So, while we're out of town for a week, there will be little or no posting here. But we'll try to keep track of notable vacation incidents.

See that last post about 'Oliver'? My brother Ryan's middle name is Oliver. He and his wife had a son last night and named him Oliver James. We're leaving tomorrow to fly out to visit them. Elizabeth thinks Oliver is a funny name for a baby. Uncle Ryan's going to have some 'splaining to do.

Wil is busy these days reenacting scenes from "Oliver and Company." He told everyone at church yesterday, "I a orange kitty named Oliver." (Elizabeth pronounces it, "Ah-ber.") Mostly this means Wil wants to pounce on Elizabeth, lick her, and climb on everything.

Both twins like to tell "remember when" stories. The memory might be an hour old or six months or something they just came up with. Last night as I was putting Elizabeth to bed she said, "Remember when I was sleeping on my mattress and I cried, 'Momma! Momma!' and you came to me and you pick me up and we sleeped in the big bed together?" Yes, I remember. "Can we do that again?"

Elizabeth was very excited to start naptime today. It made me suspicious. She also wanted to close the door by herself. Very suspicious. So I went and checked on her a few minutes ago. She's got all of her Little People arranged on her mattress, (which is on the floor as we begin the transition to a 'big kid bed,') and is playing quietly. So long as she is quiet, I think I'll let her play.

Wil got into a lot of trouble yesterday mostly revolving around not eating. At some point in time he had to have a spanking. Then he had to have another. After the second one I started to say something like, "Wil, I love you and I don't like to spank you but you must learn to obey me and Daddy." He yelled, "I dohn love Jesus!" Which comes from the rest of what I usually say about Jesus wanting us to be more like Him and to obey Him because He loves us and wants what is best for us. This time all I said was, "Jesus still loves you." Wil yelled, "I dohn wahn to learn to love Jesus!" I let him finish his fit and then he came out of his room to find me. He was sorry and needed to be held a lot. Being 3 is hard.

I don't know how it happened but the twins have half a dozen toothbrushes a piece. Therefore choosing a toothbrush can become a lengthy process. Elizabeth has a new system. Tonight after supper she looked down at her shirt and said, "Hmm, what color do I have on? I want this white one to match my white shirt."

Last friday night Christine went scrapbooking and the twins and I went to the new Burger King with the 'slide'. It was a train wreck. They didn't want to go on it because they were afraid of 'big kids', of which there were none. Christine defends them saying they're been traumatized too many times. I grant that, but I want them to get over it soon and not be so fearful.

Christine's scrapbooking tonight, too, and you can be sure we're not going to the 'slide'.

Elizabeth is very into the moon these days. She can spot it amazingly well. She's been able to see it a lot before it's full dark, and that amuses her. I tell her it's because it's summer in the northern hemisphere. She looks at me like I'm making a joke. Yesterday we were talking about it. She said 'Daddy, I hope I can see the moon when the sun is out. That silly!'

When I got back from riding my bike yesterday, Elizabeth asked me 'Which like did you ride, the yellow or the gray?'

We ran errands all morning. By the time we got to Target Wil was tired, hot and cranky. He couldn't stop crying in the car on the way home. In an amazingly sweet and rational moment, he asked us to pray for him. I did and things were a little better after that.

Elizabeth woke up around 12a calling out for Daddy. That doesn't happen very often any more (the Daddy part; it's usually Momma.) and I was still up, so I went to check on her. She said her belly hurt. I brought her to bed with us. Couldn't do much to comfort her, so I suggested we talk about a story she picked Ahdiss (Alice in Wonderland). We talked about it as we fell asleep. I'd start to nod off and she'd ask for another installment. Finally, we both drifted off (somewhere after the Mad Hatter's Tea Party).

She slept with us all night which meant fitful sleep for all. Then Wil came and tried to fit in around 7 and he was all over the place. Elizabeth finally suggested we watch a video, to everyone's relief (especially Christine's, who stayed in bed. She sleeps the worst when the kids are in bed with us. She really needs to just go sleep in the guest room in such cases, as she said this morning.). She got to pick, and she picked Ahdiss. Fun.

When Elizabeth pulls that kind of pronunciation middle ground, I try to encourage her, saying something like 'That's better'.

Another one is 'buhnilla bah'.

'Is it 'buhnilla bah' or 'granola bar'?

'Guhnolla bah.'

'That's better. Good job.'

Wil update: He and I (Sean) went to get haircuts last night. He was having trouble sitting still in the chair. I got up to be closer to him and saw the big red mark on the left side of the crown of his head from where he fell off of the bed. Poor boy! He had another mark in back, too. It makes me sad, but I'm glad he wasn't hurt worse. None of it really seemed to bother him. He never complained about his head hurting.

