More lazy blogging from me.

There should be no doubt that, since I'm including a picture of grass, I haven't taken any shots of the girls lately. My excuses for today include:

1. I spent the day helping Jen's brother move.
2. I still feel pretty rotten with flu-like symptoms (this excuse in tandem with excuse #1 should serve to illuminate what a great person I am, and will assuage your anger in my bloggy shortcomings.)

Jen had the girls up until 4ish. I'm not sure what motherly magic she worked on them, but they were hilarious the whole afternoon. In a nutshell, a lot like Jen's post from yesterday, just continued. The moments of pure ugliness are still there - they both want a toy, there is pushing and crying - but there's a lot more loving interaction.

And that kiss in the bathtub yesterday was stellar.

Day two hundred and sixty.

I did not get Dave sick

Dave is sick. He returned from work after only one hour this morning and spent the day on the couch. Now he is in bed, so I get to blog. I'm going to take the easy way out and make this short, as I am also tired. But not because I'm sick, it's because I did too much today. Dave blamed me on the blog last night for possibly being the reason he's sick, but that is impossible because I have not been sick yet. Exhausted and suffering from a perpetual sinus headache, but not sick.

The girls were super cute tonight. And unlike most nights lately, Lily was the star. She was in a great mood and spent much of the evening sharing with Abs. My favorite moment was when Lily, Dave and I were sitting on the couch, post-bath, pre-bed and Abby came over with a book requesting to sit in Dave's lap for a story. Lily promptly slid off my lap, presumably for a story herself. But instead, she picked up Abby's milk and brought it over to her. Then got back up on my lap with the biggest look of pride on her face. It was so cute. This moment was tied for my favorite with the time when the girls gave one another a big kiss while in the bath tonight. It's also tied with when Lily kept handing Abby the toy cups she was playing with and Abby said a nice loud 'thank you' with no prompting.

I love all the interaction that has been happening between the girls lately. And I love the recent politeness the girls have been exhibiting. I'd like to take credit for their politeness (along with Dave), but I'm afraid we'd also have to take credit for the tantrums, the stealing toys from one another, and the occasional biting. So no credit will be taken, at least not until they are out of the terrible twos, or maybe out of high school and hopefully not biting anymore.

Abby or Jen got me sick. One of them. Not sure who.

I'm opting out for the night due to feeling cruddy. Maybe it's h1n1. Maybe it's all that heated debate I had today with my coworkers over airline policies.

Day two hundred and fifty eight.

UpDown

Busted!!! What for...I have no clue.

That website was 481 days off...Lily was in a lovely mood tonight, and as such must have kicked her terrible two habit tonight. Whew...dodged a bullet.

Tonight during dinner we played our new favorite dinnertime game: UpDown. The point of this game - nay, the point of our lives - is to do what the girls want us to do. They both love saying "up" and "down". During this game, when they say, "Up!" we raise our hands as high as possible. When they say, "Down!"...well, you get the point. That is all there is to the game. It's a little like Simon Says, except there is only one action and there is no Simon. Ocassionally, play is suspended when a chicken nugget needs to be crammed into someone's piehole. Sometimes it needs a timeout for a harsh, "Olly!" reprimand when he tries to liberate said chicken nuggets.

There is never a winner in UpDown. It never ends definitively, either; it just peters out as enthusiasm for it evaporates like water in a sippy cup. There is no timer. No horn or buzzer. Minutes will pass with our hands in the air (they invariably end on "Up!") before they will finally say, "Down?" and we collapse from exertion.

This is normally good for at least 20 minutes of hassle free quality time.

I have never claimed anywhere in this blog that these tales would even flirt with being interesting.

Day two hundred and fifty seven.

She's got my forehead.

T minus 482 days.

Abby took this, and I think she has a knack for working with light.

I feel like I've done enough posts in a row that I've qualified myself for a night off. This is counterbalanced by the fact that I have no new photos to post, so I'll compromise and half-ass it for the night.

Is 20 months too early for the whole "terrible two" phenomenon? I should back up and say that I hate any developmental generalization that uses both a number and alliteration; "troubling threes", "farcical fours", "apocrophyl eights", and so on. The phrase "terrible twos" - and the fact that I just used it twice - irks me.

My impression of this phase was that the kid in question - let's call her L. Gels - while certainly acting like a pill, would at the very least have some sort of tangential reason for being a pill. She isn't allowed outside. She has to wash her hands (this is actually a reward for L. Gels...she loves to wash). She is made to eat her vegetables. Things in that vein.

