Saturday, January 15, 2011

Parasaurolo-what?

Happy spring friends and family,

Winter lasts for two weeks in Arizona and that is defined as any temperature below freezing. Brrrrrrr. Luckily the only collateral damage this winter was the top half of our Ficus trees dying a slow death. Now we are neck-deep in spring weather where the day time highs are around 70 with sun, sun, and more sun.

Easton squished his face against the back sliding glass door and called me over. He said, "Can you pick me up?" I asked why and he said, "So I can see the sun set over the mountains." Now that's an Arizona boy if I ever heard of one. We walked outside and stood close to the pool to get a better view of the sunset. He looked down and said with a surprised tone in his voice, "My pool!" as if he made a big discovery. I told him swimming is a few months away so he wouldn't get his hopes up.

During Oma and Opa's Thanksgiving break visit they were able to witness Marisue and Scott dedicating their twins in church. Marisue let me take a few pictures (of them)and I had to throw in a self-portrait with Easton and Layla just for fun.


The rolled up blanket in Oma and Marisue's lap was a gift from Oma to their twin boys. She made them each a hand-crafted quilt, which Scott and Marisue appreciated very much. We are lucky to have them as our friends! Conversations are even more fun since they joined the "twins club".


We had a "bad experience" in the bathtub where the solution was to rush the twins into the shower. Easton strongly requested he take his Parasaurolophus with him and Layla just made blow-fish faces on the shower door. They had a blast jumping around splashing as though they were ankle deep in rain puddles.


You may be wondering how I know the name of his dinosaur. Technology is amazing and I use it for teaching the twins as often as possible. While we were playing Easton asked, "What does the dinosaur sound like?" I had no idea what noises it made or even what is the name of it.


The two of us sat down at the computer and did a little research. I discovered the dinosaur is a Parasaurolophus, which is pronounced par-ah-SAWR-OL-uh-fus
We looked through a few of the roughly 33,200 pictures of said dinosaur and I was even able to find an answer to Easton's original question of what sound it made.



How's that for awesome?! When I was his age all we had was an encyclopedia book with one page on dinosaurs as an entire species.

Layla discovered the joy of banging pots with a wooden spoon. I'm already regretting my decision to show the twins how much fun it is. My ears are still ringing thanks to Easton figuring out the pot lid sounds like a cymbal when hit with a metal spoon.


Easton's imagination also led to the discovery of a garbage truck shaped space shuttle. Anything can fly with enough child-like imagination.


The twins are both proficient at riding the tricycles, but not without a few spills and bruises. Layla figured out very quickly there is a need to stick her foot out when she's about to tip over. Of course we continue to require the brain bucket at all times. Especially after hearing about Daphne, my sweet niece, and the ordeal she went through last year.


The 4 Webbs welcomed a special guest appearance from Layla Ruth today. She added the "X factor" into our otherwise routine playtime. During snack time she sat at the kid's table in Easton's seat so Easton sat next to me at the "Big Boy" table (the kitchen island) and Kendra stood the entire time. I never realized how long snack time and meal time took until I watched the clock over the past few weeks. 30 minutes to eat 7 Teddy Grahams and a handful of craisins? Yes...


I learned a very valuable lesson during the first few weeks of the twin's lives: Patience. Plan what I can, but there's no benefit to being in a hurry for anything. Life just doesn't work that way anymore and I'm so glad because if it did I would miss these special years in the blink of an eye.

See you soon!

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