Food! Glorious food!

Even though you may not care what I had for lunch (New England clam chowder made by my mom and frozen for just this moment, thankyouverymuch!), you will care what I'm making for dessert.

Spiced Pumpkin Cheesecake.

The recipe is from Cook's Illustrated's cookbook. I love it and have made it for the past 3 years running. It's been a hit with all that have had it so far.

Photos? Why yes, thank you!

First the cookie-like crust. Graham crackers with spices and butter to hold it together.
Then the filling. Sugar and spice and many things nice.
Then the pumpkin. The secret is to squish out the excess moisture in the packed pumpkin.
Squish!
Mix it all up together with the 1.5 lbs of cream cheese, sugar, spices, salt, vanilla, lemon juice, eggs, and heavy cream.
Then pour it into your springform pan and place it in a water bath.
Unfortunately, if you walk away for a wee bit too long, distracted perhaps by children and too far away to hear the oven timer beeping at you, it will crack. The whole point of the water bath is to keep it from cracking, but it can't help it if you slack on your cheesecake watching duties.
Sometimes the distractions are too cute to be ignored.
I think the cheesecake will probably still taste just fine tomorrow, especially once there's brown sugar-bourbon whipped cream topping it. That will fill any cracks, I'm sure!

This is the second time I've baked something since Caitlin's birthday party in July. The first time? Last night when we had a friend over I made cranberry pumpkin bread with fresh cranberries. It was yummy!

Funny story about last night...Eric's friend A came over. She's a new Public Defender and told us all kinds of fun stories and really talked up the PD's office. We made her salmon, mashed potatoes, carrots and the pumpkin bread. I mention those specifically because I actually made all but the salmon. Be amazed that the twins let me go for any length of time! We had a great time, chatting away and were in the process of saying goodnight when Logan threw up into my cleavage.

Abruptly bringing an end to our night.

"I'll let myself out..." she said and scampered.

I headed off to my second shower of the day. Le sigh.

How do you do it?

One handed while trapped under a twin nursing is the short answer. And that takes awhile, especially if I'm stuck typing left-handed. It's pretty slow until they fall asleep. "Asleep" is a misnomer. They're only sleeping if they are on my chest because woe betide you (Isn't that a great phrase? "Woe betide you!") if you dare to put them down on some more appropriate sleeping surface. But then again, when faced with milk induced coma, pillowy breasts, warmth and a heartbeat why would any self-respecting infant want to sleep anywhere else?

The better question is why do I do it?

Mostly it's because I'm constantly nursing a lot. I can't do much of anything else while nursing one twin one-handed and nothing at all if I'm tandem nursing. While it is possible to do stuff one-handed while nursing (e.g. eat, pay bills, edit photographs, cycle laundry) it gets really old really fast. Especially when you have to stop frequently to burp (or else suffer the wrath of the Laundry Gods). So instead, I sit alot and nurse alot and read alot of blogs (Read all of Swistle's archive - 2 years of history. Read all of Notes from the Trenches - 3 years of history.). And write. I'm not going anywhere and I've got time. And I've got stories. Lots of stories.

And they won't always be about vomiting. Promise!

Way too late for NaBloPoMo

I really wanted to sign up for NaBloPoMo this month, but got so wound up with baby stuff that I never actually took the ten minutes it would have taken to sign up. I think it's waaaaay too late now, since the month is mostly over, but I joined in on the spirit of things by posting daily. Didja notice?

Sometimes I feel like Jill-come-lately to the whole blogging thing. Then again, I've been journaling for a long time and annoying friends and relatives with long emails packed with pictures, so I suppose the blog was inevitable. I hope you're all enjoying it because I sure have been! It also gives me someplace to put all the pictures.

Well, not all. Just a small number of them. You wouldn't believe how many pictures I take. Heh heh heh!

Emma says...

Grumping.

"This place sucks! It's nothing like the brochure. Land of milk and more milk indeed!"

Happy 41st Anniversary Mom & Dad!

You know, I looked it up and there's no traditional gift for 41 years. Forty years, yeah, that's traditionally rubies and a party thrown by your youngest daughter. But for 41 years? Nothin'! Heck, most of the other sites skipped over years 41-44 and went right to 45.

Instead, they suggested a modern gift: land.

In the words of Dave Barry: I am not making this up.

However, since I am not rolling in the dough, my ability to gift you with a piece of land would be limited to shipping you some soil from my yard. Or else sending you a picture of some land.

Instead, please accept my warmest wishes for a healthy and happy 41st anniversary. May you have many more.

Look! New template!

I was bored with the old one and started banging around through the new template options. Took a little messing about to get the picture right, but I think it looks nice.

What do you think?

Two together

Tandem Urrrrp!

The deal we had is off. The twins decided to see what would happen if they both threw up at the same time.

The answer is: both Eric and I lost our minds, but only one of us had to take a shower.

Is there a camera on somewhere filming all of this?

Pictures of Emma added to Seven Weeks.

Did someone say food?

Hey, isn't Thanksgiving coming up? Hmmm...that would be Thursday wouldn't it. Must be time to go shopping for nummy food, but before you go you might want to take a gander at this. The Environmental Working Group has put together a pocket guide of fruits and vegetables and their pesticide burden.

Why should you care about pesticides?

There is growing consensus in the scientific community that small doses of pesticides and other chemicals can adversely affect people, especially during vulnerable periods of fetal development and childhood when exposures can have long lasting effects. Because the toxic effects of pesticides are worrisome, not well understood, or in some cases completely unstudied, shoppers are wise to minimize exposure to pesticides whenever possible.

