the kiddoes

Brie . . . is getting more articulate every day. She's so fun to talk to, and she loves making up long, long songs with lyrics that range from the absured to the sublime.

Both of the kids enjoy taking all of the cushions off of our loveseat and treating it as a trampoline. Maybe this should bother me, but it's a very old loveseat, that we got second or third-hand, and they love it so much, and they don't weigh THAT much . . . :)

Brie likes to read books to Sam, and I love listening to her read books to Sam. Sam thinks it's a pretty cool deal too. She has so many of her books memorized that it usually sounds like she IS actually reading!

They both climb all over the playground when we go now, and Sam even goes down the big slides by himself.

Brie's started talking about wanting to get baptized, so we're going to talk to our priests about that. And Samuel can recognize Jesus in pictures and on crucifixes ("Dee-sus! Coss!" = "Jesus! Cross!") and regularly (with help from Adam) prays at bedtime.

Samuel is my weird-o toddler who likes to eat raw onions and dip his food in salsa (Dad B, I see your influence there).

Brie was talking to the babies in my tummy this morning, and then she and Samuel decided that what the twins really wanted was to hear some belly-busters (flurbers, for the other side of the clan) on mommy's tummy.

I'm not feeling the twins much during the day, just 'cause they're still tiny, and their placenta implanted anteriorly, which muffles their movement consideratbly, but at the beginnings and ends of the day I can lie down and feel one of them kicking up high and the other down low. I like lying there and picturing them curled up next to each other, practicing moving the new little body parts that they are just learning to control.

I'm glad that we're having, in essence, two sets of two. I expect that all of my children will like and love each other, but I'm glad, as we're having twins, that I don't have one older child who might feel left out during the intensive newborn period. Samuel and Brigid play together so well, and I'm sure that will be helpful to them as we're adjusting to two new babies in the house. They spend so much time talking to each other and playing together, and that won't change even when Adam and I are overwhelmed trying to feed and diaper and comfort two babies. I expect that all four (four!) will play together when they're all old enough to play, but in the meantime, I'm glad that Brie and Sam won't be getting less time with their favorite playmates (each other) the way that an only child would (their parents being, up till then, their favorite playmates). At first I thought, "Oh, two older children I'll be neglecting if I'm hospitalized!", but now I see the fact that I had two first as a blessing - to them. Even if they have to be taken care of by friends and family for awhile (God bless friends and family!) they'll still get to have part of home with them, because they'll have each other.

And . . . they'll each have a baby to hold. :D (You know, for five seconds till they get bored and want to go back to their Legos.)

And Jane and Kate, when they want to, can kick hard, I'm finding. They seem rather demure little girls so far, lots (lots! more than just two hands and two feet could cause!) of little, bubbley movements. But every once in awhile, they'll get room for a nice, solid kick, and it's such a joy to feel.

-Jess