The day had finally come; the one I have been dreading yet encouraging. Lori-Beth is walking. And she's doing a fantastic job! I filmed the whole thing on my iPod. I can't believe that this little baby girl can walk already. Dallas is getting there too. He walks for a little, then usually tumbles down. He's trying his best and I'm proud of both of them.
We had a little birthday party for the twins. They are one years old! I made a cake for everyone to enjoy. However, I had an idea one day to make the babies a smaller cake and let them tear into it themselves. They had so much fun with it, and of course I filmed everything. That stuff is important, just like having fun. I think they mostly ate icing. We had a HUGE mess to clean up afterwards but, that's not a problem. That's the kind of thing that doesn't matter. The mess. The preparation. The stress of everything turning out nice. Nope. Doesn't matter. Everyone had fun. That's what matters.
We have started to take the twins walking with us. We hold their little hands and they walk around the neighborhood with us. Sooner or later, they are not going to want us to hold them back. They are going to want to run. Daryl said he doesn't want to have to chase after them out here, that we do that enough at home. The thought made me laugh. They get intrigued by everything. LB saw a butterfly and almost went crazy. So…she likes butterflies. Perhaps I will start calling her my little butterfly.
Now that the twins are more mobile, they have taken to terrorizing the cat. Poor Ponyboy will be eating or something and the babies both try to grab him. One of us always have to come to his rescue. It's hard keeping them away from things. If you grab one, the other runs away. It's a good thing there's two of us.
"It's a good thing there's two of us." I said. "Or else, we would never be able to catch them." I laughed.
"No." Daryl said. "It's a good thang ya didn't have triplets."
I laughed hard at that. "Oh God. Can you imagine?"
"No." He shook his head. "I don't want to. Two is plenty. I don't thank I want no more kids after this."
"Right?" I smiled.
Even though Daryl says stuff like that, I know he would love any child that the two of have. He is such a good dad whether he realizes it or not. He plays with the twins all the time and I watch him. Usually he doesn't catch me, but on the rare occasion when he does, we just smile at each other. I get so turned on watching Daryl be cute with the babies. I don't understand why, I just love it so much.
They both love going to visit with their grammy and pappy. We try to go as much as we can, the twins are growing fast. And grammy and pappy love seeing them too. I think especially my dad. He loves the twins so much, it just puts a huge smile on my face. I was super close with my grandpa, my dad's dad. He was like my favorite person in the world. So now my dad gets to do that with my children. It's such a beautiful thing.
My dad and Michonne call Rick Jr. RJ. When he gets older, the twins and he can play together. It will be nice that they all have someone to plat with. I kind of feel bad for Judith. She will be too old for the babies, but she's still too young for everyone else. Well, I guess she will have Hershel. And she also has Megan. There isn't a lot of children here at Pine Lane, at least not around my sister's age. Poor Judith. I don't want her to have to grow up so fast. But with the twins and now RJ, she will probably feel obligated or something. I want her to stay a kid for as long as possible…but I don't think that will happen.
A few months later, we took Dallas and LB over to Glenn and Maggie's one day. Lori-Beth kept laughing at Glenn, it was funny because he wasn't even doing anything funny. She was just laughing at him, which was making everyone else laugh.
"I didn't even do anything." Glenn said. "Why am I so funny?"
"He's just funny lookin', huh?" I said to LB. "She's just like her mama." I laughed.
Glenn sighed. "Ah, I can't take two of you making fun of me all the time." We all laughed.
Now that the twins are two, it's been pretty crazy but it's a good crazy because we can do more with them now. A lot more. They understand way more of what is going on around them. They are starting to understand cause and effect and the consequences that comes after. I think they know when they have done something wrong and they have to learn that actions have consequences. It's important to start young.
Speaking of consequences, Daryl and I have noticed that the twins are starting to do things even after we tell them not to, which means they know what they did. So, we started doing time-out. At least, I did. Daryl and I discussed punishment one day and we both decided that we didn't want to use physical discipline when punishing the kids. I was happy about that. I was not brought up that way, which I'm thankful for and I didn't want to do that to our children. Daryl agrees because of what he went through as a child. He said he would never hit a kid after what happened to him. I gave him a sympathetic smile and rubbed his back. I hate so badly that that happened to him.
