week ending dec 28, 2008:

Week ending Dec 28, 2008: On Monday I took Chloe into the doctor because she obviously had pink eye. While there the doctor noticed her coughing and asked a bunch of questions. I reported that she coughs infrequently except when she exercises or when she transitions from inside to outside. The doctor said those are classic asthma symptoms, and I know that so I say “but her symptoms don’t bother her, she just coughs for 5 minutes and then she’s done.”. The doctor explained that even kids with only mild symptoms can have big asthma attacks, so it is important to keep the airways open. He prescribed medicine for the nebulizer and said that if the medicine helps her then it will confirm the diagnosis of asthma. Well for the rest of the week Chloe had coughing attacks (I mean she could barely talk between the coughs) every time she ran around or elevated her heart rate with any activity. One time she was watching me do a workout video and she loves the part with the jumping jacks. Doing jumping jacks set off the coughing so I gave the medicine in her nebulizer and turned the video back on while she inhaled it (it takes 5+ minutes to inhale all the medicine). While she was breathing through the nebulizer she stopped coughing and started doing jumping jacks again with the nebulizer pipe still in her mouth, this time with no coughing. I guess that proves that the medicine helps and she does in fact have asthma.

Alex has been enjoying playing with all his new Christmas toys, and it has been driving Chloe (and by default me) crazy. She relies on having him to play with and has very little tolerance for playing alone, but when he plays video games on the Wii, plays with his new Transformers, or folds paper airplanes from his new paper airplane book, she’s left to amuse herself. I’ve even offered to play with her, but she greatly prefers Alex and when asking him nicely to include her doesn’t work, she tries more devious tactics.

The kids were really cute at church this week. Each week the pastor asks all the children in the congregation to come to front of the church and he does a very short children’s lesson while and allows some time for them to talk briefly about what’s going on in their lives. One week a boy’s father had come home from a business trip in Norway and brought him a hat with horns. The boy wore the hat to church to share with everyone. The kids knew right away that they each wanted to bring a Christmas toy to show off. Alex brought his electric guitar and Chloe her bunny from Build-a-Bear Workshop. Chloe dressed in an outfit that matched the bunny and knew Pastor Dave would notice. Pastor Dave asked Alex to play his guitar in front of everyone and Alex obliged and everyone applauded. In this way the kids really feel like going to church is “for them” and that the church congregation is their extended family. Chloe also wore her new sparkly-light-up princess shoes and several people complimented her. She’s got a reputation in church for her amazing shoes.

Well, another year is coming to an end. I feel like I should wax philosophical on the events of the past and contemplate the future, but I really don’t want to. Here’s what I wrote in my Christmas note this year: ‘Notable “firsts” for this year include first snorkeling, first cruise, first time skiing, first time seeing the circus, first soccer clinic, first time canoeing, inviting friends to their birthday party for the first time, first pets of their own, and Chloe’s first ballet class.’ A big year for us!

Christmas 2008

Christmas 2008: I decided to write this entry as a series of little moments that I found cute.

Dec 23 the twins have an extended argument about whether Santa eats the cookies in our house, or whether that takes too long so Santa takes the cookies back to his sleigh with him.

Dec 24 Alex says “Daddy, you don’t smell good. You have to smell good to go to parties.” I couldn’t help but laugh.

That evening as I’m tucking her in bed Chloe says “Mommy, you can’t go downstairs now, Santa might need to come”. I say that Santa will see the lights in our windows and know to wait until we go to bed, after all Daddy and I have to go downstairs to make the sticky buns. This appeases her temporarily. When Daddy goes in to kiss her good night Chloe says “Daddy, we have to turn the bathroom light off or Santa won’t come. He’ll think we are awake.” We usually leave the bathroom light on as a night light and to help the kids find the toilet if they need to use it in the middle of the night. Daddy assures her that Santa is very smart and that we’ve left the bathroom light on last year and Santa figured it out. I wonder what she’ll think of to worry about next.

Dec 25 Alex says “This is AWESOME!” no less than a dozen times as he opens and plays with his gifts. He’s really enthusiastic about several of the presents as he opens them, and then as he learns more about the features as he plays with them he again is so moved by their awesomeness. Chloe is also very excited about her presents and wants to show us each one. In the afternoon when we had a break between one set of company and the next Chloe tried out her new “Trace and Draw Projector”. She said she was going to make a whole book of pictures. I suggested she make some to give to MomMom and Grammy Barb later that night. She said “I think I’ll make 2 for MomMom, she’s really nice to us.” I was so proud of her. We’ve been trying to emphasize to the kids all these gifts that they are getting are really expressions of love from people who give their time and money to make the kids happy, time and money that those people could be spending on themselves. Of course the message is a little too mature for 5 year olds to really grasp. Mostly they just think about what they are getting instead of what they are giving, so I was really impressed by this one act of generosity.

The guinea pigs are obviously watching the TV as we play the new Wii in the playroom.

At the end of the evening I was again tucking Chloe in bed and wanted to take advantage of the quiet moment to ask her about her thoughts on the day. She just said “Mom, I’m SO tired.” I’ve never seen Chloe too tired to talk, but couldn’t fault her for it given all the activity of the past two days.

It was so great to get to spend Christmas with such a loving extended family. Sometimes I can’t even believe how blessed we are.

week ending dec 21, 2008:

Week ending Dec 21: This week the kids were really having a hard time waiting for Christmas. They’d say “when is it EVER going to get here?!” and “When am I EVER going to get a new toy?!” They are frustrated that the gifts are piling up in front of the tree and none of them are for them. They are frustrated that we are doing so much shopping and none of it is for them. Alex asked why I was buying presents for all those other people and not for him. I explained that I had to buy his presents when he wasn’t there so they would be surprises. So, one night after they went to bed I wrapped up one gift for each twin and put them under the tree with a “from Mommy and Daddy label”. The very next morning they started digging through the gifts under the tree trying to read the labels. They found the ones to them and carried them around for about a half an hour, satisfied in the knowledge that there was something in the house for them. Then when the half hour was up they were back to complaining about how long it was they’d have to wait to open the gifts. Oh well. Then we had 3 parties in three days to distract them.

This week was also the Christmas party at school. First about 5 classes of kids and their parents herded into a big room with a piano and the kids sang a half dozen Christmas songs. Alex sat on my lap for most of the songs except when the teacher asked him to stand up in front of everyone and hold up a picture of baby Jesus in the manger. Chloe asked if she could go and sit with her “boy friend Devon” and his Mom and I said “sure”. At church all the kids from my Sunday School class go and sit with their friends families (Collin comes to sit with Alex and I, Chloe goes and sits with Miley or Jada), so I guess we’ve set a precedent for this. After the songs we went back to the class room to help the kids with a craft, then they decorated sugar cookies with icing and sprinkles, and then did their usual first “15 minutes of class” stuff like talking about which day of the week it is, which month, what the weather is like, counting, etc. Despite practicing 3 times a week, most of the kids aren’t good at the days of the week, and on December 19, the month of Christmas, none of them correctly guessed what month it is. It is very cute to watch them try though. After the lesson they opened a piñata and each kid got a sandwich bag full of goodies. Alex did a little dance of triumph after he got his bag. Very fun to see all the excitement.

