There's no denying B&H have inherited my love of books and reading. It gives me great sense of pride and joy to know this! I hope they have the foundations for learning, reading, investigating, researching!
The best part about their love of reading is that it gives me a bit of downtime. This morning, for example. I cleaned the kitchen and the quietness from the living room proved this:
They love to read anything. Literally. Magazines, newspapers, ads, board books, picture books, mass market paperbacks (for some reason, Hannah always grabs The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo off the shelf!).
They do have favorites, though.
Ben's favorites:
Where the Wild Things Are
Don't Let the Pigeon Drive the Bus Yummy Yucky Snuggle Puppy
Where is the Green Sheep?
It's a Little Book
and really any book he can get his hands on.
I think my taste in books has rubbed off on him!
Hannah, on the other hand, really has one one favorite:
Girl will read this book over and over and over and over and over. She can point out all the pictures on the front when you ask her "Where's the car?" or "Where's the banana?" And now she can answer "What's that" to almost all the photos - everything but chair. She just hasn't said chair yet.
If she can't read 100 words, she will choose: Higher Higher
Any animal book
Any lift the flap book
She just doesn't have a strong affinity to any other book besides the First 100 Words Book. She's crazy for that thing!!
As has been our custom for the non-below-zero months the babies have been alive, we set out on our nightly walk this evening - even though it was 96 degrees as we ate dinner. B&H were being particularly naughty (a new post about that new word in everyone's vocab coming soon!) and I could tell we were all miserable.
Somehow, I wrangled them home. I've said it once, and I'll say it again: talking a way with B&H is much like herding cats. Needless to say, by the time we got home, we were all hot and very cranky. A quick look at my phone proved it to only be 6:20. WAAAY too early to go inside for bath.
So, what's a momma to do? Turn on the sprinkler of course!!
Checking to make sure her 2 babies and Bunny were OK.
I love Hannie's face in this one! (And Ben's, too).
Splashing in the side effects.
I feel like I *almost* killed 3 birds with one stone. First, they ran off energy. Necessity! Second, our scorched lawn got a healthy drink. Third - if I hasn't let them splash in the mud puddles after, we could have gotten away without a bath! Note to self for the future!
It's still hot here. Like Get-Out-of-Dodge hot. Except we have no cabin to go to .... so we stuck around the city last weekend and tried out something new to entertain ourselves: Dodge Nature Center in West St Paul. I have a few friends who have visited there and have said their twins enjoy the grounds.
The grounds include a farm, some walking trails (not really hiking, but I think they called them hiking trails), a pond (VERY green & gross) and some prairieland. We were most excited about the farm, so we loaded up and walked through an overgrown path to the farm. I have the mosquito bites to prove it!
Hoping the sheep come a bit closer
It was HOT and humid, even at 9 a.m., so when we noticed most of the animals were far out in the pasture, we didn't do much. We walked on a path, saw some animals from far away, and sat for a rest on some benches. We opted not to do the farm tour happening that morning. We just got TOO hot. We did see some sheep relatively close, though!
So, we ended up at Target, of course. Why do we even bother going anywhere else??
PS: If you couldn't tell, I'm still messing around on Picmonkey. I promise I'll stop adding overly-edited photos soon. I don't want to end up on You Are Not a Photographer!!
At first I thought "I didn't take many photos this week!" But then I watched my computer load up 65 of them since last Saturday. Guess I did go a bit overboard.... Don't worry, I whittled it down to an easy 10 for you!
Watching the sleepy bears at the Zoo.
New train set!
Ben dropped Dobby (his froggy) while on our walk one night. I made him go back and get it - maybe 3 houses down. He looked like such a big boy walking away from me by himself!
A few of my friends have recently posted photos on Facebook of their toddlers playing at the awesome Teddy Bear Park in Stillwater. Said toddlers appeared to be having a blast, so I knew we had to check it out, which we did last Saturday. Since Stillwater is a good 45 minute drive for us, we knew we had to plan to leave early and stay through lunch. We planned to play at the park, walk along the river, and eat lunch at Leo's, the cute little malt shop that we always (at least in the 4 or so times we've been to Stillwater, all before babies). What we didn't plan on was it being SO. DANG. HOT.
It was fun nonetheless and we left the park when it started to get wicked hot and found a nice "cool" spot under a tree for a snack. Can you tell this lady was hot and uncomfortable??
After our brief snack, we went exploring downtown for a bit. Of course, exploring with two toddlers means walking up and down the sidewalk - not a fun adventure when it is 95 degrees. Thankfully, one of the stores had "booms" outside the door. We walked by there about 5 times to look at them!
