weekend recap

my goodness…too much fun.

( I hope the childrens enjoyed it.)

so…Saturday night, we went over to the Tiki Lodge for dinner. There was a pre-schooler there, and he has, shall we say, a bit of energy. He was constantly running, until he hit something, like a wall or an adult, and bounce off, and then keep running. I have to say, that he did his very best to avoid knocking over the toddlers.

Sunday, morning Mr Grunty only wanted to be held by his mommy. Miss Squeaky was, like, whatever, there’s lots of stuff to play with. We went to Church. Dropped them in the nursery, Mr G was all interested in the cool toys, Miss S now wanted a parent there with her.

After Church, we went to the Flo-Diner, and the hostess dropped by a couple of times to gush about how cute and well behaved our childrens are. ( I guess dropping silverware, cheerios and eggs on the floor count as well behaved. )

Later that afternoon, we went to the Halloween party at the church. The childrens wandered around, parentals would take turns on which one we would watch. Me & Mr G had some quality throw the ball time. (He laughs at the way I throw a ball.) Me and Miss S played with bubbles. The poor childrens got a bit hot in their costumes, but they didn’t complain, so I guess I noticed before they got too hot.

Then, we went to play in the park. Mr G really likes the slide, Miss S really likes to climb on the big toy.

Then, we went to the Sweet Sixteen Ritual Pumpkin Sacrifice. The wonderful lab, Maddie, showered the childrens with kisses, and then thumped them with her tail.

I’m tired.

This morning…

…I thought I had plenty of time to step away from the morning diaper & bottle station after changing Miss S. (We have to change her first, because she’s quickly “done” with her bottle and then vigorously wants to get up, and it’s just best if you’re done with the diaper work when she wants to leave.) But I was wrong. I returned to the living room, to find Miss S and Mr G standing, both pulling on a book, ( or which we have two copies, by the way) and yelling at each other. I laid Mr. G down to change his diaper, he was yelling at me. I tried giving him his unfinished bottle. He yelled louder and struggled to get away. By this time, Miss S had walked away, put down the book, and was looking for another book. I asked her to bring the book to me. She did. Yay! I gave it to Mr G, and then he proceeded to very calmly read the book to me.

Later, they played “tag”. One would run across the room to the front door, look back and laugh. The other would then run over there. Then one would run across the room to a chair, laughing. They kept this up for a few minutes, and were having so much fun, they didn’t even notice me taking a video of them.

childrens update

Last Wednesday night we went to a church event… childrens got to play with other children. Mr Grunty was the only boy, and made the most of it by playing with giant Lego’s quietly in the corner, and then later, giving a toy to an older girl. Miss Squeaky, busied herself by getting in the cabinets, bringing Lego’s to her mommy. Later I made a new friend, when Mr G took alphabet magnets from the fridge, gave them to me, and I gave them to the above mentioned girl, who was the hostess’s youngest child, only a couple weeks older than G & S.

When I came home the other day, the childrens cheered to see me. That is such happiness. Entrance applause. ( Kids keep doing that when they’re older, right? ) Sometimes Miss S will squeal and run and give me a hug. If they are at their highchairs, they clap and yell. The other day, they picked me up with the car, and when the childrens saw me, they pointed at me, had happy faces, and clapped. They make me feel like a rock star.

We went to the first Halloween party of the year today, for the Multiples club. Miss Squeaky went as a ladybug, and Mr. Grunty went as a Crocigator. Pictures pending. I am surprised how they were cool with their costumes, because the costumes have head cover, and the childrens do not like hats.

I can see how easy it is to lose a child, we were in a single room, me and MyBetterHalf was always following one of the childrens, but sometimes I would look up and couldn’t find the other parent/child combo. And it’s not like there were seventeen ladybugs, or a dozen Allidiles.  Mr G spent a lot of time coloring, or taking the crayons out of the box, then later, he found a golf ball, and would throw it and run after it, to throw it again.  Miss S, was sharing crayons, with the other adults that were there, not with the other kids, cuz, you know, kids get crazy with crayons. Later she pushed chairs around.

Then we went to a playground. They like the swings. Mr G was doing his “ah-ah-ah” laugh. Miss S just held on and smiled. We put them on a modern version of the teeter-toter…and they got laughs on that. There was a propeller spining thing, Miss S spun it a couple of times, but was unsure of it. Mr G liked it. We put them on the slide, Mr. G was very excited about that, and couldn’t wait to scoot himself to the edge of going down!!

walkin’ styles … and the last of the squash

Mr. Grunty has a new walkin’ style. He walks with his arms straight, elbows locked, and elevated back ( not over the head) … we think he’s flying.

