Pickles & Olives

Not Terrible, but Certainly Not Terrific Either

2011-08-01T15:46:00.000-04:00

We have been going through a bit of a rough patch with our delightful two-year-old twins. Elliot, in particular, has been making our lives a little more challenging than we would have it be in a perfect world. Basically, the boy won’t nap for us. He has not napped in my presence in at least two, if not three, weeks. He will generally nap for Lina, but for Craig and me, he just screams, cries or generally acts up in his crib until he is removed. It would be one thing if the kid didn’t actually need a nap, but he does. Very much. When he doesn’t nap, he destroys. He throws and hits and is generally naughty until bedtime. He doesn’t like to eat when he’s sleepy. He can’t sit still and gets steadily more insane throughout the day. And it’s just a long day with no break. Leah still naps well, unless Elliot works his magic and keeps her awake by engaging her in his antics (pulling the curtains open, throwing lovies/blankets/animals out of cribs, banging cribs against the wall, jumping, singing etc.). We tried separating them yesterday to no avail. Leah slept well, but Elliot threw a total fit and wouldn't calm down until I removed him not just from the pack-n-play in our bedroom, but totally from the scene of the non-nap. Then, when he should be napping and Leah is napping, he just wants to visit her, saying “go see Leah!” and crying when we tell him “no”. Good times. I would desperately like to fix this problem, since his constant state of overtiredness on weekends robs me and Craig of our time with Elliot at his best (which is really quite good). By Sunday afternoon, after three missed naps in a row, he is a disaster.

Here’s the rub though: Craig and I are somewhat to blame. With summer comes a lot of schedule/routine disruption. First there was the trip to Maine, then a week with me at home, then two weeks in daycare. Now every weekend we have something to shake up our schedules and prevent optimal napification. We basically lived by the routine for two years with these kids, and now we want to have experiences as a family that take us out of our comfort zones, so I will accept some of the blame for this.

This weekend was another such weekend. On Saturday, we drove down to Newport for the Folk Festival. Yes, we took two two-year-olds to an all-day, outdoor, sold-out, music festival in 90-degree weather. Admittedly, it began rather stressfully. We parked in a lot we were guided to and immediately realized that they were busing people to the festival grounds. We had brought the huge BOB stroller, that we barely know how to fold, and a bunch of crap with us, not to mention a couple toddlers. We ended up walking over a mile in the mega-heat, down a rather steep hill to the entrance. It actually didn’t turn out to be terrible, but it was frustrating to note that we probably could have explained our situation to the people directing parking and gotten a spot closer to the venue. The biggest issue with the entire event was the heat. It was really, really, really hot. And there was very little escape from it. Thank goodness for kind festival-going folks though. We had parked our meager blanket close to the back of the grounds, right in front of the people smart enough to bring along tents and other shade shelters. The people directly behind us were our lifesavers, in the end. They warmly welcomed us into their tent and seriously tolerated Elliot and Leah touching all their things, eating the food they brought back from vendors, sitting in their kids’ chairs and, in Elliot’s case, literally snuggling with them. I truly wish I had their address so I could send them a token of our appreciation. We wouldn’t have been able to stay at the festival anywhere near as long as we did (almost eight hours!) without them. Also saving our bacon was the Lego tent set up for kids which had millions of Duplos and toddler sized tables for the kids to build on. We spent quite a bit of time in their too. Kids weren’t technically allowed into the area where beer was served, but I was able to talk some really nice state police officers into letting us take the twins onto the Beer Pier so their poor, exhausted parents could have a quick beer. Clearly we looked too desperate to deny. For the trip back to the car, Craig convinced me to take the bus, which was a good idea. I had to carry both kids, plus our huge diaper bag, which was interesting, and Craig took the enormous stroller, which we clearly are not folding entirely. The bus driver had Craig sit in the back so he could open the rear door. Leah and Elliot were pretty popular with all the nice kids (yep, I'm calling people in their 20s "kids" these days) on the bus. And, OMG, did I mention that the bus was a SCHOOL BUS?! Elliot and Leah got a huge kick out of that.

In all, it was a really fun day and good experience. The kids held it together incredibly well in the heat, with no nap and subsisting on a huge bag of Pirate’s Booty (which Elliot did share with our friends in the tent), frozen lemonade, half a hot dog each, free chips from the Lego tent and a huge blondie. Well, okay. Reading this now, it’s really no wonder the kids didn’t fall asleep in the car on the way home and were rather cranky the next day. That’s borderline child abuse right there!

Sunday was Uncle Joshua’s 40th birthday party at their house. Elliot was pretty good at the party, but had a bit of a blank stare on his face as he ransacked all the toys and drank the dregs of all the juice boxes abandoned by other kids. Leah was also good until The Balloon Incident, where her blue balloon (that she wouldn’t let me attach to her in any way) got loose. She received a new, inferior green balloon (sweetly donated by cousin Sasha) and proceeded to freak out when anyone so much as looked at it. She was a teary, clingy, toddlery mess. It was actually pretty funny. She got over it after a while, but she certainly made an impression on the party, especially since she is generally so well behaved.

I’d like to say that things are about to calm down and we are going to settle back into a nice routine, but I can’t. This coming weekend, we are going out to Pittsfield to hang out as a family to celebrate Papa’s 70th birthday party for three nights. The week after, we’re hauling everyone all the way to Philadelphia for Sarah’s baby shower and to see Grandma and Grandpa’s new home. Hopefully after that, with kitchen construction complete and no more travel for a long time, things will settle down a bit and all our good sleep habits will return. Hopefully.

Two Years Old?!

2011-07-14T16:49:00.000-04:00

I don’t know why I have such an insurmountable mental block when it comes to writing about Elliot and Leah and our lives together. Actually, I am pretty certain it is just a lack of confidence in my ability to adequately express the impact that these two small humans have on every aspect of my life. How can I describe how brilliant they are? What comic geniuses they are? How incredibly adorable they are? How skilled they are at pressing every one of my buttons when they are in the mood? It’s intimidating and overwhelming and therefore I just don’t do it. However, in honor of their second birthday, which came on way too fast, I am ignoring my urge to procrastinate for another month and I will publish an update, however inadequate.

Leah continues to be our independent little smarty-pants. Someone told her she was two years old and she grabbed the reins of that label and hasn’t let go. She is able to have a legitimate conversation. Ask her what she did today, and she will tell you exactly that, in full sentences and the correct tense. Ask her what she wants for breakfast and she says “I want waffles.” We’re working on adding “please”. Leah is still a cuddlehound. She loves hugs and kisses and general affection just as she always has. She is very good at playing by herself and, over the past month or so, has begun imaginary play with her toys and dolls. It is achingly cute to watch Leah play with her “little babies” saying “baby needs milk!” or “baby tired”. Leah and Elliot have been in back-up daycare over the past two weeks while Lina is on vacation, and Leah just loves to play mommy to the babies in the room. She will walk up to a crying baby to offer it a toy and she talks about them when she gets home. She loves her doll, Baby, and I can occasionally get Leah to do something (allow me to apply sunscreen, cut her nails etc) if I do it to Baby first. She also enjoys taking care of her brother and loves to give him bites of her food and to try and help get him dressed. It’s incredibly cute.

Leah is expressing her independence and desire to control her little world in some amusing ways. She hates buttons, and says “no buttons!” whenever we put her clothing on. We have to either close the buttons prior to putting the clothing item on her or just leave them open, which isn’t ideal, especially for pants. Leah must put her shoes (crocs only) on by herself and the strap *must* be “up not down,” which is actually a slightly annoying requirement, as the shoes do not stay on nearly as well with the strap up. Leah refuses outright to wear any diapers other than “Cookie dipey’s,” which means the diapers with Cookie Monster on them and represent less than ¼ of the box. This requires a battle of wits every diaper change when I have to present her with a Cookie diaper and then pull a last minute switcheroo, which she often catches. When we get in the car, we ask Leah which seat she wants, because she will freak out if we put her in the wrong seat. Elliot, thankfully, is cool with whatever.

Leah is the sweetest sugar pie in the world, but watch out if she doesn’t get what she wants. The tantrums over the last couple weeks have been epic. I am talking about 15 minutes of screaming, kicking, crying and just outright anger. And one just doesn’t know when they are coming or what will trigger them. The past month has been a bit of an upheaval with a lack of continuity in our routine. Prior to the past two weeks in back-up daycare, I was home with them for a week and prior to that we were on vacation with Grandma, Grandpa, Tia Sarah and Tio Jon in Maine, so I am eager to see what baseline is for Leah after we get her back into a routine.

Elliot is, well, Elliot. As anyone who spends time with him says, “Elliot is such a boy!” And he really is. Elliot is super mellow about most things. He doesn’t have the need to control everything like Leah does and can usually go with the flow. He has an incredibly vocabulary and loves exclamatory statements like: “look at them all!” and “it’s SO BIG!” He also often calls large things “a little scary!” and Leah says “No, Elliot! It’s a nice [car/moose/truck/tree/etc].” Elliot loves music and loves to sing. “Mary Had a Little Lamb” continues to be his favorite song. He is a super sweet boy, as long as he is kept very busy.

Elliot doesn’t have the attention span for sitting down and participating in activities like Leah does. He can sit down with play-doh or crayons for about 3 minutes before he starts throwing or climbing or knocking over all the toys in the room. He throws literally everything. Food, toys, art supplies, everything. For that reason, he tends to spend a few minutes in time-out each day. So far it hasn’t been a particularly effective disciplinary tact, but consistency is key, I hope, and I’m not sure what else to do. Elliot can definitely be a troublemaker. He will look us in the eye as he is about to do something he knows he is not supposed to do and he will do it anyway. He can be incredibly infuriating, but it’s impossible to stay angry at him. It is because of Elliot that it is necessary to get out of the house and do something active twice a day. Keeping him in the house is a recipe for incredibly frustrated parents.

Elliot is still pretty athletic (as two year olds go). He can drop kick a ball, no matter the size, and can throw with more accuracy than I can. I definitely want to get him into a soccer class as an energy outlet, but also because I think he will love it.

The funny thing about Elliot, is that while he’s “such a boy,” he is far less independent than Leah. While she marched right in and began to play at each recent daycare drop-off, Elliot was clinging to me until the bitter end and crying when I left. It was sad, but also kind of cute to see my little guy so upset to see his mommy leave. And he is very happy to see me at the end of the day. What? I like to feel loved, okay?

