Anniversary and playtime

Yesterday, William and I celebrated our 6th anniversary. I'm not sure what the standard gift is for that year, but if it's sidewalk chalk or garden soil or hotdogs, we've got it covered.

We had a spectacular weekend with visits from friends that translated into an all day cookout-kid-party-fest here in the yard. We had originally planned to go out to brunch to reward Laura for swimming a mile-long race in Lake Erie. But, when thinking about the logistics of dining out with five children under the age of 4, I broke into a cold sweat, went to the store and bought lots of hot dogs instead. We grilled and chatted and watched the kidlets play in the yard. It was kind of ideal. Lillian even had her first kiss. She and Noah are kindred souls. I've let Laura and Steve know that I'm ready to sign the arranged marriage contract already.

Nana and Papa came up later in the afternoon so that William and I could go out and do our anniversary up in style. That meant the salad bar at Ruby Tuesday's and the Harry Potter movie. Heavenly.

The girls stayed home to take care of Nana and Papa, who'd brought the play kitchen we mentioned before. It was a good decision. They played with it in the driveway for a long while and threw heavy protests at having to let Nana and Papa move it in the house. The grandparents report that Lillian organized the dishes and shouted about the whole process for about an hour. Naomi has been allowed to touch it, too, mostly sneaking farm animals into the oven.

I was entirely too distracted by the mass quantity of fun to take pictures, but here are the girls in their adorable outfits, part of the Pat collection. (Naomi, as usual, is blurry in this. But she did manage to keep those white pants unsullied for most of the day. Don't ask me why, but she's holding a toilet paper roll and Lillian's reading a recipe book for tropical drinks.)




Today, we played outside, putting in some plants and general maintenance. The girls were very helpful Naomi sat down and began weeding the sidewalk all on her own. They were both so thrilled to be allowed to run a three house distance on the sidewalk that I'm not sure anything else mattered. (We had previously tried to set up the corral while we worked out front, but that just ended in a lot of frustration on everyone's part.)

Here are the weeders. I know it's part perspective and part posture here, but this just emphasizes how tiny Naomi is in comparison to her sister. (Lillian may finally be catching on to her size advantage. In a bout over who got to push the buttons on the cable box last week, Lillian grabbed Naomi around the head and very nearly threw her off the footstool. Thankfully the orange nylon tube was there to break the fall.)




For a big portion of our time working outside this morning, Lillian was shouting, "Maow! Maow!", her cat noise. I figured it was random. Until she went tromping through all the plants we'd just put in and grabbed the fuzz at the end of the ornamental grass.

Splish, Splash

We visited another nearby local gem today, all the while trying to ignore how little time we had left to enjoy it. Okay, not all the while. For most of it, we just enjoyed watching our babies run through the water and laugh while we chatted with other parents.

Naomi, experimenting with water flow



Lillian, chasing rainbows

Mud Pies and Frog Huntin'

Apparently, every Tuesday at the Botanical Gardens is Mud Pie and Ice Cream day. Why did I not know this earlier?? (Yeah, we only have two more Tuesdays with the girls before they start day care. I can't describe for you the feeling in the pit of my stomach as I type that sentence. I don't want to.)

We didn't even bother with the ice cream, but the mud pies were fun. The volunteer scooped some really excellent mud into a pie mold and flipped it onto a plate where she'd written their names. Then we were directed to a table full of flowers and ferns and leaves to stick into the mud.



Lillian enjoyed plugging hers into the pie or dropping them on the ground, saying "uh-oh" until someone picked them up. She stayed at that table for almost half an hour. Naomi was dead set against anyone sticking any flowers into her perfectly unadulterated pile of mud. We managed to stab a few in there while she wasn't looking. She made great attempts, though, at earnestly sniffing flowers. The thistly one we picked out was a bit of a surprise.



While Lillian was hard at work sorting and dropping flowers, Naomi was racing around the rest of the Children's Garden. She ran smack into some poor man near the front entrance (part of a very nice couple with whom Lillian tried to go home later on). She spent a long time sticking her head through the rails on this bridge in an effort to ferret out the rubber-band sounds of a bullfrog William had showed her earlier. She was really intently searching for the source of this sound and looked back at me several times, her face seeming to ask, "You hear it too, right? Let's get him!"



