This past weekend we went on a big adventure with Granny and Babo to New York City to visit Uncle Patrick (aka Uncle Truckit). We drove to New Jersey and hopped aboard a train to Penn Station. The boys were thrilled to see the railroad tracks and ride on a real train, just like their beloved Thomas. When we disembarked in the city on Friday evening, we were overwhelmed by the crowded sidewalks and streets. The boys held our hands tightly as we forged through the masses, only asking to be carried when utterly exhausted. After some authentic NY-style pizza and a quick jaunt to Whole Foods with Aunt Frances, we decided to call it a day.

On Saturday we rode the Subway to visit the Central Park Zoo, where we enjoyed seeing strutting penguins, monkeys eating pumpkins, and a polar bear swimming laps. Then we walked to FAO Schwartz, only to discover that for some reason Mr. Schwartz was not interested in making bokus of cash by selling Thomas Trains. After getting lost trying to find the Subway stop, we finally made it back to Uncle Patrick’s apartment, devoured some Lucky burgers, then the boys and I crashed for a much-needed nap.

A couple hours later we awoke to darkness and pouring down rain, but nevertheless braved the crowded, wet sidewalks on our mission to find the Toys ‘R Us in Times Square. Upon our arrival, we were greeted by a huge indoor ferris wheel, a T-Rex that gesticulated wildly and roared, and a most impressive Thomas display. Dorothy and her gang must have felt similarly when they finally reached Oz. Since the boys had been on their best behavior the entire trip (and thankfully so, since anything less would have been disastrous considering our unfamiliar and rather chaotic new environment), Granny kindly promised to get each boy a special toy as a reward for being so good. It didn’t take Joshua long to decide upon Diesel 10 as his toy of choice. Joshua became somewhat frustrated with Caleb, who, in his usual fashion, was taking his sweet time deciding what he wanted. At one point Joshua grabbed a random train and thrust it at Caleb, saying, “Here, Caleb, want this one? Want this one?” because he knew the sooner Caleb made up his mind, the sooner Diesel 10 could come out of his package and play. Caleb finally settled upon a flashing orb of light on a plastic stick with a picture of a taxi cab and the words “Times Squares” emblazoned upon it. Leave it to Caleb to go into a toy store and come out with something like that! We then ventured out into the rain once more, this time to a cozy little diner for some delicious salad, spaghetti, and cheesecake, then back to the apartment where the sounds of car horns and sirens lulled us to sleep.

Having learned our lesson trying to maneuver luggage and two toddlers along the crowded sidewalks on Friday night, on Sunday morning we took a cab to the train station (I unintentionally hailed the cab myself, but felt like quite a city girl having managed to do so). At Penn Station, we bade Uncle Patrick farewell, thanked him for his hospitality, and boarded the train back to New Jersey. When we got home, Joe laid down on the street in front of our house and kissed and asphalt. We had a wonderful visit to the Big Apple, but it sure did feel good to be home in sweet Virginia!

Today Caleb peed on the big potty for the first time ever! He was extremely proud of himself, as you can see in this photo. Until very recently, the boys outright refused to even sit on the potty, so this is a big deal.

Caleb developed a bad diaper rash over the past couple days, so today I decided to let him go diaperless in an effort to air things out down under. In the absence of a diaper, he sat on the potty several times today. While sitting, we read books, played “where’s your nose/wrist/eyebrows/thighs/etc.”, and I even complied with his peculiar fashion specifications, including wearing a bib and blue socks on top of red socks.

Even as I was sitting here writing this, Caleb told me he needed to go so I sat him on the potty and he went pee again! Wow, twice in a row! Let’s hope he’ll keep this up!

Edited to add… Caleb peed on the potty again tonight! He wore a diaper briefly this evening when we went out to get dinner, but it was dry when he took it off when we got home, so that means he didn’t wet his diaper at all today. What a big boy!

Joshua, in his endless pursuit to acquire more Thomas trains, ever-so-sweetly asked me this morning, “Wanna go to the store and look for Duck? Wanna go to the store and look for Toby?” I said no, but that if he was a good boy he might get Duck and Toby for his birthday next month. “Be a good boy, get Duck for happy birthday!” Joshua chanted happily. Caleb, upon overhearing our conversation, was quick to add his request to their birthday wishlist. “Happy birthday get fire?” he asked, his eyes glowing. “Yes,” I assured him, “you can have fire on the candles on your happy birthday cake”. Caleb was so excited he could hardly contain his glee. In these uncertain economic times, it sure helps to have a son like Caleb!

Caleb and Joshua have invented a new game that sounds something like this…

Joshua: Baby toys
Caleb: Baby toys
Joshua: Baby Mommy
Caleb: Baby Mommy
Joshua: Baby wash your hands
Caleb: Baby wash your hands
Joshua: Baby happy birthday
Caleb: Baby happy birthday
Joshua: Baby fork
Caleb: Baby fork
Joshua: Baby macaroni
Caleb: Baby macaroni

Etc, etc.

They have a special “voice” they use when they play this game. It’s kind of a nasal monotone. They sound a lot like robots, actually. The boys take turns taking the lead, and the other twin is always happy to echo whatever nonsense his brother comes up with. We have no idea how they came up with this game. Maybe it’s all the recent talk about the baby in Mommy’s belly? Who knows. Anyway, it’s always amusing to hear what words or phrases they’ll tack on to the end of “baby” each time they play.

Here is a common conversation we have with Caleb on an almost daily basis:

Caleb: What are you doing, Caleb, Mommy?
Me: What are you doing, Caleb?
Caleb: Are you stickin’ your _____ in the _____?
Me: Caleb, are you stickin’ your _____ in the _____?

That’s right, he prompts me to ask him what he is doing, then insists that I repeat back to him the question asking him what he is stickin’. Fill in the first blank with finger, hand, foot, or some other body part. Fill the second blank with any household object. For whatever reason, stickin’ stuff in various places seems to fascinate Caleb.

This morning he stuck his hands through the bars of the crib (which we never took down after our friends and their baby visited us a couple months ago) and prompted me to ask him if he was stickin’ his wrists in the crib. The other day during dinner he touched his toe to the table and prompted us to ask him if he was stickin’ his foot in the table. He always sports a proud grin whenever he sticks something somewhere.

“Stickin’” is just another quirky phenomenon that occurs all the time in our house, and I felt it deserved a written record before Caleb stops doing it and we forget that he ever did.

The other day while we were at Mimi and Papa’s house, I was sitting at their desktop computer when Joshua stepped up to the computer case. He spoke into the glowing blue power button and air vents, saying in a deliberate monotone voice, “four-piece nuggets”. Hmmm… I think I’ll go hide under a McDonald’s bag while I contemplate making fewer stops at the drive-thru from now on!

Lately Caleb has become very interested in meal preparation. The moment he hears me turn on the stove fan, he comes running, asking to “see the cookens.” Last weekend he and Joshua helped Granny make popcorn, and then this past week I let him “help” me bake apple muffins and spinach lasagna. Caleb has always been the more detail-oriented twin, and seems intensely curious to observe the process of how things are made. He loves to observe eggs frying, water boiling, even bagels toasting. While Joshua sometimes likes to see the “cookens”, too, he is mostly content just to eat them!