Finally, it got to be time for lunch and naturally, we were first in line for Leo's to open the door at 11:00. We sort of thought they should have let us in a little early, on account of it being like 95 degrees at 11 a.m., but they didn't.
Once we got in, Boy, oh Boy did we get some crabby kids! They were hot, hungry, and tired. Never a good combo for trying to eat at a restaurant. One of them was content coloring and sitting nicely in her booster seat (for the first time!). The other got downgraded to a highchair when he kept standing up in his booster seat. Stinker!
Before the crankiness began.
Overall it was a great day, even if it was close to 100 degrees. I mean, even if you're hot and sweaty, you get to look at these awesome views!
Looking across the river to Wisconsin
The Stillwater Lift Bridge - water up over the sidewalk.
In honor of the babies' (er, toddlers. I keep meaning to change my thinking and call them toddlers), 19-month birthday this past week, here are 19 things we know and love about them!
1. They jump around now. And run. And walk backwards. And it's hilarious!
2. More words are sneaking in every day. Latest additions: strawberry (steh-bay) and down (dowwwwwwn). Plus: nose, eye, all done and all gone (both sound like "hong kong").
3. We've started a Kindermusik class. Ben and Hannah are naturals at playing the wooden sticks.
4. We've also started a Storytime class at the Red Balloon. I signed up for this class because I love the storytimes with Sara, but they are SO VERY BUSY (like 80 kids!). I can't handle that with the two toddlers, so I signed up for the "class." It's like storytime, but just 10 of us or so bring our kids. It's simply wonderful. And Hannie continues to be a teacher's pet and wants to sit on Sara's lap all.the.time.
5. Momma & Daddy have started having weekly date nights where we go out to dinner. The babysitter (Maya) comes and they just adore her! I hope we get to keep her for along time (she's a senior in college this coming year...).
6. We've gone swimming a few times so far this summer. B&H seem to want to take it or leave it.
7. We had our 18-month pictures taken this week. The previews are AD.OR.A.BLE.
8. We've had two separate diapers-coming-off-while-sleeping incidents. YUCK. (Thankfully the mess was contained to the sleep sack, but still).
9. We've been STROLLER FREE for about 2 or 3 weeks. We still have one, I still sometimes lug it around in the back of the car, but we rarely use it. B&H are getting to be GREAT listeners and will wait by the car (by touching it) while I get everyone out and will hold hands when we walk in somewhere. This is a freedom I didn't know I missed!
10. We got finger-pricked this week to test for lead. Three of my St Paul friends have had their kids results come back high, so I thought we better get it looked at. Hannie didn't even cry. Ben bawled like the big baby he is (I say that with a mother's love) the minute we sat in the chair.
11. They've become even MORE obsessed with Elmo - even though we never watch Sesame Street. The marketing on that muppet is amazing!
12. They hold hands with each other now, as evidenced here.
13. We've gone out for ice cream more days this month than we haven't. The babies love this. My waistline does not.
14. We started doing "Kid Swap" with our friend Kat (my friend) and K&Z (her twins). We've only done it twice total, but it seems to be a big success. If only illnesses would stay at bay, I think we'd be able to do more swapping!
Four toddlers in the club house!
15. Hannah's getting more patient at letting me put in piggy tails. They are super cute!
16. I think they're teething. That or they are just really drooly. No signs of the 2-year molars yet, but I know they must be coming soon. They got their canines about 6 months early, so I presume the molars will come early too. We're not looking forward to this.
17. They're learning to play with Play-Doh. They have an attention span of about 6 minutes with it. But, if I leave it in the canisters and call it "stackers," they play with it like blocks (building big towers and such) for an entire morning.
18. They continue to love our neighbors. Ben especially loves our neighbor Lucy, and the feeling is mutual!
19. I love them more and more each day!! Here they are on the morning of their 19 month birthday:
It was a weird week. Holiday in the middle and temps like this all week:
Nonetheless, we had a fun time! (Despite 3 of us coming down with a slight cold at the end of the week). Looking forward to more fun times this coming week - and cooler weather!
New trick: climbing on stuff to mess with electronics.
Driving the bus at MOA
Quick trip to the park at 8:30 a.m. (It was already 85 degrees. YUCK!)
Enjoying the a/c in the library (and the awesome toy food!)
Hula Hooping!
Can you see his arms flapping? That's how he runs!
Future NBA star?
The girl is a natural at marker coloring!
Grocery Shopping
First shoulder ride. Loved it!
I had all intentions of using PicMonkey again this week, but for some reason it crashes on my computer. If only I knew someone who could help me with computer problems..... :)
