30 weeks/Seven months

We've been busy summering and trying to stay cool in this insane heat.  My mantra this summer is the same as last, my two favorite inventions ever are IVF and A/C. ;)  It turns out we are experiencing what is the hottest year ever on record in Chicago (90s in spring, 120 heat indexes in summer).  So much for getting outside and enjoying it as much as I planned with the kiddos.  Now, I'm just praying we have a decent fall.

We're still waiting for her to spring some teeth like her brother.  She is getting really close to sitting independently, but he seems in less of a hurry, though he rolled first and looks like he could take off when he's on his belly.  She is amazing with her hands and can keep herself occupied for long periods of time studying and handling just about anything.  He is still all about kicking and still loves nothing more than chewing on everything and being held.

I try not to obsess about any of these things, as I know everything will come in good time.  In the meantime, I figure anything they might lack in advanced early development they more than make up for in ironclad immunity, hair, their willingness to eat anything, love of sleep, and general agreeableness and hilarity. 

These pics are from Bastille Day (like the 4th, only French and 10 days later...)

Resale blog is live!

Last month, we sent two suitcases of baby clothes to India with my mother in law to share with our family there, but we likely won't be going again for awhile.  Well, now the kids have since outgrown a bunch more clothes that we are looking to pass on.  I've got over 40 lots up now, but will probably be posting more in the next few weeks.  Check it out at http://littlegoldcloset.blogspot.com/.  The link will be added to my sidebar.  Feel free to share. :)

Some highlights...

"Gone swimming"

This is the sign I'd like to hang on our door this summer...

Our subdivision has its own pool, which I adore, especially because it is just a short walk from our house (i.e. no wrangling the kids into the car) and it's the most I see of many of my neighbors.  I went all the time last summer when I was home and pregnant with the twins.  It opened over Memorial Day weekend, but we've been out of town mostly since then, so this weekend was our first chance to go. 

I was so excited to get them in the water that I had actually carted all their swim stuff with us on our recent road trips when we were staying in hotels with pools, but my dad (a retired hydrogeologist and lifelong killjoy) convinced me they would do fine at this age to skip the high bacteria (and typically therefore chemical) levels common at indoor hotel pools, as they are not typically managed by a professional.

What the kids are up for at this age is sunscreen (and 7th Generation just started making a nice one), which I neurotically slathered all over them, even though we went at about 5pm and it was overcast.  Nothing like having a friend whose toddler fought skin cancer to put the total fear of the sun in you.

The kids loved "swimming" or should I say floating, which made me so happy.  Unfortunately, at this age taking them both by myself would be challenging, so it may be reserved for a weekend/Daddy or avec sitter activity.

Chewing on her sunglasses like a cool pool girl

Man enough to lay on his sister's flower towel

(don't forget to change @ the pool, swim diapers don't hold pee...)

They were both so chill, I think this is their natural element.

Daddy wants to make sure they are good swimmers, as kids in India don't typically learn to swim, and learning as a adult is tough stuff.

Mommy with her outside water babies

I had planned to get the kids into swim lessons with the Park District this summer, but DH's India trip threw our June plans for a loop.  Now I've learned that the outdoor town pool offers "lessons" starting at six months (Guppies!), so we may check those out instead.  By Fall, I think we'll definitely be ready to join the Y or the gym for entertainment.

We had so much on the docket (and it was really warm) this weekend that I bagged walking in the Race for the Family 5K, though I did register/donate.  Hopefully we'll do it next year as a family.  I'm looking for other 5K's that we can all do together as I've discovered that most races here are CARA (Chicago Area Runners Assoc.) certified and therefore do not allow strollers in their races. :(  Boo...

Six months old!

I simply can't believe the twins are halfway to one, but here we are.  (sniff, sniff...)  I've been wishing them bigger for months now and now they are like little people rather than babies.  It is kind of fun how major milestones with them fall on the season changes, they ushered in winter and now it is finally summer.

This morning before their shots got the best of them

We had their check-up today and Alistair is up to 16 lbs. and 15 (and a half!) ozs (let's just call it 17, shall we?).  He is 27 3/4" long and his head is 44.7 cm.  His weight is still in the 50th %ile, but his height is now in the 90th.

