I found my twin in the world

Me in 2004

My twin not me.

My twin not me.

Me in 2004

You know how people always say that everyone has a twin in the world or how you look just like someone else they know? Today I think I found mine. I was looking at Kevin's facebook page and a friend of his had commented on a photo of a friend. This person was not a friend of Kevin. I don't know this person but I noticed this person was pregnant so out of curiousity I clicked on the photo. I gasped. I felt like I was looking at myself from 10 years ago. This person looked just like I looked back then. I used to have the EXACT same hair color and cut. Her smile, the shape of her eyes and the way she tilts her head in pictures is more than a strong resemblance to me.

I called Kevin at work to look at the pictures and he laughingly agreed. I wish I could post some really good comparison pics from way back when but I only have the paper pics of those, no digital and no scanner. You'll just have to take my word for it.

Post Christmas Crap

As I mentioned in my last post, poor Anders went to the dr. the day after Christmas and was diagnosed with an ear infection. The next day, Saturday, Jake woke up from his nap with a fever.

Deja vu

The peditrician wasn't open that late on Saturday so I took him to urgent care knowing full well he must have an ear infection as well. He did. Both guys are so incredibly congested and when you can't/won't blow your nose, the drainage has no where else to go but to back up into the ear. Using the bulb syringe is just completely out of the question with these guys. They ain't havin it.

So for the past couple of days everyone has been on amoxicillian and Anderson made a quick turn around. He is doing much better, playing and in good spirits. He's still living on blueberries and popcorn but he is okay.

Jake on the other hand is miserable. Today was one of his worst days in recent memory. He was such a crank monster. He couldn't compose himself for more than 10 minutes at a time today. He was having unpredictable and inexplicable meltdowns over only god knows what...cause I couldn't figure it out. The most disturbing part was that he couldn't stop coughing and with all his hysterical crying it was one vicious circle. He was constantly coughing, I tried vicks, lots of water, the binky and even gave him some raspberry green tea (which he liked) but none of it worked. His naptime was a disaster because he couldn't get a wink of sleep in due to the coughing which only compounded the problem. Finally we decided he needed to go back to the dr. if only for some piece of mind for Mom and Dad. We were told "its just a cold".

All I can say is they better be right. My mom anxiety is through the roof right now over my little guy's suffering. Heads will roll if it turns out to be more than that.

Christmas Day Evening

Jake and I

Cousin Brittany "taking care" of the boys... Somehow I missed the
jumping the furniture (gulp)


Brian, myself and J-Dog

Brittany and her new admirer Jake

After the boys napped on Christmas Day we headed over to the Guitar Family Christmas. I just love the Guitar Family get together. It is always loud and usually my face hurts by the end of the night from all the laughing. We had so much good food, the amount of desserts were ridiculous, and all the cousins got reaquainted.

Anderson and Jake are much younger than my cousin's children. They range from ages 7-19 and then their is Anderson and Jake. I have cousins that are 5-7 years older than me and cousins that are 4-7 years younger than me, but no one my age. So that explains the age gap. The younger cousins haven't added to the brood yet. Regardless of the age difference the cousins were so excited about the boys, led them around by the hand, played with them and it allowed Kevin and I to enjoy ourselves rather than chase the boys around.

Christmas Morning

Daddy helping the boys with opening their gifts

Anderson going to town.

Daddy and Jakey



A very sick and sleepy Anders...but he still has his million dollar smile.

Jake putzing around with the paper

Jake woke up first on Christmas morning and since little Anders had a rough night we decided to let him sleep. Jake had all of his Mama and Daddy's undivided attention as he opened his gifts from Santa. After Jake finished up we could hear Anderson chattering. He came out and opened all of his presents with a little help from Jake. We quicky got everyone bathed, dressed and fed because Grandma, Auntie Sara, Uncle Bob and Crystal were on their way over for a Christmas breakfast.

The boys opened more presents from their family. To say they were spoiled is an understatement. They got all kinds of cool stuff...dinosaurs, golf set, playdough toys, a carrying case for their trains and cars, cars, cars, and more cars..the list goes on.

Christmas Eve

Anderson eating his toast on Christmas Eve morning.

Claire telling Jake a secret.

Grant James and I



Jake sitting next to uncle wearing his new mocassin slippers.



The bubbies in action.

Christmas Eve was a little unusual this year as Kevin had to work. Thankfully he was home by 3 but it just seemed weird to not have him there for all the preparations. My parents and the McBrides came over around 3 and the Christmas fun began. In years past we always open presents after dinner, but that just wasn't to be this year. No sooner did everyone walk through the door that the wrapping paper began flying around the room.

