Twice Blessed Life

Last night we took the girls to a Disney on Ice show that I had gotten free tickets to for telling people about a ticket discount code.  (The code is: MOM at Ticketmaster.com - buy 4 or more tickets and the price is $11 per ticket.)  The promoters of the event had a special party for us and other families who did the same thing.

It was great!

We got shown into a VIP lounge, where they had Mickey and Minnie Mouse available for pics with the kids (Their first Disney character pic!), pretty good food, much better than I expected, and lots of toys scattered on the tables.  They also had goodie bags with…

A FAIRY COSTUME!!!!!

Ok, it wasn’t anything elaborate - a tiara, some wings and a tutu, all green, but still….

A FAIRY COSTUME!!!!!!

Eeeeeeee!!!!!(squeals of Mama joy)

Of course I’m going to have to put it away until they’re a little older - maybe by Halloween - so they don’t destroy it.

The girls seemed to like all the goings on.  Of course there was mild protesting at not being allowed to have any of the balloons, but the staff explained that if the balloons got loose, it’d be pretty hard to recapture them as the ceiling was WAAAY high in the room.

Other than that, things went pretty good.  Thankfully Halle caught a nap in the car on the way up, and Zanna had had a pretty solid nap in the afternoon while Halle just dozed, and I managed to get some healthy snacks in to them - organic cheese, apples, crackers and avocado, and some milk.  I think this helped alot.

I also had the foresight to bring along Halle’s pacifier and both the girls’ lovies - Bun-bun the bunny and Softie the Snoedel.  I think that made a big difference in how things turned out.

The girls for the most part were ok sitting on our laps, boogied a little to the music, and when they got restless, we bounced them on our laps a little.

They LOVED Donald Duck!  I’m not that fond of Donald, myself, but the girls love ducks in general, and here was a life-size, ice-skating one.  Everytime Donald skated offstage, Zanna protested.  Loudly.

Also at one point in the Little Mermaid part of the show, they released clouds of bubbles from the ceiling.  Another crowd-pleaser.  Both the girls pointed and exclaimed “Bubba! Bubba!”  They didn’t understand why we didn’t release them in a stadium packed with thousands of people to go off chasing bubbles.

Also, they really liked Ursula the sea witch - a giant black and purple Octopus woman.  They exclaimed “Ocagoga! Ocagoga!”  which means “Octopus!” in toddler-ese.

They loved the skating animals in the finale of The Lion King, and at the end of Tinkerbell they shrieked with joy as little paper butterflies were released from the ceiling, skaters with streamers twirled around and a flower curtain unfurled, with skaters gliding by holding gigantic flowers aloft.

It ended at 9:30pm, and like I said, I was very surprised they were so well behaved.  Even the lady next to me remarked about it.  Of course, they weren’t stuffing their faces with various forms of sugar all evening as I saw some very wild-eyed kids doing.  Those kids looked WIRED!

All in all, it was a terrific evening!  I had had worries that the lights, loud music and bright colors and noisy crowd would overstimulate them and that we’d have to leave early, but they seemed fine with it.  Of course, it’s not something I’d expose them to on a regular basis, but I’m so glad they didn’t have a meltdown like some little kids I saw there who really were freaking out by the end.

and….

A FAIRY COSTUME!!!!!

I’ve discovered something interesting about the girls, who are now 20 months old.

They’ve started developing different tastes and preferences in food.

For example, a few months ago they both liked cheese.  Now only Halle will eat cheese while Zanna acts as if I’ve offered her crud from between my toes.

Zanna loves Miso soup, while Halle will do a full body shudder if she tastes it.

Zanna loves strawberries, Halle only mildly likes them. Same with raisins.

Halle loves scrambled eggs, Zanna thoroughly detests them.

Halle likes the fish in fish nuggets, and Zanna likes the breading.  So at the end of the meal, there’s a pile of breading under Halle’s chair, and a pile of fish chunks under Zanna’s chair.  So I tried putting the piles on the other twin’s plate, and found out that neither of them like half-eaten remnants rejected by someone else.

