Holiday traditions...

It's getting to be the holiday time of year. Halloween is here, Thanksgiving is coming, then Christmas and New Years. It's that time of year that I can't help but think of all the things we did during the holidays growing up. I have so many wonderful memories. I was lucky to grow up with a mom who is a great cook and also very creative. My sister and I had many, many hours of craft time and lots of time spent cooking and baking together with our mom. Now that I have my own little ones I have to decide what we are going to do as a family to make those same special memories for them in years to come. So I'm curious what are some of your family traditions for the holidays? Either ones you do now or ones you had as kids with your parents/siblings.

For Halloween, we always carved pumpkins, made homemade toasted pumpkin seeds, dressed up and went trick-or-treating around the neighborhood. I plan to keep all of those for my girls and add in a trip to the pumpkin patch for a hayride, corn maze, apple cider and picking their own pumpkins.

For Thanksgiving, we either went to my aunt's house or sometimes stayed home. There was the traditional Thanksgiving fare with turkey, mashed potatoes, sweet potatoes, green beans, cranberry sauce, pumpkin pie and so on. Can't forget about my aunt's famous mushrooms! (Haven't had them in years, but LOVE them!) Since I've moved away from Arizona, we can't go to my aunt's house anymore for Left-Right-Center--is anyone reading this who knows what I'm talking about? Though I wish we could fly out and visit with the girls! This year we will be going to a different aunt's house, which is where I've been pretty much every year since I moved here. Mmmmm--I'm getting hungry just thinking about all the Thanksgiving food! Good thing it's only a few days away!

For Christmas Eve, we usually go to my cousin's house for dinner with my family and a white elephant gift exchange. I love coming up with something to giveaway each year and let me tell you there are many hilarious moments at these! This year there will be several little ones there and we will probably have to leave rather early to get the girls to bed relatively on time. Also on Christmas Eve, I make our traditional breakfast, Christmas Eggs, for the next morning. It has to refrigerate overnight and I've had Christmas Eggs every Christmas morning for as long as I can remember. We go to Irish's parent's house at some point, usually early because his sister's kids are always waiting for us to get there to open their presents. As the girls get older we will probably go later because they will want to open their presents from Santa. We spend the day there and have brunch and then dinner as well as exchange gifts with everyone. As a kid we went to church, but I always hated it because it was so crowded. I came from a family that went to church every Sunday so I hated the Christmas/Easter only people.

For New Year's Eve--other than wishing Jamie a happy birthday I don't have any specific traditions. Though sometimes as a kid we went to my cousin's house and we always stayed up until midnight and then banged spoons on pots outside. For New Year's Day, as a kid we went to my Grandma's house for dinner and we always had pork. Apparently it's the only animal that digs forward so you are starting the year off properly or something. My mom also put dimes on our windowsills, but now I'm not quite sure why.

Please share your family/personal traditions so I can get some ideas of what to do with the girls in the years to come!

The big ONE!

Scarlet & Madeleine (One Year)--10/14/2009

Today the girls are officially 13 months! They've been one for a whole month now so I figured it's time to update on all the fun things they've been doing lately.

• Scarlet is now an expert at pulling herself up. She can get up on pretty much anything though most of the time she just gets up on her knees not all the way standing. She also tries to climb on top of her taller toys and has successfully done so a few times. Usually resulting in a beached Scarlet situation.
  
• Scarlet took her first steps a few weeks ago but has not repeated since. I actually didn't see it because I was at work! Now she "walks" on her knees, usually behind a push toy, along the couch or around toys/furniture.
  
• Madeleine is working very hard to master pulling up and has successfully gotten on her knees a couple of times. She got on her feet when she climbed onto her push toy with her belly on the seat. 
• Madeleine LOVES books and wants to play with them endlessly. She will even "read" them to herself while flipping through the pages. 
• Both love crawling around and exploring. Often together. Many times it involves pulling Cherry's tail or something else they shouldn't be doing. 
• They eat very well and love to feed themselves. Scarlet loves meat of all kinds and Madeleine loves cheese. 
• The transition to milk went flawlessly. They love their milk sippies though I am still nursing twice a day. They can also go to bed without mommy around. Irish puts them to bed a couple times a week so I can pick up extra hours at work. They have milk sippies and read stories with Daddy before bed. 
• Madeleine sleeps with a blanket at naptime now, she plays peek-a-boo with it sometimes too. 
• Scarlet pulls up in her crib reaches out and pulls books down from the bookshelf next to her crib.
• Madeleine has mastered the art of throwing food off the side of her tray at mealtimes to get Cherry to come over to her. She will even do it when we are out or away from home thinking Cherry is going to appear to clean it up.
  
