Omie was here!

As I mentioned earlier, my mom was just here for a nice visit. The week before she came, O said, "Jesus is coming and Omie is coming, but they are not coming together!"



Here she is sharing her cappuccino foam with the boys. I took N to this same coffeeshop a week later, and he said, "I am missing Omie a little bit." I got a steamed almond milk with froth to make him feel better.


The four of us got a Christmas tree that same morning at Mother Ea*rth Gardens, my favorite nursery. It was bitterly cold, but the boys don't seem to mind cold weather much this year, which has been nice.



Eating popcorn while we trim the tree. It's tied to the wall and we have mostly very inexpensive and non-glass ornaments on it this year, but it's been just fine, and after a Christmas in the hospital followed by 2 years of tabletop trees, we love having a real tree again. We even used the fireplace yesterday.



My mom showed up with some Dutch treats. My own Oma sent along a traditional Dutch apron for me and 2 traditional shirts and scarves for the boys. the boys received some very cute Sinterklaas puppets from a family friend, and J received "clog" slippers made out of foam that look just like the real thing from a short distance. Thank you, Maril*ou, Omie and Oma!



Omie also gave the boys the Christmas present from she and Opa. It was nice that they got it closer to Sinterklaas (Dutch St. Nickolas Day) so they won't be as overwhelmed with gifts then. They received two additions to their train table. I found N sleeping in bed with one of them the other day. the next night, I checked on him at about 11PM and found him sleeping inside his toy chest on top of about 10 stuffed animals.





I'm still behind on lots of things after the challenging month we had, so I'll be lucky if we get out a New Year's card this year, but I'm fairly at peace with that. I think this is our year of the simple Christmas, simple as in not spending so much, not saying yes to everything, not rushing around, and not feeling guilty about not running ourselves ragged in order to celebrate the birth of Christ. Quite honestly, so far this Advent season feels much closer to just right than it has in years.

more link love

Well, my goodness, the family and friend blogs are everywhere! My sister-in-law Jenn*fer and and her husband Dav*e have decided to join the party, and you can find the link to the right. They have some terribly cute pictures of a very smiley Zo*e on there.

My mom was just here for a nice visit with her grandsons, and when I get those pictures, I'll write more about that, but here are a few from earlier.

No*ah cutting up a banana and distributing the pieces to his and Ollie's bowls of oatmeal. He can be very precise and meticulous, and lately, a lot of transitions are difficult because of his drive to have things "just so" before he leaves. The good part is, I think he's pretty orderly by nature. Both boys are now in beds, and mostly going to bed and sleeping in them. We still have our moments, though, such as recently, when I heard O yell "I'm cold" on the monitor, and went up to find him completely naked. N can usually be found sleeping in a bed full of trains and books, and when we open the door in the morning, he's often sitting up in bed, leafing through a book with a stack beside him.


The girls are cozy in their garage coop with a heat lamp at night, and I put plastic sheeting on the run to keep out the worst of the wind and snow. They're still laying faithfully during these short days, so we should have eggs through the winter.


N dresses himself. Usually, his underpants actually end up on his bottom, and both boys are getting pretty good at dressing and undressing, but who can blame them if they get creative now and then?


O has an official asthma diagnosis and is now on a preventative medicine twice daily. The good news is that he seems more energetic in a good way. I suspect that he wasn't breathing quite as well as he could even when he wasn't exactly wheezing, because he's running better and is better able to keep up with his brother all of a sudden. We still really hope he outgrows it within a few years.


Look at him blow out that Christmas candle!


Can you tell that their back molars are coming in? I think maybe all four of Ka*thy's grandkids are teething.


More holiday pictures soon, but here the boys are very excited about the lights in the tree in the front yard.

link love

Just a quick post - Emil*y (Jo*el's sister for the few who may not know that) has decided to join the blogosphere to keep us all updated on what three-month-old Aug*ust is up to. You can find the link in the column to the right. I also linked to a few of you who read this and also have blogs. I assume from past interactions and/or comments here that this is OK, but please correct me if it isn't! I generally don't encourage linking to this blog if a blog has a readership that isn't limited to friends and family, so I get it if you have a specific preference.

Anyway, now I feel like some kind of blog matchmaker, but in a good way. I'll post again when I get some decent pics downloaded.

for the Americans

I'm still a Dutch citizen, so I can't vote in U.S. elections, but I'm very interested in politics, and I'm anxiously observing the forming of the presidential slate. I'm trying not to make this blog too much about politics and such since that isn't its purpose and I know our readers are all over the map politically.

