How Big We Are

We went to the pool today, and while I was drying the swimsuits, I got the girls to take turns on the gym scale.

Madeleine: 31 lbs
Lily: 28.5 lbs

She's Crafty

This weekend, we did a number of hands-on activities with the girls. Inspired by the crafts tables at our trip to Marbles last week, I went to AC Moore and got some additional supplies. Here's what we did that was new:

Stamping
I got some washable stamp pads from Michaels along with some cheapo $.66 stamps. I also found a couple of stamps I had lying around the house. So I let the girls stamp around on paper. They really thought it was cool.

Paper scraps
I have a ton of small paper scraps from scrapbooking that I've been hoarding for years for no particular reason. The girls aren't strong enough to use the scrapbooking punches I have (heck, most adults aren't), so I punched the paper into stars and hearts while they glued them to the paper. Lily especially liked the wave-shaped "ocean" scraps. The girls used glue sticks, and it took them a while to get the hang of it. Madeleine was disappointed it wasn't plain old Elmers.

Other weekend activities:

• Helped me make pancakes on Saturday. This was the first time having them at home. I used the molds Grandma Goodman got us years ago, so we had heart and flower-shaped pancakes.
• Trip to Cary Library. Another first. Post nap we went and read books. We checked out 5 to take home. Madeleine was very upset when it was time to leave.
• Play Doh - I let them break out one of the tool sets they got for their birthday last year. It had the rolling pin, a bunch of cutters, and a press. But, they liked making round "cookies" cut from the empty containers the best.
• Water play - Sunday afternoon we filled up the kiddie pool. Squirt guns were a hit again. They started getting bored after half an hour, so I put the slide in for them. That gave us another half hour of fun. And it helped soak out the extra "washable" ink left on their bodies.

Fier Update

Today is day 4 of "fiers in the basket." Neither girl asked for them leaving day care today, and I didn't have to give suckers either.

After dinner tonight we played with every puzzle in the house. My favorite was the alphabet one. Some time in the last few weeks, they've learned to recognize about 80% of the letters. We've been reading Chicka Chicka Boom Boom every night, and Lily always asks to talk about the letters on the inside of the cover.

"Fier" Withdrawl

In case you've missed it, Lily and Madeleine have been pacifier girls since day one. They like to sleep not just with one in the mouth, but one in each hand. I have been unable to break their little hearts and tear them away, mostly for my own sanity. Their nickname for them is pronounced FYE-ER.

I've tried to allow them only at bed times, but I've been getting slack lately. They had them in the car to and from school. They were having them Saturday and Sunday mornings. Then last week, Lily snuck one into day care and freaked out when I took it from her. They would have taken it from her anyway, but she just screamed bloody murder for quite a while.

So starting this past weekend, I've been asking them to put their pacifiers in a basket in their bedroom. They can't leave the bedroom until the pacifiers are in there. It worked well Saturday and Sunday, but it's been hard in the car on the way home from day care the last two days.

Lily gets in the car first and asks, "Did we bring fiers?"

As soon as I say no, she starts screaming, "Yes you did!" She doesn't quit.

Luckily I've had suckers the last two days.

Madeleine yelled yesterday, but not today. I just explained that we were big girls and left our fiers in the basket. Today she didn't even ask for the sucker.

I know pacifiers aren't the worst thing in the world. I had one until I was 4, and I've heard Eric had his pretty late. But I'm looking forward to not having to worry about keeping track of them all the time!

Have we lost our...Marbles?

Today we went to the Marbles Kids Museum downtown. I'd been wanting to go for a few weeks, but all the planets aligned and we made it today. Our last visit was Thanksgiving weekend of 2007.

My plans were almost derailed when I saw that they were opening the new "Olympic" exhibit today. They have an ice hockey area sponsored by the Carolina Hurricanes, and Rod Brind'Amour would be there signing autographs.

We got there a few minutes after opening at 9am, and it was almost empty. We played in the water area first, and then split up for a bit. The girls' favorites were still the grocery store area and the pirate ship.

They did like the Olympic exhibit. Madeleine tried the ice hockey court, but Lily stuck to the balance beam, bean bag toss, and Nerf javelin throw.

