May in Pictures and Stories
The first half of May we spent in Colorado (glorious), the last half at home in New Mexico, spring easing into summer, the kids growing and changing every day. Some favorite pictures:
One of my favorite things about the twins at this age is how much they are starting to interact...it's generally friendly, such as when I give them the "wrong" forks at a meal (they are very particular about whose things are whose) and they will hand the forks back and forth and say, "Here you go, Luke." "Here you go, Zo." Or Luke watching Zo do a puzzle and saying, "Good job, Zoey!"
There is the flip side, too, which mainly involves Luke playing "Tackle, Tackle Zoey," which she almost never likes, and Zo stealing Luke's Hot Wheels and running across the house with them, leaving him in tears.
Luke is big into cars and trucks, Zo into her kitties, Stanley and Fuzzy Britches; she'll have them interact with each other...I'm actually seeing a lot of imagination from these guys, from cooking up play meals (a favorite activity) to picking pretend grass to feed pretend bunnies.
Some commonly heard phrases from Zo this month:
"I have a pocket."
"I need a Kleenex!"
"I love you Daddy!" (Mommy, too. Me-ma and Grammy and Papa and Uncle Ben too.)
"I'm making a funny face!"
And from Luke:
"Not yet! One more minute!"
"Let's DO it!" (eg, "Would you like to brush your teeth, Luke?" "Yes! Let's DO it!")
"I love you Daddy!" (Mommy etc, too.)
"No, no, I don't LIKE kisses. Don't kiss me Mommy!" (Followed by frantic wiping away of said kiss.)
"Let's whip up dinner!"
"I don't LIKE Mommy!" (Ouch. Oh well, he's two.)
"I don't do shirts!" (Said while trying his best not to let me dress him.)
Cuteness from Zo:
"I need to be careful around cars. And monsters."
"I made a terrible mess!"
And Luke:
"I hurt Daddy's feelings. I need to fix them."
There are LOTS of hugs from the kids these days.
Luke misses his sister if I take him out alone.
They both love looking for trucks when we're "out and about," as we call it; they can name pretty much anything they see on the the road (eg, "Box truck! Semi truck! Auto carrier! Cement mixer! Etc. All said as an exclamation.)
We still rock and sing at night, although the kids aren't always into it. Sometimes they run around the room while I sing. Or sit in the other rocking chair. I don't know how this started, but I've been giving them the choice of the "Regular Version" or the "Oink Oink Version" of a song, the "Oink Oink Version" having most of the words replaced by oinks.
Both the kids like playing "Tunnel" with Dad, where they give him a "toll," he gives them change, and then they go under his bent legs. They also like playing "Boat," where they sit between his legs on the bed to keep away from sharks. And Luke has been playing "Hit Hit Daddy," where he'll hit his Daddy on the chest and Daddy will tickle him and then stop 'til he's hit again.
"Baby Races," are also a big deal around here, where the kids will start with Dad and he'll outline a course for them, eg, "Run around the coffee table twice, jump on your bunny or bear rocker and rock, touch Mommy and then run back to Daddy. First one back wins!" The kids love to play, and it's fun to watch because it's totally unpredictable who will wander off course when and thus as far ahead as any one baby seems the other baby always has a chance of winning.
Saying goodbye to Daddy in the driveway when he goes to work and welcoming him home are also big activities these days.
And both kids still chime in at random with, "I'm happy!"
"I'm happy too," I always say back to them.
And June, wonderful amazing June is here, so looking forward to it! We're attempting the 3-day potty training method starting Friday and switching out to toddler beds at he same time, so big stuff happening around here! Wish us luck!
XOXO
