Jo = 25

According to Parker this morning.

FYI, Jo is a character is one of his current favorite books. J is the 10th letter in the alphabet, and o is the 15th. He's got a funny little brain in that head of his.

Potty Training: Take Two.

After I started potty training Eli two months ago, a few of my twin mom friends, inspired by my bravery, started too with their kids. Some are doing great and are pretty much diaper free. Some are getting there and doing better every day. And some of the children basically told their moms to shove it up their ass. (And I think you know who you are moms.)

One of them got started this weekend and told us all about her strategy at the last get together. She decided to go with the naked route and is home during this long weekend with naked kids, rolled up rugs and lots of drinks. I read some of her notes from this approach and got re-inspired to try again.

So this morning, I took off the girl's jammies and didn't put anything else on them. And amazingly, Miranda took to it right away. Not only did she have a day with only 1 pee accident, she asked to go pee twice and sort of (started in the living room, finished in the bathroom) pooped in the potty too! It was stunning. Like some switch was flipped and she got it. Elizabeth did well too. She can hold it longer than Miranda so she didn't go every time we all went in for "potty time!" But she had no accidents (except the big poop she took in the backyard). I did some reading on the whole 'not wanting to poop in the toilet thing' and felt a lot better about it. Apparently, there are 4 and 5 year olds wearing pull ups still because they don't poop in the potty. They are potty trained, but ask for a diaper when it is time to poop. I hope to hell that isn't my situation in 2 years, but it did make me feel better about my not quite 2 year old not quite getting it.

The only downside to naked time (and I guess it depends on who's perspective you are looking at it from), but the girls tend to fondle themselves a lot when left naked. They like to get wipes and wipe their butts too. Sometimes Eli wipes Miranda's butt and vice versa. And throughout the day Eli tells us about her penis. Parker reminds her that she doesn't have one, but she brings it up again a couple hours later.

Miranda trains for Vegas.

More Lake

i took the kids to Lake Temescal on Thursday. It was a really hot day so I thought it would nice at the lake and I was right. When we arrived there was hardly anyone there. Susan joined us a bit later and this was the only picture I got since I had my hands full making sure no one drowned.

Zeum!

On my last Parker and Mommy day, I took him on a bart ride to the city and then to Zeum. It's a kids science-y type place. He had a great time despite being hesitant about the whole thing. They have this great game there made by some crazy MIT people. It's a ball maze that is played by standing on this image of the maze and moving around it. The image tips as you move from one side to the other. I didn't think Parker would get it at all, but after just a few short moments of standing on the ball image, he got it. He loved hearing the ball crash through the obstacles (black holes). So he would essentially crash the ball and the laugh hysterically. He was amusing everyone around him.

Then we went to the claymation room where he made, of course, a number 3. We made a short movie about A, B, and C going up a tree, but it was too lame to even record. He also did a sing along thing singing I've been working on the railroad which was damn cute. And he sort of made a mask. It turned out to be more of a hat, but whatever.

We played on the giant slide outside after lunch and then went back to the museum for more ball maze. He couldn't get enough. The whole time we were at Zeum I was thinking, Man Oliver and Peter would LOVE this place!!!!!

Call me crazy...

but I just put all three kids down for naps in the same room (the cooler darker room) and it went fine. I did have to have a little chat with Miranda, but they are all asleep now. Let's see how long that lasts...

Another Room Change

Yesterday, Elizabeth broke out in a big rash all over her body. She had some dots the day before, but yesterday after naps, they looked really bad. I called the advice nurse and she said that because they weren't bothering her, weren't raised and she didn't have a fever, it was most likely a heat thing. It was super hot in the house yesterday. So, after a week or two of wondering if we should move the rooms back to allow the kids to have the darker cooler room, yesterday after naps I did it. Michael usually moves the rooms around, but I thought it might be easier to just do it and give Michael a break this time (he did have to move the heavy stuff). The kids thought the bed frames were choo choo trains and they all sat on them saying chuga, chuga choo choo and bumping up and down. It was pretty damn cute.

Everyone was a little weirded out about yet another room change, but did fairly well. It took a long time for them to go sleep and at one point they were all in bed singing, Hey Daddy, Daddy, Daddy. Hey Daddy Daddy Doh" We were annoyed, but it was hard not to laugh. Miranda had one wake up calling out for Daddy. And then at 5:30, Parker started screaming. Michael went down and determined it was a tantrum (he wanted to come get in bed with us.) So I went down, told everyone it was in the middle of the night and they had to go back to sleep. Amazingly that worked until 7am. Love the dark room.

Damn, she's good.

Susan babysat tonight while Michael and I went to a parent meeting at Parker's preschool. We gave her all sorts of warnings and instructions and told her not to fret if the kids didn't go to sleep. They could just stay awake until we got home around 8:30 if they were giving her any crap.

