Photos, finally

Well, I finally found the cable for my phone. So, as promised, here are some photos from our beachy fun:

The twins, building their fort from the inside out.

John, chief construction foreman.

Ice cream! And sand! Everywhere!

In the sun, the ice cream was melting faster than
Veronica could eat it. That didn’t slow her
down one bit though.

Mom and Colin

Mom and Ethan. (Not the most flattering self portrait of
either of us, but the best from the day.)

The girls, windswept and sun kissed. 

More construction.

Busy Weekend

This weekend was the last weekend of our summer — Ethan goes back to school today. So we packed in as much fun this weekend as possible, trying to make the most of it. 

The weekend started with our annual block party. Ethan went out promptly at 8:00, when they blocked off the street to start setting up, and jumped right in to scootering and biking up and down the road. Colin and Veronica followed shortly after, and pretty much had to be dragged back into the house for naps at noon. Then we were back out and playing as soon as they got up and had something to eat. 

The bouncy house was a great success. Veronica was a little timid, and got very upset at one point when another little girl was standing right next to her and jumping a little too vigorously (for Veronica’s taste), so I had to pull her out. But she went back in again eventually, so all was good. 

Colin was in his element. Even when the big kids were in there, he was having a blast and rolling around. Unfortunately, part of his idea of fun was to roll under the feet of anyone who was jumping particularly high. (I think he like the big bounce when they came down; we just couldn’t get him to understand the potential for impact.) Eventually we had to take him out so no one got hurt. 

I’m going to try to weigh Colin this morning (and avoid the scale myself). He ate more or less nonstop all day, so I’m hoping he might have added some weight. 

To cap off the weekend, we finally made it to the beach yesterday afternoon. (Yes, it’s nearly September and this is our first visit. But it was chilly for so much of the summer, it didn’t really feel like beach weather.) It was quite a process to get over to the lake, and approximately 1 million other people had the same idea as us. But just as we were going to throw in the towel (so to speak) and head home, we found a place to park and all was well.

All three kids had a blast. We ended up at the very north end of Montrose Beach, right next to the dog beach. There happened to be a little sandbar at that point, about 5 feet out into the lake. So Colin and Veronica happily splashed in the 6 inches of water between the sandbar and the shore, and dug out a giant sand “fort” with John’s help. 

Ethan and I went deeper into the water, and he worked on his swimming techniques and adapting to the waves rolling through. I didn’t have time to get a picnic dinner packed, so our trip wasn’t very long (only about 2.5 hours), but I’m glad we made it. And I’ll post pictures of our adventures as soon as I find the cord for my phone, so I can pull them off my camera. 

Fun, fun, fun

Although we still have our share of headaches with the twins at this age (they rarely sleep through the night, even now, and boy can they be stubborn), they also can be a lot of fun. Their imaginations are soaring, and they interact with each other (and us) much more. This can lead to some fun, and funny, moments.

Their kids
Both Colin and Veronica have kids — multiple kids, all of whom seem to be older than they are. Veronica started this long before Colin, always telling me what her kids were doing and going to pick them up from school (and her kids are in school A LOT). Colin jumped on the bandwagon a few months ago. 

Veronica usually has five kids — a mix of girls and boys. They are apparently gifted dancers, because they spend, on average, three days a week at dance school. They sometimes get in trouble, and while they seem very independent overall, Veronica occasionally has to run out of the room to comfort one of them. Her kids also are at their Grandma’s and Grandpa’s house a lot. 

Colin also has multiple kids, both girls and boys, but it’s harder to pin down the exact number. They have a penguin mommy and a monkey daddy. I can’t get a straight answer from him as to whether that means he’s a monkey, or they have another daddy. Either way, I spent quite a while trying to envision what these kids look like. 

“So Colin, do they have feathers like the penguin or fur like a monkey?” “Feathers.” 

“Do they waddle like penguins, or have tails like a monkey?” “They have tails and like to swing on things.”

Cars and Playdough
At home, both kiddos love playing cars and playdough. They both prefer to do these activities together. Unfortunately, they seem to have the desire to play at different times. Yesterday, Colin was begging Veronica to play cars with him in the morning, but she wasn’t interested. After dinner, Veronica was trying to get Colin to go upstairs and play cars, but he wanted to read stories. 

They both enjoy the playdough, but have vastly different styles of creation. (Unfortunately, both styles involve a lot of mess, so we don’t do the playdough every day.) I had made them several different colors of dough, which was a mistake in retrospect. Today they have a large mass of black dough. Next time I think I’ll stick to just one color. 

The Y
We recently rejoined the Y, in part to get the members discount for the twins’ Kiddie Kollege tuition. We had been members for years, but finally quit when Ethan was two because every time we tried to take him there to play in the kids area while we worked out, he would end up screaming and we would have to go back home. 

It has been a totally different experience with the twins. They got to go into the kids room for a few minutes when we signed up. (I asked because I wanted them to see what it was like to make dropping them off a little easier.) Since then, they have asked several times to go back. So John finally made it over for a workout yesterday, and practically had to pull them out physically when it was time to go home. And they’ve been begging to go back ever since. I’m planning to go work out today, so they’ll get another chance to play right off the bat. 

Maybe John and I will be able to get back into an exercise routine after all. I’m keeping my fingers crossed. 

Playing Catchup

Once again, it has been a month since I last updated the blog. This summer has been jam-packed with activity, leaving me with no excess energy for things like the blog. We have a little over a week before school starts again for Ethan, at which point I really hope life settles down a tiny bit. 

We have enrolled Colin and Veronica in preschool (Kiddie Kollege) at the Y one morning a week for the first semester. We thought it was better to ease them into the structure of school (and the much-later nap) by starting with just the one day. It’s also much more expensive to do anything when you have to do it times two. I’m starting to shudder at the thought of college. 

Colin had his three-year-old doctor appointment last month, and I have twice located and lost the slip of paper on which I wrote down his height and length, so I’ll have to do a side-by-side of the twins after I find it again. He continues to grow at his own pace, but is not “gaining” on Veronica at all. It’t hard to know if he’ll always be my little peanut (I’d say probably), or if he’ll get a big growth spurt at some point and shoot up. It doesn’t really matter to me (although it may to him, come junior high), but I do wonder about it from time to time. 

The potty training is going mostly smooth. Colin probably could get rid of the pull-up at night, except that he only lets us know about half the time when he needs to poop. So for now, we’re keeping him in it. Veronica does great during the day, but has only stayed dry overnight once or twice. And I’m perfectly happy with that for now. 

Colin and Veronica generally play very well together now. Their imaginations are soaring, and it’s fun to hear the scenarios they create. The other morning they decided our staircase was an escalator. But since it wasn’t moving, it must be broken. So after breakfast, they spend some time fixing it. Unfortunately, when Ethan tried to use the stairs to go up to his room, it caused quite an uproar. 

It’s fun to watch their personalities blossom, but somewhat exhausting too. We’re still in the throws of what people refer to as “the terrible twos.” In our family, that tantrum-filled, I-want-it-my-way stage seems to land more in the threes. Veronica, in particular, is a very strong-willed, stubborn little girl. (Colin just conveniently goes deaf when he doesn’t want to hear what you’re saying — and having to repeat everything 20 times a day gets old very quickly.) 

Colin’s tantrums tend to blow up and pass quickly. Veronica can go on forever. The girl has good stamina. That will no doubt serve her well in the future. But it may kill me in the present.