I've waited 5 years for today. Today was the day that Gracie and Lucas got to come to work with me. It was their first day of Summer School. I planned our morning carefully to get us out of the door in record time. I was very impressed by how hard they worked to get dressed and ready to go.
We arrived a little early and snapped this picture:
And this one
And this one
We never did get a truly perfect photo.
At the end of Camp Mustang and Afternoon Athletics and After School Care, this happened on the way home.
At the beginning of the summer, Gracie and Lukie's teacher mentioned how much they liked the hip hop class on Thursdays. There was a new session starting and the teacher had invited Gracie to participate. Apparently, Gracie was all over dance class. She sashayed and jumped and had some serious rhythm. I looked at the price of the class and almost choked.
However, after a sibling discount (who hoo) and two very excited kids, I found the money hiding in my savings account to make hip hop class a reality for them. I'm so glad I did it! Not only are they having a blast, but they are discovering music that we haven't introduced them to. I can do without Justin Bieber and the Baja Men, but they've absolutely fallen in LOVE with Michael Jackson. So much so, that we have spent several hours watching videos and dancing to Michael Jackson songs. I burned CDs with their favorite songs on them and they are what we listen to in the car. They love to sing "Beat It", "Black or White", "Smooth Criminal", and "Bad." They are also discovering "The Girl is Mine." They love hearing the stories of Michael Jackson from when Aunt Bec and I were little. Lukie is excited about dancing like him and keeps practicing his Moon Walk.
Lukie's dancin' moves:
He loves dancing like Michael Jackson so much that he even dancing to MJ in the car:
We've taken quite a few trips to the Zoo, but I have to admit that a trip with almost 4-year-olds is really fun. They can do more for themselves and they aren't scared of everything. Our most recent trip was our first day out with a healthy Daddy.
Gracie and Lukie touched a python skin, a rattle snake skin, and Gracie, my brave girl, petted a guinea pig. We were seriously enchanted by the Children's Zoo. I don't know how we've managed to skip that part of the Zoo over the past few years, but we will definitely be going back.
Gracie and Luke kept wanting to look through the telescopes. Next time, I need to make sure I have money for them!
For some reason, there was also a lot of eating. Daddy, Gracie, and Luke packed a "goodie" bag. Lukie packed fruit. Gracie packed BBQ sauce chips. You can see where their priorities are.
Lukie loves fruit and nectarines are one of his favorite fruits!
Yeah, I'm tough.
Thanks for the SEE food, Lukie!
Look at these eyes! How can you say No to them???
Someone talked us into churros.
We saw lots of animals, too. The kangaroos were great fun! But the star of the day was the Kimodo Dragon.
Lukie kept talking about him like he was the best thing in the whole world!
Now time for a Twinterview (age 3 years 10.5 months):
We recently watched the Wizard of Oz and Gracie and Luke were transfixed. Gracie asked me a million questions, proof that I can never take her to a movie theater. She will be "that" kid.
A week or so ago, Abue Rosi managed to catch Lukie at just the right time.
The right time for what, you ask?
The right time to use the toilet.
We haven't been pressuring Lukie to potty train. He hasn't been interested and that is fine. We aren't interested in a potty training battle. Rather, we just remind each other that Lukie will not go to college in Pull-Ups.
Abue Rosi got him to use the toilet and he was SO proud of himself that he burst with the news when I arrived to pick him up. We did high 5s and knuckles and danced around like maniacs. And the coolest part? He did it again the next day and the next. His track record wasn't perfect; for every time he made it to the toilet, he'd miss the next.
Yesterday, Lukie came home from preschool sans a Pull-Up. My son was "commando." Apparently, he kept taking his Pull-Up off all day and they finally just let him stay that way. At home, Lukie told me that he wanted to only use the toilet. Awesome, but this was followed by an accident in the living room.
He is obsessed with going potty (and poop) in the toilet. This experience is so different than with Gracie. He is so focused on making sure that he gets to the toilet and he'll sit there until he is totally done (as opposed to Gracie who can't sit still for 5 seconds.
Keep your fingers crossed that I have 2 potty trained Twinsies soon!
Gracie and Luke love to tattle on each other. They aren't mean about it, or even annoying. They just like to be reassured that they know and understand what is nice/good behavior and what is mean.
One day, Gracie and I were sitting reading a book, when a cry of distress came from the bathroom. Gracie went to go investigate and when she came back, she had quite a story to tell me. Not believing her, I decided to check it out for myself.
Thursday, November 18, 2010
Gracie and Lukie love Beauty and the Beast. This is what they shared with me today. They melt my heart.
