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Tadpoles 2009 from The Tadpoles on Vimeo.

Merry Christmas to all of our friends and family! Soon enough I will post about animals, the twins baptism and our trip to Michigan but for now we are just enjoying the holidays.

Christmas Card 2009

Loen

Derby

Family

Monkey Family

We figured we would expose the twins to the snow before overwhelming them with the freezing tundra known as Bad Axe, Michigan (at least that is how I remember it the last time we went back for Christmas). Snow day at the zoo seemed like the perfect opportunity. Sledding, animals and opened an hour early just for members. Tadd thought it was overkill with how I bundled them up and added hats and gloves. I will just say the hats and gloves were off and thrown over the side of the wagon before we even made it up the hill.

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.

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

You’re probably wondering where we are and why we haven’t posted about the twins second birthday. It is on my list of things to do but I am working on a project that is fighting back. I have never had so much trouble with a program. I told Tadd I feel like back in school since I need to finish this and I want to procrastinate since it is so tedious. Updates soon, I promise!

I had great plans for my farm animals this year but a lamb costume was not to be found by me. So enjoy the pictures of my billy goat and bunny. And yes I gave my children chocolate and they loved it.

On the 30th we went down to Coast Village Road in Montecito which had been transformed into Ghost Village Road.  It was so crowded we couldn’t maneuver the double stroller so we let them walk. That was fun. John dressed as Mack Daddy D came along.

Im starting to think Derby needs a toddler leash. I know some people think they are inhumane but this kid just takes off. He doesn’t even turn around to see where you are. If he sees a window of opportunity he takes it and bolts.

Going to the first and only door this Halloween

They were excited to see the neighbor kids

Loen goes alone

Derby just wanted to check out their decorations

Our crafty neighbors had a whole costume theme thing going. Mr. Banana

The bananas dog. They were monkeys.

Monkey dogs can draw a crowd

The Billy goat was looking to get into trouble

Obviously the daddy needed a break after one house

Its been so long I have to remember where I left off….ah yes puke. Well we were past the puke by that point. Since I have so much to catch up on I’ll make this short.

Tadd in his tux. Loen was in love with the patent leather loafers

Hanging out with Aunt Mary

The twins went to the zoo with Mima and Papa Don while we were at the wedding.

Obviously they were taunting a bear with yummy looking toddler legs.

Our Lady, Queen of the Most Holy Rosary Cathedral in Toledo where Heath and Christine were married. That is such a mouthful I wonder what the abbreviated version is, The Holiest or Queen Bee?

I was horrible with taking pictures so I added a few from Photo Booth Live. At the reception rather than have disposable cameras on the table they had a photo corner with props where you could take self portraits. Since it was digital the picture would come up instantly on a big screen that played a slide show throughout the night. It was such a neat idea. Doesn’t mean the pictures weren’t getting crazy as the night went on but still a great idea.

Christine and Heath

MKM wives with the newly added Christine Maser

All in all the night was a lot of fun. It sounds as the twins also had a wild night as their grandparents took them to the outdoor fashion show in front of the hotel and let them dance on barrels. Loen changed into a more appropriate flapper dress for the occasion. These are the cell phone pictures that were sent to us during the reception.

I was exhausted and we were leaving the next morning. We got to our room and shut the door between our suite and Tamie’s. We checked the kids then quickly fell asleep. I should go into length how Derby woke up and cried (as he does every night) and we tried to let him get himself back to sleep. He ended up in our bed (again). The next thing I knew my mother in law is hovering above my head asking if everything is all right. Now I was dead asleep and a little groggy. I told her yes, the twins are asleep then I went back to sleep. The next morning the questions started to arise like “How did she get in our room?” “Why was she in our room?”. Turns out she woke up when she heard Derby crying and got up to get him. She didn’t realize we were back from the wedding and noticed the adjoining door was shut. She tried calling our cells but since they were on vibrate we didn’t hear them. Then she started to panic thinking the twins were locked in there alone and called the front desk to explain the situation. They let her in hence my awakening to her head over mine. Good times in Ohio!

Here is the part of the story that gets really good. Remember in part 1 I was SO upset over losing Derby’s angel pin? Well in the morning Tadd walked out of the hotel room but came right back in. He had something in his hand. He walked over and handed me Derby’s angel pin. It was on the carpet right in front of room. How had we missed it all the other times? How did it get there? It was amazing. It looks a little more traveled than Loen’s but I’m so happy we got it back. I guess it missed my little man.

We finally took the twins to the pumpkin patch. Last year we never made it and the year before that…well I doubt we could have wheeled them in the Giraffe to the pumpkins. Lane Farms has a petting zoo, tractor rides and a corn maze in addition to their pumpkin patch. It is a cute local family owned organic farm. Hence the reason you pay $15 a pumpkin vs $5 at Trader Joe’s. Support local farmers!

Loen was very excited about the horse

The pot belly pig was captivating

Did I mention the donkey?

Derby preferred the turkeys. Unfortunately our camera was lagging so you cant see where he is leaning in taunting the turkey to come nip at his fingers.

Come back little niblets

There are so many to choose from (I like how they gravitate to the biggest and most expensive pumpkins)

This is me trying to get a shot with my kids. This is them not totally cooperating. Story of my life

Off to find our pumpkins

Loen had to touch every one

She was a little bothered by the dirt on her hands

She thought she wanted that one but it was too heavy

This one was just right

This is a child who refuses to eat all fresh fruit and veggies offered to him

But would eat handfuls of filthy straw

Our final picks

We just have to carve them now. Any suggestions?