Pushing Grace

Hello friends and family,

This is our sweet daughter, Layla, climbing all over the couch as she does every day.


Layla has two (yes, only two) dolls. They are both equally creepy to me and neither of them have a shred of clothing left because Layla is a little... um... rough on the dolls. She wouldn't win a mother-of-the-month awards because she carelessly smashes the doll on the ground and runs it over with the dump truck. Anyway, I asked Layla, "What is the name of your dolly?" She was speechless, which usually only happens once per day during her nap. So after staring at the dolly for a bit she realized the dolly had no name.

Being a logical, analytical engineer I wanted to choose a name that would foster pronunciation of her own name. The only name that came to mind was, "Lily". So I told her the name of her dolly is Lily and ever since then she calls her car-bound dolly, Lily.

Today I came home and found Layla doing this:


Smiling so happily and pushing her dolly stroller. I asked her the name of the indoor dolly and she said, "Baby Grace!" I don't know why the dolly is named Grace. Possibly because the dolly must have a lot of grace to forgive Layla for falling out of the stroller continually? Guess I'll have to ask Kendra, but I thought it was funny to see Layla pushing Grace.

Just an FYI: Her favorite book is the Mickey Mouse clubhouse "matching" book and she asks for it by name. Easton is consumed with his love affair for all things related to planes and trains. I read the train book and the airplane book at least 5 times per day for the past week. Here's Easton
with his favorite book about airplanes.


The next picture is from the pumpkin adventure and I've been saving it because some explanation is required:


Imagine this: The 4 Webbs are walking through a farm with animals, people, and pumpkins up to our eyeballs. In such a stimulating environment Easton stops in his tracks and looks skyward. Any guess why? He heard an airplane. That is why his hand is placed up to his ear. He announces the fly over and sounds like Tattoo from Fantasy Island by repeatedly saying, "Airplane! Airplane! I hear it!" until everyone notices and acknowledges the airplanes existence. That boy has excellent hearing and eye sight. I'm certain because he is always the first to hear the faint rumble of the jet as the distant airplane approaches. I get a kick out of his consistency of locating airplanes.

He also is practicing for the role of "Wilson" (The neighbor on Home Improvement):


WFMW (Works For Me Wednesday)

This morning I was awakened just before 5:00 AM and had the following conversation with Kendra:

K: You need to go to Lowe's
B: OK, what for?
K: The light bulbs in our ceiling fan need to be changed.
B: OK, now what?
K: Replace the light bulbs! I think you can reach if you just stand up on the bed
B: OK, the light bulbs are changed. Is that better?
K: Yes... (snoring and heavy breathing)

You see, Kendra was ASLEEP the ENTIRE time and apparently dreamed about the light bulbs needing to be replaced in our ceiling fan. It was pitch black in our room, totally silent, and I had the wherewithal to play along with Kendra during this lovely conversation. It was a gut reaction because if I woke her up to tell her she was dreaming, she would have stayed awake for an hour tossing and turning as she apologized for waking me up.

I laid there wide awake sounding like Bevis and Butthead as I tried not to laugh. I got an early start to my day and that was beneficial, but I'd much rather wake up to the air horns of the local train rumbling by than to "pretend" to go to Lowe's for light bulbs.

The moral of the story is: Unless there is a moral dilemma, just go along with your spouse when they talk in their sleep! That's what works for me this Wednesday.

Random fact --> I kept count in my head yesterday to identify the most frequently used words during my time with the twins: "Share" and "no". You would think two 20 month old babies understand the concept of sharing by now considering they've shared everything from a womb to a room since they were conceived. Unfortunately that isn't the case and it's a daily effort to reinforce the concept of sharing. I have to keep in mind it took us 10 months of demonstrating the sign language for "more" before they started doing it themselves, but eventually they did get it.

This is what happens when you give protective head gear to a curious little girl:


She puts it on her head! And this is what happens when you give a pair of heavy bag gloves to a curious little boy and girl:


They hit the heavy bag! Wonder where they learn this stuff from?


Makes me think of that cheesy anti-drug commercial from the 80's where the kid angrily shouts at his dad, "I learned it by watching YOU!"

I'm heading to bed now so add us to your list of prayers. Pray that I remember to pro-actively change the light bulbs so I can get a full night's rest.

I hope Grace the dolly makes it through one more day of thrashing from Layla. I hope Easton hears and sees a multitude of airplanes and trains tomorrow. And I hope you have a wonderful day.

Bye bye, see you soon!