U.N. in Miniature

Yesterday marked the departure of our last foreign student, and the end of our international experiment - for the time being at least. Majda, seen below, taught us a lot about Islam (mainly of the Sunni variety), tattoos, Arabian culture, being placed on the NSA wire-tap list, and Oman. I'll be posting on some of it later. One topic, Joe will be happy to know, will be on the Djinn (genies). She and I had a very interesting conversation about them.

All these students - from China, Japan, and Oman - have caused Annie and I to reflect upon how we run our household, and it has had some unforeseen consequences. The main change is that, given the multi-national nature of our home over the past while, we have instinctively adopted many United Nations procedures. Here are a couple of examples.

1) When our children are hungry, we no longer simply feed them. No, instead, Annie and I form a committee and negotiate the details. This usually leads to a lot of crying, but the nice thing is that if we stay in committee long enough, the girls will eventually make their own way to the pantry and start searching for food themselves. Problem solved.

2) This next example is trickier and deals with the disciplining of our children. For instance, say Genna is caught grappling Julia and making her cry. Previously, we would have disentangled the two and dealt with it. Not anymore! Now, Annie, Kate, and I will gather in the kitchen for the purposes of drafting a resolution against Genna. It can be hard to do over Genna's growling and Julia's wails as the attack continues, but we plow forward. Unfortunately, Kate often sides with Genna, and forces us to lessen the force of the resolution.

Once the resolution is complete, I present it to Genna, along with a deadline to have her stop her attack. Usually, Genna either eats the paper on which the resolution is eaten or she completely ignores the deadline and continues digging her fingers into Julia's eyes. When this happens, we write an even stronger resolution.

This makes for an interesting dynamic in our home. But this is a small price to pay for the kickbacks I get (each of my children offer me candy and loose change they find, in return for me turning a blind eye to their antics).

So Much to Learn

Seems like an odd picture, right? Why a photo of Julia's bib? Look closer - go on, look closer. See that little nub of pink with a small stem? That is what's left of Julia's sucker after she was done with it. She and her sisters were busy working on them for quite a while. When it came to getting Julia down from her high chair, we were confused when we couldn't find her lollypop anywhere. Then we looked in her bib.

Yes, Julia seems to enjoy the sucker's stick as much as she does the candy itself. Toddlers. So cute. So much to learn.

Swarmed

Uncle Ian got swarmed the other night. True, my daughters were all after Max (get used to it young man - women will be chasing you for years to come!), but Ian was the one who had to bear the brunt of their assault. He did a fine job of both shielding his son from my over-enthusiastic girls and of not panicking under the shear weight of cute little children that had piled up spontaneously on top of him.

As a side note, my girls' hair is not greasy. To the contrary, it is freshly washed and therefore glistens in the flash of my camera. Also, yes, Genna has her nightgown on backwards. When it is on backwards it is a Sleeping Beauty dress. When it is on forwards it is a Cinderella dress. Don't ask me how Ariel, who is actually featured on the nightgown, factors in.

Children.

Climbing Ambition

Though Julia has taken to toddling as her primary mode of ambulating, she has been climbing for a lot longer. Everything is fair game - couches, table cloths, water bottles - you name it, she'll try to climb it, almost always with success.

It was therefore no surprise that after I myself climbed up on a step stool that a moment later I could feel the little hands of Julia climbing up beneath me. I had to step down and grab the camera. She obliged me with a smile and her head cocked at a playful angle.

I just hope her climbing ambition doesn't excede her climbing skills. I see bruises and knots on her head in her future (yes, I'm psychic).

Cotton Candy

The main event of the county fair wasn't the pig calling, or the livestock auction, or even the toss-a-dart-at-a-balloon-for-a-lame-poster championship. No, it was our girls trying cotton candy for the first time.

The twins were dubious at first, and I couldn't blame them. Few things look less food-like than pink and blue lumps of fiber. That said, they had faith in their parents when we tore chunks off and cajoled them into eating it. They were hooked immediately.

We actually had a number of people who stopped to watch and take photos. Like I said a couple of days ago - mini-celebrities.

Julia took a bit more convincing, which surprised us. She has no problem stuffing dead leaves and spider webs into her mouth, but then she balks when daddy crams some pink stuff in her mouth? Come on!

After a few moments of sitting and contemplating her options, she finally got a taste of it and, like her sisters, demanded more.

Come to think of it, Julia spent quite a bit of her county fair time begging for various foods from her seat in her stroller. Not all of it was cute enough to photograph.

Flower Girls

On Sunday was my aunt's wedding. Several months ago she asked that the twins serve as flower girls for the big event. We were honored and excited by the invitation. It took quite a bit of effort to get the tutus and the hair scrunchies properly lined up, but it was worth it. Here is the end result:

As you can see, everything turned out painfully cute (please note the petal-laden baskets beside them). Not even the splendor of the Blackhawk Golf Course (in the background) could dim their beauty.

Kate and Genna were given specific instructions: walk down the center aisle, BE CUTE, and toss the petals as you go. They excelled at the first two tasks, but failed at the last (only Genna remembered to toss her petals - and only after the bride had left). Their cuteness was so over the top that every camera in the 150+ person crowd was focused on them and snapping shots feverishly.

[gasp] I need to take a moment here and pull back from my fatherly pride in my girls. I am being undone. Okay. All better. No wait, here's another adorable photo! AAAAHHH!

They were very intrigued by the geese, ducks, and fish in the lake behind them, and spent quite a bit of time leaning out for a better view. This scene was so enchanting that people - complete strangers - stayed behind to photograph it. Even the paid photographers scrambled to capture the moment.

I am becoming way too feminized. Will someone invite me to go to the rifle range, or to a monster truck rally, or strike up a conversation about tanks or motorcycles? Anyone? Please?

Free of Charge

The county fair was fun and free of charge. All except for the food and rides, which cost both an arm and a leg. For Kate and Genna to take a three minute ride on a pink elephant rip-off-of-Dumbo ride it cost $5!. The rest of our $20 strip of tickets was spent on a single Ferris Wheel ride.

But, looking at these photos, it was worth it. It was their first ride without mommy and daddy. We were nervous at first, since they had to be placed in their seats by a gruff, rough looking ride operator (carnie). He turned out to be pretty nice, though.

I guess we'll keep them. Their pretty cute. We'll just have to take out a second on our house next year to fund additional rides.

Grand Champions

Cute little twin girls are automatic mini-celebrities. You wouldn't believe how many people comment on our girls and even ask to have their pictures taken with them. It is fun, because by extension Annie and I are celebrities, too. The auto-fame of Kate and Genna kicked into hyper-drive at the Yolo County Fair this weekend.

Evidently, there are few things that will draw a crowd more than our two bonnet-wearing twins seeing their first large cow up close and personal (no fence between them). See the people standing there? That is only part of the circle that formed around us as people gathered 'round to see a pair of award-winning twins be introduced to an award-winning bovine.

The owner was so enchanted by the image that he brought over the cow's "Grand Champion, Yolo County Fair 2006" matt for our girls to hold up. You can see the cow standing next to the twins (who have learned to ham it up for the cameras) - the cow seemed to have grasped the chance for a great photo op and stood still for several seconds while the camera flashes and shutters started up.