"WHOAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!"

I'm so glad Ronan's around, so I can blame all the twins' less charming behaviors on him. After all, they imitate everything these days, and they clearly didn't learn to chuck their forks across the table, dump their plates on the floor, or pull each other to the ground by the hair by watching ME do it.

Case in point: we live at the top of a hill, and our driveway is fairly steep and curvy. On the mornings I make the run to preschool, I can count on Ronan to shout, "Whoa" as we drive down, followed by at least ten minutes of "Whoas" as we follow the predictably flat, uninteresting course to school, which is a straight shot right down the same road we live on.

Now, naturally, Aaron and Gretchen shout "Whoa" as well - which, let me tell you, is quite a chorus.

This morning, I had Hilary, Ronan, Aaron and Gretchen in the car, since I was taking the twins to Gymboree straight from dropoff. This is how it went down:
R, A & G: WHOAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA! WHOAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!" WHOAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA
R: WHOAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!
R, A & G: WHOAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA! WHOAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA! WHOAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!
H: Where's Erika? [asking, as is her way, a question to which she already knows the answer, since E. has been going to the local elementary school since September]
A & G: E-ka! E-ka!
R: WHOAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!
R. A & G: WHOAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA! WHOAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA! WHOAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!

On Saturday, since my mom is going to be in from Florida for Ronan's birthday, we decided to take everyone, and I mean everyone, down to Baltimore to visit Jonah. We have a 15-person passenger van, and it's going to be pretty full: me, Andy, Erika, Hilary, Aaron, Gretchen, Keri, Matty, Declan, Ronan, Mom, Marina, and Oat (our Thai au pair), if she wants to go. The whole plan hinges on the three babies falling asleep immediately after our 1:00 departure, which we chose because that's when they usually nap.

Otherwise, it's a hundred miles of "WHOAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!" And I don't think any of us will be able to take that.