Jungle Gym

I have become a jungle gym.

The kids, especially Arya, have been pulling up on me for months. Today, Arya pulled up on one of her toys, then decided that wasn't enough, so she moved from the toy to our ottoman and started grabbing things off the ottoman. As if that wasn't enough, she completely let go and stood on her own for a few seconds and then tried to take a step toward me. She really had no idea how to move her legs yet, so wasn't anywhere near succeeding, but she tried. She also got up on all fours for the first time today as well.

This was typed on the 30th, even though I didn't get a chance to post it that day. All my pictures from that day got deleted, so I went back and pulled one of my favorite pics.

Had a Bad Day

Most of the time, when I look back on my day, I think we had a great day or that our day wasn't too bad. Today was not one of those days. The girls woke up cranky and stayed that way most of the day. Eiley threw a huge fit both times I tried to get her to nap. Arya threw a huge fit at the cranial clinic when I wouldn't let her eat the paper on the examination table. She threw another fit in her high chair because she didn't feel like eating solids at lunch today. I didn't make her, but I did keep her there while Eiley ate. I'm talking screaming as hard as they could, making themselves bright red and horse type yelling. The type of yelling that would make a casual observer think something is very wrong. There's nothing wrong though, it's just my very strong minded kids trying to tell me that they don't like whatever is going on. I can't wait until they can sign back to me and tell me that they are pissed off instead of screaming at me all day long. These fits were just the tip of the iceburg.

I wish I had brought my camera with me to the cranial clinic. The girls heads were scanned today for their helmets. A nylon type thing was put over their heads with holes cut for their faces and ears and bands cut at the bottom to tie under their armpits so they couldn't pull it off. They had a small electronic device on the top of their head that told the scanner where their head was in space. The scanner was moved around their heads and a 3D image was instantly created on a laptop screen. The result was an extremely creepy representation of each kid. They looked like the horror movie doll version of my children. I told the people there that I thought that and they both got a good laugh. I really need to get copies of those pictures. They would have been perfect to post today after the day we had.

Tiny Dancers

I bought these knowing that the kids probably wouldn't keep them on, but how do you not buy something that makes your kids look like Elton John. The way they look wearing the glasses cracks me up and that makes it worth the dollar I spent on them.


And....This is what happens when your child basically gives herself the heimlich after whipping herself off the boob to try to locate the ringing phone. I used to wear my jeans more than once before washing them. If I do that now I end up smelling like baby puke.

Bullseye

Finally proof that we do leave the house. I always think I should bring my camera with when we leave, but usually don't think about it until we've already left the house. When we go out, it's like open season. I figure as long as we're going to draw looks and comments, we might as well give people something to look at. This is how we've been using carts for the past month or so. I'll miss it when we can't do this any more.

Quarter Barrel

Eiley is my little Quarter Barrel. She's bigger than her sister, but doesn't eat as much. She is much more leery about food than Arya. When I feed her, she always has to take a tiny taste of what's on the spoon before she'll open her mouth wide. She likes a nice variety of food. At one meal I can give her fruit, veggies, cheese, beans and meat. If she's done with a food, she'll refuse to open her mouth for it, even if she's not full. Arya on the other hand could eat a whole meal of hummus and be perfectly happy.

While she's leery about food, she obviously will put just about anything else in her mouth. We played with dandelions today, which means she tried to eat them and I tried to stop her. She obviously didn't like the taste, but kept sampling it.

Half Pint

Arya is my eater. While she weighs less than Eiley, and always has, she packs in more solid food every day than Eiley. It amazes me how much she can eat compared to Eiley and still be smaller. Not only does she eat a lot, she eats just about everything. She wasn't too sure about mango the first time she had that, but loved it the second time. Yesterday, we were cooking out and sauerkraut was on the menu. I gave both kids a taste of it. Eiley gave the typical reaction you'd expect a baby to give. I wouldn't say Arya loved it, but she didn't make a face and didn't spit it out. She wanted to keep tasting it over and over. She looked intrigued by the taste. She loves goat cheese, but did not appreciate the plain goat yogurt I bought for her yesterday. We'll give it another try today. I tasted it and it's really good! I don't know why she would like the cheese and not the yogurt since the yogurt had a much milder taste. Who knows, maybe it wasn't strong enough for her.

