Misc Pictures

I hardly get on here and just post a couple whatever pictures so here you go:

The kids playing together

Taylor & Emily

Taylor and her silly faces!

Emily doing what she does best. Standing up!!

In other news, Taylor started clapping today! Still not on cue but she can clap both hands together. AND she was up on all fours! I have a feeling she'll be starting crawl soon! YEAH! Maybe that will make her a happier baby. Although she's fine with just rolling everywhere to get most places she does get frustrated sometimes when she can't reach something.

Last Night

Connor ended up in bed with us. Emily cried. Gave her a bottle. She still cried. She fell asleep. An hour later, woke up again. Cried, cried, cried. Taylor slept. It's a darn good thing she's a heavy sleeper or doesn't mind her sister crying. UGH!!!

Taylor Wants to be Different

So apparantly, it looks like she is getting a tooth in too. But guess where?? It's on the upper side. Hmm. I know they don't always have to be the same but come one. Who get's their first tooth on the top?? Not many.

And the road trip ....

was a success! The girls (and Connor) did awesome on the way up!! Connor and Emily woke up about an hour before we got to my parents but were fine. Connor was just enjoying looking at everything. When we got there, Taylor woke up too so we fed both girls a bottle (well I fed both girls a bottle while Surbjit unpacked and set up everything). Then we put them to bed. They ended up sleeping until 7am I believe so I got some sleep.

Friday we spent visiting my Mom's work so everyone could see the twins and Connor. Connor was NOT shy! LOL! He loved visiting with everyone and got to see their Koi pond with the fish and waterfall. He even got to feed the fish! The rest of the day was basically just spent at the house relaxing and spending time with my Mom and Dad.

Saturday we went to Jamestown to visit the railroad and take a ride on the train (pictures to come later). Connor LOVED this and keeps asking to go on the choo choo again. It was a very nice ride (45 min ride but it ended up being longer because their fire trolley that rides with the train ended up derailed when they were trying to switch the engine around. Woops! But after about 15 mins (of sitting on the HOT sweltering train) they got it back on the rails and we continued our ride!). Then we ate our picnic lunch on the grounds at the railway museum. Since it was Labor day, they even had an ice cream social so we all had ice cream (except Taylor and Emily of course!). All the kids were wiped out! We went back home and tried to take naps (ha!) and then Connor spent the good part of the afternoon playing in the gravel. My parents don't have a yard per se since they live in the mountains. But my mom got Connor a bucket and some spoons and measuring cups and he had fun playing with the gravel in the driveway! Then my Dad decided to take him on a ride in the tractor. Oh boy!! Did he love that! Surbjit got a video I'll try and shorten and share. He has the bulldozer attachment on front so Connor kept saying "It's not a tractor, it's a bulldozer!" He got to drive it around and even steered it himself.

Sunday we stayed at home. We were basically outside a lot of the day. Or I should say Connor was. He and Grandma got to walk around and dig in the gravel again and had so much fun. He loved walking around and just being outside. Three of my brothers ended up coming over for dinner and Dad made a huge spread of delicious food. It was nice to be able to see them and no one had seen the twins ever. (oh yeah, and I forgot my mom had seen the girls since they were born. I forgot she came down in April! Woops!). Then Connor got to drive the tractor again. This time they took some gravel from the pile my Dad had and spread it over the driveway so he got to pick up gravel and dump it out. Very much a highlight of the day for him!!

We left Sunday night for the return home. We figured it would just be easier. It's kind of a bummer for Connor because he doesn't get to see all the tractor trailers and trains that go by. But in due time. When the girls are older and we can entertain them and they are more "aware" we can travel during the day. They did fairly ok on the way home. Both girls kept crying out every now and then. We were on pins and needles just waiting for one of them to start freaking out and we wouldn't be able to calm them down. Luckily that never happened. When we got home, all three kids went straight to their beds and stayed sleeping. Surbjit and I got to sleep around 2:30am. Taylor and Emily started to wake up at 5am. I went in, gave them their binkies and begged for one more hour! Taylor ended up falling back asleep and woke up at 7am. Emily fell back asleep and didn't wake up until 9am!!! We almost thought there was something wrong. She obviously was very tired!!!

Speaking of Emily, when she does things, she does them full throttle! She is getting not one, not two, but THREE teeth! YIKES! All on the bottom. It still doesn't look like Taylor is getting any but I think she might be getting one of her top teeth in. Weird. Who knows. Last night Emily woke up at 2am and wouldn't fall back asleep so I made a bottle and she guzzled it down! They both guzzled down their bottles this morning too. I'm thinking they are growing and getting teeth in. So I have a feeling we are in for some rough night over the next month. eek. Oh well. It will pass right. =)

Well, I'll try and get the pictures up as soon as I have time to get them off the camera.

What is it??