While it's true that organic food is more expensive, there are clearly certain fruits ans vegetables that we'd be better off sticking to the organic versions. Peaches, apples, sweet bell peppers, celery and nectarines are the top five highest ranked for pesticides and that's even after they've been washed and/or peeled as appropriate to the item. I don't like having to spend buckets of money, however I do like to be healthy, so there are areas I'm more willing to splurge on and my food is definitely it. Besides, the difference between and organic peach and a conventional one is night and day. Also, if you've ever planted your own tomatoes, you know what I'm talking about. Conventional practices can't compete with fresh, organic or home grown fruits and vegetables.

This Thanksgiving we're having the family over at Chez Hatchet because traveling serious distances with the twins is something I'm not up to yet. This way we have the full complement of Baby Containment Devices on hand plus a Grammy, Grampy and Jenni Fasthands. Fortunately I'm just responsible for the dessert, the site and nursing, nursing, nursing.

What's for dessert you say? Pumpkin cheesecake with Bourbon whipped cream. Mmmm! I'll even photograph it for you.

So what are you having for Turkey Day?

Support the Writers Strike

On strike and yet still funny.



Saw it on Plush Life and dragged it here for your perusal.

How legends begin

Family legends often begin in the strangest ways, don't they? Sometimes you're just sitting there, minding your own business and the legend pounces on you, grabbing you by the nape of the neck and shaking you hard enough to rattle your teeth.

We were just sitting there, Logan and I. I eating my pancakes and watching a video about the writer's strike (Which is very funny, by the way.), Logan smiling up at me. I looked down and smiled back, enjoying the moment when It happened.

Logan Pooped.

Logan pooped so much, so long, so prodigiously that it was awesome in its intensity. It was The Miracle Poop. He pooped so hard and so well that he pooped my pants. No really! The miracle? Although fully dressed in shirt, pants, socks and diaper he managed to miss all of his own clothing, entirely. Yet there I was, looking down on him lovingly and wondering what that growing sensation of warmth in my lap was. Reaching down between us with a tentative hand I found out soon enough.

Filled with equal parts laughter and horror, I handed him off to Eric to clean up while I went to go have my first shower of the day.

Guaranteed it won't be my last.

Eric told me of the miraculously clean clothes which I verified with my own eyes.

And thus the story begins. Years from now he'll be telling it to his own kids:

"Daddy! Daddy! Tell us again how you pooped Gramma's pants!"

Seven weeks

For reasons I can quite figure out, last week seemed really long. Whew!

Here we are closing in on two months. The twins are growing and changing (their clothes) a lot these days! They are smiling at all three of us now and the fan. What is it with infants and fans, anyway? It also happened with Caitlin. I know because it was significant enough that it was mentioned in her baby book. With the twins, you can lay one or the other down directly beneath a fan and they'll start smiling and cooing and occasionally proto-laughing at it.

At least until the fan starts talkin' some smack and then the crying starts.

No, I have no idea what on Earth a fan could possibly say to upset my babies, but then I also don't know what hilarious stories it's sharing either. It is a mystery.

So the kids are cute, very cute and very vomitrocious. Why? Bugger all if I know. Is it a gas bubble? Over eating? Finger too close to uvula when painting on the thrush medicine? Who knows! Perhaps I should ask the fan....

Logan:

• Is currently fighting sleep on my chest. He makes it hard to type with two hands. He is trying to steal all the breastmilk in both breasts since Emma is slacking off and actually sleeping upstairs.
• Enjoys throwing up on me nightly, directly during or after nursing. Yes, I did say during. Imagine how pleasant that is for both of us? He goes through at least one, but as many as three outfit changes a day. I usually have to get a whole new set of clothing at least once. So far he and Emma take turns on the vomiting. Only one session per day is allowed, apparently.
• Cries less if he gets to shower with me. Since I'm catching the brunt of the mess all down my chest I have to shower anyway.
• Has cradle cap. No fun at all, however it's much easier to deal with than Emma's thrush. We have started scrubbing olive oil into his hair to treat it and then scrubbing his hair out with shampoo afterwards. I keep wanting a little balsamic vinegar and Italian bread to go with it though. He's scrumptious!
• Is too big for newborn clothing anymore and appears to be closing in on 10 lbs. We'll find out for certain at our next pediatric appointment at their 2 month appointment.
• Is still suffering baby acne.

Mr. Crazy Hair

Mr. Crazy Hair finds you funny.
Logan and the gang. Ooh, look! Size order!
Check out Logan's expression. He can't believe I just typed that. Aww mommmm!

Emma:

• Still has thrush. How long is this supposed to go on for?! I picked up a new ointment that I don't have to wipe off. It's also Nystantin, the ointment form of the medicine that Emma is taking. I'm starting to think about picking up Gentian Violet. Anything that will get us over this infection would be nice. I still occasionally get the stabbing pains and Emma's tongue is still covered, although not as bad as it used to be. I'm also sucking down lots of Vitamin C, B-12 complex, pre-natals, garlic and acidophilus, but I'm not seeing it end. And that's what I care about. Getting this over with. How long is this supposed to take?
• Is totally smiley now. Very sweet! Helps to make up for her grumpiness. She is even practicing her laugh. She does that funny little indrawn breath laughter. I will try to catch it on video.
• Is getting much better head control. Is also lifting her head up higher when she's on her tummy.
• Really likes the toys attached to the playmat and smiled at her reflection in the little mirror today.
• Has been staying awake more for walks like when we go to pick up Caitlin. This is fine so long as she's in a good mood.
• Is way too big for newborn clothing. So much for those 4 new girly outfits we'd bought! Well, they were cute while they lasted. Now she's wearing Caitlin's old clothes. This is fine except for the summer weight 3 month old items. Not very useful in the fall.
  

