Two of my favorites come together

Costco has announced it is going to start carrying some Honest Company products.  Yay!!  First up, huge sized bottles of their shampoo and body wash, which our whole family now uses.  I haven't been to the store to see if they are in yet or how much they are, but if you have, let me know! 

Have you checked out their new products?  We love their swim diapers, now out in new designs which I had to have, though I had already gotten their old ones, which I loved too. 

Speaking of new designs, they mix up their diaper designs every once in awhile, we are loving their new strawberries and hippos.  They sent me their new lip balm for Mother's Day and it is nice.  I am trying their new sunscreen as soon as it warms up again enough that we can head to the pool and beach.

Happy June!


(I've received no compensation , including free products, from Honest for my posts on them, I/we just love their products.)

The baby names we didn't choose

Since our family is complete, I figured it's safe to finally put out there some of the names we didn't choose for our kids...

If we'd had another girl...
I love the name Genevieve (Francophile much?) and since I have a sister (unabashedly my fave) named Jennifer, it would have been kind of an homage.

And even though it seems ubiquitous now, my great grandmother's (and mother to my namesake great aunt Catherine) name was Grace, which I've always loved, though she was gone before I came along. We actually had a running fight between my sisters and I growing up as to who would have a daughter first and name her Grace. When my elder sister married when I was 17 (and she was 21), we figured she'd win. But then that didn't work out, and when she married again, it was her married name, so she was out and I was back in the running. Then my younger sister got married at 23, and she was in it, but then that didn't work out, and she is now happily unmarried, cohabitating, with no plans for kids. By the time I got married and was expecting a daughter (a million years later), we went a different direction, so ironically there will be no little Grace in our family after all.

We would have called Genevieve Grace, "Gigi", which is what my really cool (step) great grandmother (GG) went by to us, though her real name was Edith. She lived to be a very feisty 100, long enough to meet DH, before passing suddenly a few months after our wedding.

If we'd had another boy...
There are several boy names I like, though I think we would have needed a decent amount of time to agree on a second pair. Charles (Charlie/Chase) is another family name of mine and I've always adored Samuel (Sam), though DH would never have agreed to giving his son an alliterative name like he has, which is why Surya (Hindi for sun) also didn't make the first cut. Indian names are another post entirely...

I think names are so interesting... I love classic names, but even with classic given names both the kids and I (before and after marriage) are the only ones that have our full names, since our last names are not common. And for you history buffs the SSA has compiled a best of the century list. Did your name make the cut? If you count all the spellings/forms for mine, it actually comes in #2 (just ahead of my mom's). My dad is also #2 (#1 counting other forms) and my sisters (Jennifer, Emily and Sara) made it high on the list too.

Three birthdays and a farm visit

Hope you had a nice Memorial Day weekend, we had a very busy one. Not to be a blog whiner, but since we all came home sick with whatever plague my nieces and nephews are dealing in, I'm longing for a long weekend as a respite from my long weekend, since we are all in much worse shape than when we left.

We made the trek up to visit my family (600 miles round trip, in 2 1/2 days), since it was my grandma's 91st birthday and my mom and BIL's shared one too, we thought it would be nice to go for a visit since we hadn't been up since Thanksgiving. My younger sister flew in from Brooklyn and we visited with my dad too, both of whom had birthdays earlier in May. It was nice to see everyone, but honestly it was such a quick trip, save everyone's delight in seeing the kids, it is hard to not kind of wish we'd just stayed home.  I think the definition of chaos may actually be six kids under six spending the day in one house, some of them already sick, and our kids don't really sleep well there.  No good deed goes unpunished...

My grandma w/the twins...

My dad and step mom have what I guess you could call a hobby farm.  They both had careers, from which they are now both retired, but have for the last 30 years had their self sustaining (off the grid) homestead just outside of town where they raise all their own produce and meat and my dad farms their acreage for the animals' feed.

They've moved on from horses and now have a pet alpaca (below) and llama (not pictured), here with the annual meat cow...

Their brand new little piggie

(which will be their annual supply of bacon/chops)

My step-mom has goats, and we just missed seeing the new baby goats being born.  They are just about the cutest things.  When we were younger we actually used to dress them up, which sounds so terrible now. 

 Nice photo bomb buddy.

We gathered some eggs and looked for kittens in the barn.  They have a collie "Lassie" dog named Kai...

Mari guarding the hoop house and Alistair loving the animals on their first trip to the farm.

                                    

My mom w/the twins



Small world

I've written before about my old friend Michelle who was my first year (don't call them freshmen ;) ) roommate in college. A few years ago, she wrote a book about becoming a doctor and a mom after keeping a blog for over a decade, and since she's uber talented drawing comics for a decade before that. Since her book tour, she has a speaker's rep and is giving her first commencement address this weekend. Cool, right? Well, of all places it is at my father's alma mater near where my parents grew up in Ohio (post 'nam, he'd attended Iowa State out of HS). This is really funny given our history.

