The benefit of having siblings

Will: "It's good that I have a brother, because he can help me clean up. [Good thing, since he helps make the mess! ;)] ... Because a lot of kids don't have any brothers or sisters, and I bet they miss the clean-up timer." 

Accents

This morning, the boys and I were snuggling with pretty much every stuffed animal in the house.
Alex held up Edward, the bear I bought at Harrod's on a trip there to visit my good friend Melissa, who is from London. Melissa has visited us a couple of times since the boys were born, though the last time was 2.5 years ago so I wasn't sure if they still remembered her.
Me: "Did you know I bought Edward in England?"
Alex: "You did?! Why did you go to England?"
Me: "To visit Melissa. She's from England.
Alex: "Ohh. I *thought* she wasn't from here because she doesn't talk South Carolinan."
Me: (curious if he thinks of "South Carolinan" as "American" accent since he's fuzzy on city/state/country etc.) "What about me? Do you think I talk 'South Carolinan'?"
Alex: "No. You should talk Indian because you were born in India!"
Me: "Um ... that's Indiana."

The life of a MoM

One advantage of being a mother of twins: You can be the parent of the best-behaved kid in the class *and* the worst-behaved kid in the class at the same time!

(This post brought to you by staying to observe a free trial sports class my boys just attended.)

Easy way to keep track of your little one's vocabulary development

This is a bit random, but a question from a friend today about baby's first words reminded me of this and I wanted to share the idea in case anyone else finds it handy.

As my boys started learning how to talk, we would jot down their new words on a dry erase board on their door, and then I took a picture of it every so often to document. It was an easy way to keep track of their vocabulary development, both for sentimental value and to make it easier to answer those milestone "How many words does your child have?" questions at the 18m and 2 year visits. :) Here's a sample picture of the dry erase board taken when they were about 19 months:

Catching Up

I apologize for the long blog silence! With the holidays, a 2100-mile road trip, surgery recovery for my husband, and a big 5th birthday to celebrate for two little boys ... things have been pretty hectic!

A pic I loved from our road trip, of Alex (taken by our sister-in-law):

An anecdote from today:
Tom: "Alex, control yourself."
Alex (with great consternation): "I can't control myself. I don't have a remote control!"

And some birthday pics:

Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Cookies

This is our favorite cookie recipe. I got it from my sister and have made it many times since. Enjoy!

Pumpkin Chip Cookies

INGREDIENTS:

1 1/2 c butter (3 sticks) softened

2 c packed brown sugar

1 c regular sugar

1 15 oz can pumpkin

1 egg

1 tsp vanilla

4 c flour (2 ww, 2 all-purpose)

2 c. oats quick cooking

2 tsp baking soda

2 tsp cinnamon

1 tsp salt

2 c chocolate chips

INSTRUCTIONS:

Cream butter and sugars.

beat in pumpkin, egg, and vanilla

combine all dry ingredients

add to creamed mixture

stir in chocolate chips

Drop by tbsp 2 inches apart on ungreased baking sheet

Bake at 350 degrees 10-12 minutes.

Cool on wire racks; let them solidify before you take them off cookie racks.

Marriage

Will: (when he's supposed to be cleaning up) "I can't clean up. I feel really bad ... I'm not gonna feel better until I marry someone."

Ah, such a common myth. Who knew it started at 4?