... and babies make four: Our life with twins. : April 2016

Landon loves to have his toys “talk” to each other. Today two Little People were having a conversation about his lunch – Little Susie was not interested in eating the “jelly sandwich” so Farmer Joe was trying to talk her in to it for at least one more bite – can you tell what I have to ask of them often? He is pretty polite when he is talking with his toys, they say “please” and “thank you” and “excuse me” to one another. I am really loving this stage. I love having tea parties with them and eating all of the “food” that is presented to me. We give checkups to all of their stuffed animals. We pretend to drive racecars around the house and outside. It gives me pure joy to just sit back and watch the imaginations flow.

They are also learning in leaps and bounds. Riley will just randomly start singing the ABCs to me. Landon loves to count – he misses a few numbers here and there (1,2,3,9,10 or he will start with 6 but then count all the way up to 15). We took them to the library last week and they have a big board of magnetic letters which the kids proudly pulled off individual letters loudly shouting what it was. Any time we finish a story they take the book from me and then “read” it back to me. They know many of their shapes and many colors as well. They seem to shock me on a daily basis with something they know that I did not know they knew! I am still working on a homeschool program with them and they get excited when it is time to do the “school work.” We have been working on letters one at a time and are learning about the weather right now. We have done a lot of projects focusing on Spring and flowers as well.

Spiderman on his web

Binoculars for our "nature walk"

Landon continues to be more of a follower, but he is taking his own turn at fighting back now. We have had several conversations about hitting and time out has become more of the routine. He is quick to get frustrated and cry if she takes one of his toys, but she seems to enjoy the chase. He seems to be more of the driving force behind the imaginative play. He loves to play with cars and planes and make the appropriate noises, but he also loves to feed and rock the baby dolls. He is first to tell me when to “shhh” as the “baby” is sleeping. He loves to hold Camden when I am keeping him during the day and lately it has been a competition of who gets to hold him first – luckily Camden is pretty tolerant of it. I took them to meet some baby animals on the Friday before Easter and Landon was in love. He kept talking about how soft they were and he must have stared down the little bunny in the corner for 10 minutes. He has declared Rocky to be his dog and he makes a very valiant effort at getting Rocky to like him back, but as Rocky is comparable to a cranky old man most of the time, Landon is losing the battle. He works on his toys with his tool box and will often “crash” a toy on purpose so he can fix it – and give the tools their own voices, thank you Handy Manny. Landon has developed an affinity for the little boy next door and if he gets an inkling that he is outside then we must go outside to say hi. Last week we got Landon to run up and knock on the door to ask if he could come out and play. I like seeing him excited to play with the other kids, but he is also perfectly content to play by himself. They continue to nap in separate rooms and several times a week he will wake up and walk out in the hall saying “Where’s my Riley?” with a pout on his face. If she is already awake, she will run up and give him a hug and my heart will explode. He almost always refers to her as “my Riley” and she calls him “my buddy.”

He sure loved that bunny...

Ready to feed the birds.

Riley is busy all the time. She rarely sits down. Even when she is sitting in her chair to eat she gets up frequently and will turn a few circles or dance before she sits back down. We took them to a friend’s wedding earlier this month and as soon as the music started they hit the dance floor holding hands and I just sat there with my heart melting. She still never seems to walk anywhere, she is either running or she is walking on her toes. She loves to swing and makes a beeline for the swings as soon as we get to the park and she will refuse to get off. She seems to have her father’s sense of adventure, while Landon will stay securely on the solid ground – until he sees a slide. She loves to color and play with playdoh and likes to work on the crafts and projects we make for school. She likes to read books to me or sing songs– she is really working on the finger part of the Itsy Bitsy Spider. She has recently started playing with the Little People farm often and makes me laugh as she makes all the animal noises and has them act out their parts. She recently carried a Little People cow around for the entire day. They both like to play with balloons and will ask for the “birthday balloons.” She loves to help me take care of the baby as well and wants to hold him and give him a bottle – with some help. She plays trains and cars and pretend with Landon, usually following his lead. She wants a bow in her hair almost every day and would prefer to wear a skirt or a dress so she can swing around and declare herself a princess. Over the last several weeks, she has not been taking a nap well but if I get her out of her room and lay her on my chest she will nap. Not so good for my productivity, but overall I don’t mind.

Just doing some shopping...

We gave them a couple of new experiences this month. Their first wedding and reception – which they seemed to love – and a baseball game. Technically they have been to a baseball game before, but they were only a couple of months old and had no idea they were even there. We built some bird houses at Lowes, met some friends at Discovery Place Kids, checked out the fist at the aquarium, met some baby animals, went on a lot of walks around the neighborhood, and rode our bikes around. I think they really enjoyed Easter this year as they really understood the concept of the egg hunt. We spent Easter morning at home and did some crafts as well as an egg hunt here. They were pretending that various stuffed animals and toys in the house were doing the hunting, but that made it fun for them.