Smiley.

Laughing.

Being coy.

You want me to do what? What's up with this "tummy time" nonsense?

Thrush. I has it. I show you it.

I was just doing some more research and found out that the fussiness and nursing madness in the evenings is normal. Maybe nothing really is wrong with me and my milk supply! I love the internet! Well, I'll be sucking down some blessed thistle and alfalfa just to be certain. Also, if the combination really does help my supply maybe I can start to pump some and put it away for *gasp* a night out!

I dare to dream the impossible dreams.

My First Day Alone: Live Blogging

Yes, really. This is my very first day all alone with the twins without Eric. Caitlin is in school until 2:30 pm and Eric has gone off to a CLE (Lawyerly training class) until 4:30 pm, whilst I moulder at home with the twins. Let's see how it goes!

5:45 am: Nurse Logan until unconscious from sedatives secreted in breast milk. Lay him down in co-sleeper gingerly. Emma is sleeping next to Eric in bed. Caitlin wakes up before her alarm. Direct her to start her day: feed the cats, get dressed, brush her teeth and hair. Expect to repeat directions at least 12 times before each chore is finished. Wonder again whether her hearing is damaged and remember the previous two appointments where they proved it wasn't. Try not to get angry. Stay quiet.

6 am: Escape to twins room where a mountainous pile of clean laundry waits to be folded in their crib. Due to the nightly vomit attack, we do laundry constantly. We'd have to do at least a single load a day just to keep up with the spit up, but the twins are also good at leaking out of their diapers and the rest of us like clean laundry, too. Begin folding clothes. Tip toe back into bedroom at sound of waking babies. Hover silently and will them back to sleep. When this works, return to clothing pile. Remind Caitlin she's supposed to be getting dressed. Repeat.

7 am: Sneak into bedroom with assorted sheets and towels to put away. Give Caitlin her own pile of laundry to put away. Brush Caitlin's hair. Marvel at how Caitlin is now ready except for breakfast and Eric hasn't even showered yet. All that shaving takes time, apparently. Head downstairs to give Caitlin breakfast for the first time in months (That's me feeding her breakfast, not months since she's had breakfast.). Return to folding laundry. Logan wakes. Remove him from room before he wakes up Emma. Change diaper and nurse, while he's still awake and quiet.

7:40 am: Take smiling Logan down to kitchen and get bowl of cereal for self. Possibly my only chance to get breakfast, might as well jump on it while I only have one happy child on me. Watch as Eric makes his own Breakfast of Champions: half a peanut butter and jelly sandwich and a latte. Yeah. He suggests that they will at least have doughnuts (Wonder why the spell checker doesn't recognize the proper spelling of doughnuts.) at the CLE. Sit Logan into vibrating chair so that I can have access to both my hands. He hangs out and gets all smiley.

7:45 am: Eric and Caitlin exit the house to get to school on time with no yelling. It's a Thursday Miracle. Normally there's lots of yelling in the morning, since Caitlin is apparently incapable of getting ready without constant reminders and threats. Feel amazed that this morning went as smoothly as it did. Emma wakens, crying. Retrieve crier, change diaper and nurse at kitchen table. Logan starts to complain about feeling ignored down there in vibrating chair. Heft crying twin into lap, attempting to keep him from squashing nursing sister.

8:08 am: Eric returns from drop off. Have him hold Logan while I set up a pile of pillows for tandem nursing on the sofa while I continue nursing Emma and holding her with my left hand. The tandem nursing pillow got thrown up on two nights again and its cover is in the wash, so it's not available. Satisfied with nursing nest, I settled both children in and wish I could control the computer or DVD player with my mind. Unfortunately, my mental powers of telekinetics haven't been honed yet, so I sit and watch the twins while they nurse.

8:13 am: Eric escapes the insanity reluctantly leaves his beloved wife to the tender mercies of the twins.

8:30 am: Both twins are unconscious. Make first attempt at placing them in car seats while still sleeping so I can sneak away for a shower. Put away my clothes from huge pile and set out clothes to wear for the day.

8:32 am: Emma wakes up. Snuggle her and start blogging (Why not?). Emma passes out.

8:59 am: I will now make my second attempt at getting her to stay asleep in the car seat so I can take a shower. Wish me luck.

9:29 am: Perform victory dance! Have successfully showered, dressed and braided hair without Screaming Infant Incident. Have successfully Gotten Ready prior to noon for first time in...ages. Congratulate self. Hover nervously over Emma as she makes funny little noises in her sleep. Waking? Laughing? She returns to deeper sleep and I make my way downstairs to...empty the dishwasher. Logan smiles in his sleep.

9:43 am: Finish unloading dishwasher. Upon hearing Logan beginning to awaken, fly through loading dishwasher as fast as possible. Am pushing my luck. Logan insists he's waking up and must be nursed. Give in to the inevitable and nurse him. Read blogs while nursing.

10:30 am: Having knocked Logan out and read up on my favorite blogs, I shall now attempt to return him to the car seat for a nap and attempt to cycle the laundry (sheets that someone peed/dribbled breast milk/spit up on) and maybe go balance the checkbook. I'm crazy that way. Maybe I'll even *gasp* have a snack. A bowl of cereal is not enough energy to feed twins on.

