Super Stuff on a Monday

What made our week super-fabulous?  So much stuff!  I’m bullet-pointing as best I can to get it all in!

1)      We had such a fun Halloween, all the way around.  The girls loved their pumpkin party at school, and they were ecstatic to get a little treat bag from their teachers.  We had a great time with M&C on Wednesday morning, and they really got into the festivities on Wednesday afternoon.  And perhaps best of all, they were content to come inside and snuggle by the fireplace for a few minutes before going to bed (on time!) Wednesday night.  Bliss!

2)      Baby A’s recap of handing out candy: “Mommy, some kids couldn’t talk, so I talked for them.”  If a kid didn’t say “Thank you!” she very innocently volunteered it for them.

3)      My sweet Baby B’s tender heart…she started tearing up when her daddy said (very nonchalantly) that he would get rid of our jack-o-lanterns the day after Halloween.

4)      Baby A’s prowess at using scissors and tape.  She’s occupied herself for up to an hour on several days, cutting out shapes or pictures from magazines, and then taping them onto a blank page.  She’s such a hard worker!

5)      Baby A was such a great helper during nap time one day this week.  She stuck by me through folding two loads of laundry, and then she made countless trips upstairs to put away socks, washcloths, towels, tshirts…anything she could reach.  Daddy was upstairs, and he said she had such a “business” look on her face.  HA!

6)      Finding Baby B napping one afternoon with her pillow on top of her.  She was so cute…and then she was so proud of being a “turtle” after I woke her up!

7)      B organized the alphabet magnets (from two full sets = 52 tiles) in order one morning.  I think I heard her sing the ABC Song 26 times…but she persisted and did an amazing job!

8)      Hearing the girls jump up and down, chanting over and over, “Hip-hop dancers!  Hip-hop dancers!”  They were giggling hysterically…and so was I!  [I can only surmise they got that from our “ABC’s of NYC” book, where “H” is hip-hop dancer.]

9)      We had our family pictures on Saturday.  The girls did so well…and they even had fun!  I cannot wait to see the smiles on their faces.

10)   Happening upon a marathon during our Sunday morning walk through our neighborhood.  We had such fun stopping to cheer on the runners, and B even got to yell into a megaphone.

11)   We let the girls watch the last couple of minutes of the Alabama game on Sunday morning.  Baby B clapped at all the right times, and she even told Aunt GG on the phone about Alabama’s touchdown!  Mama was so proud!!!

12)   The girls have been golden not to get up until their clock turned green, but they’ve been awake a good 30 minutes “early” since the time change.  This morning B was laughing like mad and talking complete nonsense.  Baby A, who probably wanted to enjoy her “extra” hour, kept insisting, “Sissy, that’s not a word!”

13)   The very first thing the girls said when I went into their room this morning: “Muffins!  Muffins!  I smell muffins!”  And correct they were!  They were so excited with their home-baked treat.

So thankful for another great week with my sweet baby girls!!!

Super Stuff on a Saturday

I had a fabulously super week with my baby girls!

1) As we ate our traditional Sunday morning breakfast, Baby B said, “It’s nice to be together.” We eat supper together all but one or two nights a month, but I love that the girls recognize our family breakfasts are a special treat.

2) On Tuesday we hosted our sweet friends K&S for a play date, which included the assembly of ice cream cone Christmas trees, decorated with M&Ms. It truly warms my heart to see my girls playing with K&S, having known their sweet mama since we were both pregnant. It’s amazing to think back to our first play date, when the kiddos had just celebrated their first birthdays. I love that our girls will grow up having such precious friends, right from the start.

3) The girls have so enjoyed checking out my small collection of nutcrackers, displayed on the mantle for the holidays. One morning I dialed up a short Russian ballet performance on youtube, and then we listened to the entire suite on CD. The girls were quite intent on trying out some new dance moves. And I couldn’t believe they correctly remembered “Tchaikovsky” as the composer when we recounted our day to Daddy before bedtime.

4) I was upstairs one evening, shortly before bed, and Daddy was hanging out with the girls, reading books. I had such a fun time just listening…they were doing a lot more talking and explaining than he was, reading. In particular, Baby B is so emphatic when she explains things, and it cracks me up how she gets her hands going, too. I’ve heard her say this for a while, but it’s so funny when she says, “MY Mommy…” with emphasis on “MY”…as in, “MY Mommy said our bath water should be nice and warm, not hot, and not cold, because babies need to stay warm.”

5) I try really hard to model proper grammar for the girls. I couldn’t help but beam with pride when B said, “If Sasha were to eat this…”…conditional sentence structure at its finest!

