I imagine this is what the womb was like

Alright, except a little more snug. And I'm sure I have more pictures of them rolling on top of each other and kicking each other in the face somewhere that would be even more fitting, but I love how exactly the same their positions were for watching tv, even at that funny angle.  They do still love to be close to each other.

FYI

I did keep the gym membership.  And it's been great! As soon as I put on my blog that I had done it but wasn't sure about it, I had a friend say "I'll do it with you!" and at that point I realized, hey, this could be really fun. Now Cash is happy that he gets to see his buddy there every time we go, I'm happy that I get to work out, even happier that I get to do it with friends, happy to get a break from the kids...and even the twins are happy at least 60% of the time when I pick them up.  :)  But hey, they cry all day no matter what they're doing, so at least someone else can listen to it for an hour.

It's also nice that since there are so many of us, it's not even like I'm sticking them in there with a bunch of strangers - there are kids from church and our playgroup that they're already familiar with, so it's just like playgroup without the parents.

But wow, I really do better when someone else is motivating me since this is definitely up in intensity from what I do on my own. Within the first week or two I'd been to kickboxing, spin. yoga, toning classes, water aerobics and who knows what else. I have yet to attempt the belly dancing or Latin dance classes since I will look like an extremely white and gawky fool next to a whole room full of real Latinas, but maybe I'll get up the nerve soon. Anyhow, I wish all this gym time meant I was turning into a fine specimen of lean-ness and muscle, but hey, you can't wish for too much.

Fullet

Now that it's become rather hot here again, Cash has been a little confused as to why his "hair is sweating." So I bit the bullet and decided to cut his hair. I didn't go crazy giving him a buzz or anything, don't worry. It's somewhere between a faux-hawk and a mullet - a fullet I guess you could say.

Started with this overgrown mop-

And the new summer-fun do (as Ryan likes to call any short hair cut) -

Here it is last night after we cut it.

Woke up with some seriously sweet bed head:

Attempted some pictures today:

And here's the wig that was leftover from just cutting like half of this kid's hair (not sure if you can really tell it to scale though). I thought as I was cutting it that if we ever have a girl I'll hope she gets hair like Cash - thick and lush and just wavy (cause everyone knows how much I hate my naturally curly hair)!

I sort of like that with this haircut every time I look at him it looks different than before. Who knows how long I'll keep it exactly like this. I may experiment with it while it's short since I'm sure I'll grow it out again sometime.  He even had a good reaction to it which I was shocked about since he has freaked out about getting his hair cut in the past. At least he spent a good few minutes jumping around in front of a mirror and making funny faces. I take that as a positive sign.

Mother's Day

Happy Mother's Day indeed - we finally got a new camera! Although I can't say I've totally given up hope yet for the old camera and the Ipod touch that have yet to be found - my best pair of tweezers (I was so fiercely protective of those favorites! Weird, I know,) just showed up back in the top drawer of the bathroom after being missing for an entire year. I have searched and searched and scoured every drawer and what not for those dang things for a whole year and then one day I just walk in the bathroom and there they are. What the heck...??? Ryan had no idea what I was even talking about. But he
thinks we have mice in the house. Very sophisticated mice I must say. Or possibly ones with blond curly hair....

It was also the father-and-sons camp out this weekend for church. Oh. Or, should I say father-and-son, since someone refused to take a certain two of his male offspring with him. Even after all the begging and guilt-tripping about what a lovely Mother's Day weekend it would be by myself. Hmpfh. Anyhow, the camera wasn't up and running yet, so alas, no pictures of the camping trip. Oh, here's the leftover camping fun the rest of us got when the returned home from the real fun. That's as good as we've got.

So since Cash just moved up to primary this year in church, I was really looking forward to my first Mother's Day being sung to by him with the primary kids up on stage. Then I just got called to be the primary pianist (such a cause of great angst for me...I am so not good at the piano, there's just no one else!) so I was actually feeling a bit bummed that I was going to miss out on it since I would be behind them and wouldn't get to watch the singing. I've always had some soft spot for little kids singing church songs and I always get teary - even when I never had a child in there before, something just so sweet and innocent about it. But too bad, I wouldn't get to see him sing about how much he loves his mother.

