The adventure in unabated Texas summer had an exciting moment or two, one I have been reluctant to share. It is, however, a very notable story, so here it goes:

The twins like going to church and enjoy their time in Sunday School and Extended Session. They do not, however, get the kind of physical exertion that makes nap time easy. After a full morning of church and lunch, Mama and Dada are ready to collapse, but sadly, the kids often are not. The Sunday of heat, they were no less ready for sleep than other Sundays. Mama and Dada had not slept well and were tired from church, but alas the kids not so much. In my great window opening that morning, I had opened the window in their room and it let in a nice breeze. With the breeze and the fan, I figured it would be cool enough, even though it was the hotest part of the day for them to sleep. I had the blinds closed even though the window was open, and with my usual admonition to leave the blinds alone, we left them to find sleep on their own and went to the other part of the house. Dada was taking a cold bath while I read to him, periodically coming out to renew the command to lay down and be quiet when they got too loud.

The next thing we know there is a ring at the door bell. This seemed quite odd, but I hurried to go answer the door. As I walked past the hallway I glanced at their door, which I had left open so the fan could do its thing. They had it mostly closed, which I figured I would fix on my way back from answering the door. When I opened my door I found a young boy on the sidewalk pointing vaguely down the street. He was saying something, but he was far enough away that I did not at first understand him. "My gutter? What?" I asked as I walked out closer to him. He said, "Your daughter." and I followed his pointing hand to see Esther, wearing nothing but a diaper (which is how I had put them down because of the heat), walking back toward the house down the sidewalk with a woman who had to be the boy's mother.

I then changed direction and headed for Esther while a flood of emotions started. As I headed across the lawn toward my returning daughter I glanced to the left where their bedroom window is. I saw Ethan (also in just a diaper) sitting in the grass playing with a bit of grass. Behind him the screen from their window was lying on the ground. Esther walked up to me and I shepherded both of them back into the house, thanking the woman profusely.

By this point I realized what they had done and what might have happened. Fear after the fact is a very strange thing. I wasn't afraid they were missing until after they had been returned, but all the might-have-been's filled me with terror. I escorted them in to their father, who was still in the bath and explained the situation to him. I left them there with him and went right then to rectify the situation, closing the window and securing the blind cords and everything else I could do (short of going right then to Lowes and getting bars for the window). Then I came back to the family and listened to Dada explaining what they had done and how wrong it was and why and scooped up the one who had already been spanked and hugged her to me and cried.

As much as putting them down to sleep while they are still awake so they can learn the skills to sleep on their own has been our premise from very early on and for as much as getting them the best chance at coolness made the most sense at the time, the fact that my actions led to a situation where my children could have been run over by a car or stolen by a crazy person made me feel terrible. I never dreamed they would have the strength or desire or wherewithall to push the screen off the window completely and then jump out of the window to the ground below.

God was incredibly merciful to us. The fact that they were NOT hurt jumping out of the window, that they were NOT run over by a car in the street, that Ethan is easily distracted and was just sitting there playing with grass, that our wonderful neighbors were headed to the pool (the boy was carrying a swimming noodle) and saw this and did something about it... (God also sent us two days where the highs were in the high 80s and not the 104 they are expecting tomorrow, and a quick response and easy fix for the air conditioner.) Our guardian angels were working overtime and I can only credit God with the current safety and well-being of my children. Thank You, thank You, God!

In recent years Texas in general and DFW in particular have had an influx of people taking advantage of the low cost of housing. I am of the opinion that people would not be leaving LA and New York no matter how low the property values if it was not for the universality of air conditioning here now. And you don't truly appreciate how wonderful climate control is until you lose it.

Because our brand new house chose Friday evening of a holiday weekend to stop conditioning our air. We came home from an early celebration of Mama and Aunt Nen's birthday (as Aunt Nen was going to be in Jamaica and Grandma in Boston for our actual birthday this Friday) to find our house unusually warm. Friday evening. July 3rd. Could it choose a more perverse time? Saturday morning Aaron called the Home Shield waranty thingy we have from the sale of our home and they said Monday they would call us to set up an appointment. GROAN! We packed up and spent Saturday at Grandma's house. Sunday morning we went to church early and enjoyed a nice long lunch (until the kids were starting to destroy the pizza place and play with the red pepper shakers) at a nice cool resturant. After the kids' nap we went to the pool and took lots of cold baths and showers in between. Monday we went down the street to Happy Hopperz, the indoor bounce house place. And the saving grace of all of it has been that we had a storm come through and bring cooler weather with it.

But here it is, Tuesday afternoon and a service charge (the home insurance version of a copay) and a new capacitor later, and the house is working valiantly to be cool once more. He didn't have to send to Taiwan for the part that would come in two weeks. He left and came back in an hour or so and it's now fixed. He didn't come and tell me it was completely fried and would need to be replaced. It's fixed. Praise God!

