Happy New Year! As you know from my last post, ours started out a little rocky. Thankfully, nobody got terribly sick and we’ve all recovered and are back to life as usual. Most importantly, we are back to school as usual. The girls are doing well at school. Taya has really come out of her shell socially and has made several friends. Emi has also opened up some, but is still quite shy. I’m not sure how much she likes school. When I ask her about it she says it’s fine but ”It just takes so long.”

They still do gymnastics but didn’t want to sign up for any extra stuff They both did try their first bmx race. It was a disaster. Originally, only Taya wanted to race. We talked about how she might come in last, but we were very proud of her for trying and we would all clap and cheer for her. She was fine with it. Right before it was time to leave, Emi decided she wanted to race as well. At first, I said no because I wanted to let Taya have a chance for things to be about only her. Emi became inconsolable and really felt like we were picking Taya over her, so I caved. That was my mistake. Taya would have been fine coming in last if Emi wasn’t in the race. I knew Emi would beat Taya because she’s more stubborn. So then Taya became inconsolable. The whole night was full of drama and tears. We now have a rule that they alternate weeks to race. The season is over now and I’m not sure if they’ll want to do it again in the spring. This is one of the difficulties of twins. They never get a chance to shine on their own and it can seem like we’re favoring one over the other if we try to give one special treatment. They are always measuring themselves and competing against the other. For attention, affection, and now trophies. Hopefully, they will start to develop different interests and we can celebrate them individually.

Halloween was a great time. The girls didn’t necessarily go as a certain ”thing”, more like they put together a look. They each picked out a dress at the costume store, then picked out a wig, and then told me how to do their make up. They definitely rocked it and made off with quite a haul.

We had planned on going camping over Thanksgiving but Tim broke his collarbone that week at the skatepark and had to have surgery, so we laid kinda low until Christmas.

The girls love Christmas and couldn’t wait for the house to be decorated. Tim was out of commission so I had to do everything myself. Taya in particular, was vocal about how disappointing the outdoor lights were. Instead of climbing on the roof and having two broken parents, We took them to Christmastown at Busch Gardens. Tim took the girls on a “daddy daughter night“ to a Christmas musical. They got to get dressed up in pretty dresses and go out to eat and then the show. Pretty sure this will become a holiday tradition.

Taya Emi

We went to Iowa for Christmas and the first week we were there it was warm. We went horseback riding, roller skating and to the trampoline park. The girls asked everyday to go sledding. We told them that there was no snow in the forecast so sledding wasn’t going to happen. When a storm popped up out of the blue, they said it was a Christmas miracle especially for them. I hadn’t packed our snow gear, so the real miracle was that I could get snow gear together for everyone at the last minute.

The girls got another explosion of Barbie stuff for Christmas. Emi also really wanted Rainbow High dolls. I got them fashion design toys and learn to sew kits because they really are always trying to create fashion. They took the scissors to all their Barbie clothes in an effort to change things up. Barbie lives a tough life at our house. Dolls start out inside and play in the deamhouse etc. They end up naked, possibly missing limbs and sticky. Then they become outside Barbies, where more indignities await. They get buried alive, hung from trees, or end up face down in the ditch. Every Christmas, we replenish the indoor Barbies. They also got a new dreamhouse this year because their old one is missing walls, has paper peeling and graffiti on it. They don’t want me to throw it away so now they have a dreamhouse and what looks like a crackhouse.

Taya, Emi Emi Taya, Emi Emi

I can’t believe they’re seven! They really wanted to go sledding for their birthday but the tubing place wasn’t open so we went to an indoor waterpark instead. Everyone had a great time and we ended the evening with pizza and ice cream cake. They got more makeup, earrings and fancy play dresses for presents. On New Year’s Eve they finally got to go to the tubing hill in Andalusia.

I hope everyone is happy and healthy there. I’ll update again in May.