Today the boys and I went to Trader Joe's. Over the past nine months, I've grown accustomed to going to the grocery store with just Moses while the twins were in preschool, so I wasn't used to the attention that twins seem to generate while out in public. Two little girls, in particular, kept pointing and saying, "look at the twins!" and their mother eventually stopped and asked me, "are all three of them twins?"
"No, just those two," I replied, pointing to Caleb and Joshua who by this point had pushed the cart (and Moses) half-way down the aisle. "The one in the cart is three years younger." It didn't even occur to me until later that her question really made no sense at all. But knowing what it's like to be a frazzled mom at the grocery store, I of course understood her perfectly!
Later as we were going down the chip and cracker aisle, the boys caught sight of their favorite treat, white cheddar cheese puffs (a.k.a. "cheesies"), and asked if we could get some. Feeling generous, I tossed them into the cart, which launched all three twins... I mean boys... into full-fledged celebration mode. "Yay! Cheesies! Oh, praise the Lord! Praise the Lord!!!" they loudly exclaimed, drawing even more attention to themselves. What can I say, they're our little evangelists!
Friday, June 25, 2010
Wednesday, June 23, 2010
Peas Way Goggle
This evening while we were playing in the pool, 16-month-old Moses spoke his first 3-word "sentence": peas way goggle? Translation: please wear goggles? He was holding a pair of goggles and asking Joe to help him put them on. I was rather proud of this sentence on more than one level. Naturally, I'm thrilled that he is learning how to be polite and say "please" and "thank you", especially since he knows he can get usually get what he wants regardless. And of course it warmed my swimmer's heart that my baby's first sentence was a request to wear Speedo goggles!
Thursday, June 17, 2010
Moses - 16 Months Old
Moses' vocabularly has really taken off in the past couple months. Just this evening, for example, he asked for more of his favorite vegetable at dinner, clearly saying, "broccoli? broccoli?" Then after dinner, during our evening swim, Moses clearly requested to wear "goggle". This afternoon when I told him it was time to go pick up his brothers from preschool, he happily exclaimed, "Jooooshua! Joooooshua!" He hasn't mastered "Caleb" yet, however, and I'm not sure if it's because Caleb is a more difficult word or because Moses simply favors Joshua.
That reminds me of something funny that happened a couple months ago, when Moses was about 14 months old. We had just arrived at Safeway and put Moses in one of those carts that has a "cozy coupe" car attached to the front. Moses was happy as a clam until Caleb claimed his coveted passenger seat, relegating Joshua to drive solo in another car, a move which prompted Moses to start crying hysterically. In an effort to keep a low profile (which, we realize, is basically impossible when you take three little boys at the grocery store at 9 pm), we moved Moses to Joshua's car, and he immediately stopped crying. Upon suffering rejection by his baby brother, Caleb launched a crying fit of his own. While I of course felt sorry for Caleb (he's a very loving big brother who just happens to have unusually stiff competition from an equally loving yet perhaps slightly more fun and engaging Joshua), I couldn't help but marvel at Moses' ability to tell his twin brothers apart, a skill which most adults have yet to master.
In addition to broccoli, another one of Moses' favorite foods is Cheerios. The other night Joe and the boys were dancing to Old School Sesame street songs and Moses fell asleep in his arms while listening to "I Don't Want to Live on the Moon". While cradling a sleeping Moses in his arms, Joe asked the twins if they wanted to eat some Cheerios before bedtime. As soon as Joe said "Cheerios", Moses' eyelids popped open and he perked up and said, "Cheerio? Cheerio?" quickly regaining alertness just in time to join his brothers in partaking of their favorite evening snack.
Moses wants to do everything that his brothers do. When we're outside swimming in the pool we let the boys pee in the shrubs so that we don't have to take them into the house every ten minutes. (I don't know if the boys are hydrating themselves through osmosis while they're swimming or if they're drinking the pool water, but for some reason they need to pee three times more often than usual while they're swimming). Moses has observed the twins' outdoor potty ritual often enough that he now tries to copy them. He'll say "potty! potty!" then walk over to the grass and assume the same posture that the boys assume when they relieve themselves, with an arched back and stuck-out tummy.
