Siblings

Ty loves his little sisters.  And although it probably has been mutual forever, Avery and Lila are now starting to show how much they love Ty.  They laugh at/with him more than anybody else.  They probably also cry because of him more (usually because he's laying on top of them or squishing them some other way), but that's not important.  I asked Ty what his favorite thing to do with his sisters is and he said, "Tickle their feeties!"  They usually laugh when he does it, not because it tickles (especially when he's ticking their shoes...) but because they love when he's interacting with them. When Ty comes near them and says some nonsense stuff in a sing-song-y voice, they smile and squeak and wiggle with excitement!  Lolly's legs and arms flail and Avery makes a big, audible gasp.  I love watching it and I hope they'll always consider each other best friends.

At the Tulip Festival at Thanksgiving Point in Utah Valley in April.  Ty was less than super cooperative at taking "sweet brother" pictures with Avery and Lila.  Love Lolla's face!

 

Avey got Ty back, though, by pulling his ear.  Sometimes when he's blowing raspberries on their tummies or just generally getting up in their faces, the girls will grab on to his face (ears, usually) or hair and he starts to whine/cry some.  Glad they can sorta defend themselves!

 During Uncle Kai's graduation, Lila and Ty were staying entertained by Ty eating her fingers.

 Now to return the favor, Ty's fingers are in his sister's mouth.  (Yuck. Who knows what kind of sticky nast are on those...)

 Look at my twinsies sharing a towel!  Nakie, clean babies are some of my favorites.

 We looked at model homes a few weeks ago just for fun (Russell is taking the picture).  It's fun to pretend-plan where our kids would sleep/who will share which room/imagining them growing up in our family home.

Along with his degree, Russell gained 3 offsprings in graduate school.

 This is an oldie, but goodie of tummy time together.

 Ty and Lollipop

Ty and Avey girl were watching some cartoon together.  It's rare that the two of them are sitting still at the same time!  Avery likes to crawl (well, downward dog-tippy toes-face plant-belly flop) over to Ty, especially when he has food.  Can't say Ty loves it a bunch, but he does like to sit next to Avey in the car.  He threw a mini fit today because I started to put Lila's seat first, next to his. 

The Beginning of Fun in the Sun

We went to a pretty cool splash park one afternoon with our friends Connor and Alicia.  It was nice and warm outside, but the splashin' was cool.  I'm sure we'll have many more afternoons playing in water and shade.  Here comes the triple-digit temperatures!

This is Cheeto-hands Ty and his "best friend" Connor who, sadly, is moving later this month. Connor is about a week older than Ty and they always play so well together.

 Too cold for Lila and Avery!  Twin crying.  I promise I didn't leave them in there for a long time; just long enough to take a picture.

 Ty had a fun time running through this little river, but refused to wear his swim shirt.  Good thing he doesn't burn very easily.  (Plus I put sunblock on him.)

 Cuties in the shade.

Twins and Costco

Today I took the children to Costco for a bit of grocery shopping.  When we go to the store, especially Costco, I get stopped lots: the world loves my baby girls.  Twins are kind of an anomaly, I suppose, but a shopping trip seriously takes us so long because we have mini conversation with  nearly every sample-giver, grandmother (and the Henderson Costco is crawling with older folks), and random stranger we drive our cart near.  I have proof; you can ask my mom.  The public must have been too scared of my enormous tummy, because I didn't get nearly as many comments with the babies out than in.

I decided to record and categorize some of the comments from today.  Today only.  And our shopping trip was <$100 (which means not big).  And there's still enough to make a whole post.

The Basics
 It's surprising how many times I hear:
-"Are they twins?'  Yep.  They really don't look more than 9 months apart, do they?  Especially considering how old they are...9 months.  In all fairness, they might not both be mine.  But they are.
-"Are they identical?"  No, look at them.
-"
Cliches
 -"Why didn't you dress them like twins?" I did.  I dressed them like babies who were born from the same womb in age-appropriate clothing.  I think you're looking for "Why didn't you dress them in matching clothes?"  To that I say, because they wear mostly hand-me-downs from non-twins.
-"What did you name them? [Before I could answer.] I had friends growing up names Sheryl and Cheryl."  Yeah, we didn't do that.  Their middle names rhyme (Jayne and Lorraine), but that was coincidental.  Oh, and because we care about our children.
Gender-in-Question
 -"Do you have a boy and a girl?" Well, yes, and another girl.
-"Oh, sweet: boy and girl twins!" -sample server
  "No, they're both girls.  Look--she has a bow in her hair."-another sample server (with whom I continued to have a decent-sized conversation about birthing twins because she has twins, too.)
  "Oh...I must not have seen that."  You must not have.  I almost always have my girls wear headbands to help avoid this confusion.  I'm helping you out, people.  Maybe I should put a blue flower in Ty's hair and expect people to know he's a boy.  
This is what Avery (the assumed boy) was wearing today.  It's not pink and ruffly, but it ain't no boy clothes...and she's cute.

The Baby Genius
-[Referring to Lila]  "This one's the flirt, huh?  I can tell."  Okay... Your 3 second assessment is able to correctly identify and label my children.  Great job.  For the record, I try to avoid saying, "This one is The _____" because that implies the other one isn't _____.  I think perhaps it comes from A talk by Jeffrey R. Holland.
-[Pointing to Lila] "She's more active, isn't she?" Actually, generally no, you just saw her kicking her legs when Avery wasn't.
-[Pointing to Avery] "She's older, right?  I can tell."  Really?  You have very sensitive age-guessing abilities.  She must be showing her 1-minute-headstart maturity.
The Good Stuff 
-"You have a lovely family."  Thank you.  Russell and I were obviously meant to be together.
-"Wow--your body bounced right back after twins!"  Thanks, even though you don't know what it looked like before the twins...
-[This one's common.] "They're precious.  Beautiful." I completely agree.

Don't get me wrong--I love taking my twinsies out.  (And Ty, too, who was so cute and waving at all of the people who stopped to look at the twins.  He waved and said "hi!" like "And I'm here, too!")  And honestly, I like when people admire/comment on my babies.  Avery and Lila always bring smiles to passersby, which is great.  I'm glad I can share them with others because they're too good to keep to myself.  :)  Go ahead world, comment, stare, walk by happier.