News and updates

I am off to Louisiana for my cousin's wedding this weekend. (I should note, because Penny always gets such a kick out of it, that Amanda is my only first cousin. Penny has about, oh, a bajillion first cousins, so she thinks it's funny that I have one!) I am very excited to go. However, Penny is staying home with the kiddos and the plans for someone to come and stay with her to help for the weekend just recently fell through. Therefore, I am feeling pretty guilty about going. But, the plans are made and there is not much I can do. So, I wish Penny good luck. And she knows I will be bringing home the mother of all goodies for her. Not sure what it will be yet, but I gotta find something good!

All that said...I am looking forward to two nights in a hotel by myself, as well as a rental car in which I will do several hours of driving (from TX to LA), all the while listening to a luxurious book on tape. The time alone seems so appealing now, but I am sure that I will miss Penny and the kids more than currently anticipated. I'll be back home Sunday night by midnight...and no doubt hating life on Monday morning when it is time to get up for work!

In baby news, we had to lower Jordan's crib mattress because he was pulling up onto his knees and well on his way to pulling himself into a standing position. Very exciting developmentally, but very sad for the mommas that their babies are on their way to walking! Jordan has also started clapping while he laughs, which is unbeliavably cute.

Taylor is really a mover and shaker. She is all over the place now, although forward crawling is still elusive to her. She can get around just fine, though, which led us to a recent purchase of a gated enclosure where we can put both kids and they can play freely, without us constantly on top of them. Bring on the childproofing! Ugh!

Both kids are doing really well with eating and sleeping. They are branching out into all different kinds of foods and finding lots of things that they like. It is really fun to give them new things and see them experience different tastes and textures. Both kids are loving some mixed fruit that we made up recently. The moms are enjoying making homemade baby food!

Both kids are finally back to sleeping in their cribs and sleeping mostly through the night. They are both doing a great job on figuring out how to soothe themselves and fall back to sleep after a bit of babbling or crying in the middle of the night. Moms are happy to be getting some good sleep.

That's about it. It is Thursday, which means I am home with the kids, so I have to run. They are calling me...

Picture Post

Happy babies on Christmas morning.





This was our sad, sad Char.lie Brown Christmas tree. After going to three places to look for a tree and finding them all sold out, our friend Michael went out onto our land on snowshoes in search of a tree. This was the best of the very few options. Behold the great Christmas tree of 2007! Thanks Michael. Hey, it was free and it was all ours!





Taylor loves to pose whenever the camera comes out. Rarely is there a picture where she is not smiling.
Is this a dacyare center or our house? The twinners love their exersaucers! (Oh, and it's our house!)

Jordan and Mama Chris playing after work one day. Jordan was loving taking his socks off and putting them in his mouth. It looks like we don't feed him enough, doesn't it? Perhaps socks taste better than our homemade babyfood?

Jordan loves to throw himself upside down at any opportunity. He is so funny!

Perhaps Taylor would agree that socks taste better than our homemade babyfood?


And perhaps duckies taste better than what is served at our house?

Taylor gives the bath time ducky restaurant 4 stars!

The family who bathes together, stays together!

We love to splash!

Mama Penny and Taylor after bath time. Look at those smiles!

I'm ready for my close up, Mr. Hef*ner!

Mama Penny and her two sweet babies. My three favorite people in the whole world!

Sweet dreams, little one! (Possible suffocation devices removed after this photo was taken!)

Questions, questions, questions

Here's a meme stolen from judecorp...

Because we never really know each other as well as we think, in response to this post I'd like you to ask a question. Anything about which you are curious, anything you feel you ought to know about me. Silly, serious, personal, fannish. Ask away. Then copy this to your own journal/blog, and see what people don't know/want to know about you.

Congrats to all the new moms!!

E and A from "Two Moms are Better than One" had their baby, and it's a boy! This precious boy is the 1/2 brother of Taylor and Jordan, as we used the same sperm donor. We have seen pics and they emailed us his name, but neither is posted on their blog yet, so I will refrain from sharing. He is super cute, definitely has the same chin as T and J, that we suspected was from the donor, and he has a great name! Congrats to E&A! We are so happy for you! And we are really looking forward to forging ahead with you guys into the land of defining our new extended 21st century family!!

Also, Jenny and E from "Probably Boring Ramblings" had their baby girl (Elsie Jane) early this morning. All are doing well and basking in the glory of their long awaited little one. At long last, your dreams have come true and I am so happy for you!!

Congrats to all the new moms on their new additions. You're in for a wild ride!!

Happy New Year!

Well, 2008 has arrived and we are already being blessed with two sleeping babies, taking nice long naps this morning! Yay! So, there is time for a New Year's blog post.

