To eat or not to eat.

There hasn't been much going on here at Cub Central. We've had a few playdates since Mother's Day. We went to Jessica's last week and then Kelli and her girls came over yesterday. It seems like it has rained every weekend, especially if it happens to be one of Steve's days off. We spent this weekend putting flooring in the attic so we can store some things that we don't need right away. I have been putting off the unpacking because I just don't want to do it anymore. It seems like I spend more time moving boxes than unpacking them. We have been trying to spend more time outside. I have taken the cubs on a few walks this week. It is really nice to be in a neighborhood where I feel safe to do this. I didn't feel comfortable taking the cubs for walks around the apartment because of all the crazy drivers speeding through the complex and there were no sidewalks. I never felt safe taking them for walks at the old house either. SAD. I'm really happy that they have done so well in their stroller lately. I'm sure it is only because we are walking outside. If we are inside a mall or department store, the stroller is not very well liked by the cubs. Inside our house it becomes a playpen, they can't stop crawling all over it. Silly cubs.

Zach had his first therapy session with the new speech therapist for his feeding aversion issues. I'm a little irked that they have only scheduled him for two half hour sessions per month. However, today I received some encouraging news. Zach was accepted into a summer feeding program at Texas Women's University. Specifically, it is a group feeding program for toddlers with sensory-based feeding disorders. He will be introduced to a variety of foods with different textures, tastes, and temperatures to increase sensory experiences and improve oral intake. The sessions are led by master’s level graduate students under the direct supervision of a licensed speech-language pathologist. It runs for 6 weeks, from June 16 to July 23, on Tuesday and Thursday mornings for 1.5 hours per session. Each session is planned around a weekly theme and includes circle time, rotations through non-food sensory exploration, sensory exploration with food, and language enrichment activities. I am so hopeful about this! As an added bonus, Emily will receive individual speech-language therapy at the same time. Can it get any better than that?

I haven't updated in ages about all of the new foods we've introduced. Lately (because it will probably change tomorrow) Emily likes black olives and broccoli. She recently started eating steamed carrots but stopped eating potatoes. She likes the small frozen individual pizzas. She likes toast but not bread. She loves fish sticks, especially when she can dunk them in ketchup. She doesn't like sandwiches, but will dunk her toast in jelly. She likes waffles without syrup. She loves to share cereal and milk with Mom. She loves burritos but not mexican rice. She likes chips and hot sauce from Taco Bueno. She loves mandarin oranges. She will eat a whole banana but doesn't like it if you slice it up. Silly cub.

Zach's list is much shorter but at least it consists of things other than baby food in a jar. He still loves refried beans from Taco Bueno. I still add sour cream to them for the added calories. He still likes macaroni and cheese. I give Emily a chicken and rice meal and he will eat the rice, but not the chicken. He likes potatoes but no longer seems to like McDonald's fries. He will eat the cheese from the individual pizza but not the crust. He tried the sauce from Mom's chicken enchilada casserole. He still eats his daily yogurt and Pediasure. He thinks crayons, books, and chalk are meant to be eaten. Foods, however, are not. Silly cub.

Mom's recent favorite pics

The winning stroller. Thanks to all who voted. It has superior adjustable canopies, perfect for hiding from the paparazzi:

Mom LOVES this picture:

Our little miracle cubs:

Where to begin??

Our stroller arrived on Thursday...now that's service. Steve says it looks exactly like he expected it to. I was hoping for a little more vibrant orange. It looks more like rust or burnt orange, but it's not too bad. It handles so much easier than our Graco. It's a planning process when we journey out because you have to give thought to which stroller would be easier to use. The Graco fits through much tighter spaces, so when going to the mall, the Graco is the far better choice to squeeze through (and sometimes even it is too big...who designs the layouts of these stores??). When going to the zoo, the City Mini wins hands down. Plus there is no more kicking and hair pulling. If only there was such a thing as the perfect stroller....

On Friday, the cubs and I met up with Kelli and her twins at the mall....in the Graco. I thought it went really well except that Zach returned his lunch...thank heavens I had put a bib on him, because I had forgotten to bring a change of clothes. This is the first time he has ever thrown up his lunch in public, but we got through it. The cubs even managed a brief nap and Kelli and I were able to eat lunch almost like real adults do.

Our first attempt at home-made baby food didn't go too well. It was easy enough to make, but the cubs didn't care for it. I wasn't surprised at all by Zach's reaction, but I totally expected Emily to gobble up the veggies. I tried carrots, green beans, and peas, separately and together, and she refused them all after just one bite. I am not giving up. I'm sure she'll eat them after she gets used to it.

