MOSTLY FOR THE GRANDPARENTS

Still photography has not been equal to the task of capturing images of our extremely active two-year-old twins. So to meet the demands of a rabid public (read: grandparents) I present 60 seconds of Nate and Will jumping in their cribs.

They were doing something much cuter moments earlier, but they stopped when I got the camera out. Typical.

CUTE FIX FOR JULIE

Julie is out of town on business and missing the little guys. So normally I'd post a great big pile of new photos to help ease the pangs. But photos of Nate and Will aren't easy to come by these days. Still photography isn't really the medium that works best with these two.

So I offer these few pics as a place holder, with the hopes that I can get some good pictures soon. (For those keeping score at home, Will is wearing the blue shirt, Nate is in black)

PHOTOS FINISHED

I've not posted any photos of the little guys in quite a while, and I think you can see why...
Pretty much ever since they turned two, it has been almost impossible to get both of them in the same frame.And attempts at creative framing have had limited success...After much pain and sorrow, this was as close as we could get to a decent picture of Nate and Will with their mom and great-grandmother...And now they've got a secret language... more on that later.

A CHRISTMAS MIRACLE... SORT OF

It's nearly impossible to get a picture with Nate and Will in the same frame, but when we came into the room where they were sleeping and found this scene.

Two important things here. Nate and Will sleep in separate cribs, but Will crawled into Nate's on Christmas morning. They were certainly ready to go.

And, yes, they were in the same frame... sort of smiling. We've been trying for months to get a photo even kind of like this, so we're calling it our Christmas miracle.

Here's hoping you had your own little miracles this year.

THE DEVIOUS DUO

The little guys are getting older and smarter, and that's causing some problems.

Take Will, seen here dressed as a character from the Sound of Music. Will is learning words quite fast. Just the other day, he broke a safety lock on one of our cupboards... for the second time. Upon seeing the damage, I muttered under my breath, "crap."

"crap," said Will. He didn't yell it, he just whispered it, "crap, crap, crap, crap, crap, crap..." And on and on it went. I don't know that I've ever seen him take to a word like that, "crap, crap, crap, crap, crap." Several minutes later he was still saying it.

The next day at the mall, he started saying it again, only this time, he started shouting it, really loudly Unfortunately, our kids are pretty good about pronouncing their words, so it was pretty clear what Will was yelling.

But that's the least of our problems. Nate is getting sneaky. He's learning strategy. And it scares me.

In the above photo, Nate is doing his best Bigfoot impersonation, but he's found other ways to distract people.

Last week Nate was at a play center what had a giant checkers set. Workers had stacked the checkers to help clear the area for a coming visit from Santa. But when Nate sees anything stacked, he takes it as a challenge. After Nate knocked the checkers over a few times, our nanny put her foot down and physically blocked the little guys from getting anywhere near the chess pieces. This worked, for a moment...

Nate busied himself playing with a lemonade set for about 4 minutes, until he had a terrible "accident." The plastic tray and cups fell to the ground, scattering over a large area. Our nanny went out to help clean up the mess. By the time she looked up, Nate was already at the stacks of giant checkers and was moments from knocking them over again.

That's right, our two year old son has figured out how to create a diversion to distract from what he really wants to do. A part of me is impressed. Another part of me is terrified. To make matters worse, they're starting to cooperate.

Not always. The guys still fight a lot over stupid little things. But every now and then, they'll help each other find food or toys or other prizes.Just last week they worked together to stand on their mini-basketballs in order to reach items on our kitchen counters. I think they may also be hatching a joint plan to finally escape their cribs. This is not good news.Indeed, this is extremely bad news. If they team up, then they're at even strength with Julie and me. And they've got that secret language thing going, so they've got an even bigger advantage.

So if you see my guys in your neighborhood, keep a close eye on them.

And keep a close eye on your lawn ornaments. I've got a feeling these guys are up to something.

PHOTO QUIZ

Today, we offer a short photographic quiz and ask the following question: Which of our children was denied service at Great Clips? Was it Nate?
Or Will?Let's try that one more time. The child essentially kicked out of Great Clips because he was screaming too much was Nate?Or was it Will?If you guessed Will, you're correct. The haircutting woman said she had seen "Rosemary's Baby" the night previous and was still pretty freaked out. Apparently our child reminds her of the spawn of Satan.

