Happy Birthday, Ryan!

Little Buddy, four years went by so quickly!  I remember teeny, tiny you.  You were chill and grunty. 

 You frequently made the funniest face, and you were a voracious eater.  It was like you were determined to grow as fast as you could!

 And grown you have, into an amazing little boy who brings incredible joy and laughter to every day.

You are so thoughtful.  You think through everything, and often surprise me with insightful questions (usually questions for which I have no answer!).  You have an incredible memory.  You frequently surprise me with a detail that you remembered from something that happened a long time ago (frequently over a year ago).  You are generally very chill, but when you get angry - watch out!  You like things to be just so.  You like your toys in a certain order, you like your routine a certain way, and you like for things to be orderly.  When you are angry it is usually because something is out of place or something wasn't done according to the usual manner.  Change is not your thing.  You hate messes.  Your laugh is still a deep belly laugh that is irresistible to everyone around you.  Your enthusiasm abounds.  You are always cheering someone on, shouting "Yay!" for something we are (or will be) doing, or tacking, "Isn't that So exciting?!" onto the ends of your sentences.

You are often shy around people, although you are fine around people you know well and are getting better around people you see frequently in the community or at church.  An introvert myself, I often delight in the aspects of your introverted nature that we share.  What you love, you love faithfully, without faltering.  You love Bumble, trains, dinosaurs, Cars (especially Lightning McQueen), racing, setting up parades, snacks, playing basketball, the color blue, macaroni and cheese, riding your bike, exploring and discovering new things, sharks, and your family (especially your sister).  You are frequently nervous and cautious about trying new things, but always determined to not just experience, but overcome, each new thing you face.  You don't like cheese (unless it is on macaroni). You hate messes and being messy.   

My Sweet, Silly Boy, your enthusiasm spread to everyone around you - turning the everyday into an extraordinary adventure.  Your introverted nature brings a thoughtfulness and reflection into our days that I never expected.  Your love of the orderly reminds us to be consistent in all our words and actions.  And your laughter reminds us that life is fun and joy abounds!  These last four years have been (to use a few of your favorite words) awesome and amazing, and I look forward to another year full of the adventures you love!

Happy Birthday, Allie!

Sweet Peanut, where have these four years gone?  It seems like just yesterday I was giving you your first bath.

 You were so tiny and sweet.  I remember that from the beginning your coos and sounds were always so soft and melodic.  I loved those first days, of getting to know tiny you, and wondering about the little girl you would become.

And now you are 4 years old!  The little girl is here, and what a joy you are to me, and our whole family!

You frequently remind me of a beautiful butterfly (which is fitting because you LOVE butterflies).  Your movements are so delicate and graceful - even when you run and jump there is a grace about you.  You flit from thing to thing - whatever catches your fancy in the moment - and you stay only a short bit before you're off to find the next thing in which you will delight.  You frequently sing and dance as you go - music and movements you create in the moment, inspired by the things that surround you.  You abound in creativity - drawing, writing, painting, dancing, making music.  You love to create.  You are incredibly loving.  You love all creatures and people, and demonstrate this love often.  When asked if you have ever eaten fish you responded, "No.  I kiss them."  Which is partly false (you have eaten fish), but also incredibly true.  You have a passionate personality.  What you love, you love fiercely and completely.  When you are angry, you are incredibly angry.  When you are sad, you are heartbroken.  

 You are affectionate and love to hug and cuddle, but you are in constant motion (occasionally making those cuddles difficult).  You love to run and race.  I rarely see you walk.  If you aren't running, you are dancing.  You love the color purple (pink and yellow are secondary favorites), all things that fly (airplanes, helicopters, and blimps), music (as long as it's happy), princesses, dressing up, butterflies, glitter, dinosaurs, seashells, hide-n-seek, all things ocean related, and your family.  You are sensitive.  You hate games where someone jumps out and scares you.  Your feelings are easily hurt.  Even when someone is angry at someone else, you often cry because you hate it when people are angry.  Yet you are confident - never one to shy away from being in front of a crowd, trying something new, or leading your friends in a game.  You love to laugh and be silly.  And you LOVE making messes and being messy!

Little butterfly, your delight in the world ignites and inspires those around you.  Your creativity sparks our imaginations.  Your sensitivity reminds us to be gentle in our words and actions.  Even your love of messes reminds us to dig into life and enjoy every moment.  These last 4 years have been an absolute joy, and I look forward to another amazing year!

Random Videos

Speaking of reminiscing...I have been meaning to clean out the videos from my phone for a while.  Partly because no one can see them on my phone, partly because I need the memory space for more videos!  My apologies for the really poor quality of all the videos, but we didn't have a camcorder for almost a year so this was all I had!