Steve had off this weekend which was pretty unusual. We loaded up the cubs yesterday and took them to the mall. It was far less pleasant than the trip the day before. Emily was a major fuss bucket! We only got to go into a few stores before we decided to pack them up and come home. The only bright spot of the trip was watching Emily navigate her first small set of stairs. There were only six, but she looked pretty adorable waddling up the stairs. We also let Zach out of the stroller to walk in the mall. Our little man is quite the speed walker.

For dinner last night Steve requested my italian version of shrimp scampi. This is big! I made it the first time on Thursday and Steve said it was good! I usually get an "it's ok" or "it's not bad", so receiving a "good" is the equivalent to a five-star rating from him. Whoo hoo! We've been married almost eight years, and I finally got a "good"! So twice this week we had shrimp scampi. I thought it was pretty good too, but it probably is not on my diet.

Steve and the cubs have their little ritual before bed. Steve and Emily usually share a banana, and then they all chase each other around the couches. I love hearing the cubs laugh. It is the greatest sound in the world. I think Steve enjoys the playtime together except that he always complains about needing knee pads. I think he's just getting old.

For Steve's birthday I sent him to get a Sports Massage. It's not an original idea, he does it for me all the time, but I know he's been working hard and could use it. We hope he has a happy birthday!!

Moody Monday and Temper-Tantrum Tuesday

On Monday the cubs had their 15 month check-up and along with it was an MMR vaccination. It made for a very moody Monday. Emily scream-cried all the way home. I think it was a mean combination of being hot, hungry, tired, and poked by that nasty needle. She was NOT a happy cub. Zach did a little better, but it sure took a lot out of everyone.

We did receive an A+ from our pediatrician so that was good news. He always tells us that Zach is not a heavy-weight, but other than his slow weight gain he seems to be doing pretty well. He weighed in at 19 lbs 7 oz, and 30 1/4" long. Our Emily Bear weighed in at 23 lbs 10 oz and 33 1/2" long. Now she's a heavy-weight!

After our "moody Monday" I went out to dinner with some girlfriends and treated myself to a much needed raspberry daiquiri.

Unfortunately Tuesday was not much better. I'd like to attribute it to the immunizations from the day before, but my mother kindly pointed out to me this morning that yesterday was Tuesday. Of course, it was Temper-Tantrum Tuesday, it makes total sense to me now. This was our third bad Tuesday in a row. I am considering looking into a "Mother's Day Out" program...and I am pretty sure that I need one for Tuesdays. I also need another daiquiri.

I have decided to try making my own baby food. This should be interesting! We've decided to start with the basic vegetables, so last night I blended up some carrots, green beans, and peas. The recommended way is to freeze the food in covered ice-cube trays and then thaw out cubes as needed. So I bought special little trays, and am currently thawing some out for dinner. We'll see how well they like it. I'm hoping that it will be more flavorful than the jarred stuff, and maybe Zach will like it a little better and start eating some with thicker and chunkier textures. Keep your fingers crossed!

Thunder (and Zach) woke me up early this morning. We need rain so desperately, but it was just a tease. We didn't receive enough to wet the concrete. What a let down!

I've been tracking our stroller online...(it's pretty cool how you can see where it has arrived and departed from - American Airlines could certainly take some lessons on how to do this)...it has left New Jersey and the estimated delivery date is tomorrow. Thursdays are generally pretty good days around Cub Central.

Mom's two favorite phrases of the day....

My first favorite phrase of the day: In-stock!! Whew! After checking several sites hoping to place my stroller order, I have to admit I was getting a bit nervous. They were all displaying my least favorite phrase of the day...BACK-ORDERED!!! Back-ordered until September?!?! I don't want to wait until September to receive the cubs' new wheels. We finally found one...with free shipping (my second favorite phrase of the day) and we should receive it in 7-10 days! Keep your fingers crossed!

And the winner is....

It looks like the oranges have it, by a whopping one vote (11-10). Wow! We will be placing our order tomorrow (hopefully). We appreciate everyone who took the time to vote in our very scientific survey. Steve originally selected the orange one, so I'm sure I'm going to have to listen to him bragging about being the winner for quite some time. Lucky me. I must admit, after talking with some of the people who voted for the orange one, I can see some benefits to it that I had not thought of before, so I'm really not too disappointed about being the (dare I say) LOSER.

