Finally, videos!

(This is a long one)

Play-by-play

When Sean gets home around 1:00 every day he usually gives me a call at work. We catch up on each other's days, talk about the plans for the evening and just generally touch base. Usually at some point in the conversation, if the girls are still awake, he'll pause our conversation for a moment to fill me in on what they're doing. It usually sounds something like this:

Charlotte's on her back, Lilah's on her stomach next to Charlotte.

Charlotte is smacking Lilah in the head really hard but neither of them seem to care.

Lilah somehow got Charlotte's shoe. I heard the velcro, so she must have pulled it off.

Lilah's eating Charlotte's shoe.

Charlotte stole her shoe back.

Charlotte's eating the shoe. Lilah has the monkey.

Lilah has the shoe again. Charlotte stole the monkey.

Charlotte is on her stomach. She turned around and Lilah is kicking her in the head. Neither of them seem to care.

Don't hit your sister.

Oh, I see an eye rub on Charlotte. Are we ready for a nap, girls?

That was Lilah shrieking. She's just talking.

Roscoe, off! No. Roscoe, off!

Charlotte's almost in the hallway, now.

What should I have for lunch?

Ah, good times.

Photos!

This morning I brought the girls into my bedroom to occupy themselves while I got ready for work and I took some pictures of them to say "Good morning!" to their daddy. (I also took a few this weekend but they turned out pretty lousy, so I'm not going to post them) Here's what I came up with... Charlotte is often not amused when I bring out the camera, but she's smiling a split second before the click and then "worried eyes" a moment later.

From Charlotte and Lilah together

From Charlotte and Lilah together

Toddler Super Powers

Ok, so they're not toddlers yet, but some of these powers are already developing:

Toddler Super Powers (McSweeney's)

Hold bowel movements for weeks!

Hear and repeat vulgar phrase uttered miles away!

Survive without sleep or food for days!

Reduce grown men to tears with one swift kick!

Perpetual motion!

Deafening shrieks!

Unrelenting refusal!

Iron grip!

Hide entire meals in creases of own body!*

Sensing other people napping!*

(* My additions)

Feeling better

You may be wondering why on earth it has taken me so long to post recently. Has there really been nothing to write about? Have I given up? Am I institutionalized for insanity due to lack of sleep? Actually that last one seems plausible.

No, we've been sick! And by "we" I mean me and the girls. This is now my fourth illness since coming back to work, which I blame on aforementioned lack of sleep, and it was the girls' very first real cold. They got nasal and chest congestion (we could hear their little lungs rattling - so sad!) , all of which kept them from sleeping or eating very well and made them angry. They turned green, grew three feet and all of their clothes ripped off when they flexed. Angry. And slightly cartoonish.

In fact, two weekends ago, Charlotte was feeling so lousy that she refused to go down for her nap. She was obviously exhausted, not breathing well, and not wanting to take her bottle. We walked her, we let her cry in her crib, hoping she'd roll over and suck her thumb quietly as she usually does, we sang, we cuddled, all of it. I gave her a binkie instead of my finger and she was so eager for soothing that she actually took it. (Lilah is usually our binkie girl.) Eventually we got desperate enough, and didn't want her to wake her finally sleeping sister, that we put the pack-n-play in the guest room and hoped that the change of scenery would take her focus long enough for her to lull herself to sleep. And it worked. Sigh. of. relief.

Awhile later, Lilah woke up and Sean went to their room to get her. He came back down the hallway, and with a sheepish look on his face said, "I figured out why Charlotte wouldn't fall asleep in her crib..." "Why?" "Because it was Lilah."

*GASP* Our first major identity mistake! I blame it in part on having Lilah in color neutral clothing that day, and in part on Sean putting the wrong girl in the wrong crib to start. I rely on key indicators, people! Now we occasionally call Lilah "Nap-Charlotte" just to be funny.

Lilah was having a lot of troubles eating during this cold, choking and coughing throughout every bottle until she finally got too frustrated to continue. All of this, in addition to Charlotte's head start, has lead to Charlotte having a pretty significant weight advantage over her sister. It's especially noticeable now more than ever. I'll try to get some pictures up this weekend.

