Guess They Learned This Last Weekend

So I thought we had dodged a bullet when Steven's jeep didn't flip over last weekend in Moab.

And, of course, I was wrong.

Jason and I were sitting outside watching the kids play when I heard small amounts of whimpering. 

(I don't investigate unless I hear full on hysterics.)

Thankfully, Super Dad did because the next thing I heard was, "Oh no! They're upside down in the ditch!"

Here's what I found when I arrived on the scene.

Jason beat me there by a few seconds and found them both still underneath the jeep.

Before he could even help them, they both popped out from underneath without a care in the world.

Maybe a few scrapes on Reed, not that I could see them since the only real 'injury' was that he was covered in mud.

They thought the ditch jeep flip was awesome and were ready to ride again.  So with our amazing parenting wits about us, told them Kyle had to drive (since Reed was the flipper).

And off they went.

More of the Same

If yesterday wasn't enough proof that Kyle is me and Reed is Jason (Kyle was the messy one), here's another shining example.

They decided they wanted to "build castles" as we waited on JR at the library. 

Reed building a castle:

Kyle's castle building:

I promise

they really are twins!

It's Pretty Easy Being Three

I can no longer play the sympathy card by saying, "I have twin-two-year-old boys".

Because I now have twin-three-year-old boys!

When I asked Kyle and Reed what they wanted to do for their birthday they told me,

"Blow out candles with Price."

"Eat donuts with Price."

Well, that was easy.

 Done. And Done.

But before we headed over to Price's house yesterday, I drove through "Old McDonald's" and let them have a little pre-breakfast breakfast.

Price was more than happy to "blow out candles and eat donuts", although they made a last minute decision to switch out donuts for blue cupcakes. 

After a non existent nap, (they laid in their beds and screamed, "Is it still my birthday?!" for an hour) it was time to pick up JR and take him to piano lessons.

And since piano lessons just happen to fall during happy hour, they thought they could use a little birthday pick-me-up.

Kyle and Reed finished up their day with cake and presents at home. 

It certainly wasn't a party the likes of JR would find acceptable, but my little guys were happy as could be.

The Names Have Been Changed...

I have a strict closed door bathroom policy. 

Bathrooms in this house are like Vegas. What happens in there...stays in there!

Now, this post is certainly not about going to the bathroom, but it is on the cusp.

 So I'll be keeping the identity of my subject(s) hidden.

Let's just say that "Lenny" sometimes wears underwear around the house. "Squiggy" doesn't understand why he can't wear underwear too.  In fact, Squiggy gets so upset about this that he wears them anyway. 

On top of his clothes.

Now this little situation would be fine in the privacy of our own home, but the other night, Squiggy was insistent on wearing his underwear out to eat. 

And just in case you need a vocabulary refresher:

insistent- in·sist·ent  /ɪnˈsɪstənt/  –adjective

throwing a big ol' wall-eyed fit, complete with rolling in the floor and hysterics

Needless to say, Squiggy wore his underwear.

But I figured since it's Durango, nobody would even notice.

(Photos taken in public restaurant)

Pink is so Their Color

Of course I love the color pink!

 

Except when it pertains to my children's eyes.

Yep.

We've got two raging cases of pink eye in our house.

But on a positive, and very Jan-like note, Kyle and Reed went to the doctor in full costume.

Their Halloween costumes came yesterday, and they haven't really wanted to take them off.  I seriously thought I was going to have to let them sleep in them last night.

And if you're wondering what in the world Reed is wearing...

Well, Poor Thing has a full outfit under his muscle shirt. Being he's Ayi's favorite, she wouldn't let him out of the house without two layers of clothing. 

(It all goes back to Yin and Yang. I'll give you a quick and easy lesson:  

Lots of layers- good. 

Flip-flop wearing - worse thing ever.) 

She thinks Kyle cries too much, so he was okay in a short-sleeved shirt.  Sometimes it's not so comfortable being the favorite twin.

Upside Down and Inside Out

It's so refreshing to see these being performed in a proper place.

And not from my refrigerator, balcony, and/or coffee tables. 

Well Hello, Old Friend

I used to spend hours upon hours with this Old Friend.

Then he just sorta...disappeared.

Sure, I saw glimpses of him every once in awhile, but not like I used to.

He used to go everywhere with us.

And even got to go on some fabulous vacations that I didn't!

Here he is in South Africa. Kyle, Reed, and I weren't on that trip. *Humph*!

(And though it's not the greatest picture of Buzz, being that he's in a headlock and all, you'll also notice JR is wearing Buzz Lightyear pajamas and holding the Toy Story 2 book.)

Yeah, JR would dress as Buzz almost daily. And it was such an event when JR met him, this was our Christmas card that year.

But like I said, I haven't seen much of Buzz for the past two years or so.

Until tonight.

Welcome Back, Buzz Yight-Ear! It's good to see you again!

