Mommy's Shoes

Annie and Maddie started getting their footwear fetish recently. As babies, as soon as they could control their hands well enough, they would always pull off the socks and shoes we tried to put on them. Now Annie and Maddie will bring me their shoes to put on. They are still a little unsteady as they walk in shoes. Their walk reminds me of a Frankenstein monster walk, with the hands out in front and everything.
Here are some pictures of Maddie playing with my shoes.

She was pretty proud of herself, getting one on. She did walk with it on, dragging it along behind her.

Band-aids

When your 4-year-old decides she doesn't want the cabinet in the bathroom to open anymore, and she's left alone for 5 minutes, this is what happens.

Little Known Uses

We have several objects in our home that have non-conventional uses. Take for example the pizza cutter. We use it to cut pancakes, waffles, and quesadillas quickly. The garlic press doubles as a play dough hair-maker. And then there's an old medicine dropper that Elizabeth has adopted: It can make play dough strings or worms, depending on her needs.

Maddie (left) and Annie (right) have really started getting into drawing. The writing utensil of choice varies, but they stay on the paper pretty well most of the time. I love the sweet concentration on their faces as they try to manipulate their crayons and pencils.

A Pity Party

It was a rough day. The twins were up several times last night, woke up early and instead of greeting me with happy faces when they did wake up, it was a couple of teary-eyed, smeared snotty noses and pouty lips that howled at me. Yay, another day.... Not.

After getting Emma and Elizabeth off to school, I gave the twins a bottle and settled them into their cribs with their special blankets and binkies. Ahh, now I can have breakfast and watch the host chat on Regis and Kelly. Then I could maybe exercise, shower and fold the literal mountain of laundry that I've been accumulating. Me and my bowl of cereal sat down on the couch amid cries and screams coming from down the hall. I knew they had to be tired. I was going to wait it out- surely they would crash before too long.

They didn't.

Long story short, after lunch we tried the nap thing again and that lasted about 40 minutes. I tried to sneak in the bedroom and rescue Annie before the howls woke up her sister. Alas, 'twas not to be. It was 1:07 and I had three children crying and no idea how we were going to make it until Daddy got home.

That's when my Pity Party started. Minus the chocolate or ice cream. It isn't a proper Pity Party without one of those two items, and we had nuttin'. No chocolate. No help for hideously long days. No recent comments on my blog. Unwilling to brave going out alone with these rotten children to go buy more cough medicine for Elizabeth. Hadn't been out of the house alone in days. Getting absolutely nothing done today. House is a disaster. Boo hoo. Poor me.

I was in an even better mood when Ryan got home. You know, more crying, more whining, more acting out, more snot, all do great things to the mood. An hour later, Ryan chased me out of the house to go to the library and then to pick up dinner on the way home for the weary masses.

I did feel a lot better after leaving the insanity for a while. Thanks to my great and wonderful husband!

Mean Ol' Dad

As Daddy was in the process of making chocolate milk in cups for the family at dinner, he knocked the cup destined for Emma over. It splashed on Daddy's leg, the table, Elizabeth's leg and left a giant puddle on the floor. And Elizabeth cried. It was such a sad face, for an event that could only be seen as tragic from Emma's point of view. Elizabeth was distraught over the mess on her pants. Let's keep in mind that this was pair #3 for the day. She is running around pants-less at the moment. I figured it was pointless to get her into #4 when we will be getting ready for bed soon.

I Love You, Mr. Clean

This is the twins first contribution to my continuing collection of wall art. Luckily, it was only pencil and I convinced Elizabeth to clean it for me. The Mr. Clean Magic Eraser might just be the best cleaning product out there. If for some reason, there is a parent out there who doesn't own one, you should definitely give it a try. It has taken off Sharpie from a computer keyboard before. (Only if you catch it right away, but still-- very amazing.)
I honestly don't know if it's the fact they are twins, they are larger in stature than the previous two, or they have such great role models, but Annie and Maddie hold the record for youngest members to pull a pencil off the table and scribble on the wall. Seems like Emma was older when she made beautiful wall decorations for the first time. Maybe it's because I had so few distractions then, and could watch her more?

Ugly Face Day

This is what happens when Daddy leaves us for the evening. We must find amusement somehow.

Out of Bed

Generally I frown on the kids getting out of bed once we've put them there for the night. I can think of only a handful of reasons that it is acceptable to reappear in the living room.
1. The house is on fire. (Self explanatory)
2. You have wet the bed. (Although this isn't really that acceptable. I'd rather they didn't.)
3. There is blood. (Again, not ok. Please just lie down and don't jump on the bed!)
4. A tooth fell out. (See below.)Some unacceptable reasons to be out of bed.
1. "My knee hurts." (There is no blood coming from the bruise you got yesterday.)
2. "She's being too loud." (You both need to be quiet.)
3. "I can't sleep." (It would probably help if you lie down and stay there for more than 5 minutes.)
4. "I love you, Mommy." (It would be much sweeter if it wasn't just a ruse to be out of bed.)