What a weekend!

Let's see; gardening, shopping, playing at the park, and getting locked out of the house, yes it was quite a weekend.

GARDENING is a new thing for me. To say that I am not much of a gardener would be a severe understatement. Every time in my life that I have tried to take care of a plant it has ended badly for the plant. I either have no idea how much to water it and end up drowning or starving it to death (enter my new tool the handy dandy water meter) or I get busy with other projects and totally forget the plant exists until it is no longer a plant and just a bunch of dried up leaves. Now that we own a house (and my kids begged me to plant some flowers "like Nana") I have decided to try my hand at this. First stop the library to find out what types of plants do best in my area, followed by which need the least amount of upkeep, and since I plan to start in our back yard which is mostly shady I needed to find out which plants are best suited to shade or light sun. Then off to Wal-Mart and Lowe's we go to get some tools and plants (this is where the SHOPPING part of the weekend comes in). Get home Friday afternoon and start digging a hole to plant my new Dwarf Gardenia plant and fairly quickly I discover that where I want to plant is already home to several large tree roots from the large shade tree 6 feet away (who thought tree roots would be so close to the surface this far away from the tree, certainly not me) so after digging a 3 inch deep hole and being blocked by roots to large to pull out I decide this is not going to work. Then I get the brilliant idea to just pot the plants and set them in the spot I had chosen. Okay, tomorrow, more SHOPPING.

So Saturday morning we head back to Wal-Mart and get the pots. It is such a nice day we stop on our way home at the PARK and play for a bit. But, alas, the fun ends when the ice cream truck shows up and the girls start whining for ice cream and I have to explain to them that the ice cream man won't take debit cards and that is all I have on me. Then I remember that we have popsicles in the freezer at home and figure this will keep them busy while I start potting the plants so we head home. Two popsicles later I have only potted like half a plant and they are already begging to "help" so I let them "help" (and I use the word help very loosely) me plant the flowers we got and then they swing for a while. Now somewhere in here between them running in the house to wash their hands, let the dog in/out, changing into flip-flops, and going potty the door gets locked and closed but I'll get to that later. About halfway through the potting of the plants they start playing first with their watering cans full of water, then a bucket full of water, then the mud made from the bucket full of water and I realise that it is probably a little too cool for them to be playing in the water but I let them anyway because I figure all kids should get to play in the mud when they really shouldn't once in a while. Okay, who am I kidding, I let them play in the mud and water so they will leave me alone so I can finish this gosh darn potting before my back completely gives out! Finally I am finished. I still need to clean up the mess we have made but they are starting to complain they are cold now (I wonder why) so I hose off their feet and hands and we head in. Or not. We are LOCKED OUT!

At this point I curse a string of profanity that my sailor husband would be proud of, and no 5 year old should really hear and beat my head against the door hoping it will magically pop open. When it doesn't I try to "bump" it open like they showed the criminals do on the evening news the other night but no luck. Of course I haven't got a spare anywhere, my cell phone is in my purse (in the house) and my husband is out to sea for a month. It is truly one of those "Calgon, take me away" moments. So we head over to the neighbors to beg the use of a phone to call a locksmith, and she couldn't be nicer but I feel like such a loser. Luckily the locksmith says he can be over in a half hour so we head back and clean up our tools and sweep up the potting soil mess. Well I should say I clean up the mess while my darling daughters huddle up in the sleeping bags I drag out of the garage for them because they are "freezing". Some days it just doesn't pay to try and be productive.

Are you a boy or a girl?

It is really a good thing I don't get embarrassed easily because lately the girls have been working overtime with the awkward questions (see previous blog entitled "Are you from France?"). Yesterday as we entered the library a pretty woman in a white dress was walking by who had a shaved head and Savannah just popped right out with the question "Are you a boy or a girl?". Luckily the girl was really nice about it she smiled and said nicely "Well I'm wearing a dress, so what do you think?" and they both said girl and we went on. I mouthed sorry to her but she shook her head and said it was okay. Later inside the library I saw her walking by with a friend and she was pointing at the girls obviously telling him what happened and I heard her say "at least they asked and didn't just stare at me like most kids do".

Are You From France?