6) Since we put the Christmas tree up last weekend, we’ve been sitting in the living room for a few minutes each night before bed. Many nights our kitty Sasha has joined us, rubbing on the lower branches. Because the girls hung so many ornaments at the bottom of the tree, Sasha frequently rings some of my jingle bell ornaments. The girls think she’s doing it just for them. “Ring the bell, Sasha!” and then, “Thank you, Sasha!” they exclaim.

7) After a few brutally early wake-ups this week, the girls both slept soundly until 6:30 on Friday (when Hubby had to start getting ready for work). I was so thankful for them to wake up well-rested...I just hope it continues!

8) On one of the mornings when we were up at the crack of dawn, I heard the girls “reading” to each other. “Don’t be sad, don’t be blue, you love me and I love you.” That definitely put a smile on my otherwise groggy face.

9) Several weeks ago, I bought a beautiful book about the true meaning of Christmas, thinking it would be a great bedtime read. I’d almost forgotten about it until this week, and we read it for the first time a couple of days ago. The artwork and the text is so beautiful…I’ll admit I was almost sobbing by the end.

10) The girls and I were out and about one afternoon, and I tooted the horn at a lady in front of me, who didn’t realize the light had turned green. From the backseat, almost in unison, the girls immediately belted out, “Honk, honk, rattle, rattle, rattle, crash, beep, beep!” HA!

Even amid the crazy...the crack-of-dawn wake-up calls...the spilled milk...there's always plenty of super fabulousness if we only stop to appreciate it.

Hope you had a great week, too!

Fab 5 Friday...and ME!!!

It’s been another fabulous week at A&B Enterprises! I’m so thankful to report that we went seamlessly back into our routine after having Daddy home all last week. Hallelujah!

1) On Saturday we took the girls downtown for our town’s monthly street festival. I love how they just jump right in and dance to the music. Kids truly “dance like no one’s watching”…although my dynamic duo does sometimes draw a few spectators. :)

2) The girls are doing great with their tricycles! Baby A has mastered forwards, backwards, and she’s pretty proficient with steering. Baby B can peddle quite a long distance, and pretty fast, when she sets her mind to it. She is still working on the steering part, though…so I have to make sure she doesn’t gather speed and suddenly head into the curb!

3) [KNOCK ON WOOD], the girls have napped so well this week! To celebrate, I took the girls on Wednesday afternoon to a new bread shop for a cookie. They were so well-behaved! They sat perfectly nicely while I got our cookie and paid and fixed their cups of water. They even talked with the baker lady when she came over to say hello…even before I’d made my way back to the table. My little ladies are growing up!

4) Instead of riding tricycles one afternoon this week, I took the girls to the backyard with the express intent to crunch leaves. They had a blast! They ran and stomped and crunched, and sat and crunched some more. (And I might have taken 124 pictures in about 30 minutes, enjoying it all myself!)

5) Daddy introduced the girls to the idea of “adults” and “children”. After he left for work one morning, Baby A said, “One adult is here, and one adult is at work.” Too funny!

And what did I do for ME this week???

I got a massage!!! I had intended to indulge in that more frequently this year (maybe once a quarter), but I hadn’t kept that promise to myself. There was no special reason for this one, other than I just wanted it. And I have to say, it was The Best Massage Ever! I saw the same therapist I’ve seen for several years, but I think I was just in the perfect mental state, or something. Bliss!

And instead of rushing home to fix supper after my massage, I picked up a pizza instead. That was another big treat…no fuss, no mess…and the girls were SO EXCITED over such an almost-unheard of mid-week treat.

What made your week fabulous???

International Flair

I love our town. We moved here eight years ago with my job, having no other ties, but it sure does feel like "home". A big part of the draw for me is that it's a small town -- just over 60,000 people -- yet we have quite a bit of diversity.

Our town is small enough that it's easy to get to know your neighbors, the shop owners, and the nice lady who stocks produce at the grocery store. I think that creates an awesome sense of community, particularly for the girls.

But in those 60,000 people, over 10% of them are recent immigrants. We have a Hispanic population and a large number of people from former Yugoslavia and some of the former Soviet republics. Over the past couple of years, we've started to see more people from Southeast Asia -- namely Burma -- and from several African countries.

Every September our town holds an International Festival, and we always go. It's so much fun to see so many different countries represented, many people wearing native dress. There are many different foods to try, and music permeates downtown.

Teaching ESL, it's always nice for my husband to see a lot of his students and their families, too.

The girls had such a great time at the festival this year. Our first stop was Greek belly dancing. You can't quite tell it from the picture, but the girls were definitely feeling the spirit and moving right along to the sounds of the music!
We then tested out the bongos...