Miss Squeaky will still, when she wants a book read, plant the book in the sitting-on-the-floor parent’s lap, and then walk a few steps away, turn around, and back up into the parent’s lap. And then if I am being especially dense, she will take my hand, and put the book in it.

So, I picked off the last of the acorn squash tonight. I got an additional 6 medium size, and 10 small ones. All that from a 4 x 6 foot plot, minimal work. Oh, and I remembered to water the plants. I look forward to next summer, I’ll start them earlier, see if I can get more.

After the harvest, I gave a small squash to each of the childrens. They were very happy to walk around, laughing, holding their own squash. After a bit though, Mr. G tried to pulverize his squash by banging it on the floor.

childrens first farm visit

We went to a corn maze yesterday! I’ve been meaning to do that for a very long time. One of the benefits of having kids, it gets me out of lazy mode, and outside to appreciate stuff.

I think they had the most fun when they were just wandering around, going where they wanted, with a parental unit following and watching them. They were very good about staying on the path in the corn maze. They didn’t think the tractor ride was all that cool. Miss Squeaky picked up a lot of dirt, handfulls that she would carry around. She did however give an awesome rock that she found to Mr. Grunty, he thought it was pretty cool, too.

I didn’t really appreciate the being-lost in the maze, I was too busy watching a toddler, or, near the end, trying to carry or cajole them forward. Luckily, our good friend at IndecisiveRamblings was with us and telling us which way to go.

I think for the childrens sake, we were in the maze too long. I think that carrying Miss S didn’t do my pregnant wife any good. ( IR attempted to carry Miss S, but Miss S was fussy and wanted a parental.) I think the childrens would have been just as happy wandering around the first 20 feet of the maze.

I don’t feel bad about me missing out on the maze part. I really enjoyed watching my childrens exploring.

I was impressed at how quickly one can become unseen in the corn.

this morning

This morning…

Miss Squeaky, whilst her brother was laying on the boppy & drinking his bottle, went up to him, leaned her head down against his head, and made little singing / cooing “ahhh”. Then later rubbed his hair, and gently patted his head.

Later, Mr Grunty said, “eye wuv yoo, Sweaky”

Tonight, Miss Squeaky did a little upper-body, wiggle dance at dinner. MyBetterHalf copied her. Mr Grunty thought it HIGH_LARRI-OUS. So, we all were dancing at the dinner table, making each other laugh.

…other things…Miss Squeaky has been doing the two-handed pick up of cheerios from the floor. One in each hand, and then simultaneously dropping them in the trash.

Mr. Grunty is in the stage of being very unhappy when we try to clean his hands and face after dinner. He’ll still smile and nod his head from side to side when I sing the “Clean, clean, clean” song whilst cleaning his sister, but when it’s his turn, he fights it.

today

It was a good day.

This morning, Miss Squeaky danced in circles for me to the soothing sounds of “jump around” by House of Pain.  Mr. Grunty sang a song for me “DA dah da dah daaaa da DAA”

Tonight, I came home to find that Sophie-kitty & Oliver-kitty had somehow snuck out of the house and procured 56oz bag of M&Ms. Those kitties know how to hunt! I’m sure they were very cute dragging it up the street. I imagine when it was Sophie’s turn to drag, that Oliver would be hiding behind a blade of grass and then pouncing on her. And then I picture at Oliver’s turn to drag the bag, Sophie, lounging on the bag.

Also, MyBetterHalf got me  Hot, Flat & Crowded by Thomas L. Friedman.

And Miss Squeaky gave me the Numerati by Stephen Baker. She said, “it’s about math, papa. And you like math.”  Where did she get that idea?

Right now, I am listening to the soothing sounds of Metallica’s latest opus, Death Magnetic. (Seriously, there’s a piano / cello intro for a song.)  Mr. Grunty gave it to me, because “Rick Rubin produced it, and I know how much you respect him as a producer.”  …so far, so good.

Happy 16 months, childrens!

yesterday, we went to the TwinPonds park. It has new synth-turf for the soccer field. Which I still think will end up flooding the retirement community across the street when the winter rains hit. Mr. Grunty and Miss Squeaky wanted to go play with the big kids who were playing football. We tried to lead them to the play ground. I think they had fun walking on their own on the field, “should I go left? …no, I’ll go right…no, I’ll stop and try to pink up the 50 yard line…”  I’ve heard it’s important to give little ones choices. We let them choose their direction, but did guide them along. I took both childrens down the slide. But the best part for them was the swings.

