The Taxi

Anders spent the better part of today climbing all over our indoor-only umbrella stroller (i.e. The Taxi). We spent several months using The Taxi to transport one child around the house while the other child was carried. It became that extra set of hands that twin parents so often wish they had. However, now that A and J prefer to independently waddle and toddle their way around the house, The Taxi has been retired...until today when Anders turned it into his personal playground.

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Cloth Diapering

I'm a cloth diapering Momma. Not only do I cloth diaper my kids, I also seek out every opportunity to talk about CD, spend countless hours surfing the web for CD tidbits, and ooh and aah over the abundance of CD supplies that are available. There are, of course, challenges with cloth diapering -- and diapering in general. There are the blow-outs, the semi-blow-outs, the laundry, the "I totally forgot to fill up the wipe warmer with new cloth wipes and now I'm faced with a child lying on the changing table stripped and soiled" episodes, the toting dirty diapers around while out and about, and so and so forth, but the one element of cloth diapering that I am COUNTING DOWN THE DAYS until it's over is the spraying of the soiled diapers. I have a diaper sprayer that's attached to our toilet plumbing. When the need arises, I head to the bathroom with the offending diaper, flip on the sprayer switch, and either spray the poop into the toilet or, as is mostly the case, spray the poop all over the bathroom. It's gotten easier to gauge the water pressure and adjust my aim, but these "all over the bathroom" situations still surface from time to time.

According to my mother and others of her generation, folks "back in the day" simply dunked the soiled diapers in the toilet. Maybe there's something to be said for steering clear of additional gadgets...

The BEST Baby Purchase

Aside from the basic baby necessities, our jogging stroller is by far the most used and appreciated baby item in stock. Having a difficult morning? An exhausting afternoon? Yielding to unrelenting toddlers and letting them play with electrical cords and outlets? Reaching for a beer but it's only noon?

What's a Momma to do?

Head to the garage living room where the jogger's parked, secure the kiddos in their five-point harnessed seats, leash Chloe up, exit the front door, walk or jog or gallop or skip or whatever your way around the neighborhood, and return home a refreshed human being.

Loving the jogger THEN:


Loving the jogger NOW:

63 Inches and 47 Pounds 4 Ounces

Anders and Jorja went in for their 15 month well-child appointments this morning. Combining their heights and weights, we've got 63 inches and 47 lbs 4 oz of toddler zooming around. Everything went accordingly, but apparently we're not suppose to allow A and J to eat while "on the run". I enthusiastically nodded in agreement, but does that mean I need to stop leaving assorted bowls of Cheerios and/or Cheddar Bunnies and/or Animal Crackers and/or Ritalin around the house for them to snack on at their leisure?

Here's Lil' Miss Jorja "I'm a solid inch taller than my twin brother" Ruth toddling around wearing my hat that's 32 inches from the ground.

We Can't All Look at the Camera at the Same Time

On Sunday Gailyn, the kiddos, and I went for a wagon ride around the neighborhood. We stopped by the elementary school to let Anders and Jorja practice climbing concrete stairs -- and to snap a few pictures. Pardon Gailyn's photo absence -- she refused to relinquish the camera to A, J, or me.

Cooking

I am not an intuitive cook. I certainly try, but when I attempt to freestyle it, I generally end up with an overflowing compost bin. But in the last few months the ever-increasing appetites of Anders and Jorja and the arrival of my weekly Community Supported Agriculture organic produce box have begun to overwhelm inspire me. When faced with two toddlers who eat five meals a day with seemingly nonstop snacks in between, a partner who comes home from work late in the evening ready to eat, and an overflowing box of fruit and vegetables, it's obvious what one needs to do -- figure out how to utilize the abundance of produce and cook something that your family will consume. And to some extent, I have done just that. I might not cook from scratch every night, but I've managed to incorporate arugula, beets, cabbage, fennel bulb, kale, leeks, purple potatoes, radicchio, radishes, rainbow chard, rutabaga, and tomatillos into our diets without too much complaint.



This is Jorja during a not-from-scratch macaroni and cheese dinner.

The 25 Minute Napper and The 150 Minute Napper

Anders and Jorja are down to one nap a day. This nap generally begins at 1pm. One child naps for twenty-five minutes, while the other snoozes away for two to three hours. I'm okay with both the twenty-five minute nap and the two to three hour one, what I struggle with is the ONE HUNDRED AND TWENTY FIVE minutes of tip toeing and whispering around the house with the short napper while the long napper naps. Curbing the short napper's vocal range, throwing, and banging showcases is a nightmare challenge. But given that both Anders and Jorja go to sleep at 6:30PM, I really have no reason to complain. There is something absolutely revitalizing about having one's evenings to oneself.

Who do you suppose the short napper is?



There's the short napper reading truck books rather than napping.

Momma's Hat, My Hat

Anders and Jorja are absolutely enthralled with whatever Gailyn and I happen to be wearing, or eating, or drinking, or talking to, or looking at, or, or, or. At dinner this evening I was wearing a hat. Neither Anders nor Jorja was able to commence dinner without first trying it on.

Bedtime Routine

Anders and Jorja's going to bed routine follows the same basic framework night after night -- with a few exceptions on the weekends when Gailyn is home. We move from the playroom into the bedroom in flights (i.e. me and one of the kiddos followed by me and the other kiddo), they're stripped naked and left to wander around, their bath is drawn, they bath, we move into their bedroom, they're diapered, dressed, and ready for a book and songs.

Or at least they used to be.

Anders -- bless his predictable, momma dependent self -- continues to embrace the routine. Jorja has revamped it. In the pitch dark, while Anders and I sing "Barges" and "Sweetest Little Baby" and rock gently in the glider, Jorja shuffles around the bedroom doing I have NO IDEA what because visibility is severely lacking IN THE PITCH DARK.