- Gotten visibly bigger
- Started clapping his hands on purpose
- A few more teeth have peeked through
Today standing, tomorrow the car keys.
Friday, September 28, 2012
Stop! Stop! Stop!
Our little boy is growing up too fast this week! Since Monday, he has:
Tuesday, September 25, 2012
The Things That Matter
My, what a rollercoaster today has been...extreme happiness and sadness all in the same day.
For the past several weeks, we've been trying to teach the Twinks "arms up" and "wave hello." They will both either crack a smile from ear-to-ear (and F will screech in delight), stare at us in wonder, or give us a look of utter confusion.
This morning, F was still asleep, and G was in the kitchen with me in her high chair eating breakfast - formula, small pieces of honeydew and toast with apricot jam. Our nanny forgot thefront door key, so she came through the garage instead. As soon as G saw her, she raised one hand high above her head and opened and closed her adorable little fingers several times and smiled. My heart melted on the spot! Her first full-fledged wave!
We took G for an assessment earlier this month and, as we suspected, she is not doing things that a typical 10-month-old should be - like getting on her knees, lifting a cloth when she sees a toy covered, or trying to mimic things we do, like raising our arms or clapping our hands. When the therapist saw how G rolls on her tummy, does a split and sits up from her torso, she admitted that in all her years of doing this, she had never seen a baby do such a "compensatory" move. Consequently, she will start therapy on Thursday.
F had a first too today! Later in the morning, my nanny and I took the Twinks to the library for baby story time and F clapped his hands together for the very first time. It might have been accidental, but it sure didn't look like it to me...so I'm going to assume he meant it.
Two weeks ago, my DH and I started taking them to Music Together classes. Maybe it's just the class we found, but I can hardly wait for it each week. The parents leave all their inhibitions at the door and for 45 minutes, we forget the world outside and all sing, dance, clap our hands, shake instruments and revel in being with our children. The songs are catchy too.
If you've never heard them and have Pandora on your iPhone, iPad or iWhatever, put "Music Together" in as a new station. Warning, though, the songs will suddenly pop into your head at the strangest time and you'll start belting out gibberish - while you're driving, showering, eating lunch or sitting in that boring meeting that you think will never end.
So, why am I so sad today too?
Well, Sunday night I had one of my closest friends and her family over for dinner. This morning, I noticed a voice mail she left for me yesterday and I assumed it was to say Thank You (she's just that kind of person). Instead, she told me what none of us expect to hear.
Her 11-year-old daughter had come home from school and decided to cook herself a snack. A roll of paper towels was too close to the stove and caught fire:
Thankfully, almost everything that mattered - her daughter, elderly Mom and her three dogs - made it out ok. Unfortunately, her two kitties did not.
So, instead of going to temple tomorrow, I will be going to help my friend salvage what she can from her condo and help her look for a new place to live. While it's not the way anyone wants to start a new year, I am thankful for everything living that was spared from the fire.
So, if you have kids, hug them extra tight tonight please. If they're on the way, pat or rub your belly a moment longer tonight. And, if your dreams are still in the place where your future kid has yet to meet you, wish upon a star and tell them you love them anyway.
For the past several weeks, we've been trying to teach the Twinks "arms up" and "wave hello." They will both either crack a smile from ear-to-ear (and F will screech in delight), stare at us in wonder, or give us a look of utter confusion.
This morning, F was still asleep, and G was in the kitchen with me in her high chair eating breakfast - formula, small pieces of honeydew and toast with apricot jam. Our nanny forgot thefront door key, so she came through the garage instead. As soon as G saw her, she raised one hand high above her head and opened and closed her adorable little fingers several times and smiled. My heart melted on the spot! Her first full-fledged wave!
We took G for an assessment earlier this month and, as we suspected, she is not doing things that a typical 10-month-old should be - like getting on her knees, lifting a cloth when she sees a toy covered, or trying to mimic things we do, like raising our arms or clapping our hands. When the therapist saw how G rolls on her tummy, does a split and sits up from her torso, she admitted that in all her years of doing this, she had never seen a baby do such a "compensatory" move. Consequently, she will start therapy on Thursday.