L. Gels, on the other hand, has been flying off the handle for no reason whatsoever. We're trying to walk a fine line between not giving her too much coddling and also scrambling like mad to snap her out of it. She will quiet down from time to time, but then she loses it again for absolutely no reason. I've watched her...there is no reason. One second: happy kid sitting there in front of me. Next second: bloody murder.

I'd rather there be a reason, so I could at least know what argument to take. She's crying because she wants to play with her shoes = fine, I make her ask nicely and then I give her the shoes. She wants to walk in the middle of the street = no way, and that's final. That has simplicity and definition. When she's this upset over nothing, I don't know if we should console her or not. Should we dance around like clowns to try and get her to cheer up?

I'm at a loss.

We are both under the impression that fatigue is playing a part. We've been inching back their bedtime, with zero complaints from both of them.

Lastly, I have to add this awesome piece of the internet I just found. I did a google search for "terrible twos", and came across a "terrible two countdown timer". Curious, I checked it out. This thing - hang onto your virtual hats - asked me for the subject's name (L. Gels) and birthdate (Feb 15th). After entering these seemingly meaningless pieces of information, it crunched around for a bit and told me this fact. I was astonished.

"Lily is 1 year 8 months old. You have 482 days - 5 hours - 2 minutes - and 54 seconds until your child is out of the terrible twos phase."

Oh my fricking god!!! The internet knows exactly when my kids will stop being crabby!!!! How is this not everyone's homepage!? Why is Oprah not trumpeting this from the top of the Sears Tower?

I'm still in shock. Even moreso because I figured out that this timer will reach 0 RIGHT AT HER THIRD BIRTHDAY. What? Are? The? Odds? Thank you, pediatrics.about.com. Expect a thank you call from me in 482 days.

Day two hundred and fifty six.

Elton.

The mad hatter.

David and the no good horrible bad night. (that's an exaggeration...it wasn't that bad)

See the tear?? It was definitely something I did.

Jen was at school tonight, and I could do no right for the girls. It was a tough go, pretty much the whole night through.

We tried to go outside right away, since the weather was superb. Outside was like torture, so we went back in.

I showered them with their toys. Lily instead wanted to be held, but only when I wasn't holding her. When I WAS holding her, her greatest wish was to get away from me.

I tried to fix them dinner quickly. It wasn't quick enough. They stood at the kitchen gate and hit each other until they were both crying. I yelled at them to stop. This made them cry even harder.

I thought dinner should be something easy, so I did hot dogs. Abby barely ate any. Lily threw her sippy cup and hit the dog on his beagley head.

After dinner, they played a game of "The 1,001 Best Ways to Not Share Anything with your Sister". Guess what? They both won.

When I changed them into jammies, I unleashed about 2 cubic yards of playsand into my house, cleverly absconded by the girls from daycare.

I vacuumed. This was the scariest thing Lily has ever seen, and she cried like it was the end of the world.

Yet at the very end of it all, they both went to bed quietly and without debate.

I think I won't yet have to move to Australia.

Day two hundred and fifty five.

Bee bo?....check!

Squinty McSunshine

On the one hand, it's a cute picture. On the other: that's a pretty vacuous expression.

Sunday...what can you say?

The day was far too temperate for us to squander it inside. Well, not all of it anyway. So this morning we managed to head out to the park and commandeer the playground for our own purposes, which consisted, on the main, of swinging.

We have been engaged in a lot of "play date tag" with our neighbors Carrie and Rebecca, who have a daughter named Ruby who is exactly the same age as the girls, to the day. And was born in the same hospital. Small block. Ruby seems to be on a different nap schedule, though, so while we have the best intentions about us getting together, it just hasn't happened quite yet. Today, though, we gave them a call, and lo and behold they were just about to set out for Powderhorn as well. Hooray serendipity!

It was a fun and mostly uneventful trip. I dropped the ball at one point while Lily was sliding down the slide. The thing ends in a 2 foot drop to the sand below, and she has slid off it previously and whacked her head - really hard - because she leaned back as she slid off. Fearful of her losing any more brain cells due to head injury, I was careful to watch her and make sure she didn't lean back. Of course, on her 4th time down she leaned way forward and face planted right into the sand. It was actually funny, since she didn't seem to mind much and was rather curious about why this stuff in her mouth was making her head vibrate when she bit down. She's always loved sand.

Day two hundred and fifty four

Sisters perched atop the slide.

Lily and Ruby queue up in the tube.

Sour swinging.