This week saw some rather momentous firsts. Our new nanny, Courtney, started this week, and after a few hours of guidance with Lisa, we took the training wheels off and Lisa went shopping! While she was out in the free world for the first time in nearly 7 months, she stopped off at my work, and we went out to lunch. Together. To a real restaurant . For real Thai food. Mmmmm, yumminy! What odd is that because we go for walks together most nights, and talk so frequently, that we didn't really have that much new to talk about. We just enjoyed not having to wolf down our food, and didn't have to worry about a constant demand for Baby Mum-Mums (little rice crackers that our kids just can't get enough of.)
Yesterday, I got home from work fairly early, and we decided to go for a walk to this little Italian bistro a few blocks from here. We'd never been there before, but we had heard the rumor that they served Gelato there, and we were both up for that.
During the walk there, Lorelai fell asleep, and Reece was in a great mood, so we decided to grab a table on the patio of the restaurant and have dinner. It was the first dinner out with the kids. The food was excellent, and the Gelato was perfect. We forgot to bring Mum-Mums for the kids, but Reece did okay, just sitting there in the stroller. He lasted about 25 minutes before he got fussy, and then Lorelai woke up, and it was time to hit the road. Hopefully, we can do that again soon.
We've also started the kids on real human food, i.e. something besides baby food, oatmeal and ground up rice. Last night, they each got pieces of frozen Whole Wheat bagels, and we're going to try potatoes, carrots and sweet potatoes in the next few days as well. It seems like they are getting pretty bored with the current selection of pureed peas, apples, pears, green beans, squash, carrots, peaches and sweet potatoes, and often make a huge mess in retaliation for us feeding them rather evil mixtures of the above fruits an veggies. Peaches, pears and peas all start with 'pea', but that doesn't mean they mix well.
The only down side to the week is the fact that I have been on call since Tuesday for work, and it's been one of the worst weeks in a couple of years. We've lost out production database (twice), one of our production servers (twice) and had a rollout of a major application go really wrong. All these events would have been prevented with a little common sense over the past few years, but that would be a little too much to expect. From joelonsoftware.com, in a review of the book In Search of Stupidity by Richard Chapman, "... success in software is a matter of just not doing stupid things.". We haven't had much success lately, and now we know why.
Saturday, August 25, 2007
Sunday, August 12, 2007
Twins for Daddies, Part Two
Okay, here are the things we found we couldn't live without
1. DoubleBlessings EZ-2-Nurse Twins Nursing Pillow. http://www.doubleblessings.com/Detail.bok?no=280
2. Britax Companion Carseat. It's expensive, but it's the best rated one we found, and we loved it. http://www.britaxusa.net/products/browse.aspx It's also the only carseat rated for babies under 5 lbs, and since ours were around 4lb 8 oz when we brought them home, the hospital was okay with it. They won't let you leave if the babies don't fit properly in the seat.
