Two little turkeys

We call this Elsa's Picasso Turkey


Lily chose a more traditional path with hers.

Lots of things to report. We've entered the crunch season for Mark's work. End of the semester fun + one talk in Boston + the big annual conference in SF all before Xmas makes for a busy Panning household.

Just to up the ante a bit, I started a part-time job this week at the Princeton Public Library in Lending Services. It is fun to get back to my roots as I worked in libraries during high school and college. Plus, libraries are a very orderly and quiet place to be when you're dealing with 3-year old twins as your primary work. Princeton has one of the most fabulous public libraries that I've ever seen. It is a new building they designed everything to be really cozy and user friendly. Nice lighting, couches, fireplaces and you can even buy coffee. My coworkers are really nice and they seem flexible about my hours in order to accommodate Mark's travel schedule. We've managed to keep home, preschool and both places of employment all in walking distance of each other. So it makes it a bit easier to trade pickups, drop-offs and childcare.

The girls are fabulous and fun as usual. Right now, they're getting along with each other really well. (Got to appreciate these good times!) They've been playing a lot. They make up really elaborate games. They like to make up stories about how they're visiting each other's apartments or going to see their cousins or going to school. They've named the squirrels in our front yard Dinky and YoYo and make up stories about them, too. They're getting really good at recognizing their letters and numbers. They'll see a circle and shout "That's an O" or a stick will look like a "7" to them. They like to play rhyming games and have been asking me to point out words in books. So, I think they're beginning to figure out that letters make certain sounds. Phonics 101. It is fun to watch them figure things out.