Thursday, June 7, 2007

Things I want to remember:



N laughing at O’s sticking black olives on his fingers by saying his very first pun:
“Olive! Errrrrrrrr!”

N’s response to a handful of Veggie Booty as I was getting dinner on the table:
“This is a good beginning!” (I think he may have been quoting Omie?)



Last week O took a good look at our clematis, which was in full bloom, and said “Many, many, purple stars!”

I love the conversations they’re beginning to have. They say the darndest things to each other in their cribs after I close the door for the evening and they’re supposed to be sleeping. Their latest game is for one boy to lie on his back and move himself feet-first up the side of the crib as high as possible until his brother can see his feet. Then brother (usually O) yells “I can see your feet!” as loudly as he can, and then both boys giggle hysterically. I am so glad we’ve decided to wait to move them into beds. I think it would be an all night party in there right now, and they need a little maturing before they can manage staying in bed and actually going to sleep in the same room together. Though I’m sure they exist somewhere, I’ve never met a twin parent whose kids share a room that didn’t either wait until as long as possible (using crib tents for safety like we do), or regret not doing so.

Other random things I’ve heard on the monitor lately:

“Daddy is working. He brings his seeds!” (N, talking about J’s trail mix)
“Mama is a biiiiig girl!” (O, who doesn’t know what he’s talking about. Everybody knows I’m a big mama).

Oh, and just now, as I write this, N said, "Mama is very dirty in the backyard!" It's true, I was weeding barefoot while they ran around in the sprinkler, and I got mud all over my legs. Now N is singing "twinkle, twinkle, little bugs!"

Yesterday was our last day of our Wednesday Early Childhood class, and I was sad to see it end. J and I gave the staff a card and a bag of needed items for the Fall class, but it wasn’t nearly enough. The program has been such a help for us this year. The mom’s support has been great for me, the boys have learned skills like learning to sit together in a group for singing, learning to wait their turn (an area in which they had a bit of a head start), to separate to someone other than a family member, all kinds of things. I really hope we get in again next year, but lots that apply don’t win the lottery as there just aren’t enough spaces. I think that a year from this Fall, the boys are really going to love preschool.

When we got home from class, we took a walk around the block. A rather heavyset teen jogged by in very tight jogging shorts, and N said “her bottom wiggles!” Thankfully, she didn’t hear him. It can be interesting having a very verbal little boy with no filter whatsoever…

The boys have been seeing their baby cousin quite a bit, as grandma is taking care of her when Jenn*ifer works and brings her by to visit. N told me this week that “Zo*e is not a grownup. She is a baby animal!” I wonder where he thinks she sleeps at night. Maybe in a dog bed like Ivy, or the basement like Orbit?



Maybe she sleeps in this handy infant car seat.











As you can see, the boys (and Aunt Me*agan) like Zo*e a lot these days. They were a teensy bit jealous at first (actually, N once suggested that Jenni*fer come over without her!). She is a very smiley, happy baby, and we’re lucky enough to see her quite a bit when grandma brings her over.



My mom was over here for a whole week, and had a nice visit.





No*ah waking up from his nap in Omie's lap.



After nap hijinks on the couch.



The boys remember Omie well by now, and really enjoyed their time together. Here she was saying her goodbyes before their naptime on Sunday, reading a book about airplanes and explaining where she was going.



They were a bit somber that afternoon.

The next day, we were in the backyard, and a plane flew over the house. N said “is that Omie?”. O said “nooooooo!”, and N said “she went home to make Opa happy!”.

If you’ve notice that I tend to quote N more than O, it’s because O is not quite as forthcoming with the sentence long funny observations at this point. He’s more likely to chime in with well-timed but less quotable exclamations, but he has plenty to say and lots of words to say it with. So, a little more about my wonderful O: he loves to water “his” plants in the garden, mostly marigolds, nasturtium, lettuce, and herbs.





He knows exactly which ones he may eat and which ones he needs to leave alone, though when I cut some lettuce for supper tonight, he started to cry and asked me to "put it back together". I hadn't thought about what it would seem like to him to just hack away at the plants he's been watering for the last few weeks. He notices all the bird calls, and recognizes the sounds of crows, seagulls, pigeons, cardinals, and sometimes chickadees. He so loves going to the church nursery and to the Early Childhood classes that he gets a disappointed look on his face when I come back,then grabs a favorite toy, and hides. He always has a big smile for me when I find him, but he’s sad to leave. O loves musical instruments, and loves to tap along to the music with pretty decent rhythm. He insists on copying every single thing N does, even if N was just disciplined for it, and at least once every day I say to him “make your own choices, O!” He has a very strong sense of fairness and independence. He has a poetic touch with words sometimes – his first two-word phrase was “sky ball”, describing the moon. A flashlight is a “make-sun”, and a swing is an “up-down”. He is my big hugger, and often requests “eggssa hugs!” (extra hugs).



