Chalk and Cheese is an old idiom that means:
"Two things that seem alike but which are in fact very different."
My twins are as different as chalk and cheese.
We have one PSP and two boys. Our PSP has been underutilized as anything but a gaming device. True, I use it to watch movie downloads, but I do so only after my boys have gone to bed and there isn't any competition for it. Otherwise, my boys only want to use it as a gaming device.
Today, the PSP is in time out. Let me just say that when you are a 5-year-old boy sharing a house with another 5-year-old boy, the hardest thing in the world to do is to share a PSP.
Although we make our boys earn the right to play the PSP (good behavior, etc), we only have one unit which means they have to alternate turns with it, 30 minutes each.
It's hard to get 5-year-old twin boys to share a gaming device and because we haven't figured out how each boy can have his own profile, they build instead on what each other has played and therefore, don't get the full experience of playing at each level.
We have one other portable gaming device at home, and it sits abandoned. My boys only have eyes on for the PSP. They used to love this other device. We tried making them alternate devices on road trips, but the boy who lands the "other" device always feels disappointed. Angry, even.
They each want their own PSP.
As the PSP sits untouched in time out, my boys have been trying hard to
reform their behavior. They know that if mommy were to win a trip to BlogHer '10 in New York City, she might leave the PSP behind!
Well, that's not entirely true. If I were to win a trip to BlogHer, I
might leave TWO PSPs behind. That's right, I would use the money I save on a conference pass to buy another PSP so that each of my boys would have his own.
I rarely buy two of anything for my boys but in this case, I think it
will save our family's sanity if we were to have two PSPs.
Of course, that might also mean we end up with two PSPs in time out. And two boys in time out as well.
Needless to say, my boys are rooting for me to go to BlogHer!
2010 World of Color Road Show: San Francisco, Sacramento, San Diego, Los Angeles
The Disney's World of Color Road Show transformed San Francisco's Legion of Honor last week into a dazzling display of color and light. I was among a small group of Bay Area mom bloggers who were invited to see the World of Color inspired nighttime spectacle up close.
I have not yet been down to Disney California Adventure Park to see World of Color with its backdrop of powerful dancing fountains, but when the Legion of Honor stepped into the starring role, it did not disappoint.
We arrived wearing pea coats and scarves, stepping into the darkness while city lights twinkled in the distance. The austere familiar facade of the Legion of Honor was trimmed in neon green lighting which gave way to a mixture of Disney movie animation and special effects. With Disney music swirling around us, we were transported through the theme of love. We watched love struck Disney and Pixar characters waltz against the stone walls of the Legion of Honor four times, with each showing showcasing a different voter-driven color (the show was simulcast).
If love was the theme of the San Francisco road show stop, I certainly felt it. It would have been the perfect setting for some lucky couple to get engaged. This was Disney magic at its best.
If you would like to follow the World of Color Road Show on line to more California landmarks, here are the road show dates:
San Francisco - July 7 & 8 at the Legion of Honor; theme: Love
Sacramento - July 15 - 18 in Old Sacramento; theme: Nature
San Diego - webcasts will be live July 22 - 25 from the USS Midway in San Diego; theme: Water
Los Angeles - July 29 & 30 at the Walt Disney Concert Hall in downtown Los Angeles; theme: Sky
Filmed on my Flip. View Disney's more beautiful version on You Tube.
I should have seen it coming that day when I watched the grainy screen at one of those early ultrasounds. My boys, still in in utero, floating in a silent space and then, suddenly...KICK...HIT...WHACK. I had a ringside seat to a fetus fight. My husband and I laughed but it certainly was alarming to see our tiny babies go at it like that. Couldn't they just put webbed fingers together and somehow hold hands?
Everything was going so well until this past year at preschool when one was asked to go on a play date and not the other. It was a miserable FAIL. I'm well aware of the benefits of separate play dates and I embrace them, but with my competitive two, one social and one tentative, it doesn't work just yet. The repercussions are brutal, with one twin suffering beyond just tears as a result.
My boys are best friends, but they do fight. They are competitive. They spend so much time together, that they need a breather, they need a chance for each to develop his own set of friends. They are fiercely independent, always fine on their own without each other, without me. But they also thrive on the bond they share. They share laughter and love, but they need a chance to develop into their own persons.
When my boys go off to kindergarten, I'll be separating them. I know it's the best thing for them, for their classroom, for their teacher, and for our family.
When you think of young twins, you might think of double blessings,
double strollers and double adorable trouble. In the early days, you
might outfit your twins in matching or coordinating ensembles. You
might dress them in onesies with cute little sayings such as Twin
A/Twin B or Copy/Paste. You might push them about town in a Snap n Go
stroller while strangers coo, "Oh, look at that, twins!"
Life is an exhausting sweetness.
When your multiples club hosts a kindergarten readiness seminar,
the talk turns to the issue of whether or not to place twins
in separate classrooms when they enter kindergarten. Most of the parents in attendance shake their heads at
the idea. Kindergarten seems worlds away when you're still dealing with
potty training and shopping around for preschools. No, you say, I can't
see the need to separate my children, but I will deal with it when the
time comes.
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