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

The twins are a wonderful case for nature in the nature vs nurture debate. Loen has been acting very girly, down right prissy, prima donna and dare I say it a drama queen. Derby only has to look like he is going to crawl her way and she will start this annoying fake wail. I have seen her hold her own with older kids but she just gives up with Derby. She will actually lie her head in his lap to let him pull her hair. Perhaps it is an attention thing I don’t know. Rather than rescuing her every time I tell Derby to let go of her hair and for her to stand up. She can walk away for goodness sakes but she seems to forget that. Loen loves her baby doll and gives it a big hug and will feed it a bottle. I gave Derby the doll and he proceeded to beat it over the head with the bottle. He loves trucks, hammers and the wooden knife that came in our Melissa and Doug chopping veggie set. He will actually throw the veggies out of the box till he gets to the knife then crawl around with it in his mouth like a little Jack Sparrow. Speaking of throwing the child loves to chuck toys, balls, shoes, bottles and food behind him.

Loen wants to put on hats and tie scarfs around her waist. I pulled out her Halloween pixie costume and she doesn’t want to part with it. She wore it for a couple of hours last night then it got left on the floor. This morning I took off her PJ’s to dress her and she ran to get the tutu. I put it on her and she immediately did her “so cute” pose (where she puts her hands on either side of her face and smiles) then she ran to our room to look at herself in all of the mirrors. Where did this little girl come from??

She had to check herself in ALL the mirrors

Trying to wear the ball on her head

We also have been climbing on everything just to give their mother a heart attack. I have no clue how Derby gets himself into precarious little spots sometimes. Before lunch Loen decided to climb the high chair which unfortunately fell on her. I am going to have to pad my kids in bubble wrap the amount of times they have gotten hurt lately.

High chair tray mark on Loen’s forehead

God forbid Derby is left out from the bruised forehead club, he went over to the wall and started banging his head and laughing. It was like a scene from the movie Parenthood except he didn’t have a bucket over his head.

Perhaps he was looking for studs?

They are SO BUSY and SO MESSY lately. We have been getting out more with other moms which I love. I get adult conversation and the twins get to play with other kids but man I am tired and OVERWHELMED at times. Yet all I have to do is look over and see them trying to kiss each other through the kiddie korral to make it all worthwhile.

I apologize for the terrible quality of the pictures but they were taken on a cell phone

One last note, the painting my younger brother Souther made for the twins birthday was featured on the cover of the Portland Mercury. You can see the twins likeness on the back of the dino/dragon. Very exciting!

Man, mom don’t you have any Tupac on your iPod?!

Hey esse, wuz up

Even gangstas need a binker sometimes

I finally let Derby just chill with his silky and baby doll

Then he likes to suck on the satin edge

Loen under the silky

Pondering Proust

Super cuteness

I’m trying to decide if this is more South Florida Retirement Chic, Rhoda or “Papa can you hear me” Thoughts?

Oy vey, the price of potatoes these days

Ok Mom I’m done. D-O-N-E got it?

Speaking of screaming. I went on a walk with Jeni and Grady yesterday. The weather reports said it would be a high of 75. I thought it would be so nice, but I noticed as I was packing the car it was starting to feel really warm. I asked Jeni if she wanted to walk or drive to the mall. She wanted to walk (it is a pleasant 1.2 mile walk). It was all well and good before the weather turned MOLTEN LAVA HOT. It was way warmer than 75. We made it down to the mall (the malls are open air in Santa Barbara) and we both had some errands to do there. I made a quick detour to Baby Gap since the twins have been growing out of their clothes so fast, now I am getting 3-6 month outfits! We got stopped (again) by someone commenting on the twins. The usual conversation goes like this when I have them both in the double stroller:

“Oh, you have TWINS?!”

“yes”

“A boy AND a girl. You are so lucky!”

“Thank you. We are lucky”

“Ohhhh, how old are they?”

“Almost 7 months”

“Hmmmm, they are kinda small”

“They were preemies”

“My (insert the following: friend, sister, neighbor, pastor) had a preemie. They were (5 pounds, 2 weeks early, spent 3 days in the NICU…etc) now they are (25, 6′, top of their class……)”

“Oh that is good to hear.” (I don’t tell them that is NOTHING like the twins) Then I attempt to leave before random strangers feel the need to touch them.

