Ice Cream Party

People at my work had been complaining that they hadn't seen the girls in a long time. And they were right. We hadn't been in the office since Halloween. So when a staff member's birthday came up, I thought it was the perfect opportunity to organize an ice cream party and pick the girls up from day care early to spend the afternoon with me.

I started talking to them about it last week, so that it wouldn't come as a surprise to them when I showed up. They get very upset if I get there when they're playing outside or in the middle of watching a movie, etc.

So, I picked them up at 3:15, and they were very excited to come with me. We had to tell EVERYBODY that we were going to an ice cream party before we left the center.

They were super well-behaved once we got to the office. They each had chocolate and vanilla ice cream with a little whipped cream. They didn't want sprinkles or Oreo bits. We went and washed hands once they got all sticky, but both girls immediately wanted more ice cream again.

Afterwards, we went to Aunt Laura's desk where they colored for about half an hour. Laura's coworkers lent them all kinds of pretty markers, so they enjoyed making pictures for her cubicle.

Lily's highlight was her trip to go potty. When I took her into one of the stalls she saw the double toilet paper holders and exclaimed excitedly, "There's TWO toilet papers in here!"

Weekend Update

We spent a lot of time this weekend playing dress up. The afternoons/evenings were stormy, so we spent most of our time indoors. The girls and I were doing our ballet routine to The Little Mermaid Soundtrack.

Overheard:

The girls were running low-grade fevers on Saturday, so I went to give them Tylenol before bed.

Mommy: "Come get your medicine!"

Madeleine: "Mommy? Am I not feeling well?"

Overheard...

Walking out of day care today, Lily stopped one of the incoming daddies and asked, "What's your name?"

"Mark."

They stood there with a confused look and said, "Marcie?"

I said, "No, Mark. Like Uncle Mark."

Madeleine replies, "Oh, regular Mark."

Father's Day

We didn't do anything particularly exciting for Father's Day. Eric slept late, and the girls helped me make blueberry muffins in the kitchen. They've done it a few times before, and I just bring all the ingredients down to the floor.

Lily pours the milk in, and Madeleine pours in the oil. They always want to crack the eggs, but I'm not that courageous yet. They each have their own spatula to stir, but Lily is the first to want to lick the batter. They've filled the muffin tins with the paper cups and do their best to fill them up. If I'm lucky they allow Mommy to help, so that at least some cups get enough batter.

They LOVE to eat the muffins though. We make a mix of regular size muffins along with some mini muffins. Lily ate 3 big and 3 little. Madeleine stopped after one and a half.

They made decorated can cozies at day care: Out of this World Dad. There's foam stickers of astronauts and satellites on them. The girls thought they were candles, flipped them over, stuck their fingers up through the hole, and sang Happy Birthday.

Race Day 2008

Yesterday was the 12th annual Race for the Cure in our city. I've been participating for 8 years now, and this was the third year the girls have participated with me (4 if you count in-utero).

We stared our day off really early at 6am. Aunt Laura came by to help get everyone ready and go to the race with us. This year we parked at the RBC Center and rode the shuttle buses rather than parking on the campus. It went rather smoothly, and we were at Meredith by 6:50. We went and got some bananas and bagels, and then headed to meet up with the rest of the Trailblazers folks.

They moved the starting point out onto Hillsborough St. this year and moved up the start time by 15 minutes. The street was super crowded, so it was a while before we could get up to a good walking pace. The girls were antsy for a bit, but got into the groove once Mommy provided them with goldfish crackers.

Mommy's friend Sharon helped us on the next leg, pushing up a lot of the big hills. Madeleine was smitten with Marcie though, and kept yelling her name. We couldn't get too far ahead of the group because the girls were looking around for Mommy's friends all the time.

We finished just before 9, so it was about an hour. Not too bad. If there had been more room and we hadn't been waiting for my friends, we probably could have finished in under 45 minutes.

The line for the next race (the co-ed 5K) was enormous.

We went immediately to the Kid Zone where they had a jumping castle and a Tumblebus. The girls patiently waited their turn for the castle, and Madeleine was excited to discover the Tumblebus. Then we played with purple rice for quite a bit. We left around 10 am.

The shuttle bus back to the RBC Center was a little tougher than the ride there. Not only were people not willing to help, but most wouldn't even get out of my way. The jogging stroller just fits up the aisle, and I had one gentleman who refused to move his leg out of the way so that we could get through. He wouldn't even make eye contact. Luckily Laura got the girls settled in the seats, and she came up to help me lift the stroller over everyone's heads.

The girls had a great time, and I look forward to next year when they can run in their own little runners race.

Winning isn't everything

Overheard this morning...

"Mommy go to hockey game?"

"Yes, I did. I did good too. I won."

Madeleine pauses for a minute and says, "I'm two," and holds up two fingers.

Flipping for Sunday

Weekend Update

We had an exciting weekend. We started off Saturday morning with a trip to Lifetime Fitness. It had been a year since I had last dropped them off in the child care center there, so I thought it might be time to try again. This year they're big enough to enter the jungle gym area, which has a large climbing structure along with a play house and other toys.

Both girls went in fine, and there was no crying. Meanwhile I went upstairs to use the elliptical. Listening intently for a page, I never got one and returned an hour later. When Madeleine saw me walk through the door, she ran toward me and ran smack into another kid. That set off the crying, and I went in to get her. But I couldn't find Lily. She was in the bathroom going potty all by herself. Danielle, the girl who had been supervising them, said Madeleine had cried for me once, but Lily was a social butterfly and had been having an awesome time.

I'll probably try it again if the girls will let me. It was just too hot this weekend to do anything else outside, and I thought this would be a great way to get their climbing in while being indoors.

So after that we went out to the big pool. We stayed for about a half an hour. It got really crowded. Madeleine kept wanting me to "throw" her, and Lily wanted to swim on her own.

The picture above was taken Saturday afternoon. Lily had stolen my gym socks, called them "tights" and was wearing them with my shoes. Around 4:30 they went over to Grandma Bench's house so that Mommy and Daddy could have date night. We picked them up Sunday morning.

Today we went shopping at Target. I picked up some toddler sun hats that we'll probably never wear. Then we went grocery shopping. They were out of the two-child carts that we usually use. There was another twin mom there whose sons looked about 18 months old, and she was by herself. I could tell she was stressing about what to do. We put Lily in the cart that I pushed, and Madeleine used one of the small "customer in training" carts and did her own shopping. Eric walked with her, and she followed me closely. She only clipped my heels 3 times, but she was very grown up about shopping.

Princess Thursday

Today we wore dresses. I don't usually dress them up to go to day care since I know that the playground is a little hard on their clothes. But it was supposed to be 99 degrees today, so I figured they'd be inside most of the day.

Whenever they get their dresses on, Lily and Madeleine pretend to be princesses and spin their skirts around.

Lily Sleeper

Lily is totally faking it at this point for the most part.
Not much room with both of them in the crib here.

Madeleine Sleeps

On the tummy, no covers, face buried.

Sleeping Babies

When the girls were little, I used to take a ton of pictures of them sleeping. They were just so cute wrapped up. I took the photo above early one morning while I was just in their room watching them sleep (as opposed to sleeping myself). In the beginning, they both liked to be swaddled tightly. They hadn't honed their Houdini-like skills yet.

I'm trying to capture some current photos of the girls sleeping. I got one of Madeleine this morning and will post it later. Lily was already awake and wouldn't even pretend to sleep when I asked. I'll try again later, but I'll give you a clue. It doesn't look anything like what's pictured above.