On the way to the ballet yesterday we drove by a billboard that said, "Introduce your children to a real superhero: Jesus Christ." I will spare any readers my thoughts on billboards, but I did pause to think about whether or not my kids thought of Jesus as a superhero. How does Jesus compare in Wil's mind to LarryBoy or the Rescue Heroes? What would Elizabeth say is the difference between Gandalf and God? Then last night we were reading Disney's version of The Black Cauldron and Elizabeth asked "What does 'rule the world' mean?" I said that it means the owner of the Black Cauldron would be in charge of everyone and everything. She answered, "But he wouldn't, because God is."

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.