Oh Christmas Tree...

 Stella and Lucy getting ready to go to the North Pole on Wednesday!

Even though we are headed back to Minnesota for Christmas- I still wanted to put up a tree!
And as much as we would have loved to get a real Christmas tree, we decided that we should stick with our old artificial one to minimize the watering and needle-cleanup etc.

So last week, we empty out our entire closet to get down into the basement (which is what we have to do any time we need to get down there to get/do anything: storage, check the water heater, change the furnace filter, and oh, I don't know, scoop up water?). Anyway... we go down to retrieve the Christmas stuff and we find everything; everything but the top of the 3-piece tree. For the last several years we have used the artificial tree, but we only use the middle and top portion- since the bottom portion is too big for the typical Baltimore row home. We did have leaking down there this year, so we moved things around a bit; we looked and we looked (and the basement is not that big) with no luck. So we tried other spots in the house in which it may have migrated... no luck.

We did not find the top of the tree. However, I did find my mini Christmas tree that I bought in 6th grade at Walgreens. So... utilizing some wishful thinking and tinkering (along with duct tape and some bamboo skewers)- I attached the mini tree to the top of the middle portion... and then we decorated! Needless to say, it does not look great, but it does keep us laughing!

Guten Tag!

As it turns out, Lucy's first language is German.. just like 'mein Vater' (my father)!

Say Say Oh Playmate...won't you come play with me

Everyone always asks me how I "do it" with twins; they say that they know how it is with one baby... but two???   I hear all about "double trouble" and "you have your hands full" and the "god bless you, I know I couldn't do it!". When I was pregnant people would tell me that it would be hard at first, but over time it would get easier.

So first of all, I disagree with the "hard at first but then gets easier" statement. For the first few months, even though there were challenges no doubt, all the girls really did was eat, sleep, and poop- what's so hard about that? At least not hard compared to later months; especially the months when they became mobile:)

Gone are the days when you could just plop them down and they wouldn't (couldn't) wander; they do tend to run in different directions whenever possible which does make things a bit challenging. Gone are also the days that they were unaware of each other.

Now that they are very aware of each other, we have the fighting over who plays with what toy, who reads what book, who gets carried, who sits in who's lap. We have the hair-pulling and the biting. We have the ear-tugging and the nose-pulling. We have the pushing, shoving, yelling, screaming, pouting, and over-the-head toy bopping.

On the other hand, we have the snack-sharing and back-rubbing; we have the laughter and the mimicking. We  have the shrieks of delight and jabbering. We have the smiling, tickling, giggling, consoling, and forever playmate... we have twins!

So while people are constantly reminding me of how hard it must be or is 'supposed ' to be. I just say: First, I don't know anything different, and second, now, I think we may actually have it easier than those folks with just one... because they have a consistent playmate and friend to keep them occupied!, The one exception of course is that they also have a partner in crime:)

Beauties and the Beasts

We spent Thanksgiving weekend in sunny Baltimore. We had quite the feast for our little family unit. Tonight was actually the first night that we did not have leftovers! I already miss the wild rice casserole that has been a staple in our family thanksgivings for as long as I can remember.

The first beast: This was the first time I have attempted to make an entire Turkey and it was exciting, nerve-racking , and a bit gross.

The whopping 9.9 pounder fit nicely in our mini fridge.

 So I made the glaze and officially bought the Turkey... 

but I just couldn't take out the innards myself- so Dave came in very handy.

After only 2 hours-It came out perfect!

The other beasts:
We went to the Maryland zoo for the first time (and the first time our little beauties have been to any zoo) on Saturday.

Checking out the giraffes and the cheetah

After taking a close look at the leopard we realized that our "Cheetah Lounge" 

should actually be the "Leopard Lounge"!

The lion came right up to the window to take a closer look.

The Maryland Zoo is really a city zoo and was only a few minutes away from our house. You would never have guessed we were in Baltimore proper once we got in however- it was really spacious and the habitats were quite nice. Next stop- the National Zoo in DC!

Thank goodness for Rotten Eggs

This morning just before 7AM I awoke to a lovely smell of rotten eggs. Was it Dave attempting to cook me breakfast? Did Teddy get into the trash? No and no. It was the rotten egg smell that is added to natural gas; it was strong. I went downstairs to find that one of the knobs on the stove was turned and had been that way all night. I look up the emergency gas leak number and call right away Was I going to have to take the girls out of the house.. in the rain? Luckily we were just instructed to open all the windows and doors that we could and not turn anything on or off for 1 hour. So if a light was on.. leave it on. No microwaving, no coffee making, no breakfast scrambling. While the emergency tech said there was no need to wake up the kids.. .we did, and we opened the window in their room to let the nice cold morning (and egg-free) breeze inside. Eventually we went back to sleep for a bit and woke to a fresh, albeit chilly, surrounding.