• Their favorite toys are anything they aren't supposed to have. They enjoy unpacking bags/bins, trashing the changing table, torturing Cherry, books and the little blender toy and fruit shapes that they got for their birthday.
• They talk alot more now though still not many things that are recognizable as specific words. They both sign 'more' flawlessly though. We are working on teaching a few other signs.
  

Madeleine

Scarlet

The girls had their one year checkup and shots. They got 3 shots each in the arm. Scarlet is 15lb and Madeleine is 15lb 9oz. We have to take Scarlet back for a weight check because she fell off her growth curve slightly. She was sick before her check up though and not eating regularly. She has recovered and is back to eating in the scoop and shove Scarlet signature move.

IKEA twins commercial.

I don't know what it is about this commercial but I just love it! I find it so amazingly hilarious!

First birthday party.

Happy First Birthday to Scarlet & Madeleine!

Scarlet and Madeleine turned one on Saturday, October 3rd. We held their party in a local park. The weather the week before was cold, rainy and dreary. It was not looking promising for Saturday. I was so worried that it was going to rain and no one was going to show up! However, we lucked out and it was a gorgeous day, sunny and bright, a little windy and only a bit chilly. The girls had to keep their jackets on to stay cozy.

We decorated the park pavilion with string lights, some flower paper streamers, a few little butterfly hanging spinning decorations and some pink balloons. It was too windy for the plastic tablecloths so we left the tables plain except for the gift/birthday girl table and the food table. The food table had these vintage tablecloths and the birthday girl table had a couple others which have never been photographed. We finished decorating in record time and had to wait for the party guests to arrive.

 

I made all the food and cakes. I planned and planned and the week before I prepped and shopped and cooked. My friends Jamie and Carly came over on Friday afternoon to help finish up the rest of the cooking. They also came early on Saturday to help set up and decorate. For the food, we had chips and salsa, fruit salad, Spanish rice, black beans, a build-your-own-taco area and chicken enchiladas. Then of course, birthday cake!

The girls were fashionably late to the party because Irish stayed home with them. They came straight after their nap. Scarlet loved all the attention, but Madeleine is still deep in the stranger anxiety phase and preferred to cling to mommy. They had a good time overall. After mingling and playing for awhile we started letting people get food. Everyone including the girls ate lunch and then we let the girls have their cakes. They gingerly picked off the little pink polka dots in the frosting. Scarlet stuck her hand in her cake and after getting it covered in cake and icing she was done. Madeleine preferred not to get her hands dirty with cake so Irish fed her some bits with a spoon. They enjoyed everyone singing Happy Birthday and Scarlet just laughed and laughed while everyone was watching them eat their cake. Madeleine just wanted to throw her sippy on the ground so my little cousin would keep picking it up for her.

I served up the rest of the cakes and then after everyone had finished we opened presents. The girls got so many nice things. A few toys including a giant learning kitchen, plenty of fall/winter clothes and a few for next summer, lots of books for our little bookworm, Madeleine, and a few gift cards/savings bonds/checks. It was a great party and I'm glad we got to see and spend time with everyone who came!

Amazing food, amazing friends.

I just love the way the oven feels on a cold day when you are baking and you crack it open to check on something. The warmth just pours out along with the delicious smells of whatever is baking. I made two pans of apple crisp last Friday morning to get ready for a fall themed potluck with the JAMC. The night before I made a batch of chocolate zucchini bread that didn't make nearly as much as I thought it was going to. It's dense and chewy more like brownies than the traditional zucchini bread texture. I still have many more fall things to make before the fall is over! Including plenty of desserts, some bread, soups and casseroles. I wish I had more tried and true recipes. I guess that's something that you hone over years of making things for your family. I have the family now so I guess it's time to start experimenting and finding our own favorites.

Let's talk more about the potluck. We do these occasionally, not nearly as often as we should. (Ladies...I'm thinking we should pick a date right now for a Thanksgiving themed potluck in November.) Actually the last time I can recall having one was a fall themed potluck a few years back when Ali and Jamie lived in their awesome apartment. Is there one I can't remember? Anyway, we picked a day and worked on the menu. Each bringing something they could make or easily throw together. I was bringing the aforementioned goodies as well as meatloaf. It's been ages since I'd had it and we had a HUGE thing of ground beef that needed to be used for something. I also brought sweet potatoes that we baked and carrots that we never ended up using. Jamie made delicious pumpkin cookies with an improvised cream cheese glaze topping and she was going to make pumpkin risotto but we stuffed ourselves too much in the early courses for it. Ali brought apples, cheese and crackers for an appetizer along with GORGEOUS(!) homemade butternut squash bread. Carly brought the most amazing potato corn chowder. (I swear I will never again eat another can of potato corn chowder after tasting it. Just like I will never again eat canned/jarred pasta sauce.) Jamie also provided a delicate and sweet red wine and tea after dinner.

