How quickly time goes by

I can barely believe that Christmas is around the corner. How did that happen? In fact the entire year seems to have rushed by in a flash. Early in the year I was anticipating our 3 week trip back to the UK, of course that was wonderful, and I got to meet up with so many friends and family, but 3 weeks is just never enough! All the plans I had to visit different places just fell by the wayside as we tried to fit in as much as possible in the time we had. We arrived back home in time for the twins to enjoy their last day of preschool before they broke up for summer.

Once again I planned to do lots of things with the boys, we had the entire summer ahead of us. I wanted to go to the zoo, go up Pike's Peak, have lots of picnics in the park, summer crafts - all sorts of things. I was so excited about the good times I had planned. And then I had knee surgery! I was stuck in a wheelchair for 6 weeks. Plus it rained a lot through the summer, much more rain than we ever experience here. Before I knew what was happening I was starting to prepare for the boys to head back to school!

And here we are. November 14, only two weeks until Thanksgiving and 6 weeks until Christmas! How did that happen? When I was single, it often seemed as if time was standing still. Life was slower altogether and I meandered through my weekends off work and my summer holidays. Pottered around in my garden, spent lazy afternoons reading a good book, and even stayed in bed VERY late reading the Sunday paper! Now two screaming little boys lurch through our bedroom door around 6.30am and hurl themselves on our bed. They don't understand how to whisper and be quiet, quiet is not a concept they get! So our days start early, if reluctantly, and the rest of the day just flies by in a blur!

I need to get started on Christmas cards and present lists. If I want to mail anything to my family in the UK I have to think ahead to ensure I don't miss the post! I certainly need more specifics on the toys the twins want Santa to bring them this year, a moon "thingy" is not really helpful to me! I need to go online and see what's the best price and where. I need to make photograph calendars for my family, it's a great way for them to see what the boys have been up to during the year. I need to think about food for both Thanksgiving and Christmas. Chuck has no time off this year other than Christmas Day, so I have a feeling I will be doing a HUGE grocery shop with the boys in tow! Not looking forward to that at all! The boys have read and re-read the ToysRUs catalog, they want just about everything in it, except the items Oliver says are "girlish"!

It's another year almost done, but I am loving the season. The boys are so excited, they spent the day yesterday pretending they were Santa delivering present. They tied their favorite cuddly toys up in their baby blankets, handed them to each other - or me - so they could be unwrapped and enjoyed! Their delight in the snow, and the 'cel'bation' as Jamie calls it makes it so much fun for me! If nothing else, seeing and sharing these celebrations and events with them will keep me young! (As long as it doesn't kill me first!)

The funny things they say! 3

Oliver is a great talker, despite the fact that some of my friends rarely hear him. When we are out in the car, I get a running commentary from both boys on the things they see, the shapes in the clouds and anything else that takes their fancy.

Driving back home through Palmer Lake last week we passed the preschool. The boys were excited to spot it and Jamie asked was it Kindergarten, at which point Oliver piped up and said "No, it's a graveyard school".

A graveyard school?? What?? I must have misheard. So I asked Oliver to say it again and he said "It's a graveyard school!" I started laughing although I was totally puzzled over what he meant and where the phrase had come from.

Oliver was getting cross at me because I was laughing, so I made a supreme effort, stopped giggling and asked him where he had heard that term before. "From Kylie! Her mummy says Kylie goes to graveyard school now!!"

The penny dropped, Oliver meant 'grade school'! I have absolutely no idea where he got the word graveyard from, but his take on things has put grade school into a whole new perspective for me!

A record setting day??

I was out last night, playing bunco with my friends and neighbors, and while I was home a little after 10 and didn't drink anything stronger than lemonade, I was so very tired this morning. One thing I have found since being diagnosed with an auto-immune disease is how my energy is very quickly spent, I have to clean the house in short spurts, and tackle just a few chores each day. But this morning I struggled to get out of bed and the boys were full of beans and jumping all over me demanding I wake up! How can I resist those sweet little voices?

I wondered how my day was going to pan out, often when I am extra tired the boys pick up on it and create mayhem and madness in the house and I have neither the energy or the patience to deal with them. Right now it's coming up to 2.30pm and the day so far has been calm, quiet and incredibly easy. My boys are currently 'into' Play Doh, so much so that this is the 3rd day in a row that they have played with it, and today they are setting records!