The first present the boys opened were some Christmas ornaments from the McBrides. As soon as they saw the shiny Mickey Mouse and Firef*ck it was difficult to bring them back for more. They wouldn't have cared a bit if that had been their only present. We were really inconveniencing them when we encouraged them to open more gifts. Eventually they opened more and found wonder and amazement in each new present....excluding the clothes of course.

They were happy enough to be off to bed by 8. Never have I saw such a lack luster reaction in a tot when told "Santa Claus is coming tonight". BIG DEAL. They were more concerned with making sure Daddy sang Animal Books and I sang the Dinosaur song before they were off to snooze.

The evening was wonderful but came to a rough end. Anderson was up every 3 hours crying, coughing and unable to breathe through his nose due to severe congestion. Both he and Jake have been battling colds for the past week and of course it reached its worst point on Christmas Eve. His temp was 102. I was unable to sleep at all because I was so worried about him and the fact that there would be no where to take him on Christmas Day. Thankfully Tylenol got him through till this morning when I was able to take him to the Dr. Poor thing has an ear infection.

Snapshots of 2008: Celebrating Every Moment

First steps and first tumbles.
Getting right back up.

Cars, trucks and trains.
Oh, books and slides too!

Tantrums, whining and exhaustion.
Kisses.

The drama of a haircut.

Watermelon, goats and all other things we once dismissed as uninteresting. (Boy, were we wrong!)

Pumpkin picking.

Green eggs and ham, green eggs and ham and that Sam-I-am.

Holding them and praying for their future.

I wasn't the original author, but I came across this and made it personal to us by making a few changes.

Kevin's Bright Idea

Christmas 2007....the boys in their monogrammed Christmas longalls

Jake's Teddy Bear wearing his longalls.


Anderson's wearing his

Doing what they do lately...jumping on the bed while holding their new bears

Last year we bought the boys their first Christmas outfits from Pottery Barn Kids and had them monogrammed with their initials. I had looked high and low for the perfect outfit and when I saw these I was so happy. As silly as it might seem, I just adore these outfits. I have been trying to figure out how to save/preserve them, but what I really wanted was to enjoy them again as much as I did last year. They are too small for the boys to wear so that wasn't an option and to put them away in a box didn't sound right either.

Then Kevin had a great idea. He suggested buying teddy bears and dressing them in the outfits to sit under the tree every year. I LOVED it. So we did.

The Tales of Despereaux....

was our very first movie. The boys will be turning two in two weeks, so we thought they were ready for their very first movie. It was quite a production just to get out the door. I packed every snack imaginable and they were very well thought out snacks. Had to be something they eat slowly, don't get sick of, and won't get sick from. They ended eating a massive amount of Kevin's popcorn, fortune cookies (long story), animal crackers and water. Things I packed that they didn't eat...grapes, cheese, pb & j bites, and fruit leather.

They were a little timid at first. As we entered the dark theartre they were a little spooked. We picked them up and reassured them that it was just a giant TV. They previewed Ice Age which scared the pants off of them. Anderson and Jake were still adjusting to the sound so all of the sound effects were making them jump out of their tiny skins. Then the characters started falling off a cliff and I think the poor little guys thought they were falling as well. Their beautiful faces were all squished and red and their eyes were starting to well up. Thankfully it was over as quick as it began and they quickly recovered.

They were great for the first hour of the movie. They munched on their snacks and sat pretty quietly. Every once in a while they said "hi...movie, movie" to myself, Kevin and the McBrides. The last half hour they started to get a little fidgety. They moved up onto our laps and began to chatter a bit more, repeating some of the lines the characters said in an outside voice. It was sweet (to us at least) and I don't think they caused too much of a disruption to the other 20 people in the theatre. Now I'm just scratching my head wondering how these little guys got old enough to go see a movie.

We got our white Christmas

J.T.

A.J.

Lovin on one another

Jake on the porch

Anderson braving the cold

Last night and into today, a big winter storm moved into the area and dumped about a foot of snow on us. The boys had been watching it snow all day, so when it finally stopped we dressed them up to go out. Jake was ready and willing...Anderson was a different story. Much like last year, Anderson resisted the dressing process and crabbed all the way out the door. Of course once he was outside he had fun.

Jake was very hands on. He attempted to climb the snow mounds, ate the snow and was picking it up like crazy. Anderson was more of a disgruntled observer. He toddled around checking things out but had zero interest in joining Daddy and Jake who were playing in the deep snow. Eventually he picked up some snow and was definitely enjoying himself. I base that off of both their irrational and spastic reactions when it was time to come inside.

Elf on our shelf, tree, mantle, light, tv....

