Two Little Monkeys...

Our crazy girls...  Here they are doing one of their favourite things - destroying our mattress.  I really don't care, as it may cost us a few dollars per time they are having fun (amortized across years, subtracting capital losses due to everyday use) and heck aren't kids supposed to have fun?  We also play 'tackle' and 'pancake' on the bed (tackle I hope is self explanatory, but pancake involves them being 'flipped' while laying on the 'griddle'.  I later butter them and eat them)

My phone will burst a bunch of pictures in a row, but stunningly enough isn't able to take shots at 1/1000 of a second so they are quite blurry.  I think it adds to the mayhem of the situation.  Thankfully the video looks better than the pictures.

Playing at the Lake

Cara said my last post revealed how sentimental / melancholy I was becoming with the impending arrival of that four letter word: W-O-R-K!  Bleah.  Nothing against work, I actually love it, it's just that I would rather be eternally playing on the sand with my kids.  I hope all parents understand this sentiment (although you may wish to remove the word "sand" and replace it with your happy memory, while changing the structure of the sentence to ensure grammatical accuracy).

This year has been one of excessive water fights due to my mother's short-sighted decision to purchase spraying toys for the beach (Although in hind sight, maybe it was brilliant, as I have yet to see her be attacked without her as the aggressor...  Hmmm....)  All sorts of mayhem ensued this year, including Aunt Carolyn seeking sanctuary inside the display of clothes on sale then after being kicked out, using her four months old grand daughter as a human shield (which failed, these shooters are accurate :).  A couple days ago, Cara attacked we and then when I brought her into the lake and threw her in she tried to use her pregnancy to get out of her comeuppance...  Sad.

So here we are, and I read today's Baby Blues and think of all this, and I hope our children react with joy at adults having fun rather than this...

 

When the Cats are Away...

Well OK, it's only Cara (and half the video she's there for), but I figured I would allow the world to see the mayhem that ensues when I am in placed in charge.  You also get to see the new opening to the videos, as I figured Teresa's opening comment was cute...

Beyond that I want to add some information about what's been going on lately.  First, we have been dealing with illness, as Teresa is hacking away as I type but she is now fever free and I think things will get better.  Beyond that, advent has been a wonderful time here at Casa Yost, as Teresa looks forward to lighting the wreath, getting her nightly chocolate and reading a story every night from our Advent calendar.  It is quite a nice little evening ritual we have going on now.

Also a joy to watch is how Teresa and Frances interact.  Teresa will hug and kiss Frances and make sure she says good night, and Frances will go around looking for love from her sister too.  This of course is nothing like the sister relationships I am used to experiencing...  Frances communicates now, but I struggle to figure out what she says (Cara knows well) while Teresa can talk at a hundred miles an hour.   Teresa is also an amazingly active child, and loves singing, dancing and running laps.  She does a great rendition of Rudolph, which hopefully Cara will get on film from her Christmas concert.

Lastly, Teresa has finished her skating lessons and enjoyed them, but struggled a bit.  Swimming though is another matter.  She became a veritable fish this lesson set and dives under water and tries to swim all on her own...  She makes me proud.

Without further ado, a bit of our recent lives.

Olderish Pictures From November

So Cara has promised she would post about Teresa's letter to Santa (she wrote it all herself and it is awesome to behold), but in the absence of her choosing to not blog about knitting and food, I present to you: PICTURES!

She may be blurry, but man is she cute...

What is this ice for mommy?

Dog park shenanigans...

Look at the muddy paws, and the girls complete lack of fear...

Now that's some good tree climbing!

Yes, the park is now covered in snow...

'Driving'

de more

Now this is just too damn cute not to post!

The headlock of love...

Teresa & Frances - 2 Clowns in the Making

So, Teresa and Frances are for the majority of the time each other's best friends and at least once a day each other's worst enemies...  The girls love making each laugh.  Most days begin with Teresa coming to our room for a cuddle until Frances wakes up and then she sprints to the crib, climbs up it so she is above Frances and then Frances plays what I call "flopping fish".  Basically, Frances stands up, then falls over and laughs, then Teresa laughs.

Next Frances stands back up.  Guess what comes next?

If you guessed "Frances flops the other way and laughs, then Teresa laughs", you were correct.   This game can continue ad nauseam until either Cara or I pluck Frances from her crib.

Beyond that, Teresa is constantly concerned for her sister chasing her down, dragging her around and screaming at mommy and daddy if she is at all concerned.  This of course sometimes back fires, like when Teresa tries to make Frances 'safe' when she is crouched on a perch she can get down from.  This normally involves putting Frances off-balance and then some tears, either from Teresa of Frances...

Beyond that, the girls play so well together.  When one or the other is not around, they are sad and look for the other one...  Teresa pulls Frances into her boat to play where they laugh and smile together...  I could spend all day just watching them play.  Of course this ignores those moments I will, like all good Yost men, eventually forget like the day I was fixing my bike and I stepped out of the garage to check on the girls, just as Teresa was giving Frances a 2-handed shove in the back to the ground...

Beyond that both girls find ways to constantly amuse us.  Frances is a climber who will stop our hearts and make us laugh at her insanity.  A couple of days ago I caught her trying to climb into the bathroom sink, all you can do is laugh.  I guess this would be a good time to mention that she can also climb up and down stairs...

As for Teresa, here is her most recent ridiculously funny moment.  I could never have thought of this with my silly [ed note: quasi-]mature mind.  Teresa wears "monkey toes".  Here are the pics:

Finally, a use for those silly gloves the previous owners left for us!

Frances vs. The Balloon

In a quick and decisive match last night Frances has locked up her position as the most fearsome competitor in the UBFL (Ultimate Balloon Fighting League) and likely to complete for the league's inaugural championship on PPV on a date TBA.

The balloon never stood a chance...

Teresa Playing During Fall

Teresa loves being outside and playing...  Here she is outside enjoying the nice late fall we had (all these leaves came down overnight after a harsh frost, and were still green).  She also loves her bubble mower, so she can be like daddy...  To that end Santa brought her a snow shovel so she can spend more time outside helping out daddy :)

Teresa and Frances Playing

Teresa and Frances sure do love each other.  Frances crawls into Teresa's room whenever possible and Teresa tries to play with her as much as possible.  Of course their relationship isn't perfect, but let's just say that it seems better so far than the relationship I recall between the two sisters I know that were born one after the other...

Here we go, all the fun and tears of the girls playing together.

And yes, this video is posting while we are (hopefully) en route.  God Bless scheduled posts!

Terzilla meets Karma

When Teresa was Frances' age, she loved to destroy whatever Ken and I built for her. Heck, she still does. Well, now that Frances can sit up, she is more interested in playing, especially with Teresa. We used to just plop her down by Teresa with some of her own toys and she would happily chew on her own things and watch Teresa. However, lately she has been more, ummm, forceful in her efforts to play WITH Teresa, not just by her. She wants a piece of whatever action there is. While tea parties are now pure mayhem, "building" towers has to be my favourite activity the two of them take part in. Teresa builds while Frances destroys and I laugh. To Teresa's credit, she is taking this new development rather well, and does not get TOO upset with Frances, just says no and tries to rebuild. I hope she takes Frances' future destruction in stride, because God know little sisters can be a pain in the ass.

The two girls truly do love each other...

I have more free time now, so I have been consciously trying to get some stuff on video and post it for everyone. I find this all exceedingly cute although I would like to apologize for my hacking and hocking throughout. I still have a cold, and this morning I finally decided it was time to see a doctor. We'll see what's up on Monday now.