New Playset!

New Playset!

This is what I started on Friday night. It's the frame for a bazillion-piece playset. Once it was spotted by the kids Saturday morning, it became critical (to them) to finish it. So, most of Saturday was spent putting this beast together.

It was supposed to rain all day Saturday, but the rain held off and I finished everything except the lower siding. We had Amryn, Phoebe, and Torrin come over to play for lunch on Father's Day (Sunday), but the Saturday rain came late and arrived Sunday morning, so nobody ventured outside to play. They only got to admire it from afar.

It's a kit from Toys-R-Us. If you've assembled Legos, then you kind of know how this went: connect A19 to B23 using 6 S2 screws, repeat X 1000. I assembled the frame on the patio and then moved it to the back of the yard before adding the siding, roof, and swing arm. It's surprisingly light-weight wood and was really easy to move.

I got most of the work done before the twins noticed what I was doing and then while they were on a walk and later when they were napping. Between the drill, ladder, screws, and elevated platform, it was a bit dodgy trying to maintain a safe work environment with their help. It's still not finished, but nobody seems to care about the last few pieces of trim.

So far, so great. Vi and Luke really want to use the monkey bars and are just too short to reach them. Olivia instantly wanted to paint the entire thing and has already started carving into the wood with a spare screw. We brought the chalk down last night and some of it ended up on the chalk board.

Snow Day

Livvie’s been asking for snow for several weeks and we keep explaining to her that we can’t manufacture that sort of thing on demand.  We hadn’t seen any news or weather reports for several days, so we were completely surprised by the snow.  I gather that everyone else in Portland was also surprised based on the news reports, so we were glad that we were all at home with no where to be.

The snow was much more manageable this year.  Luke and Violet got all suited up and had no trouble walking in the 2-3 inches we got yesterday.  In last year’s snow they could barely move.  Neither one could grab anything with their waterproof mittens on, though.  Violet couldn’t take it and just kept trying to get her mittens off.

 

Olivia was very excited to build a snowman and then knocked it down later because she wanted to make giant snowballs.  It probably didn’t help that a couple of guys up the street built a 6’ high snowman.  You could tell that she was clearly disappointed with our snowman-making efforts after seeing that one.  We also spent a lot of time explaining why we couldn’t build an igloo/snow fort just like last year.  “There is enough snow!  Look at all the snow on the bushes and trees!” - Olivia

Of course we got the sleds out, but the new Christmas sleds weren’t used (they’re not as easy to pull 3 kids on at the same time).  We had the big sleds and they were all happy to share a ride together.  Michael was less happy to pull all 3 at the same time in the sticky, wet snow.

Vi had to make an early exit due to cold hands while Luke and Olivia went to the top of the next block and sledded down the middle of street where the car tracks made it super slick (uh, sure, it was safe, yeah, I was watching).  Liv even pulled Luke down the hill skeleton-style at the end.

The snow is all gone today and we had terrible tears this morning when Liv realized that there would be no igloo this year.

 

Harold

We have an attic monster named Harold.

Harold likes to eat spiders.

Harold also likes to spread butter on his spiders.

We let Harold use our butter at night.  Sometimes, he uses too much.

Livvie keeps calling to Harold when we open the attic door.  She'd like to meet him.

He's a nice attic monster, but shy.

He likes the dark spaces and is very hard to see.  He might be on the other side of the house, in the other attic.

Harold moved into this house with us from our old house, but he really likes it here and might not move again.

No more little boy curls

Luke got his 2nd haircut yesterday.  Here are a couple of before and after photos.  He’s still got a lot of “product” in his hair still in the after photo.

It is maybe a little shorter than we intended.  I’ll have to get a shot of the back of his hair which is pretty short and squared-off in the back.  It’ll probably be a little while before he gets another one.  We both like the skater-punk, mop-top, curly hair better.

The twins at 15 months

We’re not exactly sure why the twins get one appointment at 15 months and then another one at 18 months but, whatever, they had their 15 month appointment last week.

Luke -   25lbs. (51%), 32.5 in. (80%), Head 48 1/2 cm. (81%)

Violet – 21 lbs. 13 oz. (27%), 30.5 in. (42%), Head 47 cm. (76%)

Beagle – still overweight, but she missed breakfast yesterday…

Highlights from the “Special Instructions” we get from the doctor included these gems:

“PLAYTIME : Don’t expect your child to share toys with other children.”

and

“SAFETY: This can be a challenging age.”

ah, so true.

How’s everybody doing?

Luke and Violet have just recently decided that they like books.  We are getting hunted and then poked with books on a regular basis.  It’s funny to see the switch when their wee brains decide that books are interesting and fun.  Down by the Station and Baby Einstein: Jane's Animal Expedition are a couple of favorites (at the moment).  There is still some competition to hold the book when we read with both of them at the same time.  It’s quite exciting to referee the battle for the book while attempting to teach them how to turn pages in the correct direction and pointing out the different objects to notice on each page (they love to mimic us doing that: point point point).

Luke loves to wield the extension for the vacuum cleaner as a weapon (example below).  There have been a few close calls with the TV and Violet’s noggin, so it’s still a supervised-only “toy”.

Livvie’s had a great time lately.  Between playing at Karsten’s house at the Super Bowl and a day with Lana at babbo’s office (not this babbo, the other babbo, Mr. Matt), she’s been playing a lot.  She went to a birthday party for Marissa (friend from school) at Pump It Up last Sunday.  It was all she could talk about for days.  She’d hold up the invitation and talk about how much fun she was going to have.  Apparently, it didn’t disappoint. 

This is a shot of a calm moment in the movie room during the Super Bowl.

Scarred for Life?

I hope I’m not doing some sort of irreparable harm to my poor kids, but we still have them sleeping in the same crib at night.  The thing is, they sleep together so well.  The twins have been sleeping together since they were born.  It isn’t always hugs and sunshine in the crib; they’ve come out with war wounds each. 

I know it’s weird to say irreparable harm, but I can remember an attic door in my childhood home that was right next to my bed.  I somehow came to convince myself that I had to sleep up against that door to keep it shut (hey, I was young and imaginary monsters are scary).  That turned into years of sleeping up against a wall in any bed I found myself sleeping in.  I could make it a night or two if necessary, but I preferred to find my way back to beds up against walls.  I’m doing fine, now, thanks for asking.  It took some therapy and some healing time, but I’m off the wall.

What kind of harm might I do to these poor twins?  Imagine that they have to sleep with one hand constantly touching each other.  That turns into relationships where they must sleep touching their partner in the night.  They could lose a chance at Mr. or Mrs. Right just because they are a night-toucher.  The horror…  All due to their parents who let them sleep in the same crib for too long.

We need to work on getting some Toddler beds this year.