But, I want to play with my friends . . .

It appears we have a couple of little social butterflies on our hands. Lily and Elsa have been developing quite a social life lately. Mark and I joke that they have more friends than we do. Now that the weather's nice, all the doors are open around the courtyard so there are lots of children out playing. Lily and Elsa have taken it upon themselves to go visiting. I often let the girls play in the backyard by themselves while making dinner. I can see and hear them when I prop the door open. But the other day, I went out to check on them only to find they had disappeared. Apparently, they went inside our next door neighbor's house to play with their 3-year old. The dad said "the girls had their faces pressed against our screen door like puppies, so we decided to let them inside." Afterwards, the girls got a talking to from me about going inside people's houses without asking permission. So, the next day they asked to go inside our Hungarian neighbors' house to play with Gaspar and Able. Gaspar's mom said it was ok, so the girls spent the afternoon there eating icecream and playing. They had a great time and the report is they were very good.

So, now the girls want to be with their buddies all the time. We will ask them to do something like eat dinner or take a bath and they respond "but Mom, I want to go outside with my friends!" I've even heard Lily muttering in her sleep about her friends in the middle of the night. I fully expected to hear them beg to be with friends at five our six. But, they are not even three yet! Our little birds are already pushing out of the nest. Sniffle. I'm not sure if mommy's ready yet.

I'm a bit worried because most of their little gang is moving out of the complex this month. We love living in university housing, but the joys of academia mean lots of moving. The girls are going to be really sad. I hope that a new crop of kids move in this fall. And I can't wait for the girls to start preschool. They are going to really love it. They get so excited by other children. Which reminds me, Lily started crying today at playgroup when she had to say goodbye to her friend Annika. Poor kid. But to cheer up, we went home to play in the new sprinkler.


Elsa and Gaspar having a good time with the sprinkler this afternoon.


Even little Able got to play.


Lily and Gaspar having fun.

It is never too late

I thought this article was funny.

A 60-year old woman in New Jersey just gave birth to twins. Can you imagine? I'm worn out and I'm not even thirty.

On a related note, New Jersey has the highest rate of twins per person in the US. They are everywhere. We tell everyone that our twins are actually imported from California via their Indiana parents. But, it is funny to be in a place with so many multiples. We even have triplets down the street from us.

Fountain frolicking

Mommy saved jumping in fountains for midnight frolics in college. (with a wistful sigh to the Showalter and the Music School fountains at IU). But, the girls have a head start on me. Of course, they have a head start on the whole college thing, too, as they will technically be going to school at P'ton at 3. (That joke will never get old at our house. haha). I also have interesting news to report about where the girls might be attending school when they turn 4. But, I will have to leave you all in suspense until a decision is made. But in the meantime, you might want to get your sunglasses ready.



Lillian in the fountain outside the Woodrow Wilson School on campus. I'm a huge fan of fountains where people are allowed and encouraged to interact with them. (there's a couple in Chicago and Seattle that spring into mind). This fountain is essentially a wading pool. A couple weeks ago, I discovered it full of toddlers and undergrads floating around on pool rafts. The students were missing this week due to finals, but the kids were out in force.


Lily was fearless. She went right out to the middle.


Elsa liked playing on the steps around the edges. Do you have any idea how much Elsa adores her new bathing suit? The child has demanded to sleep in her suit at night. She love it THAT much.

A lovely day

My family gave me such a sweet Mother's Day celebration. The girls woke up at six and crawled in our bed for snuggle. They were so cute. They kept saying "Happy Mother's Day!" in such excited little voices. That's the best part about 2 and 2/3's. The girls have such enthusiasm for everything. Then, they gave me a gift of a paper star lantern and serenaded it with "Twinkle Twinkle, Little Star." For our adventure, we went to The Grounds for Sculpture in Hamilton, NJ. It was such a neat place to visit. Acres and acres of modern art installations and gardens. The weather was absolutely perfect and we had a great time wandering around. I just loved hearing the girls interpret the sculptures. "Mommy that one looks just like ice cubes." The picture above is my annual Mother's Day photo with the girls. (L on my lap, E in front). I just love it. Lily and Elsa are such a gift. Every day, I am amazed and grateful to be their mother. And I am also grateful every day for the loving and guidance given to me by my mother, grandmother, mother-in-law and aunties. I am blessed to have such strong women in my family.