I took the kids to their friend Abby’s 5th bday party. She had the party at a kids’ salon and had a “rock stars and diva’s” theme. I explained to the kids beforehand that someone would put gel in their hair so they’d look like rock stars and they were both excited about it. When we got there they had an assortment of costumes and all the kids except one chose to play dress up. Chloe got her hair curled and had blue streaks added and was thrilled that they had a sparkly gold jacket for her to wear. Alex loves electric guitars (and is hoping to get one for xmas), so he was excited about the guitar shirt and guitar temporary tattoo. I wasn’t excited that they put makeup on the kids (do we need this at 5 years old?), but I let it go. Some of the parents dropped their kids off at the party and I was invited to leave, but chose to stay. Really they would have been fine without me, but then I would have all these fun pictures. http://picasaweb.google.com/constance.phelps/AbbyS5thBday#

I took the kids to Aiden’s 1st birthday party. It is hard to believe that last Christmas Eve I was standing in the hospital meeting Aiden for the 1st time. The pictures from the party tell pretty much the whole story except the misbehavior of my over-tired children who were attending their 3rd party in 3 days, and that’s best left forgotten anyway. http://picasaweb.google.com/constance.phelps/AidenS1stBday#

week ending dec 14, 2008

Week ending Dec 14, 2008: Chloe and Alex love their weekly gymnastic class and they seem to be making progress in their cartwheels, trampoline jumping, and uneven parallel bar tricks. Chloe had been practicing cartwheels on the trampoline, and had perfect form except for the landing (which was usually a form of crash landing) up until last week when she was able to land them. Now she can do cartwheels in the living room.

Gastroenterologist follow up. I’ve been gradually cutting back on Chloe’s Nexium to see how little we can get away with. The pediatrician said that Chloe’s symptoms may come and go, and Chloe was doing so well on so little Nexium that I let her stop taking it altogether. After 4 days of no medicine Chloe started complaining about pain. It took several days back on the Nexium to undo the damage done with a few days off. We did get some good news at the gastroenterologist, Chloe’s grown at least an inch and gained 5lb since her summer appointment, which is amazing and great since the pediatrician commented about how “skinny” she was in October. The side effect of growing so much is that she’s outgrown all her shoes. More on that later. Before we left the office, the doctor asked the kids if they’d been good this year. They both shrugged shyly. I guess they don’t remember last year’s inquisitions from random strangers as to whether they felt worthy of a big haul from Santa. Pop psychology today dictates that parents not classify our children as “good” or “bad” but identify specific actions as acceptable or unacceptable, so the kids have never really thought about whether they are good, and I have never threatened them that Santa won’t bring toys if they don’t behave. In the car after the appointment I told the kids that some people say that Santa only bring toys to the good boys and girls. Chloe said “is that true?” I said I didn’t know. She said “I think it is just made up.” I thought that was a cute answer.

As to the shoes, we’d just bought Alex a new pair of dress shoes when Chloe started to complain that all her shoes didn’t fit. I thought she was just jealous that Alex had something new, but when the appointment confirmed that she’d grown a great deal, I took her shoe shopping. We found some great bargains and bought 3 new pairs of shoes. I was really surprised that with all the pink sparkly lighted sneakers out there Chloe picked these black sneakers. She’s really outgrowing the pinks and lavenders and now is showing a preference for gold and sparkly things.
The twins have adopted a weekly ritual with their father. They all 3 sit together in the recliner and watch “Ship Shape TV” which a half hour long show boat maintenance and repairs. I usually grab a shower while they bond and then the kids give me the low down after it is over. They really pay attention!

week ending dec 7, 2008:

Week ending Dec 7, 2008: This week I’ve been catching up on cleaning and Christmas shopping while the kids are in school, and much of the time when they aren’t. It seems sometimes that I only noticed what they are doing after they make a huge mess like the play dough and the little bits of paper they called “snow” (4 days before we got a dusting of the real stuff).

Also this week we did some catching up on fixing some of the goodies from Casey’s childhood like the remote control dune buggy and the electric train set. Last year I wiped all the dust off of all the trains, inventoried the track and made a list of what we’d need. This year we went out and got some plywood, some paper with faux grass on it, some track, a transformer/controller, and put it all together. Low and behold it works! The kids really liked getting to take turns making the trains go. Chloe can’t wait to get more buildings for our “village” (we told her next year since we’d invested in the platform and transformer this year). As for the r/c dune buggy, Casey got it working for the 1st time in 15 years and it sped around the yard faster than the kids could run after it.

Sunday was our annual trek to Frederick for the Gingerbread party hosted by our friends from college, Rob and Tina. Tina buys enough houses for each family to do their own, 8 houses this year. Although we only see that group a few times a year, the kids have really bonded and it is a great time for them to play while the grownups catch up. This year Alex said his favorite part was the gingerbread house, which surprised me since he did a lot of rough housing and pillow fighting with the other boys. Chloe said her favorite was playing the girls, and eating candy, and watching Christmas movies and… basically everything. Can you remember a time when you were so excited that your favorite part was everything? I think I felt that way on our cruise about all the parts that didn’t involve waiting in lines or doing other mundane daily chores.

We had some very sad news this week. Our next door neighbor’s 11 year old granddaughter passed away from an unknown illness. I’d heard a couple of weeks ago that she’d been hospitalized, but in this time of medical miracles I didn’t worry too much about it. I just can’t believe that she never got better and that her family is going to have to deal with this kind of loss. She was a very nice girl and despite the fact that she was 6 years older than the twins, she’d play with them while she was visiting her grandparents. She’d push them on the swings and hold their hands when the crossed the street to run up and down the hill, and she was very patient about playing hide-and-seek with them even though Alex and Chloe weren’t very good at hide-and-seek. She was having developmental issues at the same time that Alex was, so her grandmother and I would trade stories about their respective successes when we’d run into each other. I haven’t told the twins yet.

week ending nov 30, 2008

Week ending Nov 30, 2008: This week the kids didn’t have any school or any gymnastics because of parent-teacher conferences and Thanksgiving. Even though I had lots of entertainment planned, we all got on each other’s nerves a bit. In addition to celebrating Thanksgiving, the kids and I made cookies, went to the play area at the mall, went to the playground, watched “High School Musical”, got some craft items at the dollar store, decorated the Christmas tree, and went to the National Air and Space Museum near Dulles. Most of the details about Thanksgiving are best summed up in our pictures: http://picasaweb.google.com/constance.phelps/Thanksgiving2008# One part of Thanksgiving that didn’t come through on the pictures but still worth mentioning is the “trash talk” that Alex did while he was playing Wii. He was SOOO excited about the games. He tried boxing, tennis, bowling, a shooting game, and a racing game. Whenever he decided he was doing well he’d shout “Yeah! Yeah! Yeah!” or “you didn’t think I was that tough did you?!” or “I am AWESOME!”. Casey said he can’t think of many other times when Alex, our usually reserved child, has been so outgoing.