So we are at the grocery store and we get the usual question . . . "Are they twins?" from the guy bagging the groceries. He had a heavy accent so the girls didn't really understand him and I sort of "translated" the question to them. So they say yes they are twins and then one of them (I forgot who said it first, but it seemed almost like they did it together) says "Are you from France?". Well it was obvious to me he wasn't French, however, since he had a pretty heavy accent and they haven't been exposed to any accents very much I guess France was just the first place they came up with. They watch several shows in which the characters travel the globe such as Little Einsteins, Wonder Pets, and even Dora and Strawberry Shortcake had world traveling adventures so I can see that they are learning about different cultures sounding different. Now they will know a Filipino accent.

Why do I buy them toys?

Sometimes I question why exactly I buy the girls toys. If I had a better imagination and didn't have toy addiction of my own I don't think I would have to buy them much because a lot of times they entertain themselves with the simplest things. Here are a few of their latest "toys".

"Blackie" - Blackie is the name they have given to my computer wrist rest. It is one of those long gel filled things you put in front of the keyboard to support your wrists when you are typing. They discovered it one day while playing on the computer. Next thing I knew "Blackie" was in the doll cradle being covered with a blanket like a baby. The thing is they have at least 10 baby dolls between them.

"Upside down tv" - This is their favorite lunch time game. In our house we have a breakfast bar between the kitchen and dining room. I have them eat lunch most days at the bar. Since I am always telling them they can't get up when they are eating (and they follow this rule pretty well actually) they have found many ways to amuse themselves (and drive me crazy) while supposedly eating their lunch. There are two versions of upside down tv. The first version is there they both lay on their chairs on their backs with their feet facing each other. They then proceed to basically tickle and kick each other with their feet. In the second version they lay on their backs on their chairs with their faces facing each other. They then tickle each other and grab each others faces. They think it is all very hilarious and it is pretty funny to watch. I still can't figure out why it is called upside down tv. The upside down part I get, but where does tv come into it? I have no idea.

Got the Wii

We got a Wii game console. Figured it would be something fun to do as a family. So as Joey is setting it up it comes to this screen that asks you to give your Wii a nickname so Joey asks me and I say "whatever you want". He says "Wow" and I'm thinking that is the nickname like "Wow-Wii" and then he starts telling me about some cool thing it does. A few minutes later he asks me again what should the nickname be and I say "I thought you said Wow". He just gives me this dumb stare and so I clarify "wow-wii" and tell him I think it is cute. He burst out laughing because he was saying wow about whatever cool thing it does that he told me about not the nickname, but now he thinks it is cute too, so we use it. Later as Joey and I are testing out the games the girls come in and want to try it. At this point we are doing the boxing game. So we set them up and instruct them on how to play. They got so into it! Joey and I were laughing until we cried watching them box at each other and we had to keep grabbing them by the shirt and pulling them back because we were afraid they were going to punch the tv screen because they kept moving forward they were so excited. The kids are better entertainment than any video game!

That's Freaking Me Out

The other night at dinner after asking the normal dinner time questions (how was your day? what did you do today?) the girls asked Daddy to do a magic trick. I really don't know where they came up with this because Daddy is not really a magic type guy and I can't recall him ever doing magic for them before, but anyhoo . . . Joey does the standard, taking his finger apart and putting it back together trick for them. They are both pretty impressed and ask to see it again. Savannah watches closely, takes a moment to absorb it then states "That is freaking me out."

Does a 5 year old say "suitable"?

Today Sydney was chattering along, planning some sort of party called a spring festival. She is telling me who will be invited, what kind of food there will be, what kind of presents there will be, etc. Then she informs me that this will take place at Nana and Papa's house because it is more "suitable". So I ask her why their house is more suitable, wondering if she really knows what suitable means, and she says because it is bigger, and has more flowers so it really is more suitable for a spring festival. Okay.

The Sound of a Trumpet

The other day the girls were playing in their room, I popped my head in to see how they were doing and heard a fart. I teasingly asked "What was that?" to which Syndey innocently replied "A trumpet." Where she heard this I have no idea!

Funny things 4 year olds say

My girls are about to turn 5 in a month! Can't believe it! I've been pretty bad lately about the blog so this one is going to be a round up of some things I remember the girls saying this year.

1. "Mommy, when will I get a tattoo?" - Sydney, out of the blue, but since mommy, daddy, and both grandma's have them I guess it is understandable.

2. "That lady has pretty hair, but her eyes are scary" - Savannah about the flight attendant's eye makeup (thankfully whispered). My reply was "I hope you remember this when you are 13".

3. "What about the P Q R?" - Savannah after overhearing me telling another mom that I was going to take them to the Z O O (spelled so they wouldn't hear and start asking "when" every 5 minutes.)

