Twinertia

First Real Haircut

2009-11-16T17:19:00.000-08:00

This is the twins' first real haircut, not in a salon, but in "Onya's" kitchen, cut by a former hairstylist friend. The cut was more noticeable on The Boy, for his hair had been looking rather shaggy. Actually, so was The Girl's. See this "before" photo from a few weeks ago. Incidentally, that's black bean burrito dinner aftermath.

Eye Candy

2009-09-08T08:20:00.001-07:00

A Labor Day Weekend to Remember

2009-09-08T07:33:00.000-07:00

On Thursday, I went to the dentist only to find I need to have some gum grafting done. The recovery from this kind of procedure is the worst. On Friday, whilst out grocery shopping, I got stung by a bee for the first time and was then followed by another bee into Tar-jay. I was running into the store, arms waving wildly while pushing the stroller yelling, "Ack! Get away!" People looked at me like I was a mad woman. 30 minutes after the sting, I checked to see if I was still breathing. I was, so I'm not allergic. My first survival instinct was to suck out the venom, which I did.

There are now 24 more days of no-weight bearing for Kip's foot. I continue to trudge on steering the ship alone as best I can, keeping the dust/fur rhinoceri at bay so the babies don't trip over them and crack their skulls. He met up with the final straw that broke his back Saturday night, meaning that the less-than-firm mattress had finally done him in. At 3am, I heard some thuds and groans, got up to find he had moved to the floor to try to get some relief. 2 hours later, we were both still awake. I've been sleeping on the couch during his recovery, and despite wearing earplugs to drown him out, I would just be dozing off and then startle awake with another "Aughhhh!" from the back bedroom. The last time I went in to see him, at 4:30, I looked at the clock and said, "Fun...the kids will be up in 2 hours." Thankfully I'd gone to sleep at 9:30 the night before. After a few pain killers, Kip found relief and was able to sleep for a while. He somehow managed to get up and out to the livingroom in the morning and wanted to help feed the kids. He arrived in nothing but his undervest and skivvies. I retrieved his shirt and shorts, and he had his shorts on the floor around his ankles. I took pity on him and pulled his pants up for him. We were both laughing about the situation. Heating pads and ice packs and some yoga stretches helped the pain immensely. Oddly enough, the previous day, he spent most of the day in some kind of trance, looking like Nick Nolte's mugshot for most of the day. We don't know why he was so tired on Saturday...perhaps from a week of hobbling around on crutches.

After breakfast, I whirled around moving the queen size mattress (by myself) off the bed and replacing it with the aerobed inflated to ultra firmness. The kids napped from 11am to almost 2pm, miraculously, having spent most of the morning in the cage. I escaped the rest home atmosphere to go to our friend's annual Labor Day picnic with the kids. We had fun for a few hours. Monday was more solitude and baby wrangling, finished off by Kip and I watching 2 episodes of "Twin Peaks." Woo hoo! We know how to party, huh?

True Love Mush

2009-08-11T10:21:00.000-07:00

Now that my human pot washer is laid up recovering from foot surgery, I don't get done clearing up after the meal until about 7:30. The kids play with pots and pans in the kitchen with me while I work. Afterwards, the three of us go into the livingroom to play. Last night, I put some music on and decided to slow dance with the babes. Kai and I danced to Etta James' "At Last" and I sang along but started to get teary. If you read the lyrics, you can see why. Seda giggled in the background. I was too lost in love to sing while dancing with Seda.

At last
My love has come along
My lonely days are over
And life is like a song
Oh, yeah, at last
The skies above are blue
My heart was wrapped up in clover
The night I looked at you
I found a dream that I could speak to
A dream that I can call my own
I found a thrill to rest my cheek to
A thrill that I have never known
Oh, yeah when you smile, you smile
Oh, and then the spell was cast
And here we are in heaven
For you are mine
At last

Saturday Entertainment

2009-07-01T07:45:00.001-07:00

It's been ages since I made the world's best vegetarian stuffed grape leaves, so I finally carved out some time to do so this past weekend. Yum yum. We had them with some muhummara and hummus. That recipe isn't the one I used, but you get the idea. Pomegranate molasses is the key ingredient, for which there really is no substitute. A bottle of the stuff lasts forever though.

Then after dinner, we played with some blocks and went out to the back yard. Kai is on foot, Seda still prefers to hang out. And she cries if you remove a dried up dead leaf from her grasp!

On the Stove Again

2009-06-26T08:16:00.000-07:00

My love of cooking has recently returned with a vengeance. I go on various tours around the world in my kitchen and have now docked in the Mediterranean for a while. The beauty of the geographical location of this particular body of water, is the influence of different countries' cuisines on each other. My new favorite cookbook is something my mother found at a garage sale, and I pilfered it from her shelf: Moosewood Restaurant: New Classics by the Moosewood Collective. Moosewood Restaurant in Ithaca, NY, is not known for mediterranean cuisine, but rather vegetarian cuisine that back in the 70's revolved around sunflower seeds, sprouts, all vegetables, whole grains and the like. Regardless, I've made several recipes from this book and they've all been good. Here is Pine Nut Pasta Cavalfiore, with the arab influence of saffron and currants...a mostly traditional Sicilian dish.