Wednesday, May 30, 2007

Is it a dog park or a toddler park?

Well, that depends on who you ask. We have a beautiful park near us that allows off-leash dogs and runs along the Mississippi River (also known to N and O as the "Mississippiecup River"). We've taken the boys there in backpacks, but this time we took the jogging stroller and they walked and ran quite a bit of the way.











They got a royal kick out of watching Ivy swim after sticks in the river.



After a couple of hours we took two very dirty, exhausted and happy boys and one dog home for a nap.


This is later the same night:

First we start off with good night hugs.



Then it's into the cribs "all my by-self"!




What, don't you get into bed like that?

By the way, J's surgery went very well yesterday, though he did have a bad reaction to one of the post-anesthesia drugs they gave him. He's doing fine now, and he even went to work this afternoon. Mi*nke's mom is here until Sunday, and we're all having a nice time together. The boys are really enjoying having their Omie with them. Today, N leaned against her leg and said "No*ah's Omie!" Then Oli*ver said, "Oliv*er's Omie!"

Wednesday, May 23, 2007

not quite pushing forty

If you ask N how old he is, he'll usually say "two" and hold up three fingers. If you ask him how old daddy is, he'll say "pushing forty!". I'm not quite there yet myself, and so I get a pass for now, but look what Daddy got Mama for her birthday:

I couldn't have picked out more perfect gift myself, so now I'm feeling a little guilty about teaching the boys to say that...



My, but these boys are little buddies to each other these days. I think we're well past the hardest parts of having twins, and onto really experiencing some of the particular joys of having children that grow up in tandem the way twins do. We certainly aren't exempt from dealing with all the lovely and not-so-lovely two year old behaviors, but they are good together and entertain each other a lot, which helps. Things are SO much easier than last summer, when they'd go in opposite directions all the time, didn't really listen yet, and still had to be lifted in and out of everything. Not only do they not need to be carried much, but most of the time they insist that they want to "do it byself!" anyway. O in particular will sometimes attempt a complete do-over if you insult him by trying to do something for him. Yesterday, I absentmindedly scooped him up and put him in his clip-on dining seat. While I was supervising his brother, he got back out, walked backwards out of the kitchen, walked back over to the seat and climbed in. "Do bySELF!" he said, with a grin. Fine by me - he weighs about 33 pounds.

The boys invent all kinds of games together, much of which I don't even understand.They look out for and support each other, getting concerned for example if one boy gets his snack first.



They eat on the same side of the picnic table, leaving the other side empty.



They paint on the same side of the two-sided easel, leaving the other side blank.





When given the choice of holding each other's hands or a parent's hand, they always choose each other.



They'll play with Playdough for a long time, but only if they're playing together and trading tools back and forth. I've tried to get out the Playdough with each of them alone while the other boy napped on in the past two weeks, and neither boy had much interest even though they love being alone with us sometimes.



They look at bugs together.



They have a friendly hug before heading out for a walk in the rain.



They're not as competative as they used to be (for now, anyway), but they enjoy a good doll stroller race. Although N is always in the lead physically (he's faster), O often shows leadership in other ways, and there isn't a clear "leader and follower" with this pair. O is always the first one up a new slide at playgrounds, and he's a bit braver in new situations in general. On the other hand, N is much chattier with new people and wants to know everyone's name. All day long we hear "Whosatt?" and "Whas datt?" The boys fight some, but not terribly much, and they are clearly disturbed and contrite if they make each other cry.

\



They even take turns sitting on brother and being sat upon.

Twins are wonderful, especially when they're two!

I have a bunch more pictures to catch up on, so I'll post again in the next few days. It's feast or famine around here I guess. We're staying home for Memorial Day weekend, and on Tuesday, my mom comes for almost a week. She's coming because Jo*el is having kidney stone surgery on Tuesday. It's outpatient, but will require some recovery time.

Monday, May 21, 2007

We're expecting!




NO, not another baby, at least not a human baby. We're expecting hens! We just put in a permit application (which needed to be signed by our neighbors) to have 6 backyard chickens. There are a few hundred other families in this city that also have chickens, so we’re not all that unusual for doing this, but we do have to follow the rules.

Why would we do such a thing? Well, there are several reasons.

