day seventeen rock and roll!!!
the twins are two here!
please enjoy :D
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"What's dat?" Leo asks, toddling up to the kitchen table and standing on her tippy toes to peek.
"These are gingerbread house kits! Mommy and I are gonna make them with you and Lala," Cady explains.
"A house?" Leo asks curiously, tilting her head. It doesn't look like a house. It's just a bunch of cookies.
"Mmhmm. We get to put the house together and then decorate it," Cady says as she puts all the candy decorations in little bowls.
"Smell good."
"It does smell good, it smells like yummy gingerbread," Cady says. "These aren't to eat, though, they won't be very yummy." Leo pouts. Cady ruffles her hair and picks her up. "Come here, you can have one of the gingerbread people we made yesterday instead."
That gets a little smile, and Leo eagerly takes the offered cookie Cady gives her. "I bit him head."
"You bit his head? You better hurry and bite the rest of him, then, he needs to be with his head," Cady chuckles. "Here, go give this one to Lala and tell her and Mommy to come to the kitchen."
"Okay!"
Cady chuckles lovingly as her baby toddles off full speed to find her family, armed with two cookies and calling their names as she goes.
-
"Hi, Bee!" Janis laughs as Leo crashes into her legs. "Whatcha got there?"
"Cookie!" Leo says happily. "For Lala."
"Lala's over there," Janis says, pointing to her sister playing with some stuffed dinosaurs. Leo heads over and proffers her extra cookie.
"Hewe, Lala!"
Layla looks up at her and takes the gingerbread man. "T'ank you."
"You welcome!"
"Good manners, girls," Janis praises. Leo comes back and continues munching on her own cookie before she remembers what she was supposed to do.
"Oh! Mommy," she says. "Mama say... um... go kitchen."
"Okay. With Lala?"
"Yeah."
"Okay, let's go," Janis hums, picking Leo up and going to grab Layla too. Layla cries out in surprise as she's suddenly snatched, but giggles as she's lifted up to her mommy's level. "Sorry Bug. Didn't mean to scare you."
"Is okay," Layla says, taking another bite of her cookie. Janis carries them both to the kitchen and to Cady. "Hi Mama!"
"Hi, loves!" Cady grins when she sees them all come back. "Come here."
"Oh boy," Janis sighs when she sees everything set up on the kitchen table. "Do you really think they're big enough for gingerbread houses already?"
"I think if we help them, yeah," Cady shrugs. "It'll be cute, come on."
"Whatever you say, babes," Janis chuckles. Cady takes Layla from her and kisses her cheek.
"Who do you want to work with, girls?"
"Mama!" they both say at the same time. Janis pouts.
"Nobody wants to work with me?"
Leo looks up at her. "I wif Mommy!"
Janis grins at her and kisses her little icing-covered nose, earning herself a giggle. "Thanks, Bee."
"You welcome!"
"Alright, c'mere, then," Cady says, grinning at their interactions. She pulls her chair out and sits with Layla on her lap, and Janis sits with Leo on hers. "Here's your icing, and your cookies. And here's ours, and the directions."
Layla reaches out eagerly and holds the icing pouch. Cady chuckles and brings the cookies closer to start constructing their house. Leo looks eagerly at all the candy dishes around the table and tugs one closer to start eating.
"Lolo, don't eat all the candy yet, we need those for the decorations!" Janis laughs. She hands over a gummy leaf for her to nibble on and moves the rest of them out of her reach. Leo puts it in her mouth and pulls a face before spitting it out onto a nearby plate. "No good?"
"Spithy," Leo whines, refusing to put her little tongue back in her mouth. Janis frowns in confusion and tastes a leaf herself.
"Oh. Minty," she chuckles. "Mama doesn't like mint either. You can have one of these instead."
Leo seems much happier with her cherry flavored gumdrop. Janis chuckles and kisses the top of her little head.
"Alright Lala, can you hold this for me?" Cady asks, offering Layla a gingerbread rectangle. Layla carefully holds it between her little hands while Cady spreads a thin line of icing along one of the edges. She watches curiously as Cady takes it back and props it up against another wall. "One more time."
"Dose the walls?" Layla asks, looking up at Cady. Cady kisses her forehead and nods.
"Yep! Now we just have to glue these corners together and then all the walls will stand up on their own."
Janis is struggling a little bit more, her lines turning out less neat and the walls slightly lopsided. It's working, though, and neither she nor Leo complain.
"Where the roof?" Leo asks. Janis grabs the last two cookie rectangles.
"Here. Can you help me put some icing here?" Janis asks, tapping the edges they need to adhere the roof to. Leo nods eagerly and takes hold of the icing pouch. Janis steers while Leo squeezes, and before they know it, their house is up. Cady follows suit with Layla, and then they have two perfect gingerbread houses.
Or so they think. They pull away carefully so as not to bump anything and make the houses collapse, but to no avail. Leo and Janis' house falls first, rapidly followed by Layla and Cady's. "Uh oh."
Layla looks at her pile of house pieces and whimpers before bursting into distraught tears. She looks up at Cady with a wail. "House fall down!"
"Oh, snowflake," Cady hushes, picking her up and turning her around to cuddle and comfort her. "It's okay, we can put it back!"
Layla's crying prompts a similar reaction from Leo. She tries to put it back up herself first, and bursts into frustrated tears when it falls down with another clatter. Janis holds her close and gently pats her back to try to calm her down.
