What Would It Be Like To Have Twins?

Natalia and I went on this last trip to Tahoe with the Lyons Family. Courtney and Danielle had a wedding to go to in South Shore and I said I would watch Ava while they were partying like rock stars. The girls and I started off our afternoon with a trip to the meadow


It really is such a fabulous place. Tons of things to look at - birds, butterflies, dragonflies, flowers, etc. Lots of space to run, and plenty of fresh air. The boardwalk also provided a perfect little bench for the girls to have a snack.




I had promised them that they could touch the COLD water in the brook on our way back to the car. Ava wanted to climb all over the rocks, while Natalia wanted to scoop up the sandy bottom. (I think I will feel a lot better about trips to the brook once the girls can swim and are big enough to rock climb without help. There is something about freezing cold water and jagged rocks that is so magnetic to those two, and knowing that I don't have to have a hand on them at all times will be so nice!)



The only way I was able to get them in the car was to promise that we would make play-dough when we got home. Now I have never made play-dough in my life. Thank goodness for my Blackberry. I downloaded a recipe for easy play-dough, pulled out two bowls, stripped down the girls, and put everything on the island.

The play-dough experiment started off a bit rocky. The recipe said 1 C water and 1 C flour with some salt and oil and cream of tarter thrown in. Maybe I didn't read all the directions. Maybe I was supposed to cook it on the stove, or put it in the microwave, or bake it, but let me tell you something. 1C of water and 1 C of flour do not play-dough make. A gooey, sticky, gloppy mess? Yes! Nice, moldable play-dough? NO!!!

"Sticky...Sticky...Stickly!!!" The consistency of the stuff almost broke Ava. She DOES NOT like to get messy. Sticky things are no fun for her. So having goopy, messy, flour stuck to her fingers was about the worst thing that could have happened. Uh-oh. I quickly washed off her hands and gave her a spoon. The world was once again all right.

Natalia on the other hand got the stuff ALL OVER. She plunged her hands in, wiped it on her legs, her belly, her face. It was like she was trying to give herself a play-dough wrap. Spa day for 2 year olds.

While spa day was a great idea, we did need some play-dough. So I just started mixing more flour in. Then a little more salt and cream of tarter. The some more oil. The some more water. I really have no idea how much I put in, but we ended up with a HUGE amount of the stuff. Natalia wanted hers blue, Ava wanted yellow, and then they mixed some up and made green.

As you can see, Natalia helped me mix the blue food coloring into the play-dough.

After we had all the fun one can have with play-dough (after Natalia started trying to eat it) we decided to take a bath. Those girls do love their water!!! We got all the sticky stuff off, bundled up into our pajamas

And headed to bed.


Good day!

Poor Little Deprived Child

Natalia is just like me.

Poor child.

She has the unfortunate distinction of inheriting my joints. She is double jointed just about everywhere. Her favorite thing to do right now is to pop her jaw in and out. I remember when I thought it was a fun party trick to do that. Now it just makes my jaw hurt and leave me unable to eat anything hard for a couple of days.

She has also been denied television for much of her short life. I didn't watch TV growing up and it didn't scar me too much. It may have led to my inability to multitask while in front of the TV, but I'm sure that has to do with my intense concentration skills. Okay, so I admit it. I get totally and completely sucked into TV. It really doesn't matter what it is. Infomercial, movie, Spanish soaps - I am transfixed.

Natalia is exactly the same way. When we are over at Danielle and Ava's the girls sometimes get to watch Mickey Mouse Clubhouse. She saw it once and became obsessed with Mickey and Minny. And now, you turn on the TV and she becomes a statue. There is no moving that girl, no distracting her from the fun and adventure of Mickey.



Ava will get up, walk around, play, look at the camera. Does Natalia do that? I don't think so.