Merry Christmas to all of my loyal blog readers. We had a fun-filled morning, waking up at 2 a.m. and coaxing the children back to bed. It worked, and we eventually rolled out of bed to see the bounty left by Santa at 7 a.m.

After all the hard work, energy, and money I spent on the girls' gifts, the thing they've played with the most so far today is a piece of green yarn tied to a stick. (It's their "fishing poles.") I could have saved so much money... :)

Hope you all have a very fun day, and I hope to post some pictures later!

This year, Christmas came a little early for the girls and me. At Thanksgiving, Aunt Frazzled and Bedazzled left us some Christmas gifts. We placed them under our tree for a day or two before the curiosity (and good timing--no adults watching) was too much for them. They did not rip the paper, but they opened all the gift bags, including my present. Oh well, I should be proud they lasted more than a day! We have since placed all the other gifts out of reach.

Thanks for the great gifts, Aunt F & B!! We loved 'em!

I recently became a published author in the legal world. I wrote a chapter on the federal sector EEO process for a continuing education publication. While mine was the shortest chapter in the book, about 16 pages, I was pretty proud of the accomplishment due to all the obligations in my life. (I even mentioned my twins in my bio.)

If you've seen the Steve Martin movie "The Jerk,*" you can get some idea of the reaction I had when I received my copy of the book. "The new phone books are here, the new phone books are here!! I finally have my name in print! I am somebody!" *Greg, you still need to give me a tutorial on how to post links!!

Parker says to Annie, "you're a genius." Annie replies, "I'm not a genius, I'm adorable." Parker says, "I'm a genius." Annie remarks, "I'm a genius, too."

Grandma and I about split our guts laughing.

Have you noticed the geniuses who advertise on my blog? All the ads I've seen relate to potty training or nursing or something baby-related. Do you think they're trying to send me a message? How do they know I (and even their Gran-Nanny) have given up altogether on potty training?? Are they TRYING to make me feel more guilty?

Guilt. That's something I've learned that comes with motherhood as prominent as stretch marks. It doesn't matter what decision you make, it is always accompanied by a modicum of guilt. I guess we moms just have to do the best we can, get over it, and help our kids find good therapists someday. :)

Here's a good scary story for you. We put our little darlings down for a nap a couple of days ago, and they fussed for 15 minutes and then became quiet. I assumed they had fallen asleep, but when I heard them laughing ten minutes later, I became nervous. Sure enough, as I walked upstairs, I saw a trail of toilet paper coming from our bathroom winding toward the girls' room. Annie and Parker had not unrolled one roll of toilet paper. Being twins, they decided to unroll one APIECE! Bill put on his rubber gloves and unloaded the potty while I held the trash bag and picked up the clean pieces. At the time, I was so distraught, I didn't think to take a picture. Twins can be very dangerous!

Scary tale #2: this morning, I gave Annie and Parker their usual favorite breakfast--toast. After they finished, Parker asked me for pickles. I said, "really, pickles??" She replied with an enthusiastic, "yeah!" I fed her three pickles. She asked for more pickles. I cut her off after six pickles. I think she takes after her Uncle Grey, because he used to eat really wierd stuff for breakfast, too. Of course, Uncle Greg eats wierd stuff all the time...

As you can see, TAOTLM has a new look. It's going to take some getting used to. Not sure I like all the ads that came with the free template, though...

For those of you who don't know, two months ago, my mother recently moved two doors down from me to be closer to her twin grandgirls--to watch them while their mother works so they won't have to go to daycare. While we have done quite a few fun outings with just the two of us (we saw a movie and went yard-saling to name a couple), today is the first day that she has taken the whole day "off" from the girls. It seems our 2 1/2 year olds have given Grandma the stomach flu.

Welcome to ALL the joys of raising toddlers, Gran-Gran!

Since Parker's "so into" going to the potty, she has decided to help mommy train her sister. I think Annie would say "thanks, but no thanks."

Week before last, I was in a week-long training that resulted in my certification as an EEOC investigator. The training was held in Denver, but we had "classmates" from all over the country. Evidently, I was the only one in the room with a wonderful Southern accent.