They actually had to go up to sing on the stage a few months ago too. We sort of shooed Cash up there with all the other children - I'd tried to warn him as much as I could and prep him for it - but really to no avail. Not only did he not sing a word - he looked ill.  Like he was so scared and nervous or overwhelmed by seeing all those people watching him or what, I'm not sure. But he looked like he was seriously going to throw up at any minute! Aaahhh, Cash. So anyway, back to my Mother's Day serenade - I sort of thought it would be different this time since he knew what to expect, he knew the song so well, he knew I was walking up there with him - and at worst he would just stand there and look like he was going to pass out like last time.

Well, needless to say, I really didn't miss much by being positioned behind. Cause don't worry, I could hear the whole thing. WAILING. Absolute wailing! A loud howling wail that lasted the whole first half of the song until Ryan had the sense to just walk up and pull him out of there!  Good grief. Someone told me later that from the front it was so funny cause it honestly didn't look like he could open his mouth any wider than it was. He just sat there howling straight through the song with that jaw dropped and his mouth open wider than you even knew was possible. Ahhh, what a lovely tribute to me.  :)

Um, and sorry to all you other moms that missed most of your kid's singing because of the sheer volume of mine.

Kid's perspective

We've been trying to decide if we want to stay in Miami for Ryan's fellowship (which will start a little over a year from now) or go somewhere else. (I know, it seems like a no-brainer from my point of view and my apparent love of Miami, unfortunately there are complicating factors... but that's another story.)  Anyhow, I decided to ask Cash one afternoon and I said, "Cash, do you want to stay in this house, or get a different house?" He looked at me and so matter-of-factly said, as he swept his arm toward the ceiling to emphasize his point: "But I have this whole big house." (Yes, referring to our 2 bedroom + a den apartment.) I was like, oh man, I forget how cute things are from a kids point of view! Of course this is the only place we've lived that he even remembers. What else could he need? Made me stop and think of all those things I think we need, but the kids don't know any better anyway. Of course if he knew what a back yard was about he might change his mind. Then again, having elevators and a pool in your house are pretty cool too.... Doormen and lobbies are part of a normal house as far as he's concerned.

Then the other day I was getting him in the car and he kept demanding a fruit snack. After a lot of denials, I finally said, "We have to eat something good for us first, honey." To which he replied, "Well, honey wants a fruit snack." Little sassy-pants.

I really have to laugh at the things he comes up with. The other day we were standing there and out of the blue my three year-old tells me, "Bake is a complex word mom." (Except he can't even say all his letters right so it was bake is a compwex woowd mom." Even funnier to me as he telling me grammatical facts.) I was so surprised. I guess that's what you get when you just put movies on for your kids and never watch them with them.

The other night Ryan and I were sitting in our room and in the background I finally realize I keep hearing Phoenix snickering and tapping at something as he keeps repeating the same phrase. I look over. He keeps pointing his finger at something on a magazine and laughing. I realize what his reading material is - the Victoria's Secret catalog. Oh lovely. He's laughing as he points to each rear end and snickers, "Bum!" 

Dinner is also a somewhat unpleasant and constant battle now that the twins have realized Cash no longer sits on one of the booster seat high chairs. So now they all insist on sitting in regular chairs. Which leads to someone constantly getting out of their chair, goofing off, and going to play with toys instead of eating dinner. This one particular night we were eating spaghetti, only I had used the elbow macaroni instead of spaghetti noodles. We were in the middle of getting mad at Phoenix for the umpteenth time when he picked up one of the somewhat crescent-shaped elbow noodles, puts the tiny thing up to his ear and starts saying, "Ha-woah.  Ha-wooooaaah?" We were trying so hard to keep a straight face for our parenting techniques, but ended up laughing too hard at his creativity with the miniature macaroni to keep up our you're-in-the-middle-of-getting-in-trouble routine.

Thank goodness they're at least cute and naughty Ryan says. After a long day with the kids, tonight at dinner I commented he may be the only person in the office who loves Mondays. Darn right, he agreed. After a weekend with these kids, going back to work looks pretty appealing.