Last night, Mr. G went shopping with MyBetterHalf, me & Miss S had a grand time at home. She and I were up in the loft when they left, so she didn’t see them leave. Today, Miss S and I went shopping for a metal trash can for papa’s composting project.

Today after church, we went to the usual restaurant, and hostess excitedly said, “the twins are back” when she greeted us. After, she commented on how well they are behaved. Though, if one of them gets fussy, I quickly take them outside to calm down. Last time it was Mr. G, today Miss S got fussy.

new foods

The childrens have tried new foods recently.

Kix, as an alternate to Cheerios for an appetizer. Miss Squeaky likes to drop them on the floor. Fortunately, the childrens like to help clean them up off the floor after their meal.

salmon – Miss S doesn’t really care for it. Mr Grunty thinks its good.

shrimp – Mr G thinks its good. Miss S doesn’t want it at all, and if I sneak it into her mouth, by covering it in cheese, she will dig it out of her mouth and put it as far away from her on the tray as possible.

lemon – they took a bite of a lemon wedge, no bad reaction

chamomile tea – Miss S, didn’t care for it, Mr. G thought it showed his sophistication while drinking it

My three childrens

Yesterday, we went for our ultrasound for Dritte. It was very exciting. The cutest view for me, was when we saw the bottom of Dritte’s little feet, side by side. We’re a little sad we didn’t ask for a photograph print of that one.        Poor Dritte, being a singleton, will have way fewer ultrasound pictures than Mr. Grunty & Miss Squeaky did.

Today, MyBetterHalf tells me she felt Dritte move.    

The other night, Mr. Grunty was being fussy. He wanted a bottle, but not the one he had. So we would offer him the other bottle. He didn’t want that bottle either. Eventually, the parental units were wise enuff to put both bottles within his reach, and then he was happy, taking alternating sips from both bottles.

The other morning, there were strange noises. I went to investigate, and saw that Mr. Grunty had crawled on top of a box and was contentedly sitting on it, whilst Miss Squeaky was standing on the edge of the box, standing above her brother, trying to get a better spot on the box. It was comical, but not safe. So I took Miss S off, then I took Mr. G off. As I was taking the boy off the box, my little girl thought “yay! I get the box to myself” and started going for it to climb back on top, I moved the box, she didn’t slow down, and she slipped and fell, banging her head.         I am a bad papa.        

Last night, I was the parent to rescue them from the daycare. ( And when I say “rescue” you should know, most of the time, they are having lots of fun, will run up and give a hug to a parent, and then turn to go back to playing when it’s time for them to go home.)   When we got home, we played for a bit in the yard. They would bring me the red or yellow leaves that they found.

NaNoWriMo 2008

I don’t think I’ll be participating this year.

There are other projects I am working on with a modicum of diligence, and, sorry to say, NaNoWriMo would be a distraction. I have a story I’m working on, there’s a music project I’m working on, I need to read seven more books this year. And of course the normal boring stuff…like chores. ( Don’t worry, I wouldn’t ignore the childrens, I would write on the bus to & fro work, on my lunch break, and after the childrens go to bed.)

NaNoWriMo is great. I encourage everyone to do it at least once. It is a great tool for forcing yourself to put words on the page. It was a wonderful sense of accomplishment the first time I won. But the second time I won, it was more of a chore than an adventure. The only goal this year, would be to see if I could stay on track at least a couple of days, or see if I could finish early.

I did have a story idea,… Once upon a time, I was in a book store, and I saw a book about a mother who is also a vampire, there was a demon-hunting-soccer-mom…and I was reading Stray at the time. I am amazed at the size of urban-fantasy / paranormal-romance / goth-porn / occult-chick-lit …sub-genres. And I says to myself, “GBAtT, you need to ride that gravy train….what could you do different? what would be your gimmick?”

And then I thought, the story of a rural young woman, on a farm (not urban!), …but she’s a city girl, so there’s the fish out of water angle. And there would be two love interests…the wild-boy, and the sweet innocent farm boy. (Like Bridget Jones, et al…) And for paranormal…wait for it… she’s a wer-gopher. (The wild boy is just a gopher).

Maybe next year I’ll write that story.