Thirty-One Month Old Newsletter

Dear Cian-Cian and Liang-Liang,

You just turned thirty-one months old and we’re now heading into our second Spring together. Without a doubt, the four of us are having….well...The.Best.Time so far. You two are chatting a mile a minute, you’re laughing-running-bouncing around, you play together for hours at a time, you’re both healthy…and just seem to be having a lot of fun….

All of us are simply in a really good place right now....

Yep, you’ve really both been a picture of health recently (hope I don’t jinx us by saying this….). You both weighed-in at 25 whopping pounds last night, you are 33 inches, size 5 shoes, and wearing 24-month old shirts/18-month old pants (and sometimes still 12 month pants). Oh my goodness, you are both so cute.

Kelly...look below....does Sammi not look like Katie here? Look at how similar their facial expressions are....

You are both chatting away these days…and sometimes even in complete sentences. Sammi, after we read your new Honey-Bunny book last night, you put your arms around my neck, looked right into my eyes and said “Mommy, I like that book”. Wow!! I almost fell off the chair. And, then, this morning, Nicki, as we were eating our breakfast, you looked across the table at me and said “Mommy you are eating apples, too”. Wow. Whole sentences and sometimes even with the proper pronouns! Hip Hip Hooray!….Other things I’ve written down lately:

Nicki: “Mommy, I’ll be right back”, “”Here’s my ticket, Mommy” (Rony and Anne-Marie, this is from the Polar Express…..it’s all about tickets tickets tickets in their pretend play….).

Sammi: “Mommy, I go play now”, “Mommy, my baby needs blanket”, “I want a surprise”, “I want lav-ee-oh-lee” (ravioli)

Both: “Sister did it”. (Yep, this is funny to me. You both address each other as Sister with a capital “S”. You’ll say, “Sister, take this”. “Sister, that’s mine”, “Nitey-night, Sister”.)

The other notable change over the last few months is that you two will literally play together for two hours with no intervention from me. Wow, I didn’t even know that two-years could do that!! You want me in the same vicinity as you are but you are no longer incessantly imploring me to play with you every minute. You two are perfectly happy playing “pretend” by yourself.

Last weekend (Ed was off on his big ski trip), when I was cooking for hours on end, the two of you played “kitchen” with a few old Tupperware props, paper plates and cups and plastic utensils. You happily frolicked from the kitchen to the breakfast nook to the screen porch and back again. We had my Izzy CDs playing (the Hawaiian with the angel voice), the house was opened-up, and you two played and giggled and scampered around happily for hours. It was pretty-much a magical time for the three of us and I think that all three of us knew that. You would occasionally stop-by and hug my knees and look-up and laugh at me or you'd come running over and slam into my legs….or you would chase each other around and around me and our kitchen island…and then you’d dash away to the "kitchen" you had set-up on the screen porch.

In fact, I remember standing at the kitchen sink thinking to myself that I never wanted to forget the feeling I was having that very minute....the deep-down to-my-core joy of realizing that so many of my dreams really have come true...I have an incredible marriage to my oldest and best friend, I have two beautiful healthy and thriving toddler girls (and twins…wow oh wow), we all have terrific health, we are blessed with amazing simply-amazing friends, good jobs, financial security, a lovely home..oh oh oh….our bounty and blessings stops me in my tracks and takes my breath away.

Oh Liang-Liang and Cian-Cian, I so love you two!

Love,

Mommy

Easter Pics

Me: "Nope, no-way, no more chocolate, no more jelly-beans, no more sugar, no more no more of the white refined drug that makes you more hyper and wackier than you two typically are..Remember, I'm solo this weekend...Your father is off on a 5-day 'guys-only' ski trip and I'm left to fend on my own.."

Sammi talking to herself: "Um, yep, sure, um whatever, Mommy. All I have to do is go find Jessie or Kelsey...they'll give us all the Easter candy we want....., right, Nicki?"

Nicki: "Hah, we don't even need Jessie and Kelsey... I'll show you where Mom hid the baskets from us.....they are right behind the grill...."

While Ed was on a five-day ski trip with our best buddy, Bob (yes, over Easter....and yes, I'm the one who really encouraged him to go and take his first break since China with a bunch of guys ...), the girls and I spent Easter Day with the Schmitz family. In fact, we (both families) have been spending more Easter and T'Giving Holidays than not over the last 14 years. It was great fun as usual...we went to Mass, then back over to Col's to hang-out and have Easter Dinner.