Yesterday was a little different because a 4 year old bent down, looked at them and wrinkled up her nose. “It smells like poop, I bet he did it.” She looked at me a moment more and added “But they are cute though”. A well mannered child throws in a compliment after telling you that your kids stink. I thought I would run into Bath and Body Shop (they have great deals on antibacterial soap) before walking to the other end of the mall to Nordstrom. All moms know that Nordstrom has the nicest diaper changing areas. As I was checking out Derby started his new air raid cry. It starts off quiet then escalates till the hair on the back of your neck stands up. I knew I had to get to the changing area fast. Derby’s wails set off Loen who started to scream. I’m hustling to the other end of the mall while the twins turn up the screaming to an 11. People are moving out of my way and throwing me the pity look. I’m starting to sweat because it was so hot. I finally got them changed and rearranged. They slept the whole walk back to Jeni’s house. I was exhausted for the rest of the day. I kept thinking how much nicer it would be if Tadd was there to help me load them up and get our behemoth double stroller in the back. It is an awesome stroller except it weighs 34 pounds. That was my excursion for the week.

I had a small scare this weekend thanks in no part to my husband. As we were making our weekly pilgrimage to Costco I was commenting on how weird it was not to have my period. My gynecologist said I probably wouldn’t get my period back till after I stopped pumping. To be extra safe I am also taking birth control pills. Back to my story….so after I tell Tadd about my period I also said how would I know if I got pregnant again? The signs I had before were bigger boobs and exhaustion, which are part of my everyday life now. The whole “You cant get pregnant while breastfeeding” is a bit of an old wives tale as I am proof of that. You don’t think my parents actually planned to have my older brother, Iain and I only a year and 5 days apart??? After listening to me Tadd says “That is exactly what happened on Chasing Babies” (That is a blog that Tadd reads about a family who had 24 week twins and they have a younger baby as well). That freaked me out a bit, I feel like our life is finally showing signs of becoming normal. Tadd said he would be excited if we had another. That caused me to make a detour and get a Costco box of pregnancy tests. Whew… I’m not pregnant. I want to enjoy some time with the twins before we start talking about another. One of my friends (who is a breastfeeding mother of a 9 month old) said she also had the scare and got a pregnancy test.

Were just going to take one day at a time.

Here is the lasagna recipe from another mom of multiples. I like how it has the pureed broccoli and cauliflower as a sauce layer. Just another way to sneak some veggies in. It is FAB!

Lasagna

1 package no-cook lasagna noodles
1 lb ground beef
2 cloves chopped garlic + 1 clove chopped garlic
garlic salt
about 10 large FRESH basil leaves – chopped
1 large mozzarella ball of cheese – grated
1 large container of Ricotta cheese
1/2 container of grated Parmesan cheese
1 large (not family size) jar of Prego traditional spaghetti sauce
1 bag of cauliflower/broccoli in fresh food section, steam & puree
2 table spoons olive oil
salt & pepper

Heat olive oil in pan, add 2 cloves chopped garlic, add ground beef. Add a couple shakes of garlic salt, a few chopped basil leaves (not all) and some pepper. Add spaghetti sauce and simmer. Mix all cheeses together but leave out a hand full of mozzarella and 1/2 of the Parmesan cheese. Add chopped basil, 1 clove chopped garlic, salt & pepper (a few shakes each). Layer in pan starting with a small amount of sauce, then noodles, then cheese mix, then cauliflower/broccoli mix, sauce….. about 3 layers, then top with left over cheese. Bake as directed on box of noodles.

This will have to be quick since we are going out to dinner with our friends Kurt and Jeni. They are bringing their baby Grady who is 13 POUNDS at 8 weeks. Jeni is going to have biceps of steel from lifting him.

Quick run down:

• They each weigh about 1 pound. My babies are rock stars when it comes to putting on weight. They are in the 60th percentile for a singleton, bigger for being a twin. And it is not due to my diabetes, he said they are just healthy.

• Each about 12″ long
• Loen is still on the bottom

• When I asked how long I could work considering I was doing so well he still said October. I had to remind it WAS October. I got to bargain for the 2nd week of November as long as I am honest and stop working if I have any contractions or cramps.