And after a lunch of gyros, punctuated by baklava (and some grapes I brought from home), we ran into a couple of Daddy's students, from Cuba, who tried to teach the girls some new moves.

As we were closing out our time at the festival, I was reminded...you can take the girls out of Kentucky, but you can't take the Kentucky out of the girls. Here they are, checking out the fallen leaves. :)

After a well-deserved nap, we had plans to hang out with Aunt Shanda for a bit. I figured we'd hit the bookstore, or maybe walk around the mall...but spur of the moment, and in keeping with the international theme of the day, we headed back downtown and decided to share some appetizers at the Thai restaurant.

The girls got their first taste of tofu. And they were so excited to have a fresh spring roll, which they kept calling "sushi".


We've known Miss Sonny for several years. She used to be the sushi chef at our favorite Japanese restaurant, and she now owns the Thai restaurant. We ran into her at the festival earlier in the day, where she wanted a picture of the girls. She came out to see us off, and I asked if she'd pose for a picture with my camera.


Certainly there's no place like home...but I love that it's so easy to "travel" right here in our own backyard.

Fab 5 Friday

To Whom It May Concern:

Fabulous highlights from our week are as follows:

1) The girls are all about dance these days, and they love to be “baldi-rinas” (ballerinas). They walk around on their toes with their arms in a circle over their heads. Mommy doesn’t encourage that, or anything. :)

2) Baby A is beginning to say her ABCs really clearly, and with such gusto (with the minor exceptions of E, L, M, N, and O, which she always omits!).

3) On Saturday we travelled to a small town about 30 miles from here to have some family pictures made. I sat in the backseat, wedged between the girls’ car seats, to keep them company (and to ensure a good mood just prior to pictures!). We drove through some really rural areas, and the girls had a blast pointing out cows and horses. After we’d pass, they’d ask for “More!” If only I’d had my magic wand to make more appear on command…

4) I put the Christmas tree up this week, and I was so anxious to show it to the girls the next morning. I was a little disappointed at their lack of enthusiasm…they were much more interested in the cat, who was napping nearby. But it does warm my heart to see my baby girls’ adoration for their furry sister.

5) The girls have never ridden the carousel at the mall, but they L-O-V-E to stop and wave to the horses. One of the highlights of their week was seeing a girl riding a white “norsey” (as Baby A calls it). They waved to her, and she waved back…and they can’t quit talking about it.

Please contact me with any questions.

International Flair

As I may just have mentioned a time or two, I’m originally from the great state of Alabama, and I think it’s one of the best places on this green earth. We haven’t lived there in ten years, though, having moved a few times with my job.

We’ve been put for the past seven years, and – while we’re too far from a good plate of fried okra and the majestic white sand beaches of Alabama’s gulf coast – we feel like we’ve found a good "home away from home" to raise our girlies.

The town we live in is not large, at just over 60,000 people, but it’s got a lot to offer…a small town feel, with (at least relatively speaking) big city diversity. Over 10% of our population are first- and second-generation immigrants. I love knowing that our girls will be exposed to a variety of languages and cultures in their own backyard.

This weekend we attended our city’s annual International Festival. Represented were 22 countries!

It was a great day for a festival, as we FINALLY got our first taste of beautiful fall weather. The girls had a blast at all the sights and sounds, and of course – the tastes!

They got to see all sorts of beautiful colors and patterns in the native attire of a lot of the attendees.

They swayed to the enchanted sounds of a Celtic band, grooved along with the Flamenco dancers, and were mesmerized by the pretty umbrellas that the Japanese performers used.

They also rather enjoyed a couple of snacks. They were all about a Bosnian-style gyro, and they were licking their fingers and asking for “More!” Armenian walnut pastries.

(They also enjoyed the dancing fountains, the origin of which I’m not sure of…HA!)

We all had a fantastic morning, but we did have one funny thing happen…I caught a lady smiling and pointing out the girls to her family. Before I knew it, she was taking pictures of them.

They were pretty cute in their new fall tunics and patchwork hats, if I do say so, but I didn’t expect them to be tourist attractions! (But you know this proud mama didn’t really mind.) :)

Fab 5 Friday

(Better late than never...and it's still technically Friday, at least in this time zone...)

This was Daddy’s first week back at school, so the girls and I were hammering out our new schedule. I mapped out how our “free days” (which are most days!) will flow with the girls’ one-nap-a-day routine. If this week was any indication, I foresee lots of fabulous adventures in our future!

1) Friday night we went to our favorite Mexican restaurant for dinner. This was the second time the girls have eaten there, and they just love it. It’s so very pleasant for them to really want to eat, meaning I’m not having to coax them along, bite by bite. It was another wonderful “Wow! We’re a family!” moment.

