Super Stuff on a Monday

So thankful for a full list of super stuff to share!

1)      After more than four years as “sisters”, our kitty Sasha has finally warmed up to the girls enough to let them brush her…at least a tiny bit.  It has been the highlight of their week, to have her come up to their extended hands and rub against the brush.  On occasion, she’s even sniffed their fingers.  Hooray for progress!!!

2)      For a couple of months now, the girls have been toying with the idea of using the jets in my bathtub.  Baby B has been really interested, but A has remained apprehensive, I think because I told her they would be loud.  They finally agreed to give it a test run this week, and they were in heaven!  B got in right away, and A worked up the courage after a minute or so.  They enjoyed the depth of the water (up to their chests!) as much as anything.  And I couldn’t quit giggling to see them be scooted along by the strength of the moving water.  Hee hee!!!

3)      There are few things that compare to hearing a four-year old’s correct usage of “may” and “can”.  It makes me a little bit giddy!

4)      I took the girls to the park on Monday afternoon.  I can’t help but marvel (although I still KNOCK ON WOOD as I type this) at how much fun it is to take the two of them these days.  It wasn’t long ago that a trip to the park with them by myself took quite a bit of courage on my part…and was rarely ever “relaxing”. 

5)      Over the monitor one morning, I heard the girls exchanging the sweetest nothings.  “I love you, Sissy…” and “…I love you, too.”  My heart melts!

6)      Baby A was successful in blowing bubbles, consistently, for the first time this week.  It’s such a fun milestone!

7)      It made me so happy to see Baby A RUN to get the soccer ball when she saw Daddy’s car rounding the bend towards home one afternoon.  I know it made his heart smile so big, too.  And then B got in on the soccer action, as she wanted to divide the four of us into “teams”…one would be Chelsea, and one would be either Manchester United or Manchester City.  Daddy never fails to beam at the girls’ English Premier League soccer references.

8)      On Friday we met our friends M&C for the season’s first trip to Jackson’s Orchard.  It began as a cloudy day, but turned out to be just beautiful!  We had SO MUCH FUN running and playing, and the girls went down the “bumpy slide” by themselves – and then together – for the first time.  They actually went down more times than I could count…at least 20!  By the end, they were definitely tired, though.  Baby A asked if I could carry her up the 25 or so steps to the top of the slide.  HA!

9)      We typically eat at our favorite Mexican restaurant about once a week, and we happened to time our weekly trip with Cinco de Mayo this weekend.  The restaurant was very crowded, so we sat someplace other than our usual table.  The girls enjoyed sitting under their beloved “donkey” picture, and I loved hearing B wish one of the waiters, “Feliz Cinco de Mayo!”  That kid will attempt to say anything, and she usually does a pretty fair job!

10)   Puzzle mania has continued at our house this week.  After lunch on Sunday, we stopped by the dollar store to get a couple new puzzles, each 63 pieces.  The girls have done them twice already.  I love seeing them so deep in concentration!

11)   Baby B was sitting in my lap, facing me.  She looked intently at me, and then almost gasped, “Mommy!  There’s something broken in your eye!  How did you break your eye?”  Poor kiddo was a bit traumatized at Mommy’s lack of sleep, apparently.

12)   As I was working in the kitchen one day, I heard B explaining some kind of made-up game to A: “OK, here's what we're going to do. It's going to be pretty challenging, OK?"  Way to set expectations!

13)   One morning at breakfast, Baby A was explaining the ways of the world to me.  I can’t remember the exact conversation, but she was really serious.  All the while, she had the cutest milk mustache that I couldn’t make myself wipe off…there was something absolutely irresistible about her little baby voice, her very serious eyes, and that smear of milk on her lip.

Here's to another SUPER week!

Fab 5 Friday...and ME!!!

Very thankful for another fabulous week!!!

1) We hosted a little get-together on Saturday morning (sponsored by Shutterfly) to get everyone thinking about the holiday spirit. The girls were so excited to get up to the smell of muffins in the oven, the sight of Christmas decorations on the table…and of course to welcome several of their twin friends to play. The girls played so well and shared their toys very nicely – I was so proud of my little co-hostesses!

2) On Sunday we decided to allow the girls to watch about 10 minutes of a soccer game between England and Spain (one Hubby was really having a fit to see). I thought they would be enthralled, but after less than a minute, B jumped up, got her ball to kick around the den, declaring, “I can do that!” Within 10 minutes we decided to take the girlies to the park so they could really play.

3) We had rain the first part of the week, so I decided to break out the finger paint one morning. The girls were so well behaved! They had fun mixing colors, I got some discernible handprints (a first!), and they kept their paint-covered hands where I asked. It was a very successful morning!

