Though it’s not news to anyone in the Pacific Northwest, or anyone with a Weather-channel addiction, we’ve been having one of those weird not-a-winter things going on for the last few months.  We’re further North than where I grew up in Michigan, and yet we’ve had NO snow this year.  Well, there were a few flakes, and once we saw about 1/16th of an inch on the ground, but it was gone about 6 seconds later.  Instead it’s been warm and sunny.  The flowering plum trees (or whatever they are) in our subdivision have already bloomed, and our Rhododendrons are done as well.  The tulips are up early, the moss is in full swing, and we’re already a month into the lawn-mowing season.  It’s cool for the boys, as it lets them get out and have a bit more fun than our living room, family room, or partially-converted garage allow.

A few weeks ago we took a short trip Sullivan Park at Silver Lake, the nearest park to our home, and let the boys express their wanderlust for a bit.  The boys carefully examined the play area, before divising a plan, splitting their forces and attempting to conquer both fronts, while leading Katie and I on a merry chase.  We then had a partially successful picnic, before heading home.  Here’re some photos of the day’s festivities.  I’m trying to embed a Picasa web album, so please let me know if this works for you.  (it should be automatically playing as a slide show – if you hold your mouse over the picture, the controls will appear at the bottom – you can pause, restart, go back, or forward – also, in the left hand corner is a little bubble that *should* be green initially, if you click this it will toggle captions off and back on).

Hmmmmm – intrigued by the title? Well, I’ve come up with two great uses for this fantastic cream and I was wondering if anyone out there had any other suggestions.

You see, diaper cream or ointment is a very serious thing. When you first come home from the hospital, you’ll probably use the stuff you got at your baby shower or the freebies you got elsewhere. It may work, it may not work, depending upon the butt you are working with. We first started with good old Desitin – Rapid Relief (because it smells oh SO MUCH BETTER than the original stuff). Not too bad but then Dexter’s butt exploded. Seriously – that kid used to poop an average of 6 times a day. Do you know how raw a butt can get with that type of pooping (if you do, you’re forbidden from commenting)? As red as a boiled lobster raw, with blisters too. It brought tears to Laura, Joel and my eyes. Dexter too – many, many tears. Anyway, Desitin just couldn’t cut it.

So, what’s the next step? You ask your pediatrician and she recommends stuff you can’t find anywhere except for one store and it’s bloody expensive. We bought it, it did a better job of keeping Dexter’s bottom from boiling over but still not great. We also had a doctor suggest using Malox, of all things. Apparently nurses in the pediatric intensive care unit will paint a pained posterior with the stuff, and it balances the pH of the skin and helps keep it from getting worse. But then your sons butt smells minty fresh, and while it helps well enough when the butt is really raw, it’s awkward and not all that helpful on a more regular basis. Then you run out and in a panic, you send your husband out to by diaper cream. In this case, Joel bought a winner. Lansinoh, which is probably better know for it’s nipple cream, makes an incredible diaper rash ointment. OH MY – it works. We have not had a seriously raw butt since. Granted, Dexter has started to poop less too which also helps.

Anyway, for all you moms out there struggling to find something that works, try Lansinoh Diaper Rash Ointment. Fantastic stuff.

Now, what else might I be using this ointment for, you ask? Well, it seems like whenever we get visitors who are willing to watch the boys in the evening so that Joel and I can go out, I catch a cold. Malin’s mom and sister are visiting right now and I’ve been out sick Thursday and Friday from work. Today is not that much better. You’d think I was deliberately sabotaging date nights with Joel but that is not the case. This truly sucks. And, I got Nicholas sick too for which Joel and I paid dearly for last night trying to get him to go back to sleep from midnight to 2am.

For those of you who know me, my nose transforms when I get a cold and I look like Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer. Nothing I’ve tried really saves it from turning raw, red to chapped and pealing. Last night, after changing a poopy diaper, I looked at the Lansinoh ointment and a light bulb went off. If it could help Dexter’s derrière, could it save my nose? So last night, I lathered it on, every time I had to get up. By morning, my red nose was slightly pink! Woohoo!!!! I still feel like crap, but at least I don’t look like death warmed over anymore.

In conclusion, just because something says it’s diaper cream, doesn’t mean it can’t be used for other purposes. -Katie

(You’re welcome for the lack of picture!)

It’s that time of year, when eggs of every shape and size start popping up everywhere.  On March 20th, the SNOMOMs group held their annual easter egg hunt for all their members.  This was Nicholas and Dexter’s first time socializing with a big group of twins, and their first time hunting for eggs.

OK, maybe not their first time.  Joel prepped the boys the day before and the morning off.  He got out their Halloween baskets (you’ve got to have something to put eggs in and we hadn’t bought Easter baskets yet), hid empty plastic eggs, and encouraged the boys to find eggs.   So, by the time the official event started, Nicholas and Dexter were pros.  They picked up eggs and the majority of the time, put them in their baskets.  A few times the eggs were picked up and discarded for being not quite right.  You couldn’t have asked for a more beautiful day in which to find eggs.

