Aunt Mary blew through town and spent a night on her way to California. We stayed up until 1:00 AM talking, but still aren't close to caught up with everything going on. She'll be back through in a week for a longer visit and we'll have time to chat.
Based on what other parents tell me and personal experience from my childhood I expect Easton's toys to get bigger and more expensive over time. For now he's satisfied driving anything with wheels. The $5 toys are still a big hit. When I asked, "what do you want to play now?" He said, "Cars... no wait... Big trucks!" We hauled his not-so-big trucks down to the green belt and he had his first taste of rock crawling.
Kendra bought cheap, used tap dancing shoes for Layla. We have an instructional video from the library which teaches beginning ballet, tap, and something else. She's still loving her general dance class through the pre-school, but ballet and tap are on the top of her list of things to do. Especially now because she has the official shoes to practice along with the video. The tutu was her idea because when Layla does something she goes all-out!
Who would guess bunny ears and a hula-hoop can be this fun?
Watching kids grow is fairly universal for one or ten or twins or quads. However, some situations are twin-specific and those moments are truly the spice of life around our house. Easton and Layla took turns leading and following as they giggled and ran around the house inside the same hula-hoop. If they were different ages or sizes then this exercise would probably end with bruises and someone crying. Since they are twins it worked out fabulously... until they tried to go in opposite directions. That was a key learning for them. They just stood there facing opposite directions spinning their wheels and going nowhere. Then Layla turned around and they took off across the floor like the Marx Brothers.
There is a relationship-based philosophical concept in there as well. Two people moving against each other in a relationship will go nowhere, but when they point the efforts in the same direction there is no limit to what can be accomplished. I'm very tempted to recreate this picture with Kendra and I... Bunny ears and all.
Our move-in date for the house might be a week sooner than we expected. Seems to change from one day to the next, but we aren't stressed about it. I've waited for 4 years so an extra few days one way or the other doesn't matter. If things go well we might be able to give out Halloween candy to the trick-or-treaters. Three years ago we sat in front of Mary's house (our new house) with the twins passing out candy. We had no idea we would be parking our cars in the driveway three years later for the first time.
I remember that Halloween because we had Mr. and Ms. Santa Claus outfits ready for the twins to wear as costumes. The outfits were purchased for Christmas time. Because we already had them and knew the twins wouldn't remember the occasion we decided to use the Claus outfits for Halloween costumes. We arrived at the house to pass out candy and realized it was still 90 degrees outside. The twins were sweltering so we just took them off and dressed them in the new costume: Twin babies.
So much has changed in three years for Easton and Layla as well as Kendra and I. In some ways the twins physical and mental growth is equivalent to our emotional and spiritual growth.
There's a pattern developing so I'll just call it what it is: Here's my "Daddy loves Layla" song of the day. It's called Red Robin by Clark Richard. Here are the heart-felt lyrics I like most:
now our little lady’s out with daddy for the day
she fought the yawns but couldn’t stay awake
as I place her in the car
she’s out like a light
cause she knows I’ll get her home all right
if time could only give me
a moment to reflect
to smile on all that has been
to treasure what is left
though I won’t always be here
this you surely know
that I’ll quietly spot you
anywhere you go
Seems weird to know I'm somewhere in the middle of this story, but I'm feeling more comfortable in the daddy role more every day. My concern is that I'll figure it out and get it right just about the time they head off to college. :)
See you soon!
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