Alex’s phrase of the week is “ohmigosh!” (as in “oh my gosh” all run together). That was another popular phrase while playing Wii, and we heard it about a hundred times at the Air & Space museum. Chloe, on the other hand, wasn’t thrilled with the museum. She said it was too much “boy stuff”.

The kids are starting to try to tell jokes, but they don’t understand double entendre at all. They’ll say “Mom, wanna hear a joke?” I’ll say, “Sure!” Then one of them will say, “Why is cantaloupe easy to swallow? Because it is made of chocolate!” Or some other non-sequitur, at which point both of them will collapse in laughter. Luckily they aren’t offended if I don’t follow suit.

Alex got really angry with me this week when I put one of his toys in “time out” on top of the refrigerator. His response was to tell me he didn’t love me anymore. I tried to explain that it is hurtful to say that you don’t love someone and that what he really means is that he is angry. He insisted that he didn’t love me. I asked him if that meant if I went away he wouldn’t miss me. He said that is what he meant. About 15 minutes later after a short quiet car ride he opened his arms to me and his face crumpled and tears sprang to his eyes. I got down on one knee in the parking lot and gave him a big hug and told him I loved him. He said “I’m sorry I didn’t love you”. I explained again that he was just angry. He said “No, I meant it”. There was just no winning that one. I guess if I’d thought more quickly I could have explained that the reason he was feeling so sad and worried is because he knew it was wrong to say that he didn’t love me. Oh well, I’m almost certain we’ll repeat this episode and I’ll get another chance to try to get my point through.

week ending nov 23, 2008:

Week ending November 23, 2008: This week we took our holiday photo. I dressed the kids up in their new Christmas outfits and took them to the mall to see Santa and take their picture in front of the holiday decorations. This was the first year that Alex agreed to sit on Santa’s lap instead of insisting on standing next to Santa. Both kids ran right up to Santa and told him about what they wanted for Christmas without being at all shy. As I do every year I bought the picture that the mall folks took. Unfortunately I didn’t like any of the pictures that I took myself, so the next day I asked the kids to dress up in their Christmas clothes again, and this time I took them to a local home-and-garden store that sells lots of Christmas decorations and has a HUGE train garden set up. All told I took 50 pictures between the two days. I think I’m never really happy with the formal portraits that I do, but I got one that was close enough. I won’t post it until after the cards have been delivered, shortly after Thanksgiving, but I did post 3 old xmas card pics above.
Alex’s coughing had me worried this week. For years it seemed that every time he got a cough it just kept getting worse and worse until his throat got so irritated and swollen that it interfered with his breathing and we had to go to the doctor and get a prescription for an oral steroid. We’d tried all sorts of medicines and nothing else seemed to help until this spring when the doctor suggested that we give Alex an acid-reflux drug every time he gets a persistent cough because his stomach acid might be causing further irritation to his throat. Since then we’ve had 3 colds each with a cough, and none of them got bad enough to warrant a trip to the doctor for steroids. Well, this week we got coughing-cold number 4 and I thought our luck had run out because the coughing was starting to get really bad, but after 24 hours on the acid-reflux medicine Alex suddenly started to get better! I’m so glad to not have to watch him suffer through struggling to breathe and to not be giving him steroids.
Alex and Chloe are really enthusiastic about doing craft projects these last few weeks. I think the success they’ve had working on craft projects at school has had a good influence on them. Chloe really likes to draw, color, and paint. Alex likes to cut and glue. He cuts construction paper into tiny shaped pieces and then glues them together mosaic-style to form a new shape (usually a rocket or a jet).

week ending nov 16, 2008:

To anyone who hasn’t heard, Casey’s doing much better. He started physical therapy and went back to work for one day so far. The pictures is of Alex trying on Daddy's sling.

On Monday the twins got very curious about the mysterious place called “hospital” where Daddy went to have his surgery and where they were born, so I decided to take them on a field trip. Our hospital has a street-level corridor that connects the waiting rooms for surgery, pediatrics, women’s health, and emergency, so we walked the corridor and I pointed out the doors behind which various life-events occurred for our family. They were underwhelmed. I guess they thought they’d get to see people on gurneys or something more exciting than hallways, doors, and chairs.

This week I noticed the constant presence of the question “why?” is giving way to the statement “I know”. The twins are getting more confident about their understanding of everyday events and are letting me know. For instance they LOVE to correct me. Like when I burp and forget to excuse myself they say “Mom, what do you say?”. And they’ve started to question whether I really know more than them, for instance when we were driving home from the hospital Alex questioned me, “Mom, is this the way home?” “Are you sure?” “Is this the SHORTEST way home?” And they like to remind me what they do know, like when Chloe asked me which books in her catalog cost less than $5 and I started reading off the titles she kept saying “I know that one! You already told me that one!”

The twins are really changing their tune about school. Last year they’d moan and groan and bargain in an attempt to getting out of going to school, and this year they’ve started to be downright positive about going to school. On Friday Alex asked which day of the week it was. When he found out it was Friday he asked if Friday was a school day. When I told him it was he said “oh good, then I’ll get to see Mrs. Peirce”. He really likes her! I’m so relieved to have them liking school before they have to face the scary transition to kindergarten.

My last story of the week is about raking leaves. The twins raked up a pile of leaves so they could jump and play in it, and then they named the pile Phil. Whenever the wind would blow the leaves around they’d yell “No! Phil, come back!” As I sucked up the rest of the leaves in the yard they pleaded that I not “throw away Phil”. When I asked Chloe how the pile of leaves got its name, she said simply, “I named it Phil”. Apparently naming a pile of leaves and becoming emotionally attached to it is perfectly normal from her point of view.

casey's surgery - day 1

Casey’s surgery – day 1: The day isn’t over yet, so perhaps my title is premature, but… The surgery was at 7:30a which met check-in at 6:30, which meant our babysitter had to show up at 6a.m.! Things went very smoothly and at almost exactly 9:30 the doctor came and told me that the surgery was over and had been a success with nothing unexpected. I’d been told beforehand that Casey would be a ½ hour to an hour “waking up” enough that they could get him dressed and in a chair, and then I’d be allowed to see him. It was almost an hour and a half later when a nurse came and told me that Casey had an asthma attack (he hasn’t had one since he was 3!) and seemed to be doing better after a nebulizer treatment and some oxygen, but that he was still going to be a while. I forget the timing of events from there, but Casey’s oxygen saturation wouldn’t stay up without oxygen assistance, so they took him for a chest x-ray. They found fluid in his lungs and a lot of air in his belly, both of which made it hard for him to breathe. Instead of getting to see him at 10:30, it was nearly 3pm before I was allowed back. I stayed with him for an hour watching his O2 saturation go up and down until finally it stayed up and he was released to go home. It seems there were a number of factors at play. 1) The pain killers are also central nervous system depressants and other patients in the recovery also had short-term O2 sat problems. 2) The anesthesiologist and the nurses believe that Casey’s snoring is because of sleep-apnea and the anesthesiologist heard Casey make a snoring/gurgling sound as he was coming out of the anesthesia. She thinks the apnea of a (I forget what words she used, but it meant “relaxed”) throat caused him to aspirate some fluid. 3) The air in his belly put pressure on his diaphragm making it harder for his lungs to expand.
Since he’s been home Casey has been doing very well. He ate a good dinner, took a pain killer, and was comfortable enough to get a little sleep in his recliner.