Do they know we are going on a road trip and are purposefully being a pain in the butt??? Emily AND Taylor BOTH woke up screaming last night. I'll give Emily the teething card but Taylor?? I guess one can only surmise that she is teething too? I don't feel anything but that doesn't mean there isn't a tooth ready to break through that skin. Now I don't know about you, but I sure don't remember it being painful. But then again, I don't remember being under 5 years old either. :sigh: So we (I) were up until 12:30am - 1am. Got up at 4am to get ready for work. Lovely. Can you say tired? I've realized I've been lucky that my children have slept through the night relatively early and painless. Because nights like this drive me crazy!! I need sleep. I don't do well without sleep. I know I'll be able to sleep again sometime in the future but I still get pissy. I sure hope my parents realize they'll be getting little sleep the next few night. ;)

So we are still planning on going on our road trip, for now. They both woke up this morning bleary eyed but raring to go. They were both (I thought) sound asleep so I chose Taylor to wake up. As soon as I put her on the changing table I swear, Emily couldn't get up fast enough. The whole time I'm changing Taylor Emily is just staring at me. Not crying, not nothing. I certainly can't just leave her there, so I put Taylor on the ground (thankfully she isn't mobile yet) and I grab Emily and change her. Dh is up (which is unusual but my alarm woke him up since I slept on the couch last night to be closer to the girls) so he feeds Emily and I feed Taylor. They both gobble up and Emily of course wants to run around and play. And that's how I left them this morning.

So a good dose of Motrin, some teething tablets, and some ear plugs for Surbjit and we'll be ready to hit the road this evening. If you are a praying type, pray that we make it in one piece! ;)

A Tooth?!?!?!

Can it be? Can we actually start having some teeth show up? FINALLY! =) It seems little miss Emily has a tooth coming in. You can feel it. It appears to be her lower left front tooth. It's hard to see anything as when you try to look she just sticks her tongue out but you can definitely feel it.

And in other news, last night was a LONG night. =( I sure do hope it isn't a taste of what we are going to experience going up to my parents on Thursday night. Emily decided to wake up and was playing until 10pm when mom and dad decided they were tired and ready for bed. So we fed her two ozs and she went to sleep. Woke up at 11:30pm, gave her her binkie, fell back asleep. Taylor woke up at 12:30. Gave her, her binkie, she fell back asleep. Emily woke up at 12:45, wouldn't be consoled, wouldn't keep her binkie in. Brought her into our bed, would not settle down. Gave her 4 ozs and she went back to bed. So I probably got back to bed at 1:30. I wake up at 4am to get ready for work. =( Not a lot of sleep last night. Of course I was going to let Emily sleep in but she woke up at 4:45. I gave her her morning bottle (6ozs) and she gobbled that down. I wonder if she is going through a growth spurt. If this happens again tonight I'm just making bottles when she wakes up. :sigh:

Road Trip

We are taking a road trip for Labor Day weekend. And when I say road trip, I mean ROAD trip. We are headed to my parents this weekend. They live in Northern CA. It is a 6 hour drive. Well, it WAS a 6 hour drive before kids with only stopping once to fuel up. That has and will change I know. This will be the first trip for the twins. They longest they have been in the car was our 5 hour ordeal when we went camping in February. They did OK. Hopefully they'll do ok this time. I'm not too worried about Connor (watch I'll regreat that now!).

We are planning on leaving after dinner when everyone should be going to sleep. Let's hope they sleep the whole way there. My Dad has actually never met the twins and my Mom hasn't seen them since they were born. I know we need to see them more often, but traveling with infants is hard let alone two! So wish us luck. Don't worry I'll take lots of pictures (although I'm having a hard time sharing them LOL!) and let y'all know how they do!!

I still owe you pictures from camping. I haven't even downloaded them to my computer yet. Maybe tonight??

9 Month Pictures!

So we went on Friday for the girls 9 month pictures. It wasn't pretty. Well, they were very pretty, their smiles, just weren't there. =( I didn't get any good shots of the both of them together. I got decent shots of each but we had to work for them. Taylor wasn't as bad as Emily which was a SHOCKER. Usually Emily smiles at the drop of a hat. But she fell asleep right before we went and we had to wake her up when we got there so I don't think she too much cared for that. Oh well. Well, here you go . . enjoy!


Emily




Taylor





Taylor & Emily





And here is just a sample of one of the "bad" ones:

The Living Room . . .

is no longer mine. It now belongs to Emily. The crawling, moving, roving, pulling herself up and standing Emily. =) But that's ok. As long as she is over the spit up stage and doesn't ruin my carpet. LOL! But now this poses a challenge to Surbjit in the morning. Neither of the girls likes to be stuck in their chairs in the morning anymore. So babyproof their room, here I come. That is my challenge this weekend. Joy.

In other news, we went to the beach this past weekend. It was a great weekend. Had a ton of fun and the kids did great! I have pictures that I will share when I get them downloaded. It was a beautiful weekend, a little windy but beautiful.