One of the exercises we participated in was interviewing a witness as a class. The trainers had us take turns asking one question or giving one piece of information. When my turn came around, my duty was to "swear in" the witness. Since no language was provided, I came up with my own lingo. I instructed the witness to raise her right hand and repeat after me, "I do declare..." I guess the way I said it was extremely cute, because after those three words came out of my mouth, the whole class giggled. It didn't dawn on me why they were laughing at first, but I soon realized it was due to my awesome accent. I then said, "I know, I know," and I continued on. Life can be hard being such a cute Southerner. :)

and a pot full of pee! Warning: a potty training update follows.

My little Parkie-bear is progressing along with her training very nicely. She goes pee-pee on the potty about 4-5 times per day. (She'd probably do a lot more if Mommy were better at reminding her.) Whenever someone goes, we have a big celebration and the little girl gets a balloon. I thought it was a brilliant idea of Grandma's to do that, since I didn't like the idea of giving a sweet treat as a reward. Little Park has been going so much lately, though, we are having difficulty walking around in our living room because of all the balloons. For that fact, and for the paranoia I have of the choking hazards, I have decided to switch to Princess stickers. Hope she likes 'em. I plan to let her decorate her "throne" with them. :)

My good friend Amy (link to her blog in the side column) tagged me a while back to reveal six quirks about myself. So, here goes:

1. I am nearly ALWAYS barefoot if the temperature is over 70 degrees. It doesn't matter if I'm walking in the grass or on the sidewalk in front of my house. I get a little sad when I have to put on shoes when leaving the house.

2. If it's colder than 70 degrees, I almost ALWAYS wear athletic socks. Sometimes I'll wear slippers, but it's mostly athletic socks. I always wear shoes when I go outside, too.

3. I can say the alphabet backwards really, really fast.

4. Like Amy, I, too have to have perfect conditions before I can sleep. I build my "nest" every night, consisting of two pillows and one body pillow. This was a point of contention early in my marriage, but that's the resulting compromise. (I used to sleep with a six-pillow configuration, and my mom told me I've been building "nests" for many years.)

5. Don't tell anyone, but I'm only ticklish if someone is holding down one of my arms. I was more than a little miserable when Bill first figured this one out.

6. I have perfect "color memory." I can remember the exact color or shade when asked. This skill came in handy when I was little and my mom sewed a lot. She would have me look at a piece of fabric, and I would pick the exact shade of thread for her at the store. She never had to bring scraps.

I hereby tag my brother, one family member from family blog, my friend Roo, mama, Michelle, Susan, Uncle Ron, and any others who read this post. Ha, ha. :)

I have received many comments about the picture I put as background to the title of my blog. The reviews have been mixed. Some nameless family members said it "freaked them out." Other family and friends have remarked it is "so cute." One has petitioned me to "reconsider" the picture. One said it was "so cool," and another said it was neat and it looked like I downloaded the pic from another website. (FYI, I didn't, those are my girls and their bears who are both named "Missy.")

After much consideration, I have decided the picture stays for now. Sorry, brother and sis-in-law. ;) I do promise to change it periodically, though.

Lately, I've been reading a book on productivity. So far, it has been very good, but I don't want to recommend it until I finish reading it and test it out. So far, however, it has made me markedly less productive, since I have been reading the book instead of doing work. I know it will be challenging for me to implement because it involves a lot of front-end planning work. If you are familiar with my heritage, you know that would be difficult for any Tolleson to undertake. If you know me personally, you know it will be against my highly procrastinating grain. I think it will change my life (and my family's lives) for the better, so I am finding my motivation.

I am very excited right now because I just finished writing a ten-page motion. I have not done many of these, and it feels good to be doing more "lawyerly"-type work. I think I did a decent job on it, but I wonder how much better it could have been if I were fully rested and stress-free. This way of thinking is pretty crazy, because I know of no person who is actually fully rested and stress-free; I do, however, know a few lucky ones who are a little more rested and have lighter stress. To all who may read this post: may your productivity increase, your fun increase, your rest be adequate, and your stress be low. Peace.