In spite of her battles with the bottle, Lilah has become an amazing eater of solid foods. When she sees that little spoon, she opens her mouth expectantly like a tiny baby bird and she just can't seem to get enough. Their favorites are pureed fruit like apples, bananas and blueberries, but we've also recently discovered Mum Mums, too. Mum Mums are little surfboard shaped kind of crackers that are made out of rice so they practically dissolve in your mouth. Mum Mums are also great for developing pincher skills, which is exactly what they are supposed to be working on. Charlotte sees me just holding one in its wrapper and she starts bouncing up and down and holding out her arms and shrieking. What a smarty pants!

Speaking of food, we hit a milestone this week when Lilah grabbed her bottle with both hands and held on for dear life. Since then, we've prompted her to keep taking the bottle all by herself whenever we can and she's now able to get through a whole bottle on her own! Sweet victory! Now when they wake up at 4 am, I can give each of them "breakfast in bed" and then go back to sleep. Yes! Yes!

They still aren't sitting entirely unassisted - they can manage for a few seconds but inevitably they arch their back or tip to one side so we still have to keep a hand on each side of them, just in case. I continue to blame this on their head size, although the ratio has started to level out just a bit. (There's hope, thank God.) Charlotte is trying SO hard to crawl, she just hasn't figured out how to pull her knees under her for support yet, so instead she twists to the side, lifts her feet up behind her head, and performs all sorts of Cirque du Soleil moves. She eventually pushes herself backward, rolls a few times, and pivots in order to get where she wants. You can see the wheels turning and her frustration mounting as every second passes without success - she wants to crawl! Not to be outdone, Lilah is still our champion at standing. She can hold one of my fingers with each hand for balance and stand otherwise unassisted for several minutes!

Both girls love their baths and hate their bedtimes, and make it plainly clear on both. Both are also starting to play with consonants, saying bah-bah-bah and ma-ma-ma-ma, although they don't connect it to a meaning just yet.

So, what's up with Sean and me? I've been lucky enough to have two groups of friends that pretty reliably set up group get-togethers, so I've been able to get out of the house and socialize quite a bit lately. Sean on the other hand needs some Man Time. I think he's getting cabin fever (as evidenced when he took both girls to 3 different motorcycle dealerships yesterday afternoon). The poor guy would love to spend a few hours with his buddies, but they all have kids and apparently less flexible schedules so it hasn't worked out. I'm getting to the point where I feel like I need to make calls to some wives on the sly just to help him out. So, if you're one of those wives (*cough* Andrea *cough* Chelsea *cough*) - hook a daddy up!

I'm in my super-busy season at work, another reason for my lack of posts, but am nearing the end of the whirlwind of activity, so hopefully you'll see more of me....and blog entries. Because I know that's what you really want. Its ok, *sniff*, I'll get over it.

Later!

The More You Know - Health Coverage

My career is in the health care/insurance world and I often either get questions from people about how things work or see comments from people who don't understand some concepts, which are understandably confusing! So, here's my little mini-training:

Q. Why doesn't my health insurance cover (insert care/item here)?

A. There are quite a few reasons. The first may be that in all the large-scale studies that have been done, that care/item hasn't been shown to be more effective than another option, and it costs more money. It may seem more effective to you, but insurer has to think about everyone they cover and can't make broad decisions based on individuals - they have to think in terms of serving the greatest number in the most quality and cost-effective ways that it can. And when they make a decision for one person, that could set a precedent that they have to follow for everyone who comes next, increasing everyone's costs.

Second, the health insurance company may cover it in some plans, just not yours. When your employer chose your health plan from the insurer they had many different options. Some plans covered a lot of things and cost more, some had less coverage but a lower price. Your employer decided, based on cost and the needs of the demographics of the staff and a lot of other factors, which plan to go with. That's why people who have the same insurance company can have different co-pays and different things covered. It may not have been your insurance company's decision to cover something or charge a certain amount - it was just one of the options offered and your employer made the ultimate decision. Health insurance companies don't say this because they want to maintain a good relationship with the employer and keep their business.

Think of it like this:

Your mom (employer) buys a box of chocolates (health plan) from the candy store (health insurance company). She had a lot of boxes to choose one, but she went with the one that she thought everyone in the family could share and that she could afford. You want a chocolate with caramel (gastric bypass). Unfortunately, the box she chose doesn't have caramel so you're out of luck. The candy store has caramel, but that wasn't what she bought!

But, the next time she buys chocolates, she remembers how important it was to the family to have caramel and it turns out that she has enough money this time! Now you ask for the caramel-filled chocolate and you find out that in order to get it you have to clean your room (meet established clinical criteria). If you don't meet the requirements, you can't have the caramel, even though it's right there in the box.

