The Big Girl(s) Bed

Some of you might know that last month Isabel fell and injured herself.  She fell and hit her front teeth on the metal frame of her toddler bed, there was a lot of blood, and crying (mostly by me), a trip to a pediatric dentist, her first x-rays, and in the end NOTHING needed to be done.  So it looks like she lost a tooth, but it is actually just pushed back into her gums.  The dentist says there is nothing to do but wait and it should come back down on its own.

In response to this little mishap, I removed the toddler beds from their rooms immediately!  After a couple of weeks of toddler mattresses on the floor with no coordinating bedding, no paint on the walls, and only a dress in the room, I decided it was time to give the girls an honest to goodness little girls room.  I asked them what color they wanted in their room and Lexi said, I want blue walls; wait, I want DARK blue walls and LIGHT blue on the bed, with diamonds.  Izzy said, I want yellow on the walls, and pink and green on my bed.  It was difficult to explain to them that they would only have one bed to share, but they eventually got it.  I did some research and decided on a "scheme".  Last weekend I moved everything out of the room, headed over to Sherwin Williams, and got to work.  I am about 90% finished and the girls are back in their room LOVING their big girls' room!  I am not going to lie, it was a little emotional for me the first night I put them to bed in their "big girl bed", and when I took a look around and realized that for the first time in 3.5 years there were no cribs in their room.

I didn't expect to get emotional about something that seems so normal, but alas I did.  I sat there thinking, as I am sure thousands of mothers before me have too, that they will never need cribs again.  They will never be that small again.  Flashes of pride for the little girls they have become, and pings of sadness as I realize time has gone by so quickly and we will never go back there again.  I just want to be able to bottle a small piece of who they are at each of these stages in their lives so I can revisit them when I miss those days.  I am thankful for digital photography, and modern technology that I can capture tiny moments like these it makes it somewhat easier.

They are still growing like weeds, over 42 inches already and both are just under 37 lbs.  It will soon be time to transition them from the convertible car seats to the full back booster.  They begin preschool two days a week in May and LOVE to sing.  Where is the pause button on life?

Ahhh the 3's!

Some days I have tears in my eyes from laughing so much, and others because they won't stop fighting.  The ups and downs of having 2 three-year-olds has definitely moved into high speed!  The girls always love each other, but I will be honest, the two most common phrases that I say these days are "be nice" and "stop fighting".  People often asked me about having twins, and if it is harder.  For the first two years, I always answered that is isn't twice as hard, just twice as long.  This is the first time since they were born that I sometimes think it is twice as hard.  I am reassured by my sisters and friends that 4 is much different that 3 and this too shall pass, boy am I counting the days sometimes!

When they aren't fighting, they make me laugh a lot too.  Lexi, has me cracking up with her "I sure do love those kids" statements when she is talking about my Mom and Dad.  Another one that both the girls say is "this is delicious Mommy" at dinner.  Unexpected from 3 year olds, and I guess that is what makes it funny to me.  Their conversations with each other, are sweet and caring, or just demanding!  Depends on the day.  Isabel is very much into being "the leader" and is barking orders all the time; unfortunately Alexa has perfected the art of ignoring anyone who is directing her (parents included), so this turns our commanding Izzy into a sobbing mess!  Oh the highs and the lows.  When Lexi plays along it is adorable.  Isabel is still working on playing along when she isn't the leader, we are all a work in progress.  I have to say that my most favorite thing right now though, is when they sing.  Our girls LOVE to sing.  We have a CD set of 123 kids songs that we listen to in the car ALL the time, and a few of the songs in particular are so fun to hear them sing.  At night though, they put on impromptu performances after lights out.  They are supposed to be sleeping, or trying to fall asleep but instead Doug and I will suddenly hear "The Farmer in the Dell" being SCREAMED through the monitor.  The louder the better, and when it is all over they laugh and laugh, until one of them declares the next song to be shouted, um, I mean sung.  Even after a difficult day, filled with fighting and time outs, this could make even the most exhausted parent laugh.

