Happy Halloween!!

Just wanted to do a quick post of the girls in their halloween costumes.  They had so much wearing these costumes.

Rick thought I was cheap and too lazy to buy the girls new costumes. I was trying to be practical by letting them wear their snow white and little red riding costumes.  Here are their costumes when they were 2 years old:

Aren't these good enough??  Well Rick said no and went straight to Canadian Tire and bought these costumes:

Ok, Rick is right, These costumes are WAY better.  I hope they last till next year!

I'm 3!

Its been a long time since I've blogged.  Not sure what my excuse is?!  I've been travelling lots, working...and enjoying life with the family/life!!

The girls are 3!!  Its a beautiful age where they are happy to be with mommy/daddy, don't have too many activities to go too and are super happy most of the time.

The biggest changes so far .....they constantly talk to me, to each other, to strangers, to their toys, they never stop.  They are not shy too.  They are so honest with their thoughts.  Here are some examples:
- What's that smell, it smells like a garbage truck, pee'you! Is that daddy?
- I love you 'Mommy'
- I went to a play group today and had lots of fun.  I got some balloons and Aunty Gladys did silly talk.
- Watch this mommy, the doggie is taking a poo and I need to change his diaper and feed him congee.
- This car is my favorite, I love blue, he's super fast and cool.  The blue car is daddy's car, he needs to fly, crash into the wall and go super fast.
- Hi Mommy, how are you today.  I want to eat you.
- I farted today
- My back hurts Mommy, I need to use the massage chair.

I always ask the girls what do they want to be when they grow up, these are the answers I've received so far:
- Keira wants to be a blue car and Naomi wants to be red car.
- Keira wants to be a blue air plane and Naomi wants to be a cement truck.
- Keira wants to be an astronaut and Naomi wants to be a horse

As for their favorite activities:
- Play gym, play gym, play gym
- Dancing to Michael Jackson, LMFAO, Lady Gaga
- Everything to do with car, cement trucks, trains, excavators, dump trucks

Over the summer, the girls had a couple of weekend trips where they shared a bed in a hotel/cottage.  We went to Mont Tremblant and a cottage near Pembroke.  The girls loved it and had so much fun, as shown in the video below.  They love dancing with mommy, even in public in the middle of a street.  I think its in their blood to dance.

Oh, here's their first time using chopsticks!

Over the summer, Rick and I had a few things accomplished, the biggest one is travelling to Atlanta without the kids,  bought couple of more homes, renovated the house again and renovated the backyard.  Here are a few pictures of the house before and after.

Fighting off the boys

Little lifeguards at the beach

Call me biased, but my girls are beautiful... and I'm a proud Dad.  Fortunately for me, they're only 2 and not stressing me out with teenage emotions and/or thoughts about boys.  Unfortunately, the boys their age are already putting the moves on them.  They're all kids, so usually it's cute and we just laugh or take a picture.  However, I had to scare a little Casanova off of Naomi the other day.  

We were at the park, and the girls were playing on the play structure.  Naomi started having fun with this one boy and he tried to show her around.  She followed him around for a bit, and then he went down the slide.  It was a spiral slide and Naomi couldn't see that he was just sitting at the bottom, waiting for her to come down.  The slide wasn't very fast, so when she got to the bottom she was able to stop before bumping into the boy.  Then, he crawled up the slide and started to crawl on her.  Naomi leaned back as he advanced and he put his forearms down on either side of her head.  He looked like he was trying to suck face with her.  That was too much for me.  "Hey!... that's enough" I said as I walked towards them and the boy ran away.

Maybe I should start posting pictures of myself on this blog so I can document the progressive greying and loss of hair from worrying about my beautiful little girls. :)

Long time no post

It's been so long since we last did a post.  So much has changed.  One awesome new feature is having the twins' Auntie Tennille living here, so now we can go out whenever we want.  In fact, we're about to go see World War Z after we write this post, so I'm just gonna blast it out.

What's new? (In no particular order)

Visits

We've had a few visits.  The girls' Auntie Kristy and cousin Amber came to visit in April.  The girls had a great time with her and even taught her the joy of wearing no pants.


Right after that, their Grandma came to visit for 2 weeks.  The girls were spoiled with great meals and extra gifts.  One of which turned out to be a t-shirt that Naomi never wants to take off... more on that later.

We even had a visit from their Uncle Aaron in a pleasant surprise visit he paid us after a work trip he had on this side of the country!


