I can't remember the last time I updated this thing......
We have been staying busy this summer with Matthew's baseball games, going to the pool, and a trip to Port Aransas, TX with my whole family.
Tripp is still obsessed with his cars. He loves cars, monster trucks, fire trucks, dump trucks, etc. He also loves to watch Yo Gabba Gabba and Toy Story. He is in love with Buzz Lightyear. He has a buzz doll he sleeps with at night as well as his king car from the movie Cars.
Gentry loves to draw, paint, and color. She also loves to put the tops of markers on her fingers and walk around waving and saying hello all day. There's not a particular toy that Gentry loves, like Tripp, but seems to like to play with everything. She doesn't have a toy or animal she sleeps with or carries around... although she loves her mom and dad sleeping in her bed with her.
We bought the kids full size beds a couple weeks ago and the sleeping at night has been going much better. Gentry still gets up sometimes and comes to our room but we quickly put her back and she sleeps til the morning.
We are also in the midst of trying to potty train. They pretty much stay naked anytime we are at home. We use pull-ups for when we go places. I did put them both in their big girl panties and big boy underwear last night at my mom's.... Tripp did great. Gentry was soaked by the end of the 5 minute drive there!
They are both talking up a storm, complete sentences. It is so crazy to sit and have a conversation with them. It is hilarious to hear what they have to say and that the new words they learn, know how and when to use them.
Cranberry juice is the big drink in the house right now..... and hamburgers are Gentry's favorite food. Tripp loves hot dogs and french fries. Pretty healthy, huh?! Especially during baseball season.
I know this is a bit all over the place, but I'm trying to write down things quickly so I don't forget!

Our trip to Port Aransas was a lot of fun. I wish Matthew could have joined us! Tripp and Gentry loved the beach. Gentry especially loved playing in the sand and building castles and jumping on them instantly. Tripp and Gentry love to jump on and destroy sand castles. None of their cousins ever finished a sand castle because of these two little monkeys. Tripp loved running into and out of the ocean. The first day he made his way out way too far while I was not paying attention and it scared the complete crap out of me! He thought he was big time going out into the waves with his cousin Chase. I quickly reminded him he was not to go out that far and we had to problems after that. The best part of the beach was watching T and G hold hands and run from the sand into the water and fall into the water together. They giggled and would run back out of the water screaming "again!". They would do this over and over until Gentry decided she was tired of holding Tripp's hand and would then do it alone. Tripp would get so upset over it! He would yell, "GG! Hold hands!" and start to cry. He is so sensitive!

The kids have finally started playing together nicely. Not with toys, just with each other. They run up and down the hall, ride their cars together, tackle each other, and talk to each other. I love sitting back and watching them talk to each other. They always ask each other if they are OK when one gets hurt or is upset. Then they kiss each other's boo-boos. It's super cute.

I am jotting down a few things so i won't forget:

we have gone swimming almost everyday for the past week. the kids have a ball playing in the baby pool and in the big pool. they wear their vests and jump right in. i love that they aren't afraid of the water. they get very excited yelling "cold water!" each time we walk down to the pool.

i have been working on getting the kids to share their toys. tripp is absolutely obsessed with his disney cars. he takes them everywhere he goes, he even lines them up on the kitchen table so that they can "watch him eat". gentry loves his cars too. she is constantly grabbing them and running from tripp. so, i have been telling them to ask each other if it is alright if one plays with the others toy. the other day gentry asked tripp if she could play with his monster truck. he thought about it and just walked away with his truck. i told gentry that we should go into the playroom to find a different toy to play with. her response to me was "tripp is being a turkey, mama". i find this hilarious because i call them turkey's all the time. any time they act out, i call them turkey's. kids are like sponges.....