This week has been Vacation Bible School at church. This year’s theme is “Boomerang Express” which is to say, they are doing Australia. Something about trains and sheep stations…I’m not sure, I’m just writing the newsletter this year (and running powerpoint). I was signed up for a more active role, but when illness struck I decided that something that wasn’t directly to do with kids would be a good plan. Luckily there was someone to take my place and it’s been a good time.

Ethan and Esther have gone to VBS every summer since they were born. As six-month-olds there was a long list of volunteers for the baby room as everyone wanted to enjoy their cuteness. At 18 months they came and it was mostly just childcare. This year, at 2 and a half, they are not quite up to the age of the first actual class, which is 3- and 4-year-olds, but they and their friend Kendallyn get actual instruction for the first time this year. They have come home with crafts and stories to tell. Now, these stories involves bubbles, goldfish and fruit snacks predominantly, but when Ethan found his decorated (with marker scribbles and colored circle stickers) paper towel tube, he picked it up, put it to his mouth and marched around the house chanting “Jesus loves me.”

They LOVE going to VBS and I’m sure they will be heartbroken when it is over. I have been warning them that this is the last night and we won’t be going to church every single night any more, but when Friday comes and we don’t go to church, I think we’ll hear about it. They have two contemporaries at church that come regularly. Samuel is a little older than they are and is in the bigger class. Kendallyn is a few months younger. When we talk about “friends” in books, Samuel and Kendallyn are the names they give. They are getting pretty good a saying Samuel, but Kendallyn is harder to say. Kendallyn’s mom assures me that she asks to play with Ethan and Esther all the time and we’ll probably have to put together a play date this summer.

The other big draw at VBS is the puppets. The church puppeteers have been doing their thing this week to the delight of the children. And Ethan was doing some great dancing with the motions of the VBS song.

My apologies for our extended silence. We have had a very busy couple of weeks, and I have been fighting off a cold. When sickness hits Mama, she does what she has to for the kids and very little else. But the good news is, I’m feeling better and I can start telling stories from the last couple weeks.

First of all, Esther seems none the worse from her experience with the wipe juice. In fact, she has not even learned not to pull things down off the counter despite frequent reminders that it got her hurt.

Ethan, Esther and Mama survived a week without Dada when he went down to Riverbend Retreat in Glen Rose with 21 pre-teens. This is a remarkable number as the first year Aaron went with South Hills to this camp, he had 7 boys – and that’s it. This time was his third at this camp with this church, and he very much enjoyed it. Mama didn’t think the single mom thing was all that fun and was very glad to have Dada back.

Shortly after Dada came back from camp we had our very first house guests! Gram and Grampa came out to visit from California. They were here for a long Fathers’ Day Weekend and we loved having them. The kids loved playing with their Gramparents. Mama and Dada loved visiting with them…and all the help they gave us fixing things around the new house and helping us get settled in. Mama was starting to feel sick while they were here, and enjoyed being able to leave her children in three pairs of capable hands and go and lay down.

Sunday afternoon Gram and Grampa left for the airport and then we left for the VBS kick-off party with bounce houses and snow cones.

And for now I will leave you with this picture taken on Father’s Day of the MEN:

Since our children have become mobile, I have been extremely intentional about household chemicals and keeping them out of reach. In our apartment they were way up high (over the washer and dryer) and behind a gate. The new house isn’t as baby-proofed as the apartment had been, but they are also a little more willing to follow directions and have been fairly good about staying out of kitchen cabinets. But constant vigilance is almost impossible to maintain and last night we had an incident.

Peter is the Children’s Ministry Intern at South Hills and he just got married. We thought it might be nice to have them over and get to know Jessica and such. This entertaining thing is fairly novel to us, as the seating at our apartment was so limited we would only put family through that juggling act. At any rate, we were just about to serve dinner and most of us were in the dining room to be out of Dada’s way as he was putting on the final touches. Esther started crying like the world was ending and came around the kitchen counter to me and her top half was wet. It didn’t take us very long to figure out what had happened, but of course all the worst possible scenarios run through your mind first. Also since having children, I have become a fan of the Clorox Disinfecting Wipes for cleaning up kitchen and dining areas especially. We had reached the bottom of one of those containers and the tub with just the cleaning fluid that makes the wipes wet was up on the kitchen counter. Tall baby Esther had pulled it down on herself.

Hugs to reassure and then the kitchen sink sprayer to wash out her eyes followed. This procedure did not help in the feeling more secure, but was necessary for her eyes. Mama took her to the changing table and got her out of the wet shirt and the vomiting started. It was very small and easily contained, but sounded very much like it hurt. Dada suggested a bath and more water in the eyes. One more little upchuck (that was productive) in the bath and more nice eye rinsing (still not appreciated).