She woke up this morning still in pain and refusing to put her weight on her right foot. Unfortunately, Bill also woke up with a great pain in his back. I decided to call our chiropractor (who, by the way, has an identical twin-chiropractor sister). She called in a prescription for some x-rays of Parker and made appointments for treatment and an hour-long massage for Bill. (Maybe my back's starting to hurt, too!?) So, Annie and I loaded Bill and Parker into the car, dropped Bill at the chiro's, and took Parkie to the x-ray place. She was a little scared but was very, very brave. They had an aquarium with all the "Nemo" fish in it, so the girls were in heaven. We finally got home at 10:30, Bill was asleep by 11:00, and the girls and I drifted off at 12:30--before having lunch. We all slept until 3:00! Bill had taken the day off in order to "organize" things and "catch up" on things. All any of us caught up on was sleep. Very nice, though. The chiropractor called us at 4:00 and told us Parker had no broken bones, and that I could tell her it was ok to walk on it if she wanted to. We had company over for dinner, and she finally walked on it after supper. She's doing great now. Thanks for all the prayers.

Oh, she also mooned us this evening. As we were playing outside, she and Annie had very wet diapers. Since we'll be potty training soon, I just stripped them down and left their dresses on. They've been in to Princess "bowing" lately, so Parker bowed to the neighbor's house. She also picked up her dress and stuck her little white tushie out at us. I haven't laughed like that in quite a while.

Today was Mother's Day Out at church. Luckily, my frequent babysitter Patrick is in charge of the program. Since he lives so close to us and the church is a little bit of a drive, he drives my car and takes my girls for me. When they came back home today, he reported Parker had an incident. He said she was involved in a brutal game of ring-a-round the rosies. Apparantly, she fell and twisted her ankle good. She had fallen asleep in the car, and when she got home, her ankle looked fine. When she awoke, however, she cried her poor little head off for an hour. I bent her ankle around, moved her toes, twisted her knee, and worked her hips. No pain. When she stands on it, though, she screams. (We'll be taking her to the doctor tomorrow.)

When I was talking to my mom on the phone this evening, she said that when my brothers were about three or four, Grey hurt his leg. She informed she got out a little wagon, and Greg took him anywhere he wanted to go. I thought, "genius"!!! So, I got out my little umbrella stroller. Annie pushed Parker around for about 15 minutes, but since she is two-and-a-half, she then started asking, "Annie's turn, Annie's turn?!" Oh well, it was worth a try.

We now have big girl beds!! We thought we were just going to put their crib mattresses on the floor for awhile, but since a) they were so traumatized when they thought I was getting rid of ALL of their things, and b) I received my Oregon public employee retirement account check, we decided to splurge and go ahead and get the twin bunkable beds.

We bought them late in the evening, so when we got home, we put the girls down in our bed. Papa and Mama stayed up late that night assembling the beds. After we assembled the beds and when the girls were sound asleep, we gently slipped them into their new beds. When they awoke, they were "freaking out," squealing with excitement. It was a good decision to buy the beds, because they have slept all night for two nights in a row now! The only problem is getting them to fall asleep initially. This evening, I sat in their room with them to make sure they stayed in their beds. They were so cute and funny, it took all I had not to laugh at everything they said. It reminded me of when I was a little girl at "bunkin' parties." ("Sleepovers" for you Yankee readers.)

Finally, it got quiet. I thought to myself, "yay, this is it!!" Then Parker raised up and said, "Annie, you asleep?" Annie replied "no." Then they both started laughing hysterically. I giggled and had to leave the room to ask their Daddy-Bear to finish the role of "sleep monitor" for the evening. It's quiet up there, now!! I just hope it takes less than an hour-and-a-half for them to drift off to dreamland tomorrow night.

After two exhausting weeks of VERY little sleep, my husband was entertaining the girls with his math skills. He said "one plus one is two, two plus two is three..." When that came out of his mouth, I said "umm," he quickly realized his mistake, and we both laughed hysterically. He decided to leave all future math teaching to me. Ugh. And to think I went to law school to try to avoid math. (No offense, brother!)

