Happy Birthday Nana!

Nana came up for a visit and to take care of L&D this week while their sitter is on vacation. We took her to Red Robin for burgers and came home for the birthday cake I made for her. Unfortunately, she has come down with laryngitis, and you can tell in this video we took tonight. :( L&D have been having so much fun saying "Happy Birthday", so I think they'll be ready for their own birthday next weekend. I love this video since it shows the 2 totally different personalities of L&D. Libby is her own free spirit and makes up her own words while Drew puts on a show as much as he can!

Chicken Trickery

AHA! Yes, I am feeling quite smug tonight because I completely pulled a fast one on Drew and he fell for it hook, line, and sinker. He is turning a little OCD lately b/c he can't stand having his food mixed or spilling out of the separate parts of his plate into another section. He has also been very picky and doesn't like any kind of meat chunks right now. For the past 3 nights, he has eaten maybe 2 pieces of cheese or a noodle each night-- avoiding all else presented. Well, not tonight baby! That's because I took out my new handy Cuisinart mini-chopper and ground it up. He ate that stuff up like there was no tomorrow! So, guess whose food will be more like cous-cous from now on...

You were so worth the $30 I spent on you at the Williams-Sonoma outlet!!!

Fun Sunday

Well, we got up, had breakfast, and I opened up my email to check it before getting dressed for Church. That is when I realized that we completely forgot about daylight savings time! So, we didn't make the 1st service, but went to the 2nd one. Libby is still trying to adjust to the nursery there, but usually stops crying shortly after we leave. She's also really tired b/c this is their usual nap time. Drew, however, just walked right in and didn't look back.

When we got home, they had a long nap and were ready to play as soon as they woke up. Darrell turned around and they were both in the toy basket in their room. We caught some photos. Later, we went outside to play with the neighbors in the beautiful 70+ degree weather. It was great!

Confirmation Party

Our babysitter invited us to her son's Confirmation Party on Saturday, so we decided to go. She is originally from Nicarauga and her husband is Salvadorian. But she has been here for over 20 years now. She and her mother take care of L&D during the week. It was funny because both L&D were pretty hesitant about going to them when they asked to hold L&D. Libby especially-- she basically said no way to that. Guess they thought we were dropping them off! We always noticed that Drew tended to dance more whenever he heard Latin music, so both he and Libby had a great time on the dance floor! We ate some delicious food, too. I had yuca and pupusas for the first time. The pupusas were soooo good. The yuca was similar to potatoes, but had the texture of cauliflower. We all had a great night and L&D slept like rocks since they stayed up 2 hours past bedtime. We caught some video of L&D dancing, but they turned out really dark. Hopefully you can see a little bit of their boogy'ing in action.

Snow Day (with Daddy this time)

Yesterday at church, the pastor asked if we thought we would really have 11 inches of snow that night. I thought he was joking because it was snowing lightly and our area freaks out when the s-word is even mentioned-- I'm serious-- my friend Andi told me the grocery was out of bread on SATURDAY. Turns out that this was true b/c we got home and turned on the news and yep-- expecting a big one. We were in the medium amount of snow range, but had nothing until about 11PM (they were predicting it would start in the afternoon). I was preparing for work today. But when we woke up, there was a few inches on the ground and then it continued all morning. We measured and got 6 inches! We were happy that Darrell could work from home this time and enjoy the fun (and also shovel) with us. Drew couldn't keep those mittens on, so we had to sentence him by putting Daddy's on him. Libby mostly laughed and ate the snow again. She fell on her face and just laughed. We got a precious photo right after!

Just Like Daddy

Drew has so many characteristics of Darrell-- doesn't like his hands dirty too much, has to have everything in its place (like cup in cupholder in highchair), same coarse hair to deal with every morning...
After church Sunday, we came home and did a little cleaning. Darrell was vacuuming the carpet, then moved to the floors. I was dusting. I turned around and found Drew with his "vacuum" that he got all by himself. He followed Darrell all around and it was precious. Notice how he grabs the baby doll just like Daddy and says, "Help." What a big helper he is! *****WARNING-- this video is loud, so unless you have a colicky baby that needs soothing from a vacuum, turn it down first. ;)

Leashing a Monkey and a Bear

I just joined the local Mothers of Multiples Club, even if my multiples are almost 23 months old now. I didn't have the time to volunteer or go to meetings, but have heard that the get-togethers are nice. They all meet to go on "field trips" to parks, the zoo, etc. I think that would be fun for us this summer.

Twice a year, the club holds a big giant clothes/baby goods sale. Although we don't need any more gear, I like to go for clothes and books/games for my preschool students. Since I'm a member, I got to go and shop 30 minutes earlier than the general public. You would have thought that they were giving out bars of gold there or something. It was a madhouse! There were people everywhere and you literally got trapped down 1 aisle and couldn't move and there were kids and babies with strollers, and dads looking aggravated while the moms hunted for bargains. I didn't find very much clothing that wasn't worn out or blah or a good price. But I was able to get some gently used jeans for 50 cents and Drew will love them. I did get some games and toys for cheap, including Crocodile Dentist, which will be great with my dentist unit in a few weeks. There were a lot of items and gifts new in original packaging-- photo albums, frames, etc. I got 1 big photo album that was brand new and adorable-- for $1! I love a good bargain.

