The other day (night?) I said to Elizabeth:

'I've got an idea' at which she opened her mouth and raised her eyebrows in joyful anticipation. 'Let's get you dressed.'

'I got a idee' said she. 'Let's eat.'

Unbelievable.

Sometimes instead of reading a book one of the twins will ask us to "talk" about something. Usually it means telling a story we saw on a video or heard somewhere, but sometimes it really means just talk. Tonight Elizabeth asked me to talk about Laylee, her baby doll. So I talked about how Laylee and Elizabeth like to ride in the car together and go to church together and read books together. I said Laylee likes to eat cupcakes and drink milk. I said when Elizabeth is tired, Laylee likes to lay down in Elizabeth's crib with her so they can talk and sing. Elizabeth beamed. She hugged Laylee and hugged me. She said, "Laylee ih my fren."

We discovered the perfect "cookie" recipe for 2-year-olds. Spread mini pretzels on a greased cookie sheet. Top with a Hershey's Kiss. Warm for 2-3 minutes in the oven at 275F. Move pretzels to a tray to prevent little hands from getting burned. Press an M&M in the center of each. Cool in the refrigerator for 5-10 minutes. We made a whole batch of these tonight for our playgroup's Valentine's Day party. The twins loved counting out the pretzels and unwrapping the Kisses. The M&M part was a little messy, but not bad. Elizabeth wants to make them again tomorrow.

Just a fun day. We dropped Sean off at work then went to St Louis Bread Co for "breakfast cake," ie muffins. We sat at a table by the window to watch the rain. They splashed in the puddles on the sidewalk. We sang "Winnie the Pooh" and "The rain, rain, rain fell down, down, down" about 100 times a piece. Wil was still singing the rain song as he fell asleep at naptime.

Hmm. Which story to tell?

Wednesday night Elizabeth was in her crib singing 'Away in a Manger'. She finished...'the little Lord Jesus asleep on the hay.'. Wil said 'Ehlibeh, you asleep on the hay.' She said 'No, Wil, I asleep on my nanee [blanket].'

The table has turned. Wil woke up first this morning. "Wake up, Lih-beh. 1... 2... 3...." Elizabeth mumbled something. "Wake up like me! Wake up like me!" he hollered. "I don't want to," she said.

Elizabeth has mixed up a mealtime prayer song with "Where Is Thumbkin?" She's in her crib singing,
"God our Father
God our Father
once again
once again
we thank you for for blessing
run away
run away."

I laughed so hard I've got tears in my eyes.

Wil and Elizabeth are into "Dragon Tales" now. They spent their time at home today reenacting episodes like connecting dots and pretending to be Ord stuck in a hole. Their favorite episode, though, is when Max and Ord dress up like kings and build a pillow fort, while Emmy and Cassie dress up like doctors. The only problem is we don't have nearly as many pillows as they do in Dragonland where pillows grow on trees.

While watching football some time ago, Sean chanted "Can't stop the run." Wil replied, "I dohn wan to stah da wuh."

Pink Baby has a name now, "Baby Lay-Lee." Not to be confused with "Baby Lay-YEE" the dog.

Wil to Elizabeth: Duh Kee-kee ha a nay yeh? (Does Kitty have a name yet?)
E to W: No, juh Kee-kee.

Kitty ran away at naptime. "Momma, Kee-kee ran away! I nee to geh ow an geh Kee-kee!" I went in once to get Kitty and put her back in Elizabeth's crib, but when Kitty ran away again I got suspicious that this might be a new stall tactic.

They still play "party" a lot. This morning Elizabeth said, "Will you come to my par-ee? I ha eh-eh-thing reh-ree: my bowl, a cuh an a bah-bah." (cup and bottle)

Gramma Jan and Gramp Al completed our VeggieTales collection over Christmas. One of the tapes the twins got was 'God wants me to forgive them?'. In the second episode, a take-off of 'Gilligan's Island', Larry makes a mistake that causes them to be shipwrecked and everyone's so upset that they won't forgive him. So he runs away

I told you that to tell you this.

We drove back to Tulsa from Lake Charles on december 28th. We left around 230p. The twins went to sleep pretty shortly after we left. Wil woke up first, but played quietly in his seat for about an hour. He talked and sang, too. Then his tone changed. We turned around and he was crying, two crocodile tears rolling down his cheeks. Come to find out, he was replaying the episode I described above in his mind and came to the part where Larry ran away and he was sad. What a sweet boy! It makes me think of the movie 'Little Man Tate': 'It's not what he knows, it's what he understands.'

We went to church to eat supper with Sean since he has a meeting tonight and won't be home before bedtime. When we were driving away, Wil was puzzling out the problem of leaving Daddy behind. His monologue went something like this. "We can't go back in to church. Daddy is sad. Daddy has to go to meeting. Daddy can't come home. We leave Daddy. We not see Daddy anymore. Daddy is sad." It was so sweet.

Kitty likes french fries and root beer.

Momma to Wil: Did you ever get a clean diaper?
W to M: Did you hear the one about Alfred?

On Monday Elizabeth conjured up an imaginary kitten. She carried "Kitty" with her everywhere - to the store, to church, in the bath, to her crib for a nap. "Kitty tired. Kitty nee to way down." The best was after naptime when I got her out of her crib. She said Kitty wanted to get out too, so I leaned over, put out my hands and said, "Here Kitty." Elizabeth laughed and said, "No, Kitty by the purple cup."

Kitty reappeared briefly on Tuesday to get out of bed and be introduced to friends. Then we didn't see Kitty again until today. The twins and I were playing in their "fort" which was doubling as Granma Sue's house at the time. Elizabeth was reading to her doll when Kitty reappeared to hear the story. "Kitty wuh ow-sai Gamma Sue how." She cuddled Kitty for a bit and then announced it was time to take Kitty home.

When we got back from our Christmas trip I meant to do a Christmas update about the things the twins did and said and got. Oh well. In summary, we had a great trip, my parents loved taking care of the kids though Mom has said multiple times she doesn't know how I get anything done, and everyone got great gifts. Elizabeth is having fun with her Little People Van, but one of her favorite gifts wasn't really a gift at all but a hand-me-down doll that was mine. "Leh-low Baby," she calls it because it was wearing a yellow dress when she first saw it. Likewise, Wil has enjoyed playing with a Playskool workbench that was mine. It goes very nicely with his new toolbox. "Tuhl-bah! Daddy gah a tuhl-bah too!"

At some point during my birthday celebrations, Elizabeth said 'I need more cake.' I said 'Sweetie, you have all of that yellow cake.' She said 'I all done with my brown cake.' I said 'Sweetheart, the brown part is frosting, not cake. She said 'I no want to call my brown cake frosting.' Sheesh.