Opening Day

Little League opening day was Saturday morning, so I took the kids while Rachel went and ran 10 miles. It was brutally cold, but Parker is impervious to cold and the girls each wore two jackets, so we were fine. The event was largely pointless, but Parker got a kick out of the whole thing, and they had doughnuts, so it was a win as far as I was concerned.

Here's pretty much the gyst from the stands



If you squint, you can see Parker:



After the opening ceremonies, it pretty much turned into chaos on the field, but Parker's coaches were there, and about half the team stuck around, so there was an impromptu practice that was pretty fun to watch. I have been worried about Parker not getting into the swing of things, but he was totally into it.



Here's a bit of his fielding work, which mostly consisted of chasing the ball anytime it was near him, and sometimes stealing it from the other kids.



Later, they had them run the bases, and since Parker prides himself on being the fastest little boy in creation, he was all over it.



It should be a fun season.

Notebook

The National Twin Club Magazine is called Notebook and comes out every couple months. A while ago, they emailed me asking for permission to use a photo of the girls which I gave.

The magazine arrived today with two very cute little blond girls on the cover sledding. The credit they gave was for Elizabeth and Miranda Parker from California. But since the girls aren't really them anyway, I didn't throw a fit about the credit.

Not sure who these cute blond girls are, but hopefully their parents notice them and contact the magazine.

This Weekend

It was suppose to snow Friday night here, but it didn't. We told the kids about that possibility, a mistake that was realized bright and early Friday when Elizabeth woke up and wanted to know why she didn't get a chance to play in it. Parker and Miranda followed. All before 6am.

I tried to ignore them as long as possible and was quite successful although Michael didn't fare as well. When I did wake up, I went on yet another long run (only a few more of those, thank god). Then I took the afternoon off and went to a really bad movie while Michael took the kids to Opening Day of Parker's Tball. (Michael should be posting pics soon.) Afterwards the kids all did "a show" for us in the living room that involved costumes, singing, running around, but no actual plot. As you can see here.



Then that evening, the kids all went over to a friends house for a Cupcake Party that I purchased as an auction item at the girls' fundraiser. We dropped them at 5:30, went to dinner, did some shopping, picked up a video and went to get them. They had a great time and were watching some disney movie they didn't understand. Even though it was 8pm, they were in good spirits.

Unfortunately, that didn't last long. Both girls melted down when we got home and we remembered nothing is for free.

Sunday morning, Michael slept in while I watched Beauty and the Beast with the kids. Some actors had come to Parker's school a few days earlier and performed it, so I thought he might like it. They were all scared at times, but did overall enjoy it. Elizabeth always seems to "get it" more than the others. "Mommy is that big monster beast the prince that was mean before?"

Then I made pancakes with all manner of toppings and Michael and I did some more cleaning/packing. We try to do a little bit every week so when we do find a rental we won't have to do it all. Then the girls had another auction party (this time playdough making party) so I drove them to that while Parker had a play date with Aidan. They made a secret club house for kids 6 and older, which of course pissed off the girls when they got home later. So Miranda made a secret club house for 4 year olds and Elizabeth made one for her and 8-11 year olds so Oliver and Peter could go in it, but Parker couldn't. Nice.

We had dinner, I folded laundry, watched the oscars, Michael put the kids to bed and then started doing work (a standard Sunday night activity for him, unfortunately.)

A nice relaxing (except for the 10 mile run) weekend.

Fonts

Parker has learned to write in cursive. Which would sound impressive until I tell you he also learned to write in "roboty", a made up font that has no curves. Well...maybe that is impressive too.

Parker's First Love Note

What I only have to assume will be the beginning of countless notes to come...

Nothing Much Exciting Going On

We're back and home and there ain't much to report. The drive back was ok. The kids once again watched Dora most of the time allowing me to listen to my talk radio. Both the kid silence and talking helped the time go past for me.

Although I didn't bite my nails (that's one month and 23 days for those that are counting) I did tend to 'mess' with them during the drive. I guess boredom is a trigger. Or maybe the mocha I had made me jittery.

