Day One of the Specific Carbohydrate Diet

It was hard, and I cheated. I gave the girls a banana in their morning smoothie. Actually the smoothie, made from 24-hour yogurt, isn't listed specifically either, though a cooked yogurt is. And I ate lots of nut muffins throughout the day. Since my symptoms aren't as overt as theirs, I think it's okay. I also ate a bite of zucchini. Who knew it would be so hard not to eat raw veggies? And I gave the girls a super-ripe banana at the zoo. But other than that, it was plain eggs and pureed carrots in homemade chicken stock. They kinda liked it, but I'm pretty sure Nico was a little hungry when she went to bed. She does like her treats! Can I really cook their fruit? I better try; I will make apples for them. It's so hard not to be able just to hand them food! Is this how eating disorders start (using food to placate?). At least there's no tv!

New stuff:

• Last week I noticed a little tiny perfect mole on Lena's left calf. It fascinates me because she hasn't had her leg exposed to the sun. It seems like it was something that was just programmed to appear on her body at a certain time. I wonder what else will appear (and whether her stork's bite will disappear fully).
• Nico is very sensitive to dryness, like her mama. If she wakes at 4.30 or 5 because she can't really breathe through her nose, I can bet the downstairs humidifier is empty, even if the one in the bedroom says the humdity's fine. (Lena gets stuffed up about half the time. Neither likes the saline nose spray.)
• We went to the zoo today for the first time! I didn't bring the stroller, and we were fine. We saw a mama gorilla with her baby--never let the babe go. They way it should be! The girls really liked the birds. They did not want to leave!
• I guess the zoo wore them out because they wanted to be outside this afternoon, but held. I said I couldn't just keep carrying both of them (I'm no gorilla), but we could go in the stroller. I didn't think they'd go for it, but they did. It was awesome. I got a good 30 minute walk, and I got to use muscles I haven't used in a while. I hope we can make it a daily thing again. I forgot how nice walking at an adult pace is.
• I got picked up by another mom finally! Of course now I don't feel like I have an extra second to spare. What a difference there is between 15 and 9 months. Or even 12 months. Now there's so much to do!
  

(Above, the girls pose reluctantly, wanting me to make their favorite ducky quack Old MacDonald.)

Mercury sucks! (And is it still retrograde?)

While I'm freaking out about the mercury in my teeth (watch the presentation!) going into my breastmilk, the lead pipe coming into our house, and the possibility that the girls are exhibiting some spectrum behavior, the girls are steadily becoming even more delightful little kids, fairly oblivious to my strife. I'm trying to relax. I (am trying very hard to) have faith that any problems can and will be healed through nutrition. But what about everybody else's kids?

New girly news:

• Yesterday I went to the health food store ALONE! When I got home, Nico was sleeping next to Daddy. No tears, just sleep. This, my dears, is a FIRST!
• Today I was cleaning the kitchen. I didn't hear any fussing from upstairs. I kept cleaning, enjoying myself(!). When I came upstairs, the girls were in the bed with Daddy reading to them. Lena was asleep. A first for Lena!
• Today I gave them crayons and notebooks. While many crayons are heavily chewed (and I'm praying that non-toxic label is accurate), the girls colored for the first time. I don't think Lena even had a bite!
• They are really talking a lot more. It's an explosion. Is it just their age; is it the diet; is it both?
• We planted some bulbs in the backyard, and they both used their trowels to help. Very cute. And very very dirty.
• Every day around noon this weekend, Daddy would say, "It's only noon? It feels like four. Or six."
  

They're still not digesting everything, and they have a red rash again. Die-off?

Our first conversation

The girls love to discuss literature, it turns out--just like mama. We were reading Spring is Here by Taro Gomi, and Nico kept hitting her head on one page. There was a picture of a boy lying in the grass wearing a blue cap. She was saying hat, even though the text just reads, "The grass grows." (She also likes the hat in the Dr. Seuss ABC book--my childhood fave for the rhythm.) So then Lena got excited about the hat. Then Nico signed that he was sleeping, and Lena agreed. So I asked them if they would like to sleep in a field one day, and Nico very seriously nodded yes. So I said we would. It was our first conversation about art!

