Tough love

Oh boy, it's been a while. So much to update and the thought of it all is a bit overwhelming.

For now, a little twin story:

I put the twinnies to bed tonight and left the room introducing them to the Good Girl Jar. We've been struggling getting un-interrupted sleep these days due to the twins' new found absolute and utter HORROR and TERROR of being left alone in the dark (or light, actually). We are going on a trip to DC to visit the Riches on April 1st and then off to Utah again and when I announced the great news to the twins, they could not, for the life of them, understand why on earth we were not getting on a plane that very instant if I had already purchased the tickets. All I could think of after 3 days of incessant complaining was to explain that we had to wait for the mailman to come and drop them off (note: there is no such thing as mailmen in Guatemala so this worked great for the mythic proportions I would be attributing to him).

There was a catch, of course: the mailman would only come after Lucy and Linda had been EXTREMELY good, that is at sharing, being kind/generous, cleaning-up, etc. This was also the perfect opportunity to throw in how utterly important it was that they sleep through the night and not bother Mommy, as well, because of course, there was no way the mail man could come other wise.

Well, after a week of continuous sleepless nights (and me being just a titch frustrated at telling Dave I woke up 5 times last night, only to hear him say, "Whatever, you got up maybe once"), I decided to bust out the Good Girl Jar, recommended by a couple different wise mothers I know. So now, IF the twins stay in bed ALL NIGHT LONG, I will put a skittle in the jar and once it's full, the mailman will come, and we will be off on our trip! Genius.

As I began outlining different things they could do to earn a candy, one twin would immediately do it. It was pretty funny. Honestly, I started with:

So, you will earn a candy if you SHARE.. and then seconds later, Lucy looked over at Linda (and the toy in her hand) and said, "Linda, will you please share with me??" I tried not to laugh out loud at Lucy's ability to see how she could personally capitalize from this situation. Sweet Linda considered the question/demand, and then somewhat begrudgingly handed it over. LUCY then asked me if I was going to put the skittle in the jar. I did as I was told.

Next on the list of candy-worthy behavior was KISSING and HUGGING each other. This time both turned to one another and gave each other a fierce embrace and kissed each other smack on the lips, and then simultaneously looked over at me with a twinkle in their eye, and another candy was dropped in the jar.

Anyway, I eventually left the room after our little bedtime routine and left the door open. A few minutes later I heard some muffled yells develop into some serious screeching. I got to the door only to hear Lucy say " I just NEED to kiss you Linda" , while Linda was on her back, with a straight arm to Lucy's head. It was so endearing, I let them wrestle for another minute or so before I broke up the love fest.