Anyway, we agreed on time-out as punishment. The babies hate it, so we figured it must be working. For instance, one day…LB spilled her milk after I told her not to. She has been doing that lately, she tries to spill it on purpose and I don't get why. So, I made her sit in the corner for two minutes. She cried the whole time, I had to smirk. That probably felt like an hour to her.
Afterwards, I told her, "that's what happens when you spill your milk on purpose," then I gave her a hug and kiss. She started playing again like nothing happened. I just laughed and shook my head at them. I don't remember being that age, but I do remember time-out. My mom did time-out way more than my dad. My dad never liked punishing us. Well, no parent likes punishing their child but I just mean my dad was a softy, especially with me. I smiled.
The twins eat a lot of different foods now. I would say Dallas is the better eater. LB is a good eater too but she can be picky. Dallas though, he was kind of a big eater and he eats everything. I guess that's good. They both like bananas, which is funny because I remember when they were infants, Dallas hated the smell of bananas. I laughed remembering that memory. They both like things that they didn't use to like. Plus, I made them my ice cream and they loved it. Their little faces lit up, it was like they were tasting heaven itself.
LB's first word was "cat." I was so happy when they started talking because now we can communicate with them better. Dallas's first word, of course, was "dadda." I was jealous and a little mad. Even Lori-Beth said "dadda" before "mama." I was only jealous because I was around them a little more than Daryl was, yet he gets the win. Maybe it was just easier for them to say? Oh well, I'm just glad that they are talking.
I remembered back when they were just little babies and Daryl said he thinks LB will be smarter than Dallas. I think so too. Her speech is real good, even at this young age. It's easy to understand her, and she still struggles with words, of course, but she catches on quick. But as I also remembered, I said Dallas would be the sweeter one and I'm definitely right about that. He's so helpful. He's always trying to help me do things; Daryl too. Anytime he sees someone doing something, he tries to help them. It's the sweetest thing ever.
One time when we were over at my dad's house, my dad was trying to fix the clogged drain. He was struggling a bit so Dallas started handing him tools and such to help out. My dad kind of gave him a questioning look.
"He's trying to help you." I said. "Anytime he see someone trying to do something, he offers his help." I laughed. My dad just laughed and smiled. He let Dallas help him even though it probably took him longer to do what he was doing. My dad is the best.
One afternoon, Daryl told LB that she wasn't allowed to have a boyfriend and she cried. It was the cutest thing ever. He hugged her to him and gently patted her back. "It's alright, baby." He said. "It's okay." He lifted her off him so he could look at her. "But hey, you still cain't have a boyfriend." She cried again. We laughed.
"Well, hey, that goes the same for my baby boy." I said. "No girlfriend for you either, Dallas, my little man." I told him.
"Dat's okay, mama." He said and smiled at me. I laughed and picked him up giving him a million kisses. He was just so sweet.
Daryl and I took the twins to the pool one day. We wanted to take them to the lake one day, so we figured now was a good time to get them aquatinted with water. As you know, LB isn't too fond of the water. However, Dallas loves it. But…they were both kind of scared to get in the pool, especially Lori. We held onto them while they cried and clung to us. Dallas eventually calmed down and he enjoyed himself. So, we took turns playing with him in the water. LB didn't want anything to do with it. We at least got her in for a little.
"Maybe next time." I held her on my lap in a lounge chair and dried her off.
We went another time not long after and they both had fun this time. We actually got LB to stay in. I think she had a good time.
Now that the twins are talking, I figured it was time to start potty training. It was a nightmare. There was poop and pee everywhere and I'm not exaggerating. It's hard enough with one kid, let alone two. They ran out of clean clothes so fast these days. It was all just so exhausting and frustrating. I ran into Maggie one day at the laundromat and told her about what was going on in twin life. She laughed but then gave me the best advice ever. She told me to let them run around naked for a little while potty training them. That way there would be less messes to clean up and dirty clothes and I could get them on the toilet faster.