week ending nov 2, 2008:

Week ending Nov 2, 2008: This week was Halloween, a nature walk in Patapsco Valley State park, the twins’ first gymnastics class of the season, and a bowling birthday party. The twins had a Halloween party at school and I volunteered to help run a game for the kids to play, but when I showed up, there were so many volunteers there wasn’t anything left for me to do so I just got to enjoy the party and take tons of pictures. When we first arrived in the classroom Alex brought his friend Matthew over to meet me and after the introductions Alex was holding Matthew’s hand and Matthew reached over and grabbed my hand and wiggled it. At first I was confused and then I realized Matthew was shaking my hand! How grown-up these kids are introducing their friends to their parents (without prompting!) and shaking hands.
On Halloween night we went to Natalie’s house and did our trick-or-treating in her neighborhood. We told the kids that they could only go the houses that had the porch lights on. After a few houses they caught on and they’d run down the sidewalk yelling “Light! Light! Light!” each time they saw the next house with the porch light on. Alex’s costume was the Transformer character called Optimus Prime, and Chloe’s costume was an angel. The package said “Darling Angel”, so Chloe told everyone who asked about her costume that she was “Darling Angel”. http://picasaweb.google.com/constance.phelps/Halloween2008#
On our nature walk we walked 3 miles in 3 hours with 3 preschoolers (Cousin Natalie went to that also). The twins didn’t have any trouble with the distance and they had a great time reveling in the joys of nature (as evidenced by the pictures). http://picasaweb.google.com/constance.phelps/PatapsacoStatePark2008#
Since Chloe picked ballet over the summer, and Alex picked soccer in the early fall, it was Chloe’s turn to pick what activity the twins were signed up for next. She picked gymnastics. They gym they used to go to had closed, but a different local gym seems to have a very similar program. When I asked Alex if he wanted to do gymnastics he said “no”. I guessed that he’d change his mind if he got to watch a class so I drove over one evening when a class of kids their age was in session. I was right! Alex hadn’t been in the building but a few minutes before he was asking when he’d get to “do that”. They had their next class the next day and Alex loved it so much that he sulked when it was over. The bowling birthday party was for their friend Moni who is in their preschool class and also lives in our neighborhood. I hadn’t considered bowling as an option for 5 year olds, but the kids loved it. The bumpers were set up in the gutters so all the kids had to do was get the ball moving just a little bit down the lane and they’d knock over at least a few pins. I couldn’t believe how slowly a ball could roll down the lane and still manage to knock over 3 or 4 pins. The kids would get really excited when it was their turn to roll the ball, but sometimes they lost interest before the ball actually reached the pins. http://picasaweb.google.com/constance.phelps/BowlingBirthday#

week ending oct 26, 2008:

Week ending October 26, 2008: The picture is of the kids at their final day at soccer clinic in costume, of course.

This week Alex has been having nightmares. I’m sure every kid has a nightmare now and again, but 3 days in a row was troubling to me. I asked a host of questions about school and worries and came up answers like: the thing Alex likes least about school is cleaning up the toys (fair enough), the thing Alex is worrying about is his Daddy’s shoulder (Daddy is going to have shoulder surgery Nov 7). All told Alex seems to be an extremely happy kid. He smiles almost whenever I catch his eye and he has plenty of energy and enthusiasm. Fortunately later in the week the nightmares seemed to disappear as quickly as they appeared.

Chloe was sick on Wed with a sore throat and a fever and then on Thursday she was all better and asked to go ice skating. Alex says he’s never skating again, so he stayed with Grammy Carole while Chloe and I headed to the rink. Chloe was pretty nervous when she got on the ice and she started panting every time I let go of her hand. I’d remind her to take a deep breath to calm down. After a few reminders, she’d stop what she was doing and take her own deep breath every time she started to get wound up. Apparently I was doing some kind of hand gesture raising my hands up and down with the breaths in and out because every time Chloe would stop, she’d do an exaggerated hand gesture as she took her deep breath. She had a good time skating and did a lot of grinning as she got better and better. Shortly afterward we were in the Target parking lot and I gasped as another driver nearly rammed a parked car at high speed. Chloe asked why I’d made that noise and when I explained it she said “you should take a deep breath and calm down Mommy”. I said “thank you Chloe” and she said “you’re welcome!”.

Alex and I started reading some of the books that he got for his birthday that were quite technical descriptions of the science behind various aircraft, especially spacecraft. Alex was riveted. When I came up to turn his light off in his bedroom at night he said “Mom, I’m reading my favorite book. Look at this…” he could barely contain himself enough to get to sleep. That’s my boy! I can’t wait to take him to the air and space museum as soon as we get some free time.

Week ending oct 19, 2008:

Week ending Oct 19, 2008: This week I had multiple conversations with Chloe about why we cannot have a pet dolphin. She has decided that she wants to be a dolphin trainer and I explained that a good way to become a dolphin trainer is to volunteer at the Aquarium like Aunt Tricia did so she could practice and learn about dolphins. Chloe wanted to get started with the practicing right away. Since I wouldn’t consent to a pet dolphin she took to giving commands to her stuffed dolphin and throwing it in the air as though it were doing tricks.

Also this week we saw a butterfly on our zinnia. I called the kids over to the window to see it and they both “oohed” and “aahed” and said it was beautiful. Then Alex looked at Chloe and said “it is almost as beautiful as you are”. Even Chloe was taken aback and asked him if that is really what he had said. He really did!

I’ve explained before how the kids tend to reenact recent events in their imaginary play to try to get a handle on what has happened. Many months ago when one of them threw up, they spent a week pretending to throw up and pretending their toys were throwing up. In the last few months I’ve been noticing them doing a lot of pretending about packing for a pretend trip. Since we went on 4 week long vacations this year and several shorter trips, we do seem to be constantly packing. In their play, the packing is real. They have a whole draw full of back packs and duffle bags and they will pull all of them out and fill all of them to capacity. This week the pretend destination was the Russian Ballet. The real destination was my bedroom in which they emptied the contents of all the bags.