F had a first too today! Later in the morning, my nanny and I took the Twinks to the library for baby story time and F clapped his hands together for the very first time. It might have been accidental, but it sure didn't look like it to me...so I'm going to assume he meant it.
Two weeks ago, my DH and I started taking them to Music Together classes. Maybe it's just the class we found, but I can hardly wait for it each week. The parents leave all their inhibitions at the door and for 45 minutes, we forget the world outside and all sing, dance, clap our hands, shake instruments and revel in being with our children. The songs are catchy too.
If you've never heard them and have Pandora on your iPhone, iPad or iWhatever, put "Music Together" in as a new station. Warning, though, the songs will suddenly pop into your head at the strangest time and you'll start belting out gibberish - while you're driving, showering, eating lunch or sitting in that boring meeting that you think will never end.
So, why am I so sad today too?
Well, Sunday night I had one of my closest friends and her family over for dinner. This morning, I noticed a voice mail she left for me yesterday and I assumed it was to say Thank You (she's just that kind of person). Instead, she told me what none of us expect to hear.
Her 11-year-old daughter had come home from school and decided to cook herself a snack. A roll of paper towels was too close to the stove and caught fire:
Thankfully, almost everything that mattered - her daughter, elderly Mom and her three dogs - made it out ok. Unfortunately, her two kitties did not.
So, instead of going to temple tomorrow, I will be going to help my friend salvage what she can from her condo and help her look for a new place to live. While it's not the way anyone wants to start a new year, I am thankful for everything living that was spared from the fire.
So, if you have kids, hug them extra tight tonight please. If they're on the way, pat or rub your belly a moment longer tonight. And, if your dreams are still in the place where your future kid has yet to meet you, wish upon a star and tell them you love them anyway.
Saturday, September 15, 2012
Tar-jay and Me...our love-hate relationship
Target has never been one of my favorite stores, mostly due to their rigid return policies. I am notorious for misplacing receipts...even though I try to be careful and put them in the same place each time. Some kids claim the dog eats their homework, I SWEAR my dogs have a secret affinity for eating receipts.
Sure, I like their brightly lit stores, wide aisles and many of their proprietary-designed products too. Also, their customer service is usually great. Associates are easy to find and knowledgable. When they don't know an answer, they press a button, talk into their headset and beam the question around the store until someone who knows the answer comes to our rescue.
Not so long ago, I even had an associate spend close to an hour helping me call around to almost all our local stores to locate as many BritaxMarathon car seats as she could because they were marked down from $297 to $97 to clear out the 2012 models and make room for the 2013's. Even though I drove around 150 miles from store to store to retrieve the last few in our region, I saved a boatload of money and was pretty happy that day.
Still, on the few occasions I need to return something and cannot find my receipt, I suddenly remember why I don't prefer to shop at Target.
Another thing I don't understand about Target is their pricing policies.
If someone orders something online and returns it to a store, it's sometimes hidden within the department and marked down to an unbelievably low price. For example, last week in the stroller section (and NOT in the car seat aisle) I saw a brand new Chicco Keyfit 30 that normally retails for $179 marked down to $139. I like that policy - avoids having to ship it back and a lucky consumer gets a great deal.
These "treasure-hunt" trips to Target are fun to me because I never know what I might find.
One thing I don't fully agree with is that Target won't match their own prices. When I asked why, one associate explained to me was that their pricing varies from region-to-region, and even between stores within a region depending on the neighborhood demographics. I can attest to this as I have three Targets within five miles of home and another two within five miles of work, and I have seen different prices for the same item at different locations.
A couple weeks ago, I took G to the supermarket with me and, now that she started sitting up on her own and can support herself without falling over, was going to put her in the cart until I saw how filthy and gross it was. So, I carried her in my baby sling instead and vowed to buy a shopping seat cover the next time I went to a store where I thought they might carry them.
As you assumed, I impulsively bought one in Target. Later that day, out of curiosity, I scanned it in Redlaser (an iPhone app that scans bar codes and shows the lowest price - both online and in local stores) and saw it was a few dollars cheaper at Target online.
