Times have changed

This is your 200th installment of "Adventures with Lily and Elsa." And we're nearly to our 3 year blogaversary. I've been taking a trip down memory lane reading my earliest posts. Its hard to remember being 9 months pregnant with twins in August. The doctor told me the babies would surely be born by Sept 1st. Little did I know, we'd be waiting another two weeks for them to finally arrive. I found a line from their newborn days "the girls have about 8 feedings a day each. So, that's about 16, 20 minute feedings per day."--Sept 2004 I can't believe I spent over 5 HOURS per day just breastfeeding. Wow. Back in those days, we were all about feeding, burping, getting them on schedules. Getting out to Target or the grocery store was an all day event. I remember how excited we were the first time their eyes started focusing on their teddy bear mobile.

Now, we have such lovely happy energetic children who have so much personality and are so independent. Their language skills are so amazing. I love to hear them talking to each other and us, making up songs and playing games. Just this morning, the girls wanted to go on a ride in a spaceship. So, we strapped on our imaginary spacesuits, got in our rocket-ship and took off.

We're about to leave the realm of toddlerhood behind. Mark and I definitely see more kid than baby in our girls now. In two weeks, they officially become preschoolers. Their world is about to get even bigger. And somebody needs to send me a box of kleenex because I know I'll be a weepy mess on their first day. But, I'm sure 3 hours to myself every morning will quickly help me feel better. :)

And onto the pictures . . .

This weekend we took the girls to the Hunterdon County 4-H Fair. The girls really liked all the animals. Here's Elsa riding a saddle on a hay bale.


Lily got a turn, too. The one disappointing thing about the fair is that the girls were still too short for any of the rides. This is where being in the bottom 10th percentile is frustrating for them. All the kiddy rides stat at 36inch. L and E measure up at 35in. Just a little too short to join most of their cohorts in their age-group. Just have to wait until next year.


True to character, Elsa approved of her first funnel cake. Lily thought it was gross.


Big News. Miss Elsa is now officially potty trained. It happened so fast. She hadn't even really been interested in trying, didn't even want to sit. Finally, I told her we'd buy the toy ambulance she'd been coveting at the toystore if she started going in the potty. Amazingly, she had immediate success and hasn't had a single accident since. It has been over a week now. Both the girls, still wear a just-in-case pullup at night. But for all intents and purposes, the Pannings are diaper free! Woot! Hard to believe it finally happened after changing so many thousands of diapers.

The picture above shows the truly amazing and inspiring Playmobil Ambulance that made this all happen. And Lily giving Elsa a big congratulatory hug.

The Pannings take Manhattan

Yesterday, the girls had their first trip to the Big Apple. (all photos here) They LOVED it! Could there be anything better than strolling Central Park with your family on a pretty sunny day? We had a very relaxed and family-friendly experience. We followed a children's itinerary of Central Park from City Walks: New York.


We actually ended up doing the tour in reverse order because the first thing the girls saw was Heckscher Playground. It immediately grabbed their attention. They loved the maze-like rock climbing walls, water and sand features.

The only way we could lure them out of the playground was by heading over to the Central Park Carousel. Elsa informed me it was the best part of her day. She's quite the little adventurer. She wanted to ride her horse all by herself. The carousel horses are 3/4 size of real life, so she was very brave. The ride was really fast. Lily let me ride with her.



We had hotdogs from a stand for lunch. Then we stopped by the Nature Conservatory and visited the zoo.


My little Bunny Girls.


Then, they got to watch an interactive puppet show about animals that hop. Here are the girls dancing.

We got the girls each an icecream, afterwards they each passed out in the strollers. So, Mark and I had a nice long stroll through Midtown to the Penn Station.


Elsa, asleep in a sea of walkers on Fifth Ave. It amazes me how they were able to sleep when there was so much going on around us.

Then, we hopped on the train back to Princeton. It was a really good day. I can't believe how much fun we had. I love how our girls are always ready for an adventure. In true, Lily and Elsa style, the girls didn't want to go home at the end of the day. They want to go back to the City again soon.

Fun and Games

Lily and Elsa continue to amuse us with their very active imaginations. They are constantly inventing new games to play. Like this morning, Lily presented Mark with a pretend leash and demanded to be taken around the house like a puppy. Only, don't call her a puppy. She's a DOGGIE. Puppies are BABIES. And Lily is NOT a baby. Just don't want anybody to make that mistake if they come to visit.


This weekend, Elsa was really concentrating on a pile of dirt in our front Lawn.
Elsa, what ARE you doing?
I'm planting rocks, Mom.
Ok. Why are you planting rocks?
So, they can grow. (obviously!)
Really? What happens when they grow?
They turn into flowers.



They are still very into playing hospital. Here they are having a baby clinic. They adore the stethoscope and give very thorough checkups. Their bandaid obsession is getting old, though. According to the "Nurse Nancy" book, bandaids are a fix for everything and the girls have been demanding them constantly for every sort of injury.
Mommy. I need a bandaid.
Why?
Lily hurt my feelings.
Or
I'm upset, I need a bandaid.


Here's Dr Elsa working on her sister. Lately, it seems like the girls are either best friends and playmates, or trying to kill each other. There's not a lot of middle ground. Their fighting can be pretty brutal. They can be rolling across the front lawn, biting, scratching and punching. It is a veritable cage match whenever we try and go out in the double stroller. With all the screaming that comes from our house, I'm sure the neighbors think we're all nuts. Little boys have NOTHING on my two girls. We're hoping that preschool will have a civilizing influence on them.


Lily's turn to be doctor.


And here they are playing hotel. (when they are supposed to be getting ready for bed). The girls decided that their big dollhouse is the hotel. So, they take all their "kids" from the little house in a big minivan. When they drive, I always hear Lily shout. "Put on your seatbelts."
In this instance, I asked the girls what they were doing. They said the kids were eating at the restaurant.


How cute that they remembered to use a tablecloth. My mom would be SO proud.


I wanted to show Great Grandma A that Lily is still obsessed with her new "Moo-cow/Duckie" pjs. She's wanted to wear them almost every night since our vacation.

Lately, the girls are getting a lot better about bedtime. We gave them an alarmclock with big numbers. When the numbers and 8, we start bath and books. Then, when its a 9, we turn out the light and they have to stay in their beds. We can hear them giggling together and chatting for a long while after lights out. So cute! Then, the rule is they have to stay in bed until there's a 7 on the clock. (we had months of pre-6am wakeups). Yesterday morning, Lily ran into our room bawling.

What's wrong, Lil?
Mama, I don't want 7 to come. Go away 7! I want to stay in bed.

Now, maybe we can convince her to sleep PAST 7. Wouldn't that be great.

At the Shore

Mark and I spent our fifth anniversary taking the girls down to the Shore. It started as a comedy of errors when we were caught in a two hour traffic jam on the way there, then could not take the girls up the spiral stairs of the lighthouse that was our destination and then five minutes after getting to the beach we were made to evacuate due to lightning. On a day that was forecast as a "remote chance of isolated tstorms," we got stuck in a two hour downpour that involved street flooding and power outages. We ended up pulling off on a side street and hanging out in the van until it finally ended.

But the end results were worth it. The beach was beautiful. It was awash with seashells that had blown in during the storm. The storm also blew in some nice mellow weather which finally broke our heatwave. We had a great time playing on the beach and the girls weren't afraid of the waves at all.


The girls were so excited to play at the ocean.


We dug holes and built sand castles. E,L


Our two little muses. If it looks like they've grown taller, you're right. We measured them this morning. They've shot up nearly 3 inches since New Years!


Self portrait, 5 years after our wedding day.