Tonight, as we were getting ready for dinner, it was brought to our attention that the boys can now do this:
(Kyle in first picture, Owen in second)(Kyle in first picture, Owen in second)(Kyle in first picture, Owen in second)
“Look!!! I’ve Got Two Monkeytails!” (as opposed to ponytails) –
Owen discovers that anything velcro will stick to his locs!
~“You Won’t Even Believe What’s Under My Underpants!!! More Underpants!!!” –
For Owen, even getting dressed (or undressed) can be funny!
~“Who Am I????! PAPI!!!!!!!!” –
Owen in Braydon’s jacket & tie
~Owen, Quite the Funny Little Dude –
Not an hour goes by that this boy isn’t laughing (and very few go by that the people around him aren’t laughing either)
When Kyle and Owen were babies they were not very interested in toys. Meera is the opposite. She loves toys. When Kyle and Owen first came home they had absolutely no clue whatsoever what a toy was (they had never had any exposure to toys). We spent a lot of time, in the beginning, trying gently coax them into playing and trying to teach them how to play. It was a big learning curve. It took many months before they really began truly playing with toys. Meera, on the other hand, has loved her little baby toys from the very very start. This is something that Braydon and I have noticed, thought about, and talked a lot about over the past year. It is hard to not do the compares and contrasts. And the Baby Toy Subject is a big one. To this day Kyle and Owen are not really big on toys. Don’t get me wrong, they have plenty of toys, they do play with them, and they have certain toys that they do genuinely love (mainly, their airplanes), but they just aren’t ‘Toy Boys.’ And, noticeably, they have never clung to toys, wanted to carry toys around with them, or coveted other kids’ toys, etc. like we’ve seen other kids their age do. They have (in comparison to other, more ‘typical,’ American kids), very little interest in toys (they’d much prefer to climb trees or ride their bikes or play with sticks in the yard). We can, literally, count on one hand the number of toys that K & O have been attached to in their five years. The very first toy that they actually extensively played with and seemed to actually “get” was a little plastic ‘boombox’ baby toy. Kyle, especially, loved the thing. I can still remember standing in the check-out line at Toys R Us when I bought that boombox. They were a little over 11 months old and I was desperate to try to find something that they might like. I bought a whole cartful of stuff hoping that something would stick. Well, the boombox stuck. It was a big hit and it entertained them for hours. They’d push the yellow button on top, the little music would start to play, and they’d start dancing their little tushes off. It was so cute and so hysterical. They’d boogie boogie boogie shaking their little barely-one-year-old booties and it was impossible to not smile (or laugh) when you’d see it. Then the music would stop (it only plays for about 30 seconds) and they’d start clapping like crazy. [[[Gosh, we loved those little babies!]]] It was very, very cute for anyone and everyone who saw it. But for Braydon and I, it was more than “cute.” It was a big deal. Because it was their first time really enjoying a toy. When they were 12 months old we travelled with them to Jamaica for our first family vacation. We brought with us just a handful of toys for the two of them– including that boombox. We have fond memories of the two of them boogying down in Jamaica with that boombox. Their love for it lasted a long, long time and eventually it got put away in the basement with all the other baby stuff “just in case” we ever had another baby. Well, here we are. I dug out that boombox a few weeks ago for Little Miss. Kyle immediately fell in love with it all over again. And even though we all know that it is really for Meera now, Kyle and Owen are playing with it just as much as she is. And that is a lot, considering that their little sister loves this boombox almost as much as they did. (Pictures below are of Kyle and Meera.)
The boys in our suite on vacation in Jamaica, age 12 months —
the boombox is on the table behind them (Kyle in front, Owen in back).
*Blast from the past: the boys at the exact age that Meera is now (Owen on left, Kyle on right).
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1. Meera spent the bulk of her weekend continuing on her quest to master the fine art of walking. She is very, very close. She can take 2-3 steps on her own now (although she does this infrequently, and really only when she wants to get somewhere — mainly to Mommy — very badly and is feeling very focused). She is cruising around everywhere holding on to anything she can hold onto. Our days are numbered until she’s a fully mobile, independent being. We’re slowly but surely baby-proofing the house and trying to not be too sad about our baby becoming a toddler.