Penny and I stayed in last night. 7.5 month old twins...not much choice in the celebrating matter! We were happy to stay in, although isn't it funny that when the choice is made for you, you feel like you wish you had options. But when we had no babies and could do whatever we wanted for New Year's Eve, wouldn't ya know it...we mostly also stayed home. But, we usually also had friends over for games and some sort of yummy dinner. Oh how we miss the CA friends!

While the evening started out quite bland (I went to the laundry mat to dry our laundry. The house we are renting only has a washer. Go figure!), it ended quite nicely, even though neither one of us saw midnight. After the kids went to bed, Penny and I did cook ourselves a lovely dinner. We had mussels steamed in white wine and garlic, along with linguine with clam sauce, breadsticks, wine, and chocolate mousse for dessert. We were quite thrilled with ourselves, actually. It was so yummy! And, it's great to start the new year with all clean laundry!

2007 was quite a year for us, as you can imagine. We finally became moms, after a long two year struggle with infertility and journey to conception. In 2007, we found out we were having boy/girl twins and felt like the luckiest women alive. We took two lovely weekend babymoons for relaxing and enjoying each other before our world would be turned upside down. We experienced unbelievable love, support, and generosity from our friends, family, and coworkers with a multitude of baby showers and subsequent yummy meals delivered to our door after the babies arrived. (Seriously, we might have made it without the meal delivery, but we certainly would not have been so well nourished by your food and your love!) Of course, we also welcomed Taylor and Jordan into our lives, when they made us a family on May 10th. Other massive changes were leaving our jobs (and our friends and everything that had been our lives for 7 years), moving cross-country from CA to VT with our three month old twinners, and settling into a new life as born-again New Englanders. We are thankful to live so close to Penny's family, as well as to be on the same coast as all of my family. (Hey, it's a big improvement from CA, NY, and FL!)

In 2008, our babies will turn 1. (Seriously, how is that possible?) And we will see big changes in them: crawling, walking, more teeth, more food experiences, personalities further emerging, and a multitude of other things that cannot be predicted. Penny and I hope to get in better shape, lose some weight (ah, the old weight loss New Year's resolution), support and encourage each other as parents, and find ways to continue to connect with each other. We hope to use our craft room more, save more money, take one day at a time, and appreciate the daily grind that is so easy to try to get through, rather than enjoy.

Thanks to the readers out there. We love reading your comments, so say hi if you stop by to let us know you were around. And here's to a great 2008 for you all. We wish you health, happiness, fulfillment, and fertility to those struggling with that. We hope all your dreams come true!

You know you're in VT when...

Last night Penny was planning on watching the big Pats game and I knew I did not want any part of that. Sorry, honey! So, this gal checked into some options and guess who went out to her first movie in almost eight months (since the babies were born)? That's right, it's me. (Hold on. I lied. Penny and I went to see Harry*Potter for her birthday in July, while my mom babysat.) I love going to the movies. I love the previews. I love the seats (when my fat ass is not being pinched by them!). And I love being in the dark with strangers, all there with a common purpose. So, I have been sad to not go to the movies in so long. And I am someone who kind of enjoys going to the movies alone. I like going with others, too, but there is something cool and fun and relaxing about going alone. I can cry and laugh and do whatever without thinking the other person thinks I am weird or some sort of loony crying movie watcher. I tend to cry a fair amount at the movies.

Last night I saw Juno and it was fab! I am so glad that I caught it. If you have not seen it, and are able to, I highly recommend getting out there to see it. It was a poignant coming of age, teen pregnancy movie. It reminded me of Welcome to the Dollhouse, but it was not quite as painful to watch. But, I still cried...a few times.

Going to the movies in VT means:

1) Tickets cost a mere $7.50! (I heard another movie goer from out of town say, "I can't believe these prices! In Providence, tickets are about $12." I hear ya, girlfriend. Cali was the same!)

2) There is a theatre that plays first-run/current movies, but has just one screen and shows just one movie at a time.

3) The theatre is so small... (How small is it?) It's so small that after you buy your ticket from the single ticket agent, you have to stand outside in line until the earlier movie gets out and you have someplace to go! Oh, how I wished I had brought a hat!

4) People bring their own tupper*ware from home from which to consume their popcorn!


Seriously, can you stand the quaintness?

A manual of expectations

It's the holiday season and your kids go to daycare. Do you know the etiquette? I guess you are supposed to get your daycare providers holiday gifts of appreciation. But, as first time moms, we are confused. Or maybe a better term to use is clueless! Until this past week, the kids have gone to daycare just two days a week, since September. In the infant room, there are two regular teachers (I always feel weird calling an infant daycare provider "a teacher") and then there are other people who work in there as needed, some more regularly than others. Until today, we had not gotten them anything. When Penny dropped the kids off yesterday, she said she felt like she got a weird look and the vibe was kinda off. She called me and said, "I think we need to get them something."

