BAMBINOS
Another big CHECK!aroo on the Summer 2010 Family To Do List: “Meera’s First Movie in the Theater & Fountains.” We took Meera to her first movie in the theater on Sunday– complete with popcorn, candy, and drinks (these were probably the highlight for her, much more so than the actual movie). First movie in the theater– a real rite of passage! (Seems like just yesterday that we took K & O to their first movie in the theater click here.) We all took her to Thomas & Friends Misty Island Rescue — it was perfect for Meera (only 60 minutes long; very sweet and simple), and despite that it is really geared to toddlers the boys thought it was “great!” too.
After the movie the boys introduced Meera to “The Fountains” in the movie theater complex. These fountains were one of K & O’s favorite places on earth when they were Meera’s age. They spent many a hot summer hour there. Meera was not nearly as enthused about it as K & O were (LOL!), but she did warm up to them and had some fun (though not nearly as much fun as her brothers did). We got home late afternoon in time to watch Spain win the World Cup.
The week-long, record-highs, heavy heat wave that we’ve been experiencing for the past week broke big-time this morning with TORRENTIAL DOWNPOUR. The J-M three were ready to rock-and-roll the rain! (until, shortly after these photos were taken, a huge lightening bolt struck seemingly right in our neighborhood, and, then, they were quickly escorted inside for the rest of the day by their Papi)
Every once in a while our bambinos do or say something that reminds me of the foodie life they are living. Braydon and I aren’t serious foodies by any stretch of the imagination (been there, done that, before kids). But we are probably more ‘foodie’ than most. And our kids do show it– they have pretty exceptionally experienced palates, they have a lot of exposure to all sorts of foods on all sorts of spectrum’s, and they would probably be considered by most (although surely not all) to be real-deal Foodie Kids. Not serious, serious, serious Foodie Kids, but… Foodie Kids nonetheless. I never want them to think they are “above” McNuggets or to snub a dinner of hot dogs and beans. But I’m also pretty pleased (and get quite a kick out of it) that they understand the importance of good grill marks on meat, that they have a basic working knowledge of the major ethnic foods most popular in the U.S. (Chinese, Japanese, Thai, Indian, Mexican, etc.), and that they know the difference between penne and linguine, parmesan and provolone, and olive oil vs. canola oil. And I must admit that I’m downright delighted when I see Meera chow down on a caesar salad at age just-barely-2, or when Kyle can identify when I have or haven’t added butter to the macaroni and cheese, or when Owen can accurately guess the ingredients in a pasta sauce. Still, mostly I lose sight of just how Foodie they are. Until something occurs in my presence that just — smack! — reminds me.
This morning Kyle brought a CD downstairs and had it playing loudly in the kitchen as the three bambinos played on the floor and I emptied the dishwasher. It was a CD of kids’ songs that they’ve had forever. At one point the song “She’ll Be Comin’ Around the Mountain” was blaring and we were all singing along to the words. “She’ll be riding six white horses when she comes… we’ll all go out to meet her when she comes… we’ll kill the old red rooster when she comes…” Anyway… in the middle of the song at one point, out of nowhere, between verses, I could have sworn I heard Owen say, simply, “Chinatown.” I noticed it and kind of wondered what that was about, but it was just a quick one word, and we all kept on singing. And then it got to the verse, “we’ll all have chicken and dumplings when she comes…” and Owen jumps up and down, exclaiming, “Dumplings! yum yum! dumplings! I love dumplings!” Trying very hard not to laugh, I proceeded to, as nonchalantly as possible, ask him a couple of questions and thus I very quickly realized that in his own mind that whole song is — and always has been — about “a girl going to Chinatown for soup dumplings.” Now that is a good example of a — smack! — reminder of just how Foodie my Foodie Kids really are.
Kyle on the morning of his last day of Lehigh Baseball Camp 2010
Last week was a big one for Kyle. My guess is that it will be his top highlight of the entire summer. He got to go to Lehigh Baseball Camp!!! For our baseball lover son, it was a week in heaven. It was a really special treat of a week for him, and he truly seemed to love every single solitary second of it. Despite the heat (running sprints in the direct sun on a baseball field at mid-day during the last week of June/first week of July is sweaty-HOT!), Kyle’s enthusiasm and gusto for the love of baseball was ceaseless the whole week long. K & O have done Lehigh Sports Camps day camps for the past two summers (when they were 4 they did Soccer Camp; when they were 5 they did an all-sports camp) and this baseball camp was — by far — the best yet. I was so impressed with it in every way (which is saying a lot coming from someone who grew up in the camping world and was raised at a very reputable camp by very respected camp directors). Anyway, the bottom line is (regardless of whatever I thought of it) that Kyle loved it. It was a tough decision for us to send just Kyle to baseball camp. When it comes to raising twins, decisions like these are not easy. Especially at these young ages when it is hard to really know what the boys, themselves, truly want/need and when they are so impressionable. But we decided to send just Kyle for a few reasons:
- Kyle loves baseball. Owen and Kyle both do love it, but Kyle does seem to genuinely love it more. He could play baseball all day. He could talk about baseball ’till he lost his voice. He could watch baseball on t.v. (or, even better, at a game) forever. Kyle just adores baseball.