Since I don't pay for shipping and pass a Target on my commute to work, I decided to order it online and return the first one (trust me, I would have preferred to have them refund me the few bucks, but since they wouldn't and it wasn't out of my way, I did it this way).
During the transaction, I saw the clerk place a special red sticker on my returned item and explained that I never even opened the box. He replied "Oh, that doesn't matter. This one is going in the trash."
Not believing that I heard correctly, I said "The trash? Not even your clearance aisle?"
He said "Yup, the trash. If someone else purchased this and their baby got hurt, we might be liable. So, we put items like this in the trash instead of reselling them."
So, not only did I contribute to global warming by making Target ship me a new one, but now I know the old one is destined for a landfill!
I feel guilty and hope Mother Earth forgives me for my environmentally wasteful actions and understands I did not do this intentionally. Now I know better...and I promise to be less wasteful next time. Thank you!
Sure, I like their brightly lit stores, wide aisles and many of their proprietary-designed products too. Also, their customer service is usually great. Associates are easy to find and knowledgable. When they don't know an answer, they press a button, talk into their headset and beam the question around the store until someone who knows the answer comes to our rescue.
Not so long ago, I even had an associate spend close to an hour helping me call around to almost all our local stores to locate as many BritaxMarathon car seats as she could because they were marked down from $297 to $97 to clear out the 2012 models and make room for the 2013's. Even though I drove around 150 miles from store to store to retrieve the last few in our region, I saved a boatload of money and was pretty happy that day.
Still, on the few occasions I need to return something and cannot find my receipt, I suddenly remember why I don't prefer to shop at Target.
Another thing I don't understand about Target is their pricing policies.
If someone orders something online and returns it to a store, it's sometimes hidden within the department and marked down to an unbelievably low price. For example, last week in the stroller section (and NOT in the car seat aisle) I saw a brand new Chicco Keyfit 30 that normally retails for $179 marked down to $139. I like that policy - avoids having to ship it back and a lucky consumer gets a great deal.
These "treasure-hunt" trips to Target are fun to me because I never know what I might find.
One thing I don't fully agree with is that Target won't match their own prices. When I asked why, one associate explained to me was that their pricing varies from region-to-region, and even between stores within a region depending on the neighborhood demographics. I can attest to this as I have three Targets within five miles of home and another two within five miles of work, and I have seen different prices for the same item at different locations.
A couple weeks ago, I took G to the supermarket with me and, now that she started sitting up on her own and can support herself without falling over, was going to put her in the cart until I saw how filthy and gross it was. So, I carried her in my baby sling instead and vowed to buy a shopping seat cover the next time I went to a store where I thought they might carry them.
As you assumed, I impulsively bought one in Target. Later that day, out of curiosity, I scanned it in Redlaser (an iPhone app that scans bar codes and shows the lowest price - both online and in local stores) and saw it was a few dollars cheaper at Target online.
Since I don't pay for shipping and pass a Target on my commute to work, I decided to order it online and return the first one (trust me, I would have preferred to have them refund me the few bucks, but since they wouldn't and it wasn't out of my way, I did it this way).
During the transaction, I saw the clerk place a special red sticker on my returned item and explained that I never even opened the box. He replied "Oh, that doesn't matter. This one is going in the trash."
Not believing that I heard correctly, I said "The trash? Not even your clearance aisle?"
He said "Yup, the trash. If someone else purchased this and their baby got hurt, we might be liable. So, we put items like this in the trash instead of reselling them."
So, not only did I contribute to global warming by making Target ship me a new one, but now I know the old one is destined for a landfill!
I feel guilty and hope Mother Earth forgives me for my environmentally wasteful actions and understands I did not do this intentionally. Now I know better...and I promise to be less wasteful next time. Thank you!
Wednesday, September 12, 2012
Ten on the 11's
We collaborated on our 10-month comerative post - and had it all ready to go, but Mom has been so busy that she missed our 9-11 publishing deadline.
