We were away for the weekend for Easter — we’re home, we had a great Easter, and I’ll post photos sometime tomorrow. In the meantime I’ll leave you with these two quotes from Easter Sunday 2007:
Owen, this morning, 6:30am, in the bunk bed in Massachusetts, his grandparents and aunt and uncle and cousin and twin brother and mama and papi are all gathered ’round his bed trying to wake him up… (he hates to be woken up)… Kyle has stumbled in dragging his own easter basket and is desperate for his brother to wake and see what The Bunny has done. It is total confusion in the room. Poor Owen has no desire whatsoever to wake up. I lean down close to his ear and I say as calmly as possible amidst the mayhem, “Owen, baby, the Easter Bunny came!” He jolts upright, his whole body seriously flips off of the side of the bed, and as he’s literally leaping/stumbling/tripping toward the bedroom door in a totally dazed-and-confused half-asleep-but-body-in-motion-state he says loudly and abruptly: “WHERE?!?!!!!! WHERE?!?!!!!!WHERE IS HE?!?!???”
Kyle, this evening, 6:30pm, back at home in his chair at the dinner table, Owen is upstairs with Papi giving him a bath, Kyle’s happy-as-a-clam-to-be-home-sweet-home, he’s eating macaroni and cheese and green beans and quietly talking to me about his favorite part of Easter: Church. (no joke, believe me, I would not joke about this… he seriously told me at least three times tonight that his “favorite” part of the whole weekend was “church”) Kyle: “Mommy, I go’d to church. I go’d to a big church this morning.” Me: “Yes, we all went to church for Easter.” Kyle: “Mommy, what was that man playing up there?” (I know he’s talking about the organist playing the organ in the church balcony). Me: “You know! That man was playing the organ in the church.” Kyle: “Yes. The organ. And there were very many people singing.” Me: “Yes.” And then… truly, I’m not kidding… Kyle proceeded to quietly and sincerely sing, totally to the correct tune — “Christ the Lord is risen today, A-a-a-a-lle-lu-u-ia.”
Was it a Tie Dye project? Or was it an Easter Egg Decorating project? Or was it both???
The truth is that we did not intend to do tie dye. But what started as easter egg decorating resulted in two sets of finished craft products:
Tonight we participated in that beloved annual ritual: Easter Egg Decorating. And this year,
beloved by Kyle and Owen it
surely was. Braydon and I were remembering last year — how the whole thing had been waaay lost on K & O, how the whole thing had been soooo
not worth it. This year though, it was a whole other story! The boys got into it. Like, way way way into it. They really, really liked dying the eggs — dropping them in the little cups and watching them turn from white to bright colors. They loved it! And they were — in typical K & O form — fully engaged in it. Fully. And Braydon and I were FULLY in Damage Control Mode the entire time. It started out nice and tidy, but by the end the egg dye was
everywhere… all over the table, all over the boys, and yes– thankfully– all over the eggs too. Let’s put it this way: the clean up took
a lot longer than the project. But we all had a lot of fun… We’ve got 10 brightly colored hard-boiled eggs with stickers all over them (we lost 2 along the way due to unruly squishing of eggs by Kyle) PLUS two tie-dye-esque t-shirts to prove it! It’s all good!
Here’s KYLE —
Here’s OWEN–
Note we don’t have any photos of the scene once things really got rolling with the dye spilling and the eggs squishing… obviously the camera had to be shelved for that so that I could have both hands free to trouble-shoot the situation.
After going to see African drumming, I went and got the boys djembe drums. They love them.
Note: if the video looks cut off, please click through to watch on YouTube directly.
Kyle, Sadie behind Kyle, Owen behind Sadieat MorMor & MorFar’s House in New Hampshire ~ August 2005
This weekend the boys will get to see their only cousin, Sadie, for Easter. There’s just nothing like cousins playing during family holidays. I’m grateful that for us it is true: No matter what — no matter distance, no matter difference — family is love. Happy Love Thursday, everyone!
We are all extremely excited about our upcoming vacation… even though it is still very far away. Braydon, in particular, is *extraordinarily* excited — especially about the prospects for superb snorkeling. Braydon is/was an avid scuba diver before he met me… Me being a non-diver, with no time to commit to picking up a new hobby, I have really cramped his style over the years. And now with Kyle and Owen having joined the family, it is 3 to 1 — we three really cramp his style on vacation; it is impossible for Braydon to devote any time to scuba diving since he vacations with three non-divers. He’s not too worried about it — he knows we’ll all be scuba diving together as a family in no time — but still, he misses it. Snorkeling is not the same thing, of course, but it is the next best thing. So, in true Braydon style, rather than sulk or mope about the temporary loss of scuba diving, he focuses intently on the here and now: snorkeling. I can’t imagine that many parents expect their two-year-olds to be able to snorkel in open seas. But Braydon is not like most. He defies status quo. He is convinced that both Kyle and Owen will be snorkeling with him in the Caribbean on vacation this year. There is no reasoning with him. Believe me. So, to prepare K & O in advance for their snorkeling excursions, Braydon has decided that instructing them in an intensive training program in the bathtub is the way to go. He ordered the equipment and it arrived yesterday. He could not wait to get them into the tub tonight for the first session of SNORKELING 101. I stayed out of the way (cooking dinner downstairs) but reports from all three of them were that Snorkeling 101 was “great!” Owen claimed that he had seen “fishes under there!” Kyle noted that his mask was “too tight,” but that it was “fun!” Braydon is sure that he has two very fine pupils and that they will “definately!” be ready for the Caribbean by the time we go. I’m not so sure, but I’m on-board for a wild ride!