HALLOWEEN RECAP

The little guys are finally getting old enough to understand holidays like Halloween, so we got them dressed up and went trick-or-treating. Will was dressed as Superman...

And Nate went as Batman...Rather than simply walking from door to door and begging for candy, we decided to to drive all over town visiting friends and begging candy...They did a pretty good job at scoring candy, but they're still not quite sure to do with the stuff...No need to worry, little guys. I'll take care of the candy. You just worry about staying cute.

CUTENESS AT A DISTANCE

Julie is in Florida this week, and she told me she's missing the little guys. So I thought I'd post a few pictures to tide her over until she can kiss her little boys again. Here's a snap of Julie and Nate.
And another with Will...And the same with both...And now a few pictures of the fun we've been having back home. Will has spent a lot of this week jumping on the couch...And Nate has kept busy by taking off my hat, putting it on is head, and then putting it back on my head. (For Julie's co-workers, that's a Campus Pipeline hat.)And we'll keep on having fun here. But we look forward to the day when Julie is back home with us. We love you!

SWINGTOWN

It has been much too long since there have been any cute kid photos here, so let's remedy that...

Last week temperatures went from flirting with 100 to hovering around the freezing mark. So we bundled up the kids and went to the park. And when we go to the park, they will inevitably spend a lot of times on the swings.

That's Will up there, being pushed by his grandma. And below, wearing the blue hoodie, we've got Nate...Nate's getting a push from his mom.Will also got some motherly attention...Taking pictures of the little guys on swings is not an easy thing because, as with all photo sessions, all Nate and Will really want to do is grab the camera.And the quest to get a good photo of both Nate and Will in the same frame continues. They move around so much that it's almost impossible to catch them together. So now that they're confined to swings, this should be a breeze. Just hold the swings and get them to look at the camera. And what we came up with was this...Oh well. The shade made that one a tough proposition anyway. Christmas card season isn't for another few months, so we'll keep trying.

SKANKIN' TO THE BEAT

The little guys are getting older and they're starting to develop their own musical tastes. This is hardy news. Before he was even born, Nate reacted strongly to hip hop, electronic music, and anything with a strong bass line. Will jumped around in the womb to soul music, especially with female vocals.

Now they're branching out even more. I'll tell a story about Nate later this week, but Will took the music spotlight this week.

In my ongoing efforts to keep the kids as far away from children's music as possible, I've been playing different kinds of music for them at mealtimes. One day, it was time to try a little second wave ska. When Will heard "I Just Can't Stop It" by the English Beat, he went nuts. While he's never seen such a dance, the kid started skanking. When each song ended, he looked at the stereo and said, "more, more." And when the next song would start, he would squeal with delight.

Efforts to document this have been difficult, as getting out a camera immediately alters any scene in our home. So I tried to get a short video of Will dancing when he was strapped into his highchair. It was only marginally successful. The 30 second clip below features shaky camera work as I tried to coax Will into dancing, then an explicit plea for him to do so. In the end there's about 10 seconds worth of dancing.

But still, it's something. And every day I've got him and his brother listening to the English Beat is one more day that they haven't had to listen to those damn Wiggles.

TUB TIME, MOSTLY NATE

For reasons I don't quite understand, Julie said she needed a picture of Nate and one of Will where their faces occupied no more than 1/6th of the frame. Again, I have no idea why.

So it was tub time, an that's a good time to get some cute pictures. So I pointed the camera at Will, and he gave me this...

Perfect. So now we need to get a picture of Nate which hopefully shouldn't be too much trouble, that is if he can stop putting that thing in his mouth...OK, now how about you give me a smile...Really? Perhaps a round of "Eency Weency Spider" will get you to smile...Now, look at the camera...Really? You're obsessed with cameras. Come on, look at me!Oh please, please look at me!Great, now, smile!You see, Nate, I need two things. I need you to look at me and smile. One more time...Nice, but I think your face is more than 1/6th of the frame. Can I get another?
And that's how you get your dad to take ten times more pictures of you than your brother..