Big girl!

Ryme is so fun--and busy!!! The girl is ALWAYS on the move, and does a great job contributing to our chaos. She suddenly seems so old, crazy how that happens. Some of her latest antics:

She loves containers and spoons, and will spend ten minutes putting objects into, and out of, cups or bowls. She loves eating with a fork, and is always so proud of herself when she stabs an elusive piece of food.

Not sure what it is about socks, but she loves chewing on them- teething, perhaps? She has 7 teeth which seems like enough for now, although I'm not good at keeping up with developmental milestones. Reminds me of Tanzen

She dutifully does yoga, and has developed a mean downward facing dog.
She is a climber!! She loves getting up on things, and has surprised me many times by climbing something I never even considered she would attempt. She's quick too!

Yay for spring!

The past two weeks have been gorgeous!! We've tried to take full advantage of being able to play outside...I find it does wonders for the boys to be able to go outside around 4:00-- between four and when Brandon gets home is the craziest part of our day- the boys are stir crazy and impatient to see Daddy, I'm trying to make dinner, they want to wrestle...it was wonderful to let them run around outside for a bit!

Sidewalk chalk is even more exciting now that they like to practice their ABC's.

T's are their best letters...then D's and O's.

Makett works hard on his M's, and usually turns them into one long mountain range!

I loved it being a mild winter...and am so glad spring seems to be here to stay!

Bakers

Kett and Tanz have developed quite a talent for baking-they made this dough all by themselves- well, almost...they ground the wheat, measured everything, mixed it up...I just relaxed and sipped some coco!

Ryme's talented with food too!

St. Patty's

Our leprechaun tradition continues...and this year the boys were very excited for green eyebrows. Tanzen in particular loved his new look-- he probably asked me at least 15 times if his eyebrows were still green.

Tanzen and Makett started the day by adding way too much green food coloring to their eggs and pancake batter.

Tanzen has started drawing people...I love it!

I love Kett's Leprechaun smile here...

Things we love about being twins...

There are many perks to being a twin, a few we've enjoyed the past week:

Making silly faces. They love to make each other laugh, and usually crack me up in the process-- I love hearing their conversations, "Hey, you're baby Rymer" ha ha ha ha ha! "You are a football head" ha ha ha ha ha...I love how they get such a kick out of each other.

Having someone to cuddle with and read a story when Mommy's putting Ryme down.

Caging each other....and they now know not to put lids on when they're 'caged', lest you worry about the safety hazards of caging.

And of course, having someone to picnic with.

Happy Birthday Ryme!

Ryme turned one on Feb 22nd. We celebrated early so Daddy could be there...it was low key, but there was cake, so that was exciting enough!She was a little unsure at first...

...but it didn't take long to get into it!

Tanzen and Makett wrapped up their toys to give to Ryme. It was really sweet-Kett gave her his wallet, which is his most prized possession. It's now back to being Kett's, but it was a nice gesture :)

Happy Birthday Rymers!

Spotlight on: Ryme

We love our Ryme! She is easy going in many ways...and not-so-much in others! Bless her for being flexible with her sleep, since she misses lots of naps. She loves being by Tanzen and Makett, preferring their toys over hers, and wanting to do whatever they're doing. She definitely makes it known when she feels there's been an injustice! We love her smiles and laughs and happy demeanor. She's a busy little girl and is always getting into something, but we're used to that by now :)

She loves stacking spoons, cups, bowls, etc

Technically this is the boys' kitchen, but Ryme loves to pull everything off the shelves, and put things in the sink...never too early to learn how to do dishes, right?

She'll chase balls with the boys

Absolutely loves to sit in their chairs, often to their chagrin!

She walks, but when she realizes she's doing it she sits down and crawls...

She loves to point and dance

If she had her way she's always be sitting in the dishwasher playing with the racks and dishes

Spotlight on: Tanzen

We love our Tanzen! He loves to take care of his animals, build towers--and knock them over, read stories, and play with Makett. He's often following me around the house, just chatting as I cook or clean. He always has something he's carrying around- currently it's a small tigger he asked my mom to mail to him. He takes it everywhere! Every morning I know Tanzen is awake when I hear him gathering all his "things" and drag them down the hall. He usually stands at the top of the stairs and asks for help getting his "things" downstairs-- he'll have 3 or 4 blankets, and 3 or 4 stuffed animals, and a toy or two. He loves going to the library, Please Touch, Target, driving on "the bumpy road", his little preschool, and playing 'guys' with Kett. He also loves to tackle and wrestle, play baseball, and throw balls in general.

