Adventures of Sweet Friends

It is so fun to listen in on a conversation between two kids who are the same age and have never known life without the other. We are certainly in a unique position--something that I have to remind myself to be grateful for, especially because it also involves lots of fighting and biting. These pictures were taken in the park when the kids were on a search for the "gooey geyser" (something from a Dora video). They take scenarios from videos or books and recreate them in our apartment or in the park. We are entering imaginary play--such a fun stage to be in with twins.

Together they also instigate not-so-desirable adventures. They love to move chairs to climb wherever they want to get whatever they shouldn't have. The other day they helped each other get all of the keys down from the key rack. They proceeded to put some keys in the hole in Dad's guitar, while trying to fit another key in the electric outlet. Not a good idea.

Perhaps their most fun moments together are spent in their separate cribs before nap and bed times. This has always been the case for them, but they've recently taken it to a new level. The old repertoire included throwing everything out of the bed, jumping, singing, laughing, crying, etc. Now they've extended the time of play (often 2 hours) and have added the removal of clothing (including the diaper). We check in after an hour performance and find them completely naked in a bare bed. You just have to hope that the diaper is empty before it is catapulted from the bed. (Once Arthur performed in his own poo. A very messy event.) Besides the loads of fun that they have together, the only positive outcome of this is that Mom's "nap time" is potentially much longer. Unfortunately, they don't sleep any later in the morning...still early risers. In fact, a couple of times they've cried at 5 am because they were naked again without their blankets. Did they perform in their sleep?

On to the pictures of sweet friends...

The Galt Diet and Money-Managing Plan

Simple one-step plan:
1. Never purchase any sweet items from the grocery store. This prevents unnecessary additions to your waist or subtractions from your bank account.

Exceptions:
In the event of a sweet craving, walk across the street to the bodega (local convenience store) and purchase a roll of cookie dough for $4.99. It might be twice as expensive as grocery prices, but at least the sweets are not permanently occupying your house.


*The Galt family has followed this plan for 8 months and has avoided any significant weight gain or banking deficits. One of the exceptions occurred a few minutes ago, and the plan proved successful.

Breakfast at McDonald's...Dinner in the Hamptons

We have Uncle Marshall's car for the week, so we decided to explore on Jamison's day off yesterday. We drove up Long Island to see the various beaches and towns. It is theoretically 3 hours to the tip of Long Island. In actuality, we were still in New York City proper 2 hours into the trip...1 hour in Brooklyn, 1 hour in Queens. All of this stop-and-go traffic forced us to make a stop at McDonald's--a place we haven't visited in the 8 months we've lived here. I ordered a Sausage McMuffin at 11 o'clock, apparently at the switch from breakfast to lunch. The cashier informed me that they were out of the circular egg patties that go with my choice of sandwich. Would I like the fold-over egg thingy instead? It's been a long time since I've had fast food...where were they getting these pre-shaped eggs? So I opted for no egg. By the time I got around to ordering something for the kids, they were hand-rolling the breakfast menu to the lunch menu. Voila! So the kids and Jamison got cheeseburgers.

For dinner we stopped at what looked like a great find- the Southampton Publick House Microbrewery. It was located in a quaint wooden house near the beach. The inside revealed it to be an overpriced menu with an Applebee's atmosphere. The only affordable item was the burger...I gladly would have enjoyed another McDonald's value meal over the $9 burger at this restaurant. Next time we'll read up on the Hampton's travel books before we make a decision.

Aside from eating, we stopped at several beaches, all of which were beautiful. The kids were impressed with the "big sandbox," as Arthur called it. We underestimated how cold it was, though. We were so excited that the temps were in the 50s, so we wore light clothing. Adaline and I were shivering the whole time. We took turns using our one towel to cover our heads. The boys had a great time running from the waves. We can't wait to spend more days at the beach. Here are a few pics from the day.





This is the lighthouse on the tip of Long Island-Montauk Point.