4) The girls have been all about snuggling lately. They’re really into reading mode, and so many times they’ve piled up on the couch with blankets, leaving a space between them for Mommy to join. We haven’t put together as many puzzles or built as many block structures as usual this week, but we’ve read tons of books to make up for it. This snuggly stage is one I’m loving!!!

5) One evening I was looking at a book and said the word “babotchka” [Russian for butterfly]. B said, “That means ‘grandmother’ in Russian!” She was close…grandmother is “babushka”…but I couldn’t believe she knew that, as I can’t begin to remember the last time I used that with them.

And what did I do for ME this week???

Miss Jennifer was here with the girls on Tuesday afternoon. I had a quick errand to run at the mall, after which I promptly high-tailed it to Panera. I got a latte in one of their big, oversized ceramic mugs, scored a comfy leather chair by the fireplace, and read a book – uninterrupted – for a good 45 minutes. Ahhh!!!

Thanks to dollimama for hosting this fantastic link-up every week...asking us mamas to step back and think about what we did for ourselves this week. I'll miss the link-up...but I hope to keep up the diligence. A little "me" time has definitely been good for my soul.

Talking Nonsense

On some level, I had secretly hoped to witness “twin speak”, that phenomenon that you always hear about between twins…the language they develop that only they can understand.

I wouldn’t say that our girls started speaking early, but when their speech really took off – around 19 or 20 months – it was plain ol’ English.

Over the past six months, our girls’ language has blossomed. I am truly amazed every day at what they say, and how they say it.

And over the past couple of months, my husband and I have been making more of a concerted effort to speak Russian (which I studied in school) and Serbian (Hubby’s native language) with the girls.

I wish I could say we were truly raising them in a multilingual household, but that’s not really the case. They can count to 10 in Serbian and say a few basic phrases. They can sing a song in Russian and recite a nursery rhyme, and I read several Russian-themed books to them (in English).

I know this level of attention from Hubby and me won’t lead them to be fluent in another language. But I at least hope that these interactions will give them a basic sense for Slavic languages, and give them an appreciation that other people around the world speak in a different way than we do.

Over the past month or so, amid singing a popular Russian folk song and identifying 15 or so states on a map, the girls have started to speak what I can only describe as “nonsense”, clearly Something Other Than English.

“I’m a padja, and my friend madja, went to the badja.”
“Mommy, can you say ‘boobadoobamuya’?” [followed by a fit of giggles]

Excuse me???

Some of what they say, like the “padja-madja-badja” stuff, seems like it might have some Slavic influence. Are they pretending to “speak Russian”?

Or, as part of the process of language acquisition, I’ve heard about other kids making up strings of rhyming words. Is that what they’re doing?

I can’t imagine this is “twin speak”. While they laugh at each other for some of the things they say, they don’t seem to be communicating on a deeper (?) level.

In any case, I have to admit this talking nonsense is driving me a bit CrAzY! I don’t mean to squelch their creativity (?), but I can’t resist saying, “Speak English, please!”

I’m labeling this post as part of Say What?! Wednesday…hoping some mama, somewhere, might have a clue as to what my babies are actually saying! :)

Fab 5 Friday

...and following are just a few things that made this week fabulous!


1) The weather has been nothing short of incredible this week...daytime highs in the 70's, with crisp, clear sunshine illuminating the still-brilliant leaves. The girls' playtime in the den has suffered a bit, as we've made every excuse to get out and about. Girls, oh girls, how I love fresh air!


2) Baby B volunteered her first phrase in Serbian this week, in context. "Let's go home!" she exclaimed from her car seat.


3) Baby A has taken a real interest in her dolls' digestive systems. She's spent a large amount of time this week "burping" them. "Burping baby!" she declares. Maybe it's all the "cookies" she's been feeding them...


4) I started singing, "Babe...I Got You, Babe..." (a la Sonny and Cher) to the girls over the weekend. At random from the backseat of the car, Baby B yelled, "I got it, Bay-ba!" Daddy and I laughed, she laughed, and then Baby A laughed. And that just prompted B to say it again and again. Hilarious!


5) I have been singing the same nighttime prayer to the girls since they were a few weeks old. Just this week, Baby A has started adding the sweetest little "Amen!" to the end of the prayer...and my heart melts into an itty bitty puddle every.single.time.

(One might think with all the singing I do that I have a nice singing voice, huh? Well, One would be terribly wrong. But I guess it goes to show that even the ongoing presence of tone-deaf singing can't put a damper on the fabulousness of the World of A & B.)