One of the best things we did this Easter weekend was borrow some wooden figures from our church to act out the Easter story. The twins love telling and retelling Jesus's entrance into Jerusalem on Palm Sunday, His Last Supper with his friends, praying in the Garden of Gethsemane, even dying on a cross and being buried. From one of our Bible stories books, Wil quotes, "Some bad men didn't like Jesus. They put Him on a cross and He died. What a sad day." More than anything Elizabeth's favorite story is when Jesus appears to Mary after His Resurrection. She acts it out without our help and always ends it with Mary saying to Jesus, "I love you too."

Wil entertained the neighbors this evening with his rendition of "Good Morning George," a VeggieTales tune, while sitting on top of a giant Easter egg. Then he repaid their attention by chasing their dog. Both he and Elizabeth are nervous around barking, jumping dogs, but they like getting licked by them.

Elizabeth pedaled her tricycle by herself this evening! She enjoyed it so much and was so proud of herself. I am very proud too.

Two of the things in Elizabeth's Easter basket were a small watering can and a Disney Princess mirror. It's too difficult to transcribe exactly what she said, but the gist of it was that she wanted to take her mirror outside to watch herself watering the flowers. We let her do it and the pictures should be quite amusing.

This morning the twins are playing "good fairies" from Sleeping Beauty. In addition to baking a cake and cleaning, they get to argue "Make it pink," "Make it blue!" It's similar to the "Is not," "Is too" argument they like to reenact from Dragon Tales. When one of them says the first line, the other cannot resist responding.

Josh was over here playing tonight and something upset him. He started crying. Then Wil started crying. I tried to get the story out of Wil. "Can you tell me what happened?" I asked. Still crying Wil said, "Josh cry at me."

Last week we were watching Disney's Sleeping Beauty and Wil said, "A pox on the mean dragon!" Later he was playing and he said, "I hitting the mean dragon wih my sword!"

Elizabeth had some great questions tonight about Jesus like "Where is Jesus now?" and "What's His Daddy's name?" But the best was when she said, "I wan to see Jee-suh." When we read that He is coming back someday, she said, "Yea!"

We're reading stories about Easter this week. I thought Wil wasn't paying attention tonight. Then he put Larry Boy "behind the stone."

After baths I wanted to comb Wil's hair. We have this baby comb that Wil pretends is the Rumor Weed. He didn't want me to comb his hair with it. "No, not the weed. The other comb," he said. I said, "Let's pretend this is the other comb." He agreed.

Yesterday when Sean was coloring a picture of Dizzy from Bob the Builder for Elizabeth, Elizabeth insisted that Dizzy's wheels were orange not black. They looked at a picture we have and Dizzy's wheels are black. Elizabeth said, "Well, I think on the lee-lo (video) they are orange."

Elizabeth's imaginary kitty reappeared at bathtime. Kitty has a name now: Dinah. We learned this after Wil threw Dinah out of the bathtub.

We were talking about brothers and sisters today. For example, "Cousin Tyler's brother is going to be called Zachary." Elizabeth said "Hannah's brother too." Hannah is a little friend from church. Smart girl. "Who is your brother?" I asked her. Then Wil, of course, wanted me to ask him who his sister is. Then he asked me, "Who your sister, Momma?" Elizabeth answered, "Baby Tyler's momma." Who is Daddy's sister? "An-Eh-Eh" Who are Daddy's brothers? "Ky-Ky, Co-Ree." Then Elizabeth was stumped. "Uncle Ryan," Wil said. "And anuh-nuh Ryan," said Elizabeth. She means Ryan Myers.

While Sean's parents were visiting, we went shopping. Granma Sue was looking for a dress. Elizabeth wanted to look for a dress for Laylee too. We made a quick stop at Old Navy too so Granma could get some Spring clothes for the twins. I showed a pair of pink shorts to Elizabeth and she exclaimed, "For Laylee!"

Sean: Great play by Chris Duhon, the pride of Slidell. 'I'm going to Slidell for to find my joy. You took my joy and I want it back.'
Wil: I didn't take your joy.

Wil and Elizabeth preached their first sermons last night to an audience of four including Laylee. Wil's was about Jonah - very dramatic. Elizabeth's was about Baby Jesus in the Manger and was accompanied by "Away in the Manger," first and third verses.

Wil is watching 'Robin Hood' again. He loves it. I'm in the study and he just came in and gave me an update 'The Sheriff of Nottingham's on, Daddy.'

As Christine noted yesterday, his favorite line in the whole movie is 'Death to tyrants!'

Guess he's kind of like his old man. I started watching the Disney 'Robin Hood' when I was 12 or so (when we got our first VCR) and have been a fan ever since. It still makes me laugh to this day.

'Crash!' Wil says in the other room. 'It gon be ok.'

Lady Cluck starts running and Wil runs up and down the hall twice.

'Daddy, stand up. Stand up and play swords.'

'They dancing Lih-beh. Are you so happy?'

The last time we watched Robin Hood, Elizabeth asked, "What Maid Marian being?"
"A bride like Momma," Sean told her. (We looked at our wedding picture the night before.)
"And like me?" Elizabeth asked.
"Are you a bride?" Sean asked her.
"Not today. But someday I be a bride," she said.

