Outdoor Adventures

This morning I had to be out the door by 7:30 to make our appointment at University Honda in Davis for an oil change and checkup. I got a lot of things ready last night, and in the morning Puck was amazing. He got the boys diapered, dressed, fed, and out to the minivan while I got myself ready and finished packing us up. Alex and Dom had fun pointing at every “big…truck” and were cheerful on our drive.

After dropping off the minivan, I took Dom and Alex on a wagon ride to the McDonalds across the street that had an outdoor play area. Dom and Alex had a great time exploring the play area–playing the piano, climbing on and off benches, spinning gears, climbing up and down steps, and generally running around. Fortunately, they didn’t show any interest in climbing higher into the play structure as that looked like a little too much for them still. After running around for about 45 minutes, they sat down at a table to each color a picture. Alex chose a rocket and Dom a dump truck to color. Shortly after that, we got a call that they were all done with the minivan–much earlier than expected! I was thrilled that everything had gone so well.

A Little Laughter

On a funny note, I had put black socks for the boys and me in their diaper bag thinking we would put sandals on them, but when we decided on shoes this morning. I grabbed socks for Puck to put on the boys. Later, at McDonalds the boys had to run around in their socks in the play area, and I had to pull Dom’s socks up. Then, when I was changing his diaper, I discovered that he was wearing my socks! That explained why I couldn’t find my socks anywhere in the diaper bag!

When I was paying for the service, Alex and Dom were in their wagon, and they started taking turns squeezing each other’s noses and giggling. They got lots of smiles, and then they wanted to grab my nose too. I did our old joke of saying “stinky, stinky” when they grabbed my nose, and that brought more giggles. I was so glad to have two happy little boys for our morning adventures.

Exploring a New Park

Afterward, we made a quick stop to drop off the last of the library books I had from working on my dissertation (WooHoo!), and then, we headed to the Rainbow City park with its wood castle, boat, train, and tire ladders (plus quite a few cobwebs). Dom and Alex had lots of fun exploring, and with just a little help made it up the tire ladder. They loved one of the slides and generally had a great time. I was pleased that Alex and Dom stayed together as they explored with just a little encouragement…until I was trying to wrangle us back toward the wagon to sit down and eat a snack before heading home. Then, suddenly, Dom took off running outside the fenced-in area of the play area and Alex took off into the play structure. I had to chase Dom down and then run back and through the play structure (heart pounding) to find Alex who had run straight to the other side and was running along the outside of the fence on the other side of the play structure…more running to catch up and then a walk to plop both in the wagon. (If only I could have split myself in two to run after both at the same time, but the play area was a decent distance from any roads and surrounded by green grass.)

Our Afternoon

After we got home, the boys settled down for a short nap, and I managed to squeeze in an hour nap with them. In the afternoon, Dom and Alex wanted to push their big trucks around, and we had a pretty big snack around 3:30. Then, we headed into the backyard for water fun. I put their slide so it went into their pool, and turned their hose on so they could play with it while they filled their pool. They splashed, giggled, tried to climb up the wet slide, and enjoyed each other’s company. Later, I also used a broom to dust off their water table and added it to the yard of fun. The broom became a coveted toy, and they took turns sweeping the patio with the broom and climbing on top of the water table. Puck worked a little late, but after he came out, we got a warm bath ready. Alex and Dom were sad to come inside, but they felt much better about it when they were plopped in the bathtub (until it was time to wash hair at least).

While I made dinner, both boys snuggled up with their dad on the couch to watch a little “Shaun the Sheep.” When it was time for their bedtime routine, they sat in their dad’s lap for most of a very long story that Alex had picked out–“The Little Old Lady Who Was Not Afraid of Anything,” and they stayed surprisingly engaged through the book. Near the end they both moved down to sit on my lap for a bit, and then, we each took a boy to snuggle with during our bedtime songs.

Alex (left) & Dom hanging out with Dad (Sept. 28, 2012)

Other Twin Tidbits

Diaper Tales: Today Alex told me when he had a poopy diaper. I believe it might be a first for him! Dom also let me know when we were at McDonalds when he needed his diaper changed, and he even stopped playing and willingly came over for me to change it. I love when they either ask to have their diaper changed or come and lie down on their own on the changing pad that I’m setting up. We have fuss- and wiggle-free diaper changes at least 80% of the time, probably even more like 85-90%, and I am so thankful for that. I think Puck has had a lot to do with that because he has always made diaper-time a special, fun time with the boys, and I adopted his approach.

Alphabet News: The guys know all their alphabet letters and can easily identify them when they are capitalized, so we have started working on lower-case letters too. Alex and Dom are starting to catch on and enjoy guessing. Just today, they made significant improvement on identifying lower case letters. They’ve been learning the sounds that go with the letters too and know a lot of them already.

Shoes: After his bath, Dom ran into the living room and managed to put one of his shoes on himself. Of course, it was his left shoe on his right foot. He wanted help getting another shoe on and then proudly walked around in two left shoes.