10:38 am: Whoo hoo! Cycling laundry did not wake up Emma. Will now multitask by taking my snack with me to go balance the checkbook in the basement. Lookit me go!

11:13 am - 12:35 pm: Both have awoken and we have a blowout diaper. Chaos ensues. I wasn't kidding about the chaos. I just didn't know how bad it would get. I was in the process of entering my paid bills into Quicken when I heard Logan wake up on the main floor. Right as I grabbed him and noticed he needed a new outfit, I heard Emma start to holler so I went upstairs, grabbing Emma's thrush medicine and a new outfit on the way. I set Logan down next to Emma to the sound of sweet sweet stereo screaming. I changed him first to stop his screaming, figuring that he wasn't starving to death since he'd nursed sooner. Then I worked on giving Emma her medicine while Logan lay next to her on the floor. She screamed non-stop while I worked on him and in return, he screamed while I gave her the medicine and changed her diaper. Fair's fair! Then I took them both downstairs to tandem nurse on the sofa. She was fine with that while he claimed disinterest. Once they were both happy, I gave them a little time on the playmat. I think that lasted 2 minutes before Emma was over it while Logan was happy for closer to 10 minutes.

Here's where things went horribly wrong: I attempted to tandem nurse again on the sofa since Emma was claiming I hadn't nursed her long enough before. I set us up again and just as Emma fell asleep, Logan threw up all over the two of us. I tried to save Emma from it by setting her a little farther away on the sofa cushion. I then tried to set Logan down on the floor with the receiving blankets sopping up the vomit (Managed to catch most of it in the blankets and then turned him chest down right into it!) when I over-balanced Emma. She fell off the sofa onto the floor, head first.

Fortunately I managed to catch her just in time - right before her head went CLUNK! onto the ground. That's the only way I know she didn't actually hit the ground: no clunk. She screamed, though, so I think she bonked into something on the way down or might just have been scared since she had been asleep and then suddenly airborne. So right in a 2 minute span I was covered in vomit and had dropped my baby. Nice! Surely there's a Stupid Parent Award for that combination?

Emma calmed down quickly (another reason why I'm certain she didn't hit the ground) while I gathered up the vomitrocious Logan and took him upstairs. Emma objected to being left behind in the car seat, so I came back for her and installed her in the swing in the bedroom, being careful to keep her clean body away from my icky self. Then it was off to the bath for Logan and a new set of clothes for me. When we got out, Emma was fast asleep. I checked her head for bruises and didn't find any so I left her to sleep and took Logan off to nurse him again.

I think I don't like tandem nursing. I can't burp anyone effectively and if I don't burp them, they are going to throw up on me. And now I've dropped my baby as a direct result.

Now I think I shall wallow in parental guilt for awhile while eating lunch.

1:09 pm: Logan wakes up. I change and nurse him while waiting for my soup to warm up.

1:15 pm: The Cavalry arrives in the for of my friend Heather and her daughter Faith! She helps me get a chance to eat lunch by snorgling Logan who fell asleep on my chest but didn't want to be put in the vibrating chair. She shares her Honeycrisp apples with me, I let her snuggle my baby. Fair Trade!

2:15 pm: We say goodbye to Heather because it's time to get Caitlin from school. We toss the twins into their seats and into the car and I head out. At the midway point I park and pull our the double stroller for the walk up to the school. Emma complains about being woken from her swing-induced coma but settles down for the carriage ride. Caitlin collected, we return home. I considered going to the store for stamps and possibly more pants, but Emma convinces me that going home is the wiser course. At the top of her lungs.

2:57 pm: Emma has a blow out. I fix that, change her diaper and clothes and give her another dose of medicine. Now she wants to nurse. Logan begins making wake up noises. I dread having to tandem nurse again. Caitlin distracts Logan long enough for me to mostly nurse Emma, then it's his turn. I work on the tandem thing and try burping him with my hands full of Emma. It is not easy and makes me wonder why I don't have more hands. Eventually Emma passes out so I can focus on Logan. We avoid another round of Throw Up on Mommy when Logan blows out while I'm holding him. Are they conspiring against me? The Laundry Gods are angry today. He gets changed. Emma wants to nurse again. Logan gets tossed into the swing. Emma gets nursed. Emma passes out. Logan is now complaining that he's still hungry. Gotta go.

3:45 pm: The Cavalry arrives in the form of Sierra! However, this is just a temporary reprieve. She and Eric are going out to a lawyerly meet and greet. Some glad-handing, card exchanging, nibbly munching, HiyaHowyadoin' networking thingie. I finish nursing Logan who then gets snuggled by Sierra.

4:13 pm: Eric arrives, warms up lasagna for Caitlin and I, snuggles a baby or two and hears my tale of woe. Forgives me and one-ups me with the tale of Caitlin falling down a flight of steps at 8 months. No harm, no foul. More nursing. We're now getting into the part of the evening where the twins nurse near constantly, I run out of milk and doubt my ability to nurse them for another week much less 12 months and they won't settle down for a nap.

5:22 pm: Eric and Sierra leave me for their soiree. My puppy dog look of desperation doesn't even slow them down.

5:24 pm: Logan threatens to throw up on me again while nursing solo.

5:37 pm: Emma is no longer content to hang out in the swing. Am possibly going insane from needy children. I'm supposed to be able to do this all day every day?