Look at the brunch Mark made. Just kidding! We thought this table was set for a fancy lunch by the lake. But, it is actually a sculpture. But, I didn't cook a single meal all day. Mark made homemade waffles for breakfast and a really nice steak dinner. Scrumptious.


The best thing about the sculptures is that they were all touchable. Some of them were even interactive with bells and mallets for the girls to ring. The girls especially liked this shiny silver piece. It was fun for them to climb inside.


There were also a number of water installations. There were little ducks swimming and the flowers were in bloom. It was so nice.

Kentucky Roadtrip 2007

We are back from our visit to the Beggs, all the way to Kentucky. The girls were fantastic. I'm so proud of them. We had 1,300 miles of driving over the course of 5 days. They loved their vacation and were so happy to play with all of their cousins.

I think we've finally crossed a hurdle with the baby stage. No more travelling with two packNplays, booster seats and strollers. We didn't have to bring any babyfood or bottles. We fit all our stuff into an economy sized rental car. Yay! We're feeling a lot less overwhelmed with the amount of equipment needed to manage little twins. And it is so cute to hear their little voices chatting away in the back seat.


The driving went well. We divided the 10 hour drive into two days so that the girls wouldn't get overwhelmed. They were happy as clams eating Doritos and watching DVDs the whole way. Here's Elsa looking pretty relaxed.

The hardest part of driving was dealing with the bathroom habits of the newly potty trained Lily. She's figured out that she has a trump card. So, she'd cry "Poop!" at regular intervals whenever she got bored. You don't exactly want to play chicken when your two year old says "I've got to poop NOW!." Mark and I kept having conversations like "Should we stop?" "I think she'll forget about it. Let's make it to the next rest area." "Fine. Then, you're cleaning up any accidents." "Deal." It made for a long drive down the Pennsylvania turnpike. But, we played our cards right and avoided any accidents. But, we saw many many bathrooms along the way. And Lily wanted to check each one out thoroughly. She is completely fascinated by all the different kinds of flushing mechanisms. The automatic flushers really got her attention.


Here they are at the hotel. (E, L) The girls were pretty darn excited about swimming in the pool and sleeping in the big beds. Sharing a bed with each other lasted approximately 5 minutes before they started fighting. Then, they both wanted their OWN queen sized bed. So instead of sleeping on the floor, Mark and I both bunked with a girl. My bed buddy was Lily. At some point in the night, she turned sideways with her toes in my ribcage and screamed every time the blanket touched her. Mark thought he got off easy until the last night when Elsa pulled the same stunt on him.

On Saturday we arrived at Mark's sister Laura's house for Haley's first communion celebration. Grandma and Grandpa P, Aunt Ruth, Cousin Amy and Little Ava were also there for the party. The girls were SO excited to see all their cousins in one place. Laura and Mark have a great spread in the hills across the river from Cincinnati. The house has wrap around decks, panoramic views and 5 acres for the kids to roam and play. It was kind of like going to a resort. Our girls chased their older cousins around like little puppies. It was so cute. I think everyone was pretty impressed to hear the girls talk-talk-talking. They weren't really talking very much at our last trip back in August. They also had Aunt Ruth and Cousin Amy in hysterics with their fighting. Ruth said it was completely unexpected to see such cute little girls suddenly start physically attacking each other. It just cracked her up. (And to think last week, I was bragging about how much better the girls were getting along!)

Laura and Mark were amazing hosts, especially considering there were 7 little ones (4 extra) running underfoot I'm so impressed by all the food. We had beautiful meals both nights and had treats like homemade cheesecake and cinnamon rolls. Wow. It was so nice to have a relaxed visit. Usually, we're rushing back and forth at various family events.


Lily, Brian (3), Elsa and Leah (5)


At the kid's table with Brian.


Lily swinging with Leah. (at some point during the weekend Lily became a nudist again).


The girls with their Grandma and Grandpa.

More pictures of the trip here.

The drive home went uneventfully. The girls were very sad to return the car and get back to civilian life. They told me they had such a great time.

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.