The first days of bike riding.  Allie couldn't figure out how to stop.  I shouldn't laugh every time I watch this video, but I do.  She wasn't hurt, I promise!  It just reminds me of a classic America's Funniest Home Videos clip.

One day, Lucas made a bet with me about a particular song that was part of a legendary dance scene on The Fresh Prince of Bel Air - which was a BIG mistake!  I love that show.  Anyways, I had to find the youtube video to prove him wrong...which the twins wanted to see...which turned into viewings of many classic Fresh Prince dance scenes...which led to this video of my sweet little man trying to imitate the awesome dance moves!

Sigh.  Please, excuse, enjoy, and indulge me in my reminiscing reverie.  It's part of the week...

Taking a Deep Breath

Every year, this week is a very interesting one for me.  It is the perfect storm of reminiscing, nostalgia, frantic preparations for a birthday I can't believe is coming so quickly, and the busy-ness of normal life.  I will confess, I swing violently back and forth between tearful nostalgia, sadness over the days that are gone that only come back through memories, to joy and happiness over our life and the fun we have now, to frustration at the party plans that aren't going how I planned, to excited dreaming and planning about the little special things I want to do for their party, to exhaustion from all the emotions and trying to do too many things.  It is weeks like these that I have to constantly remind myself to BE PRESENT, to live this day and this moment, to avoid wishing myself in the past or the future and appreciate the awesomeness of the present.  Sometimes I just need to pause and take a deep breath.

Today, I had the presence of mind to realize that I needed to step back from frantic birthday preparations and enjoy some time with the twins...and we all needed to get out of the house.  We bundled up to play in the snow (after the lack of snow last year, we are trying to enjoy every minute).  After our last, big snow, the twins and I made a mini sled run in the front yard.  It isn't big, but it is thrilling (and I love that they can sled without me having to load them in the van and drive to the nearest sledding hill).  They were having so much fun that I wanted to get it on video.  The good news is that, this time, I managed to correctly orient the camera!

Ryan's goal was to get all the way to the tree.  He finally made it today (but not in this video)!!

We spent almost an hour and a half outside - sledding, digging, playing tennis (odd, I know, but Ryan really wanted to), and burying shells in the snow to be surprised by when it all melts.  As is tradition, when we go inside we warm up with a cup of hot chocolate!

A rich, homemade hot chocolate mix topped with mini marshmallows in a "grown up" mug.  Can life get any better?

 Allie starts with a careful sip to make sure it isn't too hot (I never make it truly hot), and then gulps it down.  Her cup is always empty within minutes...sometimes seconds...

 I love how Ryan is drinking his with one hand.  He looks like a mini grown up!

Today, they also wanted to work in their favorite new workbooks.  Have you ever heard of the Kumon workbooks?  There are dozens, for everything, spanning all different ages (they list the age range at the top right of each book cover).  I first bought the cutting book so the twins could work on their cutting.  I loved it so much that I bought the tracing book (as a precursor to learn to write), and then I bought the maze book for fun!  The cutting book is legitimately work, but they love the maze and tracing books so much that they beg for them.

Allie has trouble with straight lines.  She would much rather draw loops and squiggles and "decorate" (as she says).

Ryan likes the lines to be perfect.  In fact, he hates having any lines out of place so much, that he frequently figures out the maze first so that, when he does the maze with his pencil, he won't have any marks except the one right path.  I used to do the same thing as a kid.  I liked my mazes looking clean and perfect.

Seriously, if you have kids, consider buying one (or a few) of these books!  We have a whole bunch on our amazon wishlist, and I know there will be more in our future!  Oh, and I'm not getting paid for endorsing this product or anything.  We just really love them!

We capped off the day with the twins giving their beloved dinosaurs a bath in the water table while I cooked dinner.

With all of the things swimming around in my head that I needed to do, an afternoon of playing was exactly what I needed.  The perfect deep breath to calm my mind, relax my thoughts, and bring me into the perfect present.

Grandma!

The Day of 2 Adventures

I've mentioned before that we have a weekly playgroup that I coordinate.  This week, our playgroup time happened to coincide with a story time at our favorite toy store for National Tell A Fairy Tale Day.  Can life get any better?  Turns out it can!  Uncle Logan was home with the girls and was able to join us!

They invited kids to dress up.  Being a former Activity Director (and used to dressing up for EVERYTHING), I couldn't pass up the opportunity.  Plus, my kids love dressing up.  It was like Halloween all over again.  Shockingly, Ryan was the easy one to dress.  We had a dragon costume.  Ryan loves dragons.  Easy peasy!