On another not so thankful note: when I brought the girls upstairs for their nap this afternoon I set Lucy down in the nursery and she slipped... in the water. The water that was on the floor. The water that was dripping from our roof. The same roof that we just paid a lot of $$ to have replaced. The roofers will be here bright and early in the morning to fix it!

Foot In Mouth.... & Spoon and Face

Foot in Mouth: So lately I have been speaking a lot of 'baby talk' in public without realizing it... and it's only sometimes that my children are actually with me. "Mommy wants coffee.. mmmm; and I wonder, where are the bananananananas?"

Spoon in Mouth: I have been working on getting the girls to use spoons We have tried a few times, some more successful than others. They love eating with the spoon, its just hard to scoop up what they want.

Face in Mouth: I caught the end of Stella biting Lucy in the cheek. There was screaming, but then an abrupt smile when Lucy realized she still had the sippy cup in question. On the other hand, maybe she was just posing for the camera!

My biggest challenge so far

Warning: First-time mom insanity clearly outlined below.

One can imagine, that after having a baby, not to mention twins, that we face numerous challenges as parents. There might even be one that trumps all others. What might that be? Lack of sleep? Dealing with temper tantrums? How about tantrums in public? Maybe the realization that you will never ever not worry again? What about diapers, germs, baby-proofing and development?

While these are all indeed challenges, the one thing that has remained my constant challenge is FOOD.

Let me elaborate:

Pregnancy:
Eat a fully balanced diet, take my vitamins, steer clear of tuna, smoked fish, soft cheese, anything under-cooked (no sushi, eggs over easy, or anything less than medium-well) along with a host of other things. "Don't eat too much sugar"; "don't eat too much salt"; "don't eat too much"... but "eat enough, after all, there are two in there!"

Birthday- 6 months:
Latching on- what's that? What do you mean most babies 'catch on' right away?? Pumping, bottle feeding, waking up in the middle of the night every 90 minutes to feed expressed milk and then setting my alarm every 4 hours to pump; 90 minutes bottle, another 90 minutes bottle, another 60 minutes pump, another 30 minutes bottle etc. etc. After five long weeks they finally figured it out.

My thoughts: Are they getting enough? Am I eating enough? Do I have to supplement? What about vitamin D? Remember to take my vitamins. Remember to give the girls their vitamins! And, will I ever get to have a glass of wine??

Should I try formula? Soy-based or milk-based? Powder or Liquid? Was that brand recalled?
Ultimately it never mattered much; we tried it, but the girls wouldn't drink it, and then they stopped taking a bottle all together. This made my social life even more challenging to say the least.

6 months- attempt the solid food; deal with the cute (at-first) cringing and spitting everything out
7 months- attempt the solid food... slight progress- still a lot of cringing
8 months- will eat sweet potatoes and peas... and start moving into other foods slowly.

Truly solid food (as in chunks not pureed): Are the pieces too big? Will they choke on that? Is that a rash? Are they allergic to strawberries? What about peanuts, how do I introduce them to that? Should I even introduce them to that? Are there steroids in eggs? Are those peaches organic? Is there added sugar in that applesauce?

Am I feeding them a balanced enough diet? What if they will only eat cheerios and applesauce?? Why don't they like milk? Are they lactose intolerant?

Oh, no, diaper explosion... it's everywhere. What did they eat? Why do they have diarrhea? Why has it lasted more than a week? What's a pro-biotic? Is that yogurt too sweet? Should I buy soy yogurt? Are they getting enough liquids? Please don't dehydrate!

Oh no, now Stella is not able to keep food down, what happened? Does she have E. Coli? Let's look it up on WebMD (haha, not a good idea by the way).

Now we are dealing with each of the girls eating different things. I made a butternut squash soup with apples, carrots, and celery along with a "green pudding" with spinach, avocado, and applesauce (might sound gross to some, but it was pretty tasty). Lucy eats only the green stuff and Stella the orange. On the other hand when they are eating mixed veggies, Stella picks out the green stuff (peas and green beans) and Lucy picks out the orange (ish) (corn and carrots).

And, what happens if you can't tell how much your child is eating? How does this happen? Well, if you have a pet, you know. It's become quite the game to throw morsels on the floor and see how fast Teddy or Penny can gobble it up. My problem then becomes... how much ended up on the floor and ultimately in a canine's mouth?

Needless to say, I am most likely over-thinking all of this, but that doesn't mean I still don't stress out about it:)  I am getting better as time goes on and slightly more sane.

I still find it quite comical that out of all the challenges a child can bring into their parents' lives, that my largest challenge has been the simple necessity of chow. 

