Similarities and Differences

Some differences:

Mabel loves stuffed animals, Stella loves babies. Stella loves her binkie, Mabel doesn't really care about it but likes to chew on it sometimes so she can be like Stella. Mabel likes to copy Stella's pronunciation of some words. Mabel used to say "wa-wa" for water but now she says it Stella's way: "yo-yo". Stella knows how to pee in the toilet (but only when she feels like it) and Mabel doesn't seem to be able to make herself go. Stella is very shy around people that she doesn't know. She puts her chin to her chest and looks up at a person through the top of her eyes. When Mabel meets a new person she just kind of freezes and stares at them while they talk at her.

Some Similarities:

They both love to climb. Anything. Stella recently managed to climb up onto the bathroom counter using the cabinet handle as a foothold. They love fish. They love to pet the fish. (Sorry Speckles, I hope you don't hold it against them.) Finding Nemo is their favorite movie. We turn it on daily, usually in the kitchen when they're strapped into their highchairs having breakfast. They love Grammie. Their faces light up and they get all excited when I tell them that we're going to get Grammie on our way to dance class.

potty training and dancing

We started on Monday. No more diapers when they are awake. That was my original plan anyway. I guess it's still evolving. After five days of running pantsless or naked in the kitchen for most of the day, Stella gets it. She's doing really great and doesn't like to put a diaper on anymore. She can control when she pees and gets a really worried look on her face when she has to do #2. Today she had only two accidents. She caught herself on the first one and finished in her little potty. The second one was a number two and I was getting the tub ready for their bath so I didn't catch it. But she did come running in to the bathroom saying "po-po! po-po!" over and over again. Stella wouldn't allow me to put a diaper on her for bed tonight so I put on her panties and laid her down for bed. I checked her at midnight and she was still dry. I'm so impressed!

Mabel isn't too interested in going potty. She won't sit for very long and she doesn't worry too much if her undies get wet. She does, however, point to the puddle and tell me that she went "pobby". I gave up temporarily and put her back in diapers yesterday. It seems easier to concentrate on one at a time. I tried to get her to go again this morning and learned that she will pee for m&m's. This is a promising discovery.

Yesterday was their first dance lesson at Nutmeg's. When we arrived at the studio, both girls were asleep in the car. It was a 90 minute drive and Stella was in underpants, so I rushed the girls into the studio and ran straight for the bathroom and sat her down on the toilet. It was all just a little too confusing for her and she refused to sit on the potty. They were not ready to be social so soon after being rudely woken up so they didn't participate in the dance class until it was nearly over. Just as they started to warm up to the whole thing, Stella peed on the dance floor. Oops. They really liked wearing the fairy wings and shaking the maracas. After dance class they had lots of fun playing in the waiting room and watching the 3 year olds dance.

what's the latest?

Among other things, this summer was the summer of teeth. Stella started the summer with six teeth, four on the top and two on the bottom. Mabel started with seven - the same six that Stella had plus one back molar. At the end of the summer they had both gotten all four of their back molars in and Mabel got one of her bottom front teeth in. I think it was the teething that caused all of the unexplained fevers and multiple bouts of diarrhea and diaper rash that we dealt with while we were away in Utah.

Mabel and Stella are both working very diligently on their vocabulary. They are both willing to take a stab at saying any word you ask them to...with one exception. Much to Grammie's dismay, Mabel refuses to say "Grammie". She will say alligator, but not grammie. Every time Grammie asks her to say it, Mabel gets a coy little grin on her face and looks away. Sometimes she downright smiles and looks her straight in the eye while refusing to say it. I know Mabel is just playing Grammie. She is a witty little girl.

Last week Mabel made her first sentence. She used to just say "more" if she wanted more milk at breakfast. But she took it up a notch and said "more milk" while she held her cup out to me. It sounded like "mo me". She's very advanced.

