I'm Helene, married to Tim and mom to twins, Cole and Isabella, who were conceived on our 3rd IVF attempt!! I'm a stay-at-home mom who spends her days entertaining two very active toddlers, cooking and cleaning and trying to keep everyone in the house happy at least 95% of the time! Some of my hobbies include reading and traveling but what I really enjoy the most right now is getting together with my friends and having playdates with all the kids!!

Cole, age 22 months

NEW UPDATE!!

Nothing really new here, except I learned to swim by myself, with the assistance of my swimming vest. Yeah, I think I'm hot stuff! I still have to stay close to my mom because she gets all freaked out if I go too far from her - she needs to lighten up. My mom and dad are in the planning stages of mine and Bella's 2nd birthday party - it's gonna totally rock. We're gonna have a bouncey house - Thomas the Train, if I have my say but I know Bella will want Dora so I'll have to turn on the waterworks to get my way. And of course we'll have lots of cake - that's the best part. I'm learning new words every day - I love to say "no way" when my mom or dad asks me to do something. I've been put on a LOT of time-outs, and some of the time I even volunteer to do a time-out - it's wierd but I kinda like it. And then I hear the timer go off and I run over to my mom and tell her "sowwy" and give her a hug and then she acts like I'm a superstar or something. Doesn't take much to make her happy. I had my 2-yr check-up early and I'm 36 inches tall and I weigh 28 pounds - they say I'm tall for my age - cool! I only had to get one shot and I cried - it sucked but I survived. Oh and we went to the State Fair the other day and I'm tall enough now to ride all the kiddy rides - it was awesome! I laughed the whole time on every ride - what a blast!

Well, that's the latest on me....stay tuned for my next update!

Bella, age 22 months - UPDATE

Dora is my new best friend - I still like Barbie but Dora is way cooler. I have a Dora doll that my mom and dad bought me and I take her everywhere with me. I go nuts when I can't find her and I run around the house screaming "Dowa, Dowa, Dowa" until I find her. Potty training is still on hold, although I like to tease my mom by taking off my diaper and saying "pee-pee" and then she takes me into the bathroom to sit me on my potty but then I just fool around - I like to unravel the toilet paper, flush the toilet over and over and over, get soap all over the floor. She read somewhere that she's not supposed to get frustrated during the whole potty training process so she just smiles but I can tell she wants to wring my neck. Parents think they know everything, right? Tonight we went to my favorite place to eat "Appbee's", which is actually Applebee's but that's too hard of a word for me to say, plus it's cuter the way I say it. I had grilled cheese and broccoli, which I happily enjoyed showing the chewed up food in my mouth to the 2 old ladies sitting next to me. Usually when we're out somewhere, people find me adorable - these ladies didn't seem impressed. Maybe they just don't like the looks of chewed up grilled cheese, broccoli and ketchup all mixed together?

So that's my latest scoop - check back later for another update!