Ooo EEE Ooo ah ah

It was a sunny brisk Halloween today in Birdland (aka Oriole and Raven country). Our whole family woke up this morning with perfectly appropriate halloweeny goop streaming from our breathers. Despite the seasonal snuffles, we still enjoyed the day. We carved a mini- pumpkin and visited Dave at work so the girls could show off their new statuses as Princess Lucy Goopella and Princess Stella Snotella (thanks to Amy L. who passed the cute costumes down after her twin girls were done with them!). We also visited a couple of our neighbors and got some trick or treating in!

Ew.. what do you mean the Prince is a boy??!! Gross!

"I'll take the chocolate, and Stella, you can have the pretzels... moo wah ha ha ha!!"

"Yeah, I know I look cute, obviously...I'm a princess!

Two videos: we received a singing dog for Halloween from Grandma and Opa that sings "Witch Doctor"; the first is this morning, and the second is this evening.

Fountainebleau

Finally, a glorious morning, after 5 months of a climbing morning glory vine... it finally has flowers!

And, while I have not officially talked to the doctor yet. I called and was able to talk to a nurse this morning and she read me the results of the girls blood work.

They have the HB (hemoglobin) Fountainebleau trait. And according to the written results, this variant is not associated with any hematologic or clinical disorders. Thank goodness.

We still are waiting on the official call from the doctor, so there may be additional implications- I don't know.

On a lighter note, I looked up the Fountainebleau trait and found that it originated in an Italian Family- I guess there was a reason that our ladies have slightly Italian sounding names! Now, even though the science says it originated in Italy.. Fountainebleau is very French; actually its a lovely town of 20,000 outside of Paris. In my opinion, I think their true roots probably lie in royalty... the Chateau de Fountainebleau for example!

OK, so maybe that's a bit overkill, but at least now we know:)

The Good News and the Bad News

The good news is that I spent today furiously cleaning and making cookies to keep myself busy while waiting... The bad news is that we never received the call from the doctor at the Pediatric Hematology department with the girls' blood results.

Two and half months ago I called (after being referred by our pediatrician) Mount Sinai's pediatric hematology/ oncology department to set up an appointment. The purpose was to draw the girls' blood in order to determine the identity of an unknown variant in their blood. When babies are born they receive the PKU test. Most babies are born with FA red blood cells (fetal and adult) and by the time they are one, they only have the A red blood cells. The girls PKU came back as FAV (fetal, adult, and a variant). Our pediatrician recommended we go to a specialist, but not until they were at least one.

I find out that we apparently cannot just set up an appointment on referral, we have to have our doc send all the paperwork and ask for the appointment himself- and then the hospital will call us back to set up an appointment. I had our doc do all the necessary steps... 2 weeks go by. I call Mount Sinai... they said they received the paperwork and were just waiting for us to call... what?? Weren't they supposed to call? Anyway, we set up an appointment.

The appointment itself was four weeks ago.

So 4 weeks ago, we went to Mount Sinai; we were brought into the exam room (aka hospital room) and told how to work all the electronics and where the play room was with free snacks and refreshments. It felt like we were checking in or something! As it turned out, we used the play room, ate some snacks, and watched cartoons in the room.... as we were there for 3 hours. We arrived thinking we would be there maybe an hour at most, since all we were going to do was draw blood. We had an intern chat with us for 45 minutes. She asked us a lot of random questions and would take several minute breaks between each question and just watch (was it her personality that prompted her to do that? Or was it part of determining if there was something 'wrong'?- who knows...). Fortunately, hospitals are clean.. very clean so the little ladies were able to explore in the room throughout the wait. When the doc finally came it we had been there for 2.5 hours already. He explained that there are over 500 variants and there are only 5 groups to be concerned about. Since neither Dave nor I know if we have a variant (and one or both of us do), he explained that it could either mean something for girls (if both Dave and I have a variant), or not much (if one of us only has it)- but then it could mean something for their children. Or it could mean nothing for anyone... which of course is what we are hoping.

After we were done speaking with the doctor, he told us to call back in 2 weeks. They were sending their blood to the Mayo Clinic and they would know then. He leaves and then we are finally ready to tackle the actual blood-taking. It was not fun. I had taken measures to make sure that both girls were rested and fully hydrated before we went to the hospital, and of course it was now over 3 hours later.

We get home, I mark the calendar for 2 weeks from that day. The two weeks go by, albeit slowly. I call in the morning. They transfer me to the nurses line to leave a message. Its the afternoon, we have heard nothing. Dave calls. He talks to someone who tells him to call back in another 2 weeks....aaah!

