Monday, August 15, 2011

Indy 500 Sundays

Sundays are a little stressful around here. You'd think any halfway intelligent person could get two little people presentable and at church by a reasonable time.  We get up early on Sunday....I don't know why.  There must be some high frequency alarm system that only the Duo can hear because six or six thirty is usually the limit.  It seems since we get up earlier we should have more time but it doesn't work that way.  Sunday time is different...it takes twice as long to get anything done, especially Duo-wise.  I know a lot of people say they sleep a little later, read the paper a little longer, have a nice breakfast, then leisurely get dressed and off to church.  I think they're lying.....Sundays here are like the Indy 500. 

Kayla, of course, wakes me up worried about her dog, ducks, cows, and turkeys.....thankfully, we don't have all those things but we have to go check the dog for sure.  Lyssa is yelling by this time and we go check the hummingbirds out.  The Duo don't think they can go in one direction....if one goes east, the other is programed to automatically go west.  Herding takes a lot of running and cutting off at the pass which is hilarious fun.  Why am I not skinny??   Now...breakfast.  Any other day, they eat in their high chairs easily.  Sundays their chairs must have thorns or thumbtacks because there is no way they will sit for scrambled eggs.  I give them Cheerios in bowls on the floor so I can get out of my pajamas.  I come back and the Cheerios had to have bred and exploded all over the den and dining room.  It's 8 am and I'm in a housecoat and lucky if I've gotten to brush my teeth. 

I finally get us all dressed...and redressed...and redressed.  Hair has been fixed...and refixed and finally given up on.  One of the biggest challenges is finding four shoes that are matching.  For some reason Kayla always has one missing from each pair.  I live in a dream world and put their hair bows in the car to put on when we get there. 

We head out the door and I turn to lock it....and lose what little tiny strand of control I had.  They escape.  We have a new cellar in the back yard that that of course, has turned a mud bog with the recent rain and Lyss runs for it...in her shiny white dress shoes and frilly dress.  I head for her and Kayla runs for the nearest puddle.  I yell and slow her down long enough to grab Lyss....pulling her out of her shoes and hike for Kayla.  Kayla splashes in the mud but just gets it on her shoes so strip those off too.  I plunk Lyss in her car seat so I can pin Kayla in hers.  Lyssa gets loose and crawls to the drivers seat while I snap Kayla in.  Finally get both of them contained so I can rescue and clean shoes, wash feet and clean runny noses. 

We are finally on our way with twenty minutes till church.  Halfway there I look down and my toes in my sandals are muddy and I have muddy foot prints on my pants.  Forget the hair bows...I need a change of clothes to take to church. 

Friday, August 12, 2011

Mornings at the Zoo

I have great admiration for mothers that work.  I whine about not getting to work but I'm not sure I could find one with hours that I could handle. 

Our mornings start at midnight....none of this late sleeping for us.  Kayla is a very light....very spoiled sleeper.  The girls go to bed at 8:30 and by 11 or 12, Kayla is ready for company.  She cries like she's scared to death so she is either a really good actress or having monster nightmares.  I'm beginning to be a little suspicious.  After the initial hysteria, she will lie right down and go back to sleep.....as long as it is up against a warm body.  I had said I would never sleep with one of my children but around here, if I want to sleep, I'm usually the warm body.

At daybreak she is nose to nose with me, giving me kisses and pointing to the window saying "dog!"  Kayla is our dog person and has to check on them at first light.  Thankfully, Lyssa is oblivious to dawn.  We walk outside watching the hummingbirds, cows and dogs until she decides she needs a cookie.  Now cookie to Kayla is anything from mashed potatoes and gravy to scrambled eggs.  It's her word for food of all kinds....just like tea stands for milk, applejuice or water.  She speaks a quirky English. 

Lyssa joins us and the fun begins.  Kayla will eat just about anything......Lyssa is very suspicious of anything I might give her.  Today, scrambled eggs and cereal met with a snub so Pop Tarts and a banana saved her from starvation.  Kayla ate some of all.

