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.