Bad to the Bone

We put stickers on the helmets today. We only did a few so we can see how they hold up.

Cork still has a hard time telling the kiddos apart. Now that they have helmets it's harder as their facial features are very very similar. Even I had a really hard time telling them apart when they first got the helmets. I think the helmets are forcing me to pay more attention to their personalities. I can usually tell who is doing something if I don't think too hard about it. It's like my subconscious mind knows who is who, but if I think too hard it's all over and I get them mixed up. I can hear a whine or see an expression and know which kid is doing it. Cork told me that he will eventually be able to tell them apart. He'll tell Arya to come to him and Arya will come running. That's not exactly what I meant and he knows it.

One for The Road

Cork fed the kids lunch today. We weren't home and did not have highchairs for them. There was one available, but it's just easier to feed them on the floor than one at a time. They had blueberries for the first time and really enjoyed them. Since A crawls all over the place now, it's much easier to hold onto her and let E sit herself.

Sweet Dreams

I can't imagine it is comfortable to sleep face down, but obviously they both think it is. We forgot to bring their little stuffed comfort blanket thingies with us, so I gave them a couple of my pj tops to sleep with. They were much happier to curl up together. Wouldn't it be nice to always have an instant best friend?

A Room With a View

I went outside to fill the kids pool today and found A & Sikozu peering at me, begging to come out. By the time I grabbed my camera, A was grabbing his tail. I had to take the picture through the screen or Sikozu would have bolted.

Lean Cuisine

I saw someone list in their blog what their kids are eating at 9 months and I was amazed at how differently we feed our kids. I like to feed my kids stuff that I would eat. Below is what my kids have eaten the last 2 days. They have days where they only eat a few bites at meals and want snacks in between and other days when they eat a ton at each meal. This is typically what they eat and I did not alter what I fed them so it would look good in a post.

Wed:
Breakfast: Steel cut oatmeal
Snack: 1/4 of a peach (each)Lunch: Zucchini cooked with olive oil, poultry seasoning, cinnamon and oregano, grainy whole wheat bread, black berries
Snack: kiwi
Dinner: sundried tomato polenta with kale, turnips and mushrooms, kiwi

Thurs:Breakfast: fried egg yolk, rosemary bread
Lunch: polenta from Wed night, peaches (they loved the polenta last night, but were not thrilled with it at lunch)Dinner: chicken, brown rice, red beans & broccoli

Broccoli and zucchini are by far their favorite foods right now. Apparently, the food I'm feeding them is doing a great job. They are very busy little girls. I walked out of the room for a minute to add dry rice to water. I came back to see E had opened a drawer she's never seen opened and was now playing with beads that I didn't know were in there. A had crawled out of her shorts. I'm in trouble because these two are fearless and determined to get into everything possible.

I'm Sailing

Garage Sale-ing that is. I picked up a ton of incredibly cute clothes today for the girls at a neighbors sale. I can't wait to dress them in all their new digs.

Swim Fan

I bought a pool for the kiddos today since it's been so hot out. They both loved it, but I forgot my camera. I pulled them out of the pool after a while, got my camera and put them back in. Things just went downhill from there, so I don't have any pics of them actually playing.

Yesterday, E finally figured out how to pull herself to standing on something besides me. She has been pulling herself to kneeling for almost a month now. A decided to start crawling yesterday. She still prefers to drag herself across the floor, pull up on anything that will support her weight and then move around on 2 feet.

A Fine Mess

The helmet company asked if I'd let the girls be models for a photo shoot today. Of course I agreed. When we showed up for our appointment, I found out it was a photo and a video shoot. We spent a few hours taking photos and videos while the kids really needed to nap. They slept for a few minutes on the way home, but were not willing to continue napping once I pulled them out of the car seats. Some days, letting them make a mess and cleaning it up is much easier than trying to keep them happy in clean ways. I handed each of them a cracker and let the kiddos go at them while I put dinner together. This was the beginning of the crackers. They both had a nice mushy mess under them by the time they finished.

