Backyard Fun

Can we go to the pool now?

Ah, Summer

It's mid-summer and I'm still appreciating the warm weather, trips to the pool, the beach, walks in the woods, the park, the Farmer's Market and all those other great summer activities.  On August 1st, I feel like the summer both just got started and is also almost over.  The winter for us was very trying as it was so long, cold and dark and we all seemed to be sick for most of it, so I'm trying to enjoy every moment of our warm, sunny and illness free days.  I think we live in the absolutely best place in the entire country to spend the summer - the weather is warm and sunny (but not generally too hot and never humid) during the day, cold at night and lots of great activities and beaches nearby.  I can't think of anyplace I'd rather be right now. We had a fun Sunday today.  We took the girls over to a local ski resort and rode a shuttle bus around a bit just for fun.  I know it sounds strange, but it  was probably the highlight of Kate's week - she sang the "Wheels on the Bus" the whole trip.  Maya loves buses, too, but was a little scared of actually riding in one.  We also walked around the resort which has some great features for toddlers including multiple sand boxes, a toy store with a drawing table, hammocks and other things like that. In the afternoon we went to the pool for the third day in a row.  The girls love the pool and never seem to get bored of it.  Kate loves to put goggles on and hang around in her rubber ducky.  Maya is the ultimate water baby and has been very busy teaching herself to swim.  She is very good at holding her breath under water and is working on floating and kicking .  I'm feeling very lucky to live a block from a great pool (even if it doesn't have pool side drink service) and am dreading the day that it closes in the fall!  It's such a low key, easy activity to do with toddlers and we always seem to meet people we know there - which makes it more entertaining for me. On the way to the pool - Kate's all set with her rubber ducky (she walked around with it for a half an hour before we left for the pool). Maya's laughing at her Dad being silly.

Kate goofing around at the pool.

Kate playing with my sunglasses.

Enjoying a nectarine on the front deck before bedtime

Of Poop, Play and Pens (I'm feeling alliterative tonight)

Poop
One would think that the first year with twins there would be a lot of focus on poop considering that newborns poop every few hours and new parents are supposed to be obsessed with their kids' poop. I never really got into the poop obsession (I think I just didn't have any extra  mental energy to waste on poop) and, except for a hand full of times, the diapers contained it nicely and easily.  Most importantly, the girls didn't have the coordination to mess with their diapers. So, until recently, poop just happened and it was no big deal.

However, I'm beginning to think that the second year will be all about the poop and it's going to be messy. In the last few days we've had at least one poop incident every day and each time it gets grosser and messier. I'm thinking we'll have to replace the carpets after the girls are potty trained - or stop giving them colorful food like blueberries (blueberry poop is hard to clean off of white carpets). I'll spare you the details (for now - hehe), but suffice it to say that Maya has taken to digging around in her diaper to see if there's anything "STINKY" in there and Kate just won't keep a diaper on. She can whip off her pants and diapers in about 10 seconds flat. I think I need to go out and buy a bunch of onsies to try to contain the mess.

Play
Maya has recently begun playing "imaginatively" and will play for long periods of time with her plastic animals, dolls and trains. It's very nice and when she wakes up from her nap early and Kate is still asleep I can just sit around and read a book while she plays. It's very refreshing and pleasant. Then Kate wakes up and the chaos begins again.

Pens
I'm afraid that in a few years Kate may sneak out of the house and come home with a tattoo.  She loves to draw on herself - behold her latest masterpiece.  I was pretty psyched that she didn't suck the ink out of the markers and then chew on the tips like she used to do - drawing on herself is much better.  I just hope she never gets her hands on a Sharpie.

A Day at the Zoo and More

Maya and I on the seesaw at the world's best park for twins - it's fenced in!

Maya and her favorite animal - "MEERCATS" (she was yelling that while running around the zoo)

The fake animals were more exciting than the real thing because you can climb on them!

Maya and Kate riding in style at the zoo - and holding hands.

The highlight of Muir Woods for Kate and Maya was the visitor center. How can giant redwoods compete with snacks and wooden bears?

Kate climbing on bear

Ah, snacks.

The Good, The Bad and the Pretty Darn Cute

The Bad - Grocery shopping with two toddlers

I knew our trip to Safeway wasn't going to be easy when five minutes into our trip, Kate started yelling "ALL DONE ALL DONE ALL DONE" and wriggling around in the backpack she normally rides in when we are grocery shopping.  I kept telling her that we really aren't "all done" and we still had a bunch more shopping to do.  (In case you're wondering - this kind of reasoning doesn't work with an angry 20 month old.)  By the time we reached the pasta aisle, I couldn't ignore her yelling, so thought she'd be happier if I switched her to the grocery cart seat and put Maya in the backpack. This sounds simple, but in a packed grocery store it's not really so easy.  

