We had a fun Halloween.  Lots of friends and family around. I carved pumpkins with the girls the week before  and then the dog and chickens destroyed both of them the following day.  Trick or treating was strange this year because so many houses did not participate.  About half of the people weren’t home or were home sick and just had a bowl of candy sitting outside. 

We have yet to have any flu or other type of illness in our house this year.  Today Greyson braved a 3 hour wait in line with the girls to get the H1N1 vaccine at our clinic.  Given that we have the swine flu sweeping through all our schools here, I think it was worth the trouble.  Hopefully is isn’t too late.  

The girls are getting big, however Samia has about an inch on Piper these days.  They are fitting into 3T clothes now.  Piper is still as athletic as ever and loves to do a somersault at the end of ring around the rosey instead of just falling down.  She is getting pretty good at shooting baskets as well.

I find Piper almost every morning sitting in Samia’s bed reading a book.  Some mornings I find them both in the same bed reading a book, but more often Samia is on the changing table trying to figure out how to get the duck tapped light switch on.  

Samia is now fully potty trained.  She has never had an accident at night.  We just leave a potty in her room at night and if she needs to use it she does without our help.  Pi is still working things out but is pretty good during the day. 

Piper loves riding her tricycle (and she is a very fast peddler), ice cream, doing her signs (flashcards) and feeding the fish.  Samia loves her loader and digger trucks, trains, and talking non-stop (and her phrases sound very familiar- her latest is “hey, whacha doin’ man”, which is what Greyson always says on the phone when talking to his friends).  I heard Samia count from 1 to 5 the other day out of the blue. Samia has a fear of “goosey’s” and “stinky elephants” (this phrase started after a trip to the zoo).  Both the girls also are scared of the chickens still. 

We went through 2 weeks of terrible twos with Samia recently with angry yelling, hitting and throwing of food and toys.  But she seemed to have stopped that behavior just as quickly as it began.  They really are two of the sweetest, cuddliest, funniest toddlers I know.  Here are some pictures to enjoy…

Always a cute smile on the Pi. 

 This is the correct way to swing.

 Red loves a good hat.

 Having fun getting dirty in matching kitty boots and kitty sweatshirt.

 Playing in the sandbox I built them for their birthday.

Pushing eachother on the swingset from Grandma Jan and Pop Pop.

About a week ago Samia started to consistantly climb out of her crib in rather unsafe manners such as climbing along the window sill. Piper soon followed suit. We would go in and find both girls in one crib with all the blankets they could find, or find that they had swapped cribs. So we decided to make the switch to big girl beds. I was weary of how the transition would go. I made a point of asking the girls if they wanted to sleep in a big bed and they said they did. But two year olds pretty much repeat anything they hear so you never know if they really mean it. Then I had them help me take the cribs apart. I set up the twin beds and let them each pick their bed. Then I let them read a few books in bed and then lights out. I didn’t hear a single fuss out of them all night and they were in their beds when I went down in the morning. So I considered that a huge sucess. They are taking their first nap in them right now and also went right to sleep. They are such good girls.

Samia

Piper