We're working on Elizabeth's pronunciation.
Elizabeth: Mih Kathy got a new lan.
Sean: Is it lan or van? [With emphasis on the 'v' sound.]
Elizabeth: Ban.

Wil fell off the top bunk this morning. Very traumatic. He was sitting up there with his back to the edge and got too far back. He wasn't hurt, but was very scared. He jumped right up and ran to Christine, who was right there. They called me and left a voicemail saying Wil wanted his daddy, which was pretty sad. Since I wasn't available, Wil said 'We need to go to church now.' In the end, he decided watching a video would help him feel better, so he watched Dora and Jonah. They still came to church for lunch, and he was doing much better. I'm glad it was nothing more serious.

A lot of things are happening 'by theyselves' these days.

For example, Elizabeth broke some sunglasses last week. Then she talked to me on the phone. She said 'They broke by theyselves.'.

In the background, Wil said 'Eh-yi-beh bwoke huh gwasses.'

She said 'No, they broke by theyselves. I talking to Daddy now, Wih-uhl.'

She went on to tell me that she had 'tortilla and egg and big cheese and it was weel messy.'

I said 'You're messy sometimes.'

She said 'Yeah.'

Last week it rained some, which was great. Sometimes it rained pretty hard. We were eating breakfast and Elizabeth said 'Daddy, can you watch me talk about the Itsy Bisty Fider?'. I said sure.

*with actions*
'The itsy bitsy fider went up the water fout.'
*point to rain pouring off the roof*
'Down came the rain and washed the fider out.'

According to Wil, Mondo Mouse is his new favorite superhero. Which if true would mean that Mondo Mouse had supplanted Larry-Boy. But Wil is in a stage where he's experimenting with new concepts like favorite, forever and fair. Larry-Boy doesn't have anything to worry about.

The dragon fire post below made me think of the rules of play that I have made for Wil that were never part of my childhood because girls typically play differently than boys. For example:
*You may not point your laser at friends.
*You may shoot arrows only at trees and castles.
*Good dragons don't blow fire on people.
And the latest - DON'T ROAR at your sister or her babies!

Wil informed me today that he wants to be a dragon "forever." Earlier this week he was blowing "dragon fire" at Elizabeth and I asked him if he was a good dragon or a bad dragon. I hoped (assumed?) he would say 'good' because then I could explain that good dragons don't blow fire at people, like on Dragon Tales. He said 'bad.'

Elizabeth loves to help cook and clean. It's delightful when she comes in and says, "What can I do, Mom?"

I've been frustrated lately with Wil's lack of response when I ask him a question. Tonight I said to Sean, "Do you think he's ADD? He acts just like Kyle." Wil who had not yet made any response to let us know he was paying attention said, "I just like Kyle."

Sean and I were laughing about something at supper tonight that didn't include the kids. Attempting to be included, Wil said, "I have an idea. Let's talk about Mondo Mouse."

Elizabeth and Wil like flashlights. We have two of those cheap little booklights that Visa will send you if you pay postage. They love to play with those. We try to steer them toward bigger flashlights. We're starting to go through batteries pretty fast, so we're thinking about rechargeables. One of the biggest issues with flashlights is heft, since Wil invariably hits with them (though not maliciously). Another big issue is durability, since Wil invariably throws them.

I spent a lot of time with the twins on vacation. It was good. I felt closer to them, especially Elizabeth. She drove me crazy a lot, too.

Christine beat me to the 'why' post, but I experienced it first (because she was in Pennsylvania), and I was going to post about it. In one of these 'why' conversations, I made a distinction between 'angry' and 'mean'. They have a Larry-Boy video that teaches kids to let go of their anger. It's ok to be angry, but we shouldn't hold onto it. That's a pretty good lesson. I told them that people become mean when they hold onto their anger. Don't know if that's technically right or not, but it works in my mind. So, Christine, you can use that the next time you have to explain 'mean'.

Wil got in trouble this morning for throwing toys at Elizabeth and hurting her. He got a time-out. Later Elizabeth pushed him and he bumped the back of his head fairly hard. In the midst of his tears he choked out, "Elihbeh has to have time out now."

The twins' pediatrician told us that at 3-years-old kids start to ask 'why?' As if on cue, Elizabeth's quest for answers began. So far it's pretty fun and she seems to really want to know the answer rather than just using 'why' as a device to continue the conversation. Last night the two of us watched "The Little Mermaid" together. Mostly she wanted to know why Ariel's daddy was angry and why the sea witch was mean. The first one was easy - Ariel disobeyed. The second one was harder - some people are meaner than others, but we all do mean things sometimes. Later she asked "Why did Prince Eric throw his flute into the water?" That's more complicated, but I told her I'd try to explain. I could tell she still didn't understand and was concerned, so I told her that Ariel would probably give him a new one as a present after they got married. That made her happy.