So long mullet babies!

Yup! That's right! Today was the BIG day...we finally took the boys for their first haircut! It case you were wondering, they will be 21 months old on January 22nd. It was a sad, yet exciting day! Sad because their baby hair is one of the only "baby" things left about them that I could still hold on to! Exciting because they are growing up so quickly and they were converted into little cover models in less than an hour!

Friday I called and made 2 appointments for 11:30am at The Hairy Elephant in Ballwin. This morning the boys slept in until 9am so we had to get around quickly to get us there in time (yes, it takes us that long!). We were hoping to have some extra time before the appointment to drive around the area since this is one of the areas on our "short list" for buying a house. But, we did not get around in time so the only looking we did was the road we took to get there!

Upon arriving at The Hairy Elephant we checked in and were greeted by our stylists. They showed us a cabinet of flavored/scented shampoos and told the boys to pick one. They had everything from strawberry to peanut butter cup! We helped the boys and went with a basic grape. From there we were escorted to the elephant wash stations. The boys love to have their hair washed so I didn't anticipate a problem with this step. Unfortunately, I did not know that they used a platform where the children laid down in front of the sink instead of the traditional chair. As soon as I saw it I knew it was trouble - it looked like a doctor's office table, without the white paper! The boys knew it was trouble too and screamed as soon as we tried to lay them down. We each held one while the stylists attempted to give them a grape wash. As soon as we sat them up they were fine though - it was as if nothing had ever happened!

After the elephant sink, children were allowed to pick out both a movie to watch and the chair/car they wanted to sit in. Since we don't do tv the stylists popped something in just in case (Neither of them watched it even though it was right in front of them). And, since we wanted them side by side there were not a lot of vehicle choices. Ashton got a race car and Ayden got a golf cart. They both had steering wheels and some buttons to push. They were both draped with a cape and the stylist's went to work.

Ashton wasn't too sure right off, but as long as I stood right there with him he was fine. As the stylist went along he relaxed and started to play with the steering wheel and the buttons. The stylist asked me if he wore his hair to the side. I told her that it usually just went straight forward. She started cutting it like that. A few minutes later I noticed that it was to the side a little. I told her that if it wanted to go that way that she could cut it like that. As she was finishing she put some gel in his hair and blow dried it to the side. He didn't care much for the clippers on his neck or the blow dryer. But, when she finished he did look very handsome! I am not sure if the "to the side look" is for him though. A few hours later it was already going forward again anyway! He has a little widow's peak so I think it will be staying forward from now on - we'll see...

Ayden did okay when we sat him down. He did raise his hands to us and say "Up, up!" many, many times throughout the process though! Ayden looked around a lot and did play with this steering wheel and, of course, the buttons. Ayden had such cute little curls around his ears that it was hard to see them go! He has a light swirl on his front hairline which makes his hair go to the side. The stylist confirmed with me that was how we styled it and she started cutting. Ayden wasn't real hip on the clippers either but, the stylist let him touch them and turn them on for her and that helped a little I think. After cutting the back of his hair, we realized it stuck straight out about the bottom of his neck line. She tried to cut it up a little so it would lay down better. I think it just needs to be trained to lay down and then maybe next time we won't get it cut so short in the back. Ayden's stylist did not put any product in his hair or use the blow dryer (probably a good thing!). He was really transformed when she finished with him - such a big boy!

Once the haircuts were complete the boys played in the waiting area which had a train table, some wall toys and soft seats. Daddy paid while I was given a very cute certificate for each boy, complete with a 5x7 "after" picture and a lock of hair in a little baggie both attached to the certificate. We left with children we hardly recognized as our own, but we were proud parents none the less!

Ayden - Before

Ashton - Before

Ashton did great up until the blow drying!

Ayden was all smiles!

Ashton - After

Ayden - After

Holidays, Homes and a 'Hole Lotta' Changes!

Things have been so crazy with us lately I have been finding it difficult to find time (or a free computer) to update our blog or upload pictures! SOOO...this might be a bit of a lengthy update - get comfortable!