Yesterday we ate pizza and learned our shapes. I asked the girls what shape the pizza slice was. They replied "triangle." I asked what shape the plate was. They replied "circle." I asked what shape the table was. They replied "square." I thought, good, they're three for three. I then asked them what shape daddy's head was. Annie replied "square." We all four died laughing.

Parker Grace, our younger twin, is very tall. They both are, but this story is about her. She can reach higher on the counter than my husband and I realize. A couple of days ago, she found Daddy's travel coffee mug from the day before. I was downstairs, and when she arrived, I noticed her drinking the day-old java. I told her "no, you cannot drink that," and explained that "little girls should not drink coffee." With tears streaming down her face, she replied, "I want coffee!! More coffee! More coffee!" Through my laughter I told her I was sorry she could not have more. This half-bred Pacific Northwest baby sounded just like her Daddy.

Husband-bear's boss gave him four free tix to a Rockies game, so we decided to take the family out for the day. The day began, however, with a couple of hours at church. During the girls' class, they made cute flowers in flowerpots. The flowers were silk sunflowers. Baby B dropped her plant, and the pot shattered as we were walking out the door. We thought she'd be upset, but she didn't care; as long as her flower was ok, the pot didn't matter. We then changed clothes and caught the Light Rail to Coors' Field. We had to bring our sunflowers with us. While the train was the most fun part for them, I enjoyed that they held on to those darn sunflowers for three hours' straight. Other highlights of the day included: Baby B's flirting with 20-year-old boys on the train, Baby A's dancing during every song at the game, and people laughing at the twins when they were eating snacks as fast as they could. The lowlights of the day were that my husband and I both missed the only score the Rockies made during the game because we were both tending to babies, I forgot my camera and couldn't document the event (another argument to allow me to purchase a cool new Blackberry/camera phone), and we had to leave the game early although the weather was nice. However, no other scoring occurred after we left, and the Rockies lost, so it was kind of good we got to beat the traffic. I was SO amazed that those babies stayed happy for an hour-and-a-half during the game!

Another funny thing: I just read my brother's blog, and he describes he took his daughter to a Royals game, and my niece ate treats the whole time. (Ours did, too!) So, I guess I had more of a "twin connection" to him today than his own twin! I look forward to taking him to a Rockies game during his visit in August.

So, there I was yesterday morning working very hard at my computer. I was so excited to catch up on work a little. Then, of course, I ran out of ink. Full of frustration since the babysitter was on the clock, and I had to interrupt my good work pace, I had no choice but to make a run to our local discount/grocery store. Once I arrived, I quickly found the right ink and decided to procure some lunch fixins. I sauntered up to the deli counter and placed my order. It took quite a while, and I was a little stressed about how long it was taking. After I thanked the attendant, she replied, "have a fabulous day." This wish seemed very strange to me, as I evaluated my appearance. (I guess I usually equate fabulousness with looks.) I was wearing sweats and no makeup--a pretty scary sight. I thought to myself, ok. How do I have a fabulous day when I look like this, the legal work I was doing at home wasn't very sexy, and I was caring for my kids and visiting in-laws. As I was walking to the register to pay for my ink and meat, I decided I could have a fabulous attitude. I began to smile. I instantly felt better. I chatted with the employee working the checkout counter, and I made her laugh. In my sweats, with a frazzled brain, I actually became pretty fabulous. I shall strive to be more fabulous every day, no matter what's on my plate.

WARNING: the squeamish may not want to read this one.

It happened on Saturday afternoon. My husband-bear and I put our little darlings down for their afternoon nap. We were exhausted, they weren't. I heard them fussing, but since they weren't fussing too bad, I left them in their cribs. We dozed off--for a very short time, and when I awoke, I ventured into their room.

When I arrived, I found that Baby A had thrown all her bears and blankets out of her bed, stripped down naked, and peed all over her mattress. Likewise, Baby B had thrown all her bears and blankets out of her bed, stripped down naked, and pooped on her mattress. She also smeared it all over the wall and crib, and she was brown from head to toe.

