And the price for least original parenting experience goes to - kid with bucket on head runs into wall.  Dexter was our first entrant - he grabbed a bin, put it over his head, squealed and ran a half circle, right into the wall.  Katie and I share the, “oh god, it’s begun” look, and then run to soothe the crying child.

It certainly doesn’t end there.  There always seems to be a bucket on someone head, or a stuffed animal, or a brother, or something.  I don’t get the draw, but for whatever reason, boys like to bounce off of unseen obstacles.  They also spin in circles until they fall over, and try to fall off of anything they can find.  I have to say, buying that new carpet was the single best investment we’ve made (well, since buying the boys, anyway, but that was an obvious 2-for-1 special, so it doesn’t really count).

And here, one of my boys tries to rack up the pinball points.  He’s a pinball wizard.  How do you think he does it?  I don’t know.  What makes him so good?  Bonus quiz:  Which boy is it???  (hint - it’s not Joel)

Two years ago today we ended our extended tutorial on parenting at the NICU, and began the first part of our practical take-home exam.  They were only willing to entrust us with one infant for our first exam, and decided that Nicholas bounced better, so he was the ideal candidate.  Plus, Dexter was on oxygen, and everyone was worried that our nightly arc-welding competitions might be a problem.  When we got him home we had the proverbial, “now what?” moment.  He had passed out during the drive home, and was now sleeping peacefully in his carseat, at that moment perched precariously on the kitchen table (it just didn’t feel right to put him on the floor - we got better, I promise).  (He looks like a grumpy old man, doesn’t he?)

And damn it, Katie - that was an iced TEA - STOP JUDGING ME!

It’s been two years since that day, and we are every day more and more grateful for him, for his boundless enthusiasm, his sense of humor, his compassion, and his curiosity.  Today we celebrate Nic’s homecoming!  He was born 95 days earlier, along with his brother, but this is the day that he finally came home, finally became solely our responsibility, and started to keep us up at nights.  This is Nicholas’ day.  It was another 19 days before his brother was ready to join him, so for that short two and a half weeks, we had a chance to learn who Nicky was, and watch hims grow.

We’re hoping to make it an annual tradition to celebrate their homecoming - the day they each get to themselves, the one celebration they don’t have to share.  It’s not supposed to be a gift occasion - it’s a celebration occasion.  So we tried to plan the day as Nicholas would like it.  In the coming years we’ll of course ask the boys what they want to do most, but this year we had to interpret “YELLOW!  BALL!  one more…  pleee!”   This year we celebrated by taking Nicholas to the circus!  It was the first time we’d ever done anything like it, and the boys both did GREAT!  We had tickets for the four of us, along with Malin, Grandma, and Grandpa.  It took us a long time to get out the door.  Both boys were in incredibly good moods, refusing to put shirts on, and breaking into all sorts of places they weren’t supposed to be.

They INSISTED on putting on shoes before they would put on their shoes.

And Nic made a break for it and made it into the den.

Tell me this kid doesn’t know he’s breaking a rule???

Don’t they look like such big boys, sitting in their own seats?

Dexter was incredibly excited, and was clapping along with the clowns, pointing and cheering.  Nicholas seemed to be a little bit overwhelmed.  He spent most of the time hanging out on Grandma’s lap.

This is just Nic’s style.  I think he loved it, but it was a lot, and when there’s a lot going on, Nic sits quietly and watches.  He was enthralled, though.

Dexter, on the other hand, leaves no doubt as to his mood.

After an hour and a half, both boys were getting a bit antsy, especially Dexter.  They started moving around a lot more.  Dex spent most of the first hour standing in front of his seat, but then bounced between people and laps.  Nic spent most of the time in Grandma’s lap, then standing, then Grandpa’s lap, then Malin’s, then Mommy’s (never Dad’s, though, hmm…)

We decided that sitting through another hour (which would have pushed us into dinner time) would be for our own edification, not for the boys, so we left at intermission.  We then went to the American Legion park to help them get some energy out, before going to IHOP for dinner (since Nicholas loves Pancakes so much).  On the drive to IHOP, Katie asked Dex to stop picking his nose.  He responded thus:

Boys…  Actually, both Nic and Dex were doing it, but before I reminded Katie to grab the camera, Nic had moved on to Peek-a-boo.

And after peek-a-boo, they held hands for a couple of minutes.

