Wednesday, August 6

My 101st Post




I dunno. I thought it was worth mentioning.

Tuesday, August 5

Yawn

Last night the thunder was so loud that at 2:55 the jolt set off our smoke detectors.

The girls all slept through it. Zach and I didn't.

Sunday, August 3

Twin Daze

We decided to celebrate the specialness of twinhood by driving to Twinsburg for the Twin Days Festival, where everyone else is also celebrating their special twinness.

After driving two and a half hours (two of which were supposed to be nap time, but ended up being story/movie/binki-retrieval time,) we drove past the sign that said "Twin Days- Welcome Twins!" And then, to make it official, Zach chimed in: "I see twiiins." And he was right. There were twins.

They were all dressed exactly alike- many in costume. Many in very skimpy costumes. I immediately felt bad for not having bought matching jeans for our girls. They seemed to be the only slackers that had come in matching shirts only. And to add insult to injury- Anya was the only one with socks on.

We gave $3.00 to some very tan girls named Lindsey and Nicole, who were wearing shorts they couldn't bend in. Zach noted they had nothing but walkie talkies to lend any credibility to their "we own the rights to this highschool parking lot" demeanor. Hmm- maybe next year we'll show up a little earlier with some walkie talkies and skimpy clothes... seems like good money. They waved us past lot after lot until we parked about a half mile away from the shuttle which would then take us to the actual fair. This thing was a bigger deal than I thought. We were pretty excited.

The first thing we did was go to the contest booth. I figured it would be the easiest way to get a photo with a bunch of twins in it. I thought the "1 to 3 year-old least alike females" would be a good one, and we happened to show up just before they went on stage, so we got in line. Zach snapped a few pics and we were ready to go- except we had to wait to be judged. Looking around at the twins who were practically opposites, I knew we didn't stand a chance, even though when you see our girls you wonder if Anya ate the triplet. While we waited the gal next to me asked us to take some pics of her and her girls. I told her I'd e-mail them to her. I put the card with her e-address on it in my back pocket. It isn't there anymore. Sorry lady.
If anyone knows this family...



Then we walked past all the booths selling matching everything and found a nifty little park. Which we didn't go to, because Mia wanted to go on the swings on the other side. The babies were really exhausted mellow by then, and were content to watch the fair from afar.



I thought we'd try Mia out on one of the rides we passed coming in, (we have tickets to the Ohio State Fair next week- I wanted to see how she'd do.) So we headed back toward the fair entrance. Mia was excited to go on the spinning ride. She waited in line with the twin kids, completely unaware of her inadequate presence as a singleton. Oh the shame. But it seemed to hit her just as the ride started to spin. She bawled her eyes out.

Maybe she saw all the other kids next to their doubles and realized what an outcast she was. Maybe she thought she was seeing double. At any rate- the ride controller had to stop the ride to let her get out, so the people who deserved to be on it could actually have a good time. Good for you, Mia. You know your place.


So in the end- we drove five hours so Mia could go on some swings. This is definitely going to be a family tradition. For two more years.

Friday, August 1

Pulling up roots and getting grass

Today we've been in Ohio for a year.

We were out back watching the girls splash in the pool and I was thinking there was no way I could have pictured this last year. When we first moved here, we thought we were trapped into a year lease at Jefferson Chase. After realizing they had no play area, the pool was disgusting, and the grass around the pond was covered in goose poop until it was too cold to go to the pond anyway. Mia wasn't two yet, the babies were three months. And we were all pretty unhappy in our dark, malfunctioning townhome.

I thought we'd have spent another spring and summer there by now- but we got out of the lease six months early! To think we almost didn't even ask. We couldn't have paid a fee for breaking the contract. But they had just gotten a new manager, and somehow their policy allowed us to leave because we had signed up just before they changed it.

And so we've spent every warm day this year in our own house on our own lawn. I had no idea a backyard would mean so much.