Responsibility

Even though Layla and Aidan are only two, they have a tremendous amount of responsibility instilled in them already. We except a lot out of them because we know they are capable in doing these things, and not only that but understanding. I remember growing up, we always had chores, i am sure it did not start at 2 years old, but hey, they are apart of the family, they create the same amount of messes, we expect them to clean up these messes. When i was young i remember hearing my moms voice across the house "Unload and load!!", this referring to the dish washer, eventually turned into "uloa n loa!" being shouted numerous times in a row. Whatever, we still did the dishes. I think chores are important for any child to learn responsibility, and even though Layla and Aidan don't have set chores they are expected to help out when we ask, and at this age, they LOVE it. They are learning so much so fast it is hard to keep them occupied with any small task.

Recently as you have read, we brought my childhood dog Smores to come live with us, now that i have a yard to keep him and no landlord to fuss over it. He is 11 years old now, but is very gentle with the kids. He has learned quickly that if he in anyway snaps at them, even if they are pestering him, he gets a small punishment (them too). We do not tolerate that. Layla is thrilled to have Smores around, Aidan is off and on, he is more into the "no barking More!" commands that we hear daily from him. Always having a dog growing up, actually i never remember having just 1 dog, it was always numerous dogs growing up. Anyway, i think a pet is a GREAT way to teach children responsibility and understanding that other living things need to be treated nicely and can live in harmony with us.
The kids have caught on quickly to having a dog around. Often times they automatically call the dogs when any sort of food is dropped on the floor during dinner, they understand that dogs are great vacuums. Another thing that i have caught them doing daily, and despite so many lectures, time outs, and other punishments, the kids STILL feed smore their crackers, their cookies, their cheerios, anything that they have as a snack that day. They call him over with their sweet little voices "Here More...here is a cheerio! Good dog! Want more More?"
One day i called Layla out in the act. I explained to her that people snacks can make dogs sick sometimes and he only can have his specail treats. She nodded her head and said quietly "ok Mommy, i understand, he get a tummy ache!" Feeling pretty confident that i FINALLY had reached her, i went back to whatever it was i was doing. A few minutes later i turn around, to see that Layla has a bag of beggin strips for dogs out and is feeding Smore one after another. AW! Atleast she had the right snack this time right?
The kids have learned how to let Smore out now and do numerous times throughout the day. Only once has one ventured out into the yard with out permission following Smore. I lock the front door so they don't try it there, but i still worry they will try it one day. The kids understand what the Dog poop looks like and love to point it out to me as i am outside cleaning it up. "Mommy over here! Here is poop Mommy!!! Get the POOP!!!! MOMMY SEE IT?!?"
Another important factor of a dog is remembering to let it in! Layla is really good about this, especially right before dinner time when he is SUPPOSED to be outside, i explain to her over and over. "Layla Smore is happy outside right now, we need to eat inside while he is outside." Today she turns to me after this statement with an extremely concerned face. "Mommy, but it is cold outside...he will be cold Mommy!" While saying this, she wraps her arms around his neck as if protecting him from the evil Mommy who wants the dog outside so her children don't feed him during dinner. Sigh.
Cleaning is something i am sure every individual feels is an never ending job. Specially with two toddlers running around, i am constantly following them around picking up, wiping down, and mopping up. The kids have picked up on the mopping and vacuuming the most. Since our kitchen lunolium shows every piece of dirt, i feel as though i am mopping daily just to stay ahead of it. Yes, swifter is nice but not on this floor. Today i found Aidan moving chairs out of the kitchen to "mop" as Layla was pushing her Charlie Stick Horse around as if his head was her mop. Both kids kept repeating to me "Get out of kitchen Mommy, were mopping, its wet! Get out now!" Whatever, they are having fun right? So i sit on the couch to watch and next thing i know Aidan is pushing a little car thing into my feet, saying "Move mommy, i am vacuum!" Sigh, has this backfired to where i can't be ANYWHERE in the house while my kids playclean?
One of the most sweetest things i enjoy with the kids is walking with them. Even though it takes twice as long to make it to the mailbox a block away to get the mail i enjoy them learning to hold hands. Not only my hand but eachothers, somedays i think Aidan would prefer to hold Layla's hand over mine, is he already embarrassed of his mom? They love to get the mail and carry it back proudly as if the mail is for them. Layla loves holding hands with everybody she loves, so when i said alright we need to hold hands, as i reach my hands out and well they grab eachothers hands and walk away from me. I cannot even be upset that they do not want to hold my hand at this moment, because they love and care for each other also that they automatically grab each others hand...very sweet, i had to snap a picture so i can think back to this moment.

