Catching up

I thought I'd better post something before you decided that I've given up by blog altogether. Every day something funny, amazing, and mortifying happens and every day I think "wow I should put that in my blog," and now I'm so behind that I've gotten overwhelmed at the thought of catching up.

So, rather than even try to catch up, I'll just tell you this one funny little story from September that has stuck in my mind.

I took Turtle and Monkey to the Carter's (children's) store for fall clothes. Normally I wouldn't take them with me, but when I brought home summer clothes for Turtle earlier this year, she pretty much refused to wear anything I bought. So, I figured I should seek her input this time.

I picked out a dress from the rack and called her over, "Turtle, come here!"

She ran over. "Yes, mommy?"

"Is this something you think you'd like to wear?" I asked, holding up the dress.

Turtle looked at the dress, transformed into a 13-year-old before my eyes, looked at me like I was a moron, and said, "Not EVER!"

I put it back on the rack and moved in the other direction so she wouldn't see me burst out laughing.

Diversity 101

On Halloween night, after we went trick-or-treating, Turtle and Monkey helped me pass out candy at our house. One of our first visitors was a large group of Hispanic children ranging from babies to pre-teens, along with a couple of adults. After I closed the door behind them, Turtle said, "Mommy, those were your cousins!"

I explained that while their skin was dark brown like lots of people in my family, they were not OUR cousins but were other Mexican-American people, of which there are quite many.

Shortly after that, a young-ish Chinese couple brought their 2-year-old daughter to the door. When they left, Turtle said, "Mommy, I didn't like them. Their eyes were closed."

We spent the rest of the evening in cultural awareness training.

Happy 3rd Birthday Turtle and Monkey!

We have been celebrating the girls' birthday for the last two days! October 22 was the actual day, and today was their birthday party. This was the first real birthday party we've had for them, and it was a smashing success if I do say so myself. We had a pumpkin decorating craft project, followed by playtime, then pizza lunch, cake and singing, and then a pinata finale. There were no meltdowns by anyone as far as I can tell (out of 17 kids!), and no one got hit in the head by the pinata stick, so I would say it was a pretty darn good party. The girls have really enjoyed all of it, and are looking forward to tomorrow, when the birthday celebration continues with leftover cake and more than a dozen unopened presents left from today's festivities.

I really enjoyed all of it myself, too, and I feel that I'm maturing and relaxing (just a tiny bit) into my role as the mother of preschoolers.

Trip Review: Cameron Park Zoo

Last Friday, I drove Turtle and Monkey to Waco to meet up with Mimi for a birthday lunch and a trip to the Cameron Park Zoo. It was the farthest I have ever driven the girls by myself, and it was kind of a test to see if I could actually manage that kind of trip. I did. The biggest hassles getting there were dealing with a finicky portable DVD player (including a stop about 20 minutes short of Waco because I couldn't handle the screams resulting from the malfunctioning player), and stopping to go to the potty three minutes after I pulled out of the gas station north of Georgetown. This happened despite my asking repeatedly during the gas stop if anyone needed to go potty. I'd forgotten to pack drinks for the trip (which didn't seem to bother anyone), so I believed them when they said they didn't need to go potty. Then as soon as I got on the highway, Turtle said, "Mommy, I have to go potty." I clenched my teeth and looked for a good place to stop and . . . surprise! There is a really awesome rest area just south of Salado! It has great parking, a playscape (unshaded), a very nice bathroom, a designated dog walking area, vending machines, and even a storm shelter. It is officially called, "Bell County Safety Rest Area," and I was glad Turtle's delayed potty request allowed me to "discover" it.

If anyone is counting, yes, that is three full stops - one for gas, one for potty, and one for DVD player troubleshooting - in the 100 miles to Waco. That doesn't count the stop at the bank on the corner as we left the house, and the trip back to the house after the bank to get my forgotten sunglasses. So a mere 2.5 hours after we left our house, we pulled into the Ninfa's parking lot for a yummy lunch.

The Cameron Park Zoo was a very short drive from the restaurant, and we arrived around 12:45PM. Right off the bat, I was surprised by how easy it was to park. There weren't many visitors, I guess since it was the middle of a rather warm weekday, and the walk from the car to the entrance was easier than dealing with my local HEB on a slow day. It was that easy to get in. There was one small family in front of us in the one line to get in, and a pleasant and competent ticket seller to assist us. At that point, I was still under the delusion that this was a rinky little operation, so while I was pleasantly surprised with the speed and ease of entry, I didn't expect much in the way of animals.