But then they realized what they’d done and reacted with HORROR!!!

Okay, not really, they just started in on another round of Peek-a-boo after Nicholas lost his shoe.  Anyone think we’re looking forward to that 5 hour flight next month?  Anyway, while ordering our dinners, Dexter turned to our waitress and ROARED his lion roar.  Much to his surprise and delight, she roared back (if a little bit more quietly).  Talk about working the tip, huh?

This all actually happened yesterday, the day before his homecoming, but we figure he’ll forgive us.  Today was much more low key.  We had hoped to go to a beach to let Nic pursue his most favored pass time of playing in sand and water, but it was just a bit too cold, and the boys were acting a little bit off (we think Nic’s gaining a couple of new molars, Dex is growing, and Joel’s just getting old and cranky).

We started by playing with trains in the morning (I set up their train set while they were sleeping last night, so they woke up to a new arrangement).  Dex slept in for a while, and Nicholas was just laughing his head off.  We played “catch” by rolling cars back in forth to each other in the kitchen.  A little later we headed off to Fred Meyer.  We started picking up some small toys as “door prizes” on the airplane, and most importantly, two new yellow cars.  The yellow cars are far too sought after to allow domestic tranquility.  We only have two, which is clearly inadequate, a point driven home several times a day.  So today we bought two more (NOT as presents to Nic, no, we bought them because we find it easiest to buy our children’s love and affection.  Completely different), and now there are four - one for each hand.  Of course this worked perfectly.  Now Nicholas has 4 yellow cars, and Dexter is still without and so he is getting upset and crying, but if we got any more Nic wouldn’t be able to carry them all, and he’d just start crying about that.

They crashed after we got home, but when they woke up Uncle Ryan came over, and they had a wild rumpus around the house, before a rather meandering walk around our trail (and a foot into dog poop - thanks for that, Nic).

When we got home, Nicholas loved the meatloaf and sweet potato dinner, and of course we bought him a desert with meringue.

Nic is not subtle when he’s happy, is he?

And there may be better times to play Peek-a-Boo, but I can’t think of any at the moment.

The homecoming KING!

We watched a little bit of Cars (I know, it’s still August, but it’s Homecoming, and Sunday night Movie night, and damn it we were tired), then had piggy back races around the house, king of the ottoman, hide-from-the-mommy-monster, and other general mayhem.

Now Nicholas is sleeping soundly in his bed, cuddled up to Trouble and Bernie (his stuffed animals), and sleeping on the unnamed Hippo.  He’s as precious as they come, and we’re both humbled and grateful for him every single day, even last Tuesday.

He’s our Nic.

He’s home.

Yes as you’ve just read, Anamaria is gonna take over after me. She seems like a really sweet and loving girl. She will take really good care of the boys, or at least that’s what I feel.
And YES Laura, she will definitely fall in love with the boys. They are the best, the most silly, fun(ny), goofy and lovely boys EVER!

It’s gonna be one of my hardest things, saying goodbye in a few months. Everytime I think about it my eyes starts to water and I need to hold back the tears.

So I’m going to post tons of photos now. I have so many of the boys. In my “The boys” folder at my computer I have 1300 photos and that’s ONLY on the boys, then I have so many more in other folders.

So enjoy the amazing Yates boys!

It takes ages to upload photos here unfortunatly. Cuz you need to minimize them, change the sizes before you can upload them. So I’m gonna refer to my blog for more photos. I have tons on my blog. So check out www.minusa.blogg.se!

Have a great day everyone!
Malin

As a few of you know by now, we’ve settled our “Au Pair vs. Daycare” dilemma for 2011.  Last weekend we asked Anamaria to join us next January, and she accepted.  Anamaria is 22 years old, and when she joins us she will have just completed the 4th year in her 5-year early childhood development teaching program. She’s a lovely girl, who obviously loves children, and seems very eager to help us challenge and develop our boys.