Today was a typical Monday, except that it was really Friday. Zach had a nutrition appointment scheduled for 10:00. I received a phone call (at 10:15) from the Nutritionist telling me that she was ill and wasn't going to make it. This is her third missed appointment, but who's counting? At least this time I received a phone call. **SIGH**

For lunch today, Emily and I shared a can of Chef Boyardee's Cheese Ravioli. She didn't seem overly enthusiastic about it, but she didn't refuse it either. Zach even tried two very small bites, and I was met with his usual gagging reaction, but he managed to swallow and keep it down. For a special treat they had some chocolate pudding. Emily really liked it, but what girl doesn't like chocolate, especially when it's being served to her? Such a mini-princess. Zach even had several small bites of the pudding, and this time there was no gag reaction. Quite an improvement from the time I served him vanilla pudding (we ended up wearing that).

Naps are becoming a little more difficult. It seems no one around here wants one but ME! I put them in their cribs at nap time and just listen to them blabber back and forth to each other on the monitor. It makes for a really long day, because then they want their nap around 4pm, and there is no way they are going to take a nap that close to bedtime. So they generally become pretty fussy, but how do you reason with two 15 month olds? Telling them that they should have taken their naps doesn't get much accomplished around here. Stubborn little monkeys!

Steve has to work this weekend, so there are no fun plans scheduled. Just another typical day at Cub Central! Probably a good thing, we spend less money that way!

They really are mine!

Steve had an after-work function to attend, so he got home much later than usual. I had planned on cooking dinner, but Steve brought home food from Taco Bueno (my favorite fast food eatery) instead. Since we did IVF, Steve and I sometimes light-heartedly joke about whether the cubs are really "ours". It's pretty obvious that Emily is mine (especially her eating habits, not to mention her hair). Zach on the other hand, is sometimes a mystery. He doesn't really look like us (although several people tell me he looks like my Dad, and he does have Steve's blond curls) and he certainly doesn't share my love of food. Tonight, Zach proved that he really was mine by eating five or six small bites of refried beans from Taco Bueno. He also tried the queso and the guacamole. It is so exciting that he is making an effort to try some of the smoother adult-type foods. PROGRESS!! Emily deserves mention as well, tonight she ate some bites of her very first burrito. That's my girl!! I always swore that I wouldn't feed fast-food to the cubs, especially at this young of an age, but if Zach will eat it, I'll give it to him. Before anyone alerts the "food police", Emily had already had her dinner, so her small bites of burrito weren't her main meal.

Today was a big day for Zach in the eating department. Besides eating food from Taco Bueno, he also ate several bites of the Raspberry and Pear YoBaby yogurt this morning. I was a little hesitant to try it since he didn't do so well the last time, but today he did much better. Again, PROGRESS!! The Nutritionist comes tomorrow, so hopefully we'll see some progress on the scale too.

We've been keeping an eye on the stroller survey (currently tied at 7 votes each on the electronic count). We have been informed of some technical difficulties with the survey. For example, two people from the same household may not be able to both vote (not to mention that it is currently showing 107%). What can I say?? -- the survey post was free, and you get what you pay for. Grandma Shirley (who we affectionately call Granny Nanny, even though she really hates it) has some votes from her co-workers to add manually, since they couldn't all cast their votes electronically. We need to add 3 for green and 2 for orange, which currently puts the green ahead by just one vote. When Steve and I agreed to do this, we never imagined that the votes would be so close. It's been fun checking the tally every morning to see if anyone has voted. (We lead very simple and boring lives -- ha ha.)

The cubs woke up super early this morning. I swear it must be a full moon. Today has been totally off schedule. I had to move breakfast, lunch and dinner up to accommodate their nap, which they didn't really want to take, even though they woke up before the roosters. YIKES!! So exhausting! We had another bad Tuesday this week as well. This will be the second bad Tuesday in a row. I'm going to start referring to them as Temper-Tantrum Tuesdays because Emily Bear was in rare form on the tantrum front. Just one after the other. Even Steve was unimpressed.

We did not receive any rain from Hurricane Dolly, which hit the Texas coast on Wednesday as a Category 2. My Director's daughter lives in Corpus Christi, so I've been thinking about her and her family and hoping that they are all safe. It's been dreadfully hot here, and we haven't received the rain we need. It's horrible that parts of Texas are dangerously overwhelmed with water, and we can't seem to ever get a drop up here.

I'm getting excited for my trip to Vegas. I can't believe it's only three weeks away! I don't want to seem overly anxious, but is it too early to start packing??

We need your help with our stroller dilemma....

After much research and debate, we have decided on the brand of double stroller we are wanting to purchase. Now we can't decide on a color. There are no retailers here that carry this particular stroller, so we can't see it in person before we order. We have narrowed it down to two, but it just so happens that Steve wants one and I want the other, so Steve suggested we put it up for vote. Please help us by voting for your favorite (the poll is located at the top of the right hand column). Voting ends Friday, July 25, at 9:00pm CDT.