2 Moms, 4 Kids, 3,647.55 Miles

Emily, Madeleine and Andrew, along with their moms and Baby John (in carrier Erin is wearing), just before departing Norfolk.

To the first person who graciously points out the continental US is approximately 3,000 miles (not 3,600); thank you, I know. However, when one goes from Norfolk to Las Vegas and then to Spokane, the miles add up as one is not traveling in a straight line.

This year's annual Christmas pilgrimage to Spokane involved a new twist. We had the opportunity to travel with another family. Erin is another Spokane native, now living in Richmond, returning for Christmas. She and Uncle Paul were in the same class in school and her younger brother is good friends with Uncle Kyle. Consequently our families have known each other for years and years. She also has two small children and a husband who was unable to get away from work for an early Christmas departure. So, Melissa and Erin decided to play zone defense at 30,000 feet and make the trip together.

Considering the odds: a cross-country trip with two three-and-a-half year olds, one two-and-a-half year old and one three month old as well as carry-on consisting of two suitcases, two car seats, one stroller (gate checked), two heavy adult backpacks, three children's backpacks and one purse...the trip went remarkably well. We went through many, many stickers; made necklaces; colored in coloring books and snacked our way across the country. I think I can speak for Erin when I say we are both indebted to the person who invented fruit snacks as they are always popular and usually work as a bribe when a little one is in the process of losing it.

There were minimal meltdowns and Baby John slept the majority of the way (I am so jealous. I swear my ears are still ringing from when we flew from Seattle to Frankfurt with the girls when they were five months old). Erin and Melissa were able to help each other (each of us actually had the opportunity to use the restroom alone while the other one held down the fort) and more importantly look across the aisle and express mutual disbelief when it was announced there were "only three more hours" left on the first flight (it certainly felt like there should have been twenty minutes left - not three hours). I'm fairly suspicious the pilot had been circling Texas, Colorado or New Mexico just for kicks; he said something about having to go farther south of Denver because of weather - likely story.

When we changed planes I took the three "big kids" up the ramp and into the gate area while Erin waited for the stroller by the plane. Several people made comments about the cute triplets! (Please keep in mind Andrew is about 13 months younger than Madeleine and Emily, so I'm not too sure what people are thinking.) Later, when the "big kids" and I went on a short walk to look at planes while Erin guarded luggage (it was so nice to have someone who could stay with the luggage instead of dragging it up and down the terminal) I was again asked if the kids were triplets - talk about a glimpse into another world.

While people took one look at our row of six seats, two thirds of which were occupied by someone under four, and kept moving toward the back of the plane, we found many helpful strangers. People offered to grab and carry any number of things on or off the plane and for this we say thank you.

Harry And The Holidays

Emily (l) and Madeleine cleaning their shoes on Friday night. Daddy supervised to make sure the shoes would pass Nikolaus's inspection.

With Christmas around the corner Emily and Madeleine appear to be in a state of perpetual overdrive. "We" put up our tree and other decorations on Thanksgiving weekend, so now part of our daily routine is saying both good morning and good night to the tree as well as stopping to "use" the nutcrackers that are on the landing of the stairs.

The majority of our Christmas decorations were put up while the girls were napping (thankfully a long one). When they woke up and came downstairs they kept walking around "discovering" things and repeatedly saying "Oh my gosh!" It was also decided "We have the most beaubiful Chispis tee in de whole wolo." So, for anyone else who may put up a tree...good luck.

We have been singing lots of Christmas songs recently. I taught the girls Christmas Is A Coming and now Madeleine wanders around singing "Christmas is a coming and the geese are getting flat". The true lyric is the geese are getting fat, but her rendition leads to more imagery.

We had our Santa picture taken last Tuesday and were very excited to see him. In fact, we were more than willing to chat with him and felt we did not have enough time to do so.

This past weekend was non-stop entertainment. Nikolaus came on the night of December 5th for Nikolaustag. He brought the girls candy, of course, and some Santa themed clothing that seemed more appropriate earlier in the season than on Christmas day itself. Madeleine and Emily were very excited about Nikolaus's arrival and were quiet as soon as we left their bedroom at bedtime (shocking), however about 20 minutes later they were telling us, through the door, that we needed to go to bed too - they heard the TV in our room through the wall.

Saturday morning we checked out all of our Nikolaus goodies and then went to the annual Williamsburg Christmas Parade. We met McGruff The Crime Dog, got to see inside a police car before the parade started and were given candy canes and flags. The most nerve-wracking moment of the parade was at the very beginning when a model of an antique car, driven by a 10 year old (generous estimate), veered by... Our preschool had a "float" in the parade and Santa was in a fire truck at the very end!