Because of yesterday's food adventures, I decided to give her a pickle to suck on today. Yet again she loved the odd food. I ended up giving her little pieces of it so she could eat them since she liked it so much.

Bonus: Helmet Bound

Arya and Eiley will soon be sporting some new head wear. Their pediatrician kept saying that their heads were round and perfect and I kept telling her they weren't. Our appointment yesterday was to have them evaluated to see if they need a cranial band/helmet. The cranial bands will help guide their heads back into a more symmetrical shape.

Arya has plagiocephaly. It's hard to see in pictures, but if you look down at the top of her head, it's shaped like a parallelogram. She had torticollis (tort) as a newborn. Basically, her head was smashed into my pelvis for a long time during the pregnancy and she was not able to move her neck around. This caused the tort, which is tightening in the neck muscles. She could only turn her head to the right when she was born. We did stretching exercises with her and repositioning to try to avoid flattening. We were somewhat successful. Her tort went away and she has full range of motion in her neck, but the damage was done to her head. Her right ear is further forward than her left as is the whole right side of her face. The helmet should gently guide her head as it grows, resulting in the left and right side being more uniform. Her head won't ever be perfect, but no one's is. Some studies have shown that children with plagiocephaly are more prone to ADD, especially when it is untreated because of the shift in the ears.


Eiley has scaphocephaly. The ratio of her head's length to width is out of the acceptable norm. Because of the length, she was and still is unable to lay flat on her back without turning her head. If she tries to lay flat, her chin tucks and she can't breath correctly. She has developed flat spots on both sides of her head. Her head shape will be harder to correct, but if left untreated it would cause less ongoing medical issues. While Arya has to have a helmet, we have been informed that Eiley's helmeting is somewhat optional. While we should have it fixed, I was told that some parents in our situation decide, due to financial reasons, to helmet the more severe child. We have decided that we will helmet both. I would hate to look back a few years from now, when it would be too late to do anything, and wish we had helped her head grow into a more standard shape. Because Eiley's generation is sleeping on their backs as infants, their heads will be a little flatter in the back and wider. Eiley's head is extremely narrow and long. Helmets for biking, skateboarding, hockey etc. are built around standard head shapes. Eiley would more than likely have a very hard time finding any helmet that fit correctly because her head shape is currently outside of those standards.

As a parent, we want to do everything possible to raise happy, healthy, self confident children. Their head shapes are clearly different from those of their peers right now. Cranial bands are costly, but we feel they are worth the financial burden to ensure we do not have any "what ifs" in the future.

Burning Down the House

I did my usual 9:00 pm pumping session last night and put half of the milk onto the stove to scald. I completely forgot about it, read for a while and went to bed. About forty five minutes later I popped up in bed with an "Oh, shit!" and ran down the stairs. The milk on the right is correctly scalded. The milk on the left is what was left last after I tried to burn the house down. Now that is the way to end a day filled with mommy brain events.

I usually try to feed the kids when I eat. I want them to get used to eating meals as a family. Today the four of us were eating lunch. Eiley finished eating solids before Arya, as usual, and wanted to breastfeed. I don't normally nurse them at the table, but we were trying to get things done and I was still eating my lunch. Arya wasn't done eating solids and Corky was done with his lunch so I asked him to get her some hummus. He got the hummus, pushed Arya closer to me, got himself something to drink, sat down and watched me eat my lunch, breastfeed Eiley and feed Arya hummus. I couldn't decide if I was mad or if I wanted to laugh at the fact that he didn't even think about helping me. I debated if I should say something, but didn't because I thought it would make a good story.