Actually, that's not true. We often talk about the painting of me and mom when I was a baby that hangs over our bed. I wonder what they think of it, since it's a mama with just one baby. I wonder if each girl might imagine she's the only one. I hardly ever spend one on one time with them yet. I can't stand to leave the other alone. But sometimes one will be awake and we have some special time, like the time I filled the tv(free) room with bubbles just for Lena. And once I took Nico to the grocery alone. No one stopped to talk to us because we were solo.

New this week:

• They both said 'nana today for banana. For some reason I think that is so cool.
• They love playing with my old silk scarves. I have never worn silk scarves, but I seriously collected them so one day my future girlbabies could play with them.
  
• The girls are eating more and seem to like sitting at the table again. I made a chicken soup with finely diced zucchini and onion instaed of rice (with carrots and celery), and they loved it! Yay!
• The girls can get into our old nursing chair alone. Turned around and there's a babe smiling.
• I bought them whistles. They were blowing them in TJ's Tuesday. Fun fun fun.
• Last Friday I left them with someone other than Chris for the first time since they were two months old (when I left them with Beth to go to the store). It was just 20 minutes so I could pick up my car. I was nervous the whole time. How did it go, Mom?
• They love birds! The way they do the sign is so cute: They stick a finger in their mouths and blow. (You can find how to do it the "right" way here.)
  
• I know there's more, but....
  

Addendum

I forgot to say WHY to avoid xenoestrogens! The contribute to estrogen dominance (in men and women), and of course babies (especially in the womb) are more susceptible to them. Estrogen imbalance contributes to a plethora of problems, including ones like depression and infertility. Hormone imbalance can also contribute to hyperpigmentation, which led me to those expensive facial products in the first place. Of course, good diet is the real cure. (Money saved on unneeded products goes to buying organic!) My skin looks pretty awesome; no breakouts with my first ever pain free period. I know it's a combination of stuff, but I'm enjoying trying to figure out the combination.

Man, now I need to go check my shampoo bottles. More stuff to return to companies. It's a good thing Chris has been so slow to break down those boxes on the porch to recycle!

And still yet more....

Now I am reading by Lee, Hanley, and Hopkins, as recommended by this thread. Sigh. More stuff to get rid of. I switched to the oh-so-aptly-named Obsessively Organic moisturizers by Kiss My Face (to go with the Trader Joe's Dessert Essence Thoroughly Clean Face Wash, partially organic and TJ's mostly organic chapstick). But I was trying to use up my overpriced, chemical-filled face stuff, including Philosophy's The Greatest Mystery daily facial. Sigh--Mercy, if you want it (since you think I'm being excessive), it's yours. But it contains glycol, one of several solvents high in estrogen. Here' s a list of stuff to check your products for from pages 80-81 in the chapter on Xenohormone Hell (great title):

Alcohols (eg, methanol)

Aldehydes (eg, acetaldehyde)

Aliphatic hydrocarbons (eg, n-hexane)

Aromatic hydrocarbons (eg, benzene)

Cyclic hydrocarbons (eg, cyclohexane)

Esters (eg, ethyl acetate)

Ethers (eg, ethyl ether)

Glycols (eg, ethylene glycol)

Halogenated hydrocarbons (egg, carbon tetrachloride, trichlorethylene)

Ketones (egg, acetone, methylethylketone)

Nitrohydrocarbons (ethyl nitrate)

But really, I should just throw the products away, right? Or send them back to the companies with an explanation as to why I won't be using them anymore, asking them to produce organic products instead. It would only cost about $50, less than what I used to spend per product.

Another good thing about twins--no time to paint your nails! I hope I didn't do it much while I was pregnant. I'm really worried about the girls' ability to have babies. So worried I can barely even start to have the feelings. But all I can do is educate myself and them, and we'll see what happens if it ever becomes an issue.

