My little spiderman

I am going to have to replace some of the doorknobs in our house. Jake keeps hanging on them and climbing up the door--almost to the point that he is parallel to, or even higher than, the level of the doorknob. He claims he is "helping Spiderman fight crime, Mommy!" But he's about to rip to doorknobs right out of the door!

I asked him what he wants to be when he grows up. First he said he would like to be a "good pirate-- not a bad one." Then he changed his mind and said, "No, I want to be Batman. He's the best one and we need more Batmans."

Mia, when asked the same question, said "A mommy and a doctor." I asked her what kind of doctor she'd like to be, did she want to be a doctor for mommies and babies like me? "No, I think I want to be the kind of doctor who just helps all kinds of people. I can do that 'cause I'm really smart." I was so proud!

I helped Jake charge up his remote control car tonight and he sat on my lap and we just talked for the whole 20 minutes it took to charge the car. I will be sad when the day comes that he won't do that anymore.

Mia dismissed me after just 3 night-night songs tonight-- she always seems irritated when she asks for Row Row Row Your Boat-- it's like the shortest song EVER, so I usually sing it twice b/c I feel like she's getting cheated with that song. She get annoyed that I sing it twice. So tonight, as soon as I got to the ending of the first time through, she put her hand over my mouth and said, "Stop." She then proceeded to sing the whole song herself, "Row Row Row your boat, gently down the stream, Merrily, Merrily, Merrily, Merrily, Life is but a dream-- STOP. THAT's how you're SUPPOSED to sing it, Mom. Now you can go, no more songs for you tonight." And she climbed into bed and sent me out of her room!

Little Bits of Life

So, I have found myself not really taking any time to blog at all-- this because when something happens, I feel like I need the time to sit down and really write about it, and that's time I don't have. Therefore, I'm thinking I'll just type in little blurbs here and there, one liners even, and if it makes no sense to anyone but, I guess that's OK, right?

--I am currently so sore I have to brace myself getting in and out of a chair. Did 2 personal training sessions 2 days apart, without enough time to recover, on Tues and Thurs. Being stubborn, I also did 4.5 miles of cardio on Tues after training, did 4.5 miles again on Wed, and yesterday got to the gym twice-- once in the early a.m. for training with Cathy, and then again because my kids wanted to go play in the kids area at the gym that evening. I didn't really know what to do with myself while they were playing (and they didn't want me playing with them), so I suited up and did 5 miles upstairs while they played. It's amazing to me how my legs can be in SO much pain just walking down the steps, but once I get going running or on the elliptical, I don't even feel them. Until later.

--Jake is so funny right now-- favorite show is Spirderman & His Amazing Friends, from the 70's. It's on JETIX. He has memorized the whole opening sequence and does all the moves right along with Spiderman, Firestar, and Iceman through the opening credits, complete with pretending to swing off and leap from buildings (AKA ottoman/ sofa) and pretend "running" after bad guys (AKA running in place, and doing the same arm motions as Iceman). He had be laughing so hard last night watching him do this, and he had no idea anything was even funny.

--Jake also thinks he is a knight. About 3 out of 7 nights, he has to go to sleep with his 2 plastic knight swords crossed over his chest.

-- Last night he insisted on going to sleep wearing a headlamp with a red LED light. I had to take it off him once he fell asleep so he wouldn't choke.

--Mia does not like smoothies. We discovered this after spending $4 for a kids smoothie that she begged for. She took one sip, and threw it down, announcing, "This does not taste like pink chocolate milk at ALL!" Bye bye, four bucks.

--They love watching commercials during kids' shows. Don't even think about TIVO'ing through them, or you'll have to back it all up and start over.

-- They told me PaPa took them for a walk deep in the forest, and they had to run really really fast to get away from a pack of coyotes trying to bite them. Luckily, a big green "lucky snake" saved them all and they were able to get out of the forest alive. Funny, I've never seen that forest or coyotes at my parents' house.

--I let them sleep in earlier this week when I didn't have to be at work early-- once we got going, I took them to their favorite store to pick out their own flavors of PopTarts-- Ameristop, AKA "The Pop Tart Gas Station!" As we were driving there, Jakob got very excited and started exclaiming, "Mommy, Mommy, it's God's BOAT! It's God's BOAT! Look, you're going to MISS IT!" I had no idea what he was talking about. Then, on the was back from the Pop Tart Gas Station, I saw it-- there, off the the left in the backyard of one of our more eccentric neighbors, was a kids' playhouse/swingset like thing that was probably supposed to be a pirate ship. It is a rather large wooden monstrosity that likely violates some Homeowners Association rule, but to Jakob, Mia, and even to me--- there it was--- Noah's Ark. "God lives in our nighborhood!" Mia contributed.

