Girl talk

For some reason, tonight I got the urge to see if I had taken any videos on this date in 2009, during the babies' first year. And, sure enough, I had! Check out this little gem I found of Dahlia (on the left) and Lucy chatting it up in the playard:



I'd forgotten what all those coos sounded like! Don't you wonder what they were trying to say?

Puddle of fun

Ah, jumping in puddles. A pleasure that most kids take for granted, but something that mine had only seen on television ... until yesterday, when an overnight rainstorm left a tantalizing puddle on the walking trail behind our house. As soon as Jude saw it, he knew exactly what to do with it—and the rest of the crew soon followed:



Puddles of the world, you are no longer safe: If the Fab Four see you, they will jump in you!

Sprinkle, sprinkle

What do you do when it's too hot to go to the playground and there's no one to go to the pool with? You make Daddy set up the sprinkler in the backyard—for the first time ever, believe it or not! Happily, we just happened to have a round stationary sprinkler stashed away in the garage, perfect for four little people to share:

First time in the sprinkler 
(l to r: Jude, Dahlia, Lucy, and Isaac)

As I expected, Jude and Isaac dove right in and stayed under the spray almost the entire time we were outside. Dahlia and Lucy were more cautious, watching from a distance while the boys got soaked. Eventually, however, neither girl could resist the siren call of the "waterfall" (as Jude likes to call it), and soon everyone was enjoying the refreshingly cool water. We stood under it, drank from it, pretended to wash our hands in it, and, of course, ran through it:



I'm pretty sure we'll be doing this again!

Growing up

Almost exactly two years ago our Bisabuelo brought us these beautiful handmade dresses from Peru:

Lucy and Dahlia at 8 months old

Today we wore the same dresses to church—this time as shirts:

Dahlia and Lucy at 2.5 years old

My, how we've grown!

Outside, outside, outside!

We love to be outside! We take walks outside:

Collect rocks outside:

Pretend to fall down and break our crowns outside:

We eat outside:

Laugh and squeal outside:

We even practice holding hands outside:

Mostly, though, we just like plain old having fun outside:



Summer, we sure are going to miss you when it's cold outside!

An extra-special extra

Several months ago my cousin Glenda transferred our wedding video onto a DVD. I decided to pop it in for the first time on our 11th anniversary last month, and was utterly shocked when the Fab Four asked to see it again the next day—and again the next! Nearly a month later, we are still watching parts of our wedding DVD daily. The kids love seeing Mommy dressed like a "princess" (the royal wedding made a big impression on them), and they get a big kick out of naming everyone they recognize on TV.

Their favorite part of the video, though, has to be the extra clip that Glenda included of my dad's youngest brother and his band performing at my grandparents' 50th wedding anniversary party, shortly before his death. The kids like the clip so much that they ask for Tío Arturo (aka "Dee-o Doodle") to sing to them almost every day before nap. Recently a couple of his littlest sobrinitos have begun to accompany the band:



I can't tell you how happy it makes me to know that, even in death, my Tío Arturo is teaching my children to love music. Thanks for adding such a special extra to our DVD, Tía Glenda!

Inca quads

In honor of Peruvian independence day—and by special request from Tía Harriet—I give you the Fab Four's first sips of Inca Kola (the national soft drink of Peru):









Too bad the kids long ago outgrew their Inca Kola shirts from Bisabuelo (I guess we know what the abuelitos need to bring back from their next trip to the motherland). Thanks for the 2-liter, Harriet!

I wanna hold your hand

We like holding hands around here. We link up when we're ready to go out the door:

June 2011

And sometimes we join hands when we're just running around the house en masse:

July 2011

This week a couple of us even got caught holding hands in the van:



Our mommy hopes that we're always there to hold one another's hands—literally and figuratively.

... and when I touch you, I feel happy inside ...

—The Beatles, "I Want to Hold Your Hand"

Keeping our cool

This summer's been hot, hot, hot, and we've been taking full advantage of the warm temps by heading out to the pool as often as possible. Our favorite things to do by the water include jumping in:

Isaac

Filling buckets:

Dahlia

Making waves:

Jude

And laying out:

Lucy

We have a great time at the pool, but the kids can't let their guard down for a minute. You never know when a mommy shark will attack:



Hope you're having as much fun keeping cool as we are!