3. Baby Trend Double Snap and Go Stroller. This thing is a god-send. It's light, compact and easy to use. However, the instructions we got directly from the company for using it with the Britax Car Seats are completely wrong. I played with it for a while before I came up with a setup I thought safer, and that worked much better. We used this stroller until the babies could sit up and look around for themselves. http://www.toysrus.com/product/index.jsp?productId=2265435&cp=2255983.2256189.2256200&parentPage=family
4. Once the babies could sit up on their own, we bought a Combi Twin LX, which we love. It fits through doors very easily, and is very light. Some strollers weigh in at 45-55 lbs. This one is 21 lbs, and folds up really small to fit in the back of our Camry and leaves plenty of room for other stuff. http://www.combistrollers.com/ProductDetails.aspx?CategoryID=1&selection=11&Children=0&productID=609
5. Bright Starts Rrroaring Fun Play Gym. The one in this ad isn't quite the same as the one we bought, but it is really close. The kids still play with it every day, and the song the lion plays is kind of addictive, and not annoying like most toys. The kids played with it so much that the batteries on the lion died after about 5.5 months, and we actually shed tears and considered buying the set again just to replace the lion. http://www.target.com/gp/detail.html/ref=br_1_7/602-0735333-4490236?ie=UTF8&frombrowse=1&asin=B000FTPNH6
6. Arm's Reach co-sleeper. We bought a crib, but the babies spent very little time in there until they were about 5 months old. They slept on the side of the bed in this sleeper, and Lorelai still sleeps in it now since Reece is a crib hog and we haven't bought a second crib yet, since this still works. It was so easy just to reach over and pick up the fussing baby and pull them into bed to feed instead of getting up and having to go to the crib. Totally worth the money. http://armsreach.com/original_cosleeper.php
7. Baby Bjorns x2. We absolutely loved our Bjorns, and were very sad that we couldn't use them once the babies hit about 15 lbs, because we're weenies, and the babies just got too heavy to lug around. But it was great to carry the babies up front, and we always got compliments on how cute our kids were, and the that's the whole point of having kids, right? http://www.toysrus.com/product/index.jsp?productId=2267522&cp=2255983.2256186.2256191&parentPage=family
8. Fisher Price Space Saver High Chair. We didn't buy these until the kids were eating solid food, but we have a small dining area in our kitchen, and it was nice to not have it all taken up by more chairs. They're a lot cheaper than free standing chairs as well, and very easy to clean up. http://www.fisher-price.com/fp.aspx?st=2002&e=product&pid=35541
9. Diaper Champ diaper pail (x2). So much cheaper than buying a Diaper Genie. It uses regular kitchen trash bags, and the piston in the mechanism pretty much keeps the odor inside the can. We have one upstairs and one downstairs. http://www.toysrus.com/product/index.jsp?productId=2373422&cp
10. Baby swing. This one is optional, because some babies won't have anything to do with it. But luckily ours took to it after a months or so, and it's a really big help when you are home by yourself and have two grumpy and tired babies. We only have one, and have occasionally thought we could have used a second one, but they are rather large and take up a lot of floor space. http://www.toysrus.com/product/index.jsp?productId=2265268&cp=2255975.2256080.2256086&parentPage=family
11. Baby Bouncers. Buy two of the ones listed below. Our kids don't sit much in them any more, but they do love to stand in front of them and dance and watch the lights. It's a good way to calm a grumpy baby http://www.toysrus.com/product/index.jsp?productId=2265154&cp=2255975.2256080.2256084&parentPage=family
12. Baby Jumper. Reece absolutely loves his jumper. Lorelai enjoys it too. This one is free standing and doesn't take up a doorway, but it does take up a lot of floor space, and because it's for a baby, it looks absolutely garish. http://www.fisher-price.com/fp.aspx?st=2002&e=product&pid=38839
13. We highly recommend breast feeding, but there will be times where your wife will need to pump. Get a really good electric dual pump, http://www.target.com/gp/detail.html/ref=br_1_1/602-0735333-4490236?ie=UTF8&frombrowse=1&asin=B00065H55W
14. You'll need 2 rockers, or one rocker for your bedroom and one at least one in the room you send the most time.
15. Crib. You'll need one of these, though the only thing you'll use it for in the first 4 months will be for collecting the piles of clean laundry. We haven't decided whether or not we are getting a second one yet, or if there is a way to go straight to a toddler bed. We'll see once they hit that toddler stage I guess.