It is hard to believe they are 3 1/2. I signed them up for preschool today; they are scheduled to start 2 days a week in May.  I know it will be good for them, and they will love the other children and a structured environment, but I am still finding it hard to let go.  I know that one day soon, they will be going to school 5 days a week, until 330 in the afternoon; I just want to spend as much time with them as I can before that happens.  Just wish I could slow things down a bit!

This spring we are taking on projects that are centered around our girls.  First we are moving the girls from their toddler beds to a big girl bed.  We decided to go with one bed because they truly do love to sleep next to each other.  The bedding has large multicolored flowers and two walls are going to be turquoisey blue and two walls are going to be daffodil yellow, with the dresser and shelving in pinks and greens.  It is a colorful, fun, room design fit for two very energetic and dynamic girls.  Hoping to post pictures in a few weeks when its all done.  Our second project is at the request of Isabel.  She told me she wanted to make a garden.  So we are going to start small in the front of the house with some bushes and shrubs and maybe a few annuals, and if we are really motivated maybe even a few flowers of the girls choosing.  I think she is mostly looking forward to playing in the dirt, but who cares, help is help!!  Hopefully I will get a few shots of this project and hope to post them along the way!  Wish us luck because gardening is not my thing!!  :)

      

A Busy, but happy time of year

The Hartig family has been on the move!  A few weeks ago we had our pictures taken by a professional photographer.  I love the pictures, they turned out great.  I just wish they were not so expensive.  Although we cannot afford to by copies of these images for or our loved ones, we did get watermarked copies that I thought I would share with you here.

P.S.  If you want to see the finished product, without the watermark, I guess you will have to plan a trip to visit us in MD!!!  :)

Santa Visit

Yesterday we made our annual trip to Annapolis Mall to see Santa.  The girls were pretty excited this year; we had been talking about visiting Santa for a little over a week.  We were trying to reduce the fear, and answer questions about him and basically prepare ourselves for what reaction we might get.  I asked the girls what they were going to tell Santa they wanted for Christmas, to which both of them screamed "PRESENTS!"  After I stopped laughing, I said, "Yes, but what kind of presents", to which they stated "Blue presents"!  I probed further and asked, "OK, what kind of blue presents" and finally was told a blue teddy bear.  Upon revealing their desire, Lexi switched to red, a red teddy bear.  So when it was time to tell Santa what they wanted, they explained they wanted blue and red teddy bears, and then proceeded to stand there and not move.  They were expecting him to give them a teddy bear right then and there.  He had to explain that they had to way until he came to their house on Christmas Eve and deliver the gifts to all the good girls and boys.  The responded with "I don't want to wait". Ahhh to be a kid, with no filter.

It was a visit filled with many moments that made us laugh, and it ended with what we think is their best Santa photo yet!  Happy Holidays everyone!  We hope you are all enjoying this time of year and spending lots of time with the ones you love!

Funny Lexi Moments from the last few months

The other day we are driving in the car and we came to a red light, so I stopped.  Alexa says "hey Mom are we out of gas?"  I just couldn't help but laugh!  We have never run out of gas.....don't know where she got that.

A few weeks ago we are sitting at the dinner table and Lexi lets out a huge "UUUGGGHHH".  So I ask her what is wrong and she says "I'm frustrated"  (I laughed a little hearing that).  I asked her why she was frustrated and she says "Because Izzy is driving me bananas"!!  I nearly fell off my chair with that one!

Finally, we were at the doctor the week before Thanksgiving because both the girls were sick.  Just as we are being called back by the nurse Alexa says, "I have to go potty", naturally that was followed by Izzy saying "me too".  So I proceed to take them down the hall to the potty and Alexa is sitting on the toilet doing everything but peeing.  The nurse had knocked on the door already to let us know what room we were in once she finished.  I would estimate she had been on the potty for 5-7 minutes, and I was getting impatient.  I said to her "Alexa, you need to hurry up the doctor is waiting for us."  She says to me "ok Mom, just slow down".  I find little humor in this remark at the time, and say "Alexa, I am losing my patience" and to that she responds "I know Mom, we need to get more"!  How could I not laugh at that!  Talk about lightening up a stressful moment!

Yesterday I asked the girls if they knew where we were going this weekend, and Lexi replies "yeah, we are going to Grandma Q and Papa Bill's house.  We are going to see Grandma Q because I miss her so much".  I nearly cried it was so cute!

