Elizabeth is generally shy around strangers, but she is becoming more social lately. Yesterday on her date with Sean a man asked her, "What's your name little lady?" She responded, "I not a lady. I a girl." Not polite, but cute. And I'm surprised she said anything at all.

Then this morning in the grocery store she was singing and the cashier commented on it. Elizabeth gave the woman her prettiest smile and sang louder. She was making up a song about the Banana Nut Muffins we were purchasing, so that was funny too.

I usually wear a robe in the morning, but the other day I took it off before breakfast. Wil said, "Now Momma isn't Momma anymore."

Wil playing with pretend coins: "I'm going to the gas station to get some money."

11 am - It's Elizabeth's turn with the stomach virus. She's thrown up twice in the last two hours. So far she's fairly cheery about the prospect of being sick. Wil is napping. Sean is home on his day off. She's got both parents' attention. She remembered that Wil got to watch whatever videos he wanted. We needed to wash her hair after this last episode so she's playing in the bathtub right now. A big treat in the middle of the day. What a day!

Elizabeth didn't nap the past two days. The result was that by six o'clock last night she was in trouble. I put her in her crib for some time out. A couple minutes later when I checked on her she had taken off her skort and underwear. When I asked her why she did that she said, "Because it time to get ready for bed."

Later, after I'd put the twins to bed, Elizabeth took off her nightgown. She didn't have a reason but I let her sleep in a t-shirt anyway.

They've been doing a lot of role playing. Wil will be Buzz Lightyear and Elizabeth will be Woody or Princess Mira Nova. Or Wil as Max and Elizabeth as Emmy from Dragon Tales. If Wil is Peter Pan, then Elizabeth is Wendy, etc. Usually when the latter is the case I'm asked to be Mrs. Darling.

Elizabeth: "Mrs. Darling?"
Momma: "What is it, Wendy dear?"
Elizabeth: "Will you do something with me?"

Someone came to the door. Wil answered it with me. "Hi! I Buzz Lightyear."

The past two days have been exhausting, but Wil seems to be better. I started jumping up every time he coughed. Yesterday afternoon he said to me, "Momma, I need you," then gave a little cough. I snatched him up and ran to the bathroom with him. He cried, "I nee you! I dohn nee to be sick!"

Wil wanted to play with his blocks yesterday. It became apparent that I had pulled out the wrong set when he told me, "I wan the blocks that Josh build a train." Like I know which set that is!

Elizabeth was playing with one set of blocks in the living room and Wil was playing with another in their bedroom. I told Elizabeth she had to pick up her blocks before she could go play with Wil but she escaped while I was cleaning the kitchen. They were playing so nicely together that I had mercy and picked up the blocks for her. Awhile later she remembered, "Come on, Wil, leh go clean up." When she got to the living room she ecstatically exclaimed, "Momma clean up the blocks! Thank you, Momma!" It was worth it.

It's 4:15 pm and I've lost track of how many times Wil has vomitted in the last 11 hours, how many loads of laundry I've done and how many videos we've watched. I know 'Peter Pan' was on twice because Wil slept through it the first time.

Poor Wil. He threw up in his crib about 530a and came to bed with us. He didn't seem very tired, or very sick. Then he threw up again just before 7. Time to get up. He seemed better after that, watching 'Robin Hood' pretty happily. We decided it's our favorite.

Elizabeth and I had a little tiff yesterday. I told her I was going to go to the park and play Frisbee with some big boys while she took her nap. She seemed okay with that. Then, when I got the Frisbee, she said she wanted to go outside and play with it. Great. We went out. That's when I realized she thought we were going to the park. She was very distraught.

It wasn't until after I got to the park that I thought I could have taken her with me. She could have skipped her nap. Besides, none of the big boys showed up anyway (it's a semi-standing game of Ultimate). I rode my bike and played a few holes of Frisbee golf, then rode home.

