The good, the bad, the ugly of having a huge imagination

The good of Ace's huge imagination? Elaborate pretend play and insatiable questions.

The bad and ugly of Ace's huge imagination?

A huge fear of anything remotely scary. This could include the diver in the zoo's coral reef speaking to the children through a microphone (scary man in scary outfit with a disembodied voice!). Or, of course, the Abominable Snowman.

We showed the girls Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer last year and both enjoyed it, although we had to be sure that during the Abominable Snow Monster scenes, we explained that he was just being silly. He was really a nice monster, simply irritable because of his painful bad teeth. See, he put the star on the tree at the end! This was fine and lovely and the girls, even Ace, were okay.

Not this year. We showed "Rudolph" to the girls on Saturday and Ace freaked about the Snow Monster. She had a terrible sleep Saturday night. Yesterday, she had a cough and bags under her eyes. Last night, I was up with her for about an hour around midnight because she was "scared of monsters." "The snow monster." Poor thing!

So, last night at midnight, Julie Andrews saved us.

I sang a bit of "My favorite things" and then we talked about all of Ace's favorite things, which she could think about instead of monsters. A good coping strategy since we will never be able to shield her from all scary things. Again, the good of a huge imagination? She thought up tons of favorite things!

Sunniva? She continues to be amazingly sensible. "It's just pretend!"

Observational vs. Interactive Christmas Decorations

John and I always assumed that Christmas trees were observational. You put the ornaments up after Thanksgiving and then you look at them and admire them until you touch them again when you take the tree down after Christmas.

The girls, especially Anna-Sofia, have a decidedly interactive approach to the Christmas tree. After decorating it with Bestemor (it's awesome, all the ornaments are placed on the bottom half, where the girls can reach, save a few that Bestemor hung), they proceeded to touch and play with the ornaments. Anna-Sofia will take one ornament off the tree, look at it, carry it around, play with it, inspect it, and then will return it to the tree to trade for another ornament. (John cleverly, on the spot, instituted an "only one ornament off the tree at a time" rule.)

Having a holiday season with 4-year-old twins is fun! Last year, at 3, they were into the decorations and the lights, but not in that totally immersed way. It was just another thing we did and they didn't get into the specialness of it all. This year, they can anticipate the holidays to come, revel in the uniqueness of the season, and delight in all the holiday lights and decorations. And, of course, play with them all.

Similarly, the girls have found that certain Christmas decorations are fun to manipulate and arrange and order. I haven't brought out my angel orchestra in years, because they aren't equipped with strings to hang on the tree, so they just sit on a shelf, cluttering things up (in my limited perspective). This year, Bestemor and the girls were in charge of unpacking the decorations and the girls found the angel orchestra. What fun! Anna-Sofia, especially, and Sunniva have spent all sorts of time arranging and rearranging the orchestra.


I had forgotten all about the orchestra. I used to set them out as a kid in my room, ordering them in very specific ways and rearranging them in different ways. Exactly as the girls are doing now.

Hooray for being four years old and hooray for interactive Christmas decorations!

Puzzles and games, puzzles and games

Sunniva and Anna-Sofia are in heaven. Bestemor and Bestefar are staying with us for a week over Thanksgiving, and that means they have two adults dedicated to playing with them! Bring on the puzzles and games and puzzles and games!





The girls already have the hang of life with Bestemor and Bestefar around. After the Ace finished her breakfast on the second day, she looked around the rest of us still sitting at the table and said, "Who can play with me?!"

Best line yet...

...since Bestemor and Bestefar's arrival from Texas this afternoon:

Anna-Sofia, thinking up new things to do with Bestefar, tells him, "I will play the piano and you can dance, Bestefar!"

But, of course, all was well ...

... especially when one is wearing a twirly skirt:



The twirly skirts have made an appearance every single day since they opened them on their birthdays. I am not even exaggerating.

I should have seen that one coming

Not a big deal, I thought, as the girls took turns wrapping each other up with the jump rope while dancing around in their twirly skirts:


Experienced parents will immediately see the problem. Yes, on what ended up being the last turn, Sunniva, whose turn it was to dance around and wrap, wound the jump rope not around Anna-Sofia's body, but around her neck....several times....tightly. WAHHHHHHHH!!!!!

How I found Ace...

...while "Puff the Magic Dragon" by Peter, Paul, and Mary was playing on the CD player:

She was enchanted, staring right into the stereo, not moving. Sunniva came to join her about halfway into the song.

"Mama, what is this called?"

"Mama, what is this called?" said Anna-Sofia, pointing to the purple thing in the photo, which they have played with since we gave one to each of them last Christmas in their stockings"

Me, flummoxed: "Um....um....a fuzzy.....um.....bendy......toy. A fuzzy, bendy toy."
Ace: "A fuzzy bendy toy?"
Me: "Yes!"

Here comes the science

Most of the helium balloons from the girls' birthday party have long since fallen to the floor and been tossed out. However, the 4 mylar balloons are still doing well. Since they've just been hanging out at the top of the ceiling for days on end, I thought I would introduce the idea of neutral buoyancy to the girls. Or maybe I was just messing around.

I added paperclips and short lengths of ribbon to the balloons last night to make them hover. This morning I had to adjust their trim by snipping off short sections of ribbon. OK, so the girls are not very interested in this (they still just drag the balloons around the house when they want, and ignore them when they don't), but I think it is entertaining!

Today's show and tell

The topic for today's Show and Tell at Montessori preschool was "My Baby Photo." The girls flipped through their flip books and they each selected one photo to show:

Very first kid-invited kid birthday party

Wow, I think this is a big FIRST! One of the girls' friends from Montessori preschool, Amanda, invited them to her birthday party!! Sunny and Ace have not yet hosted their own kid birthday party nor have they gone to a kid birthday party. But, they got official invitations in the mail and it was an official kid birthday party! Amanda shared her party with her older sister so there were about 20 kids at the party, which was held in the kid play room at a community center (now that is a great idea -- I noticed our community center also rents out kid party space!).

The girls loved giving Amanda her gifts (Ace, especially, insisted on holding it the whole time in the car and delivering it personally). They had fun in a new space with new kids. Sunniva made friends and played and played and played and then bumped her head and did some crying and cuddling. Then, the ice cream and cake came so all was good again. Anna-Sofia played and played and played and then, during present opening, she found a couple dads, sat in between them, and chatted with them.



I know it looks like Sunny and Ace are the only ones in the room, but of course I don't post photos of other people's kids without asking! So, I was strategic in my picture-taking.

Also, see the party hat in the top photo? Anna-Sofia wore that party hat the rest of Sunday, Monday to barnehage, and then Tuesday to preschool. And, of course, at home each day. The decorations she pasted on didn't last very long, but that party hat was a constant accessory for three to four days and still holds a place of honor in her room.