day 8 yaaaaaaaaay!!
the twins are 3 here!
enjoy!!
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"Hi, loves!" Cady cheers as her twins barrel towards her after a long day at preschool. "How was your day?"
"We maked cookies!" Layla says happily. Now that Cady looks closer, there is some colorful remnants of frosting around their lips.
"You did? That's so special, I bet they were so yummy," Cady says, holding both their hands and leading them to the car to go home. "We have something special to do today."
"Special?" Leo asks confusedly, tilting her head as Cady buckles her into her car seat.
"We're gonna make Mommy's Christmas present today," Cady says. Both twins' eyes go wide. "But it's a surprise, so we can't tell her, okay?" They both nod seriously. "Good. Okay, let's go home!"
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Cady hangs up her daughters' bags and coats while they both run down the hallway to greet the pets. She smiles as she hears the calls of "Daffy! Ellie!" bouncing slightly as they run.
"You two are so sweet," she says, following after them to find them aggressively cuddling Daffodil and respectfully petting Elvira's fuzzy head. "Okay, what should we have for snack?"
"Cookies!" Leo cheers.
"You had cookies at school! All that sugar will make your belly hurt," Cady giggles. "Little cookie monsters. How about some apple and peanut butter?"
"Oh! Yeah!" Leo agrees, excited at the idea of one of her most favorite snacks. It's not quite as tasty as cookies, but it's up there. "I can help?"
"Sure," Cady agrees. Layla looks up from her doggy and pouts.
"Me too?"
"Of course," Cady comforts, helping them both into the kitchen and onto the counter. "Should we have crunchy or smooth peanut butter?"
"Smoove," Leo says, as if there was ever a debate. Cady grabs the right jar from the cabinet and hands it to Leo to open.
"Alrighty, now what kind of apples?" Cady asks, picking up Layla and carrying her to the fridge.
"Gween," Layla says immediately, reaching in the produce drawer to grab some.
"Girls after my own heart," Cady chuckles. "Got 'em?" Layla nods, carefully trying to juggle her apples. Cady helpfully holds one in her off hand and carries her back to her sister. "Okay, here we go!"
"I can cuddit?" Layla asks.
"You can help," Cady says. "We need sharp knives for this one, so I'll help you so nobody gets hurt."
Layla stands on her little stepladder and rests her hand on top of Cady's to cut their snack. Leo helpfully proffers her jar of peanut butter and helps scoop a healthy portion onto their plate.
"What do we think, pumpkins?" Cady asks as they each take a slice and dip it in the peanut butter. "Good?"
They both nod eagerly, little curls bouncing around them.
"Good. Eat up."
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"Okay, are you ready?"
Both her daughters nod, looking curiously at the craft supplies covering the coffee table around them.
"What we doing?"
"We're gonna make a special present for Mommy," Cady says, pulling out a large jar. "We're going to decorate this and then fill it with notes and pictures from you two. So whenever Mommy feels sad she can pick one and remember how much we love her."
Both girls smile at her and nod eagerly. Cady smiles back and grabs some paint.
"Okay, Ladybug, give me your left hand." Layla pokes up her right hand. "No, that's right."
"I wight?"
"No, that's right. You're not right."
"What's wight?"
"This is right," Cady says, tapping her hand. "I need left."
"What?"
"Just... this hand, I need this hand," Cady sighs, taking the one she needs. Layla giggles at the tickly paintbrush bristles as Cady paints her little hand red.
"Tickles."
"It tickles?" Cady chuckles. "There we go. Okay, ready?" Layla nods. Cady positions her fingers so her thumb and index finger form half a heart, and then carefully presses her hand against the jar. "Perfect!"
Layla grins at her and gives a happy wiggle. Cady carries her to the kitchen to wash the paint off before it winds up anywhere it's not meant to be. Leo is pouting slightly when she returns.
"Okay, Bumblebee, your turn!"
Leo brightens and sticks out her left hand. Cady switches it for her right hand and paints it the same shade. Her fingers form the other half of the heart, and Cady grins when she sees it complete.
"Good job, pumpkins!" she congratulates as she carries Leo to clean her hand off. "Okay, now for your super special job."
They both look rather serious at the mention of a super special job. This is clearly a large responsibility.
Cady puts their plastic placemats down on the table, and gives each of them a stack of paper. She's cut it to be just large enough to fit their unpracticed handwriting and drawings, but just small enough to still fit into their jar. Cady wrote some cute phrases for them to copy and rests that paper in front of them, then each girl gets a box of colorful markers and free reign.
"Mommy loves your drawings, so you can color whatever you want on these cards," Cady explains. "And then this has some words you can copy on other ones, so Mommy can read them and remember how much we love her. And then I'll put them in the jar when you're done, okay?"
"Okay Mama!" they both cheer, eagerly pulling out some markers to draw masterpieces for their mommy. Cady smiles and takes the jar itself to work on.
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"Mama?" Leo asks as Cady finishes pasting a family photo on the back of the jar and surrounding it with little hearts.
"Yes, Bee?" Cady replies, taking a paint marker to label each handprint.
"What does dis says?"
"That says 'I love you'," Cady says. "Are you gonna write it?"
Leo nods and focuses in, poking her tongue out in her concentration as she grips her purple marker in her fist. It's slow going, but she does miraculously manage to fit all the letters in. Cady takes it when she pulls away with a proud smile to read it. The L is backwards and the lines are wobbly, but it's readable.
"Good job, munchkin! You're getting better at copying," she congratulates. Leo gives a proud little wiggle and reaches to write some more.
"Das a I," Layla says when she decides to start writing messages too. Cady looks up as she points to the paper with her messages on it.
"That is an I, you're right! What other letters do you see?"