Potty training

In April we started potty training.  We did not try any potty training prior to this, so we weren't sure how it would go.  The first day was strangely successful.  Perhaps it was the Cadbury mini egg reward for going in the potty.  Since then, there have been many accidents: mostly when they're so entranced by their iPad that they don't even realize they're sitting in a pool of urine.  But, we're getting better.  In fact, today was the first day that we have left the house without diapers.  We went to the mall without any accidents, and Keira even asked to use the potty when we were there.


Daycare

Our nanny, Gladys, went back to the Philippines for 6 weeks starting April 1st.  We had some visitors here during that time, so we took some vacation to stay with the twins, but we also had to sign them up for daycare.

At first, we got them really excited to go.  They had always loved school buses and we told them that they were going to go to school.  The first day they went for only a couple of hours, and they didn't even miss us.  We thought everything was going to go well.... but, every day after that, they would wake up in the morning and first thing they would say was "not go to daycare today?".  And, when I dropped them off, I would have to carry to crying kids into the daycare and pry them off of me before going to work.

But, they liked it there.  I would drive slowly past their window as I was leaving in the morning and I could see them playing and happy.  And when I picked them up at the end of the day, they were happy and playing.

However, we're definitely glad that Gladys is back.  It's much easier to just leave the kids at home in the morning and have her feed them, and if we have to work late, no problem... she can always stay late on short notice.  Plus, the twins were happy to see her when she got back.  They missed their Auntie Gladys.


Misc

Other things worth documenting for our memories:

- The twins randomly break out into micro rap sessions from time-to-time.  They always have the same rhymes.  Keira says "K for Keira... come on, come on, come on... kuh kuh kuh" and Naomi follows with "N for Nomi.... nah nah nah nah nah"

- They love cars and Cars (the Disney movie).  When we let them pick out shoes, they picked Lightning McQueen (the main character in Cars).  When we picked out toys, they choose monster trucks.  When they pick out a story for bedtime, they often pick a book that I have on Lamborghini.  They have stuffed toys for sleeping with, but they also always sleep with their little die cast Lighting McQueen toys.  And, Naomi's favorite shirt is her Thomas the Train shirt (a.k.a. Choo Choo Train Shirt).  She usually wears it until it's too gross and needs to be washed, and then she asks for it every day until it's washed.

Anyway... gotta rush to the movies.  So, here's a couple vids of the girls.

Keira and Naomi are best friends... until a harmless seagull attacks, then it's "save yourself!"

They continue to love dancing to music videos.

Hug bugs

One of the games the twins like to play is tag.  Naomi will chase Keira down to one side of the house until there's nowhere left to run, then she'll gently tag her and say "puuuush!", and then run away.  Keira chases after her until they reach the other end of the house.  Tag... "Puuuush!"... Repeat until thirsty (this is often after many, many laps of the house).  It's super cute watching them play tag at age 2 and a bit.

The other night, they were playing tag, but half way through the game, the "puuuush" turned to "hug!" and they would hug and giggle and then chase after each other.

Other cute things the girls are continually doing:
- Sleeping together to calm the other twin but this happens rarely, its too squishy in a single bed
- Sharing toys and iphone games.  For example, they take turns passing the iphone to each other to play a game
- Calling for each other when they wake up, and yapping away
- Posing for the camera 'Smile!'
- Saying 'Thank you sir'
- Saying "Wintah" with a British accent instead of "Winter"
- Pretending to be a spider, froggy, chicken, with each other and always playing the same pretend game

As for recent accomplishments:
- Eating at the table like a family with out booster seats
- Farting on purpose and laughing about it
- Knowing the alphabet and starting to recognize words/reading

The girls are waay smarter than Rick and I.  They learn so much watching an episode of cartoons everyday and playing interactive games on the iPad.  Just recently, they learned to recognize letters and numbers.  They even recognize some words....its AMAZING.

Technology is making kids waaay smarter than ever before and having each other to talk too and interact is soo special.

Enough writing, here are some videos and pictures!

Mopping the floor at the Children's Museum

Captain Keira and Co-Captain Naomi

Bird doctor's

Playing fetch with the twins

Bedtime racers

A few mad air guitar licks before bed

Winterlude

More hugs

 Post-bath dresses

 More hugs

 Keira posing with daddy's hat on

 Lazy morning

 Cutie Naomi

 Looking at the people ashore

 Say cheese!