Poor Mom...her company is changing the name of their four subsidiary organizations to align them with the parent company, so she's been putting in lots of overtime at work lately. Everyone at the office has been asking about us, so Mom stayed up late one night to make us custom shirts and brought us into work for the breakfast celebration.
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| Hooray for Mom's Company! |
Last week, our Thursday nanny took us on our first trip to the zoo:
G - My favorites were the large animals, like the polar bears and the elephants.
F - Reptiles are cool, really, really cool...especially fish and snakes. I hope Mom and Dad let me have my very own snake in my room when I grow up! I'll feed it crickets, and white mice and my sister!
Since Mom and Dad joined the zoo, so we hope they take us back soon.
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Cheerio, it's G!
Speaking of Cheerios, they're ok, but my most favorite food this month is fresh peaches. As soon as someone puts them on my tray, I double-fist as many as I can and shove them into my mouth. I've gotten much better at my pincher-grip, so less and less end up in my lap. I'm going to miss peaches when they are no longer in season. No wories though, I'll find a new favorite food.
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| Eating is Fun! |
I now regularly roll from my back to tummy and sit up like I've been doing it all my life...no problem! I still do my signature move...start by doing a split, rotate my torso and pull my knee through.
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I'll even often get up on my hands-and-knees and rock back-and-forth.
To keep myself fit-and-limber, I do my stretches in my sleep.
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| Me as Heat-Miser! |
Hello, it's F!
August flew and I'm ready to see my first fall foliage! It's hard to believe I haven't seen an aspen tree turn from green to gold yet!I sure do love my carbs! Mom's been making me toast with jam or butter in the mornings. She'll cut it into strips and I'll see how many I can get into my mouth. In the picture below, I've got ground turkey in spaghetti sauce and green beans. Yum!
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| Mommy told me that if I want to kiss girls someday, I have to brush my teeth |
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| Osh Kosh B'gosh! |
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| Which slept first, me or Dad? |
Hope you have a happy September too!
G & F
Tuesday, September 4, 2012
Milk, Milk, Milk
Yesterday I was determined to get out for a walk with the babes...and I did! During which, I listened to an interesting "Stuff to Blow Your Mind" podcast about milk.
I learned some interesting facts:
When my milk eventually did come in, I didn't have anywhere close enough to sustain two growing babies - so I had to supplement with formula. I did have a kind woman donate a cooler FULL of fresh breast milk to me - so that helped in the beginning.
As I am sure many of you find too, as a full-time working-mom who was quickly sucked back into a large project and 10-12 hour (or more) days when I returned to work, breast feeding and pumping was not feasible beyond eight weeks.
Here is a link to the web cast:
2012-08-30-stbym-mothers-milk.mp3
Enjoy!
I learned some interesting facts:
- It didn't surprise me that some men can produce milk, however many male WWII POW veterans who were malnourished started producing milk after they were rescued and started to eat again
- Giraffe milk (and meat for that matter) is kosher
- By 6 months, women in the US have their babies fully weaned (and a majority as early as 3 months)
When my milk eventually did come in, I didn't have anywhere close enough to sustain two growing babies - so I had to supplement with formula. I did have a kind woman donate a cooler FULL of fresh breast milk to me - so that helped in the beginning.
As I am sure many of you find too, as a full-time working-mom who was quickly sucked back into a large project and 10-12 hour (or more) days when I returned to work, breast feeding and pumping was not feasible beyond eight weeks.
Here is a link to the web cast:
2012-08-30-stbym-mothers-milk.mp3
Enjoy!
Monday, September 3, 2012
Beasts of the Southern Wild - Enraged
For several years now, I have wanted to go to the Colorado State Fair that takes place mid-August through Labor Day weekend about 2.5 hours away in Pueblo, Colorado (if any of you remember the federal government's public service announcements from the 1970's where you wrote away with a self-addressed stamped envelope to request various brochures, yes...THAT Pueblo).
Unfortunately, the timing has never been just right - I've been travelling, the weather's been to hot, it was too close to my transfer or, last year I was too pregnant to walk more than twenty-five feet.
