Sitting Up (Sort of) For The First Time

Most of the videos I post (and probably most of the words I type) offer very little entertainment value for the average person. But I challenge you to watch these videos without laughing out loud. And you know why? Because kids falling over is just plain funny. Please keep in mind that the floor in the kids' room is extra padded so there's no way they can hurt themselves. No really.

- Jacob sitting up. See if you can catch me failing to count properly.

- And Molly's turn

Solid Food - Now You're Talking

The kids turned 6 months old on Boxing Day and we started them on the solid food yesterday. Despite their colds and being offered a rather bland looking rice cereal, they were ravenous. I'm not sure how much is actually finding its way down the digestive tract, but the bibs are getting well-soiled. Here are some photos and a video of the big event.

- Molly chowing down

- Molly's first word may well be "more"

- Molly looking quite proud and satisfied

- Jacob before

- Jacob during

- Jacob after


And the video of Molly eating.

Happy New Year!!

I'm back from hiatus, which in this case consisted of a trip to Montreal and then, upon return, kids with their 1st colds, so there hasn't been much free time during the day. But now, at 9pm on New Year's Eve, I have no other plans. One of the lesser known benefits of young children is that they're a fantastic excuse for not having elaborate plans to be sipping champagne at the hottest club or party. A year ago we were at a party in Geneva, which is a pretty cool thing to be able to say, but there weren't a lot of tremendous new years before that. I remember one, around age 15 or 16, at a party, where I spent half the night talking to the boyfriend of the girl I was desirous of. A buddy of mine had to find me at midnight to tell me to go kiss the girl. I did but she still went home with the boyfriend. Tonight seems more predictable and less fraught with emotional peril.

It'll take me a few posts to catch up, but I'll start with a few Christmas shots with my family in Montreal.
- The kids under the tree - Molly beaming and Jacob trying not to topple


- Molly amongst the stockings

- Christmas dinner. Looks like I really dressed up for the occasion.

- General Christmas mayhem

- Molly in her office

- Me and the boy

- Feeding time at the zoo

A Day of Firsts

Not only was yesterday Molly's 1st No-Boots Day, it also turned out to be her 1st tooth day. One of her lower front teeth has broken through. She took it very well, although she seems a little out of sorts this afternoon. Keeping in character, Jacob seemed to feel her pain and did a better job of projecting it.

We're off to Montreal tomorrow, so my posting may be sporadic but there will be better pictures with my mom at the helm.

Video of 1st No-Boot Day

Prior to both these videos, the kids were chatting away with each other, but whenever the camera comes out they mum right up. So, these may not be terribly interesting to the casual observer, but they do show Molly on her first day without boots.

- The kids mid-feed, with close-up on Molly


- Jacob has a chew-toy. Jacob is a chew-toy.

The First No-Boot Day!

We went to T.O. yesterday and the folks at Sick Kids were very happy with Molly's feet. So, she no longer has to wear the boots & bar during the daytime - only at night. She's had a little trouble settling down for naps with her feet free, but otherwise seems quite pleased with the turn of events.

We don't have to go back to the hospital for 3 months and so long as we stick to the boots every night regimen then she shouldn't have any issues. Pencil her into the lineup for the 2026 Team Canada Olympic hockey team.

- Jacob demonstrating how to kick sans bar


- she's a fast learner


- a close-up of her perfect little feet

Screw Bob Dole, I Need a Gas-Powered Snowblower

In a great testament to the Tweedledum/Tweedledee of US politics, Kate can't keep Bob Dole and Al Gore straight. To her, they're one person. And we call him Bob Dole. So, Dole made the self-promoting environmental movie. Dole was the spokesperson for Viagra. Dole invented the internet. Dole won the Nobel prize. Dole was too old to beat Clinton. Dole was too cardboard and ineffectual to beat Bush. It's a fun game.



Here's a photo from early this morning, after I cleared a narrow path in the walk, and a wider one in the back to get the stroller through. We made it out for our daily coffee, through the snowdrifts. Very heroic. And I don't really want a snowblower - just looking for an excuse to mention Gore Dole.

That's One Strong Santa

Here's a shot of the family, all on Santa's knee(s), last Saturday.

Bumbo photos

It has been an up and down few days. Kate was quite sick at the end of last week, just before going on call for the weekend. But fortunately the kids cooperated by sleeping well all weekend and the patients cooperated by not going into labour during the nights. So we survived intact. We had a good visit from Greg & Jo on Saturday. I think Jo is quite smitten with Jacob, who was at his flirtatious best. Saturday was a big day as the kids also met Santa for the first time, at a Christmas party. I don't think they really noticed him though - maybe next year.

