January 2020

Oh, where to begin?  Starting pretty soon after Christmas, Tille figured out how to take her pajamas and diaper off at night, and every morning when we got her out of bed she was stark naked, holding a perfectly dry diaper and pajamas in the middle of a soaking wet bed.  It meant a lot of early morning laundry sessions so her bed would be ready by naptime.  After a few days, we decided to attach the tabs of her diaper by duct tape to make them harder for tiny fingers to get off in the middle of the night.  You would have thought we were sending her to bed with a giant tarantula taped to her diaper.  She was terrified!  Even before we got the tape on her, when she saw us get the tape out, she started getting so scared!  It was like we were performing surgery on her without anesthetic.  I’ve never seen her so scared.  Once we got the tape on her diaper, Tille was trying to move around without touching the tape and without looking at it, and if she accidentally glanced at it she’d get scared all over again. And Hattie got scared too.  She was so scared about what we were doing to her sister. It was sweet to see how worried she was for her sister.  Eventually we got them calmed enough for bed and decided duct tape wasn’t the answer.  The next few days we put Tille specifically in pjs that snapped up and down the legs.  It took her a few nights to figure out how to get those off, but eventually she did.  So then one day after work I took the girls on a special shopping trip to pick out new pajamas.  They each got a couple pairs of one-piece pjs that zip up and are footless.  That way, they can wear them backward and can’t reach the zipper.  They were so excited to get home and show Matt their new clothes that they got to pick out! The first night, the instant Matt zipped Tille up, she was wriggling around in her pjs trying to unzip.  But she can’t!  And since then, we’ve had no wet sheets in the morning.

One of the first Sundays of the year, Matt woke up with a migraine.  As it got closer to church time, it was obvious he wasn’t going to be able to go church.  I thought, ‘it’s ok, I’ll be able to take the girls to nursery.  They love their teacher and will happily go and play and I can go to young womens’.  About an hour before church, their nursery teacher texted me (because she knows they only go to nursery if she’s there) and let me know she was sick and wouldn’t be there that day.  And I thought, ‘well, there goes that.’  We went to church, and the girls did awesome in Sacrament Meeting.  They always do a good job there.  Then we went to nursery.  I had warned Hattie and Tille that their teacher was sick and wouldn’t be there, but they’d have a different teacher that they could be nice to.  They said they would and were excited to play with her.  When we got there and they took one look around, they lost it.  Whatever courage they’d been building up to meet their new teacher was gone and replaced with tears and sobs.  So they went to young womens with me and clung to me for the next hour.  It was pretty cool.

Some days when the afternoon is dragging and we can’t think of anything else to do, I ask the girls if they want to do my hair.  Hattie usually gets most excited.  She’ll go in the bathroom and grab all my brushes and hair clips and pumice stones and nail clippers and I get to lie on the floor while they brush my hair and work on my feet.  It’s great for all of us.  Except a few times Hattie has taken off my socks and I realize she’s clipping my toe nails.  It always scares me to find her with nail clippers, but so far we haven’t had any accidents. 

Lately, Tille always has a song.  She’s always humming or singing something. One day a week or two ago, Tille and Hattie were busy playing while I cleaned or made dinner or something and Matt was at work.  And I realized I could understand the words to Tille’s song. She was singing ‘Twinkle Twinkle Little Star’.  I could make out several of the words and the tune.  Yay!  It was huge!  Since then, I can almost always tell what she’s singing.  She likes to sing that and Bah Bah Black Sheep and I Am a Child of God and the Pink A Licious theme song and Let it Go and a few others. Hattie will sometimes join in.  More often she’ll ask me to sing a song and then sing along with me.  Her favorite song right now is ‘Jesus Once Was a Little Child’.  Any time I start singing it she freezes and stares at me and then asks for more when I finish.  It’s so great to hear their tiny voices with actual words and phrases!  And it’s so cute to know they’re getting songs stuck in their heads!