They had sent home some little gifts for the kids, as well as some cute ornaments that they made for us with pictures of the kids. But, we (with our twinfants) are frazzled about, um, 99% of the time and days and weeks easily get away from us. In getting ready for weekend visitors and holiday festivities, we had not planned far enough in advance (which would have actually had to be by 12/21 because daycare was closed on the 24th and 25th), so the holiday came and went and we had not done anything for the daycare folks. Also, we are kinda broke right now! After a cross-country move and living on my new modest VT salary for the past few months, things are rather tight around here. Penny and I did not even buy each other Christmas presents! And the kids have everything they need, so we did not buy anything new for them either, unless you count bibs and little shoes that we recently ordered online.

Yesterday, I went to Dunkin*Donuts and got 4 gift cards: two for the main infant room teachers ($10 each) and two for the other most regular infant room providers ($5 each). Does this sound adequate? We did not get anything for the director of the daycare. Today I gave everyone a Dr. Suess holiday card, with their gift card, and a pic of the kids with santa at the mall. Any opinions on this? I hope it was good enough, even though they were not expensive or homemade or edible gifts. Well, they can buy DD edible goodies anyway! Honestly, it was the best we could do this year.

Sometimes we feel so clueless on this whole parenting thing. If only the kiddos came with a manual that told you real world practical information about stuff, including this type of holiday day care dilemma. Maybe I will write one, make my millions, and never have a lean Christmas again!

A lovely weekend

Our first Christmas back in New England was a lovely one! It started with a weekend visit from NH friends and their kids, ages 5 and 2. A million thanks to Nikki and Michael for bringing us so many hand-me-down toys, clothes, and gear. We got a 2nd high chair and a 2nd exersaucer that have already made such a difference! Nikki introduced us to the wonderful world of homemade baby food, and she cooked the moms some banana bread, Sheppard's Pie, and a chicken pot pie to nourish us after they were gone. Michael strapped on the ol' snow shoes and trekked out to the back 40 to cut us down a Christmas tree, after our efforts to get a tree were thwarted at 4 sold-out tree places. (I've got to get a picture of this tree up on the blog soon. To call it a Charlie Brown tree would be the understatement of the century. But, it was free and it was all ours!) Nikki and Michael also helped us to manage Jordan's asthma through steam follwed by cold air, when the nebs were not quite cutting it. So, a million thanks to N&M for an amazing visit, that was so filled with love and support. You are both truly amazing people and we are so lucky to have you in our lives.

The kids had a great first Christmas with their aunties, uncles, and cousins. We had the Penny's family over to our house on Sunday for a potluck and gift exchange, and then we went to Penny's sister's house for dinner on Christmas day. Our kids are so loved and supported by these guys and we are so lucky to live so close to many of them. Many thanks for the super cute clothes and toys for the kids. You guys are so generous! And thanks, too, for holding and playing with and loving our babies so the moms could get a little break. We are lucky to be back in VT, so close to you guys!

Thanks to my brother, Bill, and his wife Michelle, for the Target gift cards for the kids...even though it makes me want to kick your asses because we agreed we were not exchanging gifts this year. GGrrr! And thanks to Mimi (my mom) for the gifts for the kids: some great "1st xmas" ornaments, a cute barn with animals that make sounds, and an amazing Radio*Flyer wagon with built in seats and a canopy for transporting the kids around. We can't wait to use it this summer!

Penny and I are back to work today and the kiddos are back at daycare. Starting the 2nd week of January, I will be working a 4-day work week. Yay! This is so great because it means that the kids will only be in daycare 4 days a week, instead of 5. And it means that I get an extra day with the kids. After working so hard to get these little miracles into our lives, having them with us 3 days and in daycare for 4 days a week feels so much better than with us 2 days and in daycare 5 days a week. I know it is just a day, but it feels like a much better fit for us. Plus, it saves us a bunch of money in monthly daycare costs and we love that!

Hope everyone had a happy and healthy Christmas. Hard to believe that New Year's is right around the corner!

And the seasons, they go round and round

December is in full swing. Big news: Penny got a job, working at the same agency where I work! Yay Penny! She is an Employment Specialist and will be helping support folks with mental illness in their employment endeavors. The babies start full-time daycare next week. Although, in a few weeks, this may be cut down to just 4 days a week because I am in the process of being approved to work 4 long days, rather than 5 days a week. Very excited about that, especially because it means that the babies will be with us three days a week!