  • I (Minke) grew up seeing my grandma’s pet chickens when I lived in the Netherlands as a young child. I really enjoyed helping take care of them and eating their eggs. We think No*ah and Olli*e will enjoy it too.
  • Even the best organic farm can’t afford to feed their chickens as well as an individual can on good starter and kitchen scraps. Eggs from home-raised chickens just taste better! They have beautiful orange yolks and are much more flavorful.
  • Chickens eat insects, such as ticks and mosquitoes.
  • Chickens are pretty easy to care for, and not smelly if the coop is kept clean.
  • Compost for the garden! We have 4 raised vegetable beds that need lots of compost every year.
  • Not counting startup costs, it costs about 50 cents a dozen to raise your own backyard organic eggs, about a 2-dollar savings on every dozen. We think we’ll break even in about a year, since we are starting with chicks. This isn’t our primary motivation, but it doesn’t hurt.
  • Full-grown young chickens lay 5-7 eggs a week. If we have 6 hens, that’ll be about 35 eggs a week, hopefully enough to share some with family and neighbors. No mail orders, though!
  • Did you know that most of the food you get from the grocery store travels over a thousand miles to get to you (if you live here in MN, anyway)? We want to bring our food sources a little closer to home, so that not all our food has to use a bunch of fossil fuels to get to us. We also have a vegetable garden, shop at farmer’s markets and try to buy locally at co-ops, and this is just one more way to add to the habit.
  • In some areas of Minn*eapolis and in other cities, chickens have become a fun way for neighbors and their kids to get to know each other. We’d like to welcome neighbors and their kids by to see our chickens and feed them scraps. The boys have lots of little buddies these days, and it’ll be a nice thing to share with them. We might even have the Sunday School class over sometime.

Here’s what we are doing in particular:

  • We will NOT be keeping a rooster. Hens aren’t very noisy, but roosters can be a nuisance and aren’t needed for egg production.
  • In case you’re wondering, we will only be using the chickens as pets and for eggs. If we need to get rid of a hen, we will take it elsewhere to be butchered.
  • The housing setup for the hens will consist of an outdoor “run” and a “hen house” (where the chickens lay eggs and roost at night) inside the garage. (A coop = a run and a hen house)
  • Our “run” will be an enclosed 10x10 dog kennel attached to our garage. The kennel will be within our fenced yard, proving extra protection from possible predators. We are lucky enough to have some granite counter “seconds” in our garage that will make a perfect “concrete floor” when placed upside down on the ground. This will make the run easy to clean thoroughly with a hose. Eventually, we will surround the run with lattice to make it more attractive. You can see the waiting kennel panels below, and that's the garage wall the opening will go into. We'll need to build a roof as well.


  • Our “hen house” will be inside the garage, and accessible from the run through a framed opening from inside the kennel/run. This will make it easy to feed and water the chickens in the winter without standing outside in the cold. The opening will be lockable, and the chickens will be locked up at night. In winter, the hen house will be surrounded by straw bales for insulation.
  • We will probably be getting pullots (hens less than a year old).
  • Our hens will not be allowed out of the coop unsupervised. They may walk (supervised) in our fenced backyard for a short time on occasion while we clean the coop, and in winter, we plan to allow them some time to stretch their legs in the garage when it’s too cold for them to go into the run for long. Chickens are not great flyers (most can get about 3 feet high), and we will be getting standard, non-flying breeds and clipping a few feathers if necessary to be on the safe side.

We recently took a field trip to Nicoll*et Island to visit a flock that is kept there and do a little research.

After about a minute of terror, the boys had great fun feeding the chickens the arugala and spinach scraps we brought them. The boys also enjoyed walking in the wild part of the island.


All the Dutch people who attended our wedding might remember that the Nicolle*t Island In*n where you stayed was on the other side of this island. can you believe that this beauty exists just across the river from downtown? I love this city.

Now that we have to signatures we need, we can get started. We need to put up a section of privacy fence for the neighbors, attach the kennel to the garage, put down the granite floor, make an opening into the garage, build the hen house (out of scrap wood), and then put everything together before making a field trip to the Farm Store to get supplies and a few hens, hopefully by the end of June. Ste*ve is graciously helping us, and he and Kat*hy will get first dibs on extra eggs. Anyone else is welcome to come help – you don’t want to be like the friends of the Little Red Hen, after all...

Wish us luck!

P.S. If that was an inadequate "No*ah and Oli*ver fix", my apologies. I'll have a post up in the next few days with more pictures of the boys.


Wednesday, April 25, 2007

Music Time!

This was taken with my mom's camera a month ago. We have "music time" on a regular basis, and the boys really enjoy it.