- Kyle is really good at baseball, especially hitting. Owen is too, but Kyle is more interested in it, and wants to be coached at it, and responds so well to the coaching, that Kyle is just simply– at this point– on most days– better (and more interested in being better) at baseball than Owen. At least right now, baseball is a bit more Kyle’s thing than it is Owen’s. And this camp is a pretty serious baseball camp— (you have to be at least somewhat good at baseball, and at least somewhat interested in getting better at baseball, to do it)— so it made sense for Kyle to be able to do it.
- We enrolled Owen in gymnastics, once a week, for the summer. This is something just for Owen. We wanted something just for Kyle. (More about Owen’s gymnastics sometime later this summer).
- Kyle is completely trustworthy with the required obedience of something like baseball camp. He generally behaves well in structured settings. He likes rules and following them. He likes direction and coaching and he thrives on attempting to exceed expectations. He is driven, competitive, and wants to please coaches/teachers/adults. Owen is a very different child in these realms. We didn’t think Owen was ready for the seriousness of this baseball camp. We also didn’t want Kyle to have to worry about his brother acting up at baseball camp.
- Kyle is such a well-behaved boy and he deserved a special treat. He’s also quite independent (more so than Owen is) and we thought it was a good opportunity for Kyle to get to do something on his own, without his brother.
Kyle eating his breakfast before baseball camp the first day
Well, we’re glad we did it. Kyle would wake up each morning bouncing and ready to go. He was beaming with excitement each morning as he’d lace up his brand new (and first ever) pair of cleats. And he’d come home each day enthusiastic beyond belief and eager for the next day to start again. Baseball camp was each day, 8:45-2:00. One thing Kyle loved was the drive to and from — alone with Mommy or Papi. This kind of alone time is rare for a twin kid, and it is precious time even if it is just a 15 minute ride in the car (and we may as well admit it– Kyle got to go through the McDonald’s drive through each day on the way home: chocolate milk and french fries for our all-muscle-and-bone-“power hitter”(coaches’ quote)-boy. At baseball camp the kids could bring their own lunches– or you could pay $16 on Monday morning which would give your son 2 slices of pizza and a gatorade for lunch each day. This was an exciting option for Ky Ky!!! That pizza and gatorade lunch was a highlight for him! Along with all the drills, workshops, baseball trivia, coaching, and… especially… the daily baseball games. He learned a lot, had a ton of fun, made some new baseball-loving friends, did really well, got even more inspired about baseball than he was before, and ended the week an even stronger baseball player than he was to begin with. Out of the 70 boys in the camp last week, Kyle was the youngest (ages 6-16; Kyle had just turned 6 one month before), but he stepped up to the plate and handled the whole thing with incredible grace and gusto. I cannot tell you how proud we are of our son. Kyle says that the only thing he didn’t like about baseball camp was “the no stealing rule” (i.e., they were not allow to steal bases during games, nor would they let them practice stealing bases during drills). Other than that (!), he loved every second of it.
And as for Owen… he handled the week much better than we anticipated. He got to get a pair of cleats too (so now they both wear them whenever they go out in the yard to play baseball/soccer/or anything)– which helped him share in the excitement with his brother (if he had been denied that it just might have pushed him right over the edge). And he got a lot of alone-time with Margie and Mommy during the week, which is always a treat no matter what (again, you gotta remember that for twins, any alone-time with anyone is a real treat). Last, but not least, Owen and Meera spent the week together as tight as tight can be. They really bonded as a two-some without Kyle around. And that was awesome for them both (gorgeous photo of them from last week in post below).
So, all in all, Kyle’s Baseball Camp was a great week.
Summer 2010 — Go To A Waterpark — CHECK!