Waiting for the parade to start! Emily on the left and Madeleine on the right.

Not to lack holiday spirit, but really! Should this child be driving any sort of vehicle where there are hundreds of people, many of them small children, sitting on the street?

Our school's "float" in the parade.


EmilyMadeleine (with the remnants of a candy cane - watching Santa approach!)

Madeleine (l) and Emily in their "fancy dresses" Oma and Opa sent from Germany. The girls were on their way to church - the bear and snowman stayed home.

Sunday afternoon we got to meet Harry. Harry is a bunny who was recently adopted by our loyal (and extremely brave) babysitter, Erica. He is six years old and we were thrilled to meet him. We found out Harry likes to eat oats and raisins as treats and both girls got to feed him. We left Erica's apartment convinced we too need a bunny.


Harry.Emily, Harry and Erica.

Harry eating oats out of Madeleine's hand.

Sunday evening we went to a Grand Illumination Party (Some sort of holiday thing for Williamsburg. We have never been, but did get stuck in the horrendous traffic caused by it for about 20 minutes.) hosted by one of the professors in the Econ dept. Emily and Madeleine were very excited to go because the event was co-hosted by the professor's stepdaughter, Meghan, and we got to see a "big girl's bedroom".

Ready for the Grand Illumination Party. Madeleine in red and Emily in green.

In closing, this morning I started the day with Emily needing to use the facilities. After I got her situated, Madeleine came in and asked "Mommy, you want to see something really cool?" I followed her to their room where she pulled back the curtain, pointed at the sunrise and proclaimed "Look!"

The Misses Schreiber Go To Washington

Emily in the pink hat and Madeleine in the purple hat with the Washington Monument in the background. I did not have them pose, this is a common stance we are achieving these days - usually while plotting against our parents.

Editor's note: We are going through a phase where we kind of want to wear the same thing...not necessarily to match, just because God forbid she gets what I want. Also, this makes it fun because Mom has some real hang-ups about us being twins (our names don't rhyme, they don't call us "the twins", etc. etc.) something about each of us having our own sense of self. So, an added bonus is, when we pick out matching coats (we know she won't fight us because she hates temper tantrums), clothing, etc.....we know she is cringing because she looks like "The Crazy Twin Lady" who dresses her children identically.

The weekend before Thanksgiving Till had a conference in Washington DC. Not at all content to let him go in peace and quiet, I decided the girls and I should go too - so we could see the zoo. Till and I foolishly thought the girls would nap on the way, so Saturday morning we played around here, ate lunch and then hit the road. As we left Williamsburg and headed up I-64, Till and I were instructed to tell the girls "as soon as we get to where we never been before." There was no nap. There was a lot of singing (primarily the ABCs), asking when we would be there, some flat-out screaming and thankfully one stop where Madeleine and Emily could stretch their legs and also learned how to put gas in a car.

Since the college was picking up the tab for Till's room (which he graciously shared with us), we decided to stay at the conference hotel which was the Grand Hyatt Washington. It has an atrium, fountains, etc. etc. As soon as we entered the lobby (with enough luggage to move across the country) Emily and Madeleine proclaimed we were in an "American castle"...I'm not sure where this came from, but who am I to disagree. Let's just say the first time they see a Holiday Inn, there will be significant disappointment.

Saturday afternoon we unpacked (a wee bit stressful with our helpers), unplugged the hotel room phones as they were beyond exciting about those - especially "the buttons with pictures", and explored the hotel. We took our first Metro ride to the Smithsonian where we visited the American History Museum. The Star Spangled Banner has undergone extensive preservation work and just recently was put back on display...the lines were huge. We went down a floor and found a hands-on display about invention and Madeleine and Emily could touch things to their hearts' content. Till and I were informed this was the "family room of the museum".

Following the Smithsonian, we had dinner at the Union Station food court (I know you are jealous) and then went swimming in the hotel pool. We also practiced getting on and off escalators! In all of my planning for this (including going to Busch Gardens in the late fall without the stroller to see how far the girls could walk before it wasn't worth the whining) - I didn't think about escalators and their prominent role in the subway system. I really did not want to mess with the stroller in the Metro, so we found a little-used escalator in the hotel and did a lot of practice with "one, two, three, big step" - the girls did a great job and are now pros (and highly distraught there are not buildings with escalators in Williamsburg).

Madeleine, President-Elect Obama, Emily in the hotel lobby.


Madeleine (right) giving Emily a hug - Em is thrilled - while waiting for the Metro.

