Funnies

I’ve been a pathetic blogger as of late.  Sigh.  I miss it.  But at least I’ve jotted down a few funnies from the girls over the past few weeks.  Behold!

The girls were working on their thank-you cards from Christmas.  Some family friends gave them little packages of erasers.  Baby A was part-way through her sentence when I peered over her shoulder.  She was poised to write, “…we can’t wait to erase something.”  Hahaha!  I encouraged her to alter her message to, “…we can’t wait to see you again.”  I thought that seemed a little more feasible. 

Hubby was home with the girls one day over the holiday break.  He has cackled about this so many times now.  Baby B had been in the bathroom for quite some time.  He went to check on her, and she said she was fine, just taking care of some “business”.  When she finally came out, he said she started belting out the national anthem, like it was her job.  Hee hee!  Let the games begin!

Hubby stuck around the house one morning to help me wake up the girls.  They were THRILLED to see him early in the morning.  He went to give kisses to Baby A, and she squealed.  “You tickled me!  With your spikes!” referring to his stubble.  That’s what he gets for not being clean-shaven!

Hubby has also encouraged the girls – Baby B, in particular – to “talk boonie”.  And B is really far too good at it.  It is hysterical how naturally she goes into an exaggerated Southern lilt…but it makes this mama with her practiced neutral accent cringe just a bit.

B has been growing her bangs out, and I've been experimenting with different braids. "You're better at this than I thought," she told me one morning. Nothing like a back-handed compliment from a first grader! 

B asked me one Saturday morning, “Did you take a shower, Mommy?" Yes, I told her. "I smell you."  I think it was intended as a compliment???

And Hubby took the girls out to lunch one day.  He said that Baby A kept looking at a man sitting behind him.  He asked her, and she said, “It’s the Beatles.”  Upon further investigation, she mistook a man in a restaurant who had long hair as one of the Beatles. HA!

The girls have been reading like machines here lately, and they’re often quizzing us on different facts.  They are quite incredulous when we don’t know something.  “…but you went to college!”  HA!

These girlies keep us guessing, for sure!!!

The Sweetest Thing This Christmas

This was such a sweet Christmas.  It warms my heart how the girls have been excited over the dearest things.

…their Candy Cane Hunt.  They’ve been asking about it since Day 1 of their Advent calendar.  They were SO excited to finally get the nod on Christmas Eve.  And they were so good about taking turns reading the clues.

…Mommy’s Christmas breakfast.  I didn’t realize this made such an impression on the girls, but my A has been talking about Christmas breakfast for days.  The girls think it’s a huge treat to eat Mommy’s fruit tart – in the shape of a Christmas tree – and from holiday plates, too!  On Christmas morning, I was buzzing around early and I heard the girls upstairs over the monitor.  B: "I hear Mommy making Christmas breakfast!"  A: "I know! That's my favorite thing!"

…giving presents to Mommy and Daddy.  The girls have been working for weeks on presents for us.  They’ve asked for gift bags, which we discovered this morning were filled with special drawings and messages from them to us.  They wanted us to open our gifts the very first thing, long before they opened anything themselves.

Excited to give Daddy the mug they picked out themselves!  B spied this Superman mug and said, "It's Daddy!"

My heart is very full at these girls’ hearts…such sweet blessings we have at Christmas, and every day.

The Ultimate in One-on-One Time!

Last year, the girls’ classes went on a field trip to the skating rink just before school was out for the holiday break.  It was their first time on skates, and there were lots and lots and lots of slips and falls.  Baby A fared fine, but we had a huge scare that B fractured her arm.  Fortunately, everything turned out OK, but that is a day that will live in infamy in our memories for a long time.

At some point this fall, the school announced they would again be taking a trip to the skating rink.  Baby A was excited, but B quickly declared she didn’t want to go.  So…I spent the month of December in conversation with their teachers about how to handle that.

As it turned out, it couldn’t have worked out any better!

Baby A’s class went skating in the morning.  I was able to join her at the skating rink.  I got her skates on, and we made numerous laps, both on the carpet and on the rink.  There were still lots of slips and falls, but she had a huge smile on her face the entire time.  Mid-way through our time there, I decided to don skates myself.  (I had wanted to last year, but there was no way I could manage TWO non-skaters with wheels on my own feet.)

