Here’s some video of avery’s “It was overwhelming” Christmas experience and various other videos of them opening gifts, playing with new toys, etc.

Note: It’s driving me nuts that I can’t figure out a way to embed HD video in the playlists (what those videos use).  It may be a limitation of YouTube right now, I’m still looking into it.

You can see the lower quality (non HD) version here.

No, we’re not wasted away in Margaritaville. But a mom can dream…

Earlier this week, we had a playdate at a friend’s house and rushed home just in time for a quick lunch for the twins. Adam was very tired, so after plunking the twins down at the kitchen table with some munchies, I took Adam to his room to feed, rock, and put down for a nap. It’s a quick and easy job when he’s so sleepy, maybe 5 minutes. And the twins are used to eating on their own at that table while I deal with the baby. They’ll wander in with messy hands to tell me if they need something usually.

In hindsight, I should have known it seemed too quiet in the kitchen, I suppose. But I enjoyed the peace and time with Adam. I walked back into the kitchen ready to wipe them off, hit the potty, and do the naptime routine. But I found piles of salt. Everywhere. Like a whole shaker full. On the floor. On their plates. On the table. On their clothes. On their hands and faces. In their hair. Oh, and they were sooooo pleased with themselves. And they were already headed for a late nap even before the mess.

“Who did this????” I asked.

Avery proudly replied, “Avery and Alex did this!” Huge smile. She was thrilled.

Alex added, “Assah needed peppah sauce.”

Oh, well, that explains it.

The real problem is that the salt shaker had been clogged. And I clearly remember last week when Don went to salt something on his dinner plate, found the clog, and cleared it. A little too well, I guess.
Lesson learned.

I was out tutoring last Thursday (the 17th,) and Don was handling bedtime for all 3 kids. At one point, he left Adam in the aquarium bouncy seat in his room, and the twins were in with him, while Don went to refill Avery’s cup of water. He was heading back to the room when he heard Adam suddenly crying. Those two little beasts had managed to FLIP the baby UPSIDE DOWN in the bouncy seat. Like, nose on the carpet, suspended from the t-strap, wire base up in the air, upside down. Don didn’t even ask for an explanation, he just grabbed Adam and tried to comfort him since he said the poor guy looked so terrified and was so upset. And he said the twins looked like they knew they had messed up bigtime, so he just told them they’d been very bad and put them to bed. I asked today, and of course they both could tell me all about it, but when I asked who flipped it, Alex said “Easy” and she said “Awix.” Those turkeys know how to work that twins thing, that’s for sure. Adam seems no worse for the wear, though I kept him out of that bouncer today so as not to give him some PTSD episode. Things like this are why God made him so big, I think. He’s gonna have to be able to fight back very, very soon!

Literally. Monday was just plain gross.

Adam pooped in his jumper while the twins ate lunch. Down his leg, to the floor, so he was dancing in it. Yuck.

Alex pooped in his underwear when he woke up from his nap, before I went in to get him. I stopped doing pull-ups at naptime because they were always dry. Double yuck.

And Avery had her normal naptime one too. She waited until yesterday, the one day I’ve ever let her sleep in her tutu, to have her first gross leaky diaper in probably a year. She got her sheets, the mattress pad, her skirt, and, of course, the damn tutu. Triple yuck.

And for good measure, Alex the potty trained wonder, who finally tells us when he has to pee or poop, pooped in his underwear after dinner tonight. Quadruple yuck.

I think we need to cut back on the fruit in this house or something.

I am so.done.with.poop!

I don’t know when I turned into such a girl. It’s late spring, and the warmer weather has brought out lots of interesting creepy crawly things. Caterpillars, ants, bees, spiders, and more are all over the place. And suddenly, I, the girl who played with worms for hours as a kid, can’t stand any of them. The twins are curious and want to know what everything is, and are willing to pick many of them up. I don’t want to turn them into wusses about bugs. The kids who wouldn’t come near the caterpillars in our butterfly life cycles unit when I was teaching drove me nuts, but I still find myself telling Alex and Avery not to touch anything. And I can tell they are getting sort of freaked out, because Avery does the same little shiver I do anytime a bee is near, and they both say “Oh no!” and show me every spider web in their clubhouse. For some reason I have it in my head that the little hairs on the caterpillars can hurt them, when I know I used to pick them up as a kid and don’t remember it hurting. Alex managed to sit in an anthill in our neighbor’s yard last week and was crawling in them, head to toe – the BIG ones. I’m so glad none bit him, but I had to strip him naked in the yard and swat them all off. Eeeew! I get skeeved out just thinking about it as I type this. I’ll be better when the lightning bugs come – they don’t creep me out, at least.