Nonetheless, I confess that I fail to see much way to go but up at this point in time, and if you care to know which candidates support your views best, here are a couple of "candidate match" links.

Completely unrelated:

Love is:
Sitting in a toddler bed, holding your sleepy toddler son in your arms as he leans back against you and gets another nebulizer treatment for his wheezing, having him hold one of each of your hands in his smaller ones and occasionally rub it against his cheek, and knowing by the end of the treatment that a hard squeeze means he wants to hear Away In A Manger again. I'm not happy that Oli*ver needs the neb, but I could have sat there another hour, it was so peaceful and sweet.

Even more love is:
Watching your husband bring the wheezy, coughing boy downstairs and settle him half upright on the couch with him, the two of them nestled together, exhausted, because they'll both sleep better that way. Jo*el has always done "night duty" along with me, and in some ways he does it much better because he falls back to sleep so easily whereas I am up if I get up in the night. And he doesn't ever complain, he just does it. I am so completely, utterly grateful for that.

Ollie's doctors are reluctant to give him a final asthma diagnosis at this point, because some kids do still grow out of it before age 3 or 4, but it does seem like he needs breathing treatment with just about every cold now, and he often has croup as well. He'll outgrow the croup, but I wouldn't be at all surprised to spend more time in the ER this winter. At times like this, loving is painful -like your heart really is walking around outside your body, and you just want to gather your child up in your arms, squeeze him to you hard, and have that be enough. But it isn't. I know from my mother's reaction to my complicated pregnancy and my recent illness that this never really changes. I do appreciate this much more now that I've experienced it myself.

odds and ends

I’m so glad we followed this crazy idea we (OK – mostly I) had and got hens. It’s truly been a lot of fun. The girls are pretty mature by now, and done molting, so they’re big and fluffy. They’re also obviously hardy, as they haven’t seemed to think twice about hanging out in the snow. Now that there are no more bugs to eat, they are especially excited to get any kind of treats, especially carrot peelings (and yes, nearby family members, that is a hint!) and leftover noodles, which they seem to think are worms by the way they pin them down as if the “worms” were going to escape. We now get 3 or 4 beautiful eggs a day, and give about 9 or so a week to Ste*ve and Kath*y. The eggs have real flavor, and have the brightest yolks. Jo*el and I were joking that someday, the boy are going to go off to college, and when they receive scrambled eggs in the cafeteria, they’ll think, “What the heck is this?” I have a heat lamp installed for the really cold nights, and lights on a timer to get them to lay during the winter. Yesterday, I went outside to collect eggs and give the girls some fresh water, and on the way there, I sat down on the back step to tie my shoe. The ladies were out enjoying the sunshine, and within moments, I had one on my shoe and another in my lap! They’re such sweet, friendly birds. They seem to think I’m the mama chicken – kind of funny since I’m really the one that steals all their offspring. If I do yard work, they follow me everywhere, but unlike my own children, they neither whine nor argue with me.

I figured out that both boys are getting their back molar teeth. I thought they were done, but I was wrong. No*ah is complaining of a sore mouth, and they also have a lingering cough, so they’ve been quite cranky. We did have a nice trip to the zoo yesterday. We did both big indoor loops and the boys got a ton of much needed running around time. We stopped and looked at the gibbon monkeys for a long time. At one point, N said, “I’m sad, mama.” I asked him why, and he said, “Because for some reason, I don’t have a tail!” Then we went by some hog-like creature they have at the zoo, and a lady came up next to us and said to the man with her, "Holy crap! That thing is butt-ugly!" N repeated very word and she didn't even notice, but thankfully, he seems to have forgotten that fine use of the English language.