It was after the bath that we went ahead and called poison control. Now, understand that Esther has been pretty hysterical throughout this process and though soothed by Mama cuddles, it only slightly tones down the ravings. Dada produces a phone, the number to call and the container and Mama talks to the nice man at poison control. The conversation was not the easiest to have with Esther’s wailing, but he assured me that it was more of an irritant than toxic. He said to get her to drink milk or water or even suck on a popsicle to get the fluid out of her throat. He was extremely helpful and called back in an hour to check on us.

We forced some juice down her. She wasn’t really in the most receptive mood and said “No” to pretty much any question asked, including “Do you hurt?” Mama tried to sit with Esther in her lap at the dinner table, but the crying was just too much to inflict on everyone. Esther and Mama went to the couch in the play room and sat together. There was some singing to reassure us both and some praying. Mama needed to hold Esther as much as Esther needed holding, I think. After a while, she stopped being so pale and her eyes weren’t red and best of all, she stopped crying. Mama was able to sit and eat her food, which was mostly cold, but still yummy, and we even got some food in Esther. When the poison control man called back, she was playing in the backyard and happy. He said that it wasn’t likely that she had swallowed all that much due to how much she had brought back up.

It was only after Esther was doing better that I reminded her how often we had told her not to get things off the kitchen counter. Maybe now she would believe us. From what I’ve seen today, the episode has NOT cured her of reaching for things on the counter. I guess that means we follow Professor Moody’s advice and maintain “Constant vigilance!” and be consistent with them both on what is and is not okay. And we praise God that an hour of trauma was the worst that happened. Let’s just hope all our entertaining doesn’t go as poorly.

I have mentioned this phrase on many occasions when people ask after the children. I have been highly disheartened to have many tell me that the 2’s were easy, but 3 is a killer. If this is what you call “easy” than I’m in serious trouble. I can only hope that my children will follow the conventional wisdom and get their difficultness out of the way here and now and not bring on a new horror of Terrifying Threes. I had a friend and mother of three assure me repeatedly when I was pregnant that they are only difficult for the first three years and then things get easy. Here’s hoping she was right.

Being the completely different little people that they are, they have different ways of expressing their Twoness. Esther has selective hearing and amazingly doesn’t hear the direction to “stop” or “come here.” This is, I believe, a behavioral issue and not an indication of hearing loss. She hears whispers just fine. She doesn’t like to be yelled at and either cries or yells back in response. I tell her often that if she would listen to me talk she wouldn’t have to hear me yell. Unfortunately, this has yet to sink in. She is also known to throw tantrums and scream when she doesn’t get her way. Mama keeps assuring her that this is not the way to get what she wants. Despite the fact that it doesn’t get her what she wants, she still resorts to it.

Ethan’s Twoness is best described as belligerent persistence. He says the same thing over and over and over again. Sometimes this is a benign observation, like pointing out a tractor he saw on the road. Sometimes it is a request for things he can’t have and all of our “No you can’t have that, stop asking” statements go ignored and on he asks. And sometimes they are statements of fact that are not true. “The cows are such and such.” Well, actually, Ethan, those are sheep. “Cows!” They’re sheep. “Cows!” And here I thought knowing better than Mama was a teen and pre-teen trait! Aren’t children this young supposed to take my word for things and realize I know better than they do?

Ethan is also a very sensitive young man. He gives Mama hugs when she cries. If Mama AND Esther are crying he will cry too just to sympathize with us.

And it’s not all horrible. They are getting pretty wonderful at saying “thank you.” How much more gratifying to put food in front of a child and hear, “T’ank oo, Mama.” Esther’s "thank you" and "you’re welcome" have become sort of fused so that in either case she says, “thankum.” “Please” is often something we still have to prompt, but they are getting better. And what a beautiful thing to have your son cling to your neck and say, “Love you, Mama.”

We are doing our best to get settled in our new home. I’m not sure we were prepared for the kind of efforts involved in being home owners. There is the normal joy of unpacking, which seems to never be fully finished. There are the newly (re)discovered joys of lawn care and gardening. This is all new to Theresa, whose Dad took care of that kind of thing himself. It is new to Aaron to be in charge and not just doing as instructed. We’re both learning, and acquiring some exciting new tools. I had never seen the menacing tool with which one weeds. And there are the joys of painting. We are loving the opportunity to decorate more than we ever have in the past and having walls that aren’t white. But like so many things, it comes at a cost of time and effort (and money). We did quite a lot of painting before moving in, but there were some things we didn’t want to do or could not do then. We are making the Master Bathroom a lovely shade of purple called Livid Violet (how you make a flower angry, I’m sure I don’t know, but I can tell you how it would look if you could). And we’re painting a few incidental hallway walls a darker brown called Universal Umber. Paint names crack me up.