It is hard to believe that the development of a child can happen so fast. In a little over two years, Layla and Aidan have learned to control their movement from crawling to walking, to running, to jumping out of control. They have learned to talk, starting with small syllables to speaking in clear sentences. Along their growth they have learned to count, recognize letters, and be able to recognize and learn new words daily. The growth is amazing, and everyday i sit there wondering what i can teach my children, I strongly believe children are underestimated of their mental abilities. They are pure geniuses. I cannot teach Layla and Aidan anything fast enough, they strive to learn, and then move on to build to larger more complex things. English isn't enough when counting to 10 now, they are now working on spanish, a path they chose on their own from educational cartoons aimed to second languages. The crafts they want to take part in, the cooking they want to help with, and the cleaning they try and do is far beyond normal expectations of a 2 year old. The realization of climbing out of cribs has triggered the "ready for toddler beds, no bars to hold us in". Slowly i have started to child proof their room, taking my time in order to enjoy them in their cribs for a few extra weeks before i will have to say farewell to this time in their lives.

In just the past year, my babies have learned to master walking, to now going to the bathroom on the toilet proudly (for a few M&Ms). Emotions are well understood and they learn new ones weekly. They understand sadness, embarrassment, hurt, anger, and frustration. Not only does this set them up to learn more emotions, it also forces me to learn new ways to educate them in channeling these emotions properly, and become caring individuals that have a heart to understand others emotions carefully. Such as the day i am frantically trying to find my car keys, and i turn to see too little tots searching right after me to help. The days i am upset and Layla walks over and pats my back saying softly "It's ok mommy! It's ok." The nights when i am leaving to work and they wrap their arms around my legs saying "Don't go to work! One more hug!" I cannot explain the amount of emotions I am feeling as a mother, watching this growth, watching their personalities bloom into their own. I hope to instill in them love, empathy, independence, and fairness. I feel as if i am doing my job the night Aidan asks for a hug, but not from me, but from Layla. Showing me he truelly cares for his sister too.
I have started a journal this past week, i feel as if i cannot get enough of what they do day to day on camera or in my memory. I only enter one or two entries a day, my most favorite or Kendalls most favorite moment of the day, from sweetness, to funnyess, to just an amazing milestone. I hope to read back on these smaller moments that are usually forgotten after a few weeks, and remember them clearly everytime. I want to be able to remember every moment in their lives, because time does go by so fast and i feel as if i never have enough time with either of them!

Mean Witch

Recently while watching cartoons, the kids are very interactive with the cartoons themselves. Many of these cartoons actually talk to the audience..aka Layla and Aidan and they love to shout out answers and responses. Of these are Blues Clues, Little Einsteins, Mickey Mouse Clubhouse, Dora and Diego, and Ni hao Kai Lan. They love their cartoons, and i am pretty good in only allowing educational ones, such as the ones named above.

Recently a new Dora movie came out on TV where a witch casts a spell on the snow princess melting all the snow and so forth. Of course Dora comes to the rescue. The witch is seen throughout the movie and at one point this is what Layla turned to me and said.

Layla: "Mommy...Thats a mean bitch!"
Me: "What? Oh a mean Witch?"
Layla: "Yes Mommy, she a mean bitch!"

We have been working on her W's since and now she can say them a little better thankfully!

Another story about "bad guys" was Layla today when she woke up to us watching Forbiddin Kingdom (Jackie Chan movie so you can imagine the karate type fighting)
Layla sits there then turns and says loudly. "Mommy, that bad guy is being naughty!!"
Me: " Yep, he is a naughty bad guy isn't he?" I said while laughing
Layla then turns to Kendall: "Daddy? Daddy? Daddy?? See the bad guy being naughty too??"
At his point Aidan is jumping up and down while pointing at the tv shouting "No! No! No Hitting! Stop it!"