Also this week we went to a corn maze at Greenstreet Growers in Lothian with 8 other kids from our neighborhood: http://picasaweb.google.com/constance.phelps/Greenstreet#

And we went to a birthday party with TWO ponies at which Chloe got no less than 6 pony rides: http://picasaweb.google.com/constance.phelps/NatalieDixonS5thBday#

Week ending oct 12, 2008:

Week ending Oct 12, 2008: This week the twins had their annual “well-visit” with the doctor. Chloe was worried that she’d have to get vaccinations, especially since she had 5 shots last year. It turns out that the only vaccination the kids needed was a flu booster and this year they could have the flu-mist nose spray instead of a shot. Instead of being relieved that they wouldn’t have to have shots, both kids were worried about the nose spray. They’ve each used saline nose spray, so I still don’t understand their trepidation. In the end Alex was dead set against the spray, asked if he could have a shot instead. I decided that he’d prefer the nose spray in the long run if he just tried it, but I had to hold him down and the nurse gave it to him while he was kicking and screaming. The doctor is very personable and asked each twin what they wanted to be when they grow up. They were feeling too shy to answer for themselves so I asked Alex if he hadn’t said that wanted to be an astronaut. He said that he’d changed his mind about that because Chloe had told him that if he forgot his helmet, he wouldn’t be able to breathe. I guess we’ll have to talk some more about the training and planning that goes into a space mission.
Chloe asked how we know that the earth is round. I told her about the pictures that have been taken from space, and explained that we first learned that the earth was round when sailors sailed around the world. She asked if they sailed upside down when they were on the other side of the earth. I thought this was a clever conclusion to be able to visualize a sail around the earth like a loop on a roller coaster.
This week the kids heard the song “You really got me now” by the Kinks on the radio and both really liked it. They asked me to play it again. I find that they like a lot of the most popular songs which makes me wonder about the unlearned part of humans that makes so many of us like the same songs.
This week we got a 2nd guinea pig from the rescue to keep the 1st one company. We’ve read that guinea pigs, especially females do better in pairs. Chloe decided to name the new pig Princess Dandelion. PD looks very similar to Princess Smiley.

week ending oct 5, 2008:

Week ending Oct 5, 2008: This week the twins turned 5. On their actual birthday, a Friday, I let them eat doughnuts for breakfast, took them to Chuck-E-Cheese for lunch, brought ice cream cups and pudding cups into school (no cupcakes allowed), then Daddy came home an hour early for work and they opened the presents from us. I wrapped the presents the night before their birthday and left them in the dining room for them to find, but I had explained the night before that we weren’t opening presents until Daddy came home. In the morning Alex lay down next to the pile of presents and just stared at them. When I walked over, Alex said “Mom, I can’t help loving my presents” and he gave the wrapped boxes a hug. Chuck-E-Cheese is quite manageable at lunch time on a school day and the kids really love it. When I paid for the pizza and tokens I mentioned that it was the twins’ birthday and the employee gave each twin a gold medal and a balloon. A little while later Chuck-E-Cheese himself came out they BOTH ran right over. I think this is the first time that Alex has ever volunteered to get his picture taken with a character (he wouldn’t even stand next to Buzz Lightyear at Disney). At school the teacher gave the kids each a birthday crown that they were still wearing when I picked them up. We got the twins a special birthday present this year, a battery powered ATV. It took no time at all for the twins to figure out how to operate it since it steers like a bicycle.
Between running around at Chuck-E-Cheese and an evening of excitement and presents the kids were so exhausted that they didn’t have any trouble getting a good night’s sleep before the party on Saturday. We ended up with 10 kids and 21 adults of the possible 52 people we had invited. Everything went very smoothly and the kids all seemed to have a great time bouncing on the trampoline, riding the ATV, doing a craft project, playing a game, opening a piñata, and eating cake. I can’t think of a single thing that went wrong. Every time I started doing one of my “hostess chores” (handing out cake, etc) 4 or 5 people jumped in to help. After the twins unwrapped all the presents Alex started right into getting the toys out of the packaging and Chloe ignored all the toys and went back to playing with her friends. Very typical. Alex loves tinkering with toys and Chloe loves spending time with people.
I can’t believe how much they’ve grown up this year. They are getting more independent all the time. Except at bed time when Chloe was exhausted from a day of partying hard she started asking a lot of questions about what life will be like for her next year when she goes to kindergarten in a new school and I get a job. She’s worried about who’ll watch her, and as I hugged her she clung to me and said “I don’t want you to go to work!” I hate to see her worry, and I reassured her that she’ll be ready for the changes and that I’d do my best to make sure she was happy next year, but part of me is touched that she still wants me around.

week ending sept 28, 2007:

Week ending September 28, 2008: My mother likes to tell the story about how my grandmother used to tell her “I don’t wish you any bad luck, but I hope your kids are just like you.” Well, karma may be paying me back with my own kids. When I was in elementary school I hated eating my vegetables and my parents’ rule was that we didn’t leave the table until the plate was empty. I’d sit at the table for hours. As I got older I started feeding the vegetables to the dog, hiding them in my napkin, etc, so my parents started a nightly backgammon game at the dinner table so they could keep an eye on me while I dawdled over my dinner. Now I’m the lucky parent of a kid who dawdles over dinner. Alex will eat at a relatively normal speed if we serve chicken nuggets, meatballs, hotdogs, or pizza. If we serve anything else he shifts into slow motion and can take up to an hour and a half eating his dinner. Instead of hating his vegetables, he hates the meat. Pork chops, grilled chicken and steak are his least favorites. We’ll have to tell him “put food in your mouth” with every forkful and then we’ll have to remind him to chew. I don’t know why kids (me included) don’t figure out that it is not fun to spend hours at the dinner table, eating dinner is unavoidable, so doing it quickly would really make life more fun for everyone. You’d think since I’d done it myself I’d have some insight, but alas no.

Princess Smiley (Chloe’s new guinea pig) is doing well. Chloe has not lost her enthusiasm so we take PS out of her crate 3-4 times a day for petting and feeding her carrots.

The twins are very excited about their birthday. We’ve been counting down the days since it was 10 days till their birthday. The next time I write, they’ll be 5 years old!

I took Chloe to the gastroenterologist for a follow up. Chloe is doing fine so the doctor and I were talking about “cutting her back” when Alex came over and whispered in my ear “Mom, why are they going to cut Chloe?” I had to explain that it was the medicine we were going to cut back, not Chloe. Then when I called Casey to give him the scoop I said “let’s give it a shot” and Chloe said “I don’t want a shot!” I have to watch what I say because little ears are listening all the time!

Princess Smiley and Speed:

Speed is the name Alex chose for his new Betta.












Princess Smiley is the name Chloe chose for her new guinea pig. I ended up getting the animals 11 days before their b'days because the Pennysaver and SPCA neither had ANY guinea pigs, so when we found one at the Chesapeake Guinea Pig rescue, we jumped at the opportunity. PS is quite shy, but given that a year ago our stray cat, Walt Disney, wouldn't let the kids within 15 feet of him and now he follows the kids around the yard and watches them play, I'm hoping we have the patience and ability to help PS conquer her fears. Chloe pestered me all day about letting her play with PS, but PS was so nervous and her heart rate was maxed every time we took her out of the crate, so I insisted on several hours of rest between handlings. All told we had her out 4 times today and she got progressively more relaxed each time. I think we're making progress.

The kids last year trying to win Walt Disney's confidence.

week ending Sept 21, 2008:

Week ending Sept 21, 2008: The kids started soccer this week and LOVE it. Coach David is quite a clown!

