Correction

Of course, the day after my last post, J Frog decided to start crawling properly instead of commando style. It was as if after 4 months of the belly slide he decided it wasn't cutting it anymore. Who knows what propels a kid to change after so much time... Anyways, he's almost as fast as Missy now which makes for really fun games of chase. He crawls after her and tries to bite her as she squeals and crawls away. They really make each other laugh now. She, on the other hand, is getting close to walking. She uses the toy walker we bought for LR that he never used as a walker. She loves it and just needs to learn how to turn it. For now, she goes as far across the room as she can and then turns to smile and collect accolades.

Yes, They Can Can Can!

LR

1. can swear! He said, "oh dammit" to me the other day. I explained we don't use those words to which he countered, "why?" "Um, well... dammit, I can't think of a reason." :)
2. can spell his name. He surprised me with that the other day. Maybe they're working on it in school...
3. can have an entire play date without any screaming, fighting, or tears!
4. has started using phrases like "it's not fair," and "that's not funny, Daddy." Ah preschool.
   

Missy

1. can pull herself up to a standing position and then let go with one hand, sometimes even both. She'll hover for a moment before sitting down. She practices standing by herself a couple of times each day now.
   
2. makes a break for the bathroom every time someone opens the door. She loves playing with swinging doors.
3. dances whenever she hears music by bouncing up and down.
4. waves both arms when she's happy.
5. can climb up the entire staircase on her own. (Don't worry, Daddy was behind her the whole way.)
   

J Frog

1. always gets his fingers pinched or smashed by siblings or toys.
2. follows every bite of food with a couple of fingers or his whole fist, making all mealtimes incredible messes.
3. can get his knees under him when crawling now, but for any distances, he reverts to commando crawling.
4. can go to anyone. As long as someone is cuddling him, he doesn't mind who it is.
5. can pull himself up, but sometimes gets stuck standing and doesn't know how to get back down. (We went through this a month ago with Missy. Here we go again.)
   

Parenting Styles

Clearly Daddy and I have different parenting styles, but never was it more clear than the other night during bath time. Because the babies tend to bathe right after dinner, I'm usually the one to give them their bath. Even if Daddy is home, he's occupied by LR who by that time of day is frantic for a dedicated playmate.

Well, the other night, Daddy was giving them a bath while I tried to sort out the growing problem of keeping the babies clothes organized. (It's not a real problem until I send Daddy up to get them clothes and he comes down with wrong sizes or clothes for the wrong season.) While sorting I heard some screaming, so I went in to check. I think I asked nicely, but it probably sounded something like, "what the hell?" (That is nicely at the end of our days.) Daddy explained that he had been conducting an experiment where he had them fight over a washcloth, thus the intermittent screaming.

"Why not give them each a washcloth," I exclaimed. See, I give them each a clean washcloth for them to chew on / suck the water out of. Everyone's happy. No screaming. But Daddy thinks that the twins are for his entertainment and he's got a ring-side seat. He said that Missy yelled every time J Frog took the washcloth and after a couple of times, she would turn to look at Daddy and yell at him as if to say, "will you please do something about this hooligan?"

Fascinating, Daddy.

Twin Toys!

I never use those IM shortcuts. I'm an ex-English teacher and when I IM, I feel embarrassed if I use "LOL," "TTYL," or, god forbid, "UR" instead of "your" or "you are." So, I'm old. It probably has nothing to do with the English teacher bit. That being said, OMG OMG OMG, take a look at this:
Can you believe they make a twin trike? It's awesome! As soon as they are beyond the hair pulling stage, I am putting them on this thing, running a rope from the handlebar to LR's waist, and letting him drag them all over the house. I happened upon a list that another mother of twins posted on her blog. It's a huge list of quality kids toys and I was just skimming it when I saw the word "twins." I clicked on the link and the clouds parted over my monitor. A bright ray of light emerged as I realized that there might be twin specific toys out there. Now I'm on the hunt. Will keep you posted on what I find!

Sick sick sick (and sick)

The night after Halloween LR came down with a nasty bug. The fever lasted 2 days and the runny nose, scratchy throat, and cough are still there. Then Missy caught it which wasn't a surprise since she's his favorite. I think he prefers her because she interacts with him more than J Frog does, but Abra also seems to prefer her which may be instigating the lopsided attention he gives her. She loves to laugh and LR loves making her laugh. Daddy compensates by lavishing attention on J Frog. (I'm hesitant to write about this for fear that J Frog will read it some day and think he wasn't loved as much. Not so. LR just doesn't like that J Frog is always after his Hotwheels.) So, as I said, no surprise that she got it next. Once her fever stopped, J Frog's started. Daddy's started at about that time as well. Daddy seems to have gotten it worst of all. He took off Thu. and Fri. from work and for those of you who know him, that's a pretty big deal. He's not getting much time to recover at night either since the kids have been up and down a lot.

Speaking of preferences, the babies have started getting really irritated if I pick up one and not the other. I will nurse one while Abra holds the other one who is typically starting at me and screaming/crying. She tries to distract them or take them to another room, but if they're tired, forget about it. So I nurse one and feel guilty about the other one. Or hold one and feel guilty. Or play with one and feel guilty. Anyone want to start counting days until I crash and burn?

