... and babies make four: Our life with twins. : Mount Hollywood

So I forgot to write in April. Where did that month go? My parents came to visit and then there were finals- the dreaded last two weeks of school were rough on my brain and my time. I spent most of my time at work or writing papers or taking tests. It was a long road, but I am happy to report that I got an A in both of my classes and the icing on the cake is that I did get into the LPN program at Gaston College and I will be starting school full time in August. I am excited and anxious to begin this journey. I am already worrying about the balancing act of school and work and being a mom, but I know that I will get it all done. The Hubby has been and will be a huge help during this next year. The plan is for me to attend night school and he will be able to come home from work early and stay with the kids. They will be returning to preschool in the Fall, not Kindergarten. We have made the decision to keep them in preschool for another year as they have only been in an organized classroom for a few months now. I will be using their time in preschool in the mornings to study as I will likely be in school daily from 4-10, so not a lot of time for studying when I will have the kids in the afternoon. Also, not a lot of time for work so donations will be accepted! :)

The kids started preschool in April. They attend the program at First United Methodist Church in Mount Holly four mornings a week. They really enjoy themselves and have a new song or story daily. Landon is not a huge fan of the singing, specifically when they get all the kids (ages 2,3, and 4) together for songs, as I think that is a little loud for him. They have both shown improvements in their handwriting and are close to writing their own names. They have always done well with recognizing letters and numbers but getting them to sit down and write has been a challenge. I am glad that being in the classroom has helped them with handwriting and another year of it will be great for them. The Mother’s Day gifts were also worth the price of tuition as I received a handprint butterfly on canvas from each of them and a handprint flower pot card. I mostly spent my mornings doing homework and in the last few days I have been painting furniture since I haven’t had any homework. I am excited to get a few little projects done around here over the summer while enjoying spending time with the kids. I am going to be strapped for time starting in August, so I want to spend as much time as I can with them this summer. We have been keeping them busy with trips to the children’s museum, the aquarium, making the rounds at the local parks, birthday parties, baseball games, and soccer games. Pat and I took on the task of coaching 7 three and four-year olds for soccer and it has been a bumpy ride. At any given time, we will only have 1 or 2 players upright and not crying and then we must get them to turn in the direction of the ball. On the plus side, Riley has shown some progress and scored a few goals the last couple games.

Riley continues to run everywhere she goes and gains bumps and bruises on the daily. She manages to keep up with the boys in the neighborhood and I have gone outside to see her jumping in the air amongst the boys to catch a football. She loves having all the kids to play with and most of the time I have 2-4 extra kids in my house or yard. The extra long days of play have made for later bedtimes which has led to more than a few crankier days though. She had just started “sleeping in” (like past 7am) when we started preschool and we have had to wake her up for school a few times. Luckily, she wakes up pretty easily, unlike her brother. Riley remains steadfast to her favorite show as Curious George, but she also likes Shimmer and Shine. Her favorite food – and daily lunch request – is a bagel. She has developed a HUGE appetite and will eat all day long. She admits to me daily that she is having a “hungry day” as she will ask for snack after snack. Today she demolished a Happy Meal when I took them to McDonalds to get out of the rain and give them a chance to play. She then proceeded to eat half of her brother’s lunch. This may explain why she is 2 inches taller and about 7 pounds heavier. She is still a snuggler and requests it every morning as she walks up to me with a blanket and wants to sit with me on the couch. (I miss it on the mornings that we are in a hurry to get to school so I take some extra snuggle time on the weekends) She loves to paint and color and wants to share her pictures with everyone. I keep the paint supplies and paper in my closet, so more than once she has started painting a picture while sitting on the bathroom floor while I shower or get ready for work. Her favorite toys continue to be anything animal related and she almost always has a stuffed animal in her hand. Memaw and Papa have helped this along as every time they visit we make a trip to Build a Bear. On their most recent trip, Build a Bear was closed on the one day that we tried to go and Riley just sat down out front and said that she was going to wait for it to open. It took some convincing to get her to leave and then as soon as we picked her up at preschool the next day she was ready to go to Build a Bear again – so this time I called ahead. She does enjoy reading and has a few of her books memorized so she can “read” them to us as well. Overall, she is feisty and stubborn, but loving and wants to help me with everything. She feeds and waters Jasper daily as well as watering my plants outside, so I can’t complain about two less chores – minus all the spilled water I have to clean up.

Jetton Park

She put herself in time out to calm down...

Landon is full of information and questions. I spend a lot of my day listening to him and responding to his “Can I ask you a question?” The other day he informed me that he was starving and then followed that up with the information that “starving is Spanish for hungry.” He is not quite as willing to accept my hugs and kisses during the day as he informs me daily that “kisses at night, hugs at night” but he will let me sneak them in every now and then. I love that they have both started to respond when I say “I love you” and they tell me that they love me too on their way into the classroom in the morning and at night. He asks me how everything works and then will explain it back to me in his own words. The other day the neighborhood boys were all playing in the yard a bee was flying around and they started to run away. Landon stopped them and said “it’s just a carpenter bee. It won’t’ hurt you. It is looking for wood to eat” (so partly right) and the all stopped and told me how smart he is. He has a sweet little lisp to his voice and you don’t hear it on all the words, but he does pronounce “sleep” like it has a th- at the beginning. I love listening to him talk and hope that his voice doesn’t change anytime soon. J Landon’s current favorite TV show (per him) is Blaze and the Monster Machines, but he also loves to watch PJ Masks. He plays with ALL of his toys at any given time but has gotten back into his Rescue Bots again and building tracks for his cars. He sleeps with a pile of stuffed animals each night and wants them all on his bed always. He will typically have a toy at the table when he is eating as well. He remains a picky eater and most often requests to eat cereal or a jelly sandwich as his meal. He LOVES chocolate milk and would drink that all day long if I didn’t vary it up on him. If he hears the word “chocolate” his smile gets a little brighter, so he is clearly my child. He loves having the boys in the neighborhood to play with, but he still likes his alone time as well. While Riley will always come running when someone comes to the door asking her to play, Landon won’t always go outside. He doesn’t seem to be comfortable with large crowds and would rather play with one or two friends at a time. He never really got into soccer as he was easily frustrated when he couldn’t get the ball. He isn’t as competitive as Riley as he asked me several times if I could just get the other team off the field so he could play with his friends.

Easter Festival

Making a bird house at Home Depot

Spring Fest!

Overall, they are learning and growing and exploring – all things they should be doing at this age. We clearly made the right decision in moving to a kid friendly neighborhood as they are loving it and so are we. Last weekend we shared dinner with different neighbors every night and it is nice to feel so comfortable at home. I am looking forward to the summer with them and hoping to get in as much time playing as possible.