Yesterday during morning naps, Samantha fell asleep a lot later than Amelia, so I had the girls napping in separate rooms so as not to disturb each other. While Samantha slept in our master bedroom, Amelia was slightly awake in her crib, but since she usually sleeps a little bit longer, I left her there, figuring she would just go back to napping.

A few minutes later, I was in the master bedroom tiptoeing around Samantha while putting away some laundry, when I heard a little knock and a scratch scratch at the door. My first thought was, “Dumb dog!” But then I realized Bandit was already in the room under the bed. Uh oh.

I opened the door and there was Amelia, lying on the floor, hands outstretched as if she had expended every last ounce of energy to reach me. After getting over the initial shock of seeing her there, my next thought was, “Wow! You can apparate!”

After rationalizing that harboring secret magical powers probably wasn’t likely considering Amelia could have used her talents to apparate out of her detested car seat or high chair long before now, I came to my second conclusion: Amelia can climb out of her crib!

I carried the smirking Amelia to her room and observed the scene. No dents in the wood floor from a big fall (and no bruises on Amelia). Good. Nothing in the room was awry, so she had opened the door and had come straight over to find me, instead of wreaking havoc in her room. Could have been worse.

Another clue. Her blankie, Wub, and a few stuffed animals that were originally in her crib had mysteriously been moved into Samantha’s crib. Did she throw everything into Samantha’s crib (they love to trade toys when they are both in their own cribs at the same time) and then climb out her own? Or did she climb into Samantha’s crib and then climb out?

Other questions: did Amelia use the mesh crib liner as a ladder and then vault herself over the edge? Or were her movements more methodical and monkey-esque?

Next, I placed Amelia in her crib and then walked out, spying on her from the crack in the door to see if she’d do it again so I could figure out her methods, but by then she was cranky, so my reconnaissance mission had to be postponed.

Hence the reason I’ve spent the evening reading articles entitled, “What to do when your toddler starts climbing out of her crib,” and browsing the Baby Center forums under the search terms, “Help! 15 month old can climb out of crib!”

So far, it looks like most people take the rails off and convert the crib to a toddler bed or simply put the mattress on the floor. I can only imagine the kind of late-night parties the girls will start having with no rails to keep them separated and contained.

It’s the end of an era. And so it begins…sigh.

Lots of love,

I dressed the girls in comfy, casual clothing–similar to what they wear to gymnastics. Imagine my surprise when we walked into class and each of the ten other toddlers were dressed in full-on leotards, tights, tutus and ballet slippers! That should have been my first warning sign, but we stayed nevertheless.

The other Tutsi Toes in the class ranged from ages 14 months to 2 1/2 years, with most of the kids closer to the older range. However, even the fourteen month olds were dressed in formal dance attire. I must admit–they were pretty cute–but STILL. We’re talking about little cavepeople who can’t even utter a coherent sentence or walk in a straight line yet wearing dance clothes that cost more than the entire amount I’ve spent on my own clothing this year!

              

             

I’m still catching up on weeks’ worth of events, so today, I’m posting about Samantha and Amelia’s first trip to the zoo a few weeks ago.

Grandma Jolene and I took the girls to the OC Zoo, a tiny little “zoo” (if you can even call it that) located within Irvine Regional Park. I’d love to go back and explore the rest of the park as there were paddle boats, bike rentals, horseback riding, and lots of playgrounds. In fact, I recognized it as I pulled up when I realized that Jake had taken me horseback riding there a few years ago for my birthday.

The best part about the zoo–the two dollar entrance fee. A bargain!

The zoo had a few “exotic” animals, like an ocelot, a cougar, and a lion, but we spent most of our time at the petting zoo portion since the girls didn’t seem to care much about animals they couldn’t actually touch.

Amelia freaked out when she realized she could go right up to the sheep and feed them. She LOVED it!

Peacocks (not pictured here) were roaming around the entire park and after hearing them squawk constantly, my mom and I had an epiphany– it was exactly what Amelia sounded like when she made her little grunting noises.

We’ve concluded that Amelia was raised by peacocks in her younger months and then returned to our family when she was a few months old. I was too sleep-deprived back then to notice she was gone. We now call Amelia our little peacock– she really does sound like one!

With the girls’ nap schedule, we only have about 2 1/2 to maybe 3 hours of wake time before they need to go down for their afternoon nap, and the zoo was the perfect way to wear the girls out! It’s cheap, small and just the right pace for the girls right now. Plenty to see, but not too overwhelming for them.

The OC Zoo is officially Samantha and Amelia approved!

Lots of love,

Happy 15th Month Birthday, Samantha and Amelia! Three months ago, you still seemed like babies to me and now you’re full-fledged toddlers! Scary!

To celebrate, we met up with the girls’ friends, Maliyah (who celebrated her 16 month birthday today), Allie, Alex, and Ivy at the park earlier this morning and the girls ran around, mostly stealing other people’s toys. “It’s our BIRTHDAY and we want to try ALL of the toys at the park,” explained the girls to the other kids, who were taken aback by their hubris.

I’m so backlogged on many of the events of the past few weeks, so today and in the next few days, I’ll be catching up. First item of business: hair cuts!

A few weeks ago, when Grandma was still here, Samantha and Amelia got their first hair cuts. They don’t have a ton of hair as it is, but the ends were looking kind of mangy, so we took them to Cool Cuts for Kids one Thursday morning.

I never did get that final group photo. As soon as we left the salon, Samantha stopped her tantrum, after we promised her that next time, we’d bring a picture so that the hair dresser could cut her hair exactly the way she wanted it.

We tried to explain to Samantha that she didn’t really have much hair in the first place. The hair dresser literally cut off maybe a quarter inch of hair from both girls, which she put into commemorative certificates along with space for photos. I couldn’t tell much of a difference in the before and afters, except that the mousse that the hair dresser put in made their hair so curly!

At the sloooooow rate the girls’ hair grows, we probably won’t be back for another year!

Lots of love,