And the other joy we are discovering is living in a not completely baby-proof environment. While the children have come to accept the “New House” as Home, it’s still taking Mama and Dada a while to figure out what we need to do to keep the children from killing themselves or destroying our beautiful new investment. For instance, while in the children’s room changing the diaper on one child, I came out to discover the other child had climbed up on the couch to the kitchen bar and gotten into the Easter candy. By the time I found her she had popped several foil-wrapped chocolates into her mouth and I got the delightful task of fishing the foil out of her mouth. It’s amazing what distance alone can do to change things.

And we are very much enjoying the outdoors, while it is still cool enough to enjoy. In addition to some fun parks, we have our very own backyard to play in. Our lives were recently enhanced by a hand-me-down from a family at our church. Their three children had outgrown an outdoor play ground type thing and they offered it to us. We had been trying to figure out how to get it from their backyard to ours when one morning our deacon (who is the choir president and the father of the woman who was giving it to us) called to say he was on his way with it. It is a Little Tykes plastic play thing with a slide and places to climb up and under. They LOVE it and have spent hours out there enjoying it. Before they weren’t quite sure what to do with our backyard and the lawn bowling set I bought didn’t help much. Now they are delighted.

We are moved in to the new house. The DSL is finally fixed, and many boxes have been unpacked and even disposed of. We're not finished by any stretch of the imagination, but it is a much more functional place to live. We have yet to hang anything on a wall, but we figure decorating is last on the priority list.

Here is a picture of the outside of the house. At the moment we only have pictures of the inside when it was empty. We'll take more pictures of the insides when it is more presentable.


The kids are adjusting to the new house, but it is an adjustment for all of us. Mama and Dada love that we can both work in the kitchen at the same time, and the dining room where we can all sit at the table together. Ethan and Esther love the back yard, particularly when there is a visiting bunny to chase after. The other day, though, I took them to the store and when we came back Ethan protested "No new house!" and when I unbuckled them, they both refused to get out of the car. But the yard and the space inside the house to run makes nap time easier...they actually get tired enough to need it. :)

What with all the efforts to move, we haven't been taking lots of pictures, but Easter was a big enough deal (and their clothes so precious), that we did get out the camera. After I got them dressed in the morning, I took a few on the couch. I didn't take the camera into the church with me for the Easter Egg Hunt, but we did get some pictures at Grandma's house afterward. Please enjoy:

Before church on Easter Sunday

My apologies for our long silence. It is not because the children have stopped being interesting, but because we have had a lot on our plate this last month. No one said buying a house would be this complicated! But the exciting news is that we have indeed purchased our first home. We are currently in the painting and minor repairs stage and this coming weekend we will be moving in.

I have been working hard to prepare the Dynamic Duo for the upcoming changes. They know all the boxes have something to do with the new house. They know the new house will be a little bit like Grandma's house with a yard to play in and everything. I'm just not sure I'm prepared for all the changes. :)

One of the first questions we often get asked is if the kids will each get there own room. The answer to that is yes and no. There are two bedrooms set aside for Ethan and Esther and when it is appropriate, they will each inhabit separate rooms. For now, when Mama struggles to get little minds off of toys long enough to surrender to the sleep they insist they don't need, but prove later in the day they desparately did, they will sleep together in one room and have all their toys in the other.

Easter was lovely. It rained here, so the Easter Egg Hunt was held inside the church. This was the first year they understood anything about the Egg Hunt, and even so, I had a hard time keeping them from playing with the toys in the Sunday School room one age level up from them where the eggs were hidden and also from eating candy still in the wrapper. Easter festivities were further complicated by the fact that Ethan's cold of last week has led to Mama getting the beginnings of broncitis. Ethan seems to be doing much better, but Esther and I are still sickly and Dada hasn't gotten it at all yet. But we taught them to say "Happy Easter" and "He is Risen" and that was fairly precious to hear.

I have one story that I have to share about their development over the past month. Other than Ethan managing to mispronounce several words so they sound like swear words, they have both done some amazing things with letter recognition. Esther is particularly good at it and the other day Dada was trying to repremand her for something she had done wrong. He was wearing a shirt that says "Love Never Fails" (in all caps) and while on a completely different topic and no prompting whatsoever, Esther looks at his shirt and says "E - V - O - L." Obviously we have to work on the left to right concept, but she got every letter. Dada was so proud and melty he had a hard time getting back to the correction he was there for, but did manage to talk to her about what she should and should not do.

We also had a visit from Gram and Grampa who were in town for a conference. They played with babies, packed boxes and got to see the house before it was ours. It was sure wonderful to see them.

Pictures of precious Easter clothes and the new house are coming as we can manage it.

Maybe it's because I'm a competent, dexterous adult. Maybe it's because I'm female. I just don't understand how eating can be such a messy process. They are making wonderful progress using utencils, but it's still not perfect and after a while they tire of the spoon (though, heaven forbid Mama should try and take it) and revert to their hands. But even so, how does getting food from your tray (because we've dumped out the bowl) to your mouth cause food to be in one's eyebrows or on the top of one's ear? I just don't get it.