This year was no different. We had all our plans set to drive down on Sunday, but two babies had other plans...they were crabby and tired and the last thing we needed to do was take them on a 5-hour round-trip car ride. So, maybe next year...
Instead, my DH agreed to watch the Twinks and I went to the movies! I sometimes miss those days...when I would spontaneously leave work a little early to visit the independent movie house near downtown.
Upon the recommendation of a friend, I went to see Beasts of the Southern Wild. The movie is about a rag-tag group of far-below-poverty-level socitety outcasts living in a swamp just outside New Orleans. The focus of the movie is on a six-year-old beautiful african american girl who needs to learn to live life on her own.
I am not sure if the movie's creator ultimately intended his audience to walk out of the theater feeling happy and uplifted because it was evident that this little girl will somehow survive, but from almost the opening scene my heart felt broken and sad.
In my eyes, it was a bunch of uneducated drunks raising children they didn't really want in a swampy, smelly, unsanitary garbage dump. The kids were often neglected, hungry, abused and loved only between fits of rage. All I could think about was the last five years of my life...how much our hearts burned to start our family, the sacrifices, uncertanity and heartache we faced along the way, and how much I loved our two little human beings that I knew would be waiting for me when I arrived home.
I am not a violent person, but I wanted to jump through the screen, grab many of the characters tightly around the neck, shake them back and forth and scream at the top of my lungs. Don't they know what a special gift they had been given?! Why do they think that it's perfectly ok to neglect their kids, not provide basic food, clothing and shelter for them, trap them in filth and pass out drunk night-after-night?!
Knowing that there are so many loving, stable homes out there, why didn't these adults make the ultimate sacrifice and put these kids up for adoption? It brought me back to our screwed-up foster system and the messed-up belief that the best place for a child is always with his or her birth parents. Bullcrap!Bullcrap! Bullcrap!
I know things are never going to change in our society, but I can still wish that every child is wanted, loved, protected and valued.
Unfortunately, the timing has never been just right - I've been travelling, the weather's been to hot, it was too close to my transfer or, last year I was too pregnant to walk more than twenty-five feet.
This year was no different. We had all our plans set to drive down on Sunday, but two babies had other plans...they were crabby and tired and the last thing we needed to do was take them on a 5-hour round-trip car ride. So, maybe next year...
Instead, my DH agreed to watch the Twinks and I went to the movies! I sometimes miss those days...when I would spontaneously leave work a little early to visit the independent movie house near downtown.
Upon the recommendation of a friend, I went to see Beasts of the Southern Wild. The movie is about a rag-tag group of far-below-poverty-level socitety outcasts living in a swamp just outside New Orleans. The focus of the movie is on a six-year-old beautiful african american girl who needs to learn to live life on her own.
I am not sure if the movie's creator ultimately intended his audience to walk out of the theater feeling happy and uplifted because it was evident that this little girl will somehow survive, but from almost the opening scene my heart felt broken and sad.
In my eyes, it was a bunch of uneducated drunks raising children they didn't really want in a swampy, smelly, unsanitary garbage dump. The kids were often neglected, hungry, abused and loved only between fits of rage. All I could think about was the last five years of my life...how much our hearts burned to start our family, the sacrifices, uncertanity and heartache we faced along the way, and how much I loved our two little human beings that I knew would be waiting for me when I arrived home.
I am not a violent person, but I wanted to jump through the screen, grab many of the characters tightly around the neck, shake them back and forth and scream at the top of my lungs. Don't they know what a special gift they had been given?! Why do they think that it's perfectly ok to neglect their kids, not provide basic food, clothing and shelter for them, trap them in filth and pass out drunk night-after-night?!
Knowing that there are so many loving, stable homes out there, why didn't these adults make the ultimate sacrifice and put these kids up for adoption? It brought me back to our screwed-up foster system and the messed-up belief that the best place for a child is always with his or her birth parents. Bullcrap!Bullcrap! Bullcrap!
I know things are never going to change in our society, but I can still wish that every child is wanted, loved, protected and valued.