BAMBINOS

To be noted! To be recorded in the annals of the J-M Family History! One small step in the grand scheme of their lives, but one giant leap in their twinship! Last week I took K & O shoe shopping for fall shoes… and… drum roll please… THEY EACH CHOSE A DIFFERENT PAIR OF SHOES!!!!!!! This is huge. Huge I tell you! They each independently and self-confidently chose shoes that were different from one another. They each liked their own choice based on what they looked like, and felt like, to their self and their self alone. And they did it happily, together. It was a big first for K & O!

We’ve been able to make it to three home football games this fall at Lehigh. The third, and last, home game was on Saturday. Lehigh vs. Colgate. It was an absolutely spectacular day – perfect football weather. And we planned for a special first: J-M family tailgating! Before we had kids, Braydon and I did some tailgating at Lehigh football games (the first experience with tailgating in either of our lives), and quickly came to understand the allure of it. But as soon as K & O came along, our tailgating came to a screeching halt. We decided earlier this fall, however, that it was time to give it a good-old-family-try. The boys had started to notice the tailgating in the parking lot; had started to show interest in it and ask about it; and were completely excited about the idea of us doing it. And so, we did. We packed up a very simple tailgate spread, and set out early to the football game. And… as is so typical of K & O (and M for that matter)… they all acted as if they were old pro’s at it – as if they’d been tailgating their whole life. We had barely parked the car before the boys had the football out and were tossing it in the parking lot~

And they had no problem getting right into the full swing of tailgating: the eating and the drinking~

It was a lot of fun. A couple of friends dropped by our tiny little tailgate party, we chatted it up with some of the tailgating-neighbors, and we just had a darn good time. All three bambinos agreed that we should probably tailgate for every home game next year. The two parents agreed that we’ll aim to make our tailgates increasingly more elaborate in the years to come (Bloody Mary’s anyone???). But soon it was time to head to the field. And get settled in to our spot on the grass behind the end zone. Kyle and Owen love going to these games. The other three of us like it a lot, but mainly do it for the sake of spending a few hours of fresh-air-and-family-bonding with our sports-fanatics-boys. (Even though, for much of the game, those boys abandon us for socializing with the college crowd… if you look closely at the photo below you’ll spot them far away from us tossing the football with some frat boys)~

Here they are (again, if you look closely, you’ll spot them) participating in their favorite LU home-game ritual: clamoring with the big boys to try to catch the football during a field goal~ 

Meera tolerates all of this quite well, all things considered~

From the tailgating, to the game (Kyle always needs to get at least one order of fries), it was all good. And by the end of the afternoon, we had one very sleepy-2-year-old for the drive home.

It has been a fun fall of football here in J-M-land.

Our 6th Annual Traditional-October-Pre-Halloween Family Trip to Trauger’s.

(Click here for years past.)

…(Note how they’ve used a jump-rope to tie the two bikes together.) They call this the “double bike.”

About a month ago, on a Sunday morning, Braydon and I woke up to Kyle and Owen running/sprinting/leaping/bounding/exclaiming/screaming with great excitement that “OWEN PULLED OUT KYLE’S TOOTH!!!” We both bolted upright in bed, because – although just abruptly jolted wide awake from a deep sleep – we were fully aware that Kyle’s tooth had not been that loose the night before. But sure enough, there were the two of them, Kyle proudly beaming his new toothless (and quite bloody) smile, and Owen proudly holding up the tooth (along with a piece of Kleenex dotted with blood). They were –literally—jumping up and down, right there at our bedside, just beside themselves with excitement over the fact that they had managed to get that tooth out. I whispered to Braydon, “My gosh! It wasn’t that loose!?” And he whispered back, “I know!!!” But what was done was done. And so, after jumping out of bed to get Kleenex for Kyle to clean up his bloody mouth, I said, as chipper as I could muster, “Well Kyle! I guess we’ll be getting a visit from the Tooth Fairy tonight!!” It was then that he announced his plan: “No, I’m not leaving my tooth for the Tooth Fairy until Owen’s tooth comes out too.”

This was not the first time we had heard this—Although they both left their first teeth for the Tooth Fairy on the respective nights that they had lost them (Kyle first, and then a couple weeks later, Owen), when Owen was first to loose a second tooth he had declared he’d “wait, as long as it took,” for Kyle to loose his, before leaving his tooth for the Tooth Fairy. And wait Owen did. He waited patiently for about a month for Kyle to finally lose his second tooth, and then they both left them for the Tooth Fairy that night (it just so happened that we were in Maine for Auntie Stina’s wedding that night, and – thrill of thrills! – the Tooth Fairy found us in the log cabin where we were staying deep in the heart of Maine!). So, with the third of Kyle’s teeth now out, he was ready to pay-back-the-deed to Owen…  he’d wait and wait until Owen’s tooth was ready.

