Urlacher and guitar

As I mentioned before, the kids are LOVING Christmas and Hanukkah. Kyle got a Urlacher Bear's jersey from Uncle Tommy which he just loves. And he got a guitar last night for Hanukkah and hasn't put it down yet. During the Bears game, he needed a milk break and some tunes.

French Braids

Grandma has been French Braiding Emily's hair like she did for us when we were younger. She looks great in French Braids! She sits so nicely and patiently in the 'beauty chair' (booster seat) while Grandma braids her hair so perfectly!

Happy Holidays

Kyle & Emily are having a great time with all their family and loving Christmas & Hanukkah!!

Cooking with Grandma

This morning the kids were put to work in the kitchen. They are making Hershey Kiss cookies with Grandma. They got the great job of taking the Kisses out of the wrappers. They didn't even take a taste until they were nearly done with the wrappers.

hooray for emily!

So we've been working on potty training this last week. We started last Saturday afternoon with both and Emily has been accident free since last Sunday! Kyle decided he wasn't quite ready so he's taking a break for now though he did enjoy aiming at Cheerios, "peeing like Daddy" when we could get him to the potty! Now this morning, I was watching the kids. Well not watching so well (I was typing out recipes) because I called out for Emily and couldn't find her right away in eyesight. Anyhow, I walk down the hall calling her name and find her on the potty. She had got herself all ready and sat down on the potty and did her poops! She was sitting there wiping when I came in! She proclaimed as I walked in, "I did some poops Mommy!" It was amazing! She totally gets it. If she has to go, she goes to the potty and goes! Simply amazing and we barely even had to do anything for potty training for her since she's such a willing participant as long as she has her Princess, Ariel or Dora undies! She will now wake up from naps saying she has to go potty. She's done with being messy and diapers! Woohoo!

conversing twins

As Jeff and I were preparing tonight's dinner of puerco pibil, Kyle and Emily were playing nearby on the floor with the drawer full of hair accessories. Grandma gave Emily French Braids this morning and got to pull out our old hair ties, bows, barrettes, etc. So the kids were having a great time playing with that. And here is the conversation they had:

Kyle: "I geeseema!" (bellisima)
Emily: "No, I'm beeseema!"
Kyle: "I'm geeseema!"
Emily: "No, you guapo Kyle!"
Kyle: "No, I not guapo. I geeseema!"
Emily: "No, Kyle. You a boy. You guapo!"
Kyle: "I not a boy, I a girl! I geeseema!"

Kyle will probably be mad at me for saving this conversation later, but it sure was cute! It was pretty amazing to hear their full conversation with logic!

Ice cream

New videos posted in posts below (singing post). And here's another for your viewing pleasure - Emily singing "Ice Cream"

big hugs

Kyle & Emily are big huggers. It's really sweet how they hug so tightly and give you nice squeezes with their giant hugs! Last weekend, we went to a shower for Kimmy and they got to meet my cousin's kids. I think that makes them 2nd cousins? Anyhow, Kyle really took a liking to Moira, my cousin Theresa's oldest daughter. And Emily really took to Natalie, my cousin Bethie's youngest daughter. The kids were inseperable. Kyle wanted to keep giving Moira big hugs. Emily hung on Natalie's every word, sitting so still while she read her a book and toured her all around the house.

princesses and choo-choos

So we did a little shopping today and the kids got to choose some underpants. We are starting to try potty training. This basically means we practice going potty when they tell us they have to go. And in the afternoon we put on underpants instead of diapers and really work on keeping undies clean by using the potty. So since Emily woke up from her nap, she has been asking for her princess underpants. She now has them on and has been jumping up and down with joy, proclaiming, "I got some new underpants!" Kyle isn't awake yet, so he doesn't have his on just yet.

Singing

So Kyle has changed a lot in the past 2 weeks. Ever since we went to Florida with Jeff's entire family, he has been much more outgoing. Emily has typically been the more outgoing of the two, but that did flip-flop sometimes. So Kyle runs around a whole lot more - like wound up crazy running - and sings songs. He had been relatively shy and would hang back with myself or Jeff until he got comfortable in a new place / with a situation. Now he warms up faster and gets right in the mix of the craziness! I think it was being with all of his boy cousins! Don't get me wrong, he ran around a lot before, but now he likes to chase Emily and they run around shrieking!

