Ezra's Favorite Phrase Lately

At least he's consistent.

Ballet Practice

For the past few weeks, Eliza and Ruby have been working on their dance for the upcoming Christmas recital. These two girls love their class, and they love to dance!

I usually don't bring Ezra and Elliott to ballet class with me, but Nathan was busy this morning, so they tagged along. They liked watching Eliza dance for about ten minutes or so. After that, they found the water fountains and refused to move. They spent a good 20 minutes just doing this:

Don't worry. I managed to keep them licking the side of the water fountain to a minimum.

Ezra and Elliott Lately

Ezra and Elliott have changed so much lately, and I find myself often thinking: "Maybe they aren't identical." Of course, I know there is scientifically a 0% probability that they are fraternal twins based on the fact that they shared a placenta, but the differences in their personalities become more pronounced daily.

 Elliott always looks like he is up to mischief to me. His hair is always crazier (no matter how it is cut or bushed), and his eyes seem to always be laughing. Elliott is quicker to show emotion and loves to cuddle with me. Elliott can also be fiesty (despite appearances). When he is upset, everyone knows it! His latest trick is to throw the biggest toy he can find onto the tile so it makes a loud noise. He looks so innocent, though, right!?

Ezra is so spunky. He is serious, but always playful at the the same time. I feel like he is always thinking about something important. His voice is one of the cutest things I've ever heard, and it's pretty funny how he is obsessed with shutting doors, lining all of his toys up, and counting to ten. Ezra is a little defensive in this picture because he thinks I'm going to take the iPad away (where he loves to practice his letters).

Both boys continue to be obsessed with their letters. Nathan and I spend at least an hour a day drawing the letters on their Magna-Doodles, and they watch Super Why every morning to further fuel their letter addiction. I also discovered this app on the iPad that they absolutely love.

They love going on walks, they love playing with one another, and they are generally very happy babies. We are so lucky to have these two little guys in our family.

A Typical Wednesday

Wednesdays are one of my favorite days of the week for a number of reasons:

1) Nathan is home in the mornings, and the babies love to snuggle with him as soon as they wake up.

Here are a few of the typical morning scenes in our household: Ezra immediately begins to build a tower, Elliott focuses intently on Super Why, and Eliza models her pajamas.

2) Eliza has a couple of activities to keep her entertained and that is always a good thing. She goes to swimming with Ruby (which she still loves) and then heads to preschool. She wore goggles for the first time today. Can you tell she's still a novice?

3) After preschool, we usually walk to the park and play until dinner time. I love having two nice parks nearby, and I especially appreciate that this park is fenced in so the twins can't run off. 

4) Becca and I started a super intense Pilates class at the gym on Wednesday nights after our kids go to bed. As you can tell from this picture, it's kind of kicking my trash. Hopefully, that changes soon!

One bonus reason why this Wednesday was particularly awesome: I got to hang out with this little angel. Jane is SO cute.

Selfies

Ezra and Elliott discovered the world of selfies while playing with the camera on my new phone a couple of days ago. Ezra realized that he could take a picture any time he pushed the big red button and was absolutely thrilled. With their powers combined, the twins learned how to flip the camera image around and take pictures of themselves. I usually don't let them play with my phone, but they are so cute posing and saying "cheese" that it's hard to deny them selfies!

This morning, Ezra climbed into my lap, asked for my phone, and then pointed it at us. Elliott soon joined us, and they both sat smiling with me, saying "cheese," and clapping after a picture was taken. I love how small things can make them so happy.

Stitch Removal

Eliza's stitches were removed today, and she was more than a little scared about going back to the hospital. I called our local urgent care, and they said they would gladly remove the stitches since their facility is a sister company to the hospital. I thought avoiding the emergency room and all those unpleasant memories might make Eliza feel a little calmer about the procedure. I assured her it would be painless, but she wasn't very convinced.

We sat and waited for almost an hour with a room full of very sick people. I tried to entertain Eliza by reading several books and got a little emotionally overwhelmed reading Oh The Places You'll Go. I didn't realize how heart-wrenching Dr. Seuss's writing could be!

Eliza's only four, and I'm already thinking about her future and how this applies to my own life and her life someday. Needless to say, it probably wasn't the cheeriest mood for her to be around before a somewhat traumatic stitch removal procedure. I did my best to get my cheeriest mom face on, and we were finally called back.

The nurse who removed the stitches was fast, and that's about all that mattered because Eliza could not be reasoned with. She really tried hard to be kind, but having a pair of sharp scissors near her eye was not something she handled well. She managed to stay still long enough for the stitches to come out, and we were good to go. The nurse had promised her a really cool Band-Aid if she was good, and let's just say that Eliza was not impressed.

Snoopy? Seriously? I mean, I love Charlie Brown and the gang, but Snoopy wasn't the exciting Band-Aid she was expecting. Oh well! At least this whole ordeal is over!

The Doc is In

The day after any holiday means big sales. Last year, I found a Minnie Mouse and Rapunzel dress for just $2.50 the morning after Halloween. Eliza has been obsessing over a certain show lately, so I knew what costume she would love to have this time around. Sure enough, there was one Doc McStuffins costume left--and it was only $4.00. Success!

Eliza was ecstatic when I gave her the Doc McStuffins outfit and immediately ran to get her doctor kit.

 She's been singing all afternoon and diagnosing each of us with some new illness :)

I love her imagination. She's already let us know a few times that she needs some new "patients" (stuffed animals) for Christmas.