Baby Dry diapers... again

Last May I posted this; last week I ordered a pack of 222 Baby Dry diapers so that the girls could wear them overnight to minimize leakage. I opened them last night so each girl was wearing one. This morning guess what happened? I guess I should search my own literature in the future. In the meantime, I am working on returning them to diapers.com; if that's not possible, I imagine we will go through them quickly, especially since they don't hold much!

We want to do what you do!

We are right in the middle of the phase where the girls are constantly wearing our shoes and hats along with sitting in big chairs... slow down little ones!

Lucy wearing Mom's boots and apron

They didn't look excited yet, but when I put something for them to mix in their bowls--- the messy fun began! 

Lucy started this fashion with my hat... and was soon trying it on Stella too... 

I think Stell thought it was too old-fashioned for her taste:)

We couldn't keep the ladies off these 'grown-up' chairs, so we eventually just moved them away from the table
(to prevent table exploring of course)

And we don't want to forget to add this....

HAPPY BIRTHDAY DAD/ OPA, hope you enjoyed the rest of your day!!

Day Trip to Philly

We always talk about how nice it is to live so close to so many other large cities- and that we should take advantage of it while we are here! We traveled up the eastern seaboard quite a bit during the first 18 months after we moved here, but then it tapered off a bit.

So we decided to take a day trip to Philly last weekend. Its less than 2 hours away, and we didn't have to deal with the hassle of staying over night- which entails packing too much stuff, finding someone to watch the dog, and not getting much sleep anyway, since it takes the girls at least one night to acclimate to different surroundings. We had only 2 things on the itinerary: the "Please Touch Museum" for the kids, and then a local brewery for us!

First we traded the old car seats for new big kids ones that face forward- and even have cup holders! The girls were happy to be able to see us and the road... but truth be told, I think Dave and I were more excited about the whole change-of-seat thing in the end.

Stella and Lucy preparing for their first trip in their new seats!

We hit virtually no traffic and arrived at the "Please Touch Museum" less then 2 hours later. We spent almost 3 hours there. The museum is geared to 6 month- 6 years so in every section the girls had something to do.

There was a transit section where you could play on a train or bus and you could even be a race-car mechanic by changing tires (that were magnetized and oriented towards little ones) on mini cars. We visited the space section where you could climb in a space ship and run a whole bunch of machines that made things float. We played in the fake grocery store pushing the cart around and picking up plastic veggies while bumping into probably a few too many kids. We saw our childrens' budding science skills while at the "hospital" with their ability to take temperatures, check heart beats, and even run a MRI machine! We played in a little village that had houses and a garden where we picked potatoes. We went through Alice in Wonderland's maze and sat with the Mad Hatter for a tea party. We continued the adventure with a trip to the rain forest where we played with native instruments and then with tug boats in a 'river'. We ended the visit with sticking our heads into fun displays and then going down a log slide a good 20 times!

Lucy and Stella on the mini monorail 

The space tunnel

Race car station 

Lucy gives Mom a checkup at the 'hospital'

toddlers hanging out in the faux ER

Stella picks potatoes from the garden

Stella having fun in Alice in Wonderland's hallway of doors

Lucy and Dad bid farewell to a fun day!

Afterwards we met up with our friends Tiff and Ryan who just happened to be in Philly that weekend. We went to the Manayunk Brewery and had a couple brews and ate dinner. After 3 hours hanging out with them, we finally had to hit the road back to Baltimore.
It was a good day!

XOXO

Hug and Kisses... it was Valentine's Day last week and were able to time it just right so we had napping kids for the first half of our early dinner! We were able to have the appetizer and champagne while the ladies were still sleeping and then they joined us for dinner. We had a "love apple" appetizer... corny term for stuffed cherry tomatoes; then a chicken scallopine and chocolate mousse for dessert.. all courtesy of our lovely paper, the Baltimore Sun. It was deliciouso!

There also happened to be a very appropriate "first" for the girls this week. They learned to love one another (particularly one's sister) with a hug and kiss. We have been trying to promote peaceful playing, but who are we kidding, we have 19 month old twins:) Nevertheless, if one is upset.. her sister will wander over and give a big hug along with a slightly drool-laden kiss.

And a couple more bonus shots that illustrate that great things can indeed come in a 'little' box and while we all may have an 'outer' beast... its the inner beauty that shines through!

Stella in the Spotlight

A while back we filmed Lucy talking in her high chair.. saying "Opa". Its a roller coaster around here-- one day Lucy is jabbering away and then Stella takes over; Stella has taken the spotlight this week!