Matt and I made the decision yesterday to get rid of the pacifiers. This is a huge deal in my mind because they are absolutely obsessed with them. They have gotten them at nap time and bed time for their whole lives, and this is what gets them to go to sleep. They often wake up in the middle of the night when they can't find them in their beds, and in turn, they come wake us up to find them. So we were tired of it! Tripp and Gentry each got a bag, filled them with their paci's, and we proceeded to walk next door to give them to the "baby". "you are big kids now, and big kids don't use pacifiers. we have to give them to the babies who need them." They totally loved this idea. So we gave our pacifiers to "the baby's mommy" and came on home. We didn't nap yesterday. No paci's, they weren't having it, so they skipped the nap and ended up passing out for the night at 6:45. They cried for a bit for their pacifiers, but I quickly reminded them that big kids don't need them and that we gave them to the babies that do need them. Gentry was ok with this and quit crying. This made Tripp cry even more. He wanted them back! He eventually fell asleep and was fine. GG woke up an hour later shaking her hands, and crying like she was in drug withdrawal. Poor baby girl. She quickly fell asleep again and that was the end of it. Today I got them down for a nap by bribing them! They continue to ask about the pacifiers before their nap, but Tripp always reminds GG that we gave them to the babies. So sweet. Hopefully they will soon forget.
Next step, potty training........

love this picture...

All tripp and gentry do is fight. I feel like a referee all day long. Every. Single. Day. Gentry is actually the instigator... she goes and purposely takes one of Tripp's toys that he is playing with and runs away with it laughing. While this is quite humerous to her (and me), he freaks out. Then comes that pushing, shoving, biting, etc. I am not sure how to handle the fighting. Tripp screams and cries at the drop of a hat if things don't go his way. Gentry just turns and does something else that she's not supposed to do, like throw something and stare at you. I have tried time outs, taking toys away, etc. I don't know what to do!
Today Tripp had an absolute meltdown at the baseball game. GG, Tripp and I were waiting for the game to end so that we could go on the field and run the bases and play with Matthew. Well, the game had one out to go and the other team decided to tie it up in the 9th. Tripp got tired of waiting and began screaming his eyes out. I just sat there trying to calm him down while Gentry was taunting him beside me. We were being stared at, although I could've given a crap, and Matt even could hear him all the way out at 2nd base. I finally got up and took him home telling him he could not play with daddy on the field anymore. Gentry stayed with Lauren and came home later on. Then I felt bad, cause he was really excited with his bat and balls to play. I need someone to tell me how to discipline!
I also need someone to tell me how both of my 2 year olds can skip their nap and still not go to sleep until 9pm. WTF? They are the energizer bunny times two.
I am exhausted...... when will the fighting stop?

I have been meaning to write on the blog for a while now, but I always remember at the wrong times!
We are in the midst of the baseball season right now and Matthew has been on the road a lot the passed month. They are currently on an 8 day road trip and have been gone 24 of the passed 32 days. The kids are really missing him, but after this trip, he gets to be home a bunch in June and July. We are definitely looking forward to that!
Tripp and Gentry have grown so much as of late. They are both saying new words everyday and putting together sentences. Gentry is still my little stinker. She continues to deliberately do the wrong thing and look at me while doing it to see what I will do. It's really hard not to laugh! Tripp is my sweetheart. He listens, for the most part, but he is also very sensitive. His feelings get hurt pretty easily by others.
They have both started getting really into playing with their toys (the right way), and pretending. Gentry loves to play with her dress up shoes, crown, purse, lip stick, and credit cards. Tripp loves his cars from the movie cars. He actually loves any type of car or truck. She loves tea parties, and he loves destroying the tea party. Don't get me wrong, she can definitely hold her own and get rough! She seems also a bit more social than he does. On the other hand, he will try anything, where she is scared to try certain things.

We went and took pictures in the bluebonnets last week. The kids had a great time running around....

a little update on the kata clan.....
matt got home from spring training on the 28th. he was gone for 5 weeks total... and it went surprisingly quick! we are very glad he is back home, or as the kids say "daddy no work". tripp and gentry's talking skills have really exploded in the passed few weeks. GG is talking is small sentences like her brother, although there is still babbling thrown in there as well. i think that you have to be around them a lot to understand everything. most words are understandable, but some matthew can't even figure out! mama usually gets it.....
tripp has become absolutely glued to my hip. he freaks out anytime i leave him or a room. more than usual. it has gotten ten times worse than normal. GG seems to get along with anyone, and she loves to flirt. she is a little stinker still! she loves to get a reaction from doing things she knows are wrong. little turkey.
their favorite movie of the month is Cars. tripp wakes up in the morning and immediately asks for it. GG loves movies, but tripp LOVES movies. i am just glad that i finally got those beauty and the beast songs out of my head before i went crazy!