Allie wanted to be a fairy princess.  It turns out that we don't have a princess dress (we have one, but it was ripped and I didn't have enough time to fix it), a tiara, or wings.  So we put her in a favorite dress with a tutu, lots of costume jewelry, and a puppet tiara that I rigged to stay on her head.  Not awesome, but it worked!

Just before we left.

Note: My camera battery died just after the pictures above, so the rest of the pictures are from phones...or borrowed from facebook...my apologies for the lack of quality!

We got to the store early, and I took the twins to the bathroom (in the VERY back of the store) before we started.  In the bathroom Ryan says, "I'm not going back out there."  I asked why and he responded, "It's different out there."  I asked what he meant by different and he said, "It's scary."  I was so confused.  There was absolutely nothing different about the store since the last time we were there except a few of the staff (all women) were dressed up as princesses or fairies.  So I asked him what was scary and he responded, "They are all talking to me."  We were the first to show up for story time, and they were in costume (only 2 other kids wore costumes) AND Ryan was the only boy (and the only non-princess), so every staff member we met stopped to talk about the costumes (and went crazy over the dragon costume).  It was a little much for my introverted little man.  We had a little pep talk, and I promised to stay close so he wouldn't feel as shy.  Thankfully, he was fine and comfortable once story time started.

There were about 12 kids there - the majority from our playgroup.  Cousin H, Allie and Ryan were front and center (and were clearly the most interested).

Allie and H were so excited they would jump up to answer any question that was asked - which is why you can see Allie in the middle of sitting down here.  D is playing with blocks in the way back (upper, right corner).

D was excited about story time, but was so excited that she had trouble sitting...and wouldn't stop talking...so her daddy diverted her to play with toys in the back.  H was similarly excited and kept giving away part of the story before they were quite there, but the staff there are wonderful and her enthusiasm was fully appreciated.  They even posted one of her quotes as their status:

From the mouth of babes... "A fairy tale is when something magical happens like

someone gets turned into a frog."

They read Sleeping Beauty and Jack and the Beanstalk.  Unfortunately, they lost all of the younger kids by the end of the first story, and all of the kids besides Ryan and Allie before the end of the next story. Somehow, my children were the only kids that stayed until the very end.

Uncle Logan suggested we head over to the Bouncy Castle after story time, so we made our way over to the mall.

Cousin Caterpillar!

The highlight was D finally being brave enough to go down the giant blue slide!  After she made it all the way up and all the way down, she realized it was a lot of fun...and then we had to drag her away!  We literally bounced the kids into exhaustion.  We knew it was time to go when they were laying down in the bounce castles (or on the floor between them).  So we loaded up and headed home.  My kids, who no longer take naps, slept on the way home and a little more after we were home!

We love adventures.  2 Adventures in one day is even better.  Sharing those adventures with our cousins is the absolute best!

Sick Days

Sorry there haven't been many posts in Feb.  We were plagued by the strangest stomach bug I have ever seen.  It started while we were on our way to visit Nana and Poppy (Did I forget to mention we visited them?  Sorry.  It was probably because we didn't get any pictures because Lucas had the camera at the youth retreat...).  Allie threw up in the car.  At the time, I thought it was because of a cough that had been hanging around for a while - that she coughed so hard she threw up.  We got to their house, played the day away, went swimming the next morning, and had a really great day.  We were just talking about how it had been a strange fluke since she hadn't been sick since, when she started to erupt again...I'm pretty sure there wasn't anything left in her stomach after.  It went on like that for 4 days.  She would seem completely fine and have no other symptoms and then all of the sudden she would be dramatically ill, and then she would be fine again.  I've always heard with a stomach bug that if you have been symptom free for 24 hours, you're good to go, but there were more than 24 hours between every time she got sick.  It was maddening.  And then it was gone.

And then 4 days later, Ryan got sick.  And the cycle started all over.  Granted, the first day Ryan acted sick, but after that the sickness stuck around as long, but presented as few symptoms as Allie's.  I would get surprised by the onset each time.  

Not sure what exactly they had - or how to tell when we were no longer contagious - and not wanting to spread it, we stayed home from church.  Sick days call for big, comfy sweats, so I pulled their most cozy clothing out of the closet.

I know, I know, they don't LOOK sick...

 A few days earlier they informed us that Allie cheers for Go Big Red because mommy cheers for them so it is the GIRLS' team, and Ryan cheers for Go Big Blue because Blue is his favorite color.  I was a little heartbroken (he had been a faithful Huskers fan), but he insisted that he couldn't cheer for a team that wasn't his favorite color...and I want to support his conviction.

So they were thrilled when I picked out the clothing that reflected their current favorites.  And I enjoyed the kind of back and forth banter about teams that we usually don't have outside of football season!