Baby You Can Drive My Car

I imagine most parents have trouble getting their kids to buckle seatbelts and settle into their carseats once they have passed the age where parents are carrying them, but with twins, there's a further complication: what to do about the child who is free to run around while you're busy buckling in the other child. In our case, this inevitably means that each time we head out to the car, one or the other of our girls (usually Caroline) bolts straight into the back cargo area and somehow manages to make herself just out of reach. After listening to the complaints of the first child who is either a) not wanting to be buckled in or b) wanting to be buckled in ONLY if she can do it all by herself (a process that will take no less than 5 quite frustrating minutes for this impatient mama), I begin to strategize. Do I open the back hatch, forcing the second child towards her car seat or attempt to shimmy my way into the super-tight second row of our "mini minivan" and trap said second child in the spot she only THOUGHT was out of reach? Either way, it's bound to be a stand-off, or else another good 5 minutes with yet another stubbornly terrible-two child, unwilling to be buckled in, then insisting to do the buckling herself.
Many times, the second child ends up running to the front seat and pretends to drive. There is no end to the giggles that follow and the delight this provides the first child. In fact, my girls have had so much fun making a game out of staying out of mom's reach that I have to admit that I allow it to go on longer than it should sometimes just to see the smiles and hear the giggles. The joke is often on me, though, when I finally do get everyone buckled in and start the engine, only to find the windshield wipers turned on, the radio turned all the way up, and the bright lights on... Little boys may play with toy cars, but apparently little girls prefer the real thing :-)

In the front passenger seat of our car, attempting to avoid getting buckled in. Note the dresses for St. Patrick's Day. They may only be 1/4 Irish, but their mama is proud :-)

One More From Mardi Gras

I had to include this picture because it is, well, too, too cute! It was taken at our friends Mary Elizabeth and Tyler's house during the Mardi Gras parade that goes directly through our neighborhood. Like the rest of the Mardi Gras weekend, things were very wet, but the revelers who turned out to particpate in the parade were incredibly generous to our gaggle of kiddos.

It's Carnival Time!

We spent Mardi Gras day in Lafayette, where the weather was quite questionable, but the fun was undeniable. I couldn't believe that this was Emma and Caroline's THIRD Mardi Gras! They certainly looked like pros, though, as they waved their arms and shouted for beads. Of course, there was lots of dancing to the music and running with their cousins, too. As the saying goes, "a good time was had by all."



Uncle Jamie and Stephen pulling the girls to the parade route



The crew trying to stay dry: Shawn, Stephen, Emma, Erin, Thomas, Lucas, Robert and Caroline



Dancing during the Krewe of Gabriel parade



Lucas' boss Bruce and Uncle Mike Michot throwing beads to us. Their float stopped right in front of us for a VERY long time!



First Haircuts

We took the girls for their first haircuts on Saturday, and despite my worst fears, they still have curls! I had waited so long fearing that the curls would be gone forever with the first snip, but the stylist actually cut off so little that it's hard to tell that the girls got haircuts at all! Emma and Caroline really enjoyed the experience at "Pigtails and Crewcuts," picking out the fun chairs they would sit in, watching Finding Nemo, and playing with a train set in the waiting area. We'll definitely use this place again.


Caroline started out in the Taxi but chose the airplane to have her hair cut.




These great smiles were much better than the apprehension I had expected.




Emma chose the fire truck for her first cut.





Emma checking out the hair that was saved as part of our "first haircut" package. What are you supposed to do with that anyway???



Party Girls

My nephew William turned eight in mid-February and had a birthday party at a place aptly named "Jump Zone". With several indoor fun jumps, slides, ball pits and other activities, the girls were in rough-and-tumble heaven. Although they were several years younger than the vast majority of the birthday crowd, they plunged right into the fun and relished the attention they received from their older cousins.

Emma enjoying the ball pit.

Caroline and Birthday Boy William.



All Hail Queen Emma! Usually this chair is used for opening presents, but we could hardly keep the girls from climbing in and out of it. Who wouldn't want to play on a blow-up throne?




Pizza! What's not to love?



Visit to Papa

In Mid-January, I was called to pick Caroline up from school because she was complaining of an earache, something we'd had several of in the past weeks. However, finding her in pretty good shape when I arrived, I made the most of having taken the afternoon off by bringing her to take lunch to Lucas at his office. This is how she spent most of the visit...

Barney with Mere and Papa

Allow me to introduce you to Caroline and Emma's first love: Barney. I'm still not sure how the big purple dinosaur made his way into our lives and rooted so firmly into our daily routine, but there is not question that he is the one person the girls shout (and yes, often whine) to see when they get home from school. It's a sad state of affairs, but being the indulgent parents that we are, we arranged for a rendezvous between the girls and their love when Barney came to Baton Rouge a few weeks ago. Mere and Papa were our special guests and scored bonus points by purchasing Barney balloons (which are still floating around our house weeks later) for the girls to play with throughout the performance. Cost for the tickets: $27/person; cost for the balloons: $5 each; my rating of the production: about a 4 out of 10; seeing the girls sing and dance along to their favorite tunes... well, you know...