Where we've been:
Four months: 14 lbs.,  25", head:  42.2 cm.
Two months: 10 lbs. 2 ozs., 22 1/2", head: 39.5 cm
Three weeks: 6 lbs. 9 ozs.
Two weeks: 5 lbs. 15 ozs. (he surpasses her for the 1st time)
One week: 5 lbs. 6 ozs.
Four days/hospital release: 5 lbs. 2 ozs.
Birth @ 36w4d (breech): 5 lbs. 7 ozs. (5%), 18.25" (10%)

Marielle is up to 14 lbs. and 10 ozs.  She is 26 1/4" long and her head is 43 cm.  She is in the 50-75% range, except her weight is still 25%ile.

Four months: 12 lbs. 7 ozs., 24 1/2", head: 41.2 cm
Two months: 9 lbs. 9 ozs., 21 3/4", head: 38.7 cm
Three weeks: 6 lbs. 7 ozs. (finally surpasses BW)
Two weeks: 5 lbs. 12 ozs.
One week: 5 lbs. 7 ozs.
Four days/hospital release: 5 lbs. 3 ozs. (unexplained 14% weight loss, day one) (<5%)
Birth @ 36w4d: 6 lbs. 1 ozs., 19"

My how far they've come...

What else is new?

Alistair is teething.  His two lowers are just beginning to emerge, so he is not as happy as usual.  I feel so bad for him, poor little guy.

We all survived MIL returning to India and then DH traveling there and back in ten days for his brother's wedding.  It is not nearly as bad as I thought it might be on my own.  I was exhausted, but that is just SOP with multiples.

Thankfully we upgraded to convertible car seats before our road trips last week, after he shed too many tears on the previous two, and it solved the problem.  They sleep like angels in them, so clearly I should have moved them sooner even though their seats were rated to 30/30.  I didn't have any trouble selling our old ones and the DSNG, thank goodness.  We got Britax Boulevards which thankfully also fit next to each other in my car, while still leaving a little room for me when DH drives.

The kids are rolling fools, but really love to sit (and stand!), though they still need some help to stay upright.

They are out of all of their six months clothes and on to (and he through) nine, which is crazy...

They seem to enjoy most of what I try to feed them, though they had a hard time with mangoes.  Someone will need tell them at some point that they are half Indian and mangoes are not optional... ;)  We are just trying all the stage one organic foods from Ella's Kitchen, Happy Baby, and Plum to see what they like.  The Dr. told us we should start feeding them twice a day and can even have them try things like yogurt, cottage cheese and water now.

We have moved them each to their own rooms and have moved the extra bed out of his, so they are sleeping on their own and we are back in ours (w/our two monitors). :)

Their hair is growing like mad.  She is all curls, which I'm not sure what to do with, so I just let them loose.  She's has her whole life to tame them.  He still looks like he is vying for the Jim Carrey role in the sequel to Dumb and Dumber (one of my all time faves), though DH is always trying to brush it to the side.  Oh and he also has this noise down pat, so he's got it for sure...

We attempted to take some pics yesterday, with varying levels of success...  He rarely takes his hands out of his mouth and she is tough to get to smile for the camera.  They usually dish up the shot I wanted, the minute I put down my camera.

Giggle fits...

The Nuggets' nursery, part two - the story and pics

I started this post nearly a year ago before the bottom (literally) fell out of our twin pregnancy.  Even though the nursery quickly became a low priority back then, it was past time to get my act together and finally take and post pics of what came of the twins' nursery.  And now it is fortunately very "lived in" and we have already planned to dismantle it and officially separate them when DH returns from India next week.

This room, our "new" twins' nursery (vs. the original one across the hall which is to be Alistair's room), was created from our previous den nook via a new wall and door installed by DH and my dad the first weekend of my bed rest in late August. It ended up being 11' x 10' when finished, which is definitely on the smallish side for two babies and all their stuff, but is slightly larger than our other nursery, though that room already has a closet.  Fortunately this space had everything else it needed: a window, doorway, light switch, outlets, vent, etc. so it was a relatively easy build out via a simple insulated wall and pre-hung door.

We may eventually add/create a closet here, on the shelf wall, as the guest master on the other side of that wall has a 15' closet that could be divided and finished out, but more likely we'll just use an armoire here.  We knew the kids would likely not be sharing this room for very long (he's actually already been banished moved to sleeping in a PNP in the other nursery), so between the two rooms, one closet works fine for now.

DH ended up picking out the specific wall color, once we decided on green.  I wanted something fresh and happy and the color is near the lightest of the three greens in the crib skirt fabric.  Once we went with green (and I ended up on BR), I ended up bagging my idea of making new custom curtains from the Serena & Lily fabric I had and bought some ready made instead.  I'm still deciding whether to use that fabric (a tiny homage to DH's love of horses) for the other nursery or not, which is currently painted cream (specifically Lamb, by MSL for SW) and already has custom curtains (like the rest of the house) that we had made on our honeymoon in India.