So, if the caramel chocolate is in the box and someone is telling you that you haven't cleaned your room yet, find out what the definition of "clean" is. Actually, that's good advice even without the metaphor.

Such is the weekend

Sean informed me this weekend that college football was over and that only a few games remained in the NFL. In my head I was doing the Snoopy happy dance. You know, the one where his arms are tight to his sides, his head is turned to the sky and his feet are flying beneath him. That was me on the inside.

It's not because I don't like football (although I really, really, really don't - it could cease to exist and I wouldn't notice), but because I miss my husband. I would never ask him to give up something that was important to him (What if someday he asked me to give up reading or gardening or napping? The horror!) and so between the Sundays spent at the home games and the remaining Sundays spent in the garage watching every other game, we haven't had a lot of time together lately. I'm really looking forward to post-Super Bowl weekends!

On Saturday I took the girls to visit with some of my friends and their munchkins at a place called Kidz n Coffee. It's a coffe shop that specializes in, you guessed it, people with kids. They have a supervised play area that is gated off from the rest of the room, but you go there knowing that there will be kids in and out the whole time. They also have kid's foods like bowls of Cheerios, cheese sandwiches, chocolate milk, and adult foods like espresso-based beverages. It's a great place if you want to have grown-up time but can't leave your little ones behind.

When I got there, I sat Charlotte down on a table for a moment and noticed that she was doing pretty well. I took a chance and parted my hands away from her, careful to be ready if she toppled. She lasted a whole minute sitting unassisted before tipping to the side! Way to go, C!

The girls were on great behavior, as is luckily the case when we're out and about. And, thanks to our sleep system, when they got cranky I plopped them back in their car seats, pulled the top up and turned them to the wall underneath a table. Within a few minutes they were asleep and they napped for a good 45 minutes before waking up refreshed and cheery. They are such great little babies!

I have some pretty great friends, who brought their pretty great husbands (or whose pretty great husbands came on their own) and they all took each chance they got to hold a ladybug. It's worth mentioning because you don't often find guys who take joy in holding other people's children and these men were clearly eager to get their chance. Unfortunately for my friend Cara, who has two boys, aged 14 months and 4, her husband also noticed how good the girls were. She said, "Britt, if my husband wants another kid after this, I blame you!" and not long after that he said, "Honey, I want twin girls!" Hopefully he can get his fix with mine because I'd really like to keep Cara as a friend! : )

When we got home, I thought about how much progress the girls had made recently and how great Lilah had been lately at standing up in our laps when we try to hold her, so I decided to test her. I put my feet on either side of the exersaucer to hold it steady and stood her in front of it so she could grab on and be interested enough in what was in front of her to stay there. She stood unassisted for a full minute, and even though she tips to one side occasionally, I think she is well on her way to making a circle around the coffee table before we know it!

Sean mentioned that it would be a little creepy if they started walking already because they're still so tiny and I completely agree. I had a nightmare when the girls first came home that one of them came running down the hallway to greet me and I freaked out because she was like a tiny little doll come to life, or an infant possessed by something, and it was super creepy. Yeesh. Looks like I might have to get some holy water or suppositories, or whatever else they'd be afraid of, just in case.

7 months old! Time flies.

We've started to see the girls make advances nearly every day! Charlotte has slept through the night for the last 5 nights, which is outstanding. Lilah is still waking up once a night and for some reason she's started to have trouble falling back asleep - babbling to herself for about 10 minutes before starting to cry because no one has come to get her yet. We received stuffed talking frogs from Sean's brother, Scott, that have a "nighttime" features. When you press the hand, (Is it a hand on a frog? It's not a paw. It's not a flipper.), a a light on his chest gets bright and a lullaby comes on for 5 or 10 minutes. It's practically hypnotic to the ladybugs and has made bedtime a ton easier.

Charlotte discovered this week, while Sean was home with them on Monday, that she's a huge fan of tummy time! She spends nearly all day on her stomach now, flipping over nearly the moment she touches the ground. She pushes up on her arms, looks around, and has started trying to bend her knees, although she hasn't had her butt in the air yet. She's perfectly content to do it, occasionally taking a break and setting her head on the ground before pushing back up again.

Both girls have developed a lot of core strength and we can hold them with an arm under their butt and not need to support their head or back. They aren't quite ready to sit unassisted, but they're soooooooo close! And they just discovered their feet.

And I'm finally posting photos of the girls in their holiday dresses. I wanted to wait until I had given them to our family as gifts before putting them online, but now we're set!