Fall Fun

I absolutely love this time of year.  The weather is great, the leaves are beautiful, and it is Halloween--the beginning of the holiday season.  This time of year always inspires people to spend time with their families and visit pumpkin patches, farms, and orchards; to let their kids be kids in corn boxes and mazes.  I adore watching families together bundled in fall clothing, complete with my favorite kind of footwear BOOTS!  Check out Izzy trying on Mommy's boots for size!

Once the girls were back in their own boots, we headed down to Bowles Family Farm in Clements, MD.  They are famous for having the largest corn maze in MD.  They have it done each year to support a different local business.  Pretty cool.  The girls are a little to young for a maze this size so we stuck to the small maze, the petting zoo, "train rides", and the favorite place to be....the corn boxes!

Disney 2011 *****Warning extremely long post*****

The problem with digital pictures is that I take WAY too many of them.  We have been home from Disney for over a month and I still haven't made it through the mountain of images we took while we were there, over 1000 photos!  I did however buy the disc with the photopass pictures.  I wanted to share them with you all sooner, but time gets away from me these days.  So for now I will do what I can, here is how the trip went...

We were lucky enough to take advantage of Doug's job and were able to take the auto train down to Florida.  It was a lot of fun; we boarded the train at 3 pm, and immediately were invited to wine and cheese in the lounge car.  The train departed for Florida an hour later and we got settled in our rooms.  We had 2 adjoining sleeper compartments.  The compartment consisted of a couch which folded down into an extra wide single bed, and then a bunk that came down from the wall, also a private bathroom with a shower and sinks.  It was nice to be able to have that space.  So we relaxed until 5pm when we were called for our on board dinner.  The girls loved eating on the train.  There was a movie in the lounge car following dinner, but because the girls are still a little young for a feature length film we opted to head back to our room and set up the laptop with Beauty and the Beast.  The girls cuddled up with their blankets and tucked their dolls in next to them and enjoyed the ride.

Doug and I moved over to our side of the room, pulled out the table and played a few hands of gin.  We relaxed, I drank wine, we read the paper, Doug played Sudoku and I did a crossword.  We lounged and just enjoyed the ride.  I would take the auto train again in a heartbeat!

By 9pm the girls were in bed, we were back at the table playing gin for a few more hours.  Then it was off to bed, and before we knew it we woke up for a light continental breakfast at 7am and then pulled into the station in Sanford, FL at 8am.  We were off to our condo, and were checked in by 9:30 am.  We decided to unpack, and put the girls down for a nap, Doug was off to Walmart to stock the condo for the rest of the week and after a shower we were all ready to hit the ground running.

We decided to go to Epcot the first night we were there.

The first thing the girls saw when we got into the park was a place to meet Mickey and his friends.  They both ran up to the windows and plastered their faces against the glass to see all of them inside.  Doug and I decided to go ahead and wait in line to meet them all.  The wait was trying at times, but Epcot was set up with TVs playing cartoons so that anywhere you were in line you could see a screen.  That helped alot.  Here are some of my favorite pictures from the girls very first time meeting Mickey and friends:

Isabel had Lexi distract Donald so she could check out his tail feathers!

Next we headed over to the Finding Nemo ride.  We all loved it.  We wanted to see if the girls would be okay staying up late for the laser light show, but needed to eat first.  Unfortunately, the show wasn't until 10 pm and the girls were going into meltdown mode right around 7pm, so we got some food at the Chinese place hoping it would rejuvinate the girls, but no luck.  We headed back to the condo because the next day would be a long one!

We woke up early Tuesday morning and were so excited to go to Magic Kingdom.  Our moods were only dampened slightly when it began to rain on our way over; by the time we got off the bus is was a full on Monsoon!  So we stood under a covered walkway for a long time, I headed to the giftshop and purchase 4 ponchos, and a hat.  When the rain finally subsided enough for us to just go for it, we did!  The girls didn't care about the rain, they just wanted to jump in the puddles.

So we made our way over to the Swiss Family Robinson Tree house, it was open and there was no line!  So we headed up the tree.

  Next we headed over to the pirates of the Carribean ride:

and ran into Goofy:

Then we headed over to Frontierland and there was Donald...

