... and babies make four: Our life with twins. : September 2015

River Jam at the White Water Center

Busy is an understatement for my kids. In the span of 10 minutes they can dump out four baskets of toys (playing with each for a matter of 2.5 seconds), run up and down the hall with the baskets on their heads, "color" a picture, locate their drinks, call for "Mommy" 15 times, climb on and off the couch, and find at least one more mess to make. Typically I wait until nap time to even attempt a clean up as they are notorious for dumping out the baskets right after I put the toys in them. I recently labeled some of the baskets and we have been working on putting the toys in the right baskets. Let's just say we are taking some baby steps towards picking up after ourselves - now I just need to label some things for the Hubby as well and maybe he will start putting his stuff away - one can hope right?!

I have been working more lately as there have been some shortages and they need the extra help. Most of the time I don't mind the work, but I do hate leaving them and I have serious high levels of "mom guilt" about leaving them with the Hubby at times. Not that I worry about them, just that I don't feel like it is fair of me. He gets the total responsibility of dinner and putting them to bed 2-3 nights a week and then he wakes them up and manages breakfast most days of the week because I have either worked the night before or have to work that night. I worry that he will resent me/my choice to not work the conventional full time job (although he assures me that he does not and will not). Needless to say, I could not function without him right now and I hope he is able to understand how much I appreciate him! I know the kids can be a handful!

She was less than thrilled about the train in Belmont.

As for Riley and Landon, they continue to make me smile on a daily basis. They amaze me with all that they are learning and absorbing about the world around them! I started working with them "officially" on a home school program that I purchased from Hands on Homeschooling. My objective is just to allow them some time to "play with a purpose" each day and hopefully to learn a few things along the way. This month we have been focusing on squares, the color white, manners (picking up our toys, saying please and thank you), and there is a weekly Bible story as well. I am appreciative of the added Bible story as I have struggled for some time with finding what I call a "spiritual level of comfort." I am enjoying being able to read and talk to them about the stories and making the crafts- it is helping me to appreciate the stories and to hopefully find that "level of comfort" I am seeking. For the most part I follow the curriculum, but I look for other ideas on Pinterest and make some necessary adaptations based on their attention spans - like using Veggie Tales videos instead of reading the verses in their entirety So far they seem to be enjoying it and I can tell there is already some retention going on as they are pointing out the color white to me and "square" has become a new favorite word.

Pinterest find... paint in the bag and they are "drawing" on it.

Landon is currently all about his fire hat. He has worn it all day for about three days at this point - shopping in Berkdale on Saturday, lunch at Salsaritas, the library today. We actually had to buy a new hat on Saturday as the one he was wearing was destroyed from all the wear. He can also typically be found carrying around a book about trucks. As for foods, he just eats snacks mostly - fruit snacks to be exact. He could live on animal crackers and fruit snacks and lately it seems as if he is eating non-stop! He has mastered the art of taking the food off Riley's plate and making her think that she just ate it all. His favorite toys are anything fire truck related, a golf set, and a small train magnetic train set. He has started to recognize "Superheroes" and I love to hear him say the word. He loves to watch Fireman Sam and Wishinpoof (thank you Amazon Prime). It seems that he understands now what he is watching as he laughs and smiles at the TV and it makes me smile. He continues to be a little bit of a hoarder, but it isn't as often as it used to be. He will now carry a bag with him when he wants to take a lot of things. Landon has finally started taking up for himself with Riley a bit and he will take his toys back and do things to intentionally aggravate her now. At the same time he does look out for her and if he sees her doing something "scary" he is the first to say "Careful NeNe" and then today she was coughing a little bit and he came over and rubbed her back. They are pretty cute together, but he is definitely the care taker in their relationship.

Cheering at a soccer game

The day he wouldn't take his sunglasses off...

His third haircut... this one went pretty smooth. I think the toy helped. :)

Riley still uses a "boppy," but she is more than willing to give it up when asked. We are working on drinking through straws and losing the sippy cups, but until they learn to carry them right side up, we are sticking with the sippy cups. Riley is more interested in the potty than Landon, but neither one of them sit on it for very long. I think we are still a long way off from potty training. Riley's favorite food continues to be cheese, but she will also eat yogurt, applesauce, animal crackers, raisins - just about anything but meat really. Her favorite toy is a magnetic set in which you can dress up Doc McStuffins characters. She will play with it forever and more than once she has used that play time to calm herself down. She loves to color and will be the first to get out all the crayons or request for me to get out the Play-doh. Her other favorite game is to take the toy away from Landon and run around the house with it until I ask her to give it back - ya know, the usual sibling things. Riley talks non stop and will tell anyone and everyone hi, but unfortunately the conversation does not progress much from there. We are teaching her "How are you?" now so that the can expand on her conversation skills. Riley loves to sing and will request that I sing to her, especially some of her favorites: "The Wheels on the Bus" and "Ittsy Bitsy Spider"