The twins ate this too, minus the pine nuts. Last night, I made beans and greens, which requires no real recipe. The twins ADORE the wilted olive-oiled greens! That will become a regular mealtime fixture during my summer receipt of Italian braising greens and swiss chard from my mother's garden.

Now I'm off to peruse more recipes in this book and to do some risotto research and development.

Time Keeps on Slippin', Slippin'...

2009-06-25T07:43:00.000-07:00

We are 13 months old, and almost walking!

I was thinking yesterday morning about how from the moment I got home from work Tuesday night to the moment I went to bed, I had only sat down for about an hour. And this was in the span of 4 hours! Geez…where did the time go? Changed a couple diapers, reheated dinner, made salad, ate dinner, bottled one kid, did laundry, put some garbage out, swept patio, put kids to bed, prepped some veggies for kids’ lunch, went up and down the stairs a thousand times…ugh. We don’t do baths on the two days I work. I don’t really know how we could squeeze that in to the evening routine on the days I work. I’m a morning person, and baths are always done in the morning.

I realized on my last weary trek back up the stairs that if I still had a job that required standing most of the day, I would have died long ago. I have also, in recent weeks, fallen into the trap of staying up too late because I cherish having two hours of me time before bed. But this has caught up to me. I need to take a break from these late nights, and by late I mean 10:30 or 11, and recharge my batteries with some good old-fashioned 8 hours of sleep. So my new goal for the next few nights is to be in bed by 9:45 and asleep by 10. The kids wake up at 6, and there’s no way to delay that.

Time Management

2009-06-01T08:05:00.000-07:00

To be one of those brownie-baking-crafty-PTA meeting-going-moms (well no PTA quite yet), you have to be organized. I am one of 4 list makers in my family. My dad passed on the gene to my 2 brothers and me. I make to-do lists for things around the house, my grocery lists have items assembled in order of appearance, I had a birthday party to-do list, I have lists for things to take to Nana's on Tuesdays, etc. As my one brother says, "If it's not on the list, it doesn't exist!" I don't make lists at work, because I have all day to putter around there and get things done and sometimes just need to "keep busy."

List-making is more for getting done what I HAVE to get done to allow time for doing what I'd RATHER be doing. For example, pulling out all the thistle weeds in the garden HAS to be done, but it is only on a mental list, looming in and over my head. I'd RATHER be knitting, but this morning I was visually reminded of bananas getting riper and riper on the counter. So a compromise between HAVING to do and WANTING to do was baking an experimental cake. You may ask, "How do you have time to bake cakes...experimental or otherwise?" It's all about time management.

Here is how a Monday morning usually goes: when the kids waken (around 6:30 or 7am), I get up and start my breakfast, make and warm their bottles, go change them, put them in the "puppy pen," go eat my breakfast, check email and read a few blogs. Then I make the kids oatmeal. Kip has been very helpful in the mornings and gets up, gives them each their bottle while I finish eating. I then give them their cereal, and it's back into the pen or crawling around while I get their bath ready. Back into the cribs to wait while the other is bathed. We're done with all this by 9am, then it's out for a 30 minute walk, back inside for crawling and playing, and down at 10am for a nap. The usually nap from 10-12, so I can get those chores or something more fun completed on my own.

I even threw in a load of diapers, and saved myself another trip downstairs by retrieving the walnuts when I put the detergent in the washer after the rinse cycle. The baking prep occurred during the post-walk crawling. I'm modifying a banana bundt cake which smells heavenly. I usually don't alter cake recipes as they are more specific than baking bread for example, which is simply a formula. My big wish is whether the cake comes out of the pan or not.

Operation Yum-yum

2009-05-31T17:02:00.000-07:00

I ditched Kip and the kids the other night to go to knit night, a Hip Mama meetup. It was fun, and one of 3 nights a month that I can get out for "me" time. At breakfast, Kip told me a VERY funny story about Kai while he was giving Seda her bottle that night. He and Seda were minding their own business and Kai was adventuring on the floor. At one point Kip thinks, "Where's Kai?" and he sees Kai's head slooooowly emerge from the floor, like a submarine's periscope, just visible above Kip's knee, with a CRAZED look in his eye and a big half-moon smile. He scans left...beep, beep, beep, beep...then right...beep, beep, beep, beep...and finds his target. THE BOTTLE. You could hear the dive alarm go off, and Kai submerges to the murky depths. All you could hear is the sonar. THEN...Kip sees one hand slowly come up, then the second hand comes up and both clamp on to the edge of the end table and the full baby submarine rises again, his crazed eyes level with the milk bottle. He clears the end table of everything, grunting with exertion: remotes, coasters, books...until only the bottle remains. He reaches for it and is defeated by Daddy. In his defeat he skulks away to destroy one of the books while he impatiently waits for dinner. Kip said if it had been a movie, Kai would have been clad in full Navy Seal gear, clutching a knife in his teeth and employing grappling hooks to scale the "mountain." The G-rated version would have been more like an episode from a Calvin and Hobbes comic strip where Calvin's vivid imagination places him in a role greater than his 6 year-old size.