Other than that, nothing much to report. The girls are 9 months now. YIKES! Three months until they turn ONE! Where did the time go?? They are so fun to play with and LOVE books. I need to start reading to them more. When we sit on the floor and I read a book to Connor they just stare and listen and then try to grab the book. =) I will have them all to myself on Friday since their daycare is closed. I'm planning on doing their 9 month pictures that day so wish me luck!!

So what's been going on . . .

in our household?? Not much. Which is probably part of why I haven't updated. There are so many little things I want to say that I just get overwhelmed and don't post at all. Not good. So let's see. ..

Last weekend we went to the OC Fair. It was nice. Beautiful day. Not too hot. Of course we never charged the battery in our camera from the week long trip so we got hardly any pictures. Highlight of the day was when Connor saw the pigs. They were sleeping and he says to them, "Oink,oink,oink pigs. Wake up. It's time to play!". He kept saying that. It was too funny. The girls did fine. Emily got cranky at the end so I ended up picking her up and carrying her while Connor rode in the BOB (LOVE that stroller) and Taylor slept (my angel!). Emily was quite content then. ;)

This past weekend Connor got his big boy bed. He is now transitioned to a twin bed. No more toddler bed for him. We sold his whole crib set (crib, changing table/dresser, and armorie) to my BIL for their new baby due next month! Of course, this now means we have no changing table for Connor. So now we have to improvise. I have the changing pad in between my two sinks in the bathroom. It fits. It's a pain but it fits. If I'm just putting pull-ups on him it's not a big deal as he can just stand and doesn't have to lie down. But since he is REFUSING to go poo poo in the potty (even with bribery!) we still have to have him lay down for some diaper changes. Ugh. It has almost appeared that he is going backwards in the potty training. He doesn't want to go pee pee in the potty but he doesn't want his diaper changed either. My stubborn stubborn boy. I just keep telling myself, kindergartners aren't in diapers but shoot, that's a long way off! One of these days it'll just click for him (hopefully) and then I'll only have two in diapers.

Emily has now decided that she wants to stand. Crawling just isn't enough for her. When I have her on the changing table, I use to sit her up to dress her since he HATED lying down. Well now, she grabs my chest and starts to stand. So I guess I'll be changing her standing up. She has also got to kneeling and this past weekend I found her looking at me from above her crib rail. =) Guess it's time to lower that crib setting!

Taylor is Taylor and will do things on her time. Still not interested in crawling. Shoot, she gets places much faster with just rolling! So she rolls everywhere. It's fun times in our living room trying to keep the two contained. On Saturday, it was almost time for the girls to go to bed so I had them on the floor playing (without our usual "fort" set up). I noticed Connor leaked and pooped so I grabbed him and ran into the bathroom to change him. Not 2 minutes later I hear (tap, tap, tap). It's Emily crawling on the hard wood floor. She was looking for where we went.

This weekend we are going camping at the beach. Our last camping trip of the season. Should be beautiful weather and hopefully the girls can get to play in the sand this time. It was too cold when we went for Memorial Day weekend so I'm hoping it's better this time. Well, I better go, but I wanted to give a few updates here and there!!

Sea World

OK, I know a narrative of our camping trip is long awaited. I wish there were more than 24 hours in a day! But I finally was able to upload Sea World pics last night. I was having issues uploaded so all I got uploaded was Sea World so you'll have to be satisfied with that until I can get Legoland and the campground up. =)

So we went to SeaWorld on Wednesday. It was pretty nice day. Not too hot but the sun was shining!! We got there right when they opened at 9am. Shoot! It was a ghost town! It was almost like we were the only ones in the park. We headed towards the right side of the park and figured we'd look at a few things and then go back for the 11am Shamu show. So we stopped at the Arctic Experience. We of course could not ride their little "airplane ride" since the kids were too small but we were able to walk directly to the exhibit.











After walking in there and seeing the polar bears and walrus', we walked over to my favorite place - the penguins! Connor liked them too as we had a hard time getting him away from there!



After finally getting Connor away from the penguins, it was time to feed the girls. It was a little bit of a challenge but we learned from our Legoland trip on Monday! We gave Connor a snack and let him eat as I fed one girl and Surbjit fed the other. I'm sure we were a site to see. Although it still was not packed at this time. After getting everyone fed (and diapers changed), we decided to head over to the Shamu show. Boy was it a good thing we did!!!! It seemed that everyone in the park was going to the show. We chose a seat fairly high (we did NOT want to get wet!) and waited for the show to start. I was shocked that Connor waited patiently for it. After Legoland's show we had to wait five minutes for (and he was NOT patient then), I didn't think he'd wait patiently this time either. But we could see Shamu and the whales in the outside tank plus there was water so I guess it was all good!



After Shamu we went to eat lunch. It wasn't too bad. Surbjit wrangled the kids and started feeding Taylor & Emily their solids while I went to get us three lunch. $40 later (I so don't want to know how much it'll be when the girls get older :sigh:) I had our lunch and we ate it.