Things here in twin land march on faster and faster each day. The days themselves often feel long, but the months fly by and milestones are happening everyday. We are struggling with colds, and asthma, and trouble sleeping due to stuffy noses. Ah, the first winter! But, we are enjoying the smiles, and the babbling, and the new experiences with food and toys and the whole world all around us.

Our big boy, Jordan, now loves to hold his own bottle. Often, however, he loses his grip and milk sprays all over him. Check out those chubby little hands.

During the time when I was working and Penny was staying home with the kids three days a week, they were always so happy to see me when I got home. Talk about melting your heart. Their little faces would light up as if to say, "It's you! We didn't know whether we would ever see you again, and yet here you are. Hooray!!" Penny snapped this picture of both kids holding my hands one day when I had just gotten home from work. Makes me such a happy mama!

Jordan and Taylor are getting so much more interactive with their environment. They love Bear, Cosmo, and Milo so much. And the animals are unbelievably tolerant. Here's our "killer" dog, Bear, holding court over her babies. She loves to be where they are and she just lets them maul, er pet, her whenever they want to. What a good doggie!

Look at these big babies sitting up and playing with toys. They love their crinkle books! People think they look so much alike, and sometimes I think they look a lot alike, too. But, in this pic, not so much. What do you think? Oh, and you can't imagine how many people ask us everytime we are out whether the kids are indentical or fraternal. If they are a boy and a girl, folks, they cannot be identical!

The conversation usually goes something like this: Person: Oh, a boy and a girl? Me: Yup...(trying to move on without making too much eye contact. Twin survival mode.) Person: Well, you have your hands full. Me: *Smile.* Yup. Person: Are they identical? Me: Nope, a boy and a girl? Person: I know, but are they identical? Me: What I actually say: Nope, they are fraternal. (What I really want to say: DAMMIT PEOPLE! DO YOU KNOW THE MEANING OF THE WORD IDENTICAL? A BOY AND A GIRL HAVE SOME SIGNIFICANT DIFFERENCES IN THEIR PARTS. THEREFORE...NOT FREAKIN' IDENTICAL!)

We now return you to your regularly scheduled, non-ranting blog post.

One thing Penny and I often lament is that we do not have the same down time with the babies that we imgaine parents of singletons have the opportunity to experience more often. We are usually busy busy busy with tasky things when the kids are napping. We are trying to slow down and cherish the times we have with these amazing little people while they are still little. This picture of Jordan sleeping on Penny was camera worthy, as these peaceful moments with each individual child are, unfortunately, more rare than we would like.

The obligatory first Santa pic is posted here in all its glory! It took a few tries to get the kids to look forward, stop grabbing Santa's beard, and have semi smiling looks on their faces. They sat with Santa for about 5 minutes or so, no one cried, and we got this pretty great picture. We were thrilled!

Hope the holiday season is treating you all well. We are in a winter wonderland today, with an excess of 18 inches expected. Penny is out shovelling now, and we will try to keep up with the snow throughout the day. Will try to post wintery pics later. We are excited to have a lazy Sunday, all cozy in the house, while it snows and snows and snows outside. I baked muffins for breakfast and we are gonna have some yummy soup for lunch. It's gonna be a greay day!

Time for more pics

Here's me with the babies at a recent visit to Northampton, MA to visit the alma mater, as well as visit with Jean who was in town from California. Ok, the real reason for the visit was to see Jean. We miss our Cali friends, big time!
A rare pic of the 4 of us. Note sleeping babies in strollers (if you can see their faces). Yeah!
Jordan and Taylor go swimming for the first time at the hotel in Northampton. We met Jude, Jen, and Gus from Judecorp. Cool to meet internet friends! In the above pic, I have Jordan, Jude (far left) has Taylor, and Jen (middle) has Gus.
Mama Penny and her babies rockin' out in the pool.
Babies were enjoying the lush bed in the hotel. Whoa, Jordan. Where ya headed?

We had brunch in Northampton with blogger/internet friends, as well as my long lost counsin, Jessica, her husband, Steve, and their daughter, Anna Louise.
Lookin' good in Sylvester's! While we were waiting for a table, a friend from grad school walked in the door. Whoa! Small world!
Here's me, with E and A from Two Moms blogging fame. E is pregnant with the same donor used to conceive Jordan and Taylor. They are expecting baby "Moon," the 1/2 sibling of J & T, in January. Creating different definitions of family rocks!

Jordan and Taylor lookin' dapper in their LL*Bean fleece hats and mittens.