--Mia has a very active imagination. 2 Weekends ago, we were going to a friend's house for dinner and all going around the house getting ready to leave. Mia came into my bathroom while I was fixing my hair and told me, "Mommy, Sorry to tell you this, but I'm going to have to be late for dinner." (Yes, she is only 4 y/o but speaks very maturely like this sometimes) She explained further, with a big sigh, that "Oo Oo Aa Aa's (her monkey) family just showed up at my door-- they didn't even tell me they were coming-- and now I have to throw them a party. So I guess I'll have to be late for dinner." She was back about 10 seconds later with one of those rainsticks that make a tinkling noise, "Mom, I guess I'll have to use this for the pinata. It's a little noisy, but they'll have to use it because I got no more sticks."

TKO's and Ghosts on TV

Yesterday was truly a marathon of endurance for the kids (and us). We had TWO birthday parties to attend (at the very same place, complete with the big jumpy-jumpy blow up things and lots of candy)-- one for a little boy turning 6 (Aubrey's son, a friend of mine from HS), and the other for Dylan, a classmate of the twins at preschool. Fred & I split up the day-- I took them to party #1, he took them to party #2. In between, we took them to see Kung Fu Panda at the movie theater. (BTW, did you know it will cost a family of 4 roughly FIFTY DOLLARS to get into a matinee movie and buy enough refreshments to keep everyone in their chairs for 2 hrs? Wow.)

ANYWAY, at the second party, there was another 4 y/o boy kind of pushing Jake around. He would apparently push him and even occasionally throw a punch, cut in front of him in line, etc. Jake was getting upset and asked Fred what to do. Dealing with this kid with words apparently just wasn't going to work, in Fred's assessment. So, after so counseling and instruction from Fred, the next time this kid pushed Jake, Jake told him, "If you do that again, I'm going to punch you."

The kid pushed him again. POW!!! Jake got him square in the nose with a punch. The kids was startled, stumbled back a second, and came after Jake again with a harder push. POWPOW!!!!
Jake got him harder in the nose this time, and the kid fell down and ran off. He did not bother my Jakey again. I have to say, I am proud of my boy for sticking up for himself. I don't really think fighting is the way to solve problems, but when you've got a bully running the show and no parent around, sometimes you just gotta stick up for yourself. Go JAKE! He's little but he's mighty.

On a totally different note, Mia somehow found herself with an old B&W episode of I Love Lucy on in the background yesterday morning. She quickly declared that there were "ghost people" on TV, "since they didn't have any colors in them." WHo could blame her-- I don't think they've ever seen anything in black & white on TV!

Proof Advertising Works

My twins' favorite show right now is "Spiderman and His Amazing Friends," on Jetix, which is basically an old 70's version of Spirderman cartoons that we have found significantly less violent than the current-day versions. Speckled through what seems like every commercial break is an advertisement for some //fabulous\\ (note sarcasm) product called "Pancake Puff." Here is the link:
https://www.pancakepuff.com/spark/index.php
It is perhaps about the most unhealthy thing you could make for a snack short of fried Twinkies or something like that. The commercial totally targets kids, such that I have my 4 y/o daughter trying valiantly to convince me that she desperately needs this product. "Mommy, it's so EASY! You just have to POUR and FLIP, it's JUST THAT EASY. I want to eat those for breakfast. And brownie puffs for dinner. It will be GREAT, Mommy!"

Great! After Fred and I have gotten fit, work out all the time and actually fix vegetables for dinner every night, trying to set a good example for our kids, the Pancake Puff people are undoing it one commercial at a time.

Proof advertising works, I tell you!

Storm Quote

Jakob, in response to some thunder from a big storm tonight: "Mommy, the storm just yelled in my face."

Quote of the Day

"Mommy, if you keeping singing to me this much, I'm going to turn into a song. Please let me go to sleep."
---Mia

I guess I got carried away with the repertoire while rocking her tonight. :)

Holy Mosels!

"Holy Mosels!"-- that's the phrase Mia exclaimed yesterday in the car when describing how bright and sunny is was outside. She seems to use this phrase interchangably with "Holy Thousands!"
She seems to have picked this up somewhere over the last few days, because we were on vacation last week in Disneyworld and I never heard her say it then. She is SO funny-- she is always attributing numerical values to things in order to state emphasis.
For example:
"My tummy hurts So, SOOO bad that I can't pick up my toys. It used to just hurt nine-twelve. But now its twenty-five eight!"
or
"Mommy, Mama lives so far away. She lives twenty-nine, nine away!!!!"

I need to blog a bit about our wonderful vacation with Fred's family in Florida. We had a great time, despite the kids not being the best behaved. There's a story to tell about Mia getting a Polly Pocket doll thrown away (by me) as punishment for bad behavior. Let me just say it was very effective.

As for stories about Jake, his favorite phrase right now is "nasty and disGUSting!" He works it into a lot of conversations, even inappropriately. He has also discovered, like most boys at some point I suppose, that he thinks it is funny to pass gas as a form of entertainment. He called his PaPa over to sit next to him on the couch, then raised up his leg and let one rip and cracked up laughing. GREAT! I was hoping my little boy would rise above this, but alas, no....

More updates later-- gotta run and delivery a baby-- 4th one so far today!!!
Later