It's 2013!

Naomi was happy at the New Year's party we went to.  She just doesn't look it here, because we took here away from the toys to try and get her to eat some food.

Happy New Year!  Ok... it's a bit late.  But I know people who haven't taken down their Christmas tree, yet, so I'm still good by comparison.  Since our last posting we've gone through Christmas, New Year's, and the most important day of them all... Daddy's Birthday!  However, somehow the latter passed without much recorded evidence.

Starting to building their first snowman

And the resulting snow(man?)

We had quite a bit of snow in the last couple of months.  On the morning after the first big dump of snow, both girls were standing by the window and jumping up and down, saying "know! know! know!" (translation: snow! snow! snow!).  They seemed to enjoyed going out and building their first snowman/snowthing, being pulled in the sled, and even taking a few sled rides with their mom and dad.

The Popsicle Family on a brisk -20 degree day

But, the love for the snow has worn off for now.  It's a battle to get their snow pants on, and now when we do go out the door, they head straight for the car... none of this messing around in the cold.  My love for the snow has worn off, too.  Lucky for me, I had some help shoveling it over the Christmas holidays.  On Christmas Eve, when the girls went to sleep, we promised that a jolly old man would be here in the morning to greet them.  On Christmas morning, there he was... Grandpa McCourt (a.k.a. Papa).  The twins were excited to see him, and even a month after he went back home, they remind us every time they see the letter P, that "P is for Papa!"

Papa and his little chefs

Christmas was really fun with the girls this year because they loved opening all their presents.  And, they have some pretty generous family members, so there were plenty of gifts to open.  After opening each gift, they get so excited and go play with it until we can convince them to open another.

Opening gifts Christmas morning

"Say cheese!"

Below is a video of the girls making a meal for their Papa in their new kitchen with their chef hats on.  For a while, they kept saying "thank you, sir" while serving pretend food to us.  It took us a while to figure out where they got that from, but it seems to be from Toopy and Binoo.

Twins Two Year Old Birthday Party

October, 2012: The girls had a super fun strawberry shortcake party.  Why strawberry shortcake, only because I loved strawberry shortcake cartoons when I was a kid, when she was short, soft and round, not like how she looks right now, like some skinny tall gorgeous barbie.  If I had asked the girls what they wanted for a birthday party, it would be a heavy equipment party, full of bulldozers, cranes, tow trucks etc.  They are obsessed with moving vehicles:)

The party was full of twins, three sets of twins including the girls!  They danced, jumped and played well with the other kids and were very good in sharing their toys.

The girls received tons of presents from family and friends.  Their favorite so far has been their trampoline.

Blast forward to November 2012, the girls are now talking in full sentences, growing on their same growth curves, getting leaner, and taller.  They love their weekly gymnastics, already surpassing their older peers in their classes with their fearless climbing, rolling, jumping, and hanging!  Its becoming clear why they jumped out of their cribs at 17 months old, because they have flying monkey skills.

To keep up with their energy levels, I've also registered them in swimming classes and more gymnastic classes.  

I keep thinking of how fun they are and how easy it is to take care of them.  Although pregnancy was hard on my body,  breastfeeding two little babies was super exhausting, and being on maternity leave was not my cup of tea..if I had a choice to have twins as my first pregnancy, I would do it all over again in a heartbeat!

The girls are best friends now and play so well together, I feel so lucky to have Keira and Naomi.

Tiny Hikers

It's great taking the girls for hikes and actually geting somewhere, as opposed to just chasing them around like wild animals.  However, if you heard us coming down the trail, you may thing we have a couple of disobedient pets that we're taking on a walk.  We're constantly calling "Come on, Keira.... Let's go, Naomi... oooo, look, a stick!"  

Nevertheless, it is fun exploring with them.  Everything is so fascinating.  They see a tree and say "wow!.... momma tree!"  Which means 'big tree' in their language.  Not because mommas are big.  They're just bigger than the 'baby tree' they saw a few minutes earlier.

Another thing they like to do is copy Daddy when he's fixing stuff around the house.  However, they're tool of choice is always a hammer.  They say "fix!... ham-ber... bang! bang!" and proceed to beat down whatever Daddy is fixing with whatever is in their hand.