Esther is more neat in her eating habits than Ethan is, at least when it comes to her face. She gets it in the chair, and accidentally on the floor, and certainly down the front of her. But when it comes to her face, it is generally confined to the area around her mouth.

Ethan, on the other hand, gets it absolutely everywhere! I literally cleaned the back bottom of one ear and the top of the other today. Crumbs and sauce are often to be found in his eyebrows. When I was little my mother used to tell me I had it "all over my face," but she was using hyperbole. With Ethan it's a literal truth.

I have confidence that fine motor skills will continue to develop, and as they keep doing they will keep learning. And during the process, we keep wipes nearby to clean them up before letting them out of their chairs. In fact, Esther got mad at me today for finally calling a stop to her cleaning her tray with her wipe. The wipe was no longer wet and the tray was no longer dirty, but who did I think I was to take it away from her and put her on the floor to play? Ah, my little Cinderella.

It is such an amazing thing to watch the grasping of a concept and to see it take root. Last week we were having lunch. The kids were eating their food in their high chairs and we were at the table eating ours. We were having taco soup which involves tortilla chips. Soup is not really a practical thing to serve a two year old, so they were eating something else. Ethan started asking for a chip. Dada held up one of the chips and said, “This is Ethan’s chip. I’ll put it right here. See? Ethan’s chip. When you eat all of your oranges, you can get this chip.” Ethan was very excited and sure enough, he ate all his fruit and got “Ethan’s chip.”

That same afternoon I was playing with them, and it was a simple game of catch from two feet away with a hacky sack. Now, catch might be a bit strong of a name for this game. Mama would throw it to them and because they were sitting it would land in their lap, sometimes aided to stay there by their hands. Esther would then hand it back to me and Ethan would throw it, usually nowhere near where he was aiming. But as I went back and forth between them I said, “Esther’s turn, Mama’s turn, Ethan’s turn.” And so forth. You could almost see the wheels turning in Ethan’s head.

He has successfully used the possessive in many situations since then. He said to Grandma the other night, “Grandma’s glasses please.” He identifies Dada’s truck and Mama’s drink. But the thing that really tickles is every time he sees a bag of chips and says hopefully, “Ethan’s chip?”

This morning Ethan announced fairly early on in the breakfast process that he was done. As he was still eating at the time, we told him he wasn't and went on. Eventually I decided he had eaten enough and that it was okay if he were to get out of his chair. I picked him up and suddenly those "Oh's" he had been eating (they were Apple Jacks this morning) were not something he wanted to part with and seemed quite taken aback when I wouldn't let him take them with him. Like this is something new! They can take their cups of milk (or juice) away from their chairs with them (thank God for sippy cups), but not their food. If they want to keep eating, they need to be in their chairs. Acting quite like this rule had come out of the blue, he was slightly disgruntled when I put him back in his chair. But he really did want to keep eating, so as they were both confined to their chairs and happy, I went about doing dishes and laundry and whatnot. Then, as I am passing Ethan sitting contentedly in his chair I notice he has a hand down his shirt and his tray is empty. I have seen him fill a onesie with blocks before, but this was the first time he had put food down his shirt.

Now, the way the flow of our morning works, they wake up and eat breakfast in their 'jammies and then I change their clothes and we go on about our day. So, he pulls this cereal-down-the-neckline stunt in footed sleepers. I think it was his idea that he could have the cereal and his freedom if he put it in his clothes. Like stashing food in your pockets. It didn't work out so well for him, though, since I immediately took him to the changing table and let all the Apple Jacks make their way to the feet and then emptied them into the trash after he was dressed. He wasn't particularly put out by the loss of the cereal, however. Strange child.

Now, I had always been told the moon was made out of cheese. Perhaps that stems from the craters which remind one of Swiss cheese. Esther’s budding language skills led to a different theory. Dada had sliced an apple and she was very much enjoying her apple slices. When she had eaten all he had given her she asked for more apple. I found another slice and handed it to her, and I did so in such a way that the flat long side was facing her. My little queen of shapes (she’s pretty good with colors, too) pointed to this white mostly crescent shape and said “Moon” (or something very like it). I don’t see why Esther can’t have moons of apples if Ethan can have trees of broccoli. So, can I offer you an apple moon or perhaps some steamed trees?

This last Friday we went for our two year appointment with our pediatrician. The nurse determined their weight to be the exact same: 32 lbs. We don’t buy that for a minute. Anyone who has picked them both up can tell you that Esther is heavier than Ethan. But, they were using the big boy/girl scale where they got to stand rather than having to lay (or sit) in the baby scale. This is a significant point because for whatever reason, Ethan wanted nothing to do with the scale, despite the pretty balloon stickers on it. Esther very obediently got up there, but for Ethan it was a struggle. She measured their heights as: Esther at 37 ¾ inches and Ethan at 37 inches even. She really is quite tall and they both dwarfed the other little boy in the waiting room who was also there for his two-year appointment. It was therefore no surprise to us that they were at the top and in Esther’s case over the scale of being tall for their age.

