Thankful for 5 years

One of the things that got me back to churning out blog posts was a recent dig into the Mytwintopia archives. I had just measured the twins for their 5th birthday stats and read somewhere that kids height at age 2 doubled will be their final adult height. I scratched my head trying to recall how tall Sugar and Spice were at 2 and ended up on their 2nd birthday posts. The nostalgia! Back then, I didn't imagine a time would come when my memories would be blurry. However, as the years have rolled by, the memories have blended into one big glob of happiness in my mind so I'm really grateful and blessed to have things recorded and documented on this blog. (Speaking of documentation, Johanna is queen and she's building one heck of a memory book for her twin girls.)

So we celebrated the big 5 last week. I had initially planned on the girls having their first birthday party at age 5 but with daycare friends behind us and kindergarten friends still being too new, I put that off for another year. (Introvert mom thinking). Instead, they had a birthday fun weekend and took cupcakes WITH SPRINKLES to school on Monday. 

With an overwhelming sense of gratitude, I can tell you that this parenting gig just keeps getting sweeter and sweeter. Here's a snapshot of year 4-5 in our world.

Ms Spice at Five (In Her Own Words with mama's comments)
Favorite color: Turquoise I'm 38 and I have no idea which shade of blue qualifies as turquoise.
Favorite food: White rice The Nigerian in this one is strong
Favorite animal: Giraffe. Still in love with that Jellycat Giraffe stuffy I got her for her 2nd birthday. 
Loves to do with daddy: Taking pictures with him The king and princess of selfies
Loves to do with mummy: kissing her. Can you see why I can hardly say no to this sweet child?!
Wants for her birthday: a new stuffy bear. Not happening for now. The minimalist in me is capping the number of stuffys per child. If she wants a new one, we'll have to eliminate one of the old ones

Ms Sugar at Five (In Her Own Words with mama's comments)
Favorite color: Sparkles Last year, her answer was rainbow. Talk about skirting the question. Future lawyer?! 
Favorite food: Spaghetti and meatballs The farmer's market-bought  meatballs, not mama-made ones
Favorite animal: Puppy. She's got 6 stuffed dogs and now realizes that she can ask for a real one. Trying to hold out till they're 6. 
Loves to do with daddy: Playing hide and seek In the same 3 hiding spots. LOL!
Loves to do with mummy: helping to make some food. Still true to her primary love language. Actually, they both are. Glad I read that book or I wouldn't get it
Wants for her birthday: a beautiful, beautiful present and a cute, cute puppy. One beautiful and one cute is never enough

Other details 
The physical data
Ms Spice weighs 36lbs and is 42.5in tall. That's around 20th percentile for weight and 35th for height. 
Ms Sugar weighs 35.5lbs and is 44in tall. That's around 17th percentile for weight and 70th for height
Both girls are too tall for 5T clothes and too skinny for size 6 clothes. It's driving me bonkers. They're both wearing size 12 shoes  

Food and eating habits
In the spirit of keeping this post positive, Imma leave this section blank

I can't believe that I missed the 4th birthday post and the last update I have is from the twins' 3rd year. Boo!

The title of this post says it all. I am so very thankful to God for 5 years of the good, the bad and the best. I wouldn't change any of this for the world.

Happy Thanksgiving to you guys down south. I'm celebrating my happy days with the Happy Days linkup

Let's play catchup

It feels like it's been a lifetime ago since my last post but it's only been 6 months. 6 months of soooo much going on that I find my last post to be quite poignant. The picture in that post is my dad with Spice. It's one of my favorites ever. 

My dad passed away in August. It's been a few months now but my feelings are still so raw that words are inadequate; no words can fully convey the mind-blowing pain of losing a loved one. Especially someone as incredible as my dad. He put so much effort into being the best parent that he could. My mind was blank for the first couple of months but now I see reminders of him everywhere. The twins just turned 5 and for the first time, there were no birthday cards from Grandpa. Outside of the card from mommy and daddy, the card from grandpa was the only other sure one for their birthday. I could have a verbal projectile vomit right now and just keep writing about my dad (it's therapeutic too) but I'll stop here for now and move on to other updates.

In other news, the girls started kindergarten and the transition was quite challenging for us a family. 3 months in, most of the drama is over and they're now fully settled in. Also on the family front, I have the opportunity to take a year off work. Even though the time off is partly due to the downturn in my industry, I heartily welcome the chance to realize my dream of being home with the girls for their kindergarten year. It's all working out for good.

In other not so relevant news, I deleted my Facebook account, dyed my hair red, started blogging again and have the number of a tattoo parlor programmed onto my phone. Is midlife crisis calling? Am I home? Is anybody still reading? Drop me a line in the comments pretty please. It's been a crazy season and it's good to be back. Blogging/writing is my cheaper form of therapy. 

The 30 Year Parenting Plan

Ms Spice helping grandpa with his button

I've just returned from a very short 6 day trip to Nigeria. I went alone. As in without the girls. As in I left my babies for 7 whole days!!! I think it was harder on me than on them but it had to be done as I really wanted to see my dad who's health has been quite poor lately.

The 46 hours of travel time plus the situation got me thinking about parenting beyond the first 20 years. My default parenting setting seems to have stopped at getting my college-graduates to move out of the house. The end! I've never really thought about my dreams as a parent when my kids are in their 30s and 40s and I'm knocking the door on 70. 

The Shadow Box Project

A little under 2 years ago, I read a blog post and was motivated to make a shadow box for my twins with their sorta-first dress. I found the shadow boxes on sale at Michaels, bought one for each girl and took them home. 

And they stayed in the basement for 18 or so months until this weekend. This weekend, we had junk removers come in and haul away the pile of crap we had in our basement and garage. In the midst of sorting out the must-keeps from the true-junk. I found the shadow boxes and supplies and decided it was now or never. I chose now.

Pick Your Own Farms Around Calgary

Spring is finally here in Western Canada and pretty soon, the trees will be brimming with fresh berries. History shows that I left my green thumb in Neverland so I've graciously given up the dream of having a garden or at least a potted plant where my kids can pick fruits and vegetables. Not gonna happen in this era. My face-saving and still-fun alternative is to take them to a U-pick farm somewhere around Calgary. 

If there's something Calgary is not lacking, it's a plethora of farms nearby offering everything from CSAs, to Upicks to hosting birthday parties. Here is a listing of the farms that are within decent driving distance of Calgary and offer Upick.