Spiders

Did you know that I'm afraid of spiders? It's a true phobia. I know it's completely irrational, but I am afraid. I have realized that my fear is in direct proportion to a) size b) movement c) positioning of said spider. Bigger is worse. Creeping or (YIKES) climbing down a strand of web in the middle of a room is awful. (I'm breaking into a sweat right now, I kid you not.) As far as positioning, the ceiling is worse than on the floor. The top part of the wall is worse than the bottom.

Two spider related stories. In one, I am a conquering hero, in the other, a scared wimp.

Let's start with the conquering hero. There was a huge disgusting spider (more sweat) crawling toward Violet's play mat. I could not stand the thought of that thing crawling onto such a safe and sweet place, and certainly could not stand the thought of it being there when Violet was playing there. (She wasn't at the moment.) So, I took a lot of deep breaths, rolled about approximately one whole roll of toilet paper, and said the following mantra to myself "It's for Violet, for the kids, I can do this for the kids. I am saving the kids. I can SAVE my KIDS!" (Overly dramatic? Yes. Effective....YES!) Quickly I smooshed that spider and even more quickly ran it to the toilet. Shaking, I flushed the toilet, knowing that I had done what a good and courageous mother does for the sake of her children.

Note the big and disgusting spider was on the lower part of the wall.

Then comes two days later. Yes, the scared wimp story. I am reaching for the peanut butter, which means that I am straddling a baby gate and reaching over some steps into our pantry, perpendicular to the back door and sharing a space with the only way to get down to the basement. Suddenly, to my horror, I notice a spider in my eyeline. No, NOT on the wall. (Sweating again!) But hanging from it's stupid scary single strand of web right in the middle of the entry way. AGH!! Heart pounding I take the peanut butter (which is needed for the sustenance of the children) and back away.

Then it occurs to me: MY DIET COKE! It's in the basement. I have none upstairs. It's before 9:00am, and it's about prime Diet Coke time. Cautiously, I look for the stupid spider. I don't see it. Where is it? This is terrible. I know it's there. I just saw it. It's a bold, unflinching, out-to-get-me kind of spider. Now it's hiding somewhere waiting for me to venture down the stairs to get my Diet Coke. Well, I'm not that stupid.

I didn't get my Diet Coke that day, my friends. I waited until Adam came home, and I texted him to pick me up a fountain Diet Coke, which is really the best kind of Diet Coke there is, anyway.

I am scared of spiders. Now you know.

A Great Day

On Tuesday we had a really great day. Not because the kids slept in. Not because we left the house. Not because no one cried. Not because everyone had great naps. In fact, none of those things happened.

But it was a great day.

It started as many days do. Sebastien was up too early, and I pulled him into bed with me. I often do that. I do that almost every day. Adam leaves for work around 6:00am so his side of the bed is empty. Not being much of a morning person myself, I don't love it that Sebastien follows in his daddy's footsteps and wants to get the day started as early as possible. But, I do like cuddling with my son for about a half-ho ur before the girls wake up. And on this day, he and I got up and the girls kept sleeping, so not only did we get to cuddle, but we got to play for awhile. Just us.

Later that day, Eden and Sebastien were just drifting off to sleep at naptime, when Violet woke up, ready to eat. After she ate, the kids were still asleep. So she and I oohed, cooed and laughed at each other for about 45 minutes. Just us.

Just as she was going down for a nap, Eden woke up from hers. Yes, it was earlier than usual, she had only been asleep for just over an hour. But she was awake and smiley, so I let her get up. She and I played together for almost an hour. Just us.

So, why was this a really great day?

I was able to spend one on one time with each of my kids, all in the same day. Do you know how rare that is? Very.

p.s. The following pictures have nothing to do with this post. They're just cute.

Little bits of twin stuff

I have started to write down stuff that Eden and Sebastien say and do. But before I started keeping track on paper, I jotted some down here in a draft, intending to create this post, but I never did. So, just for fun, here's stuff that happens in my house, some of them recently, some of them quite some time ago....

Eden falls, hurt her bum, asks for a kiss. Adam says "Oh, honey, Daddy isn't going to kiss your bum" and Eden start crying loudly and yelling "Kiss my BUM!!! Daddy, KISS MY BUM!!"

Eden: "Violet has tiny little ears...and a big BIG face!"

Putting Eden to bed, my stomach growls. "Mommy, you tooted." Me: "No, mommy's tummy just made a noise." Eden: "Sounds like a monkey toot."

Eden and Bash are playing Baby Eden and Baby Sebastien a lot. When they do this, they call me "Baby Momma."

Eden looks at my arms, which is covered in freckles. She says, "Mommy! You have nipples all over your arm!"

(There really isn't a picture to represent Eden saying funny things.)

Sebastien is the king of creativity. Taking toys away from his is futile, because he just uses his fingers, or any thing around him. Examples:

Cheerios on his finger become the peddler selling caps (from the book "Caps for Sale") but his finger with a raisin on the side, suddenly it is Rudolf with a red nose.

At supper, his bowl is a boat, but with the fork in it, it's now a sailboat. But his fork is also Super Grover.

Pretzels are a lot of fun. Sometimes they are people, just they quickly can become horses, cows, dinosaurs. Train tracks held just right in his hand are T-Rex's.

He plays different characters from TV shows, mostly Dora shows. For a long time he was Baby Dino. Late ly he is Dora and he makes Eden be Boots.

His toast bitten in certain ways becomes monkeys, dinosaurs, humming birds.

(Bash repeatedly put together blocks like this over the period of a couple weeks, and every time, it was a cow.)

There are a million examples of things like this. This is really just a taste.