(Almost) Walk a Baby

I was reading somewhere recently that kids who walk early are high risk takers and kids who walk later are not.

Can't say for sure if it's true or not, but for my little bear cub kids, I'd say that's about right!

Grunter has been 'practice stepping' back and forth over the thresh hold of the playzone for a month or so and of course they have both been cruising around since they were 9-10 months old.

A couple of weeks ago, Grunter started standing on his own--just for a second or so and then plop! Whoop Whoop was only a day or two behind him.

The day before his first birthday, Whoop Whoop discovered that he can walk behind a wooden push toy and he is SO proud of himself (and oh how cute!), but Grunter isn't really interested.

On Thursday night, Grunter took his first step! It was a shaky millisecond step, but there it was! And it's been happening every day since.

This morning....Grunter went from a sitting/kneeling position to standing all on his own! Oh my...I do believe that walking is right around the corner for this guy. I'm predicting the next couple of days.

They are both shaky and unsure on their feet. When I practice walking with Grunter he's like a drunken baby Frankenstein, but it's not going to stop him. He's ready to GO!

There's been a lot of talk in this house lately of backyards....we are seeing the walls close in on us and wondering what the future looks like. For now...only 2 more months until Spring and our city "backyards" will be ours again. Winter is the hardest part.

Below, Whoop Whoop tries walking for the first time!

What's On Your Plate?

Another one of our New Year's Resolutions was to be better organized with food. Both for ourselves and the babies. When we were pureeing everything, I could just pull out a jar from the freezer stash or mash up some fresh fruit. Well, those days are over!

Now, in order to make sure the boys are getting what they need in the amounts they need, it's taking more work. In some ways it's LESS work, because we can feed them most of the stuff we eat. But now that I'm responsible for their lives, their palates and their nutrition, I felt like I needed to be more organized with what they are eating rather than just pulling stuff out of the fridge all the time and hoping for the best.

To be honest, this 'stage' came up fast and without warning. While Grunter was happy with some finger foods for some of October and all of November/December, Whoop Whoop absolutely, positively would.not.feed. himself. Uh, he's my super stubborn one, remember the standing up in the crib episode??

Then, suddenly December 13th, 2010, he decided that he would feed himself one day and that was it! After that, he wouldn't let us feed him anymore and we were scrambling around for more finger foods.

Here Whoop Whoop is, feeding himself for the first time! It cracks me up the amount of concentration it takes to get those pieces of food in the mouth. He really takes his time to get the pincher grasp just right where Grunter is a grab it and palm it in!

Since that time, we've done a ton of research (imagine that, a bit OCD we are) on health, nutrition and meal planning. After a couple of trial weeks, we made three weekly menus--breakfast, snack, lunch, snack and dinner.

It's working out really well and is so much easier to shop and cook now.

The other resolution I made was to use my slow cooker again. I bought it years ago and have not made use of it whatsoever. Since the beginning of the year, I've made a meal in it every week and it's great! I am really loving it. So far I've made a chicken and sweet potatoes dish, BBQ beef brisket and black bean chili. The boys have been able to eat everything and I freeze half of it for quick meals. Any recipes for a slow cooker you want to pass on?

The other thing I'm really strict about is having ALL meals, including snacks, in the high chair. I want them to be good eaters and have good table manners so I think letting them know early on that meals are at the "table" is the best way to start. Of course, there are going to be times we are out and about that they will eat on the run or in their stroller, but for the most part--we only eat in the high chair. No food in the living area or play area and we do not bring toys to the high chair. Anyone else this strict??

Curious--do any of you have meal/menu planners? Care to share? I would love to post mine, but it's in a PP and I can't figure out how to do that. If anyone wants it, email me.

Bears

I keep moving everything in the house higher and higher.
I feel like I'm living with two bear cubs and everything in the house smells like food.
Wouldn't be surprised if I end up hanging things from the ceiling next month.


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So In Love

I can't believe they are ONE.

(I also can't believe a got a photo of both of them smiling at the same time!)

One Year Ago

I'd been hospitalized over the Xmas holidays, the day after Xmas to New Year's Day.

They thought for sure I would deliver, but after being monitored for a week, my pre-E symptoms were minor enough I was instructed to go home, monitor my blood pressure 3xday and either stay in bed or in the recliner.

I did as told and every week charted my blood pressure rising, rising, rising.

On Wednesday, Jan. 20 I had my weekly OB appointment. That morning as I released the cuff and recorded a record high number I said to Chicken "pack that bag, they aren't going to let me come back home". I felt absolutely fine. But I just knew.

Sure enough I was told to go straight to L & D. We didn't. There was a little voice inside my head that felt so rushed as I was leaving and I just wanted to come back home and take it all in one last time.

So, we got some take out--a lamb shwarma from the street guy--and ate it in the taxi on the way home. Chicken finished packing her bag and mine while I sat in the Lazy Boy a bit dazed and confused. I remember petting the cats and looking around thinking, "This is the last time anything will be like this. The next time I come home, we'll have babies."

