Wednesday, April 27, 2011

Grandma & Grandpa

True story: I sent a short iPhone video of Elliot and Leah singing "Twinkle Twinkle Little Star" to my in-laws and they arrived on our doorstep a few days later.  I will definitely remember that trick for the future.



Ahoy There, Bloggy!

Yes, it's been awhile.  Oddly, I find myself rather busy these days, what with the twin toddlers, the full time job, the sub-par social life and the running.  My intentions are good, but they also line the road to hell, or something like that. 

Elliot and Leah continue to do incredibly well.  At 21 months, they are quickly overtaking their father and I in intelligence.  Their vocabularies are enormous, in both English and Spanish, and they speak in logical phrases like "doggy barking" or "Elliot sleeping" or "Daddy watching TV".  They know the alphabet and can recognize some letters in any context.  Both kids know the words to quite a few songs love to sing and be sung to.  Songs they know include "Twinkle, Twinkle", the alphabet song, "If You're Happy and You Know It" (called "Happy Know It" or "Clap Hands"), "Happy Birthday" and "Old MacDonald" (called "E-I-E-I-O").  When they sing songs to me, I die of adorableness and love.  Don't puke, please.  They also love playing "I Getchoo", which is when I chase them around the house saying "I'm gonna get you!"  But they are happiest when they are outside running around and getting dirty.  Thank goodness spring seems to be finally arriving.

Eww, Garbage Truck!

Not as innocent as she looks.
Elliot has this problem where he can be just so incredibly bad, but also so incredibly cute at the same time.  It makes it really difficult, as his mother, to dole out appropriate disciplinary actions for such indiscretions as dropping every single food item he can grab from the table to the floor.  Or throwing very hard toys trucks at Leah's head.  Or running in the opposite direction when being called after.  He tests Lina, Craig and I on a daily basis however he can and fully understands what he is doing at all times.  We have been implementing time-outs, but it is hard to be consistent about it.  Or, I should say, we are not terribly good at being consistent with it.  On the other hand, this boy is so cute that being annoyed at him for any length of time is difficult.  Even after I've scraped the 25th smushed pea from the kitchen floor, or wiped the milk from his sippy cup off the coffee table for the 17th time, I still melt in his big, brown puppy dog eyes.  And then he says "boom boom?" which means "Please sing "The Ants Go Marching" song for me, Mommy?" and I sing the damned song. 

You try staying mad at that face.
Leah continues to be incredibly affectionate and totally bonkers.  She is intense in everything - her laughter fills the entire house for most of the day, but when she is unhappy, the whole house will be well aware of that too.  Leah loves to be held.  She gives out big hugs with abandon.  She is also a dare devil and loves to be thrown in the air or spun around as fast as possible.  She already has a penchant for pink and it's one of the only colors she will identify without fail.  Leah has incredibly strong opinions and preferences about everything.  Often, if we want her to do one thing, we'll offer her something else, knowing she'll assert her opinion in the other direction (examples being which car seat she will sit in or cup she'll drink from).  She is a full-fledged toddler in an almost textbook way.  Except smarter.  And cuter. 

Not expressive at all, that one.
Truly, life is very good at the moment.  We are lucky to have two thriving, growing, learning, loving, brilliant, adorable kids who surprise us and make us laugh every single day.  There is not much I could ask for beyond that.

At the Boston Marathon.  The runners used Leah's hair as a wind gauge.
I'm going to try to post a little more frequently, mostly photos since I am now the proud owner of a beautiful new Canon T3i camera.  All photos in this post (except the Marathon shot) are what I've come up with in the first couple of days with it.  I hope they improve quite a bit as I learn more about my new baby.