The doctor was wonderful and played this cute game with them where he would turn on the light of his otoscope and have them “blow out the light.” He would then listen to their breathing while they blew at his otoscope and he would turn it off. He was very good at deciphering their speech, even when Esther said her “eeshh” for shoes. But then, he does work with children for a living, after all. He said all was well, but gave us the phone number for the Early Childhood Intervention folks so we could have Esther especially evaluated to see if she is behind on her language skills and get her therapy if she needs it. She has been making headway, but she might still be behind and in need of help.

Ethan is doing very well with his language development. Sometimes it seems he’s picking up a new word every day. Let me tell you about some of my favorites. He is now quite good at saying “Amen,” which comes in handy for “If You’re Happy and You Know It,” prayer time and apparently the end of some songs. Yesterday he started saying “muse-me” for music. Aaron was having a Youth Band Rehearsal and Ethan was going to each of the band members’ folders and declaring the written music they had to be “muse-me.” They were listening to the piece on Aaron’s stereo at the time, so it was mostly just cute and not a complete deterrent from what they were doing. He also knows that music is the sounds you hear and today was standing on the stage of the church with Aaron’s guitar (which lives there in a stand) and strumming – length-wise rather than the more normal approach – and saying both “muse-me” and “tar” which is his way of saying guitar. He was also singing along and at the end would say “amen.” Here at home when we have all the actual piano music up out of reach, they will get one of their board books and put it on the piano and “play” from those and sing. Last night they sat next to each other at the piano and played and sang, both with books in front of them on the piano. It was hilarious.

Ethan’s other recent word, which took us a while to figure out, is Einstein. They watch the Disney show Little Einsteins on DVD and absolutely love it. They like it better than Thomas the Train and Veggie Tales and would watch nothing else if they could. Unfortunately, Einstein is a fairly difficult word to say, and he certainly hasn’t mastered it yet. It sounds for all the world like “ass” and we were a little disconcerted when he first started saying it insistently. Now that we know what he means, we can acknowledge him and either tell him yes or no so he doesn’t have to keep repeating it. He tends to say something over and over and over until we repeat back to him the word he meant or give him what he’s asking for. He can be VERY persistent which can be fairly trying for Mama and Dada.

Esther, on the other hand, has a distinct advantage over Ethan in physical development. Today we went to the McDonald’s PlayPlace to have some fun. It had been a while since we had been to this particular McDonald’s as the one farther down the road was easier for younger ones to play on. Esther surprised me by fearlessly making her way through almost everything. She climbed up the shelf-like steps, through the hamster tunnels, even when there were sections that were made of netting instead of solid plastic. Through tunnels and up ladders and down slides like a pro. Despite frequent attempts to show him, Ethan cannot yet master the shelf-like steps, and even when Mama helps him up onto the first one he starts saying “down” and even needs help with that. I think part of the difference is that Esther is taller than Ethan is, but the other part is that she’s just plain braver. So Ethan and I stood on the ground and watched Esther’s progress. There was a place he could have gone that didn’t involve the steps he couldn’t negotiate, but for whatever reason he wasn’t interested today.

We're proud of the many ways they are developing on a daily basis. We celebrate their differences and keep working on the growing edges.

Every year in late January and early February, Fort Worth holds a Livestock Show and Rodeo. This is the time when all the FFA kids from every surrounding farm community bring their prize steer they have been raising…or pig or sheep or rabbit or whatever. There is a wide variety of animals that come and go through the course of the Stock Show. They compete and they are sold at auction and all sorts of things. They have a full rodeo with bull riding and calf roping and whatnot. They have sheep dog trials where a human and dog enter the arena from one end and a group of three sheep come in the other. The human gives commands to the dog who tries to get the sheep to go through a gate and then into a pen.

They also have a “midway” where there is basically a carnival with rides and games and that sort of thing. They have food stalls everywhere you look selling amazing foods like Steak on a Stake, Turkey Legs, Tornado Potato Fries and funnel cakes and a thousand other amazingly yummy things. They have an exhibit hall where venders set up booths selling everything from tractors and farm equipment and fencing to clothing, cooking knives and everything else under the sun.

As I say, this is an annual event, but not one we have gone to all that often. We thought that this year, the children would appreciate it as they would not have last year. We were right. The first thing inside the door we found a pair of “cows” or rather two men dressed up as cow men with hats, boots and jeans. The kids have a healthy fear of strangers, but because these were cows and not strange men, Esther gave them high-fives and even a hug. Ethan then went up to them and gave one a hug and then it suddenly occurred to him what he was doing and he ran away crying. Just after that was a petting zoo. They had goats, hens, llamas, bunnies, a small cow and even a wallaby. The children did a good job of petting, with a few encouragements to be gentle. I was watching Esther with a group of fowl (not all of which I could identify) and I wondered why the animals were putting up with that.

