The Worst Twins Ever!

Before I get to what has been happening at the end of January here are a few sneak peaks at Broden and Raya's valentine photos. I want to send out a Valentine card and spent this weekend trying to get them to look at the camera in their Valentine shirts. Broden would not look at me, but Raya...What a model she was!!

Kyrah greets me everyday at the door with a wonderful "Mommy's Home - surprise? got surprise?" I gave her a surprise once a few months ago and she has not forgotten it. I do not bring home surprises that often, but had stopped at Wal-Mart this day and found a cowgirl hat on the clearence isle and thought Kyrah had to have it.

She loves her cowgirl hat and that is what she calls it.

Yes, it is the end of January and she is still wearing her Sanata jammies.

A little fun time in the mini trampoline. Kyrah's Christmas present. Kyrah likes it but Raya LOVES it. She laughes and laughs when she gets to sit in there and Kyrah bounces her. You just have to watch out that Kyrah doesn't bounce too much or get too rough. Lately, Kyrah has been huging or playing a little too rough with the babies. They like it up to a point until Kyrah starts laying on them.

Playing peek-a-boo by the door and turing on and off the light. A thing she loves to do.

Raya on a rocking horse. She really likes playing on this, hopefully soon she will be able to hold on by herself.

I took this picture to show Broden in his cool guy jeans and him practicing walking with the help of his little walker. Then low and behold on Jan 21, 2010 he took two steps to me. I would place him an arms length away and try to encourage him to walk to me. 95% of the time he would just fall into my arms, but two times he took a few steps to me. So we are working on that when we can. Raya is in no mood to walk. She won't even walk when holding on to someone's fingers. She will cruise along furniture, but that is it. She will stand by herself not holding on for a few seconds.

Ignore the deer in headlights look - I think the flash was surprising to him.

The second week of January was the illness week. All three where home at some point and into the doctors at some point. Raya was the worst with high fever, all three had coughs and all three were on various medicines. I am very sorry they were sick but thankful it was all in one week rather then stretching it out over a few weeks.

We are working on getting the twins off the bottle and baby food. I am taking away their afternoon formula bottle and switching it to whole milk. I did that this weekend and Broden loved the milk but I had to put it in a bottle. They drink out of a sippy cup, just not that great.

As for Kyrah - her language is more then I could have every hoped for -rarely do I not understand what she wants and she talks in long sentences and even gets her pronouns correct - I, me, you, etc. She is not even close to being potty trained, but we have all the stuff out and available to her. She tells us she has to go potty and we undress her and go through the routine, but so far nothing has actually gone in the potty. She is pretty bossy and has a lot of attitude, I am hoping with patience she will grow out of it. She is of course the worst when I am around but good when she has babysitters. Her favorite books by far are the three Llama Llama books. Another issue we have with her is that she has been getting up at 5 am the past two months. We tried adjusting her bedtime back a bit to 7:30 and that only made it worse. So we are at a lose on how to get her to sleep later in the morning. The majority of the time she is so cute you just want to squeeze her.

So as to my title. This weekend Dennis was feeding Raya and Broden and he said you two are the worst twins ever! And by that he meant - they have been 100% opposite on everything. Even still - Broden will eat pretty much anything that is given to him and eat a lot, while Raya will eat very little and not much variety. Broden is go go go, Raya sits back and observes, Raya has a tooth Broden has none. Broden has better large motor skills like walking, while Raya is better at fine motor skills - pincher grasp with thumb and little finger and ways Bye Bye. And just when you think you have them figured out, they switch. Broden was a bad sleeper and Raya was great, now they have switched. So when Daddy calls them the worst twins ever he just means you would expect with twins for something to be similar, but not in the case of Raya and Broden Kreitler. Even Grandpa once said "they are twins but there not..."

A little more catch up

My pictures are spread out on 2 different cameras and 2 different phones so it has taken me awhile to put them all on my computer. Below are some more pictures from the holiday time that I wanted to share.

Raya and Broden have just recently discovered how fun it is to look out the window and here they are doing it together.

The Saturday after Christmas Aunt Connie had this grand idea to go to the Magic House. The group included, Connie, Grandma, Tina, Me for the adults and the kids were Kyrah, Raya, Broden, Nick and Lydia - not too bad odds. Except for the moment when I realized I forgot the meticously packed diaper bag at home, the day went well. Luckily I realized I had forgotten it on our way to the Magic House and just had to make a quick stop at Target to restock.

Kryah and Aunt Connie pretending to drive a truck.

Kyrah and Lydia playing in the sand.

Kryah playing in the water room - that was a huge challenge to get her to leave this room.

While Raya was taking a nap in the stroller, Broden enjoyed some free time in the Toddler area. I am sure those balls are clean as a whistle.

Kyrah loves snowmen and foud a few hanging out.

Lydia showing Kyrah the fun things to do.