The staging area

The rush to find the eggs

Dexter, surrounded by eggs, but more interested in the people aspect of the whole thing

Katie cheats and points an egg out to Nicholas in order to get the ball rolling

Dad said there was an egg around here somewhere…..

Nicky gets his basket in order

And climbs the stairs…..

Hmmmm – is it safe?

Dexter gives up the hunt once he finds the biggest egg around – a rubber BALL!

Driving a car, with my ball – what could be better?

Road trip!

Back in the car – what fun we had. Thanks SNOMOMS!

As parents, we are really clueless at times.  Like when the boys’ ears were all infected and we told them to suck it up, or more recently, when they started to yell at us when we attempted to put their shoes on.  A clued in parent would have realized that feet grow too.  When you see clothes getting too small, the same this is probably happening with shoes.  Can you see where this is headed????

Yes, the boys had started to yell at us when we put on their shoes.  So, I scrounged around in my hand-me-down pile of shoes and grabbed the next 1/2 size up.  I figured I could wait until the SNOMOM (twin mom club) sale in April to buy more shoes (it was early March).  Then one day, we headed to the mall to walk around.  In the back of my mind, I thought, maybe we can stop at the Payless shoe store and see how much new shoes cost.

Well, as soon as we entered the Everett Mall, Nicholas walked hand in hand with his father and off they went.  Dexter decided he wanted to stay in the food court area and would not budge.  It took me at least fifteen minutes before I finally gave up and picked him up to order to find Joel and Nicky.  When we finally caught up to each other, I suggested we head to the shoe store.  There, we measured the boys feet and were shocked at what we found.

NO BLOODY WONDER THEY YELLED AT US.  I had Nicky in shoes, 2 sizes too small.  Dexter was not as bad.  He was wearing shoes 1 1/2 sizes too small.  So, we let them pick out new shoes.  Nicholas chose brown leather shoes which totally match his personality.  He now yells at us when we take off his shoes, he loves them that much.  Dexter tried on brown shoes but as soon as I found the cool gray/black/& red tennis shoes, he was sold.  He told Joel in a very firm voice not to bother with the brown shoes.  He was wearing the cool tennis shoes home.

And that is how we discovered feet grow too.

When Dexter’s legs started to bend towards his chin as he sat in his rear facing car seat, we decided it was probably time to invest in a new carseat so he too, could see where he was going as opposed to looking at where he had been.  Off trooped Joel to Costco, where he picked up the beauty you see below.  Even though this seat is Dexter’s, Nicholas insisted he needed to test it out for his brother.  We wouldn’t have expected the seat to be quite so fun for them, but for 2 hours they couldn’t stop playing with it.

Dexter said – “time’s up, Bro.  It’s my turn.”  to which Nicholas responded “fat chance – make me.”  And Dexter tried to move the mighty Nicholas from his seat.

Joel showed the boys what it would be like to ride through an earthquake.  The boys thought it was the best and Nicholas recreated the event for Dexter.

Then there was the box.  For those of you who have children, you know that the BOX is sometimes BETTER than the toy.  In this case, I cut a peep hole in the back end to see what would happen.  Look – there’s Dexter.

A puppet peeps through the peep hole, much to Nicholas’s delight.

Ohhh – now I have both boys attention.  Quick – close the box.  Where shall we send them?????  Any ideas?

What’ the password?  This is an exclusive club.

Please let me in?  Please………

There comes a time in every boy’s life, when he has to learn to blow his own nose.  Need I say more…..

Nic blows his nose

Dexter’s turn

Katie likes to abandon me.  She might deny it, but actions speak louder than words, and tonight she was off to play Volleyball, while I manned the domestic front.  Usually she leaves at 5 and is back at 7:30 or so, which means she leaves just  before they eat, and gets back just after I’ve finished cleaning up after putting the boys to bed.  Typical.  With the daylight savings time change, the boys are now going to bed after 8, so Katie coincidentally decided to go out with her team for tacos, returning at 8:30, 6 minutes after the last yell from the boys.

And while my mind may be atrophying from excessive exposure to Boeing’s marketing department (or lack of sleep, or both), I can still keep a tally and manage simple sums.  Katie’s playing volleyball, going to the SNOMOMs club, a couple of concerts soon, and a few other odds and ends.  Not every time I watch the boys, of course – that’d be absurd – only the times when I’m watching them while Katie is off gallivanting.  I keep a list.  I track the hours.  I’m banking them.  I figure they earn 12% continuously compounding interest (coincidentally the rate at which I’m losing my hair).  I’m up to 67 hours.  That’s just about enough time for me to take a weekend in Vegas.  I figure by next year I’ll be able to spend a week in Brazil for Carnival.