Here are some of the best shots from the sonogram. The rest are on our flickr account.

Heads together. I’m sure they are conspiring already

Loen 3-D The bulge by her head is Derby through the membrane. I also want to point out that she doesn’t have a gnarly widows peak, her skull bones haven’t finished fusing and that is the cartilage between the bone. We had some comments on that one.

More Loen 3-D (DAMN my babies are cute)

Derby 3-D

Derby feet

Derby feet 3-D (GOOD GOD He has his Meemaw Lisa’s feet)

• Everyone would get strep throat as a kid, I got scarlet fever.

• I had a hemoglobin of 5 (for you non-medical folks norms are 12-15) from being severely anemic. Sure I looked white as a ghost and would almost pass out from going up a flight of stairs but that wasn’t going to stop me from going to school or work. Until Dee said I wasn’t allowed to come back to work until a doctor cleared me. Sheesh, a blood transfusion and I would be as good as new!

• 5 kids to the water slides by myself? Piece of cake!

• Why have one baby when you can be pregnant with 2 at the same time!

Seeing my background you can understand why we decided to move this last weekend (I bet you wondered why we haven’t posted huh? Lack of internet, lack of energy…..). The moving wasn’t the really bad part, it was the timing. Before I met Tadd I thought April 15th was the only big tax day, who knew about extensions and business tax deadlines. Well a big one is looming for October 15th and Tadd has been swamped, working late nights, weekends, etc. Anyways this is what the last week has looked like for us, noticed that when I was off Tadd worked and vice versa:

• Monday: Tadd and I both worked 13 hours. No one thought about packing
• Tuesday: Again a 13 hour day. Stuffed kicked into corner in preparation of packing.
• Wednesday:

  I signed lease papers for the new place. They were nice enough to give me the keys and said if we wanted to move some things in early to go ahead. I walked through the condo again trying to get a sense of where things would go. Tadd brought home some boxes and I went to work on packing up all of our books.

• Thursday:

  Brought over a load of clothes and winter coats. Boxed up some pictures and toiletries and brought them over. That took me like 4 HOURS. Michelle came over and helped box up some of the dishes.

• Friday:

  Brought the rest of our clothes and shoes over. Tadd’s dad Jim helped by loading the cars with the boxes I had packed and took them over to the new place. It is amazing how much easier it is when someone else is loading and unloading. Movers came and picked up our heavy furniture. We have a new bedroom set that weighs like 4000 pounds so we opted to pay to have someone else move them. Tadd and I both agreed it was worth the money while we watched 3 guys huff and puff and try to move the dresser up the stairs. One guys is muttering “This thing is a beast. BEAST” Later he said when we had called they thought it would be an easy job. Really how hard can a dresser, bed frame and a bookcase be? Ha ha we forgot to mention the dresser feels like it was made of cement.

• Saturday:

  I worked a 13 hour shift. Tadd, Brent and Jim packed (*) up the rest of the old apartment and rented a U-Haul. They worked really hard and got it all done by 3:30. I was so tired when I got home and seeing boxes everywhere I looked made me want to cry. Tadd brought home chow mein, I was appeased.

• Sunday:

  I worked a 13 hour shift. Tadd and Jim went through and cleaned the old apartment and Tadd went to work by noon. Talk about exhausting.

I’m starting to recover. I really pushed myself and felt like a zombie by Sunday. I’ve been taking it easy and slowly trying to unpack important things. Like food, dishes and toothbrushes. I figure we (I) wont be done with unpacking for the next few weeks. Whatever.

(*) Men Packing vs Women Packing

There is a difference between how men pack and how women pack. Were you aware of that? I tried my best to pack as much as I could on my days off. Things were carefully wrapped and boxes were marked. I wrote what was in them and what room they were to go in. The twins got a little pissy so I had to stop. This is where the men come in. I have found it is like Christmas when opening the boxes the guys packed. Labeling? Men don’t need no stinking labeling! I have come across boxes with toilet paper, candles and a skillet…in the spare bedroom. Set of glass nesting bowls, why should that be wrapped? I’ll toss a towel over it and it will be fine. There is no rhyme or reason; it is just stuff in a box. I would post pictures but I have no clue as to where the camera is. It is probably in the unmarked box of under ware/knifes/thank you cards.