3.0 Happy Birthday Tyler & Zachary!!

December 17, 2013
By Cyndi

Sorry for the post being a few days late, between the boys' birthday and hosting the ATC kids gift exchange on Sunday (20 adults & 19 kids), we've been a bit busy.

But it is official ... Tyler & Zachary are three!!!  I stayed home in the morning to see them when they woke up and Matt took them to school, as he would any Friday.  We picked them up and headed to their last swimming lesson.  After class, we let them play on the slides and headed home for dinner & presents.

They really enjoyed their birthday and it was so fun to see them celebrate!  They really enjoyed the phone calls and listening to people sing to them!   

On Saturday, Uncle Daniel & Aunt Jill came over for dinner and more presents!

On Sunday, we hosted the ATC kids gift exchange of 10 families.  While most people would think it's stressful, I didn't have to cook!  I only needed my one dessert (Rum Cake) &  clean counters.  Everyone had a great time!  Tyler & Zach were the last two to open their gifts and they waited so patiently watching all other 17 kids open presents.  They both opened their gifts and Zach received two movies and Tyler received one movie and an airplane.  As Tyler started to fly his airplane around, Zach lost it and was so sad he didn't have anything to play with.  While he will love the two movies, he didn't have anything right away to play with.  The life with twins ....

Here is their three year summary:

Beverages: Boy do these boys love their milk!!  We used to give watered down juice once per day, but now they request milk and more milk!!  They also know that they get the purple medicine (Miralax) and remind us if we don’t add it.  We are going through 1.5 gallons per week and that doesn’t account for the milk they drink at school!!

Schedule: No change here … awake around 7a, but in their cribs until close to 8a.  Bedtime is still 730p.

Food: Zero.  ZERO improvement here while at home.  They have even rejected chicken nuggets at times and boxed mac and cheese.  Who does that?!?!!! At school, however, they are much more adventurous, with pastas and some meats.

Clothes: 3T tops and smaller 4T tops along with 2T pants, which are running short so I am starting to stock pile 3T pants to move into soon.

Diapers/Potty Training: Do I have to document the fact that we haven’t gone for potty training??  Ugh, this is one of the parenting items I would LOVE to outsource!!  In truth, once they move rooms in January (as we expect they should), we will go for it.

Fine Motor skills:  Coloring and drawing is getting better!  They both are trying to write their names or at least the first letter. 

Gross Motor skills: Boys will be boys… They run & jump anywhere and everywhere!!

Language: They are speaking in full sentences.  They come home knowing words and phrases from teachers and us that we didn’t realize they would pick up on..

Teeth: All teeth are intact, including the ones we were concerned about from the nasty fall Tyler took earlier this fall.  Teeth brushing is awful but we are doing our best to keep them clean and white!

Interaction: Over the past 6 months, they have started playing together.  They mimic some of the things they see on the tv shows they watch.  They re-enact their “rocketships” taking off full of people and animals.  “Raise your arms, as high as you can and …. BLAST OFF …. BLAST OFF”  It makes Matt and I giggle every time we hear it from the toy room.  They have been fairly good about sharing toys, with encouragement sometimes.

ABC's and 123's:  They can count correctly to 15 or so and up to 20 with some help, since they skip a number on occasion.  They can recognize all of their letters and are starting to mention upper case and lower case letters. 

 

Song and Dance:  They aren’t dancing so much, but singing is still fun!  They love to pretend to play the guitar as they sing also.

Mommy: Well, with all of job changes during this year, hopefully I’m now at a place I can stay for a while.  The 7 mile commute is amazing and I am working in project management which has been fun.   

Daddy:  While the house was being painted, Matt had loads of fun changing out all the electrical outlets, switches, and associated plates. He said he wishes that was more than a once-every-two-decades project. :) 
Editor's addition: In other news, the fro is making a welcomed comeback!

 

Travel: Over the past 6 months we only had one major trip to Chicago and next year brings two trips to Chicago for Matt’s brothers’ weddings.  With those two sets of flights for 2014, all other trips will probably be local and within driving distance.