365 Days of Twins: Now I know the pride scientists must feel for their chimps

Pretty obvious why I think my parents' house is such a great place to visit.

Sorry about shirking my blogging duties last night in order to go to the Harry Potter movie, but it was worth it. I haven't been to a movie in a theater in ages--it was fun. So to catch you up on the girls so far in Duluth...

We played outside for awhile yesterday. It was a bit windy and therefore a little chilly, but that didn't stop Lily, Andrew and Abby from hanging out in the water. The tough part for me was figuring out when to take Abby out. Lily and Andrew could get out on their own when they were too cold, but Abs was relying on me to pick her up from where she sat (that girl will not crawl in grass or sand, so I knew crawling out of the water was out of the question). As she sat there shivering (she doesn't have much body fat to keep her tiny body warm), I thought we'd reached that moment. I was mistaken--she was quite angry with me for taking her out before she was ready. So back in she went until her sister and cousin were done too. That girl is determined and stubborn, traits that are sometimes frustrating as a mother, but I love those traits. They will get her far in life.

While Dave celebrated National Night Out in our neighborhood, we celebrated at the Fredenberg National Night Out celebration--complete with grilled hot dogs, chips, soda, a huge blow-up obstacle course/slide that Andrew conquered on his own several times (easily the smallest kid scaling the 12-foot high ladder to the slide), and of course...swings. Lily and Abby are huge fans of any opportunity to swing, so it was a good night for them. I have to say, Christy and I pulled off some amazing feats of parenthood in order to make it to the movie on time. Within about 30 minutes, Christy bathed both boys, had Matthew fed (with help from grandma), had Andrew in his jammies, and had Matthew down for the night. During that time, I changed both girls into their jammies, got them both to drink a decent amount of milk, and had them down for the night as well. It was efficient. It went smoothly. We knew we'd suffer the karma consequences tonight...and we did. Matthew struggled to go to bed for quite a while, sounding like he was pained by teething or some such thing. Abby got back up about half an hour after she went down--the culprit being a dirty diaper. She was wide awake after being changed, so she stayed up for another half hour. Oh well, still worth it for last night.

As for today's highlights...Lily made me oh so proud this morning with a new sign. I've been painstakingly making the "eat" sign at the girls for the past few weeks with not even a hint of a mimic from either girl. Shortly after getting up this morning, Lily was sitting in my lap, looked at me and made the sign. I said "EAT?" and she did it again. Hooray!! I brought her to the high chair and she did it again. Yeah! So proud.

We visited Canal Park this afternoon and two things were discovered. 1) Lily loves seagulls and doesn't fear being eaten by them (I, on the other hand, kept picturing them mistaking her for a piece of food and taking a bite out of her--they were so close) and 2) the sound of the Aerial Lift Bridge's horn signaling its recognition of a boat needing to go under scares the living daylights out of Abby and will solicit a complete meltdown every time she hears it.

We also had a lovely visit at my grandmother's this afternoon. Nana is a hit with the kids, as is her robotic cat. Lily liked to meow back at it whenever the opportunity presented itself. Abby preferred to dump out anything she could and put everything from the coffee table onto the floor. Good times.

Tomorrow we head back to Minneapolis where we get to spend one more evening with my sister and her kids before they move. Bitter sweet time. That's what life is sometimes isn't it? Moment after moment of bitter sweet time.

Day one hundred and seventy one.