$120.60

Not that I'm happy about spending $120.60 on dry cleaning that didn't need to be done before Saturday's incident, but it sure does beat replacing two suit coats and 14 silk ties. James and Kate (and Ben and I) are relieved. When I came home with the successfully cleaned items, James said, "Mommy, Daddy not angry anymore." Nope James, you're saved. Nice work Henries Dry Cleaners!

By the way, throwing away Kate's beloved Care Bear was enough of a consequence for both of them. Kate wants her bear and James feel bad she doesn't have it anymore. (Prediction: Ben will buy her a new one within a couple of weeks. He's such a softy!)

VIPs at the fire station

Ben participated in a firefighter training for city employees last weekend. He came home with a plastic fire hat and "special fire medallion" for Kate and James which have kept James entertained and talking about firefighters every day since. Ben arranged for Ryan, a firefighter he met last week, to show James and Kate around a SLC fire station on Saturday morning. The highlight was a ride in the fire truck. Ryan decided that traffic was light enough it wouldn't bother anyone if we turned on the sirens and drove fast. James and Kate loved it! I haven't seen smiles that big in a while. Thanks Ryan!

Big Trouble

Ben put Kate and James down for their nap this afternoon. We decided to take a nap too. We fell asleep. James and Kate did not. We woke up and wondered why we heard water running upstairs. Ben got up to investigate. He found Kate "washing" her Care Bear, James supervising. What is all over that bear? Kate proudly says, "soap." It's definitely not soap. Too greasy; too thick. Ben started to search the house to figure out what "soap" they had found. In the closet that adjoins our bedroom with Kate and James' bedroom, Ben discovered an empty jar of Leather Lube. Ben bought the jar of lube about a week ago along with a pair of new shoes. Until today, the jar was basically full. Now, all but empty. Two suit coats, dozens of silk ties, and all of our shoes (fine for the shoes, I guess) had been through the "wash" to one degree or another. Who knows IF the suit coats or ties will come clean and HOW MUCH it's going to cost to find out. Final question: How do we discipline two-year-olds?

What's a taxi? (Homesick for NYC)

On Monday afternoon I pulled our minivan (yup, a minivan) up to a red light at an intersection behind a taxi. James squealed from the back, "Look Mom, a police car!" I was so bummed. You'd never guess now that this child was born in New York City. I told James that it was a taxi cab and tried to explain how the driver of a taxi gave people rides from place to place and the people paid the driver for the ride. On Tuesday morning we headed to the library to find a book about a taxi. We found a great one. As James studied the pictures on the pages, he came to a picture of a taxi driving up the Empire State Building (also on the book's cover). "Mom, I want to go in that big building!" "Oh, James, you've been in that big building," I tried to explain. Bummed turned to depressed. Why did we move from that wonderful place? When will my kids get to go back and learn to love it the way I do?

My Special Dates

Since I'm in between permanent jobs right now and my freelance projects have also lightened up, I decided to spend some all too uncommon one-on-one with James and Kate. We called it our "Special Date." In the morning I took Kate to Build-a-Bear. She, unsurprisingly chose the brightest, pinkest bear. Her favorite part was giving her bear a bath (see picture below). In the afternoon I took James. He chose a white dog. Although there are many, many clothes and accessories (extra $, of course) one can choose to adorn one's bear, both of my kids wanted there's "naked." I tried to talk them into something additional, but they refused. I guess my Special Dates are also cheap dates.

It was a really fun day for me and a great chance for James and Kate to get undivided attention. I imagine that being a twin is a fun thing -- always having a friend around and all, but I think they enjoyed going on a Special Date with Mom as much as Mom enjoyed it.

in utero update

Sometimes these ultrasound pictures remind me of those illusion-type images that you can only see if you make yourself go cross-eyed or stare at it for 20 minutes. So, for those who need some aid, this is a profile picture, face looking to the floor of our baby as of a week and a half ago. You can see the face profile along the bottom on the right and the length of the spine running across the top. Pretty amazing! Everything measured and looked as expected for this stage the pregnancy -- which made us very, very happy. It's interesting to compare this pregnancy to the last one. I've been to the doctor three times and had two ultrasounds so far on this second pregnancy. By this time with James and Kate I had seen a doctor at least 15 times and had that many ultrasounds too. I admit that I liked seeing the babies and getting their growth progress checked out frequently during the first pregnancy. And, I admit that I'm enjoying the infrequency of doctor/hospital visits this go-around.

Easter pictures

These pictures were taken about a month ago, but the occasion was for Easter so I waited until today for you all to see James and Kate looking adorable in their new Easter clothes. These are first professional photos since they were nine-months-old. It's taken this long for me to build up the energy to go the effort of getting pictures taken with twins (and then there is also the part about finding a time when neither child -- usually James -- has no scratches or bruises on the forehead from playing just a bit too fast/hard). I think they turned out great. Maybe I won't wait so long for the next photo session . . .