7 Years, 3 Months

One evening, Steve had to step away from his online game night to put one of the kids back to bed (I was talking with my parents on the phone and didn't hear that a small child was roaming the house). Upon returning, Steve's brother Philip asked, "Which one was it, Thor or Loki?" which is probably the most astute description of my kids and their dynamic that I've ever heard.

Fraternal twins: siblings that just happen to be the same age...

... and may have nothing else in common.

Jack, seeing how many necklaces and bracelets he can wear at once:

Engaging in their favorite hobby these days, playing Tears of the Kingdom on their Dad's Nintendo Switch:

The kids dig in our backyard. Jack did not agree with me that he is too big to use the digger toy:

The original intent of all of this digging was to extract some old concrete chunks from the planter bed. Once hauled out, Jack ensured the safety of the worksite with copious cones:

Jack spotted a really cool RC truck in the Target holiday catalog. It has tracks and can even float and drive on water. I was so intrigued, I agreed to buy it... for the kids, of course. Not at all just so I could play with it.

Jack takes the new vehicle for a spin:

Henry's assessment, "I think this truck is too fast for itself!"

As is probably normal for many sibling pairs, Jack and Henry spend approximately 1/4 of their time together playing nicely, and about 3/4 arguing and fighting. 

Signs Jack posted around his bed:

A $100 ticket Henry attempted to issue to Jack for misbehavior (which Jack tore in half):

Sigh.

One of the kids took this picture of me in our kitchen:

Mom and Jack:

Mom capturing a wild Henry:

Jack, compulsive climber: 

Jack is a very hard worker, and always happy to help out around the house. Here, he offered to take over scrubbing the stovetop for his dad:

Later, when scrubbing fingerprints and shoeprints off the walls in the bathroom, we told him to stop and come have dessert. He grumbled, "I'd rather scrub the walls."

Henry, enjoying his trip to the hardware store with Dad:

Jack and Henry got invited to a roller skating party by one of their first grade classmates. Neither of them had ever worn roller skates before. Henry didn't care for it and stopped after one lap. It looked like Jack was going to give up too, until several other boys from his class joined him on the rink. They didn't do a particularly great job of actually skating, but had a grand old time crashing into each other and dramatically falling. Luckily I had a full set of pads for him that we'd purchased previously for skateboarding. 

Jack on skates: 

And now for some school assignments from the month...

Jack with his November calendar: 

Jack painting fall leaves in art class:

Jack and his self portrait: 

Henry's self portrait:

Jack's thankful turkey: thankful for Mom, sushi, plants, Dad, Henry, and family.

Henry's thankful turkey: thankful for animals, mom and dad, food, Ms. Lenz (his 1st grade teacher), rain, and plants.

Jack: When I grow up, I want to be a mechanic that works on cars.

Henry: When I grow up, I want to be a doctor.

I expressed some surprise, since Henry had never mentioned any interest in medicine before, to which Henry replied, "I couldn't think of anything else." Fair enough.

Henry in art class, making still life with pastels:

Jack showing off his still life:

At the end of the month, Henry was selected to be "Star of the Week." 

Henry selected pictures for his star board of his family, grandparents, trips to San Diego Zoo and Legoland, and a couple pictures (that he's standing in front of) of himself with Aunt Jessica's pet bird. Henry loves animals, including birds and reptiles, and has been lobbying for a pet of his own. 

Henry listed his favorite food as sushi, Dad and Mom as people he admires, Llama Destroys the World as his favorite book, Ms. Lenz as the thing he likes most about school, "games" as what he does well, budgie birds as his favorite animal, and going to Disneyland as his wish.

Henry holds court with Pinguino the penguin: 

The teacher allowed Henry to have the penguin answer questions from the audience, which the class apparently found very amusing. The class makes a "Star Book" for each kid when they are Star of the Week. The most common compliments in that book were that Henry is funny and makes people laugh. Next most common were that Henry is helpful and good at math.

Jack shows off a Lego creation at his school aftercare program:

Thanksgiving!

This year, we went to Steve's Mom's house in the Sacramento area. We were excited to have three of Steve's siblings there with their families.

Jack using one of Grandma's cool puzzle toys:

Jack and Henry love any attention they can get from their cousins (all of whom are much older). Here they are having a blast watching their cousins Camdan and Rosey play Smash Brothers:

Henry gets a chance with the controller, surrounded by cousins: 

Playing Uno with Rosey, their closest cousin in age at five years their senior:

Jack and Henry then taught Rosey some of the card games they've learned at their school aftercare program:

Henry helps Grandma with her shredding, with the assistance of Aunt Jessica and Cousin Ben, while Jack and Cousin Michael look on:

While visiting the park near Grandma's house, Jack (a.k.a. Thor) shoots to the top of the climbing structure in just over a minute:

Henry, who is a bit afraid of heights, made it about halfway up. A sensible child, in my opinion (says his mom, who is also afraid of heights).

7 Years, 2 Months

The kids started October making their usual calendars in class. I thought the bats were very cute.

Henry:

Jack:

Out for ice cream at Penny Ice Creamery with what appear to be very short teenagers: 

Henry doesn't like to pose for pictures, but Jack usually doesn't mind:

It's hard to believe how grown-up these kids are looking.

Intellectually, of course I know that 12-foot skeletons are tall, but it's difficult to appreciate just how tall until you see one up close.