Lately Hattie says 'Otay' to everything we say. But it's not just otay. She puts a strong emphasis on the 'tay', and she usually hangs her shoulders and acts like she's carrying the world on her back when she says it. It's pretty great. A few weeks ago the girls went to the Wednesday young women activity with me. We were doing yoga . Both girls got right in without hesitating and were doing downward dog and warrior poses. Afterward, when some of the leaders asked if they had fun, Hattie hung her shoulders and acted like she'd just finished a marathon. She might be a little drama queen.
One more story- a few weeks ago Matt was replacing all the hinges in all our inside doors. Hattie was helping him by holding the screws and handing them to him. She likes to remind us a few times a week that she helped him with that. A few nights ago after I combed her hair before bed, I was holding Tille up to the window to look at the moon and Hattie was kneeling next to our tv stand making a funny sound. I asked what she was doing and she made a gesture with her hand and kept going. I realized she was using the comb to "screw" in all the screws on the tv stand. Now every night before prayer she and Tille take turns screwing the furniture together with whatever they can find with a skinny handle.

One night last week we were all in the car driving home.  I don’t remember what we were talking about, but Matt jokingly called me ‘Sucker!’ and from the back seat we heard a tiny ‘Sucka!’  It was so funny!  I guess we need to start being more careful what we say around those girls.

We have these dry erase boards that are supposed to help little kids learn. They have letters, numbers shapes, etc for kids to trace and copy. This board has 2 circles and then down below different kinds of animals to try drawing. This is Tille's first person drawing. Hattie drew one later where the prominent feature was a belly button. I asked what she had drawn and she lifted up her shirt to explain it to me. 

The girls just chilling while they watch their shows

Eating ice cream cones. 

Playing in the snow on a Saturday night 

New backward pajamas 

Tille is riding a horse at the children's museum

Hattie is driving the firetruck at the children's museum 

Tille is trying to wait her turn for the toilet. We have two toilets now

November and December 2019

Yikes, it’s been a while since I’ve written an update!  I’ll try to remember what’s been happening.

Hattie and Tille are getting better and better at talking.  I feel like they know how to talk, they’re just really shy about it and maybe lack confidence in themselves to try.  The first week or so of trying any new word, they’ll always whisper it.  They won’t say any word out loud until they’re sure they’re doing it right.  So they whisper a lot.  We really have to listen closely to catch their words.  But we keep catching them with a lot of words.  A few weeks ago, Hattie and Tille were looking at the grocery store mailers and Hattie pointed to some pictures she saw.  She very clearly whispered, while pointing at the correct pictures, ‘Apple, Blueberry, Raspberry’.  I was stunned!  I had no idea she knew those words!  Since then I’ve heard both girls say all those words, plus pumpkin (the tags on their favorite pajamas have a picture of a pumpkin), teacher (they love their nursery teacher), church, Elmo, Anna, Elsa, Barbie, and lots more.  For Christmas they got the book ‘Go, Dogs, Go’.  One of the pages has a bird saying ‘Stop dogs stop!’.  Now the girls like to tell us Go and Stop!  And they hold their hands up when they say stop. 

For months the girls have liked pretending to be puppies.  They crawl around and pant and think it’s so funny.  But lately they’ve added licking to the game.  They’ll crawl up to us and lick our shoulders or legs or whatever they can reach. It’s so weird.  But also pretty cute.

A few weeks ago I was giving the girls their nightly bath and just randomly they started saying ‘Bob’ and laughing.  I have no idea who Bob is or where they heard of him.  But apparently he’s really funny.  Ever since, Tille will say ‘Bob’ and just laugh and laugh, or put her hand over her mouth and snicker.  If we ask her to tell us a joke, she’ll say Bob and laugh.  None of their tv shows or books have a bob in them.  We really don’t know who bob is. It’s become a really funny joke in our house though.

Leading up to Christmas, we were delivering treats to our neighbors, one or two houses a night.  At our next door neighbors’ house, we were standing in the living room chatting for maybe 10 minutes.  Matt was holding Hattie and I was holding Tille.  The entire time we were there, Tille kept grabbing my face and turning it towards the door, letting me know with no uncertainty that she was done.  So funny!

