Christmas 2009

Its been crazy busy here- the way you'd expect it to be crazy busy when you have four toddlers.

For Christmas this year we were in WV. It snowed! My parents had 20 inches of snow, and the kids had a great time sledding, making a snowman, and having snowball fights. They also made their first snow angels. For Georgia children, this was a Very. Big. Deal. I hope to upload pictures...

Christmas was lovely. Here is our family photo this year, plus two pictures of the dress I had made for Matilda. We celebrated at both my parents home, then at our house, too. The kids had a great holiday. Lucas thought the best gift was his tools. Matilda loved her baby doll things, and her barbie makeup head. Ewan loved his parrot, and Rowan loved his Buzz Lightyear robot.

When?

(will update with pictures later)

When did Lucas and Tilly become children? When did they stop being babies? I realized the other morning when I went to wake them up, that they reacted like children. Sprawling in their toddler bed, yawning, sighing, turning their backs to me to cuddle down into their blankets for another five minutes. I didn't notice it at first. They've been greeting me like this for sometime, I would imagine. I noticed it when I went into Ewan and Rowans room, and they greeted me like *babies*. Smiling in their cribs at me, jumping up and down, yelling "mommy", saying "chickie" (Ewan has bonded with a Christmas Chicken that sings). I leaned in and Rowan smoothered me with kisses/ Ewan squealed.

I stopped and contrasted this behavior. These two sets of twins are only one year apart... when did the change happen? When did Lucas and Tilly stop smiling, squealing and greeting me as if I were their most favorite person in the world? When did they stop acting like I brought sunshine into their rooms, and instead react as if I was a nuisance waking them from good dreams?

They are only a year apart, and Ewan and Rowan are still smiling. So it must have been sometime between 2 years and 3 years. How I wish I had known that last morning- for their must have been a last morning- that they wouldn't smile at me again. If I had of known that they would not smile, squeal, call out "mommy" and kiss me, how I would have treasured that last morning, how I would of held on to them a little longer, and savored how warm my heart felt. And how I miss that moment now that its gone. I can still picture them, smiling and giggling and squealing at me. It is so sad that they have stopped.

So, I took pictures of Ewan and Rowan smiling at me the other day. I'll add them soon. And every morning when I enter their room, I stop for a moment and just *sink*. Sink a little further into myself, and allow my heart to swell a little. I kiss them a little longer before letting them go, and hold them a little longer before setting them down. I treat every morning as if it might be the last morning that I will be greeted with smiles, squeals and kisses.

More from Lucas

While making his "coffee" (two tablespoons decaf coffee in 8 ounces of milk):

"I'll take mine black, please".

When he asked what I was making in the blender ("I am making you a little drinkie-poo!"):

"No poo for me, thanks".

When insisting that Daddy was mad at him:

"But he squeaked my cheeks!"

When he was hungry at the mall:

"I'm not hungry, I am SPIDERMAN hungry" ("spiderman" means "extremely" as spiderman is an extreme super human).

When we left his coat at the park:

"I will send spiderman to go get it for me".

When I found him standing on his bed after his nap (today):

"I am going to fly away. Into the sky. Tilly needs to go back to her castle".

My First Afghan

Here is my first afghan. Its the "ripple crochet" pattern made with single crochet. And here are Lucas and Tilly wrapped up in it!

Ewan and Rowan

Here are my two year old youngest twins- Rowan and Ewan.

Lucas's story

Today at Kroger, Lucas reminded me that he and Tilly each get a matchbox racing car. Ewan and Rowan aren't interested in them yet (they just want cookie samples from the bakery- Ewan screams "Want Cookie!" as soon as we pass them). With all four in the cart, we take up a good bit of room and blocked the lane. Another mother- whose child wasn't with her, was also shopping for matchbox cars.

Lucas says "I want the helicopter".
me "I don't see it".
Lucas : "Its in hand"
me: "Let me see (looks at the five cars in my hand)- No, its not in mommys hand"
Lucas "No, its in the Ladys hand"
she isn't listening...
me: "Let mommy see if she can find one for you"
Lucas "Mommy, its in the ladies hand!"
The lady walks away and Lucas begins sobbing saying "She took it! She took my helicopter!"

After going through fifty cars, I found an airplane. He didn't like it. Then, because he had a tummy virus earlier in the week and was looking particularly sad and weak, I tracked down the lady and asked her if she would mind swapping airplane for helicopter. She was fine with it. Lucas said to her "I got my helicopter back!".

So tonight we were telling Duane the story, and here is Lucas's version.

Lucas: "A lady took my helicopter"
me "what happened?"
Lucas "She put it in her hand and she took it away"
me "what did we do?"
Lucas "We went to get it back"
me "then what?"
Lucas "We took it"
me "Then what?"
Lucas: "We took it and then we ran away"
me "Then what?"
Lucas "We paid, then ran away in the car".

His version is more exciting I think.

When I was blow drying Tillys hair yesterday, I sat her on the counter in my bathroom as usual. She said "Mommy, please be careful. Mommy, I could fall and get hurt, so you should be very careful with me."

