Another ballet: yesterday Elizabeth and I went to The Sleeping Beauty also performed by the Columbia City Ballet, but it was the entire thing not just a preschoolers version. She loved most of it. However, the third act would have been too much for both of us had there not been the promise of meeting the dancers afterwards. She had her picture taken with three of the fairies including the Lilac Fairy, the Queen and one of the attendants all dressed in lavendar. Alas Princess Aurora was no where to be found. But I still got a lot of good shots for the scrapbook.

Columbia City Ballet has been performing an original version of The Lion King this week. It's 45 minutes long with some narration. Perfect for preschoolers. We went this afternoon and had a lot of fun. The twins favorite scenes were Simba's and Scar's fight, Scar's defeat, and Mufasa's death. Wil says, "It was my teeny tiny favorite because it was sad too." Yes, there is something a little disturbing about fighting and death being "favorites," but I totally agreed with the kids. Those scenes were the most dramatic, most exciting and most emotional. Elizabeth later amended her favorites to include baby Simba's entrance, (they used a real baby,) and Nala's and Simba's wedding. Wil and Elizabeth played a lot of "pinned ya" as we were attempting to leave the theater and they're still playing Lion King now.

The twins have been watching the movie Sinbad with our next door neighbor's little girl. It's rated PG and I had some objections to them watching it. So yesterday Wil wanted to borrow it, they say he could, and we watched it together last night. It's actually very good. The ending is terrific. Sinbad is a hero because he does the right thing which is the harder thing to do instead of more flashy stuff. The parts that rate it PG are mostly innuendo and some language, (which in one case we had to tell Elizabeth she could not say and give her an alternative. She obviously didn't know what was meant.) As 4-year-olds they miss most of the inappropriate remarks. I'm not sure I'd let my 9-year-old see it, and I don't really want the twins to watch it much more. All that to say, we've had a lot of Sinbad play around here today. When Wil plays by himself he uses his Veggies, a truck and his pirate ship. Junior Asparagus is Sinbad. When he plays with Elizabeth, he is Sinbad, Elizabeth is Merina, and Freckles the Dalmatian puppy is Spike. It's entertaining to say the least.

A follow-up to the "amounts experiment": Elizabeth counted her carrots at lunch and said "Five. That's the same as when I'm going to Walt Disney World." But she thought about it for a minute and added, "Five carrots, not five weeks (years). It's not the same. Momma how many weeks until we go to Walt Disney World?"

Elizabeth picked The Nutcracker in place of her 2 TV shows yesterday. She watched the entire thing. I couldn't believe it. More surprisingly, Wil watched most of the last half with her. They were entranced. "There's the prince again," one of them would say, or "Here comes Clara." And even though it was a different company than the one Elizabeth watched over Christmas, she knew exactly which parts she'd seen in Iowa. "This is the same as the one at Granma Sue's house!"

The twins are experimenting with amounts. For example, "It'll take twenty-hundred to give it to you." I didn't realize how confusing this was to other people until we were at my parents' house last week. Wil wanted more milk. GiJi told him there was still milk in his cup. "But I want 80," he said. GiJi and GrampAl both looked confused. "He's experimenting with amounts," I said. "Like 80%?" GiJi asked. "No, just 80," I explained, "80 is a lot of milk."

We're attempting to cut back on our TV watching now that we're all starting to feel better and the holidays are over. The twins get to pick 2 PBS shows to watch during the day and then, if they're not too tired, we watch a "movie" at night. Mostly we've been watching parts of the Harry Potter movies which I got for my birthday. Therefore, they've been playing "Harry Potter" during the day. Elizabeth is always Hermoine. She knows lots of Hermoine's lines and is trying to learn the "spells" like "lumos," "occulus repairo" and "finite incantatum." That's a mouthful for a 4-year-old. Wil has been wearing an enormous pair of black sunglasses with the lenses popped out and flying around on his Nimbus 2000 mop. His favorite scenes to reenact are when Harry catches the snitch in his mouth; when Harry is chased by the bludger, gets his arm broken, but still catches the snitch; and when Ron throws up slugs. He also drew an amazing (and kind of scary) picture of Fawkes and Harry defeating the Basilisk. The most gruesome feature is the snakes' bloody eyes. (Honestly, I haven't let him watch any of that! I did tell him what happened though and I guess he figured out the snake's eyes would be bloody if Fawkes pecked them out.)

This morning, however, they watched Barney. Now they want to make smores like when Barney went camping. I tried to explain we don't have any marshmellows or chocolate in the house, but Wil thinks we can use York Peppermint Patties left over from Christmas instead.

Wil took a nap yesterday and then fell asleep relatively early (say around 11). Predictably, he didn't sleep well last night and woke up at the crack of dawn. He tormented me between 4 and 5, asking me to come sleep with him in his bed. Christine was already sleeping with Elizabeth, so he and I had my bed to ourselves. Therefore, I was not about to leave my warm, snuggly-sheeted (flannel) bed for his cold, lumpy bed with lots of kid-sized covers. Christine heard us fighting and came in to check on him and said she'd lay down with him in his bed, which made me feel like the worst dad in the world. I was still able to fall back asleep, though.

When I woke up Wil had been up for a while, followed by Christine and Elizabeth. Christine said Wil had been all over the house and that every light was on. He'd already cut some tissue paper into pieces. We had two gallons of drinking water in grocery sacks (don't ask) that he even took out to the garage, thinking they were trash! He has certainly never taken the trash out before, nor shown any interest in such an activity. I didn't know he could even open the door to the garage. Christine asked him where the blue bags were and he said 'I put the trash out there.' Then she said 'You've been busy this morning.' and he said 'Yes I have.' Later he offered to take the bowls and spoons to the table for breakfast unprompted. What's more, this is not something we even ask him to do, usually, since it's so far beyond his ken.

Of course, all of his sweet industry only makes me feel like an even worse dad.

Still, I wonder 'Who are you, and what have you done with Wil?'