A couple weeks ago we dropped by Matt’s sister’s house for a few minutes.  They have a huge garage (makes the Bodens’ garage mahal look small).  They’ve hung a long rope from the middle rafter and can clip different types of swings to it.  While we were there, they clipped a baby swing to it and let the girls each take a turn.  Because the roof is so high, the swing goes far!  The girls loved it!  I’m kicking myself for not getting a video of it.  I’ve never seen the girls have that much fun!  We’ll definitely be going back for more of that fun.

For Christmas, with the help of Grandma and Grandpa, Santa built a dollhouse in our basement.  It ended up being too big to get up the stairs on Christmas Eve, so he had to take it outside and up on the deck to get it into the living room.  But when we brought Hattie and Tille out to the living room Christmas morning, they couldn’t believe their eyes!  They kept saying ‘ho, ho, ho’ (their way of saying Santa), and rubbing their eyes to make sure they were seeing it.  They got a few barbies and a barbie helicopter and car to go with the house, and they’ve been busy ever since.  It’s great. They love arranging all the furniture and putting things in just the right spots.  And it’s big enough that they won’t even be able to see the top floor for another year or so, so it’ll be fun for years!

For New Year’s Eve, the girls got to have a party with their cousins (and they got to go on the big swing again), while Matt and I went to a fancy restaurant.  We talked about it before hand and Hattie was nervous about being left at her cousins’ house, but once we got there, she went right in and never looked back.  She and Tille love this one particular cousin.  He’s 10 or 11 and they think he’s hilarious.  We just have to say his name and they bust out laughing.  He’s really good at playing with them.  And their other cousins, closer to their age, came to play and make cookies so they had a great party without us. We should make that a yearly tradition. 

Oh, I almost forgot! Tille has intentionally peed in the Elmo toilet twice! It's only about one a week, but I think she's getting the concept! It kind of feels like the more Tille does it, the more Hattie doesn't want to. But i have a feeling that once we really try, they'll figure it out pretty quickly. 

Playing video games

We got a little snow on Thanksgiving

Hattie posing on Thanksgiving. She loves wearing headbands because princess elsa does

Both girls on Thanksgiving

Hattie and Tille reading with their hilarious cousin 

Playing with their nativity set. Hattie in back, Tille in front

Riding the train at Christmas village 

Maintaining skincare is so important 

We got a frog ornament from our Michigan cousins 

There's an old timey ice cream place down the street from our house, and they had a table just perfect for the girls 

Tille loves dumping all the bows and headbands out of the box and being silly with it. 

October 2019

I’ve always (like, as long as I can remember) had really rough and bumpy skin on my arms. I finally went to the dermatologist a month or two ago (and sat in the waiting room next to a girl who was in our ward in Ogden when we were growing up- it’s kind of fun being back in Ogden and running into people every now and then).  The dermatologist told me to use a very specific type of lotion ($19 for a medium sized bottle?!!!!!) and it would exfoliate the rough spots and make my skin smooth.  So I started using that lotion, and lo and behold, for the first time in my life my arms are almost smooth.  They’re not totally smooth yet, but within a couple weeks there was a very noticeable difference, to the point where I guess I’m now the kind of person who spends $19 on a medium sized bottle of lotion.  What’s next? Quilted toilet paper?  Haha, let’s not get crazy.  ANYWAY, the point is, I have smooth arms and it’s very amazing to me.  So much so, that one night during family prayer I must have been rubbing my arms.  After the prayer, Hattie totally called me out.  She said, “Mom”, and then showed me how she folds her arms.  I said, “yeah, you folded your arms during prayer, good job.” She shook her head and said, “No, mom”, and then folded her arms again.  I said, “yeah, I folded my arms too”.  She shook her head and then rubbed her arms.  Then I realized she was telling on me for not being perfectly reverent during prayer.  Haha, great.

