Oh how we love feeding the ducks.  Fortunately we are close enough to the lake that we often take trips to feed the ducks,geese and whatever any other animals need feeding.  It is so much fun and depending on the time of the year the ducks are more or less hungry.  Their extreme hunger manifest itself by their closeness, in your face interaction.

They were so hungry in January that they climbed all over us pushing their way between us just to get the last speck of food.  It was not even any good food, some old cereal that was opened and never finished for God knows how long.

We ended up going to the store and buying more food just to fatten them up a bit.

The squirrels got lucky also.  My kids however were confused.  After few months of exceptional cold Virginia winter this year my kids forgot what a squirrel was. 

They were calling it a kangaroo.   A Kangaroo.  I do realize that it may seem like we live in a zoo at times but this is certainly not Australia.

Now 3 months later my kids know exactly what a kangaroo looks like.  Well maybe not exactly but they know it is not a squirrel.

The ducks have also changed their point of view.  As you can see they are not interested in food at all.  That first one is so rude that it is sticking its bottom up.  Is this a ducks version of mooning?  Is this duck mooning us?

Now 3 months later there is also a lot more people that want to feed them.  Note the beautiful addition to our family wraped up in a blanket, plus our other cousin helping with feeding.

So the moral of this story is: If you want to get more hands on, in your beak duck experience feed your ducks when they are hungry and no one wants to feed them, meaning winter.  Which in most part of the country is now.  If you want to protect your children from pesky criters come in the summer.

That way your kids will be forced to run after the ducks in order to feed them.  It is a win win situation for a parent: a child will get a lot of excersize (meaning a nap, hopefully) you will not have to worry about any duck attacks and you will most likely come back home with the same amount of food you left with.  Unless you decide to feed the fish, which is an entirely different story in itself.

Sometimes you have those days… you know the ones that stop you in your tracks.  Like the first day of your Marathon training when its starts raining cats and dogs.  Or the first day of a diet when someone just happens to bring a box of your favorite treats.  I don’t like those days but it seems like I am having a lot of those when it comes to this blog.  I have had more technical issues then anytime in my life.

So first there was the internet issue when my computer was the only one in the household that seemed not to pick up our wireless network.  Then there was the computer that was dipped in coffee by a toddler, and later dropped by toddler’s mommy.  Then finally there was a bug or a spyware.  The verdict is still out.  I am waiting for the lab results.

I have no idea how  picked it up since I am extremly careful with things like that (of course my husband will argue otherwise) but it was called Personal Safety and looked like any other virus security program on my computer.  Then just like those programs it asked me to run a scan.  That’s how it got me.  It would not let me do anything on line or open without forcing me to buy their program.  Now a couple of days later I was able to get it off and work on my computer again. 

Not fun and another reason why I could quit this blog or not follow up on my dillegence which is not much different from giving up on your diet just because one slice of pizza or candy.  But then I think that those experiences are exactly what makes our goals stronger what makes us more resillient.  The faster you get over them and the less you dwell the more intelligent you are.  If in fact intelligence is the ability to reason and problem solve quickly then throw it at me life.  I will learn to do it better, stronger and faster in the future.  I will learn to focus and not dwell on what happended but on how to solve it.  Why don’t I approach diet the same way?   I guess I can start today, now, since now is all we really have.  So I am really sorry for not being here on Monday but now that I am all fixed and better I promise not to miss a day again.

Today is Daddy’s Birthday and we already went through at least 50 Happy Birthday song practices and 50 Sto Lat (Polish Birthday song) practices.  This is pretty much what we get no matter how much we try to keep them in one place and the same time.

Happy Birthday Take 1

This one is a little bit better but then again not in full force.

Happy Birthday Take 2

As for as I remember we did a little bit better with Christmas Carols maybe we should be practicing this:

We wish you a Happy Birthday,

we wish you a Happy Birthday,

we wish you a Happy Birthday and a Very Good Year……. YEAH !!!

The fun part about having twins is to experience first hand the sibling rivarly and exchanges of words aka fights.  Sometimes the fights are specific about a toy or a bottle.  Usually one steals something form the other one and then the mad chase and screams follow.  But sometime the fights are ideological when each of them wants to express their point of view.  Not much different then discussions about politics or religion but with toddler ideas and vocabulary.

The exchange usually happens like this.

Her: Mommy Rompy?

Me: Yes Kaya we are going to see Rompy, today is your gym class.

Him: Mommy Johnny? (his toddler friend that he has been asking me to play with for the past 3 days)

Me: Not today, but maybe we can see him tomorrow ok.  Right now we will see Rompy.