The twins are playing a lot of "Gandalf Movie" these days. They've been watching selected parts of the Fellowship of the Ring and the Two Towers with Sean. Wil's favorite part is on the appendices to Two Towers where they explain how they created the flooding of Isengard. A close second is Gandalf fighting the Balrog. He's got lots of versions of the latter including one where Gandalf transfers some of his power to Wil. "And I realized," says Wil, "Gandalf is my friend."

Wil wrapped his blocks to give as a present to Elizabeth. Sometimes he can be so SWEET!

"What can I do to stop growing up?"

'Growing up' is Wil's big concern these days. The last time we were staying at my parents' house, he asked me, "Momma, when Elizabeth and I grow up, are you going to have more babies?" I said, "Oh, no, sweetheart. You and Elizabeth are my only babies." With big tears in his eyes he said, "But then you'll be all alone." I explained that he would always be my child even when he was grown up. But he decided it'd be better if he didn't grow up.

More recently he's been worried about having to give up his blanket when he's grown up. And this morning I heard him asking God to stop him from growing up. He was looking out the window at the rain. I watched him wondering what makes a 4-year-old not want to grow up.

When he came back to the living room, he announced what he'd asked God and Elizabeth took him to task. (She has, afterall, been working hard to grow up since she was four months old.) "But you said you wanted to marry me when you grow up!" "But you're going to share your blanket with your little boy!" Etc. Wil simply said, "I did, but I changed my mind."

What happened to July? What happened in July?

The twins and I moved to my parents house in North Carolina the second week. Sean joined us the day before their 4th birthday. I must say that we have a couple of great four-year-olds. Some days I think the Blue Fairy showed up overnight and gave us model children. But then I realize that couldn't be the case since I was with them most of the night. They can be quite delightful to be with during the day, but neither of them have slept well since we left Tulsa. They're sharing a bedroom and, until tonight, a bed. We switched out beds and put a trundle bed in their room today. Hopefully that will be an improvement for all of us.

July highlights:
> 4th of July at the Farm in Iowa spent with family and playing with "farklers."
> Family birthday party in Iowa - Elizabeth got a Snow White doll that falls asleep when she gets hot and wakes up when you cool her off. Her eyes are designed to respond to the touch of a "magic wand" that has hot or cold water on it, but we found that the air conditioner worked just as well when she got too hot in the backseat of the car.
> First hike, first waterfall to/at Pearson's Falls which was at a 30-year high. Amazing.
> Walking up and down Main Street in Hendersonville on Friday nights and racing to the bears on display for "Bearfootin' in Hendersonville."
> Talking Tree Trail at Holmes State Forest and another waterfall. Of course you can't see the trees talk because "their faces are too high." Wil remembers a lot about the trees and what they said about managed forests. He has drawn a number of pictures of small trees being chopped down so the bigger trees can grow taller.
> Making and decorating chocolate chip cookie cake for their actual birthday. It was rather uneventful as birthdays go. We went to Chick-fil-A for lunch and time to play. It rained most of the day. Wil got a bunch of great VeggieTales stuff including the newest LarryBoy video. He's drawn a ream of LarryBoy and Dark Crow pictures. They're the "greatest super heroes in the world" according to Wil.

If you've been wondering how the twins are doing amidst all our moving chaos, be assurred that they are doing well. Much better than expected. The first night out of the house Wil bawled, "I want to go to my house! I want to go to my house and put all the things back in my house!" It was horrible, but we all survived and eventually got some sleep. Poor boy. He teared up regularly the first few days, especially if something made him think of Sean. But now he just checks in with me once or twice a day to verify Sean's return date. Elizabeth goes with the flow pretty well these days so long as she knows the plan ahead of time. Being confident of Daddy's return in two days, her questions generally pertain to when we're going to move to South Carolina and when she is going to go camping with GrampAl in North Carolina. Sometimes a question about when we get to go to the beach is thrown in.

Currently we're at the Meade family farm which is great fun for the twins. They love the stairs, Uncle Cory's giant TV with all day Nickelodeon and Disney Channel, constant attention from their grandparents, (which I especially appreciate as I got to read the latest Harry Potter in two days,) and a playmate in Uncle Cory. Plus Granma and GranPaul got them a "castle fwimming pool." There's a hot water faucet outside, so we can get the water temperature exactly to Elizabeth's liking. It's generally still too cold for Wil.

If I find some time later, I've got a couple of great quotes to share including Wil's responses to Granma's children's message at church yesterday.

Wil is doing pretty well without his Veggies. However, he has started to begin all his Veggie stories with 'Momma, remember when my Veggies....?" He does this even when he's just recounting a story from a video. It makes me so sad. But Kathy is going to give him their Bob and Junior, as well as a new Larry Boy for Christmas. And we found a larger Larry for $5 on christianbook.com. It may take awhile to replace our Laura the Carrot, she looked different than most Laura plush toys, but I hope she'll pop up on ebay sometime.

We are moving on Saturday. I'm going nuts trying to pack. Wil threw up repeatedly this morning. My first thought was not "poor boy." It was "I did not need this right now!" He was fine by 1 pm, but I did a lot of unplanned laundry this morning. He and Elizabeth played very well together from suppertime until bedtime. God bless them. It did not stop me from being short-tempered, but I really am grateful.

Elizabeth and I escaped the packing madness for a couple of hours this afternoon by going to Ms Kathy's house to see her Barbie collection. We were both delighted. All of the dolls were still in their boxes except one which Elizabeth is now "borrowing." Ms Kathy would have given it to her, but Daddy says no Barbies until she is 6. (I might give in, but it's good to have his word to fall back on.) However, he did say she could borrow the doll until Saturday instead of returning it tomorrow if Ms Kathy agrees. Barbie was Elizabeth's constant companion this evening. Wil gave the doll to Elizabeth several times as a "birthday present." Barbie also got into the superhero business and helped Larry Boy stop the Yodel-Napper.

