Scenes from Twinhood

I gotta say, it's been fun watching the dynamic between Leah and Riley over the past few months. After spending the first few 18 months of their lives viewing each other as "that person who always takes away my toys", they've started actually playing with each other and talking to each other, which has been cool to see. Although there's definitely a love/hate thing going on with those girls.

I present to you now, for your enjoyment, three scenes from this past weekend:

Scene 1: Friday Night
The Scene: Riley and Leah are in the bathtub. Leah stretches her legs across the tub, glancing Riley's arm.
Riley (wagging finger): No, Leah! No kicking!
Riley: [tries to shift away from Leah, glancingly bumps Leah leg in the process]
Leah (wagging finger): No, Riley! No hitting!
Riley (wagging finger): No pushing!
Leah (wagging finger): No kicking!
Riley: No, Leah, no!
Leah: No, Riley! No! No!
[Cut to parents, rubbing their temples. Fade out.]

Scene 2: Saturday Morning
The Scene: We are at a little mini-zoo-slash-museum in Burlingame. Riley and Leah have been ignoring the animals and have instead been giddily splashing in a gigantic puddle for the past 20 minutes.
Riley: Dada!
Riley: [starts walking toward Dada]
Riley: [trips, sprawls face-first into pavement]
Riley: [sits for two seconds in humiliated, hurt, stunned silence]
Riley (at top volume): WAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH!
Leah: [runs quickly over to Riley's side, looking concerned]
Leah (to Dada, who's now comforting Riley) Riley crying!
Leah (now grinning and gleefully shoving finger in Riley's wet-pavement-stained face): Riley cryyying!
Leah (now dancing a little jig): Riley cryyyyyyying!
[Freeze frame as Leah gets jiggy wid it.]

Scene 3: Sunday Night
The Scene: Riley and Leah's room. It is about 8:45 pm. Riley and Leah have been lying awake in bed since 7:30.
Riley: Gonk! (giggles)
Leah: Gonk! (giggles)
Riley: Gonk! (giggles)
Leah: Gonk! (giggles)
Riley: Gonk! (giggles)
Leah: Gonk! (giggles)
[both girls giggle some more]
Leah: Riley and Leah!
Riley: And Mama and Dada!
Leah: And Elsa?
Riley: And Maya?
Leah: And Jo-Jo?
Riley: And Poppy?
Leah: And Grandma?
Riley: And A-Pah?
Leah: And Aisha?
Riley: And Hailey?

[9:00 pm]
Leah: And Cammy?
Riley: And Aunti-Lissa?
Leah: And...

[9:15 pm]
Riley: [zzzzz]
Leah: And Pooh...and doggy...and Riley's baby... and Leah's baby... and Riley... and Leah... and...
[Fade to black. Roll credits.]

Happy Thanksgiving, everybody.

Geisha Cannibals

I've never been much into Halloween, but you can trust me when I say that last year's Halloween totally sucked. Last year, Kathy and I were all excited to dress up our little one-year old girls on their first real Halloween. Kathy bought these lion and chicken costumes for them that were a-DOR-able. And then we put them in the costumes and Riley hated her costume with the white-hot passion of a thousand suns. Riley started screaming bloody murder, but we took them out for a tour of the neighborhood Halloween festivities figuring that, hey, she would eventually forget about her costume and turn back into her normal happy self. But no, Riley did not forget, not even after an hour of walking through the crazy Fair Oaks Street parade of Halloween revelry, and at the end of the night, Riley was one pissed-off, over-stimulated mess of humanity. Leah meanwhile spent the entire evening sucking her thumb, staring in wide-eyed confusion at the chaos surrounding her.

So I wasn't really looking forward to this Halloween all that much. Fortunately, this Halloween was a solid improvement over last year's. I still think that our girls spent most of the night confused about what the hell was going on and why the heck all these adults were dressed up so weird, but at least they weren't screaming bloody murder at the same time. Upgrade, I say.

Although when Leah passed by the dude dressed up as a lobster in front of Whole Foods, she totally buried her head into her mommy's shoulder and made whimpery panicky noises until lobster-dude was out of sight. Apparently, our daughter's fine with witches and skeletons and demons and ghosts roaming the streets of Noe Valley but becomes terrified when confronted with a yummy crustacean. Go figure.

Our girls haven't eaten candy yet in their lives, and we weren't about to start them on it now, so really, from their standpoint, what was the point of the whole thing? I mean, honestly, when I was a kid I wouldn't have been too psyched about the whole dressing up thing if the chock-full bag of candy didn't come as part of the deal. Fortunately, Riley and Leah had no idea what they were missing, so they were happy as clams even as all the kids around them were scarfing candy like there was no tomorrow. And then somebody in front of one of the shops gave Riley a purple pencil, and man she just thought that pencil kicked ass. She spent the next hour walking around, happily clutching that purple pencil in her tiny little fist, occasionally holding it a aloft like a magic wand. Good stuff.

And now, the obligatory Halloween aren't-they-cute-costume pictures! Yee-ha!