That's about it for the big products, but here are some other products to get
1. Diaper rash Ointment: Boutreax's is the stuff we put on the really tough rashes. It usually works overnight
2. Quilted Multiuse Pads http://www.toysrus.com/product/index.jsp?productId=2267020&cp=2255976.2256089.2256097&parentPage=family So much easier that washing the whole changing pad. Get about 10
3. Contoured Changing Pad, one for each changing area. Stops the little ones from rolling around with a poopy diaper. We changed the babies on the floor with this under them so we never had to worry about them rolling off a dresser, but still, the pad helps contain the mess. Get about 6 soft covers as well, as you will have have them in the laundry, especially if you have a boy. http://www.toysrus.com/product/index.jsp?productId=2574731&cp=2255976.2256089.2256097&pg=2&parentPage=family
4. Dad Gear Sport Diaper bag. So far, it's worked great. It's not huge, and is only good for day trips, but pack a duffel bag if you're going for longer than that. http://www.toysrus.com/product/index.jsp?productId=2674920&cp=2255976.2256089.2255980.2256158&pg=4&parentPage=family
5. White Cloth Diapers. About 40 of them. Not to use as diapers. Use them as burp rags. They're soft, durable and washable. When the babies sleep in bed with us, we always put a burp rag down under their heads, just in case. With twins, we go through about 6-10 a day
6. Electric bottle warmer. We tried to do the warm bottle via tap water for a while, and couldn't believe how much easier life was once we bought a couple of warmers. One for upstairs next to our bed, and one for downstairs. http://www.target.com/gp/detail.html/ref=br_1_3/602-0735333-4490236?ie=UTF8&frombrowse=1&asin=B00005BXKM
7. Bottle sterilizer. This is great for that added peace of mind, and it's fast and easy too. You'll stop using this once you see your kids start chewing on the carpet. http://www.target.com/gp/detail.html/sr=/qid=/ref=br_1_1/602-0735333-4490236?ie=UTF8&frombrowse=1&asin=B000056OUH
8. 65cm exercise ball. aka, the Ball of Shame. If you make the baby cry, you get to hold him/her and bounce on the ball of shame, sometimes for hours. Great workout too.
1. DoubleBlessings EZ-2-Nurse Twins Nursing Pillow. http://www.doubleblessings.com/Detail.bok?no=280
2. Britax Companion Carseat. It's expensive, but it's the best rated one we found, and we loved it. http://www.britaxusa.net/products/browse.aspx It's also the only carseat rated for babies under 5 lbs, and since ours were around 4lb 8 oz when we brought them home, the hospital was okay with it. They won't let you leave if the babies don't fit properly in the seat.
3. Baby Trend Double Snap and Go Stroller. This thing is a god-send. It's light, compact and easy to use. However, the instructions we got directly from the company for using it with the Britax Car Seats are completely wrong. I played with it for a while before I came up with a setup I thought safer, and that worked much better. We used this stroller until the babies could sit up and look around for themselves. http://www.toysrus.com/product/index.jsp?productId=2265435&cp=2255983.2256189.2256200&parentPage=family
4. Once the babies could sit up on their own, we bought a Combi Twin LX, which we love. It fits through doors very easily, and is very light. Some strollers weigh in at 45-55 lbs. This one is 21 lbs, and folds up really small to fit in the back of our Camry and leaves plenty of room for other stuff. http://www.combistrollers.com/ProductDetails.aspx?CategoryID=1&selection=11&Children=0&productID=609
5. Bright Starts Rrroaring Fun Play Gym. The one in this ad isn't quite the same as the one we bought, but it is really close. The kids still play with it every day, and the song the lion plays is kind of addictive, and not annoying like most toys. The kids played with it so much that the batteries on the lion died after about 5.5 months, and we actually shed tears and considered buying the set again just to replace the lion. http://www.target.com/gp/detail.html/ref=br_1_7/602-0735333-4490236?ie=UTF8&frombrowse=1&asin=B000FTPNH6
6. Arm's Reach co-sleeper. We bought a crib, but the babies spent very little time in there until they were about 5 months old. They slept on the side of the bed in this sleeper, and Lorelai still sleeps in it now since Reece is a crib hog and we haven't bought a second crib yet, since this still works. It was so easy just to reach over and pick up the fussing baby and pull them into bed to feed instead of getting up and having to go to the crib. Totally worth the money. http://armsreach.com/original_cosleeper.php