Maggie's advice really worked and we had our first little success with LB. I was so happy that I started dancing. I knew that there would be an accident here and there, but now we only have to worry about Dallas. Eventually though, they both got it down. Potty training was a success and we were officially done with diapers. Daryl and I high-fived each other.
I swear…Lori-Beth is the friendliest kid on the playground. She talks to everyone and you can understand her real well. She will walk up to another kid, it doesn't matter whether it's a boy or girl, and she'll say, "hi, girl, what's your name? I'm Lori-Beth." Or "hi, boy, what's your name? I'm Lori-Beth." It's so cute and funny. She's making friends already. Now that they are three years old, we let them run around at the park by themselves. I mean…of course Daryl and I are there watching, but we let them have their ten minutes of freedom.
Dallas, on the other hand, was a little shy at first. Now, he's starting to make friends though. It's so neat seeing them interact with other kids. For the longest time, Daryl and I were their only friends. Now they have friends their own age. I couldn't help but smile.
However, we had another small problem brewing. Dallas's new thing is that he likes to take his clothes off. He does it when we are around people all the time. And I know he's just a little boy, but I don't want him doing that. We had to teach him that clothes stay on and that he has parts of his body that are private and it's his business. We gave LB the same lesson just to be safe.
Now that the babies are older…they are not really babies anymore are they? I have to stop saying that. Now the the twins are older and getting smarter, they have taken an interest in movies. We occasionally will put on some kids movies for them to watch. It's funny when Daryl gets annoyed at them. They are kind of hard to watch sometimes. But…the twins like them so we put up with it.
I am amazed at how intelligent LB is. The twins will be starting school in like two years and I bet Lori-Beth is top of her class. She always knows exactly what's going on, it's almost impossible to fool her. And her speech is great. She uses clear, full sentences. I don't know where she got it from? Couldn't have been me. I wasn't school smart. I mean…I was…until my brain injury from my car accident.
Same with Daryl. He was definitely smart but he wasn't exactly school smart. I guess maybe LB is just one of those kids that's gifted. I took pride in that. Dallas was smart too, he just took a little longer to catch on to things. I had a scary thought the one day that maybe LB really wasn't that smart, that it was just that Dallas is a little slow. I was worried so I mentioned it to the doctor when I took them for their annual check up. Dr. Cohen is the one that told me that LB was gifted. That everything was fine with Dallas, Lori-Beth was just a little smarty pants. I was relieved.
The day finally came that we took the twins to the lake. They did good with the pool so we thought it was time. I was anxious to see what their reactions would be. Well…it wasn't too great.
They were terrified of the big water, even Dallas. Daryl tried taking him out farther but he wouldn't let him. He was crying pretty hard. And LB wouldn't even get in the water. I held her hand and walked her over to it but she wailed. "Mama!" She screamed and cried as soon as the water touched her feet. She grabbed around my leg. I picked her and she clung to me. I walked into the water with her, but as soon as it was deep enough to touch her, she screamed and clung to me.
"Okay. It's okay, my little butterfly." I kissed her forehead. "We'll get out." I smiled at her. It made me feel good that she wanted me when she was scared. Mainly because, I remember being scared and wanting my parents to protect me. Now, I'm the protector. That feeling was…incredible.
LB and I sat on the shore eating strawberries and other snacks while Daryl terrorized Dallas in the water. Not really, but he would take him as far out as he could before he started to cry again. Eventually however, he got the hang of it. I smiled at my boys.
Daryl and I took the twins to visit Carol and Mark. We haven't seen them in a while and we knew that Carol, especially, would want to see the them. Her hair got really long. It was a little shocking to see because Carol kept her hair short for so long.
They both loved spending time with the twins. Carol said something about she missed having a kid around. I gave her a sympathetic smile.
"Ya want one of ours?" Daryl said. "We got double trouble, we only need one."
"Oh, stop." Carol said and laughed.
"My babies aren't going nowhere." I said and put them both on my lap. I kissed both of their cheeks. Carol smiled at me.