And they both have a new thing singing songs. Every night, we sing Kyle & Emily songs while they are in their cribs. They have their request list that they always rattle off so we know what to sing. Well, Kyle has been singing along with us for "I'm a Little Teapot" and Emily for the "ABCs". And they both sing for both songs now. It's really cute. And yesterday and today we got them to do a little concert for us singing "I'm a Little Teapot" and the "ABCs"! I will have to post the videos of that later on here when I get it off the camera (which will likely be forever from now!). It was way too cute!

And Emily, she too has undergone some change in the past few weeks. She is really vocal, asking about everything. Looking in the office, she pointed to all of the machines and said, "What is that Mommy?" And she is very expressive of what she likes. When she sees something, she picks it up and says, "Oooooh Mommy, I love this!!!" It's really sweet!!

**Update**
Kyle & Emily sing "I'm a Little Teapot"

Jeff singing "I'm a Little Teapot"

language funnies

So Kyle & Emily have been talking really well for some time. It's really a wonder what goes on in their head as they learn new words and process everything that is going on around them. So a few funny / interesting language items:

Spicy milk: While we were in Florida we gave them a sippy cup of milk during dinner. Kyle, who normally LOVES milk, said "milk is spicy". Now Emily has been proclaiming a lot of things spicy and just won't really eat spicy food. So we thought Kyle was just messing around with us saying the milk is spicy. Jeff responds that "the milk isn't spicy, that's silly!" But both are now insisting the milk is spicy. So Jeff says, "no, the milk isn't spicy. I'll take a sip." Now Jeff has a very discerning nose for milk as it approaches it's due date. Jeff took one sniff or maybe a small sip and was shocked. The milk was sour which the kids expressed as spicy! So for the next few days they would both tell us "no drink spicy milk" or "milk is not spicy!" It's amusing how some things are expressed.

Guapo and bellisima: So when Spike gives the kids their bath, she makes it really fun and interesting. When brushing their hair afterwards, she tells them that she will make Kyle guapo and Emily gets bellisima. I was brushing their hair the other day after a bath and told Kyle that I was going to make him guapo and I was going to make Emily bellisima. He got most upset about that. He wanted to be "gee-see-ma just like Emilily!" I tried to explain that boys get guapo and girls get bellisima but he just wasn't having it. So I tried telling him he could be bellisimo, but he insisted that he wanted to be "gee-see-ma!" And now Emily sometimes ask to be guapo! I wonder if Italian kids go through this!

Comforting words: So the kids are really nice to each other and great at comforting one another. This morning, Emily told me that her milk was spicy again! I smelled the milk and confirmed that it was not in fact spicy. I relayed that to her and then Kyle jumped in. Says Kyle, "Emilily, drink your milk. It's yummy! It's not spicy!" How sweet is that?!

New names: So I just published this post and had to come back in to add this - Emily is a few feet away looking for something. And she declares, "it's by Momilily (read: momi-lee-lee)!" They are getting so creative and extending what they already know and using it. So Kyle we often call "Kylissimo" and Emily "Emilita" and "Emillily (read: Emma-lee-lee)" and now sometimes "Emilissima" or "Emilissimo". What goes on in their brains is just amazing!!

Diapers: Grandma watched Kyle & Emily last night while we went out to a movie. Apparently Kyle's diaper got so soaked (he LOVES milk) that when Grandma stripped him down after dinner in preparation for bath time, Kyle started patting his diaper and called it "mashed potato diaper" because it was so full and squishy! I'm thinking he actually called it "mashed do-pato diaper" because that's just how he says potato. Pretty funny and where does he come up with these things?!

Also, earlier in the day, Emily made a poop in her diaper. She comes up to me and says, "change Emmie's dookies!" It was hilarious! Aunt Kristin calls poops dookies and Emily has taken a liking to it! Jeff being a "Dukie", I had to call and tell him about Emmie's new vocabulary word!