My inner chef

The cold weather must bring out my "inner chef". Last night I made a double batch of chili (my mom's recipe) and this morning I whipped up a batch of my Dad's "Secret Soup" (although Dad's always tastes much better than mine) and tonight I'm planning on making baked Ziti. It's a good thing I live in Texas and it doesn't get cold very often, I don't think I could keep this up for very long.

Potty training woes!

Happy 21-month birthday to our precious cubs!

We are celebrating with (drum roll please) POTTY TRAINING.

I have totally been dreading potty training with apparent good reason. I have always heard that girls catch on faster than boys (of course!) so naturally I started with Emily first. So the plan is to take Emily into the bathroom for 5-10 minutes at a time. Not a problem. Except it means that Z-Man is running around the house totally unsupervised. This is not good. Tackling furniture, terrorizing the cat, hanging from the ceiling fan...you get the idea. Otherwise he's in the bathroom with us totally distracting Emily from the task at hand. ***SIGH*** What is a mom to do? Mommy is not really enjoying this.

Update on La Casa

Things have been happening at the casa. They are predicting a completion date of April 8th. Holy cow! What happened to June??? That's when the lease is up on the apartment and we still have a house to sell! YIKES!!!

The sidewalk has been poured and they are working on the driveway.


Doors and shelves are in and trim is going up. (Emily and Daddy went to check on the progress while Mommy and Zach were "under the weather".)


The stair rails are in.


Going up???

Our picture model...pics of the week.

Emily was our little picture model this week. Zach decided to take the week off as far as pictures were concerned. Maybe next week we'll get equal Zach picture taking time.

Coloring time:

Emily introducing herself to Zach's horse:

Emily giving her doggy a hug:

Emily brought her doggy out for a walk: (It was so funny watching her carry him. He is so big she couldn't even see around him.)

Emily working on a puzzle:

Learning all about F-35s (making Daddy proud):

Emily modeling her Perfect water (Vanna White wanna-be):

What a week! The good, the bad, and the ugly.

***SIGH*** Where to start??

We'll start with the good. Last Tuesday night was my LCMOM's meeting (Mothers of Multiplies). Basically I love any excuse to get out of the house. Unfortunately it was scrapbook night. I'm not a big scrapbooker. I have tried and just don't have the time to do it. I made a scrapbook for my Mom of the Cubs' first six months. She will probably see the Cub's second six month scrapbook when they are twelve. I have the greatest of intentions, but never the time to fit everything in. Anyway, it was still good to get out and visit with the other moms. On a side note, I was asked to be the Social Chairmom. Planning parties and such. Obviously they are unaware that Steve plans everything for us. He has planned every one of our vacations (except our Honeymoon). I have never planned a single party in my life...not one. This is totally beyond my limitations and I respectfully declined. On Wednesday night, Mom got to enjoy another night out with the girls from THC. We went to a Mexican restaurant and I stuffed myself with enchiladas. Yum! The Cubs and I went to Kelli's for a playdate on Thursday. I always enjoy our playdates and I think the cubs had a great time too. It was such a beautiful day that we took a nice walk around her neighborhood. Zach had his eyes closed most of the time. He is a little vampire and doesn't care much for the sunlight. I keep trying to get him to wear sunglasses but he won't stand for it. They are more fun to play with than to wear. Emily found that the stroll was the perfect opportunity to squeeze in her nap. So we extended our walk for a few more blocks so Emily could snooze. I learned that I am out of shape. By the time we were finished I needed a nap.