We are starting to get serious about the potty training. They are both ready for it. When it's time to change their diapers I've been having them sit down to try and go potty before the new diaper goes on. Stella really likes to sit on her potty. This last week she has been pretty consistent about sitting on her potty and peeing in it. She hasn't peed on the floor once in the past week and she's peed in her potty about six times. I think she gets it. It's just about time for big girl panties. Mabel will still pee on the floor, but she'll tell me that she did it and point to the puddle. They both kind of fight over who gets to sit on the bigger blue potty that we have only one of. They don't like the little pink ones so much anymore. There is a lot of screaming and pushing when they both have their diapers off. I think it would be worth getting another blue one.

They are down to one nap per day now. They wake up around 7 am and get sleepy around 10:30 or 11 and nap for around two hours. Then they go to bed around 7:30 or 8. It's a pretty good schedule for them.

They love to play on the swings and slide. Thanks to Uncle Rob and Aunt Jen for passing on their great playground set! They will swing and slide for a very long time. Stella fell asleep in her swing a couple of weeks ago. They are both pretty good at climbing up the ladder to the slide. They've only had one or two spills in the past week.

actual recognizable words

I've missed writing about lots of really great things that we've done. We drove to California and went to Sea World, we went to Hogle Zoo, camped for two nights in Capitol Reef. I'll try to go back and fill in the blanks.

Last weekend during our camping trip in Capitol Reef, Mabel decided it was time to make some real words. She was just bursting with vocabulary! She started naming everything we pointed out to her. Here's a list of what she says:

tree (dee)

car (cah)

deer (deh)

rice (ice)

apple (ap-po)

water (wa-wa)

uh-oh (uh-oh)

more (mo)

bye-bye (ba-ba)

baby (bay-bee)

daddy (da-da)

mamma (ma-ma)

stella (da-ya)

penguin (de-de - i don't get it either, but she's consistent)

cow (coh)

cracker ('ca-coh)

cheese (shhhh)

sticker (de-'kah)

shoe (shhhh - not to be confused with cheese, of course)

sock (sssss)

no (no! - with vigorous head shaking)

Stella is not one to be left out. Within a couple of days she began her own quest for words. Here's her vocabulary list:

cheese (shhhh)

shoe (shhhh - they sure sound the same, don't they...)

yes (yeh)

no (no - with gentle head shaking)

bye (ba)

dad (da)

mom (ma)

mabel (may)

baby (beh-beh)

car (cah)

cow (coh)

They have both learned a few more words in sign language during the past few weeks. We taught them the signs for eat, drink, and more in addition to the sign for all-done that they've been doing for months. They're really good at doing the signs and it is so nice to not have to guess at those things anymore.

Llama Fest

We went to the 15th annual Llama Festival in Spanish Fork this afternoon. It was quite an experience. It was held at the Hare Krishna temple. We met up with Grandma and Aunt Kelly.

There were llamas everywhere! We saw a big group of them run in a llama race. Some others were running in an obstacle course. We went into an enclosure where many of the llamas were either eating hay from bins or eating grains out of people's hands. Mabel and Stella walked up near one and just watched it. When it started moving around they seemed to get a little nervous. I picked the girls up so they could pet them. Stella gently patted the llama and quietly watched. Mabel giggled and patted the llama a little less than gently. Ok, so the llama flinched when she pet it. But it didn't run away immediately.

There was a small enclosure with a peacock, a pea hen, a cockatoo and a macaw. We watched the poor peacock run laps back and forth desperately searching for a way into the pea hens enclosure. It had been pacing for so long that it had actually made a smooth path in the dirt. The macaw was very interested in Mabel. It climbed off of it's perch and made it's way over to see her and stopped right in front of her. They just regarded each other for a little while. Mabel started giggling and wanted to touch it. Then the macaw screeched, "CAAA!" and that was enough for Mabel. It made her jump and cry. They parted on bad terms. But I think it was all just a big misunderstanding.

