Special Fridays

I am enjoying my kids so much these days. I'm not sure if it is their age or their interests...or if I'm settling into parenthood in a new way. Whatever it is, it's fun! Part of the fun is their independence and their ability to initiate and maintain play without intervention from me. So I get to observe and reflect on my kids rather than constantly entertain. Now they can actually enjoy one activity for 2 hours. TWO HOURS. This afternoon they spent 2 hours drawing pictures and taping them all over our apartment. I was busy cooking and barely spoke to them the whole time. What a change from the past 4 years of feeding and changing diapers and breaking up fights and rarely freeing myself from the floor of toys just to go to the bathroom. Now I'm experiencing the fruit of having twins as they play together and really enjoy each other (most of the time).

We have inaugurated "Special Fridays" this month. I surprise the kids with some fun activity in celebration of a good week at school (or simply a completed week in Adaline's case, who is still struggling to understand that she is not in charge of her class). I give clues along the way as they try to guess the activity. Today they had 2 surprises: #1 Uncle Marshall, who surprised them on the train platform and #2 the Natural History Museum. Adaline sketched most of the time and Arthur asked "why" most of the time. They experience the world so differently. I love my little artist and scientist!