The Curious Georges

Not Quite Baby Beckhams (my 100th post!)

Dane & Logan just started playing soccer.  Their first official game was a week after they celebrated their fourth birthday.  When Nicole first started playing, I had no idea what to expect.  She was definitely a "flower-picker," but enjoyed being on the team nonetheless.  There seemed to be some confusion in her mind as to when a game was actually being played.  Not having experience in this arena, I thought maybe she just didn't have an aptitude for the game.

Now that I am a "seasoned soccer mom," I'm realizing that when four-year-olds play soccer, the whole affair is very haphazard and fraught with either oblivion or full-on terror.  We saw both of these in the boys on Saturday.  Dane was cold and scared; Logan alternated between being timid and oblivious.  During a practice drill in which a little girl "stole" the ball from Logan, he threw himself on the ground and wailed inconsolably.  Such is the nature of the beast when kids play this young.  They don't quite get the meaning of sportsmanship yet.

Now that Nicole is on the 5-year-old team, we can see what a difference a year makes.  While she's not quite getting goals yet, Nicole is much more engaged in the game.  All of the 5-year-olds are out there giving it their all and not fearfully clutching their parents or joyfully spinning in circles while the game proceeds around them.  So we're glad that Nicole had the tenacity to continue playing.  It will be interesting to see the difference in the boys' games come this time next year.

 

Dane clings to Daddy.

Skeptical about soccer

 

Brrrr ... It was so cold that Dane had to borrow Sissy's jacket.

You're Not Coming To My Party

We've reached the age with the boys where birthday parties are a big deal.  All three of the Little Georges talk about their birthday parties incessantly, even Nicole, whose birthday is still five months away.  So now when they're upset with someone, they issue the threat "You're not coming to my party."  Dane is the biggest offender.  I can't tell you how many times we've all been dis-invited to his party.  He doesn't seem to grasp that 1) as the party planner, if mommy doesn't come to the party, the party ain't happenin' and 2)  as twins, he and Logan have a joint party so he really can't dis-invite his brother.  None of this matters.  Dane has found what he considers a very valid threat, and darn it, he's going to use it!  

Dane often has good reason for dis-inviting Logan to his birthday party.  Logan is not content unless he is bothering his siblings mercilessly.  He is the ultimate imp.  Just imagine if you combined the manic energy and showmanship of Jim Carrey and Robin Williams and you've got Logan ... funny, but often over-the-top, sometimes way over-the-top.  So he mugs, pokes and dances around in an effort to entertain and irritate his audience and the result is one or the other or sometimes a combination of the both.

Nicole is still a sweet, easy-going child unless you try and get in the way of what she wants to wear.  I don't know if it's because Daddy is from Hawaii, but she always wants to wear shorts and short-sleeve (but not tank top) shirts.  She is very specific about this desire.  In fact, she repeats "shorts and short-sleeves-but-not-tank-top" so often that it's become her clothing mantra.  I try and be as easy-going about this as possible, mostly out of sheer exhaustion ... I'm just not up for the battle.  However, when I got subtly reprimanded by her kindergarten teacher for not dressing her warm enough, I knew that it was time to buck up and be the mean mommy.  So now every other day or so we have clothing battles in the morning.  This morning, Nicole was so outraged when I wouldn't let her wear shorts that she was literally screaming at the top of her lungs and kicking rugs off the hardware floors.  It's really rough to have World War III at 7am.  But mostly, Nicole is a sweetheart.  I only have myself to blame for my little fashionista because as we all know, I'm a clothes horse, and I wouldn't like it if someone was trying to tell me what to wear either.

They all have their distinct personalities and they often play together nicely now.  It's nice to see their imaginations at work.  The flip side, is the fighting.  Oh Lord, I feel like 80% of my job is referee these days.  Now I know why my parents would say, "I don't care who started it ..."  I hated that line, but if you try and solve who was the instigator in every fight, you're going to drive yourself crazy.

So that's a brief update on the Curious Georges.  Because I've now been writing for Deep South Moms, this blog is not getting the attention it deserves so I'll try and be more faithful, even if it's just to post small anecdotes of the kids.

Is it a twin thing?

As evidenced by the posts in the past six months or so, Dane and Logan have taken the "monkey factor" to new, unheard of levels of monkeyness.  Are they purposely trying to provide fodder for my blog? Are they simply uber-mischievous?  Is it just "the terrible two's?" Or is it that other wonderful excuse, "it's a twin thing?"  I've been trying this excuse on for size recently and I think I like it.  The boys don't have some genetic disposition for trouble!  Blame their crazy behavior solely on their twin-ness!

The latest vexing behavior is Dane's unlatching his car seat and getting out while I'm driving.  I've talked before about how Dane is STRONG!  This is not bragging.  It is a fact.  We can blame his paternal grandfather, Peter, the triple medal Olympic champion in weightlifting.  Most kids his age cannot undo the car seat latches because they are purposely made to foil children!  But, Dane is all about foiling.  Give him a situation that is seemingly impossible to mess with and he will mess with it.  This is why Barton has to "fix the boys wagons" almost every weekend.  "Fixing their wagons" is Barton's catch-phrase for trying to foil the boys' antics.  Examples of "fixing their wagons:"  Putting latches on each and every door in the house and also the shutters and drawers.  Removing any object in their room on which they could climb to undo said latches.  Taking their drawers out of their armoire when they figured out the latches.  Bolting their beds to the walls, etc.  You get the idea.  If you've been following this blog, you've seen numerous examples of mommy and daddy trying to stay one step ahead of the monkeys.  Or maybe we're just trailing in their dust ... who knows.

