The bi-annual SNOMOMs (SNOhomish county Mothers Of Multiples group) sale is this weekend, and Katie is going to help set it up so that she has a chance to buy things before it opens publicly, for the expressed goal of buying rain gear for the boys.  I wanted to let everyone know this just to prove that we listened!  I’m sure Katie and Laura weren’t as stuck in the wrong mentality on this point as I was, but I’d been very anxious to get the boys out in the muck (due to the ordeal involved in getting them cleaned up, especially if there’s only one adult on hand), but I give up.  Now I’m just trying to find rain gear for them so that they’re at least marginally dry when you get them back home, so we don’t encourage any more colds or the such.

At the same time, does anyone have any suggestions on what sort of things Katie ought to be looking for?  The boys are walking very confidently now, and in order to make it possible for Laura to go on walks with them on her own we were going to look for those backpacks with extended handholds (I refuse to say leashes).  Also, the boys are starting to get better about playing with shape toys, and opening and closing containers (even screw tops), and pushing things together and pulling them apart (like those giant legos).  Which means that most of their toys are becoming mostly uninteresting to them.  What sort of things should we be looking for to keep them challenged?  Are there any larger toys we should get for them to use in the garage?  Things to drive around on or the sort?

Oh, and we have a child-sized basketball hoop out in the garage, for as soon as I get that all set up.  I’ll also look for one to put inside.

And now the second question.  The boys are starting to show all the signs of sibling rivalry, with Nic slipping effortlessly into the older brother role.  Primarily, this means that Nic has a habit of *appropriating* all of Dexter’s toys (they don’t have separate toys – but I mean that Nic tends to take whichever toy Dexter is playing with at the time).  I’m just wondering if anyone has any suggestions on how to address this, especially with pre-speech babies?  We know that it’s perfectly normal, but we’re trying to figure out how to appropriately discourage it.

Mostly we try hard to keep an eye on them, telling Nic when he reaches for Dexter’s toy “Nicholas, don’t steal from you brother.  It’s his turn.”  He usually listens when we say that, by which I mean he pulls his hand back and looks at us, then immediately tries again.  When we’re out of the room, well, better left unsaid.   On Sunday, I saw Nic pull Dexter over to get at Dex’s toy, which is even more worrisome.  One mistake I think we’ve made is to encourage the boys to take toys from us – we’ll pick one up and “play” with it, and the boys will see this, come over, and take it from us.  I’m trying to stop this, encouraging them to say “please” (or sign it, by rubbing their palm in a circle on their chest), but it only occurred to me to try in the last few days.  <sigh>  Any thoughts?