Peas and Quiet

This is Sonora modeling her red holiday dress. Cute, isn't she?

The twins slept through dinner tonight. It was the second evening in a row. While they were reposing, Sonora ate spaghetti and green peas and apple pie (not in the red dress). She finished her peas first. Then she ate the noodles, leaving the sauce.

"More peas, Mama?" she asked.

"Oh, all the peas are all gone," Lisa said.

Sonora eyed the plates at the table.

"May-- I--haf--Mama's peas?" Sonora asked, punctuating each word carefully.

Lisa laughed and gave the girl some of her own peas.

Resourcefulness -- it's important to learn it early.

Pure Entertainment

        

          The following antic-dotes may only be entertaining to me and the grandparents but as this blog also serves as a central place to record these sweet small glimpses into our lives that I can one day go back and review then I will record them here.

          Today as I was feeding the babies  Sonora was having a grand old time with a wet wipe that I had given her for her dirty hands. (Side note: Sonora loves wet wipes and finds loads of uses for them around the house, from changing her baby doll's diapers, to cleaning her sister's swings, to wiping up the floor, to cleaning Mommy's face, etc. Jon has recently been encouraging her to use pretend wet wipes for all of these things and she seems to be on board. Today she asked me for a "ten wet wipe for baby's bonnum" it took her a couple of tries but she finally got through to Mom and I proceeded to dispense 6 or 7 "ten," aka- pretend, wet wipes so she could clean her baby's bonnum, I mean, bottom.) But in this instance she had a real wipe and after cleaning her hands started making wet wipe art. "Momma, its a flower, you wanna smell?" Of course I smelled and of course it was "Lovely!"

          Then she made me a "tie to wear it" I had to ask for an explanation and then I realized that she had watched Jon put on his neck tie this morning and being the observant fashionista that she is, she whipped one up for me. I then explained how usually just Daddies and boys wore neck ties. I was thinking in the back of my mind about those plaid ties that went with the jumpers that I wore when I was 12 or so..... let's just hope those don't come back, it wasn't really cute the first time around. "Just boys?" Sonora asked, then holding it up to my grey and pink pajamas she said, "But, it matches you." First off, it didn't. Secondly, yes I'm still in my pajamas and the day is half gone, but it is totally okay if you haven't had lunch yet, right? Thirdly, how in the world does she know about the concept of what matches and use it appropriately in conversation?? She's two! Then, as if this wasn't enough she tells me again, "I made you tie for you to wear it so go to work." Yep, she was kicking me out. I asked who would look after her and her sisters if I went out to work and she said that Aunt Sarah would watch them and that I should get up and go as soon as I finished feeding Mia. While some moments the prospect of walking out this door and into a work environment where I am monetarily compensated for a job well done does sound appealing, there is no way, Lord-willing, that I will ever miss a moment of life and work here surrounded by my favorite little darlings!

          But back to the entertaining things coming out of Sonora's mouth. After flowers and neck ties the wet wipe became a "baby turdul" (yep, turtle) that was thrown into the middle of the living room floor. Sonora then crawled up on the couch beside Mia and I and said, "Look, Momma, a baby turdul, lets watch it." So we watched it. That didn't provide enough stimulation for Sonora so after a while we had to start talking about what the turtle was eating, where he was going, and who his momma was, etc. The wet wipe became several other things (we totally got our money's worth out of that one) and then was discarded. Although it is still on the living room floor, I just haven't got the heart to toss that baby turdul yet.  After discussing his family history I'm rather attached to the little guy myself.

          Then Sonora moved on to her baby dolls. I started typing up this post and after a while Sonora came over and said, "Mommy, look at my babies." I had been keeping watch out of the corner of my eye because she was over where Mia was laying on the blanket of the floor (Honnah is sacked out in the swing), I looked up to discover that Sonora had three of her baby dolls lined up right beside Mia all covered with the kitchen towels, (which get stolen from their places in the kitchen by her quite often because they are reachable and are just the right size, she thinks, for doll burp cloths, blankets, togas, head scarves, etc.) and then she says in a very sweet voice, "Aren't they just so peshus, Mommy?"

        
           Yes indeed, just so precious!

Takin' Our Punkins to the Patch

The Pumpkin Patch - a fabulous Fall affair!

They do pumpkin patching right at this place, we loved it!

The whole fam - there are so many people now!

No, you will not find a picture of the three girls without adult hands in the picture.

It is too bad that this picture is a bit washed out because she looked just brilliant among the pumpkins.

Lots of fun stuff to do.

We love Aunt Val!

Just getting ready to take the combine out for a spin around the patch.

Sigh, I just love Fall!

Okay, no, we did not take a costume change to the pumpkin patch, although I know that some of you wouldn't put it past me! We did however take a couple of different trips and just couldn't not take pictures on these beautiful pumpkins.

We've discovered that the easiest method of travel is to the put the babies in the front packs and just try to keep up with Sonora. Here we are hopelessly lost in the corn maze. Mia is on Dad and Honnah is on Mom.