Tomorrow morning the boys will find Twink perched high on a sconce.

The Elf on the Shelf is a huge hit with Anderson and Jake. He came last week on Daddy's birthday and the boys ask for us to read the book 3-4 times a day. Every morning when they wake they look around the house for him and excitedly point him out when they find his new hiding place. When we read the part in the book about not touching him or he will lose his magic, they remind us over and over "no touching, no touching".

We decided to name him Twink. Seems like an appropriate name for an elf that watches over twins. I was disappointed in Twink's quality. He is a pretty cheaply made elf and I just hope he can endure his years to come in the Edgar household. Kevin and I are full of excitement for this year's Christmas celebration. The boys have been really engaged in the Christmas songs, ornaments, Tawsty the Snowman, presents and Santa Claus. We have also been busying ourselves with the preparation of their second birthday party to follow.

The other day I was tinkering around in the kitchen and overheard my sweet Anderson saying the following...

Anderson (as Mommy or Daddy) in a very stern and short tone "TIME OUT"

Anderson (as himself) in a very pitiful and defeated tone "Oh, okay time out."

He kept going back and forth role playing as the authority figure and as himself. There was no one else around at the time, he was in foyer by himself. I scurried for the camera to try and catch at least the audio but as soon as he was aware of my presence he stopped.

Festivus for the rest of us 2008

Tina and Claire

Jared, Brian, Tina and Claire

Even though we vowed last year that we would only do a Christmas cookie day every other year due to the underestimated immense amount of work it is....we did again. It was more of a debocle than last years cookie making. First we were short on dough, then we compensated too much and had more dough than we knew what to do with. We botched the frosting recipe making it too runny so now the cookies must be refridgerated and eaten before they reach room temp. Last but not least we ran out of time. There are two dozen cookies in my freezer that never got frosted because everyone ran out of steam and wanted to eat dinner.

Then came the fun part. Clean up the huge mess from the cookies, set up for dinner, make dinner, clean up dinner, and finally divide and package up the cookies. Thankfully I have a wonderful sister and cousin who don't disapear when the fun is over and between the three of us we managed to pull it all off. In the end it was a nice afternoon with family, we have tons of yummy cookies that can't be eaten above room temp and my kitchen is once again recognizable.

Baby OCD

Anderson with his red car. Can't get a good pic of him lately because he loves putting his face right up to the camera and saying cheese.
Jake with his blue car.

About two months ago, a friend of ours gave the boys some battery operated cars. You shake them up which makes the engine rev and then you set them down and they take off pretty fast. The boys were really scared of them at first. They didn't want to have anything to do with them, so they sat in the toybox for a few weeks until recently.

Anderson became interested in them but still he didn't want to touch them. Both the boys would bring them to us periodically and ask us to make them go. As soon as we started to shake them they would climb up on the couch and watch the cars zip around. They were too afraid to be on the floor with them. For a couple of weeks now they have been driving us nuts begging for us to shake and chase the cars around while they cautiously watch from the couch.

Last week Anderson finally got the nerve to shake the car himself, set it down and watch it go. Since then he has been happily playing with the cars while Jake watched from his safe refuge. Both Kevin and I have been trying to encourage Jake to join in the fun but he just wasn't ready.

Till yesterday.

Yesterday he finally found the courage to shake the car, touch the spinning wheels and enjoy the toy. This was about an hour before we had to leave the house. Please don't forget this child carried trains around in both of his hands every waking minute for six days straight. Once Jake finds a toy he likes he becomes obbessed. We had to pry his little fingers off the car when it was time to leave the house and he screamed for about 10 minutes afterwards. We cut our errands short because the poor thing was so tortured from being away from his long awaited car.

I can only imagine what has been going through their little minds for the past few weeks when they would only watch the cars but not play with them. All the anticipation, excitement and fear wrapped into one tiny mind. Today has been no different, they haven't put them down. Well, at one point Anderson put his car down to play with something else and Jake had a fit about it. He chased Anderson around crying and begging him to keep playing cars. The peer pressure worked, Anderson took the car from Jake and reluctantly went back to playing with him.

Happy to you Daddy!

Kevin turns 31 today. His mom cooked him a wonderful spaghetti dinner with some homemade cherry pie. His bubbies sang "Happy to you" over and over again. I suspect his heart was pretty full.

"I like Santa Claus"....

Jake

A and J

The catalyst to organized freedom

was Anderson's first SENTENCE!!! Woohoo! When the boys woke up on Thursday they headed straight for the Christmas tree. They were touching the ornaments and little Anders slowly said "I..... like...... Santa Claus". I was so excited but also a little wierded out by it. Since then he has said "I need help." and "Take these off." and each time I have been taken aback. It just seems so strange to hear this little person express his wants and needs with words rather than the strange monkey noises I'm used to.

