Well..

.. I would post pictures of how wonderful the aquarium looks now that the water is clear and the plants are in, or of the fantastic shiner Enya gave herself on Sunday when she fell and hit her head again on the sandpit (seriously when she gives herself such a whopping shiner, does she seriously need to go the next day and flirt with the neighbour who works for the child protection services!!), but Z snuck the camera out this morning so instead you can just take it on faith that they are as great as I say they are.

Life is meandering on in the House of Z, I managed to get both girls to eat ham yesterday- usually if meat is not pureed they spit it out (too much work to chew it, you know) but this time they ate it in omelette and then took bites of my ham matzos. Another case of "if it comes from mommy's plate, it's better than what is on ours". I have however given up and will be taking the blender stick with on our holiday, we'll try feed them table food but for my own peace of mind I want the blender there if they don't eat normal food.

Also in preperation of our holiday I'm trying to get them used to sleeping when their room is not completely dark. Up to now we have had their room pitch black for naptimes and nights (roller blinds outside the window, great insulation and makes the room nightlike) however we won't have the luxury in Turkey so they need to get used to napping when it is light. Naptimes now start with a half an hour to an hour playtime but eventually they do fall asleep, the plus is naptimes are now longer which gives me more time to get chores done but also means we have less time to play together.

ON the mobility side, we now definitely have 2 toddlers, neither girl crawls much anymore. In fact Ciara never crawls anywhere and Enya will crawl if she falls down a lot but usually only for half a meter before standing up and walking/running off again. Both girls have mastered the step up from our patio, we can trust them to go up and down it alone with only the occasional mishap (hence Ciara's grazed elbow and Enya's grazed knee). They love to be outside on the grass, playing in the sandpit or on the swing and slide set (no, we haven't spoilt them, our nextdoor neighbours have all these toys for their granddaughter and have generously allowed us use of them, not that we could really stop C and E from using them as there are no fences between the backyards in our block).

Talking about the lack of fences, Ciara and Enya escaped my watch on Monday and managed to get outside without me being aware of it. I thought I'd closed the patio door when I brought them inside to change their nappies but I hadn't. After the nappy change I set them free to run inside while I finished cleaning the fridge, gradually it dawned on me that they were way too quiet (quiet=danger), I went running through to the lounge to see that the patio door was wide open and they were nowhere in sight. I ran outside and immediately saw Enya playing with the washing line but Ciara was not in sight- my heart was pounding! Thankfully the wind set the washing flapping so I then saw Ciara playing with the swing seat, before I totally flipped out. I have already joking suggested we fit lines to their harnesses and peg them in the backyard so they can't get away, like people do with dogs. Surprisingly enough no one else finds the idea very good ;0). I'm dreading the day they learn how to open the doors (particularly our front door) by themselves, as we have no fences or gates or secure areas without direct access to a road!

It's been a week!!

I haven't had a lot to say so just never got around to posting. I really enjoyed having my baby sister here for a fortnight. The girls adore her (so much so they were going to her for cuddles instead of me!!) and she was fantastic with getting Enya to eat including getting Enya to use the spoon to feed herself. Quick aside here: Enya hadn't vomited in a while and Z happened to mention this on Saturday evening during dinner, not more than 5 minutes later on the 3rd last spoon she spewed the entire meal back at him. The old motto from NICU still applies never praise my girls where they can hear it!! I kept trying to convince Ren that she really wants to stay as a fulltime Au Pair for board and lodgings but she wouldn't be convinced ;0).

Enya got her first two molars in the last couple of weeks and looks to be working on the third, Ciara has her first four and I believe may be working on more as she is drooling which is very unusual for her. The last 2 days she has also been very whingy which may be due to missing Ren or due to teething although up to now teething has had no effect on them behaviourly. We have stopped sticking our fingers into their mouths to check for budding teeth as they now bite down and those baby teeth are VERY sharp.

Ren left early on Saturday morning and Saturday day itself was spent getting things ready to put the aquarium together, Saturday night was spent actually putting it together. When I agreed to the aquarium I was thinking of the normal little tank with pretty fishes in it, Z had other ideas! We now have a huge 350l tank taking up one corner of our living room. It is going to be a Malawi tank with fish from Africa, something from my home contienent. Hopefully the first fish will be swimming in it by this weekend. I'll post some pitures when it is all finished!

Happy Easter

I hope everyone had a wonderful easter, our's was very quiet. We've discovered Ciara loves chocolate, Enya not so much. In fact Enya tends to spit it straight out again, DARN another potential calorie bomb bites the dust!

Z arrived back at 2 am this morning and after briefly surfacing to help with breakfast, has returned to bed. Before he collapsed again he did say that Enya appears to be walking better than a week ago! They were so excited when they heard his voice, squealing like little pigs but Enya needed a few minutes before she would cuddle him, Ciara jumped right into his arms and wouldn't let go. Z really missed his little girls, his comment was a week and a half is too long to be away from them (and me). Poor thing, he has another week away next month, this time for work though!

In honour of his return we (my sister and I) are baking him rye bread for brunch, I forgot to buy bread last week as we've been baking our own this week. Almost everyday a different sort, we've had wholewheat banana bread, beer bread, naan bread , russian potato bread and chocolate twist bread. This has not been a good week for dieting!! At least we haven't started on making biscuits yet.

One thing I love about Germany is come sunny public holidays, the whole country goes walking! Even on a Sunday morning when we look out our kitchen window I see streams of people marching up our road, heading for the forest trails at the end of the street.