I yelled for my husband, and we both wanted to gag. He took Baby B and jumped in the shower, and I left Baby A in the wet crib and gathered cleaning supplies. I threw Baby A in the shower with dad and Baby B after "B" had been decontaminated and began my cleaning. At least "A" went poo-poo before I put her down for a nap--it could have been much worse. Husband-bear cleaned and dried the babies, and I cleaned and did laundry. My small mountain of laundry quickly turned into Mount Everest, especially after finding many treasures at yard sales.

As you can see from the comment on my last post, my mom thinks I'm somewhat "Legally Blonde"-like. (You know, the movie where Reese Witherspoon goes to Harvard Law School...) I was thinking that our best "Legally Blonde" moment during the week of the trial was on Wednesday night after closing arguments. It was 4 p.m., we weren't hungry but wanted to do something. We called around and arranged for the three of us to get pedicures. Two of us got French toes. One got red. This is part of the reason I love working for this firm... while I perform a wide variety of large and small tasks, there are great perks like pedicures! The next day as the verdict was announced, our firm had the prettiest toenails in the courtroom.

Fun fact: Reese Witherspoon is TO THE DAY one year OLDER than me!

Our law firm was in court all week on a racial discrimination case. We found out yesterday the jury awarded our client $200K in comp damages. We'll have to do some research, but this could be a record-breaking amount for a federal employee in Colorado.

While that was by far the most memorable event of the week, I also have a couple of funny stories to share. All week long, one of my duties was to procure lunch for the firm's partners, the client, and myself. (Our firm is very small and consists of three people--the two partners and me. Therefore, my job duties consist of associate attorney work, secretary work, clerk work, chauffeur work, gopher work, and anything else that is needed.) On Tuesday after I paid for our lunch at Quizno's, I stepped to grab napkins and straws. As my foot hit the ground, I realized that half my foot was touching the floor. I thought that was strange, and I looked down and noticed the top half of my sandal had completely broken in two. (They were my favorite pair of dressier sandals--pink with silver buckles. SO cute. Very sad.) I had to walk two blocks back to the courthouse with my sandal flopping everywhere. I was so glad it had a strap around the ankle at least. Halfway back, I realized I could thread the broken part of the shoe around my big toe and it wouldn't flop so bad. As I stooped down to do this, a woman walked past me, sneered, laughed, and looked at me like I deserved it since I was well-dressed or a lawyer or something. I said to myself "if she only knew!" At the end of the very long day, one of the law partners made me take her sneakers to walk back to the car. I was grateful. In hindsight, maybe it was lucky. Henceforth, I will start wishing people "break a shoe!"

Story #2: My MOM brain kicks in. I think it happened that Tuesday as well, but I cannot remember for sure due to loss of brain cells after pregnancy/childbirth. After the long day was over and the judge left the courtroom, I approached counsel's table to help. A law partner directed me to start cleaning up the numerous papers and files strewn about. As I began this task, I caught myself singing the "clean-up song." You Barney fans would be familiar with it. (It goes, "clean up, clean up, everybody everywhere, clean up, clean up, everybody does their share.") I started laughing, and when the partners questioned what was funny, I told them about how my mom brain kicked in. They laughed as well, both being moms themselves. It was indeed a really fun week and a great break from being a work-at-home-mom. I'm glad to be back home with my girls now, though!

"Please don't put play-doh down your shirt."

"I said 'wipe your face,' not 'wipe your sandwich.'"

"We don't put our blanket on our sandwich."

(Yes, it was a fun lunch--not quite ready to get rid of our boosters.)

My youngest daughter LOVES to pray. This habit is one I definitely encourage, but I must admit she adds about 10 minutes more to each mealtime. We pray at the beginning of, several times during the middle, and a few times after a meal. Yesterday at lunch as we were eating our mac-n-cheese, she looked at me and said, "mama, hand." I gave her my hand. Then she looked at her sister and said, "sister, hand." Sister gave her hand. She then bowed her head and said, "dear God, daddy work, home soon. Amen."

