Date Time

Ok, so this is a bit long....mostly being written for family journal purposes, so if you want to just skip to the pictures, they are of a date on went on with Micah to the Animal Shelter/Jamba Juice and one I went on with Noah to the Firestation/Baskin Robins...

Sometimes it is tough being a twin...you have to share everything...your toys, your room, your food, even your parents, and b/c you & your brother are the same age, he always seems to want exactly what you want at exactly the same time. And even when that doesn't happen and you are being really good, you still don't get too much attention for it b/c your brother is either throwing a tantrum, or needs his diaper changed, or just fell and bumped his head and Mom is with him. There are really good things about being a twin too, but sometimes it is just hard!

So, I have been concerned for a while now that the boys don't get enough personal attention from me. I think it is good for me and them to spend some one on one time together. I want to be able to focus on just one of them occasionally and get to know their little personalities and quirks better than I do. I know this is just going to get even tougher when Samantha gets here, so Cory and I decided to start a monthly date tradition. This month, I was the lucky one who got to take each of them out. Cory stayed home with the other.

I really wanted their dates to be special...something they would each enjoy individually. So, I took Micah to the Animal Shelter. He is obsessed with animals lately, and I thought he would enjoy being about to get up close to a few of them. I took Noah to the Firestation b/c he loves trucks lately, and again I thought it would be fun for him to actually touch one.

So, Thursday morning, Micah and I took off for the animal shelter. Both he and Noah cried as they realized that they were being separated. For the first 5 min in the car, Micah just kinda whimpered and pointed to Noah's car seat. "Nonah?" he kept saying. But I just kept telling him he was on a date with Mommy. We sang some songs and he soon warmed up to the date idea.

Once at the animal shelter, he got really excited b/c as we pulled up, there were about 10 dogs being walked around on leashes. We went into the shelter and they let us back to go look at all the animals. A lot of the dogs were pretty loud, and it echoed quite a bit, so he was pretty nervous for a while. He never cried, but he wouldn't go near the dogs...he would just point, say "doggy", then "all done."
So, we tried the rabbits. They were in their own little silent room. He loved it. He kept making little rabbit faces at them (wiggling his nose), and saying "babit." We moved on to the cats....you could still hear the dogs from where they were, but it wasn't quite so overwhelming. He was very interested in what they were eating and kept saying "Cat...meaaaaw....eat." Eventually, we went back to the dogs, but started with the smaller ones this time. He found a couple of puppies he just loved. Seriously...I don't think he knew how to handle how excited he was...he was squealing, yelping, rolling on the floor, giggling, barking....he loved it. Sadly, my camera had died by then, so I didn't get any good pictures! After about 5 min with just those puppies, he had to go back and check out every single dog (there were probably 60-70 total). He made his way back to the puppies about 3 more times before I finnally told him it was time to leave. He was a bit upset at first, but calmed down when I told he we were going to get lunch and juice (they very rarely get juice, so it is quite a treat). We were actually able to see a pretty cool Iguana on our way out as well, so that was fun.

Once back in the car, I hear this little voice in the back seat saying: "Nonah, doggy...Dadeee, cat...Nonah, didzerd (lizard)....Dadeee, babit....Mimah (Micah), hooray!" over and over again. He was telling them all about everything he saw. It was really cute.

We went to Jamba Juice and got him a smoothie and sat at a table there on the patio and ate our picnic lunch. Our entire conversation was about all the shapes he could see....my chair was a circle, the bricks on the wall were rectangles, the holes in the table were ovals. He is obsessed with telling me all the shapes he sees everywhere. He does it in church (Momeee...obal (oval) as he points to a light in the ceiling), at the park....everywhere. I think it is adorable.

And that was it, we went home and told Noah and Daddy (for real) all about our date.

The best part is that every day since then, he has asked "Momeee, Mimah, date?" followed by a list of all the animals we saw while he points to the gargage and then says "car?" I'm SO GLAD he had a good time.

Noah stayed home wiht Cory and they went on a really long walk (over an hour). He said Noah didn't want to run and play or anything, he just wanted to hold Daddy's hand and walk and walk. Pretty cute.



The next day (Friday), was my date with Noah. Micah had a really hard time with us leaving since he now knew what a date was. Cory said he cried hard....real tears, shaking sobs, for about 20 minutes while saying "Momeee, Nonah." SO SAD! Noah cried as well for about 2-3 min and pointed to Micah's car seat saying "Mimah?" as well as "Dada?"

When I called the fire dept., they said they would happily give us a private tour. We just needed to show up at a station and as long as they weren't out on a call, they would show us around. So, we went to the largest firestation in the area first. They have 4-5 trucks there (vs 1-2 at the others), so I figured there would be someone there. I was wrong...there was no one there. It was a bit of a walk from the public parking to the station and I carried Noah the whole way, telling him all about the fun trucks we were going to see. Then, we got to the station, found no one was there and walked back to our car. As soon as we got to the car and he realized we weren't going to see any trucks, Noah just started crying "Duks...peeze! (please)" over and over. It was so sad! I felt just awful. So, we got back in the car, sang a few songs and he doing okay. We got the the 2nd station, and again, no trucks. This time though, it wasn't too far of a walk and there was a small electrical truck parked next to us, so we looked at that for a while and he was okay getting back in the car. We pulled up to the third station and there were FOUR trucks sitting right out front. Noah just started squealing and squirming to get out of his car seat. So I hurried and got him out and practically ran over to the station. We met some firefighters that were very nice. (Seriously, they were awesome and so fun!) They got Noah his very own hat and badge. He was a little nervous about all the attention, but still seemed excited. He kept pointing to the trucks and saying "Duk! BEEEG Duk!" But as soon as we tried to go toward the truck to he could see it/touch it/sit in it, he lost it. He just got really scared and clingly, and wouldn't stop saying "all done mama, all done peeze!" So, we backed away and just waved at the trucks and firefighters for a while and he was giddy happy/squealing again.

Then we went to Baskin Robins and got him his own ice cream cone. He never gets ice cream b/c of Micah's allergy, so this was a special treat. I even let him hold it himself, even though he made a huge mess. He kept saying "Big boy." and signing "thank you." We ate our picnic lunch at a table on the patio (although his lunch really ended up being just ice cream....who wants Peanut Butter and jelly when you have a HUGE ice cream cone, right?). Our main topic of conversation was all the paintings on the walls....he kept calling them "cookie monster," so we made up different names for each one: "Ice cream monster," "Juice Monster" etc....

Then, we went home and told Micah and Daddy all about it. He loves his hat! Later that day I was shopping at Vons with both of them and there was a fire truck outside. He looked at it, got the biggest grin, pointed at it and then himself while saying: "Nonah...hooray...hat." So, I guess he had a good time as well.



Micah and Daddy were able to have a picnic lunch on a blanket on the floor at home and played with puzzles and books.

So, next month, Cory will take them each somewhere and I will stay home wiht the other one. I'm so excited about this tradition. It was so so nice to spend some time with each one of them. I loved being able to focus all of my attention on just one of them. I think other than the day they were born, I felt more love for them those two days than any other. I felt like I was finally giving something of value to them instead of just taking care of all their little needs (feeding, diapering etc). It was awesome.