Post (Valentine's Day) Weekend

Facial expressions when I take photos with my fancy camera:

Facial expressions when I take photos with my phone:

(Fun with filters!)

Thanks, guys.  Glad to know that DSLR was such a great investment to capture your trepidation towards actual photos.  (Which-spoiler alert!-seemed to be a theme this weekend.  Read on!)

Bonus!  Brooklyn's facial expression anytime the camera is pointed towards her on the phone. She's getting pretty good at these here selfies the kids are so fond of these days.

Anyway...

It was Valentine's Day!  I got to celebrate with these two cuties

 

(Proof that Caden does indeed have hair.)

(Also, this was their LAST "first" holiday *sob*  I actually realized when I was drooling over some adorable "first" St. Patrick's Day and Easter outfits at the store, that...oh.  Yeah.  I guess you guys were around for those last year.  Nvm.)

...and this guy.

We hung out at home most of the day.  I made a nice dinner (steak with cauliflower puree and crispy quinoa, and lest that sound too fancy for y'all...brownies.  From a BOX.  Because they are Tyson's favorite.  I am just that romantic.).  We also made a trip to the library.

(Brooklyn is skeptical that the dragon is actaully reading a book of "Fairy Tales", and not a book of "How to Cook and Eat Eleven-Month Olds".)

Dude, we might move into the library.  It was AWESOME.  I think we could go there every day of the week and spend it in a different part of the kids section and not get bored, it was just that ginormous.

 

I mean, there's a freaking CASTLE right in the middle of it all!

Plus Caden was impressed with all of the books just WAITING to be pulled off their shelves. Like, can you believe that everyone else has just LEFT them here?!?

So, in conclusion: Saturday was a very good day.  Sunday...well...

On Sunday, we had their one-year photos taken.

They...did not go well, to put it mildly.  I think the cake smash ones went pretty okay, (Cake! It's distracting!), and that's good, since that's why we went to the photographer's house in the first place, (easy access to white paper to help with the cake carnage), but man...those were not my babies.  They were clingy, refused to smile, and fussy...especially Brooklyn, which is almost unheard of.  They had a perfect nap and a good lunch before we went, and all systems seemed to be go for a smooth photo session...but...I don't know.  Babies!  They're unpredictable!  Who'da thunk?

(Disclaimer: I did not make their cakes.  I tried to make their cakes.  I made 234 practice cakes.  I...have no future as a cake decorator.  In my defense I tried to make them all healthy-like with bananas, little to no sugar, frosting made with yogurt and cream cheese instead of 349 cups of powdered sugar...they all tasted pretty good but were a bitch to try to decorate.  Surprise!  Yogurt frosting is runny (though delicious).  In the end I gave up, since for the photos they REALLY needed to look good more than anything (sorry for the diabetes, kids!). I gave in and called the grocery store, which charged way less than I thought for two little cakes, they turned out perfect, and I didn't have to spend all day Saturday making cakes that would have been failures.  Boom.  Done.  Best $18 I spent all week.  And in the end Caden and Brooklyn only took a few tentative licks of frosting, anyway.)

(So I got diabetes instead.  The end.)

We recovered from the disasterous photo experience by playing under tables, and giving the EXACT TYPE OF FACIAL EXPRESSIONS THE PHOTOGRAPHER THAT I PAID* WAS TRYING TO CAPTURE.

 

*(Will be paying.  We've tentatively planned for her to come to our place sometime next week to see if that goes any better, though maybe I'll be pleasantly surprised by the proofs she sends me this week.  I'm not holding out any real hope, though.)

We also snuggled up and watched some Peg + Cat, which we (ahem, "we" meaning Tyson and I) kind of love.

And now it's (dum dum dum) BIRTHDAY WEEK.  Which means I should go.  I should probably be cleaning something.

And This Is Why They Aren't Allowed In the Bathroom...

...

...

...

Wut?

(Some toilet paper may have been ingested during the taking of these pictures.)

What's Worked for Us Lately

Toy Rotation

I started rotating their toys after the influx of Christmas gifts.  Partly due to necessity (where on earth do people store all this shtuff?) and partly because I noticed they would take out all of their toys, leave the living room looking like a hurricane (or, ahem, two hurricanes) had hit, and then...not play with them.  We are on a three-week rotation-two canvas bins of toys sit up in their room, with the current week's toys downstairs in a wicker basket and on a couple of shelves dedicated to their toys/books-and I switch toys every Monday morning.  I'm not sure if it's because of the toy rotation itself, or because they are getting older (or, like most things in life, a combination of both), but they are much better at playing together and entertaining themselves.  Bonus: I have a much higher tolerance for the cacophony of songs, since I only have to listen to their singing toaster or lantern (yes, those are actual things, and of course, both Caden and Brooklyn looooove them, and who the heck thought, y'know what?  Kids would love a toaster singing about toast!  And a singing lantern that sings about...fireflies, right!?!  And who the heck would've thought that this person would be RIGHT?!?) for a week at a time before it gets packed away for the next two (breathes sigh of relief).

