Day 365: Concentration

Paige and Virginia were playing with their play dough dogs while Ben was cooking dinner tonight.  They're getting really good at making their dogs grow hair and tongues.  As happens with a lot of things, Virginia figured it out first and Paige watched and learned.  Paige has it down now, though.  She does concentrate pretty hard (as does Virginia) when she's making the dog's hair grow.

And with that picture I have successfully achieved my goal of posting a picture to this blog for each day of 2010.  I still haven't decided what I'm doing for 2011.  I'm not sure I can handle the commitment of posting a picture a day again.  Maybe I'll try doing it weekly.  I'm just not sure.  But anyway, HAPPY NEW YEAR!  I hope 2011 is a wonderful year for everyone!

Day 364: Big Girl Beds!

Ben and I converted Paige and Virginia's cribs today to toddler beds.  This has been a big week with big girl underwear and big girl beds.  I guess it's all just proof that my babies aren't babies anymore.  When we brought the girls home from daycare we took them upstairs to see their new beds.  They were super excited about them and jumped right into their beds.  They also did great when we put them to bed tonight.  We had to convince them to lay down so we could tuck them in, but then we barely heard anything from them after we left the room.  We'll have to wait and see how the rest of the night goes.

See how excited Virginia was about her big girl bed?

Day 363: Playing with the Train

Mimi and Pops got Paige and Virginia a train set for Christmas.  They got it out tonight and were playing with it with Daddy (and Mommy some, too).  Daddy is convinced that Virginia and Paige are going to be engineers after seeing them putting together their train tracks.  I guess we'll just have to wait and see.

In other news, the girls are sleeping in their cribs for the last time tonight.  Tomorrow we're converting their cribs to toddler beds.  Are we really ready for this?!

Day 362: Bottomless Pit

Tonight Paige and Virginia were like bottomless pits with their eating.  They ate ham and broccoli for dinner (but wouldn't eat the potato salad) and then they had some crackers, raisins and an apple.  I wasn't sure we were ever going to get them to stop eating, but eventually they did.  Here's Virginia sitting on the couch drinking her water with her bowl of raisins, apples and crackers in her lap.

Day 361: Two and a Half Years Old!

What happened to my babies?!  Virginia and Paige turned 2 and a half today.  We had a great day at home.  The only time the three of us left the house was to take Jefferson for a walk this morning.  That didn't last long, though, because it was cold and windy outside.  We did have something big and important happen today.  Virginia wore big girl underwear all day and didn't have any accidents except at nap time!  And I'm not quite sure why she had an accident at nap time.  I put her in a diaper for her nap and I guess she decided she didn't want to wear a diaper, so she took it off and put her underwear back on.  Then after she peed she tried to put her diaper back.  When I walked in the room she was trying to put her diaper on herself.  We're very proud of Virginia and her potty success!  Now we just need to get Paige to start using the potty.  That will come, though, in time.  We're not going to push it.  Anyway, here are my 2 1/2 year olds with the play dough puppies.

Day 360: Owl Pajamas

Today we stayed at home all day.  Well, I got up and went to the grocery store this morning but I was the only one who left the house all day.  The girls (and Ben) had a great time playing with all of their new toys.  I think they got just about everything that they got for Christmas out except for their train set and their play dough.  Tonight we asked them if they wanted to wear their new owl pajamas that Dee and Dude got for them.  Virginia said she did and as soon as Paige saw how cute Virginia looked, she wanted to wear hers, too.  How adorable are these girls in their big girl style owl pajamas?!

Day 359: Merry Christmas

We spent all day today at Mimi and Pops' house along with Dee, Dude and Uncle Lloyd.  It was a wonderful day!  Paige and Virginia got lots of great presents that I know they'll have fun playing with and many of which they have already played with today.  As soon as they unwrapped toys they wanted them opened, so it took us a long time to get through all of the gifts we had to unwrap today.  That's okay, though, because the girls seemed to enjoy every second of it.  And they were definitely worn out tonight.  One of the biggest hits of the day were the Tickle-Me-Elmos that Ben's Great-Uncle Charles sent for the girls.  Virginia was super excited about getting hers- and this was even before she learned that it vibrated!

Day 358: Drawing with Great-Grandma Denick

Today we went to Dee and Dude's house to celebrate Dude's 60th birthday and Christmas.  My grandparents were also there.  We had a lot of fun.  Virginia had fun at the lunch and dinner table playing peek-a-boo with her great-grandpa.  She even started calling him "Grandpa" by the end of the day, which was a new thing for her and so nice to see.  Paige and Virginia got lots of great presents, including these trays with all kinds of craft stuff in them.  They had a great time playing with those while the rest of us opened our gifts and then Great-Grandma Denick went over and drew with them.  Paige was very entertained watching her great-grandma draw on Virginia's tray.