Now for the bad and the ugly. Zach is sick, sick, sick. We're not talking the usual sniffles. Friday night he had a slight fever so I gave him some Tylenol and put him to bed. On Saturday he still had a fever, so Steve took him to Care Now, an urgent care clinic, that afternoon. The Doctor said his tonsils were a little swollen but his strep test came back negative, so we were instructed to keep giving him Tylenol. Saturday was horrible. I couldn't get him to eat or drink anything. I freak out when he doesn't eat, but I know how important fluids are when you are sick with a fever, so I really freaked out when I couldn't get him to drink. I tried water, juice, Pediasure, Pedialyte in sippy cups, straw cups, bottles (UGH), and even in Mommy's cup....nothing. Tylenol didn't seem to help and his fever wasn't coming down. He threw up everything I tried to feed him. Sunday didn't start out as bad, at least I got him to eat a little yogurt, but that was all, and he still had his fever. I called the care clinic as soon as they opened on Sunday morning and asked them why an antibiotic wasn't prescribed. After two phone calls with the nurse explaining that we have now passed our 36th hour of fever, we got our antibiotic on Sunday night. However, Sunday night was even worse. He wanted to be held but squirmed when you held him. If I put him down, he screamed. He cried and cried. Still no eating and even less drinking. Poor Daddy was up with him most of the night. I was in the other room crying out of frustration because little man still wouldn't drink or eat. He even threw up his medicine. I was so relieved when he finally fell asleep around 2 am. Monday morning I finally got little man to drink some water and eat some yogurt, but his little lips were so chapped that they started bleeding. I know he's lost weight because the skin over his stomach is loose like little old man skin. We called our new pediatrician and got him right in. Steve took him while I stayed home with Emily. The Doctor said that his tonsils were still very swollen but the antibiotics should start helping him. (I'm still peeved that we weren't prescribed this on Saturday. One shouldn't have to fight so hard to get treatment for their child.) Steve said Zach liked her and that he gave her one of his flirty smiles. Great. Never too sick to flirt. He is doing a little better now. He ate some fruit at lunch and his favorite Gerbers chicken at dinner. He still isn't drinking his Pediasure, which is his main source of nutrition, but at least he'll take a few sips of juice and water. It took forever to get him to go to sleep, but once he did he slept most of the night. Steve and I even got a few hours of sleep. It was a really rough weekend, we were all sleep deprived and exhausted...except for Emily. That little girl can sleep through anything. She wasn't phased by this at all. I'm jealous.

It is now Tuesday morning at 4:30 am and I am praying that things go better today. The crazy weather here isn't helping one bit and I know that we are going to be cooped up inside all day. It was 80 degrees on Friday (absolutely beautiful) and last night and today we are under an "Ice Storm Warning". I didn't even know it was coming. I received an email from work yesterday morning with an inclement weather number to call and didn't know why I got it. Now I know. That's what happens when you don't watch the news. We can only get Handy Manny, Curious George, and Sesame Street on our TV, and it's always a beautiful day on Sesame Street, "sunny day, sweeping the clouds away, on my way to where the air is sweet". Lesson of the day: don't get your weather report from Sesame Street. Unless it's from the Grouch News Network....Oscar would say the weather is "Crummy. I love it. Now SCRAM!"

Some more catching up.

I just realized that I have been neglecting my blog...again. So far so good on the bottle elimination. We have been getting him to drink his Pediasure from his straw cup which is good news. I washed the last of the bottles and have packed them all up. Good riddance.

Last week we had a play-date with Kelli and her girls Maddie and Izzy. They recently moved towards the Dallas area, so it was a little further drive than before, but it was pretty driving through some areas that haven't been over-developed yet...there were still some trees! We spent the entire day with the girls and had a lot of fun. We love our play dates!

Matt and Beth Ann came over last weekend for a visit too. We always enjoy seeing them and the cubs love them. Emily Bear crawled all over them, she's such a funny monkey.