I’ve been noticing for quite a while now that the kids are really into negotiating for what they want, and to some extent I encourage it. Negotiating in calm voices is far preferable to the whining and kicking-and-screaming of a few years ago, but after a long day of tag-team negotiating over every little thing, I’m exhausted and tempted to scream “Shut up and do what you are told! Right now! No arguing!”. I mean it is not like I’m debating the Harvard Debate Team, but it is constant, and if I don’t pay enough attention even though they are only 4 years old they can back me into a strategic corner. Some examples of what we negotiate over:
- Whether cheese by itself is a complete nutritious breakfast. Apparently I caved once before on this issue and they remember and have thus redoubled their efforts.
- Whether they should have to brush their teeth or get to watch another episode of Word World which is already over. I try to explain that it won’t be on again until tomorrow, but that doesn’t mean they don’t want to watch it right now.
- Who sits on which side of the car. At least twice a day. Every day.
- Who gets which cup cake. A long debate over two identical cup cakes that dissolved into children crying and screaming while I was on hold with Verizon.
- Whether Chloe could bring her plush poodle to the pretend bday party Alex was having for his toy airplane
- Whether they can wear fleece footie jammies to bed when it is 80F in the house
- Who gets which Hotwheels car. This debate was repeated so many times I finally put the cars away (but not before I lost my cool)
- Whether it is fair to chickens that we eat them for dinner. This is only up for debate when I grill their chicken because apparently chickens don’t mind being turned into chicken nuggets.
- Exactly how many bites of dinner must be eaten before dessert is served.
- Whether we are going to buy popsicles, ice cream, doughnuts, cookies, candy, fried cheese, made-for-kid-tv-dinners, macaroni-n-cheese with a picture of Sponge Bob, cereal with a toy inside, etc at the grocery store (seems like at least a few items on each and every aisle).

This week I witnessed this endless perseverance having a remarkable payoff for Chloe. At the playground there were two little girls who were 6 and Chloe wanted them to play with her. They didn’t want to play with her and took various tactics from ignoring her, to playing in areas where Chloe didn’t have the dexterity to play, and then finally being downright rude to Chloe. Chloe finally responded by being rude back and then came over and sat with me and cried because she still wanted to be friends with the girls. I suggested Chloe go and apologize and when she did one of the little girls relented and started goofing off with Chloe and making Chloe laugh and laugh. Chloe was overjoyed! When the little girl had to go home, she and Chloe hugged. If Chloe follows her dreams with the same tenacity, she is going to take the world by storm!

week ending sept 14, 2008:

Week ending Sept 14: This week I’ve spent a lot of time thinking about how big the kids are getting and how fast this part of our lives seems to be going by. A while back Bubbe pointed out that although people often take notice of the “firsts” (first steps, first word, first day at school), we rarely realize when we are witnessing the “lasts” such as the last time a child needs to be picked up to climb into a car, the last time a child sleeps in the crib, the last time a high chair is used. I feel like the kids going to full-day kindergarten is looming on the horizon (ok, it is almost a whole year away, never too early to be paranoid) and I’m wondering how our lives will change. They are getting so big I can feel that the last time I carry them out of the car is coming. I’ve told them that when they turn 5 they’ll be in charge of brushing their own teeth so I’m nearing the last time I have to brush their teeth. How far of a leap is it until we reach the last time I read them a bed-time story? The last time they’ll climb into bed with us on a weekend morning? The last time they’ll give me a kiss in front of their friends? Of course there are a few “lasts” that I AM looking forward to like the last time I have to wipe a bottom (I still help with the really messy ones, lucky me), the last time I have to hold a tissue while they blow, anything involving bodily fluids, really.

This was the first full week of classes. Chloe talks about Mackenzie all the time and has also told me about songs they sing in class, and projects they are working on. Both kids got excited about an apple project they worked on, and both kids liked the “apple tortillas” that they got to help make. I haven’t heard quite so much complaining about school as I did last year. Last year the kids got invited to a birthday party and Alex said he wasn’t going to go because the boy was from school. Alex hated school and anything to do with school.

Chloe and I spent the night in the tent in the backyard this week. It was originally going to be all 3 of us, but about a minute after we turned the light out Alex said he was too scared and wanted to go inside. It was then I realized that the twins have NEVER slept with the windows open in their rooms. They had no idea what the sounds of night are. Poor planning on my part. Chloe kept saying she was scared, and I kept telling her that she could go inside any time she wanted to but as long as she wanted to stay in the tent I’d stay with her. She woke up at 6:23am and sat bolt upright. I told her I was very proud of her for making it through the whole night. She rolled over and went back to sleep until 7:30!

week ending sept 7, 2008:

Week ending Sept 7, 2008: This week we took the kids to the Renaissance Festival. It was a very different experience than last year. Last year we did the elephant ride, pony ride, got their faces painted and watched the joust. This year shot they bow and arrows, watched the sword swallower, watched the jousting show, rode the giant slide, saw the rat show and Alex watched the archery show while Chloe shopped for a souvenir. Since I didn’t have to spend money on elephant rides and face paint, I told the kids they could each get a souvenir. Alex saw another boy with a sword and knew instantly that is what he wanted. Chloe had to look at everything in every shop before she settled on a head decoration with ribbons and rosettes. I had fun looking in all the shops with Chloe while Alex and Casey watched the archery demonstration. Chloe wore her Princess Jasmine costume which looks like a “harem girl” and got compliments wherever she went. Neither twin was very thrilled with the sword swallower, and Chloe got a little grossed out/upset with some of the physical comedy, so we left in the middle.

This week I signed the kids up for a soccer clinic. When Chloe signed up for ballet Alex told me he wanted to do soccer. I wasn’t enthusiastic about sitting outside in the heat, rain, cold, etc watching soccer, so I drug my feet about checking it out. With the impending onset of fall I just couldn’t ignore it any longer and signed them up for a 6 week clinic that meets for one hour per week. I can handle that! They start next week.

I forgot last week to write about taking the kids to college. When the kids ask questions about “why?” this and “why?” that, I seem to often refer to college. One day Chloe asked if she was living at college and I was living at home, who was going to cook for her, so I told her about the “restaurants” at college. The kids decided they wanted to go and see college and eat at the “restaurant” so I took them to the dining hall at UMCP. I played up how they could chose whatever they wanted to eat and pointed out the desserts, doughnuts, and sodas. We walked by the indoor pool, outdoor pool, horse barn, and library before the kids ran out of steam. It was a lot of walking so we’d sit down for frequent breaks and when we’d sit down the kids would say “tell me a story about college!” In one of the “stories” I was listing off all of the people Alex and Chloe know who went to school at UMCP. Chloe said “College is a SCHOOL?!” I couldn’t believe we’d spent hours talking about and visiting college before I’d explained that college is a school! Maybe I’m crazy for trying to sell a couple of 4 year olds on college, but it was a nice walk down memory lane.

