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?

November already?

It's my first day of eating cereal...The moms are obviously clueless. And the bibs are...where? Look what happened to my nice Red Sox shirt!
Yes, we are sitting in the recalled Bumb*o seats. That's because we have negligent moms, obviously. Don't worry everyone...the moms watch us closely and we will no longer be able to use these soon, anyway, because our gigunda thighs and butts stick in the seats and make us cry when it is time to try to get out of them! Good times!
One of my moms got a clue on this second day of eating cereal and finally put a bib on me! And hey, check out my stylin' high chair! Well, you can't see the whole thing, but my aunties Rajni and Jess (and their super husbands) got us this M.ercede.s of all high chairs. Thanks guys. It is comfy and colorful and Jordan and I love it!! And it means that one of us gets spared the recalled seat at dinner time! Yay for safety!
Hey, I'm just chillin' on my letters and numbers mat. Check me out. I think this is Thursday night. Can't miss my Grey*s Anatomy! I just love that Callie! (Just kidding! The kids don't watch TV and even the mommies are usually in bed by the time GA comes on! We tape it though, and watch it whenever we can fit it in. Hard to find a 1 hour slot to watch it, actually.)
Hey Taylor, nice cradle cap. Want me to scratch that for ya?

Pay it Forward

As seen throughout Blogland lately, I have decided to pay it forward. The first five people who leave a comment on this blog entry will receive something fun and lovely from me in the mail. Don't ask what it is, because I have not decided yet!

So...who will it be? Oh, and if you reply, then you also have to do the same thing on your blog, or you have to pay it forward in some other way in your life if you do not have a blog.

This is gonna be fun!

Settling in nicely!

Hello all! Sorry it has been so long since the last post. Time just seems to get away from us these days. Shocker! The new house is good, the babies are getting bigger and doing more everyday, and I am enjoying my new job with the county mental health agency. Penny is becoming a star at baby wrangling and cooking healthy dinners in our new awesome kitchen, while she looks for an exciting new employment situation. The babies go to day care 2 days per week, so that Penny has time for applying for jobs, interviewing, and completing the "Honey Do" list! (LOL!)

Jordan is all about trying to roll over and put his feet in his mouth. He loves to grab his toes. And he is becoming a real challenge to change, because he is always trying to roll over and look behind him. Taylor is big into sitting up. She loves to be propped up on a pillow and sit up like a big girl. Penny calls her "Crunch" because when she is laying down, she is always doing crunches, trying her hardest to sit up. And then when she is not successful, she screams her little head off. Both babies are enjoying finding their voices. They chat with one another and laugh and screech almost constantly. It is so cute. Oh, and they love looking at each other and interacting with each other. Sometimes they hold hands and it is so cute. And sometimes one punches, kicks, or scratches the other one and that is not so cute!

And now, onto the new pictures...


We have very few pictures of the four of us as a new family. We have got to be better about this. Anyway, here we are...all four of us together in one shot. Penny has Taylor and I have Jordan.


Here's Jordan asleep in his swing. Check out his Dr. Evil pose..."I want to hold the world hostage for one million dollars."


Jordan loves the new exersaucer. He stands up in it and touches all the toys, until he tires himself right out. Thanks Auntie Rajni and Auntie Jessica for this great present!


Check out Taylor in her little baby seersucker outfit. So cute!


Penny's longtime friend, Denise (pictured with Taylor) and her partner, Laurie, came to visit us from NH one weekend. It was a lovely visit and we were glad to get a chance to catch up with them!


Here's a picture of the house we are renting. This picture is from the front. The path leads to the driveway. Check out Bear in the pic. More of her a bit later...


This is a picture of the back of the house, taken from the backyard. The backyard is on quite a slope and goes down to a huge garden, a grassy area, and even a little basketball court!


This kitchen is one of the best parts of the house! We are so excited to finally have a house with a kitchen that is open, big, and highly functional. We have been cooking a lot and LOVING the ease of clean-up with a dishwasher. This kitchen has also helped us to cut down on our eating in front of the TV. We now eat most of our meals at the little island.

Here's the living room. The house has really great hardwood floors. And isn't that entertainment center cool? The house was rented to us furnished, so most of the furniture is not ours. But it is comfortable and functional and we are really enjoying it! Think we have enough baby gear all over the place?

We finally bought and set up matching cribs in the nursery. The cribs are actually identical, even though the pic makes them look like different color wood. The cribs convert to toddler beds and then to day beds as the kids get bigger. Sweet! The babies are sleeping really well in their cribs and are each waking up once per night to eat. The mamas seem to actually be getting an OK amount of sleep at this point. YAY!!
Here's another view of the nursery. The room is shaped like an "L," and has lots of windows. It is a lovely room with gorgeous hardwood floors and built-in book shelves. We are still working on the room, though, and have to put stuff up on the walls and buy a nice rug.