This is pretty much where Broden and Raya hung out all day.

It was a great time and the new addition to the Magic House was very neat. Kyrah loved it - definitly needs to be on the to do list again.

Picture Update

I have been slacking on adding the pictures to the blog so here are a bunch of photos of the past month.

A little play time on Daddy's bed.

Making Chocolate Chip Cookies with mommy - Kyrah loves to bake with Mommy. Best thing in a kids life - licking the beaters (and an adults too!).

Twins racing down the hall but stop to look back at the crazy lady yelling their names just so she can snap a picture.

A little present from Grandma - Bert and Ernie ballons.

Raya playing in the kitchen. This was Kyrah's present for her birthday last year and we must have given it to her too late in her age because she did not play with it much, but the twins love it.

Crawling through the tunnel.

His hair is so light compared to the others.

This is the normal bathtime fun. It would be easier and less messy with just two in the tub at once, but it seems like once we start bathtime, everyone wants in and crawls all over you until you put them in the tub, so we just do a three person bath routine.

And finally - happy belated New Year's to Everyone from the New Year's Baby.

First Snow 1-7-10

Last week on the 7th of January we had the first real snow of the season. We got 4-5 inches and schools were closed both Thursday and Friday. Kyrah was very excited about the snow and watched it from the windows. She calls it "snowing" even if it is not actually falling - meaning if the snow is just on the ground and nothing is falling from the sky she will say "snowing out there" or "snowing on ground". Then she tells me it is white and it is cold - such a smarty!

So we put her in her snow suit and her new scarf, mittens, and hat she got from Christmas from Godfather Scott and out we went. She just wasn't quite sure about it at first. She just looked around, one time she bent over and picked up a little in her mittens. She tried walking in it and made it half way to daycare when she decided she was done and wanted to be picked up.

By Saturday, it warmed up slightly - to 25 degrees. Nick, Lydia and Broc took Kyrah out sleigh riding and Daddy went out with her. This time she liked it more. She liked the part of sledding when they went down the hill but didn't like stopping or crashing. And Daddy or Broc had to carry her back up the hill each time.

On more recent news. All three have been sick this week. Each of them have a bad cough, Kyrah had a sore throat, Broden had a double ear infection and now Raya has had a fever the past two days. She is running 101 to 102 temps. I stayed home with her on Wednesday and Grandma has her today. Waiting to hear from the doctor if she needs to be seen again or if they will just prescribe something over the phone. Kyrah and Broden have been on meds since Monday and seem to be doing better.

Just a note - Daddy stayed home with Kyrah and Broden on Tuesday. When I got home with Raya every single toy we owned was on the floor and every book possible was on the floor - from door to door, pillows thrown about, chairs at different spots.... he said it was the longest day ever. Oh you gotta love men!

First Tooth

Before I forget the date Raya got her first tooth on January 2, 2010. Bottom, front left side. Raya beat Broden at something, well she clapped first too.

Christmas Day

Christmas morning started out at 5:30 as usual. This time it was Kyrah and Raya who woke up first. Santa brought all these presents just for the kids. Kyrah's first words were "look mommy presents". I thought she would want to tear into them but she waited a bit. I told her we had to wait for Broden to wake up then we could open them. Luckily, he didn't make her wait too long and by 6 am they were tearing into them.

Raya actually liked crawling on the boxes more then opening the actual present. And of course she liked playing with the paper.

Oh look at that - A new Leap Frog activity table - lots of lights, music and things to push, pull, open and spin.

Her eshe is crawling around on the presents. Nothing was breakable so it was fine.

A view of all three. Broden was a little slow to get in the process, mainly because he was still waking up. But he got into it after a few minutes.

After presents and breakfast, the twins went to their crib to nap. Kyrah wanted to watch her new Barney movie and during the movie, Mommy and Kyrah fell asleep. Ahh a nice little power nap to help us get through the day.

Around 10:30 we headed to Grandma and Grandpa's for Christmas Dinner. Here is the family photo. We are missing Broc, he did not get to come until 1 pm, but I had to get a photo while everyone was still clean.

Propst Grandkids Christmas 2009...(minus Broc).

After a fun day at Grandma's and Broc finally got to come out and enjoy as well, we headed home around 5 that night. Santa brought more presents under the downstairs Christmas tree and this time Broc had presents as well. Kyrah got a brand new table. It has the Disney princesses on it but she calls it her Santa table. I guess because we told her Santa brought it. But it has proven to be her favorite present yet.

Broc and Daddy horsing around.
Broden practicing standing on his own.

Kyrah and Raya playing on the table. It is actually a dry erase table so Kyrah can mark on it, although she marks on herself quite a bit as well.


Raya and Broden enjoying some toy time.

Overall I think Raya and Broden had a great first Christmas. Kyrah really enjoyed her second Christmas and Broc is still enjoying Christmas even after 14 years.