Moses is enthralled by "Elmo", which in his mind is an all-encompassing term that refers to any googly-eyed Sesame Street character. For example, last weekend he was beside himself with glee when we allowed him to bring home a new "Elmo" aka Cookie Monster plush toy from our friends' yard sale. Moses has never even seen a modern Sesame Street episode featuring Elmo (we don't have cable and only occasionally watch 1970's pre-Elmo Sesame Street episodes on DVD), but he has somehow become obsessed nevertheless.
Moses has started trying to count. He especially loves counting to 3 (he usually skips 1 and 2 and just says "three" three times), especially if such counting is followed by jumping in the pool or being tossed up into the air, or if he is looking at pictures of himself, Caleb, and Joshua, he'll want to count the three brothers. When we drive by Mount Vernon on our way to church on Sunday mornings, the twins like to count the dozens of tourist buses that are parked along the road (interestingly, Chris and I used to do the exact same thing every Sunday on our way to church when we were little... not much has changed over the years!). Moses tries to count along with them, although he usually gets lost after "three". Moses also tries to sing the ABC's. He has the melody down pretty well but the letters are still a bit muddled.
Overall, I'm very impressed with Moses' ability to communicate. One of our friends recently gave us a very thoughtful gift of a baby signing DVD, and while baby sign language is something which probably would have benefitted our tongue-tied twins when they were Moses' age, we honestly don't see the need to teach Moses how to sign because he already speaks and understands language so well. Indeed, in retrospect there are many things I would change about how we raised the twins during their formative first two years. For one thing, I would have forced myself to talk to them more, since I suspect that my own reticence is at least partially to blame for their recently diagnosed language delays. But looking back, we were still in survival mode well into the twins' second year, and were probably still too precoccupied with trying to get enough sleep and preserve our sanity to explore alternative communication options. What can I say, you live and learn!
That reminds me of something funny that happened a couple months ago, when Moses was about 14 months old. We had just arrived at Safeway and put Moses in one of those carts that has a "cozy coupe" car attached to the front. Moses was happy as a clam until Caleb claimed his coveted passenger seat, relegating Joshua to drive solo in another car, a move which prompted Moses to start crying hysterically. In an effort to keep a low profile (which, we realize, is basically impossible when you take three little boys at the grocery store at 9 pm), we moved Moses to Joshua's car, and he immediately stopped crying. Upon suffering rejection by his baby brother, Caleb launched a crying fit of his own. While I of course felt sorry for Caleb (he's a very loving big brother who just happens to have unusually stiff competition from an equally loving yet perhaps slightly more fun and engaging Joshua), I couldn't help but marvel at Moses' ability to tell his twin brothers apart, a skill which most adults have yet to master.
In addition to broccoli, another one of Moses' favorite foods is Cheerios. The other night Joe and the boys were dancing to Old School Sesame street songs and Moses fell asleep in his arms while listening to "I Don't Want to Live on the Moon". While cradling a sleeping Moses in his arms, Joe asked the twins if they wanted to eat some Cheerios before bedtime. As soon as Joe said "Cheerios", Moses' eyelids popped open and he perked up and said, "Cheerio? Cheerio?" quickly regaining alertness just in time to join his brothers in partaking of their favorite evening snack.
Moses wants to do everything that his brothers do. When we're outside swimming in the pool we let the boys pee in the shrubs so that we don't have to take them into the house every ten minutes. (I don't know if the boys are hydrating themselves through osmosis while they're swimming or if they're drinking the pool water, but for some reason they need to pee three times more often than usual while they're swimming). Moses has observed the twins' outdoor potty ritual often enough that he now tries to copy them. He'll say "potty! potty!" then walk over to the grass and assume the same posture that the boys assume when they relieve themselves, with an arched back and stuck-out tummy.
Moses is enthralled by "Elmo", which in his mind is an all-encompassing term that refers to any googly-eyed Sesame Street character. For example, last weekend he was beside himself with glee when we allowed him to bring home a new "Elmo" aka Cookie Monster plush toy from our friends' yard sale. Moses has never even seen a modern Sesame Street episode featuring Elmo (we don't have cable and only occasionally watch 1970's pre-Elmo Sesame Street episodes on DVD), but he has somehow become obsessed nevertheless.