Baby-Led Weaning

This was born more of necessity than anything.  Spoon-feeding them purees wasn't always the easiest thing, especially during the day when I was alone and needed to occasionally try to eat something myself.  I started giving them more and more baby-sized foods on their trays so I could eat my own meals at the same time.  Pretty soon they were OVER the whole being-fed-with-a-spoon business.  They only really ate purees for a hot second (okay...maaaaybe six weeks or so?) before now almost exclusively feeding themselves.  I'm not sure that we do "true" baby-led weaning, since I usually cut everything up into baby-friendly pieces, but 95% of the time they eat some version of what Tyson and I are having (sometimes slightly modified to exclude a sauce or seasoning, like salt).  We still will spoon-feed them yogurt or oatmeal for breakfast, and occasionally mashed sweet potatoes with dinner, but the bulk of their meal is usually things for them to munch on themselves.

Easy-Cleanup Sheet

But having them feed themselves is messy, yo.  (To say that sentence is an understatement is an understatement in and of itself.)  Our apartment is also almost completely wall-to-wall carpeting, including in the dining area.  (Guess what one of the first things is that I'm going to look for in a new place when we move?  Just guess!)  While I'm sure this is hardly a novel idea, we throw an old sheet down under their chairs during mealtime.  It catches most of their food scraps, washes up easy, and just needs to be shaken out between meals.

Crib Toys

Now that they are a little older, we leave "quiet" toys in their cribs.  They each have a book, a soothing seahorse, and one or two other soft toys (I try to rotate the book and soft toys occasionally).   Since they tend to be crap nappers (though they are getting waaaaaayyyyyy better), these toys keep them occupied until I feel like they've been out of my way long enough.  Besides the toys, they keep each other pretty well occupied when they wake up from their naps...one perk of having twins!

No Eye-Contact...

...when I'm trying to put them down for naps.  I usually put one baby in their crib with their quiet toys while I rock the other to sleep.  If I catch the crib-baby's eye, it's all over. Somehow, they know. They immediately whine, point, and want me to hold them, too. However, if I don't make eye contact, or heck, even look at them, I can rock their sibling to sleep in record time.  This also works when I'm trying to eat lunch while they are playing. They can be perfectly content, but if they see me look over at them, I immediately have two puppies at my feet begging for scraps of food and to be held.

No-Mess Finger Painting

This has been up for a few weeks now, and remains an interesting activity for them besides all of their toys.  Also part of my attempt to get them interested in my side of things early on, instead of Tyson's interests, like...math.  (Kidding!  I hope they are also really good at math.)

Recyclables

Like most kids their age, they LOVE things that aren't toys.  Each day I give them things that I would otherwise be tossing right into our recycling bin (water bottles, boxes, laundry detergent jugs, etc.), they play with the day's offerings, and I recycle them each night.  They get a new rotation each day so it's kind of like having different toys to play with each day. Yesterday Caden spent the better part of playtime putting blocks into an old tissue box. Whatever floats your boat, bud.

The Next Step, Part One

While I alluded to the fact that Tyson ditched us last week, I didn't elaborate on why he was gone. 

He went on his first, grown-up, big person job interview.  (Scheduled back-to-back with a trip to a university in NYC, where he was invited to give a talk.  Because apparently my husband is important like that.)

(Okay, so he had a couple of internships in college.  I suppose those were grown-up, big person type interviews, too.  But they were temporary.  And, heck, he was still in school. So maybe those were pre-grown-up, big person job interviews?)

At any rate, this is his first job interview for a position once he graduates.  This May.  With his PhD.  For good.

And people want to hire him.  Yay!  This is good news!  (Says the girl who had it dawn on her one day not too long ago that, hey, you could go through this entire job applying for and interviewing process and...end up not getting hired.  By anyone.  Huh.  Yeah.)

Now...we have to make decisions.  Grown-up, big person decisions.  There are deadlines. Where to go?  For how long-ish?  How easy would it be to move/live/work there?  What is the pay/benefits? What's the cost of living like?  How close is family?  Would it be (relatively) easy to make trips "home"?  (I haven't lived in MN for ten (10!) years and yet I still call it home.)