We ate vegan food inside the temple which tasted surprisingly good. Mabel really liked the cream of wheat. Stella had a couple of bites of that but opted instead for the cup of applesauce that I had brought along. Stella and daddy went upstairs to watch the people chanting "hare krishna, hare hare krishna krishna".

Both girls were completely tuckered out by the time we got home. Stella was practically begging to be laid down in her bed. And Mabel laid down without a single complaint. It was a good day.

berry picking

We went to Aunt Kelly's house today to water her garden and pick raspberries for her while she is away. She has a whole fence line full of raspberry bushes that were just exploding with ripe berries. When we first got there Stella went straight for the baby swing. I buckled her up and gave her a push and she was in heaven. She very nearly fell asleep in there. Mabel sat for a while in the little red car and practiced her steering techniques. After a while she came over to me and I gave her one of the raspberries I had just picked. It turns out she really likes raspberries! And she was especially happy that she could just pluck them off of the bush and pop them in her mouth. She very quickly learned how to tell a ripe berry from an unripe one. She sputtered and spit out the pale unripe berry and from then on only picked the bright red ones. She was picking and eating them faster than I could! She worked on the low branches while I picked from the high ones. We managed to bring home a couple of bags full of berries (and one belly full of them too!) Now we'll have to think of something delicious to make with them...

going for a hike

This town shuts down on Sundays, but as Bill says, they can't shut down the mountains. So today we're going to put the girls in the backpacks and go for a hike.

Happy 4th of July!

Grandma stayed over at our house on Friday night. She got to be roommates with Mabel and Stella and I think she really loved it. I think she even enjoyed being woken up in the middle of the night to rub a belly or two and sing some songs. And I throughly enjoyed the full nights sleep!

On Saturday we woke up and had breakfast and then walked down to University Ave to watch the 4th of July Parade. This parade is a pretty big event around here. Lots of people camped out on the grass by the street, setting up their tents as early as 3:00 the afternoon before. We watched floats with pretty girls waving, high school marching bands (even my alma mater!), horses, old fashioned cars and giant balloons go past. Mabel and Stella were fascinated! Stella got to pet a little dachshund that we were standing next to. She was so soft and gentle with it. I'll post pictures soon too.

temple open house

Friday was a day off for Bill and Grandma Pomeroy. Yay! Grandma drove up here with Justin early that morning and we met up after lunch. Kelly had made reservations for us to attend the open house of a new Mormon temple opening up in the southwest side of Salt Lake City. What a beautiful building! We were able to walk through and see the inside. We were all pretty amazed with the exquisite craftsmanship. It took about 30 minutes to walk through the whole building. Stella walked most of the way, holding hands with Emma, her favorite cousin. Both girls were remarkably well behaved.

I'll post pictures of them soon - check back a little later :)

all better

It must have been something that she ate. She is doing great now and was extremely hungry at dinner time. She ate lots and lots of rice and little steak bits.

sick again?

Mabel wasn't as hungry for breakfast this morning as she normally is. After laying around on the couch with me watching Sid the Science Kid, she threw up. I could recognize some of last nights carrots. Hmm. I wonder what's up. She's been really cuddly this morning. She threw up again not long after the first time. Now, she's on her third change of clothes and third diaper of the day and it's only 10 am. Hopefully she will improve as the day goes on.

just a walk

It was a fairly uneventful day today. Our big adventure was to walk up to the Cougar Copy center to have a document printed and scanned for Justin and then to the dry cleaners to have daddy's jacket cleaned and pressed. On our way to the dry cleaners we noticed that someone's sidewalk was getting watered with the sprinklers. We took a little detour and headed straight for them. After we walked through, both girls had a look of, "why???" on their faces. I think I successfully convinced them that it was a ton of fun to get wet and so we went through again. It was a hot day and the water felt really good.

fun in the sun

I took Mabel and Stella to Seven Peaks water park on Tuesday. They had so much fun! We went directly to the little tots section where the water is pretty shallow and they have a little jungle gym thing with a slide. Stella walked in at the shoreline and sat right down at the water's edge and splashed around with her hands. Mabel was the most daring. She waded right down in until the water reached her tush. She was so happy that she couldn't stop smiling. She walked around and around in the water splashing and grinning and making these adorable little chirpy noises.

