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We left after breakfast on Sunday. The drive wasn’t bad but the twins refused to nap in the car even though they looked exhausted. Derby kept telling me he wanted “nigh night”. The good news was the hotel said we could have an early check in. I thought they could nap for a bit, go to the aquarium then dinner. Once at the hotel the ground floor with king bed & courtyard seating I originally booked became a 2nd floor with 2 double beds and a window seat. After explaining that we needed an area to hide out when the twins would inevitably be crying it out for the night they switched our room. Now we were on the third floor with a 4′ wide balcony. I was over switching rooms and by then the twins were raring to go.

A word to the wise, try to avoid the Monterey Bay Aquarium on a weekend afternoon. It was PACKED! To no ones surprise they wanted out of the stroller and were running in opposite directions. I packed the child leashes but forgot to bring them. No one was impressed with the HUGE outer bay viewing window or the amazing seahorses. They wanted to play on the escalator or touch the elevator buttons. Derby just wanted to run through the legs of fellow visitors with his mother in hot pursuit. There were a few picture perfect moments. I should say we deleted a couple of hundred shots that were NOT picture perfect.

Somehow the turtles held their attention….for mere seconds

I realize Derby has a gift as a turtle whisperer

Seahorse

Sea Dragon

Sharks trying to get my daughter

After we stopped at a pizza place to feed the twins we went to Dennis the Menace park. Tadd and I took the faux bros Matt, Andrew & John to this park back in 2004. I was excited to see how the twins would like it. When we walked up I was amazed because the whole park had been remodeled. There was so much to see and play on. The twins were excited and I had a thought of I could never do this park alone. The twins favorite was the slides. They definitely were worn out by the time we left.

Fooling around at dinner.

That night we bathed the twins and got them ready for bed. Tadd went to pick up some dinner while I hid out by the closet so the twins wouldn’t see me as they were screaming about going to bed. Loen conked out first then finally Derby was silent, of course that is when Tadd opened the door with dinner and the screaming started all over again. We grabbed our jackets and dinner then went to the teeny tiny balcony to eat/wait. The food smelled SO good, I was ready to eat. Tadd pulled out one container of chicken kabobs then the container of beef. The restaurant switched to the new eco friendly cardboard containers, turns out they get limp when holding hot steamy food. Limp container decided to break open all over the balcony. Tadd was ready to pack up and drive home. After a few moments to calm down and clean up the food that was all over (not to mention drink a much needed beer) he called the restaurant again. They were kind enough to make him a whole new order free of charge. Tadd went to pick it up which woke Derby up as he tried to sneak out the door. Woke Derby up again when he returned. We sat out in the cold eating the most delicious kabob and chutney I have ever had while listening to the wails of my son. You know the guests in the next room hated us.

The twins favorite part of the hotel was the luggage cart. Tadd said maybe we should buy one for home.

The next morning we were ready to start anew. We got to the aquarium right when it opened (I also brought a leash for Derby which helped). We raced ahead of the field trips and crammed in as much fishy goodness as the twins could handle.

This is where Derby, who was attached to my wrist, had to go on a little ride as that dumb shark appeared out of nowhere and the mommy screamed and left the general vicinity. We were much happier playing in the sharkless toddler land.

When asked what they wanted to do the answer was “PARK”. we ate lunch first then back to Dennis the Menace park. They had so much fun and ran up the hill to the roller slide more times than I can count.

They napped for 2 hours on the ride home. When Derby walked through the front door he sighed “home”. I know how you feel buddy.

All in all when asked of our trip I hear “More park, more slide!” I’m so glad we drove 4 hours for a park. No really we had a good time

We don’t watch tv everyday but it definitely is nice to be able to put something on to get dinner finished.

Loen and the Brobee she got in her Easter basket. So far they have been inseparable.

Tadpoles 2009 from The Tadpoles on Vimeo.

What’s all this white stuff?

After waiting in a very long line to go down a small snow covered hill we were over it. They can see snow in Michigan. I will apologize for the terrible video quality. I think it was because the camera was angled towards the sun.

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