Daddy and LR Get Their Game On

Right around Christmas I let LR play a racing game on our old XBox. We bought it about 5 years ago when Papa was going through chemo in order to stay in touch and keep him entertained while he was forced to hang out on the couch. After he recovered we didn't use it very often because LR arrived and pretty much took up all our free time. Then LR hit the car phase. Boy, does he love cars - cars, trucks, trains, planes, any sort of vehicle. Over the holidays I started letting him control his viewing of YouTube videos while I cooked, cleaned, or ate in the kitchen, but as Grandma and I discovered, you're always just a click away from something with XXX in the title on YouTube. I thought, maybe he'd enjoy playing our old Gotham Racing game, so I set him up with a controller and showed him how to play. When Daddy came home and found out he accused me of opening Pandora's box. Possibly...

But I have to say, he's been on a competitive streak anyways as a result of preschool and Daddy. Everything is a race to LR. In this picture they are running to catch up with the stroller because, God forbid, the stroller gets home before they do. LR wants to be first to line up in the classroom, drive his Hotwheels to an imaginary finish line, and get to the top of the stairs at bath time. My favorite is when we're on the road and he tells me to "use the gas" because we're being passed by other cars. The highway is one big race to LR and we're a painfully slow minivan. I do appreciate the cheers from the backseat when I pass someone in the slow lane though.

Daddy has stopped complaining about me letting LR play videogames though since they play StarWars Legos together every night before bed on our new XBox 360. The best part is that LR has played live with cousin Bud and Papa. The only downside is that I'm afraid it's kicking his competitive nature into overdrive. For example, the other day Daddy had this conversation with LR in the bathroom.

LR: I just pooped a lot. I poop more than you.
Daddy: Daddy is bigger than you so he poops a lot too.
LR: No, I poop a super lot.
Daddy: laughing

Ma-Ma... Finally!

Missy finally said "Ma-ma" intentionally this morning. We thought we heard it last night, but I wasn't sure she was directing it at me. This morning while Daddy had the babies downstairs and was letting me get some extra sleep, I distinctly heard Missy at the gate at the bottom of the stairs call for me. It was cute enough to get my sleep-deprived butt out of bed to greet her.

Speaking of cute things that she does... she refuses to wear a bib. She's figured out how to remove both the Velcro version and the over-the-head ones. If I manage to get one on nice and snugly so that she has a hard time getting it off, she'll struggle with it until it's bound around her eyes and then yells. That makes me take it off her, so she's really figured out how to get any version of a bib off. *sigh*

Missy is also walking up a storm. She's finally crossed over into walking the majority of the time instead of crawling. She'll revert every once in a while if she wants to go somewhere really fast or if she's wearing her pjs which make her feet a little slippery on the hardwood floors. She enjoys walking up behind J Frog and giving him a friendly slap on the head. We're currently reviewing the words "gentle" and "no no NO!" She actually reacts with tears to a firm "no," and Daddy and I aren't quite sure what to do since LR could have cared less. It's been a long time since a child has respected us. We're not sure what to do with all this power now.

So, the last picture in this post is of Missy trying to take her shirt off at the table because she thinks it's a bib. Luckily, it was a stretchy shirt, but it took her a little while to give up. I got a couple of cute pictures in the meantime.

1 Year Appointment

J Frog
Length: 50th percentile
Weight: 20th percentile
Head Circumference: 10th percentile (apparently has inherited my tiny noggin - LR and I now have the same hat size.)

Missy
Length: 40th percentile
Weight: 50th percentile
Head Circumference: 70th percentile

All is looking good with the exception of Missy refusing whole milk and formula. She drinks water and then gets a little breast milk each day, but I've almost weaned them, so that won't last long. The doctor said it wasn't a big deal as long as she gets yogurt, which she does every morning, and cheese. No problems there. Another friend who had the same problem with her son said the same thing. So even though the books say 16-24 oz of milk a day, I'm not worried. She's perfectly healthy and eats pretty much everything, so we'll make up for it.

Missy Claps and J Frog Slaps

Missy clapped for the first time today and was pretty proud of herself. She's always had the happy dance where she waves her hands in the air while bouncing up and down, but now she can put her hands together and clap. It's one of those milestones things, so I wanted to mark it. She also likes bowls and playing peek-a-boo with them. It reminded me so much of LR when he was just a little older than they are now. Check out these old pics of him. You'll see the resemblance.