This particular Barbie came with clip-on earrings for the little girl in her life. Elizabeth wore them all evening but kept checking with me to make sure they were not putting "holes in her ears." She was concerned to discover this week that I put my earrings through holes in my ears and is determined not to let that happen to her.

You know you're a bad dad when your daughter asks for PB&J and you offer her cake instead because it's already made.

(Jaq had a post like this once where his daughter asked for strawberries. The difference is, he gave her the strawberries.)

Elizabeth sings at the top of her lungs anytime we see the subject:

Fag of Amewica
Wed, white, and bwue
Fag of Amewica
The salute we give to you. Woo!

Elizabeth: Daddy, I like how you look in your yummy donut [Krispy Kreme] shirt!

We had the twins' early birthday parties. I should have posted last week about Wil's. This year's theme was VeggieTales' "Rack, Shack and Benny." (If you haven't seen the video, most of the games won't make sense, but trust me that it was great.) We invited Josh, Connor and Jackson. They all wore caps with chocolate bunnies painted on them and ties so they could be Mr. Nezzer's junior executives. We searched for Mr. Nezzer's missing chocolate bunnies, danced to "Stand Up" and "The Bunny Song," and made Bob and Larry out of clay. Wil has wanted a "Bob & Larry" cake since the one I made for their second birthday two years ago, so I tried again. I'm happy to write for the record that this version was far superior to the first. I had a little trouble getting started, including broiling the cake instead of baking it, but it all turned out well in the end. Wil enjoyed the party very much and was happy to have all his friends come to play, though I regret to report that he hit them all at least once. That night when Sean put him to bed, Wil asked, "Can we talk about my Rack, Shack & Benny party?" Coming from Wil, that's better than last year's "This is the best party ever!"

Elizabeth's Princess Party was today. Six of her "little girlfriends" attended. They danced together and played "Pin the Flag on the Castle," which was Elizabeth's original idea. Then they dug for jewels in a container of rice and decorated heart-shaped boxes with the treasures they found. They got jewelry and played the "Disney Princess Game" and "Duck, Duck, Goose." All of Elizabeth's favorite things. We gave her her birthday present early so she could dress up as a Disney princess. She chose Snow White. She was in preschooler's heaven. And she behaved magnificently. If we had to remind her to say 'thank you,' it was easily done and her manner expressed her happiness. Surprisingly, this continued all day. At one point she did say she was sad that a particular friend had not been able to attend and, as is her nature, dwelled on the things that didn't go right, like scraping her leg, but there wasn't much to be sad about and she was soon restored to birthday party bliss. She said she liked party days best, and I, too, thought party days were best if she were always so delightful to be around. (Wil, on the other hand, was a monster. The next time Elizabeth has a party, he is going to be sent away for the day.) One mention of the cake before I end. I made her a castle cake with ice cream cone towers, marshmellow crenellation, a graham cracker drawbridge, and lots of pink and purple sprinkles. Last night I didn't think it was worth it. This morning I thought it was perfect. Elizabeth liked it too.

Another 'F' story; fifth in a series

Wil really likes Rolie Polie Olie's Spooky Ooky Halloween video. One never knows when he'll bring it up.

'Remember when Fot got fooky?'

Elizabeth on Science and Nature:

Flowers are made out of petals.
Magnets are made out of stick.

Elizabeth: I want to be a ballerina and a bride when I grow up.
Wil: I want to be a '3, 2, 1, Penguins!' when I grow up!

A while back, when Christine was out of town, the kids and I were at lunch. Elizabeth and I were having a debate about her eating her lunch, but she ended up doing a good job so she could have some ice cream. I was really pleased and sort of pushed/gently hit her for joy and said 'Good job!'. She was fascinated by this strange, exuberant hitting behavior and asked me 'Why you do that?'. I tried to explain, though I didn't do a very good job.

That night we got invited to the Touchets' for dinner. I was helping her go to the bathroom, which had been somewhat of a problem. She was successful and said 'It's okay, I don't need new big girl pants.' I said 'That's a good thing because I didn't bring any.' She did that new gentle hitting thing and said 'You should have brought some.' I dissolved into laughter, then said 'You should keep your girl pants dry!'

Another 'F' story; fourth in a series

Elizabeth sings 'The Itsy Bitsy Spider'

'The itsy bitsy fider went up the water fout. Down came the wain and washed the fider out. Out came the sun and dwied up all the wain. And the itsy bitsy fider went up the water fout [sic] again.'

Delightful.

Another 'F' story: third in a series

We have this teeny-tiny ant problem. Wil intentionally spilled apple juice last night. So we wanted him to see the ants that resulted this morning. We showed him the ants and I asked him what we should do.

'We better fray um. So they will be dead.'

Last night, for some unknown reason, Wil asked me to talk about the Christmas story when I was laying down with him. We progressed through pretty steadily. We got to the part about the shepherds and the angels.

'What did they do next?' I said

'Goed. They goed to see the baby. Except...maybe they stopped to get a card first.'

*Daddy laughs and laughs and laughs.*

Another 'F' story

Wil came running into my bedroom crying the other day. It was pretty obvious he and Elizabeth had had a fight. He told me she hit him.

'What should we do?' I said.

'Let's go fank her!'

Since Christine's back, I guess I have the gumption to write:

Wil came running into the study the other day: 'Daddy, there's a fly in the kitchen!'

'What should I do?'

'Fack it!'

I'm inspired.

From this morning -
Elizabeth: What are we going to do today?
Momma: Well, I am going to do a lot of scrapbook stuff....
E: I already know that!

From sometime earlier -
Momma: Why do you think Belle's Daddy got lost?
Elizabeth: Wrong aisle.

For better or worse, I let the twins watch parts of "Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets" with me. We borrowed Kathy's DVD so I was able to skip anything I thought would be too scary or too inappropriate. Wil talks to snakes now. "Hasheth hasheth. Be quiet Elizabeth! I'm talking to those snakes!"