I kind of wish that I had brought the camera so I could have taken pictures of them, but it was tough enough trying to keep tabs on the two of them without having to worry about that too. Mabel might have stayed in the water the entire time, but Stella kept wanting to get out and walk back to our towels to find her sippy cup and animal crackers. Stella also was very very interested in all of the other things that the water park had to offer, like much deeper water and much taller water slides. They did make friends with a little 14 month old girl named Ruby who had very delicious looking graham crackers. Ruby was intrigued with the goodies inside Mabel and Stella's snack cups. They just liked each other for their food.

Go Owlz!

We went to see the Orem Owlz play baseball tonight. It was the girls first live baseball game. They were only mildly impressed. Stella got to meet Holly the Owl. She did not like her very much. Mabel followed around Hootz the Owl for a little while, but lost quickly interest. I don't know, maybe they were a little scary looking?

We met up with Kelly and Eric and Emma, Isaac, and Caleb. All of the kids had the most fun on a fairly large playground set up which was behind the grassy section where we were sitting. It was pretty much mobbed with every kid in the ballpark who was bored with watching the game. I think most of the parents were still sitting in the stands watching the game. So the playground had a kind of Lord of the Flies aura about it. We stuck mostly to the little kids section of the playground. Everything was a bit smaller there and the big kids didn't like it as much, so it was less intense.

nothing can stop her now

Stella, Stella, Stella. What are we going to do with you?

She can now easily climb out of the portable crib. And into it. For her morning escapades she climbed out of her crib and popped down into Mabel's. Her jump broke one of the boards that provide the support for Mabel's mattress. Now one end is a little floppy and sinks if she sits there.

Cascade Spring

Yesterday we decided to go for a hike. We tried to go to a beautiful place in the canyons of Provo, called Stewart's Falls. Early on in the hike it became clear that this was no place for a double-wide stroller. It was just too steep and rocky. So we turned around and drove another ten miles or so into the canyon to a place called Cascade Springs. There were paved pathways and boardwalks that took us over the springs. It was very beautiful. Bill was hoping for a place that the girls could get out and splash around, but it's pretty clear that they don't want anyone disturbing the ecosystem. So Mabel and Stella politely stayed in their stroller as we walked the paths.

red spots

I think the fever mystery is finally solved. This morning Mabel's tummy and back were covered in little red spots. Stella had roseola a couple of months ago. She had a fever for three days and then after the fever broke she developed red specks all over her back and tummy. We took her in to the doctor to see what the rash was all about and the doctor said it was definitely roseola. There's nothing to do for it. It just has to run it's course.

Her fever broke!

This morning Mabel's fever broke! She looks so much better and is happily eating a pancake right now. Kelly's herbal mixtures just may have done the trick. She's not 100% back to normal, but I think she's on her way.

Road Trip!

We made it! Whew! We drove in our minivan across the country to Utah where we'll be spending the next eight weeks. Mabel and Stella are little troopers. They sat with their fannies strapped into their car seats for 36 hours. It took us just over 3 days to complete the trip. We drove mostly when the slept. When we stopped to eat and get gas we let the girls out to run around a bit. Stella really really likes to be in the driver's seat. She thinks it's really fun to sit in the steering wheel. She honks the horn a bit while she's doing it. When people see her sitting in there with a huge smile on her face, they just smile back and wave.
We had the DVD players hooked up so each girl had a screen in front of their seat. We played Disney movies for them if we were driving when they were awake. They seem to really like Winnie the Pooh, and now we can't get the songs out of our heads.
On our second day of driving Mabel began to run a fever. She is still sick. I don't know what is causing it. I think that it might be an ear infection. The inside of her left ear looked a little red when I peeked in with the otoscope. I don't completely trust my ability to judge what's an ear infection and what's not. Tomorrow, if she has not improved, I will take her in to see a doctor. Aunt Kelly gave her some herbal remedies this evening. She dropped a garlic/olive oil mixture into her ears and echinacea drops into her mouth. She smells delicious, like herbal tea and warm, buttered, garlic bread.