Anamaria’s from Colombia, and lives a short distance North of Bogota.  This might explain the hits on the blog from Colombia recently.  The Chilean hit was from a previous Au Pair candidate, and we have no idea who the hits are from in Oman.  And it means that next year we’ll be hearing Spanish in our home, after a year of Swedish, and before that, the nearly-impossible-to-understand vernacular of the Australians (just kidding, I always understood what Laura was saying - it’s just that she was usually making fun of me so it was easier to “play” dumb…)

Part of our mind was made up for us when Boeing decided to end their subsidy of the daycare center.  The ever-rising prices mean that an Au Pair is a much, much more affordable option.  We’re hoping to instead enroll the boys in a 2-day a week co-op pre-school program (we’re numbers 2 and 3 on the waiting list right now, so cross your fingers for us - and thank you, Andrea, for the suggestion! - and see, we DO read all the comments, and even listen to them!), to continue to arrange regular playdates for the boys, and to pursue a few more memberships in local attractions.  We currently have memberships to the Imagination Museum and the Woodland Park Zoo.  We’re thinking of adding a membership to the Pacific Science Center, and signing the boys up for swim lessons at the Mountlake Terrace pool that we’ve been having so much fun with.

It will, of course, be very sad to see Malin leave us, but we’ve had a great time with her these past 8 months, and the only thing worse than saying goodbye would be never having said hello.  We’ll still be expecting her to visit, of course, as per her legally-binding contract.  In fact, we’re hoping that Laura might be visiting us this January as well!

Welcome, Anamaria!

It is clearly evident (notice the whoopie cushion that Dexter is holding), that Nicholas and Dexter are my sons.  Tooting, farting, letting go of some gas, whatever you want to call it, they delight in it.  You see, I grew up in a house with a father and brother, both of who were not shy in passing their gas for others to smell.  Anyway, for Nic and Dex’s birthday, their Uncle Ryan bought them a Whoopie Cushion.  Ryan is known for giving gifts that may not be child appropriate and yet, the boys can’t get enough of those gifts.  Ryan blew up the Whoopie Cushion and sat on it.  Oh, you should have heard the shrieks of laughter.  The laughter died when Ryan sat on the cushion and popped it.  Oops.

Anyway, in early July, Malin’s mom Helen and her boyfriend Peter came out to visit.  They bought each boy a Whoopie Cushion.  We had a good 15 minute run of nothing but fart sounds and laughter.  Here are the photos from that day.  Nicholas and Dexter had Malin and Catrin refilling the cushions over and over again with hot air. 

You can see Nicholas is carefully placing the cushion in just the right spot for Dexter’s bottom.  Such a bonding experience.

And after an unsuccessful out-gassing, Nicholas finds the most appropriate angle to inspect the results.

Just to clarify, Malin was not on duty for this, nor was Catrin - their Whoopie cushion inflation was purely pro-bono work. 

And then for some reason, Dexter thinks that putting the Whoopie cushion on Catrin and then sitting on it is the key to her heart.  She does have a boyfriend, Dex, though as she pointed out, he’s not here.

We’re now on our 4th and 5th whoopie cushions, and have progressed to whoopie-cushion bear-hugs.  I’m almost afraid to learn what the boys will think up next.

 there, lurking in the bubbles you find……

Need I say more? 

Yes Malin - I did thoroughly clean the tub after the boys had to exit it, prematurely.  I think.

WOOHOO!!!  Katie’s cousin Ann gave birth yesterday to Keira Dorothy Finn, a 6 lb 4 oz, 18″ tall (okay, long) second cousin for our boys. Here’s Keira, with mother Ann, and her father, Robert.

For those keeping count, that means the boys now have 3 second cousins (Caetano, Felix, and now Keira), and 1 first cousin (Reid), and their first girl cousin.  There’s also Maya, of course, but I’m not legally allowed to count her yet.  Plus, their first local cousin.  Since all children should have lots of cousins to play with, hopefully they’ll have more soon (Scott and Susan, I’m looking at YOU).  Ryan, Jay, Gregg, Brigitte, and Scott - you’re on deck.  Gina and Paul can take a well-earned break, though.

Congratulations, Ann and Robert!!!  And of course to you, too, Grandpa Dick!

I shout to the crowd.  Taking the boys by myself to the park yesterday morning makes me feel PROUD.

Yes - the above sentence is taken, almost verbatim, out of a children’s book titled The Way I Feel, by Janan Cain.  I highly recommend it to parents and kids alike.  And yes, I realize Malin does this by herself on a frequent basis but this is the first time I’ve gone solo to Forest Park - playground and water area by myself which adds a bit of complexity.  I’ve taken Nicholas and Dexter to the animal farm there by myself, no problem.  But throw in some water and wood chips, and things get interesting.