The Zygosity Test

I know Dave is sick of me telling this (what seems like) 15 minute story to strangers...
Stranger on the street/ in store etc.: "Oh look! How Cute! Twins? Are they twins? Well, of course they must be... are they identical?"


Dani: "We are pretty sure they are fraternal... they were in separate sacs etc. etc.; but we still don't know for sure. A lot of people think they are identical, including our pediatrician. But, we can tell them apart so they are probably fraternal; and, fraternal twins are a lot more common, so it's likely that they indeed are. On the other hand, all of the fraternal twins I have met look quite a bit different... and really, our girls don't except for their size... Stella always being a bit smaller; so maybe when she catches up we won't be able to tell them apart! But once again, we really don't know...


If someone asks Dave: "Are they identical?"... his response is short and to the point: "No, they are fraternal."


So, there are tests for these things.... and to alleviate some of Dave's pain in listening to my same spiel every single time someone asks this question, I decided to get a DNA test done as part of his birthday present.

So while us girls were still in Minnesota, I received the swab kit. I took 8 inner-cheek swabs on both the girls and sent it in for analysis. The company I used specializes in zygosity testing (determining whether twins are mono-zygotic or di-zygotic, or in other words, identical or fraternal).

I was looking up some stats on how common the two types of twins are and I found almost 70% of all twins are fraternal and the rest identical. Even though there has been an increase in fraternal twins due to fertility treatments, identical twins have remained constant.

So there are twins in Dave's family (and some in mine, but far removed) so I am thinking... ok, it's in the family, right? I learned that having fraternal twins can be partially attributed to heredity; I also found out that, despite popular belief, identical twins are not hereditary. With these facts, I was even more convinced that Dave was right all along and they are definitely fraternal.

The results came in a few weeks later.

After the analysis of a quantity of highly-variant DNA markers from the swabs of both girls, it was determined with over 99% probability that Lucy and Stella are mono-zygotic twins.

So guess what?
As it turns out, we do indeed have identical twins!

The Big Birthday Surprise

It was Dave's 30th birthday this year... and I have been thinking about it, well, basically since his last birthday. I wanted to do something big for this milestone.

We had several friends turn 30 this year, and several of them had surprise parties. So I thought, why not be unoriginal... and throw a surprise 30th birthday party for Dave?! I started thinking about it in October... started talking about it in November... Dave's dad and brother secured their tickets... I sent out save the date emails.

I didn't know where it was going to be yet, but I knew it couldn't be at our home... being that I definitely could not keep that hidden. And, I thought no kids was probably the way to go as well; as least no Treiber kids- we love em' but if they were there, everyone but us would be 'partyin'. So the research began: do I know anyone who would let us use their house? What about having it at a bar/ restaurant? Renting out space at a hotel? Well, I didn't want the liability of doing it at a friend's house; hotel/ bar/ restaurant would be extremely pricey... and we would have to eat/ drink their food and we would be constrained to their time table. So I started thinking, and since Dave's family was flying in as a surprise too- why not rent a house where they could stay and could double as the party spot? Done.

It was less than a mile away from our home and we had it for Friday and Saturday night. This way, I was able to drop off all the supplies on Friday, cook/ setup etc. on Saturday afternoon. I "fake" worked both days so Dave wouldn't start getting suspicious.

On Friday evening (after my fake work and really picking folks up from the airport) we went to Peter's Inn for a late dinner. We had it all planned out so 10 minutes into our cocktails, a couple of gentlemen walked in- that just happened to be Dave's dad and brother! Surprise #1= success.

That night I was trying to convince Dave to relax and said I would drive the family back to their "hotel". We didn't want Dave to know about the rental house just yet, because that would ruin the surprise for the next day. Unfortunately it was snowing, and there was no convincing Dave... so he drove them back to the hotel we said they were staying at (The Radisson downtown Baltimore). By then it was after 1AM, and his Dad and Bro had to find a cab to bring them back to their true lodging place- I guess it took almost an hour due to the weather etc (sorry guys!).

The big party day- Saturday. So I went off to "work" again at a made-up Financial Literacy Festival. I came up with a speaker that I thought my mom would like to hear... so I could have her come for part of the afternoon to help out. I had a few friends come early to help with food and decorations.
I got home "from work" around 7PM. I was picking up all the guys to go to a design show first then off to another party (which was actually going on, and Dave even bought special beer to bring to). We hop in the car, miraculously found parking in the busy neighborhood and approached the door. It was locked. LOL. So I snuck around to the window and started making faces to try to get the awaiting 'surprisers' to open up without Dave seeing anyone. It was a close call, but it worked. We walked in to a lot of noise and a big "Surprise!". We had 25+ who showed up despite the icy weather- we had a great time! Surprise #2= success- Welcome to your 30s Dave!