But...of course, they didn't. The girls went down easy with no hysterics or nonsense. Parker fussed a little when his normal routine was altered slightly but was generally good too.

That Susan is amazing.

Getting Dressed

Every day Parker gets dressed by himself. Some days he picks out the clothes. He usually picks something presentable too, which is nice.

The time it takes him to actually get dressed varies greatly. Some days, it's done in a minute or so. Some days it take a long, long time.

Today, I got his clothes, but he got side tracked with the buttons on the shirt and buttons on the pants. He's trying to figured out buttons now that he has mastered snaps. Sometimes he is either so deep in thought or so totally distracted that he forgets to put on underwear. I generally notice this before we leave the house.

Parker Jams

Just some random shots

Potty Training Update

Well, despite many accident free days, we've decided to put Eli back in diapers. She has yet to poop in the potty and after two months, we think enough is enough. She can obviously tell when she needs to go because she sneaks away, poops, and then comes back to tell me about it. And today, after we told her she was going to be back in diapers, she was running around naked. She then brought me a diaper and asks to put it on. I did, she sneaked away, pooped and then came back to tell me about it.

She obviously isn't ok going in the toilet so we'll back off and let her get there on her own. She was doing good with the pee, but not great. She could hold it in for a long time and was good about going when put on the toilet, but she would also not go on her own to the toilet (except one or two times). So if we forgot to take her or didn't do the math right on the amount of liquid and time since last pee, she would just pee in her undies. Today, she squatted over the stuffed kitty cat bed and peed. So, she obviously knows what she is doing, but can't quite get it together to get to the bathroom.

Hopefully some time away from it all (from the pressure, the panties, and potties all over the house) will let her chill out and she'll pick it back up when she is more ready.

Twin Playgroup

Our Wednesday playgroup is still going strong. Many of the kids have turned two, so it's been a long time since I joined the group. This day we were taking photos for a mom who was moving to LA for the year. Her husband will be teaching at Occidental. We'll miss you Erin, Imogen and Paul!

Math

Parker has started adding multiple numbers at once, as in 2+3+2=7. I also taught him how to count by fives today, which he thought was pretty funny. And then I tried to
teach him how to count by twos, but he got bored and walked away.

Where's Yaya?

We've pretty much dispensed with the gates. We still have one up, but it's almost always open. The girls like to go look for Zeke in his cat door, or throw stuff through it, something I didn't figure out until I was missing something.

After a little search this morning, we had a photo session. It's almost impossible to get them all looking at the camera at the same time. I tried to put my hand above my head and wave to get their attention, but they all just copied me.

No snarky comments about the ridiculously inappropriate shirts. I found them in some bag of clothes...

Bye Bye Nenna!

Jenna's last day was today. She is going back to school next week. She was a big help this summer, as she was last summer. I was able to go places and do things I could never have done alone. The kids love her and will miss her and will ask about her for months.

Sydney and Cole Get Fancy

The kids (all 11 of them) had a grand time at playgroup yesterday. I brought out all the dress up stuff, tea party stuff, and set up a nice train track. All of it was destroyed in minutes. But they had fun doing it.

The boas were a particular hit.

Wouldn't you know it, again.

Last night, Miranda and Elizabeth did good. Not great, but not terrible. After one or two scary, "go to sleep!" yells, they went to sleep without any games or crying. Miranda essentially put her self to sleep like she used to and Elizabeth needed some patting. I think she was hot. So it was 7:30 and all the kids were in bed and quiet. So nice.

Then...Parker starts calling out from our room. I guess he never went to sleep. He was ready to go upstairs. So I took him up and tucked him in.

10 minutes later, he is banging on the wall with his feet. Apparently this is his way to summon us. (Maybe we should get him a little bell...) So daddy goes up and wasn't particularly nice to him (since we were both going to kill him if he woke up the girls.) Parker got very upset and said, "I'm having a hard time at bedtime." Michael stayed with him for a bit, but when it was obviously that wasn't going to work, I went to lie with him for a while. When I was there, I asked him if he was hot. He said, No, "I'm sad." Oh jesus.

So I brought him back downstairs to our bed where I thought he would feel better.

About 30 minutes later, he got up and was at the door saying he was still sad. We are suckers for when Parker says he is sad, so he got to come lie down with me on the couch. I was watching sex and the city so I told him he could just lie with me or go back to bed. That didn't last long and soon enough, he was playing with numbers while keeping one eye on the TV. I was too tird to care. Except, Sex and the city isn't a super kid friendly show. At one point Samatha was screwing someone and the guy said "Ass." Parker thought that was pretty damn funny. Oh great.

So at 10pm I finally told him enough and go back to bed. Which he did and was asleep 10 minutes later. I'm sure I scarred him for life and he'll blame his mother for all his relationship problems.

Girls slept through, minus one short call out from Miranda.

We just can't win.

And in other news...

Parker today announced that his favorite number is 42. This is the first time he has said anything was his favorite anything.