After lunch we basically just walked around Sea World.



We got to see Dolphins:



Flamingo's:



And we got to see the Tide Pool's and check out the cool starfish:



Then we headed over to Sea World's new toddler area called Bay of Play:



It was pretty cool! They have three rides, plus a HUGE network of nets, ropes, and tons of stuff to climb up (which Connor wouldn't go up the net so no go). Plus a little toddler area to run around in for the under 37" crowd. And they had a beach area with sand to play in:



Then Connor and I made it onto the rides. It was a little sketchy on if we'd make it on or not. Connor is not the most patient of kids (but what 2 1/2 year old is?). But we did! The first ride we went on was the "teacups". They aren't tea cups but that's what everyone remembers this ride as. I personally don't like to make it spin. I get dizzy so I figured we'd be good to go. Unfortunately, because of the momentum of the ride it will automatically spin anyway. So I kept trying my hardest to make it spin only a little but that wheel is hard to make stop!! I tried to use two hands but Connor wanted my arm around him so I had to do it one handed. I thought he wasn't having fun but I kept asking him on the ride if he was having fun and he said yes. Although he kept burrowing deeper and deeper into the side of me. =) When the ride was over, he asked to ride it again so I guess he had fun!







After the "teacups", we rode the flying fishes. It was pretty cool as we got to jump ahead of like 10 people in line because there was ONE car ("fish") left and they were all parties of 3 or more. Connor wanted it up the whole time so we flew the entire ride. We would be going around and all of a sudden I'd hear him say "WEEEEE". He did this like three times. =D It was so cute!!!





After this ride, the girls were getting cranky so it was another round of bottles and diaper changes. By the time, Connor was getting a little cranky too so we decided to cut our losses and head back to the campground. On the way out, we asked Connor, "are you tired?" Of course he said "no" but as soon as we left the parking lot:



He was out like a light!!!

All the kids did awesome. Do I recommend taking three kids under three? Probably not. LOL! But it was fun and Connor is starting to like the rides more so that's fun. I get to relive my youth! How can that not be fun for me! =)

Stay tuned for Legoland!!!!!

My Review of Evenflo Bottle and Nipple Brush

Originally submitted at Toys R Us

Durable and dishwasher safe, this Evenflo® Bottle and Nipple Brush is designed to clean bottles and nipples. Use with glass, plastic and decorated nursers.

Evenflo Bottle and Nipple Brush

Waste of Money

By Heather + Three Under Three from Buena Park, CA on 7/30/2008

 

1out of 5

Cons: Flimsy, Cheap

Describe Yourself: Parent of Two or More Children, Parent of Multiples (Twins etc)

This bottle brush is defenitly not worth it. There are many more that actually have a sponge instead of the bristles that works so much better. Also, this brand has two separate pieces. One bottle brush and one nipple brush. I've found several other brushes that are two in one and come together. Look elsewhere.

(legalese)

Earthquake

Yes, we had an earthquake at 11:42am this morning. Talk about a rude awakening when you are at work. LOL! My building swayed quite a bit. But it wasn't long. We are all ok. We talked to both Connor's daycare and Taylor & Emily's daycare. They are all ok. The kids at Connor's daycare were eating lunch outside at the time and didn't even know what was happening. They were all told to get up and go toward the center of the backyard. They were all like "huh". Not sure what went down at Taylor & Emily's as Surbjit talked to her. But her land line was down and her cell phone took awhile for her to get through. So we are all OK. And guess what? This is Connor's, Taylor's and Emily's FIRST Earthquake!!!

Hey I'm quoted!

Ok, so while we were at All Seasons Campground, there was a reporter doing a story about RV'ing and gas prices. His initial premise wasn't entirely going through (that RV campgrounds would be much emptier than normal) but apprantly he was able to run with it - for the most part. He interviewed me over the phone since when he was walking around the campground we were getting ready to leave for legoland that day but we talked for about 20 minutes. And he even had a photographer come out and take pictures of us by our motorhome. But I guess they didn't get used. That's ok. Anyway, here is the story HERE . You'll see me quoted at the very bottom. Enjoy!

And to get back to the regularly scheduled programming . ..

Since I still don't have pictures to share but I do have news I thought I'd post about it. I did download all 322 pictures from our camping trip. =) So I'll be e-mailing them when I get a chance to upload them to kodakgallery. So bear with me. But in news . . .

Emily has started crawling!! It's just a nudge here and there but I bet within two weeks, we'll be having to figure out how to contain her!!! And she is clapping! It is so darn CUTE!!! I can't stand it. Just thinking about her clapping I smile. And both her and Taylor are waving. Still not on cue but they can wave bye-bye. Now to just get them to do it when I say bye-bye.

Taylor is still my little laid back lazy girl. Oh well. Maybe once she sees her sister crawling and getting places (although Taylor has no problem getting around. She rolls everywhere!) she'll start too. Only time will tell.

