Wil came to our bed before 7 am this morning. He wanted Sean to get up with him so he could eat breakfast. He said, "Daddy, can you say, 'Wil, do you want to wake up?'"

"Can you say...?" developed as the twins' pretend play developed. One of them, usually Elizabeth, says, "Can you say...?" to keep the action moving. But now, it's turned into a way to get someone to do what you want. Last night Elizabeth wanted a piece of candy. She said to Sean, "I want a treat when we get home. Can you say 'Yes'?"

I'm liking the time change. The kids are getting up before 7 am, but they are also going to bed at a more reasonable hour. I was so giddy over all the time I had to myself last night that I didn't fall asleep until after 1 am. And I was still happy about it this morning when Elizabeth wanted breakfast at 6:35.

Wil cannot resist ropes. Or anything that resembles a rope - belts, ties, hooded sweatshirt strings, even socks. He uses them to connect things, tie them up, scale the castle walls, as seat belts or, in the case of socks, as slingshots. It's all fair game when you have an adventure to live.

The twins learned a Knock Knock joke from playing with their Little People City. This is their version:

Elizabeth: Knock, knock.
Wil: Who there?
E: Boo!
W: Boo who what? (starts laughing)
E: You don't have to cry about it.
Wil to audience: Can you laugh?

I enjoyed Math as a student and am delighted to report that Elizabeth is showing marked interest in numbers. It started around her third birthday when she learned the difference between two fingers and three. Now she can hold up the correct number of fingers in question (up to five) and ask, "Is it this many?" She knows it is, but she likes the confirmation.

So today we were practicing 6 through 10 and moved on to 20. 10 and 6 is 16, etc. She thought flashing two sets of 10 was a great joke. "I do two ten!" she'd squeal and then do it again.

Last week the twins made construction paper suitcases during our Wednesday night program at church that read, "God said I am with you and will watch over you wherever you go." From a myriad of construction paper clothes, Elizabeth picked out only pink clothes to go in her suitcase. Her teachers said she was the only child who did this. I'll take the blame for her loving all things Disney, but I'm convinced the pink-purple passion is hard wired and not something she was taught.

We went to HallowZOOeen last night. I love the zoo. It was dark and the animals were in their homes for the night, but we rode the train and got a glimpse of one of the elephants through an open door. We also played "Remember when we saw..." with Elizabeth.

Most of the kids were dressed in costume, including our friend Josh who we joined for the festivities. He was Bob the Builder. Elizabeth was a princess, sort of. She wore her dress from Aunt Erin's wedding over a turtleneck and leggings and under her coat. Sean carried her crown around for awhile and then we put it in the bag. Wil refused to dress up, though once he saw a little Buzz Lightyear he said, "I want to be Buzz Lightyear" repeatedly.

The highlight was, of course, the candy. Or "treats" as the twins quickly learned to say. They were so cute saying "May I have a treat please?" And Wil quickly learned that "May I have another treat please?" usually earned him a second treat as was evidenced by nearly twice the candy Elizabeth had when we sorted the bags this morning. (Elizabeth was looking for the ones she likes, ie chocolate. I was removing choking hazards, including a bag's worth of Jolly Ranchers.)

Last night Elizabeth said, "This was a good day at the zoo." And today it was, "I like going to the zoo in my costume."

It must be a twin phenomenon that our twins sometimes think they have to play in imaginary pairs. A frequent argument between them goes like this:

Wil: "I can't be LarryBoy without somebody to be Alfred."
Elizabeth: "I can't be Jenny without somebody to be Oliver."

We didn't sleep much last night. The twins had Mother's Day Out and didn't nap until late. Therefore, they were up late. We finally gave up and let Elizabeth come to bed with us.

We should not have done that. We weren't sleeping very well anyway. Then Wil came in (I don't know what time). Pretty shortly after that, Christine left to sleep elsewhere.

Then Elizabeth woke up and missed Christine. I sent her to the guest room. She came back distressed because she couldn't find Mama in there. I checked and she was right. I guess that bed was covered with something else. That meant Christine had to be in Wil's bed, so I walked Elizabeth down there.

Wil woke up around 5 and rolled around for an hour. I did not sleep during this time. Then he decided to go to his own bed.

I don't know what transpired then, but Elizabeth came back to sleep with me shortly thereafter.

I woke up at 8:45 and thought 'I've got to get to work.'

Ugh. Next time, maybe we should lay with Elizabeth until she falls asleep. We need a better system here, somehow. A blind man could tell you that.

I was working on a project last night (a job with paper), and I gave Elizabeth one of the scraps, about 8 1/2" wide and 3" high. She drew on it a little bit and then said 'I want to make something. Maybe I will make a crown.' I said 'Maybe you could make a crown for Sonya Lee.' Christine said 'Or maybe you could make a crown for Laylee.' I said 'Well, I thought about that already, and I think it's too small.'