Back at home, we relaxed for a couple hours before heading off to gymnastics class. Everyone seems to be enjoying their classes, but I'm still conflicted about Elizabeth. I talked to my mom about it a bit, but am still confused. The class seems too serious and lacking in "fun", but if she is really good enough to do all of it (which she is) and climbing, jumping, hanging are the things she likes to do the most, shouldn't I just leave her in? Who knows!

I felt sick Monday night so took some nyquil and slept in. Everyone was off to school on Tuesday so I did some laundry, cleaning and packing. And Susan made us dinner. Which was delicious!

The rest of the week is pretty boring too. Which I guess is nice from time to time.

LA Visit

I'm in LA for a few days for no particular reason except I like to get the cousins together every few months since they all seem to have such a good time ensemble. We drove down Thursday (yes, Parker missed school Thursday and Friday, heavens forbid) and it was a good drive. We stopped twice, one for a pee break and once for me to have lunch and get gas. I always seem to remember to pack snacks and lunch for them, but not for me. (Maybe it is intentional.) They watched videos (dora and diego) the whole ride down which was nice since it left me able to listen to the radio talk shows I like. That combo made it seem like a fast trip (which I guess it was since we left at 9 and got there at 3ish).

All the kids sleep together in one room which is both cute and annoying since when one wakes up at 5am, they all do, which happened on Friday morning. We hung out with the grandmas on Friday, meeting Grammy and Ginny at the park in the morning and then seeing my mom in the afternoon. Elizabeth took a ridiculously long nap at my mom's house so by the time we headed back to Amy's house, it was commute time and raining. And that combo led to a very long drive there.

This morning, the kids slept a big longer which was pleasant until someone poured Joes O's all over the floor. I got up to deal with that and did my long run (9 miles this week) and then we all went to a friend of Oliver's house for pancakes. The kids (all 7 of them) played together well and after a couple hours we headed home. The rest of the day was spent hanging around the house. I did take Miranda to have her nails done, something I had been promising for weeks. She has long, lovely nails, something Elizabeth and Parker lack, so I just took her. And of course, I had mine done too.

Bedtime tonight was crazy cute with all my kids hanging on and hugging Peter and then Peter combing their hair. Everyone was sweet until Julia and Miranda both freaked out about their lack of bed buddies. Much screaming by me and Amy and crying by Julia and Miranda ensued, but rather quickly we got them settled again and asleep much quicker than I thought.

We're gonna have lunch at Grandma Judy's tomorrow (I was gonna see some high school friends, but all but one had to cancel and then today he did too) and then head home Monday.

No pics this time as I dropped Michael's camera in our driveway and didn't notice for two days. Two days where it rained almost non-stop. Bummer.

And speaking of Aunt Amy

I started telling the kids about their "creation" a couple days ago. One of them started talking about who has babies and how that happens after Parker said he wanted to have triplets and the girls reminded him he couldn't have any kids on his own. They all discussed the various ways to get triplets and quads and how babies are made. Elizabeth was pretty clear on it saying the man's seed goes into the ladies vagina to the egg. So I casually mentioned that some ladies don't have good eggs so they use other ladies' eggs. I continued on that this was what happened to me so Aunt Amy gave me some eggs. So I said instead of sort of looking like me, they really sort of look like Aunt Amy. But that since me and Aunt Amy look so much alike, most people don't even know and we all look related.

Their response? "It is funny about you looking like Aunt Amy. You could be twins!"


Obviously they didn't get the full gist, but my hope is that one day when they are much older and someone asks them when they found out they were from Aunt Amy's eggs they would say, "We've always known."

The After Life

The kids and I were discussing death at dinner tonight. We have discussed what would happen if Daddy and Mommy died before and it came up again. After some back and forth, Parker says, "If that happens, I would be sad for two reasons. One. I would miss you. And Two. I would miss Miss. Heather. (his teacher).

Then Miranda says, "I would be very sad and miss you very much, but I would be very excited and happy to go live at Aunt Amy's house. That would be super fun!"