We have tried some new medications with Zach and none of them have really worked. We tried Nexium and what a disaster that was. It came in a powder that I had to add to a tablespoon of water, let it sit for two minutes to thicken, and somehow get Zach to drink it. I eventually used a medication syringe but I still had to put him in a wrestling hold to get it down him. Not going to work here. At $50 for 15 days worth of medication, I was happy to try something different. Or so I thought. Next we tried Prilosec. It came in a capsule that I could open up and put the "seeds" in a small spoonful of applesauce. Also created a horrible experience. I had to force him to take it in the morning and then he refused to eat anything off of the spoon after that. I guess he associates the spoon with his medication. It was HORRIBLE. It made him extremely fussy, he started skipping naps, and was just not fun to be around. So we stopped that too. I'd rather he eat and possibly throw up, than be fussy and refuse to eat at all. Now I am trying to re-educate him to eat again from the spoon. He still pushes me away without even trying the food first. So frustrating. I have finally contacted an eating clinic at Baylor to see if he would qualify and now I'm waiting to hear back from them. There has to be something someone can do to help him eat. It baffles me that he won't even try cheerios or Gerber Puffs, yet he knows to feed them to his sister. He has no desire to try new foods (or basically any food for that matter). Yet he'll put toys in his mouth, and things that obviously don't belong there (like cat hair). The other day I caught him playing with a strand of my hair, and of course he put it in his mouth just as I was trying to get to him, but I managed to get it back from him. I guess it's time for Mom to get a haircut. WHY???? Why would he eat hair and not food??? For the first time ever today I put him down for his nap without lunch. I tried three different foods and he wouldn't try any of them. I can understand if he tries it first and then pushes me away, but he won't even take a taste. I'm starting to think that going back to work and putting the cubs in daycare may not be a bad idea. Maybe he'll do better for someone that is not me.

I found a preschool for September but registration is not until March. I hope we can get in. It would be twice a week from 8:45 until 11:45. They have another class that ends at 2:45, but that would require someone else to feed them, and I can imagine that after a day or two, the preschool staff would be calling me to come pick Zach up. Non-eaters not allowed. Emily could do that one but I hate to split them up. I guess we'll just have to think about our options.

Exploring the new digs!

On Saturday we took the cubs up to the house. Since we had a picture of Zach in the house, it was only fair to get Emily Bear's picture taken in the house too. The cubs had a blast running around in the open spaces and screaming so they could hear their echos. Some of the pictures are a little dark but I thought I would post them anyway.

Zach exploring the family room:


Mom trying to keep up with Zach in the family room:


Emily and Zach exploring their bedrooms:


Emily holding up the wall in her bedroom:


An adorable picture of Z-man:


Perhaps they are negotiating room assignments:


Emily checking things out:


Emily and her dirty knees and paws. Construction sites are messy places:

No more bottles!

Mom made an executive decision today. No more bottles for the Z-man. I packed them up and put them all away. The problem is Zach refuses to drink his Pediasure from anything but the bottle. He'll drink juice and water from his straw and sippy cups, but absolutely refuses his Pediasure. I don't know why, it drives me crazy trying to understand the little man. Unfortunately Pediasure is one of Zach's main sources of calories and I will go nuts if he skips a day, so we're crossing our fingers that he will start accepting his Pediasure from a cup like the big boy that he is.

The week in pictures

Emily checking out the latest issue:


Zach feeding Emily a puff:


Mommy's little helpers folding the towels:


Zach practicing his good dental hygiene:


Coming right along (taken 01/16/09):

Molar Central

The molars have landed and they just keep coming and coming. At the last tooth check little Emily Bear had three molars (two on bottom, one on top) and Zach had two molars (one on the bottom and the top). For those who are curious, they hurt. They hurt them and they hurt me. Yes, I was bitten at the last tooth check and then someone suffered lock-jaw at that very exact moment, because it took forever for my finger to be released. SHARKS! Insert Jaws theme here....

Here is a picture of Emily practicing very good dental hygiene. We are so proud of her! Mom still has to chase Zach down, but he gets his pearly whites brushed twice a day too.

Emily doesn't like shoes, socks, or bows

So Zach got to have his picture taken in his new room and I'm sure everyone wants to know why Emily didn't get her picture taken too. Well, she decided that shoes and socks weren't necessary so she didn't get to go inside. She takes her shoes and socks off as soon as she can. I don't even know why I bother putting them on her when we go out. As soon as she is in her carseat, off come the shoes and socks. She also doesn't like her hair bows. I think she looks downright adorable with a bow. Might I add, she even looks like a girl with a bow. She doesn't care.



