Da Plane, Da Plane

Being the adventurous duo that we are, we endeavored to fly with our girls for the third time. We wised up slightly this time, buying three seats for the four of us. We had an entire side to ourselves. Luckily, we also had sympathetic people around us. We had stocked laurins bag of tricks full of fruit snacks, fruit roll-ups, new stuffed animals, and books. We also bought a couple new Elmo DVDs. We couldnt probably charter a private jet for what it costs to keep the kids entertained in coach. Sadly, our promptness/earliness brought us to the airport well before our flight so we used up a lot of our tools of distraction (an entire tin of lil' crunchies) prior to even boarding the flight. Just to mess with us, the airline thought it was necessary for us to deice the plane prior to taking off. That added a nice 30 minutes on the plane prior to our 2 hour flight. Despite all of these things working against us the girls were pretty good. They ran around the terminal pusing their strollers, which let us know the Benadryl wasnt working. They cried for a second as we got situated on the plane, but were pretty entertained by food/drink/elmo the rest of the time. We arrived in one piece abotu 30 minutes late and have been enjoying Florida ever since. Here are a couple pics from our pre-flight fruit roll up and one of the sunrise this morning.

Riley calls her glasses her 'eyes' and wears them as often as she is allowed.

Week of Firsts

This has been a wild week. Our girls have had a rollercoaster ride with this cold/flu. It began as a sniffle, turned into runny noses, then a cough/sneeze, then a mild fever, then diarrhea, and finally a massive projectile vomit from Riley. This is over the course of 10-14 days. They seemed to be doing better today until Riley coated the stairs with blueberries and milk.


Riley had a breakthrough, going #2 on the toilet on her first try. This was followed by a couple of blanks over the next two days. They really like going on the toilet, but I dont think they really understand when to ask. That probably has to do with the fact that we havent trained them at all. We just have such high expectations for their intelligence we figured they would just get it already.

Sanna was actually the one that started the party by asking to go potty. She just hung out for a while chit chatting with her sister before asking to get down.

This one isnt exactly a first, but we are choosing to forget about our brief yet costly trip to Great Clips where the lady snipped at Sanna three times and charged us 11 dollars. Fruit snacks seemed to be the key to Sanna being quiet the entire time. She got a real haircut and is looking pretty sweet. Coupled with her stomach bug she should be bikini-ready by Friday when we leave for Florida.

Momma had just gotten a cut before Sanna. Sanna really liked the animals on her cape, as did Riley. Riley wandered the salon smiling at people and trying to take things from the various stations

Here we see Riley enjoying Gabba post-puke, post-bath. She was only dressed in a diaper so we bundled her up in her blankey.

Same for Sanna without the puke.

On the Bubble

In an effort to pass time on a sick Sunday, we ventured to target after picking up some milkshakes. As we wandered around looking for some new shoes to replace the one Sanna lost on our walk yesterday I found a bubble machine. Its essentially a gun that shoots bubbles. Riley was so excited about it she puked right when we got home. She didnt seem too fazed. A definite puke and rally. We also got some Elmo dvds to pass the time on the plane next week.

Random Pics from a Week of Sickness

Our girls have been snotty all week. In an ultimate display of their sharing skills they even shared their cold with Erin and myself. I blame the Children's museum for starting this mess. Katie's photo mastery has inspired me to post more B&W shots. The first is of our new coffe mugs that laurin ordered.



Laurin and I have been drinking lots of coffee to keep up with our active ladies who are super whiny this week. You would think this cold would have slowed them down. It just seems to have caused them to whine as they run around and wipe their noses on things. Also, they decided napping was overrated this week. They dont seem to mind being left in their cribs for an hour or so, but we could hear them yapping at eachother most of the time.

Riley took a break from her normal passtime of animal brutality to share the couch with Frankie. It must be the soothing distraction that is Yo Gabba Gabba that brought out the love.

The girls go up and down the stairs by themselves now. For some reason they have switched to a new method of scooting down on their butts. It is much slower, which is annoying to us. I think they are closer to walking down the stairs though.

Half Birthday Photo Shoot

The girls ended up providing my with a great photo op by climbing on top of their new table and chair set. The space really isnt big enough for both of them since touching is not allowed. The violence went both ways, but the pictures mostly reflect Sanna as the victim. She would antagonize Riley then get mad when the violence rained down on her.