7. Baby Bjorns x2. We absolutely loved our Bjorns, and were very sad that we couldn't use them once the babies hit about 15 lbs, because we're weenies, and the babies just got too heavy to lug around. But it was great to carry the babies up front, and we always got compliments on how cute our kids were, and the that's the whole point of having kids, right? http://www.toysrus.com/product/index.jsp?productId=2267522&cp=2255983.2256186.2256191&parentPage=family
8. Fisher Price Space Saver High Chair. We didn't buy these until the kids were eating solid food, but we have a small dining area in our kitchen, and it was nice to not have it all taken up by more chairs. They're a lot cheaper than free standing chairs as well, and very easy to clean up. http://www.fisher-price.com/fp.aspx?st=2002&e=product&pid=35541
9. Diaper Champ diaper pail (x2). So much cheaper than buying a Diaper Genie. It uses regular kitchen trash bags, and the piston in the mechanism pretty much keeps the odor inside the can. We have one upstairs and one downstairs. http://www.toysrus.com/product/index.jsp?productId=2373422&cp
10. Baby swing. This one is optional, because some babies won't have anything to do with it. But luckily ours took to it after a months or so, and it's a really big help when you are home by yourself and have two grumpy and tired babies. We only have one, and have occasionally thought we could have used a second one, but they are rather large and take up a lot of floor space. http://www.toysrus.com/product/index.jsp?productId=2265268&cp=2255975.2256080.2256086&parentPage=family
11. Baby Bouncers. Buy two of the ones listed below. Our kids don't sit much in them any more, but they do love to stand in front of them and dance and watch the lights. It's a good way to calm a grumpy baby http://www.toysrus.com/product/index.jsp?productId=2265154&cp=2255975.2256080.2256084&parentPage=family
12. Baby Jumper. Reece absolutely loves his jumper. Lorelai enjoys it too. This one is free standing and doesn't take up a doorway, but it does take up a lot of floor space, and because it's for a baby, it looks absolutely garish. http://www.fisher-price.com/fp.aspx?st=2002&e=product&pid=38839
13. We highly recommend breast feeding, but there will be times where your wife will need to pump. Get a really good electric dual pump, http://www.target.com/gp/detail.html/ref=br_1_1/602-0735333-4490236?ie=UTF8&frombrowse=1&asin=B00065H55W
14. You'll need 2 rockers, or one rocker for your bedroom and one at least one in the room you send the most time.
15. Crib. You'll need one of these, though the only thing you'll use it for in the first 4 months will be for collecting the piles of clean laundry. We haven't decided whether or not we are getting a second one yet, or if there is a way to go straight to a toddler bed. We'll see once they hit that toddler stage I guess.
That's about it for the big products, but here are some other products to get
1. Diaper rash Ointment: Boutreax's is the stuff we put on the really tough rashes. It usually works overnight
2. Quilted Multiuse Pads http://www.toysrus.com/product/index.jsp?productId=2267020&cp=2255976.2256089.2256097&parentPage=family So much easier that washing the whole changing pad. Get about 10
3. Contoured Changing Pad, one for each changing area. Stops the little ones from rolling around with a poopy diaper. We changed the babies on the floor with this under them so we never had to worry about them rolling off a dresser, but still, the pad helps contain the mess. Get about 6 soft covers as well, as you will have have them in the laundry, especially if you have a boy. http://www.toysrus.com/product/index.jsp?productId=2574731&cp=2255976.2256089.2256097&pg=2&parentPage=family
4. Dad Gear Sport Diaper bag. So far, it's worked great. It's not huge, and is only good for day trips, but pack a duffel bag if you're going for longer than that. http://www.toysrus.com/product/index.jsp?productId=2674920&cp=2255976.2256089.2255980.2256158&pg=4&parentPage=family
5. White Cloth Diapers. About 40 of them. Not to use as diapers. Use them as burp rags. They're soft, durable and washable. When the babies sleep in bed with us, we always put a burp rag down under their heads, just in case. With twins, we go through about 6-10 a day
6. Electric bottle warmer. We tried to do the warm bottle via tap water for a while, and couldn't believe how much easier life was once we bought a couple of warmers. One for upstairs next to our bed, and one for downstairs. http://www.target.com/gp/detail.html/ref=br_1_3/602-0735333-4490236?ie=UTF8&frombrowse=1&asin=B00005BXKM
7. Bottle sterilizer. This is great for that added peace of mind, and it's fast and easy too. You'll stop using this once you see your kids start chewing on the carpet. http://www.target.com/gp/detail.html/sr=/qid=/ref=br_1_1/602-0735333-4490236?ie=UTF8&frombrowse=1&asin=B000056OUH
8. 65cm exercise ball. aka, the Ball of Shame. If you make the baby cry, you get to hold him/her and bounce on the ball of shame, sometimes for hours. Great workout too.
