Thankful times two!

Happy Thanksgiving to all! We had a busy weekend filled with family get togethers. Thank you to those of you who provided us with those yummy Thanksgiving meals! As always, Maddie & Aidan thoroughly enjoyed watching their cousins at play. Hard to imagine that in a few short years, our twins will also be curious school aged children.

Pre-Thanksgiving we took a trip to Bass Pro Shops and were amazed to see all of the exciting displays. M&A "struck a pose" with christmas trees, elves, bears, moose, and so on. Below is Aidan moments before he attempted to throw his shoe into the fish pond (never a dull moment):

Back on the homefront, Maddie is still obsessed with wearing things on her head. Dirty snot rags included:

And just this morning we took a family trip to BJs to stock up on our bulk items. You can't necessarily tell from this photo, but M&A LOVE being pushed around the store in the carriage. The giggle with delight the entire time :)

And of course Mommy & Daddy spent some time reflecting on the past year and how thankful we are for all of the joy our beautiful twins bring to us.

Toddlerhood - does it get any cuter than this??

So it has been a couple of weeks since I last posted. Not due to a lack of things going on in the Willner household by any means. I have been a bit lackadaisical about taking photos of late. Kurt says "Aw, just write about the new things they've been doing". My theory is that a post without cute photos just isn't half as interesting.

It seems that each day brings with it a new game, trick, activity or accomplishment from one of our adorable twins. I guess we must have entered the phase of "rapid development". Here's some of the recent things we've learned:

Their favorite game is to go into their bedroom and absolutely tear the place up (and then act as if they have no idea how this happened):

Maddie thinks the best solution to our war of wills is to shut Mommy out of the room (of course she cries once she realizes she doesn't know how to OPEN doors yet):

Aidan enjoys flipping the baseboard heaters open and closed - a fairly troublesome habit I am hoping to break him of. (He also prefers to wear only one sock at a time, but a mother with two toddlers really needs to pick her battles wisely):

Maddie loves reading books (with her feet):

And Mommy came up with the brillant idea of putting our air mattress right below the couch so the twins can easily climb up and down w/out risking injury. The only causalty in this game is Maddie's pet piggy who turned blue from repeated exposure to the mattress (not the highest quality I guess - the mattress, not piggy of course):

Daddy's idea was to throw the couch pillows on the ground (mommy was initally displeased, but relented when she saw how cute it is):

Aidan gave it a valiant effort, but miscalculated the location of the first pillow a bit:

Oh yes, perhaps the cutest thing that happened this past week is Maddie got a hold of her winter hat. She ADORES this thing and will wear it for hours on end (inside the house that is...step outside and she is ripping it right off):

Aidan has decided that he occasionally prefers Maddie's pink woobie to his blue McLovin. Daddy didn't want this fact published, but I feel Aidan is confident in who he is and not ashamed to state his likes:

Just this morning we tried to get some photos with the santa hats Grandma & Peepa bought us. Maddie (again loving the hat) was a vision in pink and red:

Aidan wasn't really having it:

So that's what we're up to. A bit picture heavy...but well worth the read if I do say so myself :-) Oh by the way, can you tell we're having a blast over here!!

These Leaves Are Meant for Jumping!

Yesterday afternoon was gorgeous. Sunny and low 60s in November?? Can't beat that! So of course we had to take Maddie & Aidan outside for some fun in the fall leaves. Shockingly neither tried to eat any. They were content to trounce about and enjoy the fresh air.

Aidan didn't know what to make of the leaves and stood frozen for about 5 minutes:

Maddie was more interested in helping Daddy with the yardwork (a tradition he hopes continues for many years to come):

We ended the afternoon with what might be their final swing for the season (sniff sniff):

For those of you who don't get to see Maddie & Aidan on a regular basis, everyday brings with it some new skill or discovery.


Our Mae-bear (that's Maddie) now gives real kisses. You don't even have to ask for one!! She's also walking like a madwoman. She often tries to run, but hasn't mastered that yet. She likes to feed her Mommy and Daddy. She's a bit of a trickster though and often fakes us out by not actually having any food in her hand. Silly girl!! She claps, she dances and is just all around cute. She's also a master tantrum thrower. (This last one we're working on resolving - but she's one opinionated little girl).


Our Aidy-bear has also started walking. Just the past two days he's taken 7 or 8 steps at at time. He also does what I find to be the cutest thing on earth (I know, I'm biased). Everytime he or anyone else takes a sip of their drink he says "ahhhh". He's clearly a musical genius and loves to dance and play his baby piano. He's a talking fool and has lots of conversations with us (perhaps we're not 100% sure what he's saying). He's also quite a riot...or so Maddie thinks. Pretty much anything he does or says sends Maddie into a fit of giggles.


We are definitely looking forward to all of the skills we've yet to master!!!

Happy Halloween

Well it wasn't our first Halloween with the babies, but it was our first where they did more than sleep. We started off the day with a visit to Mimi & Buppy's house to show off our costumes and visit with our cousins.

Maddie refused to wear her bunny ears, but didn't seem to mind Buppy's sailor hat:

Aidan was initially annoyed, but eventually became resigned to his monkey hood:

Later that afternoon we attended the neighborhood parade. Maddie & Aidan preferred to be strolled, but we fully expect them to walk it next year :) Post-parade was a pizza party. We were adventurous and decided to feed them pizza at the neighbors. It wasn't their first time having pizza, but it was our first time feeding them w/out any high chairs. Needless to say, we abandoned the endeavor mid-way (and mid-meltdown) and ran home to feed them. We have the youngest kids in the neighborhood, so I think most of the parents were watching us leave and feeling grateful that they are beyond the toddler phase!

We ended the day with some musings from Daddy about the inappropriateness of all of the princess and ballerina costumes he was seeing. Apparently Halloween costumes are supposed to be SCARY. (Pssst...Daddy, a bunny and a monkey aren't exactly the stuff of horror movies).

Anyhow, we're looking forward to next year and perhaps a bit of actual trick or treating!