Halloween

I have carved my fair share of pumpkins, and even though i don't mind the gooeyness of the whole thing, it is still nice to put the kids to work pulling it all out. They loved it, Layla caught on real quick and when she would run out of goo she would turn and say "mommy, scrape more!"
Aidan on the other hand loved to play with the goo, after Kendall carved his pumpkin, he stood over the bowl and just played with it, squishing it between his fingers, lifting it up to drop it "splat" I guess it is the little things in life that are the most fun. I remember when my dad would carve pumpkins, a few years we only had one pumpkin and he actually managed to carve four different faces on each side of it for each of us kids...amazing, i almost broke mine with just the little spider on ONE side! Kendall carved Aidan's pumpkin, the biggest one he could find at the store, Layla chose a bigger one too and i carved hers. Chris helped with carving Kendalls, and by the time it got to mine i decided to just not carve it and let the kids paint it. Daring right? Two toddlers with paint and a brush to wave around!

The paint turned out to be a great idea...taking advantage of the beautiful week of weather we had during halloween (very rare occurence), i stripped the kids down to their diapers and let them each pick 1 color and ONLY one color each. They loved it, went crazy, Aidan even started to paint a toy truck that he had outside...i stopped that quickly. Most the paint seemed to get on Chris and me ironically.
After the pumpkins were done, i begged the kids for a picture in their costumes by them. They only smiled with their sunglasses on, you can see the beautiful paint job on the 4th pumpkin. The kids wore their costumes all day Saturday from 10 am till 11pm. They had a blast, in the morning we went to Kendall's work, Karen's work, and Nikki's work to visit and get candy for the kids. Later that evening my friend Haley and her little boy (he was a black and white cow ironically) went also. We stopped at really only 5 places of family and friends, then from there we would get their neighboring houses that had their lights on. The kids LOVEd it, so much that Aidan ran into, past the candy passer outer into their house. Then he would turn around and sneak candy out of their bowl...oh what will i do with this kid? He just LOVES his candy i guess!
Now why I choose to take 2 year olds out on halloween to get sugary, high fructose, cavity creater candy for them i don't know. Maybe because they had the time of their little lives, who would of thought Layla could make such a mess out of a little sugar cookie all over her face, and still melt my heart with cuteness.

Even though it took some coaxing for Aidan to like his dragon costume, he wanted to be eeyore too after it came in the mail naturally. The night is all worth it for a 2 tots to love each other so much that they are compelled to hug eachother tightly while dressed up in the other ones costume. The excitement for trick or treating overwelmed them, and even though we were out till close to 11 oclock and at one point in time Aidan held his tummy because he ate so much candy, they still stalk about it. :) Good stuff!

Pre-Halloween Trunk Or Treat

On the 24th, Layla, Aidan, and I made the trip to Amber and Gregs to take part in a trunk or treat safe treat put on by their church. Beforehand we headed to the pumpkin patch in Boulder Colorado. It was a nice time and Amber learned how to chase kids in opposite directions haha. I am so use to it that when someone is helping me or with me, they are amazed how fastly the two (three in this case with Adrianna) can take off in different directions. It has become such a part of my life that i guess i am so adapted to it, i don't notice it being such a chaotic moment.

I have learned a few tricks with having toddlers trying to be independent from not just me, but eachother. They are experiencing the feelings they can do what they want and go when they want without any warning. I guess i understand this is a time in their life where they need to explore, but i need to make fast tricks in order to get them on track to stay nearby. First off, bright shirts, unique shirts, and/or matching shirts is a big helper, it gives me a quick thing to look for among the many other children running mad through the pumpkin patch, causing their parents to pull out their hair wondering why something suposed to be "fun" can be so much work with their kids running wild along side farm animals. Heck, they are little farm animals haha. The favorite shirts I have for the two i bought from a local farmers market, two tie dyed shirts, one blue one pink. They were the only kids in tie dye and it was a quick way for me to glance to find them in the crowds.
It amazes me that the only way i can get a picture of a three year old and 2 two year olds together facing me, is only when they run into a forced dead end inside a corn maze and they are forced to turn toward me in order to find another more free running route.