Of course there was plenty of chatting as well as some creepy Halloween-themed music. We need to cram in about a million more of these get-togethers before Carly leaves us!

{For those who are not in on the scoop. Carly is finishing her last year of law school and will be moving wherever her future job takes her. Or as far as several thousands of miles overseas. It's going to be the end of an era.}

Missing.

Clearly I haven't been around for awhile. I was working on a post about the girls party and then before I got around to uploading and attaching the photos I got horribly, horribly sick. I have since recovered, though poor baby Scarlet is still on the mend. I have a hundred things swirling around in my head that I need to blog about including the party! So please excuse me for my recent absence and give me a few days to get back up and running!

Happy First Birthday Scarlet & Madeleine!

Wishing my beautiful little girls a very happy very first birthday! I love them so much and I look forward to celebrating many, many, many more birthdays together!

We will be at the park today having a little party for them. Check back in a few days for some photos of the celebrations!

Almost a year and a birth story.

In a mere 2 days my little babies will be one! I cannot believe the time is almost here. It's hard to remember that just one year ago I was waiting and hoping to go into labor so I could finally meet them and see their faces. That's what I wanted the most, to see what they looked like. (And to stop the crazy flipping that was killing my belly! Up until the very end Madeleine was still tumbling around and changing her direction.) Tomorrow is the day last year that I had my last doctor's appointment and asked if they could just induce me the same day so I wouldn't have to drive back down to the hospital the next morning. I was 39 weeks 4 days along and delivered the next morning (39 weeks 5 days) on the last day they wanted me to wait. Here are some photos of my massive belly. (Irish always called it my beach ball belly and for weeks after the girls were born he was commenting how weird I looked without it and how he missed it.) These were all taken the morning we headed down to the hospital for my last appointment. (Please don't pay too much attention to the tired pregnant faces I am making in these photos!)

Pregnant belly--10/2/2008

Well I'm going to tell my official birth story since I don't think I ever gave all the details last year. (If you were there or don't want to know then I guess stop reading!) After my doctors appointment we were sent down to labor and delivery. I should have gotten something to eat before we went but I was just too excited and nervous and I wanted to get the whole giving birth thing over with. They started my meds around noon and the contractions started to get strong and regular. As time went on they got more and more unbearable. I had to wear 3 monitors on my belly, one for each baby and one for the contractions. They also did an ultrasound to check the babies positions and they gave me the forms to sign in case I needed an emergency c-section. They girls were both head down so I was given the go ahead at that point to try for a vaginal delivery though I had to deliver in the OR just in case. I met the team of doctors who was going to deliver me and at some point my assigned med student came and introduced herself.

I had always intended to get an epidural but I wanted to wait as long as possible because I didn't want to get one too soon if I was going to be in labor for many hours. I lasted about 7 hours before asking the nurse for the epidural. I was scared getting it in because I thought it was going to hurt. I really didn't feel much. The contractions we so painful I think they were overriding anything else. Irish and the nurse had to help hold me still and keep me focused. After it kicked in I couldn't feel any more pain from the contractions and it was glorious to get a break. At some point a few doctors came in and one tried to break my water, she couldn't get it so another one had to do it. It didn't hurt, it mostly felt like I peed uncontrollably. (Um gross!) I couldn't sleep so I just tried to relax. The epidural settled in one of my legs and because it felt so numb I made Irish rub it. Several times he feel asleep in the rocking chair in the room. Doctors and nurses were constantly coming by to monitor how things were progressing.

I was still in labor after the first team's shifts had ended so I met the second team who was going to deliver me. Also my amazing nurse left and I got an angry and mean nurse. By the end I was burning up and starting to shake and I asked her for a cold washcloth because we couldn't find any in the room anywhere and she huffed about it and took 10 mins to get it. At some point they checked me and I was nearly ready to deliver. They start coaching me and letting me practice pushing. Irish had to change into one of those all white scrub suits. Then I was wheeled into the OR and prepped for delivery. Scarlet's head was turned slightly and they tried to line her up a little better. After pushing for what seemed like an eternity they finally alerted me that Scarlet's head was almost out. A few moments later I heard a cry and someone said "It's a girl!" I was so relieved and excited that she was finally born. Apparently Irish cut the cord. I was busy trying to relax because I had a whole other baby to push out sometime soon. After the nurses finished cleaning her up Irish carried her over to see me. Her cute little squishy face peeked out of a receiving blanket where she was wrapped up tight. She was so beautiful and content. Scarlet Elizabeth was born at 4:15am and weighed 5lb 14oz.

