My mom had to fly home a day ahead of my dad. Last night at supper Wil said, "GampAl sad. He miss Giji." Today after we dropped Dad off at the airport, Wil said, "GampAl go see Giji."

I woke the twins up from their nap to take my dad to the airport this afternoon. Elizabeth realized on the way home that she wasn't wearing shoes. She's been talking about it all evening. Her solution is, "The neh tie we puh on shoe, we go to airpor to fy to Giji how to see Giji and Baby Ty-yer and GampAl."

Wil had to be disciplined yesterday for kicking. I asked him to say he was sorry for kicking me. Then I told him I forgave him. In tears he said, "I forgive you too Momma." He may not understand the particular meaning of "sorry" and "I forgive you," but it was clear he wanted to be reconciled. Sweet boy.

I tried on a black dress I needed my mom to alter while she was visiting. Wil came in from the kitchen to see what we were doing. He stopped and smiled. Then he looked at me again and said, "Momma, wah you dress up as?"

Yesterday was my day off. Wil was sick and couldn't go to Mother's Day Out, so I stayed home with him.

We had a nice time. At one point he was busy playing, so I went to the study for a minute.

He came in and said 'Daddy, i puh stuh ih dee egg.'

Not sure what that meant, I said okay and followed him to the kitchen.

'Oh, you put stuff in the eggs.'

'Uh huh.'

He had climbed up to the counter on his stool, grabbed Christine's Nescafe Capuccino mix, and poured it on the egg container they play with. It wasn't much of a mess, so I wasn't put out. I started to clean it up. He got down, climbed up the steps my dad made him, and very casually picked up the paring knife off of the counter. I took it away and made a mental note to be more careful about what sits on the counters.

I gave him some Kix and Cheerios to pour in his egg container. Since he hadn't had much lunch, he started to eat them. We sat down on the kitchen floor and had a snack. The can of pineapple was at eye level, so he asked for some. I happily obliged him. But his not-clean pajama feet kept getting too close to the can, so I kept scooting back. After the second time he said 'I scoot up.' He just wanted to be nearer to his daddy, so I stopped scooting back (but I kept an eye on his feet).

A little later we watched all of Disney's Robin Hood. He has an amazing attention span for movies. After about 90 minutes, when it was over, he said 'I wahn to wah Wobah Hoh again.' No way, but you're impressive.

We had a nice time.

And today when he came for their Valentine's Party, he wanted to be held and snuggle with me a lot, which was great.

My boy...

If you're concerned about the lack of posts about Wil, it's because he hasn't had much to say this past week. He's been sick and his contribution to our time together has mainly consisted of "I wan to wa Dragon Tales."

It snowed again so we played outside for about half an hour Wednesday morning. Kiki, Elizabeth's imaginary kitten, reappeared to run around with us and have her picture taken. She came inside and then disappeared again until this morning just before our playgroup's Valentine's Day party. She always shows up for the things Elizabeth is excited about. "Kee-kee cay ba!"

Elizabeth on Discipline:

I tell her I love her and that's why I can't let her behave certain ways. She says, "Momma, can you go?"

When I tell her she can't have something she wants, she says, "I sad. I nee Gamma Sue."

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.