Ethan got home yesterday afternoon from a week-and-a-day visit with Grandma and Grandpa. When he first left, the twins would ask about him multiple times a day. They would hear a door close: “Ethan?” “No, Ethan is at Grandma and Grandpa’s house.” We would talk about going to the park. “With Ethan?” “No, Ethan is at Grandma and Grandpa’s house.”
But by the end of the week, they were only asking about him a couple of times a day. (Veronica wanted to know at breakfast each morning whether Ethan had his shoes on yet.) So I was wondering how they would react when he got back. I know they had been enjoying the more “undivided” attention, but they also generally enjoy having their b-bro around.
Unfortunately, I was at work when the homecoming happened, but I tried calling around the time I thought Ethan would be getting back to see how the trip (and re-entry) had gone. No one answered when I called, so I just left a message.
John called me back an hour or two later, and said that he hadn’t even heard the phone ring over the noise of the reunion. Apparently when Veronica and Colin saw Ethan, they both dropped what they were doing, started squealing with happiness, and the three kids dissolved into a pile of full-body, squirming, squealing hugs on the floor.
Even thinking about it makes my heart warm. I’m so glad they all love each other so much.
Saturday, August 25, 2012
Tuesday, August 21, 2012
Sensitive girl
Veronica is a very sensitive girl — not so much in the emotional sense, although she can be sensitive that way. What I’m talking about is more of a physical sensitivity. She is very aware of textures, and averse to being wet — at all. Even one drop of water on her clothes makes her unhappy and wanting to change. She will tell you immediately if her clothes aren’t adjusted just right (“Too tight. Too tight!!!!”), and absolutely insists on changing her shorts or pants if her diaper has leaked in the slightest.
Sometimes I worry that she goes beyond normal in these sensitivities; other times I think it’s probably just a control thing. (Veronica does like her control.)
Two weeks ago, the old clay pipes that drained the water from our kitchen sink, dishwasher, laundry tub and basement drain lost their 114 year fight with the tree roots and disintegrated. (Okay, they may have disintegrated months ago, we just realized it two weeks ago.) Being without laundry with a family of five that includes two cloth-diapered toddlers was not fun. Especially when the time to diagnose and repair the problem stretched out to more than a week. (Thank goodness for our wonderful neighbors, who let us use their laundry several times.)
Because of the lack of washing machine (or, more precisely, the lack of dirty water drainage), we switched to disposable diapers until the problem could be fixed. For the first day, Veronica was fine with the change. It was like an adventure: disposable diapers all day long, not just at night. But by the end of the second day, she was done with the disposables. She wanted her pretty cloth diapers back.
“No. Other diaper. Blue diaper,” she told me as I tried to put a clean disposable on her.
“But Roni, we can’t use the disposables because the pipes are broken. Remember?”
“No. Cloth better. Cloth better!” My little environmentalist. (As if that had anything to do with her desire for cloth diapers — it’s all about the colors.)
Today, because we’re starting to get serious about the potty training, I thought I would try out the pull-ups on Veronica. I haven’t quite gotten to the point where I think we’re ready for the cloth training pants (although I’m close), so I bought a package of the disposable pullups, because it’s much easier to pull a diaper up and down when the kiddos want to go potty than to keep taking their diapers off.
I got the pullup halfway up Veronica’s one leg when she started to freak out. “Ouch, ouch, ouch, ouch!!!” So I took it off and tried again, only to get an even stronger reaction.
I gave up and put the diaper back on — and I may be going out to buy the cloth training pants sooner than I thought. Or maybe it was just because she’s tired and feeling a little off. Who knows?
(Colin is doing really well on the potty training, and sometimes will even ask to go before he gets his diaper wet. I think if we were to decide to actually make an effort to push the training, he would get it very quickly. We’re just not ready to make that effort yet.)
I am hoping that this super-sensitive phase is just that — a phase that will pass (quickly with luck). And in the mean time, well I guess we’ll just continue to deal with her little quirks.
Sometimes I worry that she goes beyond normal in these sensitivities; other times I think it’s probably just a control thing. (Veronica does like her control.)
Two weeks ago, the old clay pipes that drained the water from our kitchen sink, dishwasher, laundry tub and basement drain lost their 114 year fight with the tree roots and disintegrated. (Okay, they may have disintegrated months ago, we just realized it two weeks ago.) Being without laundry with a family of five that includes two cloth-diapered toddlers was not fun. Especially when the time to diagnose and repair the problem stretched out to more than a week. (Thank goodness for our wonderful neighbors, who let us use their laundry several times.)
Because of the lack of washing machine (or, more precisely, the lack of dirty water drainage), we switched to disposable diapers until the problem could be fixed. For the first day, Veronica was fine with the change. It was like an adventure: disposable diapers all day long, not just at night. But by the end of the second day, she was done with the disposables. She wanted her pretty cloth diapers back.
“No. Other diaper. Blue diaper,” she told me as I tried to put a clean disposable on her.
“But Roni, we can’t use the disposables because the pipes are broken. Remember?”
“No. Cloth better. Cloth better!” My little environmentalist. (As if that had anything to do with her desire for cloth diapers — it’s all about the colors.)
Today, because we’re starting to get serious about the potty training, I thought I would try out the pull-ups on Veronica. I haven’t quite gotten to the point where I think we’re ready for the cloth training pants (although I’m close), so I bought a package of the disposable pullups, because it’s much easier to pull a diaper up and down when the kiddos want to go potty than to keep taking their diapers off.
I got the pullup halfway up Veronica’s one leg when she started to freak out. “Ouch, ouch, ouch, ouch!!!” So I took it off and tried again, only to get an even stronger reaction.
I gave up and put the diaper back on — and I may be going out to buy the cloth training pants sooner than I thought. Or maybe it was just because she’s tired and feeling a little off. Who knows?
(Colin is doing really well on the potty training, and sometimes will even ask to go before he gets his diaper wet. I think if we were to decide to actually make an effort to push the training, he would get it very quickly. We’re just not ready to make that effort yet.)
I am hoping that this super-sensitive phase is just that — a phase that will pass (quickly with luck). And in the mean time, well I guess we’ll just continue to deal with her little quirks.
Friday, August 10, 2012
Smackdown
Colin and Veronica have very different personalities. You might even call them polar opposites at times. But they have two big things in common: They’re two and they lack impulse control. And right now, that means our house more resembles a boxing ring or wresting match than anything.
Veronica’s preferred response to anything is to start swinging. Colin still has a more varied repertoire, although I’m grateful that the biting has more or less stopped since the day he bit John. (Veronica was so excited to tell me when I got home that Colin was in time out because he bit Daddy.) We’ve been working hard to eliminate the head butting (it really hurts), and the wrestling Veronica to the ground is slowly giving way to just hitting back, but he is a bit more varied in his venting.
I’ve also started working on the concept of “sorry,” and have been making the twins apologize to each other if they do something they know they shouldn’t — like stealing a book out of the other’s hands or hitting.
Colin very clearly understands “sorry” already: A couple of days ago, he smashed into Veronica while she was reading and knocked the book out of her hands. He immediately said sorry and leaned in to kiss her, whereupon she hauled off and smacked him. After braving the flailing arms to separate them (Veronica continuing to hit Colin, who at this point has fallen into her lap from the onslaught; Colin trying to defend himself and get a few jabs in of his own) I had to explain to Veronica that Colin was trying to apologize and hitting him for saying he was sorry was really not the right response.
Poor Colin, I’m not sure I’ve seen him issue an unprompted apology since then. And really, I can hardly blame him after the response that met his last attempt.
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