Best Mom Ever (for about 10 minutes)

So, it’s Monday morning which means I have more ambition now than I will have all week long. This morning I decided to use my ambition to actually play with my kids. Weird, I know.

We started with “bubble gum, bubble gum, in a dish” and even the twins had a great time. From there we moved onto “duck duck goose.” Smacking people on the head is everyone’s favorite game. After that we moved to “red light, green light.” That one is Kevin’s favorite. So all of this fun and frivolity lasted about ten minutes. I was exhausted and the kids were just gearing up for more running and yelling.

So now I’m in on the computer, typing up this blog and they’re parked in front of the TV, watching “The Incredibles.” I was an awesome mom for about ten minutes. Now I’m just tired, and I still have to figure out something that starts with the letter X to send with Kevin for show and tell in preschool today. Is it naptime yet?

What Kevin was doing in the bathroom

I thought he was just using the bathroom. Apparently he was playing with the brand new box of tissues. No need to fear though. The whole box is gone now. It was pulled into the bathtub while the three boys were having a bath.

Family Picture Day

The boys are at a very exciting age for pictures. None of them are physically capable of “holding a pose.” And why would I want them to? They don’t strike poses for me at home so having pictures of them striking a pose would be totally unnatural. At least that’s what I told myself as we were chasing the boys all over the place as the photographer tried to snap as many pictures as possible. The great part of this technique was capturing their personalities. I was very pleased with how the pictures turned out. Even Kevin started giving us some smiles, after we bribed him. Here is a small sampling:

There were a lot more cute ones too, including some awesome collages that the photographer made. If you still haven’t gotten enough of looking at our pics (because I’m so vain and want people to look at us all the time! haha) feel free to scan through our photo album:

View Full Album

Twin stuff

My brother-in-law sent us this video clip when I was pregnant with the twins, and it became the theme of the whole pregnancy. It turns out that this clip is pretty accurate to what having twins is like! Although don't ask me which one is Troy and which is Jonathan, they take turns being the "dominant" twin.
Speaking of twins, this is my favorite list of questions people ask about twins. I did NOT create this list, but I have been asked many of the questions on it.

15. "I could never do it."

Oh really. What would you do? Would you put them on the curb with signs around their necks that say, "Free to a good home. My mom can't do it."?
14. "Do they have different personalities?"

No. They are the same human being divided into several parts.
13. Said by a stranger, "They're identical, right?" Mom answers, "No. They're fraternal." Stranger response, "They are NOT!"

OK. You're right. I have no idea what I'm talking about. These are not my children. I thought it would be fun to borrow them from a mom down at Baby Gap. It's been more than an hour. I guess I should return them.
12. "Are they 'paternal' twins?"

Yes. They have a father. There was only one virgin birth.
11. "Just wait till they're older. It only gets harder."

Thank you. I woke up this morning hoping I'd receive a word of discouragement while pushing a cart of preschoolers down the cereal aisle.
10. "When one cries, does he wake the other?"

No. Multiples cannot hear each other's cries because they all communicate with their special telepathic language only.
9. From a perfect stranger: "Were they in the same sac?"

Hello. Nice to meet you, too. Will you be sharing your gynecological history with me as well?
8. "Are they developmentally behind?"

Well, let's see. They're 3 years old and thus far, all their graduate school applications have been denied. We'll get back with you on that.
7. "How do you do it?"

Haven't you seen the Nike commercials?
6. "Are they natural?"

Nope, their arms and legs are made of silicone.
5. "You must be SO busy."

Are you volunteering to clean my house?
4. "Did you take drugs?"

Well, there was this one time in college....
3. "What do you do when they all cry at the same time?"

Sometimes I cry. Sometimes I go to Starbucks.
2. Said to a mom of boy/girl twins: "Are they identical?"

Uh. Not exactly.
And No. 1. Drum roll please. . . .1. After a stranger had been informed that the toddler boys were twins, she asked a simple question:
"Are they brothers?"

Enough said.

The few comments I would add, "How do you tell them apart?" and I'm thinking, "I look at them. One is a blond and one's a redhead. You really can't tell them apart?" The other comment I get a lot is, "Do twins run in your family?" I totally understand asking that, but I get it so frequently that I should print up information packets about the part that genetics plays in twins and keep them in my purse. By the way, the answer is no, twins don't really run in my family. And FYI, contrary to popular belief, twins don't "skip a generation" and they are also not inherited on the father's side. Fraternal twins are possibly genetic because a woman's ability to release two eggs at once can run in families. The father plays no part in how many eggs are released. Identical twins are not genetic. I did a lot of research when we first found out we were having twins, so now I'm sharing my findings. Feeling educated yet?