They got the Play Doh out of the cupboard at 9.30am this morning, and they are still playing with it! That's 5 hours and they are showing no sign of stopping! They have all their action figures out and have made boats and space ships for them. The Power Rangers 'guys' - as my two love to call them - have been wrapped up in clay with just their heads out, they have fashioned chains to go around their legs and waists and have dive bombed each other's toys with Play Doh rockets.

They have made pizzas and birthday cakes, candles, cookies and ice cream in cones, and "wriggly worms that don't wriggle!" So far, and perhaps I should touch wood here, there hasn't been a single cross word, not a single fight and the day has been incredibly restful for me.

I think I need to look at buying Plasticine for them though - it's what I used to play with way back when and long before Play Doh was invented - and it always remains soft and pliable. The only problem with my boys playing with their Play Doh this long is that most of it is getting hard and unmanageable, but I am not complaining! I will willingly buy them new pots in return for this wonderful, relaxing day!

IT'S OFFICIAL!!

It's a new record for Play Doh! The boys started at 9.30am this morning and we just cleaned it all away at 5.35pm! 8 complete hours of creativity, no arguments, no fighting or squabbles! I had a lovely, restful day and the boys are my little stars!!!

Why?

Perhaps I am tired to day, because all these silly thoughts keep cropping up:

Why is it that when I have an appointment, and leave early for it, all the lights are green and I arrive at my destination too soon? And of course, when I am running a little late for something all the lights are against me!

Why does the phone ring when I am hauling grocery bags, trying to get my key in the door and the dog is barking like an insane creature?

Why can't men multi-task yet they can fight evil demons and gain extra bonuses at the same time in a video game?

Why does one small glass of spilled milk cover an area with the square footage of Texas?

Why does clean hair squeak when it's wet?

Why can't men see dust?

Why do weeds thrive without water, while my plants look all limp and weary?

Why do my twins insist that spaghetti is not pasta?

Why can't men see that the toilet needs cleaning? They stand up and look at it countless times a day!

Why is it that when you can't sleep and are up all night, your children never stir, but when you are fast asleep they are standing by the side of the bed whispering "Mummy! Mummy, wake up!"

Why can't men take 5 minute showers?

Who decided that green should be called green? Or blue should be called blue?

Why does everyone say freeway, runway and highway, but not railway?

Watch out for my new American/English dictionary...............coming soon!!

Twins!

I am so glad I have twins. I am watching them playing together at the moment, they are creating Play Doh monsters, they are sharing so nicely, the house is quiet aside from their giggling and chatting, which is wonderful to listen to and I am appreciating my lot.

Of course twins are such hard work, and so very expensive. The difficulties of 2 hourly feeds through the night, the burping, the soothing and the diaper changes. Oh the cost of diapers, I would hate to work out how much we spent on diapers, I couldn't wait for them to be potty trained and that drain on our finances gone! Then there's the price of two baby car seats, the double stroller, two cradles, two cribs and all the associated bedding and blankets. Double the amount of crib toys and rattles, two times the clothes and shoes. The cost of car seats once they have outgrown their baby seats. Winter coats, boots and hats, summer jackets, sandals and hats. Two times the toys, the teddies and the balls. Two times the blocks, the pirates and the cars. The ride on toys, tricycles and bicycles. It's a riot of color and noise and mayhem.

Twins are great, it's a built in playmate, someone to whisper to at night when you are tucked up in bed, someone to share your imaginary games, and someone to yell at (and occasionally hit) when the game doesn't 'work right' or one twin steals a toy from the other.

It's an expensive business. It's every waking (and sometimes sleeping) moment of your life. Having a baby changes things in more ways than you could ever imagine. Having twins is double that, and more! It's challenging, tiring, funny, sad sometimes and wonderful! Of course if the boys weren't sitting playing so nicely - as they have been for the past 2 hours - my view here would be completely different. But I am making the most of this afternoon!

It's great having twins!

It's time for a haircut!