This is a bit long, but cute. They are having a blast with their new swing set. They love to play "choo choo" down the slide together....

On a different note, Tripp says "ah man" all day long. Every time he gets hurt, drops something, etc, he says it. It is really funny. GG has turned into a destructive little girl. She thinks making a mess and clearing off the table like someone does in a movie is funny. She is a little turkey! She walks around going "gobble gobble".....
They are both talking a ton, although, a lot is tough to understand. They are turning into little people!

It's been a while since I've updated........
Things have been quite busy lately with Matthew gone at spring training. He's been gone for 2 weeks now and it has actually gone by pretty quickly for me. There's never a dull moment with Tripp and Gentry! They have definitely become independent. Especially Mr. Tripp. He is constantly saying "I do it! I do it!" They both want and need to do everything themselves. If I go to pour them a drink, they want to do it. If I am cutting the top of their popsicle off with scissors, they have to put their hands on the scissors. etc, etc, etc.....
They fight every. single. day. Most of it is over the dumbest things. Gentry likes to tease Tripp and steal his toy and runaway with it laughing while he is screaming crying chasing her to get it back. She then proceeds to pull his hair and he in turn pushes her. I've gotten to where I just ignore it sometimes because they don't listen to me when I tell them not to hit each other! Standing in the corner for time out doesn't work either because they fight over who gets to stand in the corner. What to do?
On a better note, they are also playing with each other a lot. It is so funny to watch them chase each other screaming and laughing in delight. They run all over the house laughing and jumping on the couch or hiding in their Dora tent. Speaking of Dora, they are obsessed. Dora has to be on in the car. They are starting to repeat back during episodes. So stinkin' cute.
Tripp, by the way, is going to turn into a pretzel. He eats pretzels everyday. He can eat a huge breakfast and immediately runs to the pantry for a "snack". He needs his pretzels. GG loves snacks as well, but she switches back and forth between granola bars, pretzels, goldfish, and "andy" or candy. We give them a multi=vitamin that tastes like candy, so they love getting those. She is constantly asking for "uckers" or suckers. I think my kid's teeth might rot out.
So there's a quick update of what's happening with T&G!

Matt's mom, Granny Gogi, bought Tripp and Gentry a swing set for their Christmas/Birthday present. It was delivered the 11th, and they have loved it so much. Gentry loves to swing, while Tripp loves to climb and go down the slide. This video Tripp is very proud of himself for climbing up the slide. Pretty funny......

So Tripp and Gentry are officially 2 years old! I can't believe it. This passed week was a lot of fun. Wednesday, their birthday, we took them to Chuck E. Cheese for lunch and then had Nana, Granny Gogi, Granny Ella, Aunt Lauren, and little Ella over for dinner. We ate and had birthday cookies. We put candles in their cookies to blow out and once we started singing Happy Birthday, Gentry started freaking out.... she is afraid of the birthday song. She did the same thing at her little preschool. They sang to Tripp and he loved it and blew out the candles, but when it was Gentry's turn, she started screaming crying and refused to let them sing or give her anything for her birthday. The same thing happened here at dinner. So funny because it was all family and she was still scared. So Tripp enjoyed the attention and blew his candles out.
We had a birthday party for them at the Kid's Zone at the Dell Diamond baseball field on Saturday. My mission before this was to get Gentry to be alright with the song and blowing out her candles. We practiced for two days blowing out candles and singing. She loved doing this! By the time the party got here, she was ready. We got them a Dora cake that I knew they would love.... they could have cared less! Anyway, the party went great. We had a bounce house, play scape, basketball court, trampoline, and rock wall (for the older kids). Once it was time for cake, we all sat down and I started to bring the cake over to the table and people began to sing. Tripp was in heaven.... Gentry started crying and would not let Matthew put her down! So, we sang and Tripp blew out both sets of candles. Afterward, she was fine. They both ate their fair share of cake and cupcakes.
In other news, Tripp has taken off with his speech. He repeats EVERYTHING you say. He is even talking in small sentences. My favorite is "mom, where are you?" which really sounds like, " momwhereareyuuuuu" all ran together. Gentry is making her way, but letting her brother take the reigns on the talking thing. She is saying plenty, just not as much as Tripp. She sure knows how to be a stinker and do things she's not supposed to on purpose though! She should win an Academy Award for fake crying on cue. I love it. It is very entertaining in the Kata household as of now. I'm sure it will only continue to get better....