Day 357: Uncle Lloyd

Tonight we went to dinner at Mimi and Pops' house because Uncle Lloyd came into town today.  The girls love their Uncle Lloyd and were excited to see him, even though they act shy around him.  He got them to loosen up, though, and tickling Virginia definitely helped.

Day 356: Playing Doctor

Tonight the girls got out their doctor kit and were playing with it.  They had fun taking each others' temperature, and then their dolls' temperatures, and then moved on to playing with the stethoscope.  They would listen to each others' hearts, lungs, feet, whatever they chose.  Virginia and Paige were doing a great job taking turns, too.  Whoever was being examined had to sit on the couch while the "doctor" stood in front of them.  It was pretty darn cute and they, obviously, were having a good time.

Day 355: Running!

Tonight Jefferson was having a fit in the kitchen because a piece of his food had ended up under the cabinet and he couldn't get it.  That actually happens often since the girls love to feed him.  Virginia went into the kitchen and tried to help him, but Ben then had to go help her help Jefferson.  Virginia ran into the kitchen when Jefferson started to whine and then when he was taken care of she came running back.  I love the way her hair is flowing out behind her.  And she's not wearing pants because she's doing really well with peeing on the potty, but when she does it she likes to take her pants off and not put them back on.  Oh well.

Day 354: Playdate

Today the girls and I went on a playdate to my friend, Liza's house.  Liza has an almost 3 year old son, Franklin, and a 6 month old son, Patrick.  We've had several playdates with them over the past year or so.  Today the girls had fun playing with Franklin's toys, coloring, painting, playing with stickers and playing with play food.  We had some pizza for lunch and cookies for dessert and then headed for home.  Virginia and Paige especially enjoyed playing with the play food with Franklin on the kitchen floor.

Day 353: Reading Together

This evening after dinner I was in the kitchen cleaning up.  Ben was upstairs and the girls were in the living room.  I kept hearing them talking to each other, so I came in to check on them and see what they were doing.  They were sitting on the couch together "reading" an Elmo book together.  They were so cute just sitting there pointing things in the book out to each other.  Virginia and Paige are so close it almost makes me feel like I missed out not having a twin, or even a sister.  But I'll just consider myself lucky that I have a wonderful big brother.

Day 352: Decorating the Tree

This morning we went to Mimi and Pops' house to help them decorate their Christmas tree.  We don't have a tree this year, so it was nice for the girls to be able to decorate their grandparents' trees (and they did decorate trees for both sets of grandparents).  They had a great time hanging the ornaments on all sides of the tree.  They even reached back behind the tree to hang ornaments near the back.  Most of the ornaments they hung were hung on lights.  I guess that's easier than hanging them on the tree, especially when you're 2.  Here are Paige and Virginia with their Daddy decorating Mimi and Pops' tree.

Day 351: Waiting at the Doctor's Office

Today Paige had an appointment to get her ears rechecked after her ear infection last week.  The nurse practitioner wanted to see her again to make sure her eardrum had healed since it was perforated last week.  While we were there the nurse practitioner was nice enough to recheck Virginia's ears and lungs as well.  We got all good news.  Paige and Virginia's ears looked good and lungs sounded good.  While we were sitting in the exam room waiting for the nurse practitioner to come do the exam Paige and Virginia decided to read some books.

Day 350: Spinning Virginia

Tonight for some reason Virginia decided she wanted to spin around in circles.  She's a silly little girl who loves to spin!  She was having so much fun and Paige was just watching her and laughing.  So cute!

Day 349: Artwork

Mimi came and spent the day with Paige and Virginia.  While she was here they did lots of art projects.  They started with decorating these little wooden trees that Mimi painted green for them.  Then they moved on to projects with paper, stickers and glue.  Apparently they had a lot of fun with them because they did a bunch!  I mean, check out this collection with Virginia and Paige.

Day 348: Watching Videos with Daddy

Ben has been making videos of pictures from this year and posting them on facebook.  This evening he was showing the videos to Virginia and Paige.  They loved being able to point themselves out on the computer.

Day 347: "Napping" on the Couch

This afternoon when the girls took a nap I laid down and took a nap on the couch.  I didn't sleep well at all last night, so I needed the rest.  I brought my pillow down, curled up under a blanket and slept with Jefferson curled up beside me.  I forgot to take my pillow upstairs at the end of nap time, so this evening Virginia decided she was going to use it to take a nap on the couch.  She grabbed the pillow, her bear and a blanket and curled up on the couch.  She was pretending to sleep when Jefferson decided if Virginia was going to lay on the couch he was going to find a way to curl up with her.  I think he surprised her.

Day 346: "Mommy, Come Sit My Lap."

