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This short film was made by a high school student.

Click here to go to YouTube and watch the video (or paste into your browser: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rjy9q8VekmE)

Maybe it’s twins, maybe it’s just Heather, but wow is she incredibly well prepared. Whenever you turn around, what ever you need is there. But it’s also more than that.

Today, we were in the car with K&O coming home from Target where we had done a massive diaper & wipe run to restock supplies. It was dark, around 5:30 and the boys were getting a little hungry. Kyle spoke up “Mommy, what’s in your bag?” He repeated the question several times until Heather figured out that he meant the glove compartment.

Owen then chimed in, “I want Goldfish”. Heather’s response: “Ok baby, here are some goldfish for you.” Wait – where did that come from? She pulls a ziplock of Goldfish out of the glove compartment and hands them to him.

Kyle says, “I want bananas.” Heather replies, I only have banana chips baby, do you want those?” And hands him the banana chips. Huh? Wait – did he know that and was asking because he knew, or she got lucky?

I don’t know, but this happens all the time. From a diaper that happens to be on hand at the right time (like an accident in the store), to an extra set of clothes for when that diaper wasn’t fast enough, to a sippy cup with the right juice, to a hat when it’s cold.

But here is the real kicker:
1. Organic, no sugar added banana chips
2. Whole grain Goldfish
3. 100% juice, JuicyJuice
4. Some of the coolest clothes any one can wear (I wish I had half their style)
5. Preemptive readiness for any situation

Sunday, Late Afternoon Cat-Nap

Dinner Table

Kyle, Owen, Manny in Wagon

Tonight was our January Waters-JohnsonMcCormick Family Dinner. For the history of this click here. It was a great night for our families, as usual.

{NOTE: Due to a Blogger.com complication, this post says that Heather wrote it, but actually it is posted by Braydon}

Regular readers know there is a whole history to this whole garbage truck/trash guys thing (for example, click here & here & here).

This morning I was putting out a mess of boxes (we cleaned our basement last weekend and the boxes I had collected as “official box collector” had to be thrown out finally) when the BFI truck rolled into our neighborhood. The boys came scurrying out in their PJ’s to go see, and tore down to the end of the driveway.

By the time I got there, Owen was already chatting it up with the guy who throws the trash into the back. I encouraged O to do “cool” (where you hit your fist on the other person’s fist – also known as “pounding”) with him – which the guy loved – he was beaming and laughing while Owen hit his fist to the guy’s fist. Then Kyle came up and did the same thing. It was a riot.

Then the boys got the joy of all joys – watching him throw the trash into the back of the truck. “Papi – you see that throw in the truck? You see that?” And “wow! you see that?!?!” And jumping up and down when the compactor crushed the trash – “Papi, you see that trash truck?!?! wow – what’s that?” (in response to a cracking sound of trash being compacted).

The guys honked the horn as they drove off, capping the whole glorious experience in a meaningful “hooooonk!” that K&O loved. We carried the trash can back down and had to have it go “bump bump” off the end of the drive way.

When we were done, we dusted our hands off and said “all done!” Another Friday trash run completed successfully.

We’ve been having a very mild winter season… which made the First Snow of the Season all the more exciting. Even though it was just a dusting, and even though it melted almost immediately, K & O were entranced with the snow as it fell. I forgot to post these on Wednesday, the day they were taken.

K&O have really taken to hide & seek. Which means that I count to ten (sitting on the stair), while they go and hide together. Then I call out “10! Here I come, ready or not, I’m going to find you!” and go find them. I go searching around and pretend to not see them, despite their giggling and squirming. When I don’t see them, I look in a spot and say “Nope!” and do that until I run out of spots where they are not. Sometimes they can’t stand it anylonger and say “Here I am!!!”

But when I do “find” them, we all scream like crazy men and I grab them, pick them both up and tickle them – lots of laughter all the way around.

Tonight, when it was my turn to hide, I hear “10! ‘EreI come, re’ee or not! I’m uh uh ghona finooo! And then as I hear them looking for me (I was around the other side of the couch), I hear “Mama?!? Where’s Papi?!?” and then… “Nope!” “Nope!”

