December 2018

Maybe I had these pictures in the last post, I'm not sure.  Here's Tille taking a break from playing hard in the middle of the day.

And here's Hattie.

Matt's niece got married in December.  At the luncheon, his nephews played with Hattie and Tille.  They're really good at playing with the girls, and Hattie and Tille love them.  Here's Tille learning about drinking fountains.

This was on our way to Matt's niece's reception later that night.  I think these dresses are so cute.  Both girls walk a little differently when they get really dressed up, like they know they're fancy.  Also, we do try to do their hair.  We have a lot of headbands, bows, barrettes, etc.  But they usually last about 2 seconds before the girls pull them out of their own or each others' hair.  They don't like ANYTHING on their heads, except, weirdly enough, beanies.  They'll walk around all day with a beanie.  But if we try to put anything else on them, they tear it off immediately.

Tille ate a crayon one day while I was working at the table.  I turned around and there was orange all over the carpet, her clothes, her hands, and her face.  Luckily it was a washable crayon.

Aunt Jenny got these outfits for the girls' birthday.  I think they're so cute and have been anxiously waiting to put the girls in them.  They finally fit!  Both girls were smiling and being super cute while I was taking pictures, but Tille must have changed expressions right when I took this picture.  That's why she looks a little loopy. Still pretty cute though.

Here's Matt's nephew playing with Hattie during Christmas Eve dinner.  I think they're watching Sesame Street on his phone.  The babies LOVE Sesame Street still.  We can't even say the name of the show around them, because they'll start clapping, squealing, jumping, etc and find the remote so we can turn it on.  And then they get mad if we don't turn it on for them.  We record all the new episodes that come on, but somehow, in months of recording, we've only gotten about 20 episodes.  So we've gotten to know those episodes really really well.  Luckily, it's pretty good for a kids' show.

The babies got chairs, baby dolls, and a rocking horse for Christmas.  They mostly use their chairs to climb onto the couch to get the remote and try to find Sesame Street.  But sometimes they legitimately like just sitting in them.  And they mostly use their baby dolls to pull the hats off and hand them to me to put it back on.  But they do also hug and kiss them.

Here's our family selfie of the year, just a couple days after Christmas.  Hattie on my lap, Tille standing up.

Here's Tille passed out again on Aunt Kathryn's watch.  I really don't know how she gets them to do this.  

Tille's favorite meal is spagetti and green beans or broccoli.  She'll lick the plate clean. 

Hattie likes it too, but not quite to the same extent.  Both girls are really good eaters.  They don't like eggs or bananas, but they'll eat just about anything else we give them.  Hattie has had really bad eczema for a few months.  We've tried various lotions and creams, but nothing has really worked.  Finally last week we took her off dairy and it cleared up almost immediately.  She still scratches at her elbows and knees sometimes, but it's not red scaly anymore and she's not scratching hard enough to break through her skin.  So it looks like she has a dairy sensitivity :(  I hope she can grow out of it. 