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2. Kyle’s highlight of the weekend was that while at T-Ball today he hit a ball (from a thrown pitch, not off the T), “that went into the outfield between second and third base.” He ran the bases as fast as he could and made it home. He was super proud. Saturday morning the boys went to the golf course with Braydon to hit golf balls. Braydon reported that Kyle was hitting the ball 90 yards. Kyle was very proud.
Later he (K) heard Braydon saying to me, “I can’t believe he’s hitting it almost 100 yards!?!” and Kyle was very annoyed with this, and wanted me to know that it was “not almost one hundred, it was ninety! I hit the ball ninety!” (as though “almost 100” is not quite as good as “90”). Anyhooo… golfing with Papi was #2 on Kyle’s list of ‘highs’ from the weekend (photo above taken by Braydon with his cell phone).
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3. At a really fun birthday party on Saturday afternoon, a kids’ music-yoga group performed (very fun combo: kids’ yoga and kids’ music all rolled into one!)… and all three of our kids loved it. Owen sat with Meera during a portion of the concert and it was so cute (photo above taken by Braydon with his cell phone). We tend to lose sight of the unusual make-up of our family as we get lost in the daily grind, but then, every once in a while, a little scene plays out (such as captured above) and we’re reminded. Anyway… lately Owen is spending a ton of time trying to be the best big brother ever to Meera. He can be a bit overbearing for Meera at times (read between the lines there: he can be waaaaaaaay tooooooooooooo much for her to bear), and we’ve had to work really hard lately to try to keep Owen’s unyielding love for her in check. But this weekend we seemed to finally have some sort of breakthrough when we took some time to have a little ‘training session’ with Owen and Meera early Saturday morning. As a result, Owen is now fully able (and about 97.6% trustworthy) to ‘walk’ Meera around (i.e., standing behind her and having her hold onto his two hands while they walk all over the place with him supporting her from behind). At the birthday party on Saturday Owen spent a large chunk of time showing off his brotherly skills… making many 5 and 6 year old girls insanely envious (the girls love “Baby Meera“), which, in turn, made Owen insanely proud.
In other Owen News… Tonight at dinner, while Braydon and I were eating this delicious salad, Kyle and Owen were eating hot dogs and beans. And… drumroll please for a new J-M Eating Record… Owen ate 4… yes, count them, four… hot dogs. C-R-A-Z-Y. Crazy amounts of food are required to fuel that boy’s crazy energy.
We’re embarking on a big week– tomorrow is the first day of the last week of school for the boys.-~-Strawberry Season Salad
(made up by me but inspired by the overabundance of strawberries here right now and the sad reality that strawberry season will be ending shortly)
On a bed of baby greens, layer halved fresh strawberries, thinly sliced vidalia onion, crumbled goat cheese, and toasted pecans (I’d actually prefer almonds or pine nuts instead, but we didn’t have any on hand). Drizzle with balsamic vinegar and olive oil. Sprinkle with salt and pepper. Yum!I’ve posted before about Kyle and Owen’s twinspeak. As they get older their twinspeak becomes more and more sophisticated (and thus more and more cryptic to all those outside of their tight duo). Braydon and I will spend huge chunks of time trying hard to decipher what, exactly, they mean by certain parts of their linguistics. I, especially, am fascinated with it. This is one of the parts of raising twins that I really enjoy — I find it strangely entertaining and fun to take on the intellectual challenge of trying to figure out exactly what their phraseology means and how to use their language correctly. They correct me if I get it wrong (believe me!). And they seem to get a little kick out of it when — on the rare occasions — I get it right and use one of their pieces of lingo appropriately. And yet, at the same time, they would never actually use a piece of their twinspeak in direct communication with me. Maybe that is, in part, why I feel some sort of bizarrely deep satisfaction with figuring out how they are using certain words, the origins of the words, and the various nuances to their usage. This part of living with them is like a living, breathing, 24×7 Mensa-challenge-brain-teaser! I spend countless hours observing intently, listening carefully, and trying to figure it out. Here are the latest two that I have mastered from their twinsy-talk.