We’ve been doing the Tropical Trail loop without the stroller since the boys were about 18 months old, but back then we only did it when it wasn’t crowded at all, and we did have harness backpacks just in case. Now, we go whenever we want, and it works out fine. There are SO many twins and triplets at the zoo—they are everywhere—but always in strollers. Even older three year olds. I can’t imagine driving all the way to the zoo in a car seat, then sticking my kids in a stroller the whole time, then driving back home. My kids would go nuts – they need to move. When the boys were younger, I went and heard a child psychologist speak at my local multiples club. She said that multiples have a tendency to have behavior problems, and outlined her theories as to why this was. Multiples often live in an extremely kid-centered world, spending most of their time in a very baby-proofed house, and miss out on a lot of the basic things of everyday life, like trips to the grocery store, or to get an oil change, and the like, because their parents find it too hard. In missing out on those experiences, they also miss out on learning the resulting behavior expectations. She also said that since twins tend to lean on each other socially, they create a sort of “twin bubble” when they’re going places, which can lead to misbehavior. I can kind of see what she’s talking about there. O is actually pretty shy, but where he’d become kind of shy and compliant in new situations by himself, with his brother he’s kind of oblivious. It goes to show that inhibitions aren’t all bad – they do actually serve a purpose. The speaker suggested that one task for a parent of multiples is to try and make sure to take them to some of the same places you’d sake a singleton or two siblings of different ages, and also to help them be aware of their surroundings when they switch to new environments with different behavior expectations. For me, that means that when we go from the park outside the library to inside the library, I can’t expect it to go well when they’re laughing and chattering on the way in the door, no matter how innocent that looks, because they’ll think they’re still at the park when they get into the library. That’s the “twin bubble” – a lack of awareness of their environment, because they tune into each other instead. To make that kind of transition, I need to sit them on a step for a moment, look them in the eye, and remind them of the rules and of my expectations. It does work, and I’m glad I went to that talk, because thinking about this stuff is very helpful now. That’s also one of the reasons that I’ve always tried to be able to walk with my boys out of the stroller some of the time, even when it’s felt like a lot of nerve-wracking work. And now they can do it!

I don’t really go the multiples club meetings anymore, partly because I get a little tired of hearing how the moms can’t do this or that “because I have twins”, like potty train, let them out of their stroller, or take them to the playground or to a store. Yes, some things are harder logistically, and I’m sure I do things differently because I have twins, but I don’t want that to define me as a parent or us as a family. The thing I wish we could do more of is spend time with them individually. It’s always a choice between time together as a family of four and splitting them up, and with so little time for all of us together, family time usually wins. Next year they’ll be old enough for drop-off classes, though, and then we might have more opportunities for at least me to have some weekly one-on-one time with each boy.

Even though we had a nice time at the zoo, we did spend about a third of our zoo trip in the bathroom. N had an accident because he was scared by the automatic toilet, which flushed as soon as he sat down (so he didn’t really pee). We went back into the brand new, completely automatic-down-to-the-soap, bathroom. After we got N dressed in new pants, we spent a good half hour in there talking about how all the contraptions work, trying out first the faucet, then the soap, then the hand dryers, then checking underneath the sink to see how the bottles of soap screwed in underneath, talking about sensors and the difference between “automatic” and “manual”, and so on, until we got to the toilet, spent a few minutes talking about that, and then N went just fine. And then of course, we did the whole hand washing thing again. Next time I’m remembering the trick of bringing a post-it to put over the sensor, just in case, but at least maybe we’re past that particular fear. Then the whole rest of the time in the zoo, the boys were talking about what happened “automatically”, like the sliding doors, and the door locks when they press the key button on the key fob for our car. N was clearly still thinking about this when we got home, because then he said, “Mama takes care of us automatically.”

We had a very nice Thanksgiving, and everyone managed to eat, including Emi*ly, whose baby slept just long enough for her to finish her place, and Zo*e who ate a three course meal. It was busy, but delicious and fun. I didn’t get the greatest photos, because my camera is acting up and I need to get it fixed. It seems like every time I hear about someone getting their camera fixed it takes weeks and weeks, so I’m thinking that I might live with it through the holidays even though only about a quarter of the pictures are in focus.

Friday, Jo*el informed me that he had arranged a sitter for Saturday night so that we could go to a concert at the Fitz*gerald Theater (the one where Prairie Ho*me Compan*ion is taped). We went to a wonderful concert of Trio Mediæval, a renowned Norwegian choral trio. There were many Minnesotans in Norwegian sweaters there whose surnames probably ended in "seth". We have such a fine choral tradition here in Minnesota, so it was really neat to hear some of the folk music from which that tradition began. I think it was the second concert that Jo*el and I have been to together since the boys arrived. We used to go pretty regularly. I've never found it easy to leave the boys with a sitter, but I'm working on it.

