Old Friends

One of life's little 'treasures' is hidden away in the friends ones makes in college. We were so lucky to be able to connect with a few old friends this week. Of course, we are talking with a lot of old friends again because of Face Book, but sitting down together while your kids play together - having met for the very first time but seeming like old friends themselves - is a treasure that cannot be replicated over the internet.

We enjoyed catching up with Carol and Chris and their beautiful children. (See Silas holding Grayson in the photo.) I think we quickly forget how enriched these connections make our lives.

Sick Baby!

Well, it was bound to happen sooner or later. The positive take on it - we made it to 11 months old before we had any illnesses. On the negative side - it occurred right when we decided to take our first ever trip with the babies! On the way down to the lake we noticed little Snugs coughing a bit, but we didn't think too much about it because he is cutting 4 teeth right now and we figured he was drooling sooo much and trapped in a car seat that it was probably just that. Well...we were so wrong!

We decided to call his doctor first thing in the morning. She told us to take him to an urgent care place. So I packed him up and left Doug and Pumpkin at the lake house and figured I would get my Rx and be back in an hour or so. Instead, we ended up with two breathing treatments, chest x-rays, blood work, and a take home nebulizer! Then we were told to bring him back if he wasn't better in 2-3 days.

We were back the NEXT day. Snugs could not keep anything down, couldn't breath, and had become lethargic. More breathing treatments, an IV, more meds, and back to the lake house we go. Poor Snugs...he spent all but the last day of our vacation doing this:We never even got in the lake! And after packing all their suits and floaties, too.

Feeling a Bit Down...

I think we can chalk it up to some serious lack of sleep over the last 11 months (really more like 15-16 months, if you've ever been pregnant with twins you know how unpleasant it is to try and sleep!) or the changing of the hormone balance in my person as I I have dropped down to only 4 pumps a day (from 6+). I am feeling pretty down, in a diffuse sort of way.

I do have pictures of the boys to put up, but the camera won the battle during the pool visit this weekend, so 75% of the pictures I thought I was taking ended up not being on the camera. Which bites. I am going to load up pictures tomorrow when I can sit at the computer without little hands pulling at me the entire time.

So this coming week will be hectic - planning and packing for SC, going to the Little Gym, trying to take more 'stuff' to my new school, cleaning house, planning food, and who knows what else. I am sure this is only a tiny tip of the underlying iceberg. I'm just to out of sorts to focus on it right now. So rather than bring everyone else down, I am going to brush my teeth, pump, and go to bed!

The PeaPod arrived!

Today Gabe and Grayson stayed at home with mom so Doug could try and get some work done. Of course, it didn't help that Doug threw his back out this morning and spent the better part of an hour on the kitchen floor lamenting his back and his age.

We had a lot of fun today - especially when the boys PeaPod arrived. I am trying to figure out what we are going to do about sleeping at the lake - and people on my twins board suggested this little PeaPod portable sleep crib. It set up super easy - just open it and it pops up. I set it up in the foyer and let them have at it. I didn't get the camera fast enough to get a shot of both of them in it bouncing on the little air mattress - but I think it is obvious just how fun it is by the look in Grayson's face.

The other item that is worth mentioning is that Gabe only took one nap today. He slept from 11:30-almost 1:30 and then would not take an afternoon nap. He stayed up until almost his regular bedtime. Shocking! I think he was really enjoying his "one-baby" time when Grayson was sleeping this afternoon. He was really practicing standing up and balancing. I can't believe he is already do it.

Big Day!

Today was a big day, which in retrospect seems odd, as we spent many, many hours of it in the car coming and going to Ashburn for Grayson's eye appointment. So the big things for today were:

• Grayson's eye seems to be getting better. The doctor wants us to continue doing the patching 3-4 hours a day for another 2 months and then come back. This is GREAT news, as the first doctor we saw offered us no help except to tell us we needed to schedule surgery. We may be able to avoid the surgery all together - and if not, at least make it a much less drastic one. We are going to get that stupid patch on him if it kills us!

• We had lunch at California Tortilla - with no baby seats, no car seats, and no baby food. Yep. We each held a baby on our laps up to the table and they split a cheese quesadilla right off the menu and Gabe decided he really like tomatoes and he ate a bunch of salsa. We survived it, made very little mess, and the boys seemed thrilled. Cool.