Both babies love to pet the kitties and dog. Penny snapped this great pic of me and Jordan, with Milo. Good job, Pen!
Taylor loves tummy time, thanks to this activity mat that makes sounds and lights up. She can now roll from front to back and back again, with ease.
Loving their cowboy outfits from Auntie Ali on Thanksgiving. Jordan's face says, "These outfits rock. Why has it taken you so long to let us wear them?"
We enjoyed their first Thanksgiving as a family of four. So much to be thankful for this year, that's for sure! Note that the babies are about the same size as the turkey!
Penny's family came to join us for Thanksgiving, and brought lots of yummy food with them. Thanks everyone, for making our first holiday in VT so special!

We love snowsuits and we love sleeping babies. Do you just want to eat them up? I do...especially Taylor, the little pink marshmallow in her fluffy snowsuit! We are getting new carseats soon, as the kids are almost outgrowing these. Also, with the big snowsuits, they are especially tight for Jordan and Taylor. Jordan is bigger, but Taylor has a fluffier snowsuit. Jordan also needs a new snowsuit soon. So many changes all the time...and expenses!

Big snow here recently. Pictures of that to come. In other news, we are on to Stage 2 baby food, sitting up without being supported, and Jordan has two teeth poking through his bottom gums. Big kids all around!

Check us out!

Hello All-

We have been taking dancing lessons and thought you guys might want to check this out. Next stop: Dancing with the Stars! http://www.elfyourself.com/?id=1130512732

Love, Chris, Penny, Taylor and Jordan

A New Milestone!

Jordan slept the entire night in his crib last night! No time in the swing. No time in bed with one or both mamas. Our big boy slept the entire night in his crib all by himself. Granted, he was on his stomach for some of the night and I worried about suffocation. And granted, we had to go in a few more times than a few times to put his pacifier back in his mouth. But, still! A whole night in the crib! Yay for Jordan.

Taylor, on the other hand, made up for it by being more fussy than usual and ending up spending a few hours in the swing. I tell ya. If it's not one thing, it's another!! :)

Focusing on the positive over here! And, a big thanks to Nikki in NH for a wonderful reassuring conversation last night, where she assured me that we aer doing great and that things will smooth out as time goes by. Thanks for the support, Nik!

I Can Not Believe How Big They Are

I (Penny) have not added to this blog in ages, so I thought I would put my two cents in. Every day I am looking for jobs (boo hoo) and on non-day care days I spend the day as a stay at home mom. For the most part I love being with the kids all day, but... I am not bringing in money and I feel bad about that. I have had a few interviews but I have been told that I am over qualified for most things. So what if I applied for the job. I must want it, or I would not have applied. Okay enough of a pity party for Penny.

Growing Pains

Thanksgiving at our house was good and everyone had a nice time. We will put some pics up soon. But, that's not what I want to write about today.

We are tired. I was so looking forward to a 4-day weekend, especially after working in a hospital for the past 5 years where I did not have the day after Thanksgiving off. But, this past weekend, was a LONG one and I found myself looking forward to going back to work. And then feeling guilty about that. I love the babies, obviously, but I am so exhausted and it is so hard to have very little time for myself. Penny and I talked it over and she is feeling the same way. However, I "get" to get away to work, so we are feeling it in a different way. Not more or less, just different, and I will let her make a post about how she is feeling if she wants to.

It is fall and we have a craft room. And I want to be crafty. But, there is no time for craftiness and I am feeling crappy about that. I was so psyched to move into this big house and have space for laying out scrapbook pages to work on and maybe even learning some new crafty things. But it's not happening! When we are home with the babies, it is a neverending cycle of feeding, playing, changing, trying to get them to sleep, repeat, repeat, repeat. I know, I know. What did I expect? We have twins and they are busy little 6 month olds. But even when there are a few moments, I find that I am hesitant to start anything because there is never a significant enough chunk of time to start anything. And so I am watching too much TV or spending too much time on the internet and I am hating it. Well, hating it might be too strong. I strongly regret the time I lose to TV and the internet.

Penny and I are trying to do Weight*Watchers and we have done relatively well so far by making better food choices. We have both lost about 11 pounds. Yay us! But, we are not exercising and that sucks, too. I want to, but again, I cannot find the time. I cannot fathom getting up one second earlier than I have to, as I already feel so sleep deprived. And then when the kids go to bed for the night, we are so tired, that we usually make and eat dinner, and then veg out in front of the TV. I want to use this time efficiently, but I just feel too worn out to use that time to exercise, scrapbook, or anything else.

Does anyone out there have any thoughts, encouragement, or words of wisdom? We started this blog as a way to keep people informed and in the loop about the babies and our move, but I have felt rather "Pollyanna" lately with mostly all hearts and rainbow posts, when, in reality, I am struggling with some things. Do other bloggers struggle with how much to complain and how much to sugar-coat things for people who are reading?