Into the Great Wide Open

We spent the weekend up north for a wedding. The girls got to visit with lots of family from their father's side. This is a pic of them with their great great aunt. They had a ton of fun and stayed up until 9:00 pm on Saturday night. They were up by 5:30 this morning. I thought they'd be cranky, but they were very happy and spent the morning playing with identical twin girls who I think were about 10 years old. It was cute to see the older girls carrying A&E around.

Spider, He is Our Hero

This is what you do when you have two kids who are old enough to swing, but are way too small for the baby swings at the park.

The Longest Yard

Arya is getting better and better at moving around furniture. She moves from one thing to another with ease as long as they are close. She wanted to move from a chair to her toy today, but the toy wasn't within reach. She just couldn't quite figure out how to get over there.

Low Rider

When I wear an Ergo, I need to wear a belt.
I left the kids outside today to run into the house super quick. I don't know why I thought leaving them by my water bottle and a partly eaten banana was a good idea.

Beano

This is what happened when I gave A&E one bite of mushed up black beans for lunch and both decided they didn't want it. They ate it just fine yesterday.

Maybe they were holding out in anticipation for dinner. Too bad they didn't get any of it. I made a pizza with grilled eggplant, hummus, carmelized onion, tomato, fresh sage, oregano, chevre and a little gorgonzola. The pizza crust had herbs in it and was grilled. It was the best crust I've ever made. Along with it we had fresh artichokes with an herb mayonnaise and strawberry rhubarb crips.

The Children Under the Stairs

Someone in my neighborhood has these in her yard. Super Creepy! Recently, someone had parked their car close the mailbox, but forgot to put it in park. It rolled back into the mailbox, knocking the mailbox over, and pinning the creepy child doll under the car. Cork saw it, but I didn't. I really wish I could have seen that.

My World is a Flood

I managed to flood our laundry room today. Happy Monday! Not only did I get the laundry room, but it flooded out into the hallway and down into the basement. Go me! Of course the kids picked today to nap 30 minutes all day. They really didn't give me much time to clean up. I have wet stuff soaking up the cloud covered sun outside and fans in the basement. Thankfully the laundry room is over a cement area of our basement and I don't have wet basement carpet to deal with. Even after the flood, I still managed to get 5 loads of laundry done.

Sunyside Up

It's another gorgeous day around here. We're back home and fully enjoying the weather. We dragged some kid containers outside with us and let A&E play while we relaxed....or I guess I should say that I relaxed and caught up on my blog as Cork vacuumed our living room. Earlier he got to mow the lawn as I mopped the floors, so I think it's a good trade off.

Farmer's Market

We were in Madison today and spent a few hours hanging around the farmer's market downtown. Madison has one of the best farmer's markets around and probably the best in WI. This time of year, it's full of honey, plants, flowers, organic meats, free range chickens and eggs, jams, and a few veggies. Later this year it will be loaded with veggies along with most of the things listed earlier. The market wraps all the way around the Capitol building. We walked one of the blocks and then stopped for coffee and croissants, splitting a marzipan and a chevre and sundried tomato one. Yum! We stopped part of the way around for the kids to play in the grass and nurse and then stopped once we got back to our starting spot to feed them lunch in the grass. Saturday mornings at the farmer's market is one of the things I really miss about Madison.

Lookin' Like A Fool

Do you notice anything wrong with this picture?



It really isn't warm enough around here to go without pants. Not that anyone should ever be going around without pants. The best part about this is the fact that both Cork and I changed E's diaper at different times today and forgot to put her pants back on.

To The Nines

The kiddos are 9 months old today. I saw a 6.5 lb baby this morning and thought it was so incredibly small. I can't believe A&E were smaller than that. I used to take both of them for a walk in this single stroller while each was wrapped in a blanket. They were weighed today and A weighed 15 lbs 2.5 oz and E weighed 16 lbs even. They're still right at the bottom of the growth chart for weight. That's fine with me because it makes it much easier to carry both of them.