Background Info– The boys have never focused any attention whatsoever on their hair. This has always surprised me since their hair is such a huge focus of attention of other people while we’re out and about. People are constantly commenting on it, kids are constantly trying to touch/feel it, and when we see other folks with dreads they generally go absolutely nuts about ooohing and aahhhing over the 2-year-old-twin-boys-with-the-locked-up-hair. And yet Kyle and Owen have never made any kind of fuss (positive or negative) over their own hair or each other’s. In fact, they’ve never even commented on their hair or asked any single question about it. The only exception to this is that awhile back (starting last summer, through this past December), there was a Lehigh student working at the boys’ daycare who had beautiful long dreads — “Miss Nina.” I actually know Nina well because she’s a student of mine. We used to talk black hair together a lot at daycare drop-off and pick-up. A few weeks into her job at the daycare center she suddenly decided to cut off her dreads. We showed up one morning at the Toddler Room and there was Miss Nina sitting at the breakfast table with a shiny shaved head. All three of us (Owen, Kyle, and me) almost dropped on the floor in shock. It was a huge deal to the boys that “Miss Nina hair cut!” For weeks after they would say this phrase incessantly (never mentioning locs, or anything else, just saying: “Miss Nina hair cut!” over and over and over). But they seemed to get over it, and haven’t mentioned it for a few months now. Other than the “Miss Nina hair cut!” talk, both Kyle and Owen have seemed virtually oblivious about all things hair/locs/etc. Very recently (like, just in the past few days) I’ve noticed that Kyle has started to notice hair more. The other day in the frozen food section of the grocery store we saw a man with beautiful long dreads. Kyle pointed to him and said, “Mama, just like mine hair!” The man turned to look at us. Kyle said to him: “I like your hair!” The man said back: “Nice dreadlocks Little Man!” and that was the end of it. So, now… getting to the conversation of this post… Sunday night was “Hair Night” at the Casa Johnson-McCormick. It was Braydon’s turn to re-twist Owen’s locs and my turn to re-twist Kyle’s. Their locs always look so fresh and ‘tight’ for the first couple days after re-twisting. This morning, right after he woke up, Kyle and I had this conversation~~~
Heather: Kyle, your hair looks so good!
Kyle: [rubbing his hand on his hair] Yes, its good. Its my dreadlocks.
Heather: Yes! Your dreadlocks look so good!
Kyle: Thank you very much.
Heather: Baby, who does your hair?
Kyle: My mama does my hair. My mama does my dreadlocks.
Heather: Yes Baby! Your mama does!
Kyle: [rubbing his hand on his hair again] See my dreadlocks?
Heather: Yes, I see your beautiful dreadlocks.
Kyle: I have mine dreadlocks.
Heather: Yup!
Kyle: [now rubbing his hand on Owen’s hair] Owen has him dreadlocks.
Heather: Yup!
Kyle: Miss Nina hair cut.
Heather: Yes, Miss Nina got her hair cut.
Kyle: Miss Nina hair cut. Dreadlocks cut. Hair all gone.
Heather: Yes.
Kyle: Miss Nina’s dreadlocks cut all gone. We have to go to the store to get more. We have to go to the store to get more dreadlocks for Miss Nina.
G’ama (Braydon’s mother) was here last week for a visit. While she was here we had a Major Milestone Event… G’ama voluntarily had the boys stay home from daycare on Thursday and she single-handedly took care of them both for the whole entire day. Let me repeat that: she spent the full day alone with the both boys. I know that to anyone who doesn’t know our twins it might sound crazy to make a big deal over a person spending a whole day alone with them… but to anyone who does know our twins– hmmm… how can I say this? Um… to anyone who does know our twins, I can guarantee that it sounds CRAZY to even consider spending a whole day alone with them, let alone to actually do it!!! It is exhausting to spend a couple of hours with them… imagine spending from 9-5 with them… alone! No one except for Braydon and I had ever done this until this past Thursday. We didn’t blog about it last week because G’ama wanted to think a bit about how to word her Guest Blogger Post (understandably!)! Well, she’s thought about it, and today she’s composed her post! (Click here for her previous Guest Blogger Post). In order to entirely grasp G’ama’s post here, you must first read my post “Where’s My Prize?” just below it.
[And just a quick note here: G’ama deserves Honorable Mention in the ‘Where’s My Prize?’ Competition because although K & O didn’t sleep a full twelve hours after the day they spent with G’ama, they did get very very tuckered out… and… G’ama should get extra points because: a) other than Braydon or I, G’ama was the first to enter the competition, and b) G’ama really deserves to be in a whole other competition for people her own age — we fully recognize that it isn’t really fair for her to have to compete with 30-somethings like Braydon and I, it is just that we have yet to find anybody else willing to compete in her age category. Any volunteers out there???!] đŸ˜‰
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G’ama writes:
Heather is SO right about the boys’ activity level! During the day I spent with them there might have been all of 15 minutes when they were actually sitting more or less still (working on puzzles or drawing). Even during the “rest hour” they were playing (Owen jumping on his bed and kicking the wall). Not that it was a whole hour. Otherwise it was running, jumping, swinging, climbing, riding every conceivable thing with wheels (or pushing it). I’ve seen a lot but never anything like it. And their physical capabilities are remarkable. It’s impossible to grasp that they’re not yet three. Four is more like it.
It’s fascinating to see the way Owen closely calculates reactions to what he says and does. He is very receptive to instruction (i.e. turning puzzle pieces to fit). Kyle appears more independent (except when hurt and needing a hug) and has a charming innocence. They are both incredibly appealing children.
I have only one suggestion/correction. The prize should be a week worth of free massage, maybe even two weeks. And a soak in a hot tub.
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