haircuts and children's museum

We have had a good few weeks. Alan had a week off two weeks ago and other than a few administrative-type things he had to do, he spent most of his time with us girls. He "reconnected" with "his" baby (Meredith-she has always been the one who will give "love" freely to him whereas Hannah is a Mommy's girl and needs to be in the "Daddy mood" to pay attention to Alan) and now she cries when he leaves the room and they follow him in the bathroom and etc ... nice change of pace ;) The change in routine (perhaps) did throw a wrench in our MMO success and Hannah has taken to crying much of the day again. Geez ... just when you think it is getting a little easier! Thursday was a pretty good day, though, so maybe we will be back on track soon. We decided that it was time to even out their hair and took them to the salon for the first time. I was surprised at how much I worried that they would look different from each other ... as much as we feel it is important that they realize they are different people and how much we do want to foster their independance, I guess I will always hold on to the days where people had a hard time telling them apart. Even post-haircut, their teachers rely on my dressing them differently, so I guess I don't have to be sad yet!

this is Meredith, pre-haircut

Meredith, again. She was so well-behaved. I guessed that she would do better with being messed with than Hannah would but I was surprised at how well she did. She just sat there like she was told and looked to be enjoying the whole process.
still Meredith

Meredith, all done from the back ...

... and from the front!

Hannah, pre-haircut ...

Hannah really did OK. Which surprised me, as well! She whimpered a little and reached for me to get her almost the whole time ... and needed her "bee bee, bay" ... and was generally a little squirmy but she didn't cry or insist on getting down so I was super proud of them both.

When her hair person (didn't catch the name!) started to dry her hair she actually looked like she enjoyed it! Now, sometimes she wants me to dry her hair at night after her bath which is fun ... a fun part of having girls ... fixing their hair.

Hannah, all done from the back ...

... and the front!

We had a pretty bad day yesterday. Alan was post-call and the girls were restless and wanted to "go somewhere else to play" though we had plans to go look at a car. So, in order to try to compensate them for spending an hour + at the Toyota place yesterday (which, in turn, made them fall asleep in the car on the way home and therefore not take a nap once we got home therefore be REALLY grumpy the rest of the day) we decided to take them for a fun day this morning. We went to the children's museum then to get some Mexican food (one of their favs) at Taco Boy. They were so well-behaved the whole time (with the exception of when Meredith fell and twisted her ankle ... which she is still limping around from ... so, understandable fit.)

Here, they are playing in the water room ... if they were only about a foot taller, this room would be much better ... so we didn't stay long

Here, they are "driving" the shrimp boat ...

hmmm .... guess the shrimp boat has 2 steering wheels (or driving wheels as Hannah would say) ... speaking of, this is Hannah in the pink ... the girl always has to be wearing pink, have the pink bowl and the pink spoon ... girly girl, that one!

post-twisted ankle (the reason for M holding on to blankie) ... here, they are playing with blocks with Alan ...

The favorite activity of the day, by far, was hanging out in the crafts room. We made these lovely birds (the two funky purple ones with the crazy feathers and rhinestones) and sat them on the tree to help decorate the room ... I think they really enjoyed the fact that since there were two sets of adult hands, I was letting them play with markers and glue ... when it is just me, we stick to crayons and tape! Alan and Meredith's bird is on the left and mine and Hannah's is on the right.

This particular day, they were offering "painting in the garden" so we went out and let the girls mess around with the paints. They seemed to really enjoy it! Hannah, in particular, really enjoys being creative and coloring and crafts (from my observation and also per their teacher at MMO.) Meredith is my sorter ... she loves to sort and organize and to play with multiple of the same-type thing (blocks, plastic animal figurines, stuffed animals ...) They both love to play with Play-Doh and Meredith wants me to take one color and make all of it into little balls she can dump out and put back in, dump out and put somewhere else ... etc. Hannah likes to take all the little cookie cutters and make different shapes or make worms ... etc. It is interesting to watch them learn their preferences with play.