But I've wanted to get rid of plastics since they started reaching for things at 5 months. I've only bough them wooden toys, but I don't want to guess what's in the board books (luckily, they don't chew on them as much anymore). Chris says I'm being ridiculous to get rid of everything plastic; I think we may begin the phase-out. But I just bought more sippies yesterday. Agh. Wooden bowls and tin cups? I wish I could dress them organically. Hanna Andersson has some good stuff. At least pajamas to start.

I lost my last post about the girls--I'll get a photo and info up soon! (Their yeast infection is gone gone gone. I knew it was the sourdough!)

Am I in an X-files episode? Or, junk food must be a vast conspiracy....

Chris is tired of hearing about it, so I blog....

Seriously, why is this information about leaky gut not plastered all over the news? I need to become an activist, but I don't know how. Challenge me to write letters. Tell me what else I can do. Here are some links about how the specific carbohydrate diet can heal a leaky gut (stolen from a post by JaneS on MDC--hope that's cool):

It All Began with A Child:
http://www.breakingtheviciouscycle.i...th_a_child.htm

SCD Overview:
http://www.breakingtheviciouscycle.i.../beginners.htm

Science Behind the Diet:
http://www.breakingtheviciouscycle.i..._the_diet2.htm

Yogurt for Probiotics:
http://www.breakingtheviciouscycle.i...importance.htm

SCD and Allergies:
http://www.breakingtheviciouscycle.i.../allergies.htm

I have become convinced that this is what the girls have. And Chris and me. I think the girls got it through my poor diet, being supplemented so heavily with formula for the first 9.5 weeks, being vaccinated, because I got a flu shot while pregnant, because I have fillings that I've had work on while they've been breastfeeding, and because I fed them food that fed the bad bacteria/yeast in their little bellies. The symptoms are mild--a yeast rash that appears when I feed them too much bread, irritability and mood swings (especially in Lena, who weighs a little less, I believe, because she has more damage, more problems asorbing her food--she took longer to get over her first bout of the rotavirus. They both recovered quickly from the one a few weeks ago, thanks to an improved diet.), and difficulty sleeping.

I have hesitated to admit to myself that these are problems and not personality, if you know what I mean. Labeling them "high needs" helped me deal more gently, but is there such an epidemic of high needs babies in traditional cultures? (And holding the babies all the time, like I generally did--still do--is usually cited as the "cure.") It has taken me months of reading and really considering other people's stories--especially the wise mamas on MDC--to see how profoundly we are affected by what we eat and what we don't eat. And I've had to get over my feelings over guilt (as much as I can) so that I can move past the mistakes I've made and come to a place where we can use nutrition to heal the damage I've done through my ignorance.

On the more mainstream twins boards I used to frequent, mamas were complaining about irritability, neediness, and sleep problems all this time, so I thought it was normal. I guess, unfortunately, it is normal. I believe most Americans are suffering from a leaky gut. I feel fortunate that our case seems so mild--ie, no obvious allergies or autoimmune deficiencies. (I think it's because I've always eaten yogurt and vegetables.)

Come on. Now I've said it out loud. Debate me!

Outside!

Going outside is the coolest new thing. Not like we've never gone outside before, but lately it's been to the car or on the occasional walk (I guess that was back in January). But now "outside" is a whole thing. Yesterday we walked around the corner to another set of twins' house--very cool, though I was warned I had a year of a new level of exhaustion in front of me. (Not too bad--I heard it lasted until they were four--which I guess coincides with school for most people. Today we played outside for an hour. I picked up trash while they walked up and down Bob & Donna's driveway. They did NOT want to go in. It started snowing in the freaky wind about 3 minutes after we got in, which calmed them down some. Will they ever go in the stroller again?