Emily LOVES to feed herself the puffs. Taylor looks at them with disdain. It's like you actually expect me to feed myself? And yesterday after we fed them "dinner" we always give them a bottle, Emily was actually holding her own. Of course, when I went to get the camera she stopped holding it and expected me to hold it.

I can't believe they are 8 months already. It came and went while we were camping. They still amaze me with every new thing they learn. Although they aren't near where Connor was at, at this age, they are doing just fine. Connor was just ahead of himself. =) And it's nice that I've actually been able to sit down and not worry too much about them getting into things. With Connor, I never got to sit down after he turned 5 months! It's been a hard 8 months but I wouldn't trade it for the world. Would I wish twins on anyone?? HELL NO but do I feel blessed that I have them? YES!!

And the answer is . . .

I got a call back from reservationfriend almost immediately after I posted my updated entry below. Very nice woman who looked and said that the campground never put it in their system that my reservation was cancelled so she would call up Flying Flags and talk with them and then call me back. Apparently, there are two systems that they need to cancel, their own and the one that sends the information to reservationfriend. Well, i guess they forgot to do that one. No problem, now it's done and reservationfriend has it in their system too so it should show up on my credit card within the next 2-3 days. Whew! Not so hard afterall but it's just annoying. But I do have to say that the customer service was excellent when I did have to contact someone so A+ for that.

Three Things I've learned

Ok, I wanted to write this down before I forget. Three things I've learned from this RV camping trip.

1.) When reserving with Flying Flags RV Park (eta: or actually ANY park that uses reservationfriend.com as thier reservation company) - do so in person (i.e. over the phone). We made our reservations over the internet. Great and easy right? Except when you cancel. I called and cancelled the Wednesday before we were due to go. No problem. They cancelled my reservation and I would get back all my money. It's now almost two weeks later and it's still not on my credit card account. So I called. Since I did it online, the company that does their online stuff has to give us the credit. Flying Flags has my cancellation into them but it's the online company that has to refund my money. Great. Can you say dispute is in my future. ugh.

2.) Find and read online reviews. We were all set to make reservations at the Escondido RV resort based on what we saw online. Then I searched and found some reviews. Not so nice reviews. So we didn't stay there. Glad we didn't! We checked it out since we were in the area. Definitely not for us. And in this regards, it's also made me aware, I need to start writing my own reviews of our campgrounds. So stay tuned!

3.) Try and NOT go to an RV campground sight unseen. We almost went home after checking in at All Seasons Campground. We ended up with a GREAT spot but the first spot we were given was not wide enough and we would not have been able to open our slides. NOT acceptable. But the final site we ended up with was twice as wide and twice as deep so it was awesome! Again, stay tuned for a report and pictures. =)

So all in all, we had a great vacation. The kids did great (although they all caught a cold). But we had fun and went to Legoland and Sea World. Shamu was a hit with Connor (not so much Taylor as she slept through the whole thing). But I will give details later as time permits and I will try and download all pictures tonight for sharing.

ETA: Wow, who knew I'd get traffic by posting this, LOL! I guess I will be updating on my progress of my refund. I've called reservationfriend today and left a message. If I don't get a call back by this afternoon I'll call again and then I'll call Flying Flags back and talk with Dan (thank you Dan for being so proactive!! I haven't even stayed at your campground but this definitely means I won't cross you off my list. We really want to go check you guys out!) So stay TUNED!! =) For update go HERE.

Emily, Emily, Emily

So last night I was working on a scrapbook page (oh my gosh! You mean I might actually have the girls scrapped before their first birthday! WoW! Do you see pigs flying?!?) and I used the cute photo of Emily I took yesterday of her smiling and I did a July Highlight page. I was writing down all the things she does, one of them being sleeping through the night. Well um, why did I have to go and do that?? So I was up late (10pm) and finally went to bed. Right when I was falling asleep, Emily starts crying. I go in, give her her binkie. No dice. I go back in, move her, turn on her music, give her her binkie. Nope. Gonna have to make a bottle. Thankfully (for me that is), Surbjit had taken a nap after the kids went to bed so was wide awake and did the feeding while I went back to bed. I'll have you know, she ate 4 ozs and then still gobbled down 6 more this morning (where usually she'll eat the 4 ozs less the next morning). Apparantly she really is trying to catch up with her sister!!!

Random Pictures

Here are a few random pictures from the last few weeks:

Connor

Taylor & Emily

Taylor, Connor & Emily (I think it's a little too much to ask for all three to smile at the same time!)

This is what our living room has become. Once they are entirely mobile, we'll be in BIG trouble!!!