Sunday morning Till went to his conference and the girls and I went to the zoo. We met our friends Meredith, Ethan and Jude who moved from Williamsburg to the DC area about a year and a half ago. The zoo's website stated that it opens at some ungodly hour and mentioned you can rent strollers. We met Meredith et.al. at 9. I did not want to deal with our stroller (the size of a Honda Civic) in the Metro, so we just hoofed it and planned on renting a zoo stroller when we got there. The Metro stop is about a third of a mile, uphill, from the zoo entrance (I knew this in advance and kept it to myself). When we got there, we learned the buildings are not open until 10. So, no stroller was rented and it took peanut butter M&Ms, from the 7-11 across the street from the zoo, to bribe four little feet all the way back to the Metro station.

However, we had fun with our friends and got to see pandas, lions, tigers, elephants, a rhinoceros, orangutans, gorillas, a zebra, fish, etc. etc. while there.

Riding the Metro (empty because it is Sunday morning).

Ethan, Jude, Emily and Madeleine with Lucy - the 33 year old orangutan.

Panda bear Madeleine.
Panda bear Emily.
Two bears.

After our zoo excursion we went back to our castle room and, thanks to blackout blinds, took a long nap. That night we walked (two of us in the stroller) to dinner and then went on a walk to the White House and Washington Monument so we could see them with their lights on. Something about one of those "Washington At Night" bus tours suggested it would be a waste of money on this particular visit...

Monday morning we went back to the American History Museum and waited for the doors to open (I'm totally okay with being a geek and an early one at that). We were the 3rd-6th people to see the Star Spangled Banner that day. The display area has very low light to protect the flag and two of us were a bit nervous about the dark. However, we were intrigued by the size of the flag, etc. As we left the display Emily and Madeleine decided they would like to go through again, but the line was already to the 30 minute mark, so we decided maybe next time.

We then headed to the Air and Space Museum where Madeleine and Emily had fun looking at airplanes and rockets. We also had lunch and they got to try astronaut ice cream. Then it was our final ride on the Metro and back into the car. The next trip we take that is longer than 20 miles, someone is riding in a dog crate on the roof...I don't care if it is me or them, but someone is up there.


Emily at the Air and Space Museum.

Madeleine at the Air and Space Museum.

Emily (left) and Madeleine with their first pumpkin pie.

Thanksgiving was a very low-key affair at our house. The holiday isn't significant for Till and the girls don't really eat meat....so it was boneless skinless chicken breast and Stove Top at our house. As I told my dad - I will go to the effort to make that pain-in-the-fanny meal at the point we can get through it without me having to say "Please don't put that sticker on your spoon!" However, the girls and I did make a pumpkin pie which received less than enthusiastic reviews from the preschool set.

My family mocks me for this, and I don't care. NORAD tracks Santa on Christmas Eve (it is actually a hoot to listen to the reports from the bases around the world - and thanks to time zones you can do it all day long!). Sadly, the site doesn't really give much insight to Santa's activities in the "off" season. However, it will be up and running again on December 1st!! Click here.

History Made!!

Emily (l) and Madeleine (r) holding a replica of Mom's ballot voting for President Elect Obama.

Emily and Madeleine wearing the stickers Mom and Grandpa were given as their "official ID" to wear while knocking on doors last Sunday.

Picture taken in February - Emily on the left and Madeleine on the right, showing support for Mom's candidate of choice during the primaries.


P.S. Virginia goes BLUE!!!

Happy Halloween

Madeleine (l) and Emily (r) checking the lawn for fairy dust before trick-or-treating.

Emily - "Ballerina Fairy"


Madeleine - "Normal Fairy"

Emily and Madeleine's fourth Halloween was an overwhelming success. Deciding on our costumes took some doing. Both girls based their costumes on their respective duvet covers. Emily announced she wanted to be a ballerina and Madeleine wanted to be a fairy. However, when Emily realized fairies have wings and ballerinas don't; she decided to be a ballerina fairy. So....we had a "ballerina fairy" and a "normal fairy".

This year's festivities began with our Pumpkin Parade and Party at school and culminated with traditional evening activities - all in one day (tired and overly-excited little girls who were pretty wound up on Friday evening). This year there was significant anticipation of trick-or-treating with requests for said activity immediately following our nap....long 3 hours to wait until we could leave the house. The highlight of our costumes was wearing our hair in buns "that's what fairies do"... and we got to hand out candy to the "big kids" who came to our house!

Madeleine "Scarecrow" in the parade.

Emily "Scarecrow" in the parade.

Emily at the end of the table and Madeleine to Emily's left (in stripes) at the party.

We are already looking forward to next year.

Jack O Lanterns, Apples And An Owl

Emily and her jack-o-lantern.


