Last week was exhausting and challenging, to say the least. I thought having newborn twins was hard, but man.......I don't know, I think having toddlers that are embracing the "terrible" part of the "terrible twos" may be even tougher. By Friday afternoon, I was questioning my ability to survive motherhood. Someone decided to give me a break and I was treated to a wonderful weekend.

Scott and I were lucky enough to have a date night on Friday--our favorite sitter, Abbey, took over our parenting duties for the evening and we went out for a fabulous dinner, followed by a nightcap at a local watering hole. We had a great time gorging our selves, and I really needed a night alone with my guy, away from the girls to regroup. The girls were pretty good for Abbey, minus one "incident" with Julia. She recently learned how to take off her pants, and she decided that it would be fun to take off her pants and diaper after Abbey put her to bed. It's unsurprising that Abbey had to rush upstairs to Julia wailing after she had peed all over herself and the contents of her crib. Other than that, no problemos.

Saturday couldn't have been more perfect--it was one of those rare days where everything just falls into place. The morning started off beautifully, as I was able to sleep in while Scott tended to the monkeys. I woke up to the sounds of the girls laughing, and I have to say, there really isn't any better way to start the day. Not only were the girls happy, but they were thrilled to see me when I came out of the bedroom--I was greeted with hugs and kisses and numerous exclamations of "oh, mommies" (Kate), and "hi, hi, hi" (Julia). The rest of the day proceeded in much of the same fashion, with the girls behaving beautifully and doing their best to claim the title of the cutest, sweetest, most precocious children to ever live.

We went to mass Saturday afternoon, and then out to dinner at a diner. The girls were well-mannered in the restaurant and I was really consumed by feelings of gratitude and joy. I think this was God's way of not only giving me a break, but also trying to reassure me that I was indeed up to the challenges that the girls have been throwing my way.

I've been really bad about keeping records on the girls' milestones, so after I type this post, I'm going to sit down and make a list of all the words they know. This is probably one of my favorite aspects of this age--the rate their vocabularies are expanding is amazing and I'm in awe of these little people.

Kate spoke what Scott and I have decided is her official first sentence the other day. As a former Lit major, it really melted my heart when she picked up her book as Scott was carrying her up to bed, and said, "Daddies, I read book." I'm so in love.....

I'll try and post the vocab list if time permits.......

Looking forward to this weekend, as my dear friend Strayer is coming for a visit before she moves across the pond. We're spending the night in the city on Saturday which means no mommy duty for almost 24 hours--holy shit!

Back later, heart hug!

Wow--I cannot believe it's been almost 2 months since my last post! I've really let my blogging fall to the sidelines and I'm not happy with myself for doing so. Things were insanely busy and chaotic here from Thanksgiving until the beginning of the new year. Both girls fell ill after Turkey Day, and spent almost a month battling double ear and sinus infections--not fun for any of us. I caught their sinus infection right before we were supposed to leave for the holidays, and we incidentally had to delay our travels a bit.

Anyway....I'll try not to let this post drag on too much, but it may be hard as I have a lot to share :).

Thanksgiving was wonderful and especially precious as we were able to spend time with my beloved grandmother as she turned 90. I am in awe that my grandma has been around for almost an entire century, and I am sooooo thankful that we were able to go to Ohio to surprise her for her birthday. If you met her, you wouldn't believe for a minute that she's 90--she's so spunky and cute and wonderful and we're all so lucky that she's still in good health. It meant a lot to me that she was able to spend time with the twoddlers. At one point, she picked Julia up and started bouncing her on her knee, singing a Lithuanian song that she used to sing to me and my sister. It took all of my self-control not to burst into tears.

Christmas was a whirlwind, but also soooo much fun--we were all very, very spoiled by our families. It was kind of hectic going back and forth b/n NJ, northern OH, and southwestern OH, but it was well-worth it. The times that we spend with our parents and siblings are the times I cherish the most. We don't get enough of those times now that we are living in Jersey, but being so far away from our families has really taught me to value the precious times together that we do get to share.

Kate has always had an affinity for Olivia, my sister's daughter, and this Christmas we really got to see that affinity blossom into something akin to worship! It was too cute to see how Kate just took in every single thing Olivia did--the two of them spent a lot of time holding hands and walking around my parents' house together. Olivia is such a little mother hen and it's just so sweet to see how patient and loving she is with the girls. She is wise beyond her years and I never tire of spending time with her.

I did feel bad for Jack, my nephew (and Olivia's little brother)--he was being so sweet to the girls, trying to play with them and repeatedly saying "hi", and the girls weren't very affectionate in return. They can be so unfriendly at times and it made me a bit sad. He's the spitting image of his Daddy, and it breaks my heart that I don't know him in the way that I know Livvy. I worry that he won't love me because I don't get to see him enough and I'm missing his formative years. He's just so freaking cute and funny--he loves to dance and it cracks me up to see that at the mere age of 2, he has more rhythm than Scott and I combined. Go figure though, my sister is the original dancing queen, so of course her kids can dance!

We have officially entered the "terrible twos" here.......the girls are really testing their boundaries, and although I know it's perfectly normal, it's incredibly challenging and frustrating. They fight with each other daily, and between the whining and tantrum-throwing, I fear that I may end up deteriorating into a state of psychosis. Julia can be such a bully and she has zero patience when it comes to waiting for things she wants (I think my dad would say she gets that from me!). Kate seems to be a bit more patient, but man, her tantrums are straight from hell. She hits and screams and when she's really ticked, bangs her head against the floor, the wall, or whatever solid object she can find. People keep telling me she will grow out of the head-banging phase, but I have yet to see it, thus, I don't believe it.

On a more positive note, the girls' language skills are realllllly taking off! It seems like they have a new word every hour, and it's really funny to listen to them. Kate has the same word for Santa, Sara, and Simon (our cat)--all three of them are "Sasa" (think of salsa without the "l"). She has also decided that every name needs to be pluralized (is that even a word?)--I am now "mommies", Scott is "daddies", and Julia is "buggies". Kate particularly enjoys going around the house and pointing to things that belong to either Scott or myself, and telling us who the item belongs to. She was playing in the laundry basket this morning, and actually pointed to a pair of Scott's boxers and said, "oh, daddies, daddies." Very cute.

One of Julia's favorite games is to start yelling Kate's name whenever Kate is either in a different room, or just simply not paying attention to Julia. She cannot pronounce the letter "k" very well, so she calls Kate "Tay." The past few afternoons during nap time, I've heard Julia babbling up in their room while Kate's sleeping, and every once in a while, she'll yell out "Tayyy, Tayyyy, TayTayTay." Luckily, she hasn't seemed to disturb Kate's sleep, but I know it's bound to happen.

Speaking of sleep, the girls have been really resistant to sleeping at night. They seem to be following this trend of falling asleep and then waking up after an hour in tears. These aren't the kind of tears/crying fits that I'm able to ignore as they work themselves into absolute frenzies. That in and of itself is trying, but it's even worse since they are going through a big "only Mommy can comfort me" phase. And, to top it off, they both get very angry when I try to comfort them both at the same time. I used to think there was nothing harder than the newborn stage and all the sleepless nights, but I have been proven wrong.

Okay, need to get some stuff done. I'm going to try my damnedest to be a better blogger this year..........good old resolutions and what not.

I'll post some new pics taken w/the newest member of our family--my beloved and gorgeous Canon Rebel XT! Still need to learn how to use it well........but, that's a whole nother post!

Heart hug!