The Zoe and Silas Show

3/5/13: My day started with screaming and ended up with screaming and sandwiched in between was lots of work stress so I will keep this brief. Parents often say that around birthdays and half-year marks that kids become more difficult. This has definitely been true for us since they turned a year old, and as we are coming up on 3-1/2 and we are there once again. Warning: check the volume before you press play! The camera view was angled in order to protect the identities of all involved parties ;)

2/3/13: As I watched them fill their own water cups this morning I had a 'how did they grow up so fast?!' moment. It doesn't happen very often, but I wanted to freeze time. That moment was fleeting and ended approximately 2.34 minutes later when Zoe was sprawled out in the middle of the kitchen floor, writhing and screaming. I stepped over her and thought, "or not...". A re-enactment :)

Silas making eggs   Zoe throwing tantrum Daddy making toast Zoe still on floor Tantrum at the table Sister, why so sad? Zoe please, Zoe please... All before 7:45am...

Today was S&Z's first visit to the public library. I love to read and have many memories of going to the library as a kid, so this is something I want to pass onto them as well. We have tons of books at home, but an infusion of variety into our own library sounded like a good idea. I decided to take the kids while Derek went food shopping this morning for Thanksgiving, because that was bound to take several hours. Unfortunately the children's section of our neighborhood library branch is not enclosed in any way. Not even close. This is one of the reasons that I had waited so long to bring them. Two toddlers and one parent in these situations does not typically end well. I had some fantasy that they would be enamored enough with all the books that they might stay put. HA! That lasted about 3 minutes (long enough for me to take these pictures). And then they were off. Wandering around and exploring the adult section of the library was all fine and dandy, unt...

I recently made the following comment on Facebook, although now I don't even remember what inspired the post. Alissa Westerlund There are certain aspects of parenting two 2-year-olds that makes me want to stab my eyes out with hot pokers. Like  ·   ·  October 30 at 4:58pm Darci Wall ,  Christopher Emond  and  2 others  like this. Jennifer Boettcher   oh no... October 30 at 5:05pm  ·  Like Gwen Palmiscno Collins   I totally understand. I'll trade you my 7 and 4 year olds for a week. It'll give you some perspective October 30 at 5:07pm  ·  Like Jill Robidoux   is it that there are TWO two year olds? October 30 at 5:23pm  ·  Like Natascha Lesage   oh me, too, Alissa! I went grocery shopping with both of them this morning. Need I say more? haha (they actually did very well until the checkout counter) October 30 at 5:25pm ...

You would never guess by the looks of this picture that my adorable, angelic little girl had turned into the devil just 45 minutes prior to this picture being taken tonight. Zoe threw the longest, most violent tantrum that I've witnessed to date. It was seemingly triggered by wanting the bowl that I use to rinse their heads with in the bathtub (although in all likelihood it was probably the culmination of a fun day out in the sun, fighting over toys with her brother all afternoon, and a flat-out refusal of dinner). The only thing that ultimately calmed her down was a cracker. Twenty minutes (and three handfuls of crackers) later she was all tucked in with her lovey, book, wocket, and a brand new to us hand-me-down Elmo (thanks, DMC toy exchange!). This weekend I've been commenting that we seem to have turned a big corner recently - we can finally reason with them, tantrums pale in comparison to round the clock baby crying, etc. After having my ass kicked by my almost 2-y...