I've been the relief society pianist for the past year(ish).  With all the new changes at church, my position has been eliminated.  A few weeks ago one of the bishopric counsellors asked to meet with Matt and me, and I was pretty sure I knew what was coming.  And I was right!  All 4 of us are in nursery now, starting yesterday.  It's so great.  The girls have been ready for nursery for a few months, even though they won't technically be old enough til next month.  But they love playing with other kids.  Church has been so so so so hard with them.  We had church from 11-2; their naptime is 11:30.  So usually we spent Sacrament Meeting in the hall, then we went to gospel principles (smaller class than gospel doctrine, more room to run around, people there were more open to crying babies than in the other class).  The teachers in gospel principles are a young couple who said they didn't mind the babies crying, but about 10 minutes into class every week, we'd have to take one and then the other screaming baby out to the hall.  We felt so bad disrupting class every week, but wanted to at least try.  So then one of us would take the babies home to sleep while the other would stay for church.  Now, we have church at 9 so the girls are still awake and happy.  They were good all through sacrament meeting (mostly good- for some reason they both insist on sitting on my lap at church. If Matt tries to hold one they whine.  They're pretty good at both fitting on me, but yesterday Hattie kept fidgeting and eventually squirmed off my lap and bonked her head on the chair.  So Matt had to take her out.  But still, it was the best sacrament meeting we've had in a while).  Then we went to nursery, and if we weren't supposed to stay, we could easily have just put the girls in there and walked away.  Once they saw the other kids and all the toys (including a few Sesame Street toys), they didn't care if we were there or not.  There were 7 kids total, and they were all pretty good.  There's one other teacher, who was there all last year and knows the routine.  We played with toys for 20 minutes, had a snack, colored, sang songs, had a lesson, and played with bubbles.  It felt very rushed (she used to have twice the time to do all that), but it was just right for the little attention spans.  It was so cute to see Hattie and Tille joining in with the other kids.  They sat nicely at the table and ate their snacks, shared crayons with the others, and got right in the jumble of bouncing kids to pop bubbles.  I think church is going to be soooooo much easier now.

Matt's sister has this roller coaster in her basement.  We had Christmas Eve dinner at her house, and Hattie and Tille had a blast playing after dinner.  I had never seen anything like this, and I think it's a great idea.  There little faces are so cute as they fly down the track! (Hattie in top video, Tille in bottom video)

One day Tille and Hattie were sitting in my lap.  Usually one will be sitting with me, and the other will come and inch her way in until she pushes the other out.  They were both pretty happy sitting in my lap this particular day, until Hattie started messing with Tille.  Tille took it for a while, but finally got a little mad at the end of this video (it had been going on for 5-10 minutes before I got my camera out).  More and more lately, the babies like to egg each other on.  One will be playing nicely and the other will keep trying to start a wrestling match.  Yesterday, Tille was playing with a box, and Hattie kept chasing her around and laughing. Tille wasn't laughing.  Finally, Hattie got the box and took off , laughing all the while.  She thought it was a great game.  Tille didn't. 

I got a sewing machine for Christmas.  I took a sewing class in high school and made some pants (and a couple of frogs), and a few other little projects.  And I've done little bits of sewing over the years, but I've never felt like I was competent with a sewing machine.  So now I'm going to learn.  I've seen lots of things on pinterest where people take old dress shirts and turn them into kids' clothes, so I thought that'd be a good starting point.  Right around Christmas, one of Matt's favorite shirts finally gave out.  It's had a hole growing in the elbow for a while and he would just roll up the sleeve so you couldn't tell.  But finally the whole sleeve just quit.  So I had a shirt to practice sewing on!  Over the next few days (mostly in 10-20 minute chunks between the babies needing me) I made a little dress.  I used one of their other dresses for a pattern, then just cut the shirt up.  I kept the button- up front so I didn't have to do lots of hemming and such.  I had to cut the collar off to size it down, and then I sewed it back on.  And I made a sash out of the remaining good sleeve.  I don't have a picture (maybe I'll update this later), but I think it turned out ok.  It's not stellar, but it's definitely a dress and it fits the girls.  I'm pretty proud of it.  Matt gave me another shirt that he hasn't worn in a while, so I'm going to make another dress soon.  I think I'm going to like my sewing machine.

Here's Tille modeling the dress I made.  I didn't realize the collar looked so weird in both pictures.  It's not that noticeably bad in person. :)

Hattie was being cute and posing by the window too, so I had to get her picture.

November

The babies are enjoying one of their last car rides of the year with Grandma (Hattie at the wheel, Tille looking at Grandma)

Tille is being cute at breakfast

If you look closely, you can see a full bite mark on Hattie's cheek.  For a few weeks, both girls always had bite marks on various parts of their bodies.  It's getting more rare, which we're very glad about.