Starting from left, Jessie, Sammi, Nicki, and Kelsey

Sammi with the ladybug headgear on :)

They really enjoyed the Easter Egg Hunt (once again in Col's backyard). Kelsey and Jessie did a great job stuffing the eggs and hiding them all throughout the yard. Some of the eggs were stuffed with goldfish and graham crackers (good...good) and then another set of eggs (the ones that had my name written on the outside) were stuffed with chocolate and jelly beans. Um...guess which eggs the little girls appreciated the most....?!

Nicki on Col's lap; Sammi standing..

We truly did have a fun day....the girls even napped for a bit and we had a big Easter dinner with all our year-after-year vegetarian (for me) and non-vegatarian dishes: cauliflower with cumin and cheese, stuffed zucchinis, sweet potatoe casserole, some ham thing-y, and of course, pie pie pie!. Didn't have Ed's famous mashed potatoes or dill-carrots since he was not there but we'll catch that next time 'round at Thanksgiving.....

Hugs,

Cindy

The Giggle Doppler Effect

Do you know about the Doppler Effect? You typically learn this basic physics principle as a schoolchild...it's the sound a train or car makes as they whiz by.....neeeeyoooowwnnnn......Higher at first...with second phase accented..then third phase fades away..... Well, I'm here to tell you that we have our very own Giggle Doppler Effect in our house. See, we have a very long catwalk corridor in our house that looks over our great room and ajoins all the rooms upstairs.....The nursery is at one end and the playroom is at the other...and we lock all the rooms (study, bathroom, guest room etc) so they (the girls, of course) only have access to each room on the end of the corridor. So, you got that pictured...? Now, we no longer take "nap time" around here but since I still need/require/demand my Saturday afternoon "chill with glass(es) of wine time, the girls play by themselves during the ye-ol' "nap-time"...and we're talking up to TWO HOURS (yay) of play by themselves (this is when twins are truly easier...).....

Nicki and Sammi will run up and down and up and down ....and up and down....the long hallway accompanied by peals and peals of giggles....and the Doppler Effect is in full throttle....

Truly, their giggles...their giggles that just don't relent....is a truly awesome joyous "knocks-me-outta-my-socks" noise/mayhem each time I hear it.

Here's some pics of the "Oh We So Don't Nap Any Longer" girls...

Nicki: "Who Me, Take a Nap...?....Hah!!"

And Sammi: "Double-Hah...!...Me...Take a Nap...???"

Hugs to All,

Cin

Three Sets of Twins....Our very own Red Couch

• We three Moms are the exact same age
• We three Moms are all "first-time" Moms
• We three Moms adopted twins....from China...and our three sets of twins are all within 6 mos old of each other
• We three Moms have full-time careers
• We three Moms are big-time D's (um, that would be Democrats)
• We three Moms continuously finished each others' sentences
• We three Moms laughed and cried and then laughed again all evening long
• And...best of all...thanks to Rony...We three Moms found each other

We had our very own twin festival this weekend in Rony's lovely, elegant, classy Washington DC home. Sammi, Nicki and I travelled up to DC to stay in Rony's home with Abbie and Katie (and Maggie the Dog). Anne-Marie and her twins, Hannah and Allie, spent Saturday with us....We had six toddlers all within six months old of each other.

Wow.

It was an amazing weekend.It was fun and cathartic as we all have such similar life experiences (both pre and post A). We finished each others' sentences. We continuously swapped "looks-without-words" that conveyed a whole host of emotions and shared experiences because words weren't so much needed...and words couldn't be heard, anyway, above all the melee! Our daughters (pretty-much) got along quite well for a gaggle of 6 two-three-year-olds sharing the same space.

Katie & Abbie.....


Hannah, Allie, and Anne-Marie ........


The girls laughed and played and ran and argued and cried and laughed and giggled and made so.much.noise. It was truly a cacophony of unrelenting noise and chaos. I believe it was one of the most joyous noises and chaos I've ever experienced.

Thanks, Rony, for being such a gracious, accommodating and fun host. Sammi and Nicki and I all felt so at home and comfortable....was just delightful being there!

Twin-Festival in Raleigh next-time-'round!!! :)

Hugs,
Cindy

Sedona Pics - Part 1

Leslie emailed us a few pictures from our big trip week before last...with more to come soon. Look at these amazing vistas..just jaw-dropping awesome. And imagine Sammi and Nicki fearlessly and amazingly and tirelessly bounding up and down the paths. They were so excited to be there and I think so proud to be little hikers. If you know Ed and me, you know how much

that we're into the hiking/outdoors lifestyle.

I simply can't wait for our first backpacking overnights....coming soon this Spring! (Ed, we need to buy them little sleeping bags at REI soon....how fun!...any maybe teeny-tiny backpacks??)

Love,

Cindy,Ed, Sammi, Nicki, and Buddy