6:11 pm: I am trapped under twins, tandem nursing when I ask Caitlin to take a bath and get ready for bed. Notice I didn't ask her to go to bed, I asked her to take a bath. The whining starts. She's whining about dessert. I tell her that if she continues in that tone there will be no dessert. The threat sends her into paroxysms of whining. Dessert is canceled. Whining gets worse. Baths are now on the Hated List and crying has started. I remain calm under my twin burden and remind her that that attitude is the problem and is what got her dessert taken away. How much more trouble would she like to get in? She finally goes into the bathroom and stomps around. I'm too tired to yell, so I just nurse and wonder if she'll ever take a bath or if she'll start breaking things.

I begin making the mental list of just what the punishment should be for whatever she comes up with in the bathroom. It makes me sad to have to continually come up with punishment plans. Finally she starts showering. Emma finally passes out from milk. I struggle to keep Logan upright and burped to avoid the sudden reappearance of my own milk.

Caitlin finishes her shower. Damp and naked she apologizes for her earlier yelling and asks if she can earn her dessert back. I stand by my earlier punishment and say no. She begins to cycle back up on the whining. Again I tell her that this isn't how you convince me that you have earned dessert back. I know! I'm crazy that way!

6:40 pm: Eric and Sierra return. Caitlin immediately asks Daddy to "talk some sense into" me so that she can have dessert. To her credit, she began by telling him what she did wrong and that she apologized but that she really really wants dessert. Eric, however, stands by my decision and the whining and crying starts back up. He does some magic Daddy Dance and it stops. I relinquish bedtime chores to him while I finish trying to knock Logan unconscious with my breast.

7:21 pm: After a bit of chit chat on lawyerly things, Sierra leaves. I attempt to put the sleeping Logan down but he will not have it! He awakes immediately, although he's in a good mood, so it's a lot easier to deal with. Now it's time for gelato and shortbread cookies.

Rats! Emma just woke up. Guess who will be eating and nursing? Le sigh.

But at least I'm no longer alone.

I tell ya: I could never do this alone. I would never do this without Eric.

Life with twins

Why is it that when I'm nursing one twin, if the second twin starts to cry that I start rocking the first twin over and over? It's not like the first twin is upset. Heck, they've got the boob! They're happy!

Then, as the cries get worse, the rocking gets faster and faster. Clearly my subconscious is expecting calming waves are transmissible via twin to twin brainwave.

So far? No such luck.

Updated to add: I forgot to mention that this usually happens when I'm trapped in the car in a parking lot somewhere.

Conversations you never thought you'd have

"Misty? I'm going to have call you back. I just got thrown up on."

This conversation brought to you by Parenthood, Breastmilk and the Letter L.

Rollin', rollin', rollin'!

Emma rolled over tonight.

While I wasn't looking! Thank goodness she wasn't on the sofa.

Unfortunately, she was so mad at the tummy time that I didn't try to have her repeat it. There's only so much blood loss from my ears that I can take.

Did I mention that she's a screamer? Oh yeaaaaaaaah.

Life with twins

Imagine if you will:

You're nursing your insatiably hungry infant daughter on your left breast, supporting her with your left arm, while jiggling your infant son with your right arm and trying to avoid getting your cheek smashed in by his thrashing noggin. You're feeling bored and the laptop is right there.

You reach out for it with your foot. You load Firefox by mousing around with your heel. Then you load the blogs you read, again with your heel. You have to press "O" to open all of them at one time, so you tap gingerly and hope you can pinpoint press a key with the tip of your heel. It loads and then you "mouse" over to Swistle.

You really hope your husband comes home soon (He's out getting you a movie because face it, you're not going to sleep anytime soon.), because your arms are getting tired and you have to pee. You're really hoping the phone doesn't ring....

Falling in love again

Eric has been messing around with a media server/audio visual geek thingy and ran across our old camcorder files.

As you may or may not be aware, there's really only one reason to get a video camera: children. Thus, our first video camera was bought for Caitlin's birth and was pressed into service for many Caitlin related documentaries. We just reviewed hours and hours that showed snippets of Life with Caitlin; from the day after she was born up to her third birthday. There are more digital tapes floating around somewhere that Eric has to find and upload onto his computer that cover years 3 on up, but coverage is spotty after 3.

I have to tell you this though: oh my GOD that child was irresistible!

Seeing teeny tiny infant Caitlin morph into one year old, two year old and three year old Caitlin brought tears to my eyes. She was cuter than a bug in a rug! (How cute is a bug in a rug anyway?) It also showed me that Eric spent an inordinate amount of time trying to get her to say Hi, Daddy! for 2.5 years.

I feel like my love for her has been recharged and am looking forward to sharing these videos with her after she returns from her weekend away. I'm also looking forward to Eric filming the adventures of the twins. I say Eric because I'm the one that does the photography. Moving pictures are up to him. I'll also see if I can't get him to upload some of those videos to post on the blog. After all, this much cute has to be shared!

Moo

In the process of clearing off my desk (You really don't want to know how awful my desk looks.) and looking for the bills, I ran across the two week check up sheet from the pediatrician. The first line under Nutrition caught my eye.

Nutrition

• Most babies eat every 2-4 hours around the clock. Average is around 24-32 ounces a day.

Let that sink in a moment, why don't you.

If we go by those average figures, I am producing 48-64 ounces of milk every day.

I'm making up to half a gallon of milk or possibly more.

I really am a cow.

Moo.

Smile!

Caught on film!

Caitlin

Logan

Emma

By the way, I've added Emma's pictures to the Six Week post now. Check it out!