I laughed and they found me!

My mother. I don’t even know where to begin. Lots of people complain about their mothers, I know. I really can’t. She’s way too amazing. This is what she does when she comes: she breezes right in, takes over the kitchen and the laundry room, and makes our life feel manageable for awhile. And the boys absolutely adore her. When she visits she basically moves in with us (my dad as well when he isn’t traveling for work and can come too), she sees us from the inside out (literally), and we all live together like a multi-generational family under one roof. It is interesting and it is intimate and we’re always laughing. The rest of the time — when my parents aren’t here — we’re on our own, many hours away from all of our family members, pulling our own weight in the world. It is tough, especially because Braydon and I are a two-career-couple. But when my mom is here she more than makes up for all the space in between… So as far as long-distance family goes (especially long-distance parenting and grandparenting) this is about as ideal as it can get. I know this probably makes a lot of you envious as heck… especially you working mothers out there (because you know firsthand how tough it can be!)… I totally get that, I really do, but I can’t hold back from singing the praises of MorMor. This week she’s baked almond breads (truly one of the best things I’ve ever eaten in my whole life!), huge batches of her homemade granola (that the boys and I LOVE), pigs in a blanket (Owen’s new favorite food), from-scratch-mac-n-cheese (Kyle’s long-standing favorite food), turkey divan with egg noodles (one of Braydon’s absolute favorites), my favorite spinach salad with her homemade sweet dressing (I insisted on eating it again tonight for the second night in a row), and her famous homemade honey mustard. Oh, and cookies, of course (to the tune of The Farmer and the Dell the boys repeatedly sing “MorMor has cookies, MorMor has cookies, hi ho the derry oh, MorMor has cookies”). She’s also done about 200 loads of laundry (no joke), cleaned things around my house that I never even knew needed to be cleaned, emptied the kitty litter, helped us sort through all the random items in our basement, run errands with me and taken me out for lunches, played for hours with the bambinos, and made us all feel like a million bucks. Right now she’s rocking a fussy Owen to sleep. Earlier, after dinner (a dinner that she made), she watched the boys gobble down huge pieces of her almond bread — Kyle shoving it in so fast he could barely breathe, Owen doing his famous “human purr” (a phrase so aptly coined by Auntie Jessie to describe our Owen’s happy-“purring”-sound when he’s eating foods he loves). Even earlier in the day she changed poopy diapers, wiped runny noses, cleaned booster seats that hadn’t been scrubbed down in weeks, and ran around the yard in 30-something-degree weather with two two-year-olds. So go ahead and hate me for this post y’all (!!!!) but honestly, MorMor is just the BEST!

MorMor has taught the boys a new trick! She has them both get situated on Braydon’s old skateboard, they push off down our driveway’s decline, get rolling pretty fast, then land in the grass. Kyle then runs back to start again and Owen carries the board back for the two of them. They do it over and over and over. It is so, so funny to watch. The photos don’t nearly do it justice – but I’m posting some here for documentation sake so that when our bambinos are the first Twin Haitian Luge Team in Olympic History everyone will know where it all began. (You only need to have been born in the country to represent it in the Olympic Games! And MorMor has already agreed to by their official Olympic coach! Anyone interested in a sponsorship?!)

Note: The formatting for this video is off on the blog (it should be 16:9). If it doesn’t look right, please click the title link to go straight to YouTube.

I’ve introduced K&O to Fanfare for the Common Man by Copland. It’s “Trumpets, French Horns, Trombones and Drums!” We have listened to it a couple times in the car. On the CD I have, it’s followed by variations on a Gift to be Simple, and they like that too.

Today we were waiting in the car after little gym while Heather and Janet ran in to get coffee in Panera. I asked the boys if they wanted to listen to music. “YES!” What did they want to listen to?

“TRUMPETS!!!”

It’s a dream come true.

Hip Hip Hooray! My mother is here for a whole week! We’re beyond thrilled. Among many other wonderful things this means that tonight K & O got to eat ice cream (treat treat treat!) and drink ginger ale (super duper treat treat treat!)!