No Raccoons Served Here

We have a new bedtime ritual in the Lim household.

Ever since we moved back into our house following our remodel over a year ago, a family of three raccoons moved back in with us. They come almost every night to our back patio door and feed off any scraps of food which our cat Tabby has left in her bowl.

Thanks to our free nightly buffet, the raccoons are now pretty good-sized.

Caroline and Katherine never really paid much attention to them -- until about a month ago.

About four weeks ago the girls were suddenly VERY aware of our nightly visitors, and VERY scared of them.

I can't say I blame them. The raccoons standing on their hind legs are taller than the girls are.

The site of a raccoon coming to our back patio door (and triggering our motion sensor lights) will send both girls scrambling up our legs and into our arms no matter where we are in the house.

So now, before the girls go to bed, they take us by the hand, and lead us around to both the patio door and the side door. They look out the doors, peer into the darkness, then turn to us and very solemnly state:

"No raccoots."

The kitchen is closed.

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If the raccoons just happen to actually be at the doors when the girls do their rounds, well . . . let's just say bedtime is postponed for a little bit!

The Scoop on Poop * Pea Juice & Vienna Sausages * Two Plus Two Equals Trouble! * Contest of the Day.

Today I'm hitting four different subjects. Why? One, because I've been behind on posting updates on the girls. But more importantly, because the girls have fallen asleep early, giving me more time on the computer!

THE SCOOP ON POOP

Tonight I am the proudest Dad in the world.

After only TWO days of potty training, Katherine took her first poop into her toilet.

That's right -- TWO days of training, and my girl has got the hang of it.

The secret that Mom learned was to read the girls a book as they sat on their thrones.

After all, who doesn't like a good read to help move things along?

Caroline & Katherine discovering the comfiest seats in the house.

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PEA JUICE AND VIENNA SAUSAGES

Just a short four weeks ago, we had perfect eaters. Caroline and Katherine would happily eat just about anything you put in front of them. At the very least, they were open to trying things.

Then in just the past four weeks, the girls, Katherine especially, have become very picky eaters.

Katherine learned to say, "Don't want!" very forcefully, and uses those two words to great effect during mealtimes.

Two items the girls like right now, however, are two items I never really thought about giving the girls.

First, the girls love to drink the juice from a can of peas. Yep, you heard right, the friggin' juice from a can of peas.

Second, the girls love Vienna sausages, or as my friend calls them: chemical sausages.

Two months ago I would have been opposed to giving my girls tightly compressed pork, chicken, and beef fillings. But that was when the girls were still happily eating baked chicken breasts, or ground turkey over rice. Nowadays, when I'm worried about the girls having had zero protein for the last two days, if they want Vienna sausages, then by golly, they get Vienna sausages!

Mmmm . . . chemically compressed meat!

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TWO PLUS TWO EQUALS TROUBLE!

Question: What do you get when you have twins nearing the age of 2?

Answer: Two very harried and harrassed parents!

The girls have officially entered what is commonly known as "The Terrible Twos."

Some common vocabulary heard around the Lim household from Katherine and Caroline nowadays:

• "Don't want!"
• "Mine!"
• "Noooooooooooooo!" (Usually followed by full face-down body-flop onto the floor)

Some common vocabulary heard around the Lim household from Mom and Dad nowadays:

• Stop pulling your sister's hair!
• Don't stand on that chair!
• No hitting / biting / kicking your sister!
• Don't throw that cup / plate / fork / chair / chainsaw!
• (Just kidding about the chainsaw. Just wanted to see if you were paying attention!)
• Get up off the store floor!
• Put that diaper back on!

Yet for all their shennanigans, the girls are still a lot of fun, especially when they look like this:

Having fun inbetween temper tantrums!

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CONTEST OF THE DAY

In an effort to generate more comments to this blog site, I'm initiating a "Contest of the Day".

You see, I know you are all out there, because I have a counter attached to this site, and so I know that a good number of people come to this site throughout the day. Sure, I'm no Sarah and the Goon Squad, but there are a fairly decent number of regular visitors to this site, and I know who you are! Based just on the comments from this site, if I didn't have a counter logging the number of visitors, I would have long ago abandoned this site as one lonely father's empty musings on the internet.

