BIG news

The boys are there.  Both Grayson and Cole are out of diapers!  Yahoo!  Grayson finally came around and now wears diapers only for bed.  Cole doesn't even wear diapers at night, which is great although he gets up some nights.  It has been really, really easy to potty train these guys, maybe since we waited until they were ready.  We've had one accident from Cole the first day, and a few from Grayson, but all in all its been amazing and they have been so great.

On Sunday we had a breakthrough at the ski hill.  Both boys are now doing their "pizza", stopping and turning on their own.  Scary times ahead I believe, as they go screaming down the hill at full speed.  We are especially excited about the skiing as Trev is leaving for work this Friday and I really wanted them skiing on their own so I could take them myself while he was gone.

Getting so grown up.

aah......winter!

Our woodstove keeps the house toasty at at least 20 degrees, but mostly around 23 as you can see from Trev's shorts and tshirt and Grayson with nothing on but undies.  But sometimes you get a cold bum I guess.

Jinxed myself again

On Tuesday we dropped Scott off at the airport, and the boys and I had big plans for the rest of the day.  At 3:30 that afternoon the boys and I were going to go to Nelson to see the Backyardigans live on stage and then dinner with friends and their kids.  A big day for us.  Turns out our friends actually ended up having tickets right beside us so that was great with all the kids together.  The show was OK,  the boys liked it quite a bit, but I prefer just the show on TV, it is a much better production.  We went out to dinner after where I barely managed to eat my dinner.  We were out numbered 2 set of twins and a baby to 3 adults.  At least we did get a great big booth in the corner to hide our chaos in.  When we got home Grayson stared crying and barfed and was immediately sick with a fever.

I remember having this conversation with Scott about how we were doing pretty good in the sickness department this year.  I had a theory that because the boys went to daycare at the ski hill that it was full of less germs as people sent their kids there out of luxury while they go for a ski, rather than necessity while they go to work.  Whether they got sick from something at daycare or caught Papa's flu who knows, but I feel liked I jinxed myself by saying something.  I also remember talking about ACL injuries and how common they were around here and how we had been lucky in the injury department too...

We awoke Wednesday morning to it dumping outside and 10 cms already accumulated at the hill.  Kindercare was booked for a half day for both kids and Trev and I were to be treated to a powder weekday together... except Grayson was sick with the flu.  Cole went with Trev to the ski hill and Grayson and I spent the day watching every Backyardigan ever made on the couch.  

Thursday wasn't much better with Cole coming down with something too.  We all had a pretty miserable day indoors.  Friday morning Grayson woke up at 4:45 am crying with a fever and Trev informed me he couldn't patrol that day and we would have to go for xrays that morning.  He injured his ankle playing hockey the night before.  Since everyone was up and we were at the ER by 7:30 am and a few xrays later, Trev has no breaks just a bad sprain.  4-6 weeks, great.  Forget knocking on wood, just stop talking before you jinx yourself!

Also lately

Cole is more than ready to learn some gymnastics moves, his front flips in the bouncy castle make me a little nervous though

Pirates, arrrgh.

Cole trying his hardest to catch

The funny things they say

Before they grow up too much, I wanted to write down a few of the funny things the boys say lately.  They are as usual talking machines, but they are just getting better and better that soon they won't make funny, cute mistakes anymore.  Some of our favourites are Duwet, which means duvet.  Since they have problems saying v they also call our buddy Vern, Wern, which is so cute in their little voices.  Our neighbour and fellow twin toddler parent Brenda, is commonly known to the boys as Frenda.  The first time they went to daycare at the ski hill, Trevor asked the boys who the other kids were.  They said grandpa crackers was there????  We know that grandpa crackers are stoned wheat thins as my dad eats them a lot, but we were surprised to hear they were also a boy, we are assuming the kid must have been eating the crackers or something.  Its kind of a joke now when Trev asks whether grandpa crackers was there at Jenny's, when they say "yes" we aren't sure if that's true, or who the kid really is.  Other favourites that we probably have encouraged by not correcting them because it is so cute is dip-dip, which is ketchup or muffin toast which is english muffins. Smatatoes is also a good one which is tomatoes, and they refuse to say it the right way because they think its so funny.

Their language is developing all the time as they talk all the time.  Just this afternoon Grayson came inside while Trev and Cole stayed outside to build GT jumps, he talked the whole time, non stop.  It was so funny.  He was asking lots of questions, the same ones over and over, and for some weird reason I loved it.  They could ask me "why" all day long, and I would be happy to answer.  What does that say about me I wonder?  Its so fun to watch them grow and learn.