It was so cute and sweet. I cried a little. I hope (and pray) she never loses that sweetness and faith.

TLM (twinlawyermommy) and family just returned from a trip to her brother, hp calc's, house to celebrate his daughter's birthday. We flew on an airplane, and the girls loved the trip. Their parents were pretty stressed out, but as our plane began its descent to our destination city, my seat companion (the younger twin) started chanting "thinking bee, thinking bee, thinking bee."

She had transferred a memory from the "Bee Movie" to real life. I thought she was a genius and so funny. I laugh every time I think about it.

My youngest daughter by three minutes has demanded to wear socks on her hands for the last three days. Yesterday when we got to church, she cried when I made her take them off. (What was a fashion-conscious mom supposed to do--they didn't match her outfit!) She wore two pairs of socks to bed last night--one on her feet and one on her hands. She gave me the biggest giggle when I put a pair on her hands after I put her in her crib.

Yes, we're almost 2 1/2 and still in cribs. That is about to change, though... I've been dreading the day.

This is a story about lawyers AND fried catfish. For our firm's Christmas party, we went to a cajun restaurant. My boss's husband (who is from Oklahoma) teases me A LOT about being from Arkansas. When I told the waitress I would like a catfish dinner, he mumbled in a disparaging tone, "Arkie." When the waitress took his order and he ordered the same thing, I mumbled back, "Okie."

Ok, so maybe this post wasn't that funny, but if you have some good Okie jokies, I'd love to pass them along!

Have a great day!!

I was surprised and disturbed yesterday when I discovered my e-mail interface through findlaw had been changed. At first I thought the good people at findlaw had deleted all my e-mails, folders, and addresses I had saved. I was devastated since that was the only place that contained addresses of 50 of my closest friends and e-mails with research and "job kudos."

Depressed, and pretty sick with a head cold, I went to bed. This morning, I discovered the e-mail fairy had come. She brought back all my addresses and saved e-mails. I found out I have a lot more storage on the account as well. Thank you, findlaw fairy, thank you.

Yep, today's the day. I realized I haven't written anything in SO LONG. I hope to write more soon, but now I must pay bills. Oh what fun...

Imagine a slide that is 10 feet from top to bottom and slants at a 45 degree angle. Now think of a seven-year-old boy sliding down it. Then, picture two-year-old twin girls chasing the boy and cannonballing down it without fear. This was our play time yesterday. I just am still in awe. Last summer, the girls would only go down our two-foot-tall slide on their bellies. They've lost all the fear.

Here's to living our lives boldly and without fear!

"Why is there a potato in the bathroom?"

"Please, stop licking the fireplace."

"We don't put our airplanes in the dishwasher."

more to come....

After a long, frustrating day juggling a sick husband, cranky toddlers cutting their two-year molars, cranky people looking for attorneys, and a pile of paperwork four feet high, I called my Mom for some comfort.

After some discussion about what I am doing with my life, my Mom gave me some sage advice: "you're doing what you need to be doing right now or you'd be doing something else." Thanks, Mom.

Warning: the following story might gross out a family member or two since it references kissing.

The very first Valentine's Day I shared with my beautiful then-future-husband was very sweet, but it also left me very confused. He asked me to come over to his house so he could cook me some pork chops. Nothing says lovin' like pork chops, by the way. At that point in our relationship, we were just really good friends--no kissing or anything like that. I sensed we both wanted something more, so I decided to put myself "out there" that day. I contemplated buying him a Valentine's gift. A week before the big day, I began polling many of my law school classmates to come up with something perfect. I wanted it to say "I like you," but not "I'm a scary single girl trying to trap myself a man." One classmate suggested refrigerator poetry magnets. I thought that was a good idea, so I went to a nearby store on my lunch break and bought them. In addition to the gift, I decided that was the night I was going to try and kiss him for the first time.