Sorry there hasn't been anything new lately. I sometimes jot things down that I want to remember, so here are a few quotes that may or may not have been previously posted:

"I am a princess because my Daddy always says that to me."

"'You are so beautiful to me.' My Daddy sings that to me because I am my Daddy's daughter."

Best thing so far about summer: the sprinkler. It's a blast watching the twins play. I'm sure that's where the phrase "squeal with delight" originated.

He's a rascal

It's enough to make you start writing again.

I took the Volvo in because the radio wasn't working. The fuse was burnt out, and when I replaced it, it burnt out immediately. They said it could be a problem. So I took it in.

Went to get it this morning: penny in the cigarette lighter. 'Does it every time', two guys said (well then why didn't you tell me that in advance? 'Any pennies in the cigarette lighter?) 60$ later, now I know.

If you don't know the kids well enough to understand the title, Wil is the twin who sticks things places. I can be pretty sure it was him, He's the engineer.

The price of having kids (and letting them play in the car basically unattended).

The other night Ellizabeth was fighting bedtime a little bit. I said I was tired and asked her to lie down with me. She said, "I know - after you fall asleep I will get up."

If anything is scary, Wil says he likes it on "my Rugrat video." (The only Rugrats he's ever watched that we know of is the preview before Blue's Clues.) So, for example, he'll say, "I like Barad Dur on my Rugrats video" or "I like Orcs on my Rugrats video."

A week or so ago Sean and the twins were reading about Elijah and how he was carried to Heaven in a flaming chariot. This got them talking about when Jesus ascended to Heaven and when He's coming back. Sean told them that everyone who loves Jesus will go to Heaven with Jesus to live with Him forever. Elizabeth added, "And believes in Him," then, "I believe in Him." Wil said, "I will believe in Him when He comes back." Too late, sweet boy, but at least for today there's time to change your mind.

Last Thursday I had a chance to peek into Wil's classroom at Mother's Day Out. Wil was presiding over a tea party with Connor, Jackson and Aurora's grandson Joshua. I nearly laughed out loud as Wil passed out sugar and offered milk and cookies. I'll venture to guess that it was the other boys' first tea party.

Elizabeth still has some concerns about moving to Iowa. Yesterday she told me, "I want to have my princess party (the much anticipated theme for her birthday in July) here. I think my girl friends don't know the way to I-wa-a."

As I sit here the twins and Sean are talking about and playing as characters in The Lord of the Rings. Sean is Gandalf, Wil is Bilbo and Frodo and the rest of the hobbits, and Elizabeth is Galadriel. Elizabeth said, "Maybe when I'm not being Galadriel, I can be Gandalf's daughter." She's also Goldberry when appropriate.

We were watching DragonTales the other day and Ord was sad that no one would play with him on him birthday (because they were working on a surprise party for him). I talk about stuff like that with them, so I said 'I'd be sad too if no one would play with me on my birthday.' Wil said 'Daddy, I would play with you if it was your birthday.' Sweet boy.

Time for an update. Sean's job was terminated (lack of funds) on the 28th. We decided to go to Iowa for a week. I asked the twins if they wanted to move to Iowa. Wil said 'no.' Elizabeth wasn't sure at first but then later she asked, "When are we going to Iowa to live there forever?"

Wil is really into Big Idea's "3, 2, 1, Penguins!" these days. He flies a toy coffee pot around like a spaceship and sings the theme song. Most days he answers to Midgel.

Elizabeth was sad to go to preschool today. It must be tough on her knowing the rest of us are at home together.

How do you like those new pictures? You like them, don't you...

Eeek! Christine wrote 'photographs made'. I know she grew up in the South and everything, but...

Hey, Scarlett O'Hara, in Iowa we say 'pictures taken'!

This no nap thing is really working for me; however, it's catching up to the twins. They both got up too early and were crabby almost all morning. They cried about everything, even when I was agreeing with them. So I announced that we would have naptime after lunch. Elizabeth threw a huge fit and finally cried herself to sleep. Wil said, "I like naptime this day."

While Elizabeth was throwing her fit, Wil and I were finishing our lunch. I asked him why he thought she was crying. He said, "I think Elizabeth is not happy on the inside. She can't be happy on the outside until she is happy on the inside." I was sort of surprised, so I asked him if he learned that somewhere or if he thought of it himself. He pointed to Sean's whiteboard in the breakfast nook. I asked, "Did you learn that from Jesus?" He said, "And from the crosses and Zacchaeus and the blind man who sat by the road and cried."

Wil brought some popcorn to Sean in his mouth fully expecting Sean to take it and eat it. Sean asked what they were playing. "You're Fagan and I'm bringing you a bone." Bone accepted. Wil proceeded to lick Sean's face twice.

All the boys wanted to be Space Rangers today at Mother's Day Out. Since there is almost no way to keep six little boys from shooting things, I told them okay but they had to work together and couldn't shoot each other since they were all Space Rangers. At this point Wil decided to be the enemy Zurg.

During snack time at Mother's Day Out, Wil bit off parts of animal crackers to make them into new animals. He ended up with a lot of sea horses and whales.

In the car this morning Elizabeth said, "When I am big like you and when I have my two children, I will put my girl one in my seat and my boy one in Wil's seat." Okay. "But where will I sit?" So I told her she might have a car to drive when she is a mommy. She thought that was a good idea and she added, "Daddy knows how to drive." Then she decided that if she and her children take a trip to Iowa, she will sit in the passengers seat. I'm not clear on who will do the driving.

The twins are 3-1/2 years old today. I took them to have their photographs made. Wil had a blast. The photographer kept saying, "He's so cute!" Elizabeth was surprisingly hesitant, like she didn't want to make a mistake. We didn't stay around for her pics to be developed, but Wil's turned out great. It was so hard to choose one, so I picked three!

Let's do it to it.

This has become the new family motto. I started saying it and Elizabeth picked it up and then Christine and Wil picked it up. Fun.

