Thanksgiving 2011

We had a fun Thanksgiving weekend this year with the Koupals and Josh's mom here visiting.  It was a busy weekend with lots of playing for the kids, lots of eating for us, and a little shopping mixed in too.

We started out the morning at the Turkey Trot.  This is the third year I have run this race and it gets bigger each year.  There are all sorts of people out there - walkers, people running with their dogs, strollers, families running together.  I really like the tradition.

I had a good race and came in second this year and was beat by a girl who came in under 19 minutes while running with her double stroller.  Ouch!!  That one hurt a little.  Notice Piper's hat in this picture.  We were rushing out the door and told them they needed to wear hats and she insisted on wearing her sun hat, which really looks like she is heading out for a fishing expedition.  But we didn't have time to fight her.  

 Josie and Grey look a lot like brother and sister.  The kids really had a good time playing together.

 Alden helping the girls out with their mash-ups.

Dudes in the kitchen.  Josh fried another turkey.  I was really glad not to have to worry about cooking a turkey.  Too much pressure!

 The girls thinking they are so big and ready to eat at the big table with all of us.  They liked the sweet potato casserole (which was of course full of sugar and butter), but didn't really dig any of the

Blue just watching the world go by.

 Alden and Piper being sassy.

We went out on Friday for some Black Friday shopping.  This was my first time and it was much more low key than I thought it would be.  It was busy, but not crazy.  However, we didn't get there until after 10 and I guess all the crazies head out at midnight on Thanksgiving now.

That Twin Thing

We try hard not to think of Josie and Piper as a matching set.  We don't insist on dressing them the same, I won't force them into the same activities, and I didn't give them matching names for a reason.  They aren't identical and they are pretty different little girls.  Josie is silly and goofy, breaks out in song and dance on a whim.  Piper is intense and focused, a little quieter with a very tender side.  When I pick them up at preschool, or at the Y, they aren't always playing together.  They are often interested in completely different things.  Yet it's hard to deny their "twinness".  

One example: Josh goes in their room each night to check on them before we head to bed, and this is how he finds them most of the time:

Night after night, they end up in the same position in their crib. And, we noticed a few months ago that, despite the fact that their language was picking up, they still won't say each other's names.  I tried prompting them, pointing at Piper and asking Josie "who's that?"  For some reason, her answer was "dada".  So I asked Josie the same thing about Piper and she said "dada".  Huh?  We tried it over and over and they always came back with "dada" as the answer.  I am certain it wasn't their limited language ability because they say much more complicated words just fine.  I suspect that "dada" was the very first sound they made and they immediately associated it with each other - they did, after all, know each other before we even knew them.

So we started talking about them as "sissy", which they picked up on right away.  They talk about sissy - each other and themselves - interchangeably.  I'll ask Josie "where's sissy?" and most of the time she points to Piper, but sometimes she points to herself.  Last night in the bath, I asked them where Piper was and they both pointed at each other.  I can only guess that they have been so "together" for the two short years of their lives that they still think of themselves as interchangeable. 

Airplane Haircuts

We recently took the girls for their first haircuts.  We heard about a place downtown with a little kid airplane chair.  Their mullets were getting unwieldy and I didn't trust myself to cut it myself. 

 Their preschool teacher thanked me for getting their haircuts and said they look different enough now that they can easily tell them apart.  Apparently, they were keeping them straight because Josie looks a little bigger than Piper, so they referred to them as "Petite Piper" and "Juicy Josie" (Josie's in utero name!).  They are still almost exactly the same size, but Josie has a little bit of a fuller face. 

 Anyway, their hair looks much better now and we will definitely be back for airplane haircuts again. 

Halloween 2011