Moses has started trying to count. He especially loves counting to 3 (he usually skips 1 and 2 and just says "three" three times), especially if such counting is followed by jumping in the pool or being tossed up into the air, or if he is looking at pictures of himself, Caleb, and Joshua, he'll want to count the three brothers. When we drive by Mount Vernon on our way to church on Sunday mornings, the twins like to count the dozens of tourist buses that are parked along the road (interestingly, Chris and I used to do the exact same thing every Sunday on our way to church when we were little... not much has changed over the years!). Moses tries to count along with them, although he usually gets lost after "three". Moses also tries to sing the ABC's. He has the melody down pretty well but the letters are still a bit muddled.
Overall, I'm very impressed with Moses' ability to communicate. One of our friends recently gave us a very thoughtful gift of a baby signing DVD, and while baby sign language is something which probably would have benefitted our tongue-tied twins when they were Moses' age, we honestly don't see the need to teach Moses how to sign because he already speaks and understands language so well. Indeed, in retrospect there are many things I would change about how we raised the twins during their formative first two years. For one thing, I would have forced myself to talk to them more, since I suspect that my own reticence is at least partially to blame for their recently diagnosed language delays. But looking back, we were still in survival mode well into the twins' second year, and were probably still too precoccupied with trying to get enough sleep and preserve our sanity to explore alternative communication options. What can I say, you live and learn!
Wednesday, June 16, 2010
Jesus Gave it to You
This morning, as usual, Caleb and Joshua were chatting with the men from the pool company while they conducted their weekly cleaning of our pool. As usual, the boys drilled the men about their equipment and wanted to know everything they were doing each step of the way. Then, apparently feeling the need to state the obvious, Caleb informed one of the men, "I have a swimming pool!"
"Yes, you have a very nice swimming pool," the man replied, to which Caleb immediately responded, "Jesus gave it to you!" (Of course what he meant was, "Jesus gave it to us"... the correct use of pronouns is one of the things we're trying to work on with the boys). Anyway, the man, certainly not expecting to hear that, smiled and chuckled to himself. As humorous as it was, Caleb's bold witness couldn't be futher from the truth--Jesus did give us our pool! I can only imagine how different this world would be if all believers shared Caleb's boldness in telling others about Him.
"Yes, you have a very nice swimming pool," the man replied, to which Caleb immediately responded, "Jesus gave it to you!" (Of course what he meant was, "Jesus gave it to us"... the correct use of pronouns is one of the things we're trying to work on with the boys). Anyway, the man, certainly not expecting to hear that, smiled and chuckled to himself. As humorous as it was, Caleb's bold witness couldn't be futher from the truth--Jesus did give us our pool! I can only imagine how different this world would be if all believers shared Caleb's boldness in telling others about Him.
Friday, June 11, 2010
Worm Vitamins
This afternoon, as usual, I asked the boys what they did at preschool today. As usual, the boys answered this question by telling me what they ate at preschool. In addition to their typical fare, Joshua added that he'd eaten a "worm vitamin". It only took me a second to figure out that they must have given the kids gummy worms. We regularly give the boys gummy bear multivitamins at home, and that is the only context in which the boys are familiar with gummy "candy". It warmed my heart to know that my boys' familiarity with gummy bears is limited to the vitamin realm!
Sunday, June 6, 2010
Switching to Flickr
We've had a lot of trouble with our hosting company (among other things, they deleted all of the images from this website without telling us!), so we're closing down shop and moving over to Flickr. Not only will it cut down on maintenance time, but you'll also be able to comment on individual photos, see photos in high resolution, and even order prints if you'd like. The only catch is that, for a variety of reasons, we've decided to go private. I know it's more inconvenient than the existing setup, but we think it's worth it for the sake of our boys' privacy and safety. So come be friends with "Our Baby Wolfs" on Flickr! If you'd like me to send you an invitation to be one of our contacts, leave a comment here or send me an email. Thanks!
We are hoping to keep up the blog, too... we're not sure where or in what format, but we'll keep you posted.
We are hoping to keep up the blog, too... we're not sure where or in what format, but we'll keep you posted.
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