So, while on our last hike, they saw a broken tree that needs fixing:

And just as a final note, to record some of 'twin speak' we've noticed so far.  Some of them are easy to figure out.  Other words seem to mean something to the two of them, but we haven't quite figured it out.

Dodo = Sister
Fundee = ??
Rocket-da-copter = helicopter
Aaaaaaaaple = Airplane
Apple = Apple
Na na = milk (supposed to be nai nai, i.e. Cantonese)
Na na (with monkey noise) = banana

The girls had a full week of vomiting just before their doctor's checkup and lost almost a pound each...HOWEVER,  despite the slight loss, Keira is still 50th percentile in weight, 75th percentile in height (approx. 26.5 lbs, 34.3 inches).  Naomi is 75th percentile in weight and around 75th percentile in height (over 28lbs, 34 inches).  Needless to say, they are not typical skinny and small asian babies.

Next blog will be their two year old birthday party weekend...

Two Years old!! Twin Double Trouble

Keira and Naomi are high energy toddlers!  I feel like I can't keep up with them no matter how hard I try.  I literally exercise them like dancing, or running with them around the house or outside for hours before they are tired enough to go to sleep.  I sometimes wish their was a toddler treadmill.

Our favorite family activity is to go on walks and hikes with them.  It's so much fun seeing them explore every grass, tree, bug, squirrel, and rock during their walks.

Part of their daily routine involves dancing too, here's a preview of their dancing moves (including Breakdancing):





The girls are showing affection towards each other.  Its super adorable seeing them hug, kiss and dance together.  Here's a video of them as 'Best Friends':



Keira and Naomi also love the mirror and kissing, see for yourself!




As for being big kids, well this video explains it all.  They were fairly young to start climbing out of their crib (18 months old) and of course, accelerated to climbing on and out of everything possible, see for yourself! There is no fear in these girls!



The girls are super independent now, they play well by themselves at play gyms or at home. Naomi has absolutely no fear when it comes to running off by herself at a jungle gym, scaling up and down mega slides.  Keira is still a little hesitant but feels confident when Naomi is around.

Rick and I have been helping out another friend of ours with new born twins as well as providing mental support to other friends with twins.  I keep telling everyone that raising twins is super crazy during the first year, but after every milestone (sitting up, crawling, walking, talking) your life becomes easier.  I feel like I'm reaping the rewards now, they are so easy to take care of, they keep each other company and make my life easy,  I feel very lucky.

Rick and I have been very busy with work, working a lot of overtime, working well into the early mornings and travelling as well as doing kitchen renovations and building our real estate portfolio.  Despite our workaholic lives, we managed to find time to travel to Kingston, leaving the girls with our nanny for one night!

Until next time...

Flying Monkeys- Toddler Beds!

It finally happened, I'm surprised it actually took so looong, but the day has come when they are out of their cribs. It was sad knowing I couldn't contain them in their cribs anymore.  Maybe people who don't have multiples are mortified to hear that I would want to contain them... But, when you have to handle two at the same age and doing everything the same, you need some sort of containment mechanism. The girls have been escaping out of their beds for about a month now.

Here is the list of new changes in the last month:
1) Flying monkeys: they jump out of the cribs at the sometime everyday only at bedtime. It's a super fun game of bouncing back and forth in and out of the cribs. In less than 15 mins, the girls jump in and out 30 times in total, not kidding you.  Here's a video from when they were just learning to jump out.




2) Toddler Beds: I honestly wanted to use crib tents to contain them, but Rick absolutely said no. So, I sucked it up and I got two new beds and a week of terrible sleep. The girls partied before bedtime, slept for a few hours then partied again in their rooms.  They are night owls! But finally that has stopped, and they are sleeping through the night again.

3) Hungry Munchkins: Keira and Naomi finally are accomplished eaters! It only took forever.  I have to admit it's been my fault for babying them and having control issues :).  They are well rounded eaters, love meat, fruit and Chinese food (rice balls, shanghai noodles, soba noodles).

4)Bossy Girls: They talk to me now! They tell me when they are hungry, when to turn on the tv (or do it themselves), when they are thirsty; you get the picture. They also know their colours! They love reading and pointing out things to me, with huge smiles!



5) Little Picassos: They love drawing all the time. In fact, they draw on each others hands, faces, and bellies. Rick found Naomi drawing a mural on Keira's belly, and Keira was loving it! She kept sticking her belly out for Naomi to draw, it was the cutest thing I've ever seen.