More From the Kitchen

Great.
It's official.
I now have no way of containing them in the house.

Headware Malfunctions

When it comes to riding the scooter, we're working out a few kinks in the helmet department.

Sometimes...

You're just too big to share. Literally.

New Sesame Street Character

Of course you know Elmo, but meet the latest addition to The Street family....Blue Elmo. It's a big decision in this house whether to wear Elmo or Blue Elmo.

.

The Tip

I have a little tip for the teacher who doesn't like 2 year old Ingy boys at her "performances". (And I keep putting 'performance(s)' in quotation marks because in the Jan Book of How to Put on Show, lip sync doesn't cut it. And if there was lip syncing going on, you can bet I would have at least choreographed a fabulous hand routine to go with it. But that's just me.)

So what's my tip? Monster Trucks.

We took JR, his friend, Kelley, and The Babies to the monster truck show yesterday and the little ones were so in awe they hardly moved a muscle.

The hat was free with purchase of cotton candy.

JR and Kelley showed their awe and excitement in a slightly different way.

During intermission they were giving rides in a monster truck. We sent JR and Kelley down to check it out and they came back and said, "The lady said the rides are $10 a piece, but she told us to come back after the show and she'd take care of us." And take care of them she did. They got to ride in the monster truck, she gave them flags, and then they met the drivers. Being a cute little boy sure does work wonders!

Arbor Day, Schmarber Day

This morning I attended a full blown, 2 hour, every elementary school in the district, tree extravaganza. Complete with songs, Kyle and Reed acting like 2 year olds, and me having a knock-down-drag out-fight with one of JR's teachers. (And since I probably shouldn't say which teacher it was, I'll just say that he only goes to this class twice a week, and doesn't do P.E. or art.)

First, JR.

Here's the only time I saw, and only picture I got, of the poor child. (More on why later.)

Kyle and Reed actually did good for about the first 15 minutes of the show. We saw Smokey the Bear, listened to the mayor talk, and made it through about 3 elementary performances.

Here's Kyle reading the program. Reed was in my lap. All was good.

Now had the Arbor Day Show (from here on out known as ADS) only been 15 minutes, we'd have been great. (And when you think about it, 15 minutes is a super long time for 2 year old twin boys to sit still.)

But the show wasn't 15 minutes, in fact, it was AN HOUR and FIFTEEN MINUTES before JR got up to "perform".

But before we get to JR's "performance", let's talk about what Kyle and Reed did for that hour in between:

(By this time I had moved to the corner of the gym with them.) They slapped each other with their caps, ran around on their squeaky shoes, cried when I took their squeaky shoes off, had to leave the show while they cried, ran out the gym and tried to run out the front door.

Needless to say after an hour of trying to keep them under control, I was frazzled. There was another little 2 year old boy there and they started running around with him. Unfortunately for me, they started running toward the performance area. Now the other mom and I were trying our best to keep them from running up there, but I think it's much more distracting to see kids plus and adult running past, so we didn't chase after them. They probably ran up there about 3 times, and apparently 3 times is all JR's teacher can take because she marched over to me and told me if I was going to let my kids run around (like I let them do that because I'm such an incompetent mom) then I need to take them outside.

Me: When are they going to sing? As soon as they sing, I'll leave. And, besides, YOU have kids. You should be more understanding.

(On a side note, this teacher happened to be eating out with her family the night we made all the napkin hats and accessories. Of course, we thought we were hilarious so we were all laughing and having a good time. Let's just say from the looks on her face then, she was not amused with us. But then again, her children were so well behaved they didn't need to make napkin hats.)

I also then told her: I'm tired of you being pissed (yes, I used the word "pissed") about my kids all the time. You basically stoped the show at Family Night to go give my kids 'go to hell looks' (Yep, I said that too. My mom is queen of the expression 'go to hell looks', and really, it is the best way to describe "that look".) I'm doing the best I can. If you don't want 'families' at Family Night or these shows, then don't invite the kids! (I didn't mention JR's "performance" at family night in this post since I was still huffy about the afore mentioned "looks" my kids were given.)

She then told me something about how I couldn't talk to her that way and walked off.

And here's the best part. So every other school in the district had performed by now. Some had poems and speaking parts, but almost everybody did a song. All of the songs were sung a cappella. And one of the schools even used sticks they had picked up in their yards to keep the beat (That was really cute.) So what was JR's "performance"? Well, his teacher turned on a CD of other kids singing to have our kids "sing" a long with. So yeah, I waited an hour and fifteen minutes for a lip sync number. Great. If I want to hear other kids singing I'll watch American Idol. And the other best part? JR was nowhere to be seen. Can you find him? Nope. Me neither.

So even though the ADS was a community event advertised all over the place, apparently 2 year old twins whose mother can't control them were not welcome by certain teachers. I wish they had put that in the flyer, it would have made my morning so much easier!