Time Management

To be one of those brownie-baking-crafty-PTA meeting-going-moms (well no PTA quite yet), you have to be organized. I am one of 4 list makers in my family. My dad passed on the gene to my 2 brothers and me. I make to-do lists for things around the house, my grocery lists have items assembled in order of appearance, I had a birthday party to-do list, I have lists for things to take to Nana's on Tuesdays, etc. As my one brother says, "If it's not on the list, it doesn't exist!" I don't make lists at work, because I have all day to putter around there and get things done and sometimes just need to "keep busy."

List-making is more for getting done what I HAVE to get done to allow time for doing what I'd RATHER be doing. For example, pulling out all the thistle weeds in the garden HAS to be done, but it is only on a mental list, looming in and over my head. I'd RATHER be knitting, but this morning I was visually reminded of bananas getting riper and riper on the counter. So a compromise between HAVING to do and WANTING to do was baking an experimental cake. You may ask, "How do you have time to bake cakes...experimental or otherwise?" It's all about time management.

Here is how a Monday morning usually goes: when the kids waken (around 6:30 or 7am), I get up and start my breakfast, make and warm their bottles, go change them, put them in the "puppy pen," go eat my breakfast, check email and read a few blogs. Then I make the kids oatmeal. Kip has been very helpful in the mornings and gets up, gives them each their bottle while I finish eating. I then give them their cereal, and it's back into the pen or crawling around while I get their bath ready. Back into the cribs to wait while the other is bathed. We're done with all this by 9am, then it's out for a 30 minute walk, back inside for crawling and playing, and down at 10am for a nap. The usually nap from 10-12, so I can get those chores or something more fun completed on my own.

I even threw in a load of diapers, and saved myself another trip downstairs by retrieving the walnuts when I put the detergent in the washer after the rinse cycle. The baking prep occurred during the post-walk crawling. I'm modifying a banana bundt cake which smells heavenly. I usually don't alter cake recipes as they are more specific than baking bread for example, which is simply a formula. My big wish is whether the cake comes out of the pan or not.

Operation Yum-yum

I ditched Kip and the kids the other night to go to knit night, a Hip Mama meetup. It was fun, and one of 3 nights a month that I can get out for "me" time. At breakfast, Kip told me a VERY funny story about Kai while he was giving Seda her bottle that night. He and Seda were minding their own business and Kai was adventuring on the floor. At one point Kip thinks, "Where's Kai?" and he sees Kai's head slooooowly emerge from the floor, like a submarine's periscope, just visible above Kip's knee, with a CRAZED look in his eye and a big half-moon smile. He scans left...beep, beep, beep, beep...then right...beep, beep, beep, beep...and finds his target. THE BOTTLE. You could hear the dive alarm go off, and Kai submerges to the murky depths. All you could hear is the sonar. THEN...Kip sees one hand slowly come up, then the second hand comes up and both clamp on to the edge of the end table and the full baby submarine rises again, his crazed eyes level with the milk bottle. He clears the end table of everything, grunting with exertion: remotes, coasters, books...until only the bottle remains. He reaches for it and is defeated by Daddy. In his defeat he skulks away to destroy one of the books while he impatiently waits for dinner. Kip said if it had been a movie, Kai would have been clad in full Navy Seal gear, clutching a knife in his teeth and employing grappling hooks to scale the "mountain." The G-rated version would have been more like an episode from a Calvin and Hobbes comic strip where Calvin's vivid imagination places him in a role greater than his 6 year-old size.

We Are One

This time last year, I had been a mom for a short while. My poor son was all by his lonesome in the NICU, and I had banished my daughter to the nursery so I could sleep comfortably for the first time in 2 months. My hospital room was designated a biohazard site due to my bodily fluids spewing forth. I tried to explain to the authorities that IV antibiotics always make me sick, but they were concerned about issues with my "other end" so to speak.

The night before the birth, I sat with the twins' Daddy on the couch and teared up. He said, "Why are you crying NOW?" I said, "This is all I've ever wanted in the whole wide world! I can't wait to see them!"

The morning of the birth, dearest Daddy filmed me waddling down the hall like a penguin. Rightly so, as I was wearing a white shirt with black sleeves, black pants and orange socks. Another fine cinematographic moment was capturing my bare twin-filled belly approaching around the corner before the rest of me. Ah...such memories.