Today both boys took a lousy nap and then got up late, so it was dark by the time we could get outside. We took a drive to see the Christmas lights in the area, which they absolutely loved. They were so excited. I'm going to put some up this year, and we're getting a tree when my mom comes. I think we'll make construction paper ornaments, though, and no presents under the tree until the night before. Age two and impulse control are relative strangers to one another, but Christmas is so much fun when you have little kids!

Here are a couple of old pictures from early October that Mea*gan e-mailed me. I can't believe how much younger O looked just 6 weeks ago!

Thanksgivings

Happy Thanksgiving to you and yours!

Today:

I am thankful for my beautiful, sweet, healthy children.

I am thankful for my and my family's relative health, and for access to medical care.

I am thankful for employment, and for the fact that our family doesn’t have all its eggs in one basket during these uncertain times.

I am thankful for relationships, chosen and unchosen.

I am thankful for people who sacrifice for the greater good, who ask difficult questions, who dare ask and fight for justice and for peace.

I am thankful for people who do the quiet, often invisible work of extending grace and mercy in this world.

I am thankful for the roof over my head, for our warm, cozy house, and for access to healthy food and clean water.

I am thankful for my husband, who has picked up a whole lot of slack around here lately without complaining, who supports me in countless ways, and who so often shows me a new way to look at things.

I am thankful that while I am at work, No*ah and Oli*ver are in his competent care, learning things from him they won’t learn from me.

I am thankful for the good and important things I have learned from difficult experiences.

I am thankful for my church, for the body of God’s people that we choose to be together, for the people who are helping us pass the peace of Christ on to our children.

I am thankful that though my family of origin is far flung, we have the resources to visit one another and keep in touch.

I am thankful that although we are all very different, we consistently find things to appreciate about one another.

I am thankful for hurts that heal, for the ability to forgive and to be forgiven.

I am thankful for God’s love, a gift of the most extravagant sort, a gift which knows no bounds.

a wonderful, terrible mess

I know I haven’t posted for a while, but it’s been a little crazy around here. A few weeks ago, I got sick with what I thought was a stomach bug, and it never left. Now, about 15 pounds lighter, I have a diagnosis, and while I’m not thrilled about this, it could be much worse, and I’m relieved to know why I’ve been feeling so lousy. My esophageal sphincter muscle is apparently on a permanent strike, and I may need a proton pump inhibitor (like Prili*sec) for the rest of my life to deal with the resulting acid refl*ux and prevent serious damage to my esophagus and stomach, but it could be worse. I'm feeling better already with the new medication and I'm just so relieved to know what it is. Anyway, we’re fine, I’m fine, but it’s been a tough stretch of stumbling through the day, and being patient with my active boys has been a challenge. Jo*el has taken on a lot of my usual responsibilities, and he’s been wonderful. I am so fortunate to have such a capable and involved partner in raising these children. Thanksgiving is around the corner, and I’m sure I’ll gain the weight back in no time.

But enough about that – I know you all don’t read this blog to read about my esophagus. We re-arranged our living room a bit last week, because we got a new couch. Our last couch cost $25 at a garage sale! It certainly had served its purpose. This one is a whole lot nicer, but slip covered in denim, because we do have two toddlers living in this house.

We also took most of the boys’ books out of the canvas bins they’ve been in for a couple of years.

No*ah was very impressed by the new bookcase, and after spending a long time looking sideways at all the titles, he said, “We have a lot of books for No*ah”. He seems to have quite a few interior decorating opinions, actually; last week he said, “This is a nice living room for our family!” He spends a lot of time taking books in and out and commenting on them.

In general, life inside the house with these two is very high maintenance lately, and I haven't had the proper energy to go places and wear them out. They have so much boisterous energy these days —both Jo*el and I confess to being overwhelmed sometimes by the whining, tantrums, crayon-breaking, play dough on the couch and down the heating grate, overturned full potty seats, highlighter all over the rug, stickers on the window, screaming over a broken cracker or a lost bunny, climbing upon or swiping things off the counters, trying to order mama or daddy around (unsuccessfully – everyone must ask nicely if they want something around here!), and defiance. I think (hope!) this is the height of what they call “the Terrible Two’s”, which are also Terrific, depending on both the day and the minute. Terrific in that they have so many wonderful words, they try so hard to learn how to do everything, and I know they are learning to be polite, and respectful, and patient and all the other things we are trying hard to teach them. They’re affectionate and charming. They’re mostly a joy to take places, and very good with other kids. They’re starting to say “please” and “thank you” without being reminded all the time, and sometimes they’re so sweet with each other it kills me. “Excuse me, please, Brother” “OK, Brother” “Wanna twade dat wif me?” “OK, Brother” “Tanks!” And then a minute later, somebody whacks somebody in a fit of frustration, and it’s all “Waaaaaaaah!” from both of them. Or because I decided that running with a screwdriver in your hand or dumping cups of water down the laundry chute wasn’t a good idea. Aren’t I mean? It's not really that they act all that terrible; it's that making sure they don't is one heck of a lot of work even when everything else is going smoothly.