Good news: they are both on sippy cups full time.  We finally found ones they like that are spill proof, but can still have a good flow.

Zanna has begun giving us an alert almost everytime she poos or pees, and has started demanding her diaper be changed, even with minmal pee in it.  This indicates she is becoming ready for potty training.

Halle doesn’t seem to be aware of what’s happening in her diaper, so it probably means I’ll only have to potty train one at a time.

And they both really enjoy wiping off each other’s bottom during diaper changing time.  They also like feeding each other snacks, too.

Nice girls, very nice.

I’ve been hard pressed to find adequate outdoor playspace.  Parks are out if you’re a solo mama with multiples.  The little dears have a distressing habit of running off in opposite directions.

This is not good.

As a result, we’ve been mostly staying at home, like little caged birds, unless someone could be roped into coming with us.

I even tried an indoor play area at a local McDonald’s, which I usually boycott for religious reasons, which shows just how desperate I’ve become in getting my little ones some activity.

At first it looked pretty peachy.  The access to the tunnels looked within reach, and one climbed in one end, and the other girl climbed in the other.

At that point the magnitude of my mistake hit me:  the maze of tunnels extended UP!  Quickly, one 20mo. girl clambered up a verticle tunnel like a cute little monkey.  Her twin scuttled off in the opposite direction.

What if they got trapped?  If they could scuttle up, they could also fall down.

Uh-oh!

Quickly, I extracted one girl and then went worming my adult body through the tunnels trying to locate the other girl, while I could hear the first going back in on the other side.

It was like a comedy, first get one, then dash off to squeeze myself into kiddie tunnels to locate and retrieve the other one.

Until I had the bright idea to take a few extra seconds and strap one down in our stroller.

Finally I had retrieved both girls.  They were not happy campers.  I apologized profusely at dangling such lucious playtime fruit in front of them only to snatch it away.

Sigh…

I think we’ll sign up at a local Little Gym (www.littlegym.com).  The staff says if I come to an early class, there’s not so many people, and a staff member can help a little with both girls.

It’s pricey, about $15 per class, per child, even with a few extra classes they threw in for free, but I don’t think I have a choice.

I read an article that said kids who watch more than 2 hours of tv per day have a 50% increased risk of developing asthma - their lungs develop differently than kids who are more active.

So, active kids coming right up!

This has the potential to make a more exhausted mama, but at least they’ll have healthy lungs.  I had visions of their potential Olympic aspirations being cut short because I had neglected to provide them with adequate physical activity.  They’d never forgive me.

Dealing with mama guilt is a hard thing, sometimes.

Daylight Saving Time again!

Bwah! Phooey!  I believe those are the technical terms to describe the feelings of many parents of babies and toddlers.

At first it all sounds good: if your tot woke up at 5am, they would now wake up at 6 am, thus gaining you (and the tot, of course) an extra hour of sleep.

Again I repeat: Bwah!  Phooey!

Nice in theory, but…

Now all the parents of babies and toddlers in our apartment building are saying the same thing: “Are your kids going bonkers at bedtime, unable to settle down for HOURS, too?”

Yep.

7:30pm bedtime, but it’s still light out.  Ok, fine, we’ll shift to 8:30pm.  Now they sense the sun has truly gone down, but now they’re overtired.  Which means they’re all giddy and wired and overexhausted.  Which means trying to calm them down and catch the brief window of opportunity where you MIGHT be able to get them to relax enough to sleep.

Hah!  Fat chance!

Sometime around 10pm, if your lucky, they will collapse from exhaustion.  By then, they are so overexhausted, they will not sleep well, and will be sluggish in the morning and start to accumulate a sleep deficit.

Oh! But they’ll sleep later the next morning!  Yeah, right!  Only a fool, a naive fool would think that.  Guess what?  They pop awake at sunrise, all the same.

Matching the solar schedule with the clock schedule is sane.

Monkeying with it twice a year is madness.