We took Tripp to get his first haircut today. He did great! He sat in a motorcycle seat and was so good! He had so much hair cut off but still has so much hair left. He still has a head full of curls, it just isn't going down his back anymore.... I'm sure though that people will still call him a girl! That's just because he is so pretty!
Gentry continues to be a tester...... she is always doing things she is not supposed to, and then will look at Matthew or I to see what we are going to do about it. Time out does not work... they love to stand in the corner! They even fight over who gets to stand in the corner!

So we have been playing musical beds now for the passed week or so. Tripp has joined in on the fun of getting out of bed at night to sleep with us. The problem is, sleeping with Gentry and Tripp in our bed is quite crowded because they sleep sideways, kick, etc. They are all over the place waking us and each other up. Matthew and I have taken turns sleeping in the guest bedroom with one of the kids while the other stays in our bed. The guest bed is only a full size, so there is not a lot of room there either. Last night Gentry and I went in about 3AM. She proceeded to fall off the bed and knock over the plant and tray on the nightstand at about 4AM. From there on out, it was morning time for me. I was so on edge that she was going to fall off again, I could not get back to sleep. Matthew and I have been talking about "ferberizing" both of them. This is just letting them cry it out and locking them in their room. Sounds terrible, but it supposedly works after only a few days to a week. We finally decided we were going to start two days ago. Gentry must have heard us talking because that same day she got fever and ended up having two ear infections. Tripp followed suit and has been coughing his head off. They both coughed for 4 hours straight yesterday to the point that Gentry threw up 3 times in a row she was coughing so hard. Anyway, we are now giving both breathing treatments and an antibiotic cough syrup. So, we are going to try ferberizing again once they are well.
On another note, I can recite every line in Beauty and the Beast.... I can also sing every song. The songs will not leave my head, it's all I sing all day and all night.

Gentry and Tripp love to dance! This time they incorporated some tackling and wrestling into it....... it was fun until the very end.....

Their new favorite movie is Beauty and the Beast and I cannot get these songs out of my head! Tripp is constantly asking for "BEEEEST".

Tripp and Gentry love dancing to The Wheels on the Bus..... as you can see!

I think I have seen Lady and the Tramp at least a hundred times since last October. Tripp is absolutely obsessed and in love with this movie. Gentry likes it too, but Tripp can't get enough of it. He loves "the rat" in it. We watch it every single day....... especially at night before bed. Tripp also loves playing basketball, baseball, and pushing around his grocery cart full of food and tipping it over and yelling "oh no!" Gentry loves to cook in her play kitchen and draw. She loves pens and wants to draw on everything with it! She also loves to dance and spin in circles..... not alone, of course. She wants you to spin her around, in turn making you dizzy. Aunt Lauren started this about a year ago and it quickly grew into one of her favorite things to do when her aunt is around!

The whole family came in for Christmas this year. Tripp and Gentry had such a great time with everyone and received so many gifts!
Tripp has started repeating every little thing that anyone says. He has become a chatter box speaking in small sentences.... Gentry just listens and tries to repeat, but I have a feeling she is letting Tripp figure out everything and then she will just start up one day. She did the same for walking and crawling. She's a smart little cookie!
Matthew has decided to resign with the Rangers this year and we will be in Round Rock for another season. Hopefully we will be able to make the trek to Arlington sometime during the year, but in the meantime, I am definitely thankful that we get to live in our own house once again this year.