The Saturday before Halloween we went on a train ride.  There’s a model train club in Ogden, and one of their big things is that they have a model train that is 1/8^th scale of real trains.  It’s big enough to hold adults, but just barely.  A few times a year, they have free train ride days, and for Halloween they have a special trick or treat train day. It’s at a park not far from our house.  Turns out, the train club has a track permanently set up around the park- they leave it there all year and it doesn’t get damaged in the winter or by hooligans.  We got to ride in the train around the park, and at one point we stopped and some people in costumes came and passed out candy to all the kids on the train.  Afterwards, there were food trucks and the girls played on the playground and it was lots of fun.  Hattie sat with me on the train.  She sat very still between my legs and barely looked around.  If I pointed something out, she’d nod, but not really risk moving.  I think she was fairly nervous. Matt had Tille with him and he said she was oohing and aaahing and laughing the whole time.

For Halloween, Hattie was a panda bear and Tille was a lion.  We just bought costumes that were basically warm coats.  They were super cute.  There was an article on KSL (or Deseret News?) a day or two before Halloween about how Halloween and trick or treating are so good for kids to experience some freedom and independence.  I had never thought of it that way, but I totally saw it with Hattie and Tille.  Normally they’re super duper shy.  If somebody looks at them (even somebody they know, outside a selected 6-7 people they’ve accepted), they’ll hide their faces and refuse to acknowledge anybody’s existence.  But when we took them trick or treating, they walked along, went up to people’s doors, knocked, held out their candy buckets, said thank you, smiled, and had fun the whole time.  The setting of dressing up and trick or treating gave them an opportunity to not be shy and to interact with strangers.  It was really fun to watch.  There was one house where a kid answered the door wearing a hockey mask.  Tille and Hattie had gone up boldly and were ready for candy, but when he opened the door, they both stepped back a little.  You could see in their faces that they were trying to decide if this was ok.  They knew he had candy, but he also didn’t look right.  It was a major dilemma for them.  Luckily, the candy won out and they were brave.  By the end of trick or treating, the girls were exhausted.  Tille was falling asleep on my shoulder and Hattie was doing her best to keep up next to Matt.  And yet, when we got home, the first thing Tille did was run to the couch and start organizing her candy, laying it out in straight rows to see what she had.  Haha, I thought it was so funny! 

We’ve started getting toy catalogs in the mail.  Target, Amazon, and I think a couple other mailers clearly targeted at kids.  These have become Hattie and Tille’s favorite books.  Every single toy, they point to the picture on the page, then pat their chest, then back and forth very excitedly, and we have to acknowledge that they like that toy, or they just get more and more excited.  A few weeks ago, we were at Costco, and we walked past a big dollhouse on display.  Matt and I have been talking about getting a dollhouse for Christmas, so as we walked past this one, Matt was just starting to ask what I thought of that one.  But before he got a word out, Tille squealed louder and longer than we’ve ever heard about anything.  She was so excited about that dollhouse!  A few people around us chuckled a little, and now we know what Santa is bringing the girls for Christmas.  Every now and then, we’ll go back to Costco and walk past that display, and they still love it.  I can’t wait for them to see it set up in the living room on Christmas morning.

Here are just a couple quick tidbits.  Hattie loves telling secrets.  Every now and then while they’re playing, Hattie will stop what she’s doing and come over and whisper in Matt’s or my ear.  And sometimes during dinner she’ll lean over and whisper to Tille. She doesn’t have words to whisper yet, but she definitely seems like she has something important to tell us.

My favorite word right now is still “moooeah”.  In the morning, the girls usually wake up while I’m getting ready for work, so Matt sits with them on the couch.  Then I have about 10 minutes to cuddle between getting ready and leaving.  Some days, Tille will lay on my lap and demand back or tummy scratches.  If I stop for a second, from deep within the blanket she’s cuddling under, I’ll hear a tiny “moooeah”.  It’s so cute.  Every night after the bath, we do rock-a-bye for the girls.  We bundle them up in their towels and sing rock a bye baby while rocking them like tiny babies.  They love it.  It always calms them down and they stare into space or at our faces or hug us tight while we sing.  And even before we finish the song, they start saying “moooeah, moooeah”.  Seriously precious.  The other night, we gave the girls ice cream after dinner.  When Tille finished, she handed me her bowl and said, “moooeah”.  I said no, it’s bath time, and she lost it. I realized later it was probably the first time she’s been told no about food while sitting at the table.  Both girls are so tiny and not great eaters, so we never say no if they want to eat more.  Tille was probably shocked that she didn’t get more of something she was willing to eat.  Anyway, her little “moooeah”s are the best.