Crib hopping

When I went to pick up the girls from their morning nap I discovered that Mabel had a little visitor in her crib. Stella had climbed up over the rails and plopped down into her sisters crib. I had been wondering what all the happy chattering was all about.

Stella had even more ideas up her sleeve for later in the afternoon. When I went up to get them from their afternoon nap Stella was perched on top of the night stand on the opposite side of Mabel's crib. Mabel was desperately trying to figure out how she had climbed out.

Later in the evening, when it was bed time, Mabel was able to show off her climbing abilities. She's been watching Stella and taking notes, I think. Mabel figured out how to climb up from the floor into her crib with the rail down. She was so pleased with herself! Stella was in there waiting and they had a little baby bear hug/tackle to celebrate.

they are so smart!

The girls understand so much more than I was aware of. We were getting ready to go to the dining hall for dinner. Daddy asked Mabel to bring in his shoes. We didn't really think she understood what he was saying. But she ran out of the bedroom and into the entryway, fetched one of his sneakers and brought it directly to him. Daddy asked for the other one and then Stella ran out to the entryway and brought it back too!

TMI?

This might just be a little too much information, but it's a noteworthy accomplishment for Stella. She sat on her potty and pooped. yay! she's done it before, but it was so long ago that I'm sure it was purely accidental. This time she seemed to fully understand what was happening.
I figured that with both of them each eating an entire banana on the way home from a very filling breakfast, there would be some elimination happening very soon. Stella happily fetched her potty when I suggested it and sat down on it to watch Clifford the Big Red Dog. She got really nervous when things started happening for her. She just wanted to get up and do it where she normally does it...in the diaper. I settled her back down and put my arms around her so she might feel more secure and then she just let loose.
When she was finished we had a great celebration for her, complete with singing and clapping. Both girls scrutinized the potty with a look of disgust on their face. They seemed to be a bit conflicted as to why I was so happy about this unpleasant little mound that she left behind.
After getting Stella's diaper back on it was Mabel's turn. But I was about 10 seconds too late to get her on the potty. Ah well, there will be plenty more times to practice.

crib climbing

Now that Stella has perfected the art of high chair climbing, she is ready to work on crib climbing. She must have been formulating her strategy for scaling the crib walls for quite some time. As soon as she saw that Mabel's crib rail had been lowered she set her plan into motion. She walked straight over to the crib, grabbed a hold of the upper rail with both hands, placed one foot on the lower rail, slid the next between the slats onto the mattress and with a final calculated movement, leaned over the upper rail and landed inside the crib. I'd have to give it a 9.5 only because the landing was a little rough.

she's mastered the highchair

Stella climbed INTO her highchair yesterday. Mabel was standing by watching in awe, trying to figure out how she could get up there too.

splish splash!

The weather was SO warm last Saturday. It was in the mid 80's again. We were watering the garden and the girls were very very interested in the water coming out of the hose. I filled up their little red wagon with water to play in. What fun! They started out by gingerly testing the water with their fingertips then graduated to whole hand splashes. After getting their arms and faces good and wet, they moved on to their feet. Mabel was the first one to plunk her foot, sandals and all, into the cool water. Stella thought that was amusing and did the same. They took turns dunking their feet in the water and laughing hysterically the entire time! Stella tried out both feet in the water, standing up in the wagon. Mabel liked the idea and tried it too. Pretty soon they were both taking turns sitting in the water. What a thrill!

mmmm...ice cream

Today was 86 degrees outside, perfect ice cream weather. Mabel and Stella each got their own ice cream cones and ate them from top to bottom.  mmmmmm....good stuff.