I mark the calendar again. Two weeks go by, again, slowly. I call this morning. The receptionist remembers us-- oh you have the red-headed twins! Yes. Our results our in; the doctor wants to call and talk. I call Dave and let him know the results are in. I am nervous. Is it good or bad that the doctor wants to talk? Is it normally just a nurse? It's the afternoon, I have heard nothing. I call back. They said he was definitely going to call today (the second time they confirmed this).

It's 8:30PM, we have heard nothing. Out of any department in a hospital- one would think that a department that deals with your children and specializes in hematology, not to mention oncology, they would be a little sensitive to the fact that parents would like to be notified regarding results (good or bad)... especially if we are told they are in and we are going to be contacted on this day... AAAH!!

My first official blog vent.

I just have to remember the good news...

1 week anniversary of our 3 year anniversary!

October 11, 2011= Dave and I's three year anniversary!

We went on a date... on our roof:)

The Capital and the Capitals

We made a trip to DC to visit our good friend Brian who moved to South Carolina and was back in town for a brief visit. Dario had a BBQ at his digs in downtown DC- we spent a few hours with them while Lucy showed off her two-legged skills and Stella was making sure her mother was behaving herself as she was quite content doing the hip dance with me-- on my hip- most of the afternoon.

Cool Lucy

Brian, Lucy, Stella examining goodies on the coffee table

We made our way to the Verizon center for the hockey game a bit late and it took us quite a while to find parking. We didn't want to pay $25 to park if we were only going to see the last part of the game anyway. We eventually found a spot on the street and we only in the arena for 20 minutes or so. It worked out nicely, being so late we were able to sit on the first level- instead of the fourth where our "official" seats were located.

Does the River look high?...

So we went back up to the Catskills this weekend to retrieve our belongings from our great flood adventure. Fortunately the river did not look high this time around. The basement was dry and our pack n' plays, shoes, Wii and numerous baby books and creative playthings were all present and in good condition- sans water damage.

The trip was short (arrived 9:30PM Friday, left at 1:30PM Sunday) but sweet. Despite the 7 hours it took for us to arrive, the leaves were just about full color and the weather was warm during the day and perfectly cool at night. We were able to relax (as much as one can with two 14-month girls anyway) by the not-so-high river and were able to create the most-recent memory of the fabulous A Frame cabin to succeed (but of course not replace) our last one.

Lucy looking all grown up with her "do" 

Saturday evening- the moon was bright; it illuminated the expansive yard in front of the cabin. We could hear the rushing river behind the crackling fire. Behind us, the walnut trees expelled their seeds; the thumps were quite loud (and somewhat startling in the dark) as the nuts took their 10-foot leaps to the ground. We were sitting in two big Adirondack chairs around the fire; as the night went on, the fog came in and we heard coyotes howling in the distance... it was quite beautiful!

Fourth trip to Minnesota goes off without a hitch!

The last time we were back in Minnesota we had a few adventures that included a trip to the emergency room among other things. The most recent visit was without incident. I guess that kind of depends on how you define "incident" however. I feel that this word is generally used under negative circumstances hence delivering an ultimately negative connotation.

We had an incident on the plane ride to Mpls as we were stuck on the plane almost 2 hours prior to departure. We spent some quality time meandering up and down the skinny aisles of the aircraft. On the return flight, while we left on time ,there was a bit of an incident on Dave's jeans after Lucy's diaper failed to absorb the way we had hoped.

I heard there was an incident with Dave's friend's vehicle while they were exploring up in the north woods... something about a transmission...

There was an incident with the pinata at niece Luna's 1st birthday party- when it just could not be broken.

However, the word "incident" itself merely means an occurrence of some sort.. an event. So while we had a few challenging incidents we had lots of fun ones as well.

Dave, Paul, and I still got to explore St. Paul (and its beers) a bit the night we arrived; we spent a long afternoon with Grandma and Grandpa Treiber; Dave got his boy's weekend at the Twin Pines; I stayed on Grand Ave with my parents (and close to my favorite coffee and bagels!); my sis and I spent an evening mixed with relaxing and cleaning her backyard, and then relaxing again; I made some fun cakes, and we got to go to Luna' s first Birthday party!

So I hope there are many more incidents to come- but let's appreciate the good incidents of today and live in the present- always; as one today is worth two tomorrows (Ben Franklin).

You mean my Daddy used to play with these toys??
They must be REALLY old.

Lucy- does this quilt match my pinafore?; Stella- i don' t know, but it matches daddy- and its awesome!
Thanks for making it (and out outfits) Grandma Karin!!

You have some food right.. there! (Lucy)

"Ooo! Is that daal, dahl, or maybe dal that I smell??" Stella

Grandpa!! Don't make me laugh so hard, I'm eating here!! :)

Uncle Paul and his nieces playing a trio

The 2-story fire on Lake Superior (boys weekend)

Luna-licious!

Becky and Luna; Becky and Nico

Happy Birthday Luna!