Two heads are better than one

My dear neighbor down the street has one child, a 3 year-old boy. She's never really had to childproof anything. Her home is filled with things that would not survive a day with Matt and Will- lots of ceramic figurines, glass, items on the coffee table, cabinets that aren't locked, a flat screen TV within arms reach of anyone over 18 inches tall. Sometimes when I'm over there with Matt and Will, I look around in astonishment at her orderly living space.
She has a water dispenser that her son doesn't touch! We had to move ours to the laundry room as soon as Matt and Will discovered they could flood our home with 3 gallons of spring water just by depressing a lever. And if one's finger got tired, the other could take over. How fabulous is that? That darn water cooler has been in the laundry room for well over a year now, but do you think they can resist messing with it EVERY time they walk by it on their way to the garage?
A few weeks ago they discovered the one door that was not childproofed in our bathroom- the door to the linen closet. While I frantically tried to put on make up and dry my hair each morning, Matt and Will would pull everything within reach out of the closet and dump it into the bathtub. As if that weren't enough of a mess, they would then turn on the water and shriek with delight. One morning they found a half-empty glass of water on Chris's nightstand. They emptied a nearby tote (thank goodness) and poured in the water. Then those smart boys refilled the cup two times at the bathtub- dumping one cup into a woven trash can (please note these don't hold water) and their final cup directly onto the floor. It took two trips to the bathtub for me to realize what was happening.
With the way our living room is arranged, I knew we'd have issues with the sink area. They've only recently begun crawling onto the couch, but it didn't take long for them to figure out they could find lots of interesting stuff in or near the kitchen sink. I have a feeling this is only the beginning.

2 months with 2-year-olds

Someday I'll regret not being better about blogging. After all, this is as close to a baby book as I'll ever get. Two has been a tough age so far, and we're only 58 days into it, but who's counting. To experience this age with two kiddos, you're assured of having at least one child doing one or more of the following at any given moment: crying, hitting, biting, whining, falling, spending time in time-out. The list could go on and on.

I guess I've always been a "glass is half empty" kind of gal, even though I like to think that I'm a realist. This has just been a tough stage. But the good thing, is that for every moment that makes me want to break dishes (apparently I'm a toddler at heart), there are just as many moments that make me laugh with joy. Here are some highlights from the past couple of months:

• Word explosion- they will try to repeat just about anything you ask them to and are beginning to string words together. Some favorites include "daddy bike" and "daddy truck" along with "Emma, NO!"
  
• Will has regressed to the koala bear phase. When I pick him up, he'll wrap his legs around my waist and hug my neck as tight as can be. He'll also give kisses out of the blue. I'll be holding him and then all of a sudden he'll grab my face and plant one on me.
  
• Matt needs my complete attention at times. If we're reading a story and I look away from the book, he'll stop and whine "no, no" and push my face back to the book. I guess he's not going to be skilled at multitasking.
  
• The other day Matt was playing and I starting belting out the lyrics to a Captain and Tennille song. He stopped what he was doing, looked at me and said, "no, no, no, no." When I kept singing, he tried to squeeze my cheeks together to make it stop. I now sing the song just to see what his reaction is. Sometimes he can handle it and other times he doesn't appreciate it so much.
  
• The boys have always been scared of dogs, even though we have two of our own. Now we can add flies to list of animals that freak them out. It's going to be a long summer. I just don't get this one. They both will happily pick up earthworms, but scream in terror if they see a fly.
  

Enjoy the photos of some recent activities- toddler time at the local library, their fist bowling experience, and their new soccer goal.