Novice Egg Hunters

Makett and Tanzen had a blast finding Easter eggs. As they don't have previous expectations of finding candy in eggs, they were happy collecting as many eggs in their Easter buckets as possible. Tanny was intent on filling his bucket with as many eggs as possible, while Ketty was content playing with the egg he had found.

The videos aren't too terribly exciting--probably more enjoyable for biased grandparents/aunts/uncles...the rest of you may not be as impressed with our mad Easter skills!

The end of individuality

With the onset of toddlerhood has come strong opinions and preferences...actually, pretty much just one preference: What you have, I need. Tanzen and Makett are ready for little league football, they practice tackling daily. As you can see, the red Spiderman chair is SOOOOO much better than the blue one. They fought over the red chair for over a week until it was finally settled that Makett had the blue chair and Tanzen had the red. Not sure how they decided that, but I'm sure glad they did.

Below are some of their best moves.

Tanny using the "I'll just pretend you're not there" move

Ah, the "shoulder pull". This one is quite popular...even more so when the victim is standing and can be dragged to the floor.

Classic-- "I'll smash you till you give in"

If all else fails, the "cry really hard and look pitiful" play

Finally! A peace settlement! (ps, notice how Makett loves to take just 1 sock off?)

How times have changed...when we found out we were having twins I was determined they would have their own things-- I wouldn't make them conform to having the same of everything. That ended this week. For the time being, it's much easier to have them use the same color bowl, spoon, cup, etc. Nevertheless, even if they have the exact same thing, they still want the one their brother has. Toddlers!! They must have a 6th sense the rest of us lack.


The Ten Toddler Commandments...
1. If I like it, it's mine.
2. If it's in my hand, it's mine.
3. If I can take it from you, it's mine.
4. If I had it a little while ago, it's mine.
5. If it looks like mine, it's mine.
6. If it's mine, it must never appear to be yours in any way.
7. If you're building something, the right to knock it down is mine.
8. If I saw it first, it's mine.
9. If you are playing with something and you put it down, it automatically becomes mine.
10. If it's broken, it's yours.

Like Father, like son

Spring is springing, and Makett and Tanzen have been anxious to help Daddy in the yard.

Tanzen loved helping Daddy pick up sticks and throw them away-- notice Brandon in the background of the first picture.

Catching up...again!

Happy St.Patricks-on-April-3rd-day!!

Kilimanjaro-Day 6

Day 6- We finished the climb with a 4-5 hour hike out through the rain forest. We caught a last glimpse of the mountain before leaving Mweka camp. At the end we applauded our guides, porters, and cook. They sang and danced a Kilamanjaro song, which was a ritual upon arrival in camp each night. Now off to Safari. . .

Kilimanjaro-Day 5-the summit!

Day 5-The day started at midnight with a steep hike in the dark-the pace was slow, the guides would say, "pole pole" (pronounced pole-ay), which means slow and steady. Our steps were small, with the one foot not crossing in front of the other, and we had to be aware of our breathing because there was not much oxygen in the air, the slightest movement would get us out of breath.

The sunrise over Africa was amazing! We reached the 1st peak at around 8 am and had one final ascent to go, reaching Uhuru, meaning freedom, the highest peak in Africa at 8:30 am. The peak sits at 19,340 feet. All 9 people in our group made it to the peak, which is quite an accomplishment, there were groups after us in which the entire group did not make it. We were all blown away with the emotional rush at the top and felt that the hike was much harder than we could have imagined. The glaciers at the top were gigantic, rising 4-5 stories high.

Making it to the top was just the start of our day, we spent a half hour at the top and still had a long descent to go, one person collapsed on the way down and had to be carried to the next camp on a stretcher. The final camp was Mweka, sitting at 10,000 feet, we finally arrived at 7 pm after a long and amazing day of hiking.

Kilimanjaro-Day 4

Day 4 on Kilimanjaro- On day 4 we had to climb the Barronco wall which was super steep. We were now hiking in Alpine desert, which entailed lots of scrambling over boulders, cliffs, long up and downs and very little plant life as we passed through the Karango valley. Our camp, Barafu camp, was situated at 15,200 feet, by then we were all affected by the altitude to some degree, two people had thrown up, one threw up right at the sign for Barafu camp, saying, "Barfing at Barafu". We went to bed as early as possible after a good spaghetti dinner.