Twins for Daddies: Pregnancy Tips
My sister asked me to put together a Twins for Dummies, er... Twins for Daddies.. post to help out some of her friends who are about to experience the joy of deux et newborns. So in no particular order, here are the things we found to be really helpful. Prior to the arrival of your two bundles of joy, do the following, if you can afford to.
a) Hire a house cleaner to do the bathrooms and the floors and a deep clean on the kitchen every 2 weeks. Get them started by the time your wife reaches the 7th month, because by then, you'll already think you are overworked and you'll think that your wife is just saying she can't get down on her hands and knees to clean the bathroom floor, even if she's already down there routinely, puking her guts out. Not that this ever happened in our house, but you'll find that you won't even want to make a joke like that by the seventh month. Either way, you'll have enough on your mind once the babies come that cleaning the bathrooms and the floor will be the last thing you'll have energy to do on your Saturday mornings.
b) Line up help for as long as you possibly can for after the babies arrive, and make sure every one knows what they are getting into. They are there to help, to do dishes, laundry, middle of the night baby holding, grocery store trips, phone call interceptor, anything that will give you and / or your wife even 10 more minutes of sleep. Make sure the people who are there to help are people you and your wife are comfortable being around 24 hours a day for days at a time. Your wife needs to be able to be fully exposed during feeding times, and she needs to be completely free to be able to do it, anywhere in the house. Have just one person there at a time if you can, and make sure that you limit visits for others to an hour here or there, and reserve the right to change the date and time at your whim and desire. Avoid having any other children that aren't your own in the house until the babies are 3 months old, especially if your babies are preemies, as many twins are. The first few months are all about the babies, the mom, and you (in that order), keeping everyone healthy, happy and sleeping as much as possible. It is your job as daddy to keep the external stresses and pressures during the last few months of pregnancy and the first few months after the birth to a bare minimum. We found that you need to have n+1 people in the house for baby care, when n is the number of babies due to arrive.
c) Make sure you always have at least a half full tank of gas, every day. I went to lunch one day, and had about an eighth of a tank left, and thought I'd be able to fill up on the way home. 45 minutes later, I was on the way to the hospital to meet my wife, and I had to pull off the interstate to fill up with gas so I didn't run out. Luckily I knew the area pretty well from my days hanging out at country bars, so I knew shortcuts to the hospital once I got off the highway.
d) Read the book "What to Expect when you're Expecting", but skip the really scary stuff in there. If the scary stuff does happen, nothing you read is going to prepare you for it. If the scary stuff doesn't happen, be happy you didn't worry about it.
e) Talk to your babies before they are born. It's an amazing thing to do, and it does help. Greet them with the same phrase every time you do it. Mine was "Hi, it's Daddy". When my daughter, Lorelai was born, and she was crying and screaming in the hall while her brother was on his way out, I was able to go up to her bassinet, and say 'Hi Lorelai, it's Daddy', and she looked up at me, grabbed my finger with her little fingers and stopped crying. The nurses just went 'Wow.' It was a pretty amazing moment, and something I'll never forget.
f) Go to all the ultrasounds you can. It's just amazing to see the development, and just makes the whole pregnancy thing more real for you.