And speaking of struggling, remember when I mentioned Jordan's coughing and wheezing the other day? Well, we took him to the doc's office and they said he has cold induced asthma! *SIGH* So, they sent us home with a nebulizer and meds and now we have to give him breathing treatments every 4 hours when he is awake. As you can imagine, our 6 month old boy does not like sitting still for ten minutes with a mask held over his face, blowing mist his way. Good times, good times.

Posts galore

So, I did not sign up for that NOBLOPOMO or whatever the heck it is called, where you are supposed to blog everyday in November, but I am quite proud of myself for blogging as much as I have recently. There have been more posts this month than any other month since the blog began. Yeah!

I recently signed up with Blog*lines, as I had heard such cool things about it. Basically what it does is keep track of all the blogs you read for new posts. You log into your page and it highlights in bold which of the beloved blogs that you read have new posts. This means that I don't have to slog through my blogroll (slog through the blogs..hee-hee!!) everyday, clicking on every link to see who might have a new post up. In theory, this is super and saves lots of time. In practice, it means that I log into Blog*lines about a million times a day, like some blog-reading-crazed fool, to see if there are any new posts. Easier? Yes. Less time consuming? Yes. Less addictive? Not so much!

Snowing here again today. Second snow of the season. It will be a white Christmas for sure, if this keeps up. It will definitely be a white Thanksgiving. We are hosting at our house, with lots of Penny's family. It is a potluck, thank goodness. We are cooking the turkey, stuffing, and potatoes. And Penny's sister and brother-in-law (Cindy and Brian) are coming over Wednesday night to help with cooking and the babies. But not cooking the babies.

Jordan is sick and has a crazy cough. So, back to the pediatrician for him today. He has been sounding kinda wheezy, and that's never good.

If you wanna support some women who are having a tough time with a pregnancy that might not make it, go give some hugs over at Cha Cherry Cola. They are going through a shitty time right now.

Back home, safe and sound

We had a lovely weekend away, with lots of fun and visiting. It is still kind of fall-like in MA, so it was a far cry from the winter wonderland that we left back home. We got 4 inches of snow last week on Friday, if you can believe that. Hello winter, my old friend. When one of the local radio stations started playing 24-7 Xmas music, it felt way too early for that. But then the snow came and now it feels just right. It is really Thanksgiving (ALREADY?) this week?

So, we had a nice visit walking around my alma mater with Jean, and her friends Jeanna and Jess from Boston and their 1 y.o son, Oscar. He is so cute!

Our hotel was nice and I was psyched to have spent so little on it, since I booked it through Hot*wire. We took the kids swimming in the pool for the first time and they loved it...until they were cold and their lips turned blue. Pics to be posted on the blog soon. This hotel was not a super fancy one, but it was one of the ones that is now providing higher end beds, bed linens, and pillows. I love this trend! The mattresses were super comfy, the duvet was a down alternative comforter that was a perfect weight, and the pillows were lofty and yet also a perfect squishiness. There were two types of pillows (and a little sign told us so): down and down alternative. Thank you very much, Hot*wire deal of a hotel. I am rarely let down with bookings through Hot*wire.

Jude and Jen from "judecorp" called us on Saturday night and asked if I was serious about an email I sent out before we left home, inviting people to come swimming with us. But, of course. Their little punk (and I only use that endearing term because they do!), Gus was having a fussy day and they thought maybe the pool would help. So, they came over and we all went swimming. So much fun and it was great to meet the three of them in person! We were the only ones in the pool, which was cool. After said swimming, Gus and our two promptly fell asleep (after proper warming, of course) and we all contemplated ordering in sushi. By the time we got ourselves together enough to order, Gus was waking up, so Jude and Jen decided to head home rather than tempt fate too much. Penny and I had sushi in the room, and it was yummy. Oh Berkeley, with your 10,0000000 sushi restaurants how we miss you so. The sleeping kids proved to be short lived, with our two, mostly Jordan, having a not so great night's sleep. We made it through though. Jude and Jen, however, reported on Sunday that Gus had a great night's sleep after swimming. Glad we could help!

Sunday brought a lovely brunch with the "judecorp" gals, E & A from "two moms," and my cousin Jess, her husband Steve, and their daughter Anna. We had such a fun time and I was sad when it was over that we did not live closer so that we could all get together on a more regular basis. E & A were lovely and we are excited to have them as new members of a weird extended family, made through donor sperm! It was neat to see them interacting with our kids, holding them and cooing at them, knowing that E is carrying the 1/2 sib of our duo. WOW! We can't wait to meet the wee "moon," expected in January. And, it was great to see my cousin, Jess, again, after not seeing each other for so many years. Great, too, to meet Steve and Anna. Now that we are a mere 2.5 hours away, we should stay in better touch.

