My babies are five.
F I V E !!!
{as of March}
I remember asking my mom when the boys were tiny when it started to get easier with twins. She told me when they turn five. At the time that seemed like an eternity away and that we would never make it. But alas, we have. And of course it went by much quicker than I would have liked.
They are a barrel of fun and it is starting to get easier. They are starting to listen better, they definitely don't run away from us as frequently and check in once in awhile, they are starting to do a little better in Primary, and it doesn't feel quite so overwhelming to go somewhere with them. It's a huge win!
They say funny things, they play really well together, they are incredibly imaginative, and they adore their baby sister and are so affectionate to her.
I asked them a few questions, and here are their responses:
How old are you?
B: 5 years old.
I: 5
What's your favorite food?
B: Mac n cheese
I: long noodles
What's your favorite thing to do?
B: to eat and eat and eat
I: take baths
What's your favorite color?
B: all of them!
I: blue
What's your favorite toy?
B: a sea snake toy
I: tiger snake
What's your favorite fruit?
B: blue berries. they're the smallest fruit in the world! and they're blue.
I: banana
What's your favorite movie?
B: octonauts
I: Ice Age
What's your favorite game?
B: the same game that Ian likes, checkers.
I: checkers
What's your favorite snack?
B: cheesy crackers
I: goldfish
What's your favorite animal?
B: all of them!
I: possum
How do you know mama & daddy love you?
B: I don't know.
I: like cleaning up.
For my memory's sake, here's what their life looks like right now.
They wake up somewhere around 7am and know they aren't supposed to come upstairs until they see the 7 on their clock. And not just any 7, it needs to be the first 7. That took awhile to figure out! haha. I usually cook them a breakfast of pancakes, french toast, eggs, or waffles and some days they do cereal. I also try to feed them some fruit and yogurt to start the day off right. They usually already have some sort of creature in their hand that they are playing with by this point and are easily distracted when it comes to eating. On Tues/Thurs they have preschool at 9:30am so we start getting ready for that, on days that I work Jesse gets them ready for the sitter and there by 8:30am, and on days we are just home we have lazy mornings of playing. I usually let them play for a while so I can get Alba and myself fed. When Alba goes down for a nap I usually try to play with the boys for a little while and then we start working on their chores. Their chores include making their bed, brushing their teeth, getting dressed, cleaning up their toys, doing their online preschool program, and doing one thing that mama asks of them. Briggs told me his favorite chore is his "help mama" chore. I like it too because frequently I'm doing the chore with them and it gives us a little one on one time which is so nice. We usually have a snack around 10ish and they keep playing. They are great players and usually get lost in whatever game they are playing for a long time. We break for lunch and they frequently request a "picnic" which means they want to watch a show and eat their lunch. Depending on if we have watched shows before this time, sometimes I cave and let them, but for the most part we eat at the table. If we have any errands to do, after lunch is usually our time to do them and we load up and hit the store, or pet store, or whatever we may need. After that it's snack time again, and time for me to get a few things done around the house again. Usually by this point they have dragged all their favorite toys upstairs so we try to take a load of treasures downstairs and tidy up the basement a little bit. If I can keep them distracted enough, I can work in the kitchen and upstairs living room. Most of the time it's damage control though and not actually getting ahead on anything. Then it's time to throw together some dinner and count down the minutes until daddy gets home. Once daddy's home, there's usually some wrestling and playing that happens while I try to clean up yet again, Bedtime is 8pm and they usually are great at getting ready and hopping into bed. Their favorite books to read right now are Shark Bite and Z is for Moose. We alternate who says the prayer every night and their prayers always include what we did that day, sometimes Ian throws in that "mama looks handsome when she looks in the mirror" or "daddy is handsome" just for good measure. They always give us a smooch on the cheek, we exchange "I love yous," and Ian tells me to check on them when I need to. And then even if it has been a rough day, Jesse and I gush about how adorable they are as we walk back upstairs to our room.
Ian
He is really into playing games like go fish, checkers, chutes and ladders, etc.
He is obsessed with tails and always wants to know how long an animal's tail is and if it's longer than their body.
He still loves sea animals and is so knowledgeable about them.
He loves to have me draw and cut animals out of foam paper for him that he then plays with for hours.