Now, a year later, we have survived. Quite well, I might add. No illnesses, only called the pediatrician's office twice in the last year. Flew by instinct and the seat of our pants. I asked Daddy how the first year of the rest of his life has been so far. He said, "AWESOME!" I second that. It is sooooooo true what everyone says. It goes by amazingly fast, and now I can see why when we ask other parents of older children about the early weeks or months they say, "Oh Jeez...I can't remember...it's pretty hazy."

And as I sit here, noshing on my daily oatmeal and Viennese coffee, I hear the clanking of crib rails, jingles of stuffed animals and sing-song of morning baby babble. It is pure music to my mothering ears.

Stay tuned for photos once we assemble them from the various cameras firing away at the birthday party.

Thinning Out

So recently, I noticed I'd gained about 4.5 pounds and thought, "Oh, I guess I should stop eating as if I'm still breastfeeding," since I stopped some time in Feb. Calorie intake was around 2200 calories a day. This week, I cut out about 500 calories a day, no white bread, in fact considerably less starch, and this morning I'd lost those 4.5 pounds.

We have really small dinners, like grilled chicken salad or hummus, veggies, pita or sometimes even just bread, wine and cheese, or stir fry. Lunches are usually english muffin with egg and cheese, or cottage cheese and fruit, and almost every day I make a Go Lean vanilla protein powder shake with milk and frozen berries. Oh...and there is nothing sweet in the house except fruit. Nothing salty, either, which is more my weakness. My activity has increased in recent weeks too, since the weather is nice.

The total downfall, if there is one, and especially for people like me, is that I must go shopping for clothes that fit! HAAAAAAATE shopping, especially for pants. Takes forever.

Thinning out also has to do with getting rid of junk, which 9 years of marriage tends to accumulate, not to mention the sentimentality of the past, which really doesn't matter anymore. Time to let go and make room for kids' accumulations. Looking forward to storing their artwork instead of our useless junk.

Purging is also about getting rid of some hair for the summer. Maybe I'll be brave enough to post before and afters...but the before is pretty hideous. Haircut is thankfully this morning!

She Eats...AND She Speaks!!!

After being out at the in-laws for Easter Sunday lunch, we were home in time for the 4pm feeding, and low and behold our little girl FED HERSELF Cheerios!!! I couldn't believe my eyes. She's a bit late in the game, but better late than never. Her brother started finger-feeding at the end of January! She devours every meal via fingers to mouth now.

And this morning, while on diaper duty, she uttered, "ma-ma-ma-ma," and I thought she was just blowing bubbles. But NOOOOO, she has entered the world of locution and has been babbling "ma-ma-ma-ma-ma-ma" intermittently all day!! Her brother started babbling mid-January.

That's my girl!

Energizer Babble Bunny

My ultra-loveable XY baby is an energizer bunny. He starts moving and babbling at 7:30am and doesn't really stop until 8pm. He naps twice for maybe an hour at each nap. He says Dada, Mama, Nana, GaGa, Blah Blah, Buh Buh, Annn, Unn (which I think means both lunch and all-done), Ayy (he's going to be a ladies man like The Fonz), and when I ask him something that "requires" a yes or no, he responds true to his German heritage with, I swear...Nein.

Yesterday, my also ultra-loveable rather quiet Little Miss napped peacefully for an hour on top of me while The Boy was in the swing. He was in constant motion and noise the whole time, banging, pulling on the mobile things, hanging sideways out of the swing, babbling. I would look over periodically to find him in "Two-Fin" finger-sucking mode for 10 seconds before he remembered he had to bang around some more and rock back in forth in the sideways-swaying swing. Little does he know he only has about 4 pounds to go before he can't use it anymore. This trait is actually quite endearing, for it assures that the minute his head hits the bedtime mattress, he sleeps 11 hours straight. Must be all that healthy food I'm shoving down their gullets. Cheerio-dusted tofu cubes were a huge hit yesterday, and spoonfuls of hummus are always a crowd pleaser. The homemade baked sweet potato fries were a welcome snack as well.

Today we are trapped inside again, due to April showers. Here's hoping for a dry sunny weekend!

Psychedelic Pterodactyl Freak Show!

THAT...is our daughter's nickname! She is often dressed in a garish array of clashing patterns and colors, she screeches, and she's double-jointed! So there you have it.