It Began with a BBFT

Again, a large amount of time has passed since my last entry. Such is my life. No apologies this time.

I keep a mental running list of what I want to post about and this one has been rolling around in my cluttered mind for a while, so might as well send it out into cyber space while I am highly caffeinated and Ryan has the kids for 'mommy's morning off' (have I mentioned what a great dad/husband he is?)



Pacifiers have been an integral part of the twins life from day one when the NICU nurse unwrapped the vanilla scented green pacifier from its plastic wrapper and placed it in their mouths when they were mere hours, maybe even minutes old (pacifiers are an important NICU tool, I know from experience). They took to them like a duck to water. As parents of newborn twins the pacis were like gold to us. They easily soothed our little bundles and helped keep peace in our household. When they would cry at night we would stumble into their room and feel around in the dark for the oh so familiar rubber texture of the pacifier, return it to the crying mouth and then peace would surely be restored.  We accrued quite a collection and were sure to always have one within reach. I am still finding them in the pockets of my jackets.  When they became mobile we tried to attach them with string and safety pins so that they were never more than 12 inches away from a waiting mouth.  We had paci buckets and paci baskets. We had pink and green ones (Lydia only wanted green, Grace would change it up).  They started chewing on them so some developed holes, this meant that every night we would hand them pacifiers one by one to 'test' the paci and let us know, if it 'was good' (kind of like what they do when you order a bottle of wine in a restaurant) When they turned two we limited pacifier use to the bed only. (Lydia would go into her room, sit on her bed and 'take a hit' on her pacifier at various times throughout the day) but it wasn't until their third birthday that we decided to ditch them completely. All 4 of us started to have apprehension about this transition about 2 months prior to their third birthday. We discussed it with the twins nearly every day, explaining that they are 'big girls' now and they don't need a paci.  We bought them paci gifts and everything. So, the night of their third birthday we had a big pep talk, Ryan loaded a brand new bag into the trash can (we weren't going to actually pitch all those great pacifiers!) and they 'threw away' their pacifiers. They were totally on board with it, and loved their paci gifts. However, when they climbed into bed, the lights were turned off and goodnights were said, reality set in and the tears started.  I am a tough skinned parent, but I nearly broke down and brought back the pilfered collection of pacifiers . . . but I stayed strong, and they did surprisingly well over the next several days. So, now we are paci free, but as with any transition, it was a tiny bit sad to see the pacifier days end, so this is a tribute to our pacifiers, complete with pics.

Oh, and guess what? Benson won't take one to safe his life. Ironic, isn't it?

Birthdays have been a hot topic in our house since about March. Lydia and Grace have talked about their various cake choices on a daily basis, they have focused intently on putting up three little fingers rather than the oh so easy two fingers, and when asked 'what do you want to do today?' they said 'have my birthday!' about three times a week.  So, this three year mile marker was a long time in the making.  I am not put together enough to plan a big party with a theme, animals, bounce houses, favors, etc but I did want to make it fun this year for them since the anticipation was so great. However, the nice thing about 3 year olds is that it takes very little to entertain them and make their year.  So I hit up the dollar store for balloons (I probably could have stopped there and they would have been content) and punch ball/balloons for entertainment. We dragged out our ghetto sandbox ( a rubbermaid storage container with sand in it balanced on two old milk crates), covered the picnic table with paper for coloring, tossed around some crayons, added some mini muffins, cupcakes, and coffee (for the adults of course to tolerate multiple toddlers with punch balls in hand) and Presto! We had a three year old party on our hands.

A friend from work made their cakes (props to Amanda!) and the cupcakes which were a hit. Each twin had her own "letter" cake and after blowing out the candles we gave every child a fork and let them go to town. As far as birthday party entertainment goes, I think that rivals a dusty old horse that walks in a circle and makes all the parents feel sorry for it any day in my book.

Now for a little recap of the last year, for posterity's sake since I did it for their previous birthday blog (I need to remember to do this for Benson or he'll have issues to talk to his therapist about).  They have definitely changed from stubby legged toddlers to long legged little girls. I feel like they have launched into a 'little kid' realm this past year where you can have conversations with them and see what is going on in their little minds.  Now, in an effort to have full disclosure, we did go through a challenging period that some might call 'the terrible twos' but I will not label it as such since my children might at some point in time read this.  This dark time occurred around 2.5 and was characterized by lots of passionate 'Do it Self!!' statements although they were not able to quite 'do it self' which caused further frustration for both parties. So you had to wait and see how long they struggled before finally giving up and asking for help or just going into full out meltdown mode.  It was fun.  Anyways, on to brighter topics. Grace is our bouncy gummy bear social butterfly. She does literally bounce everywhere it seems.  She is quick with a hearty "Hi!" and usually has a running commentary on life in general ("is that your bra mommy? are you going potty mommy? daddy has a beard, I don't have a beard", you get the idea).  She is officially in the 'Why' stage now. Lydia has not yet caught on to that game thankfully. Lydia can be a bit more reserved but when she decides you are worthy of her affection, she doesn't hold back.  She loves to read books, work on puzzles and stack just about anything. The twins have really started to interact more with each other this year. They chase each other around in circles shrieking and giggling all the while.  Pretending is name of the game these days. They have tea parties  (complete with starbucks coffee, pumpkin bread and breakfast sandwiches) and story time, taking turns being the reader.  They take trips on their trikes to costco, northstar, barnes and noble, sand park, grandma's house and starbucks to name a few. We started doing bedtime prayers this year as well which is beyond adorable. Lydia confidently rattles off a long prayer of thanks for multiple objects in the room with other random things thrown in (air conditioning, our minivan, the potty, northstar, big cookie, starbucks, just to name a few) and of course 'mommy, daddy, lydia, grace, benson and Bocce.'  Grace seems shy about it and won't go until everyone else has prayed, then she rushes through a quick 'Dear God thank you for . . .and adds one or two things to it and rushes to the Amen' but then looks up with a smile for approval. We started potty training and got rid of the pacifiers both of which deserve their own blog post when I have the time. So, that is the quick year in review of year two. We are thankful Lydia and Grace and their unique personalities. They bring us joy on a daily basis.

