The fearless one

This is a play area at the local Burger King and it's designed for older kids, 4 years old and up. As you can see, Thing 2 is not afraid of it. Just as she wasn't afraid to slide down a steep inflatable play area a few weeks ago. She was a little afraid when she got to the top, but she conquered her fear by turning around, belly on the slide, feet feet first...and she had fun!Thing 2 and Curious George had lots of fun sliding down in different positions.

Thing 1 is a bit more cautious lately. She climbed up to the see through area, and then she climbed back down. The steps are little too far apart for her.

Sent from my Verizon Wireless BlackBerry

mall play area fun

Yesterday Daddy was greeted by 4 people crying when he came home from work. In the last hour, the kids have decided to go crazy on me and I couldn't quiet them down, or calm them down and I have had it when Thing 2, after bouncing nonstop on the couch, bounced off and hit her head on the coffee table before falling to the floor. I made sure she was OK, sat on the chair with her and picked up a flip flop and started hitting the coffee table about 5 times like a mad woman. For an instant, the 3 hellions quieted down and stared at me. Then Thing 2 continued crying. Thing 1 started crying because I was mad, and Curious George started crying because I was crying. It was a mad house. There was nothing more I wanted to do then run out of there. That was the scene Daddy walked into.

A week of being indoors was not good for these kids, or me. It's been too cold to go out.

So today, we headed out. Thank goodness Daddy didn't have to work today. So we took the kids to the mall and let them play in the play area.

Thing 1 is enjoying the firetruck slide, but spacing out at the moment.

Thing 2 found Marvin the Martian. :)

Curious George loved this one, too.

Thing 1 found a big girl to talk to and was enamored for a moment.

Curious George found a friend (a soon to be 4 year old that's almost as tall as him). So they pretty much ran around together.

Thing 2 (foreground) steps on the flower chairs on the floor.

They loved everything. They do their own thing but they look for each other and invite each other to play the same thing every so often.

Note my attempt to keep the girls different, yet the same. :p Thing 2 has 2 french braids, and Thing 1 only has rubber bands. Well, actually I wasn't trying to make them somewhat different. I just got finger cramps after braiding Thing 2's hair.

burning off some energy at the mall play area

Thing 1 (in pink) was instantly attracted to the little girl and kept rubbing her back. She did it for a good 5 minutes or so. Thing 2 (in green) was busy walking around. These 2 are hardly in the same area when we take them here. Curious George was here too, he was just too fast to be caught on camera.

Thing 2 played on this bridge/slide. But she couldn't climb all the way to the top, so she backed up and sat down and slid down from the sitting position, giggling "Whoah!"

(While the video is playing, click on the triangle on the right bottom corner of the video and then click on HQ and you can watch the video in high-quality mode, you can see the faces a lot clearer)

Thing 2 was also attracted to this little girl and wanted to play with her but she got distracted when I yelled out for Daddy to catch the little escape artist (Thing 1). Curious George is here in orange, if you catch a glimpse of him.

Daddy commented how I'm starting the girls low rider pants. I had to explain to him that the pants looks low because it was small (size 18 months). I promise to not put these on them again. :-)

it's a madhouse at Chick-Fil-A

Daddy was off yesterday, so I was able to spend some one on one time with Curious George after I picked him up from school. We went shopping (um, I know this activity is for me but I did buy him a couple of toys) and then went to Chick-Fil-A for dinner. He played at the play area after he was finished. The kids were all older (mostly 6-8 years old), but it didn't matter. Curious George, being the social butterfly that he is, injected himself in the middle of things straight away. They were all playing Tag. It was a madhouse!

You can see Curious George's back at the very beginning (he's wearing light blue shirt with dark blue short sleeves) and then at the very end.

it's playtime

Thing 2 is in blue, Thing 1 is in pink.

A friend of Curious George invited us to play with him at the local play area. They have missed each other since the boy stopped going to preschool. It took 2 hours to prepare the lunch, snacks and clothes, but we did make it right on time when the place opened. Due to some careful planning and packing, we managed to stay there a good 3 hours without so much as a tantrum. Yay! Curious George and his friend were off playing, so I all I had to do was to make sure he didn't leave the building, while I kept track of the twins. Daddy finds it interesting when I reported that the twins did not play with each other at all. In fact, they were barely together in one spot. The only reason that they were together a few times was when one found what the other was playing with interesting.

first time at the same place, what are the odds?