A little better with the bow, at least there are no tears here. Of course, it wasn't in for very long. She better get used to them. I just ordered more in 27 different colors...hee hee!

Zach checking out his new digs!

Here is Zach's first photo in his new room!

Bricks anyone?

Finally a house update....I apologize to all of our faithful readers for taking SO long!

The bricks and stonework are going up. The insulation is being installed. The drywall has been delivered. YIKES! Because the weather has been so great, this is happening much faster than we expected. I am gathering all of our information to start the loan process. I think I'm going to have to start taking ulcer medication...this is so nerve-wracking. Still waiting on the other house to sell...

Pictures from Sunday, January 11:

Having fun at our new activity table...

They almost look civilized, don't they? It wasn't long until they were both fighting over the book....***SIGH***

This is Zach's table and chairs. It is the Cars theme...very fun for little boys. Emily has a Princess table of her own, but due to our current space limitations we won't unpack hers until we move.

A picture really does say a thousand words.....

Little Emily Bear couldn't possibly stick that lower lip out any farther. It works much better on Dad than it does on Mom. Nice try Emily Bear!

All the cubs at the zoo.

On Friday we took the cubs to the zoo. It was a beautiful day and I was looking forward to it. Steve took them while I was in Las Vegas, but this was my first time to go with them, and I couldn't wait to see the excitement on their little faces. Yeah, maybe next time. We didn't get much reaction at all. Nada. Zilch. The closest thing to a reaction was Emily clutching Daddy's shirt until her little knuckles turned white. She was afraid of everything. Zach couldn't have cared less. I tried to point out animals to him and he was always looking over my shoulder at something else. **SIGH** At least we got some good pics of some of Mommy's and Daddy's favorite animals:

The bald eagle:














Someone else's monkeys (not ours, although I see a little resemblance):














Tiger and cubs:













Momma Lion and her four cubs (God bless her):













Our cubs, all tuckered out after their exciting trip to the zoo:

Cub progression

It's interesting how people always comment on twins. Steve and I got pretty used to it when the cubs were infants. It always seemed like we were our own traveling circus....people always had to stop us and remark on the cubs..."Oh look, twins!".

When the cubs were around a year that changed to "Oh, are they twins?", which was understandable since Emily outweighed Zach by 3 or 4 pounds.

Now that there is 5 to 6 pounds difference I get "Wow, you had them really close together!", to which my response is always "yes, two minutes". Then they always respond "Oh, they're twins?" or "They don't look like twins." **SIGH** Do people always have to comment? Yes, they are twins and yes, one eats much better than the other. Why do I always have to explain this to people, complete strangers no less? It's not really any of their business why my twins don't look like twins. Just smile, keep walking, and keep your comments to yourself.

Adult assembly required.

Can you believe that Steve still has toys to assemble? Emily and Zach each received an activity table with chairs from Santa and I can't wait to put one of them together so we can tackle the new Handy Manny coloring books. I would put it together myself, but the cubs insist on helping, so it just works better if Daddy puts it together while Mommy entertains the cubs. We'll have pictures soon (hopefully).

Christmas in pictures

Emily's Christmas tree all in pink:


Zach's Christmas tree all in blue:


Opening a gift from their stockings on Christmas Eve:


Emily sporting an eggnog mustache. She loved it!:


Emily is a present opening pro!:


However, present opening is so exhausting that she couldn't even pick up her cup for a drink. Lazy monkey:


Zach and Baxter checking out his new police car:


Emily sporting her new apron. She loves helping in the kitchen:

More pictures

Emily reading a book her Auntie Leslie and Uncle Craig sent:


Emily getting really comfy in her chair:


Zach just looking adorable in his chair:


Emily rearranging the furniture:


Zach attacking the furniture: