Pacifier-free zone

Hola friends and family,

There is nothing hispanic about this week's blog other than a note to say Layla is catching onto Spanish well. At the park she saw a neighbor walking by and pointed at it while saying, "Mira, Perrito!" I asked how she knew that name and she said, "Perrito is Dora the Explorers puppy." The undertones of her voice indicated she expected me to already know that. Guess i need to catch up on this season's Dora the Explorer so I can converse with her better...

At the same park Easton could care less about the dog or the people. He just wanted to sit in the sand and fill up buckets. His latest odd word is, "actually". Here is how he used it in a sentence: "I was dumping out the buckets, actually." He throws it in on the end of sentences now and then unnecessarily, but I give him high marks for the attempts and using big words.


Another new adventure the twins have undertaken is... (gasp) scissors! Kendra bought the extra safe safety scissors. It's as if someone nailed two chopsticks together so I'm not in the least bit concerned. However, Easton and Layla managed to cut the paper up so much it looked like confetti in our kitchen.


Helping them hold the handle correctly is the current challenge, but as you can see they are doing very well for rookies. Special thanks to Kendra for extra patience and repeating over and over, "put your thumb in the little round hole of the handle."


The highlight of our Saturday was stopping by Scott and Marisue's house to see their newborn twin boys. Easton and Layla played with train and truck toys because it will be a few years before the toys are useful for them. I was most proud of Easton because as we left he voluntarily walked over to the baby and gently rubbed his head to say, "good-bye".

Then later that night I packed up the twins and headed to the softball field to cheer for our MVP rock star softball player friend, Scott.


We even made a sign that says, "Go Scott!" and Layla held it up for him as he came in from the outfield. We came prepared with pom-poms as well, but I was so busy trying to keep them from wallowing in the dirt that we never had the chance to do any serious cheering.

I'm not sure if you've ever had the experience of explaining something complex to a toddler, but Layla asked, "what are they doing?"


The question was so broad I didn't even know where to start. Eventually I said, "The guy with the ball throws the ball to the guy with the bat who hits the ball to the guys with the gloves". I held my breath for a few seconds and then Layla said, "OK" while turning around to watch the game again.

So much to learn and so little time...

Three nights ago Kendra made the bold decision to force Layla into cold-turkey withdrawals of the pacifier. We did a combination of 1. reasoning - We explained pacifiers are for babies and Layla doesn't need one anymore because she is a big girl. 2. tough cookies - We made the decision together as a team and struggled through the hour-long scream fest which ensued.

Layla screamed, "No, no NOOOOOOOO!" for over an hour the first night and it is decreasing each time. She thrashes around the crib kicking and throwing her stuff out on the bedroom floor. I mean, it's a tantrum like nothing I've ever seen. There is certainly a more humane way to ween a child from a pacifier, but we didn't care enough to do some 12 step program for toddlers just to save her a few tears.

On top of the pacifier adventures and business of life this weekend, Kendra was under the weather. I use that term "under the weather" loosely to describe her sickness... After all, it is a perfect 75 degrees and sunny for the next 10 days. Anyway, this weekend wore out my daddy day care welcome so I'm slightly excited to go back to work tomorrow morning just so I don't have to change anyone's diaper. Although occasionally I do deal with some people with toddler mentalities in the corporate world. hmmmmm...

See you soon!