birthday party

Greetings friends and family,

One of my favorite things to do is observe. If I could have any super hero power it would be invisibility. Not because I want to hide, but because I get so much wisdom from observing people young and old. Here are a couple of parental truths I discovered by what I saw in others and how that differs from the way we operate.

1. You can tell an awful lot about a person based on how they speak to their spouse on the phone. I can't tell you the number of phone conversations I've overheard which were very insightful. Some were frightening because of the terrible words and tones used, but some were encouraging because of the patience and kindness expressed. Although I do my best not to judge, a child's perception of acceptable and expected behavior is shaped by how they see Mom and Dad talk to each other.

2. The opposite of a screaming father is not a silent father... it's a loving father. From what I can tell many fall into one of those first two categories. Either they scream at the mother and children or they don't say much of anything at all. I made a vow before the twins were even born not be a screamer NOR a silent father. Parenting as one of those extremes is really easy. When things get bad it doesn't take any effort to go ballistic or shut down completely. Those are the easy routes, which I believe are equally damaging to children. However, the toughest response is the best: patience and love through words. It's so important to talk...

I have not idea where that came from and it doesn't really relate to our recent adventures in any way, but those two concepts have been running around in my brain lately.

Anyway, the relatively cool mornings bring new options for play time other than swimming. The pool is still officially open, but the twins don't last long in the water.

This morning I brushed the cobwebs off the Chariot and loaded up the twins for a trip to the neighborhood park. They still fit very comfortably even at 2.5 years old.


Easton asked me to go fast and swerve because he likes the whiplash effect when I make big, wide sweeps back and forth across the road. And of course he likes anything to do with going "super fast". On the other hand, Layla said, "I don't like it Daddy" so we just slowly wheeled our way to the park. There is a noticeable shift in their dare devil mentality. Layla is more cautious while Easton is more daring.

A new development in their comprehension skills is the idea of posing. I have a feeling there will be many more pictures where both Easton and Layla are looking at the camera. They understand what I am asking them to do (sit still and look at the camera) and sometimes they even obey my request!


The one additional step left to start making some great photos is to get them to SMILE while posing and holding still. Easton has this request down even more than Layla.


We attended Layla Ruth's (not our Layla, but our friend) birthday party with Neill and Jenny. They were such good sports to come along with us. Imagine 30 people in a house and they only knew the two of us... Luckily they are friendly and outgoing so they had no trouble fitting in. Dealing with so many new faces and keeping Uno and Dos in line made for a stressful event, but it turned out to be a great party.

It took a few tries for Easton to understand what it means to put your arm around someone. Even then it didn't last long, but here he is with the birthday girl who is dressed as Ariel the mermaid. I'm doing my best to teach him how to treat women (gentle hands). You gotta start somewhere, right?


You might be wondering why Easton has no shirt at an official birthday party with princesses. That is my fault... He drank some strawberry lemonade and then I rough-housed with him on the couch. He was giggling and begging for more. Then he sat up and barfed.


I reacted normally by holding him at arm's length while calling for Kendra. She ripped his shirt off and used it as a rag to clean up the mess. Thank God for leather couches... After Easton said repeatedly, "I choked, I chocked" he was back to normal and spent the rest of the evening shirtless.

Layla (OUR princess) was the social butterfly wondering from conversation to conversation spreading her joyous cheer. She had special front row seats for the birthday cake, birthday song, and present opening.


One of the many things Neill and Jenny have done for us in the past week was to buy Layla a castle, which she loves dearly.


It came with a few princesses so now she has duplicates of some. That may seem like a bad thing, but for anyone with twins you know this is a blessing. Duplication means less arguing and fewer times we hear, "mine!" in a day. Now Easton has his own Snow White who sits right next to the Woody doll.

See you soon!