Papa's visit for Carnival

Scott landed in Castlegar no problem on Thursday, although a little late, ironically despite blue skies his plane was delayed in Vancouver.  The boys warmed up to him immediately like it was just yesterday that Papa was last here.  Friday I worked and the boys did some tobogganing and outdoor fun.  

GT'ing behind the house 

Friday night was the parade which the boys liked a lot, especially the fire truck of course.  I thought the bike polo guys were the funniest.  They had a net set up on the back of a pick up truck and as the parade moved down the street the played bike polo the whole way.  The packed streets downtown and cold temperatures sent us back home quickly.

On Saturday we skipped the big lines at the pancake breakfast and had our own huckleberry pancakes and bacon breakfast at home.  We then wandered down our street to check out the bobsleds which start right at the end of our street, and bomb straight down the steepest street in Rossland to downtown. To our luck the boys favourite bobsled from the Warfield fire department was just sitting waiting for us to check it out and take a picture.  The course was slow this year as it was snowing, but I am still not sure I would like to get in one of those sleds and bomb down Spokane even when its slow!

Grayson with huckleberry's all over his face.

The Warfield fire department bobsled

The log bobsled newly redesigned this year 

We then went downtown to check out the railjam.  While a block away at the gym I just caught out of the corner of my eye a kid upside down in the air hovering above the post office before slipping back out of view.  How awesome is that to have big jumps right beside the post office.  We hit up the ice slide which the boys were really into this year, but they still haven't figured out the lining up thing yet.  By then it was time for borscht at the legion, yum.  The cupcake lady was selling cupcakes on the street so we had to pick up a dozen to satisfy Scott's sweet tooth.  This year it was packed at the legion with barely anywhere to sit.  The secret of the great borscht is out, by the time we finished our bowls of yummy borscht, they had completely sold out.  By then our time had run out for the boys and they were pooped and ready for a nap.  Scott suggested that Trev and I take the afternoon to go for a ski, and since it had been snowing all morning we jumped at the chance.  The skiing was fabulous, we only got in 4 runs and each one were fresh tracks.  We finished off the evening with Scott at the Mexican restaurant in Trail with a big jug of margaritas.  Trev spent his night at a friends, and the girls all went out to the Eye of the Storm party and danced the rest of the night away.

Reading Aesop's Fables to the boys

Sunday was supposed to be more fun filled family skiing, but sadly Scott came down with the flu and spent all day Sunday and Monday in bed.  What a bummer for everyone.  We still went skiing with the boys in the morning and they were really starting to try and do their snowplow.  We did some magic carpet runs and a few on the chair, snack in the lodge and back for a nap by 2 pm.  Before we knew it, it was Tuesday and Scott had to get back on the plane to Ontario.  

SO much going on lately

The new year has brought about quite a few changes.  Cole is happily doing his business in the potty although has not gone anywhere else except for Kindercare, not even on our regular size toilets.  He doesn't get potty treats anymore unless he goes on the big potty but he isn't interested.  We aren't pushing anything since Grayson is still in diapers and flatly refuses to go in the potty.  "I won't do it!" he says.

The conversion to big boy beds has been OK.   If they aren't tired, due to having had a nap earlier in the day, then we run into problems of them not settling.  They tear the bedroom apart, barricading the door with the trundle drawers and turning on the lights, emptying the drawers all over the room and causing lots of mayhem.  And that's without a toy to play with in the room.  We have resorted to taking out all the light bulbs in the overhead light and taking all the nightlights out so they can't see and therefore just stay in their beds.  The same happens at nap time but you can't make it pitch black, so with the transition to beds also came the dropping of naps.  Boo, that has been a hard adjustment for Trev and I.  There is no time now to do anything as the boys are so busy you can't leave them alone for 2 seconds without a fight, throwing, biting, not listening, general bad behaviour, or them demanding something of you.  Its like we have finally reached that point where we are the referee's in the black and white shirts,  doling out warnings and timeouts all day long.  They are full of piss and vinegar, on fire from when they wake up to when they fall into their beds exhausted.  One time as I watched Cole relaxing in the bathtub (now done separately due to the fighting),  his vision seemed to fade to a far away place, I realised he was falling asleep in the bath tub. On the positive side since there is no more napping they are going to bed earlier sometimes as early as 7 pm and usually sleeping until 7 am.  We lost 2 hours of daytime but gained 1.5 hours of nighttime.

More positives of these new changes in their lives is that they have gotten over crying at Kindercare when Trevor or I drop them off.  They like it so much that Trev and I even hit a powder day on Saturday morning for 4 hours, and had no regrets, they were happy to go.  Yeah a little freedom!