4. "Are there witches in our world?" - Sydney They both ask this type of stuff all the time, which just shows how they are thinking all the time, but it is funny that they also refer to different states and towns as "worlds" since they don't really understand the concept of states, but they know we have moved and family lives in different places. They will say stuff like "that school was in our old world".

5. When they were fooling around tilting their chairs back at dinner one night I said that they should be careful or they would fall and crack open their heads and asked them if they knew what would happen then to which Savannah replied that "candy would come out", when I laughed and said no that candy wouldn't come out Sydney said maybe "rocks" to which I had to answer "maybe". lol

Fairly Odd Parents!?

There is a cartoon on Nickelodeon called Fairly Odd Parents. The premise is that this 8 year old boy's life sucked so much that he gets two fairy god parents (husband and wife Cosmo and Wanda) who can fulfill his wishes as long as he doesn't tell anyone about them. The catch is that the wishes rarely turn out like he thinks and he usually ends up learning an important life lesson in the process. This show is actually for a little older audience than my 3 1/2 year olds, however, my husband and I enjoy it too so we watch it. Well whenever someone asks the boy (Timmy) where he gets all these things he wishes for he just answers "internet". So, to get to the story the other day my girls were going to a new gymnastics class and I reminded them to tell the teacher who they were if the teacher got them confused. So they started joking around asking each other who they were, then started answering "I'm Savannah, that's what it says on my underwear" and "I'm Sydney, that's what it says on my underwear" and laughing uproariously. I started laughing too, mostly because I know they had no idea what that even meant. So I asked them where they had heard that (although I had an idea) and they answered "internet"! Then I really laughed. When I finished laughing I asked them where they had really heard that and they said "Cosmo" from fairly odd parents. They sure don't miss a thing!

Funny Things 3 Year Olds Say

When told that we were taking the nuggets and fries home to eat: but daddy, nuggets don't have a home

When told there was more than one hot dog store in our town: I don't know about that Pawpaw

When looking at the new carseats in Nana and Pawpaw's vehicle: Sweet deal

When about to get in trouble for making a mess out of a marker display at the store check out: Momma, don't get mad, I'm just organizing these pens

SWEEThearts

Today when I picked up the girls from day care they wanted to "go to a store" like they always do. I needed a couple things so we went to Wal-Mart. They were actually pretty good and when we were in the check out line they saw the candy and started looking at it. I pointed out their favorite (mini M & M's in the little tube) and Sydney said "can I have one?" I said okay and she said "Nana too?" (she is always so good to look out for her sister) and I said yes. Then Savannah pipes up and says "you're the best mom". It was soo adorable and when Sydney said it too I got a little teary. They can be such sweethearts.

Rough Week

It all started last Thursday when I picked up the girls from Mom's day out. Sydney woke up from her nap crying, which she never does, so I knew she wasn't feeling well. When we got home she had a fever and all she wanted to do was cuddle with me. Joey got completely freaked about the fever, so much so that he went out to buy a new thermometer so he could take a rectal temp. We had one of those digital ear thermometers that we bought before the girls were born and they suck, total crap, never buy one. You can take a temperature and usually you know it is way too low. Take it 2 seconds later and 10 degree difference, take it 2 seconds later and still a huge difference, so every time we have had to use it (which thankfully we have been lucky that the girls haven't been sick often so we haven't really had to use it much) but we say we are going to throw it out. I was worried about the fever too of course, but not freaked like him. Anyway, it was a little high but not freak out high. She had the fever about 24-36 hours and it was so pathetic to hear her say "I wanna go nite-nite" in that sick little voice. When the fever broke her nose started running like a faucet, seriously, I think all I did Saturday was wipe her nose. So much for any fun on the weekend. So then, as often happens with twins, Savannah started. Monday night she had a fever and even threw up, although I think she only threw up because I gave her medicine on an empty stomach, whoops! Normally they go to mom's day out on Tuesday's and Thursday's but not this week and of course I had plans both days. I was supposed to get together Tuesday with a friend to work on club business for my Mother's of Multiples group and Thursday I had a hair appointment, doctor's appointment and that night was my club mom's night out which I missed to because my husband got sent out of town for work Wednesday morning leaving me alone with two sick kids for who knows how long, great! Friday Sydney started feeling better and Savannah's fever finally broke right when I was truly starting to worry. She had practically slept for 3 days and whenever I asked if she wanted anything she just said "no thank you" in that sad little sick voice. Well now Savannah is in the "nose running like a faucet" phase. Of course it wasn't great timing that Friday we also ran out of milk, Kleenex, and diapers (well, 4 left), so today I had to go out to get essentials with Savannah still not feeling well. To top off my day, I had schedule the cable guy to come and finally install high speed internet because I thought my hubby would be home by then and so I had to wait on him before I could even go to the store. Then to really make me feel like shit I forgot to call one of my best friends and tell her I wasn't going to make it to her baby shower, so she called about 20 minutes after the shower was supposed to start saying they were waiting on me! Calgon take me away! Tonight I put the girls to bed at 8:00 pm (their normal time) but Sydney didn't want to go to bed. Well normally I would have let her stay up a little longer, but I was beat and just needed some down time (or is this venting time?) so I put her down anyway and she screamed "I don't wanna go nite-nite" for about 10 minutes. Now 10 minutes may not sound like much to some people but my girls are usually pretty good about going to bed (knock on wood) so it was strange. All I can say is thank god my mother is coming on Tuesday, I plan on really abusing her this visit!