For the past few days Owen’s tooth has been getting progressively looser. He’s been fiddling and fidgeting with it day and night. And tonight it was clear that it was just barely hanging on by a thread. Kyle convinced him that it was time—time to get the tooth out. And so, after dinner was over and the baths were done, with all five of us gathered tight together on the floor of Kyle’s room (Owen on Braydon’s lap and Meera right beside holding Owen’s hand for comfort), we all got to watch this time as Kyle pulled Owen’s tooth out for him. Turns out they have a whole system, these two, that involves using a Kleenex to grip the tooth and then yanking hard on it. Sure enough, in a split second, there was Kyle, gripping Owen’s tooth with the Kleenex, holding it up high for all to see.

What a ride. Never a dull moment around here, I tell ya. Never a dull moment.

And now the bambinos are sleeping soundly — all three of them awaiting a visit from the Tooth Fairy. K & O are both in Owen’s bed tonight, the bedroom window cracked just a bit so that “she can fly in.” The Tooth Fairy pillow, holding two teeth, is carefully placed right between Kyle and Owen’s heads.

7ish – our typical Saturday morning routine, all three bambinos are crammed into our bed, watching cartoons on PBS, eating cereal bars, and drinking orange juice. We talk about how we really need a king size bed, according to K & O: “not a queen, not a jack, not an ace, not a ten card bed, but a king size bed.”

9ish – we’re eating eggs and toast and two of us are drinking big mugs of coffee.

10ish – Braydon watches the three outside on the trampoline doing their thing. Crisis hits. Meera’s right arm has been slammed down upon by Owen’s body. She’s crying in serious pain.

11ish – after Tylenol doesn’t cut it one bit, and we’ve observed our baby girl behave like we’ve never seen before (incredibly lethargic, in torturous pain, insisting on being on Mama’s lap and Mama’s lap only, holding her right arm in a sling position with her left hand, refusing to allow anyone to even look at it, turns down offers of Tinker Bell, Lion King, bottles of milk, bunny snacks, and every other of her favorites in all of life…) we make the decision to go to the ER.

11:30ish – the nurse tells us it is presenting as a “Classic Broken Arm” (apparently the way Meera is “guarding it” is the telltale sign to all ER nurses of a child arm fracture). I think I might die right there on the spot, just thinking of it: my baby girl, age 2, sweetest thing on the entire planet, with a broken arm?????…   X-rays are ordered.

noon – X-rays are taken while Meera cries on the x-ray table “Mama, mama, mama” and I beg the x-ray technicians to “please hurry!” with tears streaming down my face.

12:30 – the nurses, x-ray techs, and doctors have all read the x-rays. Much to their shock it appears there is no break. They can’t explain it because they all would have sworn it was broken by the way Meera was presenting. We’re given orders to continue with Tylenol and follow up on Monday if she’s still “guarding it.” I cry tears of relief and thank God for sparing us with this close call.

1:00 – we’re discharged. We walk out relieved beyond belief. Hunger hits (in a big way; all that adrenaline has left us famished).

1:15 – we’re at the Burger King drive through. A first for the bambinos (they’ve never had Burger King). Meera sees a picture of an ice cream cone and says, “I want that one!” (some of her first spoken words since the crisis began). Absolutely, she can have whatever she wants. She loves the ice cream. We all love it all… the milkshakes, the french fries, the chicken nuggets, the whoppers… I don’t think Burger King has ever tasted so good.

1:45 – we’re home with boys playing football in the yard outside and girls napping in Mommy and Papi’s bed.

4:00 – Meera wakes from her nap in a terrible crying fit. She cries hard for about 30 minutes straight while we all try hard to console her. There is no consoling her. I’m certain it is not physical pain, but just the fear, anxiety, and stress of it all releasing itself to the four people who love her most in all the world. We absorb it for her and then we all watch Tinker Belle.

5:45 – Meera announces she wants to go outside….  as soon as we’re outside she declares: “I want trampoline.” What????? And sure enough she gets on there and starts jumping with her brothers. Braydon watches the three outside on the trampoline doing their thing… only now it is “their thing” with just a tad bit more care. They come in for dinner with Meera in good spirits and back to her regular old self.

…Dinner and baths and books and bed…

8:15 – The bambinos are all in bed. Braydon and I are done/shot/finished/fried/frazzled. We missed a birthday party today, we missed a fun-loving-fancy-free-R&R-Saturday. Instead we all learned some big lessons. Luckily…

all’s well that ends well.

Owen stayed home from school on Wednesday with a cold. It was just a little cold, but he had been up much of the night, struggling to sleep through the sneezing, runny nose, watery eyes, etc. So, we kept him home for some R&R. Meera was thrilled to have Owen home, all to herself. The two of them have a special bond. It is what I imagine as the quintessential big-brother-little-sister relationship. My heart practically explodes just thinking about it. Words cannot do it justice, so I won’t even try. I just know that these two have something extraordinarily special. Something precious, rare, and wonder-filled. I am so happy for them.