We Are One

2009-05-25T03:28:00.000-07:00

This time last year, I had been a mom for a short while. My poor son was all by his lonesome in the NICU, and I had banished my daughter to the nursery so I could sleep comfortably for the first time in 2 months. My hospital room was designated a biohazard site due to my bodily fluids spewing forth. I tried to explain to the authorities that IV antibiotics always make me sick, but they were concerned about issues with my "other end" so to speak.

The night before the birth, I sat with the twins' Daddy on the couch and teared up. He said, "Why are you crying NOW?" I said, "This is all I've ever wanted in the whole wide world! I can't wait to see them!"

The morning of the birth, dearest Daddy filmed me waddling down the hall like a penguin. Rightly so, as I was wearing a white shirt with black sleeves, black pants and orange socks. Another fine cinematographic moment was capturing my bare twin-filled belly approaching around the corner before the rest of me. Ah...such memories.

Now, a year later, we have survived. Quite well, I might add. No illnesses, only called the pediatrician's office twice in the last year. Flew by instinct and the seat of our pants. I asked Daddy how the first year of the rest of his life has been so far. He said, "AWESOME!" I second that. It is sooooooo true what everyone says. It goes by amazingly fast, and now I can see why when we ask other parents of older children about the early weeks or months they say, "Oh Jeez...I can't remember...it's pretty hazy."

And as I sit here, noshing on my daily oatmeal and Viennese coffee, I hear the clanking of crib rails, jingles of stuffed animals and sing-song of morning baby babble. It is pure music to my mothering ears.

Stay tuned for photos once we assemble them from the various cameras firing away at the birthday party.

Thinning Out

2009-05-02T04:07:00.000-07:00

So recently, I noticed I'd gained about 4.5 pounds and thought, "Oh, I guess I should stop eating as if I'm still breastfeeding," since I stopped some time in Feb. Calorie intake was around 2200 calories a day. This week, I cut out about 500 calories a day, no white bread, in fact considerably less starch, and this morning I'd lost those 4.5 pounds.

We have really small dinners, like grilled chicken salad or hummus, veggies, pita or sometimes even just bread, wine and cheese, or stir fry. Lunches are usually english muffin with egg and cheese, or cottage cheese and fruit, and almost every day I make a Go Lean vanilla protein powder shake with milk and frozen berries. Oh...and there is nothing sweet in the house except fruit. Nothing salty, either, which is more my weakness. My activity has increased in recent weeks too, since the weather is nice.

The total downfall, if there is one, and especially for people like me, is that I must go shopping for clothes that fit! HAAAAAAATE shopping, especially for pants. Takes forever.

Thinning out also has to do with getting rid of junk, which 9 years of marriage tends to accumulate, not to mention the sentimentality of the past, which really doesn't matter anymore. Time to let go and make room for kids' accumulations. Looking forward to storing their artwork instead of our useless junk.

Purging is also about getting rid of some hair for the summer. Maybe I'll be brave enough to post before and afters...but the before is pretty hideous. Haircut is thankfully this morning!

She Eats...AND She Speaks!!!

2009-04-16T12:19:00.001-07:00

After being out at the in-laws for Easter Sunday lunch, we were home in time for the 4pm feeding, and low and behold our little girl FED HERSELF Cheerios!!! I couldn't believe my eyes. She's a bit late in the game, but better late than never. Her brother started finger-feeding at the end of January! She devours every meal via fingers to mouth now.

And this morning, while on diaper duty, she uttered, "ma-ma-ma-ma," and I thought she was just blowing bubbles. But NOOOOO, she has entered the world of locution and has been babbling "ma-ma-ma-ma-ma-ma" intermittently all day!! Her brother started babbling mid-January.

That's my girl!

Energizer Babble Bunny

2009-04-03T04:54:00.000-07:00

My ultra-loveable XY baby is an energizer bunny. He starts moving and babbling at 7:30am and doesn't really stop until 8pm. He naps twice for maybe an hour at each nap. He says Dada, Mama, Nana, GaGa, Blah Blah, Buh Buh, Annn, Unn (which I think means both lunch and all-done), Ayy (he's going to be a ladies man like The Fonz), and when I ask him something that "requires" a yes or no, he responds true to his German heritage with, I swear...Nein.

Yesterday, my also ultra-loveable rather quiet Little Miss napped peacefully for an hour on top of me while The Boy was in the swing. He was in constant motion and noise the whole time, banging, pulling on the mobile things, hanging sideways out of the swing, babbling. I would look over periodically to find him in "Two-Fin" finger-sucking mode for 10 seconds before he remembered he had to bang around some more and rock back in forth in the sideways-swaying swing. Little does he know he only has about 4 pounds to go before he can't use it anymore. This trait is actually quite endearing, for it assures that the minute his head hits the bedtime mattress, he sleeps 11 hours straight. Must be all that healthy food I'm shoving down their gullets. Cheerio-dusted tofu cubes were a huge hit yesterday, and spoonfuls of hummus are always a crowd pleaser. The homemade baked sweet potato fries were a welcome snack as well.