I had a dream last night, where I was standing in my bathroom just randomly cutting off pieces of my hair, and when I had finished I had gone from shoulder length light brown, to short, spiky black! And it was the most stylish and attractive haircut I had ever had! Spiky in all the right places and it so suited my face, which appeared at least 20 years younger! I was thrilled! Of course when I got up this morning and looked in the mirror it did make me wonder whether my inner self was telling me to cut my hair! Perhaps it's time for a change, but I think short hair demands a young, fresh face, and I feel none of that applies to me. In my mind longer hair makes me look younger, and it could be all my family and friends think the opposite, who knows? Plus I can hide behind my long hair, it's a useful security blanket at times!

Anyway, today turned into haircut day in the Wadge household. The boys go back to school tomorrow, they start pre-k, and I want them to look decent. Oliver spends most of his day peering out from between his too long bangs (fringe for my UK readers) and although his hair is very fine, he needs a good cut because it's far too long. Jamie has thick hair, and it's all over the place. It grows so fast I can't keep up with it, yet both of them hate having their hair cut and will scream and wriggle through the entire process, often ending up with a lop-sided haircut that they refuse to let us adjust!

Chuck started out cutting Jamie's hair and while it was nice and short and spiky on the top, he wouldn't let us use the razor at the back to equal it out. He let me trim around his ears and his neck with scissors and that was that! It was a buzz cut mullet! Oliver cried the entire 5 minutes he let Chuck loose on his hair, but did stop while I straightened up the edges and around his ears. I also cut his fringe so we could see his lovely blue eyes! But he wouldn't let us do anymore, and it's so hard to keep a squirming 4 year old still!

In the end I had a bright idea - and apologise now to everyone who is against bribing their children! I offered the twins a bag of Twizzlers each if they let us give them a full buzz cut! There was almost a stampede to the bathroom!! Each boy sat on my knee facing me, while Chuck got to work! In no time at all they both had really nice haircuts. They want some hair gel so they can spike it and we have promised to get that when we go grocery shopping later.

I went out into the office and left Chuck to clear up in the bathroom, (there are some perks about being on crutches) and I thought he was putting the razor away, until he shouted "Don't be mad at me!" And when I went into the bathroom, there he was cutting all his hair off!! I couldn't believe it, he looked like a convict! He'd done this before, a long time before I met him, and he had told me that he didn't have a good shaped head! SO WHY DID HE DO IT???

Perhaps someone, somewhere is trying to tell me something? Did my dream just tell me I need a change in hairstyle, or was it a forewarning about this day?? Who knows? I just know that Ziggy and I are now wary of anyone approaching us with a razor in their hand!!

They've changed!

There are a lot of children in our neighborhood, ranging from baby to 6 years of age, give or take a year or two. We try and get together at playgroup now and again, but sometimes miss a session here or there. And it's after these breaks from catching up with friends that you look at their children and invariably say "Haven't they grown?"

It's amazing to me how that happens, one minute your friend has a baby, just taking their first steps with those big diapers waddling away on their bottoms, and then you turn around and they are trying to ride a bike and are potty trained! It seems to happen in the blink of an eye, and why should I be surprised? It's the normal state of things, but it still seems to happen so quickly.

Sometimes when I am hugging my boys I say "Are you my baby?" and they invariably reply that they are not babies, they are 'big' boys!

Yesterday we were heading up to Denver, Chuck was driving and the boys were in the back watching a DVD. I turned around to see if they were OK and I realised in that instant that they were no longer babies, no longer toddlers, but boys. I could look at their faces and see the child behind the toddler, could see how they will look as they grow and move onto grade school.

Only last year they were small and a little upset to be leaving me to attend preschool, next week they start in pre-k. Where does the time go to? It's staggering. And while in many ways I miss those little bundles of joy I can now look forward to the conversations I will have with my boys! Already I love to talk with them, to watch them earnestly discussing a game or idea they have. They use their hands to describe their ideas, they have so many plans and schemes for their games it's fascinating for me to listen to them talk about it. Oliver has even started to come and apologize for his bad behaviour - without coercion - and it's a sign to me that he's getting bigger and starting to realise the world does not revolve around him and that he isn't always right and I am not always wrong or mean or horrible!!!

This past month two of my friends have lost their fathers, one in a tragic road accident and another to cancer. It has made me realise how fragile life is, how all this can disappear in the blink of an eye. It has made me want to make more effort to stay in touch with my friends, especially those that live many miles away.

We are often so caught up in our own lives, the dramas and problems, that we don't always give our friends and family the time they deserve. I know I have much to be thankful for, not least my two 'big' boys!