Skipping Stones

We took a nice walk to the neighborhood lake on Sunday.  The boys had a great time finding rocks and acorns to throw into the water.  Oliver had such a big armload of acorns that he had a hard time breaking free to actually throw them.  Spencie was really cute making his fishy lip smacking sounds - which he does both for fish and when he thinks he's going to swim like a fish, so I'm not sure if he was pointing out that fish live in the water or if he thought he was going to get in and swim!  

Playground With Trucks

A couple weeks ago we took the boys to the Fairfax/Loudoun Multiples club summer ice cream social.  It was held at a church playground not too far from us in Sterling, but well tucked away and probably something we'd never have discovered on our own.  After a short time playing and tasting ice cream it started raining and everyone quickly got into their cars and went home.  But the best thing that came of the event was finding this gem of a playground!!  Seriously, this place is paradise for the boys - the ground is completely covered in rocks and there are buckets, shovels and large trucks of all kinds everywhere!  This stuff belongs to the playground and has been a little faded by the sun but is in great condition; they are the type of toys that can withstand the elements and a lot of play.  We've gone back to visit this playground a couple times since then and the boys just make a mad dash for it as soon as we let them out of the car.  During the week when I ask them if they want to go to a playground they say, "go to playground with trucks!!"  This morning Ryan and I took them there and it was deserted.  Oh and I forgot to mention a critical factor to me when evaluating playgrounds - it's completely fenced in!!  We even sat back on a bench today for a little bit and had a relaxing conversation while watching the boys peacefully, deep in play.  Now that is a rarity.

Sandbox

On Tuesdays the lawn mowers usually come in the morning and we can't play outside for about 30 minutes while the crew comes through with several large mowers, edging machines, and blowers.  The boys were itching to get outside and play in their "new" turtle sandbox.  We've had it for a couple months, it just took us forever to decide on a good location and to fill it with sand.  We decided to put it on the far side of the swings, on a patch of grass that didn't seem to grow very well, plus it's the further distance to the house for them to shake off sand on the trek back inside!  The boys patiently finished a snack in their chairs on the deck while we waited for the mowers, then ran outside to get to work in the sand.  There was lots of shoveling and scooping to be done to fill up their yellow dump truck.  They even made "beep beep" sounds when backing it up to dump the load!

Soccer Skills

I signed the twins up for a 2-3 year old Saturday morning soccer class starting in September and think they are really going to have fun!!  We stopped in the sports complex where the class will be held Tuesday evening to check things out and there was an adult men's league playing that they got to watch for a little bit.  They were really intrigued by these "big boys" running fast and kicking the ball so hard; when I asked them if they wanted to play soccer afterward the reply was a unanimous "yes"!  There's even an 18-24 month class for Spencer at the same time.  We're planning to do a free trial class this Saturday for all three.  The program recommends doing the trial for the younger crowd Spencer's age in case they don't take well to the class or something...but from these videos I took after we got home I think he's going to be as engaged, if not more so, than Owen and Oliver!!

Water and Juice

Owen woke up from his 2+ hour nap today with a totally dry diaper - something that has never happened before.  Although we haven't pushed the potty training that much yet, there is a big difference in where Owen and Oliver are in the process.  Oliver will pretty much go on command when he decides to get onto the potty, while Owen doesn't seem to know what the urge to go feels like or that he is in control.  So I thought this afternoon was the perfect opportunity to try and have him wait it out on the potty and see what it's like to actually pee in the potty.  I started out with just him in the bathroom, drinking some water from a cup.  Then the other two joined and we had a water drinking party in the upstairs bathroom.  I soon realized that we needed more time and that Oliver and Spencer weren't going to last in the confines of the bathroom any longer, so we moved downstairs to the little blue potty.  I gave Owen more and more to drink (juice this time) while running in and out of the bathroom to prepare a snack and diffuse battles between Oliver and Spencer.  They were getting really antsy with not having my full attention and wreaking havoc in the kitchen.  They knocked down a baby gate that we had setup not to be opened or moved, pulled tissues out of the box on the table, and somehow got into the jar of animal crackers in the pantry...all in a matter of minutes.  Meanwhile, Owen was patiently reading books, playing with his toys on the potty, and talking about how he was going to get 2 M&Ms.  This impressive attempt had been going on over an hour by now.  I knew that it was time to go outside...but had invested so much time and effort to this point - where was the pee pee?!?  I'm not really sure how I thought this next move would ideally unfold, but I took Owen and the potty into the kitchen to start getting everyone ready for outside.  Maybe I imagined he would sit back down and go right there, or maybe we'd bring it outside with us and try on the front porch.  But none of that happened.  I turned my back to grab something off the counter, then looked back to see him proudly going right on the kitchen floor - just inches away from the potty, which was in fact getting pee all over it as well (in the wrong places).  Even more mess.  Not to mention Spencer and Oliver wanting to splash in the newly created "puddle".  And the kicker of this backfired plan is that I still had to give him his M&Ms and praise him for the effort.  I'm really hoping this incident helped him to "get it" a little bit and that we have better luck next time!

Rice, Rocks, and Fuzz

I've been trying out new sensory activities for the boys recently, using simple materials we either already have on hand or that are easy and inexpensive to buy.  First we played picking and sorting with some fuzz balls I bought from Michael's a while back for everyday crafts, kitchen tongs, and extra ice cube trays.  This activity kept them busy for almost an entire afternoon!  It held Owen's interest a little longer than Oliver's, who mainly wanted to compete for the tongs.  As with all activities having many and/or small parts, they were tossed and scattered all over the house in the end!

For the next activity we played with rice, rocks, buckets and funnels outside.  I bought a 10lb bag of rice at the grocery store for maybe $5 or $6 and portioned out enough to last an afternoon (there is still a ton left!).  I set up 3 buckets filled with rocks and rice and let them experiment with the shovels and funnels.  Spencer lost interest after about 5 minutes, but the twins played for over an hour.  One of their daily favorite activities is to collect rocks from around the yard and toss them over the wood barrier into the "woods" out front.  So this was where they ended up dragging the buckets and settling in as they tossed their new found treasures into the trees.  After stepping away to watch Spencie on the swings for a couple minutes, I came back to find them pouring rice on each other's heads...and tasting some too!  Messy, a little gross, but harmless.  By the way, the other day I heard the twins in a debate over whether the birthday cake we had on Friday was yummy or gross.  It was the first time I heard them call something "gross" and thought it was kind of funny.  Not exactly a nice word we want them using all the time.  So starts an increased focus on the self-censorship phase of parenthood!