Tille REALLY liked the cranberry sauce at Thanksgiving

A few Saturdays ago we got our first real snow of the season.  The babies were super grumpy that morning and just whined and cried and followed us around.  Finally I said, "Who wants to go outside?" and they both smiled and clapped their hands.  So we bundled them up and played outside for a little while.  When they first got out there, they were laughing and clapping.  It took them a little while to be brave enough to walk around on the grass (where the snow was kind of accumulating), but they did eventually. (Hattie in purple pants, Tille in pink)

Snack time while Grandma and Grandpa were babysitting (Hattie on left in blue pants, Tille on right in gray pants)

One morning after I got ready for work, I came out to the living room and found this.  It's so cute,  I had to get a picture.  Both girls were completely asleep. Hattie in pink, Tille in blue.

Every now and then, Hattie and Tille will have a real wrestling match.  It usually starts out slowly, with one taking the other's toy and the other leaning in for what looks like a hug but is actually a death squeeze, and sometimes a bite.  Sometimes it'll end there, but sometimes they death squeeze each other back and forth.  A few weeks ago, I was sitting on the couch and they started wrestling.  It escalated until one would stand up and the other would pull her down, then they'd tackle each other back and forth.  At one point, all I saw was Tille almost standing up, but very slowly getting pulled over backwards as Hattie reached out for her.  They were laughing and growling and huffing and puffing.  It probably went on for about 10 minutes.  It was so funny, I wish I'd gotten it on camera.

Lately, the girls have started playing pretend.  Every so often, Hattie will grab an invisible object out of my hand and put it in her mouth.  She'll do it a few times in a row, and then she'll smile and laugh so I know she's not thinking there's actually something there.  It caught me off guard the first time, but now it's really cute.  Matt's parents gave us a Little People nativity set, with shepherds, camels, cows, sheep, wisemen, angels, etc.  Tille has started setting them up in different configurations on flat surfaces around the living room.

Most mornings, I wake up way too early and go downstairs to exercise.  Usually the girls will wake up while I'm down there, so Matt gets them up and gives them bottles and cuddles them in the living room.  Then I sneak up and go take a shower.  When I get out of the shower and go in my room to get dressed, I always hear two tiny sets of pajamed feet shuffling their way down the hall.  The first baby will push the door open, and then squint and look down at the floor to avoid the bright light, but with a big morning smile on their face.  Both babies come in and pull clothes out of our dresser or shoes out of the closet, or play with the radio, or get up on the bed and pretend to go to sleep in the pillows.  It's one of my favorite morning rituals.  Their little faces when they first come in are just the best.  Then we play and they help me pack a lunch while Matt gets ready for the day.  And then I give them all hugs and kisses goodbye and go outside, while they go to the front window and wave at me as I leave.  

Since Halloween (ish) we've only had one or two full weeks where the girls weren't sick.  They'd just be getting over one cold when a new one would start.  This week has been the worst yet.  We've all had it pretty bad.  The girls have been really congested and coughy, and so so grumpy.  They just whine and cry all day.  I'm excited to be done with this phase.

On Sunday we were having a good Sunday dinner, and Tille was grumpy, so I put her in my lap.  She grabbed my spoon and started playing with my mashed potatoes, and got some of them into her mouth.  So a few times now we've given them their own spoons for dinner.  They mostly just play with them, but they also practice getting food onto their spoons and into their mouths.  It's exciting to see them learning these new skills.

October (and some November)

The girls put on their comfy dresses and sat on the couch with their dollies to watch General Conference (Tille in front, Hattie in back)

The girls were helping me unload groceries. Hattie on left in blue, Tille on right in white.

Matt's sister Kathryn has a magical ability to get the girls to sleep in places other than their bed.  I've never seen them fall asleep in the middle of playing, but they do it for her every now and then.  She also knows how to make their hair look cute.  I do pony tails, but they never turn out this well. Aren't they the cutest here?! Hattie in stripes, Tille in shapes.

One morning Matt was out doing yardwork so the girls and I joined him.  Hattie helped us pick up weeds and acorns.

Then Tille joined and helped Hattie put acorns and rocks in our planter container.