 

One of the train conductors let me wear his pirate hat. 

Grandma and grandpa took the girls to the park

 Riding the train.  Hattie is hidden in my legs

 Playing the piano with their cousin

 Sometimes the girls just want to wear their unicorn dresses

Happy Halloween!!

Hattie was taking selfies while I did her hair

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 Don't they look like tiny 5 year olds with their hair in pony tails?! I need them to be squishy babies again!

September (and part of October) 2019

The girls are having ice cream cones with their cousin at grandma's house 

 Here are the girls getting ready for prayer

Such a cute picture on a Saturday walk

Still getting ready for prayer

Just sitting around, eating apples 

Being goofy 

The speech therapist took this picture of Tille playing with her inflatable monkey

The last few weeks have been super busy with work and church.  I don’t think I mentioned this, but back in July I came to work on a Monday morning thinking everything was normal.  I was running the morning reports when my boss came into my office and said she’d been transferred to a different office and was moving to Connecticut that day.  She had to leave right then to meet the movers at her house.  And that was that.  I haven’t had a boss since then.  Most of the time, it’s great.  Really, really great.  I literally report to nobody.  But sometimes it’s not great.  My boss was the plant controller, meaning head accountant.  With her gone, I’ve had to take on several controller roles.  I’m not an accountant.  I don’t want to be an accountant.  In the MBA program, I had to take a few accounting classes and they were the worst.  So boring.  I memorized what I had to for the tests and forgot it all as soon as possible.  I think I’m just not a super detail-oriented person.  I just don’t care that much.  So when I have to do the controller tasks at work it’s never a good day.  Add to that the fact that I’d only been here 3 months when my boss left, and most of my training consisted of her telling me where a file was and telling me to get familiar with it, and it’s made for some kind of stressful situations.  We just had quarter-end and I had to struggle my way through a bunch of reports that I: a. didn’t know existed before, b. knew existed but had never done, or c. had been warning the higher ups for weeks that I didn’t know how to do and would need help, but didn’t get help.  Anyway, it made for some long days.  In the end, it all comes back to the fact that I don’t have a boss and it’s pretty great.  I can handle some long days.

Hattie and Tille are very gradually learning to talk.  The speech therapist set a goal for them to learn 2 words a week.  I don’t know that we’re meeting that goal, but they’re getting a little better.  They’re definitely more willing to try making sounds now.  They’ll babble to us and each other all the time.  And the few words they know are so cute.  My favorite is when they say ‘more’.  They have tiny quiet little voices, so they kind of just whisper “mooeah” and it’s the cutest thing ever.  They also say juice, please, mom, dad, buppa (grandpa), dog, hi, bye, no, ball, bubble, and a few others.  Every now and then they’ll say each others’ names.  Sometimes Tille will say ‘Hattie’, but it sounds like ‘YaYa’. So cute.

For as long as the girls can remember, for family prayer at night they’ve just cuddled in our laps while Matt or I prays.  But a couple weeks ago Hattie started sitting on the window sill to pray.  We’d say it’s time to pray, and she’d run to the window and get situated.  Now Tille does it too.

This last week the girls had their first time in nursery without Matt or me.  We were so nervous how they would do.  We talked to them a bunch throughout the week about how Mom and Dad were going to their own classes and couldn’t go to nursery, but they’d have each other there.  They always looked on the verge of tears when we brought it up.  But they did pretty well.  They cried for a few minutes at the beginning, then played really well, then got sad at snack time and cried for the last few minutes.  But overall, it was a success! 