In all, today was a really great day. Excepting the girls' kindergarten-style slappy fight in the race car cart at the grocery store. They thought it was hysterical, but I was mortified. We've been working on the whole 'no hitting' thing quite a bit, even instituting our first time-outs. Haven't worked out how to do that when outnumbered in public. But, to redeem themselves, they were both giggly and crazy after dinner, dancing and diving onto pillows and our laps, choosing books to read and snuggling with Arnold the stuffed pig. I just love when they are silly and affectionate all at the same time.

Please pardon me while I go and weep and pull all the batteries out of the clocks.

Moo! (Plus bonus blooper footage)

Animal noises. They're a never-ending source of entertainment. For me, I mean. She doesn't pull off the elephant here, but both she and Naomi have roughly interpreted elephant sounds as blowing rasperries while humming.

Meanwhile, here is the outtake roll. She grew bored with the performance requirements, so I flipped the LCD screen towards her instead. I know you've seen one like this before, but try to forgive me the repetition.

Week of Adventure

After the zoo on Sunday, we were on a roll. Okay, Monday didn't totally count because we only went to the grocery store, but, believe me, I consider it an adventure.

Tuesday, we went back to Lake Farmpark to visit the goats and pigs and sheep, moo at the cows and ride the pony again. Did I take any pictures? No. Who wants to hire on as our full time photographer?

This morning, we took the girls back to the Children's Museum, where we haven't been since last fall. Last fall. When the girls weren't even walking yet. Is it really possible that Naomi's only been walking for five months and Lillian for under 3? They enjoyed it much more this time, climbing stairs and pretending to drive the bus. Naomi tried repeatedly to steal groceries from the pretend store. Lillian hung out in the kitchen room for what we estimate to be more than 30 minutes. That play kitchen we bought in April and were saving for Christmas? I don't think it's going to make it that long.





Tomorrow, Parent Center playgroup (where it's air conditioned) and then, I don't know. Maybe the mall. Anything with air.

Zoo!

We chose one of the hottest days of the summer to go to the zoo today. It was hot. Sticky. Oppressive. But the girls still seemed to enjoy themselves. They really paid attention to the animals, not just the other people walking around. Lillian mooed at anything remotely cow-like, including the rhinos and elephants. We took her to the petting zoo and she almost short-circuited. "Moo! Neigh! Baa!! Neigh!! Baa!" Naomi was fascinated by the flamingos and the heron near the giraffes. And the tiny little birds that came to take pieces of our lunch.

Here is Naomi, being not quite as tall as a newborn giraffe.



And, since it was so outrageously hot, we made Nana and Papa pick up the playhouse we found on craigslist and drive it out to our house. Washing it down was one of the best parts of the day. The girls splashed in the puddles and peeked through the doors and windows of the dissassembled house. I'm sure more picures will be forthcoming, but here, with thanks to Gary Larson, is Lillian trying to get out of the house.

Do You Hear It?

I'm not sure you can hear it in this video, but for the last few days, Lillian has been singing the first four notes of the Alphabet Song. The first four letters are A, D, D, D. She has also realized that letters are letters, even though they are currently all A. It's not as though we sit around and drill the alphabet or letters. It amazes me what both of these girls absorb casually. Even though Naomi is not as verbal, she quietly identifies the same body parts and pictures that Lillian does. They are starting to legitamately help with tasks and model simple things that we do around the house. All without 'teaching', just observing. Also, this week we graduated from the Help Me Grow program (the early intervention program the girls were enrolled in because of their prematurity). One their latest assessments, both Naomi and Lillian are scoring in their chronological age range in all areas. These include gross motor (walking, steps), fine motor (pencils, crayons, pushing buttons) social/emotional, cognitive (problem solving) and language (both hearing and speaking). All these measure of progress are so exciting, but they also remind me how fast time is racing. I spent some time looking at video from last September this afternoon and nearly cried over the tiny babies who were just starting to babble and scootch. Now, they use a railing to climb the steps out back and ask for cereal. Does it ever slow down?