Well, Christine and the kids are off to Iowa. Christine wants a break, so she's going to take the kids to my folks' and go on a scrapbooking retreat. And my folks are glad to have them, so it works out well for everyone. I miss them, of course, but will relish the solitary time.

At preschool they are talking about Martin Luther King Jr and dreams. Elizabeth told her teacher privately that her dream was to be a ballerina. I thought the privately part was important because if you get a bunch of little girls going around the room saying what they want to be when they grow up they'll all say the same thing.

Two sweet moments from the day:

Wil cleaned up his own mess after lunch. I got out the whisk broom and pan for him, and he swept up all the noodles, ham and cheerios he had dropped on the floor. He put it all in the trash and then put the broom and pan away. I wish there was a way to capture the look of pride on his face when he was done.

Elizabeth said to me, "I need you to be with me by myself for a little while but Wil is in here." I told her we could sit in the recliner together and pretend Wil was somewhere else. She agreed and we all watched 'The Little Mermaid.' Wil eventually sat with us and she was okay with that.

The twins had an appointment today with our dentist. Both of them did great. They enjoyed having their teeth cleaned, going up and down in the chair, and using 'Mr Thirsty.' I think the best part for them was being told repeatedly how great they must be at brushing their teeth and such things. They beamed and readily agreed that they were good brushers. The truth is they're not. They must have inherited their Daddy's impermeable teeth. Thank goodnesss!

File under 'not a good day to be the daddy': both twins peed last night after falling asleep. First Wil comes crying out of his room around 9pm. We clean him up and put him to bed with us. Then Elizabeth comes crying out of her the guest room around 4:30 (she often sleeps in the guest room because one of us can lay down with her until she falls asleep). So, the guest bed's out of comission. Four of us in the big bed doesn't work. What to do? I suggest we sleep in Wil's bed and she starts to go to meltdown (The reactor core will go terminal in 5...4...). I tell her to stop it and then avert a meltdown by suggesting we go sleep on Wil's top bunk, which idea she loves. We sleep there until Wil comes in around 7:30. Christine couldn't believe I could sleep with her up there and not be totally worried, but I was desirous of sleep on a mattress under covers enough to manage it.

The interesting part of Elizabeth attending preschool is that it's here at church beginning at 9am three days a week, so I bring her two of those days. It's some nice daddy-daughter time.

Yes, the new sleeping schedule is wonderful. Christine and I have some time to ourselves and for each other in the evening again. It's revolutionary.

Preschool orientation went well yesterday, and today, Elizabeth's first full day at preschool, was good too. It's been difficult to get any real information from her though. Without the context, it's been hard for me to understand what she is talking about, and when she first got home she didn't want to talk at all. "I can't talk about it," she said. I was a little worried at first so I asked her if she wanted to go back tomorrow. She quickly agreed, so I think she must just be a little tired or overwhelmed. She and Wil have played really well together all afternoon.

The best part of the day for me was playing with Wil this morning. He's been so excited about staying at home alone with me. "Are you going to stay with me?" "I don't have to go to school!" I love having twins, but having just one child would be so easy for me.

Elizabeth is starting preschool tomorrow. It's time. She can write the first three letters of her name, knows all her colors, most shapes and most of the alphabet. She can count to 10, and add and subtract up to 3. The latter she figured out on her own. That's the kind of stuff they test for readiness for 1st grade. I know she will enjoy being in school. I hope being in a classroom setting will improve her enunciation. I hope the gap between her and Wil doesn't become too great. I hope Wil won't feel left behind. I hope he enjoys his one-on-one time with me. I hope we don't drive each other crazy this week before our own activities start the next. I hope I make good use of our time alone. We will see how it all unfolds.

We're giving up naps. The twins' sleeping schedule, and therefore mine, got totally out of hand during the holidays. Our first few days of the no-nap experiment went great. They both fell asleep before 8 pm. Yesterday we let Wil sneak a 45 minute nap. He was up until 11 pm. No more naps.

Yesterday was Sean's birthday. After he blew out the candles on his cake, the twins asked what he wished for. "I wish for Wil and Elizabeth to obey," he said. They must have thought that was a pretty good wish because today when they were playing birthday party, Elizabeth said, "Wil wished for Roscoe to obey and I wish for Mary Beary to obey."

We celebrated Christmas with the Linfoots last night. They gave Wil the latest LarryBoy video and Dress-Up Mix-Up Larry. When Wil opened the video, he said, "It's what I always wanted!" The Dress-Up Larry is similar to Mr Potatohead. Last night Wil took it, all it's parts, and the box to bed with him. He's got Larry tucked under his arm as he naps now. Elizabeth got a Disney Princess tea set. We've had at least three tea parties since last night as well as a full meal including pork chops, soup, and "round bread." I'm pretty sure she and Laylee are having a tea party instead of a nap.

We've been busy. Busy preparing for Christmas and guests, busy trying to put the house in order, busy making cookies, busy wrapping presents, busy shopping. Elizabeth asked where we were going today. I said "The store." She said, "Again?" in her funny exasperated voice.

We've had fun together this morning. Wil came to my room around 7:30 carrying their new 'Oliver and Company' DVD. "Come on, Mom," he said, "Let's go to the TV room." But he crawled into bed and snuggled some first. Just when I thought he was going to fall back asleep he said, "Come on, Mom" again.

I called Elizabeth a silly goose at breakfast. She thought that was funny and wanted to reenact it over and over. "Can we play where you say 'silly goose' again?"

We put batteries in their new Little People Zoo and played with it. About half of their Little People migrated to the living room to visit the zoo today. That's a lot of Little People.

Now they're playing a combination of Veggies and Oliver. We never did watch the video.

It's no surprise that Christine immediately provided some Elizabeth pictures. She was posing this day. 'Take my breath away...' God, I can't believe how beautiful they are. (Note: she has had her hair cut ('a little trim') since then. Otherwise, this is how she looks these days.)