I extracted Maya from the grocery cart, put her on the ground and got Kate out of the backpack.  Kate was happy about this until she realized that instead of the freedom to run amuck that she was yearning for, she was going to get strapped into the cart.  So, while trying to follow Maya who was running down the aisle, dodging carts and grabbing for cans and jars, I'm trying to strap a screaming, fighting and squirming Kate into the cart.  I'm not sure what the reaction to the people around me was, but I'm sure it was either - "poor mom, she looks like she could use some help" or "what kind of mother lets her toddler run free in a grocery store?" or maybe "what kind of mother takes two toddlers grocery shopping at 4:30 PM?".  Maybe this is just what I was thinking to myself.  

I did finally manage to get Kate strapped into the cart, wrangled Maya into the backpack and continued on shopping. Kate was even somewhat happy because I let her chose the produce and put it in the bags.  She likes to be helpful, after all.  Unfortunately, she had an even bigger meltdown in the checkout line - which ended in a full on kicking and screaming tantrum while the checker, bagger, people in line and other passer byers were trying to placate her.  "Want a sticker?  Want to play with the pen? Want to smack your mom in the face?"  Needless to say none of this worked and just made things worse.  I ended up walking out of the store with her in my arms screaming at the top of her lungs and kicking and hitting everything she could reach and every eye within screaming distance on us.  Maya, in the meantime, seemed to feel a little sorry for me and was patting me on the head and giving me hugs from the backpack.  

The Good -  Sitting on a bench

After yesterday's grocery store debacle, I decided we all needed some calm, quiet time together.  I think part of the tantrum was because we've been running around like crazy for the past few days and Kate was just tired, cranky and desperately in need of some down time.  So, this morning we just hung out at home and then went on a quiet walk to the neighborhood store.  We live in a kind of remote suburb that requires a minimum 12 minute drive to civilization.  However (thank goodness) we have a lively neighborhood store within walking distance that sells all sorts of things - like diapers, milk, cold sodas and beer, snacks, ice cream, etc. 

Anyways, we walked over to the store, I bought a bag of goldfish, a cold diet coke and then we sat on the bench in front of the store and ate our snacks and watched the people and cars go by.  The girls actually sat calmly and ate their goldfish for 20 minutes.  Kate was in heaven as she was sitting in the middle between Maya and me and had control over the bag of goldfish.  She spent the whole time handing out goldfish to Maya, to me and to Rosie and then to herself.  I love times like these - when everyone is relaxed, calm, and happy.  Alas,all good things must come to an end, and Kate was very unhappy when Maya decided it was time to go and started running away at full speed.  Kate kept trying to herd us all back to the bench so she could continue to feed us and keep her special time going.  

The Pretty Darn Cute - Josh and Maya enjoying the 4th of July parade.  (Yes, those skies are really that blue - I love summers in the mountains.)  

Some random cuteness

I've decided that it's finally time for the girls (especially Kate) to face their fears and start vacuuming the house again.  They've been terrified of the vacuum cleaner for about a year.  While it's nice to have an excuse for our dirty floors, I am getting a little tired of having to pay a babysitter so I can vacuum the house.  True to form, Kate freaked out when she saw the vacuum cleaner yesterday and started crying and yelling "no! no! no!".  The cuteness started when Maya walked over to Kate, gave her a hug, a pat on the back and then sat down next to her and played with her while I vacuumed.  This calmed Kate down and she stopped crying and seemed reasonably happy during the whole vacuuming process.  She even went over to the vacuum cleaner afterwards and touched it - something she's been too scared to do before.  It was so cute and heartwarming - I think the girls are finally discovering that beautiful human characteristic - empathy.  Here's to hoping they discover that their mama deserves a little empathy once in a while, too - maybe that will stop Kate from screaming "MAMAMAMAMAMA" for as long as it takes me to cook dinner.  

Oh - another cool and excited thing happened today.  After lunch Kate was driving me crazy trying to climb up onto the kitchen table via Maya's chair - while Maya was still in it trying to enjoy her strawberries.  I yelled at Kate to stop it and she looked at me and then actually stopped!  Wow - normally she'd look at me, laugh and then keep doing whatever she was doing.  Don't get me wrong, I don't expect her to suddenly be a little, non climbing angel (that'd be boring anyways), but it is nice for her to listen to me once in a while.