Holidays-

I drove with the boys from Grove to St. Louis the weekend before Christmas to spend some time with Daddy and celebrate Christmas with the Kitsmiller family. We had a great time with our family, the boys got lots of new toys and clothes and we started to get settled into our new temporary "home" (more on this a little later!). The boys had a great time playing with their cousin, Chase, this year. They also loved their new rocking horse and lego table, just to name a few gifts! We stayed for a long weekend before heading back to Grove to spend the week back at my parents finishing up packing, wrapping gifts, etc. before celebrating Christmas with my side of the family.

Jeff changed his plans at the last minute and drove down from St. Louis on Wednesday evening after work in an effort to beat the blizzard the weathermen were predicting for the next day, Christmas Eve. Sure enough, by noon Wednesday parts of OK were covered in a blanket of snow. The snow didn't make it to Grove until about 8pm though. Of course, since this is OK no snow storm would be complete without freezing rain falling before the snow! This makes for a hard cleanup and very unsafe driving conditions. Because of this my sister, Vicke was not able to make it on Friday like she had planned. So, Christmas morning we all woke up to 6-12 in of snow on the ground, with drifts a lot higher than that! It was beautiful - from the warmth of the inside looking through the dining room glass doors anyway! The boys gazed upon this wondrous site with excitement when they woke up Christmas morning. It is very rare for a white Christmas in OK so I was glad that our last Christmas there was a memorable one! No one came over and we didn't leave the house because of the cold and terrible road conditions. The next day my grandma, my sister Kim and her family and my sister Vicke all made the drive to my parents' house and we had a great day opening gifts, eating and playing Phase 10! Originally the plan Sunday was for both Jeff and I to head back to St. Louis with our cars loaded down with everything we owned that was still left at my parents' house. The roads were better, but we weren't sure how great they would be the entire way. We decided that since there was no hurry for me and the boys to get there that we would wait until Monday to leave. It worked out great and we all made it to St. Louis safe and sound!

So, the boys have now completed their 2nd Christmas. It was more exciting this year since they were able to understand a little more. I anticipate next year will be even more exciting and that they will really be into the meaning behind Christmas! I can't wait!

Chase, Ashton, Ayden and Papa

"The boys" playing with the new lego table. Christmas morning

Ayden opening his stocking

Ashton opening his stocking

Ashton playing in the snow - don't let the face fool you, he didn't care too much for it!

Ayden trying to eat the snow!

Popa with the boys the day we celebrated Christmas with my family.

Our Christmas Cuties!

Daddy and Ayden with a Cheesecake Factory Bear from the Sawyer family!

Ashton opening yet another package!

Everyone was excited about the table and chairs.

This wooden airplane rocker was a huge hit!(Unfornately, it was too big to fit in the car this trip!)

Homes -

So, as I said, we are all in St. Louis now! And, now we are all going through yet another adjustment phase! It is very hard to be without all my "stuff", to be without the boys' cribs, and just in general to be out of our "normal". I will be SOOOOO glad when we finally sell our house and move into one of our own! Jeff's parents have been more than accommodating and the boys have their own room, while Jeff and I have our own sort of efficiency apartment. We are in a portion of their basement that was sort of an office/gym area before we took over! It is nice that we have our own space and that we are not sharing a room with the boys but, unfortunately, Ayden preferred it the other way! He is not sleeping well! I usually have to trudge my half asleep self up the stairs once or twice each night to calm him down. Some nights are better than others, and we are starting to see improvement. I think it is a combination of things, but I think once he realizes that we are all here together and he is safe things will calm down. (This will probably happen just in time for us to move again!!)

Our house has not sold yet, but we are hoping for that magic phone call everyday! We are starting to casually look at different areas around St. Louis trying to narrow in on one area. We thought we had decided on an area, but we have decided to open that up a little more and see what we can find.

'Hole Lotta' Changes -

Oh, how my baby boys are growing! It is not suppose to happen this quickly! Just in the two months since we moved out of our house they have changed dramatically! This is just a quick run down, I am sure I will forget a lot!

