A Day Away

Claire

It is now really fun to talk to her and understand most of what she is trying to say and telling other people what she is trying to say too. She has certain ways that she says things and I understand why I'm the one that understands since I'm with her constantly. She likes to look for things and says "Dog where are you dog?" or whatever she is currently looking for which is pretty cute. She likes to climb our tree, and run from one end of the yard to the other when we play outside, and if we had a trampoline she would constantly be jumping. She likes playing with her cousins yesterday even though there were a few close calls on the tramp with bigger kids.

Shay

As much as Claire communicates, Shay tried to tell us what she wants too and is getting really good and pointing to what she wants. She also took my finger and led me to the door so she could go back outside this past week after we had to come in. You can see she is trying to drink milk straight from the jug which she must have learned from Chris because I never do that! We will be transitioning her to a toddler bed this next week because her crib is being given to her younger cousin and we don't want to move with it. I hope it goes well! We had fun with the bubbles I found from last week and she loved the animals at grandparents house.

Workout

We found out that the bench we have been using has been really unsafe for Chris because it only has a 300lb weight limit. With his body weight plus what he lifts he can't do much and we've been lucky it hasn't given out, so we asked his handy and talented brother to build one! Now we can safely do all of our workouts at home and just need to figure out how to get workouts done without the girls always trying to join or explore the garage. It also gave us an excuse to see most of our family and play with cousins, and bring our bikes down to start using and have for Chris to go to school with. 

Happy Easter!

Easter

We already got some presents from grandparents and I put them in a basket for the girls so they can experience Easter morning. Claire was more interested in the baskets and eggs, while Shay liked the cards , SO at least they weren't fighting. Shay woke up first and got to do some egg hunting without her sister getting all of them first, and as of noon (when I'm writing this) there is still one left unfound! I hid them really easy and I can see it every time I walk by, but I think it will be fun to let Claire find it later today too. We enjoyed a Easter Sunday church with my family and seeing them on the computer is really nice especially since Claire is missing playing with friends.

Claire

We have enjoyed going outside so often, now that it is warm in the morning as well as afternoon we go and play in the backyard once the sun is out and she loves climbing our tree. I can tell she misses playing with kids her age because every time the neighbor is outside she wants to go play but doesn't understand that we can't. It breaks my heart and I can't wait until she gets to be social with kids again like the gym and nursery, or even just the park with random kids! She is getting really good at walking with me on our stroller walks because she likes to be out when we go. Chris has enjoyed that she likes to work out with us already and does sets between ours with our help of course and very light weight. 

Shay

Best thing about this week is that she is trying to learn how to use a fork! She saw me using one and insisted on having it and now wants one every meal. She has the motion down but hasn't stuck anything yet and even when I do it for her she takes it off to eat it. She is a good cuddler for about a minute before she gets up to go explore and play, but I got a rare chance to take a nap with her this week. Mostly she likes to get dirty outside and brings us her shoes to tell us she needs to be in the sun. Her communicating is all grunting and pointing or holding out her hand for what we have to feed her with.

Baking

I've made bread in a bread machine before, but for a recipe I saw recently it was easy to knead it and bake it in the oven. We have a lot of flour recently and it was especially fun when Claire started kneading the counter as I was working the dough. She likes to help cook and always chooses ramen or mac and cheese for food so she can cook with me. It will be fun when she is actually a help doing those things. Next will be making wheat bread with freshly ground whole wheat now that we have a grinder and wheat.

The excitement...of being stuck at home

Claire

She is talking so much more and we are having a lot of fun on our walks picking out colors and objects she knows. It is really fun to communicate with her and have her be excited to learn more words with us when we read books and play. Speaking of which, she loves playing hide and seek, phones, taking pictures together, and anything outside especially feeding the horses in the back yard. She is starting to like more animals and when she collects from the book of farm animals she has she will pick out the horse, cat, dog, and pig then leave the rest for Shay. We did a fun craft night where she finger painted and then went straight into the bath, but she loved it! She imitates almost everything we do including learning somersaults  and going on the potty a couple times.

Shay

She is so much fun now that she walks around the house following along with us because it makes her happy to find us in another room. When we play hide and seek with Claire she will follow us and as fun when we find each other. She has been throwing away diapers this week when we change them because she likes to try to steal them before I can throw them away. We walk her in there to throw them away so she doesn't try to open them...which she has done before...luckily no poopy ones! Shay has been great at taking naps and sleeping these days and got two  new weeks recently so now she has 8. She is getting picky with food but we are teaching her to give the food to us instead of throwing it on the floor if she doesn't want it.

Sisters

Claire has shown Shay how to do a lot of things and it is fun to see them play together. Claire was excited to help Shay throw away the diapers and showed her where they go, she also helps her play in our water machine and spill water all over the floor if I don't pay attention. They play with the horse together and Shay learned to take some grass from me to the horse like Claire likes to do. When I feed them lunch, Claire likes to share her food even if it is way too much food...and they drink from the same cups now, not always on purpose. We all have dance parties together and like to go on walks even though we can't stop at the park anymore we play in the backyard.

Work out

Our work out set up in our garage has been a slight learning curve, especially trying to figure out how to work out around the girls. We mostly go when they are asleep or at least Shay, but with Chris's work schedule we needed to work out to spot each other and trapped them in the pack and play. Hopefully it can continue to work and we can get them enough entertainment so they don't scream at us like last time. We will probably have to only do spotting lifts together with them out there so they don't get bored for our whole workout. Either way, we are still very excited to be able to do almost all of our workouts at home and look forward to not paying a gym fee anymore.

Stuck

I guess I should do my complaining....we didn't end up going to visit grandparents like we had planned because of the quarantine efforts. Now we are just enjoying conference at home while trying to get Shay to nap for the sessions and keep Claire calm and watching her own movies so we can hear the talks. It's always better to be safe than sorry though so we will be planning another visit eventually....hopefully before we move. Which is another thing we are worried about and hope isn't going to be postponed because of the virus and quarantine.