Other new things:

• They are signing more for me to keep reading. They've been signing more for while, but it's always been for something concrete (more banana).
• They both said something awfully close to 'nana today (for banana). They're saying so much stuff, though B words remain a favorite. Lena says, "hop pop," for Hop on Pop. Chris says they say, "Hi everybody," but I don't really hear it.
• They rock with their animals signs. Nico was doing fish today, and I said, "I think you're doing fish, but I'm not sure why." So she got down on her hands and knees and went under the crib/storage area. There was my old nursing pillow, covered in fish. When we look at books, the can find cat, dog, fish, duck, bunny, and mouse (I made up a silly sign for mouse). I also made up a sign for snow today; the way they do it, it looks like they're saying hallelujah. Awesome. Oh, and we saw a real cat today, and they were fascinated. Lena was a little scared because it was coming up and rubbing itself on her.
  
• I started signing the alphabet to them recently. (It occurred to me that kids in daycare and/or who watch tv might hear the song a lot more than these girls, so I want to make sure they have access to it, you know?) Anyway, today I was nursing them on the alphabet mat, and I started singing, and Nico got up and started pointing to the letters on the mat!!! So now I'm spelling out the alphabet with the foam letters for them when I give them a bath (very occasionally). We used to sing the alphabet on the wall in the playroom too, which they liked, but was frustrating for me because I couldn't hold them both and point to the letters the way they like. I really hope they are early readers. I point to the words as I read, and sometimes I'll sound out words. (I guess teaching phonics way back when to ESL students was more beneficial than it seemed. And when I was working on the MA in Education, I had a feeling it was really for my future kids. And as a foundation for the new "school" I will someday found;).)

(Above, Nico and Grandpa D.)

Self-portrait with twins at 15 months

Crying is the most effective mean of communication. Doors are dangerous. The one who is bitten needs extra love. Oo, there’s a car. There’s a car. Miow miow. Cold; it is cold. Stinky; it is stinky. It is good for you: yum-yum. Banana? Banana? Cheese? Aren’t you smart? Aren’t you adorable? Aren’t you a good girl? Aren’t you a big girl? Aren’t you a bunny? Don’t use your teeth. That hurts mama. Give a kiss. Sleepy? Yes, you’re sleepy. Dog. Yes, doggie. Belly button.

I haven't slept through the night...

Sleep is so much better than it was, but I am yet to sleep through the night or sleep in. Sigh. However, here's what it was like:

• In the beginning we had to wake the girls every two hours to feed them. They slept most of the rest of the time, but I couldn't. I was too nervous they'd need me. I was literally delirious. Babies everywhere. Hope I remember that and sleep with the next babe/s.
• Then there was chaos. Months 1 -4 we couldn't go to sleep before about 11. Colic was in full force at week 11 and ended at 4 months and three days (3 months after their due date).
• At four months, Mama figures out how to sleep with the girls attached. Mama gets in bed at 7 and gets up with the girls about 8. She gets up to pee sometimes, to the soundtrack of frantic crying. It took me a month to catch up on sleep.
  
• There was the occasional morning nap where I could put them in their swings. But 5 months, I gave up trying to transfer them and held them through all three of their naps. The laptop has recently mad an appearance. Mama surfs and edits Infinite Intelligence.
• At 6 months I have to get in the bed with them and stay there at 8. (I'd had a month to watch prime time if I wanted; they slept through it). They no longer sleep through me surfing, so naps move from the chair to the bed.
  
• At 7.5 months I can get up for a minute or two at night. But 9 months, I can get up for half an hour about twice a week.
  
• By ten or 11 months, I'm getting up most every evening, baby-free. Still not enough time to do yoga, though. Then the babies learn they can get up too. Which they do, every night, for about a month, starting around their birthday. This prompts me to agree to consider CIO, even though it goes against everything I know. I redo the research and freak out crying in the kitchen one day. I know it is wrong, so we discuss getting a king size organic mattress instead. When will that tax return come? (After we send in our taxes, I'm sure.)
• Bedtimes are relatively easy again (I lie with them for about 20 minutes usually), and we're down to one nap most days, though the time is still fluctuating. The girls go to bed about 7, and sometimes they go as long as two hours without calling out. Sometimes they still break out into tears if I get up for the bathroom, but it's nothing like it used to be.
• Chris wonders when "we" can just lay them down in bed and go about our merry evening. Will it be before they turn two? I'm thinking it might be after we move....
  