Asshole Follow Up

So...Mr. Asshole came up to me on the playground after school (as I knew he would) and says, "I wanted to apologize about yesterday." I said, "thanks." He continued saying that the "Mis-Communication" got him unnecessarily stressed." I said, "Yeah, it was really upsetting to me." (Michael told me that if I found myself having a conversation with him again I should say that I was really offended by his comments and I would not be treated that way, but all I could say was that 'I was upset'.) Then he says, "WHY??? WHY WERE YOU UPSET???" I said I was upset because I spent most of the day preparing for and then giving the kids a valentine's day party and then I was yelled at." He said, "Yeah, I apologize for that but you confused me and made it seem like something was wrong." So I said, "I just felt bad for your son." Then he said, "WHY???? WHY DID YOU FEEL BAD FOR HIM??????" I replied, "Because he gave me his cards and didn't hand them out and he looked sad." He says, "BUT HE DID HAND THEM OUT SO I DON'T KNOW WHAT YOU ARE TALKING ABOUT."

I said, "I'm not going to argue about this again" and I turned my head and stopped talking to him.

He said, "Oh, well, ok..." and walked away.

For some reason, I do not think this is the end of this nonsense.

My afternoon

After a relatively low key valentine day 'party' at the girls' nursery school, I was happy to come home to lunch to some quiet time. I knew the girls would be occupied with their silly cards and was happy to sit on the couch and veg out.

So when I got a call (while still in the driveway unloading) from Parker's teacher telling me the the ants that have taken over her classroom had attacked the homemade cupcakes another parent brought in for the party that afternoon and could I please bring in more cupcakes, I was a bit distressed to say the least. I played it cool and drove over to safeway, got more cupcakes then anyone could ever want and went back home. Mind you, I had already prepped 3 valentine day games for the kids since no other parents stepped up. The girls went upstairs and I decided that if I was playing super mom that day, I would take it a step farther. Our garbage disposal was broken (it broke the other day when some measuring spoon got stuck in there and I didn't notice). So I did some google searches, watched two 'fix it' you tube videos, found for some tools and a flashlight and gave it a go. After only a few tries, I wedged out the metal part of the measuring spoon that was invisibly stuck in it. Success!

Feeling good, I piled the girls in the car again and went to Parker's school his celebration. We made it to the classroom without dropping any cupcakes and I helped the kids pass out their cards. Many of them can't read and don't know the names on the cards so the adults helped them. Then...Ronan, a friend of Parker's, had a massive diarrhea accident. So big that it went down his pants onto the floor. The teacher and other parents just stood there. All the kids are laughing at him and pointing and everyone is just standing there. I remember that I had Parker's gymnastics clothes in my car and I would go get them. I tell the teacher and start to leave, but I can't leave the poor kids there standing in his own filth so I tell him to come with me which was a damn good thing because in the hallway he told me "he always has extra pants and undies in his backpack." I take him to the bathroom where I find diarrhea everywhere. It was disgusting. I felt for this poor kid, but I felt for me too. It even got on his shoes. It took me a while to clean him up, but we got there.

Back to the party where the kids were still passing out cards (putting them in bags on the other kids' desks) which they had been doing for the last 20 minutes (this detail will be needed later so remember it.) The parent that brought the fruit cups (even though he was asked to bring cut up fruit), didn't bring spoons so the kids started in on their cupcake (the only other food there despite 6 parents having signed up to bring snacks and drinks).

After a while, I started with the games. We did a guessing the number of kisses in the jar game, a hide the heart game and a match the broken heart game. All brought and facilitated by me. Prizes were handed out and the kids (except for the ones who stole each other's candy and then hit each other to show their displeasure) had a good time.

Then, a kid comes up to me telling me he didn't pass out his cards. He hands me a stack of blank (no "To" and no "from") and in fact not even separated from the other cards. And when I say cards, I mean the cheap, store-bought, superhero branded, slips of paper. I asked him why and he didn't say anything. He wanted me to hand them out. I told him I would hold onto them, but the kids were all putting stuff away and getting ready to leave. He seemed fine with that. I then told the teacher who shrugged and agreed with me that there was nothing to do about it now.