• Once we were home we watched Gabe test his balance over and over again - standing up and letting go of his support. This went on for over an hour, then he started letting go and thinking he could just point himself towards whatever he wanted and go! Of course, he always fell as soon as he picked up a foot, but still - the boy is thinking about walking. I thought we had MONTHS before this was going to be an issue.

• And lastly, Grayson has been drooling up a storm for several weeks and tonight I had him on the floor tickling him - so I got a big gummy grin from him. And what do I see in that big grin? I see a little white bump of his top left front tooth! He is cutting his top teeth!!! He will be so happy to be able to bite into things, I know.
  

So there you have it - no baby seats, table food, balancing and trying to walk, and cutting more teeth...and they aren't even 11 months old yet. Somehow we thought they would be little "babies"a lot longer than it appears is the reality. They are growing up too fast!

Just another day...

at the Bowen house! Today was our crazy Wednesday schedule where I try to pack in way too much in one day. We started with breakfast on the porch - I don't know what we are going to do when we can't feed the boys outside this winter!

After a quick breakfast we packed up into the car and headed for the Little Gym class. What really sucks is that I am now paying for a young lady to come with me to help me so both boys can enjoy the classes that I am paying through the nose for. The good thin is that they clearly had a good time - more fun than last time because they got to do more since there was one grown up per baby. Grayson has really taken to the "shake, shake, shake your bells" song. He LOVES to shake them and make lots of noise. They both have some Madi Gras beads I brought home from school that they will get going on the hardwood floors in out foyer and shake them until you can barely hear anything. They think it is riot.

Gabe really liked climbing the stairs (no shock here, it is new favorite thing to do) and hanging and bouncing on the rings. The class wipes them out and they fell asleep in the car before we were even out of the parking lot!


We had a nice lunch, outside again, and then CB got to the house and watched them for almost 3 hours so I could go to Talbot's (big sale + birthday discount - woo hoo!!) and the grocery store. This was nice - but again, it pains me that I pay someone to sit in my house while they sleep! Oh well... After she left I had another interview for help when school starts. I really liked the lady so I hope it works out. I know Doug needs to get some work done and I also know that we can't keep the kids at the store every day. They need to be playing, being played with, and learning new things. It would be a disservice to let them just stay in the office everyday.



We were already having dinner when Doug got home tonight. After the boys finished eating Doug played with them before they totally crashed. It was a jam packed day - but it was tons of fun for them - and that is what matters.

First Steps (for the Mommy!)

Today I took the first steps to settling in to my new job at Skyline. It is bitter sweet, as I really did want my boys to go to WS, but they made me go out and look for a job - and I found several. Of course, they posted my job (which didn't exist when I needed to make a decision about what to do) late last week. I have to move forward, though.....

So today I went and got fingerprinted (for the 5th time!), got my TB test, and started moving boxes into my new classroom. Room 135. If I do what I do, it will soon simply be known as 'the chem lab' like it was at WS. I saw my class schedule - I have 1st block planning then 3 chem classes - 2 regular, one honors first semester. Then next semester my planning period shifts to 3rd block, but still 2 regular and 1 honors chem.

It looks like it is official. Paperwork is almost complete, boxes have started to move, and my name is up on "the big board" for scheduling.

Now I am off to my Twins club meeting. I am really hoping it gets MUCH better now that we have a new president. I was about to quit at the end of the spring - it really needs work. I'm going to give it a few more months to see a change.

Another One Baby Day!

Today was a another "one baby" day. I had a nice day with Grayson today, but somehow I didn't manage to take any pictures! We went over to the red house to show it to some possible renters. Grayson had never been there - and the house was empty - so he had a great time shouting and babbling the entire time we were there because it was loud and echoed a bit. The family thought it was funny, too.

By the time we got home Doug and Gabe had already left for work. We played on the fllow a bunch and then had lunch. It was really nice to get to give all my attention to one baby - I always worry that one is feeling left out - so this was really nice. Grayson decided it was time for a nap after lunch. He was so sweet and snuggly. It was really hard to put him down. I wanted soooo much to just snug up with him in the bed and take a nap, too.

Grayson had PT in the afternoon - and he had a good time playing with Jen. He is coming along nicely and is always so happy to do whatever we want him to do. I feel so lucky that he is so good natured and happy almost all the time. What a sweet little boy.....

Happy 4th of July!