From Charlotte and Lilah together

From Charlotte and Lilah together

From Charlotte and Lilah together

Cooking with Britt - Coffee Cake Blueberry Muffins

I needed a really, really, really good blueberry muffin recipe, having been exasperatingly furstrated with all of the flat, tasteless attempts at past recipes, so I turned to my favorite resource of all: FoodNetwork.com. Not only do they have recipes from people who are good enough to have their own television show, everything is rated by people like you and I so I know someone not only tried it successfully, but thought it was good enough to take the time to come back and let other people know. Best of all are the comments that people leave, especially the notes they make about the things they changed and suggestions for improvements, which I can absolutely appreciate.

So, here is the wildly successful recipe I found, with the a la Britt edits. Oh, and in case you wondered, hardly any of my recipes could be considered "light", this one included. Butter just makes baking better!!

Coffee Cake Blueberry Muffins

12 tablespoons (1 1/2 sticks) unsalted butter, room temp
1 1/2 cups sugar
3 eggs
1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract
8 ounces (about 1 cup) sour cream
1/4 cup milk
2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
3 cups fresh or frozen blueberries (Prep by tossing with a few tablespoons flour. Trust me.)

Preheat the oven to 350. Place 14 paper liners in muffin pans. (I tried 13 once - it didn't work.)
Cream the butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Add the eggs 1 at a time, then add the vanilla, sour cream, and milk.

In a separate bowl, sift together the flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt. Add the flour mixture to batter and stir by hand until just incorporated. Don't overstir. This batter is thick and beaters steal half of it, so I used a spoon. Fold in the blueberries carefully at the very end.

Fill each muffin cup just over the top, (it's a thick batter, so pile it on!) and bake for 25 to 30 minutes, until the muffins are lightly browned on top. The pan with less muffins will cook faster so keep an eye on it.

*I tried a streusel topping on one attempt at these, because who doesn't like struesel, but it kept the muffins from rising as well, so I nixed that. Follow your heart on this one.

Winter Whirlwind

If you're like Sean and I, you have multiple sets of family that you want to spend time with for Christmas, which means either someone is unhappy or you commit yourself to a whirlwind of activity and barely get to truly enjoy any of it. How come there isn't a carol about that?

This year, instead of going to my aunt and uncle's house for Christmas Eve (where last year we announced our pregnancy and, really, how could we top that?) Sean and I decided to spend a quiet evening at home, having a little quality time, resting up for the upcoming flurry of activity, and preparing food and gifts to bring with us the next day. The main reason for this decision was that the girls start to get fussy around 5:30 and go down to bed within an hour after that. We could have kept them in their car seats to sleep while we mingled, but we risked disrupting their schedule and having angry babies (picture Godzilla attacking Tokyo, but smaller) during Christmas Day. And we needed them to be cooperative for Christmas. So we stayed home and I made Crispy Black Bean Tacos for dinner (see recipe in earlier post), cheesecake for Christmas Day dinner, coffee cake blueberry muffins for brunch (another outstanding recipe soon to be added to "Cooking with Britt") and Sean made chocolate chip walnut cookies while we watched Harry Potter and The Half-Blood Prince. It was a great night.

The next day, Sean and I opened our presents to each other and the girls. Although, while I was making muffins the night before, Sean looked at his present and asked, "Is it the IPod cable for the Highlander?" Nailed it. Totally took the wind out of my sails. (Price is Right overbid sound here.) I tried to cover up my shock, but I'm not good at lying to Sean, so he knew. It sounds like an odd gift, but it has to be installed in the car and allows us to see the IPod options over the navigation system screen, so is safer for when we play "keep it or skip it" and has to be bought at the dealer, so is definitely a luxury item. Sean got me a pair of pearl earrings he remembered me mentioning (so sweet) and proved how well he knows me by getting me Alton Brown's cookbook, which I've been fascinated by ever since, opening at every spare moment to read the next tidbit. For those who don't know, Alton Brown teaches the science behind cooking and spices (ha!) it up with trivia and fun facts about food origins. Totally up my alley.

We hustled out the door bright and early to my parents for brunch and present opening with the rest of my family. My brother and his fiancée were over an hour late, which is pretty much how they roll these days, so we started without them. I dressed the girls in frilly, poofy party dresses and little white tights, since my mom wanted them to be in "something nice" for the holidays and, while it was cute, these were not sensible outfits. The girls kept getting scratched by the tulle under the skirts, everything kept riding up since they wiggle so much, and the skirt itself wound up in their mouths most of the time. I changed them to some red onsie tops and bottoms that said, "Daddy's favorite present", complete with matching Santa hats, courtesy of our fantastic neighbors who are like another set of grandparents for the ladybugs, and this was a much more sensible outfit.