~Both boys have added many new words and use them often. They are also started to repeat a little more.

~After over a year of signing the boys both started signing back to me on the same day! That was more than a month ago and since then they have added a couple more signs.

~Their language comprehension is incredible! I often wonder how they know what I am talking about when I ask them to do something new - but, they do! I asked Ayden to get me a Kleenex the other day. We don't usually even have much around, but I have been battling a cold. I had never asked him before, or probably even talked to him about a Kleenex, but he went right over to the box! This is just one of many examples that occur on a daily basis lately. I guess I should just get over it and quit using "they don't understand" as an excuse!


~Ayden is a Puzzle Master! The kid is AMAZING! He perfected his first puzzle the week after Thanksgiving. He did it over and over even when he could do it with his eyes closed! He got a new puzzle when we celebrated Christmas in St. Louis and he put every piece in the correct place on his first attempt. We then got out a more difficult puzzle from our "for later" stash, and he had a little bit more difficulty with that one - but not for long! He had again mastered this in less than a week! Ashton can do the easier shape puzzle and will work on the others. He knows where the pieces go, but gets easily discouraged when they don't go right in.

~My boys have become even SWEETER! They started hugging several months ago, but now they are also kissing and holding hands! It is the most precious thing to watch! They also share food with each other and feed one another!


~They have started to do some pretend play. I so wish we had the boys kitchen right now (it's still in OK)! They are pretending to talk on the phone and give me or each other food/drinks.

~Ashton is an old pro at using utensils and plates/bowls! Ayden started out doing better than Ashton but has now regressed. He will use the spoon if you help him a little, otherwise he prefers to hold the spoon with his right hand and shovel it in by the fistful with this left hand.

Ashton

Ayden

~They have become great little helpers! They are really getting into picking up after playtime and also getting/doing things when asked.

~They are starting to understand and enjoy playing with playdough and coloring.



~Can we say "personal space"?! Their boundaries have sure changed recently. Not only are they hugging, kissing and holding hands...but they are always sitting RIGHT next to one another (sharing a chair even), pushing/guiding each other around (nicely usually), shampooing each other's hair...the list goes on! It is so sweet to watch how close they truely are! We often wonder how they would act had they been born singleton's!?

Happy Thanksgiving!

We are thankful this year for so much! We are thankful for a great new job for Jeff. We are thankful for two happy, healthy toddlers. We are thankful for our own health. We are thankful that we have a beautiful home (even if we aren't living in it right now!). We are thankful for the GREAT families that we both come from who continue to love and support us. This year we are also thankful just to spend the weekend together! It has been four weeks since Ashton, Ayden and I last saw Jeff! As I write this he is about an hour away! We have a great weekend filled with not much but eating and making up for lost time together! I hope you all have a great Thanksgiving and remember everything you have to be thankful for as well!

"Home"

Tomorrow will be a week since the boys and I moved in with my parents. It has been quite an adjustment for ALL of us! We all have different routines, different schedules and different tv shows. We are all use to our space and keeping our homes the way we like them. Now...we are all trying to make those things mesh under one roof. The boys have adjusted really well and have continued to sleep through the night, only waking up a little earlier than usual. Naps are also still going well. Their eating has been a little less predictable though. We did use this as an opportunity to drop their after nap nursing session and that has also gone great. They are now only nursing when they wake up in the morning and before they go to sleep at night. We went to a Holiday Market/craft show on Saturday morning and shopping in the afternoon, church on Sunday morning, the post office on Monday and to the library for story time on Tuesday. Today we just stayed home and rested while the grandparents and Gigi went to Joplin for the day.
Jeff has been gone for two and a half weeks now. It looks like it will be another week before we see him. He will be coming home for Thanksgiving and we will be going back to our house for a few days since it has not sold yet. I have been blowing the boys kisses and telling them that they are from Daddy and now they are blowing kisses back! It is SOOOOO cute! I got a picture of Ayden doing it this week but I don't have the ability to upload pictures right now. I will have plenty of pictures to share after next week!

Going it alone...

Jeff has been gone for 3.5 days and we have had our ups and downs, but we are making it! Grandma and GiGi made a last minute decision to come to town the day before their flight to Florida for my cousins wedding. It was nice to have them here, even though it wasn't for long. My mom and I took the boys to what was probably my last TMOM (Tulsa Mothers of Multiples) meeting. It was sad to leave the friends, with whom I had so much in common, that I have made during past 20 months.

This morning as Grandma and GiGi tried to leave for the airport Ayden had a huge meltdown and ONLY wanted GiGi! He put on quite the show, which continued after they had pulled out of the driveway! At least he will get to see plenty of her in the coming weeks! :) After they left I had to take out the trash (since the "man of the house" is not here to do his chores!). I wanted to do it before they left, but I didn't get to it. The boys run out of the house after me if I walk out, so I had to be creative. I had to open the overhead garage door and then lock the house door to the garage as well as the front door. I had to put up the baby gate to block the kitchen. I left the house through the kitchen patio door with the trash bags from inside. I put them in the can and put it on the curb in front of the house. Then I gathered all the boxes of trash (there is so much of that when moving!) and took them to the street. As I was gathering the garage trash I heard a band on the garage door. It sounded like the boys had opened the coat closet door and slammed it into the garage door - well, I figured, there were worse things they could be getting into! After the trash was all at the curb I had to go back through the gate and into the house from the side. When I got inside I was headed to the garage to shut the overhead door when I found this...

I had left a box of Cheez-It's on the table and they had pulled it down! I guess they thought they needed a mid-morning snack today! I forget how tall they are getting sometimes! They have also been having a ball tearing up all the newspaper I have out to pack with!

My hat goes off to all the single parents out there! Yes, I am used to taking care of the boys all day, but it is extra exhausting to do it into the evening everyday as well! I won't go into details about this evenings grocery trip to Wal-Mart, but I was pretty ticked when what should have been a 30 minute trip turned into over an hour all because I had a moron for a cashier! There was a short line and it took me 30 minutes to get through the line and get a few groceries! AGGGHHHH! So frustrating! I love the prices, look, layout, etc. of that Wal-Mart, but they have a lot of things that really upset me too. Jeff told me to not to go back there and I said I wouldn't - not because of what happened, but because I shouldn't need to go again before we move! :)

I have been trying to do all the packing while the boys are napping or at night when they are in bed. I don't think they will understand, but I also don't want them to stress. I did have to do some work in their closet so I did that yesterday morning. They had a lot of fun watching me and playing with the boxes. Ashton pushed a large empty box around the house before bringing it to their room. Ashton and Ayden then proceeded to fill the box with everything laying on their floor. I only wish they picked up that well when it is time to clean up the toys!

There was a little more in the box - before I got around to taking the picture they took a few things back out!

Brotherly Love

After the fighting I have been refereeing for the past few weeks I finally got a slight reprieve today! While I was cooking dinner and talking to daddy on the phone in the kitchen, Ashton and Ayden were having a grand time tearing up the Sunday paper on the dining room floor. I was watching them have a giggling good time when all of a sudden Ayden went right up to Ashton and wrapped his arms around Ashton and gave him the sweetest bear hug I have EVER seen! If this wasn't enough to melt my heart, he did it again a couple seconds later. But, this time he added "a little sugar on top" and even nuzzled his head against Ashton's as he hugged him! OH, MY! I teared up with happiness, joy, and pride at the site of my sweet boys embracing in their first hug! It was bittersweet to have to relay the events over the phone to daddy though! :(

Just to see if it was a fluke thing I asked Ayden to give Ashton a hug later that evening after dinner...and he did! This time I was prepared and got a few pictures, though nothing as cute as those first hugs in the dining room amongst a confetti of newspaper sheddings. I then asked Ashton to give Ayden a hug...and again, to my surprise, he did it! I am going to bed a very proud mama tonight!

Ashton

Ayden (and Lilo)

Ayden hugging Ayden

I LOVE it when he nuzzles!

Ashton hugging Ayden - didn't get the best picture of this one