I got back home from the perinatologist and started our number recognition lesson with the twins for the day. I was quite excited to play “teacher” to my twins again as I continue to encourage them to count from 1 to 10.
Nursery rhymes are their favorite and if we allow them, they can even spend hours watching cartoons and children singing the alphabet song or goofy pigs and sheeps dancing to “Head, shoulders, knees, and toes”.
I was exhausted from our two-hour session with the doctor and the quick stop at the supermarket to buy some essentials – including ingredients in making lasagna which Jeff will cook tonight and then freeze and serve as ‘zombie food’ as we go through the sleepless nights and exhausting mornings caring for a newborn. I was staring at the abundance of Milky Way, Snickers, Baby Ruths, Kitkat, and M & M’s sold for a mere dollar at Smith’s and my heart broke. Sigh.
And then there were specialty chocolates and pralines conveniently placed on shelves near the area where books and magazines are. Don’t you just hate it when you constantly run into things (or people) which (whom) you try very hard to avoid? I was so close to grabbing a package but the thought of my glucose meter’s annoying beep indicating a blood sugar level of 200 mg/dL is not at all encouraging. So I walked away from that area and told my husband that he needs to buy me that package of chocolates after this pregnancy. He didn’t have any choice but to agree. I’m stubborn, aggressive, abrasive just like that. To not hurt my own feelings, I decided to buy a sugar-free brownie with only three grams of sugar and eight grams of carbohydrates. It’s not the best tasting brownie in the face of Mother Earth but this will do.
At least for now.
The twins were decorating the trash can (spell coloring the exterior) when we arrived. We said goodbye to our babysitter and Nicholas was quick to notice the bags of goodies and immediately asked for a cookie. You now know who finished my sugar-free cookies.
I was determined to start using the flash cards I earlier brought from the Dollar Tree Store so I called the twins and started the session with pictures of Pooh and Piglet. Then…we started counting.
I was so happy for Antoinette who can now count 1-2-3, skips 4 and 5, and then completes the rally with 6, 7, 8, 9, 10 in a very enthusiastic voice accompanied by a jump and a proud grin on her pretty face.
Nicholas counts from 1 to 4, pauses at 5 and 6 to contemplate the fate of Hillary Clinton in this entire mess involving servers and computers, questions me about the difference between 8 and cake, and finishes the round with 9 and 10.
The Winnie the Pooh flash cards only costs $1 per set and they recognized and said everyone’s names in the cards except for Kanga (Roo’s mother). Antoinette confuses “Kanga” with “nganga” (Cebuano for “to open one’s mouth”).
These are fun and exciting times, I thought to myself. Twin toddlers who will be 26 months old soon and another baby coming in the next two to three weeks. I’m sure it’s not going to be fun when I drag myself out of bed every night in the next month or so to breastfeed Baby No.3.
I’m already bracing for that…
But for now, I rejoice with the recent milestone that the twins have accomplished. I have said this time and again, and I will say it again today, there’s something about motherhood that makes a woman feel accomplished whether it’s seeing the children put their toys away or utter their first “I love you” (even when it’s really not the three-letter expression of love but some unintelligible blabbering resulting from the baby’s repeated attempts to exercise her/his vocal chords).
I’m proud of how the twins performed today. They know their numbers now. We’re focusing on just numbers this week.
In two weeks, the spotlight will be on colors. Should be another exciting session.
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T30WC or The 30-minute Writing Challenge is a writing exercise born out of this blogger’s need to maintain a habit of writing. Subjects of each writing challenge is just about anything but should ONLY be written within 30 minutes.