Both Elliot and Leah are great little climbers. They can climb the mini rock walls at playgrounds, as well as wooden and rope ladders. They love chasing each other up and down slides and are really willing to do anything at playgrounds, even activities meant for much older kids. I have had more than one person tell me how impressive they are for two year olds to be able to do some of the things they do. Yes, I’m bragging a little. Other than exploring all the local playgrounds, they are also enjoying “swimming” or wading at Crystal Lake and they loved the ocean in Maine and at Wingaersheek Beach in Glouchester. Leah took to the ocean (“moving water” according to Elliot) with no problem. Characteristically, Elliot was a bit more cautious, but quickly acclimated to beach life and looked like a little surfer boy by the end of our Maine trip. They both, particularly Elliot, love to get wet at the splash park in Brookline.

Since I have been driving them to and from Boston for daycare these two weeks, I have enjoyed quite a bit of time with them in the car. Their conversations have been hilarious. Mostly one of them points something out and the other either says it louder or denies its existence and says it’s something else. This can go on for a long time. They sing songs together and laugh at each other for reasons unbeknownst to me. I love that I have twins for many reasons, including the privilege of witnessing their interactions with each other as they grow up. It is hilarious and really amazing.

This past weekend we hosted a birthday party at our house. Many of our friends and relatives came to celebrate Leah and Elliot and summer and the gorgeous day. Craig cooked up an incredible Mexican feast with pulled chicken, pulled pork, homemade beans, guacamole, fresh margaritas etc. The kids bashed open a piñata and played pin-the-tail on the donkey and just ran around like little animals. It was awesome and Leah and Elliot, despite picking up colds in daycare, and Leah having a pretty bad rash, loved it (mostly the cupcakes). The second year was even better than the insanity of the first year with these guys. Everyday, even the most frustrating ones, I am so thankful that I have these two crazy kids because, just as I suspected it would, life with Leah and Elliot keeps getting better.

Flowers, Rocks, Water and Sand

2011-05-03T15:37:00.001-04:00

We had a great weekend, spent mostly enjoying the spring weather that we've been waiting on for months and months. We began with a trip to Volante Farms to buy seedlings for our raised beds. Elliot and Leah were very happy to help Craig push the wagon around and Leah enjoyed all the PINK flowers.

Somewhat helpful.

Gratuitous (PINK) flower shot.

Our first vegetable garden!

On Saturday, we went to a birthday party for a boy turning four years old. Elliot was thrilled with the balloons and both kids loved the treasure hunt that was set up in the back yard. It makes me so proud to watch Elliot and Leah get in there with the other kids, even though they were relatively young, and participate in these activities. Leah especially was excited to find a rubber ducky with a PINK hat and some little plastic buggies. They loved going through their goody bags in the car on the way home and showing off their stickers and pencils.

Later in the day, we stopped by the local Kid's Festival. Leah and Elliot were especially into the little dance floor that was set up with tons of hula hoops. When a song would end, Leah would get sad until another one started up again. Elliot tried to abscond with multiple hoops, but we managed to reign him in.

She would like to know how to use these things.

"Don't even look at my hoops."

On Sunday morning, I drove the kids to JP to cruise around Jamaica Pond with nanny. We enjoyed watching the ducks and doggies, but mostly throwing pebbles into the "big water!"

Gifting some rocks to Nanny.

Snoogling with Nanny.

Sunday afternoon, after a failed nap, the family shipped off to Home Depot to buy sand for the new sandbox (thanks, Nanny!!). Leah is very meticulous in her sandbox play. Making appropriate use of the buckets and shovels and toys. Elliot is not so much meticulous as he is aggressive, throwing sand everywhere, including into Leah's face (which resulted in an ineffectual time out).

A sandbox moment of zen.

Elliot was actually a bit challenging all weekend. He is honing his skills as a master of pushing limits and pressing buttons. He is an adorable sweetheart, but man, can he get Craig and I riled up. Welcome to the almost-twos, I suppose. Elliot is also a comic genius, I'll have you know. Last night he ran over to me and instead of jumping into my lap, like I expected him to do, he fell like a board on top of the book I was reading. It was pretty funny, so I laughed. He immediately got up and did it again and continued to do it until I had tears running down my face and Leah was saying "poor Mommy!" He kept a totally straight face the whole time he was doing it, just looking over to make sure I was still laughing at him. It's hard to explain why this was so funny, but it really was.

This kid is a clown.

And she's my sweet little love bug (tantrums excluded).

Grandma & Grandpa

2011-04-27T15:08:00.000-04:00

True story: I sent a short iPhone video of Elliot and Leah singing "Twinkle Twinkle Little Star" to my in-laws and they arrived on our doorstep a few days later. I will definitely remember that trick for the future.

Ahoy There, Bloggy!

2011-04-27T15:03:00.000-04:00

Yes, it's been awhile. Oddly, I find myself rather busy these days, what with the twin toddlers, the full time job, the sub-par social life and the running. My intentions are good, but they also line the road to hell, or something like that.

Elliot and Leah continue to do incredibly well. At 21 months, they are quickly overtaking their father and I in intelligence. Their vocabularies are enormous, in both English and Spanish, and they speak in logical phrases like "doggy barking" or "Elliot sleeping" or "Daddy watching TV". They know the alphabet and can recognize some letters in any context. Both kids know the words to quite a few songs love to sing and be sung to. Songs they know include "Twinkle, Twinkle", the alphabet song, "If You're Happy and You Know It" (called "Happy Know It" or "Clap Hands"), "Happy Birthday" and "Old MacDonald" (called "E-I-E-I-O"). When they sing songs to me, I die of adorableness and love. Don't puke, please. They also love playing "I Getchoo", which is when I chase them around the house saying "I'm gonna get you!" But they are happiest when they are outside running around and getting dirty. Thank goodness spring seems to be finally arriving.

Eww, Garbage Truck!

Not as innocent as she looks.

Elliot has this problem where he can be just so incredibly bad, but also so incredibly cute at the same time. It makes it really difficult, as his mother, to dole out appropriate disciplinary actions for such indiscretions as dropping every single food item he can grab from the table to the floor. Or throwing very hard toys trucks at Leah's head. Or running in the opposite direction when being called after. He tests Lina, Craig and I on a daily basis however he can and fully understands what he is doing at all times. We have been implementing time-outs, but it is hard to be consistent about it. Or, I should say, we are not terribly good at being consistent with it. On the other hand, this boy is so cute that being annoyed at him for any length of time is difficult. Even after I've scraped the 25th smushed pea from the kitchen floor, or wiped the milk from his sippy cup off the coffee table for the 17th time, I still melt in his big, brown puppy dog eyes. And then he says "boom boom?" which means "Please sing "The Ants Go Marching" song for me, Mommy?" and I sing the damned song.

You try staying mad at that face.

Leah continues to be incredibly affectionate and totally bonkers. She is intense in everything - her laughter fills the entire house for most of the day, but when she is unhappy, the whole house will be well aware of that too. Leah loves to be held. She gives out big hugs with abandon. She is also a dare devil and loves to be thrown in the air or spun around as fast as possible. She already has a penchant for pink and it's one of the only colors she will identify without fail. Leah has incredibly strong opinions and preferences about everything. Often, if we want her to do one thing, we'll offer her something else, knowing she'll assert her opinion in the other direction (examples being which car seat she will sit in or cup she'll drink from). She is a full-fledged toddler in an almost textbook way. Except smarter. And cuter.

Not expressive at all, that one.

Truly, life is very good at the moment. We are lucky to have two thriving, growing, learning, loving, brilliant, adorable kids who surprise us and make us laugh every single day. There is not much I could ask for beyond that.

At the Boston Marathon. The runners used Leah's hair as a wind gauge.

I'm going to try to post a little more frequently, mostly photos since I am now the proud owner of a beautiful new Canon T3i camera. All photos in this post (except the Marathon shot) are what I've come up with in the first couple of days with it. I hope they improve quite a bit as I learn more about my new baby.

17 Months

2011-01-05T14:39:00.001-05:00

Month 17 was the month of “no”. “No” is the catch-all answer to almost all questions directed at Leah and Elliot:

Q: Want to get up?
A: No
Q: Want to get down?
A: No
Q: Want to go to bed?
A: No
Q: What time is it?
A: … No?

The only questions that elicit enthusiastic responses follow the template of “What does a (insert animal/“car”/“Santa”) say?” or “Where is your (insert body part/clothing item/relative name/etc)?” These questions we can, and must, repeat ad nauseum every day, all day. We understand that their tendency towards “no” is perpetuated by the necessity for Craig and I to use that word a lot in response to their actions, so it’s not surprising. It’s actually cute. I love that we can have little conversations that make sense as long as I only ask yes or no questions.

Language in general continues to flourish. Amazingly, they both continue to develop words at basically the same rate. Elliot is quicker to string words together (mostly “big car/tree/truck/anything, even if it’s not at all big”) and Leah picks up on new words a little faster, but in general, they are both on track. New words and phrases this month include: all gone! (for food in their bowls), zipper, clock, sink, “tubby”, “sticky” (Leah’s word for sticker), niño (Elliot’s word for Leah and all other kids), and tons more. We are on an awesome eating streak, which I am sure is about to end. Sleeping has been going well too, though I do think Elliot still needs less sleep than Leah.

Leah currently is really into accessorizing. If there is a hat on the floor, she must wear it, even if it’s my sweaty hat that I just ran in. Same goes for socks (dirty or clean) and golashes (both love their “Boots!”). She also loves bath time (“dubby!”, not to be confused with “dobby”, which is strawberry), her lovey, and Craig. She’s into her dad right now. Leah also loves Elmo and Mickey Mouse despite having seen very little of either of them. I thought I would discourage our kids from becoming too infatuated with commercialized characters, but it’s actually really cute, so screw it. She is still extremely stubborn and will submit to a full-fledged rigid-on-the-floor-turning-bright-red tantrum at any time. We are currently struggled to eliminate bottles and Leah is not thrilled about it. We’re on day three of no bottles except right before bed and it is going okay, so hopefully we’re almost done.