With them running so incredibly fast, i found that encouragement to follow eachother, with Adrianna being the oldest and fastest, i encouraged to follow her...this increased the fun for her because, heck who doesn't want to be the leader? This was great for Layla and Aidan because they LOVE to copy older kids. I have a 1..2..3 system with the kids, and this i have worked hard to instill in them to work about 90% of the time. I am sure parents and individuals around me are driven nuts by me constantly counting to three, hey it works to get my kids back so deal!

How it works is i have taught them that when i count to three, if they are not headed back toward me, stopping what they are doing that is harmful or not appropriate on three then i am going to go over there and well, lets just say they know that if mom catches them on three it is not a fun kiss they will receive, it will be a lecture, a pat on the bum, time out, or a tight hand squeeze to get their attention back to obeying me. It all depends on the crime they made haha.

Often times i wonder where my kids come from, or their cousins...the silly crazy little things they say or do leaving me baffled...that is until i get together with my family, and realize they probably think the same when they watch my sisters, mom and i play games, or hear inside jokes that make absolutely NO sense to any sane human being but create a roar of laughter and continuous taunting from one another...Chapstick anyone?
Looking at this picture i wonder, man oh man, are Aidan and Adrianna doomed for the silliness our family has instilled in our genes? I hope so, life is better when families can joke and easily enjoy each others silly antics, wrong words, and funny behaviors.

Another important thing in keeping tabs on little tots running in directions is the simple hand holding. Layla rocks at this and almost begs for us to hold HER hand on occasions. Aidan i need to work on, he is only good when crossing streets, any other time its like "back off mom, your embarrassing me!" Is it really possible to embarrass a two year old?
I love this picture, even though Amber is laughing like a crazy lady, it shows the adorableness of a daughter holding her mommies hand, along with her younger cousin in order to remain close to the adults. Aidan of course could be anywhere at this point...ok he is near me honest!

What is better than a farmer throwing all his pumpkins in a field to fool city folk in to believing they are really "picking" their own pumpkin, or better yet fooling their kids in to thinking that pumpkin patches are the GREATEST thing in the world? Yea, nothing is!
The kids love pumpkins this year, now that they can appreciate them more. Even though we didn't purchase one this day, all three had a blast just picking them up, throwing them down, and rolling around pumpkins together. You know how hard it is to get three kids under 3 to sit down next to each other holding a pumpkin? Yea, next to impossible, moments like these, i feel Amber and I should be categorized as superheroes...women fighting to get their kids to sit still for one quick flash of a camera in order to get a picture of their kids. So what if there isn't smiles...they are sitting by each other and looking in the same direction with no one blinking! I really admire photographers of kids, they work miracles daily.

After the pumpkin patch and dinner, we headed to the trunk or treat to gain practice for halloween the following weekend. Aidan was a "dragonsaurus" and Layla was Eeyore (suprised?). I allowed the kids to pick a costume this year from three choices each, wouldn't want to overwelm them, and this is what they chose. Even though Aidan later felt he should be Eeyore too...too bad kid you picked the dragon your wearing the dragon!!
Now Halloween is supposed to be a nice time to teach your kids manners, one piece of candy now kids, say trick or treat, and thankyou afterwards. I want to instill nice manners now so when they trick or treat without me (ok i dread that day!) they will always say thankyou and not be greedy by taking too much candy from kind generous candy passer outers. As you can see here, Layla and Aidan have already gotten their candy handed to them by the very nice women, Adrianna is receiving hers and WAIT a minute? Aidan what the heck are you doing??? Get your hand out of the bucket....She already gave you candy! oh goodness my son is a candy addict little boy, i would like to say this is the only time he snuck extra candy...but no...he did it at almost every vehicle passing out candy. No matter HOW many times i told him it wasn't very nice.

After the trunk or treat the kids watched the Bee movie inside, they loved it, being one of their favorite movies watched on a weekly basis. They sat still for the most part, but only if i was stuffying pop corn or candy down their throats...oh dentists are going to love my kids!