Jack at the Capitola Mall:

Jack the ice cream cone perusing costumes at Target:

Henry and Steve spending quality time together:

Viewing the eclipse: 

Jack and Henry thought the eclipse was pretty cool, so I was very glad that we'd been able to rush out last minute to get some viewing glasses from a local library.

Jack at his elementary school:

Jack and Henry eye with suspicion the "cardboard challenge" games assembled by the 4th graders:

Jack in art class:

Excerpt from the narrative evaluation section from Jack's initial first grade report card:

Having twins has firmly convinced me that nature is far more dominant than nurture, so it doesn't really feel right to say I'm "proud" of Jack. I'll say instead that I admire the person he is so far, and I will do my best to make sure he knows how wonderful and valuable it is that he is kind.

Henry's evaluation didn't list as much non-academic detail, but in the parent-teacher conference, Henry's teacher mentioned that he was very entertaining to have in class. She also mentioned that he pushes back on her about why they are doing the things they do in class. She seemed amused by it and rather delighted by him, and did not express it as a negative thing, but we'll see how that goes as he gets older.

On their initial academic assessments, both Jack and Henry performed at grade level overall. Their teacher said she was comfortable with where they are and that they're doing fine. They both are less advanced in reading than other areas, only scoring around the 30th percentile (which makes sense since it's not something we've focused on at home other than Steve reading to them daily). They both performed well in math, with Henry in the 60th percentile and Jack in the 80th percentile. Interestingly, Henry performed best in geometry and Jack performed best in something they called "algebraic thinking." It'll be interesting to see where they are at the end of the year for comparison.

Jack, in Mom's sweater, admiring the fish tank at our favorite sushi restaurant:

Mom at our favorite table in front of the fish tank (picture taken by Jack):

Swim lessons have now ended for the year. The facility continues lessons throughout the year, but with the combination of cooler fall weather, respiratory disease season and holiday travel, it made sense to take a break. Both boys have done very well, making significant progress since they started lessons at Adventure Sports last spring as non-swimmers. 

Henry with watermelon ball at open swim:

Henry's progress stalled out a bit as he struggled to get comfortable putting his face in the water, but some patient and friendly teachers helped him make great progress and he'll be considered an independent swimmer once he completes one more class level. As of now, he can swim short distances on his own, but I wouldn't consider him completely water safe as he sometimes gets a little panicked if he has to swim too far. I admire how hard he worked and how determined he was to improve. He also showed a lot of maturity when faced with his brother's very different rate of progress.

Jack with watermelon ball at open swim:

Jack skipped several swim levels as he plowed through his classes. He is a strong, independent swimmer who can do several strokes, and was most recently working on his dolphin kick in preparation for butterfly. When he resumes classes next spring, he will be at the second-to-last class level, and will be working on butterfly, racing dives and turns. At our last open swim of the season, Jack bet me that he could swim ten lengths of the pool, which I thought was absurd and I said so. He then proceeded to do it and holler at me from across the pool, "Told you so!"

Now for some non-aquatic watermelons...

Jack with one of the watermelons we grew in the backyard:

We had no idea how watermelons would do in our climate. We didn't have a very hot summer, so I was surprised that once the vine finally died back, we were left with 6 large watermelons (by the time I finally remembered to take a picture, we had already picked the one Jack is holding above):

Jack's review of the watermelon: pretty good! Henry said it wasn't sweet enough. Though not cloyingly sweet, I thought they had good flavor.

Henry and Jack climbing a tree in the local park near their school:

Jack and Dad ready to blast off at the Boardwalk:

Whee!

Henry, who gets motion sick, is less thrilled with most rides than Jack, who is generally fearless and definitely unafraid of heights. Henry's favorite ride is the bumper cars, while Jack seems to enjoy most things, although neither kid is very keen on roller coasters yet. I'm hoping they'll warm to coasters because I think the classic 1920's wooden Giant Dipper at the Santa Cruz Beach Boardwalk is one of the most fun roller coasters I've ever ridden.

This year, instead of the usual pumpkin patch trip, we grew our own pumpkins in our front yard. We managed to grow several tiny pumpkins and two slightly larger ones that Jack and Henry were actually able to carve.

Carving in progress:

Henry's jack o' lantern is on the left, Jack's is on the right:

Steve poses with the disgusting "hand" he made out of prosciutto for a work potluck: 

Since Jack runs warm and is very active, he was hesitant to wear a costume to the school's Halloween festivities. Luckily, we found the perfect solution in an easily removable poncho-type costume.

Pizza Jack:

Ninja Henry:

Reluctantly posing together for Mom:

Oh no!

Jack with his paper jack o' lantern in his classroom:

Henry with his:

Later in the evening, it was time for trick or treating.

Ninja Jack is ready with his cute bat bag from former nanny Kasey:

Henry with candy from Kasey:

Henry had a great costume for the evening: Link from the Zelda game Tears of the Kingdom (which the boys both love to play). However, he didn't want to pose, so the best we have is an action shot from trick or treating.

Madness in the neighborhood:

The boys went trick or treating with their friend Bascom in the neighborhood around their school. Apparently that neighborhood makes a big deal out of Halloween, and it was a madhouse with kids swarming everywhere. This particular house was making cotton candy in the garage.

Ninja Jack, now with glowstick: 

Henry (who changed out of his costume the second he got home but would still very much like to give out some candy), Jack (still ninja-y), and Mom (who hasn't yet changed out of work clothes, so I suppose is going as "accountant" this year):

Henry sorts their haul:

And now we launch into the aforementioned respiratory disease and holiday travel season.