future Kyle & artists

So today I caught a glimpse of Kyle in the future, Kyle as a Daddy. He has his monkey, Miko, that he LOVES. Miko goes everywhere with him. It's truly a sign of comfort and acceptance from him when he has Miko give you a kiss. Anyhow, when we go to the park, I tell the kids, "Miko and Woobie don't play park." That took some adjusting to, but now Emily sees the park and gets all excited and hands me her Woobie so she can play park. Kyle is usually pretty good about that too with Miko, but today he didn't want to part with Miko. So I told him that I would hold him while he held Miko, but if he wanted to play, I could hold Miko for him or Miko could sit on the stroller with Woobie. As I held him, him holding Miko, he saw how much fun Emily was having playing park and wanted to play, but he would not part with Miko. I couldn't let him not play, but didn't want to give in (the point of Miko and Woobie not playing park is partly for cleanliness reasons - Miko gets a bath not so often since it requires such a covert extraction and quick turn-around and Emily sucks on the corners of her Woobie, clean or dirty - and part for comforting reasons in that they need to be able to have some reasonable separation from their special objects.) So we compromised - Miko could play park with Kyle so long as he stayed inside Kyle's sweatshirt. Kyle LOVED this. He was doing kangaroo care with Miko! We did kangaroo care with Kyle & Emily when they were in the NICU as it is supposed to be very good for development. Kyle gave Miko such love with him in his sweatshirt. You could see how much he loves Miko and could very easily see how he would love his own baby someday. (The pics show Daddy & Emily doing kangaroo care while still in the NICU and Mommy & Kyle after he came home)

After the park, we went to art class. It was good fun to make a big paint mess and not have to worry about cleaning it up!! Emily had a great time painting. Kyle enjoyed it too, though he much preferred to check out the ball rack and to paint on the big sheet on the wall instead of the little projects around the room. Maybe they will be little Miro's!!

Love 'n 'macaws'

What a wild time this is for the twins! They are learning things at lightening speed and impressing us many times daily with what they pick up. This morning, Emily picked up a purple 4 from the foam flooring, brought it to Jeff who says "that's a 4" to which Emily responds "purple"! Just prior to that, she picked up 2 giant checker pieces and put them on the floor and said "two"!

Yesterday, Emily was laying on the floor with her feet kicking in the air. Kyle saw her and rested his head on her tummy and then proceeded to tackle / hug her. They both loved it! Emily thought it was hysterical and Kyle was so sweet giving her hugs. It was the cutest thing! They have become really chummy lately holding each others hands and laughing together. They really are each others best friend.

So during baths, we often give the kids mohawks with their shampooed hair. Kyle thinks it's the greatest thing. He often asks for "macaw". He also does Emily's "macaw" (see picture) and wanted to give Mommy & Daddy a "macaw" as well despite our dry hair! There's never a dull moment here!