g) Go out to dinner / movies / hang out with friends as much as you can possibly stand. Our twins are now six months old, and the only 'restaurant' my wife and I have gone to together since the birth is Starbucks. We now have long conversations about going out to our favorite Italian place, or reminisce about the crab wontons and plum sauce we had on our honeymoon in Hawaii, or the Bao we had in Chicago. It sorta-kinda gets us through the baby dinners of rice cereal with peas and pears mixed in. But not really.
h) Get a DVR to 'time-shift' your favorite TV shows. If the babies go down at 9:04 PM, your ass should be in bed by 9:12 PM, no later. It is totally not worth it to stay up even 20 minutes longer to watch the end of 'Lost' when you could be sleeping
i) Find someone who is 3-12 months ahead of you in the pregnancy/baby thing, and see if you can be the target of their hand me downs. It will save you a small fortune, and you'll get past the whole 'it's not new' thing really quickly when you see just how fast they grow out of stuff.
j) Get a digital video camera and a good still digital camera.
k) Start up a blog to share news with friends and family, and get used to posting. It makes it a lot easier to communicate with everyone, far and near.
l) Buy a freezer and stock it with meals, like casseroles, pasta like ravioli and home-made pasta sauce, ice cream bars, and whatever else you can fit in it. We really didn't start to dig into it until after our help started to leave, but it's a real saviour when you've already had your fill of pizza, teriyaki and sanwiches. Our favorites included: Souper Skillet Pasta (a family recipe I'll try to post here someday), Easy Chicken Chili, Red Beans and Rice, the aforementioned pasta sauce and store bought ravioli, tuna noodle casserole, and various soups.
m) Stock up your time off from work to take a t least 3 weeks after the kids are born. Now, if you live in a country/state where they insist you take time off for kids, or work for a reasonable company that says 'Having twins is not considered a vacation', then more power to you, but I had to fight and scream bloody murder to get my time off qualified under our Employee Illness Leave policy because I didn't give enough notice. Well forgive the fuck out of me for them being born 5 freaking weeks early. We didn't get enough freaking notice either. And yes, this is a bitter point of contention for me to this day, and the main reason I can't stand the business world in general these days.
a) Hire a house cleaner to do the bathrooms and the floors and a deep clean on the kitchen every 2 weeks. Get them started by the time your wife reaches the 7th month, because by then, you'll already think you are overworked and you'll think that your wife is just saying she can't get down on her hands and knees to clean the bathroom floor, even if she's already down there routinely, puking her guts out. Not that this ever happened in our house, but you'll find that you won't even want to make a joke like that by the seventh month. Either way, you'll have enough on your mind once the babies come that cleaning the bathrooms and the floor will be the last thing you'll have energy to do on your Saturday mornings.
b) Line up help for as long as you possibly can for after the babies arrive, and make sure every one knows what they are getting into. They are there to help, to do dishes, laundry, middle of the night baby holding, grocery store trips, phone call interceptor, anything that will give you and / or your wife even 10 more minutes of sleep. Make sure the people who are there to help are people you and your wife are comfortable being around 24 hours a day for days at a time. Your wife needs to be able to be fully exposed during feeding times, and she needs to be completely free to be able to do it, anywhere in the house. Have just one person there at a time if you can, and make sure that you limit visits for others to an hour here or there, and reserve the right to change the date and time at your whim and desire. Avoid having any other children that aren't your own in the house until the babies are 3 months old, especially if your babies are preemies, as many twins are. The first few months are all about the babies, the mom, and you (in that order), keeping everyone healthy, happy and sleeping as much as possible. It is your job as daddy to keep the external stresses and pressures during the last few months of pregnancy and the first few months after the birth to a bare minimum. We found that you need to have n+1 people in the house for baby care, when n is the number of babies due to arrive.
c) Make sure you always have at least a half full tank of gas, every day. I went to lunch one day, and had about an eighth of a tank left, and thought I'd be able to fill up on the way home. 45 minutes later, I was on the way to the hospital to meet my wife, and I had to pull off the interstate to fill up with gas so I didn't run out. Luckily I knew the area pretty well from my days hanging out at country bars, so I knew shortcuts to the hospital once I got off the highway.