Three Galapagos Tortoises, two giraffes, three lions, two elephants, two rhinos, a few orangutans, a tiger, a Kimodo Dragon, and a visit to Lemur Island later, I declared it the best zoo I'd ever visited. It's not just because you are so close to the animals in such lovely, natural habitats. It's that it is very thoughtfully planned, with play areas for children, well-placed air-conditioned bathrooms, a simple circular path, and an apparent focus on featuring a smaller number of animals really well. We went through the entire zoo in less than 3 hours and saw the whole thing, which gave me a real sense of satisfaction - I don't think I've ever been able to see every animal in a zoo all in one day, even before I had kids, much less in three hours. I would call it a "boutique zoo" and it was really lovely.

Of course, in retrospect, and after allowing the flames of passion to cool a bit, I have to admit that other zoos I've visited (the San Diego Zoo and the National Zoo, for example), are probably objectively "better" zoos and so maybe Cameron Park isn't the best zoo on earth. But it is really excellent when you're pulling two almost-three-year-olds around in a red Radio Flyer wagon. The girls were pretty blase about the whole thing, but I'm still excited about my new favorite day trip from Austin.

Details:

Cameron Park Zoo

www.cameronparkzoo.com

1701 North 4th Street, Waco, Texas, 76707; (254) 750-8400.

Open Monday through Saturday – 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Sunday – 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. Closed Thanksgiving Day, Christmas Day, New Year’s Day, and the last Friday and Saturday of June.

ADMISSION FEES:

Adults(13+) – $9

Children 4-12 yrs – $6

Sr. Citizens (60+) – $8

Children 3 years old and under – free!!!

Strollers & wagons are available for rental in the gift shop. Strollers are $4 each and wagons are $6 each. (Note: we brought our own (covered) wagon and it worked just great).

There is a small, air-conditioned cafe at the entrance and one in the middle of the zoo (which was closed the day we were there). We had lemonade at the cafe, and it seemed to have a reasonable variety of decent food choices, so you could definitely eat lunch there. No outside food or drink allowed.

Changes

Drumroll please . . . . after determining that NOW was the best time to make the switch, we converting the girls' cribs into toddler beds August 21! That was a very hard week. It reminded me of the newborn stage: taking forever to get the kids to go to sleep, getting up in the middle of the night because Kid A is crying, getting that kid back to sleep, laying in bed for an hour before finally getting myself back to sleep, then being woken a short time later by Kid B crying, then having both kids wake up unreasonably early to start the day. Ugh.

At least this time around I knew what the problem was (falling out of bed, having a wetting accident) and expected that it wouldn't last more than a couple of weeks. In both cases, I was right. Turtle fell out of bed 2 or 3 times and had only one wetting accident; she is now a pro at sleeping in bed and staying dry all night. Monkey fell out only once but after a series of middle-of-the-night sheet changes we decided she should go back to sleeping in a Pull-Up. And their sleep schedule seems to be lengthening back out to a more civilized waking time of 7:15A. That, I can handle. A knock on my door at 6:30A - I just can't do that, no matter how darn cute it is. I know some people do, but fortunately the girls have adopted our "sleeping-in" habits and I'm glad the toddler beds didn't mess that up. And I'm glad we made the switch when we did, before the rush of "fall activities" set in and sleep deprived bad behavior (on everyone's part) would have been less tolerable.

They are both napping in Pack-N-Plays now, because while they are able to stay in bed at night, it appears to be an impossible request at nap time. But they are doing great with the transition after a very rocky week. I was prompted to make the switch without a lot of planning or warning because I did an intense "Toilet Training in Less Than a Day" session with Monkey that Saturday morning, and it went so well I decided to go whole hog. Well, there was serious backtracking last week on the potty training front but I do think everything is smoothing out now, FINALLY. I think the fact that every girl in her Mother's Day Out program wears underwear and goes to the potty had a positive effect on her, in addition to my constant nagging. Oh wait, scratch that about the constant nagging. That seemed to make her take special pleasure in making a huge puddle in the playroom and not telling me about it until she had padded around in her wet socks for a few minutes.

Anyway, that all seems to be behind us. Now we have a couple of nearly three year old preschoolers sleeping in "big kid" beds and taking themselves to the potty, and it is pretty awesome.