Mona's Birthday party

Ok, can you tell I have some time on my hands tonight?? Plus I needed to get the pictures off the camera so I have a full 2MB's for our camping trip this coming week. ;-)

So anyway, I swear it was like the hottest day of the year for Mona's birthday party. It was a very nice shaded park though so it wasn't too bad. Connor was way excited to sing Happy Birthday to his cousin. He just LOVES birthday parties (which means I really have to do something special for him this year). They did a Hawaiian Luau theme (i am so jealous because all I have is November birthdays. Oh well). And had some games for the kids to play and a little playground for toddlers right there too. So Connor definitely was not bored!!

The Birthday Girl!

Taylor & Emily having fun at the birthday party.

Daddy & Emily (he always takes such good pictures with the kids!)

Taylor partied so hard she fell asleep. ;-)~p

Connor was having fun with the "hot coconut" (they played the Hot Potato game with a coconut)

Uncle Harjinder "No Connor you can't touch the cake" (Connor wanted to touch the cake so BAD. That and play with all the toys!)

4th of July

We had a good 4th. Ended up going over to Romy and Jeff's so the kids could play together (Connor, Katrina, and Dylon). And Gina and Curtis ended up over there too so Braeden joined in. Connor just LOVES playing with Braeden so I'm glad they were able to make it. We got there around dinner time and had yummy kabobs and rice. The kids got to play in the pool and the swing set. Then after it got dark (a little after 8pm) we set off some fireworks. They sure don't last long. Taylor and Emily did really good. Emily ended up falling asleep in the stroller while we were watching the fireworks and Taylor fell asleep in my arms. Here are some pictures:

Mommy & Taylor

Bruno's (Romy's brother's) girlfriend & Emily

Breaden & Connor

Bruno "Now Emily let me tell you about . . ."

Watching the fireworks (You can see Gina and Lyndsey at the front of the fence on the left and Jeff standing up).

Watching the fireworks

Front: Dylon & Connor

Back: Friend of Romy's, Taylor, Emily, Me, Romy, Katrina

Taylor's Check Up

So today Taylor went in for her check up. Because of the arm fiasco, she didn't have her shots so I had to still get them done. Ugh. After two weeks I was finally able to get in (doc was on vacation, then jury duty). So we went in. I was also able to get their full stats from last time:

Emily

15 lbs

26.5"

Taylor

15 lbs 9 ozs
26.25"

It appears that Emily is catching up to her sister! When they weighed Taylor today it was 16 lbs 11 ozs. But she was fully clothed. I couldn't imagine she gained a full lb since the last time but who knows. Anyway, she was a trooper although she looked at the nurse like," I know who you are and i know what you do." But she didn't cry at all until the stick of the needle. Her appt was done by 3:30pm so I went and picked up Emily and we came home and played. Here are some pictures. I got some great pictures!

Emily "Hi Mom!"

Taylor "Can't you see I like my book"

This book, it's a good thing I have two! They fight over this thing if only one is out!!!

Emily "Hey that toy is MINE now!"

As you can see it took a little bit to get them both to sit up and smile at the same time. Taylor kept falling back but I did succed!!

"Hey Mom! Sure we'll smile for you!!"

Change of Plans

So we are supposed to go on vacation (camping of course!) next week. What started out as a weekend in Ventura, turned into a week vacation in Buelton/Ventura, turned into a week vacation in San Diego.

This is how it all started. We forgot, being that reservations for the month of July start January 2nd, to make reservations for July. So Surbjit remembering that night started looking to see if anything was available. He had seen a post in one of his camping forums he frequents about Emma Wood State Beach. It just so happened they had spots available so he picked a weekend in July (17th - 20th) and booked two sites. Fastforward a month and we get the schedule for the twins daycare. It just so happens she is taking her week vacation July 14th - 18th. Hey, I said, let's make it a full week at Emma Wood. Surbjit responds, you know it's no hook ups right? I said, well let's figure out somewhere to stay before Emma Wood up in that area with hook ups. There is no way I'm camping with two infants and a toddler with no hookups for a week. Uh uh, no way. So we decide on Flying Flags in Buellton.

Now fastforward to the beginning of July. The Gap Fire. It started in Goleta, CA. That's not that far from Buellton or Santa Barbara. We had planned on hitting up the South Coast Railroad Musuem in Goleta and the Santa Barbara zoo. But the Gap Fire - it's only 55% contained as of today. I can only imagine the air quality. So, we start thinking of what else can we do? And San Diego comes to mind. After searching through several tens of campgrounds, we found All Season Campground and made reservations. I'm so excited. We are going to hit up Legoland, Wild Animal Park and Sea World. Let's just hope the girls cooperate and Connor has fun. Well, I know Connor will have fun, let's hope the girls cooperate. =D And let's hope this campground is ok. There isn't much online about this campground so we are going to brave it. It seems nice. They have a pool and a small playground plus a lake. So I'm sure it'll be fine.

Speaking of campgrounds, not being able to find adequate information on campgrounds reminds me of my idea to start setting up a website area for campground reviews and PICTURES!!! It's always nice to see pictures of what you are going to go to if you haven't been there before. So hopefully I'll remember and can start that project.