This week has been much better than last week, actually, and I think it’s mostly because we’ve been running them ragged. Yesterday, Jo*el took the boys to the Children’s Museum in the morning, and met Auntie Emi*ly and cousin Aug*ust there. Today, Jo*el walked all the way to the park with them without the stroller. Unfortunately, when he got there, the bathrooms were locked, so both boys had an accident, and it was too cold to change their clothes outside, so he had to carry them home. Next time, I think he’d better let them water a tree.

It’s going to be a long winter, but thank goodness we don’t have to spend it potty training. They’re not perfect, and we still mostly use diapers for naps and at night, but they do their thing pretty well, and more and more independently. I often turn the corner from the kitchen and find that somebody’s about to go or just went. We don’t need to leave the house in diapers anymore. On the other hand, that means that I now have to spend some time in public bathrooms. Evidence that your kids are listening even when you think they’re not: They play “Public Bathroom” at home and say things like this to each other: “Hands on your head! Hands on your head! Doooon’t touch the box on the wall, that’s verrrrrry yucky!” We have a potty with a lid that works quite well in the back of the car (hi there, Target shopping cart guy!), but it’s getting a little chilly for that.

Grandpa St*eve came over on Sunday to spend some time with us, and as you can see, all the “men” got caught up on their reading.

Before that, Auntie Je*n and Zo*e were over too, and she helped the boys make blueberry muffins while Grandpa and I held Zo*e.

I think Ol*iver may have gotten "baking" mixed up with "crafts".

I think Zo*e got an extra chin! I've babysat a couple of times recently (we 2 couples are trying to trade off date nights) and she and I have had a nice time getting to know each other better.

Both boys have had to deal with some sad news: Auntie Me*agan is moving to her own apartment on December 1^st. We’ll miss her, but she’ll come by to visit, and she won’t be far away. She’ll be right by the Glob*al Mar*ket, which is one of their favorite places, so I’m sure we’ll meet there for dinner sometimes. Plus, we have to get her some eggs.

On Thursday, we all get to be one big, wonderful mess of grandparents, tired parents, and little kids for Thanksgiving at St*eve and Kath*y’s.

Also, we just got the great news that my mom is coming in early December instead of January. I knew she couldn’t hold out that long. Watch where you put your shoes, Omie – they’ll probably end up down the laundry chute!

oops...

I know I usually just quote the boys, but today I can't help myself. Today, Stev*e was kind enough to come and help Jo*el move out the couch that we're getting rid of, and when he came through the door, Jo*el was folding laundry.

Ste*ve: "I used to know how to do those kinds of things, back before I got married."

Jo*el: "I didn't know how to do any of this stuff until I got married!"

I wonder what the boys will say someday?
_________________

Let's get something out of the way here. I've been a little hesitant to post this because I was afraid I'd give my parents a heart attack, but now that over a month has gone by, here's what I did on the way to work one Monday morning. Oops. I rear-ended someone as I was switching lanes. I didn't see that he was stopping because he had both brake lights out. it's amazing what you can do to your car at less than 20 MPH. It was still my fault, but the other driver got a ticket too. I had a sore neck for a few weeks, but some massage helped a lot, and I'm fine now.

The boys have only just this week or so stopped saying "mama bwoke da car!" I must have heard it about 1,000 times, and then when we got our "new" car, it changed to "mama, don't bwake dis car!"

Our car was totaled, and the insurance company was more than fair in the settlement, so we put a little more money in and got a newer station wagon, aptly called a "Focus". I now not only have chickens like my Dutch Oma (grandmother), but I drive the same year of the same car. Oma, I am not taking up bridge or golf!

Our car seats were replaced too, even though the boys weren't in the car, and we got booster seats since the boys are well over 25 pounds. They are quite proud of them.