I also found these 2 things that I have debated about getting for a while now. I've seen other moms using them and wondered if they are borderline child abuse. I'm talking about those kiddy "leashes"-- where the child wears a cute backpack stuffed animal with a harness and its tail is a long leash. They were $4 each and brand new, so I bought them. We tried them out when I got home and they loved them! They were all over the place and wore them for a really long time. I still can't decide if they are just wrong or a great idea for moms, especially those of multiples. Hmmm... thoughts??

Baby Geniuses

... at least I think they are! I am so amazed by the growth of Libby and Drew's language lately. Today, Drew put these words together-- Mama, more cracker please-- spontaneously. He is always using related words, but not necessarily in a string. For example, while getting PJ's on tonight, he said... book, Elmo, read, all done, night night. So, he's getting sequences of events, too. Tonight we did something fun- we let them read the stories tonight and it was so cute to hear Drew read the Elmo book about balls. He started saying words that we have read from it. On 1 page, it talks about how most balls are round, but some are not. I thought this was a difficult concept and usually don't spend much time on that page. I couldn't see what page he was on, but knew instantly when he said, "balls, basketball, baseball, balls round, football not round, no no." I couldn't believe it. Libby had been back to more jibber-jabber jargon with more signing and less words the last 2 weeks. She has many words she uses, but her speech is definitely not as intelligible as Drew's. But she's still developing quite normally, so we have no concerns about that. Well, now she's starting to come out of her shell more and more. She is now calling me "Mommy" instead of "Mama"- funny since I refer to myself as "Mama". She's also naming more pictures in our storybooks and can say them quite clearly most of the time. But she has different words and approximations for things, like "ami" for "snowman". Some VERY clear words I heard for the first time today were MY, MINE!! So, I can check off that she is beginning to use pronouns! We've actually been practicing those a little. I ask, "Who's Mama's sweet girl/boy?" and they respond, "ME!" We're also trying yes/no, but for some reason, they don't care about those at all right now. Baby steps... She is now blowing kisses, playing cutie-pie peek-a-boo (being shy and making a sweet face), running up for hugs, and laughing like crazy when she gets the chance to either run naked after a bath or get raspberry kisses or tickles on her belly. She still has that hot temper, though. Ooooooowwweeee, and it's spicy! ;)

Artists In Training

Today is a cold and windy day. We all went to Church this morning for the first time in a long long time. L&D signed up for the play room and we went a little early thinking we'd have to stay to help them feel comfortable there. Well, as soon as they saw toys and heard us say play, they were off and didn't even look back to say goodbye. They had a great time, so it's good to know that we can go to church more often. They're transitioning down to 1 nap (I guess) and it's still a little rough for them in the morning. But hopefully it will only get easier to lose that nap.

We came home and tried to find things to occupy these 2 little active ones. We tried to go for a wagon walk, but didn't make it too far because of the cold strong wind. So, I decided to have them FINGERPAINT for the 1st time! They were confused and mostly wanted to eat it, but then had fun making a mess. Here are some cute photos:

Drew's masterpiece:



Libby's masterpiece:

Veggie (shhhhhh...) Muffins

I found a recipe online for some "delicious" veggie muffins, so I decided to give them a try. Of course, I made some alterations, so I could enjoy them, too. I made mini muffins this time and the batch made 48 (so it will make 24 regular sized ones). I left out 12 and froze the rest. They taste sort of like spice cake, but much less sweet. So, if you want a typical sweet taste, add more sugar. L&D are eating them UP, so I won't tell them what's really in them for many MANY years! ;)

VEGGIE MUFFINS:
2 cups whole wheat flour (or what you have on hand)
2-3 tablespoons soy flour (omit if you'd like, but it adds protein)
* 2 tbs. flax seed powder (I added this myself)
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/4 cup unsalted butter, softened (I used the same amt. in unsweetened applesauce instead)
1/3 cup brown sugar- I used Splenda brown sugar (or other sweetener-sugar, Splenda)
2-3 tablespoons honey (optional)
1 egg (I used Egg Beaters)
3 cups vegetables, pureed (I used baby food- carrots, green beans, squash, & sweet potatoes)
1 teaspoon vanilla
2 teaspoons cinnamon

Preheat oven to 350°F
Spray muffin pans or line with muffin papers
Mix ingredients with electric mixer until well blended
Fill muffins 2/3 full with batter
Bake 25 minutes (my mini ones only took 15 mins.) or until toothpick comes out clean
Cool partially in the pan, then remove to wire rack
Store half in an air tight container
Freeze the other half. Microwave to defrost.

From the author: "I like to use sweeter veggies. Usually 2 small jars of sweet potatoes, 1 of sweet peas, 1 carrots, and 2 mixed veggies (you can find spinach, green beans and corn this way).
If you are using your own steamed vegetables, you may need to add some fruit juice to thin it out to the consistency of applesauce.
If you don't have 3 cups of vegetables, make up the difference with unsweetened apple sauce or mashed bananas."