Popcorn tea-party

We had a big weekend (that's "big" on our post-kids scale).

Can't remember Saturday; will write that up if I recall anything interesting.

This morning the girls slept until 7am, but Trudi had been awake since 4:30, and I awoke at 5:15. We went to the pool at 8:30 am, and toodled around in the toddler section. Hazel fell under the water a few times, but she only inhaled water once. Ivy trundled around the pool, throwing a ball I stole from the basket used by the swimming teachers. We all got cold, and vowed that next time, the girls will have their wetsuits on.

We got home in time for Trudi to collect her cousin Liv and her daughter Shanti, who are visiting from Cairns. Shanti is 9.5 months old, and she is walking confidently... amazing. She is almost as big as Ivy! So the three girls played together, bopping each other and yanking on shirts.

Because Ivy and Hazel enjoy their plastic tea-set, I've been planning to give them some real tea  in tiny china teacups. I used our visitors as an excuse to have a popcorn tea-party on the lounge-room floor. We had a big nappy as a picnic rug, and all three tiny girls had a little tea-cup. Shanti had water and the Ersvaer girls had milky weak Rooibos tea, plus they were all digging in a big bowl of popcorn. It was as much of a mess as you might imagine. The girls all entered into the spirit of Tea Party - tipping tea from cup to cup, stuffing handfuls of popcorn down their throats, drinking tea, putting popcorn into tea cups, and the like.

At lunchtime, Hazel touched Shanti's arm and said "SHANTI!!" and laughed, then she did it again fifty times.

By the time Trudi took Liv and Shanti to the train station, it was nearly an hour past their usual nap time. I put them to bed while Trudi was out, and they slept for two hours.

When they got up, we all went to the Diamond Valley Miniature Railway. I'd heard from other mums on the AMBA forum (other families with twins, triplets, or more) that it was good, but nothing prepared me for the geekiness and attention to detail. The trains and rails are 1/6 the size of real trains, and there are signals and points and dinging bells at crossings. There are two tunnels, and the girls had a blast. They were still and focussed the whole time, just drinking it all in.

Here's the embarrassing bit (there had to be one of these). I must be at a vulnerable point in my cycle, because the evident dedication of the railway dudes (and they did all seem to be blokes) touched me so profoundly that I got weepy and wavery. I confessed this to Trudi in the car on the way home, and she said that she'd noticed I looked weepy, plus my voice went squeaky. So. Great. I get publicly weepy over a miniature railway. This is not as bad as a time when I was pregnant, and really really very hormonal and vulnerable. I was in the car, listening to the local radio station report on a new roundabout somewhere in Melbourne, and that made me weepy. All those dedicated municipal workers SHAKY INHALE toiling for the safety SOB of the rate-payers INHHHHHALE and their chiiiiildrennnnnnnn HOWL SOB WAIL. I had to stop the car. I am not that bad any more. Really I am not.

Today Hazel has perfected the word HAVE-IT. She points to a book, and says "Have it", which means "I want to have it: give me that book". In the car on the way home from the railway, She kept saying "Cup. Have it. Cup. Have it," so Trudi stopped the car and I went around to the boot and got the bloody cup of water, and Hazel drank half of it in a few powerful slurps.

Just in case you thought I would not mention poo, POO. And also WEE. Ivy stays dry during her naps these days, so she wears undies. Hazel is often dry, and today she was not happy about having a nappy on, so I asked her if she wanted undies. She did. They were both dry after their 2-hour sleep.