"L," Layla says. "For Layla!"
"That's right! My smart little ladybug!"
"And a M!" Leo adds, pointing to the first letter in 'Mommy'.
"Yeah! What sound does M make?"
"Mmmmmm!" they both hum at the same time. Cady laughs and ruffles their hair.
"Good job. You two will be reading whole words before too long!"
"Mama?" Leo asks after a beat.
"Yes, little love?"
"Dis says Mommy?"
Cady looks up in shock and looks where she's pointing. Sure enough, she's pointing to the right word.
"Yeah," Cady breathes. "How do you know that?"
Leo shrugs. "M says mmmmm. And O says oooo. And Y says eee. I sticked dem togedder."
"Bee, you just read that!" Cady says in awe. "That's reading! You can read that word!"
"Oh!" Leo says happily. Cady grabs her to kiss all over her face. She's rather shocked that her three year old managed to piece that together on her own. But Janis does read with them every night, and teaches them all the letter sounds.
"I'm so proud of you! Mommy's gonna be so excited!" Cady cheers. Leo giggles happily as she's cuddled close and kissed all over before being popped back next to her sister to continue her work. Layla toddles up and holds up her drawing she's just finished.
"Mama."
"Oh, did you finish another one?" Cady asks. "Aww, you did such a good job!"
"Is our family," Layla explains. Cady pulls her onto her lap to let her point out all the shapes. The people are essentially potatoes with faces and limbs, but she knows it'll make Janis smile. "Das Mommy. And dis is me, and Lolo. And den Mama. And Daffy, and Ellie!"
"Good job, pumpkin! Your shapes are getting so good, I'm so proud of you!" Cady congratulates. Both of them are hitting some rather big milestones lately.
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"Look at that, girls!" Cady cheers when their special jar is all full of special messages for Janis. "Mommy's gonna be so happy!"
"When Mommy gonna come home?" Leo asks.
"She'll be home soon. But this is her Christmas present, we can't give it to her for a few more weeks. Or tell her about it." Cady is starting to realize she probably should have waited until they were a bit closer to the day to make it. Asking three year olds to keep a secret is sort of a big ask. Oh well.
"Oh." Layla sighs.
Cady smiles sadly. "Should we make something to give her today too?"
"Yeah!"
"Okay, let's see what we can do."
Cady takes to the internet and finds instructions for paper reindeer. All it takes is construction paper, glue, and some markers. And it seems easy enough to do in the hour or so they have before Janis comes home.
Cady pulls out the right pages from their large book of colored construction paper. She traces each little hand on the lighter brown page and cuts it in half. Each twin gets the half with their own hands on it and a pair of safety scissors to cut them out.
Once that's sorted and Cady can breathe a sigh of relief that her children have put down the sharp things, she squishes each pair of tiny feet together on the darker page and traces around that shape. Once again, each girl gets to cut out their own.
Cady helps glue the hand shapes to the darker part. Their hands form the antlers, while their feet make the shape of the face.
"A weindeer!" Layla cheers happily when she sees it put together.
"Yeah! And now you get to decorate them," Cady replies, giving them the markers again to draw the faces on. She grins at the wobbly lines that make up the shapes.
"Mommy be happy." Leo says contently as she grabs a red marker to make hers into Rudolph.
"She'll be so happy. She loves your artwork sooo much," Cady chuckles. "I do too. My little Christmas elves."
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"Mommy! Mommy!" both girls call as they hear Janis open the front door and start taking off her coat and boots. Janis laughs and bends down to catch them as they both barrel into her.
"Hi, baby girls!" she greets. "I missed you."
"We maked you some weindeers, Mommy!" Layla says happily.
"And-" Leo begins, getting cut off by Cady resting a hand over her mouth.
"The other one is a surprise, remember?"
"Oh," Leo nods as she remembers. "And a surp'ise."
"Ooh, I'm excited to see!" Janis says. "Show me what you made!"
They both go hurtling back towards the living room to grab their reindeer, allowing Cady a moment to greet her wife.
"Welcome home, my love," she murmurs, pressing up for a kiss. Janis holds her around the waist and kisses her back. "How was your day?"
"Good! I got a lot done," Janis replies. "Missed you."
"I missed you too," Cady sighs. They've been married for almost ten years, but it's still hard to be apart even for a single work day. "Did you know Leo's reading?"
"She what?"
"She can read," Cady says. "We made your Christmas present today and she could read the word 'mommy'. I didn't help her at all, she just asked me if that's what it said and told me she sounded it out."
"Really?" Janis asks. "They must have gotten your brains. Reading as a three-year-old."
"I think that's you, I was never much of a reader," Cady hums in reply. The twins come barreling back then, brandishing their paper deers for their mommy. Janis crouches down to see and holds each girl on a knee.
"Look at those reindeer! You girls did such a good job!"
"Dis is my hand," Layla explains, pointing to one of its antlers and holding up a small hand for Janis to compare. "And dis is my feets!"
"These feet?" Janis asks, holding up a little leg. Layla giggles and nods. Janis grabs one of Leo's legs too. "These feet?" Leo nods too, and they both shriek as Janis tickles their little toes. Janis laughs with them and stands up, kissing each little face a few times. "I think these belong on the fridge."
"Mommy is happy?" Leo asks as she's carried to the kitchen. Cady labels each one first while Janis finds some magnets to hang them up.
"I'm so happy, baby," Janis agrees. "I get to come home to my three favorite girls, and I get these beautiful reindeer you two made for me. I'm the happiest mommy in the whole wide world."
Cady comes up and kisses each face gently. "I love all of you so much."
"I love you soooo much," Janis agrees, kissing each of them as well.
My perfect family.
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tadaaa!! hope you enjoyed!!
see you tomorrow!!