Bath Time

Is it a bad sign that the twins are 6 weeks old and I've only bathed them 3 times?

Umm...

Before you freak out and call CPS, you'll be relieved to know that my mom and husband have been right on top of all our bathing needs. I've been busy. Yeah, that's it. Busy! You know, nursing the other twin whilst the dirtier of the pair (Read: the more vomitrocious of them.) was bathed.

That and I'm a big chicken.

Infants are slippery! And very loud when wet. Really loud. Really loud in an enclosed space. They complain mightily, those slippery little devils. So I left it up to Eric after mom returned to the wilds of Canada and he was great it it! And I was busy nursing. That is until one day when Emma was sleeping while Logan was in desperate need of a bath (Hint: vomit was involved.). Eric then got all uppity and made me do it. Rats!

This was Logan's response:

"Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaah! Who the heck is this? What's she doing?

OK, the hair washing is nice. Wait! Why is she taking off my clothes?! Doesn't she know it's cold in here? Aaaaaaaaaaaaaah!

This sink is cold, but the running wet is nice. Why'd she just turn it off? Aaaaaaaaaaaaah! It's cold again! Aaaaaaaaah! The wet stuff is cold again! Aaaaaaaaaaaaah! I'm slipping! Aaaaaaaaaaaah!

This is ridiculous! Get the guy in here! Don't you need licenses for this stuff? Training? Practice? Anything? Will they let any old person wash a baby? Aaaaah!

Oh, is it over now? Thank goodness!

Stick to makin' milk, lady. Clearly that's the only thing you're good at."

Today, however, I proved just how much I'd learned in the intervening bathing period. Today I washed Emma, little Miss Screams A Lot. You know what? It went really well! She hardly screamed at all. Yes, minimal screaming is the best you can hope for when it comes to Emma and bathtime.

This time around, I washed her in the tub, using the Safer Bather and it went really smoothly. A short scream for daring to remove her clothes and one to lodge her official complaint about being placed in the water. After that, once I warmed her up by pouring water over her nicely plump tummy she was OK with it. One final scream to acknowledge leaving the bath and that was it!

Maybe Logan will give me a second chance when he hears about this!

Six weeks

Six weeks at last! The magical recovery period has arrived. Now I can get back to my regular life of weight lifting, cross country skiing, inline skating, hiking and mountain biking. Whew! It's been tough being benched for so long.

[Pause]

HAH! *gasping for breath* Heeeeee!

OK, really. Now that 6 weeks are up I can...continue sitting around, trapped under twins and breastfeeding. Rah! If they would ever sleep at the same time while not on my chest I could do things like garden and bake and clean and work on my photography. You know, regular stuff. Instead it looks like all that will have to wait or get squeezed into 5 and 10 minute intervals. Oh and I suppose start working out, too.

Baby updates!

Emma:

1. Is the grumpy one. (Sorry, kid!) When they wake up, she's the first to go to Code Red! and holler about starving to death.
2. Her thrush is much better. How do I know when it's over? When can I stop giving her medication and taking it myself? BTW, since the twins are having a growth spurt, they are making it impossible to put on the medication I was given. Just when it seems like I have time to put it on, someone wakes up and wants to nurse again.
3. Is beginning to hold her head up better but still hates being on her tummy. She just hates it slightly less.
4. Is smiling now, but not very frequently. We need to figure out what she finds funny and work it!
5. Has shorter hair than her brother. I've been looking at these two for six weeks and it wasn't until 2 nights ago that I actually noticed that while they both have a lot of hair, his hair is 2 inches long and hers is about an inch. How is that possible? Has he put more energy into hair growth while she's been working on increasing cheek size or what?!
6. Her cold is gone, but now that Eric, Caitlin and I are sick it may just be a matter of days before she gets it too. Yes, I finally succumbed to their germy-ness. Bleah!

Updated to add: In case you're wondering why there are no pictures of Emma (yet), it's because I can only shoot pics when someone's not nursing and generally Emma gets nursed first and then falls asleep, leaving me with a wakeful Logan to photograph. I'll hunt her down later today. Promise!

Grumpy McGrumpersons

Quiet, contemplative Emma

Late night Emma. That chin? That's my chin. And Caitlin's chin. And my dad's chin. It is the Chin of Stubbornness. The Chin of Power!

Logan:

1. Is the even-tempered one. Yes, he can cry and scream too, but it takes him longer to get worked up and get loud.
2. Still weighs less than Emma.
3. Is holding his head up at 90 degrees when on his tummy. He's strong!
4. Has a good sense of humor or at least finds our antics amusing easily. He smiles a bunch at all of us now, not just me.
5. Stays awake a lot longer these days. I walked up to Caitlin's school and he stayed awake the whole way up (1 mile) and the whole way back. He charmed several of the moms with his baby blues, while we were there. Emma only managed to stay awake on the way up.
6. Is working on his laugh. I hear him practicing while he's sleeping and occasionally when he's awake.
7. Smiled at Emma last night when we held him up to "talk" to her. She didn't even notice him, but he examined her and found her funny.

At some point I'll switch to only monthly updates but I might keep the weekly photos. What do you think?

In case you were wondering...

My mom (and the rest of the family) went home long ago. Two weeks ago, to be precise. I had actually mentioned it here, but it looks like everyone missed the reference because friends have continued to ask if my mom was still here. I suspect they were jonesing for a dinner invite....

No, she's all gone. As are the yummy dinners, oven cleanings, motherly advice and baby holding. The twins are very sad about that last part.