Elliot is just such a boy. He is constantly on the move, which is why our ratio of Leah to Elliot photos is about 10:1. He loves balls, trucks, cars and books. He actually seems to have a knack for throwing and kicking balls (though I’m sure every parent out there thinks their 17 month old is athletically gifted, right?). Seriously though, his aim is better than mine and he dribbles a soccer ball and keeps it under control. Athletic prodigy? I think so. He loves giving kisses to his sister and to animals, stuffed or not. He continues to share anything and everything with Leah. If she is crying, his first inclination is to offer her whatever he is holding. It’s truly the sweetest thing, though he’ll still give her a swat if he’s in the mood. Elliot also loves the moon, fires in the fireplace, planes (which he still calls “sky” though he knows the correct word), his lovey and the train (choo-choo). He also seems to be a big fan of people in general. Whenever we are in public, he makes eye contact with as many people as he can and gives them cute little smiles. At Whole Foods the other day, upon having that interaction with him, a stranger commented on how much “personality” he has. She doesn't know the half.

This month we had another trip to Glenside, PA for Christmas. Leah and Elliot definitely didn’t understand what was going on, but they loved the tree and the ornaments (Leah cradled one of Tia Sarah’s ballet dancer ornaments lovingly for a while until I noticed it was missing an arm which she hopefully didn’t swallow). They played on the stairs at the house a lot, which was great because they are now quite proficient at both up and down stairs. They were both a little under the weather, which made feeding them a struggle, but they were generally pretty happy and definitely enjoyed all the attention from the Greiner clan. The mechanical singing Grinch was a huge favorite and they had a good time dancing with him. Sarah and Jon gifted Grandpa Jer Ber with a “Daddle” which is a saddle for him to wear so the twins can ride on his back like a horse. Yes, it’s as awesomely insane as it sounds. We ended up staying in Glenside an extra night due to the huge blizzard hitting on the days following Christmas. This was not a terribly big deal, but during the blizzard, which brought very strong winds, a branch destroyed our back passenger-side car window. We couldn’t get it fixed, so Craig and Grandpa Jer-Bear doctored it up with some heavy duty plastic and duct tape for the ride home. Amazingly, it worked quite well and really didn’t affect our drive home at all. It was a pretty smooth drive, in fact.

For New Year's Eve, we attended the traditional party at Josh and Erica's house. We were a little worried about putting the kids to bed in their bathroom (fan on) and then transporting them home right after midnight, but they did incredibly well. They went to sleep without a sound and, despite a very disruptive wake up that involved being carried through a house full of drunk people, into the car and home, they went right back to sleep in their cribs.

In general, things are really great. We regularly get comments on how good and well behaved Leah and Elliot are, and I actually agree. We are fully away that at any moment things could change, and they certainly have their moments. But, so far, we are blessed with two extremely good kids and we feel very lucky for that. I'm looking forward to all the awesomeness (and not-so-awesomeness) that the second half of our second year with Elliot and Leah will bring. Cue shit hitting fan.

Much to be thankful for this holiday season

2010-12-16T14:31:00.001-05:00

16 Months (in retrospect)

2010-12-14T14:57:00.003-05:00

This was another month in which the positives outweighed the negatives of toddlerhood. After enduring three or so weeks of extremely early wakeups (in the neighborhood of 5:00 or 5:30), all we needed to do was implement a two-fold plan and we now don’t see the babies generally before 7:00. (Why, oh why, do I post these things, Dear Universe?) FYI, the two-folds were respectively: (1) Do not bring Leah into our bed to get her to continue sleeping in the morning. Instead let her cry-it-out in the morning until our chosen appropriate wake up time (6:00 to start). (2) Push the bedtime later by half an hour, which sounds so DUH, but it really does go against the popular thought that sleep begets sleep. In any case, this plan was derived from the numerous emails I received from members of the Mothers of Twins club in response to my desperate plea for help. And, quite literally, it worked in two days. Miraculous! Having the babies stay up until 7:30 has yielded other benefits too, in that I can spend more time with them when I get home from work during the week. Unfortunately, the new bedtime also eats into my only “Alexis time” of the day, which is when I have been running. I have not been running so much, however, since I am injured, but our brand new treadmill arrived in the post today, so the plan is to use that instead of running outside in the wee hours. I suppose now that they are sleeping so late, I could use that extra time to work out in the morning, but sleeping until 7:00 is a luxury I just can’t sacrifice.

Elliot and Leah’s vocabularies are exploding, as predicted by Dr. Yuan, our pediatrician. Leah is particularly interested in soaking up as many new words as possible at all times. Last night, for example, she repeated the word “anchor” over and over after I read it out of a book, apparently to commit it to memory. Both Elliot and Leah know a lot of Spanish, but, according to Lina, Elliot is not as willing to speak Spanish as is Leah, which I find kind of fascinating, because, how does he know what is Spanish and what is English? Shouldn’t it just be one giant language to them at this point?

Favorite words of the month: “pocket” (for an actual pocket, but also for Dr. Suess’s “There’s a Rocket in My Pocket”), “lovey” (Elliot says this over and over as he falls to sleep), “choo-choo” (Craig has taught them about the train that I take to them on Monday through Thursday nights), “raisin”, “milk”, “truck” (or “crrrr-uck!” for Elliot), “moon” (for “Goodnight Moon” or the actual moon), “people” (for any person figuring/toy, used for the singular), “doggie” (obviously), “jacket”, “chair”, “off” (Elliot says this more often) and so many more that it’s basically no longer feasible to keep track. They are so happy when they can name things out of books or on TV and now almost always can. When asked what Santa says, they “ho ho ho” in adorable deep voices thanks to Lina. They also know most of the standard animal noises at this point. They are saying a few more two-word phrases now. Elliot says “read book” and can say many of the cars in his still favorite “Apple car book”.

Both Leah and Elliot have become quite helpful recently too. Leah always wants to help Elliot get dressed. She holds up his clothing and says “Ee-ya, Ee-ya” and chases him around with it. Leah will retrieve things I ask for. The other day, I had Elliot on the changing table and asked Leah for his pants, which she brought over right away. Then I asked for his shirt. She brought over a shirt, but I wanted a different one and said “No, the blue one” and she brought over the blue one. I can see this being very useful over time. Elliot likes to help me put my shoes on and, if I say “ayuda me”, he will help me do things like put toys together or whatever. They love helping out and I look forward to having them help with baking and other projects. Elliot is very good at sharing with his sister and will always give her one of his toys if he has two. Last night he fed her his bottle because he knew she was out of milk. And he will give her the one toy he is playing with if she seems to want it more (and she always does). Sharing is an area for development for Leah…

Eating is pretty much the same as last month, though we recently found out that Elliot loves the broth from stew, which we put into a cup for him to drink and call it “meat juice”. Yeah, kind of gross, but there’s veggies in that meat juice. They still eat a ton of cheese, yogurt, chicken dogs, noodles and other kid foods, but sometimes we can trick them into other things. Leah does really well with her own utensils. It’s still messy, but she will eat a lot more of something from her own utensil than from one I am wielding. Elliot eats incredibly well when we have the TV on. I can literally shovel food into his mouth if he is distracted by Wonder Pets or Yo Gabba Gabba, but it’s not something we are willing to do most of the time. It’s a good trick to have in our pockets during particularly frustrating meals.

Bath time has become totally insane. I end up as wet as if it was my bath time due to Elliot throwing everything out of the bath (at me) and splashing as much as possible. He goes “Whoah! Whoah! Whoah!” and purposely slips and slides all over until he falls down, creating a huge splash. Cute, but soggy. He is absolutely going to be the class clown someday. Mark my words. Leah has been practicing her swimming a bit and has recently been upset when bath time is over each night. Our little fishy.

Bedtime is still one of my favorite times of day. Since moving bedtime later, we now do bath, then pajamas and then a bit of time by the fire before reading time in their room. They love running around in PJs and going a little crazy before bedtime. After I herd them into their room, we read books until bedtime. They now ask me to read a book over and over, which is a classic toddler bedtime procrastination method. As noted above, “Wocket in My Pocket” is the current favorite book, followed closely by “Goodnight Moon”, “The Snowy Day” and “Caps for Sale”. They aren’t terribly picky though as long as we read enough stories. Leah gets her own sleep sack for me to put on (and tries to help Elliot with his) and is very happy to get in her crib for bedtime. Elliot has been having a tougher time ending the day recently, which is hopefully just a phase. He responds really well to a pat-down, but I’m trying to resist starting a new bad habit. They both will not sleep without their lovies though.

16 Months was the month of Thanksgiving and Hanukkah. Thanksgiving was celebrated at the Grandma and Jer-Bear’s house this year as per the annual rotation schedule. Elliot and Leah loved playing in the big house, especially on the stairs. They also enjoyed playing with the toys that Grandma saved from when Craig and Sarah were toddlers. It snowed on Thanksgiving, which was unusual, and the kids loved watching the snow through the window from their grandparents’ bed, where they also had some extended jumping sessions. Other highlights of the Thanksgiving trip were ripping up newspapers with Uncle Jon, dancing in the kitchen, playing in the leaves and tons of attention from everyone. We are headed back down to Philly for Christmas and, other than the car ride, we are very eager to get there.

We had our 4th annual Hanukkah party for my family at our house. Craig’s awesome latkes and my admittedly outstanding rugelach were on the menu. It’s amazing how crazy our small house was with all five cousins running around. It was a total zoo. Leah loved playing with cousin Sam, while Elliot zipped around the house like a crazy man. Our nieces, Sasha and Amanda, were hilarious as they opened each gift, barely looked at it and said “can we have another present?” in unison. Kids these days… I love these family traditions though and feel extremely blessed about life in general these days.

Here’s to hoping all of it doesn’t go to hell after I publish this post.

Was Gandhi insane as a toddler?

2010-11-30T10:55:00.000-05:00

Did Franklin Roosevelt chuck most of his food on the floor at every meal? Did Gloria Steinem throw giant tantrums because the only book that she wanted among her hundreds was the one her brother was currently reading? Did Steve Jobs spend hours jumping from the coffee table to the couch and back again? Did Golda Meir drink milk enthusiastically from a bottle, but let the same milk dribble out of her mouth all over her shirt if it came from a sippy cup? Did Nelson Mandela refuse to have his diaper changed by flailing about like a crazy person spreading his poop all over everything in the process? Did Margaret Thatcher force herself to be dragged kicking and screaming from the playground after every single visit while other children and their caretakers looked on with horror? Did Winston Churchill stand up in the bathtub and throw himself backwards to make as big of a splash as possible, cackling maniacally all the while?

I certainly hope so.