I sing 'you are so beautiful to me' to Elizabeth. I've sung 'you are so handsome...' to Wil a few times. This morning when I sang it 'you are so beautiful...' to Elizabeth, and then she sang 'you are so handsome...' to Wil. That was a pretty sweet moment.

Here's the latest picture of Mr Handsome Himself. Elizabeth wasn't posing that day - too crabby. More of her soon.

When we woke up this morning there was no snow. It was disappointing, but Wil was sick so it turned out okay. But later it started to snow, and it snowed, and it snowed. By the time Wil woke up from his nap, the yard was nicely covered. When Sean got home, Wil and I went out. He did some sledding, threw some snowballs and pulled his sled around. But the best part was riding in the sled together.

WIL FOUND HIS VEGGIES! And there was much rejoicing.
We went to my closet to get out my ski pants so we could go sledding. He crawled behind my dresses that hang to the floor, and there in the most remote part of the closet, he found his Veggies! He was so surprised and so happy. Sean took him with him to a meeting and Wil took all his Veggies. He wouldn't let Sean put them in the backpack. He carried all five of them to the car. What a relief!

I made a more concerted effort last night to put Wil to bed and to sleep in my bed, instead of in his. This seems to me like it will be best for everyone in the longterm.

And it worked like a dream. They didn't come to our bed until after 7:30 this morning.

Woohoo!

The wishlist idea is working very well for us. The kids see something they want. We ask them if they would like to put it on their wishlist. Plenty of times they say 'no', which shows it's a low priority right there. It helps push out the expectation of getting things right away.

Now if we could only get the daddy on such a program.

It didn't start snowing until this morning, so no sledding yet. It hasn't really accumulated enough yet, anyway.

Plus, Wil is sick. He got up and threw up a little bit this morning (but happened to be in the bathroom and threw up in the toilet). It looked like it could just be phlegm, and he has a lot of drainage, so I just let it go. I gave him some Gatorade.

But he threw up more after I left, so Christine is keeping an eye on him. No reason to worry yet. He even seems to be feeling better.

Hmm. Seems I'm back to taking baths with the kids - but now one at a time. I don't mind. It's actually a decent way to spend time with them individually. Last night Wil opted not to take a shower with me. He just wanted to stay in the tub and play. Since this does not require my presence, and I don't want to sit in there all night, I closed the curtain and rinsed off in the shower while he sat there and played. Then I got out and he kept playing in the tub. Fine by me.

It's suppose to snow tonight. We got a sled. It's orange. Elizabeth wanted purple but there wasn't one. Wil already has a plan for us to reenact part of VeggieTales' "The Toy That Saved Christmas." He's going to play Junior, Sean is Larry, and I get to be Bob. Elizabeth could be Buzzsaw Louie, but she is still pouting about not getting a purple sled. It's just as well. There's no way we're all going to fit in the sled anyway.

I was going to post yesterday that we seem to be in a season of lost things. Elizabeth thought she lost Laylee's headband at Target yesterday. She was so certain, I took them back into the store and we retraced our every step. No luck. Of course it was in the living room with her blanket when we got home.

For some reason, after working out pretty hard last night after work, I had a lot of energy. I was running around with the kids and hid and said Boo and scared them. They thought that was awesome and we took turns hiding and saying Boo until dinner, and then they played afterward while I did some dishes and let Christine go to the library (where did all of this energy and good will come from? I don't know.). They went to bed pretty well. Another decent day. Two in a row. Look out.

More sleep notes: Wil came crying down the hallway last night around 2(?) 'You are supposed to lay with me!'. OK I said and went back to sleep with him. At that point Elizabeth started crying for Christine. On our way by I told her she could go sleep in the big bed. When Wil and I got to his bed he said he wanted his doggie that he took to the big bed. So I went to look. Christine and Elizabeth were both still awake. I didn't find the dog. I said, sarcastically 'Let's just all get up and have a bowl of cereal.'. I had trouble falling back asleep after that. Wil got up to pee a little before 8 and we were off.

As I got dressed, after Christine got up, Elizabeth was still sleeping in our bed. She started to wake up. I have learned not to speak to her first because it often makes her contrary gear kick out crabbiness. She rolled around a little and looked and I just smiled. Her first words were 'nanny, nanny' [as in 'blanket']. We had fun talking with almost only the word 'nanny' for a while. At one point she said 'My nanny' and I said 'Bethy's nanny' and she thought that was pretty funny. She said 'Can you say Bethy's nanny again?'

Bedtime went pretty well last night, too. In fact, yesterday went pretty well. They didn't nap so we got to put them to bed early.

nb: 'Bethy' is my new dear-name for Elizabeth. It's said usually in response to 'Daddy' so it has the same amount of syllables and the diminutive. She's growing to like it pretty well.

Wil's Veggies are missing. Remember that box of packing peanuts from Wednesday? We think Wil hid his Veggies in it. The box went out with the trash on Wednesday morning. We noticed the Veggies were lost on Wednesday night but figured they'd turn up somewhere. The probability of their being in the box didn't dawn on me until this afternoon. When I asked Wil if he put his Veggies in the box, he cheerfully said, "I think so." We haven't told him the rest of the story yet. I've got a lump in my throat and a knot in my belly just thinking about it.

What would happen if Wil was left alone with a ball of string? It happened yesterday, unintentionally, and he wrapped string around every chair between the breakfast nook and living room. It was an impressive mess. Thankfully he mostly wraps instead of ties so it wasn't too hard to simply rewind the string onto the ball. Clean up still took a lot more time than I anticipated and he was no help.

Now can you guess what would happen if he was left with a box of packing peanuts? Clean up was easier. We played 'Scoop' and 'Muck' and had so much fun, they wanted to do it again. Especially Elizabeth. With a little direction, she's generally very good about cleaning up.

I better log something good.

Bathtime went ok. The other night Elizabeth wanted to take a shower with me. She did and it went fine and then, since I was in, Wil chose to take a bath with me and that went fine.