J Frog has started expressing excitement by raising both hands high over his head and slapping them down on the table, floor, a parent's body, or a sibling head. He's just too happy to contain himself and... SLAP-O! It sometimes gets him into trouble with LR - not so much because it makes LR angry. LR just then thinks it's okay to slap back. It's a game, right? His favorite line when I tell him not to push, hit, or kick a baby is, "but (s)he's smiling!"

J Frog has also started to babble more. He's been the strong silent type for a while, allowing Missy to have the floor for the most part, but he's starting to catch up.

Happy 1st Birthday Missy and J Frog

If you are squeamish, don't read this whole episode. It was traumatic at the time, but everyone I tell seems to think it's hysterical and blog worthy, so here ya go. Usually I take a bunch of pictures in order to get a couple of good ones. In this case, it's the progression that's important.

We gave them this ball popper for their birthday which everyone seemed to enjoy.






Then, after a week of illness for everyone, it was party time. (Actually, Daddy had been asleep through dinner, but I was insistent that we celebrate their birthday and that we enjoy the cupcakes Marian had been slaving over all day.)


See! Here she is putting the millionth petal on a bunch of sunflowers with ladybugs on them. They were adorable. Thanks, Marian!


















Here we are singing "Happy Birthday" and everyone looks, indeed, happy.






Note the subtle change in the picture here. Missy looks happier and LR looks a little less happy.






Missy is really excited about her cupcake.







Now she's really excited about J Frog's cupcake. LR doesn't look so excited.






And it's time for the cupcake smash! I've been waiting for this all day. Their first taste of cake... yum!






From behind the lens, I hear Daddy say, "Oh LR..." And the amazing thing was that I hadn't seen it through the lens, but when I looked through the pictures later, look what I found!





And then I got upset because I had to leave taking pictures to clean up vomit for the hundredth time that week. And I questioned aloud whether it was possible to enjoy one major moment - since had also missed LR seeing his bike on Xmas morning since J Frog fell over in another room at that exact moment. And Daddy got upset with me for being upset. So it was a really fun birthday party.

But here we are in the aftermath. A chocolate covered Missy with birthday balloon






A victorious J Frog








A mopping Daddy











And let's not forget that we've survived our first year with twins. Or more importantly, that they've survived. And that they are wonderful. That they've developed into such amazingly different little human beings. J Frog is persistent while Missy is aggressive. He likes to wrestle and cuddle while she's content to be independent and walking! Missy is thick and sturdy while J Frog is long and lanky. They both love to smile with 2 really different mouths - hers like Daddy's Cupid's bow mouth and his like no one's I know. His bottom lip indents in the center when it's slack, but his mouth is beautifully wide when he smiles. Their laughs are as distinct as their cries even if people who visit can't tell them apart. We are looking forward to a year of major milestones reached in majorly different ways.

What a Welcome!

We had 2 really nice weeks with Grandma and Grandad before they left on Jan 8th. Grandad was pretty sick most of the time, but he still helped out all day every day. The kids were spoiled with love and definitely missed them when they left. So did/do I! They managed to stay just a day shy of our new au pair Marian arriving. Wish they could have met her, but really glad they got away when they did. It was just in time!

Our long awaited au pair arrived in NYC on Jan 5th. She spent that week taking quick courses on childcare like "Don't Shake the Baby 101". On Friday Jan 9th she hopped off the bus and we dashed to the car. It was freezing and she's from Colombia which is pretty much hot year-round. She saw snow for the first time on that bus trip from NYC to here. It was overwhelming for her. When we arrived home we had traditional american cuisine: pizza. We were looking forward to a lovely weekend, but 24 hours later we were struck with a nasty strain of the Rotavirus.

I started vomiting in the wee hours on Sat night. Then Daddy joined me on Sunday, J Frog on Monday, LR on Tues. Actually, LR started with a nasty fever, congestion, cough, and 2 ear infections. We showed up at Dr. Nick's door on Thur night and LR promptly vomited all over his doorstep. We got the amoxycilin, but LR couldn't really keep it down anyway. Missy escaped with just the congestion and cough, but I wasn't able to let the babies cry out their naps since it tore up their throats when I put them down. We were an absolute disaster and Marian took care of all of us. Not a great beginning, but she is a great au pair. Looking forward to getting to know her when we're not disgusting.

Time With Grandparents

We were so lucky to have family members available to help us out during our au pair gap. I'm not sure I would have been able to hold onto my contract position if we hadn't had so much support. Oh, and I would have gone bat-shit insane. These kids, while awesome, are ridiculous. The babies need constant attention and LR needs... constant attention. To be fair, LR has really improved in the last few months - he can play by himself for extended periods of time and has picked up some social graces from preschool. One of his favorite new toys is the Tag reader and he will open a book at any time during the day and stay entertained.