We spent two hours there, which wasn't nearly enough time to sit, relax, catch up with everyone, and enjoy the morning, but we had places to be, things to do, people to see!

Our next stop was a slightly longer visit with Sean's dad, Rod, his wife Gayle, and Sean's sister, Tanya, her husband, Scott, and kids Curtis and Darian, who all came over from Sequim. Rod was diagnosed last year with multiple myeloma and completed chemo and a stem cell transplant this month, so his immune system is practically non-existent at this point. What we didn't realize until the week before is that he's not supposed to be around anyone who had a live immunization within the last 30 days. Like...say... Charlotte and Lilah, who had their 6 month shots on the 15th. Whoops. But all we knew how important it was to bring them to spend their first Christmas with the whole family, so we had to make sure that anyone who held the girls had to wash their hands after and could no longer come in contact with Rod (sad face), and we all had to try to contain the girls' possible contamination, which is easier said than done with little ones who wiggle this much and are currently fascinated with blowing raspberries and forming swimming pools of drool. I think we did ok - no reports from Rod of any problems.

Sean then took his Dad's car back to our house to feed the dog and pick up our dessert. The car needed to be driven and have the fluids checked since it's been sitting around most of the winter. I went ahead to my grandma's house with the girls and Sean wasn't far behind - but missing the cheesecake. Wah?! Bummer. But I guess that means more for me! We ate, again, shared some laughs, and headed home, exhausted and stuffed to our ears with holiday goodies.

On Saturday, my parents took the girls for their very first sleep-over so Sean and I could have our first real date since the girls came home and even get some sleep. I had been looking forward to this for WEEKS. I carried about 40 pounds of gear into their house, gave some quick instructions, and then hit the road. We went to the Main Street Ale House and had some beers and dinner and did our best not to make the ladybugs our sole topic of conversation. We started looking at movie times on Sean's phone and you could feel the enthusiasm hit the floor with a thunk. We decided to just go home and go to bed, and were there by 9 p.m. Yup, we're officially lame-o parents. But it was so nice get away, just the two of us and focus on each other for a change. Good beer didn't hurt either.

And thus was our weekend. Phew.

From Charlotte and Lilah together

Cooking with Britt - Crispy Black Bean Tacos

I saw this recipe in the Seattle PI months and months ago and thought it looked fantastic, so I made it (with some tweaks, a la Britt) and fell in love. And, like many initial infatuations, I then forgot all about it. But I found myself dreaming about crunching into these a few weeks ago, bought the ingredients and waited for the right night - you know, one where I actually have time to put multiple ingredients together and cook it all up. On Christmas Eve, since Sean and I were staying home in the interest of keeping the ladybugs cheerful for Christmas Day, I wanted to make something special for the two of us to share and Sean suggested these tacos. I almost drooled like Roscoe but refrained from spinning excitedly in a circle and spraying slobber everywhere.

Then, I found myself talking about the recipe with a co-worker and realized that it's one of those great recipes I just have to share with others. And since I have a forum for that kind of stuff (mwuh-ha-ha-ha!!), here it is!

Crispy Black Bean Tacos with Feta and Cabbage Slaw
15-ounce can black beans, drained
1/2 teaspoon cumin
1/2 teaspoon salt
8 white or yellow corn tortillas
3 tablespoons lime juice, fresh is best
5 teaspoons olive oil, divided
2 cups coleslaw mix
2 green onions, chopped
1/3 cup chopped fresh cilantro
Ground black pepper, to taste
Hot sauce, to taste - I like Tapatio best for this application
1/3 cup crumbled feta cheese, Cojito would work too.

In a small bowl, combine the beans, cumin and salt. Use a fork to partially mash.
Divide the mixture between the tortillas, spreading it evenly over 1 side of each. Set aside.

In a medium bowl, combine the lime juice and 2 teaspoons of the olive oil. Add the coleslaw mix, scallions and cilantro, then toss well. Season with pepper and hot sauce. Set aside. (Make two batches because once you taste it you'll want to eat this stuff all on it's own, and then you won't have enough for the tacos.)

