Our style

 We can't just swing in our swings- we have to do it our way.  Today that was twisting 2 swings together and then taking turns swinging in the 2 swings at once.  Sasha had to wear her winter boots while Leeza was in her flip flops.

 After mama put a stop to that, we couldn't just sit in our single swing and swing.  No, we had to swing upside down or on our stomachs.

 They came inside and played baby.  Of course, we didn't use any of the many dolls that mama bought us.  Leeza was mama and Sasha was baby.  And of course, we couldn't just push our baby around in the stroller the normal way, we had to push her laying back.

Once Leeza grew tired of that game, she left Sasha strapped into the stroller.  Sasha thougth that was great fun.  Oh, and you can't forget the jingle bell Sasha had to wear all afternoon.  And jingle and jingle and jingle.

Swimming- we love it

 We like to go to the library and pick out our own books.  Sahsa really likes to read books.  Leeza does sometimes.

 I found a couple pictures from last weekend that I had emailed Grandma so I was able to recover a few of the bounce house pictures.

 Yes, they are getting big, but can probably use the bounce house for another year or so,

 They love their tetter totter.  And of course their purses.

 Sunday we spent the whole day in the pool.  I set it up around 9:30 and they finally got out at 5:15.  They ate lunch in their swimsuits and a towel.  They love to run and jump in the pool.

 Sasha had to wear her water wings even though the water was just above their knees.

 Yes, Leeza is getting ready to jump off the top of the slide.  She did this a few times until mama caught her and put a stop to that.

 They love to slide into the pool.

 The pool is in the sun in the morning when the water is cold and in the shade in the afternoon when the sun is so strong.

 They just run and take a flying leap into the pool.  Fearless!

 They did practice floating a little and putting their heads under water,

 And kicking of course.  Kicking makes a lot of splashes!

They did not want to wear their Dora suits today so Leeza wore the cinderella/princess one which was too big and Sasha wore the Minnie Mouse which was too small!  They didn't care- they got to swim.

No Pictures

I'm not sure what happened, but I lost all the pictures on my camera this week.  I had a bunch of the girls in their bounce house, but not much else new so it is not that horrible, but now I am wondering what went wrong and can I trust the camera.

Saturday was swim lessons again and Leeza made a lot of progress.  Her teacher, also known as the swim Nazi, actually paid her compliments and said she did very good keeping her legs straight and her face in the water.  This is half way through the second level class for kids 3-5 and she wants them to swim without floaties!  I guess she must be a good teacher since Leeza likes the class and is learning a lot.  Sasha and I are in the tadpole class, but she is also doing well.  She can jump off the side when I stand about 6-7 ft away and swim to me and then I give her a push and she swims back to the wall by herself.  She has a floatie on, but she doggie paddles with the best of them. 

The girls played in the bounce house ALL day long Sunday.  They had a lot of fun.  I don't get it out very often so it is like it is new each time I do get it out.  This coming weekend is more swim lessons, probably some time in our own pool and then Ice Cream Day at the Zoo Sunday.  It is supposed to be in the 90s Sunday so I am not sure how much luck the ice cream stations at the zoo will have keeping it from melting.

Happy 4th of July

 We had a busy weekend.  It started out Saturday with swimming lessons at the YMCA.  Then we went furniture shopping for bunk beds.  We also ate lunch at Road House then did more furniture shopping and then stopped to get the girls some flags for the 4th.

 Sunday we went to Fletcher Park opening.  They had a Dora bounce house and a big slide.  They also opened up their new playground.

 The girls bounced and slide until they were so tired they were falling when they tried to climb the mountain.

 Leeza got slide rash on her back as her shirt came up on her last trip down and she got a friction burn on her back.  It was hot too- in the 90s.

 Sasha's feet stuck on the slide on her last trip down and flipped over forward half way down and did a face plant on the bottom of the slide.  The guy watching the slide started to panic, but then Sasha got up laughing like she always does.  She is one tough little cookie.

 Later that night, we got ready to go to the fireworks.  There are my little americans all dressed up in red, white and blue.  They loved the flags and paraded around the house for a long time with their flags.

 We parked at the library and played around there for a while.  I thought the fireworks would be at 9, but they were at 9:30.

 The girls didn't seem to care and had a good time running around.

 Someone was shooting off small fireworks.  the girls thought these were the fireworks and loved them.

 Sasha loved to see the small fireworks go off.

 When the real fireworks started, Sasha was not happy.  They were loud and she didn't like that.  We were about a mile form the fireworks.  I'm glad we didn't go closer.

 Leeza had layed down in my lap right before the fireworks started.  She slept through most of them and Sasha huddled on the other side of my lap trying to block the noise.  They said they liked the fireworks, but I'm not so sure.

We made it back to the car just in time for Sahsa to pass out.  It was about 10pm which is way past their bedtime.  Leeza decided she had to go pee and cried the whole way home that she was going to wet her pants.  She never did and made it home to the potty.  There were lots of tears when I told them they had to go right to bed, but everyone was asleep in less than 5 mintues.

Piggy Banks

I got the girls their first piggy banks this weekend.  Then we talked about pennies, nickels, dimes and quarters.  We played a game where if they could pick the coin I called for out of a pile of coins they got to keep it and put it in their piggy bank.    They understand that money buys things, but they think mommy has  money for everything.  HA!  After we put the coins in the banks, Sasha wanted to take hers to the store to buy a racecar.  Leeza just wanted to shake the coins back out.  She spent alots of time shaking it and would get a coin out now and then,  She would put it back in and start all over again.

