Yooper Fashion

Note To Self: Buy child longer pants
Second Note to Self: Teach child fashion sense.
UGH.

Laundry Woes

I've decided the problem with doing laundry when you have twins (well, not THE problem, but one of the MANY problems), is that every load is like a load of socks. Meaning that every shirt, pair of pants, sweater, sweatshirt, has a "match". My system has always been to put matching outfits together in one gallon-sized ziplock bag. That way, I don't have to think about dreaming up two separate outfits, when the boys always want to wear what the other one is wearing anyway. I can go to a drawer, pick out a single bag, and say "Today, we will wear the striped shirts". And everyone is happy. It's theoretically a good system. Now that we're potty-training, though, the clothes-soiling rate has become very unequal. One will pee his britches, while the other stays dry. The matching outfits rarely end up in the same laundry load, and so there are mismatched pieces of clothing that lie around, awaiting their mate, and the laundry is NEVER completly finished. Every load is like that basket full of mis-matched socks, and it really is kind of annoying. Your pity is appreciated.

Mind Meld

So the boys are making up for their "angelic" behavior yesterday. It's 1:30, and I just put the boys in separate beds, for all of our safety. They have been in time out no less than 7 times so far today, and it's just past lunch. They have thus far completed the following acts of impishness and outright debauchery:

1. Played "trains" in the toilet, soaking themselves and everything in the vicinity with used toilet water.
2. Spit milk into each others hair, and all over each others clothes. Twice.
3. Screamed non-stop while mom was on the phone with work
4. Taken tooth-paste and smeared it all over the granite vanity top, the front of both doors/drawers of the vanity, on the coffee table, on the tile floor, on several small toy vehicles, and the living room couch. This completed, again, while mom was on the phone with work.
5. Peed right in front of mom on the kitchen floor, saying "look mom! I'm using the toilet" (Just so you know, Colby... the kitchen area rug is NOT the toilet!).
6. Pooped in Thomas the Tank Engine underwear (was I not just celebrating the end of diapers?? Yes, we are done with diapers. Now the laundry load has quintipled in size).
7. Gave their stuffed frog a shower in Mom and Dad's bathroom.
8. Deliberately and repeatedly gotten OUT of Time Out when placed there by afore-mentioned frazzled mother, and then said "NO!" when sternly told to return.
9. Laughed when given spanking for #8.

To top it all off, Colby has given his brother THREE hugs and "I love you Quinn"'s this morning, which tells me that all this is the result of them being separated yesterday, and they'll teach ME not to separate them again!!! As for me, I have yet to receive a single hug for the day, and, if I do say so myself... I'm in need desparate need of one!

Separate but Equal

My husband and I have come to the conclusion that, although we have two sons, we have one offspring "mind". Whatever one does, the other does. Whatever one says, the other repeats. If one discovers it's fun to pour milk in one's hair, so does the other one. It is the great mind meld. Rob says "it's like a 20 year reunion every time they see each other after a nap.". They have been apart for the length of an emergency room visit on maybe 3 occasions in their life, and that's about it. So, today was "Mommy-son day". Grandma and Grandpa agreed to take one miscellaneous child, and I would take the other. The actual son to go with mom was determined exactly 15 seconds before we reached grandma's house, as it kept going back and forth. "Quinn next to Mommy". "Colby go to grandma's house". "No, QUINN go to grandma's house". And back, and forth, and back, and forth, until the engine turned off, and it was Colby's turn to say "Colby go to grandma's house". So that determined it - amongst Quinn's tears of being "stuck" in the van with mommy. We went to the library, and Daddy's work, and then out for a burger, and to the mall to run around. It was fun, and I discovered, to my surprise, that I actually have a very well-behaved, polite young son! Even got compliments from complete strangers! Apparently the hooligan-ism we have witnessed at every previous public outing is the result of the "mind meld" phenomenon of being with a brother! The theory held... Colby was a perfect angel for his grandparents, too. And we only had to listen to "Where's COOOOOLLLLLBBBBBYYYY????" about 15 times during the outing. "Go find Colby now?" "Colby's at grandma's house". Sheesh. I guarantee they're not that worried about Rob or I when we're gone to work. We need to separate them a little more often, I think....

The Phone Call

I received the BEST phone call yesterday while at work. It was from my two little boys. Apparently they were eating chocolate cake at home with the sitter, Beth. WHY were they allowed to eat chocolate cake in the middle of the day? "BROWN POOPIE!" In the toilet!!! From BOTH little rumps! For the first time, after 13 months, 21 days and 12 hours of potty training!!! WOOOOOOHOOOOOOOO!!! It's a very good day. My coworkers thought I'd had a martini too many at lunch, since I was dancing around the office with the phone to my ear, yelling "Good boy! Brown poopie! Brown Poopie!". One muttered something about "only a mother would...." Yup. Only a mother would understand. Goodbye DIAPERS!!! I just got a pay raise.

Brotherly Love

We have a Toddler Policy in this house... if you throw a ball deliberately at your brother's head, you must say you're sorry and give a hug. They'll do it, but that doesn't mean they like it....

Functional Fine Motor Skills

The boys have absolutely NO problems with their gross motor skills. This is reassuring, given their "slow" start to life. Speech and fine motor, however, remain areas of concern. We try coloring, play-doh, scissors, painting. They bore very quickly. So yesterday and today we started "functional" fine motor activities, wherein the boys are required to use scissors to cut open their own meals. Want a packet of oatmeal? Get out the scissors. Want a banana? Get out the scissors. So far, it's working well :) They're at least motivated to use the scissors, because otherwise, they'd go hungry....

Our First Blog

So we were running errands yesterday in the van, and Quinn asks "Where's Daddyboy?" I wasn't sure if I heard correctly, so tried to clarify. "You mean Daddy's work?" No. "Daddyboy!" I was not getting it. "Daddy's WHAT?" I asked. "I'm QuinnBoy!" he said. And then Colby piped up "I'm ColbyMan!" AAAAHHHHH. DaddyBoy. When am I "MamaGirl?"