Yesterday I was playing with the girls and Hattie told me she was going potty.  Both girls are really good at telling us when they’re going potty, but they never tell us before so we don’t make it to the toilet in time.  So when they tell us, we go and let them sit on the toilet and wipe and then just change their diapers.  So yesterday when Hattie told me, we went to the bathroom, I dumped her poop in the toilet to show her that’s where the poop goes, she sat on the toilet for a minute, and then she went back to playing.  Then Tille wanted a turn.  Now, I’m about to tell you more than you ever wanted to know and certainly more than Tille will ever want me to tell anybody about her.  Sorry.  Tille has a hard time pooping.  She poops hard pellets that look more like deer or bunny poop.  Not always, but usually.  We’ve tried all sorts of things, and sometimes it gets better, but its always comes back.  Anyway, last night when it was Tille’s turn, I took off her diaper and put her on her Elmo potty (Hattie will only sit on the big toilet, Tille will only sit on the Elmo toilet).  She sat there for a few seconds and said she was done.  When she stood up, there was a tiny pellet in the bowl!  We had an actual poop in the potty!  We had a huge celebration in the bathroom with hugs and high fives, Matt came running in to congratulate Tille.  It was all very grand.  Tille had a huge smile every time we mentioned it to her.  I hope this is the start to good things, rather than a one-time coincidence where the timing lined up exactly right.

August 2019

Holy cow, how has another month gone by since I blogged last?!  But I feel like I have tons of stories, so this is going to be a loooonnnnggg post. Ready?

First of all, Hattie and Tille are starting to get freckles!  It’s so cute!  They have a few light freckles scattered across their cheeks, and each girl has two or three on their arms.  I think freckles are the best!

Hattie and Tille are learning to lock doors.  A few weeks ago, I was making dinner, Matt was working at his computer, Tille was playing in the living room, and we realized Hattie was being pretty quiet somewhere else.  I went investigating and found she was in the bathroom with the door closed.  I tried opening it, but she had locked it.  It’s the kind of lock that’s just a button in the doorknob, and it unlocks by turning the doorknob.  So I said, “Hattie, turn the door knob, open the door, etc”.  I could hear her in there doing something and definitely not opening the door.  As a last resort, we can just stick a paper clip or tiny screw driver in the doorknob and unlock it pretty easily, but I was hoping she’d unlock it herself.  Finally, she opened the door and bolted.  I took one look at makeup streaks on the floor and cupboards and knew she knew she what she was doing.  Matt caught her as she was running away and gave her a scolding while I cleaned the bathroom and found a new place to keep my makeup.  A couple weeks later, we were at the cabin with some of Matt’s siblings. We were sitting out on the deck, and Hattie and Tille were bored, so we let them go inside and watch Sesame Street (we took an old tv up there and have it set up just with a DVD player, and we get a few kids shows from the library before we go up each time).  We didn’t think anything of anything, and went back out to chat and relax while they watched their show.  Eventually one of them pushed a button on the DVD player and the show stopped and they started crying. I tried to go in to fix it for them, but they had turned the latch on the door and locked it.  And the keys were inside on the kitchen counter.  We spent several minutes talking to them through the door trying to explain how to unlock it, but they didn’t understand.  Finally, Matt’s brother-in-law noticed that the front window is very easily removable. He spend maybe a minute unscrewing- by hand- a few little bolts, and the window just lifted right out.  Matt climbed in (it’s a big, waist-high window), and unlocked the door.  Kind of unnerving that it’s so easy to break into the cabin, but it was a huge relief right then.  We’re going to have to be way more careful about keeping keys on us or not letting the girls be inside alone or something. 

The week before that, our little family went up to the cabin just for the night to get some painting and other little projects done.  While Matt was inside hanging curtains, the girls and I sat out by the fire.  It was really quiet, and then we heard a loud crash.  We looked to the side, and a big deer was running through the meadow a few yards away from us.  It stopped and looked at us, then kept going.  When it got to the trees, it stopped and watch us some more.  It was pretty cool.  The next day Matt saw a moose as we were driving through the mountains.  I think that’s the most wildlife we’ve seen up there in one trip.