Today we are trapped inside again, due to April showers. Here's hoping for a dry sunny weekend!

Psychedelic Pterodactyl Freak Show!

2009-03-29T15:36:00.000-07:00

THAT...is our daughter's nickname! She is often dressed in a garish array of clashing patterns and colors, she screeches, and she's double-jointed! So there you have it.

Weight Lifting and Swimming

2009-03-27T12:37:00.000-07:00

These kids are growing like weeds. K is now about 21 pounds, and S is about 19. Hubs likes doing chest presses with the kids. Cute. As. Hell.

When S attempts to crawl, she flops down into swim mode. Enjoy.

Smooth Sailing No More...At Least For Now

2009-02-09T14:37:00.000-08:00

With one baby, this situation would ensure that I get a rest in the afternoon. With two babies, this situation has smoke coming out of my ears and a silent "AAAAAUUUUUUUUUUGGGGGGH!" (so as not to waken the other sleeping baby).

On Thursday, little Miss S started preferring hi-jinx in the crib, rolling over on her belly after being put on her back, me walking away, her yelling for help 2 minutes later...rinse and repeat. Today, even after a bath with drops of lavender oil in the bath water, it took the little pest 30 MINUTES to settle down and go to sleep (after I flipped her back on her back a few times). I thought for sure the bath would ensure immediate napping...like it USED to.

FINALLY, by 2pm they were both snoozing, and I could get on with my jobs. I have 9 more things to do on my to-do list by Saturday! Finished cleaning the kitchen and took a break from my work for some well needed knitting contemplation, i.e. grafting stitches. There's always Thursday and Friday...I know, famous last words.

Ah well...at least they sleep at night! Let's be thankful for small mercies.

Understatement of the Year

2009-01-25T04:16:00.000-08:00

I've always said that men can't see dirt. Well, let me tell you.

I returned home yesterday around 4:00 from an afternoon of 5 hours of knitting with the girls. Time does fly when I'm having fun! Kip came to open the door for me, looking a bit weary. He said he had just cleaned up a dirty boy. He said that while changing the boy, some errant poop was lurking somewhere, an invitation for the boy's left hand to get in it. He said he was too late grabbing the little hand away, but quickly scrubbed off the mess. So...no harm done, right?

I made the bottles and scooped up the boy for some cuddling. We sat down to start the meal and I looked dreamily into his olive-green eyes. To my HORROR, I saw a brown smear on his right eyelid. I yelled, "AUGH!! He has poop on his eye!!!" I found my thoughts sleuthing out the physics of how a left outer palm makes contact with a right eyelid. There was no explanation.

I whisked the poor chap back to the child-laundering station where we met up with a warm washcloth.

I can deal with crumbs on the counter, beard bristle segments in the bathroom sink, unmatched socks scattered on the living room floor...but poop on the eye???

The moral of this story is that Kip either needs to wear glasses while baby-changing or the babies need some little swimming goggles as a precautionary measure.

Eureka!

2009-01-12T11:50:00.000-08:00

Last Thursday, Seda started not wanting all of her bottle at EVERY feeding! She would arch her back, turn her head away, and push the bottle away with her hands! She's always been an archer, but this was getting really mind-boggling, and having her only eat 3 oz was not a good thing.

So we struggled with this over and over until this morning, when I had an amazing revelation. I thought to myself, "Hmm...maybe she's not hungry every three hours anymore!" So the first meal of the day for her and Kai was at 9am, and they both ate everything. I thought, "I wonder if they'd be interested in more?" And wouldn't you know, the little girl pest had another ounce or so!

After breakfast, I bathed them, and they slept like LOGS for 90 minutes. There was a 4 hour interval between Seda's first and second meal, and she ate ALL 6 ounces again, washed down with her pile of cereal and fruit! There was NO arching, head-turning or bottle-pushing!

HALLELUJAH!

Seda is trying to tell me that mashed lentils don't go with oatmeal and mangos.

Here's Kai, contemplating some cereal-dusted tofu cubes.

Travel snippet pre-kids

2008-12-08T09:40:00.000-08:00

Ever notice how New York City smells like toast and coffee in the morning? This tantalizing breakfast photo documented said meal consumed at The Waverly Restaurant in The Village on the corner of 10th Street (?) and Sixth Avenue, in May 2007. I love how they served it all in a skillet. All that's missing from this pic to make it a quintessential NYC breakfast shot is one of those cool "greek" coffee cups, but alas, those are from the street vendors.

Hub-eye Freb-end

2008-12-06T17:02:00.000-08:00

Remember Zoom on PBS and Ubbi-Dubbi? Yes, I am almost 40 and my husband will be 43 next year, and yes the other night we amused ourselves to pieces speaking ubbi-dubbi! Little baby girl giggled along with us wholeheartedly. She has a love for nonsense. It was one of those warm and fuzzy moments.

