Bedtime Conversations with Daddy

Daddy to A. who is chattering on and on about Disneyworld and her desire to go there: 'What color is the sky?'
A.: 'blue'
Daddy: 'What color is your nose?'
A.: orange

I was curious to see what color B. thought her nose was so I asked. She told me it (and her ears) were 'banilla.' (vanilla) :)

Daddy asked A. when she wanted to go to Disneyworld. She said, 'first I have to get married, then go to dancing school and learn ballet'...and there was more...lots more.

Twins

I try very hard not to refer to my twins as 'the twins'...I'm not really sure why, but I always feel a bit uncomfortable calling them that. This does present a problem of reference though - because there isn't really any other way to exclude Baby J. when I need to refer to just the 'big girls.'

Lately A. has started referring to herself in third person. She says, 'Mama, A. wants ___,' or 'Mama, here is A.', or 'A. is sitting behind you' etc. I really don't know what started it. I rarely mix the girls up - occasionally Jer does, but I wouldn't think it would be often enough to cause trauma. We mix up their names about as often as parents of siblings that aren't twins. Of course, I don't know what's going on in their Sunday school or MOPs classes....

The times I do mix the girls up because they look similar are those times that I make an assumption based on previous behavior - like this morning one of the girls (twins) came and crawled in bed with me. I assumed it was A. because she almost always comes in first. At one point I said something to her and go the response, 'But Mama, A.'s not in here'....oh. I hadn't really opened my eyes to see and talking while Baby J. is still snoozing is a strict no-no - so really without seeing her or hearing her voice...how would I know who was there?? Or when we are in the store and they are facing away from me - I notice, out of the corner of my eye, that one of them is getting too far away or trying to touch something so call to her...I often get quite frustrated that the culprit is not listening before I realize that the owner of the name I'm calling out is looking up expectantly at me while the culprit continues on with her misbehavior...*sigh*

Lately, the girls (twins) have been pretending to be dogs. For some reason they are adamant that only one of them can be a dog while the other is the 'people'...so this morning when I tried to feed them their cheerios on the floor (I remember my mom humoring me with cheerio 'dog food' so I decided to be a 'cool' mom like that...) only B. took me up on it. She also renamed herself 'Sparkles'....a very appropriately girly dog name. So, Sparkles ate her cheerios with her mouth while her 'People' A. sat and ate her cheerios the normal way with a spoon and milk. I'm sure Baby J. thinks they are both crazy :)

It strikes me that all the good blogs I read usually include pictures with their posts. I would love to have a picture to post of Sparkles and her people...but unfortunately, I have two hand-me-down digital cameras that were not passed on with the charger cord. So, all my batteries are dead. Someday I'll figure out how to order new ones online...but until then...we're left with boring blog. (I think perhaps I have said all this in a previous blog - but I can't remember which things I actually type and which I just think about posting)

OH! I'll post some pics from someone else's camera! Pics above are from our latest trip to the zoo :)

Friends with/without kids.

I recently read an article in my 'Wondertime' magazine about why it's difficult to keep up with your kidless friends after you have children. Then a friend with kids posted this on facebook and I found it interesting:

Um, well I think if you click on it you can make it big enough to read.

On Barbies

The girls have recently taken an interest in changing the clothes on their barbies. What this actually means, of course, is that all I hear all day is, "could you please take this off," and "could you put this on, I can't." Somehow if I am in the middle of doing dishes I look like I am open and waiting to dress barbies. Any refusal on my part is met with heartbroken wails. I do, however, enjoy participating in Barbie fashion (to an extent), so I try to be as obliging as possible. The girls are encouraged to try it themselves first (B. is more willing to try than A.). All this clothes swapping has led to several Barbie related discoveries on my part.

1) Not all Barbies are the same size. We seem to have 3 sizes. There are the small 'Mariposa' Barbies who swims in all their clothes; there are medium 'normal' size ones- these ones fit in all the clothes; and there are large size ones that seems to be larger through the hips and upper torso (it's not a cup size thing...more of a 34 vs 36 size thing). None of the barbies are visibly different in size (except maybe 'Mariposa') so I didn't discover it until I was trying to cram size Large Barbie into some extra tight gold pants.

2) All but one of the Barbies seem to have some weird flesh eating disease. They are all missing toes and fingers and have deformities all over their hands and feet. One is also missing her nose. The only one whose feet seem to have escaped is the Nutcracker Barbie who wears panty hose. A. informed me that she couldn't bite through the hose because it would be yucky in her mouth.

3) Barbies are good for more than play acting and fashion. Yesterday A. holds up a naked Barbie that was positioned on her tummy with her legs and head as far back as they would go. I was a bit horrified, actually, but I asked why Barbie was doing that and she replied, "cause she's a boat." Of course she is. Later A. was making the same Barbie be the letter "A" and the letter "P".

4)Barbies have to be nakey to swim. Perhaps I should invest in some swim suits for them.

Baby J. has not really taken much of an interest in Barbies other than to bang stuff in and on their house.


We celebrated Baby J's birthday this last weekend. She definitely preferred the ice cream to the cupcake and frosting, but she did enjoy smearing the cupcake all over everything. She got a push/ride on toy, and we're hoping that it will encourage forward steps instead of sideways ones :) She also got her new car seat and seems to enjoy being able to see out. I wish they would have had nice car seats like hers back when we bought her sisters'! It's all pretty and soft and leans back a bit so her head doesn't flop forward when she sleeps. Along with her first birthday came her first molars, and she continues to be miserable today - I'm not sure which teeth are trying to come out. She has 8 in front now (4 on top and bottom) and two back molars. I'm guessing the top molars are starting because she's acting similarly to how she did when the back ones started pushing up.