I had Forgotten About the Blog Post Jinx

2010-11-16T17:01:00.000-05:00

It comes as no surprise that after I posted that puppy-dog-farting-rainbows post about how joyous and delightful life with twin toddlers is, things went a little south. We knew we were in trouble when we were playing outside in the leaves, an activity that can keep Elliot and Leah entertained for quite some time, and Elliot literally collapsed onto the ground and started whimpering. Then his nose began to run. I literally saw the first small stream of snot and knew we were screwed. And we were. Elliot does not take well to being ill (I seriously have no idea where that comes from. Surely not my dear husband and his epic head colds.). He whined for a week straight. He went on an infuriating hunger strike. He didn’t drink his milk for a few days. Leah got the cold too. She handled this cold better than her brother, but she was still super-sensitive (more so than usual). I suppose that this harkens to the beginning of cold season and I should get used to wiping little noses a hundred times a day for the next few months. And so it goes.

How about random nugs of information?
• Elliot just can’t get enough of Richard Scarry’s Cars and Trucks from A to Z (aka “Car Book!!” or “Book Car!!”. It is an obsession second only to footwear and hosiery. I have it memorized. Name a letter, I’ll tell you the car(s). Every time he sees the thing, even if he just put it down, he stops in his tracks and gets this look of shocked delight on his face and says “Book Car!” It’s incredibly cute.
• “Eeewww” and “Owww” are two favorite words (are these actually words?) at our house right now. In basically the correct context. “Eeww” is generally related to foot scent and “Oww” is often said after hitting someone (backwards though that is).
• Elliot has started to tell us when he poops. He says “poo poo”. He also says it when he farts, and occasionally just for kicks, but he consistently tells us when he poops. It’s not that helpful given the olfactory warning we also receive, but it’s very cute.
• Sleeping has been okay, but not great. We still aren’t back to 6:30 wakeups since Daylight Saving Time began a couple weeks back. This past Sunday, I was up with both kids at 5:00 a.m. This is painful because then they are so tired that they nap poorly and are total disasters by nighttime. Bedtime, though, is a lot of fun. They love their bedtime book and snuggles and so do I.
• Eating remains a constant struggle. I find myself begging them to eat things like a grilled cheese sandwich, which seems crazy. They went to bed without eating much of anything for dinner a couple nights while they were sick and it had no impact on their sleep.
• I have stopped being too ambitious about what we offer them for meals since more often then not, that meal is rejected and I end up giving them something I know they will like. We still offer new foods, but not as aggressively. It’s not worth the aggravation at this point.
• We’ve become really complacent about the usage of bottles around here. Elliot could stop anytime, but we keep giving them to him because it’s easy. Leah is very much addicted, but it’s about time to break the habit. 2011 = a bottle-free year. At least that’s the plan.
• Mealtimes also offer the opportunity for me to say things like “Get the soppressata out of your hair!”
• Leah now has enough hair for pigtails and I love it.
• This past weekend’s visit to Drumlin Farm was a lot more successful than the trip we took to Franklin Park Zoo last spring. I think this is mostly due to being older, but also to the awesomeness of Drumlin Farm. Leah and Elliot could literally have admired the chickens in the coop for hours if we let them. I don’t remember it being that cool when I was a kid.
• Leah and Elliot have started fighting. Generally it is over a toy/book/lovey/stuffed animal. Generally it is the thing that Elliot has and Leah decides she wants. The only way this can usually be resolved is by giving Leah said thing and distracting Elliot with something new. It makes me feel bad for him, but she is just indistractable.
• Animal sounds that either or both twins can imitate: dog, monkey, sheep, owl, rooster (the Spanish version “ki ki ri ki”).
• More new words: Leah – pizza, chicken, lovey, noodle (this is my favorite “noodle-oodle-oodle”); Elliot – moon, poo poo (as discussed above), “ew” (also as discussed).

That is what is new at 16 months old. We are looking forward to Thanksgiving, Hanukkah and Christmas this year with more active participation from the twins. We certainly realize how much we have to look forward to and be thankful for this year.

15 Months in Pictures

2010-11-04T10:55:00.001-04:00

Leah is an excellent photo subject, and loves to sit still for photos (though she doesn't always smile):

It is very rare to get a photo of Elliot actually looking at the camera, and nearly impossible to get one of him smiling.

Getting a shot of both babies together continues to be a challenge and I might have one shot from the past 15 months of the two of them smiling. Here is the best I've been able to do recently (just try taking that spoon away from Leah for the photo. I dare you):

This is far more common:

15 Months!

2010-11-03T14:36:00.001-04:00

Given how poorly I have kept up with keeping the memories alive and the fact that my memory, in particular, is terrible, I thought I’d put in an effort to blog a little. Maybe like once a month? Maybe more? Who knows? Just don't pressure me.

Toddlerhood has been treating the Greiner family very well. Leah and Elliot are 15 months old (almost 16 months old now) and officially toddlers. We are having such a great time with them almost every day. Yes, there are moments of toddler insanity (ahem, Leah), but in general, we have very happy kids. Someone told me that the changes that occur during the second year are astounding, even more so than the first year, and I already see that to be true. Are 12 months, Leah and Elliot were just beginning to walk and couldn't say many real words. At 15 months, they are running, climbing, following commands, asking for specific things, speaking in two word phrases (Elliot), singing, dancing and just being all around fun little people.

Leah is an awesome and precocious little girl. She climbs on everything with frightening ease and agility. Like a cat, she always wants to be standing (or jumping) on the highest point in any room. She has moments of all out craziness, where she needs to be jumping on the sofa, the bed or on another human (her brother or parents). And she cackles and screams with maniacal joy. It’s pretty hilarious. She is obsessed with Elliot, calling him “Ee-ya” and tackling him from behind in bear hugs until he falls over, totally nonplussed. She also loves when she thinks Elliot is chasing her. She will sit on my lap looking expectantly for him, and when she hears or sees him coming, she will jump on me like she is trying to escape, while laughing hysterically. Leah’s laugh kills me every time. She makes this exaggerated “HA!” sound that is so funny. I basically live for laughs from Elliot and Leah and will do whatever I can to get them.

Leah is my girl. Elliot really has never really seemed to care about my comings and goings all that much, but Leah is very happy to see me at night. She is by no means attached, and happily goes to Lina when she comes in the morning, but when I come home, I can’t put her down from the moment we walk into the house until I put her into her highchair for dinner. This makes it difficult for me to prepare dinner/go to the bathroom/take my coat off, but it’s sweet that she missed me.

Leah’s vocabulary is pretty huge and growing every day. She picks up words very quickly and often surprises me with the words she knows. Some words she exclusively says in Spanish, some in English, but many she knows in both languages. Spanish words include “agua”, “sapo”, “vamos”, “libro” and more that she only says to Lina. Favorite English words are “spoon”, “bye”, “Dada”, “jacket”, “shoe”, etc. Thinking about it now, she isn’t nearly as fixated on any one word or object in general like Elliot, she is more of a generalist.

On the flip side of the Leah coin, she is also incredibly stubborn and has some serious toddler moments. She will absolutely freak out the second someone tries to take away an object that she is in possession of (toy, fork, sippy cup, bottle of diaper cream, hairbrush) and will become hysterical until she gets it back (or is otherwise distracted, which is challenging). She definitely gets away with a lot of nonsense because of the ruckus she can raise, but we tend to choose our battles and let her win if it’s not a big deal. She throws utter tantrums upon time to leave the playground, which renders whoever has to remove her into “that mom/dad/nanny” with the screaming and flailing child under arm. She still hates the car with an unbridled passion and cries much of the time in it, unless she is consuming her baba or I am singing either “The Itsy Bitsy Spider” or “If You’re Happy and You Know It”, in which case she will stop crying long enough to sing along. Generally, other songs do not work for Leah. So, basically, my daughter is either highly determined and motivated to get her way, or she’s incredibly spoiled. Let’s go with option A.

Elliot is Mr. Mellow. He is extremely high energy and would rather be running free outside or on the playground than just about anything else, but really, nothing much fazes him. He seems to have a bit of an obsessive quality to the way he plays. For example, he is very much obsessed with shoes and socks (which he also calls “shoes”). Every night when I take off his and Leah’s shoes and socks, he has to collect all of the socks and he carries them around for the rest of the night, occasionally holding them up to whoever is around and saying “SSSSHOES!” His love affair with footwear has been going on for quite some time now and doesn’t seem to be waning. I suppose it does run in the family though. In general, his slightly obsessive tendencies extend to collecting things in general. If we have multiple of the same type of toy, he will try very hard to hold all of them at once, often ineffectively. At the end of the day, we will find little stashes of thing (blocks, puzzle pieces, cars etc.) around the house. Elliot still loves to read. He has some favorite books now, which is a new development, including “Hop on Pop”, which he has shortened to “Pop”. When I read a book, he will station himself in front of me and walk backwards until he can plop down into my lap. I love that.

Feeding Elliot can be an exercise in extreme frustration and patience maintenance. He still throws a lot of his food on the floor and will decide he doesn’t want to eat something anymore and will swat the fork away as I move to put something in his mouth. This makes a huge mess and drives me batty, but I try to maintain decorum as I’m pretty sure that he loves a big reaction from me. He also swats at anyone who is holding him and throws toys at Leah somewhat frequently. He clearly loves a reaction.

Because he is so chill and detached, the love he does give out is such a huge payoff for me. Lately, at bedtime, while he is drinking his baba, he will come to me for a snuggle. I love it so much and take advantage of every snuggle I can get from him, because he is generally not particularly affectionate like Leah is.

Other than “SSSHOE!”, Elliot’s current favorite words include “Bee-bo” (for bellybutton), “Apple!” (for any fruit or vegetable that happens to be somewhat round), “cookie”, “Bye!” (accompanied by limp-wristed wave), “sky” (for plane, unfortunately, since he used to actually know the word “plane”) and “car”. He says these things with much enthusiasm and repetition, generally three repeats, increasing in implied exclamation point usage: “Bee-bo! Bee-bo!! Bee-bo!!!” He also has strung together his first phrase, which is “Bye ___”. This has included “Bye Bee-bo,” “Bye Dada,” “Bye car,” etc. He says “bye” whenever a door closes or a book closes. It’s really charming. Beyond English and Spanish words, Elliot has actually developed his own language. It is comprehensive and allows him to keep up a general narrative at all times, but no one else understands it. He will look at you directly and just begin speaking, in various sounds and word-like structures, but in total gibberish. I am quite certain that he knows exactly what he is saying, and that it's just the rest of us that are slow.

