Now and Then

These girls are growing up too fast.
I think this picture was taken, like, yesterday.



If that was yesterday, how is this even possible?!

Two Rainbows

While Tessa and Annie are pretty darn identical in appearance, they are different in just about every other way.  They are becoming quite the individuals lately.  These pictures illustrate some of their differences.  Just a few days ago, I left them coloring in the kitchen while I was nursing Mary in the other room.  Suddenly, Tessa came running in, asking what color came first in the rainbow.  When she learned it was red, she bounded back into the kitchen, yelling, "It's red, Annie! I knew it! It's red!!"  We repeated this routine for the remaining colors of the rainbow.  A few minutes later, I came back into the kitchen to find two very different versions of the rainbow.

by Annie, AKA Annie Banan, Annie Grace, or Annie Belle

Annie's rainbow is full of broad, free-flowing strokes.  I'm sure she was done before Tessa, and ready to move on to the next activity.  She only added her name after I asked her to try to write it.  I thought it was really cute that she chose to make each letter a different color, and very confidently made each "N" without a care for how they should actually look, and continued to embellish the "E" until I stopped her.  If I hadn't snagged this from her when I did, I'm sure she would have then scribbled over the entire page, like she did with this picture:

She's a crazy artist that doesn't know when to stop.  And, she's pretty crazy and care-free in general.  She is more friendly and open with strangers than Tessa, and even refers to Megan's classmates as her friends.  She's very confident --- almost overly so! Currently, her favorite article of clothing is her "woggly skirt," a layered number that bounces around her a little as she walks.  She likes to pair this with pants and a striped sweater.  Ideally, nothing will match.  She doesn't let much bother her, and is usually very confident, except when she's feeling slighted or excluded by her sisters, or if she's been reprimanded.  Then, the waterworks come out.  Lately, her dramatics rival Bridget's, but she incorporates everything she sees from Megan as well.  It's a fun combination...with a generous helping of stubborness mixed in.  I would not be surprised at all if Annie became an actress when she grows up.  She and Bridget can move to Hollywood together :)

Meanwhile, Tessa's rainbow could not have been more different if she had tried! 

by Tessa, AKA Tessa Bo, or Tessa Bo Bessa

The colors are reversed, for one thing, and the shape is so deliberate and careful compared to Annie's rainbow.  This is pretty typical of her personality.  She's very methodical, a rule-follower and most of what she does is very planned out.  She didn't write her name here, but she was writing her name well before Annie, and will spell it for anyone who will listen.  And, she would be really upset if she messed up her letters the way Annie did above.  Also, every day it's becoming more apparent that she'll be a lefty.  She alternates a lot between her hands right now, but seems to favor her left.   Tessa also knows the directions to any of our usual haunts, and even our unusual haunts, like the location of the piano lessons the girls took one time, months ago.  Tessa loves to obey traffic laws, too.  It's pretty crazy to hear a 3-year-old pipe up from the "way back" of the van with, "Mommy, you can turn right on a red light, but you can't turn left.  Right??"  And, she's really good at notifying me if she sees any cops, (I can use all the help I can get there!) or if it's "just a regular man on a motorcycle." As for her clothing choices, she's latched on to some basic matching principles, and sticks by these "rules" pretty religiously.  Although, her multi-colored, sequined Snow White shoes apparently match everything! 

She's really not as OCD as I make her out to be, though.  The good news is that she's extremely cuddly and silly, too.  She's off the charts silly and continues to be our snuggliest kid.  She is the one who cuddled best as a baby, and she will still sit in my lap and just snuggle for as long as I will allow it. Sometimes, I wonder how her life would be different if she were an only child.  She'd certainly get all of the hugs and kisses she wanted, and I would get nothing done because I'd be snuggling her all day!  She is always the first to greet Matt when he comes home from work, and practically knocks him down to give him a giant hug.  If I had to guess what Tessa will be when she grows up, I would say an accountant --- a silly, snuggly, by-the-book accountant!

There you have it -- identical girls who are so unidentical in every way.  I hope they stay such good buddies for a very long time, celebrating their twinhood and embracing their cute differences along the way! 

Look, Mom...No Bangs!!

Miss Mary at 9 Months

Mary's first year is flying by. She's now 9 months old (almost 10!), and she started crawling just shy of her 9 month birthday. She can wiggle like a little inchworm from one end of the room to another, most notably to reach for the iPad, of course!

She continues to be the happiest, easiest baby. She's content with her sisterly entertainment, and she eats whatever we put in front of her. Favorites are vegetables at the moment (green beans and carrots are preferred over even the yummist-looking fruit concoctions - go figure) and she drinks water out of a sippy cup like a pro.

 

She gets her exercise rotating between her little car and her jumperoo, wiggling out of her sisters' arms, dragging herself from one end of the house to the other, and hanging on to my hip like a little monkey :) She is extremely ticklish on her feet and neck, and has the cutest little laugh. She also started saying "Mama" this month, which I hate to admit came after mastering "Dedda."

Even at the ripe old age of nine months, she's still small enough to pass out on my lap in a milk coma,

or stay asleep on my shoulder.

Both of those activities are all that much sweeter as she gets older!