I just wanted to say, Thanks Mom! for coming out early and staying for 6 weeks. I know it was tough to be away from dad for that long, but we appreciated every moment and every dinner. All those clean dishes. All of that laundry. All of that time sitting on the couch with a twin or two on your chest while I got to have a shower. Ahhh!

Hugs and kisses,

The Hatchet Clan

The proud big sister.

Squishes!

All three babies.

Baby Games

This one is called:

Things the Twins have Thrown Up On (So Far)

• Eric (lots)
• Hatchet
• The bamboo floor
• The carpeted floor
• The swing
• The vibrating chair
• The comfy chair
• My bed
• The sofa
• The car seat
• The car seat with the Bundle Me insert
• Ellen's quilts
• The bathroom
• The co-sleeper
  
• The cat (Domino, of course. No I'm not kidding.)

Oh and as a hot tip for those new parents out there: if your baby starts throwing up/spitting up (Whatever - the goo coming out of their mouth.) do not attempt to relocate the baby by running with it to the nearest sink. That will just result in you covering the distance from here to there in spit up as well as the initial Splash Zone. Just take it. You are easier to clean than the carpet, no matter how grossed out you are.

By the way, the same rules apply to poop and/or pee. Those of us that attempt to dodge [*cough* Eric *cough*] just wind up having to clean another surface.

You have been warned!

Congratulations! It's a Girl!

Sara and Steve just had their baby: Katherine Jane.

Eric took the call so all I know is she's 7 lbs 2 oz and 22 20 inches long and that Sara and Katherine are resting comfortably.

See now if I'd taken the call, I'd have gotten head size (for the Ow! factor), hair color (Is there any? Does she have a Faux-Hawk like Hazel did?), Apgar score, who she looks like, how long labor was and how Hazel reacted.

Humpf. Men!

And born at 6:15 am.

Growth Spurt!

Argh!

I'm out of milk. A lot. The twins do not appreciate this.

Waiting for the growth spurt to end and the milk production to ramp up. Oy!

Blast from the Past!

This is Caitlin on April 15th, 2004. She's not quite 3 years old here.

Awwww!

Sniffing around

The latest in a long line of bedtime stalling tactics:

[Heard from upstairs]

Sniff.

Sniff?

Sniiiiff.

Sniiiiiiff.

Sniiiiiiiiiiff!

Sniiiiiiiiiiff!

SNIIIIIIIIFF!

[Sigh] Do you need something, Caitlin?

[Whining] I need a tissue!

[Exhausted] Then get one, Caitlin. I don't need to be involved.

[Grating whining] But I want you to get me one!

[Warningly] Caaaaitlin...I am nursing [insert twin name here]. I can't help you. You're a big girl, you can get it yourself.

[Increasingly louder whining resulting in yelling from parental unit until 6 year old returns to bed.]

Ahem: ARGH!

I know that the repeated misbehavior is a bid to get our attention and that she doesn't care if it's positive or negative, but come on! There's only so much misbehavior the sleep deprived can take before they start thinking about trading in 6 year old girls for something else that takes much less effort.

Maybe a nice pet rock.

Happy Birthday, Val!

Happy 36th!

You know, that's a nice number. Neatly divisible. I'm sure you planned that, didn't you?

Well, happy birthday to my best pick up job ever! I sure am glad you accepted my lift home. However else would we have learned of the Karman Ghia's incredible acceleration abilities, if it weren't for you and your pony tail? I certainly never would have had near as much fun working for The Man if you hadn't been there and then traveled to foreign lands with me! Toronto! Ireland! North Carolina! Crazy, man. Crazy!

And thanks for having one of the best responses to my phonecall back in March:

"So, Val...tell me again what it's like having twins?"
[Paaaaaaaaaaaaaaaause]
"No way! NO WAY! NO WAY!"

Yes way!

Thanks for coming out all by your lonesome and visiting in October. It meant a lot to me, even if I didn't edit the pictures until...um...today.

Squeakes! You look goooood in Colorado. Uh huh!

Plotting World Domination via cellphones.
"Wait, can you make it Thursday? I've got a thing on Wednesday...."

Sara: See this? One day soon we will have our own Little Who that will live in our house with us. Your little sister. Won't that be great?
Hazel: Sounds...um...great. You won't let her touch my toys, though, right? Right? Right, mom? Mom?!

Hazel Who.

Caitlin displays her architectural prowess.

Logan: Karate chop! Hiyaaaa!

Emma: I block your Snakehand strike with my Hammer Fist! Pow!

Shot by Val from way above.Ooh! Twins! I haven't held twins this small in...just about 3 years!

You know...36 or 37 is when your odds of having fraternal twins jumps to 26:1.

I'm just sayin'.

Heh!

Newsflash!

I'm all alone and no one is touching meeeeeeee!

Well, actually, Eric and the twins are sleeping (I think he's getting sick again. Chicken soup! Stat!) and I'm trying to get something done.

By myself.

Without being touched.

Aahhhhhhhhh!

Updated to add: OK, that only lasted about 7 minutes. Phooey!

Birth Announcement

Since I promised previously, and now that it has finally made its way around to BFE Canada where my folks live, it's now safe to reveal the birth announcement to the other 6 people that are unrelated to me and yet read this blog.

OK, maybe there's more like 250 of you, but what do I know? You might be related, too!

Front cover:
Inside top flap:
Inside bottom flap:

Yes, I do like a little mystery. Basically, if you were a friend or relative that hasn't been staying in touch, boy were you surprised to get this! That's OK. Excellent reason to call and get in touch, no?