I still had work to do though so Irish had to turn her back over to the nurses. They did another ultrasound to check Madeleine's position. They had to break her water before she could get in position to be born. A few minutes later it was time to start pushing again. After awhile they told me I needed to do one more good push. It took me at least two more but then I heard the sweet sound of Madeleine crying and someone said again "It's a girl!" After that I had to deal with the clean up aspects. I'll save you the details but mostly I just screamed and then eventually it was time to get back on the wheely bed thingy. They handed me both babies to hold and that was the first time I got to see Madeleine's sweet scrunchy face. She was so adorable and lovely. Madeleine Joy was born 4:46am and weighed 6lb 9oz.

During the whole delivery I kept gaining participants/audience members. Only Irish was allowed to be in the room with me as far as family members. But I heard later that the nurses were running around telling all the med students that the twins were about to be born and if they wanted to see it they better get down there fast. I could care less if they wanted to watch. I mean how often do you get to see twins being born. I figured they could all learn something that day.

I was taken back to my labor room where they babies got their checkups and I spent some time puking. I finally got a drink after being allowed only ice chips. Lots of pictures were taken and then I was transferred upstairs to a much smaller recovery room where I spent the next two days learning how to be a mommy. My friends, Jamie and Carly, came to visit in the afternoon while I was in labor and returned in the evening. They stayed until the girls were born before heading back home. It was so wonderful having them there to support me, they are the greatest friends! Irish's parents came very close to when the girls were born. They were only in the room for about 30 mins before I left to deliver. They stayed and helped get me moved upstairs because Irish had to be in court that morning.

In the back of my mind I always knew that giving birth was going to be the hardest thing I've ever done. I was in no way prepared for how hard it really was. It was tiring, exhausting and extremely painful. However, it was probably the best thing I've ever done because it gave me the most beautiful little angels I've ever seen. I'm so blessed to be Scarlet and Madeleine's mommy. They are beautiful and wonderful and I look forward to watching them grow.

Ack. Two celebrity posts in a row.

I'm really not the celebrity gossip type. Actually most of the time I'm the last to know what is going on in the world of celebrities. However, if you know me you know I love watching Oprah. I wasn't going to watch at all today because I could care less about the celebrity chat with Oprah episodes. (Especially with a celebrity I hadn't heard of before they were on Oprah. I guess I'm just the wrong generation for Mackenzie Phillips.) However, in the first five minutes of the show the most shocking piece of news was revealed. For some reason I could not bring myself to turn it off. Shocking, shocking disbelief is what I have to say.

In case you have no idea what I'm taking about because you didn't get a chance to watch Oprah here is the scoop. Mackenzie Phillips claimed that as a girl she had a sexual relationship with her father. It apparently started as a non-consensual situation and eventually evolved into a consensual relationship. Are you freaking kidding me? In the first 10 minutes of the show! My goodness Oprah, what the heck is going on! I thought I heard something wrong, that my mind just inserted something crazy over what she actually sad, but no luck. That's what she said. So the question--is she telling the truth? Unfortunately since John Phillips cannot say anything on his own behalf I guess we will never know. So what do you all think?

I guess I should add what I think, maybe? It all seems so unbelievable to me and much like she is just trying to get attention. But what a horrible thing to admit if it isn't true. Either way, crazy and scary to think about.  She also claims that she had sex with Mick Jagger. Hmmmm, not sure I believe that either. (And who wouldn't want to admit that?)

{PS: She was on the show promoting her new book and "speaking out" for the first time in ... years. You know the usual.}

I love Conan (and other reasons why I won't be watching Jay...ever.)

The "new" Jay Leno show premiered this week. However is it really all that new? From all of the too-many promos I've seen it looks like it's the same show just during a different time slot. I do not find Jay Leno funny. (I also do not think Jimmy Fallon could do something funny to save his life but that's for another time.) I think it's his staff that I actually might consider funny. I mean they are the ones that find those crazy headlines are they not?

Anyway to my point. Jay Leno I am mad at you. It was supposed to be a BIG deal that you were giving up the Tonight Show and Conan O'Brien was going to be the new host. (As previously mentioned I LOVE Conan! He kept me company many many nights in my life. Especially during the first couple months of twin-baby-dom.) The Tonight Show for Conan--yippee! Now I don't have to stay up late to watch him. Then Jay you had to go and shit all over Conan's success by grabbing up the 10 pm time slot for your "comedy." So this is my plea--Jay Leno please go away. Just go to your garage pick out one of your 10 million vintage cars and drive away from the set and never go back. Let Conan have his time to shine!

Seriously, is anyone watching Jay Leno?