He has also mastered singing quite a few songs. He can sing along with both of the Sesame Street CD's and he is pretty darn good! He hits both the high and low notes and hearing him makes my heart soar. His favorite random song to sing is from Yo Gabba Gabba called "Don't bite your friends". How ironic since he is our biter.

Jake is hot on his tails. When we were driving today we drove past an entrance to the McBride's neighborhood that we rarely use but Jake knew exactly what we were driving past . He started excitedly yelling "Claire's house, Claire's house" but was disapointed that it was not our destination. He often requests certain songs from our CD's, his favorite being the "la la la song" which is the L song sung by his favorite guys Bert and Ernie.

This week we ordered the boys an Elf on the Shelf. http://www.elfontheshelf.com/#/gift-shop

We have been tossing around ideas of some Christmas traditions we want to start with the boys and this was one of them. Our little elf should arrive sometime next week.

We had a busy day. We started off at Target to pick up some fabric boxes for the boys' mittens, hats, and shoes. We have so much random stuff in our entryway closets that needed to be organized and the cute little boxes we bought motivated me to do something about it. Instead of slipping a piece of paper with their name on it under the little plastic window I used a picture of them. We ended up getting rid of a bunch of useless junk we have accumulated and we are now able to find the mates to all of our shoes.

After the boys napped we headed out to do a return and grab dinner. The boys gots lots of attention and were called "cute little tigers" by a stranger at dinner. "No, they are not identical, yes they are twins, and he was born first" have just become part of the daily routine when we go out. The boys thrive on the attention so I guess what's the harm?

23 months old today !

Our Christmas tree

I love these present bags! Very well made, great personalization and only 7.99 with free shipping!

The new toy chest.

Much less of an eye sore than the former toy holder...the changing table.

The boys turned 23 months today. We took them out to dinner to celebrate and they were great. Anderson ate till his tummy distended and turned hard....Kevin was actually worried. You know it had to be a buddah belly if Kevin took note.

Yesterday we had a busy evening. Last week we ordered a leather storage bench and it arrived yesterday. We ordered it because I am so tired of looking at the changing table/toy shelf in our living room. It was such an eye sore and after two years I was finally coming to terms with the fact that the toys aren't going away. They are here to stay and they live in our living room. They are big, ugly, obnoxiously colorful and stubbornly obtuse.

The leather bench is huge, which is great. I can stuff lots of junk in there in a pinch and we've also added some seating in the living room. Once we had the bench set up, we purged through the toys on the changing table. The changing table is now residing in Jake's room and with any luck will be bought off of Craigs list this weekend. Fingers crossed.

Once that was all settled we finally had some room to put up our Christmas tree. The boys were bulls in a china shop. They managed to break one oranament, pull several apart. and Jake was chucking them around the room like a baseball. The funniest part is that they don't even think to touch the presents underneath the tree. I noticed last week at Claire's birthday party they never touched her presents. Let's hope they don't figure things out before Christmas.

Just some pics...

A and J dancing together.

Dancing the Charlie Brown with Daddy.

Jake this past weekend.

Awww, Jakey

Sweetie pie Anders

6 days and counting...

Jake and his trains

Anderson full of cheer right after waking up (note the train in his hand)

Good Morning, Jakey!

Anderson says "cheese"

It has been six days since we gave the boys their trains and they are still obbessed with carrying them around everywhere. Life moves slowly when you constantly have to switch the hands that are holding the trains to put your arm in your sleeve, eat, or take a bath. They just won't put them down, its ridiculous! One day they were fighting for the same train, Henry, so I asked my parents to pick up a second Henry. No one wanted Murdoch. Now that there are two Henrys wouldn't you know that both boys now fight over Murdoch. I refuse to buy another Murdoch. Those stickin trains are 8 bucks a piece!

The boys had a great Thanksgiving spent with their family. We started the day off with having Grandma and Auntie Sara over for brunch, heading to Great Grandma Edgar's house for dinner and then our final stop was at the McBride's house for dessert and a b-day celebration for Claire. I wrote up a long huge post complaining about some dumb and insensitive comments made by family members but have since deleted it. It just didn't seem right to complain on a day that I was so very grateful for my boys.

Yesterday we went with the McBrides to downtown Rochester for some Christmas festivities. It was cold but they had fun. Afterwards we ate dinner at Famous Daves and the boys were so good! They munched on baked beans, corn bread, chicken, mac n cheese, and whatever else they could get their hands on.