This and That

Happy New Year...at least it was in Italy when we toasted at 6pm!

Just a little post to document some of the things that are going on with them at this age.

• When they eat, name the order they are going to eat it in. I am not sure where this started from but without fail at each meal they discuss what they are going to eat first, second, third, and last. The key item is what they are going to eat last.
  
• Now when we finish meals, they are responsible to put their drink in fridge and PLACE their plate in sink.
  
• They are napkin obsessed. Each meal they each go through about 5 napkins. One is for this mess, then wiping their fingers, and then it is too dirty, and one is for their fork to sit on, and one for their drink to sit on, and then of course a new one to wipe their hands and face again. It is ridiculous.

With their friend Lorelei at Frostival - a little event with rides and crafts for preschoolers

• For their birthday and Christmas they got the Bitty Twin dolls and some associated American girl paraphernalia. At first they weren't real sure about them - especially since they each already had one baby doll (from when they turned 1). But they now LOVE their new dolls who they have named Kate (Audrey's) and Kayla (Brooke's). And the best part is that they got diaper bags complete with changing pads and wipes to go with the dolls. I cannot emphasize how many diaper changes we do around here on a daily basis. For sure more than we ever did with the real twin babies.
  
• The girls are obsessed with middle names. They love to find out middle names and they love to call each other by their middle names. Darren started this craziness by calling them Elise and Elizabeth during their nighttime routine. Today at the grocery store they were talking to the guy stocking the juice and asked him his name. Fine. Then they ask him his middle name. He was clearly taken aback. Then they are telling him their middle name, Darren's middle name, my two middle names (another exciting thing about middle names). You could tell that he thought this was all rather odd.
  
• Speaking of names, they now consistently call Darren by his name of Darren rather than Daddy. They even will say Mommy and Darren.
  
• They love to play pretend now with their animals, dolls, little people, etc. But here recently they have started to talk for them in little voices. It is precious.
  
• Audrey has now starting saying "dude." Hilarious!

Putting the kids to work shoveling the snow.

• Brooke has clearly grasped the concept that she is bigger than Audrey (a point I frequently have to make regarding fitting into clothes and shoes.) She will now tell Audrey "you can do it when you get big like me." So funny! Also when we look at baby pictures, Brooke always points to the babies and says "that one is bigger so that is Brooke. that one is smaller so that is Audrey." We have to work on scale though cause I have a set of pictures of each of them in the bath when they were around one and the picture of Audrey is zoomed in more. Brooke is convinced that it is Brooke cause she is bigger.
• The girls love to play games. Their favorite by far is Zingo (it is actually quite fun and is a quick game to play.) Here recently we got a game of Go Fish (where the cards are of animals - mainly marine animals) and the girls LOVE to play it. At first there was some confusion about who would need to get a card when they said Go Fish, but now they are masters at it. Except for the fact that they spread their cards out on the floor so they can see them and then announce what they get each time they draw. It is so funny to play with them.
  
• They like to pretend to be babies - which I can't stand. They crawl around and say Ga Ga and won't respond cause they are babies. Irritating.
  
• They have gotten very good at reading a digital clock - just calling out the numbers like five, four, three. This makes it quite handy when they have to sit down after getting in trouble cause they manage their time themselves.
  
• I had the parent teacher conference with their teachers last week. Embarrassing to say, but I was nervous going into the meeting. As it turns out, there was no need to worry. The teachers were totally complementary of both girls. A brief summary: Audrey is independent and basically runs the play kitchen area. Brooke is a leader in the class and makes sure other people know what they are supposed to be doing. They said that both of them were helpful and that they had great vocabularies.
  
• Two funny little conversations. Audrey was playing and her Barbie was feeding the penguin. So I asked her if she knew what penguins ate. She looked at me and responded, matter-of-factly, that penguins eat snow. I said that penguins ate fish. So she said "penguins eat fish and snow."
  
• I was getting ready to cook dinner so it was time for the girls to select their movie (which is really dvr'ed shows from disney or pbs). This has gotten touchier lately mainly because Audrey no longer always just acquiesces to what Brooke wants. So I read them their choices and Brooke decided that she wanted Agent Oso. Well Audrey decided that she wanted (don't remember but probably Handy Manny, Super Why, or Dinosaur Train). So they are both chanting their choices and are adamant that they are not going to change their mind. Brooke grabs by face and says "Mom, Oso now. Audrey will get happy later." It was hilarious!

Getting ready for The Big Show at their Little Gym dance/gymnastics class. I took video but it is currently trapped on our camcorder. So here is a picture with their friend Falyn.