We've dissected everything and talked in circles (can you talk in any other shape?  A square?  Dodecahedron, perhaps?)  through every option.  At one point yesterday we thought we had a decision and were actually looking at houses/rentals in that market. Literally the next hour there were two other options suddenly on the table (more or less) that were potential game changers

This is exhausting.  I'm usually excellent with decisions.  I would go so far as to say that I love making decisions.  Uncertainty annoys me.  I knew since middle school that I would major in interior design.  I thought about which college I wanted to attend for about 1.2 seconds (My parents, worried that I made the college selection process too simple when my friends were applying to 5, 6, 7, 10+ universities, made me consider/visit another school. There was no comparison.).  I thought for a liiiitttttle bit longer about whether I wanted to marry this Tyson character.  I suppose this is a much bigger life decision, one that affects more than just me.  Or even Tyson and me.  

Oh hai!

(Not pictured, assorted family, friends, etc., who all have their own secret and not-so-secret desires for our next life stage.)

Even though I've been anticipating this moment practically since we were married (graduation and a real-person paycheck, woo-hoo!!!!!), it now seems so...real.  Official.  I kept saying that I just needed to know WHERE we were going to be next, so I could start thinking and planning and researching housing and creating LISTS, etc., etc., etc.  I dunno.  Now that it's here, there's something to be said for the uncertainty of the in-limbo stage.

I don't have some sort of tidy conclusion to all of this yet, although I think we are 95% certain of what our next step is going to be.

Hope the suspense is killin y'all almost as much as it has been killing me.

P.s.  To add to all the dramaz, and on top of everything else that is normally going on around here, I'm also trying to plan/prepare for the twins one year photos, and, oh yeah, a big ol' party that's happening here in a couple of weeks.  Perfect timing is perfect!

P.p.s.  And then because life just isn't exciting enough around here Tyson called today to tell me that he'd lost the keys to the car.  The only set of keys to that particular car.  The one that he drove to campus.  With the carseats in it.  So it's not like I could have just packed up the babies and gone to pick him up or anything.  And he called the dealership to find out that a new key would cost $400 (!!!) to make!  And THEN...he found the key by retracing his steps today.  The end.  Except that he gave me a good 40 minutes worth of even MORE to worry about, which just seemed that much WORSE since it was compounded by everything ELSE. *sigh*

Post Weekend (and Then Some) (At Nana and Papa's)

Dude, Nana and Papa have a TV.

That they like, turn on sometimes.

Minds = blown.  (Also probably missing a few brain cells.)

Tyson was out of town again this past week, as part of his Hey-We-Have-Twins-Now-So-Imma-Schedule-Me-As-Many-Trips-As-I-Can-So-I-Can-Actually-Get-Some-Sleep Scheme (I'm on to your plan here, honey), so the babies and I went to my parents house.

Where Caden became ridiculously good at posing, apparently.

 

And also started looking freakishly like a toddler.  Don't you DARE to call him a toddler though, or I will slap your face off.  He's still mah baaayyybeeee...I haven't even taken the tags off yet!

(Probably my new favorite picture of Caden ever.)

He also ate all the blueberries he could find, and damn near ate an entire pint of them over the course of two meals.  (Brooklyn, of course, won't touch the things.  Let's not make it too easy on me here, kids.)

His other favorite pastime was to try to catch the sunlight on the floor.  He was...unsuccessful.

Oh yeah, I brought another baby (who is also most definitely NOT a toddler) along, too.

 

Just keeping track of these here sweet potatoes.  Wouldn't want anyone to forget about them or the fact that it's almost dinner time here or anything...

I'm going to miss the pointing stage.  Sometimes Brooklyn gets so EXCITED to point that she just wants to POINT at something!  Anything!  So she flails her arm around for awhile, little finger outstretched, until she sees something that she's actually somewhat interested in, and then points at that thing with all her little might.

 

Besides lounging around, both of them were pretty excited to walk around while giving their foolishly willing suspect's pointer fingers a death grip.  (Seriously, you start to lose feelings in those things after awhile.)

 

Just wait until I tell them that someday soon they'll be able to do this all on their own...

"What?!?  No way!  That's crazy talk!"

We also went to visit Dava (great grandma).  Who apparently had cleaned and vacuumed before we arrived.  And we got there around snack time.  So basically the poor lady is probably still picking Cheerios out of her carpet here a week later.  Whoops.  Sorry about that.  (Then again, she raised six kids, so she probably didn't even notice the mess made by my lonely two.)  (Maybe.)

We ended the weekend by watching the Super Bowl.

(I used to be much more of an anti-screen time Nazi, but then I discovered that they usually pay attention to the TV for about 2.459 minutes before becoming much more interested in toys, books,  and (mostly) mass destruction.  I also discovered that it can help me get dinner on the table.  Hooray!)

Now we're back home.  We were gone juuuust long enough that I'm now in the I-Have-No-Idea-What-Day-Or-Even-Really-What-Time-It-Is phase of return.  I have obligations this week...I think? Maybe?  And it's totally Sunday, right?  Just kidding, it's Monday.  No wait...crap.

Oh well.  At least we have groceries again.