Judah's twin

So, I'm a twin. I've talked with my mom about how difficult it was to have two little ones doing everything the same. She says that some things were harder (feeding, diapers, etc.) but that many things were easier than having one baby. She had already had two other kids and knew what she was talking about. Anyway, one example that she always cites as an easier feat is putting us to bed. Mom says it was easier to put twins down than one baby because we always knew there was someone else going down as well. And I guess we always enjoyed each other's company and really didn't mind naptime or bedtime.

Which finally brings me to the reason for this post: Judah's twin. Judah has this little guy (we call him Judah's buddy) that is a helmet-wearing (soft helmet, of course), baseball doll/blankie sort of a thing. A gift from Mum mum. I thought it was kind of funny at first. A while back, Judah was moaning that he didn't want to be in naptime anymore, and I could tell by his cry that he was still tired, so I put his buddy in with him. Voila! Happy Judah.

I'm calling it Judah's twin, because we think that Judah thinks it's another baby in there with him. He's always very happy to see him and will almost always smile and go back to sleep once he sees him. Today I caught this picture of the two of them cuddling together. You'll notice the resemblance. :)

The first St. Patty's Day Parade of the year!

Alexandria always has their St. Patty's Day pretty early so as not to overlap with the DC parade which happens the weekend before St. Patty's Day. It's been a tradition of ours to go and celebrate since we moved here in 2003. We have pictures of Charlie being worn at her first parade in 2006, and now we have the matching photos of Judah from this past weekend. We had incredibly beautiful weather and were able to spend the entire morning and part of the afternoon walking outside. Just perfect.

Above: Charlie sporting her green

Above: My favorite purchase from the Irish Walk

Below: Charlie's favorite purchase from the Irish Walk; though Paul and I suggested such names as Patty, Sean, and Eamon, Charlie decided on Cotton Candy Cane

Above: Clan Callahan

Blessed with snow again!

This morning, Charlie tiptoed into our room as usual, to tell me, as usual, "Mommy, it's light out. Time to get up." Remembering the snowy forecast, I asked Charlie to go to the window to check if there was a surprise waiting for her on the ground outside. Pitter-patter, pitter-patter, and a few seconds later, thump-thump-thump-thump back up the hall, (read in a SCREAMING whisper): "MOMMY!!! THERE'S SNOW!!! LOTS OF SNOW!!! AND IT'S STILL COMING DOWN!!! OUT OF THE SKY!!! MOMMY!!! MOMMY!!! GET UP!!!"

I'm so sorry that my poor little guy had to wear a salmon-colored snow suit, but it was so much easier to put this on him than all the pieces of a mismatched winter wardrobe, so there ya go.

And around lunchtime we received the word that Paul would have the whole day off as well!

This is a very sad and at the same time very funny attempt at putting Charlie on a non-sled. The scene is pretty anticlimactic. Thought I'd share:

After some fun family playtime in the snow, we decided to take a brisk walk up the street to our favorite coffee place. Charlie was very brave, despite several falls in knee-high snow, and Judah slept in the sling. We had a nice cup of latte, chai latte, and hot chocolate.

Then we braved the walk back home, this time upwind. Once we finally got in the door, we stripped off our snow clothes, took a bath, and changed into PJs for a "jammie day," at Charlie's request. :)