November

Thanksgiving has come and gone. Dinner went pretty well. The food was good; the turkey came out pretty tender and the mashies were yummy. The only problem was that Adam was not a happy camper. He was whining and crying all day, not normal behavior from our mostly sweet little boy. When my mom came in, Tessa greeted her, but Adam was nowhere to be found. "I think he's under the sofa," I said. It was that kind of day. He screamed until he was held by either the Missus or myself. Kind of cut down on the fun.

The next day he was perfectly fine, of course.

Tessa is smarter than me already. Today, the Missus was driving the kids over to pick up her mom, who is staying with the Missus' sister. Tessa said, "Mommy one day I'll be driving and you and Daddy will be in the back seat."

The Missus called me at work and told me. Twenty more hairs turned gray.

At least they didn't fall out.

The Wiggles!

Last Thursday, we took The Wiggles Express downtown to see The Wiggles Show at the Verizon Center. I dubbed our Orange Line Metro train so because of all the children aboard, starting at Vienna where we got on and continuing for every station into the city. Some of the parents were toting roses--for Dorothy the Dinosaur, don’t you know.

It was quite an adventure for the twins, who enjoyed every bit of the trip, from going through the turnstiles and down the elevator at the station, to standing in line for $4 soft pretzels and seeing the show itself. Adam has always loved trains so the journey was a special treat for him.

At the arena, we may have broken up a little scam. Before the show started, the lady sitting next to us needed to take her daughter to the ladies room. She asked us to watch her stuff. A few minutes later another woman showed up and said she’d left some jackets asked us if we’d seen any. The Missus guarded the jackets left in our care and the woman left. It didn’t occur to me until later that this was a scam. I guess I was too excited waiting for the show to start.

Adam liked the show, but Tessa was rockin’! I took a video with our little camera of her dancing like a maniac to Hoop-De-Doo, tongue out. Neither of the twins seemed to miss Greg, the former Yellow Wiggle. The new guy, Sam, seemed to do fine, though he was pretty pudgy. He looked like me up there at some points--not pretty.

I enjoyed the show too, though it was rather short considering all the bucks I paid for it. They know their target audience--it was just long enough, the twins didn’t have time to get bored. I admit that I was singing along with all the classic Wiggles songs, including Fruit Salad, We’re Dancing with Wags the Dog and of course their finale, Toot Toot, Chugga Chugga, Big Red Car. It was awesome!

Murray Cook, otherwise known as the Red Wiggle, is supposedly a talented rock guitarist who plays with grownup groups in Australia on the side. When he does moonlight, he does not wear red. In the show he played the start of Stairway to Heaven, as a little joke for the parents, before he started into the Wiggles hit, Play Your Guitar with Murray. I have a dirty little secret to share: I prefer the Wiggles song.

Halloween

When the twins went off to daycare in the morning, Adam was a dog and Tessa was a doll. Somehow, by the time I got home in the evening, and the kids returned from trick-or-treating, Tessa was the dog, and Adam was a ladybug. A manly, rugged ladybug, for sure, but a ladybug nonetheless. That'll teach me not to work late.

The twins went trick-or-treating with their cousins. They had a ball.