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.