While I completely love our inflatable pool, I very much dislike the amount of time it takes to pump air into the darn thing. It takes 30 minutes with the electric air pump and that is annoying. The day before their birthday, Gracie and Lukie and I were lamenting how hot it was (okay, I was lamenting, they were playing) and they begged me to put the pool out. Not willing to go to all the trouble, I came up with a MacGyver-esque solution.
On Friday, I planned a special trip for Gracie and Luke. We have a number of books at home, but we've read them all. Multiple times. Gracie and Lukie love, LOVE, to read and so I decided to take them to the library. When I picked them up from school, we talked about the library and what we would get to do there; how to use quiet voices and how many books we could bring home. In hindsight, I'm very glad that I had that conversation with them. Otherwise we would have brought home about 20 books!
Gracie was at home from the moment we arrived. In fact, if Lukie hadn't needed a diaper change, I suspect Gracie could have sat at her little table for an hour or more. She loved looking at the books and sitting at the table in the Children's section. I think she read 5 books in the 15 minutes we were there.
Alas, Lukie did need a diaper change, rather badly as it turned out, so we walked to the counter and they each put their book up for the librarian to scan. They were so excited! We will definitely be going back soon!
Clearly, Lucas is his father's son. Daddy used to search for the hottest salsas and peppers. He once ate a fresh habanero pepper like it was candy. He has issues with heat. He likes his food hot, hot, hot!
That's not to say that I don't like my food spicy, too! One of my favorite snacks is Flamin' Hot Cheetos. When I first started eating them, years ago, they were so spicy, I had to keep milk nearby to cut the heat. When I was pregnant with Gracie and Lukie, they were one of the few chip flavors in the vending machines at the hospital. I would buy a Dr. Pepper and a bag of Flamin' Hot Cheetos. I was a happy girl (despite being stuck in the hospital).
Lucas has inherited our love for spicy foods. His current favorite, like mine, is Flamin' Hot Cheetos. Recently, we were at the park and he snagged a bag from my backpack.
I, on the other hand, have never been stung by a bee. *knock on wood!*
She was pretty traumatized by the bee sting and while I remembered to get the stinger out and give her Benedryl and Motrin, I forgot to do the baking soda paste on the sting. Thus, all of the venom was left in her arm.
By the following morning, her arm looked like this:
It stayed like that until Wednesday. It was pretty scary for me. Gracie just hated it because it hurt. We are practicing a new line for bees when we are in the yard or the park:
Gracie and Lukie love to help. When they are at their craziest, all you need to do is say, "Gracie and Lukie! I need your help!" and they'll come running.
After some crazy behavior during a brief shopping expedition, Daddy decided Gracie and Lukie could "help" him wash his scooter and his car. He made a good effort getting everything set up and had a good chance of keeping them occupied. He had lots of things on his side: 1) water (always a happy thing for Gracie and Luke) 2) bubbles (seriously one of their favorite things) 3) something they could clean at their level
I read a lot of things about describing body parts when Gracie and Luke were super little. Pretty much every expert agreed that giving "cutsy" names to body parts would only serve to confuse the Twinsies and lead to confusion in their communication with adults. So, when Lukie pointed down and said, "What's that, Mommy?" I was honest.
"It's your penis, Lukie." "My penis?" "Yep." He asked me about 50 more times, but I won't bore you with the back and forth.
Once Lukie knew what his special body part was called Gracie got in on the action. "What's this, Mommy?" "It's your vagina, Gracie." (I know they are labia, but I opted for vagina. Sue me. She's my daughter.) "Bagina?" "V. Vvvvagina." "My bagina?" And so forth.
Our discussion of the penis and vagina led to a discussion of boys versus girls. I am happy to report that both Gracie and Luke are able to correctly identify everyone in their lives by their gender. Mommy = girl Daddy = boy Lukie = boy Gracie = girl Tio Freddy = boy Baby Emmy = girl and so on...
The fun part is that they love to say "penis" and "vagina." So much so, that Daddy has been incredibly embarrassed in front of nurses at Kaiser.
I was going through Flickr today and realized that a) I have an account there and b) I actually have photos and *gasp* a video up there.
I had tears in my eyes as I watched the video. Just one short year ago, our lives were drastically different. Daddy was in the hospital. We lived in a one bedroom apartment. And I wanted to cry everyday.
It's a good thing I had these two around to keep me happy.
On Friday, I planned a special trip for Gracie and Luke. We have a number of books at home, but we've read them all. Multiple times. Gracie and Lukie love, LOVE, to read and so I decided to take them to the library. When I picked them up from school, we talked about the library and what we would get to do there; how to use quiet voices and how many books we could bring home. In hindsight, I'm very glad that I had that conversation with them. Otherwise we would have brought home about 20 books!
