Vacation??

I had the entire week off work, and Justin even had Monday and Tuesday off.  I think I've definitely learned that I am not cut out to be a stay home mom.  It probably doesn't help that I've put in about 20 hours of regular work, but at least that's from home!  I am even more exhausted then normal at the end of these days!  But, it has been so much fun all being home and spending time together.  We even got in a nice walk since it's 65 degrees outside today! 

I really think O&O's different personalities are becoming so transparent.  Just thought I'd mention a few glaring differences!

• Olivia would love to be an only child.  She loves the attention and she loves to be held.
• Owen is very independent.  He can entertain himself for quite awhile, and now that he's crawling, that's even more true.
• Owen must go-go-go.  Olivia is perfectly entertained, and sometimes even giggly, watching Owen go-go-go. 
• Owen is the sleeper.  11 hours at night, and today, a 3 hour morning nap.  
• Olivia is the cuddle bug.  
• Olivia is the shy one.  She's even more of a cuddle bug when others are around.
• Olivia loves tv, specifically our Baby Beethoven DVD.  That's really the only show they "watch", and it magically calms Olivia.  Owen watches too, but he plays while he watches.  Olivia sits and stares.  Please don't judge me because I let my children watch a little tv.  
• Owen eats pretty much anything.  And then he takes a full bottle.  Olivia is a little more picky.  But in all actuality, both love almost everything we feed them!

It's amazing to see every day how different they are.  I definitely look at them at least once a day and say to myself, "There are 2 babies!  Wow!". 

Happy almost New Years!  We'll be celebrating with the regular 7:45 bedtime for babies, and probably 10:00 for Mommy.  Justin will be at work!  Quite the plans, huh?

Trading Spaces

Today was moving day for Olivia. She has relocated to the bedroom next to Owen's. My dreams of them talking to each other through their cribs are over! But, hopefully it will help control the unnecessary wake ups. So far so good, but then again, they've only been asleep for about 15 minutes!

Olivia's room still needs some work, plus a guest bed moved.  We'll eventually paint and put her name on the wall. Aunt Kelsey - at least she has pink curtains!

Owen has an empty room too!

Owen on an adventure

More Christmas junk

Christmas from Justin Schmidt on Vimeo.


Just a quick video of the 12 days of Christmas, ok it only felt like 12, I think there were actually just 3.

More Christmas

Here are a few more pictures from Christmas Day.

Look what Santa brought.

Sharing is fun, for 2 minutes.

I'm eating my hand.

Fascinating.

Merry Christmas

I hope everyone is having a great Christmas.  The babies haven't opened their Santa extravaganza yet.  We haven't all been up at the same time this morning.  But here are some pics from the morning so far.

The new giant sofa.  That's it, that's the big one. Merry Christmas to me.

The babies in their new cars (from cousin Lola). Seem to be happy.

 All dressed up.  Can you tell Olivia is teething?  Look at her drool covered dress - gross!

Since Owen is crawling....

Since Owen is now crawling, I think days are going to be even more exhausting!  I have spent the entire afternoon chasing him down, and usually, giving back the toy he stole from Olivia.  Apparently we also hit the stage where we need 2 of each toy.

The Polar Express

Well that was quite a weekend and it ended with a bang.  

Tonight was the annual Polar Express party over at grandma and grandpa Kokoruda's house. It started a long time ago when all the little neighborhood kids were actually little neighborhood kids.  Now they are mostly teenagers, and our kids are the little kids.  I'm not sure if the Polar Express was ever read this go around. We left before any books were cracked, polar or otherwise.  Back in the old days (before we had kids) the K's would invite about 10 kids over, read the Polar Express, and do some sort of craft project and eat some goodies while all wearing Christmas pjs.  No parents allowed.  But because these aforementioned kids are getting too old for all that, it's pretty much just a holiday get together.  Although some of the older kids did still wear pjs, or at least sweatpants. 

Owen, Olivia and Lola were dressed in their Christmas pjs though, and we even got some pictures.  

Lindsay told me I could not wear pjs, because if you're going to drink wine, that rules you out of pj wearability is guess.  Not sure if I agree with that, but I guess I'll move on.  We had ice cream sundaes to go with our wine.  We also discovered that Olivia really likes to play with sleigh bells. Owen likes to eat sleigh bells rather than just listen to them jingle.  But I guess to an 8 month old boy, it's not a toy if you don't try to eat it.  

It was great to see everyone. Now it's time for bed, I'm exhausted.    

Patty Cake

Please pardon my annoying voice!

Big Kids

I told you they were getting big!

Look how little they were!

When I logged into tinyprints to create our Christmas cards, it asked if I wanted to order more of these:

I immediately said "Aaaaawww....look how little they were?!"  Just this weekend alone....

• Owen had his first sleepover at Mimi and Papa's
• Owen practically crawled across the room
• They sat in restaurant highchairs for the first time (and bad Mom forgot toys and sticky placements, and we may need to buy highchair covers for those gross highchairs)
• They sat in the bath as opposed to lying in the sling
• They ate puffs, although neither baby really enjoyed them 
• Owen weighs 18 1/2 lbs and Olivia 17 1/2 lbs

I feel like there are so many milestones right now!   Of course, instead of ordering more of those adorable birth announcements, we ordered these:

Merry Christmas everyone! 

Happy crib time.

Note the look of pure elation on Olivia's face.  They lasted for at least 10 minutes playing in Owen's crib.

I can't put my arms down

Olivia's winter coat might prohibit some arm movement.