So, last night, Elizabeth chose a bath with me. Well, if I'm going to take a bath with her, I'm going to wear my swimming suit. First she wondered why, which I didn't explain. Then, she wanted to wear her suit. We compromised: she could put her suit on after I washed her body and before I washed her hair. 'This is going to be fun!' she said. And it was fine.

And then it was Wil's turn. So I washed him and then it was time for my shower and I asked him if he wanted to shower with me and he said yes. That went fine, too. When we do that I let him help me wash my hair. I'd say 'Are we done yet?' and he'd say 'No, not yet.'. So bathtime was pretty good.

Should I change the title to 'twin-sleep-log'?

Elizabeth asked if she could sleep with us last night. I told her no and she took it ok. I also told her we'd do it again some other time.

Wil, however, who didn't nap much yesterday, pulled out his 'little monster' act for bedtime. Christine had to ride herd on him from his room. I finally took pity on him and went in and laid down with him. At first he said 'God took everything away from me.'. Wholey mackerel! That's one of the last things I want my son to feel. He said God took away his family and his sister. First, I tried to reason with him - 'No, you have your family and your blanket...' To no avail. Then I just decided to divert. I asked him if he wanted to talk about a story. Of course he said yes. I forget which one. And I slept there with him all night.

What was my reward? Him waking up from a dream saying 'I don't want that little girl to hit me.'. Then 'I want pajamas without socks.', which I was not about to do for him first thing - little arbitrary whim demands. So he said he wanted Momma to sleep with him - thinking he'd get different pajamas - and that's a fine howdoyoudo after I'm the one who slept with him all night. Finally he said 'I want to go talk to Momma' and I said Fine! and left the bed and went and laid down with Momma and let her deal with him. Of course, he laid on my side and put his feet all over me, but it was tolerable. As usual, the thing that got me up was him starting to kick his legs. I said 'Do you have to pee?' and he said yes and off we went.

It was a crappy way to wake up this morning. I did not want to be the daddy.

Well, we caved on the new protocol: Elizabeth slept in our bed the whole night last night. Wil was already asleep. It was 10:30, and we were both too tired to want to go through the bedtime ritual with her.

She was sweet about it, in an innocent, sad sort of way. I asked her if she'd like to lay down with us and she said 'Yes, but only for a little while because you don't want me to sleep in your bed.'

That was so hard for me. In a way, I do want her to sleep in our bed. That time can be really sweet. It was last night. We snuggled. But it's not good for my sleep, and it's really not good for Christine's sleep, and, on a nightly basis it would be bad for our marriage.

So, we might have to fight the battle again to keep her out tonight. But that's ok. There are rules, and it's ok to have exceptions. She has to learn that, too. She can even ask for exceptions. But we get the final ruling.

Wil has developed a very-spotty, very-strange ... accent. I hesitate to type 'southern' accent, though that's what it sounds like. The word I know the best is 'mah' in the place of 'my', eg 'Where are mah covers?'. It makes me laugh out loud every time, of course, though it is very alarming. Where would he get such a thing? We don't even really know anyone who talks like that!

Sean was out of town for a couple days this week. The twins did really well in his absence until last night. Wil woke up at least once sobbing and he cried for Sean for at least 15 minutes this morning. Heart-wrenching sobs. "Daddy come back." He opened the front door and wailed, "Daddy I need you." Poor boy. He's watching 'DragonTales' right now, but we've done a lot of cuddling and tickling and squeezing today. "Can you squeeze me and say 'Mmmm'?"

My friend Kathy and I have discussed the disadvantage we are at when playing with our sons. We don't know how to make very good car sounds or any other engine noises for that matter. We're not very good at sword play because we can't get that "swish" sound right. We certainly never had any practice making the sounds of a laser being fired or an arrow slicing through the air. It must be genetic. Wil and Elizabeth are playing 'Mulan' right now and as Wil grunts and swishes through their attack on the Hun army, Elizabeth says, 'Fight. Fight. Fight. Fight."

The best word I can think of to describe Wil playing 'Mulan' is gleeful. He is in his element. Elizabeth lets him call the shots, so he gets to say, "Can you say...?" alot. She is Mulan and he is alternately Captain Chang Li and Mulan's horse. The Veggies are filling in for Mulan's family or the other soldiers. You can tell which part they are playing by whether or not they have pots and pans on their heads - Wil's good idea for helmets. Except for Laura the Carrot. Laura is a Hun, which doesn't make Elizabeth too happy. Occasionally she says, "I don't think Laura wants to be the Hun anymore." But Wil says she does and the game continues.

Wil and I read the Bible story of the 1 leper out of 10 healed who said thanks to Jesus. I asked him what he wanted to thank Jesus for. He said:

'For my Grampa. For my father named Daddy. For my Momma. For my Grampa called GramPaul. For my Gramma called Gramma Sue.'

Sweet, aye?

Wil's middle of the night request for the past several nights has been: 'Daddy, can we talk about 'Rolie Polie Olie: Great Defender of Fun?' Usually I humor him a little. The last two nights he's come and asked me this in my bed. To save Christine I take him back to his bed and we talk about it a little before we fall asleep again.

Elizabeth and I tried to bake a cake last night for my birthday. It was pretty bad. She spilled cake mix on the counter. We didn't have enough vegetable oil. Or frosting. Or enough of the right ingredients to make frosting. Then part of the spatula broke off in the batter. I think she had fun anyway.

Elizabeth wanted to dance with Sean this morning. "We're married," she said. "I the princess. You the prince." Then they went to the living room to dance. Sean sang, "Once Upon a Dream," from Sleeping Beauty, her current favorite song. What could make a girl happier?

VeggieTales 'Star of Christmas' DVD came in the mail wednesday afternoon. I knew we shouldn't show it to the twins that day because there wouldn't be time to watch it. So I put it in a bag and when Elizabeth woke up yesterday morning (Wil was already up), I told them I had a surprise and would they like to see it. Wil started quoting before the first showing was over. Bob sings about their big break (they're sort of portraying Gilbert and Sullivan), so Wil has Bob and Larry saying things like 'Let's go find out break.'. He started singing the song after the second viewing. The dude's amazing.

