Favorite Book of the Moment

"This is Apple Tree Farm.

This is Mrs. Boot, the farmer.  She has two children, Poppy and Sam and a dog named Rusty."

Every story in Farmyard Tales starts this way and the twins LOVE it.   It's so cute to hear them say the words before me when we read it.  During the day, I overhear them repeating those lines during their pretend play.  So adorable. 

Of course, finding the yellow ducky on each page brings on serious competition.

Obsessed... *Just a Little Bit*

 

Henry is obsessed with the Power Pangers (Rangers)!
Not with the show, but with the Power Ranger figures that we have at our home.

Every morning and several times during the day, he becomes completely panicked if he cannot find all of them.  So, then we all end up searching for the missing Power Ranger to stop the misery. 

 

Once he has them, he just carries them around or leaves them in a pile.  He rarely, if ever, actually plays pretend with them. 

As you can see, the Red one is missing a leg because someone ripped it off recently.  I tried to convince him to just throw him away because he kept lamenting his broken leg and wanted me to fix it, which is impossible.  I think he threw away the leg eventually. 

If you really want to see a show, let Jackson come in and inform Henry that those are actually HIS Power Rangers.  Good Grief.  Hysteria. 

My Shadow

Ever since Mary Catherine was sick, she has been stuck to me like crazy.
"Hold Me. Hold Me."

"I wanna go wif you."
"I wanna sit in yur yap."

 

Good Thing She's So Cute!

The Messiah...according to Henry...

The twinkies were up very early.  

We got out the animals to play with while the rest of the kiddos slept.

 Mommy Frog, Baby Jesus and Daddy Frog
(according to Henry)
How's that for application of knowledge?

Henry...
Hank the Tank...
Bubba...
Bubba-Roni..
Bubs

Our Christmas Tree

Mary Catherine...
Sissy...
Stink Bug...
(in bad lighting)

A big 'ole box of animals is definitely a necessity for hours of pretend play.  All of our children enjoy playing with these animals.  I love to hear them play and use their imaginations while they are setting up their piles.  

Can you see him saying, "Ooo-Ooo" just like a gorilla?

 Mary Catherine found a little something extra in the box.  I think she's missing her pacifiers...

Two and a Half Years Old

 Getting two 2.5 year olds to look at the camera at the same time is near impossible...

Asking them to both smile makes it officially impossible.

 

"Do you want to look away this time, or shall I?"

One out of two ain't bad

Mary Catherine

This shot makes me laugh because Henry appears completely 'checked out' and Mary Catherine appears to be telling him something important. 

~Classic male-female interaction~

 "Huh?  Are we still taking photos?"  "Fa-la-la-la-la  La-la-la-la"

 Oh, if only they were both looking at the camera...

 "Are we ever going to give in and look at the same time?"

 "Okay, but I won't smile."

Does Henry appear to be imitating a turtle?

My favorite shot of the bunch.  I wish I had not cut off their heads.  At this point I was just holding the camera and attempting to get their attention. Whew.  Glad that's over.

Laugh or Cry

Things that make me smile and sometimes laugh:

• Mary Catherine's manners:
• Me: "Mary Catherine, we need to wipe your face." 
• MC: "No thank you."
• When Henry says, "Wanna Knuckle Punch?" (his version of saying Do you want a knuckle sandwich?)
• When the twins 'whisper' in our ears.  "I wanna tell you a secret."  They get really close and then they are super loud and about bust our ear drums. 
• How the twins shush each other at odd times.  One twin says "Shh!" and the other twin says, "I wanna talk. No shush!"
• Whichever twin gets water/food always wants water/food to carry to the other one.  
• Listening to the twins talk to each other when they eat or play.  Hilarious. 
• MC's voice~ she's like a fairy. 
• Hearing Henry say, "I wuv you!" the intonation is superb. 

Things that drive me batty and sometimes want to cry

• The twins frantically screech, "I'm done! I'm done!" but when I drop everything to get them down from the table they refuse and scream, "I want to eat!" and start grabbing their food.
• Henry's inability to wait a nano-second for anything.  He goes from happy to hysterical faster than Kinsey did, and that's saying something.  
• Writing instruments + twins = misery for my home
• Buckling car seats, and especially buckling car seats with winter coats.

A Glimpse, However Small...

 Look what I found when I went into the living room.

 Is that my two little toddlers playing sweetly? 

 They spent quite a while setting up some 'extras' to their Little People Manger.

It brought me such a joy to see them playing pretend so nicely.


But then...

Less than ten minutes later, when my battery for my camera was charging so I couldn't take pictures for documentation, I walked into a huge mess.  They had wrecked all they set up and wrecked the larger, nicer manger behind it.  Somehow in those few minutes they figured out how to scrape nearly every stitch of moss off that manger.
 

Should be fun to 're-moss'... not likely...

I really, really don't want to call the twins "Destruct and Destroy", 

but they leave me no other option.