The twins love Fisher Price Little People. I wanted to give "Sarah Lynn" to Elizabeth for Christmas. Sarah is Eddie's twin and we already have Eddie. Sarah Lynn comes in one playset which, I now know, cannot be found in any store in Tulsa. Elizabeth is going to get the "Family Van" instead. She was with me yesterday when we went to Toys R Us to pick it up, so I let her hold it in the car. I told her when we got home I would wrap it to take to Giji's house and she could open it on Christmas day. Amazingly that worked. She says, "We go to Giji how an I oh-oh my preh-preh. Furse we geh reh-ree to go to Giji."

If anyone asks the twins about Christmas, they always get the same response. Whether the question is "What do you want for Christmas?" or "Are you excited about Christmas?" or "What's the best thing about Christmas?" they always answer, "Id baby Jee-juh bir-day!"

When Sean opened a bottle of wine the other night Elizabeth said, "I wan one tay." Then to me she said, "I geh one tay, theh you can dree, Momma." Sean gave her a drop off his finger. She made a face.

My Secret Santa gave us You Are My I Love You. Thank you.

Thursday was a tough day. They had a tough time napping and a tough time going to sleep. Christine went out, so I put them to bed by myself. Wil didn't want to go to bed. He fussed for a long time - various complaints. Then he cried out 'Grampa, come back. I need you. Gamma Sue, come back. Elibeh need you. An Eheh (Aunt Erin), come back. I need you and Elibeh need you.' (Mom and Dad and Erin had visited over the weekend and left tuesday). It was pitiful, but sort of funny.

We're in party mode having gone to our playgroup's Christmas party this morning and getting ready for a Homemade Gourmet party at our house tomorrow. Wil and Elizabeth spent almost an hour this afternoon exchanging little sheets of paper and saying to each other, "Will you come to my party?"

Going to the grocery store is a very popular game in our house these days. This morning the twins were writing "lists" on scrap paper. "I nee my lih," Wil says.

In addition to lists, Elizabeth made "gift tags." She'd write for awhile, then hold up a scrap of paper covered in scribbles as if she was examining it and say, "Fum Momma an Da-da."

I sell Usborne Books for children and often when I go to a home show I tell the kids I'm going to see if anyone wants to buy my books. We recently borrowed You Are My I Love You, by Maryann Cusimano, from the library. Elizabeth was "reading" it to herself and said to me, "Can we buy thih book?" It's a beautiful book so I added it to our amazon wishlist.

Wil and Elizabeth are so worn out from Granma's and Grampa's visit that they asked to be put in their cribs less than two hours from when they got up. Wil is reading I Spy Little Letters and Elizabeth is pretending to drive to the grocery store.

Also yesterday: by happenstance, Dad and Wil and I got left in the living room. I said to Wil 'The boys are in the living room. Daddy and Grampa and Wil are the boys.'. And Wil said 'And Mama, Eh-beh, Eh-Eh [Aunt Erin] and Gam-ma Sue are. the. girls!' And I said [glowing] 'That's right! What a smart boy!'.

Long time no update. Sorry.

Mom and Dad and Erin have been visiting, which is always a great time for stories.

Yesterday, when Dad and I were home with them, Elizabeth was explaining a photo-ornament to Wil and said 'That Baby You, Wil.'.

Elizabeth and I have come up with a great way to transition to naptime and bedtime.
After I put her in her crib, cover her up, give her water, etc. we agree that I'll go
clean up the kitchen and then come back to check on her. Sometimes she is awake
and sometimes she's not. Today she told me to go clean the kitchen before I even
thought about it. "Furse keen kih-kih. Theh come ba." It works like a charm.

I was thinking about "twin talk" or idioglossia this morning as I listened to Wil and Elizabeth playing together. There's no question that they're developing something like that. It's not, as some suggest, a "secret" language between them. It's just that they understand their pronunciation of words that still sound unclear to us. For example, the other night Wil was asking to read a particular book, but neither Sean nor I could make out what he was saying. Then Elizabeth repeated it and we could understand her. She, however, understood both ways of pronouncing the title. The thing I found so interesting this morning is how much faster they can talk to each other than they talk to me. It's almost the reverse of when a native speaker slows down to talk to someone who is just learning the language.

I stepped into the garage for a minute to check on some laundry. When I returned Wil had turned my Winnie-the-Pooh slippers into Vikings' ships.

Elizabeth was in a state this morning just before I left. She had to be taken to her crib. She went beserk. Finally, she was able to come out. No discernible reasons. Oh well.

Wil fell again today on the ice. He was telling his teacher about it this morning at Mothers' Day Out. "We pay in de sno. Ih coe. An fwir-fee [slippery]. Buh ih okay."

Elizabeth discovered she could see her breath. "Look Momma. Whai." Exhale again. "Whai."

Funny how different our perspectives can be. I thought having the kids in bed last night was frustrating and not restful. I nearly vowed never to let them do it again.

This morning, however, I thought we had a great time playing outside in the snow. Both kids said "Tha wuh fun" when we came in and asked to go out again this evening. Elizabeth loved brushing all the snow off the swing set and only quit once her mittens were soaked. Wil was less sure about the whole thing, but we ran around and made tracks in the snow and I think he had fun enough. Yes, we were back in before Sean left for work but he left an hour later than usual.

Before we went out Wil was protesting getting dressed. Elizabeth said to him, "I thaw you wan to go ow-sai."

We got our first snow of the year last night and the kids really dig it. We walked around at a place with a lot of Christmas lights and they thought that was pretty fun, especially with the snow. (Elizabeth, however, was very afraid of the Living Snowman - the guy in the snowman suit - and started asking to go home to her house.) They wanted to go out right away this morning, but didn't do so well. Wil doesn't want to wear mittens. He was cold. Then he fell down and got really cold. Elizabeth did better. But they were back in before I even left for work.

Whoa. We had them in bed with us a lot last night. That was pretty okay because we went to bed at 830. Christine had a headache, and I felt tired enough to join her, and I actually fell asleep. First Wil came. Then Elizabeth woke up and figured out where he was and wanted to join him. Elizabeth was fine. She laid there quietly on Christine's side. Wil wanted to play, and he had Junior Asparagus with him. We told him if he was going to play he needed to go to his crib. He asked to go twice. Then, when we got there he picked up his book and said 'Can you read this to me?'. I had to tell him no, that it was sleepy time and not time to read. The first time he opted to go back to the big bed. The second time I left him and he settled down quickly and went to sleep and we made it through until morning. A lot of it was really nice. There was a lot of good snuggling.