For their birthday, the girls’ cousin gave them some little purses that make sounds and have play cellphones, credit cards, keys, and bracelets.  I don’t love that they’re already getting into all of that.  But the next Sunday, as we were getting ready to go to church, the girls picked up their purses from the toy shelf like it was no big deal and put them on their arms and went out the door.  It was so cute!  Every now and then still when I tell them it’s time to get in the car, they’ll run over and grab their purses.  Their birthday was fun.  I made them a chocolate cake to look like a tree stump and we had an edible cake topper that was a picture of Masha and the Bear.  We also got an ice cream cake in the shape a teddy bear head.  It was super cute and the girls loved it.  Their grandparents and cousins and a few of their friends from the ward came and had fun.  It wasn’t really a party, just a get together with cake.  But they loved knowing it was their birthday and being celebrated.

A few days later we took Hattie and Tille to the Dr. for their 2 year check-up.  They’ve never loved the dr.  They get really nervous and usually scream from the moment the nurse starts weighing them until the dr leaves the room an hour or so later.  We braced for this visit.  We kind of told the girls what would happen and that we’d be right next to them if they got scared.  When we took them to the weighing station, they were clearly nervous, but held it in.  Then when it was time to get their heads measured, I reminded them that the nurse was going to put a funny hat on their head for a minute, and they nodded and calmed down and didn’t cry at all.  Then when the dr came to examine them we could tell they wanted to cry so much, but they did awesome!  They looked so scared, and they both took a few big gulps of air, but they were stoic.  The dr looked at Hattie first.  I think watching Hattie go through it helped Tille.  She saw that it was ok so she was fine when it was her turn.  We were all shocked how well it went.  They even opened their mouths when the dr asked to look at their tongues.  It was great.  Two weeks later we took them to the dentist for the first time.  We’d been getting them ready for weeks, telling them about the chair that goes up and down, and that the dentist would count their teeth.  They had us in different rooms.  The dental hygienist with Hattie seemed kind of no-nonsense.  Matt said they sat in the chair and Hattie lost it.  It was a scream fest until they were done.  Luckily, the dentist got a good look at her teeth because her mouth was wide open screaming.  I had Tille and our hygienist was great.  Tille sat on my lap, and just like we practiced, the hygienist showed her how the chair went up and down, then she showed Tille the different tools and let her push buttons to squirt water and air, and let her feel the polisher spinning on her hand.  Tille did great.  She opened when she needed to, sucked the vacuum thing, let the hygienist squirt water in her mouth, even let her floss.  And then the dentist came in and counted her teeth just like we talked about.  Hattie and Matt were there for the last bit of Tille’s exam, and Hattie was nervous for Tille.  Every time the hygienist or dentist got near Tille, Hattie would wimper and bury her head in Matt’s shoulder.  Hopefully next time they can both get the good hygienist.  I don’t want them to be traumatized at the dentist’s office.

A couple Saturdays ago I let the girls eat lunch outside on the deck.  They were really excited to not only have an outside lunch, but to eat at the big person’s table.  We were having a great time and the girls were doing really well (they aren’t great eaters, so anything to get them to eat is a plus).  As they were finishing up, a hornet came and landed on Tille’s plate.  I didn’t want to freak out and panic them, so I just scooted the plate out of Tille’s reach and we watched for a minute.  The hornet cut a piece of Tille’s turkey off and then flew away with it.  The girls thought it was so funny!  Tille couldn’t wait to go in and tell Matt about it.  We went inside and she went straight to Matt and said ‘bzzzzz’ and then made the sign for eat.  After she told her story to Matt, we got some crayons and coloring books and went back outside.  We were having a great time, until I saw Tille had a look of terror on her face.  I leaned over to see what was happening, and she had her milk cup between her legs and the hornet was back trying to get a sip.  We called it a day then and went inside.  Every now and then she’ll tell us the story again of how the bee ate her lunch and drank her milk.