first day of school 2008

First Day of School 2008: On Wednesday half of the preschool class went to school, including Alex and Chloe (the other half goes Friday). Chloe cried at dinner the night before and said she wished that she’d have the same class this year as she did last year and that she’d miss me while she was at school. Alex didn’t say much. She was still a little nervous in the morning and gave me lots of hugs. Alex was excited to show his new Airator sneakers to his teacher and Chloe decided that she’d like to bring a picture of the ground hog in our backyard to take to school and show to the teacher. They each decided that they’d like to take a picture of me with them to school also. Chloe said she was worried about finding her class room after I dropped her off in car line. I said she’d just have to tell the teacher who walked her from our car that she was in Mrs. Peirce’s class. She was worried that she’d forget the name so as we waited in the car line she repeated to herself “Mrs. Peirce… Mrs. Peirce… Mrs. Peirce…” When a teacher opened our car door both kids jumped out and never looked back. When I picked them up Chloe said she’d made a new friend named Mackenzie. They both told me that they’d had graham crackers and water for a snack but the fruit was something they’d never heard of before so they didn’t try it. I asked what kind of “helpers” they were. Alex got to be line leader (their favorite!) and Chloe was the counter (she counted the kids in line to make sure everyone was there). Alex said they played inside then they played outside, and then a “horrible thing happened”. What horrible thing? He said that the teacher made them sit down while they waited for the parents to pick them up. He told the teacher he wanted to stand but she wouldn’t let him. I guess last year’s teacher may have had a different rule and Alex does not like rule changes so in his view it was a “horrible thing”. They both say they don’t think that going to school will be fun, but they don’t seem overly upset, so I guess we’re doing ok.

week ending aug 31, 2008:

This week the kids and Grammy Carole and I went on a car trip. We stopped by Great Granddad and Grammy Elaine’s in Wilmington for lunch, then headed up to my cousin Jeff’s house in NJ for a 35th anniversary party for my Aunt Nancy and Uncle Skip. During the drive up we learned for sure that Chloe does have motion sickness. She had virtually stopped complaining about her belly since starting the Nexium, but about an hour into the trip she actually threw up. When we stopped for lunch we gave her a ¼ Dramamine and she was fine for the remaining 2 hours of the drive. Jeff’s daughter Maura is 9 months younger than Alex and Chloe and they all got along very well. The twins were sad to have to leave on Sunday morning and Alex said he wants us to move to NJ. Aunt Nancy pointed out that it is impressive how well the twins handled playing and sleeping in strange surroundings, and she’s right.
Last week I talked about how Chloe has taken well to learning to write her numbers and how Alex got quickly frustrated and wanted to quit. This week I noticed that they have taken opposite rolls in their bike riding, ie Alex has taken well to practicing riding his bike and Chloe gets quickly frustrated and wants to quit. Chloe fell off her bike almost a year ago, bloodied her knees on the pavement, and ever since has been very nervous about biking. For a while she would only ride her tricycle. Then I coaxed her into riding her bike if I held onto the handlebars the whole time. A few weeks ago I bribed her with knee and elbow pads to get her to ride without me holding on, but she is still very nervous and won’t ride faster than a snail’s pace. We never see other kids riding around here, so there really isn’t any incentive for her to try. The picture is of the inside of our video cabinet. There are over 100 children’s videos most of which were hand-me-downs or presents, but the amazing thing is that the twins can recognize nearly all the movies by the boxes even though they don’t know how to read yet. Their ability to memorize massive amounts of information is pretty impressive. They recognize dozens of companies by their logos. I guess all this memorizing of visual information is a starting point for reading. Chloe is starting to show an interest in learning how to read and will sound out letters and try to figure out what words they are.


This is a one minute long video of Alex and Chloe at Extreme Bounce Zone in Millersville with a mele of other kids all escaping death and destruction with only inches to spare. To play the video, click on the triangle in the lower left hand corner of the picture. Alex and Chloe are wearing white shirts and Alex has blue shorts and Chloe has a light colored skirt. If you have RealPlayer you can mouse over the top of the video and "Download video" will pop-up and you can download the video and watch it in full screen size so you can actually tell which kid is which.

school orientation 2008

School orientation: Today was “orientation” at school which is essentially a meet-and-greet with the teacher and half of the class for 1 hour. The twins will attend the same preschool as last year only with a new teacher and 3 half-days per week instead of 2, so we are all pretty blasé about the whole thing. I had driven almost all of the way to the school when I realized that I’d forgotten my camera, so we drove all the way home to get it and then were 10 minutes late. Last year all the parents had cameras and many of the kids had both parents in attendance. This year I was the only parent with a camera. In the class of 14 there is one girl in their class who was in their class last year and one other girl that Chloe was friends with from waiting in the hall to be picked up after school. Also in their class is another set of twins. Their teacher this year seems friendlier and more proactive than the one last year, so I’m hoping that the kids like school better this year. At orientation Alex and Chloe played with many of the classroom toys and I facilitated some introductions to the other students. It seems that kids at this age are a little more interactive with each other rather than engaging in the “parallel play” that they did last year. The twins were very excited to see what the “class pet” is. There are 3 fish. Chloe took the initiative to ask the teacher if she could feed the fish and was rewarded for her efforts. The other kids were disappointed that they hadn’t been the first ones to think to ask.

week ending aug 24, 2008:

Week ending August 25, 2008: This week Chloe saw a different gastroenterologist who gave us a prescription for Nexium to replace the Prevacid that Chloe has been taking. Without seeing the slides from Chloe’s endoscopy (which I was unable to get before the appointment), the new doctor didn’t have anything else interesting to say.

Because the doctor is in Baltimore and we’d been planning to go to the Maryland Science Center before the summer is over, we headed over to the Inner Harbor the same day. The twins have been begging to go and it was probably their 4th or 5th time at the Science Center so they remembered many of the exhibits that they wanted to revisit, and we saw a bunch of new ones. They particularly liked excavating the bone replicas, sitting in the dinosaur foot prints, and playing with the fancy water table.

This week I set up a project for the kids to make a pretend clock and I asked them to write the numbers 1-12 on the clock. They haven’t practiced writing numbers very much but Chloe practiced a little on a piece of paper and then made her clock. Alex wouldn’t write on the clock, and after tracing one number I’d written on a piece of paper he refused to try any more. We had the same conversation we’d had a dozen times before about how it can be frustrating to try something new when you can’t do it the way you like, but practicing is the only way to get better. Alex wasn’t swayed. I told Alex that next year in kindergarten he’d have to practice writing because everyone has to learn writing in school. Alex said, “I’m not going to learn to write.” I said everyone has to learn how to write so they can get a job. Alex said, “Then I just won’t get a job. I don’t want to write, I want to be an astronaut.” It was hard not to crack up laughing at that point, but I did mention that many people want to be astronauts so he’ll have to work hard in school if he wants to get to be an astronaut. The talk didn’t change his mind that day, but the next morning Alex brought up the subject on his own and told me that he wanted to practice writing. Unfortunately we had to hurry out the door that morning, so I didn’t have time to take him up on his offer, but I’m glad he thought about it and somewhat amazed that took the talk seriously enough to remember it the following day.