Check out our doggy, Bear, in her VT state approved hunting jacket! Bear's coloring makes her super hard to see outside, so we decided to get her this coat so that no one mistakes her for a deer or anything. There should not be any hunters in a residential area anyway, but better safe than sorry. Plus, this even helps us to see Bear when she is outside. She blends in REALLY well!

These apples grow on the two trees that we have in our backyard. There are HUNDREDS of apples, but they are all pretty high up and we do not have one of those long-handled apple pickers. Are you wondering why there are not any apples close to the ground? Read on...

Every evening we have a few visitors in our backyard. You know you're in VT when....

Can you believe this? We are so enamored with their presence that we look for them every evening and try to sneak out on the deck to look at them and take pictures. Each evening there are between 1 and 4 deer out in our yard, grazing on grass and eating our apples.

And here's a better pic of two of the deer. Clearly they knew we were there as they are looking straight at us. So cool! When they are out there, it is all we can do to keep Bear in the house. She so badly wants to chase them...um, I mean play with them!

Well, that's about it for now, I guess. Penny and I are really trying to be better with taking the camera places, but we forget all the time. We have been to two fall foliage arts and crafts festivals over the past few weeks, and we forgot the camera both times. We live in VT and have no foliage pictures yet. And we are about at peak color right now. Gorgeous! Stay tuned, as we are really gonna try to get some good fall pictures up soon.

Don't forget to leave us a comment and let us know that you stopped by! We love to read what you have to say!

It takes a village...to move cross-country!

We are catching up here on the Vermont Twin Odyssey, in terms of pictures, posts, and news. I know lots of you have been asking for more of all of these things, so, here's a few more things to quench your thirst!

Hi, my name's Taylor and I am super wicked cute. My moms are not biased at all, or anything like that. I really am just that cute!

Here's Lisa, my friend from college, who flew in from Boston, helped with the packing, truck loading, and baby wrangling. And that was before this superstar flew cross-country with me and the babies, and then put us up (or put up with us!) for a week, while we were waiting for Penny and her brother Raymond and the pets to make it across the country. Lisa, you are a star and I am indebted to you FOREVA!! Love ya!
Here is our moving truck, our driver Ron, and his little dog. He was afraid that Bear was gonna eat his doggie-poo for a snack! Funny. Ron was great and so helpful. All our stuff made it safe and sound to Vermont. And not a single thing was broken! Thanks, Ron. Something funny...In Berkeley, the neighbors asked if Ron could turn off the engine while we were loading because of the noise. In Vermont, the neighbors asked if he could turn off the engine while we were unloading for environmental reasons! What a difference 3000 miles makes! The answer was "NO" both times, as little poochie needed her AC!!
Here's Penny's brother, Raymond, who drove with Penny and the pets from CA to VT. You're a star, Ray! Thanks for keeping Penny and the animals safe and for providing such good company along the way! We couldn't have done it without ya. Seriously! Love you!
One thing that Penny wanted to do ASAP once we made it to VT, was to have the babies meet her grandmother. We had a lovely visit! Here's a pic of Penny, the babies, and Gram. She was so tickled to meet her twin great-grandbabies, even if she was not quite sure how to refer to the two moms in relation to the babies. She loves us, she loves the babies, and that's all that matters!

Stay tuned. Vermont pics to follow later this week. Hey California friends, who wants to come and visit and see some Vermont foliage? It's been great catching up with New England friends since we have been here! We are so happy to be back, but we miss the CA crew dreadfully, too!

An update and some new pics!

We are settling in nicely in Vermont. The house is great, the boxes are almost unpacked, and the leaves are starting to change. The mornings and evenings are cool (yay!), but the days are humid (BOO!). Here are some pics from before the move, that I wanted to make sure to include.

Over the past few years, I have been a part of an amazing knitting group, formed totally by chance through craigs*list. These women are funny and smart and kind and talented and I am so glad to have found them. But, now I miss them! We started a tradition a few years ago, when the first group member had a baby. We started knitting baby blankets for the new babies by knitting individual squares and then sewing them together into a patchwork blanket.


I am the third woman in the knitting group to have a baby since the group formed. But, the first to have twins! It was quite an undertaking for these special women, but above is the fruits of their labor. I can easily imagine these gorgeous blankets on the college dorm beds of the kids when they get older. These blankets will be trasured for many years to come, as will my friendships with the Purl Gurls! Love you guys!

Here's me with the two blankets! Thank you ladies!

Here's a pic of Taylor (before the move), enjoying some time on the activity mat. We finally caught her smiling on camera! Taylor is now wearing some of Jordan's hand-me-downs (as above), sinc Jordan is a big dude and Taylor is our little petite fleur!
Mama Penny and Jordan enjoy some quiet time in Berkeley. Check out the message on the butt of the pants! So cute!
Here's our two hunks of love enjoying some together time. Could you just eat them up, or what?