Before heading home, we stopped at Tar*get. In CA, this was not such an exciting outing. But now, we live in a state where there are NO TAR*GETS, if you can freakin' believe that! We also wanted to hit Trader*Joes, but time did not permit it. Oh well. Better luck next visit.

On the drive home, Jordan slept for 2 of the 2.5 hours and Taylor slept for 2 hrs 15 minutes. We were so blessed. But the last 15 minutes was pure hell with much screaming, which I believe could be translated to, "We're starving over here and our giant thighs and rolls on our knees are dwindling so much, that if we don't get some bottles right now, we might just cease to exist!"

Already?

One thing no one told me about blogging is that you start composing posts in your head when you are not at a computer. I always think of the most witty things to write when I am driving, in a meeting, or someplace where I cannot compose said brilliance right away. Bummer!

Some things that made me title this entry, "Already?"

It snowed today. ALREADY?

The kids are 6 months old and that means we are kinda 1/2 way through the baby experience. In a way this is good, as there are exciting times to come, but really? 50% done with my baby snuggles ALREADY? WAH!

At the last appointment with the pediatrician, Taylor weighed 15 lbs, 4 oz and Jordan weighed 17 lbs, 4 oz. Jordan has an ear infection and he is now on his first course of antibiotics. ALREADY?


Now, in non-already news, we are headed to the great town of my alma mater tomorrow to see Jean who is in from CA to visit some friends and to see us for the day. We are so excited, but are very sad, sad, sad that Aimee and Garett stayed back in CA. God how we miss our CA pals.

On Sunday, for the first time ever, we are meeting some internet friends, in an attempt to make them real-life friends! I don't know how to be all fancy and make that underlined text that links to blogs (hell, I just figured out how to make the blogroll to the right!), but we are meeting with the lovely ladies from "Judecorp" and their little punk, Gus. And, we are meeting E&A from "Two moms are better than one." E is pregnant with the same donor that we used, making E&A the impending moms of the half-sibs of our kids. Holy crap, that's crazy talk! We are also meeting up with my cousin Jess and her baby Anna. (Under the heading of "what a small world," Jude of Judecorp is friends with Jess, so they are coming to brunch with us, too. And, E&A are also friends with Jude and her partner. Whoa! Go ahead, say it. What a small world!) We are very excited about this baby-blogga-bruncha-palooza!!

Have a great weekend. Look for pics of the kids in the hotel pool after the weekend is over and we are back home safe and sound. And, for those of you who posted in the "Pay it Forward" post, watch your mailboxes. Goodies are on their way!!

Happy 6 month birthday, Taylor and Jordan!

Taylor and Jordan are six months old today! I wanted to make sure that I got a post in before the end of the day, so here it is. More pics than news, but it's late and I'm tired. So it will have to do.


T and J have been enjoying lots of tummy time recently and it has been great to see them interact with one another. They have mastered rolling over from their backs to their tummies, but tummies to backs is another story. The latter direction is much harder, although Jordan can do it more easily then Taylor can at this point.

Here's Taylor and Jordan in their Halloween outfits. Not really costumes per se, but we did get festive for daycare and the kids participated in the costume parade. There were lots of oohhs and aahhs from the spectators!
Another rare picture of all four of us. A ghoulish family picture for Halloween!!
Taylor loves the exersaucer. Look at that smile! With half of the DNA being so unknown, how did we get so lucky? We feel so fortunate!

Jordan is learning to sit up on his own. Lots of trial and error on this one. Funny to watch, until he gets so frustrated that he cries, or he topples over and bangs his head on the floor. Good times...bad mommies!

In closing, I leave you with a photo comparison to see just how far we've come since May 10th. I call it "A photo essay in carseats."

Coming home from the hospital.

(3 days old)

Both sleeping at once. WOW!
(1 month old)

And just look at us now! Six months old and rockin' the cool fleece hats that Mimi sent us from LL Bea.n. You've come a long way, babies!

Taylor and Jordan, thank you for brightening our lives in unbelievable ways. The past six months have been challening and wonderful and tiring and amazing. Thank you for the best six months of our lives! We love you to the moon and back and can't wait to see what the future holds for our new family. Love always, Your Mamas

The hits just keep on coming!