"That little girl looks just like you." Mark said to me.
I smiled and glanced at LB. "Really?" I pushed her hair back. "I kind of think she looks like my sister." I said with a weird face. "And Dallas…well Dallas, he doesn't look like anyone." I laughed, along with everyone else. "I mean…they kind of look like each other."
"Yeah, that ain't my kid." Daryl said. "You guys can have that one."
"Stop it." I laughed and gently smacked his arm. "We both have two wonderful children."
"I know." He said again. "I was just kiddin'."
"I know you were." We gave each other a chaste kiss.
Carol really enjoyed seeing the twins and I think Mark even did too. Carol is probably Daryl's best friend, so it was nice getting together with them. I feel like she likes LB a little more probably because she had a daughter before. Maybe she reminded her of Sophia with her blonde hair. Either way, it was still really nice.
Things were mostly good all the time. I would say the kids were pretty well behaved and hardly ever fought. In fact, they were very close. Daryl and I got along just fine too, we haven't had an argument or anything like that in a long time. We were both stressed sometimes, but what parent isn't? Especially now. So, yeah, things were good.
Until one day, I found out what real panic and fear was.
Daryl and I had taken the twins to the playground. They were running around and playing with each other and the other kids there. And we had gotten into a conversation with some other people that were there with their children. I would occasionally look over and around to make sure they were okay. And they were. I saw them playing and laughing. It was obvious that they were having fun.
And then all of a sudden, I looked and…I only saw Dallas. I was looking around trying to see if she was just hidden behind one of the obstacles, but I couldn't see her in the area at all. Panic immediately set in and I had one of those mini heart attacks. "Wait, where's LB?" I said out loud. Daryl looked around too. "Daryl?" I began to breath heavily. "I don't see her." I bent down to Dallas's level. "Dallas, where's your sister?"
"I don't know." He shrugged. "She was just right here." My eyes were wide and it felt like all the blood drained from my face. Daryl noticed.
"It's okay." He grabbed me. "She couldn't 'a gotten far."
I was already frantic and immediately grabbed Dallas to me. "But what if—
"Abigail, she's three." Said Daryl.
"Which is exactly why I'm worried!" I raised my voice. "She can't be wandering around alone."
"Abby, calm down." Daryl said again. "We'll find 'er, okay? We'll find 'er." He hugged me for a moment. I tried taking deep breaths.
"Mama." Dallas tugged at my pant leg. I looked down at my sweet boy. "I'on feel good, mama." He said sadly.
Great. I thought. "Oh no."
"Look, everythang's gonna be fine." Daryl said. "Take Dallas and go home. I'll find LB." He nodded. I paused and gave him a pleading look. "I'll find 'er." He said again for reassurance. I finally agreed and took Dallas home with me.
He had a bit of a fever, but he was fine. I just put him down for a nap and he felt better once he woke up. I remember when I was little, I used to get sick all the time like that. I just needed to relax for a bit though. I wish I could relax right now.
Daryl came back with LB about an hour later. "You found her?" I said close to tears. I took her from him immediately and hugged her. She clung to me.
"Yeah, yer never gonna guess where she was?" Daryl said. I just looked at him. "At the gate. All the way at the front. How she got there is beyond me." He smirked. "She was with Devon."
I closed my eyes and took a deep breath calming down now that we know she's safe. I sat her down after that and looked at her in the eyes. "Lori-Beth Dixon, don't you ever do that again." I said sternly. "You don't go anywhere without me or your daddy. Is that clear?"
"Yes, mama." She said sadly. I hugged her again. We agreed not to spank them, but in that moment, I almost did. The thought actually scared me that I wanted to.
I put the twins to bed early that night. It was part of LB's punishment. I didn't mean to punish Dallas too, but he said he didn't mind because he was tired. Daryl and I laughed about the whole incident later that night. All worries forgotten.
The twins are never leaving these walls until they are at least ten. Maybe not even then. It all depends on whether or not we think they are ready. That thought scared me terribly, mainly because I knew one day that it would happen. I hope that's far from now. I was scared when we found out LB could open doors, but thinking about them out there…gave me anxiety.