(The girls love the freezer. Grandma D caught them pillaging recently....)

Nico says: Stop the direct marketing of formula in Massachusetts!

Click here to help stop the direct marketing of formula to mamas in the hospital.

You've just had a baby (or two); you're tired and overwhelmed; helpful people say, "Oh just give her a bottle." Wouldn't a phone number to a lactation consultant and a book of practical support about breastfeeding be a lot healthier, cheaper, and more comforting? It's a lot easier to look for support in establishing breastfeeding when that little bottle isn't staring you (or your partner) in the face. Breastfeeding is infinitely easier and cheaper in the long run (take it from a mama of twins who had to do both at first).

Plus, the intangible benefits keep adding up every day. Right, girls?


IT IS NOT COOL TO ADVERTISE JUNK FOOD DIRECTLY TO A VULNERABLE MARKET!!!

They are FUN little girls! And thoughts on the pervasiveness of crappy food....

So, all the junk that fills our grocery stores (even Whole Foods)--I know it was started to make money. But it's so ingrained in my head as something to "help the busy housewife," that packaged, fortified, lite, DEAD food is something we should happily and gratefully put in our bodies. It's marketed as healthy, and I spent so much time believing it. It's hard to undo the idea that saturated fats are bad for you. And the conventional wisdom that pastuerization is helpful. And it really robs everyone, especially people who stay at home--this idea that prepared food helps you get through your day. I remember worrying about what I would do when the girls didn't need constant attention (are we there? at moments)--I read about moms gambling, drinking, etc. (geez, I guess that's how Oprah gets many of her guests). The thing about preparing whole foods (at least for me, now, as I get started) is that it is something that I can do at home that takes up a great deal of time in a productive way. I guess I started out looking at it as a hobby, to justify all the time spent. But as it gets a little easier, it feels like something I "should" be doing. I want to tell everyone about it; I want to give Nourishing Traditions as a baby shower gift (and bring meals to the new mama). I feel so freakin' wholesome. I really hope I don't burn out.

My egg-eating, CLO-swilling, healthy girls:

• They love wearing their bunny ears and hats. I hope this hat-loving phase lasts through spring and summer. There is not enough hair there to offer any protection.
  
• Nico likes to scream. Or is it shrieking? I do not respond. Lena has a sort of screech, though it seems more situational.
  
• They still love water bottles and giving raspberries.
• Lena can use the kazoo--or whatever Chris' version is called--has been for a couple weeks.
• They both love cars and wheels. I really need two ofeverything. I thought it was silly at first, but maybe it is unfair to them to expect them to share so early. But hopefully they will be good sharers, because we can't get two of everything. The most coveted toys are in the closet awaiting a partner.
• Nico does dramatic, heart-breaking crying. Then stops on a dime.
• Nico loves Frank Black. They both maintain their excellent dancing skills.
  
• Made my first chicken stock. Note to self: purchase a butcher knife. I managed to cut the neck once. I basically broke it apart. The dogs were very excited.
• Is it that spring is visiting, or is it getting nourished? I feel so good and so positive! Woohoo! (Maybe we're coming out a healing crisis.)
  

New goals--write a line of poetry or do some yoga every night.

They are little girls!

They just aren't babies anymore. What happened? Actually, I think I read about babies "growing up" after an illness on the Vaccinations Forum somewhere. Well, they are healed, and Sunday night at Mare they got their appetites back. They both ate a little salted cod (man, it was good--gotta find a recipe), a little gnocchi, a little scallop, and lots of buttery zucchini. Plus some of my angel hair. I even ate a tiny bite of prosciutto that was in the amuse bouche--and I didn't die! Wow--that turned out to be more about excellent organic food (which I surprised myself by spelling correctly) than my babes.