Now on to the bathroom ritual.  Lyssa doesn't think she can sit on the potty without brushing her teeth so she sits and brushes while I brush Kayla's with one hand and hold her down with the other.  The games have officially begun.  Lyssa runs off barebottomed so I will chase her down to save the toothbrush from oblivion and Kayla escapes.  I finally get both faces washed and hair combed....no wait, one has already taken her ponytail out, so I start over.  I hold down and change one diaper on a wiggly girl while the other one escapes to hide.  Kayla still thinks if she puts her hands over her eyes, she's hidden, so she's easy.  Lyssa has really learned to hide though.  Fifteen minutes later we are start getting dressed to the same hide and seek game.  By that time both have lost their ponytails and the hair is sticking straight up.

Finally, they are dressed, have their glasses on and watching Sesame Street.  All is calm.  Maybe it is safe for me to get dressed finally.  I come back in ten minutes and Lyssa is naked . Kayla has no ponytail and has pulled out all the diaper wipes....one by one in the den floor.   Glasses are hidden along with the diaper and clothes.  I finally get everything back to normal..... just in time for Chuck to come in for lunch and ask what I've been doing all morning.  It's a zoo.



Tuesday, August 9, 2011

The King Cobra

After weeks of 100 degree weather, this cool morning was a treat.  The Duo and I had an early breakfast so we could go out and play.  The sun was just easing over the hill and a nice breeze was blowing.  Getting to play outside has been very few and far between times this summer.  The girls stand in a chair and look outside at their swing set and Lyssa waves "hi" to it every afternoon.  I feel like a warden.

So, the Duo are running and sliding and swinging.  Great morning.  Kayla, especially, likes to sit under the trampoline and dig in her dirt pile.  It had rained just enough to make it a little damp with a few shiney mud spots.  She squated down to dig with her spoon and I noticed it was so pretty with the halo effect of the sun behind her.......until I noticed the water her foot was in was moving.  Hmmm....that's funny....  She moved to a more promising looking dirt pile and I noticed the shiney place was still moving.....and coiled!!!  She had been standing on a snake!  Here I come running and yelling and she knows this is a new game so she runs away from me....BACK ON TOP OF THE SNAKE!!!  Lyssa decides it looks like a neat game to her too so she runs to get under the trampoline too. 

Most of you know I'm not too skinny.....or for that fact, not too young, but I can hoof it if I see a snake.  There's no such thing as a nonpoisonous snake.  I know in my own mind there are only two kinds of snakes:  Boa Constrictors and King Cobras.  This had to be a King Cobra. 

After running around the trampoline, trying to get Kayla to come out, I had to crab-walk under the thing to pull her out.  By that time I had Lyssa under there too.  With a kid under each arm, I crawled back out and threw them in the house.  I armed myself with a shovel and went back out to kill the deadly beast.  Of course, after it had been stepped on at least two or three times, it had made tracks out of Dodge.  By tomorrow my heart rate should be back to normal.  All I can say is if you wanted to be rich you should have been at my house early this morning with a camcorder.

Saturday, August 6, 2011

Twenty-two Months and Counting

Very shortly the Duo will have their second birthday.  Though their start was a little rocky, I can tell that they are ahead of their age now.....the terrible twos have been here for several months.

Yesterday, they both were in the kitchen jabbering and it dawned on me they had really been in there a long time.  I checked and Lyssa was standing on the counter microwave showing Kayla, who was standing on the bar, all the cereal and cookies that were in the top shelf.  Lyssa looked like she was working out their menu for the day.  They had pushed a high chair in the kitchen to climb on. I've learned if it is quiet.....there's trouble brewing.

Though they still speak their own version of "Twinese," English is creeping in more and more.  We are monitoring their TV watching more because they are little parrots that will repeat everything they hear.