The day started very similar to every other day - getting up way too early.  This was followed by no interruptions though.  Hmmm - how strange.  I was able to get up, get ready, eat breakfast, read, and almost fall asleep in the chair before Nicholas and Dexter woke up at 7:30am.  They were all smiles in their cribs this morning and then as soon as we made it through a banana pancake breakfast, things turned sour.  Dexter would not stop crying.  Where had our happy boy gone?  No one wanted to get their swim suits on and no one wanted to get into the van to go to the park.  It was a struggle just to make it out the door - but I persevered.

A bunch of moms with twins were meeting at the park at 9:30am.  We left at 9:30am but needed to stop at Fred Meyers to exchange a pair of water shoes for Dexter.  Fred Meyer has a couple shopping carts that are in the form of race cars and the boys love to drive them.  The last time we were there, Nicholas picked the YELLOW one.  By the time that trip was over, Joel and I were ready to shoot ourselves.  That YELLOW cart had bad wheels and made a horrible racket when pushed.  Guess which cart the boys saw first as we pulled into the parking lot.  Yep - the YELLOW one.  (Why am I screaming the word YELLOW each time I type it?  It’s because the boys don’t say the word, they YELL that word.)  Anyway, it was a good thing our trip was short and the only thing we were buying was shoes.  When we left the store to go back to the car, I ran with the YELLOW cart causing the boys to laugh hysterically at all the noise we were making.

We finally made it to the park around 10am.  Nicholas waited like a good boy as I got Dexter out of the van.  Dexter wanted to bring his monkey blanket with him.  I said no.  That led to another melt down.  At this time, Nicholas had had enough with patiently waiting and headed straight for the playground and water area.  Dexter wouldn’t budge and would not be consoled.  So, out came the bribe I was saving until we left.  That stopped the tears and me managed to finally catch up to Nicholas.  I was impressed with Nicky’s confidence today.  He repeatedly wandered off on his own.  Thank God I put them in bright green hats today so I could keep an eye on them from a distance because Nicholas and Dexter pretty much remained apart most of the morning.

I was able to squeeze in a little chit chat with another twin mom, Jenelle, which was good, because I like Jenelle and she took over watching Dexter for me when Nicky decided he’d had enough of the water area and took off to play on the play ground equipment.  Thankfully, Dexter sat peacefully the whole time I was gone, eating his bunny crackers.  After playing with Nicky one on one physically, but mentally divided, I managed to entice him back over to the water area where he sat and had a snack while Dexter jumped back into playing around shooting streams of water.  After a while, Nicholas joined in.

Not only does Jenelle have twin boys the same age as Nic and Dex, but she also has an adorable 4 year old daughter, Payton.  Payton loves Nicholas and Dexter.  She gladly took Nicky by the had and they walked all over the water park.  Payton’s brother did not want to play in the water so she was happy to lead Nicky around.  She tried to do the same with Dexter and at first, he complied.  It was about the time that Nicky decided to run off again, when Payton and Dexter passed me walking after Nicholas.  Dexter looked up at me with eyes that said “Mom - why are you letting a stranger walk me away from you.  Don’t do this.  Don’t leave me.”  Those eyes made me stop.  The next thing I know, Dexter is running towards me in fully cry mode with a bewildered Payton trailing behind.  I scooped up Dexter and kindly said “Payton, would you go get Nicholas for me, please?  He’s over there.”  Nicky had no problems walking back with Payton.

At 11:15am, it was time to quit with the water, and play briefly on the play equipment before heading home.  This time, I watched Jenelle’s boys as she rounded up one, and then the other.  When Jenelle and kids waved goodbye and started to leave, Dexter followed them.  It was Nicholas’s turn to throw a fit and not want to go.  I had to bribe him with the promise of chicken nuggets in order to get him to move.

We finally made it to the van.  I got Nicky in his seat and walked around to get Dexter strapped in.  No go.  Dexter turned to me and said “Poo”.  Crap - back to the back of the van for a quick poopy diaper change and finally we were off.

Well - we made it home in one piece.  The boys napped and I was exhausted.  There was the afternoon and evening left to go.  We took the easy route - we just played in the backyard. 

If there’s one thing we can be confident of, it’s that our children are ready for prime time.  Prime time, and also Saturday morning cartoons, daytime soap operas, movie time, late night, and pretty much every other time slot in our great American cable television culture.  Allow me to illustrate:

I’m sure Nic was in the big chair at the time, or he’d have sitting right next to Dexter, probably with Trouble, another hippo, and quite possibly a car or two.