She just loved these little guys!

What's not to love?

Daddy's girls.

There were some seriously large pumpkins at this place. I wanted to get a really big one, carve it out and tuck all three girls inside for pictures Anne Geddy's style. Jon was not okay with that.

We bought a wagon load of pumpkins, gourds, apples, indian corn, and cider... I just love Fall...but most of all I love special times with my girls and our man!

Random Bits

So I'm working on taking advantage of those teachable moments....

Sonora sticks out her tongue and flails it around in the air.
Mommy: Sonora, do you know why God gave us tongues?
Sonora: Nope
Mommy: So that we can talk and can taste. We can taste sweet things and sour things and savory things.
Sonora: We love apple pie!
Mommy: We sure do!
Sonora: Mia loves Mommy's milk!
And how!

Speaking of loving milk, we took the little girls to the doctor today for their 2 month checkup. (I absolutely cannot believe it has been two months, I still don't feel like I have the hang of it all yet!) Honnah is up to 11 pounds on the dot and Mia is a whopping 11 pounds 8 ounces. They are in the 55th and 75th percentiles respectively and the doctor was quite impressed with how great they were doing. I praise the Lord every day, many times a day, for healthy beautiful children! He is so good to us!

Sleep is still elusive even though they are both going 7 hours from feeding to feeding at night. Sometimes they sleep during that time and other times, like last night, they don't. While sleep sounds wonderful, I feel as though I'm just learning to live without it. Lets just not let me operate any heavy machinery...

This Evening . . .

We were eating supper, when we heard snuffling in the other room. (For the last couple days, we have been able to tell when Honnah has been awake because it sounds like a pig rooting for acorns. But such things happen when the weather gets cold, even for very cute little girls.) Then the snuffling turned into fussing.

"Nanny," Sonora said, addressing Natalie. "Get Honnah."

Natalie just glared. She does not take kindly to being bossed by the two-year-old, and Honnah stopped fussing anyway. It started again in a minute though, of course.

"Sonora," Natalie said. "Go get Honnah."

"No," Sonora said. "I'm a big girl."

"Yes, you are," Lisa agreed, probably thinking thoughts about big girl potties and reduced diaper bills.

The fussing turned into crying.

"Nanny," Sonora began again. "Go get Honnah. She is sad."

"What do you say?" Natalie demanded.

There was a long pause.

"Thank you," Sonora said.

Natalie got Honnah, and the fussing subsided into snuffling.

This is Mia's dramatic interpretation of Natalie at the time:

(This was posted with Natalie's permission, whether or not it was grudging is not applicable here.)

Smile! It's Honnah!

Almost Seven Weeks and Counting

A lot of changes. A lot of changes in the last few weeks.

The twins looked so different at birth. Then when they started gaining weight, we thought they looked more alike. But now that they are both round and plump, the similarities have ended again. In short, the aunties are pretty skeptical that the girls are identical. If the aunties are wrong, however, Lisa wants you to rest assured that she has been studying her girls and she has ways to distinguish them.

I, the hacker, am going to take the liberty of describing this time as challenging, with really good pros and really tough cons. The girls are bigger and more alert. It's fun to watch their little eyes struggle to distinguish the faces of those who love them. And Honnah is starting to smile every now and again. Both of them have started pushing with their legs, which means they can bounce with help.

But every evening, the little girls get fussy, almost inconsolable. They love being held and hearing people sing, but sometimes even that doesn't help. Lisa thinks it might be colic, which, as I understand it, is a way to describe babies being fussy for an unfathomable reason. During the week, Jon unfortunately often only sees them when they are having their fussy time. However, Lisa assures him they're usually pretty angelic the rest of the day.

Sonora misses Grammy, for sure. It's a little challenging for the rest of us to try to make up for all the attention Sonora got used to from her Grammy. If Sonora is ever frustrated by this, she never takes it out on the twins. They are still her favorite toys, and they receive much doting from her. Lisa has actually had to cut back on the dotage until Sonora fully recovers from a runny nose.

But in the last month, Sonora's verbal skills have skyrocketed. She went from using individual words to using complete sentences, albeit with mistakes. Today, on getting to hold Honnah, Sonora smiled and said, "Her likes you." Yes, her does.

When Lisa was pouring herself a mug of tea, Sonora started a heart to heart conversation.
"You got milk in there?"
"No," Lisa said. "It's hot tea."
"You got milk in there, Mama?"
"No," Lisa repeated. "It's tea."
Sonora looked confused.
"Honnah eats Mama's tea?"
"Oh!" Lisa said. "You mean in there! I thought you meant in Mama's mug. Yes, Honnah drinks Mama's milk!"

In the meantime, we're all trying to get back into the swing of things with job schedules and various family members having weekend trips. Life is still good, but it doesn't slow down.

If Ever

If ever you find . . .

pictures like this . . .

on your camera . . .

you know . . .

Sonora has had your camera.