In general, life at the Greiner household is very good, but extremely exhausting. There are very few free moments. My schedule most days leaves very little room for accomplishing anything beyond what absolutely needs to get done, and a lot of things go undone (particularly my upkeep). Here is a typical Monday through Thursday:

6:30 – Wake with E&L, get ready for work
7:30 – Leave with Craig for the train
8:15 – Work
5:15 – Train home, Craig and kids pick me up at the train station
6:00 – Arrive home, feed E&L, play after dinner
6:30 – Bath time
6:45 – Bedtime routine, lights out at 7:00
7:00 – Run
8:00 – Shower, dinner, hang out with Craig
9:30/10:00 – Bedtime

It’s exhausting, and I miss having my own schedule, as opposed to living by Elliot and Leah’s, but, obviously, it’s well worth it.

So that’s where we are at 15 months. I hope to keep up a bit with this going forward, but given that I haven't had a haircut in 6 months, I can't guarantee anything.

'Snot Funny

2010-04-27T15:19:00.002-04:00

It’s been pretty quiet around here. I mean on this blog. Certainly not in our house which is rife with the heavy mouth-breathing of two 9 months old with total nasal blockage. We have been told we are lucky to have made it to the 9 month mark with nary a sniffle among us. But alas, those days are over. This past week, on the heels of a trip to Philadelphia, both babies came down with a cold. For more scream inducing fun, Leah got an ear infection. Yee haw. Anyway, I, for one, am looking forward to being done with this cold and to having our nose-breathing babies back. And I am pretty sure that they are looking forward to a break from constant nose wiping and sneak assaults with bulb aspirators (man, that is a satisfying piece of equipment when it works. Who knew?). Other than the carpet bomb of snot dropped on our home, things are good. Let’s go through the standard categories, shall we?

Sleeping: I will cover Elliot first, because he’s easy. The process of getting there can take a while, but once asleep, he’s pretty much down until morning. We had a couple of crying wake ups with this cold, but that’s pretty much it. For the moment, he sleeps through the night (until now, because I have just utterly jinxed myself). Leah, on the other hand, is our cute little sleep depriver. She falls asleep quickly with little to do, but inevitably wakes up between midnight and 1:00am and will not go back to sleep anywhere except for in our bed. This is not what we had planned for our sleeping arrangements, but honestly, it doesn’t bother me that much to have her there. What bothers me is that she wakes up at 5:30am and starts poking us and pulling hair. That is annoying. We’re living with it, but we have discussed eliminating all night feedings and not allowing Leah back in our bed at the 10 month mark (May 11). That sounds oddly familiar. Didn’t we do something like that at 6 months? It’s a work in progress. Our other sleep issue is that right now, when Leah is not sleeping in our bed, she is in a pack and play in the guestroom. I don’t like this one bit. She has a crib in her bedroom right next door, but both babies sleep much better when separated. Leah likes to go to sleep immediately and Elliot’s playing and yelling in his crib for 15 minutes before nodding up makes her really angry. And Elliot likes to sleep all night, so Leah’s waking up in the middle of the night pisses him off. So they are not terribly sleep compatible. Nonetheless, we will be transitioning Leah back to their bedroom in the near future because a baby in the guestroom permanently is not tenable or desirable.

Napping: Pretty good, thank you very much. 9:30-10:15 and 1:00-3:00 pretty much daily. Until I jinx myself by publishing this post.

Eating: Also good. This cold has made both babies not particularly thrilled about solid foods (they didn’t really like mashed potatoes last night. That must be a fluke.), but in general, they are doing great with eating and are basically just huge babies. Current favorites are CHEERIOS (OMG!), bread, blueberries, all fruit, sweet potatoes. They did not enjoy black beans or spinach. Leah likes chicken and egg yolks, Elliot not so much. If anyone reads this and has suggestions for more finger foods, I’d love the ideas. This brings us to:

Enormousness (of mind and body): We have big babies! I don’t know why I take such pride in Leah and Elliot gaining on the growth charts (I know it doesn’t really matter), but I do. At their 9 month appointment a couple weeks ago, Elliot weighed in at 19lbs 15oz, which is almost at the 50th percentile. He was in the 5th percentile or so at 1 month. He is 28.25” long (also almost 50th %ile). Leah, our little Peah-potomus, weighs 17lbs 7oz, which is about the 20th percentile. She began life below the third percentile. She is 27” long now (also around 20th percentile). I just love how substantial they are. Like little people. It’s awesome. Elliot is built like a brick. Leah is like a thinner brick. I am amazing by their strength (especially Elliot – that kid is strong and frankly, sometimes it hurts) and their dexterity (okay, Leah’s dexterity). It’s just so cool watching them grow and learn to do things.

Etcetera:
- Leah can stand unassisted for 3-5 seconds or so now.
- Both babies can say “mama” and “dada”. I’m not positive they know what they are saying, but sometimes it sounds uncannily appropriate (like when left in their cribs against their will). It’s totally cool either way.
- Leah likes shoes. Including licking the soles thereof. Bad sign?
- Elliot loves books. And animal noises. And, most especially, books about animals and the noises they make.
- They both love other kids. It’s so great when friends bring over their kids (older or younger). Leah and Elliot are fascinated. And will try to tackle them.

Pictures to come at some point sooner than a long time from now…

The Circus Has Come to Town

2010-03-31T14:13:00.004-04:00

Leah and Elliot are now fully mobile. Not that they are getting up and walking, but they both crawl (or, in Elliot’s case, slither) with agility and some level of grace. They both pull up on anything that they can reach with their hands. Mostly unstable, dangerous and slippery things. They both, Leah particularly, can move sideways along the things they have pulled up on (is that cruising? I think it is). It’s all really quite adorable, but also dangerous. And hilarious.

Elliot on an expedition.

Leah is very casual in her standing. She likes to hold on with one hand while squatting to pick up a toy or just hanging out. It generally works. It almost seems like she is close to standing without support. That girl is strong. She rarely topples over. She stood up for the first time about two weeks ago, so right at 8 months.

Elliot just started pulling up regularly at 8.5 months. He is getting good at it too, but will still take a spill so he needs to be watched pretty closely. He is tough though, so when he falls, he generally laughs it off.

They fight over this toy:

Hard at work.

Both need to play with it at the same time, but they don’t really “share” it so much as shove each other away from it and dominate the whole thing. Sibling rivalry is so cute.

Co-ed naked toy hogging.

Leah wants to climb everything. Particularly the bean bag chair. She throws herself at it over and over again in an attempt to get to the top. Sometimes she is alarmingly successful, but she cannot resist pausing whatever she is doing to smile at the camera.

After the Great Cherry Massacre of 2010.

Leah has two teeth now. Who knew teeth could be so effing cute?

Teethies!!

I believe that Ell might be teething as since he seems to sleep better and cry less with Tylenol. Or maybe he just likes pain killers. I hope it’s the former.

In terms of sleep, we’ve had two great nights after a series of not-so-hot ones. I can’t even really remember why they were bad, but I know that I spent a lot of time not in bed. We’ve put Leah in the guest room pack-n-play recently and they definitely do seem to sleep better apart, but we’ll bring her back into the nursery soon because we prefer them together. Maybe we'll do it this weekend if we have a few more good nights in a row. Elliot continues to fight naps for a living. It can take him over 30 minutes to finally fall asleep for a nap (after being wrestled down by me or Lina) and then he is totally out of synch with Leah. Whatever though. They’re cute, so they get away with these shenanigans.

Long on cute, short on photographic quality.

They are doing a great job with eating their solids. At our Passover sedar on Monday, they ate all of the contents of matzoh ball soup right from our bowls. I love feeding them table food. They entertain themselves by plucking cheerios off of their trays while I prepare their meals, which is preferable to make the damned dinner faster, Food Wench. They have enjoyed most of the foods we introduce, though Leah won't stand for chicken. We haven't yet told her that so many things in life taste like chicken. It is so much fun expanding their little palates and thinking ahead to a bottle-less, formula-less time.

Much of the area is currently underwater due to an epic rainstorm, but we are due for another warm and sunny weekend. I am so thrilled to have made it through the winter and that we are on the cusp of being able to spend most of our time as a family outside. I have a wish list of outdoor toys that I want to acquire over the coming months (water table, sandbox, lawnmower etc) and Craig is working on plans for a new flower garden, complete with Pee Gee hydrangea tree that will be perfect for Leah and Elliot to explore. It’s amazing how thoughts of spring and sun and flowers and birds and grass and tree buds can turn the collective frowns of New Englanders upside down.

Spring's the Thing

2010-03-22T11:14:00.000-04:00

As is likely to happen when it is sunny and 70 degrees in March, the Greiner family had a wonderful weekend. Twins Elliot and Leah heartily enjoyed their first trip to a local playground for some turns on a baby swing. Parents Alexis and Craig equally enjoyed burritos and long walks in the sun. All around, a Satisfying Shift from a Sodden Series of Soggy Saturdays and Sundays inSide.

Both babies are decidedly anti-nap recently (especially Elliot who has decided that sleep is for babies). Very annoying, but I will not let it bring me down because, Hey! Look! Adorable babies in the sun (doused in sunscreen, obvs) (bonus shot of Leah, now with teethies!):

Elephants and Kangaroosies-roosies

2010-03-15T14:52:00.003-04:00

It rained all weekend. In fact it’s still raining. Which is not good for my hair. And frankly, what is more important than my hair? I had a hair treatment done this past weekend, because I was looking more and more like Richard Simmons with every passing day. Seriously though, haven’t the Jewish people suffered enough without inflicting the Jew Fro upon us? So I sacrificed an evening to sitting in a nasty salon with my head coated in a solution containing a formaldehyde derivative. Not kidding - I basically embalmed my hair. It now looks less Bob Ross and more silken locks of loveliness, but I don’t think I can ever do it again. The protocol with this particular treatment involves not washing the hair for 72 hours. That’s a damned long time. Especially since I didn’t want the twins touching my head for the entire 72 hour period because of the chemicals that would inevitably leach into their little bodies. No big deal for my already addled brain, but not for my unblemished babies’ brains (this is all my own psychosis, by the way. I was not warned to stay away from small children for 3 days or anything). Oh and I wasn’t allowed to put up my hair either for that period of time. So there’s a challenge – keeping two 8 month olds literally out of my hair while taking care of them full time. And that’s why I can’t do it again. BUT, my hair for the next 5 months or so? Gorge.

