Glamour Girls

The girls had a Valentine's fashion shoot yesterday. The girls picked out their own dresses at the store. Elsa picked red. Lily chose pink. They were total hams for the camera. They created quite a spectacle. A bunch of shoppers circled around to watch the action. Very fun. Here's a few of my favorite pictures:

Multi-talented

Experimenting with youtube. They sing. They dance. They make nice to the camera. Elsa is wearing the striped dress. Lily's in the solid pink tshirt. Thought people might want to hear their little voices.

Note from Mark: For those who might be interested, the soundtrack to the dance video is mr. ray's "Roy G. Biv" from his first album, "Start Dreaming." We saw him at the nearby Ewing public library, and the girls loved it.

Warning. This might only be interesting if you happen to be related to the stars.

Meggan and Luke!

We were so excited to see Auntie Meggan and Uncle Luke this weekend. They stayed at our house Sunday and Monday night. It was so great to spend some quality time together. We haven't been able to just hang out in such a long time. I just dropped them off at the airport shuttle. Now, I'm feeling a little bit sniffly and sad. It is hard to say goodbye. The girls had such a good time that they've been zonked out on the couch for almost 2 hours!


Meggan and Luke were naturals with the girls. The girls just loved them. Here they are sharing some cuddles on the couch before bed. (L,E)


A trained teacher and a professional chef make great houseguests. Here's Meggan reading some books. Later that evening, they cooked us the best steak dinner ever.


Playing with the train set.


We were all on the potty train this weekend. Yesterday, Elsa announced that she was wanting to use the the potty chair. (This is a big deal, as you may remember she's been really scared to try). So, she set it up in the middle of the livingroom and practiced, practiced, practiced (making a bunch of very serious faces). She was absolutely determined. After about half an hour, she made 3 tiny drops of tinkle. You have never seen such a proud little girl. She ran around the room yelling "Yippee, I DID it!" Then, she put three of the special reward stickers on her belly. Yay, Elsa!



Luke reading to Lily and Elsa. It was fun to talk to Luke about his time growing up in Bloomington and Bay Area (two of my all time favorite places).


Meggan got Elsa into the bathtub. (In addition to the nudist colony, the girls have also been fighting baths thus making them full-on hippies). Meggan convinced Elsa to "wash dishes" in the bathtub. Elsa still wouldn't take off her diaper. I walked in and thought it was pretty funny to see Elsa standing in the bathtub in her diaper and holding on to a toy fryingpan! But, I was impressed that Meggan got Elsa that far without any tears. Bathtime has been rough lately.


Finally, a cute picture I found of Meggan and I when we were not that much older than the girls. We're having a tea party in Grandma Dots attic. Over 20 years ago! Time flies. So many good times over the years. I'm lucky to have such a great cousin and friend.

A little bit of winter

Yesterday, the girls had a taste of winter. They got to see real snow for the first time ever. We had a quick snowburst that lasted for about 20 minutes. We had to run outside before it melted away.


This is their "Dang, it's cold outside" faces. (L,E)


Still skeptical on this whole winter thing.


But, then they had a good time running around the yard.


In contrast to just 4 days ago when we had record highs of 70 degrees. We took the girls to the Philly zoo. (E,L) I didn't realize how close we live to Philadelphia. It took us less than an hour to get downtown. Seems like a good zoo and it is apparently the oldest in the country. The girls were most impressed by the birds, especially the mallards, flamingos and penguins.

Lily and Elsa are doing well. Their table manners are much improved. We've had a week straight of civilized dinners. They are still nudists. Still working on potty training. I think I was a little over enthusiastic on the underpants front. Poor Elsa panics at the idea of taking off her diaper now. She even gets upset at the idea of taking a bath without her diaper. Lily on the otherhand wakes up in the middle of the night and first thing in the morning demanding to sit on the potty. (still no products). We got them a DVD about a little bear learning to use the potty. They have demanded to watch it about 50 gazillion times. So now the whole house is humming such catchy tunes as "I love my diapers" and "underpants are great!"

Today I took the girls to a free trial session at the Kids Gym. They really liked it. It was part instructional and part have fun and run around. The girls are still really struggling to be still at the library lapsits. This seems more their style. I might sign them up for the next session.

You can take the girls out of Berkeley,

but you can't take the Berkeley out of the girls. The girls are showing their early Northern Californian upbringing by insisting on being naked nearly all of the time. Ironically, one of the biggest jokes Mark and I make about living in conservative Princeton is that there aren't enough naked people walking around. Back in the Bay Area it wasn't that unusual to see public displays of nudity, usually just some old hippies enjoying a sunny day. Of course, my girls pick the darkest and coldest months of December and January in a straight-laced town to become naturists. From what I've read, this is a very typical toddler stage. It can't happen until kids become adept at removing their clothes by themselves. According to our toddler handbook, our girls are actually a little advanced.


Elsa enjoying a balmy January day playing with her boxes.

Apparently, this is more of a control issue than anything else. They love to wear clothes, especially mine. They just don't like me making them get dressed. When you're two, it must be darned frustrating having somebody directing every aspect of your life. The common advice is not to fight it. Just let the girls run nude, as long as its socially appropriate. We were cool with this as long as the girls kept on the diapers. Unfortunately, just last week, they figured out how to take off their diapers. So, we consulted the books again and apparently this is the time to work on potty training or invest in lots of duct tape.

Potty training so far has been an interesting experience. Lily especially enjoys the whole process. She loves announcing she has to go, sitting on the toilet, flushing, wiping. She's figured out that she can cut short a boring dinner by announcing she has to go. The only problem is that she never actually makes anything. She just likes going through the motions. We've tried both pullups and regular underpants, but the girls don't seem to notice getting wet. Elsa seems to be a little more fearful of the process, but she seems more aware of when she has to go.

It is quite the group activity. Today Lily announced she had to "get on the Potty Train." So, we ran to the toilet and sat her down. Elsa stood right in front of Lily, looking into the bowl seeing if anything came out. Teamwork!



In non-potty related news, the girls are getting cuter and more fun by the day. I can't believe how quickly they are growing up. They are starting to really enjoy imaginative play. Like above, Lily (the nudie) and Elsa are having a little tea party. It is so fun to see them together. Having infant twins was a lot of work, but its all worth it seeing what good friends they have become. And oh how they talk. Grandma and Grandpa P were so tickled to hear how much the girls talk to each other. A typical conversation goes something like this:

Lily: Baaa!
Elsa: Lily, you're a sheep.
Lily: No, I'm not a sheep, I'm Lily Ruth Panning.
Elsa: No, I'm a cow. Moo!
and the game begins again

They're also working on negotiations regarding shared objects. Elsa (keeper of law and order at our house) will tell Lily the reason why she can't play with a certain object is because it is dangerous.
"You can't play with that duck Lily, that's dangerous!" "You can't sit on Mommy's lap, Lily, that's dangerous!"
Elsa has figured out that danger is a good reason to say no.

Lily on the otherhand prefers to make a trade. A lot of times when Elsa has a certain prize possession, Lily will try to offer something in return. Like a yellow dolly for a blue dolly. Of course, even if Elsa does not accept the trade Lily still will take the object. We're still working on getting along, but making good progress.

And before I forget, Happy Birthday to Aunt Chris, Aunt Mary, Aunt Laura and Uncle John. It is birthday week in our family. We hope you all had great days!