Speaking of green, we tried to make the nursery as eco-friendly as feasible (as we have all our house renos), for the obviously reasons (better for babies and the planet), without spending a small fortune.  With non-VOC wall, ceiling and trim paint, bamboo floors and shade, cotton rug and curtains, organic bedding, and the MDF furniture that was from Ikea aired out for years.

I didn't have a theme in mind (or want one) or care for matchy matchy packaged sets, so I when I found the crib skirt fabric I kind of just built the decor around that, highlighting its fun colors and art that I loved.  There did end up, somewhat coincidentally, being a relatively coherent, if varied, color scheme and lot of pops of elephants and monkeys (common for American nurseries, but also very Indian), though I hope I was able to keep them in check to avoid becoming too themey.

I ended up with lots of art for one room, but instead of storing it until they were separated, I thought what the hell, let's hang it all... ;)

Please excuse the poor photography and lack of styling.

So without further ado...

View from the door, facing the new wall: Mari's to the left

I wanted the original art, by my aunt Michelle, to be the focal point of the room, which is one of the reasons why it is arranged this way.  When we picked it from her collection as one of our wedding gifts over five years ago, I knew it would eventually go in our future nursery.

 The room has eastern exposure, so it gets filled with the morning sunshine.  Our enormous windows also made furniture placement decisions for us.

We added breathable bumpers a few months ago, as I was tired of him flinging his now retired pacis out of the crib, but we've left them up since DH is worried the kids will get stuck in the slats, but I miss not being able to see them from across the room.

 The knitted blankets hung over their crib ends were made by their great grandma BB.

All their changing supplies get tucked away in the top drawers of the dresser, along with their most popular outfits, which I am constantly switching out.

The names in wallpaper...

We hung these prints based on their color scheme (elephant for her, monkey for him, lion is on hiatus), but it turned out they really fit their personalities.  She is an old soul and he is our little crazy busy guy.

I didn't think about it at the time, but hello Scottish name spelled out in Scotch plaid letters...

The Virtues... <3

I loved this boy and girl frog fairy sconce so much, I had to get a second one that we put in the other nursery.  Our house has the bizarre (if more flattering) feature of no overhead lighting in any of the bedrooms, but instead the wall switches are connected to an outlet, so we need a lamp/sconce/something to plug in for lighting. (echos of the light green curtain stripes, though again not planned)

These monogrammed onesies I ordered before the kids were born were an epic debacle (wrong size, wrong color, took months to come), but they ended up kind of matching and looking cute under these adorable sweaters my aunt knitted and sent us for the twins that they will grow into in no time.

Since I couldn't sit up to sew, my mom made the crib skirts.  They are simple fabric panels on each side (we skimped and only did four total) tied to the springs with bias tape, so that they can be adjusted to the correct height as we move down the kids' mattresses, as I wanted them to always hang just above the floor, hiding under crib storage.

The sleeping reading corner, though nearly all our books are out in the living and family rooms where we usually read to the kids.  Getting a high backed glider that reclines is honestly one of the best decisions we made for this room.

The future closet would be built along this wall.  Oh that clutter photographs well, no? ;)

 I've had this "S" for ages...

 My mom bought me this collection of Madeline stories when I was a teenager and when I was loading up the bookshelf I discovered it was just the right size to cover the ugly top of this end table.  The colors (greens, yellows, blues, pinks) are also what ended up filling the room.

Sources:
Walls/Windows:
Non-VOC paint: Tenderness by Olympic
Sconce light: Ikea
Curtains: Green ticking lined panels from The Land of Nod
Bamboo roman shade: O.co
Art:
Over dresser: "Flyer on a Hill"-wedding gift from my SoCal artist aunt and uncle,
Over chair: "Enchanted Tales" by Anna Howarth: Ikea,
Over shelf: Shaker Alphabet by Melissa Sweet: Land of Nod,
Wallpaper names and Bonjour Elephant: Land of Nod,
"The Virtues" from Sarah Jane Studio via Etsy,
Hindi Animal prints: My Little Pakora
Fabric S: Anthropologie
Print frames: Target