Food Coma

I think the kids may be going through a growth spurt. Not only are some of their really long pants all of the sudden looking like capris, but they are also sleeping a ton. Eiley couldn't even make it through lunch without crashing. She was falling asleep with food in her mouth.

Vomit Comet

This is what I was greeted by when I walked down the stairs this morning. Compliments of one of my cats. About two feet from this is a tile floor. He spent some time outdoors yesterday and it looks like he snacked on some grass.

Get Up, Stand Up

This is what I found today while the kiddos were supposed to be napping. The mattresses got dropped to the lowest level after this performance.

Mother's Day

I had a great day today. We did a lot of our regular routine, but it was still fun. We took the kids swimming and for some time we were the only ones in the pool. Shortly after, we were joined by another family with identical boys. We went out for lunch and ate outside. I mowed the lawn while Cork watched the kids and I pulled some weeds as they took a nap. That may not sound like much fun, but last summer I was stuck on my couch. I spent way too much time sitting and even when it was outside, it was still sitting. I really enjoyed getting out and doing some normal summer maintenance.

Schweaty Balds

Today the kids wore the helmets for 2 hours and then had them off for 1 hour. Thankfully they still don't mind them, but their little heads sure do get sweaty. This is totally normal. Apparently some kids get used to it and the sweat dies down and some kids sweat the whole time they wear them.

Times They Are A Changing

We have had a big couple of days. Cork and I switched the kiddos car seats out, so they are now in their convertible seats. My back couldn't take lugging both car seats around and I was taking them in and out of the infant carriers at every stop. The kids also hated the infant seats. They seem to really like the new seats. I hear more talking and giggles and less screaming.

Our other big change happened today. We went and picked up the helmets. The girls had to wear them an hour on and an hour off today. They won't start sleeping in them until Sunday. By Tuesday they'll be wearing them 23 hours per day. We were told some kids really do not like the helmet in the beginning. Arya and Eiley don't seem to mind them at all. They even conked out in the car on the way home.
I thought the helmets would solve our tandem nursing issues. The girls tandem nurse just fine in the middle of the night. During the day, when they are awake, they pick on each other while they nurse. Arya especially loves to poke at Eiley's head. They both found the hole at the top of the helmets and are using it to pick on each other.

Cat Toy Fever

I knew it was only a matter of time before the cat toys became fair game. I threw them in the washer a couple weeks ago in anticipation. The cats only play with a few of the toys and none of those were in the toy box. I let them go wild today and had a little fun of my own.

Eating Rainbow

I take time almost every day to read books to the girls. They use the time to wrestle around me and try to eat the books.

Daredevil

Both of my kids are pretty fearless. Arya is a bit more of a daredevil than Eiley. She constantly tries to let go of things while she's standing. She loves to be thrown around and nothing seems to phase her. Today she seemed super sleepy and I plopped her in her carseat so I could use the bathroom before going to the gym. I know, shame on me, because she wasn't strapped in. I was in the bathroom for maybe five seconds when I heard her carseat toys jingle and a little thud. I figured nothing had happened because she didn't cry. I should have known better because she falls all the time without crying. She'd propelled her way out of the carseat and onto the floor, tipping the seat over backwards in the process. She was happily playing with Eiley's feet and greeted me with a huge grin.

On Bended Knee

It looks like Eiley won't be too far behind Arya in the standing and all fours department. I found her like this next to her toy today. It's the first time I've seen her bend her legs under her to try to get up. Usually she tries to strong arm herself into a standing position with straight legs.

Four Square

Arya is doing things a little backwards. She finally figured out how to get onto her hands and knees. She didn't quite figure out how to crawl or how to get back down. She pushed up from her knees to her feet and then was stuck with her little toes curled under.

OGBH

Two years ago today we woke up in Hallstatt, Austria and then took a train to Munich, Germany. We figured it would be very fitting to go to lunch at the Old German Beer Hall to celebrate May Day. The kids were very interested in both our food and beer. I think they're a little young yet.