21/52
Talia
Jordan
Today Talia and Jordan are 591 days old. New words are coming faster than I can count. They are learning patience by having to wait for food, drink or just for their turn, they are learning that some things are non-negotiable, like a clean diaper or bed time. Brushing before bed is an activity to look forward to and the warm days are perfect for backyard splash parks, which so far, and hopefully never gets old. 
Happy Memorial Day everyone. While we are celebrating by spending time with our families and friends please remember the meaning of this holiday and give thanks to all the men and women who have and do serve to protect our country.
Toddler Activity – shucking corn
I found a great link on Pinterest of about 1000 things to do with your toddler, I didn’t pin the actual link so now I can’t find it, but there are so many out there maybe you will find another cool list. Of the 1000 on the list I saw, some are obvious, some are too messy, and a lot are really similar but there was one that I thought sounded like so much fun.Corn Shucking! I loved shucking corn when I was a kid,, I still do, although now I do it as fast as possible at the grocery store to get it done and get out of there. But when I read on this list, that corn shucking is fun for toddlers I left the whole ear in tact and brought it home. It took some explaining and demonstration but the girls go really good at it, and they were very meticulous with the little hairs on the inside. The only part that I couldn’t get them to understand was that it needs to be cooked before eaten. Than bunch of corn all had little bite marks when it was served with dinner.
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The story of now
Right now in our little family world the same story is playing out day after day, often several times in a single day.
A seemingly purposeless object catches Jordan’s eye. She takes it in her hand, turns it, inspects it. Within moments Talia notices the object. She tries to take it by reaching, Jordan knows this is coming and turns her body away from Talia in an effort not to have to let it go. The situation becomes a screaming match, then, depending on weather or not Talia took the object someone lays down on the floor to kick and cry in protest.
Luckily these tantrums are easily diffused by diverting their attention to a new toy or activity, bubbles is a quick and always popular one.
It pretty hilarious that they show such conviction for something, anything, one second and couldn’t care less about it the next. From what I’ve heard this is very common in both toddlers and teenage girls, awesome. Can’t wait for that when they actually have words to go with the tantrums.
19/52
Talia
She Loves avacado. She eats it straight up then licks the shell clean.
Jordan
The queen of highchair naps. She won’t close her eyes if she thinks she’ll miss something interesting. On our walk that morning of Mother’s day she stayed wide eyed the entire time, Talia on the other hand slept at least half the way. Jordan made up for the missed sleep at dinner.
18/52
“a portrait of my children, once a week, every week, in 2013.”
Talia – my little helper. Stuffing diapers into the changing table storage
Jordan – wants everyone to be included, even for bath time.
Have a great weekend! Vote for us for Top Baby Blogs! Thank you!!!!!
Toddlers Are Scary
It’s like they are on a mission to hurt themselves and it scares the day lights out of me, like heart skip a beat, I suddenly learn how to fly, scared. The first time one of my children fell down the steps it was my fault. I left the gate from the deck to the yard open – first mistake, and next thing I knew Talia was standing on the second of seven steps. 
I screamed her name – Second mistake, it startled her, made her loose her balance and I watched and screamed in horror as she rolled down the remaining steps and landed face first on the stone pavers at the bottom. She rolled like a log rather than head over heel, but still, scary. I picked her up as she was screaming, barley a scratch on her and cried myself, for a while, longer than she did. Since then both Talia and Jordan have fallen more times than I can count, on their hands, heads, ears, mouth, face, knees and arms. They walk into things with out watching where they are going, they hit their hands on door frames, they trip and fall, they roll off the couch, stand up under the table, try to squeeze their hands into drawers that are child proofed and get them stuck, slip on wet floors (because they dumped their water out), and get scared when they climb up too high to get down themselves.
While I still get mini heart attacks every time they play on the couch and try to prevent falls and bumps as much as possible, I have learned not to react. Usually they cry out in pain, and quickly get up, shake it off and move on. Every once in a while they come to me and need a hug. Recently I saw Talia fall while out on the deck, not down the stairs, just on the deck. I was inside watching from the window so I went to the door when I saw her coming and got down on the floor to give her a hug. She sat in my lap for a minute. I said “you ok?” she said “kay” and nodded and was off to play. Jordan got the first real scrape of the two, on her knee. 
It was the first time in shorts for the season, she was running on the driveway, tripped and scraped it. For scrapes or cuts we just clean it with water if necessary and put Neosporine on a few times until it starts to heel, then we switch to vitamin E, I learned that from my big sister, it helps to reduce scaring. Vitamin E is good for pregnant bellies too, it helps reduce getting stretch marks. Her knee is almost healed now. And just yesterday while I was changing Talia’s diaper on our family room station Jordan close by stepped on a toy and hurt her foot. I told her to come here I’ll kiss it, so she hobbled over and did a standing split so I could bend down to kiss her foot while changing Talia’s diaper. While I know it’s unlikely, hopefully scrapes and bumps will be the worst we ever have to deal with.
A family photo
It’s a little dark but it’s probably one of the best candid family photos I have ever been a part of. It was a great day about a month ago. My husbands family was in from overseas and his brother from the west coast. Unfortunately his sister wasn’t able to make this visit. We were spending the day at a friends home by the river, it was a sunny and beautiful spring day, not too hot, perfect really. We cooked out, fed the ducks, played in the grass and watched the water flow down the river. I’m glad the warmer weather is hear, I’m looking forward to more days spent outside watching the world go by.
A little lovin
Nighttime
We have a very regimented bedtime routine, it starts with dinner time.
6/6:30 dinner
7 bath
After bath the girls get their milk while we are putting their diapers and lotion on. They usually drink about half their milk and start being crazy.
Running around, screaming and yelling, climbing and jumping on whatever they can. It usually takes us about 10 minutes to get their pjs on them. Then they play for a few minutes. A few minutes before 8 we sit with them on the couch and read a story while they finish their milk. When the story is done we head to the bathroom to brush teeth and then straight to bed.
Talia and Jordan are smart little people they know the routine and they know what the next activity is and when it’s coming. So each night around 7:45 the girls stop being crazy and start playing calmly and quietly by themselves. It’s like they know that if they are quiet I may forget they are still awake. Sometimes I let them play a few more minutes but when they start rubbing their eyes and laying their heads down on Mr. Bear, I know it’s time for bed.
New obsession
For the most part when the girls watch tv it’s videos in Hebrew but we have a few Baby Einstein and Sesame Street videos. The girls watched one with Elmo for the first time last week and it has turned into an instant obsession. The ask for Elmo all day long, as soon as the wake up, when we are in the car ( they have never watched a video in the car), after dinner. They think stop signs are Elmo! It’s hard to deny them this great pleasure because Sesame Street really is a great educational show for the little ones and the way they jump up and down in excitement is just too much cuteness to pass up. There are a few episodes of R’chov Soomsoom, the Israeli Sesame Street, on you tube, but most are just a few minutes long. So for now they watch in English.