I also managed to open Pandora's box, according to Daddy, by allowing LR to play Project Gotham 2 on the XBox. Now LR and Daddy spend each night before bed playing Project Gotham 4 or Star Wars: Lego on the XBox 360. I had no idea he'd be ready for video games, but he loves them. We're looking forward to doing some live gaming with Papa, SwingDaddy, and Bud.






I have no idea why all the pictures in this post are of Missy, but apparently she was more often photographed with a grandparent.





She loves her food!







And eating naked. Not even sure why she has a bib on...

First Steps and Teeth, Teeth, Teeth

On the day of New Year's Eve, Missy took her first step. Grandad was the only one to really see it, but she's been threatening to walk for a long time, so on New Year's Day, she took more steps for everyone to see. Her favorite thing to do while standing is to lift something incredibly heavy or unwieldy. Not sure if it's fun or if she just likes to see if she can do it.

Along with the walking came 3 of her top teeth at once. It was a pretty tough week. Now she has 6 teeth, an unsteady gait, and babbles non-stop. She points to everything she wants, but most often she wants to look at pictures and says "bay-bee" to all the ones of Hudson. Following in her snaggletooth footsteps, J Frog broke his top left side tooth as well. Again, I wasn't looking for it, so I didn't notice it until it was through.

Here are some of our favorite games especially now that the babies can play more with LR.

King of the Mountain







Smile time with Grandma Nese







There's something sticky on my hand!







There's nothing more fun than time in the castle. LR is sometimes a little rough, but the babies don't seem to mind.






It's 15 minutes of pure fun. Then someone gets bonked, or poked, or sat on. But those first 15 minutes are awesome.







Our other favorite activity - box time!












J Frog (aka Custard the Dragon) cried for a nice safe cage, so we gave him one.







I think someone should stop and ask for directions...







*phew* Made it out!

Xmas 2008

Well, we didn't exactly celebrate Christmas on Christmas day this year. Gigi was with us, but Grandma and Grandad weren't arriving until 10pm, so we decided to wait until the 26th. Then Uncle Corbin, Uncle Keeper, and Aunt June arrived late on the 26th and we had our Christmas dinner on the 27th. It was a rolling holiday and we managed to stay festive for the duration.

On the evening of the 23rd, Daddy tried to put together the bike Yianni sent to LR. It was so cliche... Daddy sat there struggling for 20 minutes and when I asked him what step he was on, he grumbled, "one." I sat down to help and after much discussion, Daddy finally realized that the front fork was bent. *sigh* No wonder we couldn't mount the front tire. We momentarily debated sending it back via mail, but we wouldn't have a new one in time and it was the one thing LR had asked for over and over again. So, Daddy and Gigi made a midnight dash to Toys R Us where they didn't have any more of that particular bike other than the floor model. Daddy asked for the floor model and they said they would sell it to us. Hooray! We didn't even have to put it together, we just had to exchange the one we had. And so Christmas was saved.

Daddy received an acoustic guitar from his soon to be musically gifted children and LR a nice harmonica and they jammed for a little while on Xmas day. Grandma and I put our minds to a cupcake project using the new book SwingDaddy and Lady M sent me. The snowmen and trees became our centerpiece for Xmas dinner which Gigi whipped up once again. We never get tired of her cooking when she visits.

Merry Xmas and Happy New Year!

Just Before Xmas!

It's hard to know where to start when you're more than a month behind with blogging. I need to cover Christmas, our au pair switch-er-roo, Missy's first steps, visits from a huge number of family members, and a god-awful week of stomach flu. I could start with posts from today (Jan 16th), but I think I'll write them on the days that would have been close to when they happened. That way it'll make sense when (if) the kids read it someday and my general readers can ignore the dates for a little while. Still with me?

So, it's almost Xmas and Grandma Nese has had a nice long visit with us, 2 weeks. She has helped fill the gap between au pairs. She's generous both with her time and with the gifts for the kids. She just can't stop herself from buying them toys! It's a little nuts. Derek's started calling it Chanukah-Christmas because we seem to be opening something every day. I'm not complaining though. The kids have loved the toys. One toy in particular keeps them really happy because Missy can push it while J Frog rides it. LR sometimes gets run over. It happens.

The days are still crazy busy, so it's nice to have a family member around all day instead of having help that goes off duty around dinner time. That means I have someone to help first thing in the morning and late at night. She helped get the babies from bath to bed and then helped me with dishes, laundry, and last minute Target runs. We kept the caffeine pouring and she kept the energy going. Thank you, Grandma Nese!