Looks like I posted the pictures from the carnival, not the ones from the Science Center: http://picasaweb.google.com/constance.phelps/EdgewaterCarnival

week ending aug 17, 2008:

Week ending Aug 17, 2008: This week we delved deep into the underbelly of the guinea pig world. We went to two pet stores and the SPCA. We bought and read a book about raising guinea pigs, we started acquiring guinea pig accoutrement, and we did a great deal of research about guinea pig cages. Most notable was our visit to the SPCA which had several guinea pigs, rabbits, mice, and one rat available for adoption. The small animals had a room to themselves and after providing us directions to reach the room, no one seemed concerned about our extended presence in the room, so I took each of the animals out of the cages, one at a time, and let the kids pet them all. We didn’t have any allergy or asthma attacks, so I thought that was a good sign, since the animals shed all over us. The rabbits were so big that they didn’t really fit on either of the twin’s laps. The rat named Pippin was very friendly and curious and Chloe now wants me to do rat research to see if a rat would be an appropriate pet because she liked him as much or more than the guinea pigs. One of the guinea pigs we pet was a long haired silky variety and his name was Fabio. Fabio had the unfortunate coloring of my wet hair when I pull gobs of it (covered in soap scum) out of the shower drain, so I’m glad Chloe didn’t favor him because I would have a hard time getting past that mental imagery. My favorite was a girl pig named Smiley. Before we went to the SPCA Chloe insisted that she wanted a white female because she liked the looks of the white ones in the book, and Chloe has always had a gender bias toward girls. All her stuffed animals are girls (according to Chloe), as are her baby dolls, and she announced this week that she doesn’t like boys (referring to boy children, which I’m betting her father is hoping that she holds onto this view until at least college). Anyway, after meeting Smiley, Chloe decided that a tri-color would be good too. I told Chloe that we couldn’t take Smiley home yet since we didn’t have a cage ready and the pig is really supposed to be her birthday present, so I didn’t want her to be disappointed on her birthday. Now that I’ve met some pigs, I’m pretty excited about getting a guinea pigs, so I was secretly hoping she’d say her usual “that’s ok Mommy” (that she always says when she’s arguing with me) and inform me that if she got the pig now she wouldn’t be disappointed on her birthday!
With all this guinea pig fuss, Alex decided that he wants a pet. Now he and Chloe fight over who gets to feed the cat because Alex wants to prove himself pet-worthy. At the pet store Alex fell in love with the mice and decided that I was getting one for him. I told him that I didn’t want a mouse to get loose in our house because I didn’t think we’d be able to find it. We’ve read that guinea pigs like to have companions, so I figured that 2 guinea pigs wouldn’t be appreciably more trouble than 1. Alex insisted that he did not want a guinea pig, and suggested that a fish wouldn’t be able to get away. I conceded that a fish might be an acceptable pet, but we aren’t done with the debate yet.


Our pictures from a very nice visit to the Smithsonian on Friday (we didn't get any pictures with the dinosaur bones because the kids were too nervous to allow me to step far enough away from them to get a shot with all those big scary dinosaur skeletons around): http://picasaweb.google.com/constance.phelps/SmithsonianNaturalHistoryMuseum

week ending aug 10, 2008:

Week ending Aug 10, 2008: This week I made a few choices that may prove, in the long run, to be unsound. My first choice was that I agreed to let Chloe have a pet. After the Great Pet Debate in the car on the way home from OBX, I had told Chloe that she had to the feed the cat everyday if she wanted a pet. Well, she actually did it. Every day. She kept asking when we’d talk again about getting a pet and I kept saying “not until after the Chincoteague vacation”. Well, just about as soon as we walked in the door getting home from the vacation, Chloe started asking about pets again. I told her that I would have to research what kinds of pets are good for 5 year olds and that we’d get a pet by the time her birthday is here. After a smattering of research, I think a guinea pig is the front runner. I think I may regret this decision if we end up with an ignored pet that I have to feed and clean up after, but we’ll see. Chloe does seem to be more responsible about pets than I was as a kid.

My second possibly unsound decision this week was to sign up as the Sunday school teacher for the 3-8 year olds in the fall. Since Alex and Chloe have been going to Sunday school for 2 years now, I feel that it is time that we give back to the institution. The reason I may regret my decision is that I have some pretty serious social anxiety and being in front of a group, even a group of kids, does not agree with me. My plan is to just suck it up and plug through. I did a trial run this week and we only had 4 kids with 3 grown-ups in charge. Everything went very smoothly and I still felt like I’d been through the ringer afterwards.

The children’s birthdays have been a hot topic of discussion this week. They know that after my birthday, we start planning their party. This week they’ve each picked out their themes (Wall-E for Chloe, and Speed Racer for Alex), they’ve decided the guest list, and we’ve designed the cakes. We had some points of contention, for instance they wanted to invite as many friends as Natalie did (20+) and we decided that 6 boys and 6 girls was enough (including the 4 cousins that we always invite). Another point of contention was that they wanted the venue to be Chuck-E-Cheese. I can barely stand Chuck-E-Cheese when the place is almost empty, there is no way I was going to host a party of 14 five year olds there. So we settled on our backyard as the venue without too much of a fight. Next I need to create some invitations and pick a date.

Also this week, Chloe saw a picture of the Michelin man and asked 20 questions about who he is and why he looks that way. I didn’t have many answers, so I looked it up at this site: http://www.bobkestrut.com/2006/03/05/just-who-is-that-jolly-puffy-toff/

pony week day 7

We went to the Tom's Cove Visitor's Center this morning so the kids could touch the animals in the touch pool.










In the afternoon we went to the beach. It was 6 month old Aidan's very first visit to the beach. We played in the surf for a very little while and then got attacked by biting black flies. There would be at least a dozen at a time on the kids even after I sprayed them with Cutter. As we walked away from the beach and rinsed off by the car, Alex was screaming like he was being attacked by a chainsaw. We've had a wonderful time on our vacation, but I think we are all ready for some rest and peace and quiet. Maybe they'll have a long nap on the drive home tomorrow.

pony week day 6 - the swim

We weren't sure we'd make to see the swim this morning since it could have been as early as 7am, but we caught a bus at 7:30am and arrived at the park just as the flare was shot to start the swim.












See the ponies that the man in front of me is pointing to? Neither did we. They were on the other side of all those boats and we could see a row of cowboy hats moving ant-like off in the distance, but couldnt really tell when they were in the water. The flesh blob in the picture is CHloe's knee as she was sitting on my shoulders to "see" over the crowd.









AFter the swim the ponies are rested for 45 minutes, then they are herded down the street to the carnival grounds where the auction will be held tomorrow. We were able to walk over to the road in time to get a fairly decent view.

pony week day 5

This morning we went to the Chincoteague Pony Center to pet tame ponies, and then we went to Trimpers Rides in Ocean City. The weather was incredibly agreeable for the end of July, and the kids had a blast. Grammy Carole said it was like Chloe ate springs for breakfast because she just bounced the entire time she was at Trimpers. Alex is really bonding with Granddad. He wants Granddad to hold his hand, and Granddad to go on rides with him, and to ride home in Granddad's car.