Theo's in 1st Grade, Baby Blessings

Miriam's braids

Jay built a swing and the kids love love love it. He also got a bar swing thing recently that I haven't taken pictures of. Also, he built shelves in several rooms for books and kitchen things, got me a Bosch compact mixer now that we have room for it (the girl think it's just for cookies), fixed the dishwasher, and lots of other things.

I think this was at home church on Father's Day

Sharing ramen that was Theo's

I painted the girls' toes. Well days later they found white out and redid my job.

Theo started first grade and has really been doing well. His kindergarten was only half day but he's doing great at school days for twice as long. He seems to like his teacher and also the teachers for P.E., art, etc.

He pulled out a Junie B. Jones first grader book from the library and wanted me to reread it to him because they are reading it in his class at school too.

Outside of school, Theo really enjoys doing the doing the Waffle game. It's a new take on Wordle but you switch letters and make multiple words, with a certain number of switches allowed. If you have 5 or more switches left when you solve it, the letters get a rainbow animation. He sometimes gets really sad when we didn't beat it with enough switches left to see the rainbow. I explain that we still even won, we just didn't win by a big enough margin for the extra prize. I explained that sometimes you can make no mistakes and still lose. 

Even a Picard quote didn't save the day.

He's slowly getting over it and just enjoying it when we occasionally get the rainbow animation. And you know, sometimes we lose completely. There's always a new puzzle the next day.

The same day Theo started school the girls became fully vaccinated for COVID-19. That Sunday we took them to in person church for the first time and Jay blessed them. Wendy sat in a chair while Jay blessed her and Miri sat with me and held my hand, and then we swapped. Theo sat with Rachel, Jenna, and Zinah.

Blessing outfits.
Miriam is in the cream and wearing a dress that was Gabi's (Jay's Mom's) when she was tiny.
Wendy is in white and wearing a dress my mom made for my niece, Kaiana's, baby blessing. Kaiana was only a few months old when she wore it and it fit her very differently, the bottom much longer than her feet.

On Theo's first day of school Wendy ran to me and announced, "Oh no! My backpack is missing!"

"The backpack is Theo's. It's with him at school," I explained. She didn't seem to notice Theo was missing, just the backpack.

Jay got the girls backpacks after that, and they love running around with them.

I've now taken them to the library twice, wearing their backpacks so they can pick out any 2 books they want and carry them in the bags.

Wendy was outgrowing her boots. She has the smallest feet. I figured she could wear Miriam's, and got the next size up for Miriam. The girls hadn't had matching boots before so I didn't think about it being a problem. The new boots are black with some fluffy, sparkly stuff around the top.

Wendy saw Miriam wearing them and started, crying, "I NEED those sparkle boots!"

Jay came in right then and I admitted that I had make a big mistake. He got out a new stuffed animal, chimchar, that he had been saving for Wendy. 

There hasn't really been tears over boots since then. Still, it's hard to be the smaller twin.

The girls have gotten into several arguments lately.

In the morning when they first wake up --

W: We are going to eat breakfast!!!

M: No, we are going to eat FOOD!

W: Breakfast!

M: Food!

M: I am "Me-e-um," (how she pronounces "Miriam,") and you are Wendy-um.

W: No! I am Wendy May!

I forget who said what in the next one --

1: This is mine.

2: No, that's yours.

1: No, it's mine!

2: No, it's yours!

But they also love each other. Yesterday they were getting chalk wet in the fountain and Wendy started drawing on Miriam's back and they were both giggling so much.

Chalk on her back

 I also love it when one falls down and the other checks to ask if she's alright.

One day Miriam accidentally hurt Wendy. Wendy had a bump and I got her an ice pack and a Popsicle.

Miriam wanted one too, but I explained we had already had Popsicles today and Wendy was getting an extra because she was hurt.

Wendy was still crying a lot, but after a few minutes and she calmed, and then immediately offered her Popsicle to her twin, saying, "Mee-um lick." They shared the Popsicle happily and then went back to playing.

For the record, when Theo was this age, Otter Pops were practically medicine: hurt your hand? Get an Otter Pop to hold to make it feel better. Hurt your mouth? Otter Pop. Been throwing up and need some slow hydration? Otter Pop. Teething? Otter Pop. Sore throat? Otter Pop. I would also cut them in half, which the girls don't accept.

But the girls were wanting one every time they had a little bang, so we've stopped that now. We mostly stick to once a day, which they always remember to ask for.

The girls are very independent, with Wendy leading the way. She can buckle her car seat by herself, often, and will get very upset if you help her with most anything. Washing her hands consists of her climbing on the stool by herself (and getting very upset if I try to lift her up), turning on the water, scrubbing for too long, me counting down to let her know I will start to help if she doesn't finish soon, me turning off the water, her screaming, "Self! Self! Self!" and turning the water back on, her turning off the water, her getting down and drying her hands, her getting back on the stool to turn off the light, and her screaming if I'm the one to shut the bathroom door. She can just barely reach the weirdly high doorknob, but she can do it on her tip toes and she will do it.

Under the misting system that Jay set up on the back porch

Jay called this "Harry Potter and the Year We Replaced All of Our Appliances." Technically the HVAC was last year, but this 2 weeks ago the water heater was leaking so we got a new one. Then this week we needed a new washing machine. Adulthood is expensive and boring sometimes. Jay also had to replace his expensive computer keyboard and we need to get the red car looked at. 

It's a good thing there are cookies.