... and babies make four: Our life with twins. : August 2019

Kindergarten. We start Kindergarten tomorrow! I can hardly believe that the time has flown by this quickly! The kids are a combination of nervous and excited. They will be in different classrooms, but Landon drew the lucky straw and a neighborhood friend will be in class with him. We have done a lot of talking about how all the kids will be new to school and they will make friends over time. Riley is most nervous about meeting people while Landon is most nervous about being able to eat his lunch in the allotted time. Priorities. The biggest change around here is that I have graduated from the Practical Nursing program and am working full time as a nurse at Holy Angels. I am on first shift so it has been an adjustment for my sleep as I am not a morning person and have been staying up late to study and sleeping in a bit and now, I have to get up and out the door – often before the kids have even work up. It won’t be as bad once they have started school as they won’t really have a chance to miss me during the day, but they have noticed the change and me not being home during the day. They are happy that I am home at night though and have been able to read them their bedtime stories and get baths done.

Abrienda stayed with us for the summer- free slushie day!

Landon has a super active imagination at all times. He currently enjoys pointing out the Pokemon that he “sees” everywhere we go. He also carries around imaginary balls in order to catch the ones he sees. (Please no one ever tell him that there is actually a game that puts Pokemon out into the real world) He is busy all the time sorting, and organizing, and talking, and playing, and creating. I have trouble keeping up with him most of the time! He has done very well with this summer with completing the worksheets and projects that I have given to them. He still writes his name with a capital A because he insists that he cannot write a lowercase a, but I am sure that will change eventually. He is great with math and has already started some of his multiplication. He continues to love all things mechanical and being able to figure things out. As I type this he is explaining to me how the ball he just threw did not hit the ceiling because it did not have enough force. Seriously though, as smart as he is, this kid takes forever to eat. His record is 1 hour for 3 black beans. He procrastinates and fights and gets distracted and in the end we are all exhausted. He likes to eat peanut butter and jelly sandwiches, cheese, poptarts, and bananas. It is a struggle to get him to eat meatHis current favorite toys are Legos, stuffed animals, and his Slinky dog from Toy Story. He always has at least one toy with him and attaches to the toy of the moment until he finds something else to carry around. We have signed him up for tumbling this season and he and Riley will be in the same class. I also think I am going to take him to one of the boys “break dancing” classes and let him check it out. He had mentioned last season that he wanted to dance and I think he would have fun.

6th Birthday party at the Schiele Museum

Riley loves to draw and paint and make projects. She keeps herself busy cutting up paper and gluing them together. No piece of paper in the house is safe. As she sits next to me now she has a scrap notebook and a pen and told me she is writing a list- of what I have no idea. Riley loves to sing and dance and has some current top 40 hits that she likes to sing along with, since I have no idea who sings what anymore I could not even tell you the name of the songs. We do get a kick out of hearing her singing in the backseat though. Riley just got her hair cut short and she loves it. It will hopefully make things a little easier on school mornings as she doesn’t like me to put her hair up and fusses the whole time it is brushed. Daddy is going to be in charge of getting them ready for school so that challenge will be on him now. No challenge getting her to eat though, the challenge is getting her to stop eating. She would eat all day long if no one stopped her! She loves everything, but reports her favorite food to be macaroni and cheese. Her favorite drink is whatever you are drinking because she is going to ask to have some of it. We took the plunge and got her a hamster for her birthday and she is in love. She likes to get him out in his ball and let him run around the house. She loves all of her stuffed animals and any toy that is animal related. She loves to read and have books read to her. Her favorite thing to do is to help – even if it is just putting the dishes into the dishwasher. She is super sensitive and it makes me a little worried about how she is going to get along at school, but she also makes friends quickly so I am banking on that skill to get her through.