Then his dad comes in. He's a nice guy as far as I knew so I go up to him and say, "Just so you know, Emiliano didn't pass out his cards and gave them to me 5 minutes ago. I asked him there were no names on them (from or to) but he didn't answer." The father immediately freaks out and starts yelling at me, the teacher and his kid. But mostly me. He says, "WHO DO I HAVE TO YELL AT ABOUT THIS! I SPENT MONEY ON THOSE CARDS AND MY SON WANTED TO PASS THEM OUT!!!!" I told him that they had about 20-30 minutes to pass out the cards and I didn't know why he didn't do it. I also said I didn't know why he was yelling at me. He continues on and on and I go get the cards to give to him. When he gets them he says, "WHERE ARE THE REST!???!" I tell him that that was all his son gave me. He then yells at his son who tells him he did pass some out to a couple kids. The dad turns to me and says, "OH SO HE DID PASS THEM OUT! NOT WHAT YOU SAID!!!!" I replied that I only told him what the kid told me when he handed me the cards 5 minutes ago. After a couple more minutes, he says, "WELL, YOU CAUSED A LOT OF UNDUE STRESS BECAUSE YOU MIS INFORMED ME ABOUT THE SITUATION!"

Can you fucking believe all that? I was going to help clean up, but I got my stuff and left the room. I wanted to go back in there to tell him to go to hell, but the kids were there and I thought he might punch me. Two other moms apologized to me for him and the teacher who was there the whole time, thanked me. I wasn't sure if she was thanking me for the cupcakes, the games, the diarrhea duty, or dealing with this dad, but none of it mattered. That asshole left me scattered and anxious.

Happy fucking valentines day.

Valentine Cards

Today is valentines day and luckily, all the kids finished all their cards.

Parker made his cards completely on his own and started about two weeks ago. In fact, he had two different designs going for a while, but decided on one of them and started over to make them all the same. His final version was a tiny cut out heart (like the size of a dollar coin with an individual saying on it specific to the kid. So, one said, "I love you Joey!" while another say, "Hooray for Safia!" On one, for Silwan, a cute little girl who always says Hi Parker's Mom!, he wrote, "I wish that the flowers were blooming hearts." Seriously.

I insisted the girls made their own threatening them that if they didn't, they would get none from the other kids (not sure I would have followed through on that, but I know I would not have made them for them or bought them).

So I wrote a list of the kids' names and taped it to the wall in front of their desks. Then I gave them a small red piece of construction paper folded and told them to have at it. Some of them are quite good with drawings of the kids or flowers or whatever. And some are quite lame with some scribble scrabble on it. They did write everyone's names down, but since they still don't quite have the idea of writing left to right, the names are all scrambled. It's gonna take me forever to figured out who is who.

style

In the car driving from Sacramento while watching the Sound of Music...

Elizabeth: Mommy, when you got married, did you wear a white dress or a black dress?

Me: Black dress.

Elizabeth: For real? A black dress?

Me: Yes.

Miranda: Was it long or short?

Me: Short.

Miranda: Did it look like the nuns' dresses?

Me: Yeah just like the nuns, but shorter.

Elizabeth's Phone Call

Elizabeth got a new play phone* and today on the way home from school had a fake conversation with her new friend** Colby.

It went something like this:

Oh Hi Colby.

Sure. Yeah. I'm almost home. Uh huh. Sure.

Well, there is play house. And an exercise tree. And a ladder swing that fell down.

Miranda...I'm on the phone!

Hold on....I was just interrupted by Miranda.

Yeah. Um...That's funny. Well....I think so. Not sure. Uh huh.

Ok, well bye bye.