In the past, I would occasionally say something to him in ubbi-dubbi and he would look at me glassy-eyed and lost. BUT...he has been studying!

The next day, he found on Wiki some information about the origins of ubbi-dubbi and how it is considered a Gibberish "language." Then for several days he emailed me in ubbi-dubbi, which I find very difficult to read, but very easy to speak. He now gets the method to the madness but has to work a little on where he places the accent on the syllables. With improper accent placement, I find it near impossible to understand what he's saying.

He's gotten so carried away that I had to shush him first thing in the morning as he was bellowing out ubbi-dubbi to one of the twins. It was a bit too mind-numbing for me to listen to at 7am.

Here's to getting in touch with your inner child! It's what staves off the gray and keeps my skin wrinkle-free.

A Fruitful Harvest

2008-11-26T04:38:00.000-08:00

Last year I prepared the soil of my body. In the fall we planted the bulbs otherwise known as embryos, and two little tulips bloomed in the Spring.

We have so much to be thankful for this year and are extremely lucky to have beat the odds. We are looking forward to raising children that are thankful for what they have, and we are hoping to avoid the Need for Greed that plagues far too many children in America. Our dream one day, when they are old enough, is to spend some time with the twins on Thanksgiving Day working in a soup kitchen.

There’s nothing I need or want, and now I have everything I ever wanted in the whole wide world.

Now that we are growing children, it’s time to think about growing a vegetable garden so the children can learn of the time, effort and patience involved in growing food rather than only seeing a box or can on a shelf or the mounds of neatly stacked produce in the market.

Here’s to a bountiful harvest in the future.

Salut!

Gas pain, a runaway dog, and did you know shoes can get dry rot?

2008-11-06T11:03:00.001-08:00

Yesterday my mom took pity on my lackluster meal preparation of late (when I told her we’d be noshing on some vegetarian borscht and cold baked chicken – now there’s an interesting juxtaposition!) and whipped up a batch of gourmet mac n cheese to take home for dinner. She packed it up nicely, insulated with newspaper, so in theory it would still be hot when we sat down to eat. She even cut up some fresh green beans so I would only need to drop them in a pot of water. I had carrots too, could handle that on my own.

So, got the babies home, unpacked, figured we would be able to eat before their next feeding. Not so at all.

The boy started squeaking at 6:15, just as the veggies finished cooking. I made bottles and changed the diapers. Girl baby started crying uncontrollably, didn’t want food, didn’t want to sleep, nothing was working, and I was starving. I put her back in the crib and she settled down, even smiled. I left to go eat so I had the strength to continue the evening’s duties.

As I gobbled down the food, hubby said, “Maybe she’s over-hungry. We could try some oatmeal.” I scowled and said, “Noooooooo. She’s bawling. She won’t want that.” Also, I didn’t want her to choke on cereal while crying so hard.

After I inhaled my food, I was ready for another attempt to feed her. Just then, the dog wanted to go out. I opened the front door, and usually I grab Ashiko’s collar before putting her on her chain, but she bolted out the door in pursuit of one of the neighborhood cats (who happens to look just like Snoopy). I ran out after her, but stopped in the middle of the street and thought, “Great…this is hopeless…I might as well just go back inside…she’ll come home eventually.” But I walked around the circle towards the cat’s house, and the owner and her dog were returning from a walk. She said our dog was nearby, had been playing with her dog. I said, “Where is she now? She’s probably gone back home and is making me walk all the way around the circle.” Sure enough, when I got back, there she was in the front yard, waiting for me. Sigh.

So then…I scooped up whiny girl baby and she was crying again. Sat down with her at the dining table, and she still didn’t want any bottle. I said to the hubby, “Hmm…maybe she does want some oatmeal.” We got that ready, and after the first spoonful she cheered up and let out a lonnnnnnnnnnnggggg loud toot. Aha! So it was gas pain that was causing all the distress! She ate all the cereal, happily tooting during the meal, had a few sips from the bottle and fell fast asleep. She was worn out from the ordeal! I then had to apologize to the hubby and (cough, cough) tell him he was RIGHT for suggesting the cereal idea. Newman!

This morning, I yanked an old pair of shoes out of the closet that I haven’t worn in 10 years. I’ve had them since 1993. They were always comfy, a classic style, German-made, long-lasting, yada yada. When I stopped at my folks’ at lunchtime to deliver some pumpage, they said, “Where’d all that mud come from that was on your shoes? We’ve been cleaning up little piles of it here and there.” I said, “What mud?” and looked at the bottom of my shoes to find that the heels had dry-rotted and were crumbling all over kingdom come! Who knew shoes could get dry rot?

I returned to work and entertained the Chief of Fashion Police with my fashion faux pas. She said, “Only YOU would keep shoes for 15 years!” She actually admitted they were a cute style but gave me a demerit for my socks that didn’t bear any matching quality to the rest of my ensemble, which is always a sore spot with her. But hey, at least I don’t wear my purple Crocs every day anymore! Those were my preggo work shoes.