In a large skillet over medium-high, heat the remaining 3 teaspoons of olive oil. Add the tortillas in a single layer, bean side up, in batches if necessary, and cook for 1 minute. Fold the tacos in half, then cook for about another minute per side, or until golden brown.

Fill each taco with some of the coleslaw mixture and top with a sprinkle of feta cheese. Add more hot sauce here if you want.

I also topped with some diced avacado. Because I can.
I'm drooling again. *slurp*

Cooking with Britt - Cranberry Sauce

I like to cook. More importantly, I like good food, prepared to my taste, and cheap. Which means cooking it myself is the best solution unless it's Papa John's pizza or Yia Yia ice cream. Usually I get a hankering for something (hankering is a surprisingly underused word in my opinion), and then try to find a recipe that seems about right. I hardly ever follow the recipe exactly - I consider them to be more "guidelines" than anything else - and, in my humble opinion, it usually turns out to be pretty darn good.

Sometimes it takes several efforts before I master it, as is the case with my homemade cranberry sauce recipe, which actually started life as a cranberry chutney. I make it every year, sometimes for both Thanksgiving and Christmas, and every year something changes. This year I was given the most solid of compliments yet: Sean, who adores the gelatinous, wobbly, can-shaped version of cranberry sauce, actually said that mine topped that. Now, some might not see that as a compliment because, really, who could do worse than the canned sauce, right? But to him, this was a James Beard award.

So, in the spirit of the holidays, and with the potential for this to become a regular feature, here is:

Britt's Cranberry Sauce
1/2 mild onion, diced (yellow or sweet onion will do)
3 tbsp. butter
4 cups fresh cranberries (or two small bags)
1 cup dried apricots
Two apples, peeled, cored and diced
Zest and juice of one orange
Pinch of salt
1/2 cup candied ginger, diced small (this is a KEY ingredient)
3/4 cup brown sugar
1/2 cup candied or roasted pecans or walnuts, chopped (you can candy by spraying with Pam, tossing with some sugar, and baking in an oven until the sugar is melted up, about 10 minutes - or just roast without sugar if preferred - then chop)

Sautee the onions with the butter until clear, then toss everything else in the pot except for the nuts and simmer at medium-low stirring every few minutes. I like to pop the cranberries as they get hot - kind of like bubble wrap! After about 15 minutes everything will have cooked down and you shouldn't see any chunks of fruit any longer. Toss in the nuts just before serving!

This is an inexact recipe - the actual measurements aren't crucial, so don't worry about measuring cups and spoons, etc., just eyeball it and if you want more or less of anything, go for it. Seriously.

Most of the ingredients can be prepped a day or two ahead of time and then just thrown together, which makes it much easier. This recipe written out makes it look more difficult than it actually is, but take my word for it - easy-peasy.

I feel like I need a catch phrase to wrap up food posts.... How about "Yu-hum!" or "Straight to my hips and worth every ounce"? No, those aren't quite right. I'm open to suggestions - if I pick yours, I might show up at your door with food!

Try to be nice.

See the title? We're forced to remind ourselves of this every time we go out with the girls. People are interested in twins, I get it (especially ones as cute as ours. I'm just sayin'.) And, when they're interested they usually try to engage us in conversation so they have an excuse to oggle the ladybugs a little more. Unfortunately, "cute" makes some brains turn to mush. After all, just look at me and my record of bringing home stray animals.

So, to summarize: Cute + twins - brains = inane commentary.

When Sean goes out with the girls, he constantly hears small talk like, "You're so brave!", "Quite a handful you've got there", "You're all by yourself?", and "Where's mom?" The general public is constantly commenting on how great it is to see Daddy out with two babies. But does anyone say to me, "Where's Daddy?" or "It's so great you're out with them on your own, Mom"? Nope. I'm SUPPOSED to be able to do this because I'm mommy. At this point (because they're bottle fed), Sean has the same skill sets that I do! There is nothing inherently different about him and I that makes me more competent with twin babies or him less. No one ever thinks twice about it when it's just me. So why is everyone so impressed?

Because guys are slackers, that's why. They use their gender as an excuse not to do things like rock a baby or change a diaper. Do you think a mom could say, "I can't change diapers because they make me squeamish" and get away with it? (Maybe in an episode of not-so-Real Housewives.) We're supposed to be in a world of equality, but as far as I can see, guys are more than willing to cut and run when it comes to baby stuff. (Sean and several of our wonderful dad-friends excluded, of course.) It's a racket. And a clever one at that. Not only do they get out of helping with the down-and-dirties, they get tons of kudos on the rare occasion they DO participate. So maybe guys are smarter than girls after all....