Cold walk

It looked so nice and sunny out this morning that we decided to take a little walk. I stepped out into the sun and it was actually pretty warm as long as you weren't in the wind. I bundled the babies up, hats gloves and all, and we walked for about 20 minutes. I'm sure we spent almost double that getting ready. They seemed to keep pretty warm though, and Olivia slept through most of it because her hat nearly always ends up over her eyes. Hope you are keeping warm too.

Everday Pictures

Not as good as the professional pics in the last entry, but here's a few from everyday!  We officially have sitting babies!  They have been sort of sitting for weeks, but this week they sit and stay for awhile.  Olivia rolls everywhere, and Owen army crawls.  Our basement play area has become a boxed off play zone.  I think they'll be officially mobile very soon!  Our new nanny started this week and we are excited to have some help during the day a few days a week.

Owen loves a good book

Sharing

Trying to avoid Olivia going after the computer screen, while still being productive!

No bouncy seat needed, Olivia sits like a big girl

Happy Weekend Everyone!

Pictures

All photos courtesy of www.jessicastrom.net

Giving Thanks

I hope everyone had a great Thanksgiving.  I know we did.  We spent Thursday with the Kokorudas for an early dinner.  I had to run off to work right after.  Trying to stay awake after two full turkey day meals is always fun.  

 Olivia eating her first turkey on Thanksgiving.

 Owen seeming completely disinterested in whatever Kelsey is doing.

 Olivia stuffing her face just like the rest of us.

Owen and uncle Justin, two dudes in sweaters.

On Saturday we went to McPherson for Thanksgiving II.  All four great grandparents as well as a few great aunts and uncles were also there.  It was a pretty full house. Aunt Erica is almost starting to show a baby bump, Owen and Olivia still seem oblivious even though I know secretly they are super pumped to meet their new cousin this spring.  

 Playing on the floor, Marci watching faithfully, Sally watching angrily.

 The great grandparents

Of course Olivia had to take a nap right before we left for home, so she didn't sleep much in the car, opted for crying time on the road trip home.

Sunday night when we got home the twins played on their home field, it was good to be somewhere more familiar.  We put up the Christmas tree, which is what you do on T-day weekend.  They really like to just sit and stare at the lights on the tree.  They also like the train that runs around the bottom.  We got a solid ten minutes of quiet time while they watched the train go round and round.

Can't wait for Christmas.  I hope Santa doesn't bring coal like last year.  There are a few photos I didn't post, but you can look at them here.

Justin

Christmas time is near.

The tree is up.

Making pies

Owen is very interested in the mixer. We made pie today, for thanksgiving of course.

Babysitter Needed

Sorry for the lack of posts this weekend.  We had a crazy weekend, but it did include family pictures!  Hopefully I'll get some to post here soon!

I could really use your assistance on finding us a new babysitter!  We have loved our two babysitters so far, but one went back to college and one is busy with nursing school and working.  The hard thing is, we don't provide a lot of hours, which is why a college student is great.  So, if you know anyone in Kansas City, looking for 4-8 hours per week of quality time with some adorable twins - let me know!  Ok, so they are adorable most of the time, but not all moments are happy moments, so keep that in mind! 

We can't wait for thanksgiving!

Baby Food and Sleep

I have really enjoyed making baby food.  The one food meals that they need right now are so easy!  So far, we have tackled squash, sweet potatoes, carrots, peas, peaches and pears.  Peas are really the only thing that the babies didn't like.  As long as they are still eating these simple foods, I'll keep cooking!  Although, I have already been admiring the older baby recipes in our baby cookbook (orzo and cheese, Parmesan risotto, chicken soup!)......

On another note, what happened to our 10-11 hour per night sleepers?  They used to sleep 8 pm-7 am fairly well.  Then wake up time dropped back to 6am.  Then daylight savings time hit, and now it's 5am, if we're lucky!  Shouldn't all of this food be encouraging more sleep?  How do I get them to sleep longer?  Suggestions please! 

We tested out the little chair at Mimi and Papa's house last night......

Hope everyone is having a great week!

Lindsay

Home movies

I made this video right after they started eating cereal, about a month ago I think, but then forgot to post it, so here it is.


Olivia swing from Justin Schmidt on Vimeo.


This is Olivia's first turn in the swing, didn't like it much.

Olivia the Pig

Our Olivia has started to develop some similarities with another Olivia that most of us know....

I think Olivia would give up her bottle if it meant she could replace it with more vegetables.  She loves them.  Well, all of them except peas!  Squash is her favorite, but yesterday she ate an entire tub of sweet potatoes and half of the carrots.  Now, don't get me wrong, chunky monkey Owen likes to eat, but he drinks every drop of every bottle and eats a bit of food when he has to. 

This week, Olivia has been exhausting.  She likes to play in the middle of the night.  She's not usually upset (at least at first), but she just talks and babbles and practices crawling.  Then last night, she wouldn't go to bed at bedtime! What?  I haven't had to fight that hard for bedtime in months!  Two hours later, and moved out of her bedroom and into a pack n play, she was down.  She was up twice overnight, and back up before 6am this morning!  O&O have been napping in separate rooms lately, and I hope it doesn't come to that at bedtime.

At the end of an episode of Olivia the Pig, Olivia's Mom sits on the side of her bed.....
Olivia's Mom: “You know, you really wear me out, but I love you anyway.”
Olivia: “I love you anyway too.”

I feel like this has been the theme of our week.  

We have a weekend full of Schmidt's!  Can't wait to do some shopping for Mini Manners!