I got Hattie all dressed for church and then realized this outfit was awful for church.  But I still had to get a picture.

For Halloween the girls were rock n roll girls.  They wore Metallica and Guns N Roses t-shirts, and had spiky mohawk hair.  They didn't like getting their hair done, and wouldn't let me put on makeup like I had planned. But pretty cute little rockers (Hattie in Metallica, Tille in Guns n Roses).  Hattie and Tille picked up on trick-or-treating really fast.  My parents babysat them Halloween morning and then brought them to my office for trick or treating.  It took them about one try to realize they were getting treats from people.  And they weren't shy about it.  They'd dive in and get as much as they could carry (score for the parents!). They stayed at work with me for a couple of hours because it was a crazy busy day and I couldn't get away as early as I'd hoped.  But they just sat on the floor in my cubicle, ate treats, and played with calculators without making a sound.  That night we took them trick-or-treating around Matt's mom's neighborhood (our neighborhood isn't conducive to trick-or-treating, with it's sidewalkless streets and it's long hilly driveways).  They got so much candy.  It was great.  And they had a lot of fun doing it. 

Tille kept taking pretend naps on the living floor.  Hattie wanted to join in.

Here they are on Halloween again. Hattie on right with taller hair)

And again.

This is Tille next to her 5 month old cousin.  He wears the same size clothes as the girls and weighs as much as them.

I like to take the girls for long Saturday morning walks while Matt does yardwork or other house projects.  Last week it was pretty cold, but neither of them would keep their hands inside their blankets.  So I gave my gloves to Hattie and my jacket to Tille.  Hattie kept looking at her hands and waving them around to figure out what was on them.  She kind of looked like a muppet with her huge floppy hands.  And Tille was waving her floppy arms around.  But they left them on the whole walk and stayed warm. 

The girls got pumpkin cookies for dessert a few nights ago, and made quick work of them.

Tille's going to town on this sandwich.  She was super sick the next day, and now that I look at this picture, I think I see it in her eyes.

We got the girls bathtub crayons for their birthday and finally broke them out this week.  They love scribbling on the tub walls, their toys, and each other.

Tille sporting her new winter clothes that Aunt Kathryn got them for Christmas

The babies love to play with doors.  They'll go in a room, close the door, open it, close it, etc and have great fun until they close it too much to open again and get stuck inside.  I caught this image on the camera in their room.
Below:  We have stuffed elephants that sing 'Do Your Ears Hang Low'. The other night we caught Tille dancing to the music.  She does this a lot now.  She loves moving her arms to any music, including hymns at church.  If you ask her to sing, she'll always oblige with a little tune of 'aaaaaaahhhhhhhh' in her cute squeaky voice.  Hattie will usually join in, but doesn't seem to like singing quite as much as Tille.

Tille and Hattie both now love helping clean.  They love getting any kind of wiper and cleaning the floors and walls and their hands.  And now that we sometimes ask them to throw things in the garbage, we have to check the garbage before we ever empty it.  Any time we're missing something, it's probably in the garbage.  I've found socks, sippy cups, and cell phones in there. Yikes!  They also love putting their dirty diapers outside when we change them.  And they're great at putting their dirty clothes in the laundry (or sometimes the garbage).
Hattie and Tille are getting better at sharing all the time.  Last week, Hattie found the snack cupboard unlocked.  I was working and turned around to see her grabbing a granola bar out of the cupboard.  She started walking away, but then saw Tille and went back for another granola bar to give to her sister.  She'll usually grab at least two of anything so she can give one to Tille.  If we give Tille little snacks like cereal or crackers, she'll usually run over to Hattie and put a few in Hattie's mouth.  They're also good at sharing toys.  Usually Hattie's favorite toy is whatever Tille is playing with.  But she'll usually offer a trade instead of just taking it away from Tille.  And Tille is usually pretty content to take whatever trade Hattie offers.  It's a good system.