Her: Rompy                              Me: yes Rompy

Him: Johnny                            Me: yes Johnny

Her: No Johnny, Rompy

Him: No Rompy, Johnny

Her: Rompy

Him: Johnny

Her: No, No, NO JOHNNY…. Rompy

Him (already feeling the pressure): Mommy Johnny

Mom: Yes we will see Johnny but not today ok.

Her: Rompy

Him: Johnny

Her: NO NO NO Johnny….. Rompy…. screach (loud, ear piearcing screach)

Him (crying): Mommy Kaya no Johnny… Rompy….

Me: Don’t worry I will make sure we see Johnny soon.  Kaya be nice.

This continued in the Rompy, Johnny, Rompy, Johnny fashion with me answering yes after each question for at least 10 minutes.  And then just like with any other argument that you know you can’t win, both of them changed their focus to something at hand.

I love to have my kids get dirty.  I feel like it is an important part of childhood.  Therefore I allow for some really silly play just so my kids make a mess.  Paying in a mud, jumping in the puddles, drawing or painting on yourself is so much fun as long as the paint is washable and the hose is on.  Now that it is getting a little warmer you can always move the kids outside to make a mess.  I am happy that my house does have hard wood floors (actually bamboo, is that wood or grass?) that can be promptly washed.  Now we have not always been so neat and our previous art classes looked more like this.

My son was discovering his inner Jackson Pollock

My daughter was channelling Salvador Dali

And the house looked like it go hit by a painters tornado.  But that was six months ago.

Now are art classes are a lot more organized.

The girlie gets so into her painting and focuses dillegently at the art work at hand.

The boy does the same….

at times they are oopsies

or should we say more like deliberate experimenting

At the end it is so nice to know that everyone can work together on being creative.  So what if there is another load of laundry to be done or more floor to mop.  We will always remember the fun we had over the loads of laundry it costs us.

I am all about making sure my kids experince as much as possible by the age of 3.   According to scientists and educators babies start to make brain connections or synapses soon after conception.  The child first learns about its environment, the smell, the touch of his mommy and daddy.  At three years old child has twice as many connections as an adult (the unused ones are being “pruned away”).  By the age of 5 most of the brain connections will be made and from then on the experiences in their lives will never have as much importance as they did before.  

I am not an educator but I want to expose my kids to the real things as much as possible.  I want them to feel and see the things that we read about or see on tv.  Therefore by the age of 2 my kids have been swimming, boating, skiing, ice skating (yes they do have ice skates for rent in size 6) etc.  Most of these have ended up in increadible failures.  My kids both refused to put their skates on the ice but did not mind me skating while holding them in my arms (too bad there are 2 of them, and by now they weigh a bit, and I can’t balance two toddlers clinging for life in my arms while trying to skate).  Skiing was not much better since my son apparently hates the cold and the wind blowing accross his face.

There are however few things that we tried and absolutely loved.  One of them is Pony Ride.  This past weekend we were on vacation in Hilton Head,SC  and the kids took a quick Pony ride twice around the designated circle. 

Upon learning that they will go on a pony ride they reacted just like twins.

She started to jump up and down with excitment while doing twills.

He made a beeline for daddy, in a helmet non the less.

She got up on the pony and concentrated so hard on everything that was going on.  So calm.

He was in daddy’s safe hands.

After a lap

or two of his sister having fun.  I think he finally realized that it was safe.

He did not move an inch or smile a bit.  He did utter “Mommy I ride a horse !” a few times and I know they both loved this experience and will never forget it.  Heck they may even be reminded every time they see a horse, pony, donkey or zebra.  You know they are still really young.

If you are to find yourself in Virginia this spring you will experience something called Pollen. Not it is not the same pollen that visits New York or Chicago, this one comes in clouds, storms and waves from passing cars. It seems like everything is blooming.  Beautiful, wonderful flowers blooming all at once.  This also means that unless you bought a yellow car you may be surprised to see yours yellow in the morning.  I had to find myself someone to take over this job.  So here is my little helper.  

  

 Mommy I wash Car !!!  

  

 Do you need any help?  No, Self….. actually he says Sam which is a Polish equivalent.    

  

Mommy how do I open this security switch? Now how does this Browning work? Is it an automatic? – he asks in my head .

  

 This really does resemble closely man’s relationship with guns and firearms.  

   

 He really does a great job and gets every detail….. but still.  Somehow I think that if guns did not exist little boys would invent them . 

 Hi Mommy…. Me wash Car…..  

Good Job Honey !!