- “Eins Eins!” This is a phrase, an exclamation, and also an adjective. The only translation I can think of that sort of comes close to it is the adjective “super” in Spanish. As in, in Spanish, “super lindo!” (very, very attractive), or “super delicioso!” (extra very much yummy), or “super rapido!” (so fast), etc. The K-O “eins eins” is often used similarly. They might say, for example, that really good ice cream is “eins eins tasty!” Getting ready to get on the plane for vacation is “eins eins exciting!” Meera is “eins eins cute!” Or they might say, “Mommy’s new shoes are eins eins beautiful!” But the ‘eins eins’ is used in more ways than simply as an emphasizer. Sometimes it can be used to substitute for “pretty” or “nice” — as in, (when looking out the window at some birds eating at our birdfeeder one morning), “Owen, look at the eins eins yellow bird!” or (when talking about a friend from school one day), “Kyle, he is our eins eins friend, right?” And sometimes it is a stand-alone exclamation, sort of similar to how you might use a ‘honk’ of your car horn to sort of say ‘hello’ to someone you know as you’re driving by them on the street. One boy might be running, or riding his bike or scooter, very fast past the other, and then just as he passes by he will very quickly shout out “Eins! Eins!” to his brother. The most popular usage of this term, however, is in relation to their socks. Certain socks of theirs are “Eins Eins Slippery Socks” (all caps; as in a title). Almost all Eins Eins Slippery Socks are sports socks. But not all sports socks are Eins Eins Slippery Socks (I’ve learned this the hard way). When wearing Eins Eins Slippery Socks they like to slide around on the hardwood floors and make a big production of it — “Look at these Eins Eins Slippery Socks!” / “Owen are you wearing Eins Eins Slippery Socks?!!” / “Kyle, you need to put on some Eins Eins Slippery Socks!” / etc. The origin of this “eins! eins!” thing seems to lie somehow with the show Little Einsteins, but I have yet to come up with any working theory as to exactly who/what/when/why/how this derived. And, as with all twinspeak, the “eins eins!” is only ever used between the two of them and/or in the presence of each other.
- “Bad Kitty!” – “Good Kitty!” This is never used in relation to a cat. In fact, they don’t call cats kittys (according to them, “Only babies call cats kitties.”). As far as I have been able to figure it out, “Bad Kitty!” – “Good Kitty!” is used in only two very specific circumstances. Either, a] in response to the driver of a vehicle’s reaction to their efforts to get that driver to honk their horn for them, or b] in relation to “box trucks” (which is K-O twinspeak for ‘mail delivery trucks’; i.e., a Fed Ex truck or a UPS truck). First A… at some point they learned that universal hand motion that can sometimes get a big mac-truck driver to honk their horn (holding their arm up in the air and pulling their fist down to motion to pull the horn). That eventually morphed into them doing this motion to every single vehicle driver that they see passing by on any road at any time. So they’ll spend hours just doing this motion (extremely enthusiastically) to cars/trucks/motorcycles/anything driving by on any road they happen to be near. Probably about 1/4th of the time they manage to get the driver to honk at them. When the driver honks, they –every single time– jump wildly up and down screaming “GOOD KITTY! GOOD KITTY!” When the person does not honk they –every single time– stand there disgusted and forlorn saying “Bad Kitty! Bad Kitty!” until the next vehicle comes into sight. Next B… When a “box truck” pulls into our driveway, then it is enthusiastically greeted with shouts of “GOOD KITTY! GOOD KITTY!” When a “box truck” is spotted driving in or out of a neighbor’s driveway then shouts of “Bad Kitty!” are sent in its direction. Origin of the term = the movie Madagascar II: Escape 2 Africa. In this movie an old lady repeatedly and comically tries to shoot the lion, all the while yelling “bad kitty!” at the lion. How and why this somehow morphed into K & O’s linguistic use of the phrase in relation to horn-honking and ‘box-trucks’ is way, way, way beyond me.