Kyle and Meera. These two have something extraordinary too. And so different from the relationship between Owen and Meera. One vignette (amongst many): Last Friday I took Meera grocery shopping while the boys were at school. On our way out of the grocery store Meera spotted a scarecrow amongst a display of potted mums. She went crazy for the scarecrow, insisting that I get it down from amongst the mums so that she could see it up close. She checked out every detail of it, hugged it, kissed it, and told me how much she loved it– “Meera loves scarecrow! I love it! Mommy, I love scarecrow!” Several people walked by during this, commenting on how “cute” it was and how I better “not even think about leaving without buying that scarecrow for her!” etc. I looked at the price tag: $6.99. I thought about buying it, but wouldn’t let myself… it seemed ridiculous, frivolous, and I didn’t want Meera to think I’d just buy her anything she’d go ga-ga over at the store. She was upset that she couldn’t bring it home. But Meera’s a tough little cookie and it takes a lot for her to express upset in anything but the mildest fashion (rare fussing and even rarer tantrums). Later that day I had to go back to the grocery store because I had forgotten one ingredient that we needed. I brought Kyle with me this time. As we were heading into the store he pointed out the scarecrow to me and said, “Meera would love that.” I stopped dead in my tracks. “Kyle,” I said, “I was just here with her this morning and she did love it! She loved it so much, she really wanted to bring it home.” “Why didn’t you buy it for her?” he asked. “Well,” I searched for an adequate explanation, “we don’t need it, and, well, I don’t know, I just didn’t think we should buy it for her.” Kyle was outraged. “You should have!” he said, “She never asks for anything!” he said, “She’d love it!” he said. “How much does it cost?” he asked. “Six dollars and ninety-nine cents,” I said. He then told me that he was going to buy it for her– “Ok, then, if you won’t buy it for her, I will. I’m going to use my own money from the Tooth Fairy to get it for her.” He told me that the next time we went to the store he was going to bring his money to buy the scarecrow for Meera. He could not bear the thought of anything otherwise. This Tuesday, on my way home from work, I stopped at that store and spent the $6.99 to buy the scarecrow… for Meera… and so that Kyle wouldn’t have to buy it. When I arrived home with it they were both ecstatic, jumping up and down at the sight of it, thrilled, shouting, “Thank you Mama! Thank you Mama!” The plan was to put it outside in our front garden. However, it has been inside this whole week, right next to Meera’s little play area in our kitchen, with Kyle and Meera spending lots of time with it.

Today, being Friday, I was home with Meera for the morning while the boys were at school. I watched as she played and played. At one point she played for a long stretch of time with three toy ‘Little People’ that she pulled out from our small collection of them. I watched as she selected the three very carefully from the bunch. Over and over she lined them up on the playroom table, ever-so-carefully to ensure that they were all three “holding hands.” Always in the same order (in her words)– “Owen, this one with blue hat”; “Meera, this one with yellow hat”; and “Kyle, this one with red hat.”

Like much of America, we drive.  Load everything and everyone in, car seats, toys, stuff – from here to there and back again. We’re going together.  Inside a car is special; small, close, everyone is there.  We may be hurtling along at deadly speeds, but we’re together and I am a safe driver.

Trees whistle by, the corn fields are beginning to be plowed under, it’s cool enough to drive with the windows down. And I look in the mirror to check on my kids.  I twist the rear-view mirror, I see them behind me. I bring them where we’re going.

When I look forward, I often I don’t know where we’re headed.  I look back and I see the rapid changes in the mirror beyond the road:  their faces thinning out, moving from car seats to boosters, reading books instead of using chew toys, asking for music they like instead of the music I choose, wanting the window down to see and feel and smell the air outside.

And though I don’t know where we’ll end up, we’ll get there safely together.

a twinny thing: K & O still whistle while they work/play (they’ve been doing this since they learned to whistle)– and if you find one whistling then you’re virtually guaranteed to catch the other whistling too– and if one stops, you’ll see the next one stop too– all day, every day– apparently completely unselfconsciously. raising twins = oh-so-challenging, but ever-so-interesting.

This weekend we had our twice-annual get-together with the Slavins. Four of us (over the age of six) ate and drank and talked and talked and talked. Five of us (under the age of seven) ate and drank and played and played and played. Sunday morning was the traditional “Show”/performance/production/costume-party put on by the five-some. What a hootin’ hollerin’ good time. Other weekend highlights included: the little girls digging into the appetizers (we continue on our mission to prep these two to follow in the footsteps of their mamas to become college roommates… and the future’s looking bright!); Tinker Bell and the Great Fairy Rescue; trampoline; toddler drama; sangria; smores by the fire; FUN. Nothing like old friends. Nothing like it at all. Can’t wait for New Year’s!

dear miss carol & grandpa robert~ thank you for my new favorite outfit, love meera

Recent Quotes and Conversations From the Three Bambinos: