playing catch up

Whew ... what a busy month! I have a lot to do to catch up with the blog. First of all, there are Easter photos but I have misplaced my USB cord (oh no!) so it may be a bit before those are up. We went down to Charleston for the house hunting expedition #2 and found a great house that we have a contract on. It is a short sale so anything can happen so cross your fingers for us! If all goes well, we will be closing on June 1st and our new address as of June 30th will be 452 Barbadian Way, Mount Pleasant, SC 29464. I took a million photos of the house but will only post a few here ...

Front of the house ... it is a 'Charleston single' and in traditional style they have built it close to the neighboring lot on one side and given us a small side yard on the other side as opposed to the more common backyard.

side yard & porches

view of the marsh and Wando River from the master BR

kitchen

just past the kitchen is a screened porch and a detached garage

dining room

family room with pretty views of a pond across the street and marsh beyond the lake

Some friends from ATL joined us at the beach for the weekend. We had fun dragging them here and there. There was just too much to see in one weekend! Here, we were on our way to the beach.

the kids hanging on the porch in the AM

We were able to take the girls to the beach several times thanks to small breaks in the rain. It was too cold for swimming suits but we 'made do' in play clothes. They had a lot of fun splashing in the tide pools as they were warmer than the ocean and the waves tended to knock the girls over. This is Meredith ...

Hannah ...

On the way to the beach, we happened upon a lizard. The girls thought it was super cool until it hopped off Alan's arm and crawled down Hannah's leg. She wasn't a fan after that (not that I blame her though I wish I would have caught it on a video camera!) The 'ick, get it off me!' response must be tied somewhere to the X chromosome ...

pre-lizard ...

The girls have an obsession with the 'big girl chairs' and love to climb in and out of them and climb in them and demand food (even if they just ate!) I forsee fading out of the highchair and into the booster chair. We got them boosters the other day and now if I try to put them in highchairs (for messy foods) they say "new, new" because they want in their "new" booster chairs.

This was the first time we took the girls to the beach this past Charleston trip ... the water was stinkin' cold but after a while, we just gave up trying to keep them out of it and let them splash around and throw shells ... shoes, clothes, jackets and all! Hannah got tired of being wet and cold but Meredith stayed out there with Alan for two hours! He eventually made her come in to get warm! She loved it! I can't wait to be able to take them when it is warm outside ...

with Mommy ...

with Daddy ...

Here are a few pics from home the weeks before we went to Charleston ... here the girls are walking 'like a tapir' from the Go Diego, Go! Show (prior to this particular show, I didn't even know what a tapir was ...). They really are getting into their shows now and will play along and clap their hands and follow instructions (like here ...) and it is really cool to see them "get it." When something bad happens in the show they look upset and say "Ugh, Oh!" ...

Like most toddlers, they have really run headfirst into the independant stage and are always saying "self, self" ... as in, I want to do it myself! Hannah tries, and occasionally accidently blows a bubble ... but usually she just gets soap all over her mouth (yuck!) Meredith will sit and buckle and buckle over and over ... she has some good concentration and determination ... when she gets it buckled and needs it unbuckled (she hasn't figured that out yet) she looks at me and says "hep you ... hep you ..." as in, Mommy, help me ... it is too cute ... I guess she thinks that when I say "do you want me to help you" that the way you ask is to say "help you" ... I love it when toddlers mess things up like that ...

Here, Meredith was plucking one petal at a time off of a flower ... in my mind I was saying ... he loves me, he loves me not ... Oh, I hope it is a loooooong time before they get their hearts broken by a stupid boy!

I try my hardest to get a good photo of the girls together as several family members have asked for one ... but this (or a binky photo as the only time they sit still is when they are tired) is what I get ... the backs of heads! They love to be on the go! The only time they are not on the go is when they want me to cuddle with them.I just thought this was a cute photo. They love to feed each other, their baby dolls, me ... I love the way Meredith has her mouth open while she is feeding Hannah ... just like Moms do when they are feeding babies their baby food ... they climbed in this bouncy chair themselves ... they have taken to trying to both fit in one small space ... they do love to be together and it is so sweet to see.

snow one day ... shorts the next

The girls and I have really enjoyed having the weather in the 70's the past few days! They are absolutely like me! They love to watch the snow from an inside warm place while sipping hot chocolate and would rather bask in the warm sun any day of the week! The snow was coming down during their nap and when they got up it had already started to accumulate on the ground. I held them up to the window and said "snow" and from that moment on they were obsessed with the "no" (they aren't too good with s'es) unless they had to touch it! However, ever since it has been warm we have been spending most of the days on walks, at one park or another or just hanging out in the yard. Here are some pics from this past week or so.

Meredith ... tantrum ... she is pretty good at these. They have added another technique to the tantrum ... a bear down and SCREAM in the middle of a crying jag ... hmmm ... wonder if they learned that from me?

Meredith ... making the elephant noise ... the noise is cute as it is but she throws that head back as if she has a trunk, too! It is better sans "bee bee" but beggars can't be choosers!
Hannah ... concentration face ... she was getting one block out of the bag, walking across the room, putting it on her stack and then going to get another ... whew ... a little inefficient but at least it kept her occupied for a while!

Apparently, Hannah thought her baby could use some juice.

So, the girls crafted this little slide all by themselves. They tipped the chair and put the bin there so they could climb it ... I just added the soft landing pad ... but they did this over and over and over ... again, picure a flip show ... First Hannah takes the lead ...

lands with a little plop ...

now it is Meredith's turn ...

weeeeee ... there she goes ...

ha ha ... I landed on my feet! It really went on like this for a good 15 minutes ... which is a long time in toddler-ville!

Once the girls figured out that snow is wet and cold ... this was the general consensus ...

They tolerated a short wagon ride to check out the snowmen ...

The most fun they had with it was picking up handfuls of snow and throwing them in the street and making me nervous b/c out of the whole yard, they have to be right at the street (of course!) At least their Grandmama was there to grab one while I grabbed the other in case of cars!

Hannah

Mommy and Meredith

Hannah will kill me one day ...

Sisterly love ...

... until Meredith got tackled and checked to see if she was "stinky" ...
... which she clearly did not care for ...
We went back to the zoo on President's Day with Sarah and the girls had a lot of fun, as usual at the zoo! Here they are climbing all over the fake iguana.

Here we are all riding on the little train that goes around the Children's Zoo. They weren't too fond as it was loud and I think it scared them a bit.

Meredith

Hannah

Here is Hannah. She is practicing for when she has her set of twins ;)

So the Pediatrician thinks that the girls' obssession with all things "pee pee" and "poo poo" may mean it is time to introduce a potty chair (or two) ... yes, she will hate me for this ... but it is a classic pic! At this point (according to the girls), potties are for playing on ... we have yet to have any real action ... which is OK by me. I am not going to start any formal training until after we move and get settled. I guess the good thing about being an identical twin is that even though I say this is Hannah, years from now, she can deny, deny, deny!

Throwing Mommy's clean laundry all over the hallway ...

Here is Meredith. She is trying to diaper her baby doll. It kills me because it is really cute and fun that they are starting to pretend a lot but at the same time it is frustrating for us all because they get SO MAD when they aren't able to do something on their own. True toddler behavior and I guess this is why 18-24 months is called the "terrible twos."

Meredith has always been more independant than Hannah but the difference in their personalities is really starting to come out. Hannah is very social and I really feel like she needs to be engaged seemingly constantly. Meredith was sitting practically behind this shelf peacefully stacking her blocks. They can stack blocks taller than they are! They will take them on as a team effort ... Hannah stacks one, Meredith stacks one ... if only they ALWAYS shared this well!

house hunting and hanging out

We have had a busy few weeks with Barbara, Sara & Kate visiting us, the girls and I visiting my parents in Spartanburg for a quick few days, and then taking a trip to Charleston to see a few houses. We had a great time and actually fit in a playdate around all the real estate appointments! I took the girls to Alhambra Hall Park to meet a few of my friends.

Here are Amy and Macey (~5 months) Levine

Here are Amy, Alex (7) and Claudia (2.5) Mendez
I couldn't get over how sweet Alex was with the girls ... here is Alex and Meredith

Here is Hannah ... one of the things I am most looking forward to about moving back to Charleston is the fact that you are rarely ever lacking for a gorgeous view of either a marsh, harbor, river, ocean ...

The girls have really gotten into their baby dolls lately and love to tell me that their babies are "stinky" and will bring me diapers to change their babies with ... they love to feed their babies and put them "night, night" and walk them in strollers and carry them in "carseats" ... here is Hannah looking like quite the little Mommy

Here is Meredith ...

For a while there I would let the girls have my cell phone so I could change their diapers without all the drama ... then it turned into them wanting my phone all the time and I decided to put the kabosh on letting them have it ever ... b/c I don't really want to buy a new cell right now =) Well, they (as you can imagine) are not thrilled with this plan and are pretty hysterical every time I talk on the phone b/c they want to play with it ... if I only knew then what I know now ... these were taken before the "the phone is not a toy" ruling ... we both have their photos on our screen savers on the phone and they love to look at the "babies" on the phone ... they open them up and say "baby!!!"

With Daddy ...