Seriously, if you had told me five years ago that I’d one day be buying “light up shoes” for my kids, I would have laughed in your face and said, “NEVER!” Never, ever, in a million years would I have thought I’d buy these things for my kids. Never. For so many reasons; I can’t even count the ways in which I felt completely opposed to all that “light up shoes” are and represent. But five years ago I did not know what I know now.
I did not know then that it so doesn’t matter what kind of sneakers they are wearing– even if they are “light up shoes.” I did not know then that they’d genuinely want “light up shoes” so very, very much that their little hearts would skip a beat and they’d become almost breathless at the mere thought of somehow acquiring them. I did not know then that I’d actually really ‘get it’ why, and how, they wanted them. I did not know then that deep in my soul I’d feel such overflowing, unreserved, gushing adoration for these boys. I did not know then that I’d want the world for them so badly; that I’d do anything in my power for them; that my heart would melt a hundred times a day because of them– even amidst them driving me absolutely crazy and making me feel like I have truly zero parenting skills and pushing me to the brink of numerous nervous breakdowns on so many, many occasions daily. I did not know then that it would make me so happy to see them so happy with something so tiny and minor as “light up shoes.” I did not know then that at this point I’d fully grasp how very quickly they are growing up, how very short life is, and how very menial “light up shoes” are in the grand scheme of it all. I did not know then what I know now: That I would become capable of just letting it all go and being so giddy happy while watching them stomp around, delighted, this morning, wearing their new “light up shoes.”
It is hard to imagine it now, but someday these days will all be a distant blur. We won’t remember most of the specifics of the daily grind; we won’t remember most of the day-to-day routine of it. We’ll forget how simply exhausting it all is right now. I know that we’ll forget because already we have only a foggy recollection of the mundane details of our first couple years with Kyle and Owen. Heck, if it weren’t for this blog (and thus our ability to click back and see what we were doing), I would not be able to recall most all of what we were doing one year ago. Let alone 30. I imagine us as empty-nesters, romanticizing the past, remembering all the sweet but glossing over all the yuck of back in the day when we were that young couple trying to keep up with the momentum of our careers while all the while trying to keep up with the momentum of three under five. For example, one thing that we surely (hopefully) will eventually forget about this time right now is…
…Every night, after we get all three kids to bed, we come downstairs, bleary-eyed and tired-to-the-bone, to face the night shift. First on the very-long-agenda every night: clean up from dinner. Tonight was especially unpleasant because dinner involved couscous — which I actually tend to avoid serving to my darling family simply because of its mess factor. These images don’t do it justice, but hopefully they’ll at least prompt some (gory) memories for us in the years to come. As always, click to enlarge.
The past three months have been absolutely crazy with so much big stuff happening. On top of all our ‘normal’ stuff, there have been a lot of bigger-than-normal goings-on’s. For Kyle and Owen, as March was proceeding, it proved to be way too much to try to wrap their minds around it all and keep it all straight. Toward the end of March they were already coming mentally unglued trying to intellectually grasp it all. So, I photocopied pages from a calendar and wrote in just the biggest of big ticket items and taped it all to the fridge. Each night they took turns crossing off the day– Kyle on even days, Owen on odd days. It has been one big thing after another, with every day that was crossed off another big thing to anticipate around the corner. Lots of excitement building, lots of crescendos, lots of getting ready for the next big thing. Really, it has all been a bit too much for their barely-5-year-old heads to handle (not to mention the heads of the 36 and 37 year olds in the house). I feel like we’ve just lived about 12 months jam packed into the past 3. And here we are, somehow, safely on the other side. It has taken a toll but we’re still standing. I’m relieved that it is June 1. Not that we don’t have an exciting 3 months on the horizon– we do. But simply having the birthdays and the big vaca off the calendar will be a huge, huge help to the emotional wagon-load we’re pulling around here day-by-day. We need a relatively low-key summer to get ourselves back in working order. Thank goodness it is June 1.
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