Covergirl

I woke up thinking I had a 3:00 pm appointment for the girls today. At 8:45 am, while Arya was nursing, my phone alarm went off to let me know my appointment was actually at 9:00 am. Good thing we were taking our sweet time getting to the gym or we would have completely missed it. By 8:49 am, I had thrown regular clothes over my gym clothes, popped Arya off the boob, threw on some eye liner, got the kids packed up, a diaper bag stocked, a stroller thrown in the trunk and was backing out of the garage. I am good! I had to take the extra few seconds to throw the eyeliner on to give myself the illusion that I didn't look like death warmed over. Cork was gone the last few days and Eiley has not wanted to sleep.

Today's pictures have nothing to do with their appointment, but I haven't had a picture of them in a few days. I love watching them play together.
I ended the day by making these failures. I was so excited about them, even though I bought the dough. I expected super nice chewy pretzels like the ones sold in Europe. Nope! They were a bit of a step up from white bread. They weren't bad, but definitely not worth buying again. I may need to make my own dough down the line because I obviously need work on my pretzel shaping skills.

Don't Tread on Me

I dressed the girls today and then found out it was Earth Day. Their shirts were perfect for today, but I honestly wouldn't have dressed them in this if I knew what day it was. We went to a play group and I didn't want to be That Mom. You all know the one. She goes overboard on everything. Her kids are embarrassed by her by the time they are in preschool and no other moms want to hang out with her.

Five Strollers and Counting

Hello, my name is Valerie and I have a problem. I am a stroller junkie.My stroller collection started with two of these butes. Most people find out they are pregnant and decide not to buy anything right away so they don't jinx it. Not me. As soon as we saw a heartbeat I was searching for used stuff online. After our first ultrasound, which showed one sac, one baby and one heart beating away, we decided that these strollers were a good investment since we wouldn't have to move them between the cars. We picked these up, along with a car seat and two bases, around 7:00 pm one night and the next morning we saw two babies and two little hearts beating away on an ultrasound.
Our search for a double stroller ended with this amazing piece of craftsmanship. It's a Kolcraft Contours Tandem. This might be heavy for some people, but I have no issues manhandling it into the trunk of my compact car. My amazon arms are good for something. This thing maneuvers like no other tandem stroller that I've tried. I'm sure there are super nice expensive ones out there, but this one is very reasonably priced. We had a gift certificate for Amazon, so purchased it with that. The best part about this stroller is that it has removable seats and car seat holders. I love that I didn't have to buy a separate snap and go stroller.
We thought we were done there, but of course we weren't. I don't know who found it, but one of us noticed an add on Craigslist for this double jogging stroller. It was such a steal that we couldn't pass it up. It rolls really well and while I'm more comfortable running by myself, pushing this really isn't that bad.
We still have the girls in their infant car seats, but they don't love them and they're getting a bit heavy for me to carry together in the seats. Yes, I still do it, but I'm noticing that it's starting to bug my back. I really didn't think I'd be able to carry both of them this long. I have wanted a double umbrella stroller for a while just for quick trips like running into the gym or library. I've been watching Craigslist and hit the jackpot today.

I think my collection may be complete. I know I have a lot of strollers, but I've barely spent any money on them, so I don't feel too guilty. I did see a really nice triple Adventure Buggy on Craigslist last week. At $500 it was a steal. I honestly contemplated spending the money with the thought that we'd resell it if we never used it. Click here if you want to see what these tanks look like.

All Your Base Are Belong To Us

I'm often asked who the dominant twin is. Honestly, there is no dominant one yet. One day, like today, Eiley will pick on Arya and the next day it's Arya's turn to be on top. I do not usually intervene unless it gets out of hand. Arya was doing her "Mooooom, she's touching me," whine until Eiley pulled her over. The whine quickly turned into a very cranky and angry cry. She really was okay and shortly after I picked her up she flashed Eiley a smile. I couldn't help but think that the smile meant she'd won the round by being the first to be held.

Busy Bodies

My kids are busy! They are no longer content to sit. They want me to help them stand or want to roll all over. It's cute, but I'm not sure I'm ready to chase after them in different directions. Neither is pushing up onto all fours from her tummy, but both are on three's with one leg tucked under them from a sitting position. Today's pictures were taken over the course of probably 30 seconds. There are a bunch more in the sequence, but this will give you the idea.