The seats even have little reading lights, which may just come in handy since it's now getting dark at about 4:30. We are quickly entering the long, dark days of winter, though we've just had a nice stretch of sunny days. Good thing the boys are starting to like crafts so much, because we need lots of indoor things to do. I think we'll join the Y for the winter again, since I can now easily take the boys there on my own.


Oliv*r's switch to a bed has been, well, interesting. The first few days were quite challenging. No naps, lots of banging around, yelling, and giggling. He didn't even try to come downstairs, but he did try to climb the safety bars on the window like a ladder, move his bed to the other side of the room, and jump off the bookcase. Jo*el and I have been listening to him carefully on the monitor and wordlessly putting him right back in bed every time he gets out, as well as talking about our expectations. After many, many trips up the stairs, we are making progress. He's going to sleep about an hour after the lights go out, and he's napping again, as you can see. Thank goodness, because he's a mess when he doesn't nap. This is one of the harder transitions we've made, and I for one will be so very happy when they just stay in their beds and go to sleep at night.



This is from bedtime this evening:



No*ah trying to make Oli*ver love his bunny. It just never quite works out the way he wants it to.


Oliv*er saying "I don't want dis, mama!"


Trying to make it up to his brother.


Oh, and "Lazy Susan" finally laid an egg! I guess my complaining about her on the internet must've done the trick. She lays blue/green eggs, as expected. All the eggs are about the size of supermarket "large" now except Marcy's which are kind of tiny. Tonight, when I was talking to the boys about Susan's blue egg, No*ah said, "We feed Susan blue scratch and blueberries and the other chickens eat compost!" Not true, but an interesting thought.

Left to right: Clara, Fanny, Susan, Marcy

Greeting to all my Dutch family members and my mother as they celebrate my grandmother's birthday today.

nobody here but us chickens!

bok, bok, bok, booooook!



Yes, the boys were chickens for Halloween! We had the cousins, their mamas, and Grandma and Grandpa over for lasagna (unless you were Zo*e, in which case you got squash). We took the boys over to some of the neighbors, and J and I offered our backyard eggs to some of the neighbors who signed our special chicken-keeping permit this past spring. The neighbors seemed to like that, and got a kick out of our little chickens. It's not really clear if the boys were hens or roosters, but based on all the talk about egg-laying that's been going on around here, I think hens. No*ah said, "I am Clara, and Ollie is Marcy!" This morning at the park, Ollie made a little nest out of a pile of leaves and pretended to lay an egg in it. In most families, that might be considered odd behavior, but not ours! Three out of 4 hens are laying now, all except for that useless escape artist Susan. That girl had better start earning her keep. Most days we now get three eggs -about enough for Grandma & Grandpa, us, and Auntie Me*gan.


I've already eaten all their Milk Duds, and I think Daddy made quick work of the Kit Kats. Very handy, this sending the kids to the neighbors to beg for candy....




Ollie got a "big boy bed" today, and is sleeping in it as I write. No*ah was kind of jealous, but seeing as he won't even let me leave his crib tent open, I think we'll let Ollie go first with this one.



They look so cute, but I'm almost certain they'd still be yelling and jumping at 10 PM if they were let loose together at night right now. That's what was happening even while tented in before we separated them. When they're a bit more mature, we'll probably have them both together upstairs.

We've had a pumpkin shortage in the Midwest this year, so I made sure to get a nice big one early in the season. The blasted squirrels had it for lunch, the *&$% tree rats. Ollie and I went to our local garden center to get another, and I told him he could pick it out. I was a little concerned that he'd pick a really lumpy or crooked one, but he looked at all of them for the longest time. He finally picked a perfect beauty - I was so proud of him for considering his options so carefully. Not wanting to make the same mistake twice, I put that pumpkin just inside the front door until closer to Halloween. A week later, someone pointed out a funny smell, and I picked it up to find that the back had rotted completely. Today, I tried three places, and all were entirely out of pumpkins. The garden center lady said that they're so hard to get that people are stealing them from each other's steps.

I did have some tiny pumpkins left over from the church party we had at our house, and I made tiny Jack-O-Lanterns. Grandma helped the boys make pipe-cleaner "hair".