We spent today with four other families at the Land of Make Believe — an amusement park and water park in Hope, New Jersey– about an hour away from our house. It was an incredibly fun day trip to celebrate K & O’s “bestest twin friends” Lloyd and Lydia’s 6th birthday. This was our first time at Land of Make Believe, and our first time ever as a family to a full-fledged water park. This (in particular, the water park part) was a dream come true for the boys– something they’ve been wanting to do for a long time now– and something that was right at the top of our Summer 2010 Family To Do List. So, tonight, another big ‘ole CHECK! off the list. What a great, great day! The boys were in their glory. And Meera was too! Despite not napping, she stuck out the whole day like a trooper. She’s shaping up to be almost as wild-and-crazy as her brothers (God help us!!!). Her favorite part of the day, no doubt, was riding the roller-coaster (more than once). One thing that makes Land of Make Believe so great is that there are many, many rides built especially for little ones. Meera got to ride many of them and had an absolute blast. Her mantra of the day was “Me go too! Me go too!!!” The boys’ favorite ride was the “airplane ride.” Owen especially liked acting as Pilot for him and his very good friend Wil (long time blog readers might remember him– we’ve posted about our boys’ special friendship with Wil a few times, for example, here). But really, K & O loved every single second of every single ride (and believe me, they rode them all). The highlight, though, was the water park. Somehow I shouldn’t still be surprised by these things, but I have to admit that I still am: at age barely six K & O went on every single water slide (except for just one for which they didn’t reach the minimum height) and absolutely LOVED every single adrenaline-pumping, heart-thumping, free-falling one. Don’t get me wrong, they loved the lazy river too. But, seriously, these boys are not usual for their age. No other kid in our group, except for one 11 year old boy, dared go on any of the extreme waterslides. But K & O were riding them all… and loving it… and then, at the end of the day, when there were barely any lines left, they were riding them over-and-over-and-over-again. Luckily for them they have a real winner for a Papi. Braydon went over and over with the boys on every single slide, full-on-enthusiasm the whole time, and loving it almost as much as K & O. Meera wasn’t tall enough for the waterslides, but she had loads and loads of fun in the wading pool (which is, apparently, the largest wading pool in the United States?) and all the toddler slides. We were there when the park opened at 9:45am, and we closed the place at 5:45. Milkshakes for dinner on the drive home. And then, straight to bath and bed for three exhausted bambinos. What a day!!!!!!!!!!!! This summer is good. Very, very good!
Braydon and Meera at the Maine Coast, Thursday June 17, 2010
A belated Happy Father’s Day to my true love and soul mate, Braydon!
Father’s Day was more than a little overshadowed this year.
(We’ll have to make up for that next year.)
We are just back from a special trip! A trip to Maine for Auntie Stina’s wedding!!!
I was the official photographer, and I have 953 photos to sort through, and we and our bambinos have lots (and lots!) of sleep to catch up on— thus– blogging will be sparse in the next few days. But, we are back. And, suffice it to say, it was quite an amazing time for the J-Ms!
…more to come…
9:17 a.m., Owen Takes Meera For A Spin
This December, at our Haiti Christmas Party, friends of ours brought us the best-ever party ‘hostess’ gift. It was a big tin of handmade sweet&salty popcorn. My mother taught me to never go to anyone’s house empty-handed, so I can appreciate a good hostess gift, and seriously, this one tops them all. The day after the party our family of five devoured almost the entire tin. The next day, Monday, by the time we came home from work, Margie had finished it off. Seriously– it was that good. I asked our friend (hi Jennifer!) for the recipe. And she gave it to me. But there was one caveat. In order to make it, we needed a special stove-top crank popcorn popper. I thought about it for a couple of weeks, and then, with all of us craving that popcorn, bought one online. Do you own a Whirley Pop? Well, if you don’t, I highly recommend investing in one! It is well worth it —- just for playdates alone!!! Ever since we bought it, we’ve used the Whirley Pop during every playdate to make that sweet&salty popcorn. K & O call it “playdate popcorn.” Kids love it. The making of it, the eating of it. They love every part of it. Just today K & O had a playdate— they each invited a friend over and the four of them had a blast. And we made “playdate popcorn” of course. And all four boys went crazy for it. Here’s the recipe:
Playdate Popcorn~~
- 1 tablespoon corn oil
- 1/4 cup sugar
- 1/2 cup popcorn
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
Heat the popper on medium high heat. Add oil, popcorn, and sugar (in that order… one on top of the other). Crank well to mix. Pop, mixing well throughout popping (i.e., cranking slowly the whole time), until all of the kernels are popped (i.e., you don’t hear them popping anymore). Here are Kyle and Lucas cranking away:
Dump into a large bowl and add salt — stirring so that the popcorn is well coated. It is important to add the salt right away when the popcorn is still hot; the salt will not stick to the popcorn if it is already cooled. Serve right away. Or, let cool completely and then store in airtight container. Here are the boys eating it right away!
Serves four 5-6 year old boys!
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