*In addition to stuffing Miranda's face with food to help her poop, we have been giving her a present if she poops each day. We aren't sure what is working the food or the presents, but she has pooped every day for 5 days which is unprecedented. The first two days, the presents were surprises and I got her these barbie dolls of sorts. Then she picked out the next two which were, again, barbie dolls of sorts. Elizabeth started to get pretty upset that Miranda kept getting dolls so she told Michael she wanted one. Michael said she could use her poker chips (our incentive system) to get one. So when I took her, she picked a stupid princess cell phone.

** The girls wore princess dresses to school today. Another girl was also wearing one. A girl they never talk about or talk to. But today after school, Elizabeth said "I made a new friend at school today! Her name is Colby! Can I have a playdate with her today!"

Parker's class

I spent the morning in Parker's class which I've been trying to avoid since it just bugs me and I do enough outside the class stuff. But today was 100 days of school day and Parker was so damn excited and I didn't have to work at the preschool, I thought what the heck?

When I got there, they were just about to start the stations where they had activities related to 100. Making a snack bag of 100 different snacks (cereal, raisin, m&m's, etc), counting 100 buttons, stacking 100 cubes, and my station which was making a crown. Each strip of paper had to have 10 stamps on it. Then each of the 10 strips were stapled to a crown. Seems easy enough, right? Well...almost all of the kids (including Parker) didn't know when they had got to 10 strips. And many of them couldn't accurately put 10 stamps on each strip. Some kids just refused to do it and wanted me to do theirs (which we know didn't happen). When there was only 15 minutes left, everyone wanted their crown finished and since there was only one stapler (yes, one), there was a long line of kids waiting and shoving their stuff in my face (Ms RACHEL, Ms RACHEL!). I finished some of them when the kids went to lunch but jeez. Crazy.

Then when I was about to leave to get the girls, two girls came in saying they couldn't find one of their lunches. We looked all over, called the parents, discussed buying a lunch at the cafeteria, looked some more and finally gave up. We started walking to the cafeteria and then she saw it on the floor outside the bathroom. I thought the whole thing was ridiculous until....Parker came running back to the room saying he had forgotten his lunch! A good 10 minutes after lunch had started!

More Breakfast

Parker and Elizabeth love breakfast. And specifically they love cereal. Parker used to have 4-5 bowls every day. He is down to 1 or 2 with a frozen waffle or piece of toast. We try to keep a variety of cereal on hand and they go through it very fast.

Miranda doesn't like cereal. Even when we get the sweet stuff, she has a few spoonfuls and then stops eating it. So in general, she doesn't eat much for breakfast and then has a big snack around 10ish.

Unfortunately, she has had some major regressions with her pooping to the point of literally have bonafide accidents in her underwear twice last Sunday. Since everything we've ever tried has not really worked to cure her of this problem, we are at a loss. Both Michael and I had discussion with her about it on Sunday; me basically yelling at her and making her feel like shit and Michael being firm, but more reasonable. She did tell us she doesn't like to make big poops which is why when she feels she has to go, she holds it in by squeezing her butt. We both focused on that and told her that most people got the bathroom every day (the whole family then discussed when and where we poop and how big it is). We told her that if she pooped every day when she felt it, her poops wouldn't be big and it wouldn't be scary. But since you can't make a kid poop on a daily basis if they really don't have to, I figured I needed to help her out. And knowing that laxatives, prune juice and all that nonsense don't help, the only thing left is lots and lots of food.

So that is what i've done the last three days. I've made huge breakfasts that she likes. Pancakes, waffles, cut up strawberries, toast, bacon, sausages, chocolate chips. Anything that she will eat and eat lots of. And for lunch at a park yesterday, I put everything in...sandwich, fruit, crackers, cheese, granola bar, veggies sticks, fruit leather, rice cakes.

And so far, it's worked. She pooped Monday and Tuesday on her own without incident.

As sad as it is that we are still dealing with this crap (pun intended), I have a small sense of hope that stuffing her full of food will do the trick.

At Breakfast...

Elizabeth: Do you know who really loves bacon?

All three kids together in unison "OLIVER!!!!!"