d) Read the book "What to Expect when you're Expecting", but skip the really scary stuff in there. If the scary stuff does happen, nothing you read is going to prepare you for it. If the scary stuff doesn't happen, be happy you didn't worry about it.
e) Talk to your babies before they are born. It's an amazing thing to do, and it does help. Greet them with the same phrase every time you do it. Mine was "Hi
f) Go to all the ultrasounds you can. It's just amazing to see the development, and just makes the whole pregnancy thing more real for you.
g) Go out to dinner / movies / hang out with friends as much as you can possibly stand. Our twins are now six months old, and the only 'restaurant' my wife and I have gone to together since the birth is Starbucks. We now have long conversations about going out to our favorite Italian place, or reminisce about the crab wontons and plum sauce we had on our honeymoon in Hawaii, or the Bao we had in Chicago. It sorta-kinda gets us through the baby dinners of rice cereal with peas and pears mixed in. But not really.
h) Get a DVR to 'time-shift' your favorite TV shows. If the babies go down at 9:04 PM, your ass should be in bed by 9:12 PM, no later. It is totally not worth it to stay up even 20 minutes longer to watch the end of 'Lost' when you could be sleeping
i) Find someone who is 3-12 months ahead of you in the pregnancy/baby thing, and see if you can be the target of their hand me downs. It will save you a small fortune, and you'll get past the whole 'it's not new' thing really quickly when you see just how fast they grow out of stuff.
j) Get a digital video camera and a good still digital camera.
k) Start up a blog to share news with friends and family, and get used to posting. It makes it a lot easier to communicate with everyone, far and near.
l) Buy a freezer and stock it with meals, like casseroles, pasta like ravioli and home-made pasta sauce, ice cream bars, and whatever else you can fit in it. We really didn't start to dig into it until after our help started to leave, but it's a real saviour when you've already had your fill of pizza, teriyaki and sanwiches. Our favorites included: Souper Skillet Pasta (a family recipe I'll try to post here someday), Easy Chicken Chili, Red Beans and Rice, the aforementioned pasta sauce and store bought ravioli, tuna noodle casserole, and various soups.
m) Stock up your time off from work to take a t least 3 weeks after the kids are born. Now, if you live in a country/state where they insist you take time off for kids, or work for a reasonable company that says 'Having twins is not considered a vacation', then more power to you, but I had to fight and scream bloody murder to get my time off qualified under our Employee Illness Leave policy because I didn't give enough notice. Well forgive the fuck out of me for them being born 5 freaking weeks early. We didn't get enough freaking notice either. And yes, this is a bitter point of contention for me to this day, and the main reason I can't stand the business world in general these days.
Thursday, August 02, 2007
Recent News and Thoughts
We've kind of settled into a rhythm these last few weeks. The babies generally sleep through the nights, with maybe one wakeup each after 4:00 AM. Last night we had a couple of wakeups, but the good nights far outnumber the bad nights now.
Reece is rolling with reckless abandon and is constantly trying to reprogram our DVD player. He's close to crawling and is bound and determined to figure it our soon. Lorelai is learning at her own pace, and generally cheats by watching Reece struggle with something, and then doing it herself once he figures it out. She has taken a sudden liking to standing, much like Reece had done a couple of months ago, but she's not yet walking like he does, but it doesn't seem very far away.
Two weeks ago, my parents came out for a visit for a few days, and had a very good time,
holding babies, going for walks and occasionally just sitting quietly and enjoying time with the little ones. Both babies loved all the attention, and went into a bit of withdrawal after Nana and Grandpa left. They were a little grumpy for a couple of days, and kept looking at the door to see if someone else was coming through it.
Last weekend, we took it pretty easy, and both Lisa and I found time to finish reading Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, without staying up till the wee hours of the morning. Great book, well ended, and as one who still has dreams about telling the business world 'goodbye', and writing for a living, it was very inspiring. Now I just need to find time to write.
