I am happy this week is over. Not because anything bad happened, but because it was so jam-packed with busyness that I feel like a guy who just ran through the finish line tape at a marathon. Kendra was able to spend every night out connecting with new/old friends. Every spare second turns into an opportunity for her to be around April. It's obviously been a hard week for her knowing April is leaving next weekend. Kendra said she cries about three times per day in case that gives any indication of her state of mind.
My week was very simple to explain. work, kids, sleep, repeat x 7. I consider myself to be a normal dad any other week of the year, but this week I was super dad. and the most humble dad in the world. just kidding. The extra time with Easton and Layla was welcomed and well utilized, but draining none the less.
Layla dressed up one evening and waltzed into the front room fluttering like a fairy princess. I noticed the exquisite hair clip and said, "Your hair clip looks beautiful in your hair, Layla. Where did you get that?" I thought it looked very familiar, but couldn't place it.
Then Kendra shouted above the kitchen noises, "The hair clip is from our wedding!"
speechless. It felt like I was thrown into an emotional washing machine on high agitate cycle as I sloshed around searching for a coherent thought to verbalize.
Layla looked so sweet, but my thoughts were spread across three decades. From the past a flood of memories poured in about our wedding. I remember how beautiful Kendra looked that day. From the present the thought of Layla wearing such an heirloom as a toy frightened me. From the future I couldn't help but imagine Layla 20 years from now wearing that as she walks down the isle.
I wasn't ready to think through all of that at once so my head exploded and I just sat there speechless. I opened my mental box of emotions and tucked the entire brief segment of time into a nice, neat corner. I'll deal with that later.
In the mean time there is way too much "now" stuff going on for me to get caught up in the past or future. Easton and Layla figured out acting recently. Kendra throws out an emotion and the twins are able to express it. Here is "happy". Easton looks extremely convincing...
and here is "surprised". These are Emmy worthy performances, folks.
I asked, "who wants to run errands with Dad?" Easton is a home body and promptly declined then mumbled something about volcano books. Layla half-heartedly agreed. Due to her willingness to run around town with me our first order of business was individual slurpees. It's hot in AZ and nothing cools better than freezing your innards by ingesting ice. Did I just use the word, "Innards"? wow, that was random. I think that's a mid-west term because I haven't thought of that in years.
Anyway, Layla chose the pink, cherry flavored slurpee and I put it in an appropriately sized coffee cup to avoid dumping it in my car.
As we waited for the car bath I told Layla her lips were pink. She pouted them out, but only after I agreed to show her the picture afterwards.
She saw her brightly colored lips and laughed so hard the other car wash customers stopped what they were doing to watch Layla's happiness overflow. Before we left for errands I told her to put on her Crocs. She said, "May I wear my Mary Janes instead?" I looked at her stunned because I have no idea what are Mary Janes. Even if I did, how does SHE know what they are? I agreed with her request out of curiosity to find out what those shoes are. Here you can clearly see her new favorite shoes: The Mary Janes.
The 4 Webbs spent Friday night with my friend Judson and his family. Easton begged for more and more bites of my raw salmon, tuna, and cooked eel and shrimp. Afterwards we went to Judson's house to hang out. On the way Easton placed Bolt the stuffed dog on his head. Layla didn't want to be outdone so she joined him in the silly stuffed animal on the head trick.
Speaking of being outdone... Judson's son had an air hockey table in his room and the twins had their first taste of competition. Nothing at the casa de Webb is anti-competitive, but we just don't have many one-on-one activities where Easton and Layla compete. Easton played against Jayden first and got the hang of the idea very quickly. Then Layla joined in against Easton with great results. Both of them had fun, but without any over-aggressive behavior. Losing wasn't a big deal and the best part was... No one cried. Sometimes the metric used to described success is set so low that avoiding tears is considered a valid goal.
As a way to slow down the crazy Indians roaming the halls we started a movie. They quickly turned into zombies consumed like flies to a bug zapper. Easton and Layla both gave me a fake smile, but neither took their eyes off the tube.
We mistakenly thought by keeping Layla up past bed time by 45 minutes she would sleep in a bit. Instead she woke up 45 minutes earlier than normal on Saturday morning. No complaints though... This life of adventures and challenges is exactly what we signed up for!
See you soon.
2 comments:
What a super collection of pics! Teaching them to act out emotions is a great idea, also putting together other similar words to describe them helps the twins to better verbalize their feelings. Too bad I haven't been very good at doing that myself. Love ya gobs, MOM
Thanks, Mom! I feel bad for them when they experience feeling without their understanding what it is or how to express to us. The next phase will involve helping them with self control and working through their emotions. that'll be even more fun. :) We are all a work in progress including myself. I'm just hoping to get Easton and Layla on the path to healthy communications as early as possible.
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