This weekend we took the babies to Russo’s, a highly crowded market that caters to the produce-obsessed and I had more than one person call me “brave” for bringing a double snap-n-go in there. I basically cowered in a less insane area while Craig did the shopping. Craig and I had a date night in Boston while Nanny and Papa did the sitting. Fun night, though Boston restaurants continue to be somewhat disappointing. What’s with servers at the nicer restaurants in this town taking themselves so damned seriously? Post for someone else’s blog, I suppose.

Elliot and Leah continue to amaze me on a daily basis. Elliot is a speed demon. I will leave him in the playroom to do something in the kitchen for a minute and he will find me there. He has little interest in playing in the playroom, which is weird because are the plants in the dining room really more interesting than, say, the 450 toys for which huge multinational corporations spent millions of dollars to test and conduct focus groups to ensure that you, Elliot George, and those in your age bracket, will enjoy playing with them? I think we all know the answer to that.

I found this upon returning to get Leah from her crib, where I left her for about 1 minute on Sunday:

Yikes. Think she's proud of herself? Time to move down the mattresses. She much prefers to stand, than to crawl at this point, though she can crawl. She is happiest when standing. And so cute. And still krazy.

They had their first Cheerios this weekend (well, generic morning O’s - Thanks for nothing, Whole Foods). Leah could pick them up off of the tray and get them into her mouth, whereas Elliot preferred them to be deposited directly into his gaping maw. This is the first step towards feeding independence, right? So maybe someday we won’t be feeding them 7 times a day? Not that nourishing my babies isn’t a beautiful thing, but it sure is a time suck.

The time change hasn’t caused too many problems yet, though getting them to go to sleep in what was essentially daylight last night wasn’t easy. I think we need to invest in room darkening curtains, which will also give Leah curtains to climb, which she will enjoy.

"Mom! Stop embarrassing us!"

7-8 Months = Chock Full of Awesome Cuteness

2010-03-09T10:34:00.000-05:00

Just what are Leah and Elliot up to these days?

Leah (aka Leah-Peah-Potomus or simply The Potomus)

is trying SO hard to crawl correctly. And getting close. She can propel herself forward most of the time, but can’t quite get all four limbs to work in tandem. And it’s frustrating, she wants you to know. She gets around though.
is really getting strong. She can pull up if she holds onto my fingers with no help. And I caught her trying to pull herself up in her crib. Almost time to move the mattresses down as she's trying to pull up on everything.
is crazy. She goes into “crazy-eyed Leah” mode when she is having fun. She opens her eyes as wide as possible, smiles like The Joker and sticks the tip of her tongue out. It’s awesome.
loves animals. We visited some friends with dogs this past weekend. Leah was obsessed. She has never been around a dog before and one of the dogs was licking her face and she couldn’t get enough. We already know she loves Calza, but these dogs were like hairy angels sent from heaven.
also loves animals of the stuffed variety. When I attack her with a stuffed hippo, she just about dies of laughter. Holy cutest thing I’ve ever seen in my life.
blows raspberries at inopportune times. Like when I have just put a spoonful of pruney oatmeal into her mouth.

Elliot (aka The Bear or Bearus)

is officially mobile. The boy doesn’t stop moving. He slithers around like a snake and he does it with a purpose and a quickness.
is charming. And a flirt. In the supermarket yesterday, he yelled “dadadada” until a young woman looked at him. As soon as she did, he flashed a shit eating grin. She about died. How could you not. This boy is a serious charmer.
is just so sweet. I had him in the Ergo and he just leaned back and stared at me and smiled. Oy. Stop it boy, you’re gonna kill momma.
laughs spontaneously. This started this past weekend. He will just be sitting there, not doing anything of note and start giggling in response to nothing. Have I mentioned that he’s cute?

This is a really fun stage.

Thinking Out Loud

2010-03-09T10:30:00.003-05:00

We finally have a really good schedule of eating and sleeping going. We’ve been working on implementation for a couple months, and have finally settled into a groove. A typical day goes like this:

6:30 Wake up
8:30 1st Bottle (8oz)
9:15 Nap
10:15 Wake and play
11:00 Solids
12:30 2nd Bottle (7-8oz)
1:00 Nap
3:00 Wake and play
3:30 3rd Bottle (6-7oz)
5:20 Mon-Thurs: Pick up mommy at the train
6:00 Solids
6:30 Bath, 4th Bottle (8-9oz), Bed

This has been working out really well for us and I am reluctant to mess with it, but I'm a glutton for punishment, and so am about to screw with it. There has been talk on my MOTs board recently about the daily schedules of twins around Leah and Elliot’s age and the schedules posted have been decidedly different than our schedule. I don’t mind being different, but there are some issues arising from our schedule. First, Leah is resisting eating enough from her bottles (as she has been doing since the beginning of her time) and that, in turn, makes it nearly impossible for her to sleep through the night of a regular basis. I think if we can get her to eat more (liquids) during the day, we’d have more nights without wake-ups. Second, it's about time to add more solids into the schedule and I don’t want the added meal to cause them to decrease their liquid intake too much further. I don't want to try to move their naps, so it’s just a matter of finagling the feeding schedule. So here is what I am thinking of trying out beginning this Friday when they hit the big 8 months(!):

6:30 Wake up (we don’t seem to have a choice on this)
7:30 1st Bottle (8oz)
8:30 Breakfast (cereal + fruit)
9:15 Nap
10:15 Wake and play
11:30 2nd Bottle
12:30 Lunch (Veggie + Protein + Dessert)
1:30 Nap
3:00 Wake and play
3:30 3rd Bottle
6:00 Dinner (Veggie + Protein + Fruit)
6:30 Bath, 4th Bottle, Bed

This will be a more difficult transition for Leah than for Elliot because she needs a bottle to fall asleep at all times and doesn’t eat well unless she is half asleep in her bedroom. Because of this, I’m not sure how this is going to work. One MOT mentioned that she feeds her babies their bottles while they are eating their solids and that they eat really well that way. Definitely worth a shot. We might need to continue feeding Leah in her room before sleep-times, but this is the final goal.

If anyone that reads this excruciatingly exciting post has any tips or comments, let me know! Gotta love fixing what ain’t broke.

Also, daylight savings time is next weekend (isn’t it?). Just tell me now, are we screwed? I don’t want to change their sleeping times from 7-6:30 to 8-7:30. How can we prevent this? Do we try to put them down a little early and wake them up at (the new) 6:30am (which will feel like 5:30am to Craig and me)? My head hurts even thinking about it.

A Lazy Picture Post...

2010-03-02T21:31:00.001-05:00

Adorable pajama credit to cousin Annie. OMG, I am dying.

The post wherein I admit I have issues.

2010-02-25T19:42:00.000-05:00

This morning when the nanny arrived and we were doing the normal changing of the guard, Elliot made a lunge for me while sitting on the floor and bumped his head. It wasn’t a bad bump, and he only cried for a second, still though, poor baby! But actually, I was sort of glad he did it. Not because I am a sadist. Or because I have Munchausen Syndrome By Proxy, but because he lunged at ME! The twins have become a little more stranger-wary recently, but they really don’t seem to differentiate who amongst the people they know well is with them. I was admittedly getting a bit worried that they enjoyed the nanny’s company just as much (or more) than the company of me, their mom (I probably shouldn’t admit these things in public, but maybe this is common amongst those who delegate a portion of childcare to someone else?). So today, when he lunged at ME, while the nanny was sitting right next to him, I couldn’t help but enjoy it. Leah has already had a couple mom-please moments, but Elliot really hadn’t. It’s not that I was taking it personally, but fine, I was taking it a little personally. I have been warned that separation anxiety is far worse than infant indifference, but it’s nice to be recognized as The Mom.

And now I will eat his succulent brains...

Photo credit to Grandma Terry.

When do babies get necks?

2010-02-24T16:28:00.001-05:00

Not that he needs a neck to enhance the cuteness or anything...

hi.

2010-02-24T16:09:00.002-05:00

Photo credit to Auntie Sarah.

Long Weekends are Indeed That

2010-02-17T10:54:00.005-05:00

We had this Monday off for President’s Day. With my parents out of town, we had zero help and 24 hour baby duty for four full days (including my work-at-home Friday). Furthermore, we had a friend visiting from Saturday afternoon to Sunday afternoon. He loved meeting and spending time with the babies, but he was not family so we could not foist intensive baby care upon him, as much as we threatened to do so. While I love and look forward to the time I get to spend with Elliot and Leah, holy crap they are exhausting. And they don’t really even move yet. I feel so beat up by the end of a few days of constant interaction with two 7 month olds. This weekend, I sang through my (embarrassingly vast) repertoire of songs appropriate for children probably 40 times. I picked thrown sippy cups off the floor so often that I have a repetitive motion injury. We read That’s Not My Dinosaur upwards of 60 times, and then my head exploded. When I got to work on Tuesday, I threw my coat over my boss's head, whipped it off and yelled “PEEKABOO” in his face.

Another thing about the weekend is that it reminds me why our nanny is our nanny and I am paid to do something other than childcare. When Lina is home, there is order. There is a schedule, there are children with their noses cleared of boogers. When Craig and I are home, I’m not saying that chaos reigns, but things are just a little more, how-you-say?, loosey-goosey. We do not have the mental capacity to stay in the house all day, so we take the babies out. Sometimes during naptime. The horror! This past Sunday, for example, we took Elliot and Leah to the ICA and then to lunch. Sounds benign and pleasantly cultural, but it coincided with naptime. We drove around for a while once the babies fell asleep after the outing to let them get a nap in the car, but that’s just not the same as a standard 2-hour nap in their cribs. It actually didn’t turn out too badly, but the correlation between good naps and good nighttime sleep is astounding. And the more days they go without excellent naps, the worse they are at night. Monday, we decided to leave the house again (I know, WTF were we thinking?) and took them to Costco (because that’s how we do). They actually ended up with a very good afternoon nap post-Costco, which lasted until 3:30 or so. We decided to forgo the normal nap they get when Craig drives them to pick me up from the train (we emulate this nap even on weekends because it helps the babies make it to their 6:30 bedtime without total meltdowns). This was a mistake. Overnight, we had wakeups at 10:30, 3:30 and then they were up for the morning at 5:00am. Uhg. To prove my point that Lina is good at her job, after one day with her, both babies slept through the night last night. What’s that, Lina? A raise? Of course. Just give me a minute to go sell some blood. Totally worth it.