In the meantime, solo-time with the boys.  Tonight I plunked them in the bath for a while.  They wouldn’t leave the tub.  I turned on a trickle of water, and Nic spent at least 30 minutes standing at the faucet, holding a small travel-sized bottle of Pantene conditioner under the water flow.  That’s it.  He just stood their.  I’d splash water on him, he’d turn and laugh, then return to rinsing the bottle.  Kids are weird.

Which brings me to another question – how do we know for sure what’s normal and what is truly weird with our kids?  I mean, is snorting your sippy cup normal?  Is it normal that they choke after almost every single time the drink from their sippy cups?  That Nicholas refuses to stop brushing his teeth?  That they pet each other?  That Nicholas keeps running up to Dexter, poking him and yelling “Boh!”?  That Dexter will only color with brown crayons?

Just curious…

-Joel

Tonight had one of those moments that made us desperately disappointed that we didn’t have a video camera nearby.  We were sitting on the couch in the family room, reading the boys their good-night stories, when Dexter got a bit hungry.  We’re running low on sleepers big enough to fit the boys, particularly the ones with feet.  So tonight the boys had to wear sleepers without feet.

This isn’t exactly the sort of news that would be worthing of documenting, but as I mentioned, Dexter got a bit hungry.  He was sitting on my lap, losing interest in the investigation of who stole the cookie from the cookie jar, when he noticed his feet.  He started poking them, but then grabbed his right foot and started trying to get it in his mouth.  He spent the next 5 minutes grabbing his foot, putting his big toe up to his mouth, licking it toes, and cracking up with hysterical laughter.  Seriously – 5 minutes straight.  He mixed it up a bit and grabbed the left one every so often, but he must have had a serious hankering for toddler-toes.

Earlier this afternoon the boys were pestering Katie while she was trying to clean up under Nic’s high chair, so I grabbed two extra wash clothes and handed them to the boys.  They spent the next 10 minutes cleaning everything they could find, the floor, the cabinets, their chairs, the windows, their faces, and their brothers.  Kids are weird.

About a week ago, Dexter showcased a new walk.  We were all quite surprised by it because none of us had demonstrated it to him before and we have absolutely no idea where he picked it up.  Since then, it has also been adopted by Sir Nicholas too.  Dexter takes on the persona of an admiral of a ship, walking the deck before a big battle, or a physics professor, contemplating Newton’s third law, or a college student wondering about existentialism and what it all means.  I’ll leave it up to you to decide what you think he’s thinking when he walks this way……  (and let me know, I’m curious)

By the way, I just captured the tail end of the march.  This was the third and final circle around the house, with Dexter in the lead, followed by Joel, and Nicholas aptly bringing up the rear.  Enjoy!  It’s one of my all time favorites.

Hurrah!  Hurrah!

This is another set of picture from far too long ago (you can see just how long ago when you notice that Don is in one of the photos, and they left on January 7th), that I always meant to post but for some reason didn’t quite find the time.  I’m also *slightly* embarassed as they were taken with the nice new G1 camera, but before I had any clue what I was doing with it.  The result was sadly under-exposed images.  It’s bloody tricky figuring out the manual controls of a camera.  Whenever I try and cheat and set the thing to Auto mode, the pictures are horrible.  First, the flash appears to be be a small nova, causing enormous and unsightly shadows of the boys, and yet somehow managing to underexpose the background.  But worse, the auto mode uses face detection, and whenever it detects a face, it switches to Portrait mode.  Portrait mode is all well and good for adults, but not all that helpful for children – they don’t sit still.  I have perfectly acceptable photos of adults at speeds as slow as 1/15th of a second, but anything slower than 1/60th of a second for the boys results in an obnoxious blur.  To top it off, the kit lens is all too slow, with a max f/stop of only 3.5.  A slow lens, with a need for high shutter speeds, and ISO performance that’s only really useable up to 800 (or 1600 if I never want to print them), and there’s no winning.  The nice flash that Marilyn bought me at Christmas helps enormously, as I can bounce it off the ceiling and avoid most of the flash problems.  The other solution would be a decent fast prime, but I haven’t been able to convince Katie that I should go and spend $300 on a new lens yet.  <sigh>

Oh, right, children.  I almost forgot…  Apparently we have two of them.  One’s a bit smaller, but reckless and uninhibited.  The other loves to be naked.  During our nighttime routine, we give the boys 15 minutes of “naked time”, which is really “nearly” naked time, as they’re legally required to retain their diapers at all times, lest we have a repeat of Nicholas’ gleeful jumping-in-the-poop incident.  The boys will be absolute buggers when we get home (starting to wonder if they aren’t angry at us for leaving them – at least Nicholas seems to be, anyway), and usually not all that eager for their dinner.  When we eat, they beg, or scream.  Then we strip them, and the world is suddenly a wonderful place, with merriment and hilarity in equal measure.  Our day starts with the quiet cuddle, holding the boys after we’ve gotten them out of their cribs, but before they’re ready to play.  It ends with squeals of manic delight, and an exhilirating foray into exhibitionism.