But the public comments aren't limited to expressions of awe about Sean. Those eyeballs see the girls, send a message to the brain...and it shuts down faster than Enron. All that comes out of their mouth after that point is the equivalent of Ashley Simpson music - you could listen, but why would you want to? Just to make fun of it later, that's why.

"Oh, a boy and a girl?" - What tipped you off, the baby dressed entirely in lavender, or the one completely in pink?

"Do twins run in your family?" - I'm tempted to design biology pamphlets explaining why identical twins aren't genetic... and then staple it to the person's forehead.

"Wait'll they're teenagers" - Always hilarious and encouraging, as well as entirely new and creative. Yup, never gets old.

"How do you tell them apart?" - Why would we need to? The beauty is that they're interchangable!

"Are they twins?" - There's two?!

Sean's answer to this question is: "No, but their moms are!"

And they're only 6 months old. I have a lot of "be nice" reminders in my future, don't I? Those of you who know me are aware that my filter isn't always that great and sometimes, eeeee-very once in a while, I let slip what's really on my mind. Maybe instead of a college fund we should be stashing away legal defense fees for Mommy. Although if a judge heard some of what people say I would clearly be justified in afore mentioned forehead stapling.

Don't call it a comeback, I've been here for 6 months!

The girls had their 6 month appointment this week and I think I can safely say that they're quickly catching up to their peers!

Let's start with non-adjusted growth:
Lilah - Height 2' 1.25" (28th percentile), weight 12lb 1.7 oz (1st percentile), head 43 cm (64th percentile)

Charlotte - Height 2' 1" (20th percentile), weight 12lb 6.4oz (1.5 percentile), head 42.5 cm (49th percentile)

Yes, a quarter inch in length equals an 8 percentile points difference and a half cm in head equals 15 percentile points difference.

Yes, the girls are greater then or equal to more than half of their peers when it comes to head size (say thank you to Daddy, ladybugs!)

And yes, Charlotte and Lilah, at 6 months, are nearly half my height.

I forget about how tiny these little ones are until I hear from other moms. One has a 4 month old that is 18 pounds, another's 6 month old was over 20 pounds. When I set the girls into their cribs with only one arm I think about how much harder it would be if they weighed what they're supposed to. But, they're quickly growing out of all of their clothes because they can't straighten their legs in the PJs or have the pant legs go up to their knees. Who knew that children of mine would be too TALL?

The ladybugs are also catching up with the 6 month developmental milestones: holds head steady when upright, sits with support, rolls over front to back and back to front independently, supports self in standing position (assisted), reaches for objects, recognizes own name, smiles spontaneously, squeals in delight, babbles to toys, transfers objects from hand to hand (Charlotte has a little more hand control), pulls to sit with no head lag, turns to voices, get attention by babbling instead of crying.

They also do a few things that are above their age: moves body with excitement in anticipation of playing, enjoys peek-a-boo, works to get a toy that is out of reach (they shuffle on their backs).

And a few that they aren't quite ready for: making noises that sound like attempts at speech, holds own bottle (Charlotte holds the bottle tightly but more out of comfort than trying to manage it), sits without support (those darn heads still).

They had to have 4 (!) shots at this visit, including the h1n1 that they're finally old enough to get. The clinic was out of one so they only got 3 shots, but something tells me that was more than enough. I've seen the girls cry for a variety of reasons, but rarely do they produce actual tears, and when they do, it's the saddest thing to see. Luckily, they recover quickly with a good cuddle unless they're exhausted, which Lilah was. We got out into the waiting room and got our first piece of unsolicited stranger advice (lucky us, I know, but we don't have a lot of chances to get them out much). Some older gentleman said, "You know, I was a nurse and babies usually calm down after shots if you cuddle them." I kindly responded, "We did, but she's very tired and more upset about that than anything." What I wanted to say, dripping with sarcasm, was, "Really? I never thought of that. Thank goodness I have complete strangers around to tell me what my baby needs! How can I ever thank you? Whatever you do, please, continue to offer unsolicited and entirely obvious advice to those around you!" But, I'm sure he meant well, so I kept that to myself.

Charlotte found her tongue this week, licking everything that comes near her mouth, including burp rags, blankets, hands (hers or someone else's), and our shoulders. I can ask where her tongue is, stick mine out and she will stick hers out for me to touch. She loves when I touch her tongue and is torn between keeping it held out and grinning from ear to ear. Let's hope that doesn't last past childhood.