As the fifth child, she doesn't always get tended to at her first cry, her diaper stays wet a little longer than Megan's ever did, she doesn't sport brand new clothes every day, and she doesn't get all of Mommy's or Daddy's attention, but she is almost always smiling!! I figure life can't be too rough for her! Sitting at Matt's baseball games this season, I get the chance to chat with many the high school mom, and I've learned this about Mary, that I never considered: When all of our other little girls have gone off to college (God willing!), we'll have two years with Mary as an only child in the house! She'll be showered with attention then, and maybe we'll make up for the divided attention she's receiving these days. So, Mary, watch out, we are going to be all over you in about 14 years! For now, this craziness will have to do!

Big Girls and Their Big Beds

Unbelievably, the twins are 3!

What a difference three years make! It's fair to say that, for most of their short life, we've had plenty of "double trouble," our hands have been very full, and we've trudged through twice the challenges at every stage along the way with these two. We made it through alive after the terrible twos and survived the potty training that dragged on forever. I think we're done paying our dues, though, for a bit, and we're now enjoying the absolute pleasure and ease (yes, ease!) of having twins. As I type this, the older girls are at school, and Mary is asleep. I could be fooled into thinking there are no children in this house, as Tessa and Annie are quiet as little mice in their own world, probably playing with their "doo-dads," a combination of princesses, ponies and other tiny creatures, all transported in little baskets and purses. I have had zero interaction with them for at least an hour (I'm not neglecting them. I just know when I'm the third wheel!) and I'm loving it! The value of a built-in best friend is not to be underestimated, and in honor of their third birthday, here are some cute pictures of Tessa and Annie together. It's pretty cool to be a twin!

Lest I paint a picture of twin bliss over here, though, we are still struggling with a few things with these girls. Okay, maybe just one major thing: bedtime! As convenient as cribs are for containment purposes, we couldn't keep them in there forever, and when Tessa and Annie turned three, it was high time for toddler beds. So, we said goodbye to our 2-crib nursery (and we couldn't do that without some crib shots, now could we?)

and hello to a 2-toddler-bed, 1-crib room. Their room is not palatial, so we put the two beds side-by-side at first,

and that arrangement was a little close for these wild animals. But, it did allow for some kisses before bedtime!

Ah, those little beds next to each other were quite the source of jealousy for two big girls who never had toddler beds (oh, the injustice!) and skipped right to bunk beds. Those big girls are pretty persuasive and talked mommy into a sleepover nap to break these beds in. I really didn't think this set-up was going to last longer than five minutes, but I was shocked when all four fell asleep like this, and stayed asleep for two hours! It's moments like this that I love love love having these girls so close together in age :)

(left to right: Tessa, Megan, Annie, Bridget)

But, not everything with this shift to big girl beds has been so smooth and cute. The thing about toddler beds is that toddlers can get out of them on their own....like Annie did here.

We've also found Tessa apparently sleep-walking, and discovered her asleep in various non-sleeping areas of the room, including their closet!

Our bigger problem is that we have to sit in their room (in a very conveniently located rocking chair) and wait them out until they fall asleep. I am a strict warden in there, barking orders for them to go to sleep, to stop singing the unicorn song, not to touch their doo-dads, put Snow White down....this is all normal, right? ;) Bringing innocent little Mary to sleep in that crazy den of theirs seems like some kind of infant abuse. So, we keep up this system in the hopes that things will get better....Mary may just stay in her pack and play in our room until she is 3!

 

Good Evening

It's a good, good night when we can get out for a nice summer walk after dinner. Usually, the fog has rolled in by then (or never left!), and a family walk in drippy fog is no fun for anyone. But tonight was beautiful and warm!! And even though Matt was working late, I was feeling ambitious after our girls' pizza night and I decided to take the girls out to play at the school around the corner from our house. They were beyond excited for a bike ride/scooter ride, and I had this view on the way there:

Four independent girls! I could not have imagined this three years ago! (I guess it would have been appropriate for them to wear helmets. Oops!!)

And, of course, I had Mary to keep me company bringing up the rear.

The girls had a blast getting some energy out and perfecting their technique with their respective vehicles.

Yep, those are (still) training wheels on those bikes above. Obviously, this bike-riding doesn't happen often enough around here! I'll add that to the list of things to feel guilty about.

No outing is ever perfect, though, especially when there is only one parent along, and no day would be complete for us without a little drama. Although I warned everyone that bathrooms would not be available at the school, and to go before we left, we had to make a sudden departure because Megan had to go now. While she miraculously got herself and her bike all the way back to our house on her own, others slowly started losing momentum. The last five minutes of the walk found me schlepping Mary in the baby carrier, and balancing two scooters, and one bike in my two arms, while practically kicking three kids along the sidewalk. It was quite the scene as we made our way back up the street, and one friendly neighbor observed in a thick Chinese accent, "Wow. You have lot of kids to babysit." (Ah, wouldn't that be nice? No such luck.) When we finally arrived to our driveway, we found Megan...and a puddle. And, worse yet, she was wearing her favorite silver Toms. I think both of us were more concerned about her shoes than anything else, especially after one of us said that we needed to throw them away because they were ruined. (Bad mom, bad mom!)

So, our "good evening" ended with me googling just how to wash Toms, and questioning exactly what I was thinking taking them out like that. We did have fun for a little while, though. I think I earned some mom points in their eyes for the effort. I felt like a rock star for a moment at the beginning of the walk, and all's well that begins well, right? Something like that!


- posted from my handy-dandy iPhone, with Blogpress