The kids go to daycare two days per week so that Penny has time to look for jobs and go on interviews. We found a daycare center that we liked and have been generally happy with it thus far. However, nothing is perfect and there are snags along the way. For instance, our daycare center seems to be crazy temperature takers. Our kids have been going there since September, and they have been sent home for temps and/or called us to ok Tylenol on about 5 occasions. This seems extreme to me. When we have taken them home, we have found that they either have no temp, or a much lower temp than reported by daycare. Now, of course, I do not want my sick kids to stay at daycare and I do not want anyone else's sick kids to be ay daycare. But, it kinda burns me up (pun intended) when we have paid for them to be there and they are sent home and seem not to actually be sick. Is it possible that their thermometer is wonky? They use an under the arm thermometer, so that should be more accurate. One day, the kids were sent home because we were told they both had temps and appeared to have chicken pox. There have been three cases of chicken pox in the infant room since the kids started going there. So, we picked the kids up, called the doctor's office, and went to an appointment that afternoon, a mere one hour later. We did not give them Tylenol before the appt. At the appt, one hour after being sent home from daycare, both kids were found to have no temps and aboslutely no signs of chicken pox. Sigh. What to do in this situation? We talked to the daycare about this, sent the kids back to daycare two days later when they were next scheduled (along with the doctor's note), and hoped for the best. That was yesterday. Jordan was sent home half way through the day with a fever, which was actually confirmed at home with our thermometer, although the temp we got was much lower.

I know that kids get sick and have colds and get fevers and all turns out ok. What I don't know about is how you are a working parent when kids are constantly getting sent home from daycare. It is ok for now, since Penny is not working yet. And we got a 2nd car (a Minivan. Yup, a mom-mobile!), so that works out ok. But once we are both working, I don't know how we are gonna swing this frequent need to be picked up from daycare and brought home. Since I have been a working person for longer than I have been a mom, it feels weird to leave work to pick kids up and all. And I feel weird about it, especially since I am at a new job. Do other working moms have an opinion on this?

And the thing is that our kids are not unusually sick. They are happy babies and mostly healthy, but daycare sure is doing a number on them. And them being over sensitive about temperatures is getting to be a hassle! But, the bottom line for now, is that there are no pox so far. And that's a good thing. But we are on the lookout!

And do you know what another bummer is? At work today I was the mom who came to work with spit-up on her shirt who did not even realize it until she had been at work for some time and who's coworkers probably saw said spit up and were totally grossed out and repulsed and said nothing to alert me to the situation. Hello, I am your new employee. Please be impressed by me!

A fun weekend that turned gross...

Hey, check me out! Three posts in two days! Yeah, baby!

It was a nice weekend here in twin land. Penny's friend, Denise, stayed over on Friday night because she had a meeting near us on Saturday morning. It was so nice to have a friend here to have dinner with and to chat with . We are seriously lacking in the friend department here and it's a bit tough for me sometimes.

On Saturday we went into town to try to hit the Farmer's Market, but found that it is already shut down for the winter. Boo Hiss!! We were disappointed, but we decided to kick around the downtown area for a while instead. We got to check out lots of the little shops that I had seen, but had not yet gone into. While this was great, I still feel like I want to check them out again sometime, sans double stroller, as it is a bit tough to really browse/shop thoroughly when you have the gargantuan stroller with you, not to mention two babies who might start crying at any time. But, it was nice to check the shops out anyway. We braved the cold weather and did just fine. The kids wore the super cute fleece hats with tassles (and velcro under the chins) that my mom bought them. Forgot to take a pic, but we will soon and will post it. We even ate lunch out successfully, without making too much of a crying scene in the restaurant. Yeah!

Saturday night I experienced the grossest part of parenting thus far. We fed the kids their cereal and baby food. They tried rice cereal for the 1st time, after previously only having oatmeal, and we mixed in pureed pears. They loved it. Then, Jordan had the rest of the squash that was left over from yesterday. This kid can eat! A bit later, both kids both had their bottles and then we started to get them ready for bed. I have heard that babies will not overeat, but that instead, they will stop eating when they are full. Sure they will...

Well, I brought Jordan upstairs to change him. As we reach the top of the stairs, he lets out a massive burp that keeps going and going. And then he starts to vomit like nothing I have ever seen come out of him before. And he keeps on vomiting, until both the front and back of my t-shirt is covered in vomit, the floor in the hallway and the nursery floor is covered in vomit, his whole face and front is covered in vomit, and there's even vomit on my ear and in my hair. I call Penny, who comes to the rescue to help with the clean up. I strip down and then turn to clean Jordan up, and he is smiling away like a little devil. The kid is not even bothered by vomit all over his face, and now his hands, as he had been touching his face while I was stripping. We got all cleaned up, using mostly baby wipes, and my previously stuffed little Jordan went off to bed, with what now must have been an empty belly.

The best part is (and I think this really speaks to the exhaustion of a mom of 6 month old twinfants...), I did not even take a shower before bed. Yup, I'm just that gross. So, who wants to be my friend now?