Here are a couple of photos of the kids in their new Bumbo - our latest venture into the world of unnecessary commercialism. Ah well, at least there'll be lots of babies to pass it on to after we're finished. Also, note Molly in regular shoes, during her 1 hour break from the boots & bar. We find out next week if she can come out of the boots for good (except for at night) as we're down at Sick Kids on Wednesday.

My Obsolescence

Here's a video of Molly learning to feed herself. Once they master feeding, not sure what my remaining responsibilities will entail.

Lots of Movies

In the past couple of weeks we've seen a tonne of well-reviewed movies, due to a confluence of events:
- home pretty much every evening
- don't seem to have the brain capacity to read books any more
- don't see all the well-reviewed movies in the theatre anymore so there are finally things to rent

In order from worst to best, here's what we've seen (with Rotten Tomatoes approval rating in brackets) in the past few weeks:
- Live Free or Die Hard (80%). I know, what did I expect from a series that wore out it's welcome decades ago. But the critics thought it was great action and retro cool. They were wrong. John McLane has lost his sense of humour and turned into a crotchety, preachy old fart, disgruntled at young folks who are into newfangled technologies like computers. The co-star, Justin Long, plays the young punk with much to learn from the old tough guy. Long is the guy from all the Mac tv ads and I can't believe that Apple doesn't have something in his contract to prevent him taking a role like this. In this movie, Bruce Willis is basically the uncool, old PC guy. Except, here he has the upper hand. Very weak movie.
- Sicko (93%). Michael Moore is played out. He's so manipulative, selective, self-promoting and biased that you can't believe anything he says. Even when you agree with his conclusions. I couldn't believe it when he brags in the movie about anonymously donating money for medical expenses to one of his critics. Dude, look up "anonymously" in the dictionary.
- Rescue Dawn (91%). I'm flummoxed by any talk of Christian Bale getting Oscar recognition for this role. All the acting is wooden and unconvincing. The story does stay with you though. In an "I hope I'm never taken POW during an illegal invasion" kind of way".
- Beowulf (70%). The action was good and the style was cool. My enjoyment of this movie may have been completely out of proportion due to: (a) I actually went out to the theatre and had no twin responsibilities for this 2-3 hour period; and (b) Angelina Jolie (even a semi-animated, computer-generated version) is a spectacularly naked siren/villain.
- Ratatouille (97%). It's a shame that they've created an Oscar category for animated films because there just aren't enough good ones to justify an award. Besides Toy Story and Triplets of Belleville, have there really been any recent, GREAT, animated films? Do we really need to honour Happy Feet and The Incredibles? This is a good movie, but it's not spectacular.
- Chalk (78%). Filmed in the same kind of style as The Office, this is a really funny take on the lives of teachers, and the pathetic waste of time that high school can represent. I won't remind Kate about this one when our homeschooling debate begins full force in a few years.
- Hairspray (93%). Really good musical - like an updated Grease & Saturday Night Fever. I'm not a big musical guy, but this is worth the price of admission just to see Christopher Walken and John Travolta (as an overweight woman - but not in the Norbit way) dancing together. Now that's retro cool. Plus, a good excuse to link to the best music video of all time
- Waitress (89%). Kate liked it, primarily because it stars her hero Malcolm, from Joss Whedon's Firefly series, as a bumbling, slightly socially awkward obstetrician. It's a bit on the lightweight side, but it felt real and human and just quirky enough.

None of them are supplanting anything off the Top 50 films of all-time list, but some very rentable/downloadable movies.

Back on the right track?

The kids slept well last night and again during the day today, so maybe we were jumping the gun on worrying. Then again, after a full night's sleep we woke up to Molly in the middle of the room, having rolled over a few times, off her bed, heading toward her brother. Needless to say, we spent today madly childproofing the room for semi-mobile twins.

Here are a few December photos.

- Jacob looking ready to crawl


- Molly in the "fly like an airplane" hold, granting the camera a rare half-smile

- Proof that Jacob really is growing hair. No, really, double-click on the photo, I swear you can see hair there.

- The view out our front door. There's even more snow now. How picturesque is our birdfeeder? You would almost think that I had put it up slighty askew for artistic purposes.

A Sensitive Period??

We seem to have run into a few sleep issues in the past couple of days. Molly was up last night, inconsolable from 2:30-4am and Jacob has been having trouble getting down for his daytime naps. I just spent 45 minutes with him raging at me while he was obviously exhausted. This seems to have coincided with both of them discovering the wonders of their hands. They're grabbing and holding anything they can get their hands on. They're also rolling over in every direction, making them a bit more of a supervisory challenge (especially in our no-crib world). So, they're getting to be more and more fun, interactive, interesting and challenging. Kate is about to be on call something like 9 out of 18 nights, so we may be limping a little by Christmas.

