A Time to Cook...

For months and months, this is the 6 pm conversation in our house:

Me: "Do you want dinner tonight?"
DH: "Sure"
Me: "What do you want?"
DH: "I don't know, what do you want?"
Me: "I'm not in the mood for anything special, are you?"
DH: "Nope, are you?"
Me: "Want to go out?"
DH: "Sure"
Me: "Where?"
DH: "I don't know, what do you think?"

Invariably, by the time we made a decision, it was time to feed, change and put the kids to bed and we'd end up bringing something in or having something simple and often unhealthy - like sandwiches with chips, cereal or we went straight for the ice cream.

To avoid this, every 2-3 weeks, we've been making 8-10 recipes together, and planning enough for leftovers - so we have 2-3 weeks of meals (combined with an occasional meal out). It's worked our really, really well. We write down and post a menu on the fridge - so we know in advance what we're having and we don't have to think about it when we've come home from a long day at the office.

For example, some of this week's recipes were:

• Cranberry pork loin with rice
• Spinach lasagna roll ups
• Orange flank steak with cucumber and apple slaw
• Walnut chicken with almond green beans
• Tuna melts

On Saturday, Little Miss G and I did the shopping...this is what she thought of it:

Dreaming that the grocery fairy will visit my house and bring my very favorite foods!

Don't you wish you could fall asleep in a shopping cart too?

Later that day, I put my iPhone on the dock and turned on some kids music. About an hour in, F started belly laughing uncontrollably. You'd have thought a tickle monster entered our home. Know what he was laughing at? This song...remember this one?! Ha!

Our First October - 11 Months!

Even though we missed posting on the 11's, the time between September and October has been an event-filled month. The twinks are growing SO fast! Look at them now!



I've got four teeth on top and four on the bottom!



Don't make us grow up too fast! I like to suck my thumb!

They both say "Da, da, da" and "Ma, ma, ma" and I think they even know what it means. The other night, when my DH walked in the door, G squealed in delight and even said what sounded like "Hi Daddy!" It melted our hearts. F has a sound he likes to make that sounds exactly like "I did it!" To which I usually coo back "Yes, you did!"   As you saw in my last post, F started to stand on his own and now can't seem to get enough of it. He's become quite adept and each time we put him down - in his crib upstairs, in the pack-and-play downstairs, in the play corral, or even just on the floor...he wants to stand. I just have to say, there's almost nothing cuter than turning around and seeing a little smiling face peeking over a rail!

OK...maybe it's a toss-up between that and a baby who sleeps with her tush in the air

...or a pumpkin fast asleep in his Daddy's arms!

G has come a LONG WAY too. If you recall, in early September she still wasn't rolling from back to tummy. Well, you'd never guess that now!

On Monday, September 24, F started to clap. By Wednesday, G was showing us she could do it too! What's most interesting is that when they clap, they almost never miss and swat the air instead.

  

Not only is G now crawling full-force, but she has pulled herself up a few times to a standing position too! It's as if her determined little alter-ego finally changed it's mind and decided that it was time to put her body on fast-forward and go, go, go! We are continuing to do therapy, but each week the therapist comes, she master the goal for the week.

Crawling is Ducky!

  

Go G Go!



I can do that too!



G is also in love with drums. We take them to music class each week and at the start, the teacher has a LARGE drum in the middle of the room. G can't wait to crawl up to it and start banging. So, I was fortunate to find a Remo kids tom-tom on Craigslist for cheap and feel like we hit the jackpot. It's her FAVORITE toy!

Bang a drum!

F's favorite toy is the Fisher Price Popity-Pop Dinosaur. It has a large "bowl" that, when he puts something inside, pops around and the balls roll out the dinosaur's mouth. He likes to lean over the bowl, push the button and watch it jiggle. One day, he leaned a little too far and fell in. Even though he was startled, it was hysterical...his tush was up in the air and it looked like the dino gobbled him right up!

As for eating, we continue to push the limits. G adores her fruit and F is a carnivore through-and-through. Both twinks can polish off a medium-sized banana on their own. They tasted Grandma S's brisket for the first time and you would have thought she died and gone to heaven. She was eating it by the fistfuls. She also decided that lemons are heavenly.

On their 11 month birthday, we started mixing 25/75 organic whole milk to formula. We are lucky to have a local dairy where the milk goes from milk-to-cow within 48 hours. They were doing so well on the mixture that in just eight short days, we're now at 75 percent milk to 25 percent formula - so we will finish this box and then be done! Yay!

Yesterday, we went to a program called "Inside the Symphony" where the kids sit in the middle of the room and the musicians are spread around the perimeter. G could hardly keep her eyes off the tympani drums and F was puzzled at first, but finally realized that when the French horns had to be to the musician's face to make noise.

At the Symphony. See the French horn case behind me?

Sitting sidesaddle, just enjoying the music.

Grandma S came for a visit the first weekend of October, then Grandpa M came the week after. F and G and Grandpa M formed a very special bond.

I now have more hair than my Grandpa M!

Clapping with Grandpa! Yay!

As the warm weather is winding down, we are trying to soak up the last few days. Last week, we went to the park.

Wheeeeee!

Check out my argyles!

 In preparation for Halloween, we went to a pumpkin patch. Here are some of my favorite shots...

We hope you all have a very happy October and November!