Twins?

Tuesday morning we had some stuff to do and Tom had to work at the office. I dressed the kids in simple play clothes, jeans and a white T-shirt for Erin, cords and a blue striped shirt for Jeff. When we got to our meeting, Erin was being a little shy and not talking much. A gentleman we had never met before looked at them and asked,

"Are they twins?"

First thing that went through my mind was "huh?" I responded that she is 2 years older than he is and chalked it up to this younger guy not knowing much about kids.

So from the meeting I took the kids to the Discovery Museum in town. We haven't been there a lot and thought it would be a special trip. It's a great little place. The kids really seemed to have a good time, even though Jeffrey did his best "My mommy's the worst mommy ever" routine. The place was pretty busy but we ended up staying for about 90 minutes. After we were done, we headed to the sandwich shop next door for lunch.

Inside was a woman, with her two children, who had also been at the museum. She had seen the kids playing, seen Jeff's tantrums and Erin playing with a "ball elevator" machine. She looked at me walking the kids in and said,

"Are they twins?"

I literally burst out laughing. Then had to explain that Erin is 2 years older and that he's not even 2 yet. I also proceeded to fill her in on why I was laughing, "no one has ever asked that before, and we've been asked that twice today."

So while I was ordering 1 grilled cheese sandwich, 1 Caesar salad with grilled chicken (dressing on the side), 2 lemonades and 1 Diet Coke I looked back at the kids. I really wish I'd had a camera on me, because honestly...they looked like twins. Their hair is about the same color right now, their faces are very similar, and both have that "lean" build from their daddy. Erin's still taller but not by much. Jeffrey's stronger certainly. But when you see them interact with others Erin's maturity is blatant (I feel), and certainly her language skills.

So, sadly I didn't get a picture of the kids that day. I really wish I had. But what is clear is that Jeffrey's certainly growing up a bit more every day.

A Bright Bright....Sunshiny Day

The bright sunshine brought some warm weather this afternoon. We took advantage and went out to play. After lunch we went for a walk around the neighborhood block. We looked for all the animals and found dogs, cats, birds, ducks and geese. After a failed attempt at nap time we went back out to play. The kids wanted to go look at the stream that runs behind the house so we went over to the bridge to take a look. Erin picked up little stones to toss into the stream. She thought all the different sounds the stones made in the water were very cool. Jeffrey was really good about holding mommy's hand and even got to toss in a few himself.

Then we just played around the yard. Erin got the red ball and brought it out to play. They swang on the swing, slid on the slide, played in the dirt, climbed up the hill and rolled in the grass. It was really a wonderful day outside.

And best of all....everyone's exhausted and ready for a good night's sleep.

Windy Hair


Chilling Out


Digging in the Dirt

More growing up

It seems that the children in this house are growing up much faster than I'd expected. Jeffrey reached another big boy moment yesterday. Tom and I had been talking about getting him a bed and out of the crib, mostly because I was tired of having the crib in his room. We debated between Tom's old twin bed (with new mattress and box spring) and getting him a little toddler bed for a while. Well at the consignment store yesterday I hit upon a gem of a toddler bed for only $30. It was exactly what I was looking for so I grabbed it.

When I got home with it, Jeffrey was just waking up from his nap. Tom offered to go set it up and take the crib down. Erin stayed upstairs to help daddy. I brought Jeffrey downstairs to play and watch a Rocket (or 2). I could hear Tom describing everything he was doing with Erin and having her help him put it all together. It sounded like they had a great time. Once they got everything assembled (and disassembled) I headed up to re-arrange the room.

I stopped at Target on the way home and found a Lightning McQueen pillow and throw blanket. There were lots of bedding in twin size but not for a toddler bed. So I did the best I could to make his new bed exciting with McQueen (I have discovered a couple little gems for Cars toddler bedding on e-bay but Tom made me promise to wait a week to see how the bed goes.) So I got everything ready with Erin's help and she wanted to badly to get Jeffrey to show him his surprise.

He into his room and immediately shouted, "Queeeeeeen". He was quite excited. He quickly climbed onto the bed and grabbed a pillow I'd left on the side to put where the pillow belonged at the head of the bed. Then all his blankets and special friends came up to the bed. It didn't take him long to make it his own. He and Erin spent the rest of the afternoon playing in his bed. Taking blankets off and on, moving things around...

I was still a little afraid about bedtime. I just wasn't certain how he was going to take to it. So we did the usual ritual... brushed teeth, read stories in the glider. As I laid him down he immediately got upset, grabbed his elephant and precious blankie and ran down the stairs screaming for daddy and monkeys (5 Silly Monkeys book). I wrangled him back to me, found 5 Silly Monkeys and sat down to read it to him. After that, I laid him down. He got a bit upset but still snuggled down into his bed. Within 5 minutes he was out like a light.

I snuck up twice, once when I put Erin to bed and once when I went to bed to check on him. I took pictures some pictures to see how much he was moving around. Turns out it wasn't too much.

About 9:00 PM

About Midnight

About 7:30 this morning, Erin came in to announce that Jeffrey was awake. I hadn't heard him but I guess she did. I told her not to open his door but she did anyway. First place I found him was with Elephant and blankie in tow, sitting in the middle of her room. I'd wanted to get a picture of him where he ended up in the morning. Didn't have the camera right on me, but that seems the perfect place for a little boy to end up after his first night in a big boy bed....the middle of sister's room.

I guess we'll just see how nap time works out. Wish me luck.

After 21 months, 3 weeks, 4 days...

...Jeffrey has finally had his first haircut. That's right folks he had enough hair that it was time (kinda). Erin needed her bangs cut and we were out running errands so took the opportunity. Of course I had Jeffrey in tow. I asked the lady doing Erin's hair if she thought it was time for Jeffrey, especially since he'd developed quite the rat-tail. She sugested just giving it an overall trim to even it out so it would all grow in faster. He sat sooo well. Didn't fuss a bit and figeted minimally. I helped gently hold his head still and she was even able to use the clippers around his ears and back of his neck. He was such a big boy I was so proud of him. They had a little certificate to fill out and put some of the clippings into an envelope for me to put in his baby book (well now it would be his toddler book since it took this long). So here are a couple of pictures from last month....




And ones from today. You really can see the difference (especially if you click on the picture to make it bigger).