Presents

I had the following discussion with Morgan tonight.

Mommy, are we going to see Sydeny tonight?

No, honey, remember we can't see Sydney until after we get back from Disney world. (Sydney's been exposed to Chicken Pox and we won't be able to see her until she has no risk of being contagious).

Oh.

Maybe we can bring a special present back from Disney for Sydney and you can see her then.

Yes!

A few moments later...

Mommy, I want to bring a present back for me, too.

Honey, that's not the way it works. You buy presents for other people, not yourself.

A few seconds later...

Mommy, can I buy Prayer Bear a present in Disney World?

Stunned

I'm going to try not to make this a huge bragging post...because really, it's not that...well, at least not completely.

Yesterday, I picked Morgan up, and she has a new little game she likes to play. She likes you to give her a word, and then she'll tell you what letter it starts with. So, on the drive home, we went through 15 - 20 different words of all different letters. She got most of them correct - the one that she got most incorrect was "car" and "cat" - which she said started with a "k".

I'm shocked, and I really don't know where to go with this next. I think it's awesome, and I take no credit myself. Oh no, that all goes to this little gizmo that they got for Christmas.

What do we do now? Try to work with her on reading? Contact Harvard?

I Can Do It

This may be why they say that three is worse than two (the age, not the number of kids).

This morning, Morgan insisted on helping Daddy tie his shoe. She worked for a solid 15 minutes.

The end results:



Any guess on how long it took daddy to undo it?

Adorable

Just because....he's so damn cute. He put this hat on himself this morning & insisted on wearing it backwards - giving me his "no, monny" when I tried to get him to turn it around.

A Weekend Update

We spent the past weekend at my parent's house. Unfortunately, we are rarely there for more than 36 hours. So, it's relatively a quick trip. But, since my parent's live in nowhere Iowa, we like to find things that we can do with the kids. This weekend's project was coloring Easter Eggs - and a birthday party (my sister-in-law is getting married their birthday weekend, so we won't be able to celebrate then & this was our only weekend to either go to Iowa or have Grandma & Grandpa come here).

I didn't realize that Easter Eggs would be so much fun with the kids this year. Here is a picture of us getting all set up - please note the clean work surfaces.



The kids dug right in. Tanner loved scooping the eggs out of the dye and making all different colored eggs.



Morgan, on the other hand, would only make PINK eggs.



Both grandma & I were surprised at how quickly the eggs disappeared. But, it was somewhat exabberated by the fact that once Morgan realized our supply was limited, she would dunk the eggs and put them in her pile as quickly as could be.

Thankfully, we figured out Tanner could redye the pink eggs and make a cool purple. Morgan even agreed to share some of her eggs in this endeavor.



And then, it was time to clean up. The kids were very good about helping wipe up the tables - notice how messy Tanner got in this process.



That night, we had the twins' and cousin Katelynn's belated birthday parties. I don't think that any of the three of them minded celebrating early (or late in Katelynn's case). Here they are with their (egg-free) cupcakes.






And, enjoying the goods...

Driven

As we approach the three-year-old mark, Randy & I are getting more desperate to see the end of diaper & pull-up days (because really, what is a pull-up other than an expensive diaper). We've tried lots of different methods to push gently nudge the kids along in their efforts.

Tonight, we tried the old faithful: bribery. To whomever poops on the potty - TWO bags of M&Ms. Yes, not just one bag - two bags.

Morgan hopped on the potty and started grunting...to no avail. But, my daugher is driven by chocolate (after all, she is my daughter). Finally, after she had tried and pushed and tried, she turned to her father:

"Daddy, can you help me?"

Anatomy chez Morgan

We're learning so much as the twins grow older. Since we have boy/girl twins, we sometimes struggle with explaining gender differences to them. It usually goes something like this: girls wear barrettes, girls wear dresses, etc. Ironically, there isn't much that a boy does that a girl can't do. But, barrettes and dresses, daddy draws the line there.

The other day, Morgan was going through our list of family & friends: Morgan is girl, Tanner is a boy, Mommy is a girl, Daddy is a boy, Grandma is a girl, etc...

Randy looked over at her and said "Morgan, what's the difference between a girl and a boy?"

Morgan looked at him, grinned slyly, lowered her voice and ducked her head:

"Daddy, boys have penises."

Calling All Drives

We need some feedback!

About a year and a half ago, we purchased a Chevy Venture minivan. While it has met our needs, we haven't been that enthusiastic about it. And, lately, we've been downright irritated with the wind noise that the dealership can never replicate - and thus never repair. It's one of those nails-on-chalkboard-make-you-gouge-your-eyes-out sounds.

Last weekend, Randy made a comment about it wouldn't break his heart when we got rid of this vehicle - and I had been thinking the same thing for awhile. We've recently come to grips with the fact that this will be a 4-person family. While we occasionally need to haul an additional person (maybe 2 - 3 times/year) - it really doesn't justify keeping a vehicle that we don't like.

So, this time, we're trying to do a little more research. We've been researching at Edmund's & Consumer Reports, checked insurance rates on different vehicles - and we've kind of decided what we like. But, no one we know has a similar vehicle - so we don't have any in-person folks we can ask.

So, to our internet friends - any input?

Two of our finalists (and we are definitely open to test driving some more):

Toyota RAV4



Nissan Murano


I personally think the Murano is a bit sportier looking, but the RAV4 has some better safety features. As far as price - they aren't that different and with special Nissan incentives, the Murano may be a bit cheaper overall.

Please - give us some feedback!

Community

The internet has changed our world. Yes, I know, not a huge revelation, huh? But really, when I think back 15 years ago when I graduated high school - the internet was hardly in existence then. I didn't start to explore it until college, and even during most of my college career, it was fairly limited and mostly text.

Then, slowly it started to change. In 1999, I met my husband on online. Boy, was that difficult to explain...then. Now, it's fairly common. We don't get the comments now, that we used to back then.

When my son had biliary atresia, I found a support group online. What started as a group to ask questions of - and glean some hope from - became friends. Good friends. People you go to the beach with and spend a weekend. People whose children have the same issues as yours.

And, it grew from there. Blogging is similar to that. Even if you don't have a blog yourself, you read blogs. And, I think that most of us tend to gravitate towards blogs that we have something in common with. I enjoy twin blogs - especially boy/girl twin blogs - and it's even better if the kids are close to mine in age.

So, when I started following a new blog written by a father who was expecting boy/girl twins - it was fun. To relive the excitement that we went through. To root them on, give some advice. His wife carried their twins to 37 weeks - as a preemie mom, this is the goldens standard. At 37 weeks, everything is supposed to be just fine. But, something horrible went wrong, and after only 11 days, their son passed away Saturday night.

I'm grieving for this family - maybe in part because I know how close we were to the same fate, and I remember those horrible emotions. Maybe in part because that's really just the way this whole internet thing has grown - that even though I may not have known these people, I knew them.

To Rob and his entire family, I am so sorry.