Motherhood Has Made Me Mushy

2008-11-05T07:28:00.000-08:00

Last Thursday, I teared up during Obama’s infomercial because I am so proud of him and all the things he stands for and the hope that he instills in our country.

Friday, my mother told me that some family friends had lost their 43 year old son in a sudden collapse earlier in the week.

Saturday, while I shopped for a sympathy card for the family, a John Denver song played on the drugstore’s radio, with lyrics something like “There’s so much more I’ve got to do.” John Denver will get you every time. I lost it.

And in light of the recent death of this young man, as I sat last night with my sleeping son in my arms, I thought about how much I love my parents and how much they love me. Now I know how true it is when a mother says, “No matter how old you get, you’ll always be my baby.” And now I know why every time I leave my parents’ house with the babies in the back, my dad tells me to take my time going home, and every Fall he tells me to be careful driving on the leaf-covered roads. Now I’ll be a little less-inclined to shrug it off and just say, “Yeah, yeah.”

This morning, I teared up on the drive into work, especially when I heard Jesse Jackson during some rehashed election coverage. It is a GREAT day to be alive in America, no matter your background. We are all one now.

Sadly, I discovered that I have to work on January 20. My mom suggested I feign illness to stay home and watch Obama’s inauguration!

Should Have Named the Dog BPITA

2008-11-03T05:26:00.000-08:00

BPITA = Big Pain In The Arse

The dog almost killed herself the other day, and for a split second I thought about letting her!

Lately, as I buzz around the house at breakneck speed getting all my non-mom-that-hubby-can't-help-with-stuff done, the dog is ALWAYS underfoot. I swear I'm going to stomp on her rib cage one of these days and will have to add an emergency vet trip to my already long to-do list.

The other day, as I sat down to pump, I had one kid asleep in the swing in the living room and the other amusing herself in the Exersaucer next to me in the kitchen. The dog was quiet enough, for the time being, under the kitchen table (where I pump). She found an empty round Quaker oats box and was nibbling on the rim of it.

Moments later, unaware that she had left the room with the oat box (as she often does with paper egg cartons as well, to go shred), I happened to see her stagger past the kitchen door and saw that she had the oat box stuck on her snout up PAST HER EYES. I thought, "Hey! I should take a picture!" So I got up to go get the camera, but as I passed Sheeks I realized she couldn't breathe with her nose and mouth trapped. I went to pull off the box but it was really tight! A stronger tug did the trick, and no harm was done.

Yesterday, when we were walking around the circle, she thought someone's pumpkin was a cat. Her moderate amount of intelligence deduced that the pumpkin was at the house where the cats lurk outside, and one of the cats is orange. So she put two and two together and pulled towards the pumpkin. But I thought dogs were colorblind? When we walk in the dusk, she thinks large rocks are cats too.

There's a reason cats score higher on their SAT's. :-)

Off-Roading It

2008-10-17T05:18:00.000-07:00

Sunday presented us with beautiful Fall weather, so after my chores and errands were done, I packed up the kids and dog and headed for Hartwood Acres. I really wanted to test the performance of the BOB jogger, so we hit the trail that goes down to the horse stables. This was the first time the dog has been in those woods all year! To my dismay, Sheeks munched on some horse nuggets along the way.

I forgot how steep and rutted-out the path is down to the stables. This is something one doesn't notice when one isn't steering a 32-pound stroller full of 30 pounds of babies and trying not to slip on small rocks and roll on twigs in the process, all with an eager dog leading the way as well. There's a good reason the BOB has a hand strap for any possible runaway moments. It was an exhilarating trek, and we were rewarded at the bottom of the hill by one of the Clydesdales looking all cute and pastoral to greet us. We encountered another couple near the stables who looked at us askance as if to say, "You brought ALL that down THAT hill?" Why yes, indeed. We are crazy. Kai and Seda loved it despite their bobbing around.

After that, we moved on to the paved path. Pushing the aforementioned load up the long, not-so-steep hill back up to the mansion is quite a workout! Can't wait to do it again!

We are venturing out on a less than exciting trip today to Target. Whee!

Nurture and Nourish

2008-10-10T12:13:00.000-07:00

Wednesday was a gray October day. There were bursts of yellow, orange and red scattered amongst the fading green of another summer gone by.

Earlier at work that day, I had heard someone say that on a dreary day they just want to go home and crawl into bed. I wonder why this is? In our part of the world that gets 4 distinct seasons, perhaps it is because Autumn is a time for bedding down, in preparation for the long sleep of winter, so we can waken refreshed again for Spring.

When the days darken, rather than turning in, I turn to my fond childhood memories of helping my dad build a fire, building couch forts with my brothers, playing board games in the family room, baking with my mother, donning musty ponchos and going on Sierra Club hikes, and sundry homey activities. These are the sorts of free fun things that nurture the spirit. I am soooooooo looking forward to recreating that life for my children!

Gray days also make me want to cook up a batch of chicken stock or bake bread. And nothing says homey like chicken stock simmering on the stove or bread baking and wafting throughout the house.