And then it was time for our very first character meal!   We headed back to the front of the park to the Crystal Palace to have lunch with Winnie the Pooh and Friends.  I had planned several character meals to give the girls a chance to see the characters up close and to relax/eat while waiting.  At first, Doug wasn't sure about this decision, because let's face it, we overpaid for the actual meal but after the wait to see Mickey and all his friends the night before at Epcot, Doug declared it a GREAT idea!  The girls were VERY excited to see all the characters, no fear here.  A couple of my favorite moments:

Isabel seeing Eeyore for the first time:

Her first picture with a character:

And right when it was Lexi's turn to meet Eeyore, she saw Tigger enter the room! Eeyore was so heart broken! It was perfectly played by Eeyore as he covered his eyes as if he was crying and lower his head without skipping a beat!

He forgave her after a big hug.

After lunch, the rain had stopped completely and we had a full day of Magic.  Rides and shows, and parades and of course what trip to the Magic Kingdom would be complete without meeting the princesses!

First they met Princess Aurora (Sleeping Beauty):

Then Belle:

Last, but not least, Cinderella:

Check out our Picasa pictures to see all the magic we experienced on our first day ever at the Magic Kingdom.

After meeting the princesses it was time to watch the parade one last time and then head home for the night because Grandma Bobbie and Papa Jim would be arriving soon!  At least one of us, was very tired!

The following morning we headed over to Sea World.  We spent the next two days, watching shows with dolphins and whales, and assorted other marine life.

We rode rides and even fed and petted the sting rays.

 The girls finished up their trip to Sea World by getting just as wet as the rest of the animals there!  They had so much fun in the water park area.  It was really hot both of those days, so it was a great ending to our time at Sea World.

The park closed at 6 pm, which was perfect so we could head out to dinner, and get to bed early because the next day was the big day, the girls 3rd birthday!!!!

On Friday morning, we woke up early and were headed over to Magic Kingdom again.  Unfortunately for us, the weather didn't cooperate and it was pouring once again. We had a really full day planned, and the girls were excited.  Our first stop was breakfast at the Grand Floridian Hotel!  

Happy Birthday Isabel and Alexa!!

The girls birthday breakfast was shared with Mary Poppins, Winnie the Pooh, Tigger, The Madhatter, and Alice.  As much as the loved seeing Pooh, and Tigger, I think the highlight at this breakfast was Mary Poppins!

They haven't even seen the movie yet, but boy were they struck by her.  They didn't want her to leave.  They loved her lipstick and asked her to give them some, so she touched her lips and then touched theirs and blinked and the girls believed she had painted their lips the same as hers.  It was so sweet to watch.

 Then it was birthday cupcake time!  Yes, the girls had a great breakfast, complete with Mickey Mouse shaped waffles, fresh strawberries, eggs, and a huge cupcake too!

Then came the Madhatter and the girls had no clue who he was even though we had just watched the movie a week before our trip....

It wasn't the same story when Alice came around they knew who she was!  Alice sang Happy Unbirthday to herself, and even borrowed one of the girls birthday cupcakes to blow out her unbirthday candle!  It was cute and the girls could not stop watching.

After breakfast the rain was gone, but the heat and humidity had arrived!  The girls didn't care, they just wanted to go ride more rides and see the other half of the park; but first we need to dance in the streets and watch another parade!  (I got some great shots of the characters, you can see them in our Picasa Pictures).

Next we headed over to the Merri-go-round and a great 3D movie, and a trip through Brear Rabbits and Winnie the Pooh's neck of the woods.

Finally we were off to meet a personal favorite Lexi's, THE FAIRIES!  Rosetta was there and so was Tinkerbell!  The girls were so curious and very taken by the fairies!

Rosetta:

Tinkerbell:

Finally it was time for the GRAND FINALE of our time at Disney World.  The girls birthday dinner at Chef Mickey's in the Contemporary Resort.  It was to be the granddaddy of all birthday dinners!  It may have fallen a little short but these girls never noticed!  We were all exhausted, but still managed to enjoy our last meal at Disney World and celebrated with birthday cakes!

We have now concluded this broadcast of our very successful and unforgettable trip to Disney World!!!