I wasn't ready. I mean, I know everyone says you'll never be truly ready but really: I wasn't ready. I am a procratinator by nature and even though I had loads of time to prepare and should have been tick ticking that list, there were still very basic (stupid) things I had failed to do. Like take the breast pump out of the box and figure out how it works (hint--boiling the parts once the twins have arrived home and you are crazy trying to figure out everything? too late.) or get a changing pad. You know, BASIC things. But mostly, we were prepared.

I took a belly shot and had Chicken take photos, remembering that I would never be pregnant again.

35 week and 4 days...

In Triage after being admitted...I look so pretty:) Pretty HUGE!

Even though it was only 364 days ago and I thought I would never forget, it's really hard to remember just how I felt pregnant. How hard it was, how painful and exhausting. I never thought that feeling would go away--I'm glad it has. So much has happened in the past year, that I look at these photos now and it seems a million miles away.

What a wonderful, crazy, hazy year it's been.

I've never written my birth story before. But it's time. I'm ready. Stay tuned....

Option 3 with Options

We kept the car because pumping on the train...? I'm sure it could be done but I'll leave that challenge to someone else.
I'm pumping in the car in a DRESS as it is which was hard to set up and I'm sure some drivers got a nice show but that's how it goes.

We're listening to music really loud which is awesome.

We also decided to keep the car because otherwise someone would have to drive us to the train station after dinner and....everyone but us will be drunk.
They would not hesitate to drive us but I would be hesitant to get in the car, so we're driving ourselves.

Oh and stupid Google maps. The drive took an hour! We're EARLY. That never happens.

This will be the longest I've been away from the twins since they were born. Weird. Right now? No likey.

Thanks for all your input and responses. I'm so grateful to this blog community and all my readers.


- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

Stress Attack! Please Help and Chime In!

We are trying to get out and 'go' with the twins more in the name of being flexible and 'going with the flow'. Unfortunately life with our twins is not very flow-y. We are not naturally the most flow-y people and the boys...well, no one is going to describe them as laid-back! Guess it runs in the family.

• We are booked to go to a baby shower for Chicken's SIL (we love her to death) Saturday afternoon at 2pm. We booked a car for the day ($125).
• Shower starts at 2pm waaaay out on Long Island. Traffic on the LIE on any given weekend is a bitch. We have no idea how long it will take to get there but let's assume at LEAST 2+ hours. (Google maps says 2 hours, 10 minutes at a minimum.)
• Just found out facility has no high chairs. The car we have rented will not fit our two single strollers plus our own high chairs.
• Driving time will be in the middle of lunch--so we have to feed them in the car.
• Baby Shower time will be smack dab in the middle of nap time, which could be disasterous if they don't sleep on the way there.
• Plus, snack time will be at the shower.
• AND dinner time will be back in the car
• We'll have to leave by 4pm as it is to make sure we're home in time for bedtime.
• There's a huge possibility of them falling asleep on the way home which will screw up bedtime.
• We were invited to a last minute family dinner which we had to decline because...our boys need to go to sleep and there's no where for us to put them down. There are two other babies attending who are the type to just conk out in their strollers in the corner of the room. Those would not be our babies. We are lucky if our boys conk out if we are pushing the stroller and that's pretty rare.
• Oh, plus the picking up the rental car, installing the car seats, etc. etc.

Sounds fun, huh?

Oh, and I forgot to mention the part where they really hate to be 'fed' from a spoon for much of anything these days so we have to find a lot of food we can hand them.

And, they have about a 30 minute limit in the stroller when it's MOVING. This restaurant is not child-friendly and there will be no place to just get down, crawl around and explore. It's either stroller or us holding them. OH. And they aren't big into other people holding them right now.

So, if you've done the math, that will be around 7 hours of being contained and not exploring or crawling or cruising or just..PLAYING. I'm sure they'll love it.

Option One: We just go for it and deal with the headaches and hope it turns out better than expected.

Option Two: We cancel the car (there's still time!) and Chicken takes the train out (saving money) by herself and I stay home with the boys.

Option Three: We cancel the car, take the train and have HN watch the boys for the afternoon. We get to go to the shower and enjoy ourselves without subject the babies to the go-with-the-flow which they are not very fond of. And we attend the family dinner.

We seem rigid. I know. Life with twins changes your life. But we have found out what WORKS and I really hate to disrupt them. Disrupting their sleep is going to have a chain-effect. If they fall asleep in the car on the way home, then there's a VERY good chance of it disrupting their night time sleep and them waking up super early. Argh.

On the other hand, maybe we need to learn to be more flow-y and just do it and see what happens.

Oh, and my MIL will be there.

Oy. This post has me so stressed out just thinking about it that I had to stop halfway through and go tweeze some gray hair which is strangely therapeutic for me. And after this past year, there is never a shortage of new grey hair on this head.

I never thought I would be the type of mother who decided that staying home sounded more fun. But here we are and here I am.

What Would You DO??

Edited to add: Chicken just looked at me and said, "Are you OK?" To which I replied, "No, I feel like I might vomit from the stress." I think she's getting a clearer picture now.