Hattie has started doing sneak attacks lately.  I’ve been trying to get it on camera, but I haven’t been able to.  She’ll hunch over and walk around like she’s sneaking up on someone.  I don’t know why/when she started it, but it’s pretty funny.

Three weeks ago we were in nursery having a regular Sunday.  One of the bishop’s counsellors came in and asked if we could meet with the bishop right after church, and that they had lined up some ladies in the ward to watch the babies for us.  So we did.  The babies screamed as the ladies came and took them away, and screamed until we finished and found them outside a while later.  It was so sad.  I got called to be the Young Women president.  I was shocked.  I haven’t been in Young Womens since I was a young woman, 21 years ago, and from what I hear, the program has changed a little since then.  But I knew almost immediately who all my counsellors and advisors would be, and it turns out two of them were the young womens presidents in their old wards, within the last year.  So that’s helpful.  We got set apart last week and I’ve had A TON of meetings since then.  I think it will be good.  We have about 30 active YW in our ward, and they all seem pretty nice. I taught the laurels on Sunday and it went well.  I couldn’t believe how well they all get along, they all participate and make thoughtful comments.  Things have definitely changed in the last 21 years.  One of the things I’m most excited about is that our stake has rights to Camp Lamondi.  When I was little, our ward had tons of activities at Camp Lamondi, and it was always fun.  My first year of girls camp was there and I loved it.  I think I’m supposed to be reserving a spot for camp right now, so I’m looking into getting that.  Last week I went to my first YW activity.  The girls were learning a hula dance to do at a ward luau (more on that in a minute).  I had Hattie and Tille with me because Matt had a work meeting, so we were standing along the wall watching, but then Hattie and Tille started dancing with the girls.  They were going up and down and moving their hands how they were supposed to.  They were really good!  Matt and I have been talking since before they were born about getting them into Polynesian dance lessons, and now I think we definitely will.

Last night we had a ward luau.  As is the case whenever we go anywhere in public, Hattie and Tille clung to my legs the entire time.  All through socializing before it started, waiting in the food line, and then eating, they were attached to me (Matt was at work).  But after dinner, one of the ladies in the ward (who teaches Polynesian dancing) put on a little performance. Some of the other kids went and sat on the edge of the grass to watch, so I told Tille she could go watch with them.  She took no convincing and just went, which, if you know Tille, is shocking.  Hattie stood on my lap to watch for a minute, but then went and joined Tille.  Every 30 seconds or so, they’d run back to me and say “Mom!” and point at the dancing, and then run back.  After every dance, they had enormous smiles on their faces and clapped like they had just seen the most amazing thing ever.  It was so great.  At the end, the lady let all the kids come up and dance, and both girls got right in there running and dancing and having a blast.  I think it’s the first time, other than at parks, they’ve been willing to leave my side in public.  So much fun.

Oh,  I Always Remember More TO Say After I Sign Out . Last  Week Matt and I Dare The Movie 'The Peanut butter Falcon '. ItWas fantastic. You Should All See It. It Has Some Language But Not Too bad . AndI don't  Know What Is Up With The Capital Letters Suddenly. I Can't Get It To Stop. 

This is at the ward luau. You can see Tille running around in the middle with all the other kids

more Fun At The Splash Pad

look At These Cuties Reading In The Bath!

 And Reading After The Bath While They Watch The Neighborhood

these Are The Birthday Cakes We Had

tille Looks Especially Excited For Cake

here Are The Girls And Their Purses Going To Church (Tille In Front, Hattie In Back)

the Girls Are Enjoying Their Picnic Moments Before A Hornet  Came To Join The Fun

just A Perfect Saturday Morning

here's how Hattie Likes Playing In Water. ..

Vs. How Tille Likes Playing In Water (She's Playing With The Drips That Come Out Of The Faucet)

sometimes HattieDoes morning stretches with me 

the girls Went To The Dinosaur Park With Their Cousins Last week . Matt And I Were Both At Work So We Didn't Get Great Pictures.  This Is The Only One I'Ve Found, And There Aren't Even Any Dinosaurs . 

Hattie On The Left,  Tille On The Right On Their Birthday