Oh and one more little thing...last night at supper A. put a corn kernel on her front tooth...I had to laugh even though she was being naughty and not eating her supper. Such a fine line between keeping a sense of humor and enforcing the rules....

One thing I forgot yesterday..

Yesterday as we were driving back home from the rendevous with 'Sugar' I was trying to explain to the girls that it was an important day because our country has a new 'Big Boss' called a president. After we established that I said new big 'boss' not 'box' things went a little better and I think they got the idea.

When we got home, Jer had the tv on and B. points at it and says 'that's Brack Obama'. Now I was a bit surprised because I had never said his name to them or discussed him at any other time (I was on the fence during elections all the way up until I entered my vote into the machine). I'm still not sure how she learned his name and face but he must have been doing something right as far as getting exposure to the masses since my four year old picked up on it!
So, now they know that Obama is the new big boss, but they were sure to remind me that God is the biggest boss :)

***If we seem to have a bit of an emphasis on 'bosses' in our house, it's because A. thinks she's the boss so Mama and Daddy have to reassert themselves as the bosses of the house who in turn have God as their boss etc. We are trying to teach A. that she is the boss of how she speaks and responds, though. (How many times can you use 'boss' in a sentence/paragraph!)

A few more quick things...

I got the girlies back from 'Sugar' today. Baby J and I enjoyed our one on one time and I feel refreshed and ready to resume my Mama duties :)

Two quotes:
From B: "Mama you need a curler thing so your eye lashes will point up like mine." Only four and already rubbing in the fact that she has far superior eyelashes :)

From A. as reported by 'Sugar': "It would be a naughty choice to saw someone in half." A strange thing to holler up from the back seat...but I'm glad she has it pegged as 'naughty.'


And finally, we have all three girls in the same room. Tonight's the first night they will all be in there together. The last two nights Baby J. woke up around 1:30 and cried for quite a while. I tried going in to comfort her but that actually makes her more upset (because she really wants to be fed again and taken back to my bed to sleep). I'm not sure how grumpy she will make her sisters if/when she is loud for an extended period tonight. We had to modify our bedtime routine - but it went more smoothly than I had imagined so *deep sigh of relief*.
We also bunked the girls' beds so I'm waiting to see how that will work out. So far there has been less fighting about the top bunk than I expected (there was just a little bit), and hopefully, they will soon be enjoying all the fun play possibilities bunk beds have to offer (my favorite growing up was bunk bed as ship so we'll see what theirs is !)

Three Things

1) I read yesterday in my 'Wondertime' magazine about studies that came out last year saying that having a fan running in a baby's room can decrease the risk for SIDs by up to 70-some %!!!! That's huge!!!! Woohoo! Yay fans :)

2)This morning we were on our way to church and the radio was on. I had just registered that there was a newish song by Taylor Swift playing when she sang something about realizing she's not really a princess...I heard a very indignant voice holler from the backseat, " I am a princess!" :) B. has no doubts about her royal blood!

3)The big girls are at 'Colonel' and 'Sugar's' house for a few nights so the house is very quiet. Jer and I even found someone to watch Baby J. so we could have a kid-free supper. I don't think we've been to a restaurant without kids in over a year! But the biggest event of the evening was moving Baby J.'s bed from our room into her sisters' room. She went to bed easily so we'll see how the rest of the night goes! I'm hoping to get her used to the room while her sisters are gone and then we'll work on a bedtime routine for all three.

I'm off to finish up some DVRed SNL....and three cheers for family and friends with their free babysitting!!!!

Funny

Just a minute ago A. came up to me and calmly asked for my help (usually when they need help they cry and scream in frustration instead of asking so this was a big step!). She had her panties all in a twist because she had just had a bath and was still wet. As I was helping her she says, "As I was saying, I want to hold you"...all business like. Cracked me up.

I thought Baby J. was just working on molars and then out popped a front tooth - so last week she was working on 3 teeth! Poor thing. The molars still haven't popped out :(

Yesterday we went to the zoo. It was a lot of fun. Baby J. rode in the stroller and watched - never made a sound. I fed her some lunch and a snack and she was totally happy.

A. and B. also had a great time. Except for lunch time. Then they screamed in terror until I took them inside away from....the pigeons. Yes, pigeons. They refused to be distracted from their terror. A. wasn't so bad at first, but B. was climbing me and refused to sit alone. The more I tried to calm her the more convinced she became that the pigeons were really out to get her. It didn't help that the pigeons were so friendly that they would walk under our table and under Baby J.'s stroller. B. demanded several times that the pigeons go away and wasn't happy when I told her that they lived there and probably wouldn't leave. I tried shoo-ing them but the just sort of mosied away. It was when B. started begging to go home that I decided she wasn't going to back down and we went and ate inside.

We got to see the elephant do tricks and the funny orangutan hung by his feet and flapped a bed sheet. All the animals were pretty active so it was a good day to go.


I've watched the first few episodes of 'Superstars of Dance' or whatever that dance show is called with contestants from different countries. B. insists on trying to emulate all the dancers...very cute, but it makes it pretty difficult to see :) She told me today that one of the dancers did a pirouette. I asked her how she knew it was a pirouette...she said that a girl on Sesame Street did one. Yay! Sesame Street :)