Other random thoughts:

How does Elliot possibly sleep through the night when he ends up entirely soaked in urine? Am I supposed to change him overnight as a preventative measure? The kid is wearing nighttime diapers. What more can I do?
Leah seems to be sprouting a tooth. Nothing is visible yet, but I can feel a protrusion.
Elliot’s hair is growing in a mohawk pattern. I sort of hope it continues. I don’t want to be one of those moms who manipulate her kid’s hair into a mohawk, but if it happens, it happens.
Toys. We don’t seem to have enough of them. What am I missing that is indispensible for the 7-12 month set?
Are the Olympics kind of difficult to watch this year? I feel like I have watched hours of the Olympics, but all that I have come away with is that Bob Costas is very stylish and can fold the crap out of a pocket square. I know medals have been awarded, but I keep missing it happen. Though I caught some of this guy’s short program last night. Insane. Why hasn’t Christopher Guest made a movie about figure skating yet?

You're taking us out during naptime again? You will pay.

Seven Months!

2010-02-11T09:49:00.002-05:00

Today the wee chicken and the big bear turn seven months old! And what feats have they undertaken? A list:

They can sit totally unsupported (still with pillows around them to break their occasional falls).
They can get themselves into a sitting position from lying on an incline (like in a boppy).
They have recently started babbling, a lot. Elliot loves his "b" sounds "bwah, bwah, bwah". They both have "p" sounds too. We're working on "m".
Leah is getting closer to crawling every day. She can get up on her hands and knees whenever she wants and has begun to rock in an attempt to make forward progress. Backwards progress generally results, but hey, progress nonetheless. Elliot is close behind, but still does the swimming on dry land motion when he's trying to move.
They are focusing on individual toys and are really playing with them how they are meant to be played with (Leah has been doing this for some time).
They have some success with sippy cups (when the stars are perfectly aligned).

They have become quite the squirmy little babies. I have to pin Elliot down to get him in his PJs at night. I distract Leah by giving her a toy. They really don't like being immobilized though and will contort themselves to roll under any circumstances.

So we have two awesome little seven monthers now. When I think about all the awesomeness that is to come as Leah and Elliot continue to grow and learn and gain new skills, my head hurts (in a good way). It's almost too much to think about. I can't wait.

If you aren't blind from the photo in my last post...

2010-02-10T21:07:00.006-05:00

...then here is some adorableness to gouge your eyes out with.

So, guys, what is it you do with Lina while I'm at work?

I see. And whatcha watchin'?

Chickens. Duh. Why did I even ask?

Two Pump Chump

2010-02-10T20:47:00.002-05:00

I'm down to two (full) pumping sessions a day! (Wait, what did you think I meant?) That is two sessions (plus one mini session at work so I can keep access to the pumping room for reading purposes - shhh) from three to four recently, but over the past seven months I have pumped up to eight times per day, including waking up at least once in the night to pump in the beginning (I stopped that when the twins were around 4 months when Craig and I were away for a night at a wedding. I passed out from, er, dancing so much, and did not wake up until morning. Delightful morning engorgement followed, but that was the end of pumping overnight.). I have mixed feelings about being finished with breastfeeding. I am very happy to give up the pumping (hopefully entirely in the next month or so). And I am very proud that I was able to provide Elliot and Leah with breastmilk for seven months of their lives (close to 100% of their consumption for the first months to about 25% now). But it is bittersweet. I never established a real nursing relationship with my babies. That makes me a little sad. When I could have been feeding the babies directly, I was hooked up to a pump (a slick hospital grade pump that I love like a triplet, but a pump just the same). It is kind of a bummer, when all is said and done, but it is what it is and looking back on what I did wrong when the babies were little (not treating my thrush aggressively enough and nursing through the pain + accepting too much help feeding the babies, for example) is not particularly productive. Now I am just excited to be done so I can (a) bleach my teeth (b) chemically straighten my hair (c) drink multiple greyhounds in one sitting.

In other news, I now have a JWOWW-style paint job on my toes from letting my pedicure grow out for so long while trimming my nails. I really miss grooming.

This is totally the TMI-iest post in my short blogging life.

Picture Time!

2010-02-02T13:29:00.003-05:00

Both babies slept through the night last night! In honor, how about a group photo:

Or not. Let's do these instead:

Babies (and parents) get some culture at the Museum of Fine Arts:

Sippy cups!

One more try on those group shots, kids?

Forget it.

Mother knows squat

2010-02-01T10:08:00.003-05:00

Friday night was a rough night. A terrible, horrible, no good, very bad night. Elliot was up and screaming for a good portion of it. This was by far the longest crying jag we've had in our house. And Craig and I were especially unhappy about it because on Saturday we were leaving our supposedly perfect and well-behaved babies in the care of my parents, Nanny and Papa. I warned them that they should expect little to no sleep that night and that we had tried everything to get the Bear to sleep to no avail. My mom flippantly declared that she was going to try to let him sleep unswaddled and I laughed and laughed (in my head, obvs). That will NEVER work! He can't handle arm-freedom and all the flailing and flapping about it entails. Trust me. I'm his mother. Yadda, yadda, yadda… He slept through the night. Unswaddled. Color me an unintuitive ninny. Then last night, Craig fed Elliot and put him in the pack-n-play with a sleep sack and… wait for it... Not a peep until 6:30 this morning. I respectfully ask, WTF, Elliot? WTF? So the moral of the story is that I haven't a clue what I am doing.

In other news, Leah is like this close to crawling. She is getting up on all fours and trying so hard. She can also do the backstroke at an amazing clip, and therefore cannot be left alone on elevated surfaces (like our bed). I'm betting crawling will happen in mere weeks.

Oh, and Leah found her tongue...

2010-01-27T16:18:00.002-05:00

Milestones and such

2010-01-27T12:05:00.000-05:00

I don't spend a lot of time assessing whether Leah and Elliot are hitting their milestones according to the charts and books, but I actually think that they are right on schedule and doing really well, especially given that they were born three weeks early. However, I do want to make a point of writing down what they are doing more often (since I suck at keeping up with their baby books), so I'll try to start making note of their current skills here. At six months and two weeks they are:

Sitting unassisted for long periods of time. They both will topple if they try to reach for something out of range or if they look up quickly and lose balance, but they are really quite stable. They cannot, however, get into a sitting position on their own yet.
Reaching and dragging toys towards them.
Laughing (they have been doing it for a while, but now we can reliably get them to giggle by tickling them or "squishing" them).
Blowing rasperries and babbling a bit.
Staring at books being read to them (and grab and eat them, which is not as helpful).
Rolling over both ways with ease.
Trying desperately to crawl, especially when there is a cat within view. It is hilarious to watch them frantically kicking their legs and waving their arms, but their bellies are stuck to the floor. They get incredibly frustrated. I predict Leah will crawl first because I have seen her get up on her knees momentarily and she has a lighter load to carry.
Holding their own bottles. Elliot is doing it pretty consistently. He actually does it one-handed, which is one of the cutest things ever. He's so chill about it. Leah can do it, but isn't as interested in doing it all the time.
Pulling things off their faces if we cover them (like burp cloths and such). The beginnings of peekaboo, I suppose.

That's what I can remember for the moment. We are very close to having mobile babies, I believe, which is frightening in itself. Craig doesn't think that the babies will go out of their way to destroy all of our possessions, but I'm pretty sure they will. I hope he is right.

They are eating their solids very well. So far, they are fans of sweet potatoes, applesauce, banana, avocado (took a few tries), carrots and oatmeal. Tonight we plan to try pears and then squash this weekend. Thanks to Craig for making all of our baby food (with the exception of the cereals).

I think I know, but I don't.

2010-01-26T15:53:00.000-05:00

I think I know how my babies will respond to various things, but clearly, I don't. Last night, I fed Elliot and sang to him in the guest room, before putting him to bed (swaddled) in the pack and play at 7ish. He was wide awake. He whined, so I went back in to top him up with a bit more milk so I was positive he had eaten enough. I left, with the expectation of going back in after 3 minutes of crying, a la Ferber. He cried off and on, but never met the 3 minute mark. By 7:30, silence. Pure, golden silence. And that was that until 6:30am. Wait, what? He slept for 11 hours straight. This is the first time he slept anywhere but in his bouncy seat in 4 months. He has never slept all night before.

Nary I should forget that Leah too slept ALL night. I have the world's best babies. For today. We shall see what happens tonight. It really is amazing what a full night of sleep will do to a person. Good things, I tell you. There is an animated blue bird singing on my shoulder at this very moment. It's wonderful to be alive. For today.

Earliest photographic evidence of our spawn.

2010-01-25T13:28:00.002-05:00

That's Leah on the right with the jauntily placed hat. Already the fashion plate at a few minutes old.

Our evil overlords

2010-01-25T12:46:00.002-05:00

Can you see it? The evil? It's there. I promise.

Hey! What's new?

2010-01-25T12:04:00.000-05:00

Oh gee! there you are, blog. Long time. I've lost a lot of weight since I saw you last. And birthed a couple kids. They're 6.5 months old now. Fancy that. I was thinking last night that I need to start this blog back up again for my own sanity. I need to purge. And then I need to brush my teeth and start blogging again.

We have been blessed with very well behaved and delightful babies. They are also out-of-control adorable. Currently, though, Craig and I are operating on about 10 hours of sleep over three days. Parenting = hard. And exhausting. Maybe not as bad for those who have babies that sleep, and we've been very lucky for the most part, but we've entered a tough period that I call "the third circle of hell". And you don't sleep that close to hell. Too damned loud, what with all the screaming and so forth. I love my babies, but I love my sanity also. Again, they are awesome babies: never colicky, very little fussiness, good eaters and up until now, acceptable sleepers. But they are six months old, and baby sleep bootcamp cannot wait any longer.

36 weeks and 2 days

2009-07-09T10:55:00.000-04:00

Pregnancy really is all fun and games... Until you're 36+ weeks pregnant with twins. Then there is very little fun nor many games. I am still pregnant and relatively upright. I consider myself incredibly lucky to have made it to 34 weeks or so with relatively little discomfort and no complications, so I can deal with these last couple of weeks of hardship, if I must.