Balancing pretty well!

It actually seemed easier to show A some mechanics with my own skates…and I had so much FUN!  At one point I was trying to illustrate something to A.  I skated a few feet and pivoted around.  A little boy – maybe a year older? – witnessed my “move”.  “WHOA!  You’re like Super Mom!” he gasped.  HA!  And I even enjoyed a round of speed skating while Baby A took a break. 

(The only pic I have of the two of us...HA!)

Last night, my A couldn’t stop talking about “THE MOST FUN EVER!!!”  She had such a great time, and I am so very thankful I got to share it with her.

When I left the skating rink, I went to pick B up from school.  It would technically count as a tardy for her to miss a little bit of the school day, but I decided that wasn’t a big deal since she’s missed a day and a half already.  She was SO excited to have 2 ½ hours with Mommy…AND to get to decide exactly what she wanted to do!

She chose to go to Cambridge Market for lunch.  She had her favorites – a chicken salad sandwich and white bean chowder.  She originally ordered fruit, but they were out.  She chose Brussels sprouts as the substitute.  (Hee hee!)

After lunch, we went to the jewelry store to pick out a new bead for her bracelet (since she just lost her second front tooth last Friday).  And then we made a quick trip by the pottery shop to pick up the ornaments we painted last week.

We walked through the downtown square...one of our favorite places!

We still had plenty of time to go to the book store to pick out a couple of outstanding Christmas presents.  And of course B got to enjoy some hot chocolate in the café.

A huge smile and a whipped cream mustache!

It was so much fun for me to do exactly what B wanted to do.

What a great day it was, for all of us!!!

Reality Strikes This Holiday Season

(This post is not nearly as ominous as the title might lead one to believe...but I'm still chuckling over this "stark" exchange!)

Since the girls were small, they’ve desperately wanted to help decorate the Christmas tree.  Each year, I’ve devised some age-appropriate (and finite) task for them to do.  Certainly their involvement has progressed over time, but it’s always been very orchestrated.

This year, the girls just shy of seven, I was ready to turn over more reigns to them.  Hubby pulled the high boxes out of the storage closet in the basement.  I pulled out the lower boxes and began to unpack specific things from them.  I told the girls they could make trips upstairs, carrying small loads.  Baby B helped kick things off, and Baby A was in for the long haul.

Once everything was upstairs, Hubby and I assembled the tree and put the lights on.  The girls watched with rapt enthusiasm…although B was not sold that the lights would be “pretty” until we finally plugged them in.

After a quick vacuuming session, it was time for the girls to start the real fun!

While I unwrapped one box of ornaments, I told them they could take others from their boxes.  I directed them to make a pile of empty boxes and a pile of ornaments.  They were so cute, looking at each one…talking about which ornament belonged to whom, and when they’d made some of their crafty ones.

When everything was out, it was time to decorate the tree.  “Have at it!” I told the girls.  I encouraged them to hang a variety of types…our collectible silver bells interspersed with our handmade creations.  We had a small stepstool to help us reach heights, and Baby A, in particular, was great about asking for help here and there to reach just the right branch.

(B is on the stepstool here, and A is doing her best to reach just the right branch.)

It didn’t take long for the girls’ enthusiasm to wane, though. 

“I’m tired!”  “This is hard work!”  “Can I go do something else?”

I couldn’t help but chuckle to myself.  It IS hard work! 

My precious little ones…this is an early glimpse for you that grown-up things are not always full of “fun”.  Enjoy being a kiddo while it lasts!!!  Hee hee! 

Ardent (if Off-Key) Patriotism

In the morning meeting at the girls’ school, they sing a patriotic song each day.  They’ll stick with one song for a while before rotating on to another one.  The girls started singing bits and pieces of songs last year sometime, and it made me think we hadn’t sung any of those at home.

The girls know scores of kiddie songs from the CDs we’ve been listening to since they were tiny, but I have to credit their school for their knowledge of some [arguably more important] tunes.

The girls know all the words to the Star Spangled Banner, and they love it.  Yankee Doodle, God Bless America, and America, the Beautiful are also among their favorites.

