More kids, more pages on this blog. This, however, will certainly be the last one. Just like the other three, the twins are getting their own space on here, too. But since life gets in the way of this blog more often than not these days, they’re going to share a page. Sorry, guys.
And the title, The N/A Chronicles? That stands for The Nat/Avit Chronicles, not The Nonalcoholic Chronicles. Life with 5 kids without some cocktails here and there? Not a chance. So check back here to see how the story of our twins unfolds.
(FYI, because I write so much about these kids, their pages are all broken into yearly chunks so as not to crash my site. I’ll keep the current year on the main page for ease of use. Enjoy!)
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January 7, 2022
We found out today that you guys got placed in a morning K4 session for next school year – hooray! There is always a lot more interest in the morning slots than the afternoon ones, so this year morning placement was by random lottery. I’m so glad you guys got in! Now I really hope you get Mrs. Koch like all your siblings did, but I know all the K4 teachers and paras are excellent, so we really can’t go wrong. Also, the fact that you 2 will be in school next year is CRAZY!
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January 14, 2022
Avit, you are such a chameleon. One minute you’ll be throwing a tantrum about something, the next, you’re the sweetest little boy ever. Today you were in Dr. Jekyll mode. I wore a turquoise sweater/sweatshirt and bright magenta leggings, and when you came into the dining room and saw me standing in the kitchen, you said, “I love that shirt!” 😀 Thanks, kiddo, I love it, too!
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January 31, 2022
Happy 4th birthday, my littlest loves! You two are turning into such regular kids, it’s kind of hard for me to wrap my mind around the fact that we’re done with babies. Not that I miss it, mind you – you guys get easier by the day the older you get. It’s so much easier to do things as a whole family instead of Daddy with the big kids and me with you two. You’re crazy, silly, hilarious, adorable, and truly so much fun. I love you both to the moons and back, and I hope you have the best birthday yet!
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February 24, 2022
You 2 are such clowns. Avit, the other day at the lunch table, I asked all of you to quit chattering and just eat lunch, because you, Nat, and Morrison were telling continuous strings of knock-knock jokes. So everyone falls quiet and continues eating except you. You said, “Knock, knock. Knock, knock. Anyone?” Goofball. Then on the way home from dropping Lana and Morrison off at school this morning, you 2 were telling knock-knock jokes to each other. I heard one about an apple and your favorite, the banana one.
We had your 4-year well check the other day, and here are your official 4-year-old stats. Lana and Morrison ended up having that day off school because of a water pipe break, so they got to tag along, too.
Nat
- Height: 3′ 6″ (83%)
- Weight: 38 lbs. 6.4 oz. (70%)
- BMI: 15.31 (39%)
Avit
- Height: 3′ 6″ (83%)
- Weight: 39 lbs. 3.2 oz. (75%)
- BMI: 15.62 (50%)
Everything looked great and healthy! Avit, your heart murmur is essentially gone, and you were thrilled to finally be able to show her your hops, since you couldn’t do it when she asked you at last year’s checkup. You have literally been practicing since the moment we got home from that visit. You could both do the duck walk with your hands on your feet, and you both passed the hearing and vision tests. Keep growing strong, my littlest loves!
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March 8, 2022
You guys are learning to write your names! I could not be happier, because, until now, you’ve wanted absolutely nothing to do with it. I was afraid you weren’t going to be able to do it before you started K4 in the fall. But suddenly, it’s your new thing! Avit, you are especially prolific with it, and Nat, you’re getting there, too. Avit, you first wrote yours by yourself on February 25, and Natty Beans, you wrote yours last week on March 2. Great job, you two!
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March 12, 2022
Avit, you do the cutest thing when you snuggle something. You put your nose or cheek on it, and give your head a little nod up and down, so gently. It is the most wonderful, adorable thing ever, and I just love it. Whether it’s on your snuggies, on me when you come hug me after a nap, on your pillow when you snuggle into bed, whatever, it’s the best. I love you guys so much!
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April 30, 2022
Avit, your “Do you smell something?” lines are the best. The other night, you, Morrison, and Nat were sitting together on the short couch right before bedtime. Out of nowhere you go, “Do you smell something? That was my toot. It was a little granny toot.” What?? You are hilarious.