No pics, just news

Well, we have arrived in New England! I (Chris) arrived in Boston with the babies and my college friend, Lisa, on Wednesday morning after a crazy overnight flight from Oakland. Penny, Bear, Cosmo, and Milo arrive in Vermont today, along with Penny's brother, Raymond. While all of us are blind with exhaustion, we are safe and sound and so excited to move into our new house on Monday. I am heading to Vermont tomorrow and can't wait for our family to be reunited!

The babies did great on the flight from Oakland to Las Vegas. They slept the entire time, from take-off to landing! At the Vegas airport both babies screamed bloody murder for about 30 minutes. Good times! You could easily read peoples' thoughts: "Please god, don't let those babies be on my next flight!" On the Vegas to Boston flight, the babies screamed some and slept some. On both flights, we were lucky enough have three seats to ourselves, which gave us a bit of extra room. I was so glad to touch down in Boston and it has been great to be at Lisa's condo for the the past few days.

In moving news, the moving day went unbelievably well! We want to thank all our friends who helped out and made the day so smooth! Everything was loaded onto the truck in under two hours! Friends helped with loading boxes, holding and feeding babies, cleaning, packing the last few boxes, and vacuuming. Thank you a million times over to everyone! We are expecting the moving truck to arrive in VT around August 23rd.

We will have pictures up soon, after we are settled in the new house. Stay tuned...

Our time in California is winding down...

Well, I have given notice at work, so I can officially announce it here...We are leaving California and moving to Vermont. We found a great house to rent and we can't wait to move in. The house is more than double the size we have now, and the rent is the same! Unreal! We are most excited about hardwood floors, a huge deck, lots of closets, 7 acres of land, enough bedrooms to make one of them a craft room, lots of kitchen counter space, and a DISHWASHER! Amen for a dishwasher! So, when are you all coming to visit us for fall foliage?

The babies are doing great and are really thriving. They are 12 weeks old now! WOW! At their last doctor's appointment, Jordan weighed in at 13 lbs, 4 oz. He is in the 75th percentile for weight and for height. Taylor weighed in at 10 lbs, 14 oz. She is in the 50th percentile for weight and in the 75th percentile for height.

Both babies are sleeping well and most nights they are each only getting up one time to eat. This makes for very happy and (relatively) well-rested mamas. Taylor sometimes still gets up a second time, which causes the mamas to rock-paper-scissor in the middle of the night to see who "wins" the opportunity to get up another time. (Just kidding!)

My (Chris') mom was visiting recently for two weeks and it was lots of fun. The kids loved being held so much and the mommies loved getting to go out for Penny's birthday to see Harry Potter and have lunch. Thanks for all your help mom, both the baby wrangling and the packing. It was all a HUGE help! Above is a picture of mom and Taylor.
Check out Jordan and his flirty smile. Oh, he just melts us with his smiles and coo-ing!

Here's another picture of Taylor. Perhaps she will be a nudist when she grows up. These babies love to be naked in the afternoon! Nice and cool!
In the mornings when my mom was here, tbe babies had some together time on the futon. We caught them holding hands one day! We love to watch them interact with one another. It is so sweet. But, we wonder how much they are really aware of each other.
We went to see Auntie Sarah Heath rock out in her Half-Ironman Triathalon. She was amazing and the babies wore the outfits that Sarah and Sarah gave them in tribute to their favorite athlete of the day! The onesies say: "I love apricots, the sun, and giraffes." Very random, no? The kids loved laying on the blanket under a tree in the grass. It was so cool and there was lots of nice blue sky and trees to gaze upon.
Here's Taylor hanging out in her swing. Check out the chubby cheeks! She is one cute chica, if we do say so ourselves!
The California good-byes have begun! Auntie Kelly has left for Costa Rica for a month of work and then some R&R. When she comes back, we will be gone. It was a hard good-bye, but we talked about a Vermont reunion in October sometime, for some leaf-peeping and baby squeezing. As you can see from the pictures above, Kelly and Sylvia love them some twin babies! We will be sad to lose them as next-door neighbors for sure. And the babies will miss all the cuddling. We can't wait for October, ladies, can you?


And then it was time for Mimi to leave, too. Everyone was sad. Please note in the picture of my mom with Jordan: We are not afraid to let out son wear pink! The blue sleep sack was in the laundry and Taylor was not using her pink sleep sack, so into the pink one went Jordan! We think he looks rather dashing in pink!

So, that's about it for now. Not sure when the next post will be, as this is our final week in California and the moving truck comes next weekend. Penny and her brother are driving cross-country with the pets. And I am flying with the babies and a friend from college. I will stay with my friend in Boston until Penny makes it to VT, and then I will join her. We move into our new house on August 20th. For those of you who know us in real life, we will send out an email once we are settled with our new snail mail address.

Wish us luck on this crazy big undertaking and please send us "safe cross-country moving" vibes. We can't wait to reconnect with our East Coast friends and family.