It is beautiful here. The snow continues to deepen - we've had snow on the ground for at least two weeks now. Pushing the stroller through the drifts is the closest thing I've got to a workout these days. Our outdoor Christmas lights went up this weekend so the house is looking quite festive, blanketed in white, twinkling with tacky lights.

Stay-At-Home-Nerd

I knew I'd find a way for Excel spreadsheets to remain an integral part of my life. In an effort to reduce the number of grocery store trips and to increase the quality of our food consumption, I've launched a new regime. I've copied the list of ingredients for a bunch of our favourite recipes (11 so far and counting), plus a list of staples into Excel. At the beginning of the week, Kate and I pick the 6 or 7 dinners we want to eat that week. I copy and paste the ingredients, sort them alphabetically and then do the whole week's shopping at once. It's brilliant and so far this week we've had a pot roast, Thai chicken soup, fajitas, and Green curry beef. And tonight it's Chicken with 40 Cloves of garlic. As a result, I'm using the slow cooker more often and there is less scouring of the fridge for ingredients to throw into a same-old-same-old stir-fry.

Turns

My sister says that kids can grasp the concept of "taking turns" much more easily than "sharing". So here's a video of an early lesson in turns. No babies were harmed in the making of this video.

Four-Hour Babies

The kids seem to have successfully transitioned to a 4-hour schedule. They have big feeds every four hours, activity for 1-2 hours and then nap for 1-2 hours depending on the time of day. They're sleeping through the night about 2/3 of the time. So, life is good and we're feeling very unchaotic. For now. Until things change again.

We had a great visit this weekend from Priya, David and 8-month old Rowan. Here are a couple of photos.

Still More Photos (Or, More Still Photos)

Here's a funny series of photos that almost plays like a video clip. Guess which one has the heavier head:

More photos

- Smiling Jacob

- Very striped boy focusing on the ring

- Molly looking quite proud of herself

- Grammy and Molly

Hot Date

Kate and I don't get out on our own much these days. So, it was with much excitement that we headed out for coffee the other night, leaving the kids in the care of my parents. We tried four different coffee places, all of which were closed. We ended up at Tim Horton's! How lame is that? There are going to be 5000 Lakehead students living here in a few years - hopefully that brings a decent coffee place that has products ending in "chino" and is open in the evenings. Oh, we miss JJ Bean and even (don't strike me down, ye gods of anti-capitalism), Starbucks.

Here are some photos of the kids (all courtesy of my mom):

- My Dad with Molly. He got in some trouble from Grammy for reading Goodnight Moon during the daytime. It's hard out there sometimes.

- Jacob about to eat his toes. When mom's at work we gotta eat something.

- Jacob with his Pentopus. Five-legged, so the Montessori police won't let it be called an octopus.

- Molly and the buzzing bumblebee

First Recorded Conversation

Here are the kids chatting with each other - covering the weather, politics, religion, hockey, and how rude it is for parents to leave babies on their tummies.



Lots more photos to follow tonight or tomorrow, as my parents are in town with camera in tow.

Back to lots of night sleep

After the brief disruption of the Halloween flu and trip to Montreal, the kids seem to be back to sleeping through the night again. Jacob's not happy about going down for naps, especially when he's crazy tired, but the nights are smooth. And we can't ask for more than that, I suspect.

Here's a photo of them "playing" together on Molly's bed.

Big, Brave Babies

I took the kids in for their four-month shots today. They were both very brave - Jacob looked more shocked than anything. Molly is more used to being poked and prodded, so she went her usual shade of purple rage. We also did their 4-month measurements. The kids are a couple of weeks over four months, but our doctor likes to correct for the prematurity, so we compared with 4-month milestones. By that measure, both are taller (66cm and 63cm) and bigger-headed (the jokes write themselves) than average, and right on average for weight (14 1/2 lbs, 13 1/4 lbs). I'm not surprised that they're growing, as they've been taking full, 8oz bottles at most feeds for the past few weeks. So, they've come a long way from being small newborns.

More Photos and a Video

The grandparent carousel keeps a-turnin'. Lois left this morning and my folks arrive later this week. So, lots of help and company for me.

Here are two close-ups of the kids about to feed:


And here's video of Molly flipping over, and then flipping back. Such talents.

