Madeleine sporting the newest in lunch fashion - I don't know why she decided to do this...nor did I ask.
Emily following Madeleine's lead....I give up.I'm afraid the blog readership is going to have to tolerate a little background information. Each night, while I bathe and dress one girl, Till reads to and plays with the other - then we trade. This is one of the few times we get one and one time with each child and we both enjoy it. As I dry and dress each girl in her jammies we discuss the events of the day and possibly what is on the agenda for tomorrow. Completely unrelated, this past summer the girls learned that when one is taken on a boat ride at the lake there is a high likelihood one will be taken to a small store and given "chocolate Ms" (M&Ms) - this was especially true when the captain and skipper of the boat (Grandpa and Mommy) realized the girls would tolerate a much longer boat ride (as in we could actually leave our bay) if they thought "Ms" were involved! All of this bring us to the girls' developing theology.
Last Sunday the girls were told about Noah's Ark while in the nursery at church. The "teacher" went so far as to have brown construction paper semi-ovals (arks) and pictures of animals that were cut out of magazines and the Heifer International gift catalog (Christmas is coming and this wonderful organization has great gifts for the person who has everything) for the children to glue on the arks. That night Madeleine and I chatted about Noah and his big boat and that he helped the animals. She was fairly willing to go along with all of this as long as I would agree that he did NOT take kitties on the boat; I have no idea why, but he didn't. Emily, however, had a different approach. She conceded that Noah had a large boat, but when I asked her the purpose of the boat I was informed it was "take the kids to get chocolate Ms!"
Meanwhile, every Sunday we take the girls into the sanctuary ("Mommy Daddy church room" in their world) let them hang out for about five minutes (we get there early) and then take them to the nursery. The first week as they happily, and none too gently, grabbed hymnals and Bibles we told them these were God's books and they needed to be gentle with them. With a great seriousness and a rather business-like tone, Madeleine opened a hymnal, folded her hands, leaned over the pages, and said the "grace" they say at "school" before snack-time; apparently that is how one reads "God's book".
In other, not at all religious news, the other day the girls were fighting over their two plastic phones. More to the point, they were fighting over the preferred of their two plastic phones. One of the girls was on the phone (I'm afraid I can't remember, but I think it was Emily) and as I encouraged her to share, I was informed she was on the phone with her father and "Daddy say no share". These children are two - adolescence should be fun!
In an effort to add an addendum to the last post's comments regarding the amount of cooking we had done. If you are ever at our house and offered any sort of "break and bake" cookie, it has probably been licked before being placed on the cookie sheet (I try and stop it, but these kids move fast); they are baked at 350 degrees, so I think you are ok. Also, the girls now insist on setting the dinner table. When they feel overwhelmed by the amount of silverware they are holding - they simply set it on the floor and set the table from there. We are working on: 1. not licking cookies 2. taking pieces of cutlery to the table one or two at a time and 3. if overwhelmed by spoons and forks - set them on a chair!