2) The girls have become truly o.b.s.e.s.s.e.d. with music lately. It’s one of their very first words (“Meh!" accompanied by the baby sign) in the morning and after their nap. And they’re usually still asking for music at bedtime. I love to see the girls shake their groove-thang and boogie around the room.

3) The girls are really beginning to talk more. They’re repeating (or at least trying to repeat) what we say. And then they’ve surprised us by using some words in context. Just this week, Baby B correctly used “moose”, “mouse”, and “mess”…all new words!

4) The girls both LOVE our cat. They get so excited to see, or even hear, her. They still haven’t said the word “cat”, but Baby B called her by name – Sasha – this week! Baby A called her “Yaya”, but that’s an improvement over “gah” (their interpretation of “cat”)!

5) The girls are still huge fans of blueberries. They’d been calling them “boo-boos.” With the evolution of their language skills, they’ve moved on to calling them “boo-bies”. Hilarious? Yes. But not so fabulous in the grocery store.

…and I didn’t want to include this as a “list” item, but in comparison to last week this time, it’s pretty darn fabulous that I haven’t had to wipe anyone’s nose in a good three days!

Fab 5 Friday

At long last, I decided it was time to transition the girls to one nap this week. That, coupled with the most voracious teething we’ve seen to date, has made this week a little “louder” than most…but it was nonetheless fabulous.

1) We started our 4th of July celebration on Saturday by dressing the girls in red, white, and blue and heading downtown for some ice cream. We followed that up on Sunday by introducing them to their very first hot dog. The introduction was quite a success! And in other fabulous news (???), I think the girls satisfied their sodium intake for the balance of the month.

2) On Monday the girls turned 18 months old, and we celebrated their ½ birthday. They humored us in taking quite a few pictures, and they loved the blueberry-citrus cake I made them. (They love blueberries, and ask for them by name...kind of..."boo-boo!" they shout at the breakfast table, and there's not a Band-Aid in sight...)

3) On Tuesday I took the girls to the cultural mecca known as Walmart for the first time. I can hardly believe I’m including Walmart on a fabulous list, as I dread going there like the plague, but this was quite a milestone. I go to Walmart at least once a week, but I just hadn’t been brave enough to take the girlies. I kept them safely strapped in their stroller as I pulled the cart behind us – they didn’t touch anything! – and we made it through my shorter-than-average shopping list just fine.

4) On Wednesday I got even braver and took the girls on a quick errand to Panera to buy some bread. This marked the first time I had them both with me, alone, not in a carrier or a stroller. They held my hands – or rather I held their hands – and we walked right up to the counter. It wasn’t exactly a relaxing errand, but it got us out of the house amid the “nap transition blues”. A few small baby steps for Mommykind…

5) The girls learned to twirl around this week. Baby A usually makes a tight little circle, while Baby B sometimes swings so wide that she falls down. Both laugh hysterically (as do I!).

The laughter and amazement far outweighed even the more-than-average fussing at our house this week...and I'd call that fabulous!

Fab 5 Friday

So here is a sampling of just a few of the things that made my week fabulous. [In case you'd like the 2-point Cliffs Notes version, it's 1) Baby A; and 2) Baby B. :) ]

1) Whole milk! Baby B transitioned the day of her first birthday party with no issues, but my stubborn little Baby A steadfastly refused anything but formula. I've spent the past MONTH transitioning...milliliter by milliliter...until at last she joined the ranks of the big kids. But we haven't said this aloud...what if she understands more than we think? :)

2) The girls have got a definite "groove thang" going. They've started "dancing" when they hear music, or even when Mommy sings (which doesn't actually qualify for music by most standards, but they don't seem to care). Now if I can just teach them to "raise the roof"! (Or maybe I'd better leave that in the '90's where it belongs???)

3) Roller skating (me, not the girls)! My girlfriends took me to dinner...and then SKATING...for my birthday (long after the girlies were in bed, of course). This doesn't actually have anything to do with the girls, but it will one day. I will be the coolest mom on 8 wheels...as long as the DJ will play a little Bon Jovi now and again.

4) The girls are doing well with sign language. They've mastered the sign for "sleep"...and they have actually used it, unprompted, to tell me they're ready for a nap. It's absolutely one of the most adorable things I've ever seen, them with their little hands curled under their chins, looking so cuddly.

5) Baby A started walking a couple of months ago, and she's progressed to literally running at times. Baby B started taking steps about the same time, but I'm proud to report she's at last walking to get from one side of the room to the other. Ladies, take your marks!