GiddyUp!

Top Ten Reasons We're Thrilled Daddy's Home

10. After 3 days, you begin to dislike each others company... We went daddy-less 3 weeks.
9. Midnight Poopy-Pants Check... (Mama missed him for this!)
8. Drivin' the Car... he lets us
7. Airplane Rides at bedtime
6. Unlimited Outside Time on the playscape
5. Knock Knock Jokes... he never gets tired of them
4. Bath Time... he doesn't mind being splashed (Mama does)
3. ABCs fast and faster when he dries our hair
2. "I'm gonna git your bottom" chases when we're nekkid after bath time
1. Horsey Time

Hip Hop. They Don't Stop. First a Parade. Then a Photo Op.

Today was the preschool fall festival. Which commenced with the classes marching in a costume parade.
(We opted for tights with the bunny suit today, as panties peeking out seemed a smidge inappropriate at a Lutheran preschool.)

All was going well until Em spotted us standing along the parade route. After breaking out of line and running to her Daddy, she agreed to finish the parade if he went along.



Once the parade was over, we helped Em and Roo change into their play clothes and said goodbye. They had a full agenda of fun and games planned... pumpkin patch, rotating rooms for carnival games, crafts, stories, snacks, and then, early release at noon.
Because, who wants a class full of hyped up, carnival crazed 3 year olds after 12pm?

photo-op after the parade
once again... Em spotted us in the crowd and abandoned ship...
... much to the bafflement of the rest of her class.

nothing scarier

There's not much scarier than a rained out Halloween playgroup park party that 40-50 people have rsvp'd to.  Especially if you're the hostess and it's your home that those people, mostly under the age of 5, will now descend upon.

Fortunately, I was not the hostess.

The Rowdy Rabbits had a great time not doing the craft.  

They think balloons are to be played with, not crafted with.  Something to work towards, I guess.  

Then, Em and Roo were off to cookie decorating camp. 

Em put the entire bowl of sprinkles on her cookie.  Crunchy.

In between, there was lots of eating and playing and visiting and more playing.  It was a super way to spend a rainy afternoon. 

By the time we left, Em had removed every article of clothing but her leotard and underpants.  She said she likes to 'wear her tummy'.  I managed to convince her to put on her jacket and rainboots for the run to the car.  The resulting exit photo looks a little disheveled and stripper-ish.  Ah, irony.  

Rainbow Dance

One of the things I purchased for my children, long before I became pregnant, was a sun catcher.  A pretty faceted glass pendant.
I stored it away, holding to the promise, implicit with a rainbow, that there would be a child to share it with someday.

I've long been fascinated with prisms.
Partially due to many viewings of Pollyanna.

And partially thanks to my Aunt Tracie.  She kept one dangling from her east facing window and filled her bedroom with rainbows every morning.
When I was a little girl, that yellow sunshine, dotted with rainbows, seemed magical.

When the girls were born, I hung, at long last, my sun catcher in our east facing living room window.  Now, it's one of our favorite things to share on sunny mornings.  The rainbows.

As the sun's position changes, so do the locations of the rainbows.
In the early morning, they're scattered across our ceiling, fireplace and bookshelves.
As the morning creeps on, the rainbows migrate to a north wall, the love seat and the floor.

Em and Roo ask me to make the rainbows dance.  And with a little tap on the sun catcher, the rainbows twirl about our living room.  I don't think the girls will ever tire of this.
I know I never fail to find delight in the little rainbow colored fairies swirling about the room.

Because we've had a rainy month, the mornings with rainbows have been particularly treasured.
This morning, as the wind picked up and the clouds chased across the sky, our rainbows came and went.
Em told me that dragons were hiding the rainbow's dance.

I know that she was talking about a show that they watched where the clouds took on the shape of a dragon.
But, I thought it such a lovely and fanciful way to describe a cloudy shadow and a piece of fractured light.

Abracadabra

This year, for Halloween costumes, we dressed up as a family. Daddy was to be the magician, Mama the magician's assistant and the Rowdy Girls, the magic bunny rabbits. For our first trick, we made Daddy vanish for the month. For an extended work committment. So, Mama picked up the hat and cape and the show hit the road.

To the zoo for a Moms of Multiples club fall festival.

Aunt Kaki came with us, and that totally made our day!

Em and Roo were really into the animals this year and enjoyed the freedom of being stroller-free.

We did have perpetual wardrobe malfunctions, what with the bunny ears falling off and the rabbit suit riding up and panties creeping down.

All in all, it made for some pretty adorable photographs.

Toddler Slang, part 6

"raisin eggs"

translation: yogurt covered raisins

"castle box"

translation: sandbox in which to build a sand castle

"jungle balls"

translation: toy balls that Daddy juggles

"satari"

translation: John Wayne's Hatari, a movie set in Tanzania featuring the animals you'd see on a safari

"opa 'n shutum"

translation: the Open Them, Shut Them song

open them, shut them... reach them way up high. 

open them, shut them...time to say goodbye.

Elmo is the new Bono

Em and Roo,

Even children in Africa like Elmo. This little boy came to watch us
fix a water pump. I thought of you when I saw him.

See you soon.
Love,
Mammaw