Wil likes Robin Hood. His friend Joshua is partial to Star Wars. It makes for interesting play. Last night when we told Wil that Josh was coming over Wil gleefully said, "Josh play hit wih me!" Josh went for their sticks soon after arriving. "I have the green lightsaber and Wil have the blue," he told his mom. Wil came back with "Death to tyrants!"

We played outside before naptime and, as usual, Elizabeth wanted Laylee to come too. However, she didn't want Laylee to go out in her pajamas because they might get dirty. I explained that we didn't have any other clothes for Laylee. Elizabeth said, "Momma, ih okay, we can share." So she took Laylee to another doll and had Laylee ask, "Can I wear tha? Okay? Okay." And the other doll got stripped to provide a blue dress for Laylee. "Momma, we share!"

Elizabeth is getting to be able to use the potty very well. I might be most proud of her ability to follow her guide for how much toilet paper to use (a four sheet long graphic that hangs from the roll).

It seems a little strange to be proud of such a thing, but it isn't objectively strange, and I keep feeling it, so I'm sticking with it. If you're proud of your kids, best not to explain it away.

Elizabeth and Wil spent most of yesterday morning taking Laylee and LarryBoy to the potty. I'm taking this as a good sign since Wil has been very resistant to my suggestions that he learn to use the potty. "I pee in the potty for pretend," he said yesterday, which is an improvement from "No! I dohn wan to pee in the potty!"

Elizabeth has also been very particular about Laylee's cleanliness. Laylee wasn't allowed to sleep in Elizabeth's crib after our trip to the zoo because Laylee's pajamas were, in Elizabeth's estimation and objectively, too dirty. We have since washed them, and Laylee as well, so she's back in the crib.

No one showed up for playgroup, so we went to the zoo. It was great. Maybe the best visit ever. (I'll warn you now, this is going to be a long report. There are a couple of entertaining quotes, but mostly I just want a record of our visit. The zoo is possibly my favorite thing about living in Tulsa.)

We spent a long time watching the chimpanzees. They'd just been given "enrichment toys" that they had to shake to get food out of. The toys are suppose to simulate activities the animals would perform in the wild. The twins loved watching. One chimp came right up to us to show us what he found. Wil kept saying, "Wha you eat, monkey?" Then the chimp would point at us like he was mimicing people pointing at him. Elizabeth said, "He play game wih me." and "Tha monkey like Laylee."

We also went on a search for a peacock. On our last visit we crossed over a bridge and ran right into one, so Wil wanted to do that again. I was about to give up when Wil found one sitting under a bush. For some reason they decided the peacock was sad and wanted his momma. The llamas were in a pen across from us which solved the peacock's dilemma. "There your momma. There your daddy," they told the peacock.

The twins were thrilled with the baby dwarf goats and baby sheep at the Petting Zoo. But they considered pumping water from the well an even bigger treat. Usually there are too many bigger kids pushing each other for a turn.

We saw a lot of our usual favorites, too, like the tiger, lions, sealions, flamingos, giraffes and elephants. The brown bear and black bears were also out and active. But the best was the cheetah running alongside the train as we passed. We'd never seen that before.

Everyone stayed in a good mood and as we were getting ready to leave Elizabeth said to me, "I luh you Momma." "I love you, too, Elizabeth."

On the way to playgroup this morning, the twins were chattering away in the backseat. Then they both start saying, "Momma, Elihbeh tole a joke." "What's the joke?" I asked. Elizabeth started explaining, but they both burst into giggles so soon that I never understood what she was saying. Something about Larry Boy. When Elizabeth tells a joke, she puts her hand over her mouth and nods her head. It looks like a pantomime but I think it's for real. Very cute.

Yesterday Sean was singing, "It's been a long time since I rock 'n rolled...." With authority Elizabeth said, "Tha from Ses-mee Stree, Daddy."

Time to defend myself.

I thought Wil was saying 'Larry Boy is going to take out the Fib!'. As far as I knew, it was on the video. If that's not what he was saying, it was an honest mistake. Christine accused me of polluting him with my questionable euphemisms. In this case, it was an accident.

"Larry Boy ih going to tay ow the Fib!" Who said that?

One of the twins' favorite videos right now is Rolie Polie Olie, especially an episode where they go to an ice cream planet. Today Elizabeth wanted to read a book about the ice cream planet. I explained that we didn't have a book like that. She said, "When we geh home I will wry a leh-ler to Giji and she will make me a book a-bow the ie keem pla-neh and a lee-lo (video) wih Dora." When we got home the first thing she did was get out paper and pencil to write a letter to my mom.

Wil made a drinking fountain out of his workbench and xylophone. You've got to see it to believe it, but trust me it's amazing. He even thought to hook it up to a water source.

In the store yesterday -
Elizabeth: Tubby-tubbies! (Teletubbies.) Can we ha them?
Momma: No. You know Daddy doesn't like Teletubbies.
Elizabeth, defiantly: We wah Tubby-tubbies at Gamma Sue how.

Elizabeth didn't take a nap yesterday, and actually did pretty well with it. When she hadn't fallen asleep by 430, having gone down around 3, I went to get her up. Christine and I were previewing Disney's new repackage 'American Legends' to make sure it was appropriate for preschoolers (which it was). First think she said was 'Daddy, what you watch?' Those kids have xray ears for videos.