So when she asked me after her nap if we could go to the park, I said sure. Christine thought I was out of my mind. And she didn't want to go. So I took Wil and Elizabeth by myself.

We did go to the park, but we didn't go to the playground. I thought it'd be fun to go down by the pedestrian bridge and the fountain. And we had a pretty good time. I showed them where I crashed my bike in november (which we talk about quite a bit, especially because of the very-visible scar on my wrist). We walked around. They ate goldfish. They really wanted to fish like the other people. I kept explaining that we didn't have poles. We played with the Frisbee a little on a patch of grass. They looked up at the flag on top of a very tall flagpole.

They were pretty crabby by the time we got home. I was, too, I guess. I hope it was worthwhile. At any rate, that's what we did.

We were watching our video of the twins after 1 year last night. My coworker, John, thought I was a genius because I could understand them. I thought it was easy...

then.

Now, I can't understand a lot of it. I sure am glad we repeated most of what they said on camera. They had 50 words at their 18 month checkup (that was on the video). Not sure I'd recognize many of them now.

About a week ago, Elizabeth and I were hanging out closely. I had just had Honey-Nut Cheerios and burped. She inhaled deeply, then said 'Daddy, you have too much Cheerios.'

This morning she said it again, but I think she was just referring to smelling my breath (French Vanilla Cappuccino), and knew I made a big deal out of it last time. I don't think she could really smell the Cheerios.

Elizabeth also tends to use 'l's in place of 'b's and 'v's, thus:

video=leelow
bicycle=like

This can also be very confusing.

Elizabeth wanted to read one of our books about Jesus tonight at bedtime. As she stumbled over his name, "Jee... Jee... Jee," this look of enlightenment came over her face. "Giji and Jesuh have the same name!"

Wil talked a lot about GranPaul and Granma Sue today. Almost first thing this morning he said, "I nee to call GranPaul." He picked up his play phone to talk to him. Their conversation included Wil asking, "What you say?" This afternoon he asked me, "Can I go to Gamma Sue house by myself?"

I put the twins to bed about 15 minutes ago. Elizabeth is still playing and singing/chanting, "Who is ready for breakfast?" Wil finally replied, "I not ready for breakfast. I need my Daddy."

Wil was sitting with me in sunday school yesterday. Elizabeth was absent, and he'd finished his doughnut, so he took a bite of hers. I said 'Isn't that Elizabeth's doughnut?'. He said 'I just take one bite.' The kids in my class laughed and Wil smiled. I said 'Those kids think you're funny.' He smiled again and declared 'I am funny.' They laughed even more.

So when we all went out to lunch, Wil tried to get their attention: 'Hey kids, I funny. Can you laugh? Hey, kids....' Sweet.

Elizabeth transposes some final consonants. Two notable ones:

bohmuh - bottom
goh - dog

That dog one will really confuse you when you're trying to break the code.

The twins are experimenting with personalization and distantiation.

Wil has taken, after hearing a story, to repeating it in the first person: 'I open window. I need sockies.' or 'We walk down road. Bad men see us. They hit us. They take our pennies.'. Cute.

Elizabeth has taken to talking about herself in third person as 'the baby', usually when refusing to do something: 'The baby no want to.' Crazy-making.

Where do they get this stuff? Preschool humans are amazing.

Josh came over last night and brought a copy of the "Meet Joe" Blue's Clues special. Elizabeth guffawed the first time Joe asked for help, but after that she warmed up to him. "Where Joe?" she asked if he wasn't on the screen. However, she still went searching for her blanket when Steve announced he was leaving. Wil sat looking very concerned all the way through Part 2, but then declared, "Joe ih my fwend." When Steve announced he was going to college, Wil decided he was going to take Larry Boy to college. The show wasn't even over before he'd put on a cap like Steve's (really a spoon from their play kitchen) and began parading up and down the hall saying, "I'm going to college." Josh and Elizabeth quickly followed suit. All in all a successful transition.