We got to watch the sheep dog trials. The only snag there was keeping the twins from making too much noise. Most of the commands between human and dog are verbal, so it’s a fairly quiet crowd. They enjoyed it and liked clapping for each contestant. We walked through stalls and saw horses and cows. We stopped and listened to a live band of guitar players and fiddles and there was much dancing and fun. We ate great food, saw some booths, including Elsie the Borden cow and her son Beauregard and then off to more barns. They were showing bunnies this weekend and we got to walk through the stalls and see them. Some owners were even good enough to let the children hold and pet some of their bunnies. Ethan in particular enjoyed the bunnies and was very good at proclaiming each one a “bunny.” We also went to an area with baby animals of several kinds.

We took one umbrella stroller and the twins wore their backpacks with leashes. Overall, they seemed to have a wonderful time. We all came home very tired and all four of us took a nap.

Please enjoy the entire gallery of pictures of our experiences by clicking on the picture below.

Just inside the Stock Show

Going to the store can be quite the adventure. Even though we have now grown into the carts with multiple seats (which are theoretically only for 2-6 year-olds), just having seats is not enough. They are old enough to get bored and too young to take interest in what Mom is buying and somehow it is something that compounds. On those occasions I have taken one to the store and left the other home with Dada, things are a hundred times easier. So here you have two children belted into a cart (if you’re lucky) that need to be entertained while you are trying to accomplish something. Esther is alarmingly adept at maneuvering her way clear of seat belts and they are both capable of making a lot of noise.

One trick I learned was to bring a bag of pretzels. I am not above bribing good behavior with food when the situation warrants. Pretzels take long enough to eat that you can hand them one and have time to make your choices before demands for “Moh!” start to be heard (with accompanying sign, most often). Cheerios would be consumed too quickly and you’d never get anything done. McDonalds French fries work well for those times you are in a Wal-mart with built in McDs, but of course, those are more expensive and worse for you.

I have tried keeping one child in the cart and letting one go free, but there is so much they can get into and you spend the whole time calling their name and giving directions which they only half the time follow. And if the one on the ground is not done with their freedom by the time the other is ready to get down, things can get sticky.

I purchased something recently that might just be the answer. They are backpacks with a belt strap and leash. I introduced them as backpacks and they were fascinated and played with them and went on a walk to get the mail wearing them (sans leash). Good fun. A recent venture to two different stores was the first time I brought out the leash portion. From the first time Esther’s freedom was hampered by the leash she hated it and cried. Luckily she was very interested in riding in the cart for our brief trip to Costco (first leg of our shopping expedition). Ethan was not at all perturbed by the leash. He did tend to hold on to the strap so as to have more control over how it pulled on him, but he did a great job of following along with me. When we got to Target and Esther was no longer interested in the cart things were a little more difficult. When I could keep one child on one side of the cart and the other on the other, things went well. There was no pushing or tangling of leashes. And this way they got their exercise and did not come home with lots of pent up energy, but went down for their nap without too much trouble.

We did run into a problem in the produce department, however. They had not been picking anything up to this point, but here Ethan picked up an ear of corn and put it in the basket. That was easy enough to put back, but then he took an apple. I was bagging some Gala apples and here he was with a Granny Smith. I said, “Just don’t eat it.” No sooner were the words out of my mouth than I saw he had already taken a bite. Of course I couldn’t put it back now and by the time we got to the register, he had eaten a good third of it, including the sticker with the PLU number on it. Mind you, he had never been handed an entire apple before now. I tend to cut it up in slices and then cut up the slices. It seems I am giving myself more work than I need to because he ended up eating most of that apple with his lunch. I apologized to the woman who checked us out, but she seemed unconcerned and I don’t think she charged us.

We got many comments from passersby in both stores, all of which were positive. A woman I passed who had at least two children with her, but were older, said she needed that and told me I was a smart woman. The check out person at Costco said her mom probably wished they had had those when she was a kid as she had been particularly fond of wandering off. And a man who worked at Target said his kids had those too, but instead of backpacks they were teddy bears. These were just the memorable ones. Other small comments were made too, like how I had my hands full and so forth.

Overall, it was a successful first venture.

Last week the Kenagy Family went on vacation. We were feeling badly in need of rest and relaxation, so we found a way to get some. We took a whole week off from the world. On Monday we drove down to Wimberley, a cute little town in the Hill Country known for its antique shops, Beds and Breakfasts and beautiful scenery. Normally four hours in the car would have been quite difficult with younglings. We timed the journey for nap time and brought along a wonderful toy that Grandma gave to the adults for Christmas: a portable DVD player. With movies to watch and then sleep, the journey went wonderfully.