Today was a big day for the babies. (How much longer do I get to call them babies? They will be a year old in only 5.5 weeks - oh my!) We spent the morning at home playing with the boys - they were all over the place! Now that they are cruising around any vertical surface they can use as a balance point, they are really moving. In fact, at one point the cat got cornered and ran for the stairs. When the boys saw it, they bee lined after her and in a matter of seconds Grayson was going up the stairs. So now we need a baby gate for the stairs.

We went to FR in the afternoon to run errands and they were really good the whole time. We stopped by a little consignment shop and picked up another little table like the LeapFrog one we have at home. We took it to the store so they could have one to play with their when they go to work with their Daddy. We picked up some BBQ (OK, not great) and had ice cream, too :) Since it was time for their nap, we spent about an hour driving around town looking at some houses that we have been talking about maybe buying.

When we got home we made burgers for the grill and the IL came over. Doug and Lee took the babies into the pool. They LOVE the water. It was a little cool, so it was a short dip, but they kicked and laughed. After the swam they were worn out and went to bed and we all ate dinner. Doug then shot off his first attempt at home made fireworks and fountains.



It was a busy, busy day - but good.

A Week in Still Life

I thought it would be nice to make Fridays a review day of sorts. So on Fridays I am going to try and make a quick little slide show of photos from the week. Sometimes all you need are a few good photos to make you smile :)

Grassy Knwoll

It was a nice cool day (In July - how odd, I know!) and we spent some time outside in the back yard on 'the grassy knowll.'

We haven't spent much time outside this summer because it has been raining so much - so a nice dry day begged to be taken advantage of! The yard has several terraces and is quite steep in some places. It was fun to see Gabe try and navigate the terrain. He saw the kitty and got so excited he took off after her and rolled sideways. We thought it was funny, but he wasn't so sure. We didn't get any good closeups of Grayson. He doesn't like the bright light and was all squinty in every picture.

The Little Gym and Tofu = Great Day!

Today I got to keep both boys with me all day - and not because one of them had a doctor's appointment or was sick. This is doesn't ever happen, so it was a pretty cool day for me. We started the day with our first ever attempt at a class at the Little Gym. All in all it went well. I will say, however, that despite them assuring me on the phone that they would have a helper for me so my boys would get to do everything everyone else got to do, that didn't happen. I felt very out of the loop when they did things that required spotters because only one of my kids would get to do it, which sucked. It is pretty pricey for twins, so I am torn about signing up for the rest of the summer given that they didn't help accommodate the boys. I'm still trying to figure it out. I have until next Wednesday, so I have some time.


Now, for the tofu part...I know it may seem like I am a bit obsessed with food these days, but you have to understand that Doug and I have eaten more gross frozen pizzas in the last 10 months than we had eaten in the previous 15 years. We have missed real food. We have missed cooking. We have missed eating like grownups. We are not the take-out type, we make most everything from scratch (hello -- cheaper and healthier!) including all our baby food, we compost, we recycle (even the toilet paper tubes), and yes, we use cloth diapers. We have missed being who we are!!! So yes, the fact that I had the time and energy to make one of our old 30 minutes or less standby dinners that required chopping and fed out compost pile makes me really, really, really happy.


Like I said, a great day :)

For those that care to try it:

For the sweet and sour sauce:

• 1/2 c. catsup
• 3 Tbs. cider vinegar
• 2 Tbs. cornstarch
• 2 Tbs. brown sugar
• juice from 1 20 oz can of pineapple chunks (in natural juice, not syrup)
• 1 1/2 Tbs. soy sauce

Just mix it all together. Stir fry your favorite veggies and protein. (Tonight we used a zucchini, a red onion, two carrots, a head of broccoli, and a block of pressed tofu - because that was what was in our fridge.) Do the protein first, take it out of the pan - then do the veggies. When the veggies are ALMOST cooked like you want them, give the sauce a stir and pour it in along with the pineapple chunks. It will thicken pretty fast. Be warned - the sugar in the sauce and the pineapple almost always get screaming hot.


TIPS to make it all happen in <30 minutes:

Start a pot of rice before you do anything else.

While your protein sautes, chop your veggies. Separate your veggies into two piles, those that cook fast, and those that take longer.

For the veggies that take longer (like carrots and broccoli), put them in a microwave proof bowl with a little water and cover and cook for about 90 seconds to get them partially steamed. Then add them to the skillet.