And speaking of numbers, Parker seems to know which letter is which in numerical order in the alphabet. He told me the other that 'that' letter was 12 and I had no idea what he was talking about. I thought he was just being silly. But when I thought about it more, I figured out it was letter L.

If you ask Parker how old Mommy will be when Parker is 38, he says, "dead." I think it's hilarious, but others are not as amused.

Miranda, for the first time in over 3 weeks, went to sleep on her own today for naps. I started patting her back and she took my hand and shoved it away. Then she turned over and was asleep 8 minutes later.

Miranda fell off the bed this morning. The kids were all playing in our bedroom over the covers and then I heard a big thud followed by "whaaaaaaa!". Miranda was on the floor and Parker said, "There were three in the bed, one fell off and bumped her head!" I was laughing, but Miranda was not.

Elizabeth has taken to going up stairs to go poop. She sneaks away, goes poop in her undies and then announces it from the top of the stairs. It's been over 6 weeks since we started potty training her and still, it's just not happening with the poops. Miranda, on the other hand, sat on the potty today on her own (I've given up with her until later) and she pooped. Whatever.

The girls still call cats YaYas. They call pigs, pigs. Horse, horses. But cats are YaYa. Both of them. Must be a twin thing.

I guess that is enough random stuff today.

Toys at Parks...a rant.

What the hell is up with parents who bring toys to the park and then protect their child when some other kids uses the toy? I bring toys (riders or sand toys) to the parks often. Whenever I do it, I tell the kids other kids will use them and if they aren't ok with that, we will leave them in the car. On occasion Parker actually wants to leave whatever it is in the car, but mostly he understands how it works.

Today I brought ghetto sand toys to the park (plastic containers, ladles, etc) and immediately kids came over to see the goods and use them. The parents started to say, "Oh no, Benny, those aren't your toys", but I corrected them and said, Of course they can use them. I guess that is one good thing about twins, they share pretty well with strangers.

But the other day, we were at a park and one of the kids was using some random rider toy. The kid who owned it, who was no where near it, freaked out. Rather than telling the kid to chill out, the mom came over and took it from my kid. 10 minutes later, it was still unused and unattended, so my kid (I can't remember which one I think Eli), went over to use it again and sure enough, the owner kids starts freaking out and mom, once again, comes over to say, Sorry.

Speaking of crap at the park, today I took the bubble maker to the park with us. It's this bubble maker I got for the twin picnic and it's fabulous. It's makes these giant bubbles and all the kids just can't get enough of it. Children came from what seemed miles around to see what could be making such grand bubbles. Kids were amazed and parents were impressed even asking where I got it and what kind of bubbles went in it. Some of the older kids think that it is super cool to sit right in front of the machine popping the bubbles as they are made thus not allowing anyone else to see the bubbles. I warn them once or twice to stop doing that and then I just turn the bubble machine off and take it away. I'm the mean bubble lady. Sue me.

Everyone has pony tails.

I'm so proud

Elizabeth now knows how and when to say, "Daddy fart!"

Math

Parker said to me this morning, "When I'm double-five the girls will be double-four." This marries two of his hobbies—his old favorite of tracking age differences across time, combined with his recent dabbling in doubles.

Seabright Beach

I took the kids to Santa Cruz yesterday. Ebba and her kids were there visiting her mom and I thought a day at the beach sounded like fun.

I was wrong.

Miranda, who had slept about 6 hours the day before after bedtime and middle of the night screaming festivals, was a complete and total mess. Anytime I was not holding her she was screaming or falling on the sand in hysterics smashing her head into the sand. It was quite unbelievable actually.

Elizabeth and Parker weren't exactly pleasant either, but when they both crawled into the stroller that I lugged down to the beach and went to sleep, I knew they would act better after they woke up. Which they did, but not much better.

Ebba and Lincoln had fun boogie boarding. I think seeing Ebba wipe out on a wave made the whole trip worth it.

When we finally gave up, I lugged all the stuff and screaming kids back to the car. People were actually stopping and staring at me as I walked by. I must have been quite a sight. I person actually stopped to help me, which was sweet. She said, "I have three kids too."

I took the slow way back to Grandma's house since I hadn't been back here in a long, long time. Some things were very different and others. the same. Things were a bit more run down then I recall.

Back at her house, Miranda, who had finally fallen asleep in the car, slept for a bit longer while Elizabeth and Parker played ball with Lincoln and scooted around. Then we all had an early dinner. I had planned to hang out longer, but I was done with all this nonsense and packed up everyone and drove home.

I didn't even take any pics of my kids since I was so annoyed at them all day.

Necklaces

After dinner tonight, all the kids made necklaces. I didn't think Eli and Miranda would be able to do it, but they did and loved it. Parker made a PARKER necklace and a DADDY necklace, which Daddy even wore. It was all very sweet for the 20 minutes that it lasted.