We went to the cabin of a B&B that we first stayed in on our honeymoon. It’s a great place that was perfect for the four of us. While kitchen, dining, living and “master” bedroom (as in the king-sized bed) are all one room, there are separate rooms for the bathroom and an additional bedroom with a twin and a queen. Unlike in hotel rooms, we were able to put the children down in their own place and we were free to do our own thing in the main room.

The first night they were very confused when bedtime came and we did not go home. They did wonderfully sleeping in grown up beds, however, and we believe the day of child-sized bedding is soon behind us.

We brought along toys they had received at either Christmas or their birthday which they had not yet played with, so even though there were not tons of toys, they were novel and kept their interest. We also enjoyed the sites of Wimberley, most notably a certain toy store with toys out that you could play with and this beautiful park with a nature walk along a creek that was fantastic. There is an Italian place in the middle of the Square called Marco’s that we thoroughly enjoyed. We bought them pizza, but we ended up eating more of it than they did. They were much more interested in my Angel Hair pasta, which they ate a lot of, but at least in Ethan’s case, smeared all over their faces before consuming. It was the most restful vacation we have ever taken with the children and we very much enjoyed it.

We drove home on Thursday morning and had a day at home together. Then, on Friday after work, Grandma came over. She stayed here with the kids for the weekend while we went to her house to enjoy some child-free time. It seemed to us like we got the best of both worlds.

Now we are trying to get back into the swing of things. The alarm seems to be going off awfully early in the mornings. But for me at least, I have a renewed outlook on life. Which is good when you have a day like yesterday when your son decides to have a “Two Day” and wants everything his way, wants to control every variable, especially the ones he has no control over and has no interest in sharing toys with his sister. I told him, “You’re a twin! You have to get used to sharing things with your sister because she’s not going anywhere.” He said, “Bye bye!” I love that they are understanding more and more, but sometimes their responses are too much.

Ethan is making leaps and bounds when it comes to language. Every day it seems he is adding new words to his vocabulary. There are times when he will repeat back to me the last word of every sentence I speak. Ethan’s pronunciation is also sometimes a little off. Many words have an “E” on the end, especially if they end in K. Darkie, walkie, duckie, bookie. It’s pretty cute. Somehow, the word “balloon” became the name of a small East African Country: Burundi. We have NO idea how that happened. But we were floored when last night I asked him if he could count the balloons he had and he perfectly counted to four. I just wonder how far he could have gone if there had been more...

Esther is gaining words as well, just not as fast as Ethan. Esther is very good at saying “no,” but she has not quite mastered the “n” sound, so it comes out “moh!” It’s very cute when she’s trying to be serious and saying “Moh! Moh!”

Esther is better physically than Ethan is. She is taller and braver, so when we went to a bounce house birthday party, she was having a ball and Ethan took a while to warm up to things. When we recently went to a Chick-Fil-A play place, Esther did wonderfully, and Ethan couldn’t get off the ground level. Esther is also better with zippers and door-handles.

Recently Ethan accidentally closed Esther’s fingers in a door. She naturally started to cry. When Dada told him what he had done and asked him to hug Esther, I heard the crying immediately stop. Ethan hugged his sister to apologize and made her feel better. Dada said it was a mighty long hug.

We’re awfully proud of our little two year olds.

Today, the twins celebrated their Second Birthday party with friends and family. Tio, Tia, Aunt Nen, & sirenandnymph came, as well as four other families from the church. We went to Mama’s Pizza, an all-you-can-eat Pizza and Salad Bar perfect for kids and adults alike! We had the party room reserved. Dada immediately changed the huge TV in the room from Fox News to “Old School” cartoons.

The kids sat in booster seats, and we decorated with balloons. The salad & pizza eating went great, Ethan insisting on dipping everything in ranch dressing, Esther eating a lot of peaches. After the meal they played around for awhile, and then opened their presents. The other kids (Peyton, Kendallyn, Jaden, and Caleb) helped the twins open their presents. They received Veggie Tales DVDs, clothes, a guitar, a keyboard, farm animals and duplos.

The chocolate cake was a huge hit with adults and children alike. Esther & Ethan didn’t tear into it quite like their cupcakes from their first birthday party, but Esther did get frosting in her hair! While the children frolicked around with their toys the adults sat around chatting for quite awhile. By the time the teenagers who seemed to be running the restaurant kicked us out of the room, we had completely thrashed the place. Ah, the joys of having a simple birthday party at a restaurant!

Enjoy the picture gallery with pictures from their birthday morning, playing with crayons from Gram & Grandpa, and the par-tay at Mama’s Pizza.

Pizza Party!

Two years ago
Two precious people
Entered our lives

First, at 3:27 pm
The Star of the Sea
Esther Marie Kenagy

Second, at 3:28
The Strong Twin
Ethan Thomas Kenagy

We didn’t know then
What we know now

Two amazing, incredible years
Two beautifully fashioned children

Happy Birthday, Esther and Ethan!

	2 Days Old
	2 Weeks Old
	2 Months Old
	2 Years Old