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!

Voting and/or survival of the fittest

First off, the babies and I walked down to our polling place on this chilly morning, as you can see, they are very bundled.  They seemed to enjoy the whole process.  There were several older ladies to fawn over them while I voted.  Plus, there was no line at all because our voting station has about 10 machines to vote on, I've never seen more than five of them in use at a time.  

After doing our democratic duty, we headed home for lunch.  Owen was fussy at first so he took a bottle while Olivia chowed down on some squash, which is her favorite.  After Owen finished his bottle, it was Olivia's bottle turn and Owen got some sweet potatoes, which are his favorite.  Owen started the solid food part of his lunch very slowly, mostly by blowing bubbles in his food and splattering it everywhere.  When Olivia was done with her bottle, I offered her some sweet potatoes because Owen was just playing with his.  At this point a funny thing happened.  As soon as Owen saw there was some competition for his food, he sat up and starting eating.  I think these babies are starting to realize that most of their lives will be a fight for our attention.  I've never seen Owen eat as quickly as he did after he saw Olivia getting some of the sweet potatoes.  Olivia was more than happy to take a few bites of his lunch though.