And today when Lucas wanted to lay down (he is still feeling weak from his virus) Tilly said "Mommy, Lucas went back to bed." I said "I know". She then looked at me and said "Did you tell him you loved him and kiss him goodnight?". Duane calls her "Bossy girl".

Random thoughts...

July 4th at the Lake

Here are the kids on the dock at the lake- and on the jet ski (with us!)

Duck Pond

we have fed the ducks at this pond so many times that they now recognize us and approach us "begging" for bread.

Lucas was needing a haircut (he has since had one- me, too by the way!).

Rowan and Ewan say "Ducks- quack quack" as we pull into the parking lot. Tilly says "silly ducks! They are soooo hungry!" and Lucas says "They poop everywhere. Its big. Its green. Its poop".

Public Tantrums

No matter how tempting, Hobby Lobby is not the place to re-evaluate our "anti-spanking" stance while Lucas is laying in the floor having a tantrum for twenty minutes.

Lucas had decided that tantrums are not a successful means of negotiation at this juncture, however, he reserves the right to revisit the topic at a later shopping date.

Meanwhile in continuance of the toddler humor regarding all things boogers, butts, and poopies, the other evening I told Tilly she needed to eat her broccoli and here was her reply "Feed it to my butt!". She thought this was very funny.

Here are a few pictures of the kids at a playdate we went to a couple weeks back.

Here is Ewan in the foreground.



Rowan enjoying a cupcake.



Lucas and Tilly running through the sprinkler.



All four and me on the playset.

Toddler Humor

Why do all toddlers thing boogers and poop are funny?

Last Friday Tilly said "Mommey- hey Mommy!" "I have a present for you". I went over to her and she says very slyly "Its a.... BOOGER!".

Yesterday morning when changing Lucas's diaper (we've made no progress on potty training), I said "Oh Lucas, talk about a big poop!".

Tilly says "I want to talk about poop, too!".

"Tilly, mom is talking right now- this (blah blah blah) is talking. Talking about diapers, talking about Tilly, talking about TALKING".

She looked at me and said "May I have more POOP, please?".

We've been playing "simon says" lately, and singing songs. The kids always do what I tell them, whether simon says or not. :-) Rowan and Ewan play, too. They like when Simon says "jump" or "touch your ears".

We went to the lake for Memorial day weekend. I hope to update this entry with pictures as my sister went with us. We all had such a lovely time! We hung all four of their toddler swings on the rafters of the dock, and we all sat around and chatted and then went for a boat ride with "aunt aneena" and "bicky". The kids were stuffed full of cheetos, watermelon and caprisun because aunt aneena insisted it was "lake food". :-P

Cheese!

Yesterday Tilly was helping me make Ewan and Rowan's breakfast bottles. She turned and said "Hey mommy, mommy!". "What?" "Mommy, will you help I Tilly get these pickles?".

I turned to see what she had, and she was pointing to two bottle nipples. she said "I Tilly need those pickles right there!".

Ewan and Rowan now pose for pictures and say "Cheese!". Its so cute! Right now Tilly is putting the plastic drum on Rowans head. That's how they play "robot".

Strawberry farm

We went to a local strawberry farm yesterday. The weather was perfect! Look at the rows and rows of Strawberries!



Unfortunately, we did not (yet again) capture pictures of the twins actually *picking* strawberries. Why? Because Duane spent the entire hour chasing Rowan up and down the lanes. Rowan runs as fast as he can anytime he is in a new place, with his hands thrust forward in case he falls down. He didn't slow down until Duane thrust a berry into his mouth. "Yum!" Then he settled down long enough to squish other berries in his fingers.


Ewan figured out very quickly what we were doing, and then stalked me. He kept pulling berries out of my pail to eat. Occasionally he found one in the plants, but wasn't successful in picking his own. We were glad we put a bib on him.



Lucas was much more interested in the sandbox we let them all play in before leaving. Tilly said we went to a "berry farm", Lucas said we went to "play with dump trucks". Lucas only picked very old berries from out of the sand and deposited them into my bucket (I politely thanked him, then chucked them when he turned his back to go fetch another moldy ole berry!).



Matilda had the best fun picking (and eating). She not only helped pick berries, but then was able to keep the spoils all to herself when she found a particularly pretty one!




All in all, it was a very good day. :-)

Swimming!

I guess this is a Ewan and Rowan post (sometimes they get neglected in the picture department!). Yesterday, I wanted to take all four out to play. About the only way I can manage all four alone is to put them in the quad stroller, and we do that often for a walk through the neighborhood.

But, they all love to play boats in their wading pool, and that's what we decided to do.... only Ewan and Rowan decided to climb into the pool- in their sandals and regular clothes. Rowan got drenched and got out when he decided he was cold!






Afterward, I changed their clothes and everyone took turns swinging. Here is Ewan.




Rowan was playing "Robot" this morning. Apparently his robot also ate a small little people cat.