He definitely needs to be kept fed or he gets very hangry. It's amazing how quickly his mood shifts once he gets some food in him.
He gives us a thumbs up when he approves of things.
He has gotten into Signing Time when we watch with Alba and he asks how to sign things fairly frequently. He also signs things like "all done," "more," and "thank you." without saying anything.
We have a laminated chore chart and he is pretty motivated to cross off his chores each day and does most of them without too much complaining.
If he hears Alba talking in her room he always says, "I hear Alba's sound!" he will also impersonate someone and tell me that's their sound.
He kind of likes to control how other people play and gets really frustrated when they are doing something he doesn't want. We have frequent conversations about how you can't control how other people play, you can only ask nicely if they want to do something different with you. It's rough sometimes.
Briggs
He loves doing puzzles and is pretty good at them. I struggle with puzzles so the 100 piece puzzles we do are about on par with both of our skill sets.
He is super creative and is constantly making creatures out of pom poms, pipe cleaners, or drawing them on foam paper. My hot glue gun is usually plugged in for a good chunk of the day so I can assemble whatever creation he has come up with.
He also loves sea animals.
Hanger also applies to this child. I try to do three meals and a snack between each meal for them and it seems to keep them a little more even keeled.
He loves Alba so much and always seems to be touching or kissing her face.
He is getting better at going to Primary and staying in his class although sometimes he still ends up with us.
I think he has some anxiety or other social issues of some sort. He struggles a little more than Ian does (usually) with various things such as going to preschool/church. He is also pretty defiant at times which can be a struggle. I'm still figuring out how to best help him. At the same time though, he can be super sweet and loves to snuggle and give kisses.
He has the cheesiest smile that comes out when I ask him to smile. He smiles with an underbite and his pointy chin gets even pointier! It's hilarious.
Here's just a bunch of random pictures of our life right now:
They got into my makeup. Ian gave himself a makeover and I helped Briggs with his.
We got season passes to Lagoon this year and the boys LOVE it. They ride almost all the rides they can (they don't do the ladybug drop one, but other than that they are awesome!)
Sunday Pictures are always a struggle, but they love it when I say they can kiss Alba.
Briggs collects rolly pollies any chance he gets. On this particular day he told me "these are my kids" followed with, "my collection isn't listening!" as they all were crawling all over the place.
This girl gives out some awesome snuggles to her big brothers.
Briggs is really into drawing right now. He draws all over the sidewalk as well as on foam paper. His creations always impress me.
Despite the hard days, I am still so grateful to be their mom!
F I V E !!!
{as of March}
They say funny things, they play really well together, they are incredibly imaginative, and they adore their baby sister and are so affectionate to her.
I asked them a few questions, and here are their responses:
How old are you?
B: 5 years old.
I: 5
What's your favorite food?
B: Mac n cheese
I: long noodles
What's your favorite thing to do?
B: to eat and eat and eat
I: take baths
What's your favorite color?
B: all of them!
I: blue
What's your favorite toy?
B: a sea snake toy
I: tiger snake
What's your favorite fruit?
B: blue berries. they're the smallest fruit in the world! and they're blue.
I: banana
What's your favorite movie?
B: octonauts
I: Ice Age
What's your favorite game?
B: the same game that Ian likes, checkers.
I: checkers
What's your favorite snack?
B: cheesy crackers
I: goldfish
What's your favorite animal?
B: all of them!
I: possum
How do you know mama & daddy love you?
B: I don't know.
I: like cleaning up.
For my memory's sake, here's what their life looks like right now.