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May 13, 2022
Big day, boys. No more bibs! You’ve gone this whole week doing really well not spilling on yourselves at meals without them, so I’m getting rid of them. Bye-bye baby stuff!
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June 8, 2022
We are nearing the end of a huge era, my loves. I may be about finished running with a stroller. You 2 are just getting too heavy! Including the stroller itself, I have to push around 100 lbs. Walking, that’s no problem – that stroller is made for this and rolls like a breeze. Running, however, is getting so hard with both of you riding. I don’t run fast to begin with, but I feel like even my shortest 2-mile runs are getting treacherous with you guys in there. So. This picture from May 26 may be your last post-run picture ever. I think I might have to take you on one more before school is out if I can squeeze it in tomorrow, but come this summer, I’m just going to have Della watch all of you while I get a quick run in. Or I’ll just wait until Daddy’s home from work and brave the afternoon heat for the first time in years. It’s been quite the 9-year, multi-hundreds, if not thousands, of miles run with that thing – pun intended, ha!
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June 26, 2022
You guys were finally able to get your first round of the COVID vaccine on Thursday of last week, and you did great! No crying at all, you got a sticker and a sucker afterward, then you colored some really great pictures while we waited the 15 minutes at the end. Avit, you stayed completely in all the lines, better than I’ve ever seen! Unfortunately, Nat, you woke up Friday morning with your whole trunk covered in a big, flat, red, itchy rash. Oh man, I’m so sorry!! You were completely fine all afternoon after the shot and up through bedtime, but you said you started itching during the night. Thankfully you had no other symptoms or side effects, so the health department nurse and the doctor’s office said to start you on Benadryl to kick it. Fortunately it really works and clears it up, but it does keep coming back as the dosage wears off. I hope it goes away soon, my love! I feel so bad that you got this itchy side effect when I was trying to keep you guys healthy.
ETA: The rash cleared up and was totally gone within 3-4 days with just regular doses of Benadryl, nothing additional needed. Whew!
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July 21, 2022
Your first trip to Little Pine Isle in Canada is in the books, and it was fantastic! 4 years old is the latest any of you guys have gone up for the first time, but I think it was actually the best time – I didn’t have 2 babies or 2 toddlers to manage on the island, but 2 full-blown little kids who could put their own life jackets on and run around with all the big kids. You had so much fun, I can’t even describe it all. Hopefully this is the first of many, many summer trips you two will get to spend up there.
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July 29, 2022
So, little Natty Beans, we’ve been on poop watch for you all week. Sunday night you ran down the stairs screaming, because you’d swallowed a coin. Why? Because it was in the play doctor kit and you didn’t want Avit to take it from you. Not one other child of mine has ever swallowed a coin or anything like it, so I was like well, guess it’s just gonna come out the other end. And you guys obviously don’t know one coin from another, so I had no idea what kind of coin it was, how big or how small. Anyway, I found it this morning.
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July 31, 2022
You two, I think we’ve reached another milestone. You can both wipe your own buns now when you poop! I said we needed to get that done before you go to school this fall, and I think we’re pretty much there. Great job!
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August 16, 2022
Nat, you rode around the block with Della’s help on your bike with training wheels this morning! Great job, kiddo!
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September 1, 2022
IT’S YOUR FIRST DAY OF SCHOOL!!!!!!! I can’t even believe it’s here – seems like it’s way overdue yet way too soon, all at the same time. You guys are the heart of this family, and I just can’t believe it’s finally your turn to start your school days, too, just like the big kids. Today, tomorrow, and Tuesday you go for half of your 3-hour day, then Wednesday of next week is your first real “full” day. You’re in morning K4, just like all the big kids, and you have Mrs. Koch, also just like all the big kids. She and Mrs. French are SO excited you’re in their class this year, too, so please make us proud!! I went with you guys today and stayed in the room with you for about half an hour, then I go with you again tomorrow but am separate the whole time, then Tuesday you go by yourselves for the entire half day. I walked with just you two to school this morning, just like I did with all the big kids, and you didn’t complain about the walk once either there or back, with your backpacks on the whole time. You immediately marched into your classroom and hung your backpacks up on the hooks we found during meet and greet last night, just like you owned the place. The teachers of course loved it, and I was just silently praying the whole time that you behave. Avit, you were sitting on the play rug in the back of the room when I got back from our parents’ part of the day, so I was mortified that you’d gotten in trouble already, but Mrs. French assured me that was absolutely not the case. She said you just didn’t really want to listen to the story they were reading, so she let you go back to the rug. Mmm-hmm, she’s just a million times nicer than I am. 😉 Nat, you colored in your First Day of School picture very nicely, just like the big kids did. Quite typical. But on the walk home, Avit, you said it was a blast, and you both had so much fun, so I guess I’ll call that a success. And it was actually great walking there and back with only you two, making it a little bit more special for your first big day. Daddy rode his bike along with us and even waited by the line the whole time until we went into school, something he never did with any of the big kids. So that was special, too. I love you two so much, you little squirts, and I simply can’t WAIT to see how much you love school this year!