We went on to the next activity, which was singing. Elizabeth and I were singing some songs, when suddenly she disappeared. Oh well, that happens. I went on to something else in the living room.

Suddenly she reappears and says 'Daddy, you were right, this crown is too small for Laylee.'

I laughed out loud. It slays me (and drives me crazy) that my children feel the need to confirm everything I say. I'm a little defensive about it now, frankly. These days, in response, I'm saying 'You know honey, Daddy's right about a lot of things.'

When we arrived at Aunt Erin's house on Wednesday, Erin said to Wil, "I'm so happy to see you!" Wil said, "I so happy to see my GramPaul!"

I took the twins to our college's Homecoming parade and Renaissance Faire on Saturday. They didn't seem interested in the parade at the time, but Elizabeth has enjoyed talking about the knight and horses and seeing the Homecoming king and queen. According to her we had a nice picnic at the fair, and they both liked seeing the Chinese dragons. Wil's favorite part was getting a foam stick that says "Go Knights!" He immediately started using it as a sword. In general, Elizabeth likes seeing and doing new things. It gives her more to talk about. Wil lives and plays so much in his imaginary world that he doesn't really seek outside experiences. But I was glad I took them and will do it again.

Driving through a rural Iowa town yesterday, Elizabeth asked, "What in I-wa-a is this?"

Something to tide you over: Christine told me they were at the parade and Wil laid down in the street and said he wanted to go back to GramPaul's house. They changed venues after that.

In case you've been wondering, there haven't been any posts because Christine and the twins have been in Iowa for Wartburg Homecoming. They're on their way home right now. I'm really looking forward to seeing them. And I really appreciated the break.

But Wil and Daddy are round according to her. In actuality Wil is shaped more like a stick.

What about Daddy?! Is Daddy round?!

Boo hoo hoo.

We've been watching a lot of Rolie Polie Olie. Elizabeth came in and asked, "What shape am I?" Olie is round and Billy is square. I told her she was potato-shaped. She didn't think so. So I suggested curved and she agreed. But Wil and Daddy are round according to her. In actuality Wil is shaped more like a stick.

It got cold enough last night that we put Wil in his footed, fleece pajamas. After struggling a moment he said, "My feet are stuck in there."

The little kids choir (3-5 year olds) sang in church this morning. Wil didn't make it through practice. Elizabeth was very cute the first service despite looking around to make sure we were watching her first. But then the second service she repeatedly asked from the front of the church, "Momma, can I tell you something? Where's Daddy?"

When I dropped the twins off at Sunday School this morning their teacher asked Wil if he wanted to join the circle for storytime. He sat down in a chair at the table and proclaimed, "I sad and sad a lot!"

Elizabeth fell down and split her head open at church this morning. If we were doing stitches we'd probably do one, but it's not worth the aggravation for one stitch. She's doing ok.

Sheesh. Wil was throwing up yesterday, maybe just from too much allergy drainage. Christine hasn't been sleeping because of her allergies, so she's on her last nerve. We need a break.

When we arrived at church yesterday morning, Elizabeth said, "I want to get a drink from the water fountain before we see the Prince." She was talking about Sean.

We had a nice time at Jonah. The kids did great. They really enjoyed it. I enjoyed it too. It was well-done and focused on compassion and showing mercy. In this way it was less moralistic than many of the VeggieTales videos. The handled the story nicely, too. They just left Jonah crying in the dust. The kids listening in the other plot-line said 'Didn't he learn anything?' to which the storyteller replied 'The important thing is: What did you learn?'. That's right.

(Incidentally, Jonah finished 6th at the box office this weekend, according to estimates, despite showing at fewer than half the theaters of any other movie in the top 8. Good show. They have certainly garnered a loyal fan base.)

Wil started chair-dancing pretty early in. That's when we realized we didn't take him to the bathroom before we went in. I kept asking him if he needed to go to the potty. Of course he said no. I thought there was a pretty good chance he was going to have an accident. But he didn't and we made it to the potty afterwards without event. That's where I realized he was quoting from the movie on one hearing 'Something touched me!' (lampooning 'Jaws'). Wil's amazing in attention and recall, when he's interested. We're similar that way. It's not intentional. I can't turn it on and off, and neither can he. It didn't work for me in Hebrew and Greek, but I can quote you all of 'Raising Arizona'. It can be maddening when he has such perfect recall of things he likes but can't and won't listen to Christine and me and often will reply, when questioned, that he doesn't know what we just said.

Elizabeth went to the potty during the movie. She liked the movie, though she was afraid of the whale (she said). Come to think of it, she was pretty scared going into the movie, too - it was pretty dark. I pointed out all of the kids and I think that calmed her down a little bit. Afterwards she was horrible and really misbehaved. Oh well.

We're going to the VeggieTales movie Jonah tomorrow. We were going to go today, opening day, but Christine has something else she had to do. This will be the twins' first movie in a theater. I expect them to do really well. I'm looking forward to it.