"Shhh, baby girl," she murmurs, kissing Leo's teary cheek. "Mommy can fix it, it's okay."
"Maybe doing this right before nap time wasn't the best idea," Cady sighs. "Shh, baby, it's okay. Let's go have a nap, and Mama and Mommy will fix the houses while you sleep."
Janis passes over Leo, who cuddles into Cady and cries into her neck. Cady pouts and kisses her forehead.
"Poor little loves, it's okay. I know it's sad," she hushes. Janis kisses each little cheek before Cady takes them upstairs to put down for a nap. In the meantime, Janis sets to work trying to repair the fallen gingerbread houses.
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Cady returns to find her wife facedown on the kitchen floor, with a pitiful pile of gingerbread bits on the table behind her. "Aww, Jayjay. You sad about the houses too?"
"They were so upset," Janis groans. "It's their first gingerbread house. The first Christmas they might actually remember. I want them to have a good one."
"They will, love," Cady says sadly, sitting next to her wife on the ground and gently tracing the tattoos covering her right arm. "They were just sleepy. They get emotionally fragile when they're tired. We can put the houses back up and they'll have a good time decorating them."
"I can't get them back up," Janis sighs, resting her head on Cady's lap and pouting up at her. Cady gently strokes some wispy hairs away from her forehead and bends down to kiss her nose.
"We'll figure something out. And if not, we'll come up with some other fun thing to do and get rid of the gingerbread evidence. Try again next year," she murmurs. "They are still pretty little, this might be a bit complicated for them."
"They're still too complicated for me," Janis huffs. "That icing does not work as glue."
Cady's eyes go wide. "Glue! We'll just glue the houses up!"
"But then we can't eat it," Janis pouts.
"Have you ever eaten a gingerbread house, anyway? They're kinda gross," Cady replies. "And we have, like, three pounds of cookies. They'll live."
"I guess," Janis sighs. "That is a good idea, though."
"Thank you," Cady says. "Can I get up to go get the glue gun?"
"No."
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"Hi, pumpkins," Janis greets gently as she goes to get the twins up from their nap. Their faces are still a heartbreaking pink even an hour later, with faint remnants of tear tracks lingering on their cheeks. "Good morning."
"Mommy fissa house?" Leo asks immediately, rubbing her eyes and reaching for her.
"Yeah, we fixed the houses," Janis comforts, picking Leo up and carrying her over to change her diaper. "They won't fall down again. We just have to get you little monkeys all changed and then we get to go decorate them!"
"Dec'wate?" Layla asks.
"Yeah, we get to put all the candy on them," Janis says. "Mama and I will help you."
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"Hi, loves!" Cady greets when her family makes a reappearance in the kitchen. "How was your nap?"
"Nap," Layla nods. Cady takes that to mean it was good.
"Good. Come here, come see!"
"House!" Leo says happily when she sees it standing steady. Janis nods and sits back in her spot.
"Yeah, we got the houses back! See, everything's okay."
Layla is a little more mistrustful and pokes at her house when Cady sits back down with her on her lap. Miraculously, it stays standing, made steady by the significant quantity of hot glue inside. Layla gives a content nod after her professional assessment of structural safety. "House."
"Good," Cady agrees. "You ready to decorate?"
Layla looks at her curiously and nods. Cady arms herself with a fresh icing pouch and half the candy bowls. Janis follows suit with Leo. "Okay, you pick out what you want to use, and then tell me where you want it to go and I'll use the icing to stick it on, okay?"
Layla nods, poking her tongue out in thought as she grabs a peppermint. Cady lets her take full control of what things go where and winds up gluing it to the side of the roof in a seemingly random spot. Layla happily points wherever seems to strike her and sticks random little candies all over the thing. Leo is more resevered, thoughtful with her placement, but still ends up with a similarly chaotic result.
"House!" Leo says happily when she's decided she's done, pressing her hands together in delight. Janis claps for her quietly.
"Good job, Bee!"
"Oh, Leo, that's beautiful, munchkin!" Cady says happily when she looks up and sees the delightful Christmas mess her daughter has created. "You and Mommy did such a good job!"
"Lala house," Leo says, looking curiously at her twin's creation. "Good house."
Layla points for Cady to stick on a final gumdrop and claps for herself. "All done!"
"All done? Good job, Lala! Look at your pretty gingerbread houses!" Cady cheers. "Come here, I want to take a picture."
Janis lets Leo slide off her lap and helps clear off the table so the focus of the picture is just the twins and their houses. Leo holds Layla's hand as they both stand in front of their respective gingerbread house and give their best smiles.
"Cheeeeeeeese!"
"Aww," Cady coos when she sees how they turned out. "Cute! Okay, let's get some dinner in these little tummies, hm?"
"Eat a house!" Layla offers happily.
"We can't have a gingerbread house for dinner, Bug!" Janis laughs, picking her up and holding her close. "We don't want to knock down those houses you spent so much time on."
"Oh."
"Maybe we'll have some other cookies after dinner. Come on, loves," Cady hums, leaning in to kiss Layla's cheek. Janis gets one too, making her smile.
"Cookie!" Leo yells happily, running to her high chair to get buckled in.
"After dinner!"
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hope you enjoyed!! see you tomorrow!!