One week later, the big day came. I don't think I had any classes that day, so I put off studying to re-obsess about my gift choice. I decided refrigerator poetry magnets were a bad idea. To me, the gift gave a signal that I was looking for something long-term, since a person might keep them around for a very long time. I worried that being a part of his refrigerator might be too serious and domestic. I went to the grocery store and bought flowers instead. It was a mix of many types of flowers; the bouquet might have had a rose or two in it, but it mostly comprised daisies and carnations.

That evening, I met my then-future-husband at his house and gave him the flowers. It was the perfect gift! No one had ever given him flowers before, and if you know my husband, he loves flowers--alive, dead, or planted in the ground.

After dinner, we met up with a married-couple-friend of ours for dessert. I drove us there, and throughout the whole evening, I was becoming more and more anxious and excited about our upcoming first kiss. When we were leaving the dessert place, my future husband asked the couple to give him a ride home since they lived on the same side of town. I told him it was no problem for me to drive him, but he insisted. He seemed kind of wierd about it, so I said goodbye and went home feeling sad we didn't have our first kiss. I was so disturbed from the whole evening I decided to wait until finals were over before trying the kissing thing again. After all, I didn't want to get my head all messed up about a silly boy before exams.

Flash-foward two months, which was two weeks before final exams, the guy finally planted one on me. I was relieved I didn't have to worry about it any more, and it definitely DID mess up my head for finals.

After we had been married for some time, we reminisced about that evening. My husband told me the reason he asked for the ride home was because he thought I was acting wierd all night. He thought that I did not like him, and he felt he was wasting his time with me. We both laughed at how we completely misread each other that night and marveled that we were able to ever end up together!

Happy Valentine's Day!

After an e-mail exchange with my sister-in-law, Mrs. spaghetti sandwiches, I realized I neglected to blog about a funny potty training story. I have now decided to stop the potty training, because while the girls would go if I asked them, they couldn't quite tell me on their own when they needed to go. During the middle of our big "training day," my little girl was standing in the kitchen kinda bent over. She was holding herself and had a strange look on her face. I asked her, "do you need to go pee-pee?" She sheepishly replied, "sure," then a gush immediately sprang forth. I yelled "no!", then instantly realized I shouldn't scare her or get on to her, so then I started yelling excitedly "run, run, run!" She stopped mid-stream, which I was very impressed about, and I put her on the potty chair. When she "started up" again, she then took her hand, put it in the stream, and splashed it all over the place exclaiming proudly "splash, splash!"

If that didn't sicken you enough, tonight we had a pretty gross encounter with "poo" in the bathtub. I WISH it had been Winnie the. But it wasn't. Since they got two baths tonight, and I gave four baths total, I plan to bathe myself, relax, and enjoy my evening.

Another question I often get is "are they identical or paternal?" Yes, a few people really have asked me whether they are "paternal." (They mean "fraternal.") I am not exactly sure why people are fascinated with this, but I usually give them an answer. Sometimes I say, "yes, they're identical." Sometimes I say, "they're fraternal." In truth, we really don't know, so I just tell them whatever I feel like at the time.

The real answer is pretty long, and sometimes I explain it to people (especially other parents of twins). Our doctor said they were fraternal because they were in separate sacs. Since then, I read that 33% of identical twins have separate sacs. The NICU nurses said they were identical because they weighed the exact same, were the exact same height, and even their hair swirled in the same pattern. (They still have all these similarities.) They have some differences--the biggest is personality. The elder has freckles and a rounder face, the younger has an oval-shaped face. Fact is, we will never know for sure unless we have their DNA tested. It's not that important for me to know the answer (and it would cost about $300), so I won't have it done. The girls may decide to do it someday, but for now, I get to choose!

This weekend, the girls and I made our first attempt at potty training. Whoever said potty training was easy or could be accomplished in a weekend was probably training a four-year-old instead of a two-year-old. My oldest brother (hp calculators and spaghetti sandwiches's twin) said "well, my kids just potty trained themselves." I'll check with her later, but I bet his wife would beg to differ with that statement.

Overall, we had some success, especially with my youngest twin, but I think it'll be a few months before we try again. They just can't quite verbalize their needs enough yet. Now, to clean up the mess...