[Cue evil laughter]

Now I just have to come up with a holiday card.

What do you folks think? All five of us or just the three kids? Is seeing the whole family something you like to see in your cards, or really, keep the wrinklies away and just show us The Cute!

A Marvel of Multitasking

Tandem nursing? I don't quite have the hang of it yet, all the time. Someone is always popping off.

However, today I was nursing Logan and painting Caitlin's fingernails purple.

Whee!

Reading Tea Leaves

Hah!

Click to enlarge.

Another one of my favorite comics: Six Chix. It is drawn and written by 6 different women who rotate the comic between them throughout the week.

Baby Talk

One of the things I find most endearing about the infant stage is the tiny noises they make. No, not the crying and screaming ones, the little ones that are proto-language sounds. Here is our collection so far.

Gee
Goo
Gah
Gwah
Ah gee
Ah gah
Ah goo
Enh!

Logan tends to say Un-gee! a lot. I've taken that to mean Hungry!, which he often is.

Emma tends to say Gah-wah! a lot after she's sneezed. Terribly cute.

Now if only there was a way to skip them past the Whining part of language development.

Dressing down

I've reached that point (-42 lbs) where I don't fit anything. I'm not big enough to wear maternity pants anymore--I have to keep hitching them up and that's irritating--and I'm too big for my normal pants. I'm still +23 lbs, so it's no shocker that I'm too big for my regular pants.

In order to resolve this problem, I thought I'd mosey on down to the store and pick up a few pairs of stop-gap pants and maybe a few nice shirt that fit my extra-large sized chest. No luck. And not just no luck, but holy crashing personal image, Batman! Yes, I know that I'm only 5 weeks away from just having given birth to twins and that everyone has been very nice when saying how fabulous I look. However, I seem to have forgotten that it's how fabulous I look for just having given birth to twins. Let's not get crazy with the ego here! Unfortunately I took the state of my calves and ankles as permission to go try on pants in a larger size than I normally wear.

Big mistake!

My ego was crushed and laying in a pool around my middle: lumpy and bumpy and wrinkled. Tops were too small and pants were a horror.

After a second sad search I came up with a pair of yoga pants in two styles and bought a pair of each.

This question is for all of you clothes-hounds out there. What does one wear when stuck in this indeterminate size when you don't want to blow a lot of money on clothes you aren't going to keep. Keep in mind that winter is coming.

Internet powers: Activate!

Got a new toy today

One of these.

It's an LG 4.0 cu ft. front load Steamwasher.

Why?

Cloth diapers, baby. Twins. More laundry than we can shake a stick at.

Also, 10% off, free shipping and a $75 rebate also helped. As did the fact that mom and dad helped pay for it. We're doing a lot of laundry around here. Someone is always spitting up all over everything and there are two of them. They can cover a lot of ground.

And...uh, yes, we did sit there and watch the very first load just like a TV program.

No commercials, either.

Wanna do some laundry at our place?

Updated to add: Another bonus? The drying time is significantly reduced. More energy savings!

Four hours

Four hours of sleep.

Last night.

From 1 am to 5 am.*

Oh my god! Do you know what this means?!

It means they're toying with us. That's what it means.

Now come the days of a little bit more sleep than before and then just as you get used it it: Pow! Snatched away. Leaving you delirious and staggering from exhaustion. Just you wait.

Are you wondering if I woke up in a cold sweat, wondering whether they were alive or not halfway through those 4 hours?

Hell no, people! I slept! Mmmmm! Sleeeeeeep.




* That's more sleep than I've had since July.

Five weeks

Are you ready for cute?

Are you ready for cute?!

Emma:

1. Getting bigger every day.
2. The thrush is improving, although she's still hollering and shoving away/pulling off the breast while nursing about half the time.
3. Throws up if you try to give her thrush medication after nursing. Found that out the hard way. Twice.
4. Her cold is gone.
5. Smiled at me for the first time two days ago.
6. Is sleeping better at night so long as I stay away from chocolate after 5pm. Last night, I forgot while we were watching the movie and was snacking away. Big mistake at 2am.
7. Makes funny little laughing sounds in her throat as she falls asleep.
8. Likes the swing enough to fall asleep in it. Ahhh! Swings!

Look! She's actually sleeping in her crib! Doesn't happen too often, but it worked out right after her bath. If she's really exhausted (And getting bathed is exhausting!), she'll sleep for a good couple of hours. You want to eat her cheeks, don't you? Nawm! Nawm!

Eric holding Emma in a colic hold while she waits her turn to nurse.

Hanging on the mat. This was Caitlin's.

Tummy time. DO NOT WANT!

A little smile for you!

Logan:

1. Is taking advantage of being on the highly productive breast by nursing alot. He might be catching up to Emma's weight, but I'm not certain.
2. Has this thing about popping of the breast after having fully pressurized it. He's always so surprised when he gets a face full of milk and I'm usually too busy laughing to stem the tide quickly enough. This involves doing a lot of laundry.
3. Likes hanging out, quietly alert a lot more than Emma does. He enjoys tummy time on the mat when he gets to practice flipping over and looking at stuff.
4. He thinks I'm funny and is smiling a little more each day. I'm enjoying snurffling in his ear. (That is too a word! Well, in my house it is!)

Oh my god! The cuteness! Aaaaahhh!

Tiny feet!

Eric and Logan, after a bath. I just missed catching Logan's smile - you can see part of in this picture.

Smoochies from daddy.