The twins turned four the other day…and now they want to explore the world. They have been asking questions about outside the walls of Pine Lane. I knew this day would come. Daryl and I shared a look, then tried to explain to them in the most appropriate way that we could about the "monsters" and that it is dangerous out there and it's only for grown ups. That probably peaked their interest even more.
They came up with this idea one day that they wanted to go camping in the woods. It was probably just their excuse to go outside of the community. Well, it isn't going work. Daryl and I were a lot more slick than that. We set up a tent and I little camp in the backyard. We could tell that they were disappointed and not what they had in mind, but that's just too bad.
"Well, that's just too bad." I told them. "We told you guys before, you're not going outside these walls until you're way older."
"But we went to that lake that one time." LB smartly pointed out.
I was about to say something but Daryl spoke first. "Yeah, ya did and ya ain't goin' out again til yer older like yer mom said." He scolded them both. "Now we can go campin' right here in the yard or ya both can go back inside? Take it or leave it."
They both went along with it after that. Even though this isn't what they wanted, we all had a good time that night.
Speaking of good times, my dad and Michonne went on a run one day and they were going to be gone a few days so, Judith and RJ stayed with us. That was four kids in the house. However, Judith was very helpful with them. She's going one ten years old now and has really grown up. I wanted to avoid that, we all did, but that's kind of impossible now. I smiled at the two of them. They can be just like Carl and I. The kids had fun together those few days.
Michonne and my dad have already taken Judith outside. She's had a little bit of experience, but if you ask me, I think she's still too young for that. Michonne has been teaching her how to use a sword, she has her own small one now. And the girl keeps bugging me about going out on a run. I will take her one of these days…but not soon.
Dallas has a friend that he fights with all the time, he comes home with bruises and scratches all over him. It makes me mad but he doesn't seem to mind at all. I wanted to say something but Daryl says to just let them go. Men.
However, Dallas fought back the one day and got the kid good. Is it bad that I didn't feel bad? I stayed out of it like Daryl said to. Plus, that kid is always hurting my sweet boy, and he got even with him. So, we shouldn't have any problems.
I taught LB how to do her own hair. I told her she's a big girl now and she will be going to school soon, so she should learn how to take care of it herself. She was actually happy to learn. I figured she would. Our little girl is very independent and likes to learn new things everyday. When we start teaching them how to fight and defend themselves, she will definitely catch on quick and become a badass.
So, Lori-Beth and Dallas are very close and they usually stay together even when they are playing with friends. They were inseparable to say the least, which is good. However, it kind of worried me that they wouldn't be able to be apart. I mean…what if something happened to one of them? God forbid…but it could happen. The other one wouldn't be able to bear it. The thought scared me.
So we came up with an idea to take one of them every once in a while and let them stay with grammy and pappy, and the other would stay with Daryl and I. That way, we could have special bonding time with each one. I heard that's important to do when you have twins, so that you can get to know them as an individual.
The first time we tried it, I thought LB would be fine because as I mentioned before, she's very independent and Dallas is the shy one. However, it was the exact opposite. Lori was very upset and kept asking where he brother was and she didn't seem to have a good time at all. It was pretty heartbreaking but also very cute. Dallas, on the other hand, had a great time. He wouldn't stop talking the whole time. I was very shocked at the outcome of our experiment. Things got better the more we did it though. We didn't do it a lot. I didn't like my children being away from me. It was just something we did every so often.
After that, I knew the twins would be fine on their own. They were still very close, of course, which I loved. But they were also their own person and very strong. They would be able to handle anything thrown at them one day. And that day would eventually come that they had to go outside of the community. But my prize is knowing that I prepared them for that. And that they would be strong and beat this world.
Hey, everyone! Happy New Year! 2020! Crazy, right? I hope you are enjoying this story so far! I promise it won't be like this forever, I just wanted to get through the years and age the twins. The next chapter will be back to normal! :D Please give me a review and let me know what you think! Thanks! :)