So we'll be on vacation the 13th - 19th. I'll have TONS of pictures I'm sure. Hopefully I will be faster at sharing them than normal! ;-)

This & That

Wow, time sure does fly. I have so much to say that I don't know where to start so I don't. I know I know, I should just do it when I feel the need or remember something. I'll try.

Connor's last day of swim class was fun, sort of. We got to do basically whatever we wanted to do. They had small floats and stuff around for the kids to play with. And if they wanted to go off the diving board or down the slide they could. Well of course Connor wanted to go off the slide. I told him probably three times, you will go under water is that OK? And he was fine with it. Until it happenen. =) The instructor took them down the slide. Basically when they exit the slide, she pushes them towards the air so they get little time in the water but they still end up in the water. He was hysterical when he got out but he was crying. But he said he had fun. I asked if he wanted to do it again and he said no. It was pretty chilly though and we ended up leaving about 5 minutes early. He got a certificate for completing the class which was nice. And it wasn't too hard to tell him that we weren't going swimming anymore. He really understood that it was over and he was fine with it.

Then on Friday the 27th of June we went to Raging Waters with Melanie. He didn't want to go on any of the slides or through any of the sprinklers because it would get his face wet. He was very into not getting his face wet. Hmm, sounds like his mother. I can remember needing a towel next to the pool so I could wipe my face off immediately after dunking my head. It took me YEARS to get over that! But we did end up taking him on Thunder Rapids. The minimum height requirment was 36" and I believe he is 37". He was taller than the line set up for the ride. ;-) Although the guy when we got on was like "He looks a little short but I'm going to let is pass just hold onto him." I was like," he is tall enough I measured!". Of course he is yelling I don't want to go and all the people in line are probably thinking I'm a bad mother. But when we got off, he said he had a good time but when asked if he wanted to go on it again, he said no. But we did go on it again later that night. It was either that or go home. We also hit up the Amazon Adventure (basically the lazy river) which Connor LOVED floating in so we actually ended up doing 2 1/2 times around. All in all a good day. But I do have to say it's a pain going with a non-potty trained child. Changing his diaper, taking off the wet clothes and trying to put a new swim diaper on wet skin, no fun. And I would definitely not go on a weekend. Going during the week was fine as it wasn't too crowded but now I know to go straight to where I want to sit and grab chairs! We did get chairs just not loungers. If I went with a group of people, it would definitely be worth paying and splitting the fee for the private cabana.

Well, time to get going home from work. I got side-tracked here with actually working, LOL! So it's taken me a little bit of time to write this but I want to get this posted. I need to get the pictures off the camera today so hopefully I can share some pictures tonight of the 4th and I'll write a little bit about what we did.

Swimming is coming to an end

So today is Connor's last day of swim class. We have been preparing him all week. Every day he asks "we going swimming today?" Actually it's more like a statement so I don't want him to freak out when I say not today for the next month. I'm thinking of signing him up again but obviously I can't do it again right away for the next session (as I don't think my boss would like me to keep leaving work early) and then the following two week session we'll be on vacation for a week so maybe I'll sign him up for the following class. Tonight we get to do anything we want to do in the pool for the half hour. Connor will love that as all yesterday all I kept telling him was not yet, we have to do this first. We have to do this thing with the class. He said he wants to go down the slide and he instructor said we'd be able to but I still don't think he understands that he will be going under water at the end. He sure didn't like it when I had him go under yesterday and I barely had him go under. Just up to his nose. Oh well.

On Monday, Shawn came over and watched the girls so Surbjit could come and watch Connor swim since he hadn't been able to. Of course we forgot the camera but he was able to take a couple pics with his cell phone.

You can see the slide on the right of the pool that Connor wants to go down. I know it's hard to tell but Connor and I are in the middle facing the camera. I'm wearing a white shirt and we are to the left (as you are looking at the picture) of the instructor (in the red bathing suit).

Me & Connor

Sitting Up!

So I guess I can finally give them credit for sitting up. Well, mostly Emily. She'll sit for a good 10 mins before falling over. On her face mind you and when you pick her up she's smiling like a fool! LOL! Taylor will sit but you better be ready to make sure she doesn't fall (and watch that left arm, argh!) So they are doing good. You wouldn't know anything was a miss the other day with Taylor's arm.

We had a busy weekend. Mona's 1st birthday party was Saturday (my niece). It was a HOT one. Thankfully the park they had it at was nicely shaded. Made it halfway bearable. Then we went to our friend's daughter's graduation party. Thankfully they at least have a wall a/c unit in their house so it was cook in there but I was thankful to get back to my nice central a/c house. =) One of the BEST things we ever did to the house!