Lilah is really getting the hang of this eating thing and absolutely loved the pureed banana with pear juice I made. (Don't be impressed. I have mini-Cuisinart and just dropped a banana in with some juice. It took about 20 seconds and made enough to last for weeks. I spoon some in little Dixie cups and freeze it.) Lilah opened her mouth wide whenever she saw the spoon coming and swallowed every single bite. Charlotte was reluctant to let the spoon into her mouth and still pushes her food out onto her chin, mostly because she's playing with the texture.

In other news, part of the reason I'm so delayed in posts is because I had strep throat the week before last and it pretty much wiped me (and my vacation balance) out.

And we had a bit of a scare with Roscoe this past weekend. I got home from work on Friday and he didn't greet me at the door with his usual enthusiasm. All evening, even when we were eating on the couch, he remained laying down in the lower living room, not even playing with a toy. When we heard him whimper we thought he was sleeping but looked and he was wide awake. We called him to join us on the couch and he very gingerly walked up the two steps, had difficulty jumping onto the couch and then piddled. All of this was very out of character for our sturdy and enthusiastic puppy. We looked him over and noticed that he had very little strength in his back legs and was trembling from head to toe. Not sure if he could have gotten into something, we called Nanntastic Cindy to see if he had been acting normal for her during the day. He had. So whatever it was came on suddenly. Sean, bless his heart, felt horrible that Roscoe couldn't get on and off our bed where he normally sleeps at night, so he coaxed Roscoe onto the low guest bed and slept in that chilly room with him all night so he wouldn't be alone. I took Roscoe to the vet in the morning (which involved me lifting all 67 pounds of him into and out of the truck - it's amazing how animals can somehow make themselves weigh more when they don't want to do something!) and she confirmed that it was pain in both hips, not some sort of paralysis. It could have been hip dysplasia, but that usually shows up in younger dogs (he's 5) and usually after a very active day (he hasn't had in active day since we got our Christmas tree). Another possibility was "sterile" meningitis, the sterile part meaning that it developed on it's own and wasn't contagious. She gave us anti-inflammatories to feed him twice a day and sure enough, he started acting better within a few hours. After the pills run out we'll see if he has a recurrence, but no one wanted to put him through x-rays and tests if it was something easily resolved. So now he's on and off the bed, begging for food, and back to his same old self. We're keeping our fingers crossed that he stays happy and healthy after this! He has two little girls to look after and they're going to be mobile soon!

6 months!!!

Quick update:
The girls turned 6 months old this Tuesday - how the time flies. Although, it took long enough that their 1st birthday still seems ages away!

Lilah slept through the night for the last two evenings and I'm crossing my fingers that these girls will synchronize their Swatches and perform this magical feat at the exact same time. (No, they don't have Swatches, but if they did, Charlotte's would be pink and Lilah's would be purple.)

Sleeping through the night may have something to do with the fact that they're working on the solid food thing. This weekend I cut, steamed and pureed both carrots and butternut squash to see how these higher fiber foods would be received, because the rice cereal was not doing us any favors. The girls still have no idea what this solid food thing is all about, but Lilah is better at opening her mouth to see what this new texture thing is. Nanntastic Cindy reported back that the carrots were a big flop (insert Price is Right over-bid sound here). Both girls made horrid faces with squinty eyes and squinched mouths and discovered that orange is a great color for clothes, faces and hair. Noted.

A few days later she tried the squash, which got the fun label "butt nut" on the container, with mixed results. This time the texture was a little more up their alley and Charlotte even opened her mouth for more. Nanntastic Cindy thought that they actually ingested quite a bit of it, which I interpreted to mean that she found less on their clothes than last time. And when the time came for their next bottle, they really weren't interested because they were still full! Success! We still aren't considering "butt nut" as a replacement for a meal, but it's a good start all the same.

Next week: Apples and bananas.

In other news, thanks to the amazing generosity of friends and family, and their children who grew far too quickly out of pre-purchased diapers, we have only had to buy diapers once in 6 months. But, this weekend I anticipate that the diaper well (maybe that's notthe best term?) will officially run dry. Not a bad stretch as far as I'm concerned, but since we still haven't seen a check from all those ad clicks you've been doing, it's going to cramp the budget a bit. Maybe we're close to reducing some formula costs in exchange for cheaper fruits and veggies? Fingers crossed.