Madeleine and her jack-o-lantern.

Emily and Madeleine made the promised trip to "Pumpkinville" where they acquired pumpkins that could actually be made into jack-o-lanterns (much to their mother's relief)! We had actually never carved jack-o-lanterns before and the process met with approval.

Last Monday the girls' class went on their first field trip to Bush Neck Farms. The class learned all about apples, got to ride behind a tractor to the orchard and each student got to pick his or her own apple. Overall, a very good day.

The class on the vehicle the tractor pulls around the farm.

Madeleine (l) and Emily (r) with some cutouts at Bush Neck farms.

Mr. and Mrs. Farmer Brown reading a book about apples to the class.

Madeleine (l) and Emily (r) with the apples they picked themselves!

Recently the girls returned to the Virginia Living Museum. The temporary dinosaur exhibit has moved on and there is now an exhibit about sound (not good for adults who don't like noise!). This trip we walked the loop outside and had a great opportunity to spot wolves, turkeys, coyotes, deer, foxes, etc. We also got to pet a screech owl who is a rescue animal for obvious reasons.


Our friend the screech owl.

The Open Seas

On the ferry....Madeleine on the left and Emily on the right....a little bit windy!

In a brand new adventure Emily and Madeleine crossed the James River on a ferry! I had decided to go to College Run Farms to get our pumpkins and to get there we had to take the Jamestown-Scotland Ferry, something I had thought would be a big deal...it was actually very easy. This new activity involved driving 10 minutes from our house, waiting for the ferry, boarding the ferry, getting out of the car during the ferry ride (a whopping 10-15 min) and watching seagulls. Emily and Madeleine were concerned they did not have their life jackets (which their mother took as a good sign they are inheriting her safety-oriented paranoia), but were calmed when it was pointed out we had their car seats (because those would help in the water!). Madeleine and Emily had a wonderful time and seem to feel they have earned their sea legs.

College Run Farms was a nice place to get pumpkins, although we opted to choose from those already at the farm stand rather than hike through the soggy mud to the U-Pick section. Once again the girls were fascinated by the mini pumpkins and gourds and each brought home three. Much to their mother's consternation they had no interest in traditional Halloween pumpkins, instead preferring a variety called "Long Island Cheese" which, near as I can tell, are good for pies and basically a glorified squash...there is no making jack-o-lanterns out of these! Emily and Madeleine are finally willing to watch It's The Great Pumpkin Charlie Brown, which their mother has been forcing on them for four Octobers now (I thought they'd like the colors as infants)...we still don't like the skeletons in the very beginning, but the show is growing on us. The day we got our pumpkins, we watched the show with them...after the girls, and pumpkins, took their naps.

Never fear, a trip to Pumpkinville has also been planned. I don't know about your community, but in ours, a place with homemade Sesame Street characters is rare and we are not going to give up the opportunity for our yearly visit.

Emily
Madeleine
Emily (L), pumpkins, Madeleine (R) watching It's The Great Pumpkin Charlie Brown.

In non-pumpkin news, we have been to Busch Gardens on the past two Saturdays. However, these visits are noteworthy as we did not take the stroller!! Don't get me wrong, our Graco DuoGlider has been my loyal companion for many months (especially since moving here) and it is always in the back of my car - just in case it is needed, but we have started to physically outgrow it (although it is a nice mobile time-out zone). I think this is one of those times where being twins slows things down - a singleton would have been out of the stroller a while ago, however when I'm faced with two, running in opposite directions, I'm keeping them pinned in place. The girls did a great job walking all over the park and we did not hear complaints until I made the mistake, the first week, of praising their efforts on our way out of the park (the next week I knew to wait until we were on the tram to the parking lot). The solo adventure was a bit of a double-edged sword: we didn't have to lift the occupied stroller on and off the tram, drag it around, keep track of it, find space for it on the park's train, etc. However, the stroller's occupants were a bit drunk with their new found freedom and had some fun darting away from us (resulting in one young lady being placed in time-out temporarily).

Busch Gardens has been undergoing some improvements. The "glockenspiel" in "Germany" now sort of functions which is rather thrilling. And, in truly exciting news, they are adding a Sesame Street section which will open next spring! There is an entire Sesame Street park in Pennsylvania, which we have half-heartily contemplated visiting, but this takes its place and doesn't involve hours in the car!

While at Busch Gardens we spotted caramel apples and made some at home (shockingly those made at home did not cost $6 each!). While we approve of putting sugar, in any form, on all things possible, we found the apples a bit daunting. However, once they were cut in wedges - success was ours! We have also recently put up our Halloween decorations including our lovely vinyl tablecloth that is black with purple and orange jack-o-lanterns...it is actually a great weight loss method as everything looks absolutely disgusting on this tablecloth.

