Ollie and Si are THREE!

I can't believe my babies are now THREE. Their birthday was on Monday and we celebrated with a pancake breakfast, a pretty simple playgroup/birthday party with a few friends in the morning, lunch with Jared and Jessica Lanoue (one of our good friends and probably the twins' biggest fan - she and her husband watched them while we went to NYC and Boston and actually came away loving them all the more!), and then a birthday dinner with Jo and Aja and kids.

They were so excited about their birthday this year and sort of seemed to get it - I think seeing Ashton's recent birthday helped them out that way. It was pretty funny hearing them argue "It's MY birthday" "No, it's MY birthday" a few times during the day - the concept that it was BOTH of their birthdays was a bit challenging I guess. They got some big wheels (which Ashton and Isaac put together for them - the big boys were so proud and excited to present them to the little guys) and a second train engine for their beloved train set from Christmas (from Jo and Aja and family) plus lots of fun little gifts from friends. They're way into the present thing thanks to Christmas and were so excited about everything. They wanted a Bob the Builder cake so I did my usual - chocolate cake with stuff on top, in this case, some Bob the Builder stuff. It worked out perfectly because the cake totally fell and had a big pit in the middle for the little excavator and backhoe to dig around in. The twins were thrilled. It was one oddly textured cake - I don't know what I did wrong!

I'm hoping and praying that this year will be the year the twins really get to be more fun than work. They do seem to be headed in that direction. They're talking so much and are becoming quite reasonable about some things. Their favorite things lately:

• Toys: their train set and garbage truck and firetruck from Christmas
• Games: playing duck duck goose
• Books: Are you my Mother? and this annoying book about a giant zuchinni
• TV shows: Bob the Builder, Blues Clues (they've started using the phrase "handy dandy" which is pretty funny), Wonder Pets, this video about construction machines (There Goes a bulldozer) and a video about trains (There Goes a Train)
• Songs: They want the "moon song" from me every night ("Winken, Blinken and Nod") and Gentle Shepherd and the "barges song" from Jared. They always belt out the "Bob the Builder" theme song when the show's starting.
• Their daddy - they yell out "daddy, daddy!" with heart-felt excitement and RUN to fling their arms around his legs when he gets home.
• Food: They like all foods but they really really love frozen peas (I've got to video them squealing "Peas! Peas! Peas!" when I get them out for lunch) and apples especially. They love "moothies" (smoothies) and can sniff out cookies anywhere in the house and eat them by the handful as they hide under the table, pulling the chairs in after them to try to create the appearance of nothing going on over there.
• Nursery - they LOVE going to nursery at church and call out "dere's da chowch!" gleefully whenever we get close to the church
• Running around on their tiptoes - they pretty much run on their tiptoes everywhere they go. Silas is especially tiptoe-prone. Jared jokes they'll be line-backer-looking ballet dancers one of these days!
• Grabbing things from each other, then freaking out, then sharing - they've got this little routine dialog down and it's really cute when it works "Silas, can I have that" "NO" "Don't say NO, say 'in a minute'" "OK, in a minute" "1,2,3,4,5 now it's my turn!" And most of the time, sometimes after a couple times counting to 5, the guy with the toy in question passes it on over to the guy asking for it. They really are pretty good sharers and get over having things grabbed away very quickly - they've really always had to share everything so they're pretty used to it.
• Pouting: when we don't let them have their way, they'll put on the longest, saddest faces I've ever seen (especially Oliver), then they'll give us the silent treatment as thy throw themselves on the floor and lay their on their faces until someone gives them a good reason to forget about the indignity of whatever they were just denied. Cracks us up.

Oh, I love these crazy adorable boys of mine!