Twin Challenge

The girls do love that ravioli!  But can you tell who's wearing her dinner in this picture?
 

Wordless Wednesday 8/25/10

Just a quick link

Kayla and Megan Tea Party

Over the River and Through the Woods....

There are a lot of advantages to living in a house that backs up to your family.

However, for my mom, visits from the granddaughters hasn't often been one.

Even though we literally live behind each other -- I haven't been brave enough to take the girls to my mom's house very often.  Many reasons for this...but the easiest explanation - I dare you to take two babies down a flight of stairs, across the yard, up another partial flight of stairs, and into a house with pretty things everywhere and an open stairway to the basement.  Yeah, I can rationalize with the best!  

Now that the girls are getting older, they can navigate the stairs themselves (with someone ready to catch them if they fall --or to hold a hand to help them along).  And they go through the yard just fine. In fact, I can say "let's go to Grandma's house" and they go right to her back porch.  And since they're starting to get the idea when we say "no" and "don't touch", we mean it, so it's not quite as daunting.  

This weekend we went over to Grandma's right after dinner.  Grandma had some tomatoes, and the girls wanted them.  So Grandma shared.  We diced them up and put them in a bowl.   Mom didn't have dirty pants.  The girls kept wiping their hands across her pants to get the tomato juice off them!

Then we washed up their hands and let them play in the living room for a bit.  Megan made herself right at home on the couch, taking off her shoes.

Kayla made herself at home on the loveseat and took her shoes off, too. But Megan put hers back on, and then helped Kayla put hers back on, too.

When it was time to go outside, Grandma got a big hug from Kayla. 

We invited Grandma to sit out on the porch while the girls played in the yard.  She taught the girls how to sit at their picnic table.

It was a challenge, and they thought they were supposed to get on top of it...but Grandma got them straightened out.

It was a really nice evening to sit outside.  The girls had a great time playing at Grandma's house and out in the yard. 

We'll have to do it again, soon!

22 Month Report

One of the quirks of parenthood is that chances are good you know a friend or family member who ends up having a child shortly before you do. Such a child acts as a bellwether for your own child's development. Dealing with your own child day-to-day, as well as the minutia of life, often obscures development, or at least removes the focus from it (regular readers will detect this running theme of the blog, and likely not for the first time wonder aloud, "They let him care for children?"). You end up surfing through days that turn into weeks that turn into months, with little thought besides what you have to do at work or when the next Burn Notice is on, then you spend time with your little Canary Cousin and come away thinking, "Oh yeah, they can do that too", or more to the point, "Wow, I can't believe they're going to be doing that in a matter of weeks". It's not an exact science of course, since all children develop at different rates, but nevertheless, such is the service Linda's son Jalen provides to us, whom we saw yesterday at his 2nd birthday party.

Getting ready for supper yesterday, I was about ready to go grab one of the high chairs we brought up for the girls (Granny possessing the other). Kayla and Megan still take every meal in their high chairs; we know they do OK in booster seats from experience at mom's, but typically we're slow in changing such habits, mainly because the more restrictive devices tend to offer a measure of control as well. This is one of the major reasons the baby gate separating the kitchen and living room was only taken down this week, despite the fact the girls have been able-bodied enough to simply remove it themselves should they wish it gone for quite some time now. Mommy and Daddy's binky's, as it were. But back to the high chair: Linda told me not to bother, since Jalen would just sit at the kitchen table chair.

Would he, now?

Yes, as it turns out. I had doubts when he sat down and his nose was level with the table, but Linda just told him to get up on his knees, and all was well. I'm trying to imagine the scenario in which I would have casually suggested a similar course of action for the girls, and honestly most of them involve promises of game show winnings/riches. And yet I have to remind myself: There, but for 2 months, go we. Give or take.

Scenario #2. Granny and Grandpa have a swingset-on-steroids in their backyard, which the girls gravitated to at one point. But they're too little for such a playground still, they couldn't possibly climb the ladder to go down the slide, right? Wrong again, Superdad. The truth is yes, they are probably a bit too little for it, as it took myself and two heroic in-laws to manage the scene, but again the question lingers: For How Long???

Language skills continue to amaze as well. Last night, headed home after cake and ice cream (or rather, some strange new creation I call "ice cake"), Megan entertained herself/fought off sleep by singing the first two words of "Happy Birthday", tune relatively intact. Now, like most families I would imagine, we're not given to spontaneously bursting into Happy Birthday choruses for no reason, and byzantine copyright laws ensure that the girls are not hearing it regularly on television. The point being, when was the last time they would have heard this song? Many months ago? Yet there Megan is, disappointing us when the song morphs into Ring Around the Rosie. You probably saw the Wiggles video previously; this is another song that has only improved with practice. Is it too soon to start them on a diet of Decemberists and Cardigans? Experts are divided.

It gets you thinking, occasionally: Are we babying our baby's too much? As mentioned, we're slow to change habits that make life easier for us, one of the pratfalls of having to keep track of two at any given moment I think. Well, a pratfall of life really, but life all-encompassing is not the subject of this blog. Are we ridiculous for feeding 22 month old children in high chairs? Is it silly that we still feel nervous when they're back in their bedroom silent for more than a few minutes?

Then again, there are often stark reminders that you own underwear older than they are, literally. I'm in the office this morning, taking care of various server updates, while Jenn's at home taking the "We didn't get enough sleep last night, we've got a bout of diaper rash, and there just isn't a whole lot right in the world" bullet you still occasionally have to deal with. I just called to see how it was going, and would officially classify it as "hectic, with a 30% chance of chaotic".

Hurry up, Windows Server 2003 Service Pack 2 install.

How time flies -- how quickly they grow up.

From discovering toes --- to painted toes!  This morning, Kayla pointed to Megan's feet, saying "pretty toes".  Both girls have remnants of mommy's attempt at putting bright pink toenail polish on their wiggling toes.  Then she pointed to her own toes and said "pretty toes".  Next she showed me my own toes, "pretty toes".    Now if only we can get Daddy to let us paint his toes, he can have "pretty toes", too!

Wordless Wednesday 8/11/10

Wordless Wednesday 8/4/10 - New Chairs??