Today was a beautiful sunny warm day and so in honour of the germans we went for a walk. Although we took the buggy with, Ciara and Enya weren't too interested in riding in it. Most of the time they spent running every which way, inspecting the stones and sticks lying around, attemting to climb onto the wooden bences lining the trail and generally expending loads of energy. We probably only walked about a kilometer before stopping for coffee and cake, it was a welcome refueling stop for us all.

Enya fell quite often, she seems to only have 2 speeds- still or full speed ahead and on the uneven surfaces she kept going sprawling. She doesn't like having her hands dirty, everytime she fell she'd hold her hands out for one of us to dust the dirt off. Enya kept having brief rides in the pram, she obviously still has to build her endurance up whereas Ciara is like an everyready battery- she keeps going!! Ciara is fascinated by stones, she collects them and then carries them with her. Every so often she'll come up and give us one with a "bitte" (please), although she usually demands it back immediately after. We have to watch her quite closely as well as she keeps putting the gravel in her mouth, because I never feed her you know!! ;0)

Anyway enjoy the pictures



PS you may notice the girls are wearing summer sandals with socks, what can I say they are half german!!

Shoe guilt

Today we went shopping, firstly I needed to get good sunhats that fit the girls. Then I wanted to get some summer sandals for Enya as Ciara already had a pair from a good friend and if the weather certainly warrants them.

I had a blast finding the sunhats. Thank goodness Ren was with me to help me choose between the gorgeous hats we found. In the end I chose different hats for them althoug both have a neck protector flap so the hats will definitely come in handy in Turkey. I just need to sew on a strap to keep them on the girls' heads, don't ask me why but none of the hats had chin straps!

While we were in the shoe shop looking for sandals with buckles, (why don't they have any shoes with buckles anymore? My girls don't keep velcro fastening shoes on for very long!) Enya tried on a pair of shoes that are a size smaller than her present pair, suddenly she was walking steadier and with a narrower base. I knew her shoes were a bit big, but we got her measured at the specialist childrens shoe store and this was the size they recommended (yes for the same shoes). Part of her problem with walking outside has certainly been due to the uneven surface but even more has been the difficulty balancing with boats on her feet. Thank goodness we've only had them on her when she was outside and only for the last few weeks.

So Enya now also has a new pair of shoes that fit and she is feeling a lot more confident about walking around outside. Onward and forward!

Zoo visit

Playing with the car in the physios waiting room

After our 9:15 physio appointment we hightailed it up to Cologne to enjoy the fantastic weather and finally visit the zoo there. I had to haul out the sunscreen and sunhats (last years do NOT fit this year!) and we were all in short sleeves. I felt really sorry for all the babies bundled up in winter fleeces and sheepskin pram bags, especially as most of their mommies were wearing short sleeve t-shirts!!
Ciara taking herself for a walk

Enya wandering around


The girls seemed to enjoy themselves especially when we let them out the buggy to run around. I felt it was too cruel to expect them to spend the whole visit in the buggy and with two of us there we could watch/rescue one child each. They particulaly enjoyed pushing the buggy around with our supervision- this may be a trick to keep track of them in public places in the future, unfortunately I didn't get a picture of them doing this :0(.

I had the feeling Ciara and Enya are still not that interested in the animals, not even the rhino that came within one meter of us behind a full length window. But Renee and I had a great time and C and E had a day out. We only got home around 6 pm and after food and a bath, the girls crashed for the night and we didn't hear a peep out of them again.


Ren with Ciara


Sippys don't get too excited, C and E believe these are teething/ chewing toys



I haven't included any photos of the animals because shortly after we arrived my camera battery died, followed quickly by my video cameras battery so not a lot of photos/film!

T-6 hours

My little sister arrives in 6 hours and I can't wait to see her! She hasn't seen the girls since their birthday last year and so much has chnaged since then! At that time Ciara just started to crawl properly (literally the day before her birthday) while Enya could army crawl about 1m. Now they both walk/run everywhere, babble constantly and are into everything. NOTHING IS SAFE anymore!!

I've enjoyed the last 2 days having C and E all to myself and not having to consider anyone else's schedule or needs in my planning, but I must be honest I was counting down the minutes yesterday evening until bedtime. They turned ratty and whingy yesterday afternoon, I think they are missing Z.

Ciara ate her yogurt last night all by herself, I think I gave her 2 teaspoons , and she didn't even spill much of it. Enya has also made a huge leap forward in self feeding and was this morning loading her spoon with cereal and bringing it to her mouth without any assistance. Admittedly I could have fed a third child with everything that was spilled on the table and floor but the progress is exciting. That is definitely been the plus of this weekend alone, I'm being forced to leave the comfortable routines and allow the girls to experiment and develop independance at the table. And I would say the rapid progress shows that it was overdue!

I'm not even panicking (much) that Enya only ate half a small rissole and half a slice of snackbread smeared with peanut butter for lunch. She ate what she wanted and good is. I'm reading a book called "Child of Mine" by Ellyn Satter, it's all about feeding, and she stresses how important it is that the child be allowed to determine how much of whatever they eat. The amount is their responsibility, my responsibility is the what, where and when. Of course this only really applies when there is no underlying medical/psychoogical reason for children not eating.

The weight difference between my girls is increasing again, we are now at nearly 2.5kg difference after staying at only 2kg difference for a long time. I honestly don't understand why, as the amounts of food they are offered are not that different. Ciara does eat more but not every meal or even everyday, she just seems to use it more efficiently. Oh well in the long run it has certainly made the twins experience cheaper as Enya inherits all Ciara's clothes!