coin cars

Here are some pictures of the girls playing with the coin operated cars in the mall.

Thing 1 and her paranoid look.

Thing 1 drives like a maniac. (Curious George is in the background.)

Thing 1 and Thing 2 (green) fights over the car.

his own space

First of, Big Bro will now be known as Curious George. With his endless energy, he does act like a little monkey sometimes.


Ever since Thing 1 and Thing 2 started crawling and can get into things that can hurt them, we've banished Curious George into the hallway. But as you can see, it's all good. There is a lot to be said for a very wide entryway. Now, he has his own space to play without little sisters bothering him. The thing is, it's a whole new room for mommy to clean!

walking shoes

We found out at the shoe store that Thing 1 is size 5 Wide and Thing 2 is size 5 Regular. So I dug out Big Brother's box of baby shoes to see if there is anything the girls can use. I found a brown pair of sandals that I bought for dressy occasions. Unfortunately, by the time the dressy occasion came, the shoe was already too small. But as luck would have it, it's size 5 Wide! Yay!

Here is Thing 1 looking like a sassy big girl on Big Brother's baby shoe.



And here she is walking in them. The clanking sound is just hilarious. And her stance... very funny. By the way, I was not choking her at the end of the video.



Then there is a matter of this red Wiggles which has become a source of some loud noise. As was obvious from the previous videos, everyone wants it. Daddy and I agreed that we may have to buy one more. I think we can get away with just one more since of the girls is content just pushing whoever is on it. We'll see.



Thing 2 and Big Brother "playing" together. Thing 1 has been whisked away to bed at this point to keep the peace.

weekends are starting to become really fun

The little ducklings are starting to play with each other and it's starting to get quite loud in here. Big Brother is quite good with his sisters. He is conscientious about playing with the both of them and giving them turns. But the girls have other ideas. They both want the same thing and want them now! Case in point, they both want to push Big Brother on the Wiggles car. But Thing 2 is not as adept at taking steps yet so she gets left behind. And when we enforce turn-taking, the other screams her head off. Oi.

some twin fun and mischief

The girls are becoming quite mean to each other. They hit and bite each other. When the little man was this age, I was right there to do some reverse time-out. I either put him down if I was carrying him, or turn my back on him when he hits. We've been doing the same thing with the girls, but it's not been as effective because they reinforce each other's bad behavior. Sometimes the other think it funny being hit and giggles, so the other keeps doing it. Oi! Just this weekend, Thing 1 bit Thing 2 on the arm. Hard. There was no mistaking that cry of pain. I didn't know how she was hurt at first, but then a the evidence appeared a minute later. Her arm was swollen for a day or two.

On the other hand, Thing 1 is becoming more and more confident with herself and takes more and more steps. She walked 3 feet just yesterday. She no longer does a head dive after taking two steps. Instead, she steadies herself and walks some more. Thing 2 now experiments with standing up by herself in the middle of the room, just like Thing 1 did a few weeks ago.

Today, fun consisted of riding on Big Brother's Wiggles push car and one pushing the other.

did he go from being a preschooler straight to being a teen-ager?

Getting a 3 year old to eat breakfast in the morning and get dressed in time to get to preschool is sometimes like being in a time warp of some sort. I run around the house to get the twins fed and dressed and ready while the boy sits in front of the TV moving slower than molasses. He moves so slow, you'd think he's frozen in place.

This morning after telling him to put on his socks and shoes for the 100th time, he finally did it and was very proud of the fact.

Big Bro: Mommy, I did it! I put one sock on.
Me: Good job! You're becoming a big boy and pretty soon you'll get to do more stuff yourself.
Big Bro: (pauses for a second) I don't know how to drive you car, Mommy. I know how to drive Daddy's car. I don't know how to drive your car.
Me: Oh.

I called Daddy to tell him this and give him a laugh and he reminded me of something that happened the other day when he picked the boy up from school. They were on a stop light right in front of a car dealership lot.

Big Bro: Daddy, what's that?
Daddy: That's car dealership.
Big Bro: What is it?
Daddy: That is where people go to buy a car.
Big Bro: I want you to buy a car, Daddy.
Daddy: Daddy doesn't need a car right now.
Big Bro: Daddy, I want you to buy me a little car.
Daddy: So you can drive around the backyard?
Big Bro: YEAH!!

Daddy and I both had a good laugh.

trains, cars, fire trucks, trains, and more trains

I don't think you're ever seen this much excitement from a 3-year-old. The problem is, that we built up the trip by telling him he would be able to ride in a train. But the way the trip was structured, the train ride was after 2 hours of walking around and looking at the countless trains. When it was finally time to ride the train, he bee-lined for the train like someone was trying to nip his behind.



Look at this boy grinning like a fool.



Here is 3 generations in front of the this 1925 train (picture on the left), but it's actually 5 generations.. Papaw shares his story of riding on this train with his father, and his grandfather running it. Poor little man doesn't know yet that there is another legacy here in store for him - the big belly.

The picture on the right is Daddy and Big Brother's cousins...and no, they are not really funny looking. The sun just happened to be in their eyes.



And here we are, the women-folk. I got a work out carrying Thing 2, but Nana had Thing 1 who is even heavier. Silly me for leaving the stroller at home. Never again!

Matty's First Professional Hairtcut

On Saturday morning, Matty exclaimed that his hair wasn't cut by a barber. I asked him if he wanted to get it cut, and he said yes. (He's really long overdue. His sideburns hang lower than his ears.) So off we were to a hair cuttery. He did really well, though I had to assist in getting him to stop looking around. The hair cut wasn't bad, but I think Daddy and I do a better job. Seriously, don't you think he looks a-la-Spock with that bangs?

To show off his new do, I snapped a few photos and happen to catch him in a mood, as in the I-want-to-terrorize-my-sisters mood. Can't you see the terror in the girls' faces?

I think Katie has realized that big brother is up to no good, while Jojo enjoys the commotion.

At this point, Matty is starting to get in his sisters' nerves. Katie gets squeezed harder, while Jojo gets pushed off the chair. Matty is having a ball.

Don't you want to know exactly what is going in this boy's big head?

Victory!

(whatever it was that he's trying to do) Jojo has completely fallen off the chair, and Katie is still trying to get away. Poor girl.

Big Boy Bedroom

Matty's big boy bedroom is finally finished. Actually, it's been finished for a while, we just had to wait a long time for missing parts. It was highly frustrating to wait for pieces that were missing, and replacement pieces for the ones that were broken.

But here it is finally. The Cars appliques are great, which are all removable. The pictures are special request by Matty. He wanted pictures of his family right there. The picture with Santa is his favorite one.