Video Killed the Blogger

In case it wasn't obvious, I am in charge of all family pics and videos. ( If there is one thing I have hated about having kids is that we have become "specialists" within our lives. Efficient? Yes. Fun? Not really. But I digress). Nows I have a few problems:

1). I have taken so many videos and pics I have eaten up all of my hard drive space. So my late night project has become better picture/video management and storage.

2) I find posting videos daunting. I can't figure out how to do it efficiently.

3) You can't put a video in the blog book andrew makes for me each year. So lower long-term value to posting.

Yet some I'd really like to share (see below). But I can sit for weeks without posting just because I don't want to deal with the video. So I think I'm laying off the video for awhile.

Oh, and I'm considering password protecting this blog. There are only about 5 of you who read this anyway and you won't mind I assume : ).

LBD at 19 Months

Warning park visitors, here comes LBD!
She'll do anything to be a part of the action, even be the "mariposa" getting caught

She loves to have me check her height.

Little Lila continues to become less little every day. While not the most verbal child (I like to think it is because you are 'bilingual' : ) but who the heck knows) you definitely understand everything, including when we are getting ice cream, vitamins, or dessert of any kind. You have added a number of words to your mushy vocab, many of which are defensive:

Awight! (usually with a request for a high five)

Wat? (What?!--it sounds a bit too much like me when c and d are calling me across the house/room, etc)

Yah (yes)

Mnoooooo (Nooooooo!)

Yuck (as you throw something in garbage, even if it isn't)

Most animal sounds

Dis (this)

Uts dis? (what's this?)

Bye bye ruh ruh

'Mile (when you are pretending to take a picture)

Yaya (your name)

Dis is my mama (i swear, you say it. only i would understand it though, but that is ok : ))

We call you Super Yaya too because if you hear anyone crying you will put your mouth in the shape of an o and follow the sound until you find the person. Then you lay on the person with a giant kind of bear hug. This makes any time out better (and I'd rather you guys be friends than not so I let it happen).

Occasionally there is a bully at the park when you go. Her name is Lila. You like to A) grab faces, and B) pull off hats. It has been a bonanza for you as it has been freaking freezing all summer so kids are wearing hats. Unfortunately many are attached to their heads and you end up yanking the kids head towards you. Let me tell you, the parents of these kids just love it. I look like the overprotective hovering parent until people realize I am trying to protect their kid from my kid and not the other way around. Really hoping it is just a phase or we are going to have to move earlier than planned.

You LOVE to be in water. I cannot get you out of the pool. You won't go in innertubes. You just want to go as deep as you can until you are submerged. And you don't want to be held, even when you can't stand. It is challenging, but I am so glad you are proving adventurous.

You won't wear barrettes or hats of any kind. Bummer.

C and D at 4.5 Years Old: A Brief Update

D
C
D and her signature apollo ohno headband
C--Good cheer facers are born, not made

I tried to look at your four year update and then just focus on the new things.

Charlotte

• You are 40.5 inches tall.
• You were REALLY tough for a few months, but of late you are back to your sweet, kind, very lovable self. You become an even better big sister every day. A few days ago you begged me (again) to have another baby because "A: I don't like when someone has to sit in the car seat row alone, and B) I really want Lila to get to be a big sister because it is so great to be a big sister."
• You have become a bit of a back seat driver. "Mom, you should move over into that lane. It is going faster." And when I explained what a backseat driver was, you even seemed to get the humor in how annoying that might be to a driver.
• You are definitely driven by your peers. You see what an older kid is doing and you want to do what they can do. You are getting to be a good little swimmer too.
• You still LOVE mermaids and you want to figure out how to become one.

Dylan

• Your are about 39.5 inches tall.
• You are still obsessed with 'tinches.' I admit, it drives me crazy. Your latest 'tinch' need is to be a 'tinch closer' to the table. I don't know how your meals make it into your stomach given how close you slam your chest up to the table.
• You have been known to throw a few very loud tantrums in public places. Most people stare because it is hard to imagine such noise coming from such a little speck of a thing.
• You still wear boys underwear. Size 2-3t. : )
• You legitimately like to golf, and you aren't half bad at it.

BOTH

• You are VERY proud of being "4 and a half" and not just 4.
• You love to have dance parties in the playroom. Favorite songs: for D, Sloop John B, for C, Devil in a blue dress.
• You always want to know where scary animals live so you know not to go there.
• You get really caught up in some things. Lately you are obsessed with pirates and where we might find them. The other day you wanted to make sure that "pirates don't attack paddle boats."
• You love your little sister. Intensely.
• You still say some words incorrectly (and I have NO intention of correcting you)
• You want to go 'scuva diving'
• You like to point out when people are 'ogsessed' with something
• D says 'tooken' instead of 'took' or 'taken.'
• You like to do the "lumbo" (limbo) in Carmel.
• 
  
• You get words of songs wrong, and I love what you come up with instead. A few favorites:

God Rest ye Merry Gentleman is a Xmas song. It goes:

God rest ye merry, gentlemen, let nothing you dismay,

Remember Christ our Savior was born on Christmas Day;

To save us all from Satan’s power when we were gone astray.