But they are eating! Lots of egg this morning; their daily banana/homemade yogurt/cod liver oil smoothie; peanut butter on sourdough and on sprouted wheat bread with butter (they LOVE it, and I'm making peanut butter tomorrow); 2 bananas while we were at Trader Joe's (after the Kindermusik class that did NOT meet today--oops); blueberries; and lots of cucumber (and TJ's didn't have any organic ones--wah!). Plus plenty of nursing. Is it a growth spurt, or simply what is now normal? Lots of diapers. Boy, do I want to get them out of those. (Nico has suddenly started HATING having her diapers changed. No rash; I don't know why. Lena used to hate it but seems fine now.)

Our time with Dad and Anita was very good. The girls seem really connected to them--less shy than usual. Is it because they've grown up, or because they can tell that Grandma and Grandpa D really love them? I think this is their 7th trip up from SC since they've been born. Seriously, Nico reached for Anita's hand. And Dad and Lena were communing about something a couple times. It is very interesting for me to watch them really interact with people other than Chris and me. It's like seeing how they interpret how I act with others, but with their own absolutely individual twist. Cliches keep coming true; it is so accurate that I learn more about myself through them. I'm seriously trying to watch my language.

New girly things:

• They asked for their bunny ears again this morning. Grandma D really scored with that idea!
• All the eating!
• Nico's aversion to diaper changes has spread to bathtime. I hope nothing is hurting her. Hmmm.
• Daddy reports that Lena can get the circle piece into her puzzle. Both are very interested in their puzzles.
• Lena's obsession with all things pushable has resulted in the placement of the mini grocery carts in the basement. She pushes and pushes and pushes and can't let go and gets very upset. In fact, yesterday Mercy and I put the girls in the stroller to go to O'Brien's for wine for the awesome pot roast (we had them in Bjorns, but they didn't really fit with their coats)--Lena freaked so I took her out, and she had to push the stroller all the way to the store and back again while I was holding her at the waist. She tried to push mine and Mercy's hands off. She practically collapsed into an early nap when we got home.
• We're having homemade pizza tomorrow. The girls loved the ginger snaps I made today.
  

Here are the girls in the snow a couple weeks ago. Here is part 2 and part 3 of our outing. Bonus: Lena eating yogurt.

I actually got linked to someone else's mamablog. And I like it! The blog, as well as being linked. Chris will help me add more features so I can link to the few sites I have a chance to go to. Maybe I'll meet some more cool mama bloggers. And maybe I'll do a list of 100 things about me that will traumatize my girls in the future.

Currently I'm making stew #2, with mushrooms and onions this time. I'm not using lean beef. It's a big step for me, but I've adapted to butter pretty well. Lena is dancing to No Doubt
on a Daddy mix (Hey Baby Hey Baby Hey); the echoes of colic are fading, fading. (But was is a diet deficiency? I guess we'll see with the next bundle of joy--imaginary edd: December 2008).

OK--more days have passed. It's Saturday morning and we just did some breastfeeding advocacy-type stuff. I donated a pitiful 25 ccs of breastmilk to a study that is researching the effects of lactadherin. It's a cool part of breastmilk that helps reduce the effects of rotavirus in infants. Which is interesting, because they just had a short bout which was much less severe than the bout they had in December when I was dieting (connection to diet or to having had a rotavirus before?). Anyway, reading articles on the mothering Vaccination Forum helped me understand much more. I'm loving that I'm still learning so much stuff, especially without sitting in a classroom. Or writing theses.

But my ever-present worry over milk production has resurfaced. Only 25 ccs? Am I not making much milk? But the girls are getting bigger even though they ate nothing for a couple days this week. But I worry. Maybe they're just subsisting? Stop it, mama; everyone talks about how healthy they are. Let it be.

