recent (and I use this word with full awareness of its irony) posts, I'll begin with an apology for not keeping my family and friends abreast of the goings-on in the Petersen household.

I have to officially start with a short note of praise for the transional seasons. It seems not that long ago that I was singing the praises of springtime, and here it is - fall. I love the crisp air (this week has been a little on the warm side - a whopping 75 degrees most days - but the mornings and evenings have that hint of fall), the changing leaves, even the football on Saturdays (college football only, please, not a lot of interest in pro). I cannot wait until the girls are old enough (will it be next year???) to go to appling in Gays Mills, WI, or walking around Effigy Mounds on the banks/bluffs of the Mississippi.

Of course fall also means back to the grind-stone of school...and my year is going very well so far. Life moves, for me, anyway, at a much faster pace over on the West Side - I'm teaching five classes now, instead of just one or two. But I am adjusting, and adjusting well. I like seeing and working with many more students everyday, and everyday affirms for me that this has been a good decision.

The girls are growing so quickly! In another month and half they will be an entire year old! I'll admit, there has been a time or two when that thought has brought tears to my eyes. My little babies are growing up. They are showing real personalities more and more each day, and they are able to do more and more each day.

They have truly begun to play with each other - something that I have tried, unsuccessfully, to catch on tape numerous times. They are always so happy to see one another, shrieking and babbling to each other as though they are creating their own little twin language. They chase one another around the living room, we have a chair in front of our fireplace that they circle, shrieking and chasing. When they catch each other they break into peals of laughter and roll around, wrestling on the floor. Today when they finished their morning bottles, Cora stood on one side of the chair and Evaline on the other and they played peek-a-bo with each other, hiding and then shreaking with laughter when they saw one another again. And sometimes, when one is crying the other will go and put a hand on the sad ones leg, as though to say "it's OK". I'm sure that's not exactly what is going on...but, I think it is the beginning stages of love and compassion for one another. I think this is why people have twins. Or, at least, one of the reasons why I'm glad that I do.

The past month has brought us many other changes as well. They both have cut their first tooth (bottom left) and act as though #2 is on its way. Cora waves bye-bye, feeds herself - with perfect precision (Cora typically sees no point in doing anything until she can do it perfectly), plays patty-cake and claps her hands, and has just begun to stand by herself. Evaline has been working on some other things. She has finally begun to take a decent nap, and can get herself to go back to sleep when she wakes halfway through, (or early in the morning). Hooray! Additionally, the past several weeks she's been standing by herself for longer and longer periods, and yesterday she took her first real steps! Since then she's been doing it frequently -never more than four at a time, but she's beginning to walk! Watch out world - here comes Evaline!

Pics to come... we've only taken a few good ones recently (and they are still on the camera)...the girls are too interested in the camera to let us take tons of pictures without them lunging for the "black box in front of mommy's face".