We went to Chick-Fil-A today for dinner. After we've all eaten, we let the girls play in the play area. This is their first time in a play area at 19 months old. They climbed up, but when reached the opening to the slide, Thing 1 was quite unsure. She hung around and tried to figure things out, but she didn't go for it, all the while getting pressured to go by Curious George. The internal conflict was very apparent and amusing. Thing 2 climbed up as well, but it was clear she wasn't planning on even trying.

This brought back memory of the first time we brought Curious George there for the first time. I couldn't think of how old he was until I got home and searched my old blog. It turns out that Curious George's first play area experience was at 19 months old as well, in the same exact fast food place. How awesome is that! He was a daredevil at that age and went all the way up by himself, except he didn't come down. After much calling and much worrying, I had to climb up in the darn thing and extract the little monkey. Boy, I'm glad I didn't have to do that today! However, Daddy did have to climb up an get both Thing 1 and Thing 2 at least 2 times each.

the little people in the little people village

The girls and I tagged along with Daddy to his doctor's appointment (Daddy wanted to show off the girls) and then we spent the morning at the mall. Big Bro is at school at this time.

Thing 1 is wearing the cream dress with brown leggings, and Thing 2 is wearing the purple dress with cream leggings.

It's so rare that both Daddy and I are both on the picture!

Mommy time!

Thing 2 and Thing 1 man the General Store. I do hope they didn't eat all their earnings.

Thing 2 and Thing 1 found the General Store's window a fun place to play peekaboo.

Lunch time after a hard day's work.

The girls with the Jolly Green Giant, I mean, Daddy.

Then we head off to the water fountain. No, there wasn't music playing, and we weren't actually dancing. This is just how it is when you try to get 2 little girls heading in the same direction.

Then Thing 1 became fascinated with the the picture of flowers on the "Keep of the grass" sign. And because she was enthralled by it, Thing 2 just had to join her and see what the fuss was about.

Thing 2 inspecting something interesting on the ground.

Finally, we all made it to the fountain.

fun fun and more fun

I saw my chiropractor today and being Tuesday, I had the 3 musketeers with me. My appointment was at 9:30; I knew it would be a great time to venture out in the big big world with the 3 of them for the first time. So we went to the mall, played on the coin operator cars, had lunch and played at the play area. I think second to being a great time (early in the morning is usually a tantrum free time), what worked is that we had gone over the rules over and over before getting there.

Rule 1: You must stay close to me at all time. "I cannot protect you if you run far away from me."

Rule 2: You have to listen to Mommy or we will go home right away.

Rule 3: You have to potty with the rest of us. (Nothing worse than abandoning food at the table just to run to the bathroom - with a toddler and a double stroller!)

Rule 4: If we all cooperate with each other and have fun, we will do this again another time!

Of course rule 1 and 2 went straight out the window once we got there because he saw the new coin operated cars. But thankfully, thanks to a new parenting outlook I am trying to put into practice, nobody blew a top today and we were quickly right on track for an awesome time.

Of course the first order of business is to ride the train, what else?

Then off to the firetruck. With it being so roomy, I let the girls join in the fun.

But then they cried when the I put them back in the stroller. :(
(It's Thing 2 in the window)


Thing 2 and Thing 1 trying to follow big brother and conquer the tree slide.

Thing 2 tried to climb the bridge. But it was a little hard with shoes on.

Thing 1 investigates the boat. Thing 2 heads to something more interesting. All put the girls in the boat with Big Bro, so they got to enjoy the boat together.

a day at the mall

After I had my chiropractor appointment this morning, I decided to be brave and took the girls out to the mall by myself. There are two play areas there, one for big kids and one for little kids, so the little ones don't get trampled. There was a 14 month old little girl there, and you can instantly tell the size difference between her and the twins. The twins are so small, people get taken aback when I tell them they are 12 months old.

Unfortunately, 10 minutes in the mall fire alarm went off. Without hesitation, I scooped up the girls and flopped them back in the stroller ready to bolt. Fortunately, the fire alarm stopped after a minute so we went back to play some more.

Katie waved to everyone that made eye contact with her. It's a bit surprising, since she's the one who usually cries when a stranger just so much as look at her. Then she found the exit. She went for the exit about 5 times!!

Katie waves at someone.

Jojo was cautious and didn't go too far from me. When Katie got too far from her, she crawled to her to get close.

Katie was fascinated by the funny mirror.

Is it just me, or did you think this was a mirror shot at first glance, too? Until you realize they're wearing different clothes, that is. (Katie is in yellow.)