More new girly stuff:

• Now they can do the opposite nods--Lena has nodded affirmatively a couple times. Nico still prefers a heavy-headed assention, but has shaken her head no, too.
• "Bye-bye boobie" is getting clearer from both girls. And I asked Lena to say bubble the other morning and she did it perfectly--the first time she's actually said what I requested.
• Nico has the concept of pair. She brought me a pair of Uggs the other morning; I thought it was possibly a fluke. But the other day she brought me one of her lipstick-colored Bobux, and I said, "You need two shoes. Where's the other?" And she got it!
• They can identify books, too. They know which is Goodnight Moon.
• They way they sign flower is hilarious!
• Nico is getting a back molar; I can feel it! And Lena is getting the two bottom teeth to the outside of the first two.
• The mall is definitely too much for Lena after an hour. Seriously, it's too much for me after that long too. Screamfest that made Grandma D comment on the ego-effacing nature of raising children. But we had fun walking around with Grandma Dennison and almost buying several things. Today we are heading to the kid-friendly Atrium Mall. There's a play area, plus Pottery Barn Kids and Babystyle, where I've let the girls free to play once before.
  
• They can finally use pull toys! Lena's been pulling around this cute duck from Christine, and Nico's got the telephone that seems so archaic now (a sweet gift from Allyson next door).
• Oh, the sign for more definitelty also means me too. Me too, me too, me too.
  
• These girls love their books. They are trying to mimic some sounds. Dr. Suess rocks. Hop on Pop. But boards books are dangerous in the hands of toddlers. I have a scratch and a bruise on my forehead. But we will win the war against illiteracy!
  

They are adorable, aren't they? I love them!

No time to blog lately. Been cooking and cleaning in preparation for all this week's guests (Grandpa J yesterday and today; Mom and Uncle Mikey tomorrow; Grandpa and Grandma D on Friday).

The girls are so cool:

• They are not baldies anymore. Thy have hair. In fact, Lena's needs to be washed. Is it coincidence or the result of our new, improved diet?
  
• Nico can turn in little circles. Sometimes she spins too much. I remember doing that. It melts me.
  
• Lena said "bubble" perfectly yesterday morning while Nico slept. I filled the TV (free) room with bubbles for her. She said it again today.
• I taught them "bye-bye boobie" by accident. Now they both try to say it all the time. It is hilarious and encourage it. One day I know I'll regret it.
• I made a stew from scratch. It was very good--after we figured out it needed to be thickened (the first night we had beef soup--ah, my patient husband). I'm making another tomorrow for Uncle Mikey's visit.
• We mopped upstairs and downstairs all by ourselves in two days this week. And when I say "we," I mean one in the Bjorn and one on my hip at times. That's gotta be a good workout, right?
• They are signing up a storm! They do butterfly, frog, and the eternal more (which I think means me too as well--as in, I want it).
• Lena can shake her head "no."
• Nico can nod her head "yes."
  
• They have discovered the area under where the TV used to be (which still houses a DVD player and all the stereo cords and speakers). They love to hide there.
• I found a piece of glass in Nico's mouth. Gah. (Unrelated to last night's vomit, I am assured.)
• The girls are sick. But they are mostly very cheerful. Lena threw up Sunday (Chris thought it might be because he was throwing her around). Nico threw up Monday night a few times. Everything she'd eaten since breakfast (a Mommy can tell). Lena then threw up Tuesday on the way to the grocery (I pulled over to see why she was crying, thank goodness); mission aborted. Then Nico threw up last night, and I swear it was blood (looked like the end of a period to me--Chris and Ed said it wasn't blood). She had no other symptoms, so I was talked out of the emergency room. I guess it's just a bug--no fever, but lots of sleep (a least four hours today), diarrhea, and some diaper rash for Lena. I hope it's gone soon.
  
• They are at least 29 inches tall--tall enough for the refridgerator door to hit Lena in the head!
• I got a "real" comment! Woohoo! Thank you! And clearly I, too, am obsessed with NPD and Nourishing Traditions. I will give it to everyone for Christmas if I have not convinced them to buy it for themselves first. I bought 6 containers of raw organic nuts, half of which are soaking to bake right now. (And I made "healthier" chocolate chip cookies for Grandpa J, but the chips have regular sugar, and I swear I have sores in my mouth from them. Bizarre.)
• So much more...maybe I'll have time tomorrow.