He is very responsible with his sunglasses- I don't know how he never loses them, as he really takes them everywhere and wears them frequently!

He's very sweet and gentle with Ryme

One of his favorite friends, Sage, doing a dinosaur puppet show

He found his halloween costume as I was cleaning out the basement...I could hardly get him to take it off for a week. He wore it everywhere.

I had him take it off for bed, then went in to tuck him in later and saw he had it back on.

Tanzen loves to color...he drew one of each color on his letter D

An Interview with Tanzen

What is your favorite thing to do?

"Um, probably making big towers and knocking them down. I like playing with play dough and Ummmmm...play with my truck! And my Piggy! And find letters with Mommy!"

Who do you like to play with?

"My Makett, and my piggy, and my baby bear, and my papa bear, and my Tigger"

What's your favorite food?

"Christmas Applesauce" (in case you're not familiar with "Christmas Applesauce", you blend spinach and applesauce, and in a very excited voice present the special, Christmas color applesauce to three year olds...who think it's super cool to watch it turn green.

What is your favorite book?

It was The Little Red Hen, and The Gingerbread Man. Piggy's favorite book is The Gingerbread Man."

What's your favorite toy?

"Well, it has a face and legs and a hands. And I like Thomas."

Not quite sure what he was going for, but I'm reporting what he said, right?

Can you tell me something funny that happened to you?

"Ya! Yesterday when I was playing with Kett he crashed into me, then I laughed."

What's your favorite color?

"My favorite color is pink!"

Spotlight on: Makett

We love our Makett! He loves to laugh and tell jokes, and has a great sense of humor for a 3 year old. He still loves train tracks and Thomas and will play with them for hours. He loves going to primary, going to our mommy-preschool, library time, the Please Touch museum,driving home the "train tracks way" and the "tunnel bridge way". He has quite a sweet tooth and often puts his climbing skills to use to steal sweets when a window of opportunity arises. He's forever bargaining with us-- he gets one candy every time he uses the bathroom, but never fails to ask for three instead. I love cuddling with him, and am relish every time he comes to sit on my lap to "have a conversation" as he says. He's starting to use my discipline techniques on me, and I find it quite charming. Occasionally he and Tanzen use them on each other, which is equally hilarious.

As Tanzen says, Kett is a good finder. Or, in other words, Kett is very sneaky at going through drawers and cupboards to find items he's not supposed to have :)

He's often the first to go in when Ryme wakes up. I still haven't figured out how he manages to throw so many toys in her crib so quickly!

The time out spot...which Kett loves to use his climbing skills on. He's supposed to be on time out...I can't say I blame him, the radiator pipes look more fun!

As Tanny likes to say, "Kett is a good builder". He makes excellent train tracks.

Kett is inside the diaper box...he'd stick out his hands and had Ryme laughing incredibly hard

Sage and Kett at Please Touch-- Sage is wearing the Alice in Wonderland costume, Kett is the Mad Hatter. Kett and Tanzen both love playing with Sage-- in his prayer a few days ago Makett blessed that Sage would get to do something fun.

This is Kett's mad/mean face. He thinks it's a great way to express how he's feeling, I must admit I have a hard time not smiling.

An interview with Makett

What is your favorite thing to do?

"Play with trains, and make towers, and go to the sucker place" (That would be the cheesesteak place down the street, Apollos. The owner always gives them a sucker, and he has a life long friend in Makett!)

Who do you like to play with?

"Daddy, Tanny, Coco--giggle giggle-- (there's that sense of humor for you :) Papa"

Can you tell me something funny that happened to you?

"When I punched you and I ate you all gone. That was super funny!!"

What's your favorite food?

"Chicken"

What's your favorite toy?

"Ummm, trains. All my trains, and Thomas is my favorite..."

What's your favorite book?

"I like the books by the pigeon guy. I'm good at finding the pigeon in the book!"

(We've been getting a lot of Mo Willems books from the library-- and he really is good at finding the hidden pigeon!)

What's your favorite color?

"purple."