Tuesday when I retrieved Kai and Seda from my parents’ daycare, my mom had some chicken stew bubbling away in the oven. Wow, did that smell good! I returned home to my second bowl of vegetarian chili this week, accompanied by homemade corn muffins that I made on Sunday. The muffins were from the recipe on the box of cornmeal. When I bake, I measure. When I cook, I wing it, inventively. If it's good, I write it down so I can recreate it. Here is an estimation of the recipe:

Vegetarian Chili

3 Tbsp olive oil
1 cup diced onion
Half green bell pepper, diced
Half red bell pepper, diced
1 package Boca crumbles (3 packages come in a box) – could use reconstituted TVP instead, 1 cup dry? (textured vegetable protein)

2 cloves garlic, minced
2 tsp ground cumin
1 Tbsp chili powder
2 tsp dried oregano
Few dashes of chipotle powder (optional)

1 15oz can dark red kidney beans, drained
1 15oz can black beans, drained
Half a bean can of water
1 28oz can diced tomatoes (I use Muir Glen fire-roasted)
2 Tbsp soy sauce

Saute until onion translucent. Add garlic and spices, stir, saute until fragrant.
Add remaining ingredients, stir, bring to simmer, turn down and cook on low for an hour or two.

Serve with cornbread or tortilla chips. Top with grated cheese if you like.

Twenty Tiny Toasty Toes

2008-10-03T09:15:00.000-07:00

The furnace works...now. Last week, my furnace guy Ralph said a ceramic tube on the pilot assembly was cracked. Wednesday, he said he'd found the part. Yesterday, the living room was 59 degrees with no heat. We didn't really care, as we like it cool, and I bundled the babies up with pants and hooded sweaters over their sleepers. So this morning, Ralph came and finished the job and now we are cookin' at a balmy 65, which is how we like it.

Around 5pm yesterday, I built a fire, the first of the season. Hauled up two loads of firewood to outside the front door. Tons of spiders in the wood pile! Sadly, some met their maker in the inferno. I kept the home fires burning until we went to bed after enduring the VP debate. Anyone else have a headache after listening to HER? I was hoping for some implosion, but alas, she wasn't as bad as she could have been.

Today I'm doing some serious cleaning, or at least making some headway. I'm lucky Seda and Kai have long naps so I can get stuff done without feeling I'm ignoring them too much!

Right now, as I type, I'm looking out at the silvery sky above the field across the road. It is a watercolor gray, like Payne's Gray out of the paint box. There are twinges of color changes happening in the trees. I'm glad fall is here. I'm ready to go on more walks with the kids and dog now that the weather is cooler.

Yesterday I went to my first meetup event of Pittsburgh Hip Mama held at the Quiet Storm Coffeehouse in Friendship/Garfield. That place is always a favorite of mine. Met a couple nice moms of young babies, looking forward to more events with this group.

Crazy Eights

2008-09-29T17:44:00.000-07:00

First we were two, now we are four. 4 times 2 is 8, and today is our 8th anniversary. This is us in the judge's chambers around 2pm on Friday, Sept. 29, 2000. Lucky for us we were married in a year ending in zero's so when we're 90, we'll easily be able to figure out how long it has been.

Almost exactly a year ago, Kai and Seda came to be when our DNA was mixed in a dish. How romantic.

I won't be getting the traditional pottery or bronze gifts, because I'm far from traditional. I will probably be getting a humorous card, as is our tradition. We don't really do gifts for each other. After all, we've given each other the greatest gift of all this year, the gift of children. Tonight's dinner will be crusty tilapia, mashed potatoes and peas, one of the hub's favorites.

I guess you could say we celebrated yesterday, by going out to lunch at the Indian buffet. Of course the kids were there with us, soaking up the curry fumes. We can't wait till they are ready to eat there too. Kai was awake and very interested the whole time. Seda slept through most of it, despite my waiving a papadum under her nose.

It's been a crazy day on the kid front. It seems like all of a sudden they are requiring more food at each feeding. There was much screaming at mealtimes and I couldn't get the food down their gullets fast enough. There were nursing strikes and hunger strikes thrown in as well. Now why would you go on strike when you're hungry? We went grocery shopping late morning, came back, fed, bathed, and late this afternoon I was sat across the living room from them, watching their angelic sleep.

It doesn't get much better than that.

Footloose

2008-09-28T13:04:00.000-07:00

K got the go ahead from the doc on Thurs to do some light weight bearing on his foot. Now he can hobble around like a crony of Captain Jack Sparrow with one crutch, a cane or no assistance at all. So this morning, he changed a diaper for the first time in 2 months! That means about 1200 diapers escaped his involvement. Wow...1200 in two months...good thing we do cloth! That's 1200 diapers that never went to a landfill!

These kids still sleep most of the day, all night, and are awake for an hour or two here and there before or after a feeding. Some days I can even sneak in a nap when they nap. These are still the easy times I guess, but I can tell that Seda's going to be on the move before Kai. She was the one kicking up a storm in the womb, while he just relaxed. I'm in no hurry for the crawling to commence, that's for sure. I'm going to have to start eating more because the weight loss will continue while I'm chasing these guys!

