Hmmm..long time

Riding in the car, listening to the kids talk to each other in the back seat.


JACK

"Don't worry, Ellie. There are no bad things on the earth.

Ghosts are on the moon, I promise."

Week in Review

Nice week - not too crazy at work. Bedtimes are getting out of hand. Jack is not too bad, but if Ellie gets revved up then it's contagious. She is into "one more book...I want a book for later...I want a book for Monday.... I need to pee pee." It is endless and frustrating.

One night we went to the park for a picnic, which they surprisingly ate.

See... you can tell their mouths are actually full. Of actual food!

Jack walked up this steep hill "ALL MY BYSELF!" as Ellie would say.

We went on Saturday to visit Dad and Ellen and see their new house. It looks awesome is packed to the gills with nickknacks. The kids were in heaven, between touching every little thing (Me: " Touch with one finger! One finger only!" and chasing after the cats.

We had a picnic at the club and the weather was awesome.

What you can't see in this photo is that Ron let the kids get IN the lake
while I was shopping with Ellen.

I think it looks like they are in front of green screen.

Sunday was a blur of picking up the house and generally just putzing around. Ron put the crackdown on bedtime with Ellie and after about 10 minutes of crying to say good night to me one more time (I turned the monitor down) she fell asleep.

Too Late?

I'm feeling so guilty that it has taken me so long to record in any kind of formal way my thoughts and memories about the kids. I have notes jotted down in our fridge calendars going back to birth - all stacked up by the file cabinet waiting for me to transfer all the milestones into their baby books. They are 3 and a half. LAME.

Ellie is "star student" this week, and we are visiting school and making posters to tell the class about Ellie and her family and our culture and traditions. I guess we need to get some culture and traditions (at least besides Thursday night movie night. Or movie night whatever night they are out of control and we don't feel like making them sit at the table for dinner. We are firm believers in "picnics").

I was taking pictures of our house and Ellie's room to share, and realized that I don't think I ever took good photos of that room when the kids shared it. I'll have to wade through hundreds of digital photos (also waiting to be printed and put into albums) to find some.

So at least here I can share photos of their "big kid rooms."

Ron worked so hard to hang those letters - I couldn't mention that the kerning is off.

The rabbit print hung in my dad's room when he was a boy.

Oh you cursed basket of animals - your numbers are insane.

I love Jack's room, too. We just got the curtains from Ikea.

Oh you cursed couch full of animals - your numbers are insane.

***

Latest addition to Ellie's list of potential Halloween costumes: bubble bath.

Just found where I jotted down a conversation between the kids when I was in the next room. It made me laugh again reading it.

(watching TV)
JACK
"That's Thomas."

ELLIE
"That's not Thomas."

JACK
"It IS Thomas."

ELLIE (patiently)
"No, Thomas has a "1" on his belly."

JACK
pause
"Oh."

(a minute later)

JACK
"I pooted!"

ELLIE
"You pooted!"

JACK
"I pooted! I pooted!"

ELLIE
"Excuse me, I burped."

JACK
"You pooted, not burped."

Ellie's Latest Halloween Costume Requests

Sick Girl. Kitty Cat. Spiderman phone.

Here she is playing "teacher." I finally changed her out of last night's pj top for her bath.

Birthdays and Yard Work

It was a busy day today. We worked outside in the morning, while the kids more or less kept themselves amused. Ron saved our mailbox from overgrown jasmine. I'm sure our mailman will be happy - you couldn't get into the mailbox without poking yourself in the eye with a vine.

I started to trim back the creeping raspberry - which has crept all over everything around it. How are you supposed to keep this stuff in place? I guess if you do yard work more than one weekend a year it helps, but geez. And what happened to the chilly fall mornings we had for a couple of days there? The humidity was ridiculous today.

I ran a couple of errands and then in the middle of conversation with my stepmother I realized that I had completely forgotten that we had a birthday party at 3:00. Luckily I had time to get showered and get the kids ready in time.

We've been talking about Halloween costumes for while. Jack is pretty consistent about choosing Spiderman or Superman. Ellie has a wider variety of favorites, that is updated on a daily or hourly basis. Some are pretty traditional - pink butterfly, fairy princess, ballet dancer. Others are a little more outside the box - string cheese, humpback whale. She sees no limit on the possibilities. Who knows what we'll end up with by the time the day comes.

Ellie and Jack loved the hammock at the party.

First Post

Okay, I've started blogs before and never published more than a couple of posts. But I just turned 40, and I've decided that now is my chance to be a grown up and finish what I start. I also have grand plans now to return library books on time, exercise regularly, eat right, and be a better person. But what I really hope to do with this blog is record the day-to-day miracles and nightmares of life with 3 1/2 year old twins.

Here is Jack with the flowers that "Jack and Ellie" sent to the office
for my birthday. Ron acted all surprised, "They sent you flowers? That was nice."