Furniture/Textiles:
Eames rocker: Hautelook.com
Cribs: Graco Lauren classic convertible cribs in natural
Crib Mattresses: Soy foam dual sided by L.A. Baby
Crib Bedding: custom skirts in Uzbek Jewel fabric,
organic sheets: Boppy (tan pinstripe and star dot white)
Dresser: Ikea Malm four drawer in cream (discontinued color)
Changer/topper: Land of Nod (color matched to dresser)
Changing pad/cover: Organic cocoon changing set by L.A. Baby
Cotton Rug: Staffordshire stripe from Dash and Albert
Glider/Recliner: Jayden by Dutailier/Newco in buckwheat velvet
Blanket: Taj by Rikshaw Design
Ottoman/pouf: John Robshaw
Side table: unfinished (Boston circa 1997), color matched to dresser
Pillow/Lamp/shade: Target
Stuffed Elephant: Melissa & Doug
Book display case: Home Goods

Shelves: Ikea Expedit in birch
Fan: Classic table fan by Hunter
Bali Baskets/peacock market sling: Serena & Lily
Mattelasse frame: Pottery Barn Kids

Oh, the plans we make...

I like to think of myself as a goal oriented person, as many people do, but I think I'm actually more of a planner. And I think of goals and plans as somewhat different things, though they are clearly related. I guess I think of goals as more tangible (things to be achieved/crossed off a list) and plans are experiential (how you want to live). I have a very clear picture of the latter, as that is more important, and build the former from that, which is what makes the plans come to life. Anywho...

We bought our current home six and a half years ago with the plan of moving on within seven, which of course seemed like an eternity back then. But then after the first year when we got engaged and married, our planned one year wait to TTC turned to two (those ducks we wanted to get in a row turned out to be ferrets :/ ), and then it took over three more until we brought live babies home, which I've chronicled ad nauseum here. I also left my job in the meantime, something I never thought I would do, which worked out for us given our situation.

Fortunately, we did plan for this to be our first family home. The location is great, close to everything and super safe, if rather suburban boring. There is enough room for everyone (us, guests, kids), we are three doors down from a good elementary school, there are several nice playgrounds and a pool in our subdivision, etc., etc. I am so thankful now that we weren't among the seeming majority who only after they get pregnant, suddenly realize they quickly need a bigger place to put the baby/ies, as it obviously would have been even more complicated and stressful given our last pregnancy. And likely it would have just added to the nightmare or just wouldn't have happened at all.

But I can't help but feel the itch now as this time comes and goes given our plans, even though obviously the original timing of our family didn't pan out and we now have two infants rather than a pre-schooler and a toddler (not that I'm complaining about that). We've met our initial goal of paying enough extra over time to have six figures down on the principle on our current home in order to have enough for the downpayment on the next one when we do sell (yay us). And it is definitely still a buyer's market, interest rates are insanely low and supposedly headed down even more, and home builders are about as hungry as ever.

But if we sit tight, we can continue to live comfortably on one salary and decide what to do next and where. We could pay off the house in ten years, though I know we'll be long gone by then. I've grown to hate moving (I've done more than my share in 17 yrs.) and I certainly don't feel like I want to right now. The real estate market for sellers is still not great, and we've put in a lot of significant improvements. I'd love to blow out the back of our house enlarging our kitchen and family room, but while there are dozens of McMansions in the newer developments behind our school, in our subdivision our model is the largest, so this doesn't really make sense unless this was our forever house. We hope to finish our remaining planned renovations in enough time to actually enjoy them for awhile before moving on.

So, long story short, our conclusion, for now anyway, is to watch this plan fade with our original family timing that went out the window and stay where we are for now. I will likely go back to work (because I think I want to), giving us more flexibility and direction on where we will end up. And let's be honest, I'm pretty sure I'll actually have more time to deal with this while working than while at home with the kids.

We also need to decide where we want the kids to go to school when the time comes, this will also be a big driver. We've talked about moving back to the city (which DH thinks he wants, since he grew up in a big city), but the cost of private school almost gave him a heart attack (hello $24K kindergarten for each kid- he attended less expensive Catholic schools, I went public) and the city magnet schools admission is by test and lottery (so no guarantee). Or we could join other friends who've made the North Shore home, where we could send the kids to public school.

It should be interesting to see what happens, stay tuned... :)

Changed the name

Of my blog back to the original, which was about the optimism we've always had that we would get here some day some way (if laced with a heavy dose of sarcasm).  It was not at all the journey we planned, but it would be dishonest if I said we don't now have the life we wanted and I always imagined, though I never thought I'd be a (albeit temporary) SAHM.  I'm working on a post on how plans change. 

How have your plans changed?

Happy June!