Anyway, this car seat problem has got me seeing red.  Not only does Dane remove himself from his seat, he then goes on to undo Logan's seat belt.  Thankfully, this has not happened while driving yet.  I've only had to contend with one monkey loose in the car while driving, but one is enough ... especially on the freeway!  I flew into a rage yesterday because it is just so frustrating to feel like their is no "safety net" when it comes to the boys being in the car.  By safety net, I'm not just talking about the literal sense of Dane being safe while driving.  I'm talking about the peace of mind that comes from knowing that your little one is ensconced in their seat so you can then go about loading the car, go back into the house countless times for the items that you either forgot or are in demand by the little people, change one of the boys' diapers, etc.  It was the same feeling I got when we took down the gates.  If their slogan then was "Don't Fence Me It," it's now "Don't Latch Me In."  Just when I think things can't get worse, there they go to prove me wrong.

So can I blame this all on the twin thing?  I don't know.  I do know that siblings will egg each other on regardless of whether they're twins.  But the difference is that non-twin siblings are different ages so they will be in different phases of development.  Also, with twins, it's somehow a given that they spend the majority of their early years attached at the hip, whereas different-age siblings are more often split up.  Another factor could be the spacing of our children and when I talk about spacing, we have virtually none.  So when one adult is trying to contend with three little monkeys, discipline such as "time-out" gets fairly hard to enforce.  This just sets the stage for mischief, mischief, mischief. 

Regardless of the cause of this new development, I'm going to have to solve the problem soon.  Legend has it that one mom purposely slammed on the brakes when her daughter had removed herself from her car seat, sending the little one careening forward just enough to send the message:  Stay put or you could get seriously hurt!  I'm not sure that's the solution for me, but hey, if things get really desperate ...

 

Double Trouble:  Cliche, but true

... Candygram ...

 

Dane practices his post-reprimand pout

A rose by any other name...

When I was pregnant with my first set of twins, I bought every known how-to book on parenting twins out there.  And there are lots of them!  Some of the advice was somewhat off-putting.  I remember reading that this one mom of twins affixed a sign to her stroller saying, "Yes, they are twins. No, they're not identical."  In other words, "Bug off, nosy stranger!"  I just could never imagine being so annoyed by the sweet attention of strangers.  In fact, I absolutely love it when strangers come up to me and ask if my boys are twins.  Since my "older" daughter is only 19 months senior to the boys, we even get the "Are they triplets" question.  Of course, there aren't very many witty responses to "Boy, you have your hands full," but I just gamely nod assent and say perkily, "We sure do!"  In other words, we do have our hands full, but I so love having these three little monkeys, that I'm going to stay perky and willingly bask in the attention of strangers.  It's just plain fun.  One time we were ambling with our triple-wide stroller in the Rose Garden park and there was a group of Japanese tourists that were all a-twitter over our trio.  Many of them even took our photos, which made me feel like a rock star mommy!

Anyway, I'm digressing.  The main subject of this post was on the topic of what we call Dane and Logan.  Every book I read stressed the importance of not lumping your children into a two-word moniker, such as "the boys" or "the twins."  This is considered verboten among those dogmatic twin experts.  They are not one person, they say.  They have their own names.  Well, I have to admit that 9 times out of 10, we call Dane and Logan "the boys."  I talked in a prior post about how twins do experience life a bit differently than singletons.  The early life of a twin child is not a solitary existence.  They do virtually everything together.  Look at the last post!  They were gently touching hands while they slept.  This is one of the reasons that they are lumped together with the term, "the boys."  Also, we are just so busy that this helps us say what we want to say and fast.  Believe it or not, having to say "DaneandLogan" (4 syllables) is much longer and thus less efficient than "theboys" (two syllables).  Does that sound ridiculous?  Well, in the chaotic world of twins plus a singleton, cutting out two syllables can make a huge difference.  We're all about simplifying life here.

I met a twin mom last week and she told me that the point where they had to stop calling her twins, "the boys" came when one of them thought that was his name.  Seriously.  Lucky for us, Dane and Logan know their own names so we can go on calling them "the boys" with impunity.

I find that in no way does calling Dane and Logan "the boys" diminish their individuality or sense of self.  In fact, I have never seen this be the case in any of my observations of twins.  The boys are very different kids even though their first two and a half years have been filled with virtually the same experiences.  Logie is a social butterfly and loves to clown around.  He's a dancing maniac and will start rocking out, even to music that you would normally not think would appeal to a toddler, such as ambient, "chill" type stuff usually only found in clubs and uber-hip bars.  He's very self-confident and a bit more laid back than Dane.  Dane is much more intense and does everything to the nth degree, even playing.  He tends to be a bit more quiet and introspective with new people, but a wild maniac at home.  He will not let anything get in the way of his pursuit of candy.  He has the George family single-minded drive that will hopefully carry him far in life.

As Shakespeare wrote in Romeo and Juliet, "What's in a name? That which we call a rose
By any other name would smell as sweet."  I truly believe that calling Dane and Logan "the boys" has not affected their development nor will it scar them for life.  As time progresses, "the boys" may fall by the wayside and then we'll start calling them "those sullen adolescents" or some such appropriate term. 

Now, if we went around calling them "the monsters," that's quite a different story.

Native American Logie & Pilgrim Dane say "Happy Thanksgiving!"

Hangin' in the Rose Garden at 7 months