I'm not bad!

I don't think I ever mentioned this before but when the girls first started talking in sentences Sydney's most used phrase was "I'm not bad!" I don't really think I said she was "bad" or being bad but a few times but she just picked up on it. So it got to the point that she would just say "I'm not bad" as soon as you started scolding her even if you didn't say bad. Because she was saying this so often I really made an effort not to say "bad" so I started saying "That's not appropriate" when they did anything wrong. So as you can imagine, with 2 girls who are 2 1/2 I say "that's not appropriate" quite a bit. The other night we were over at a friends house hanging out and Joey was teasing the girls and Savannah told him "That's not appropriate". It was hilarious! Out of the mouths of babes.

My Babies Started Mom's Day Out

Tuesday my girls started a mom's day out program. That means they go to a day care twice a week for 4 or 5 hours. I wasn't really worried about it. I am not the type to be all sentimental and gushy but I have to say I got a funny little tickle in the pit of my stomach when I left them. They were a little nervous and hanging on my legs when we first went in the classroom, but they were just serving the morning snack so I sat them down at a table and as soon as the apple juice was in front of them they were fine. They didn't even cry when I left which both relieved me and disappointed me in a strange way. The house was so quiet that it made me nervous, I never used to care about that. It was really nice to run errands and get some stuff done at home in a timely manner though.

More on Annie

I have already expounded on the dangers of Annie in a previous blog, but now I have to tell you about the adorable (almost on the verge of annoying) part. My girls LOVE Annie. If they had their way we would watch it at least 3 times a day every day but there is no way I could take that so we watch it slightly less. The other evening after watching Annie (which they begged to watch again immediately) they decided they would just put on their own Annie performance. Now remember they are only 2 1/2 so their Annie performance mainly consisted of singing the line "tomorrow, tomorrow, I love ya tomorrow. You're only a day away" from the song Tomorrow over and over. They also sing the line "dumb dog, why are you following me?" from the Dumb Dog song over and over. Then they proceed to pretend our dog Ferris (a beagle) is Sandy (the dog in the movie) so they call him and drag him around by the collar calling him Sandy. Believe me it is all very cute, but after about an hour of the same two lines of a song it can become wearing and the dog just wants to lay down. So I was in the middle of making dinner and decided to call their Nana to let her hear them sing for a while. Usually when you put them on the phone they don't talk much, just answer yes, no, and say I love you but that night I told them to sing and boy did they ever sing. Over and over and over and over, until I'm sure even Nana was getting a little bored with it. Then Nana put Paw-Paw (grandpa) on the phone and they sang for him, then Joey called his mom and they sang for her, then he called his dad and they sang for him and his wife. I still can't believe how long they kept singing the same two lines and that night in the middle of the night one of them was singing it in her sleep! Needless to say I went out and bought the Barbie Fairytopia video yesterday just so I wouldn't have to watch Annie again.

Mud Babies

It's been raining in my neck of the woods the last couple of days so when we went over to a friends to BBQ I knew my girls and their almost 3 year old girl would probably be playing in the mud but I had no idea just how much fun it would be. They started out making mud pies in the planter surrounding the tree in the front yard. Well the 3 year old is totally into being naked so when she took her shirt off my girls had to follow suit. They immediately proceeded to rub mud all over their bellies and then they rubbed mud on each others backs. From there a mud flinging contest was started, which turned into the three of them chasing each other around the tree with mud. Once they wore each other out doing that they discovered the big rain puddle at the end of the driveway. At this point Jenna stripped down totally and the girls again followed suit. That was fine for Savannah who just had a little pee-pee in her diaper, but we soon realized Sydney had poo-poo. Luckily we caught it before any mess ensued and were able to rinse her off and confiscate the diaper. While we were busy doing that Savannah was dunking her diaper in the water and soaking up so much water that the diaper became a huge sopping ball. She and Jenna then proceeded to put their wet shorts, Jenna's undies, and Savannah's diaper in the mailbox. I feel sorry for their mail man.