Hattie and Tille's personalities are coming out stronger and stronger.  Hattie is learning to be a really good big sister.  Any time Tille is sad or hurt, Hattie will give her a hug or pick out a toy and hand it to her.  Last week Tille was coughing in the bathtub and Hattie reached over and patted her on the back.  She sure loves her sister!  She's also learning to help.  Last night after the bath I had dried and lotioned Hattie and was doing Tille.  Hattie picked up the lotion bottle and handed it to me.  I would get some, then set the bottle down to rub the lotion on Tille, and Hattie would pick up the bottle again and hand it to me when I was ready.  It was pretty cute.  I have a big green double nursing pillow.  Lately, I just have to ask Hattie to get the big green pillow, and she'll run over and grab it and try to drag it to me.  It's a little too big for her, but she really tries.  If I give Hattie a wet rag or paper towel or anything and ask her to clean something up, she's really good at wiping it around.  And if I ask her to throw something away, she'll lift the lid on the garbage can and put it in.

Tille is really into learning how things work.  We have the standard baby toy that's a stick on a base and it has rings to stack up the stick.  Tille was determined to learn how to put the rings on.  She would sit and try and get really frustrated when she couldn't do it.  But then she started being able to get the rings on faster and faster.  Until one day she mastered it- and then she would sit and stack all the rings, dump them off, stack again, repeat, repeat, repeat forever until we made her go to bed.  She didn't crack a smile or a laugh or pause to look around.  She concentrated hard and practiced a ton.  We have a baby gate/wall that was in front of the fireplace, and we put all sorts of forbidden things behind it (lamp, diaper wipes, dirty diapers, etc- all the things our babies most want to play with).  Tille and Hattie both learned how to move it around so they could get behind it.  So Matt arranged dining chairs and high chairs on their sides with the legs sticking through the gate, and the gate folded a couple times to lock it into place (I'm not describing it well, but basically it was a tangle of gate and chair legs).  Tille took her time and studied the construction, and then moved the chairs away and got into the gate.  So we've given up on the gate.  Now Tille is really into buckles.  When I take them downstairs to play, she spends most of her time standing by the stroller studying the buckles and trying to see how they work.  She does the same with her high chair.  And anytime I buckle her into anything, she hands me the pieces of the buckle and watches closely to see what I'm doing.

Ever since the babies were born, I've been expecting them to poop in the tub.  Other than a couple little poops in their first week or two, we haven't had any.  I was starting to think that my girls just weren't interested in bath poop.  And then this week happened.  Saturday night Matt was bathing the girls and I was cleaning the kitchen.  Suddenly Matt yelled 'Tille's pooping!'  I ran in and he handed me Hattie and got Tille out fast.  He cleaned up while I got the girls ready for bed.  I think we were both so surprised, we didn't really know what to do.  He bleached everything and we called it good.  The next night, I was bathing the girls while Matt was cleaning.  They were playing nicely and then Tille got the look.  She pooped again and I got them out of there as fast as I could.  Again, Matt cleaned up while I got the girls ready for bed.  Thankfully we've had 2 poop-free nights in a row, but I'm paranoid now that Tille just likes pooping in water.
And now, some pictures.

My boss's wife works (runs?- I'm not sure) for an online boutique girl's clothing store.  Every now and then he'll bring in some outfits for the girls.  Usually they're super cute frilly dresses.  Most of them are still too big- their sizes are from XS to whatever, rather than 9-12M, etc. So I have a bag of really cute dresses that I'm excited for Hattie and Tille to grow into.  A few weeks ago he brought in these dresses.  They're still a little too big, but they're pretty cute.  If you look really close, you can see that they're unicorns.  There's a face on the chest and a little horn sticking up at the collar.  Hattie loves  putting on frilly, lacey clothes.  These dresses have flowers and beads and lace and frills and everything.  I put it on her and she just sat and looked at all the details.

