Welcome to the long-overdue and hopefully entertaining edition of the Webb's blog. The best thing about this week is having my Mom and Dad in our home. I call them Ma and Pa. The twins call them Nana and Papa. We've been planning for their visit and coordinating events for the past several weeks. Everything is working out almost perfectly. Mom fell the day before they arrived and tweaked her back a little. I hate to see her in pain, but I'm happy they are here even so.
On to the picture-of-the-week courtesy of the Sea Life Arizona exhibit.
I have a bundle of pictures from this adventure, but first let me rewind a few days to catch up. My Canon S90 is continually filled with pictures. Last year I took about 5600 pictures (not an exaggeration). 5598 of those were taken by me and the other two were taken by Kendra while I was present. OK, maybe that is a bit of exaggeration... The point is that I usually know every picture and the story behind it. Then I stumble onto this one:
Besides the expectation that Kendra took it all I have are questions. Why is Easton lying in the bathroom floor? Why is his blanket not on his bed? Why is Dad's dog, Waggles, resting on Easton? Why is Easton using the squishy snake as a pillow? Was the monkey stuffed animal propped up against him by Kendra? I'll get some answers tomorrow morning and probably get a good laugh.
The twins are still recovering from the devastating flu bug as can be witnessed by their occasional cough and sleeve-wiping snot blowout. Kendra and I are both 1 day behind them in the cycle. Ouma and Oupa are a couple of days behind us in the cycle, which means we sent them home sick. I feel terrible about how the timing of our sicknesses threw a wrench in the plans and left them with the flu. Sorry about that Ouma and Oupa! I know they understand though and as Oupa said, "life happens!" Luckily the enjoyment of being together and having them in our house far outweighs the results of the flu.
Anyway, where was I... Oh yes, Waggles. Mom and Dad decided to bring their friendly wiener dog and his stumpy legs along for the cross country drive. My guess is he couldn't stay in Missouri because he kept getting buried in the snow drifts while going pee in the backyard. He is the first 4-legged visitor in our house so Easton and Layla are learning the basics. Basics are: Don't feed human food to Waggles.
Hmmm... OK, that one may take a few days to fix because both of the twins love to share with him. The other basics are, "no pulling on his tail, no teasing him through the back door glass, and no nose kisses".
Papa and I took the twins and Waggles to the park for some exercise and socialization. That was Waggles' first experience with other dogs, but he did great. Layla is getting really confident on the 8 foot high rock wall.
Easton is a bit more cautious, but getting stronger and more confident by the day it seems. He was screaming, "I caaaaan, I caaaaaaan" all the way up.
They both love to squish their toes in the sand and since the dog park is on the same propery it was a win-win situation.
until... moments after this picture Layla said, "I need to pee". Then, Easton said, "Daddy I tooted". That's when I discovered the dark side of potty training twins at the same time. Which one do I take to the bathroom first? I hollered at Papa to watch Easton, picked up Layla, and headed across the campus to the bathroom. No lights and no toilet paper (arrrrrgh). Things turned messy in there and I did the best with what was available. By the time we arrived back to the playground it was too late for Easton. Things went down hill quick for that situation, but it's all part of the potty training process and I promise next time I'll be more prepared!
Nana and Papa and I watched the twins jump and tumble during gymnastics. Layla was more than happy to take a break during the circuit training to say hi to us through the window.
The instructor had to take Easton off the big platform behind her because she said, "no more jumping in the foam pit!" Easton really likes bailing off into the foam pit. I'm proud of him for getting a little more daring and comfortable with the equipment.
Kendra had the great idea for us to see the Arizona Sea Life Aquarium exhibit. I was a bit skeptical because this IS Arizona and we don't have much ocean life. However, the experience was awesome and all of us were impressed. The coolest part was the hands-on (literally) tank of sea creatures including shrimp, sea urchin, starfish, and others.
All of the huge aquariums had these bubble areas where we maneuvered ourselves. It felt as though we were in there swimming right along side the sharks.
As you can tell, Easton and Layla were amazed.
My concern going into the exhibit was the possibility Easton and Layla would be scared of some things, but they were soaking up every moment without an ounce of fear.
The thing I was most surprised about was the depth and variety of color in the animals. I've seen pictures and watched movies, but nothing compares to seeing the rich colors in person. Deep neons, bright reds and primaries, stripes in all directions, and shapes I never thought were possible in nature.
In this next picture you see Easton standing amazed as he looks in the tank. We told him the pretend skeleton bones are from the Liopleurodon or similar dinosaur.
Then he saw the smaller replica (overhead) and I could see lights going off in his head as he made connections through the learning.
Nana and Papa were real troopers to join with us 4 Webbs in our adventures together. Every day the twins get more comfortable and seek attention and approval from them.
Layla claimed the jelly fish as her own because of the pink back-lighting. She thought they were specially made for her as she gasped and said, "they are soooo beautiful!". :)
And what outing would be complete without a playground? The aquarium went the extra mile by providing an indoor jungle gym just prior to the exit. We rested as they ran around to work out the last of their wiggles for that particular afternoon.
Only a couple of more days for me to be with Nana and Papa (sniff, sniff). I'll try to make the most of it without wearing them out.
See you soon!
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