New Carpet Conspiracy

Yesterday it was Chloe and the nail polish, today it was Hadley and the dog.

As we were loading everyone up in the car to leave for church, we noticed one little soul missing. Ryan went to track down the wayward one and found her exiting Braden's room, pulling the door shut behind her. Elated to return her to the fold, we threw her in the car and rushed out the door.

It wasn't until our return that we found what mischivious act our errant Hadley had carried out. As it turns out, being the kind-hearted soul that she is, she had taken pity on the kenneled dog and released her. Her nursery teachers would be proud of the compassion she showed in opening the cage and the responsibility she showed in shutting Braden's door. If it were not for the behavior of the sinful dog, she may have even found herself advanced to the high rank of Sunbeam. Unfortunately, Chanel was not happy even with her larger enclosure and had attempted to dig her way out.

You would think someone has begun a consipiracy for new carpet in this house. I promise I was not behind any of it!

No Gum Allowed

When I was growing up my mom had a rule about gum. It was simple, no gum allowed in the house. I don't know what event spurred the creation of the rule, though I do not doubt there was one. We are a bit more liberal with gum in our house, though we do have a rule: you can chew it, but when you spit, the gob of gum must go in the toilet or a tissue which then goes directly in the trash. It's a bit longer than my mom's rule, but it seems to have worked as we have had no gum incidents in our home.

Today was cleaning day. Cleaning day is a family affair with everyone busy with their assigned undertaking. The babies are good at scrubbing the insides of toilets, a task I am happy to pawn off, but otherwise not much help. Today while we were diligently scrubbing and sweeping, Chloe found Emmry's nail polish that was left out in the bathroom. It is a wonderful shade of bubble gum pink and looks divine on Emmry's fingers and toes. It does not look so divine painted all over a two-year-old or spilled on cream Berber carpet.

No, we have no rule banning gum in our house. What we do have is a ban on nail polish.

Aren't They Adorable!

Being in public with twins is a very unique experience. People are always stopping me to tell me how adorable they are, ask questions, or share with me a twin experience from their life. While at first enjoyable, I've now learned to block out the whispers and giggles and become as immune as possible to the attention.


So I gave very little thought to the women who were pointing and giggling at the babies at Christmas time as I searched through an entire display of every kind of character underwear the commercial industry has imagined up for a size 5 of anything. I really didn't care if I got princesses or Mickey Mouse, I just needed a size 5. It wasn't until I turned to Emmry to vent my frustration that I became aware of what the finger pointing was actually about. Perhaps yes, it was because they are twins and oh, aren't they adorable. But I think it had more to do with the fact that they were sitting on the floor, naked from the waist down with an opened pair of underwear beside them. Hadley had one leg in, and Chloe was trying to determine which pair was pink enough. One more leg in and a couple inches higher, I would have found myself the owner of a brand new pair of incorrect sized underwear.

If this weren't bad enough, I barely got the underwear packaged up and returned to the display when I found myself in the boy's underwear section with the same problem.

Oh yes, I agree, I think they're adorable. I just think they're much more adorable in their beds asleep!

Our New Addition

It seems we finally ran out of excuses. Yesterday we adopted a one-year-old dog named Chanel. The kids adore her and she has brought both harmony and disharmony to our home. She is a female Shih Poo, which is a shihtzu poodle mix. She came house trained with beds, blankets, toys, food, treats, and pages of instructions from a rescue home. Hundreds of applicants for Chanel were turned away, but for some reason we were not. I remarked to Ryan how the girls' snotty noses, unkempt hair, and mismatched clothes (they now like to dress themselves), must have really impressed the woman running the facility. But truly, she said it was the way the kids interacted with the dog. She could tell that they would really love her... and they do.

Happy New Year!

When Braden became old enough to understand New Year's Eve, we began moving the clocks forward, holding our own early New Year's Eve celebration, and going to bed by 10:00. Once he learned a ball dropped in Times Square, it became a bit trickier. We contemplated taping the previous year's celebration and adding that to our treachery, but were thwarted by the addition of the year on top of the ball. We have therefore resorted to playing games until 10:00, when everyone must brush teeth, don their pjs, and gather for a movie. Everyone's asleep by 10:30.

If you come to visit over New Year's, you can join in our celebration. Only you will find we added one more frivolity this year... a polar bear jump into the pool. You may think it doesn't get cold here, but it does. And that pool was cold! There are no exemption for visitors, only non-swimmers.

Happy New Year!