It is good to be a kid...

The first thing Lily said when she saw my last post was "Mommy, where's Lily's picture?" She noticed that the last pictures were all of Elsa and not of her. My children don't miss a thing.

Life here is going well. We finally had two good sleeps in a row after 2 rather miserable weeks of sick kids. Let's hope it continues. *knock on wood*

We've also had some major developments in the manners department. I don't know if I posted about it, but the girls had been fighting like cats and dogs. Remember that picture of Elsa's bruised forehead? Lots of brute force around here which was driving me to my wit's end. After a week of being picked on by her sister, Elsa started biting. (behavior we hadn't seen in many months). So like Mark and I always do when parenting stumps us, we read some books. One of the parenting books suggested not getting involved in your children's fights. This is contrary to the "talk it out" method we'd been using. The author suggested not taking sides and giving the blanket "no fighting" when the kids got out of hand. (Or as Great-Grandpa Angyus would say "love one another!") If they start fighting over a toy, take it away from both of them. I'm generally not a fan of group punishment. But, it is really hard to be "fair" when both kids are yelling and screaming at the same time. The point of this philosophy is that it teaches your children how to work things out together and puts them on the same team. It takes the parent out of the role of judge. We've been implementing this plan for about a week. And I've heard some amazing things from the girls like "Lily, can I have a turn please?" "Elsa, can I play, too?" Totally unprompted by me! Seems to be working. I'm not saying the girls aren't still fighting. They are, of course. But, I'm truly impressed to hear them use words before they come to blows. Before this week, it was all grabbing and taking without asking.

We also went to the preschool openhouse last week. It seemed to go pretty well, aside from discovering that the girls are total pipsqueaks compared to all their future classmates. The girls got to meet the teachers, color some pictures and play with the classroom toys. Sounds like Mark and I will be spending a lot of time in the classroom as parents of twins have twice as many "helping parent" days as the singletons. Most parents go in once every 3-4 weeks. So, we will probably be in the classroom every couple of weeks.

The girls weren't shy with the teachers. But, they stuck like glue to each other. I asked the teachers their opinion on whether or not we should split up the girls. They think it would be better to keep the girls together unless one of the girls really starts over shadowing the other. Mark and I feel the same way. So, I'm glad we're all on the same page.

There are two classrooms of 3 year olds. I think the girls would be happy in either. Personally, I'm leaning toward the room with the class hamster. His name is GoGo (short for Van Gogo). How cute is that!

And now the pictures.


Elsa and Gaspar blowing bubbles (or at least trying to)


Lily managed to blow a bubble all on her own! Their little buddy Gaspar is going back to Hungary at the end of the month. I know the girls are going to miss him a lot. They've become good friends.