Every now and then we have a girl from down the street come and babysit.  The girls DO NOT like her.  They scream and cry the whole time she's there, whether it's 1 or 3 hours.  Luckily, the babysitter has little siblings who were sad babies, and screaming babies don't bother her.  Also, as a coincidence, her family has just started going on volunteer trips to the Mexican orphanage with A Child's Hope Foundation, so she's trying to earn money so she can go on the next trip.  So we're happy to let her babysit and she's happy to sit with the babies while they cry.  A couple weeks ago Matt and I went to my friend Emily's wedding in Springville.  Matt's sister babysat some of the time and our neighbor girl babysat the last few hours.  I assumed the girls would be at their wits end after a day with other people, and I was scared for how they would treat their babysitter.  But she said they actually only cried for a few minutes at the beginning.  She said if she stays on one side of the room and lets them play on the other side, they're happy.  Phew!  I'm glad they're learning to be ok with strangers.  Anyway, this picture and the next are from a few weeks ago.  Matt had to go to a meeting before I got home from work, so our neighbor girl came over just for an hour or so before I got home.  Hattie and Tille were screaming when I walked in, and cried the whole time the babysitter was putting on her shoes and saying goodbye, and cried when I took them downstairs to play for a few minutes, and cried when we came upstairs to play.  I wanted to see how their hair would work with gel (practice for their Halloween costumes), and since they were crying anyway I wasn't worried about making them mad by doing their hair.  So I tried, and I got these sad little spiky-haired girls (Hattie above, Tille below).  They stopped crying a couple minutes later.

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Hattie and Tille love animals.  If an animal (any kind) comes on tv, they get excited and point and laugh.  They're still pretty timid around animals and take a lot of coaxing to pet one, but they love seeing animals.  Here they are playing with Arthur at FHE. (Hattie in white shirt, Tille in pink shirt)

They love love love shoes.  If either baby sees a shoe lying around (or in a closet), they have to try putting it on their feet, then my feet, then Matt's feet.  And they're getting comfortable with wearing shoes for an extended time.  Tille wore hers all day yesterday.  Tille above, Hattie below.

When I lie on the floor, the babies use me as a pillow.  Usually they'll kneel on the floor next to me and lean their elbows on my chest with their hands propping up their head.  But sometimes they'll climb right on me.  This is Tille being super comfy. She sat like than on me for a while. That wasn't a fresh diaper. 

The Bodens handed down their little tykes car for Hattie and Tille.  And the girls LOVE it.  For a while we had it in the basement, and they would crawl all over it and push it around.  Now we have it in the backyard.  Anytime we go outside, they climb in and ask for a ride.  We just push them around and around the cement area and they laugh and smile and honk the horn and turn the wheel.  This is Hattie showing off her sweet sweet ride.

Here's Tille looking for acorns.

Both girls are chewing acorns about half a second before I fished them out.

I love how they hang their arms out the window like they're so chill.  What you can't see is that Hattie's other arm is around Tille's shoulders.

Hattie's having a blast while Matt drives her around.

On Fridays, Matt's sister Kathryn watches the girls for a few hours.  Usually his other sister Kim and his niece Tyler will bring their boys over to play (5 kids total, all under 2).  I love that theses babies will get to grow up being friends, and that my girls get to learn to socialize with other kids.  Last week, they all went on a field trip to a petting zoo in Eden (Ogden Valley, near PineView).  They got to see dogs and turkeys and goats (and probably other animals), and they got to ride a horse and a tractor.  Kathryn said the girls had a lot of fun watching the animals, but got scared if anything came too close.  Tyler posted a picture of her baby right next to a fence as a dog came running up.  In the background, Hattie and Tille were running the other direction as fast as their little legs could go.  Haha!  In the farm pictures, Hattie has two pigtails and Tille has one.

Both girls love anything resembling a seat.  They'll play in their carseats for almost an hour before they get bored.  We had to hide their baby rockers because they kept climbing in and rocking way too hard.  At church if they get antsy, I'll sit them on a chair next to me and they'll sit and swing their legs and wave at everybody and be happy for a while.