New Photos

I've been a little remiss in posting new photos, so here are some from the past few days.
Molly helping Grandma Lois with the leaves (and there were lots of leaves):



Close-up on Molly. She gives this look a lot - where she's mildly amused by you, but not so much that it's worthy of a smile:


Molly & Jacob in the kitchen, waiting patiently for me to finish warming up their breakfasts:

Kate: Swedish For Cool Idea

Okay, so here's Kate's brilliant idea of the week. Everyone has a wide collection of Ikea furniture that they're hoping to eventually get rid of. Rather than just leaving it on the curb, or relying on Craigslist to pass it on to the next debt-ridden student, how about this:

A computer program containing a database of all the dissassembled Ikea parts. Then you enter your furniture into the program, and it spits out a list of possibilities. For example, if you have an Ektorps, 4 Borjes, 2 Billys and a Stefan, you could use the parts to build a skateboard ramp. With a Billsta, a Leksvik and 2 Jagras, you could build a go-cart. And the program then provides you with the building plans.

As with all great ideas, Kate doesn't seem to be the first to come up with it. Check out this link for how to make a coffin using Ikea furniture.

Back Home

We had a great weekend in Montreal - neither the drive nor the new surroundings seemed to phase the kids. We spent lots of time with the 5 year old twin cousins and so got glimpses of our future (pretty fantastic).

We also did some winter clothes shopping - see photos below. Molly in the blue and Jacob in red, both with lots of room to grow - ready for the chilly conditions that seem to have arrived. Yesterday we drove through a major blizzard in Barrie enroute to Toronto.

We went down to Sick Kids because we were concerned about how much pain the stretching seemed to be causing Molly. The physio was really happy with her feet and showed us some less strenuous stretches that should be fine. We're not going back until December 19th, when she may be able to get out of the boots except for at night.

Here's a photo of the kids' coathooks (fabulous gift from Lindsey & Serge). Also note my old lion, sporting the 1st place ribbon that I won as a wee 4 year old in England, possibly in a school potato sack race. Proving that my athletic brilliance had an early start.


I'm having an easy time of things now, as Kate's mom arrived last night. I got all sorts of errands done today (including the purchase of a snow shovel - we never needed one in Vancouver!) while Lois looked after the kids.

They're Back and They're Hungry

I should be packing as we're heading to Montreal for the weekend, but a few words first. The kids are back to full strength - the little hobbits each had 7 oz for second breakfast (not to mention 6 oz at an unscheduled middle-of-the-night feed) plus the usual breakfast with mama before Kate headed to work. Plus regular supplements of their favoured index fingers (Jacob's right and Molly's left - does this predict future handedness?). Kate hasn't managed any solid food yet but seemed in much better spirits this morning.

Molly managed the first ever flip from back to front this morning. With the boots and bar that's quite a logistical feat. She kicks her legs in the air, swivels to get them perpendicular to the ground, lands one foot next to her body, swivels again to turn onto her belly, then lifts her head and shoulders well off the ground to extract her trapped arm.

Yesterday Explained

The long awaited nap during the last post only lasted 15 minutes. And then Kate came home from work feeling like death-slightly-warmed-over, so we're guessing that Molly had a dose of whatever bug Kate had. After a tumultuous evening, the kids slept pretty well last night and everyone is feeling much better today.

We closed shop to the trick or treaters at 7pm when we tried to put the kids down, so as a result we're "stuck" with over a hundred little chocolate bars. That should last me a couple of days.

One of THOSE Days

After very sporadic sleep last night, this is the first time all day that the kids have been napping simultaneously (it's 5pm). I missed lunch and feel like I've had two babies screaming in my ears all day (I wonder why). Most days there is a rhythm or a pattern and so long as the kids get fed when they're hungry, get stimulated when they're playing and sleep when they're tired then all is good. But occasionally there are days like today when they're over-tired so won't sleep, over-hungry so won't eat, and over-tired and over-hungry so don't want to play.

Starting last week, we began doing the prescribed stretches on Molly's ankles every evening during the hour when she has her boots off. Because she's still really stiff, the stretches make her scream and shake (whether in pain or rage, or some combination). It makes for an emotionally draining time and although she typically falls straight to sleep after her boots are back on, I think all the screaming makes her sleep more fitful, so she hasn't been sleeping through the night as often.

Anyways, enough griping for now!

She's Dangerous

Here's a video of Molly in a new outfit - some kind of cross between a '70's disco leisuresuit and something SuperDave Osborne would have been proud of.

You can see that the boots and bar are definitely not slowing her down any, and why I'm reluctant to put Jacob down too close to her.