When will the nightmares stop?

2008-09-26T07:13:00.000-07:00

Not theirs, mine. At least once a week, I have a nightmare that we are still trying to get pregnant. The poking and prodding, the emotional burden, the whole nine yards! I wonder why this is happening? The dreams are vivid, and I'm a bit stunned when I wake up and realize that I do indeed have two beautiful babies in my midst.

We are the survivors of infertility and IVF. Here is our success story.

Our journey through infertility began in 2001, when we sought treatment after trying for a little more than a year. I was already down one ovary, but I was only 32, so there was still “time.” Well, that “time” was told by the slowest ticking clock in history, even though my obsession with wanting to get pregnant and have kids was racing at full speed.

To make a long story short, after losing a right ovary to a 3.5 lb cyst, then trying 6 IUI cycles with Clomid, then a lateral incision myomectomy, a blighted ovum m/c, acupuncture, naturopathy and another vertical incision myomectomy, then trying on our own a few months with a repaired uterus, we finally took the plunge into the world of IVF. Our first cycle in April 2007 was a bust, but the second cycle in October 2007 was a roaring success. We became the proud parents of boy/girl twins in May 2008, about 8 years after initially talking about having kids! Whew! What a journey it has been, and I have the road map of scars to show it.

After the first unsuccessful attempt, I was ready to give up. We even started talking about adoption. I started thinking more positively about things and quit dwelling on the negatives in my life. In that respect, I did a lot of yoga and walking to keep my brain in good shape. I hugged the dog a lot too. We had one more chance for another IVF cycle, and my best advice to anyone is to take that last chance when you have it! When the doctor asked if we were sure we wanted all 3 embryos transferred and reminded us of the risk of triplets, I said, “Let’s go for it! We’ve got nothing to lose.” I must say we were a tiny bit nervous about the first ultrasound because triplets would mean so many things, like needing a bigger car. We were thrilled when we saw the two little gummi bears on the screen! I work in a fertility clinic and was a patient in the same, so it was fun and easy just walking down the hall for bloodwork and ultrasounds.

The things I have learned along the way are this: A definite reason for infertility is so much easier to deal with than being diagnosed as “unexplained.” We of the unexplained are always trying to figure out a reason for being broken and we really beat ourselves up about it. And as hard as it is to go to your gyne’s office and see all the pregnant women, they are really there to give us hope that we too will one day stand in their shoes.

Four months old!

2008-09-25T07:11:00.000-07:00

These are our first and last kids…a boy and girl, Kai and Seda. Who needs more? It’s the perfect equation. We already have the dog, so we are now an instant nuclear family. Good thing we don’t live in China, or we would have had to leave Seda at the curb. Besides, I considered pregnancy to be a debilitating disease because I’m such an active person and was pretty much totally immobilized by the seventh month. I’m also going to be ancient (40) in February in terms of fertility, so that’s that. Mission accomplished.

The little rascals are trucking along, plumping up nicely for being born 5 weeks early. Yesterday we celebrated Kai and Seda’s fourth month out in the air-breathing world. No fanfare, really, just a commemorative photo to add to the fourth picture slot in my twelve-slot frame.

There was no way of knowing that the last four months were going to be this easy. Not sure what I expected, but it’s been a breeze! Shortly before they were three months old, they were sleeping through the night. Up until then, I thought that the waking-up-every-three-hours-at-night thing would never end.

Pregnancy was also the best weight loss program I’ve ever encountered! Not that I have ever dieted, per se, but I have tried to lose 10 pounds or so over the last 6 years by watching my food intake and exercising. But nothing works as well as breastfeeding! I now weigh 10 pounds less than before getting pregnant!

I am gaining SAINT status these days because my husband had foot surgery on August 12, and I haven’t killed him yet. I’m amazed how much time is taken up by all the little chores he would do that I now have to do while he recovers. This, of course, is in addition to my usual role as cook, grocery shopper, maid, groundskeeper, new mom of twins, dog walker, etc. I bet you never thought about how many trips up and down the stairs are required when you do five loads of laundry in one day. That is five trips per load, so 25 trips per day! I think that’s why I now have legs of steel. Fortunately, this isn’t a daily occurrence. We do cloth diapers, but that’s the least of my worries. So again…I think I deserve a saint award of some kind. A coworker recently asked how my hubby was doing and asked if I’m still planning to stay married to him! I of course said, “Yes.” He’s on crutches, and that is thirsty work, and of course he can’t fetch his own glass of water. So Yours Truly runs to his aid. He did acquire a wheelchair to have a much-needed break from using crutches in the house. This is great for him, not much help for me, and fun for the twins as he takes them for joy rides up and down the hall. Women at work say they would be bitching and whining about his lack of help, but I say there’s not much point because I can’t do anything about it.

And when will he be back on his feet you ask? Ohhhhhh…January or so. He’s dreaming of skiing by February. Hmmm…bet he has no dreams of CHORES. I have put my letter in for a sabbatical from holiday entertaining this year for sure. We will be traveling for that to the homes of others, so no EXTRA work for me! Yay!