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September 7, 2022
Happy first full day of K4, my loves! This was your first full 3-hour session, and you loved it! You came out with your “I Survived the First Day of School” headbands that you made in class on, just like Morrison did, and it was adorable! I can’t remember if your sisters made those, too, so I’ll have to check their art boxes this weekend. You came running out to me, just like the big kids always did and Morrison still does, which makes me so happy. You couldn’t wait to tell me everything you did today – Flash on the smart board, library, free choice time, songs and dances, all of it!
Avit, I did get an email from Mrs. Koch this afternoon saying that you were a little sad in class today, asked to go home a number of times, had to be redirected during lessons, and were sad that you weren’t the helper today, and I basically told her to ignore all your shenanigans since you’re our dramatic kid. 藍 I love you dearly, but COME ON! A note home on your very first full day of school ever?? Jog on. Plus you mentioned nothing about being sad when you guys came out today, so it obviously wasn’t for real. Please act like the great little boys that you are, and have the most wonderful first year of school ever!!
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October 6, 2022
You guys got your 3rd and final round of COVID vaccines today, wahoo! No reactions, no rashes, no nothing this time. We were back to the place where you got your 1st round, so you got stickers and got to do some coloring again while we waited our 15 minutes post-shots. Avit, you cried a little while it happened but stopped pretty much immediately, and Nat, you didn’t make a peep. Great job, guys!
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October 13, 2022
Avit, I stand by my claim that you’re going to be an engineer someday. Not only are you a master at all things Legos, Magnatiles, etc., but after a conversation we had on the way to school this morning, I’m even more convinced. You said something like stop signs should turn green when it’s time to walk. I said oh, you mean like a stop light? You said no, the signs would change after you were done having to stop. I said oh, you mean like the direction that needs to stop has a stop sign and the street going the direction that doesn’t have to stop has a green “Go” sign? You said no, you know, like you get a charging cord out when it’s done having to stop, then the sign turns green when it’s time to go. So you’re envisioning smart stop signs that automatically detect when the coast is clear for you and turn green instead of red, and they recharge with a USB cord. And you’re 4. Wow.
Also, you are currently in your bedroom playing Wii bowling with Daddy and your brothers, and you’re killing them! Strikes all over the place for you, and Daddy is in disbelief at how good you are, hahaha! Nat, Daddy says consistently that you need your own YouTube channel because you’re so good at playing video games. I’m pretty sure at age 4 I was doing nothing close to this!
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November 14, 2022
Nat, you are Star Student this week! It’s different than when the big kids were in K4, because we can’t come into the classroom to see your presentation, so we put together a Google slideshow that your teacher gave us instead. You picked out tons of pictures and a couple videos, and on Friday you get to take in a bag of 5 items to show your classmates. You are so excited! Friday is also mustache day at school, ha!
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November 29, 2022
Avit, it’s your turn for Star Student this week, and you can’t wait! We’ve already turned in your slideshow to Mrs. Koch, and you’re getting your bag of 5 things together as I type this. I can’t wait to see your “Cream of the Crop” picture, too!
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December 30, 2022
We went to your first live show today! I was going to take just the 2 of you to see Bluey’s Big Play for an early birthday present, but then Della and Morrison wanted to come, too, since we were going out to lunch afterward. So then we all decided to go since it was almost cheaper to buy 4 more tickets than just 2. It was so much fun! Even Daddy was laughing and clapping along. You guys had a great time, even though, Nat, you kept begging for popcorn the whole time. We went out for some delicious Mexican food after it, though, so then you weren’t hangry anymore.