They seemed to enjoy that, and I was so relieved, because we'd been talking about making a Jack-O-Lantern all week. Whew. Remembering and anticipation are a huge part of their lives all of a sudden - which is a lot of fun, and also complicated. At least we can still eat most of their candy, since they can't count much past ten. Happy Halloween!

chatterboxes

A little story from Oli*ver yesterday:
“I’m gonna dwive dat big twuck all da way to Omie’s house at da big wed bahn, an den I’m gonna pull my bicycle out da back and give it to Omie and den I will dwive my motah-cycle and Omie will have to ride that bicycle very, very fast to come with me! An den we will have pizza and fwench fwies wif mayonnaise! An den I will ride my motah-cycle and No*ah will ride Opa’s twactor, and we will have a race! I will be first. Hooway!”

N watching O fall into the flower bed: “Ollie, watch out for those marigolds!” (we've been having a lot of talks about the difference between ordering and asking...)
O: Those are not marigolds! Those are zinnias! Those are marigolds. And these are morning glories! (He got them all right.)

O amazes me with his eye for detail and ability to remember proper names of things. He knows several birds by call and/or sight, many herbs and plants and as you can see, flowers. He’s very interested in know what comes from what – milk comes from the “uddas” of cows, but somehow, so does butter, cheese and yogurt. That’s all a bit confusing to him, I think, but he gets the general idea. He’s really excited by books that explain things like this – Pancakes, Pancakes! by Eric Carle is a bit hit, as it explains all the things that go into a pancake and where they come from, as are books about nature. O can tell you that the farmer milks the cow, the milk goes into a pail, the pail goes into a tank, the tank gets emptied into a tanker truck, the truck goes to a factory, the milk goes into the cartons there, and then the cartons go to the store and then we buy them “wif da money” and bring them home. Pretty cool. It's amazing what he'll tell you when he can get a word in edgewise, as his brother talks so much faster he often doesn't get to finish his thoughts.

Neither boy has had a single licensed character obsession yet, even though they do read Sesame Street. Thomas, Peter Rabbit and Curious George books and like them a lot, though they don’t watch any TV. They’re just not obsessed with a particular character, though all their peers seem to be. For the moment, real life is still plenty exciting enough. I guess.*
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N, giving me a very serious look after I politely moved his bunny aside so I could set my plate in front of me to eat:
“Mama. Please don’t bother my bunny.”

N, upon watching me get dressed in the morning: “Mama is putting on her nipple suit!”

What if Vict*ria’s Secret started calling them that? Do you think they would sell well?

A week ago, I took the boys to get their haircut, to the library, and then to eat at Chip*tle. It’s times like these that I realize how many milestones we’ve hit lately. Getting a haircut was no big deal at all – each boy just crayoned while waiting his turn or waiting on his brother. Afterwards, we made a potty trip, and walked back out to the car. No strollers, no diapers, no diaper bag. At the library, we had to, ahem, pay for a lost board book, and the boys waited in line with me for 15 whole minutes. They sat on the carpet and played with stickers and a piece of paper and then flipped through their new books. They were quiet as church mice. Even a couple of months ago, waiting in line with the two of them for that long would have been all but impossible without the stroller. (I recently read that some local suburban libraries are banning double strollers. Good thing they haven’t tried that here, because we basically wouldn’t have ever gone. The only place that ever wouldn't let me in was the post office- and they actually said something about 9/11! It's a good thing that we now know how to prevent terrorism.) Another milestone on this library trip was the fact that we had an armload full of books, and only a single one was a board book. The rest were all picture books with real stories, in much better shape and in much greater variety than the beat up board books we’ve mostly brought home until now.

N said “We need to leave some for the other children! They might want some too! The library is a sharing place!” What a wonderful tings libraries are - can you imagine if someone just invented them now? I wouldn't be surprised if people would think it was a pie-in-the-sky idea, that it would probably never work.

One of the books we brought home was a Halloween book, which turned out to be much scarier than I’d thought it would be at first glance. That night, about a third of the way into it (with some on-the-fly editing from me already), N flipped the book shut, set it aside, and said “That one’s all done!” Oops. We're dealing with a lot more fears lately - talk of monsters, and "scawy things", and O in particular is terrified of the Lowry Tunnel, of all things.

A little reader participation question – (and you can’t answer this if you already know from Grandma or me). What are the boys going to be for Halloween? Take a wild guess and leave it in the comments below. Hint: they’ll be the same thing, and it is something found in real life.

*Just this very minute, Jo*el informed me that No*ah has been talking all about Mme. Clavel from the Madeline books. Isn't that a little eccentric?


More cwaffs.