Parrot Talk

Miranda: "When I'm in college and get a parrot*, how will he know how to talk? Do I just talk to him and say, 'Hi, how are you Parrot,' and he will say hi back to me?"





*Miranda has asked for a parrot. Since there is no way in hell that I'm ever getting one, I told her she could get any pet she wanted when she was an adult. She equates being an adult to being in college

Parker's world.

Parker: "Why are Elizabeth and Miranda mean to each other if they are twins?"

Me: "Damn good question, Parker."

Parker: "If I was a twin, I'd just play all the time with him."

TPS: Words

This is how I found parker when I got home from an afternoon party yesterday. He was reading the dictionary and exclaimed, "I found it! Hurricane!"

Storytime at the Co-op

Homework woes start early.

Well, it happened. I had my first homework argument with Parker. For some reason I thought that these kinds of things wouldn't happen with the child that loves school and loves homework. But today, after we got home from school and I reminded him he had to do his story (he has to write a story a week and do a picture to go with it...most kids just do the picture and then tell their parents who write it down, the story), he said he was too tired. He did look tired, but he kept telling me all the other things he was gonna do instead of doing his homework and how he was just too tired to do it, but not too tired to do other things like clean his room (he suggested this as an alternative to doing his homework.) We had discussed homework yesterday and I asked him if he wanted to do it then or today (the day before it is due.)

Parker is rarely ever contrary so I tend to let him off the hook on most things and tend to believe him that he really doesn't feel well, but for some reason this time, I felt that I had to stand my ground. So I told him he wasn't going to do anything else until he did his homework. He just sat there and cried and cried for about 30 minutes. He said he didn't want to cry on his homework, but kept doing it. He kept repeating how tired he was and I kept repeating he wasn't going to get up until he did it. I wasn't yelling and in fact, stayed very calm despite everything. It never occurred to him that he could just get up, I suppose.

I finally got up to make dinner. He kept crying, but then...actually did his homework. He wrote a story about going to Hawaii and what he did there. He even spelled Aquarium correctly. There was a nice picture of a stick boy with some colorful fish (he got up to get crayons and kept crying the whole time.)

It wasn't his best story ever, but I said "great job" and told him he could lie down now. Which he did and kept on crying.

I do not look forward to the many years of this situation.

Elizabeth's Funk

Elizabeth has been in a funk lately. She is grumpy almost all the time. She is more mean than usual. She is contrary about everything. She says things like, "I don't like anyone!" and "I don't like anything!" She gets mad that her hair is not 'right'. She gets mad that she has 'nothing to wear'. Her natural gut reaction to any question or discussion is negative.

And to top it off, she has been having melt downs in the middle of the night. Apparently, the last two nights, she has screamed and cried in and out of her bed for extended periods of time. (I've been in the backhouse as I've been getting up at 4:30am regularly). Michael said that when asked what she is doing and why she is screaming, she says, "I don't know!"

I'd love to say this is just a phase, but it seems more like a continuation and progression of her normal orneriness.

I'm on duty tonight so Michael can catch up on sleep. Miranda is in Parker's room since she has been kept awake too.

Breakfast Talk

Elizabeth: Miranda, Why do you have a mad face on?

Miranda: I don't have a mad face. I have this face because I am still waking up!

Parker: I have this face on since I am waking up too.

Miranda: You already woke up!

Parker: I'm all the way woke up when I get to school.

Elizabeth: Parker your hair looks wacky for wacky wednesday.

The Sound of Music

We recently let the girls watch the sound of music. They seemed to really like it. They didn't really get the story and kept asking me questions about the "girl" (Maria) and the Daddy and what the deal was. And where was the mommy? And who was the other lady? (The baroness) And whats the deal with the nuns?

But...they loved the songs and can now sing "Doe a Deer" pretty well. They also like How do you solve a problem like Maria, but don't know any words except those. And they really liked the puppet show part.

I'm gonna have to brush up on my musicals. I'll be thrilled when the girls start singing "Tits and Ass! Got myself a fancy pair! Tightened up the deriere! Did the nose with it, all that goes with it!"