This is Connor's last week of swim lessons. He's had a blast and I think is going to have a rough time when I keep telling him after this week that swim lessons are over. Maybe I'll take him to the night swimming on Tuesday's or Thursday's when we get a chance. It's just so hard being so late. Hmm. Friday was a rough class day with Connor. The instructor informed us that we were going off the diving board! I was like great. This is going to go over well. So we walk over to the diving board and Connor was immediately wanting to climb up it (he loves to climb) and saw the girl in front of him jump and tried to back down! I grabbed him and carried him out to the edge and dropped him in to the instructor. I could hear him crying as I was trying to get off the board. Another mom in the class asked if I could take her son out to the edge. I was like sure but I had to grab Connor first. So I got him out of the pool and handed him (crying) to her to hold and I took her son to the edge. He walked almost all the way to the end and was like he didn't want to go any further. So I just prodded him forward telling him I wasn't going to let him fall. We counted to three and I "pushed" him off into the arms of the instructor. I got down off the board and grabbed Connor (who was fine now!) so she could go get her son.

After all this all I'm hearing from Connor now is I want to go down the slide. They have a slide right next to the diving board. I don't quite think he understands that he is going to go in the water at the end. But it wasn't our turn to go down the slide. The instructor did say next week but Connor wanted to go now. So the entire rest of the class, he wanted to do what he wanted to do and didn't want to do what the class was doing. I sure hope he isn't like that today. UGH.

Taylor & Emily's Dr Appt.

Ok, So here are their stats, sort of (I'll explain later).

Emily 15 lbs 26.75"
Taylor 15 lbs 9 ozs

I took Emily first. My friend Shawn came with me to keep me company and chat. We hadn't seen each other in forever (and she lives across the street!) so I asked if she wanted to come and we could chat and hang out. So anyway, we took Emily first. She was ok at first but once I started undressing her she started melting down. She still overall, did better than her brother use to. I don't ever remember Connor calming down throughout the visit and she did. So anyway, she's doing good. Growing good (although i still feel like she is small but she is catching up to her sister!). She got four shots what fun NOT. But this time she did fine afterwards. No fever or anything. I think the reason she got the fever last time was because she was sick with a cold.

So fast-forward to Taylor. I drop Emily off at daycare and pick up Taylor. She's kinda fussy but Jackie tells me she hasn't finished her bottle. She's only had like 2 ozs so I take it and figure I'll finish it with her at the dr. We get to the dr and are sitting there waiting to go in and she just starts freaking out crying. That is so unlike her. So I get her out of her car seat and try and calm her down. They take us back and I'm still trying to calm her down. Shawn takes her and tries too but no luck. I finally take her back and hold her and she calms down. I touch her left arm and she starts freaking out again. So i place it back next to her body and she calms down so I touch it again and she starts freaking out again. So now I'm like ok something is wrong with her arm. So when the doc comes in we check it out. We touch her shoulder and shoulder area but that's not bothering her. So I took Taylor and we got some x-rays done. There isn't anything on the x-rays. So either she sprained it or she dislocated her elbow (what Shawn calls nursemaid elbow I guess her son use to get it a lot when he was a toddler). Anyway, So we wrap up Taylor's arm to her body with an ACE bandage and the doc tells me if she still isn't moving it and it hurts her in the morning call and come in.

So we take her home and I re-wrap her tighter hoping if it is nursemaid elbow that will help to put it back in. I see her trying to lift her arm now and she isn't freaking out so I'm thinking maybe that did it so I unwrap her. Sure enough i lift her arm and she's not crying. I was careful with her the rest of the afternoon though. She really didn't want to use her left arm either. I could see when she was playing she would only use her right. So I put her on her tummy and she rolled over ok and was using both arms to push up so it wasn't hurting her. I think she was just remembering that it hurt and thought it still would so she was being cautious. I took Connor to swim class and Surbjit said she did fine during her bath and went right to bed. This morning she was as happy as could be and using both arms to pull her dress up! So we'll just have to be careful with her. If anything, I would've thought we'd have to be extra careful with Emily not Taylor!

In happier/funnier news, after I picked up Emily at daycare for the night I had them both at home on the floor because I wanted Taylor to use her left arm and make sure it wasn't still bothering her. Emily's on her stomach scooting around in a 360 circle and Taylor is on her back with a binkie in her mouth. Emily scoots to Taylor, takes the binkie out of her mouth and puts in her own mouth! I had to laugh!!!! It was just too funny. And Taylor didn't even care!

So that was my eventful day yesterday. :sigh:

Connor's First Swim Class

I took Connor today to his first swim class! He did great. He clung onto me like there was no tomorrow but that's ok. He did hold onto the kick board and kicked for a good 5-10 mins. So that was a break through. He actually let go of me. =) He had a lot of fun. Our class is every day this week and Mon- Thurs next week. I'm not sure if I'll continue after that. I'll definitely take the following two weeks off. With us going to swim class, Surbjit has to put the girls to bed by himself and I'm having to leave work early. I don't think that's a great idea to do the entire summer! LOL! But I'm glad I'm getting him in the water now and getting use to it. Probably by the end of the class, I won't be able to get him out!!!