In any case, both babies are looking good. After a short lived low-platelet scare that had us thinking delivery might occur last week or this week, my blood is now behaving and the ultimate goal is July 20th, which will be 38 weeks on the nose. According to the ultrasounds we have on a weekly basis, the babies are measuring in at just over 5lbs a pop, though the ultrasound people really don't inspire a ton of confidence in their measurements and 20% up or down is likely. Plus, given that Baby B has her head underneath Baby A's tummy, it's tough to get good measurements these days. In any case, they are big and looking healthy and kicking the crap out of me on the regular. 11 days and counting...

Here's me at 36 weeks and 2 days pregnant (and thrilled, obviously):

32 Weeks 2 Days

2009-06-10T18:49:00.001-04:00

This is me at 32 weeks in all my splendor and glory and girth. I think I'm starting to look a lot like a Smart Car. Actually, I could probably crush a Smart Car at this point. Is it really possible to get bigger than this? Don't answer that...

Seriously, I was wondering why people run in the opposite direction when they see this coming, but now I understand. No one wants to be the closest person to me when I go into labor.

And you'll all be happy to know that Calza is settling into new her nursery quite well.

Enough with the pictures already...

31 weeks 4 days

2009-06-05T13:39:00.000-04:00

Here we are at almost 8 months pregnant, and all is still going well. I don't post here a lot, because there just isn't a lot to report! I had an ultrasound on Wednesday and the babies looked great. They are both very active (I did not need an ultrasound to know that) and measuring perfectly for their gestation. They both weigh around 3lbs 5oz (+/- the 10-20% margin of error of u/s measurements). That is 40th percentile for their gestation, which is great for twins. Our main issue at this time is that Baby A (aka the boy, or Lime) is still breech, and if he stays that way, I'll be having a c-section. We're going to do all we can to encourage him to flip, but honestly, there's nothing we can do about it.

My OB was very impressed by my professional-style gestating and is letting me go one extra week before I begin my weekly visits. I rock at pregnancy, just don't ask me to do it again. We discussed the fact that if Lime remains breech, and I don't go into labor early, I'll go in for a scheduled c-section. We actually picked a date: July 20, 2009. A very good birthday indeed.

Craig and I are enjoying our last weeks of our existence as just Craig and Alexis. I'll definitely miss our time together just the two of us, but I am very excited to enter the next phase. Pretty crazy to think about what is to come.

Here are some more entirely indiscernible pictures from this week's ultrasound. I again asked the technician for a quick look with the 3D machine and, as expected, he looked at me like I have three heads (heh, I just realized that I sort of do have three heads at the moment). Every single other pregnant person I know gets these, yet I am afraid it is not meant to be for us. As Craig says, we'll have them in 3D constantly soon enough.

First shot is Lime (the boy). It's just his face. Interpret it as you will.

Second is Lemon (the girl). Also her face, and really only half of it. Squint and look at it like those Magic Eye posters from the 90s, that might help.

Lap Space

2009-05-17T19:45:00.001-04:00

Is Craig's lap big enough for 2 cats and 2 babies? We will soon find out. I'll post the photographic evidence when is becomes available.

28 Weeks and 6 Days

2009-05-17T16:02:00.000-04:00

Honestly, there's just not much to report. Everything is going according to plan and we're cruising quickly through the weeks. At last check, the babies looked great and were estimated to be 2lbs 2oz (boy) and 2lbs 1oz (girl), which was totally on target for a singleton baby at 27 weeks. I'm feeling a lot of kicking these days, which is very cool. Baby boy especially kicks like crazy, whereas baby girl's kicks are more delicate and subtle. Perhaps a preview of what is to come?

We're getting really excited and have begun to count down weeks in single digits (9 weeks left at most!). We're passing the time by watching a ton of Boston sports, getting our house into shape and enjoying the beautiful weather we've been having this spring. Craig has also been cooking awesome dinners for us and I've been doing some knitting, reading up on some baby books and making lists of all the stuff we need. So I guess you could call this the calm before the storm...

Here are some updated photos of me plus a bonus shot of how lovely our house has been this spring (our first living here). I'll post some before and afters of our almost completed bathroom renovations when they are totally done (hopefully early this week).

27 weeks (don't worry, we'll keep the demon cat away from the babies):

Today (I don't know why I can't have a normal look on my face when I take these photos. Maybe because Craig gives me milliseconds to prepare for the picture?):

And the house a couple weeks back. We love our lil' cul-de-sac in the burbs (and the garden on the right looks even better now):

5.5 Months

2009-04-03T12:03:00.001-04:00

I’m 22 weeks pregnant now (23 weeks on Monday), and it’s all gone by very quickly. It’s April and we basically have to get through this month, May and June and then twin arrival date is imminent. I’m very conflicted because I look forward to not being pregnant anymore, but not being pregnant means that we have two babies to take care of. And, um, I must have missed the part of college where they teach you how to take care of babies, because I feel pretty clueless! Also, not being pregnant means that the twins had to have come out somehow. And, yikes. Not that we aren't totally thrilled to welcome the twins into our lives and homes, because we absolutely are.

In any case, life is good at the moment. I have had an incredibly uneventful pregnancy so far (everyone knock on wood, please). I feel the babies rolling around and kicking me at various times throughout the day and am beginning to be able to distinguish between Lemon’s and Lime’s movements. I have no clue how much weight I’ve gained, but am pretty sure it changes (upwards) daily. These days I’m doing a lot of reading and hanging out at home with Craig. We’re very excited for the weather to improve, which it has been doing slowly, and I can’t wait to spend some time on our porch enjoying our backyard and frightening neighborhood children with my girth.

Here are some updated photos from last weekend in Philadelphia where we celebrated Jerry and Terry Greiner’s 60th birthdays. I really don't think I look as large as I do in the first photo in real life, but that could be some sort of mental self-preservation mechanism talking. The second photo is taken at the beautiful Longwood Garden's outside Philly. I highly recommend a visit if you are in the neighborhood and don't have debilitating seasonal allergies. I can't wait to take the twins there in a year or two.

19 Week Update

2009-03-09T20:47:00.000-04:00

Hi there! Still gestating over here. Not much to report and I guess that's a good thing. Pregnancy is really not the constant stream of excitement I always thought it would be. Obviously I am getting bigger. I didn't realize how much bigger until looking at the photos below, which I didn't download until tonight. We don't have a full-length mirror in our house these days because of renovations, so I'm sort of flying blind. Until now. Yikes. This week was the last time that I will pose for these weekly photos in my pajamas. I'm dressing up next time. And going to the salon for full hair/make-up. I do think it's funny that the t-shirt I've been wearing for the pictures has slowly been creeping up my belly. Soon it will be more of a sports bra.

All in all, everything is going really well and we're halfway there! I am getting more excited and nervous on a daily basis and Craig is getting more excited and impatient for Lemon and Lime to arrive. With the end of winter just around the corner, we only have a season and a half to go. I really do need the winter to end though because I am testing the limits and structural integrity of my winter coat these days.

We have an ultrasound next Tuesday at 20 weeks! I'll post some photos of the kids then.

Expanding Alexis!

2009-03-09T20:42:00.001-04:00

Some More Twins!

2009-02-24T09:41:00.000-05:00

If this photo had thought bubbles, I would be thinking "OMG, how do you hold a baby and smile at the same time." and Craig would be thinking "Don't drop the baby. Don't drop the baby." These twins are Beatrix and Winona, the daughters of our friends Maggie and Justin in Chicago. They've done a great job of raising those little babies into seriously adorable toddlers and provide us with some inspiration (twinspiration, if you will) that perhaps we also can keep two babies alive at once.

16.5 Week Pictures

2009-02-22T17:29:00.000-05:00

Here are some pictures of what vaguely look like babies. Lemon and Lime are definitely looking a lot more like babies these days, if a bit like babies with exoskeletons (not something you look for in your baby, but I hear it's normal for this stage). First shot is Baby 1 (aka Lime/A/boy-baby). Second shot is Baby 2 (aka Lemon/B/girl-baby). Third shot is also 2, but skeletor face forward. Have you ever seen a cuter skull? We're quite fond of them.

16.5 Week Sonogram

2009-02-19T19:40:00.000-05:00

This was a big one! Lemon and Lime look perfect. 4 Chambered hearts: check. Two-lobed brains: check. Femurs: check. Boy parts: check. Girl parts: check. That's right, we have a boy and a girl!! We saw Lime's boy parts straight away. He totally spread-eagled for the sonogram. His sister was a little more demure (like her mom) and refused to show the goods for a while. After much slapping around of my stomach with the ultrasound transducer and two technicians, she finally complied and it was clear that she is indeed a girl.

So Craig and I are totally psyched and couldn't be happier. And it looks like my motherly instincts are already totally off and my friends and family know my uterus better than I do. Sonogram pictures and a 16 week shot of my expanding girth to come...

Week 12 Sonogram & NT Scan

2009-01-21T20:07:00.000-05:00

Lemon and Lime looked perfect today at the 12 week scan. Both babies are measuring exactly on target and look like wee lil' big-headed people. Lime (aka Baby A) is "presenting" and is a bouncy little sucker. He wouldn't stay still for a second for the doctor to take any measurements. He's obviously going to be the bad one. Lemon (Baby B) was also squirmy, but seemed to have a bit less space to move around. Oh, and no new clues on genders, I just refer to them as boys because that's my hunch. But I'm really not known for my intuition.

Here are some pictures of the kiddos. They aren't great shots, and I think it's because sonogram techs don't really like Craig and me. I don't know why, but it could be that we talk too much while they're trying to do their jobs. First is Lime, then Lemon, then the whole murky gang.

Memories...

2009-01-18T22:12:00.000-05:00

Here I am thinking: "Two babies at once. That's just crazy!". Ha ha ha ha heh heh. Yikes. Those are our nieces back when they were teensy newborns in 2004. Sasha is closest to me and Amanda is the one in front with the chicken legs (I'm pretty sure).

Week 9 Ultrasound

2009-01-10T19:19:00.000-05:00

Introducing Lemon and Lime (Lemon is on top, Lime on bottom). Note Lemon's arm and leg buds (his head is on the right). He appears to be orbiting his yolk sac. Lime is just chilling, with his big head to the left.

Houston, we have a blog.

2009-01-10T19:10:00.000-05:00

Since we seem to be having two babies sometime in the next six months, we thought we should fulfill our blog-writing requirement. The blog will serve to update our family and friends on our twins-in-progress, but if someone decides we need to be professional bloggers, so be it. Check back soon for pictures (sonogram and otherwise) and updates.

Now we just sit back and wait for the advertising revenue to come in...