 Lyssa is still the happy go lucky, into everything, child.  She is stringing several words together to make comprehensive sentences now. She imitates a lot, and can flap her arms like a chicken, dance, and even does a little sign language. She can tell me the birds are hungry (hummingbirds at the feeder), she wants a bite, or she needs a drink. Everything is an adventure to Lyss and she's going full out to see what she can see.  After the initial shyness, she loves to meet and talk to just about anybody....as long as I'm within sight.  She is also my tattletale.  She will run to me, pointing to Kayla, and have a shocked Oh!!! look on her face.  Of course, sometimes she's trying to hide her own tracks such as when she knocks the cookie bag off the counter and then points to Kayla in the other room.

Kayla is still improving with her dexterity and one of her favorite things is to try to stand on her head. She has the head and hand positions down great and can get one leg up but the other one is still giving her a little trouble.  She, too, is getting much more vocal....especially when she wants something. We have deep conversations in the morning where she holds my face and seriously talks quietly to me and then has to give me smacking kisses.  She is the follower right now, but that tends to go back and forth every few months.  Kayla is much more attached to me and not as happy to stay with anyone else for long.  We are going to get back in a schedule of them going to daycare once a week so maybe this will help her be less dependent.  She wakes up every morning calling for the dogs, birds, ducks, anything that will get her out of that bed and hopefully, outside.  I can see her in a few years with a haberdashery of pets.  One of her favorite things is to go out and "talk" to our cow dog, Abby, eyeball to eyeball.  Abby loves her.

It seems like if I blink they have grown.  Every day is a new experience.  I never think about if I'm going to have the energy to keep up with them because it is always just there.  I don't worry about what I'm going to do when they, and I, are older because I am confident that it will be taken care of too.  Things just have a way of falling in place most of the time.  Now teenage years.....that may be the ultament experience.

Friday, August 5, 2011

The making of ballerinas

I've taken a wild urge to make tutus for the Duo.  I think it has something to do with being cooped up for so many hot days in this house with two wild things.  I can't actually do much sewing with them around. Needles would either find their way into mouths or feet, and a sewing machine would really be a new toy.  So therefore, I settled on tutus.  Mostly, it is tying knots and very little actual sewing. 

Lyssa is fascinated by the tulle.  She wraps herself in it like a mummy and slip slides across the floor. Kayla thinks if she pulls it over her head it makes her invisible and she loves to sneak up on me. There are bits stuck everywhere, including diapers making them look like spiders have built cobwebs in some unlikely spots. Another thing the Duo found out was tulle on the laminate floor is as slippery as greased spit and running, sliding and falling has been hilarious....until it's not. 
I don't know what it is about tutus but when they put them on, they become dancers.  They've never actually seen a ballerina so how do they know to start spinning and jumping around the floor?

The Duo will be flower girls (yikes!!) in a September wedding so I'm making them some fancy ones for that.  I'm sure they will be perfect little fairy princesses for that.....well we can live in hope. It should be hilarious whatever they do.  I have thought seriously about tying them together so it's less running on my part.

Thursday, August 4, 2011

The Dreaded Glasses....Part 2

 
My little ladies have been wearing their cute pink glasses for about a month.  Well....really....they've had them about a month.  They've actually worn them, maybe, 18 hours....maybe.  I knew this was going to be hard but I'm usually up to anything thrown in my path.  This has kicked my butt!!!

This is an example of a normal day.  After getting the Duo dressed for the day, I clean glasses and put Kayla's on....turn to put Lyssa's on but first pick up Kayla's that have been pitched across the room.  Get Lyssa's on, turn to put Kayla's on but first take Lyssa's glasses out of her mouth and clean.  Repeat throughout the day. This cycle is broken for the several hours it takes me to find the glasses that have been hidden in various hidey holes.  I'm ashamed to say, there are some days that I just look at the glasses and put them back on their shelf....I just don't have the strength to deal with them.

.....And they're sneaky....  After several off and on times, they magically settle down to wearing them like the sweet angels they are.  Until I lose my focus....then the glasses disappear.  Kayla's were lost for several days last week.  I crawled this house over, getting down to her level, moving furniture, and even emptying all the trash cans.  When I gave up and finally admitted that I had probably already thrown them out with the trash, I found them.....behind the toilet.  See what I mean....sneaky.