Lily's favorite was the appearance by Stormy, the Carolina Hurricanes mascot. She kept running up and hugging him, even while he was taking photos with other families. Eric said Madeleine was not interested in the giant pig. On our way out, there was a guy dressed as a Roly Poly sandwich handing out flyers. Lily gave him big hugs too. But he/she couldn't even see Lily in their range of vision. He/she kept trying to pat her on the head and missed.

These boots are made for walking

Let's see. The story of the red boots.

I first saw them in Once Upon a Child probably 6 months ago or more. I was in there with my mother-in-law, and I discouraged her from buying them. Not really practical, and they were sufficiently large enough that I knew the girls would trip and fall.

The girls have been picking out their clothes now for a couple months. I try to give them options and steer them toward weather-appropriate items, but really that's the best I can do. They have become fashion conscious. Lily is pickier than Madeleine, but Maddie has always liked boots.

On Sunday, Lily did not want to go grocery shopping with us, so Madeleine and I went alone while Lily stayed home with Eric. I thought it might be nice to stop in the consignment store since I hadn't been in a while. I needed another pair of swim shoes for Lily anyway.

Madeleine saw the red boots and went straight for them. She picked them up and looked at me with those big blue eyes and said, "Can I have these?"

"They're a size seven."

"But I'm a size seven." (She is, but how she even knew this, I'm not sure.)

So, we paid $6.50 and bought the boots. She has worn them every day this week with an array of skirts and shorts. On day 3, Lily wanted to wear the boots. We let Madeleine wear them today, but she promised that Lily could try them on Friday.

This is way it is good to have matching items, even if you don't intentionally dress them matching.

Less fighting.

Little Ears

One of the disadvantages of day care is that we don't have a whole lot of control over what words the girls are learning during the day. We're often surprised in the evening when they say something that we've never used at home.

"Butt" is the one of the first items we noticed. Eric and I have always used the term "bottom" around them and encouraged its use. However, when naked, they love to turn around and point at their bottoms and say, "This is my butt." They know it annoys Daddy and continue to do it just to get him riled up. It always ends with Madeleine just saying "butt" over and over again.

Regarding bodily functions, we've always called passing gas "toots." Lily will often remark that she has toots or has to make a toot. Last week, I could tell Madeleine passed some silently, and I asked if she needed to go poop. She smiled at me and said "I farted!" before running off to the bathroom.

Bathing Beauties

Long weekend update

We started off the weekend with an overnight at Grandma and Grandpa Bench's house so that Mom and Dad could enjoy dinner at the 42nd Street Oyster Bar for CBC's 13th anniversary.

Friday afternoon we headed out to Pittsboro for a cookout with Jerald and Hunter. This is now our third year spending the holiday with them, so it's officially a tradition. Hunter shared with us her happy news that they're officially pregnant. Since this pregnancy is a result of an IVF treatment, tomorrow they'll be finding out how many babies they are expecting. So we may find ourselves not the only parents of multiples in our circle of friends. The girls had a great time at the visit, and got quite loud playing "bed time" while we were finishing up dinner.

We left around 7 or so, and the thunderstorms hit pretty big around 9pm or so.

Saturday morning we just hung out around the house. In the afternoon we set up our new kiddie pool in the driveway. It was kind of cloudy, so it wasn't super warm. We spent about half an hour out there before Lily got too cold.

My favorite part was the swimsuits. Eric said something to the girls about how it looked like the fish were kissing. So they smashed bellies so that the fish on Maddie's belly kissed the fish on Lily's belly.

Sunday morning it was cloudy and cool, but we headed out to the pool at the gym anyway with Aunt Laura. The girls survived well and even managed to try a few new things. They're always disappointed that the little slide isn't outside. We had pizza lunch at the cafe and took Aunt Laura home.

Weekend Plans

The girls spent the weekend in Oak Ridge with Grandma and Grandpa Goodman while Mommy was a few miles away at her hockey tournament. They came to watch me in my 4pm game on Saturday, and of course they were super cute.

On Sunday I tried to get them to tell me how their weekend was. I don't get a whole lot of details. What's funny to me is how much Lily wants to be the one to tell me what went on.