Life is beautiful

Not gonna lie: The terrible twos have been getting me down. Sometimes it feels like, no matter what I say or do, at least one little person is going to (a) yell "no," (b) start whining, (c) scream at me, or (d) all of the above. It's enough to make a mommy want to pull out her hair—or, better yet, her ears!

But just when I think that I'm at my wits' end, that I can't take another day of it, the kids will do something to remind me how much fun they are when they're not being two. Like the other day, when all four of them decided to take turns going down the slide—with a minimum of fussing (for them) and a maximum of delight (for me):



Yes, as a friend put it to me today, my life is beautiful, indeed. Although it might be a little more beautiful once we get past the terrible twos ... and threes!

For the sake of completeness

After seeing my photographic comparisons of Ted and the Fab Four yesterday, friends have been asking to see side-by-sides of me and all the kids, too. And since we're nothing if not equal opportunity around here—here you go!

Suzanna at 2 years old, Isaac at 2.5 years old

Suzanna at 2 years old, Lucy at 2.5 years old

Suzanna at 2 years old, Jude at 2.5 years old

Suzanna at 2 years old, Dahlia at 2.5 years old

We already knew that Jude and I are twins, but I think Lucy resembles me a lot here, too. Which is weird because, in my last post, I was sure she looked like Ted. I guess she must be the perfect combo!

Daddy's turn

Since I posted photographic proof that Jude is my mini-me, several people have wanted to know which of the Fab Four most resembles Ted at this age. Naturally, I couldn't resist digging up his 2-year portrait to compare to current photos of the kids.

While most people say that all four of them look just like me, some maintain that Isaac is Ted's carbon copy. As for us, we've always thought that Dahlia is the one who favors her daddy the most. Looking at these comparisons, however, I'm shocked to realize that Lucy might actually take after him more than any of the other kids—their eyes are different, but check out the nose and mouth. What do you think?

Ted at 2 years old, Isaac at 2.5 years old

Ted at 2 years old, Lucy at 2.5 years old

Ted at 2 years old, Jude at 2.5 years old

Ted at 2 years old, Dahlia at 2.5 years old

She's a baby

Lucy has entered a funny new phase—
Playing an infant is her latest craze.
Ted is her daddy; her mommy is Suzy.
Big girl prefers the name "Baby Lucy."

She wants to be cradled; she likes to be swaddled.

She drinks from a cup, but she calls it a bottle.

More than two years since we brought her home,

The pacis are gone, but she wants a chupón.

When she goes potty, I'm happy to wipe her—

But she better not ask to go back to diapers!

Baby Lucy then (3 weeks old) and Baby Lucy now (2.5 years old)

Da(hlia) Vinci

Dahlia's come a long way since I first introduced the Fab Four to crayons. For her, meaningless scribbles are a thing of the past, and when she puts crayon to paper (or, as is more often the case, magnetic pen to Magnadoodle), not only does she have a plan, but she also possesses the skills to execute that plan.

We first noticed her emerging talent back in April, when I found her drawing what appeared to be a bunch of balloons (note the real balloon in front of her). Based on her subsequent subjects of choice, however, I soon came to suspect that she was actually trying to depict our family:

Over the past couple of months, Dahlia has been working hard at refining her portraiture technique. First I observed her experimenting with adding hair, and more recently I noticed that she was getting better at placing facial features, such as eyes and mouth:

Not bad for a 2-year-old, huh? Still, her previous essais are nothing compared to her latest masterpiece. Yesterday, she wowed us with this picture, which she claimed was a self-portrait:

It's hard to say who was prouder, her mommy and daddy—or the artist, herself!

I'm not saying she's going to paint the Mona Lisa anytime soon, but ... maybe someday?

Mamá's boy

When the Fab Four were babies, people would often say that Lucy was my mini-me. As the kids get older, however, it seems that more and more people are sure that Jude is the one who looks exactly like his mommy. We've always thought that he looks more like my brother and dad instead, but when Ted saw Jude's snapshot in last week's nicknames post, he was struck by how much it resembles pictures he's seen of me as a little kid. Of course, when he told me this, I just had to dig up my second-birthday portrait and make a side-by-side comparison with the "Judo" pic:

Suzanna at 2 years old (left) and Jude at 2.5 years old (right)

Notice the eyes, the nose, the bow of the mouth, the shape of the face ... pretty freaky, huh?