I just have to chuckle sometimes at how much the girls love to sing these songs.  It’s not unusual over the past few months for us to be driving down the road, belting out our national anthem (in terrible harmony, I might add…but that’s part of the chuckle, I guess).  If someone is having a challenging moment, I’ve even used one of these songs to refocus their attention.  In no time, they’re lost in the lyrics, singing their little hearts out.

As I was planning to write this down, it occurred to me that I had similar swells of patriotism when I was a little girl.  I was probably a little older – as I remember I was already pretty good at whistling – but my one of my very favorite songs was Hail to the Chief.

(My mom drove my dad’s truck for a while, and I remember she’d laugh.  “What?  Do you think the president is sitting in the back of the truck?!”  HA!  That always made me chuckle, too.)

Maybe it’s a little kid thing…or maybe it’s just coincidence…but I am grateful to the girls’ school for instilling a love of patriotic songs.  And I’m thankful for recalling such a fun memory from my childhood.  May these be fun memories the girls will one day recall themselves.

Alone in the Spotlight

The girls have been singing “It’s a Jungle Out There” for weeks…they’ve been practicing their “monkey moves”…they’ve been reciting lines that aren’t even theirs…they’ve been telling us ALL about the play at school.

This week was finally the week!  And as luck (or something) would have it, we got to attend the play TWICE.

The school divided the kiddos into two groups, one to perform on Tuesday night, and the other on Thursday night.  Being in separate classes, the girls’ performances happened to fall on different nights.

I know I could have asked their teachers to allow them to perform together…and one of their teachers eventually volunteered this as an option.  This certainly would have been more convenient, but I actually kinda like the way it worked out.

Baby A’s performance was first.  She was the most excited little monkey!!!  

How fun it was to sit back, Baby B alongside me and Hubby, to watch Baby A do her thing.

Baby B’s performance was tonight.  Baby A was a little wistful that she didn’t get to wear her monkey hat, but I reminded her it was her turn to observe.

This was a rare opportunity for the girls to have the spotlight to themselves, and for one to sit back and take it all in.  (And the play was so stinkin’ adorable and the songs were so catchy, it really was fun to see it twice.)

Baby B enjoyed an extra-special something at the end of the night.  I could see her on the final song, doing the motions, but not actually singing.  That’s very unlike her…and when we got to her classroom after the play, I saw why.

B lost her first front tooth!!!

Now a snaggle-toothed monkey, B was even more ecstatic.  (I wouldn’t have thought that possible!)

I was so proud of my girlies, and what a treat it was to appreciate them in their own spotlights.

Hugs before B's play.  LOVE.

Rare Snuggles

I still don’t know what happened to Baby A on Tuesday.  She’s such a proud kid, she is even very reluctant to tell us if she tripped or fell.  When I got home from work, she did tell me she had “bumps” on her lip, though.  Sure enough, her top lip was a bit swollen.

[The best I can figure is that she bit herself somehow.  And when I was doing laundry last night, I saw a big dirty smudge on the arm of the sweatshirt she wore that day.  I’d guess those are related somehow.]

When she first told me about her lip, she was matter-of-fact.  It didn’t seem to bother her.  But within a few minutes, she started to complain that it hurt.  I had her rinse with water, and hold some cool water on it, but (after I called my nurse friend to confer) I told her she’d need to rest and hope it felt better in the morning.

Our girls are usually very quick to bed and to sleep.  My poor baby girl, though, was having trouble.  I got the feeling it was as much emotion for her as it was discomfort.

She was whimpering, tossing and turning.  She clearly couldn’t get her mind to settle for sleep.

For many reasons, chief among them 1) having twins, and 2) being a staunch advocate for sleep training and reinforcement, I have rarely ever slept with the girls.  As wonderfully cuddly as it is to have them climb into bed with us, for example, it’s just not something we do.  I don’t want to start that habit, as I know it would not be wonderfully cuddly for very long.

There are occasions where I bend my rules, though, and Tuesday night was one of them.

I knew my A just needed to relax.  I went upstairs and, without a word, I snuggled behind her in bed.  I whispered some “I love you’s” and stroked her hair.  She quieted and snuggled back against me.  She hugged my arm that was draped over her, and she kissed my hand.

We stayed like this for a while, her, gradually relaxing, and me, breathing it all in.

Of course I didn’t have my camera with me, but I’ll treasure this memory in my mind.  It was one of those precious times when Mommy really could make things better.