thetadpoles.com

Like the title? I figured it was appropriate because a season is going to go by before I get the twins birthday weekend up. Lets get this going!

I went to check on my sleeping babies the other night and realized that they aren’t….babies. They are (gasp) kids. They are getting lanky, stinky and they say the word ‘no’ more often than I would like. I am totally, unbelievably in love with those two, which is why they drive me so crazy at times.

I took them to the Santa Barbara Natural History Museum for the first (and possibly last) time. I was excited to share an experience with them that I had taken the boys on many times. I dont remember the boys taking off in all directions and yelling. Then laughing at the fact their voices echoed loudly throughout the aviary hall. Ah culture and twins.. what was I thinking? Derby wanted to look at ducks while Loen wanted to see the baby barn owls. Guess what, they were in separate areas of course.

• Loen: Weighs in at 22 pounds and is 32″ long. She is in her sponge stage where everything you say she will repeat. She watches us intently and I will find her mimicking our moves. Both of the twins love a drum line called Boomchaka. Fauxbro John is a member and we have gone a few times to see them perform (they are also socially conscious as all donations go to the SB Unity Shoppe). It is so funny to watch them dancing, clapping and yelling. They both say “Boom caca”. Derby will break out into this Shaka Zulu dance of joy when they start getting loud. Yesterday Loen had two wooden knives from her play kitchen and I was watching her do what I thought was a ninja attack move. Then I realized she was imitating the drummers moves. I tried to get the camera in time but she caught on to me. Loen loves to boss ‘help’ her brother and gets annoyed when he doesn’t want the help forced upon him. She is still my super girly girl. She loves tea parties, dolls and pink. I try to show her other outfits but in the end I realize I have to choose my battles. If she wants to wear a pink top and python leggings (again) so be it.

Loen really likes Trader Joes noodle soup

Derby trying to use his super cuteness to distract me from the fact he threw food against the wall.

• Derby: Weighs 20 pounds and is 30 inches long. He could care less about what he is wearing and I’m sure he would rather be naked. He is my little man and I love that he just wants to cuddle me. But at 2 am when he wants to sleep on only my pillow and wrap his little arms around my neck till I cant breathe, I would rather he was in his own bed. Loen favors her daddy while Derby is a mamas boy. He was casted on 11/19 to restart his constraint induced therapy. It lasted a whole 9 days as he puked on his cast and we had it cut off rather than leave him in a super stinky cast all weekend. He kept checking his right arm because he couldn’t believe the cast was off. Even though it wasn’t on for the full amount of time we have noticed a difference by how much he now uses his left hand. I got him to eat a noodle with a fork and he picked up a cheerio and ate it! Im sure that doesn’t sound like much but for a boy he rarely used his left hand it was a very exciting for us to see. He was to stay in the cast till we left for Michigan on the 19th but unfortunately the puke incident was on Thanksgiving weekend. Do you realize this is a time when the doctors office is closed? Urgent care states they don’t have the tools to remove a cast so we were sent to the E.D. Did you also know that a stinky cast soaked in vomit is not considered an emergency therefore you will be bumped until they have time to fit you in? Yeah, that was not a fun day. So the casting will not resume till January as the ortho office, therapy and ourselves all have conflicting holiday schedules. I’m glad because the thought of Derby in a cast at his Mima’s invoked visions of a bull in a china shop. He was whacking our furniture, I don’t think her Waterford crystal animals would have fared well. In other news Derby is now running, talking a lot more and has a wicked sense of independence. If he doesn’t want to do something it will not be done. It is frustrating but also nice to see he has a will of his own. He loves to try to hug and kiss Loen but she often doesn’t like being held down and given slobbery kisses. It is funny to watch them interact now. They start getting into things they know they shouldn’t and will do a mad giggle if you catch them. They are often in cahoots.

I WILL show you some love!

Moooom, she likes when I hug her like this.

On their actual birthday Souther was part of an opening at the Japanese American Museum of Art for Giant Robots Biennale. Like I said before we are big on exposing the twins to culture…… During the award presentation Derby is walking through the crowd yelling “MOVE!” and Loen is of course going in the opposite direction. We mainly got to see Souther’s installation then decided the twins were going to have a major meltdown if we didn’t get them home. I still want to go back and see the whole thing but don’t know if that is going to happen. Below are a few pics of the evening. You will notice they got to meet Sulu on their birthday. I’m pretty sure I didn’t meet any celebrities by the time I was 2. Below is a video clip of the opening, Souther’s segment starts at 2:30 (if you squint Loen & I are in the background)

I’m pretty sure we were the only ones to arrive with a double wide

Meeting George Takei (Sulu). I like Derby’s one shoe look

Just to reiterate the point they have met more celebrities as a toddler than I, here they are with Kirk Douglas

Best Buddies (Lil & Big Iain)

Derby telling people to move during the reception

Checking out Souther’s amazing art

Souther and Monica in front of the museum

There are so many photos from their party that I decided to make a photo montage versus posting just a few. Enjoy