The Dangers of "Annie"

I recently purchased the movie Annie for my girls. I remember loving this movie as a kid and I knew there was a lot of singing and dancing in it, which they love. As expected they love it and want to watch it all the time. They have even started singing some of the songs on their own, like in the back of the van when we are driving somewhere. The other day though I discovered a down side to Annie. My girls have started telling each other to "Shut Up". Now this is not something I say ever (not because I'm super mom and don't ever yell or anything, just because it's not something I really have to say . . . yet.) So I'm racking my brain about where they could of picked this up when I realize it was Annie. It really is a sweet and cute movie and I love Carol Burnett playing the drunken Ms. Haddigan who oversees the orphanage, however, she does yell at the kids several times in the movie to "Shut Up" and this is where my girls picked it up. So now I'm having the discussion about not being ugly to each other but frankly there are a lot worse things they could have picked up so oh well. We will continue to watch Annie.

Car Accident

Savannah got run over, well, not by a real car. The other evening we took the girls over to a friend of ours to hang out. They have a little girl (Jenna) who turns 3 in September, so it is fun to get them all together to play. A month or so ago Jenna got one of those little motorized kid cars that can go about 3 miles an hour. It is a really cute Volkswagen Bug one. She is really good in it already, she cruises all around their culdesac and up on the sidewalks and everything. Whenever we go over the girls take turns riding with her (it only fits 2 kids at a time). They are so cute! So, Savannah was watching Sydney ride with Jenna and we were sitting in the yard chatting when all of the sudden Joey goes "oh shit" and jumps up running down the sidewalk. My view was blocked by the neighbors' RV, but when I ducked down to look under it and see what was going on I could see Joey lifting up the car and Savannah was under it! AAGGHH! Jenna and Sydney had run over Savannah! The thing that really scared me was that she wasn't even crying. Once Joey picked her up she started crying and she had a few small scrapes but otherwise she was fine. Thank goodness! I know it wasn't on purpose, I think Sydney and Jenna cried more than Savannah. So that was the girls first car accident.

Baby Dolls

Just the last couple of weeks my almost 2 1/2 year old twin girls have started being little mommies. First they started wanting me to tuck in their teddy bears at night when I tucked them in. Then they would bring their teddy bears down to the living room with them and lay them down on the couch, cover them up, turn off the lights and say "Shhh! Nap time." Next they even started wanting to make Lego beds for their little plastic Care Bear figurines and use washclothes as blankets for them to go "night night". At this point I decided maybe we should get some baby dolls. Nana had bought them Cabbage Patch dolls around Christmas, however they are kinda big for a 2 1/2 year old to play baby doll with so off to Toys R Us we went. I couldn't believe the number of dolls available and I immediately became overwhelmed and the girls just started grabbing everything. One thing I found strange was that none of the smaller dolls had clothes you could buy seperate for them only the larger (read: bigger than I wanted) dolls had different outfits you could buy. So we ended up not buying anything there, I figured I'd check out Wal-Mart and compare prices.

Well, the next day we went over to a friends house who has boy/girl twins the same age as mine for a play date. Sure enough the little girl had a dolly and upon discussion with her mom I found that she had seen the same problem with the dolls not having extra clothes. She suggested the Fisher Price doll as the one she thought was the best. The whole time we were there Sydney monopolized the dolly and was upset when we had to leave it behind. So, off we went to Wal-Mart on the way home. They had the Fisher Price doll and they even had two that came in a set as twins. Perfect. That very night the girls wanted to bring the baby dolls to the table to eat dinner with them, which I do not allow for many reasons, but my girls were adamant that they had to have their dolly's so we compromised by letting them bring the chairs from their children's table into the dining room so that the dolly's could sit next to them. So now I'm tripping over what seems like a million chairs in our already small dining room, but the girls are so cute with those baby dolls . . . feeding them bottles, sharing their food, shopping with them in their little play shopping cart . . . that it makes me remember that they are already growing up so fast and this too shall pass.