This evening Virginia sat down on the loveseat, opened her legs (very ladylike, huh?) and told me to come sit on her lap.  I, of course, would never actually sit on her lap since I'd crush her little legs, but I obliged and sat between her legs like she wanted.  She, obviously, was very happy about it.  Oh, and I got my hair cut today.  It's short, but I love it!

Day 345: Jack, No, Paige in a Box

I order diapers from Amazon, so the two big boxes of diapers are shipped in one big box.  For some reason one of the boxes was moved from upstairs to our living room today.  Paige decided it was a great place to hang out and went and sat in it with her blankets.  She was even trying to get Virginia to come sit on her lap in the box.  Virginia did end up going over and sitting with her, but not on her lap.

Day 344: Chilling With Daddy

This evening Paige decided she wanted to sit on the couch with Daddy while Virginia sat on my lap in the recliner.  It didn't last long, though, and then she was over fighting Virginia for my lap, but Ben enjoyed it while it lasted.  So did Jefferson since Paige decided to pet him.

Day 343: Tired Paige

The girls went back to daycare today.  They had a very good day there, even though Paige really didn't want to get up and go this morning.  When they got home Paige was very tired and all she wanted to do was cuddle with her mommy.  I ate dinner with her sitting on my lap and then we sat on the couch together.  And when it was time for bed she practically climbed out of my arms to get into her crib.  She didn't want to get down and turn stuff on like she normally does when we go upstairs.  I hope she (and Virginia) sleep well tonight so that they're ready for another day of daycare tomorrow.

Day 342: Feeling Better

The girls are feeling better today.  Well enough that we plan on sending them to daycare tomorrow.  There were no fevers today and according to Mimi they were full of energy all day.  But how did I really know they were feeling better?  Paige was running around pulling up the edges of the rug and it didn't take long before Virginia joined in on the fun.

Day 341: Still Sick :(

I stayed home with the girls today since they were running fevers yesterday.  They had a great morning.  They were playing and having a good time, just with some coughing and runny noses thrown in.  Paige took a good nap, but Virginia only napped for about 45 minutes.  She did fine for awhile, but then started feeling worse about 4 this afternoon.  I took her to the doctor tonight and it turns out she has double ear infections, bronchitis and a touch of walking pneumonia.  Poor little monkey.

Day 340: My Sick Little Monkeys

Paige and Virginia are sick.  They're miserable.  They have runny noses, coughs, fevers, the works.  I feel so bad for them.  They spent most of the day laying around on the couches.  This is where they were from about 3:00 until dinner time.

Day 339: The Four Girls

Two of my best friends had little girls this year.  Kendall was born in March and Tessie was born in September.  Today we had all four of our little girls together for the first time.  We had a book club meeting at Mollie's house, aka "Baby Tessie's house," and although there was very little talk about the book, we all still had a good time.  We made sure to get pictures of the four girls together and here they are: Tessie, Paige, Virginia and Kendall.

Day 338: "Where Sissy Go?"

This evening was the winter party for my Moms of Multiples club.  It was at a place with a bunch of moonbounces and inflatable slides.  The girls had a great time playing and were exhausted by the time we left.  Ben and I were also exhausted from helping the girls go up to the slides and riding down with them.  They were very good about keeping an eye out for each other.  There was one small slide that the girls really enjoyed.  They would go up the ladder, with my help, and slide down then go around and get back in to go back up again.  This time Virginia came down the slide and immediately looked over toward the ladder to see if Paige was there.

Day 337: Decorating Dee and Dude's Christmas Tree

Today the girls and I went to my parents' house to make Christmas cookies.  While we were there, with cookies in the oven, my mom got the girls to decorate their Christmas tree for them.  Since my parents come up to Ben's parents' house on Christmas day they just have a small tree at their house.  It was the perfect size for Paige and Virginia to decorate, and they had fun doing it.

Day 336: New Nativity

On Wednesday Mimi brought Paige and Virginia their very own nativity set- the Little People Nativity.  Wednesday night Paige was having a great time playing with it and putting all of the people and animals in it.  She got the angel in the right place and it looks like the baby Jesus is sitting in the manger, so she's working on getting them all right.  She's taking it very seriously.

Day 335: 2 Year Old Hair Salon

Tonight after dinner the girls were hanging out on the couch with Daddy watching videos of dogs on the computer (their new favorite pastime).  Paige was standing up and Virginia asked her come sit in her lap, which means that Virginia had her legs spread wide and wanted Paige to sit between them.  This is a new thing.  They love to sit on our laps, but I think tonight was the first time I've heard one of them ask someone to sit in her lap.  Anyway, Paige obliged and went and sat in front of Virginia.  Virginia immediately started playing with Paige's hair.  They sat like that for a few minutes and then they traded places, so Virginia was sitting in front of Paige and Paige was playing with her hair.  Everyone, including Ben, was very entertained by this set up.  Jefferson was just happy to get some attention.