We ran a bunch of errands today. We're all happier when we're out and about. I'm not a big shopper, but there are days that we go to stores just for something to do. Now that the weather is nicer, we'll be able to go to parks or do other activities outside. Anyway, today we were at Trader Joe's and a woman approached us. I'm used to talking to at least one person every where we go. This lady rapid fired questions at me. I barely answered any of her questions. I'm not sure she wanted answers. The conversation went something like this:
Lady: Are they twins?
Me: Yes
L: Boy and Girl
M: 2 girls
L: You know you should dress them in pink so everyone knows they are girls
M: They've been through multiple outfits today. I wanted to tell her to shove it. E was wearing a black, white and red outfit with flowers on it.
L: this is where she starts rapid firing and doesn't pause for a breath. They aren't yours! No they are not. Look at you. How old are they? How long did you carry them? How big were they? You must answer these questions all the time. How much weight did you gain? Did you lose it all? Were they in the NICU? They really aren't yours. How much do you weigh now? Are they identical? They are gorgeous. Such big blue eyes. My niece has twin boys. They have big blue eyes too. Maybe I should set you up. They're a little old for the two of you. They really can't be yours.

I walked away and was just glad she hadn't asked me if they were "paternal" as I wouldn't have been able to contain my laughter if she'd thrown that one in there.

Hummus Amoungus

Hummus was one of the few foods I developed a very strong aversion to during my pregnancy. The mere thought of it could make me gag. I had some last weekend at a friends house and the thought of it didn't make me run to the bathroom, the sight of it was okay too. I decided to test my luck and give it a try. My hummus gag reflex seems to finally be gone.

I haven't made hummus in well over a year now. I used to know my recipe by heart, but had to pull my recipe card out yesterday to make a batch. After it was done, I decided to see if the kids like it. They love it! They have rocket butts today, probably from all the chick peas they've had in the last 24 hours, but they can't seem to get enough of it. It's amazing how little kids aren't picky as long as you start them eating things before they can question what it is. I'm not saying they won't dislike certain foods, or won't go through a period where they only want to eat a few certain items. In general though, picky eaters can usually be avoided as long as everyone in the house is eating the "weird" items from early on.

Mary Mary Quite Contrary

One of the reasons I love summer is our garden. Cork tilled it yesterday and we've started discussing what we'll plant this year. So far we know we're going to do leeks, beets, green beans and tomatoes. I'm sure we'll also do basil and possibly some other herbs. I planted a sage plant a few years ago that has gone crazy. It's survived through two winters and is taking off again this spring. At the end of the season, I like to wash my herbs and freeze them. I can take basil out of the freezer year round and do virtually anything with it that I would do with fresh basil, including making pesto.
ETA: On Sunday we stopped by The Home Depot and bought plants and seeds because they were having a buy 1 get 1c free sale. We ended up buying 4 tomato plants, a jalapeno plant, a cayenne pepper plant, and seeds for basil, cilantro, bib & baby mixed lettuce, fennel, beets, green beans, and leeks. Cork also planted just a little red sweet corn. I think the deer may get it, but hopefully not. It should be pretty even if we don't get any corn from it.

Have You Had Your V8 Today?

I left Arya sitting in the family room and went to change Eiley on our changing table. I walk back in and find Arya doing this. If you can't tell, she's laying down, drinking from the straw cup. Why she couldn't just pick it up like a normal kid is beyond me, but it's much more amusing to watch her do it this way.

Tongue in Cheek

I was feeding the girls lunch today. It went pretty much like this:
V: puts spoon by E's mouth
E: excitedly inhales Ahhhhhh takes the food into her mouth and Brrrrrrrrm go her lips
A: watches E with her head cocked to the side and her tongue out of her mouth, laughs as E goes Ahhhhhh and Brrrrrrrrrrm

Bonus: Dolmades of a Different Kind

We went on our first run in the double jogging stroller this morning. Too bad I didn't get pictures of it. We did spend time in the backyard after. The girls played while I raked. After we went inside, Eiley grabbed the mail and took a bite out of an envelope. I pulled it out of her mouth, along with a nice dried leaf that had been soaking long enough it was re-hydrated. It looked like she was trying to make a paper filled dolmades in her mouth.