Three posts in one weekend. You would think we led an exciting life.

1.5 Years of Fun

I want to thank our blog for informing me that our children are 18 months old today. From what I recall of being young, half birthdays are a big deal until you are about 5. We will be celebrating today by napping at our normal time and watching football. Quite the birthday extravaganza for a 1.5 year old. If they are lucky I will run out and get an ice cream cake. We will let them stay up until 705 as a birthday treat. I am also putting up a poll, which I havent done in a while. I want to restart the discussion of who looks like who, as it continues to challenge me. Laurin has always said I am not good at comparing peoples looks, but I think this one is extra tough. Here are a couple pics from this morning as we have no birthday party to document. Maybe more excitement will occur later on leading to a better birthday post. I found two of the most unflattering pictures to embarrass the girls with.

Ever wondered what someone looks like at the exact instant they sneeze? Well here is your answer. I wish I could have caught the mist exiting her mouth and coating our playroom.

Riley couldnt find her milk cup so she checked in her nose just to be thorough.

This one is actually pretty cute. Sorry Riley, I dont have any cute ones of you to post yet today.

Play Group Minus the Group

In my infinite wisdom, I decided today was a good day to attempt another neighborhood play group. The forecast called for a high of 52 without rain. Having been out of town for the last four days I didnt realize it had rained the previous two days, leaving the park a little soggy. I sent out an invitation to meet at the park in the afternoon and noone showed up, proving Laurin right. Despite assuring me that noone would come, I felt we still needed to make an appearance as the organizers.

Sanna was so sad that none of her friends showed up she hardly cracked a smile on her favorite apparatus, the swings. She sat there for 10 minutes on the verge of tears.

Luckily, after that ten minutes, she found her way over to the slide, where much fun was had. She climbed up to the top all by herself and scooted her little butt to the edge, sending her down the slide like a pro.

In order to help her fully enjoy her favorite thing momma got on the swing with her for some photo gold. Riley was there too, but her pics didnt turn out as well so she was cut out of this post.

Finally, Riley makes it into the post in a pic taken while I was in Michigan. Granny Smith bought them some new dresses and convinced riley that the underpants were hats, which she was happy to go along with.

We Stormed Ft. Drlich

Yesterday we were again caught in the Bermes vortex, leaving us with a logistical quagmire. The end result was a fun trip to the Drlich's to drop Bri off at home. The Drlich boys saw trouble brewing the minute we pulled up.

Baby Sam was so scared he hid under the table with a box of McNuggets. He was quickly flushed out and his food was stolen.

Riley continued the takeover by declaring all of their toys as her own. You might think this is her super excited face. Really, its her 'ha, I just stole all your toys and you work for me now' face.

To the victor go the spoils.

New Developments

Getting back to the lighter side of life in the Smith house, check out some of the latest fun happening as our girls improve their verbal/motor/comedy skills at an exponential rate.

1. Riley can dunk on her hoop in her bedroom

2. Sanna yells 'DUDE' and is generally really cute

3. Riley tells us how overweight we are by pointing and our love handles when we lay on the floor and saying 'bubble'.

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Snow Bunnies

It snowed about 6" today. We decided it was too fun out to avoid the winter weather any more. We dressed the girls in two pairs of socks, 2 pairs of pants, 2 shirts, snowsuits, rain boots (we dont have two pairs of winter boots yet) and their monkey gloves. The completely white background in most pics and the still falling snow made for some fun pics. I will put the rest in flickr.

Riley spent most of the outdoor adventure standing in place whining or in her mother's arms. She didnt take to the snow like her fearless sister.

Melissa was so excited to join the party she pushed Erin 4 blocks through 6" of snow. Apparently that was preferrable to carrying her.

Our neighbor Laura brought her daughters Natalie and Melissa over. This is Natalie, who cant yet walk, but was excited to stand in the snow in her very insulated outfit.

Sanna took to the snow like an eskimo. She ran up and down the block, threw snowballs, made snow angels, and a snow fort. She is bound for the winter olympics 2026. She will most likely compete in the ski jump or doubles luge.

I hope they fit in these snowsuits for a little while longer. They are perfect. And great for twin photography.

Team Pink gathered for a brief conference before going their separate ways. Melissa thought they should all eat snow, Riley thought crying was the best plan of attack, Sanna wanted to run, and Natalie wanted to sweat.