Big changes for Rick and I: We have different jobs at work, are undergoing a massive kitchen/laundry reno, have put in new windows, moved out for a month while all the work is getting done, and traded in the van and for an SUV.

Here are a few more pics/vids to finish off this post.  Enjoy.

Naomi stole Mr. Potato Head's tongue

Stuck in the sand

Happy Canada Day, Grandma!

For my precious little girls, I'm writing this post so that later in life, you may remember the amazing woman that your Grandma (McCourt) was.  You were truly fortunate to have known her, even if only for 20 months.

Canada Day 2012 marks one month since she was taken from us. 

Your Grandma was a happy soul who gave everything she had (and more) to promote the health and happiness of her immediate family and close friends.  She was the type of person that would have dropped everything to respond to your every beck and call.  And, she never expected anything in return.  She was a petite Chinese lady, but she left some big shoes for your Papa to fill (and I have absolute confidence that he will do just that).

Grandma's big shoes (at Bubba Gump Shrimp, Monterey)

Cyber visits from Grandma were a regular occurrence.  She often reminded me just how grateful she was to have Skype and FaceTime and to be able to watch her grandchildren grow despite the 3500 km gap between us.  Your first 2 years have been so full of changes (as it’s been documented in this blog).  Grandma watched you go through them all.  She would always be so sad if she missed a FaceTime call because she was outside of her wi-five zone (no matter how many times we told her it was WiFi, she insisted on calling it wi-five).

In the 20 months that you knew her, you had 6 good face-to-face visits.  I wish there could have been more.

1. First meeting, December 2010

When the two of you were born, taking care of you was a lot of work.  So, we welcomed as much help as we could get.  In the first 3 months we had help from your Auntie Kristy and both of your grandmothers.   Grandma McCourt was able to stay the whole month of December.  She loved holding you... the hard part was getting her to put you down.

 

2. Trip to Monterey, California, March 2011

As previously told about on this blog, you went on your first trip in March 2011 to San Francisco and Monterey, California.  Grandma came along to provide nanny and babysitting services.

Just before leaving San Francisco

You and Grandma, chillin' with a penguin in Monterey

3. Trip to Vancouver/Maui, May 2011

Shortly after coming back from California, we were off to Sechelt, Maui, and Regina.  Good thing you guys didn't mind air travel!

Hanging out with Grandma and Papa at their house

Family photo at Grandma and Papa's house

Beach babies in Maui

4. Your 1^st birthday party, October 2011

Grandma, Papa, Auntie Kristy, and Amber all came out from BC for your first birthday party. 

Grandma and her 3 granddaughters

Out at the park up the street

5. Your Great Grandmother’s Funeral, 20 April 2012 – 27 April 2012

The past 12 months have been pretty horrible.  First, losing our pug, then your Great Grandmother, then your Grandma.  In April we went to BC for a celebration of life in memory of your Great Grandma.  Despite being in Sechelt because of her passing, we had a great time with your grandparents.  

 

 

 A quick picture with Grandma before running off to play in the puddle

  

Our last family photo with Grandma 

6. The final visit, 15 May 2012 – 1 June 2012

We had just got settled back in Ottawa when Grandma got news that she was very ill, so the two of you, Gladys (our nanny), and I all jumped back on a plane for BC.  Fortunately, we were able to spend just over two weeks with her before she passed away.

Most days you would go and enjoy the large yard at your grandparent's place with Gladys, which allowed me to spend some quality time sitting and chatting with Grandma.  At the time, she wasn't very mobile, so she had a walker to assist her, and the two of you loved that thing.  Whenever you saw it, you'd say "broom broom", jump on it, and wait for someone to give you a ride.

After bath time every night, you'd just barely get your diaper on before running down the hallway towards Grandma's room.  Then you'd try and climb up on her bed and chairs while I tried to get you changed, read you stories, and try and calm you down before bed.  The video below shows you running around Grandma's bed just before bed time.

When I finally was able to calm you down, we'd do our round of hugs and kisses and then off to bed.  By the end of your last two weeks with Grandma, you were just starting to say "Gamma" (and you already had "Papa" perfected).

Your grandmother was an amazing woman.  Ask me about her from time to time.  I have many great memories to share.

-          Marcus Tullius Cicero (in Grandma’s handwriting)

She was taken before her time by a vile disease, but her soul will live on in our fondest memories.

Love,
Your Dad