A quick recap... She is from Manhattan, born and raised. Her parents are both physicians, and immigrants from China. Her father came to the U.S. to go to college and where did he happen to start out but the UW in my hometown, living with a family a few blocks from where I grew up (in a not so big city in Wisconsin). He went on to finish undergrad at Madison, and med school in NYC (where he met her mom and had her and her two younger sisters).

When we got paired as roommates (in what was actually a Sr. single itty bitty dorm room) it was a year they didn't use whatever fancy system they usually do to pair people (it was broken or it was an experiment or something, I don't remember which). I remember from when we first talked on the phone over the summer before we met, we and both our families got a kick out of the fact that given our different backgrounds (beyond NYC and small town WI, I went to PS and my parents barely finished college and she went to Hunter and her family had not one, but two apts. on Park Ave.) we had this random tie going back decades and something in commom besides being general overachievers.

After college, she returned to NY to go to Columbia (where my step sister was by then an undergrad) where she met her husband (a white guy from OH) in med school. They now live in Atlanta where they practice and are raising their three kids. Her youngest and only daughter, Nina, is just younger than the twins, so I figure we might just assume that she and Mari may end up coincidentally paired together at Whatever U. in 2030...

Have you ever met people far from home with whom you have something random in common?

17 months old

Well, hello there almost 1 1/2 year old babies toddlers...

I caught them in her wardrobe, which was plenty cute, though it now has a latch (sorry kiddos) 

Enjoying the spring weather, finally... 

Everyone is doing well. Alistair is finally pulling up a lot more and really cruising, though he will likely set some sort of new record for late walking, whenever that ends up happening. We'll obviously be discussing it more next month at the pedi. He struggled with getting straight upright for awhile, which made me wonder if he did have something wrong with his hips from being breech that they didn't catch, but thankfully he's made a lot of progress lately.

So proud of himself (and we are too buddy)

I was reading that walking actually has a lot to do with temperament, which makes me wonder why she wasn't walking earlier than 15 months and if he ever will, since she's unbelievable curious and bossy, like her mom, and he is crazy chill, like his dad. He is 25 lbs. of huge (while she's actually down from all her running around) and my arms are barely functional at this point, so here's hoping he gets to walking from cruising faster than his sister did.

She is all over the place and into everything, as is to be expected.  She's also fiercely independent, which is also normal for little girls.  I've really noticed lately that they both really know exactly what is going on around them. They usually listen to me, though they get a kick out of laughing at me when I need to discipline them, which is kind of funny and cute and obviously not so great at the same time. They will bring me things when I mention them, or even when I don't if they know that is what we need. They still only have a handful of real words each, though they are both very verbal, and when we say things they point to them.

She's in love with dandelions (thank goodness we don't treat our backyard), though their season is waning so we'll have to find some substitute to pick and carry around when they are gone. He loves to swing at the park, while she is not a fan.

We've wrapped up our swimming session, which went really well. They loved it and are much more comfortable in the water now. The library toddler time also finished up, though there will be new activities for summer. It is crazy to think it is almost Memorial Day, we'll be heading up north to see the fam as most have May birthdays and we're celebrating my mom (and dad's) 65th and my g-ma's 91st.  The weather has just really gotten nice the last few weeks. I think it rained every day in April, but now we are getting out mostly every day to the park, running errands, and really putting our new patio to good use.

We got a new pool, which was rated for 2+, but it already seems a bit small.

We also got a new playgym (with a sandbox) for 1.5+, which is also a little crowded for two.

So I'm wondering what the equation for determining what age toy will be best accommodating for two toddlers...  They don't seem to mind too much, they are always on top of each other anyway.

The big pools around us are opening soon.  Yay! We went into the city on Saturday to go to the Green City Market and the LP zoo, which was really fun. Mari got to get really close to this monkey, she was so excited.

I also only just now somehow discovered that the MCA (where DH and I had our first date nearly nine years ago) has stroller days one Wednesday every month, so we'll likely be heading in for that and lunch at Puck's.

Unfortunately, we had to make our first trip to the ER several weeks ago, when Mari, who was struggling with what seemed like allergies (but ended up being a cold) for ten days, out of nowhere got hivey on her face and seemed to be having trouble breathing. They gave her benadryl and the splotches subsided (which made me feel kind of stupid) though I wasn't taking any chances on her breathing. Though there is a hospital very close, it was not a fun drive. This was after her medicine kicked in, poor thing...  Rough Sunday morning for all of us.