For the last two weeks, we’ve been trying hard to cut the television out of our daily routine.  We’d never intended it to become part of the boys daily life, but once they caught sight of the first episode of Thomas the Tank Engine it was all over.  Whenever they passed through the family room they’d point to the TV and yell “Choo Choo!”  Or Dexter would come and grab my hand, drag me over to the chair, point at it, and once I sat down, climb up into my lap, point at the TV, and yell “Choo Choo!”  And being the absentee parent that I am, it’s pretty hard not to try and assuage my guilt by giving in, and stealing a few quiet minutes of cuddle time while Dexter ignored me utterly and watched Thomas.

It started as a Sunday night thing, then a “because you’re sick” thing, before gradually insinuating itself into our nightly pre-bed routine.  One it began it’s invasion of our pre-dinner time, it was time to do something about it.  I suggested to Katie, on July 31st, that perhaps we should make August a TV-free month.  Bizarrely, she agreed.  The first two days the boys yelled for the TV time and time again, but by the middle of the week they were getting over it.  The house was calmer, and we were getting some of our chores done and clearing out the to-do list, and the boys were playing more and having lots of fun.  Saturday night Katie insisted that she needed a reward, and so after the boys went to bed we cheated and watched Eureka.  The next morning, we rewarded the boys with 20 minutes of Thomas.  Okay, I could handle that.  We kept on into the second week, going fairly strong, having only cheated once each.

Then Tuesday comes along.  The boys are a bit manic, and we decide to go for a walk in the evening.  We decide to stroll down to another playground by our house, one we hadn’t visited yet, and see how the boys like it.  The walk lasted may 20 minutes.  By the time we got back, we had 4 skinned knees, two skinned elbows, 4 skinned knuckles, one skinned palm, and one large welt forming on a forehead.  Note to self: insist that the boys wear pants when going for walks, possibly also head gear and gauntlets.  Seriously, I never knew walking could be that dangerous.  When we got home we turned on Thomas, partially to get the boys to sit still long enough for us to wipe off the blood and get the band-aids on, and partially to bribe them into trusting us again.  Gotta love the persistent ever-overwhelming feelings of parental guilt.

We got back into the routine after that night with the boys, though last night after too many hours outside in the heat we decided that “move night” was actually probably a really good idea, to help everyone cool off and calm down before bed.  We put in “Cars”, and Nicholas started crying during the car crash scene in the first 5 minutes.  We can’t win.

We have two weeks to go.  Katie seduced me into cheating with a couple of shows when we were exhausted last Thursday and Friday night.  I feel corrupted.  Maybe I should take bets on how much the TV will be on by the end of the month…  It really is insidious, isn’t it?

Near our home, is a petting zoo, which is open during the summer.  It’s only fitting that I finally write this post seeing that tomorrow is the last day it is open for the year.  We (Malin, Joel and I) have taken the boys there many times during the summer (so much so that some of the staff know their names).  In the beginning, the boys were leery of petting the animals.  If an encounter happened, then it was quick like you had just touched something extremely hot.  My first memory of taking Nicholas and Dexter there on my own was watching one of them decide that the best place to pet was the sheep’s anus.  Thankfully, I was nearby and shouted “No” before hand could meet bottom.  Nicholas, is what I would call a serial petter.  If all the animals were lined up eating hay, he’d swoop in and pet each one just once like he was playing duck duck goose and move on.  Dexter needed a lot of encouragement.

Today was a different story.  I saw Dexter stroke a goat many times in a row and also pet a big horse - no fear whatsoever.  Nicholas, Dexter and Joel all talked to the geese and got them to talk back.  They both call a cow a moo, a pig a neuff (Swedish way to say oink oink), a sheep a baa, a chicken a cluck cluck, and a horse a neigh.  They love visiting the petting farm and I’m sorry to see it close so early in the summer.

Here are pictures from one our many trips.  Below, you will see Nicholas watching a goat lick a lock near his head.  I think he was a bit fascinated, then irritated with the goat because it wanted to share the step Nicky was sitting on.  Enjoy!

Nicholas mimics everyone he meets. 

Bye Bye animals.  We had a great time.  Can’t wait for next year!