Where, oh where, have the 4 Webbs been? I have no excuse for the lack of blog posts, but chose to spend the past week focused on a few high priority items. Most of my free time was focused on reading The Jesus I Never Knew by Philip Yancy in preparation for my mentoring meeting. Maybe I'll post my net-out summary as a blog entry?
The pace of life around the Webb household is holding steady at around 100mph. Just when I think things are going to get easier I look back on the week and think, "I'm glad we accomplished so much, but where'd the rest of the time go?" Kendra and I were reminiscing about the first 2 years with the twins and since hind sight is always 20/20 I have a few observations.
The first 2 and half years really are the toughest. It gets steadily more difficult on a monthly basis because just when I thought I had all the answers, the questions changed. There is no truer situation where that situation applies than parenting. The whole routine and process changes: The twin's sleeping schedule, mobility, needs, and uniqueness throw continual curve balls into whatever "plan" is established. Also the equipment, clothes, toys, and food all go through complete turn over. Out with the old and in with the new. Then around the 2 and half year mark things level out. Certainly not what I would consider "easy", but stable.
Even though I mentioned toy turn-over is high we still have a few old toys Easton and Layla find interesting. We unpacked a few toys from storage to give away and the twins thought it was Christmas all over again.
Easton meticulously lined up the blocks and made a "toll bridge" where Layla and I had to give him a penny to cross. You know things are getting rough around the Webb house when it costs money to use the restroom.
If only we can get Easton interested in using the potty!? After he grew tired of the toll bridge idea he stacked the squeaky blocks all together and then jumped on them like a mini-trampoline. I never would have thought of that...
Layla found the stackable cups to be extremely entertaining. She stacked them up to make the largest birthday cake possible. She put the star toy on top as a candle and then pretended to light it with her finger. Of course, Easton and a I gladly sang the Birthday song for Layla. She gave each of us a layer and we pretended to eat our own piece.
The 4 of us braved the crowds at Target yesterday after church to get a new lamp shade. Kendra is refinishing and painting Uncle Dave's old lamp for Layla's room. That brings me to another revelation I figured out recently: For parents, accomplishments are only "team" accomplishments when kids are involved. Before the twins were born I earned my MBA degree. I never thought of it as a joint-accomplishment for Kendra and I. Yes, she was essentially widowed during those two years as I worked full time and went to school. However, there was not much sacrifice on her part besides dealing with me being unavailable.
However, now that kids are involved there IS sacrifice for each and every accomplishment either of us achieve. For Kendra to refinish 7 pieces of furniture and revamp the twin's rooms that means I am very much involved to ensure she has time alone to focus on the task at hand. When I am gone to martial arts training twice a week she runs the house during those hours without my help. That means taking care of the twins alone, longer than her normal day while I'm at work.
When the twins were babies it wasn't a huge effort because the level of involvement with keeping the house running was relatively light compared to now. The concept of their new-found independence is in a weird stage. They eat by themselves, but spill 50% of the food and drink. They play by themselves, but make 10 times the mess as when they were babies. They put on their own shoes, but usually on the wrong feet. They take off their own diapers, but don't put them on. That creates a whole new list of problems when naked toddlers are running around the house.
For these reasons when I see a father or mother "accomplish" something I fully recognize and understand the sacrifices that went into reaching the goal. When a single person or person married without children talks about how busy they are or declares the sacrifices and hardships of accomplishments I roll my eyes and think, "If they only knew what real sacrifice and busy mean".
Last week the twins joined Daniel for another play date in the park. Daniel's name comes up fairly often in conversations and it's obvious the twins think of him as a close friend. The swing is meant for handicapped children but the width also allows Daniel and Layla to share the adrenaline rush.
On a different day the twins joined Layla Ruth at the zoo for a wildlife adventure. I didn't join the adventures due to work, but Kendra said they took a chance by watching the zoo puppet show. Two anciently old and sweet ladies led the event and gave extra attention to the twins since they arrived early. I was glad to see both of them were brave enough to stand on stage and act out the children's songs in front of everyone.
After the show they took a long walk through the monkey-business-as-usual part of the zoo. Finally, after dozens of my attempts to catch all three of them looking at the camera, Kendra captured a great shot of Easton, Layla, and Layla.
Although Kendra would prefer to ride Space Mountain at Disneyland, the carousel provides plenty of thrill for toddlers. Kendra's knee is still bothersome so she rode just to have a sit-down break from walking miles through the zoo.
My Saturday was voluntarily consumed by playtime with the twins. I spent all week at work waiting for the full day of fun with the twins. As a side benefit, Kendra reached serious milestones in the furniture refresh effort. During our outing I offered to take our friend's kids out. Ben and Trinity also happen to be boy/girl twins who are 10 years old. As an additional x-factor, their friend Katie came along as well. So I took the 5 kids out for an afternoon of fun. This was by far the largest number of kids I've been responsible for at one time. I have a new appreciation for those who have more than 2 kids. Luckily my additional kid load were older because if they were 5 toddlers I would have gone insane.
We went for lunch at Whataburger, which went surprisingly smooth. Then off to the duck park to burn off the french fries and chocolate malts. After pooling our unusable scraps we came up with a boat-load of duck food. Focaccia bread, crackers, and french fries were on the menu for the ducks.
I was pleasantly surprised because I expected one of the five would fall into the water given the energy exerted towards the water as they threw the food.
The daily focus continues to be on enjoying the great outdoors because it's gonna get hot in a couple of months. Layla gets her fill of outside after a couple of hours and requests to stay inside so she can play dress-up. As a compromise I allowed her to take her Snow White doll for a stroller ride while wearing her Cinderella dress. I shall henceforth be known as Daddy the Gracious due to my act of compromise. Let it never be said that I kept Rapunzel locked away inside the castle whilst Prince Easton enjoyed outdoor dump truck races.
The royal family is pleased. I'll have to locate a knight outfit for Easton so he can get more into character... We did buy him a foam sword at Target as a first step!
See you soon.
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