But our Mother's Day was fun and low key. We got spiffed up and had brunch/lunch at the club.

She loves to wave, even when she is coming with us.

I told DH not to get me anything, since I still haven't even gotten around to using my Christmas gift (a day at the Pen spa) and last year he got me a lovely diamond infinity necklace, but obviously I don't really wear it seeing as I'm home with two grabby kids all day (the chain nearly broke once when I wore it out with them). I'm even harder to shop for now, if that is possible, plus I've gotten to a point where the last thing I want is more stuff, I'm enjoying saving more than ever now.

Things are still in a holding pattern with work, which is fine.  I alternate between wanting to go back, just wanting a little break, and swimming in the kids' deliciousness unabashedly disregarding any need for a life of my own at this point.  It has now been 25 months since I've "worked" at all, besides my life as a domestic, which is wild.  I've found an amazing place, The Goddard School, which will likely be where they will go, when I do go back.  They love each other, but I think they will really benefit from spending more time with other kids and caregivers.

Lots going on, I may someday even get it together enough to do a post on our gardening.  Stay tuned...

Everyone has a story

While I already sadly have cancer on my mind as we mourn my dear aunt, in light of Angelina Jolie's Op-ed in the NY Times regarding her decision to have a prophylactic breast (and at a later date ovarian) removal after learning she had the BRCA1 "cancer gene", the Times is revisiting their Pulitzer Prize winning story from 2007 about other women who've undergone this procedure.

The woman featured in the "Previvor" story, Dr. Deborah Lindner (the original story and her recent video update) was the OB/GYN who I met/saw the day of our anatomy scan as part of our rotation, when we found out we were on our way to losing the twins, and she told me there wasn't much they could do for me/them/us.  My regular OB (Dr. Levin) was unfortunately on vacation late that August and ironically the one in the practice of eight who ended up delivering the babies in Dec. (fellow twin mom, Dr. Kamel) was one I had never met before the day they were born.  

Anywho, upon promptly securing an MFM, the rest of the practice was very supportive of us and our desire to try to save our babies (though it later took half the practice to remove my cerclage).  I didn't write that much about all the details of what happened at the time, it was just too painful and difficult and I had already switched into crisis mode.

While it crossed my mind at the time, I have no way of knowing whether Dr. Lindner's prompt departure from the practice after our episode with her had anything to do with our case or not.  She now apparently works at a vein clinic in the city (and is a brunette).  If she left voluntarily, I can only guess it was likely due to her young family, which she's had since her surgery, as the scheduling demands of being an OB/GYN are rigorous, unless you can opt out of deliveries (like my old gyne had by the time we got around to TTC).

Of course the irony is not lost on me that a physician who is so proactive about her own health would be so nonchalant about that of her patient. But if my medical experiences of the last several years has taught me anything it is that while medicine is amazing, it and doctors are fallible and in the end you have to be your own advocate and not take one opinion without seeking others.

We love you Laura

My aunt Laura passed away earlier this week. She was a young fifty-five, always so sweet and cool and chic.  I idolized her when I was a kid, probably because she didn't have any reason not to be sunny, unlike my divorced working mom of four.  She had breast cancer that we'd thought she'd beaten, but then it came back and had spread to the muscles around her heart, and even all her fight and the best care in the world couldn't beat it. She and my uncle (my father's next younger brother) were married 30 years and lived in Palm Beach Gardens, after first meeting in Chicago.  They were quite a couple...  She the sorority girl turned travel agent (remember those?) turned SAHM and teacher.  My uncle the golf pro/model turned small business owner.  When I was a kid, we'd often make the long drive from WI down to visit them (usually in the hot hot summer).

She was the first person I knew to do IVF (in the late 80s, for secondary infertility after having a son promptly after they were married and waiting years for another child), though it didn't work and she subsequently got pg on her own w/her daughter (who just turned 21). She was also the first person I knew to build her dream house, which we got to witness (it was the summer my sister Em spent with them, so of course she did the same a decade later).

When I was dating a guy who lived in Miami (in college and just after), I would always drive up to visit them when I was in their neck of the woods. It was on one of these trips, about a decade ago, that I saw her last. I guess I had a bit of a falling out with my uncle, who is as terribly opinionated as I am though he is also a rabid Republican and racist and has a thing for grudges, and we just kind of fell out of regular touch.  My family is weird like that, which is sad.  I'd heard through the grape vine last year that she was sick again, but hadn't been able to get down to see her.  They weren't able to travel up to my grandma's big 90th party last May.  She, thankfully, made it long enough to see her son have one of his own, the same week the twins were born. 

With Mother's Day this weekend, which is already know as "Thanksgiving Day in May" at our house, we'll be thinking of her, remembering the good times and just how lucky we are to have our health and our family.