They wake up somewhere around 7am and know they aren't supposed to come upstairs until they see the 7 on their clock. And not just any 7, it needs to be the first 7. That took awhile to figure out! haha. I usually cook them a breakfast of pancakes, french toast, eggs, or waffles and some days they do cereal. I also try to feed them some fruit and yogurt to start the day off right. They usually already have some sort of creature in their hand that they are playing with by this point and are easily distracted when it comes to eating. On Tues/Thurs they have preschool at 9:30am so we start getting ready for that, on days that I work Jesse gets them ready for the sitter and there by 8:30am, and on days we are just home we have lazy mornings of playing. I usually let them play for a while so I can get Alba and myself fed. When Alba goes down for a nap I usually try to play with the boys for a little while and then we start working on their chores. Their chores include making their bed, brushing their teeth, getting dressed, cleaning up their toys, doing their online preschool program, and doing one thing that mama asks of them. Briggs told me his favorite chore is his "help mama" chore. I like it too because frequently I'm doing the chore with them and it gives us a little one on one time which is so nice. We usually have a snack around 10ish and they keep playing. They are great players and usually get lost in whatever game they are playing for a long time. We break for lunch and they frequently request a "picnic" which means they want to watch a show and eat their lunch. Depending on if we have watched shows before this time, sometimes I cave and let them, but for the most part we eat at the table. If we have any errands to do, after lunch is usually our time to do them and we load up and hit the store, or pet store, or whatever we may need. After that it's snack time again, and time for me to get a few things done around the house again. Usually by this point they have dragged all their favorite toys upstairs so we try to take a load of treasures downstairs and tidy up the basement a little bit. If I can keep them distracted enough, I can work in the kitchen and upstairs living room. Most of the time it's damage control though and not actually getting ahead on anything. Then it's time to throw together some dinner and count down the minutes until daddy gets home. Once daddy's home, there's usually some wrestling and playing that happens while I try to clean up yet again, Bedtime is 8pm and they usually are great at getting ready and hopping into bed. Their favorite books to read right now are Shark Bite and Z is for Moose. We alternate who says the prayer every night and their prayers always include what we did that day, sometimes Ian throws in that "mama looks handsome when she looks in the mirror" or "daddy is handsome" just for good measure. They always give us a smooch on the cheek, we exchange "I love yous," and Ian tells me to check on them when I need to. And then even if it has been a rough day, Jesse and I gush about how adorable they are as we walk back upstairs to our room.
Ian
He is really into playing games like go fish, checkers, chutes and ladders, etc.
He is obsessed with tails and always wants to know how long an animal's tail is and if it's longer than their body.
He still loves sea animals and is so knowledgeable about them.
He loves to have me draw and cut animals out of foam paper for him that he then plays with for hours.
He definitely needs to be kept fed or he gets very hangry. It's amazing how quickly his mood shifts once he gets some food in him.
He gives us a thumbs up when he approves of things.
He has gotten into Signing Time when we watch with Alba and he asks how to sign things fairly frequently. He also signs things like "all done," "more," and "thank you." without saying anything.
We have a laminated chore chart and he is pretty motivated to cross off his chores each day and does most of them without too much complaining.
If he hears Alba talking in her room he always says, "I hear Alba's sound!" he will also impersonate someone and tell me that's their sound.
He kind of likes to control how other people play and gets really frustrated when they are doing something he doesn't want. We have frequent conversations about how you can't control how other people play, you can only ask nicely if they want to do something different with you. It's rough sometimes.
Briggs
He is super creative and is constantly making creatures out of pom poms, pipe cleaners, or drawing them on foam paper. My hot glue gun is usually plugged in for a good chunk of the day so I can assemble whatever creation he has come up with.
He also loves sea animals.
Hanger also applies to this child. I try to do three meals and a snack between each meal for them and it seems to keep them a little more even keeled.
He loves Alba so much and always seems to be touching or kissing her face.
He is getting better at going to Primary and staying in his class although sometimes he still ends up with us.
I think he has some anxiety or other social issues of some sort. He struggles a little more than Ian does (usually) with various things such as going to preschool/church. He is also pretty defiant at times which can be a struggle. I'm still figuring out how to best help him. At the same time though, he can be super sweet and loves to snuggle and give kisses.
He has the cheesiest smile that comes out when I ask him to smile. He smiles with an underbite and his pointy chin gets even pointier! It's hilarious.
Here's just a bunch of random pictures of our life right now:
They got into my makeup. Ian gave himself a makeover and I helped Briggs with his.
Sunday Pictures are always a struggle, but they love it when I say they can kiss Alba.
Briggs collects rolly pollies any chance he gets. On this particular day he told me "these are my kids" followed with, "my collection isn't listening!" as they all were crawling all over the place.
This girl gives out some awesome snuggles to her big brothers.
Briggs is really into drawing right now. He draws all over the sidewalk as well as on foam paper. His creations always impress me.
One of their favorite things to do right now is wrestle with their dad and be launched around.
Chalk art explained
Despite the hard days, I am still so grateful to be their mom!