Easter egg hunters

Steve's annual "Ellis family Easter party" was yesterday, despite the rain. The highlight of the party for the kids is the Easter Egg Hunt! This was Troy and Jonathan's first year actually hunting for eggs, and this is the first year that Kevin got REALLY into it. By that I mean, we had to physically stop him from getting eggs because the other kids needed to get some too.
Steve was trying to film each of the boys finding some eggs, but after he filmed Troy finding two eggs, Kevin's basket was full. Once the twins got the hang of it they really enjoyed finding the eggs and putting them into their baskets. Jonathan even got two pine cones in his basket.
When all the eggs had been found, we took a picture of the boys with their eggs and tried to take the baskets to put in the car. Well, the twins were having none of that! The only thing that persuaded them to give us their baskets was when we opened one of their plastic eggs and let them have some candy. They both immediately stuffed it all in their mouths and we took a picture of Troy with his mouth stuffed full of candy.
Our kids were some of the youngest hunters at the party so there were several adults besides us following them around, taking pictures, and helping them find eggs. Troy was trying to get one out of a bush once and started saying, "Stuck! Stuck!" It was really cute.
This Easter party is the one time a year when the Ellis extended family gets together. Steve's dad, and his two aunts and all of their kids, grand kids, and great-grand kids all gather for this once a year get together. It was a tradition started by his grandmother and they've kept it going all these years. They have the traditional favorites: ham, rolls, baked beans, salads, and hot cross buns, plus a few other side dishes and desserts. Not everyone makes it every year but it's a really fun time. Even in the rain.

My new bedside table

So, as I was looking around my already crowded bedroom, I thought, "You know what this room needs? More furniture!" Something I can put right at the side of my bed. Something I can trip over in the dark, and stub my toe on. Something that makes it very hard to get out of bed without stumbling over, and maybe it could also make it nearly impossible for me to get to my closet.

What to do, what to do...? Wait! I know! I'll put my piano bench in my bedroom.

In addition to all of the fine benefits listed above, this approach also keeps the twins from climbing up onto the piano 50 times a day. But that's just an extra added perk.

What I learned from teaching middle school

I'm sure most people know that I taught middle school for three years before Kevin was born. Even though it was called a middle school, it was actually a junior high because it had grades 7-9, instead of the traditional 6-8 that a true middle school has.
Anywho... I remember one inservice we had where a professor came to tell us about the brain studies they have done on middle school age kids. The first surprising thing was that they actually do have brains! I know, shocker. One of the other things that helped shed some light was the discovery that the number of new connections and explorations being made in the middle schooler's brain is equivalent to that of a two year old. Those two times in life are when a person is the most inquisitive, the most daring, and the most anxious to try new things. It also leads to a lot of fits and tantrums. The other interesting discovery about middle schoolers' brains, was that the area of the brain used for judgment was equivalent to that of a schizophrenic. Which is why middle schoolers have such a hard time making good decisions. So the synopsis: middle schoolers are like schizophrenic two-year-olds.
After dealing with them raising my own toddlers should be easy! Well, not quite but here are some of the things I've learned that have helped me in my own family.

The Similarities:

• Seating charts are fantastic. You just have to find that magical combination where everyone is sitting by someone that will cause the least amount of disruptions. Very useful in the car, the dinner table, etc.
• Small children and middle school students have no concept of time. I use the same language to describe when things are happening to both groups. Such as, how many times we will all go to sleep and wake up before the concert day, the weekend, whatever. I also drew diagrams for the middle schoolers.
• They are less likely to get in trouble when they're busy.
• They are way easier to deal with one on one than in a big group.
• Sometimes the ones who cause the most trouble are also the ones who have a special place in your heart.
• Even after you've learned their names (or in the case of my own kids, named them myself) you still mix them up a lot.
• Policy, procedure, and routine are very important but sometimes hard to accomplish.
• Both situations have a case where you can appeal to a higher authority for discipline: "Don't make me send you to the office = Don't make me call your father."
• They can't tell when you're about to go ballistic. I actually learned this through another inservice. They really can't tell by your increasingly red face and the throbbing vein in your forehead that you're about to lose it. You have to actually say, "I am getting very angry and frustrated right now" for them to understand.
• When you're dealing with one, you have to think about what the rest are supposed to be doing, and what they are actually doing.

The Differences

• At home I have a smaller class size. Thank heaven.
• I also can't send them home at the end of the day. No saved by the bell here. Along the same lines, I don't switch up kids every 45 minutes.
• I am thrilled and excited when my own kids go to sleep. It is the main point to almost every day; making it until bedtime. It's also refreshing and a joy to see how sweet and innocent they look when they're sleeping. Teaching middle school, not so much. Teachers tend to want their students awake.
• Although I really grew to love a lot of my middle school kids, it's nothing like the love I feel for my own children.

I'm sure I could probably come up with more but I think the point I'm trying to make is this: I've learned about raising children in lots of different places and lots of different ways. The biggest lessons for me have come just by trial and error, but the biggest lesson I learned by teaching middle school is about the type of parent I want to be. I want to be the parent who knows the teachers and the teachers know me. I want to be there, volunteering, helping out, checking up on my children, because I've seen what a difference it makes when a teacher knows parents' faces, as well as their names. When I was teaching I was always astonished at how many parents had no idea what a powerful influence they could be. And that's my little soapbox so I will now step down.