So here is the contest. I will post a photo with a question. You answer the question right, you get a prize. Simple enough, no?

So here's the photo, and the person who answers the accompanying question correctly gets something out of our garage (i.e., a tube of bathroom caulk) or kitchen pantry (probably not a can of peas, we need the juice):

Question: Something has scared Caroline at the Union Street Fair. What scared her?

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Belated Easter Egg Hunting Photos

I figure any event less than a month ago is still fair game for a blog post, so here are some belated Easter Egg hunting photos of the girls.

The girls LOVED looking for Easter Eggs this year. We took them to a local nursery where they hunted for eggs among the plants. However, we forgot our camera, so we don't have any photos.

On Easter Saturday, we took the girls to our Church for an Easter Egg hunt in the parking lot. The girls had a great time. They actually "got it" this year, scooping up eggs and placing them in their basket. Caroline got bored after putting about six eggs in her bucket, and proceeded to stop and try to open each egg. Katherine, on the other hand, really raked in the loot, and didn't stop until her bucket was full!

And "yes", we were too cheap to spring for an Easter basket for Caroline, so she is carrying her Halloween bucket with spiders on it . . .

Caroline with egg and bucket.

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Katherine having a great time with Mommy.

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After the Easter Egg hunt, we took the girls to the local playground and took these action shots:

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You can tell I'm going fast because the wind is blowing my hair back . . .

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Parent Humor

This comic strip is so RIGHT ON -- that Elmo has completely overshadowed Grover.


Baby Blues
by Rick Kirkman and Jerry Scott

Growing Up TOO Darned Fast

This morning when I brought the girls to day care, they were short a few teachers, so I dropped the girls off in the "preschool room" as opposed to the "toddler room".

The girls LOVE the preschool room. First, it's much bigger, with more toys. Also, the preschoolers are really great with the girls, and the girls love hanging out with the "big girls".

When the girls noticed me wheeling them down the long hallway between the toddler room and the preschool room, they audibly squealed with delight. And once we actually got into the preschool room, the couldn't unbuckle themselves from the stroller fast enough.

As soon as I set them on the ground, they ran off to climb the big wooden blocks.

No hug goodbye for Daddy.

No kiss goodbye for Daddy.

No running and crying after Daddy as I backed out of the room.

I have been replaced by the preschool room.

My girls are growing up WAY too fast.

Vigilante Justice - Twin Style

It is a constant source of amusement to me how the girls help me enforce the rules against their sibling.

The biggest taboo in our house are the electrical outlets. For some unfortunate reason, the girls took a curious interest to them from the time they could walk, and so I've been very tough about yelling "No" and being very stern when they start to reach their little finger towards the sockets (even though they are obviously covered with safety plugs).

Yesterday, as I was getting ready for work, the girls were standing behind me as I stood in the bathroom brushing my teeth. From the mirror, I could see Katherine reach out for the electrical socket in the wall . . .

Before I could turn around however, Caroline yelled, "Don't!" and hit Katherine twice on the head. Then, for good measure, Caroline pushed Katherine away from the electrical outlet, dropping Katherine on her behind.

Now I don't condone hitting, so I know I should have said something to Caroline. But I was too busy trying not to have toothpaste come out of my nose from laughing so hard.

See any resemblance?

"You've got to ask yourself one question: 'Do I feel lucky?' Well, do 'ya, punk?"

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Multiple on Multiples

I will never complain about how hard it is to raise twins again.

(Or at least not for the next week. Or maybe just until bath time tonight.)

On Saturday our friends who had triplets came by our house for dinner.

You heard me: triplets.

They are about 4 months old, and very well-behaved.

Still, there are three of them. Add that to our two girls running around the house, and you had chaos.

Seriously, the babies outnumbered the adults 5-4. Add to the fact that our friends visited while UCLA was playing the in the Final Four, and it was more like 5-3, because I spent most of the time yelling at the television and ignoring the kids (UCLA lost by ten to Florida. Go Ohio State!).

The greatest comment of the night was from my friend John, who, while holding two babies in each arm while his wife held the third, stated in all seriousness, "Man, I just heard of a local family who had four babies. I don't know how they do it!"

After our friends left, the sound of my two girls running around the house actually sounded quiet.