Oh, yeah. He wanted to watch it when they got home from Mother's Day Out, but he needed a nap. So he watched it immediately upon waking up.

And...they he was wanting to watch 'Rolie Polie Olie: Great Defender of Fun' on wednesday, so Christine decided it was time to go ahead and invest.

That's about all Wil wanted to tell my dad on the phone last night: that he got those two new DVDs.

We went to the Touchets' last night and kept the kids up too late trying to watch the extended Fellowship of the Ring, but pausing if they came in at scary parts.

When I laid down with Wil I had it in mind that I might just sleep in there the whole night. It seemed better than waking up, going to my bed, having him come in, and then going to his bed, and maybe going back to my bed another time.

I did sleep there all night and it went pretty well. At some point he woke me up demanding I irrigate his nose, which I could tell he did not need. I ignored him successfully, telling him we'd do it in the morning (if he remembered, which he didn't) and we both went back to sleep.

We woke up shortly after 7, but I didn't know that then. He always propositions me with reasons to get up. The can't-fail one is 'I have to pee.'. 'Let's eat some breakfast.' Is also pretty effective. 'I want to watch a video.' almost never works. I wonder if he has figured out this order of efficacy? I don't think so.

One more downside: I've had really bad allergies today. I think I'm allergic to a couple of different things in Wil's room - almost certainly the gold-colored blanket (but I really value being warm). Maybe the pillow, too.

Surprisingly, Wil fell asleep at naptime after Elizabeth. I think I can count the number of times that has happened on one hand. They both slept for a couple of hours and are playing very well together now. As best I can tell it's some combination of Ariel and Veggies. Laylee is Melody, Elizabeth is wearing a crown and answering to 'Mom,' and Wil is speaking for the Veggies. For example, Wil says, "Laura's mom, the Veggies are laughing," then he laughs for them.

Poor Wil.

He went to bed late last night. We were all up early for Christine's folks' departure, Wil rising around 6:30. He was tired and crabby in his class this morning. Went we went to pick him up he said 'That girl hit me.', though I don't think she had. She might have shouted at him, but I think we can all agree he needs to be a little more resilient than that, eventually. He cried when he found out I wasn't coming home until after naps, too. However, he's looking forward to playing with Connor's Larry-Boy tonight. Mainly, he just needs to take a nap.

We've got Elizabeth pretty well confined to her bed. Wil is up and down a couple times a night. Last night he came to bed and I was too tired to take him to his bed. Then he had to get up to pee. Then he said 'Let's go sleep in my bed.' Then I went back to my bed to sleep, after he got up with Gramma Jan. It's ok for now. At least Christine isn't so discombobulated as she was. We'll see if I need to make a change or not.

I just read Sean's comments over on Collaboratory about Elizabeth on Halloween. I laughed out loud. It's such a great description:

Elizabeth, on thurs pm in the neighborhood, did her best Emmitt Smith impersonation: head down, hit the hole, run by the big people, ask for treats. she wasn't trying to be pushy, just direct. she was great.

We went to the zoo again yesterday. It was a beautiful day. Our friends Karen and Connor went with us. They had never been in the Rainforest and we hadn't been in awhile. It was great. Many of the animals in there are free-ranging, so we got up close to marmosets and lots of colorful birds. The Scarlet Macaws were the kids' favorites. One of them kept saying "Hello," which the kids thought was hilarious. Elsewhere, we saw one of the baby snow leopards for the first time and three baby kangaroos. When we arrived a zookeeper was setting out food for the chimpanzees, so we went back later to watch them eat. The kids are amazed that chimps eat lettuce and sweet potatoes and Cheerios just like they do.

We did it. No more kids in our bed. Elizabeth is still pouting about it, but we haven't seen her in three nights. However, this morning I gave her breakfast in bed at 5:30. Wil still comes to get Sean when he wakes up in the morning. He has to go to the bathroom and it's not easy getting that footed-sleeper off. Today it was pretty early, 6:30ish, so we let him get in bed with us for a little bit. He pretended to paint our hands so we could make turkey handprints like they made last night at church. Then he and Sean got up and ate breakfast together.

That's enough. This nighttime wandering has got to stop. It just makes everybody crabby.

Probably what we should do is say the kids can't come to bed with us anymore. They can lay quietly on the floor or ask us to come sleep with them. But this free-for-all is not working. Agreed?

Aunt Erin and Uncle Jeff came for a short visit this weekend. Wil and Elizabeth enjoyed them. Wil, especially, connected with Uncle Jeff, asking him to carry him sometimes. We're grateful for their visit.

The last two times I've come to church without him, Wil has sent his sword with me. He really likes to put it in my 'pocket' [belt] for some reason. I asked him if he didn't want to keep it because I was going to be gone all day and he said no.

Here's an update on Sean's post below: Wil cried almost all morning about Bob and Larry. At 11:30 we had lunch and then he and Elizabeth played before naptime. Elizabeth announced that she had to poop and Wil nonchalantly said, "I poop in my pants. Now we have to take a Veggie away." I couldn't believe it! He said goodbye to Junior.

The twins are backsliding on potty training. Ugh.

So first Christine instituted a cold bath to get cleaned up if you pee in your pants. This woke Elizabeth up. It didn't bug Wil at all.

Wil has especially been pooping in his pants. This is driving Christine mad, as it would any sane person. Last night we were at a sunday school Halloween party and he did it again. It was close, so Christine ran him home. She had had it. So wanted to get through to him. So she decided to start taking away Veggies. He loses one everytime he poops in his pants. He gets one back everytime he poops in the potty. He lost Bob last night.

He lost Larry this morning. He was inconsolable. He said stuff like 'I'll never get Bob and Larry back. Bob and Larry don't want to play with me. Momma took all of my veggies away.'

I feel bad for him, but we really have to get through to him. This is crazy. I support Christine 100%.