And finally, for those who try to keep track of who is who, we have new shoes. Madeleine's are white and pink and Emily's are brown and pink. Also, generally - but not always, Emily tends to choose warm colors, leaning towards pink, yellow, red, etc. and Madeleine, prefers cool colors as in green, blue, purple, etc. This is true, not only in clothing, but choice of color crayons, paper, etc.


Emily (sorry it is blurry - life is like that sometimes)

Madeleine

Madeleine

Emily

The Big Questions

Playing with branches TS Hanna blew down, still windy out, having lots of fun. Madeleine in the light pink shirt and Emily in the dark pink shirt.

Early in September the National Hurricane Center was forecasting Tropical Storm Hanna making landfall somewhere in the Carolinas and moving up from there. Not at all related, our first weekend after moving to Williamsburg two years ago, Tropical Storm Ernesto ripped through here and I was not impressed. We lost power (most importantly air conditioning), one of our trees still leans (apparently my solution of hoping a storm with wind blowing the opposite direction to straighten the tree hasn't worked) and we watched a ball literally float around the backyard while hoping the crawl space would not flood - it didn't (and we now have flood insurance).

So, when I saw TS Hanna's forecast I made enough ice cubes for the entire neighborhood and went to the store to buy additional ice. I put the ice from the store in the ice chest and moved it out of the garage and into the house to keep it as cold as possible. This time, since we were prepared, we did not lose power and I was thrilled. When I emptied the ice chest I left it in the living room with the lid open as the garage is not air-conditioned and gets very humid in the summer; I wanted the chest to thoroughly dry before I put it away. I propped the chest's lid open with a toy broom, in the event a curious cat decided to hop in when the girls and I were out - I didn't want the lid slamming shut and suffocating the cat. On our way out the door, Madeleine removed the broom and I put it back and told her I didn't want the kitties to die.

On our way to the car, the girls and I had the following conversation:

"What is die?"

"Dying is when you leave Mommy and Daddy forever and ever and go up to God."

"Where is God?"

"God is in Heaven."

"You know someone die?"

"Yes, my grandma and grandpa died and went up to God." I am now buckling carseat straps.

"I don't want my Mama Bapa die! I keep them forever!" with note of terror.

"Okay, you can keep your Mama and Bapa and Oma and Opa forever." backing out of the garage, "Hey, look at that bird in the sky."

And so the whole dying conversation has been revisited, repeatedly, for several weeks now. Thankfully, I did catch myself when I nearly told Emily and Madeleine that dying is like going to sleep for a long time (epiphany was when I realized this could seriously derail bedtime) and instead told them your body just turns off and your heart stops thumping. Somehow, we got around to when Madeleine and Emily will die and being a moron I told them when they are really old and have white hair. Unfortunately, instead of reassuring them this is far in the future, it has led to all kinds of consternation and I am now faced with two three-year-olds who are contemplating their own mortality. About a week ago I totally caved and told them they did not have to die if they did not want to. I know kids are killed in car accidents and kids get sick, but for now, I'm playing the odds.

In other, less dramatic, news...the girls are very much enjoying preschool. They did not enjoy the weekly fire drills, however now that September is over it will only be monthly, but otherwise school is "fun". Once a month there is a "chapel" service and all of the classes sing a song. This time Madeleine and Emily's class sang Jesus Loves Me . Apparently, in past years the three-year-olds have basically stood there and cried; this was not the case this time. Click here for a video of our stage debut. Our girls are framed by the teachers waving arms and Emily is in the white shirt while Madeleine is in the cranberry - front row. It was very dark in the chapel and I thought it would be tacky to show up with spotlights....we'll save those for their beauty pageant debut!

On non-school days we have been going to Colonial Williamsburg, etc. We also had our friend Ella come over and the next week we got to go to her house...very exciting. Emily and Madeleine also discovered that the beaters from the hand mixer are pretty nifty on the rare occasion that Mom bakes. We also killed time one day by planting tulips. There is some frustration that the tulips are not growing yet, but the concept of waiting until spring seems to be sinking in.

Emily

Madeleine

Planting tulips: Madeleine placing a bulb in the dirt and Emily waiting her turn.

In an early request, I was informed that Emily would like Santa to bring her pink sheets with pink butterflies and Madeleine would like a purple train with purple hearts. Madeleine's request prompted Emily to also request a train, but she would like a pink train with pink hearts. These requests were followed with the very earnest question "You think the elves can make that?" Yes. The elves, with some assistance from an independent contractor elf, should be able to handle that.