The two's are over for L and G (yes, I did cry--did you expect anything different?) We are ready for the year of the threes!

As I have mentioned in previous posts, I have a hard time with change. So, when it came to the girls and school I was planning on waiting as long as possible to let them spread their little wings. The thought of kindergarten made me misty eyed (and still does by the way) so preschool wasn't on my radar. Then we had baby #3 and my outlook changed. Yes, I love being with the girls, but the idea of a small window of time in the morning with just one child started to sound pretty good. It's only two days a week, and I knew the girls would have fun too--let's face it, I'm no preschool teacher. My creative play resources are sometimes lacking.

So I signed them up and today was the big orientation day. I decided to skip getting my butt kicked by my Jillian michaels workout DVD and blog about it while it's fresh in my mind.

We were off to a rocky start since the girls were fast asleep at 8:15 and we had to be there by 9. They rarely sleep that long so it was ironic. Lydia cried from the moment she got up that she didn't want to go to preschool so I did what any good parent would do and bribed her with treats from starbucks,  After a couple of wardrobe changes both for the girls and myself (this is my debut with an organized parental gathering--what do you wear to something like this???)   I handed them a frozen gogurt, loaded Ben in his carrier and we were off.

I pulled my minivan into a row of about 20 other minivans and joined the stream of parents and preschoolers entering the building.  They both froze as we entered and had to be bumped gently with the stroller from behind to move forward past the front doors. Somehow we made it to their room (the purple panda 3's) which was buzzing with activity. It had all of the cutesy components necessary to make a great preschool classroom and the girls were enamored with everything from the get go. I on the other hand started to feel little tugs of emotion that threatened to disrupt my 'cool with this' mom exterior. It wasn't that I minded leaving them--I am quick to drop them with a sitter for date night or even mommy time at starbucks--but it hit me that this is pre-school. emphasis on the word SCHOOL. It's a new era. An era of classroom parties, parent teacher conferences, forced socialization with other parents, projects, theme days, and the list goes on and on. School means another chapter--and more change--which, I think I have mentioned that I'm  not very good with. I swear that a slide show of their infant and toddler pictures starts in my head at these emotionally charged moments complete with some sappy song like 'wonderful world' or 'somewhere over the rainbow' by that big hawaiian guy playing in the background--which doesn't help things!  Anyhow, I gave myself a stern mental talking to and pulled it together (I know, I know you all can laugh. I will be mess when they go to kindergarten, and college will just be over the top).  Just as the parents and children were feeling comfortable with the situation, the teachers rang a little bell which is universal teacher talk for 'shut your mouths everyone' and they trilled in a sing song voice only a preschool teacher can master, 'Ok parents, time to go downstairs. Say goodbye! Children find a carpet square for story time'.  Now, granted we were only leaving for 30 minutes for a brief orientation but you would have thought were were dropping them off at a Russian orphanage never to be seen again. The cries started immediately. The twins at the time were across the room playing when the pandemonium began. I saw Lydia's little face through the sea of parents and crying preschoolers start to search wildly for me and then crumple into a cry. Well, I nearly grabbed her and made a run for the car but managed keep it together, calm her down and guide her towards a carpet square next to Grace who was oblivious to the chaos. Grace apparently was born ready for preschool and had no qualms whatsoever.

As we settled into our meeting you could still hear the wails echoing off of the walls. I tried to casually glance around to see if any less stoic moms had turned to 'the ugly cry' as Oprah calls it but everyone was surprisingly cool.

Ultimately the girls had a great time and are very excited about preschool. Lydia did pee her pants during the 30 minutes I was away from her, but no one seemed to notice and it could have been #2 so I still consider it a successful morning. I am proud to say that I am now a fully oriented preschool parent. My google calendar has already been labeled with our assigned snack days (no oats or processed cheese--apparently someone has an allergy--so does that rule out goldfish and cheese nips?  if so then I'm out of ideas), what days they are to wear red/purple/pink,  parent teacher conference dates (yes, it starts even in preschool!) and the themes for the next several weeks (welcome to preschool, apples, chicka chicka boom boom, are a few in case you are wondering).  Now that I'm over the mini emotional roller coster of  our orientation to preschool, I'm looking forward to kicking back with Benson and some coffee at the starbucks that is around the corner from the preschool (some people pick their schools for the academics, i pick them for their proximity to a coffee shop) for approximately 2.5 hours or until they call me that one of the twins pooped their pants whichever comes first. Stay tuned for pics.