Since Lisa is going back to work this month, we had to find suitable childcare for the babies. We decided to hire a nanny instead of trying daycare, since it works out to close to same amount of money, and it's nearly impossible to get 2 babies out the door in a reasonable amount of time each morning. We hired a nanny agency to help us find someone, and to do all the background checks, and signed the contract with our new nanny Courtney last night. Courtney will be starting on August 16th and will be with us on days Lisa is at work, and will also allow us to have an occasional date night for ourselves, which we really look forward to. Gino's Bistro, here we come!
My sister, Cindy, is due to arrive tomorrow night for a few days to get her niece and nephew fix. The weather should be good, so we've got a full weekend planned of oil changes on both vehicles, pulling weeds in the flower beds, adding more brick edging to the flower beds, spraying weeds and just getting stuff done. So once she's done all that, she may have some time to hold babies. Just kidding, Cindy. You can hold the babies while you're doing all that.
We're trying to get better at taking pictures, and I did post some tonight, but we usually think of the camera right after they are doing something cute. With twins, it's really hard to have a free set of hands, and the camera is never where you need it.
Finally, NFL training camps are now open, and the football season is a month away. It's time to start planning for my fantasy football draft so I can defend my title. Lisa is pumped for the pick'em pool at my work, and we're finding ourselves tuning in to the NFL Network more frequently all the time. The only issue is trying to figure out how to get the kids to sleep through all of the games every Sunday for the next 20 odd weeks! Any ideas?
Reece is rolling with reckless abandon and is constantly trying to reprogram our DVD player. He's close to crawling and is bound and determined to figure it our soon. Lorelai is learning at her own pace, and generally cheats by watching Reece struggle with something, and then doing it herself once he figures it out. She has taken a sudden liking to standing, much like Reece had done a couple of months ago, but she's not yet walking like he does, but it doesn't seem very far away.
Two weeks ago, my parents came out for a visit for a few days, and had a very good time,
holding babies, going for walks and occasionally just sitting quietly and enjoying time with the little ones. Both babies loved all the attention, and went into a bit of withdrawal after Nana and Grandpa left. They were a little grumpy for a couple of days, and kept looking at the door to see if someone else was coming through it.
Last weekend, we took it pretty easy, and both Lisa and I found time to finish reading Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, without staying up till the wee hours of the morning. Great book, well ended, and as one who still has dreams about telling the business world 'goodbye', and writing for a living, it was very inspiring. Now I just need to find time to write.
Since Lisa is going back to work this month, we had to find suitable childcare for the babies. We decided to hire a nanny instead of trying daycare, since it works out to close to same amount of money, and it's nearly impossible to get 2 babies out the door in a reasonable amount of time each morning. We hired a nanny agency to help us find someone, and to do all the background checks, and signed the contract with our new nanny Courtney last night. Courtney will be starting on August 16th and will be with us on days Lisa is at work, and will also allow us to have an occasional date night for ourselves, which we really look forward to. Gino's Bistro, here we come!
My sister, Cindy, is due to arrive tomorrow night for a few days to get her niece and nephew fix. The weather should be good, so we've got a full weekend planned of oil changes on both vehicles, pulling weeds in the flower beds, adding more brick edging to the flower beds, spraying weeds and just getting stuff done. So once she's done all that, she may have some time to hold babies. Just kidding, Cindy. You can hold the babies while you're doing all that.
We're trying to get better at taking pictures, and I did post some tonight, but we usually think of the camera right after they are doing something cute. With twins, it's really hard to have a free set of hands, and the camera is never where you need it.
Finally, NFL training camps are now open, and the football season is a month away. It's time to start planning for my fantasy football draft so I can defend my title. Lisa is pumped for the pick'em pool at my work, and we're finding ourselves tuning in to the NFL Network more frequently all the time. The only issue is trying to figure out how to get the kids to sleep through all of the games every Sunday for the next 20 odd weeks! Any ideas?
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