Swim Lessons

 We took swimming lessons last fall.  Leeza did great.  Sasha decided she would rather sit on Mommy's lap than go swim with the instructors.  We are signed up again and went to our first lesson today.  Leeza is in the Eels class which is the second level since she already had the Pike class.  Sasha and me are signed up for Tadpoles which means I get to swim with her, but it covers the stuff in the Pike class.  There are a total of 4 levels from Tadpole/Pike on up for the 3-5 group. 

 Sasha was a little afraid at first.  That is so surprising since she loves the water at the waterparks, but the last time we took the class, one of the instructors took Sasha and swam with her around the pool.  I think she drastically underestimated the stubbornness of Sasha. If she didn't want in the water, you amking her was only going to reenforce the idea that she was not going to go swimming there.  But by teh end of the lesson today, she was jumping off the side and going under the water.  She was also kicking up a storm when we were practicing floating on our stomachs.  We were in Arizona for the first lesson, the second was cnacelled due to lightening(yes even though the pool was indoors) so today was our first one.  there are 3 more lessons.

Leeza did great, but I didn't get to see what she was doing most of the time.  She was on the opposite side of the pool.  I did see her swimming with a floatie on and doing well.  She only tried to come over to our side of the pool once.  Her class only had 3 kids in it so I think she got a lot of attention.  We only have 3 more sessions to go this time.

Things I want to remember

Since this has become my girls "baby book", there are some things I want to record so that I will remember them years from now.  Like how Sasha has said she is a puppy for the last several months.  Sometimes, I get puppy licks instead of kisses at night.  One day, she was caught at daycare licking the floor since Sasha thought it was something a puppy would do.  She crawls from room to room and barks.  Sometimes she is a kitty or a baby, but mainly she is a puppy.  Puppy is a good puppy and she normally is very good when she pretends to be a puppy.
Or how Leeza comes home with a treasure almost every day.  It may be a broken ring or a barret.  They are probably things from the playground, but she always finds something.
Or how Sasha likes to stand and dance on the glass top table on the deck despite my yelling each time she does it.  One day she was having fun and dancing on the table when she wet her pants.  Leeza came running to tell me Sasha peed on the table.  Boy can that girl pee alot!

What started this thought was an old email I recently reread.  It was about how hard it was to get the girls to sleep at night.   This was from the first few weeks they were home.  I don't remember that at all.  I remember that  it wasn't too hard to get them to sleep.  I guess it is just a matter of remembering the good stuff and forgetting the bad stuff.  So I am going to try to record some good and bad and so so thoughts here.  This post is more for me than for anyone else reading- although I think I am down to only a few readers. 

We recently had an invasion of the 13 year cicadas.  At first Leeza was scared of them as they dive bomb you continuously.  Then Sasha and Leeza were mashing them with their plastic golf clubs- yucky bug guts!  I talked to them on how we shouldn't kill anything and just let the bugs be.  That afternoon, I saw Leeza out there petting some cicadas on the tree trunk.  She repeatedly tried to carry one inside.  She was always carrying one around whenever she went outside.  They only lasted a few weeks and are now gone.
Leeza still wants to have anything Sasha has.  Sasha gives in most of the time, but the fights are bad when she doesn't.  Sasha is very determined and usually wins the fight.
We have quite a few dolls.  None of them have clothes on.  Even the ones we have multiple outfits for are usually naked.  So much for plaing with all the clothes they have.
It is also hard to keep clothes on the girls.  We have a rule that you must have pants and shoes on to go outside.Leeza tries to break this rule every weekend.  Even when they leave the house dressed, you cannot count on them not taking off their clothes once they are outside.  They usually say the clothes got dirty!  One day they were out swimming.  I went in for a few minutes and when I went back out they were completely naked and splashing in the pool.
One day, Leeza went in the bathroom for a long time.  I called for her to come out and went to find her.  She had put her head under the faucet and got her hair wet.  When I asked her why, she said she wanted to go swimming.  I guess as long as her head is wet it counts.
One of the teachers at school calls the girls butts, their booty.  I do not like this so I decided to try to make the girls NOT say this word.  This was going to be a test for when real swear words came up.  As you probably guessed, booty is now Leeza's favorite word and she sings about booty butt all the time.  I guess I need a new technique for naughty words since my current one is a miserable failure.
The girls have torn down almost every sticker or other decoration I have put in their bedroom.  The walls are so plain, but anything including Dora that I put up, they(leeza usually) pull down.
Our bedtime routine is: bath, put on lotion and PJs, read 2 books, sing Baa Baa Black sheep twice, ABCs, Twinkle Twinkle, rock a bye baby, and Muffin man.  We used to add Silent Night in there until I had a cold for 6 weeks.  We sometime sing Farmer in the Dell, 3 blind mice, wheels on the bus, tea pot, or several other songs.  Sasha has been requests Our Story a lot which it my version of the story of me going to Kaz and meeting the girls.  Except they have told me they were princesses and not little girls that I met.
The girls are good travelers and not not make too much fuss on long car trips now or on planes.  They don't get excited about take offs or landings at all.