In other news, Abra has decided to spend her second year in the US with another family. The looming winter has sent her in search of warmer waters. We have started our search for a new au pair and as painful as it will be to lose Abra, we're looking forward to finding another person with which to share our hell joy.

Halloween '08

Halloween this year took lots of preparation. First Abra and Daddy found costumes for the babies at the Mother of Twins sale in Sept. They found matching pumpkin costumes, but decided not to go the matchy-matchy route. I thought that was a good decision. Then LR and I practiced the door routine for 2 weeks prior to Halloween. I would put him in the garage, have him knock on the door with pumpkin bucket in hand and say "Trick or Treat" when I opened the door. At one point I said, "say, 'trick or treat, smell my feet, give me something good to eat.'" He looked at me sternly and said, "that's not nice." And there you have it - spontaneous moral judgements. Hooray... not only can I feel like a bad mom, he can tell me when I'm being one. Coolio.

So, the day of, I had LR try on all the costumes available to him. My clown costume from when I was his age. His elephant costume from last year. And finally the fireman costume I picked out over the summer - it was a raincoat from Costco which he needed anyway, but doubled as a costume really nicely! Red pants, black shirt, rubber boots and we were ready to go. Well, with child #1.

The babies got baths before we put them in costume so that they could go right to bed when we got home. Abra was intent on being a witch and was really curious about the holiday. She came with us as with toured the neighborhood and helped coach LR at the doors. All that practicing was for naught. Every time someone came to the door with a heaping bowl of candy, his eyes opened wide and he lost the power of speech, struck dumb by the sheer volume of sugar. We would all stand there saying, "what do you say? what do you say?" and eventually, LR would recover and squeak out, "trick or treat," sometimes before sometimes after grabbing a candy bar. Then we'd have to remind him to say thank you. He was also really interested in the other kids out and about and insisted that crowded doorsteps were "parties." I can see how it would look that way.

LR was a little disappointed in only getting 1 piece of candy when we got home. To be honest, I was too - gorging on candy is definitely a favorite Halloween memory, but I guess when he's older.


Getting J Frog ready







Getting Missy ready









Babies are ready to go!












LR standing in the kitchen waiting for the rest of us to get our act together.











We made it out the door! We're standing in our yard, cracking our glow sticks, and posing for one last picture.






Ohhhhh ahhhh.... glow sticks!







LR trick or treating







Back home with his loot. Making a face because I'm making him pose for another damn picture.







The day before Halloween making spider cupcakes with Cheerio eyes. Pretty fun.






Too small elephant costume, but fun to run around in for a little while.











LR with a little bit of self-applied face paint wearing the clown costume Grandma W made for SwingDaddy and I when we were little.

Little Rugger In Training

I took LR to the last 2 rugby practices. He wanted to join in all their activities and they were more than grateful for the distraction. He jumped right in to the stretching at the beginning of practice. They instructed him on how to touch his toes. After trying for a while he announced, "my legs are too short" which made everyone laugh. I had more than one player come up to tell me how cute he was and how well spoken. Sometimes I forget how nice it is to have a kid with strong verbal skills. His favorite word game now is to match words that he thinks sound alike. Last night I served spinach. He said, "spinach, like 'spin.'" And then he said, "spinach, like 'itch.'" Right. spin + itch = spinach. Makes sense.

At the second practice he came to, he hoped into the end of the line of rookies marching for initiation. He was like the smallest elephant in the line in The Jungle Book. He mimicked everything they did. It was adorable. They couldn't get enough and I hope next year he can come with me to more practices. You can't tell from the pictures, but he's wearing a large sweatshirt from Gigi which says, "Rugger in training." The team really appreciated that and were more than willing to practice lifting him in a line and throw a ball with him. While we sat in a circle discussing the history of initiation, he tackled everyone by running into them and pushing them over. Cute at practice. Not cute with the babies. Let's hope he can make the distinction.

9 Month Checkup

Check out her shiner! This picture was taken about 3 days after the initial injury, so it was already fairly well healed. The black eye was terribly cute.

The babies had their 9 month checkup last week. Missy is 19 lbs. 9 oz. while J Frog is 18 lbs. 13 oz. She is 27.75 and he is 28.5 inches. They both got flu shots, but recovered fast thanks to each having a cookie to gnaw on. They were supposed to get the lead and hemoglobin tests done, but there was an emergency in the office and the nurse who was supposed to draw their blood was occupied. Eventually we had to leave to pick up LR from preschool. I'm debating whether or not to go back to get those done. We live in a house that is 10 years old and I know they're getting enough iron in their diet. Is it worth the finger stick? Probably, but it's so much tougher to get twins geared up to go anywhere that I'm reluctant to do it.

J Frog has started to pull up. He typically finds Missy and drags himself up right next to her. Unfortunately, he's even more unstable than when Missy started pulling herself up, so he's falling over a lot. The best is when they stand on opposite sides of LR's learning tower and play peek-a-boo. They seem to be much more entertained by each other now... in the bath, while playing, during meal times. I have some adorable video of them laughing at each other while standing at the tower. I'll try to get that movie up soon.