You sing:

God rest ye merry gentlemen, let nothing you display.

Remember Christ our slave he was born on Christmas Day.

To save us all from Santa Claus now we are going to play.

________________________________________________________

Andrew's favorite is a Robert Earl Keen song that goes:

I packed my suitcase, I racked my brain, bought a ticket on a late night train.

D sings:

I packed my suitcase, I packed my brain, bought a ticket on a late night train

______________________________________________________________

But my favorite is I Gotta Feeling. You guys love singing it and even LBD kicks to it. It goes:

Tonight's the night, let's live it up
I got my money, let's spend it up

C sings:

Tonight's the night, let's live it up

I got my Mommy, let's spend it up

Hearing that, and the way she sings it with such excitement and fervor, is worth the price of admission.

Smudgies and SuperMermaids

C and D had their final performances for their summer camp.

C was a Superhero Mermaid who's super food was "Mac and Cheese" and whose magic power was to "breathe underwater." C was attached at the hip to the friend she had made during the week so she wasn't that focused on the presentation but she seemed to enjoy it (maybe it is the twin thing but my girls have little sense of other kids' personal space). She also clearly took the "sure you can paint your face" offer literally. She was goofy and happy throughout the presentation.

D proudly told everyone she was now a part of a 'real band'--The Smudgies. D never mentioned anyone in the camp by name and yet she seemed to bond with the little boy with whom she sang. And while D interpreted the "where whatever you want and feel free to paint your face" to mean "wear your 'best dress' and paint a heart and cat on your face," some of the boys took it to mean 'wear your halloween costumes' and some of the other girls (or their parents) were a little more current in their looks. Luckily D didn't seem to notice/care. She was too busy being very serious (remembering the words maybe?!)

I was little sad because I think D's camp was way cooler than C's (I didn't know that would be the case). But C was happy with her camp, and we may even sign them both up for a short program in the fall since D enjoyed being a rock star so much.

I taped both performances but C's camp is one that only a mother could sit through. But this song is catchy.

Ladies and Gentleman, the Smudgies:

And for posterity, the first verse and chorus:

We wanted to see some dinosaur bones

But not just fossils

No no no no

Some fresh dinosaur bones

We went to an electronic store

To buy a time machine

It was a three seater

Really really really small

We all fit in it!

we all fit in it!

CHORUS

Back in Time

in a time machine

From best buy

Baby!

Back in time in at time machine

We were bored that's why

Hmm...

Today D came up to me and she proudly shows me a pic and says "look mom!" ANd I look at her drawing and it says "Dylan" at the top and "Poop" at the bottom.

So I know she hasn't seen that word before and I ask her how she learned how to spell it.

She beams and says "I sounded it out. You know, it has the "oo" sound."

Mind you, this was the first time she had sounded out a word she hadn't seen before that involved any kind of complex letter structuring. And I admit I was pleased.

But now I have pictures that say "Dylan....POOP" and "Charlotte... POOP" (because of course her sister had to copy her once she saw my ambivalence) on my refrigerator. And I'm expected to show them off.

Separation

C in yellow in both pics, d, oddly in pink in both pics

This week I put C and D in different camps for the first time. D went to "Summer Time Rock Out" Camp (or "Rock Star Camp" as D called it) and C went to Superheroes Camp in the afternoon. It has been a pain in the ass for me because one goes 9-noon and one goes 1-4 and I have to cross the GG bridge to get them there, but I think it has been a very, very good experience for both. They get more time with me alone, and they get to experience going to something on their own.

D has loved it from the moment she got there, maybe because I think it might be a cooler camp. But D is also a little more independent and comfortable in her own skin so to speak. And although she is less social and outgoing, she doesn't seem to mind it that she isn't buddying up with anyone in particular. Besides, she is telling everyone that she is in a 'real rock band' now, so she thinks she is super cool.

C had a tougher time the first day. C likes to 'belong' and she hates feeling left out. Her group had more 'rowdy' boys than Ds (though both camps had more boys than girls) and C had a hard time with that at first. But the second day two things happened. First C got a Red Ribbon on her first day back to swim class in a month. All that swimming in TX and Carmel paid off. D wasn't there but I hope hers isn't far behind. Then C went to camp on the second day and befriended one of the two other girls there and from that point on she was happy.

I am so proud of them, and so comforted to see how they are developing socially in terms of their relationship to each other and others. They obviously love each other very,very much. I think being separated has only made that more obvious to them as well. But they also need a break from each other once in a while. I keep trying to explain to them that it is really ok to get tired of each other (I tell them I'd get tired of Andrew too if I spent all the time with them) but that it is not ok to be mean about it. So pain as it is, I'm really glad I did it.

Tradition

It has become a 'tradition,' or so we hope, to head to Carmel for 4th of July. This was our third year and each year it only gets more fun. While the weather was a little cold most of the weekend (as it is ALL OVER CALIFORNIA THIS FREAKING SUMMER) it was beautiful on Fourth of July. Between the face painting, the giraffe, mermaid, and ruh-ruh balloon making, the swimming, and the ice cream eating c,d, and l were in heaven. So as the girls would say, "Happy Birthday to America, Happy Birthday to you!"