That reminds me that Turtle made up her first story the other day. She found one of those miniature novelty books on a bookshelf ("Nancy Drew's Guide to Life") and decided it was her grown up book titled, "The Prince and the Golden." Here is the story she "reads" when she opens the book, and also what she reads when Monkey requests that she read "The Prince and the Golden."

"The Prince and the Golden"

"The Prince and the Golden, too little to fly. He said to his mother, too little to fly. The End."

I'll let you contemplate that masterpiece for awhile. Have a great Labor Day weekend!

Star Wars ABC

Turtle and Monkey received Star Wars ABC, a large board book featuring fantastic photos from Anakin to Zam, from Uncle C. in the mail last week. It's the new favorite, of course. The girls were familiar with R2D2, C3PO, and Yoda because Santa brought those action figures to stockings last Christmas, plus they knew Luke and Leia because I have the piano sheet music to Star Wars and there's a movie photo on the cover. But now it's a whole new world. We have no intention of showing the girls any of the movies for many more years, but I have to think they will have complete mastery of the characters by the time the movies are presented. Here's a sampling of recent conversations.

Turtle, yesterday: "I want to be Anakin for Halloween." Not sure how long this will last since (a) she thinks Anakin is a girl, and (b) prior to yesterday she said repeatedly that she was going to be the tooth fairy for Halloween.

Monkey, at Michael's today: "Let's buy a Storm Trooper." Don't ask me how she popped out with that one in the middle of a craft aisle.

This evening, getting ready for bed:

Turtle, pointing at the photo of Princess Leia: "Help me Obi Wan Kenobi, you're my only hope!"

Monkey, to me: "I'm Princess Leia, and you're Queen Amidala." Twin Daddy accidentally let the cat out of the bag that Queen Amidala is Leia's mommy, and we were hoping they would forget, but they seem quite taken with the fact that the picture that "looks like a clown" is Leia's mom.

Monkey, to me: "Who is Princess Leia's daddy?"

Me: "I don't know. . . . it's a mystery. "

We will NOT spill the beans on that one, and please, please, no one else answer that question. We aren't sure the order in which we'll be showing the movies, but in case we start with IV, we have to keep that a mystery.

Now, I'm sure there are some readers who have no interest in Star Wars and are now bewildered/appalled/think this post is totally lame. But just know that this set of movies is VERY IMPORTANT around here and and any dissing of said movies in front of our children will not be looked upon kindly. Twin Daddy sat with his roommate (who is much more fanatical, and who dressed as Hans Solo for the occasion) in front of a theater for about a day back in 1997 in order to be the first people in the door at the first Austin showing of the Star Wars re-release. I brought them a hot drink in a thermos (and tried not to make fun of Han) so I could also be favored with a perfect seat for the first show in Austin. I'm just saying. It's important.

Two Stories

First, a Monkey story. Last night, getting ready for bed, Monkey climbed on the outside rung of her crib, grabbed the top rail, and kind of arched her back. I told her not to do that and she asked, "Will it break, Momma?" I said, "No the crib won't break, but you might break something. Remember when Lucy (a doll in her favorite Little Bear book) fell out of the tree and broke her arm? That can happen to you, too, but I can't use tape to fix it like Little Bear. I'd have to take you to the hospital for a doctor to fix it."

She looked at me with big eyes and I saw my poor girl visibly shrink before me. She and Turtle started talking about all the ways they could break their arms, and I tried to backtrack. "Oh, you know, maybe you wouldn't break anything, maybe you'd just get an ouchie on your head and you'd cry and need ice, but even then you know, Mommy will always be here to take care of you." Blah Blah Blah. It was too late. I crushed Monkey's skiing/gymnastics/horseback riding career before she ever had a chance to dream about it. The last words she said as I tucked her in were "on ladders, in cribs, in trees, in LOTS of places."

Now, a Turtle story. Tonight we were pretty late getting the girls to bed because I took them out to a little potluck dinner going-away party for their Heartsong Music teacher, who is moving to go to graduate school. Once home, we rushed to hustle the girls into bed and I was trying to help Turtle brush her teeth. She wouldn't open her mouth, she sucked on the toothbrush, and was generally uncooperative, so I gave that up and moved on to trying to wash her hands. She wrestled with me over it and then she kind of screamed and flailed her hands under the faucet, splashing water all over the sink and mirror. I took a step back, put my hands on my hips without saying anything, and gave her a raised-eyebrows "I'm not happy about this" look in the mirror. She met my gaze in the mirror. Then she said, "This is not going well."

After Twin Daddy and I stopped laughing, we got them to bed without much trouble.