Don't Cry Over Spilled Milk

This is all the remains of my hard earned frozen breast milk. Apparently my milk is high in lipase. Because of the lipase, the fat in my milk breaks down very quickly. If I pump and put milk in the fridge, it stinks in less than 24 hours. Freezing it does not stop the breakdown of the fat. There is nothing wrong with the milk, except it tastes funky and smells soapy. Some kids will drink milk like this, mine won't. Mine won't even eat foods with this milk mixed in. The solution to the lipase is to scald the milk right after it's pumped. Because the kids started sleeping through the night :cheer: I am pumping most nights before I go to bed. I'm not getting a lot since they each eat not too long before this, but enough that I'm slowly building up a stash.

Are You There Eiley? It's Me, Arya

It's been 8 months since A&E were born. It amazes me how much they have grown in that time. You can see them with regular size pacifiers as newborns and now as 8 month olds. Honestly, I don't know who is in the picture with the yellow pacifier. I do know that Arya is the one in the pink hat. I took that in the hospital. I was standing 3 days after my csection, nursing Eiley, trying to get Arya to stop screaming. I was switching the kids back and forth between me and their cribs as I couldn't comfortably hold both. I had told Cork to go get some dinner and do some things around the house. They went nuts as soon as he left. I called him a few hours later and nicely asked him to come back soon. I'm surprised the nurses didn't come in with the noise the kids were making, but I managed, just like we have every day since that day. I figure if MoMs (Moms of Multiples) with higher order multiples can do it, I can do it with just two.

I'm now rewarded by watching their development every day. I love seeing them interact. That's something that singleton moms do not get to experience. It's very different to watch siblings of the same age interact. I'm not saying it's not incredibly cute to watch siblings of different ages together, but there's something very unique about the things multiples do.

I've talked to other MoMs and rarely hear one say that she loved the newborn stage. Looking back we love that we experienced it, but at the time it wasn't exactly enjoyable. I used to hallucinate from exhaustion after sleeping in 10 to 20 minute increments all night long. I used to cry late at night, after I'd been in bed for hours, just wishing they would go to sleep so I could get a few hours of sleep. I used to look at the clock at 7:00 am, tally up my sleep and realize I may have slept 2 or 3 hours all night on a good night. I don't know how I would have made it through without all the help I was given. I'm glad I experienced all that I went through, but I'm also glad that we're far beyond that stage. Nothing else I've experienced as a parent since then has challenged me in the same way. I knew it was going to be hard and rewarding and so far I've been right on both accounts, but I underestimated both.

Zest Fully Clean

What do you do when you have two clingy babies who do not want to be put down all day long? I plug them with a pacifier and incorporate them into what I'm doing and hope they play along.

Spring is In the Air

It's gorgeous outside today. After a long morning of playing, swimming and eating, the girls took a very short nap and now we're all sitting outside enjoying the weather. Both kids have perfected the art of pulling grass out of the grown and shoving it into her mouth. We put them on a towel in hopes of stopping some of the grass eating. It was a good try, but we failed. Why they'll eat grass, but not carrots is a mystery to me.
Even our cats are enjoying the weather. Cork finished zoom grooming them right before I snapped the picture. You can see big globs of fur behind the girls on the grass.

Today the girls are sporting brand new outfits from their Auntie Karen that were picked out by their cousins Nicole and Renee. Nicole and Renee did a great job picking out adorable outfits.

What's Up Doc

Arya and Eiley loved carrots the first time I made them a batch. They decided they don't like them so much any more. I took video of them "eating" the carrots because it was funny to watch and listen to them spit the carrot out in a nice exaggerated manor. I may try roasting the next batch to see if they'll eat carrots that way.

Sleeping Beauties

Neither baby is sleeping well while I'm at my parents' house. Last night I gave up and put them in bed with me. I woke up to this next to me. Not a bad way to start the day.

Think About Direction

Eiley is starting to directionally roll toward objects. She's not rolling across the room yet, but I don't think it will be much longer. Looks like we'll be baby gating the house soon.