Perhaps its worth mentioning that our little buggers have just recently turned TWO YEARS OLD!  My god how time flies – in retrospect anyway (the individual days feel pretty damned long most of the time).  Two years ago we were living in abject terror, watching these two little kiddos fight for life, while Katie was in hell from the pre-eclampysia medications.  A year ago we were just starting to break quarantine, and the boys had their public debut with some of their many fans.  And this year, we’re just desperately trying to keep up.

We kicked off the festivities last Saturday with a big birthday party / play date.  We invited most of the boys playmates over for a couple of hours of general mayhem.  The weather broke just in the nick of time, so we spent some time playing inside, and then another hour running around in our backyard.  Its amazing how much noise 25 some odd people can make, including 12 children.  It did make one thing abundantly clear to us, though – if we have 12 children, we’re going to have to think long and hard about finding a bigger house.  The boys did a great job, even though we had people here even before they woke up from their naps.  They clung to Mommy for a little while, but then got into the swing of things and started tearing it up.

By Monday the boys had started to develop colds, which is bloody typical.  Tuesday there were both much worse, so I ended up staying home with them on Wednesday (coincidentally their birthday), taking Dex in for a Dr. Apt, and finding that he had yet another sinus infection.  More antibiotics, nose drops, and sleeping in a car seat.  To celebrate their infection (or birthday), we had some of Katie’s family over for dinner.  And after a quick meal, the boys settled in to opening their presents, which they’ve gotten very, very good at.  Perhaps too good.  The presents now need to be markedly elevated if you want to have a chance of the boys waiting for you to be there for the unveiling.

And after they finally finished and went to bed, we conscripted the middle generation of Katie’s family (i.e., her generation) into moving all of our furniture out to the garage.  It’s amazing how quick that can go when you have 5 people helping you.  By 8pm our house was empty.  The next morning, we got new carpet.  YAY!!!  We’ve been debating that for years – knowing that our carpet was entirely worn out, but thinking that if we got it now the boys would spill on it (or pee, poop, vomit, etc.)  But then if not the boys, it’ll be the inevitable dog.  Or something like that, to the point that if we’re going to wait until the carpet will be respect, we’ll have to wait until the boys are off to college, and even then only if we prevent them from visiting.  So now the boys can play on the floor without bruising their knees (okay, okay – so now I can play on the floor without hurting my knees).  In fact, Dexter today fell over backwards (did I say “fell”?  To be entirely honest, he was pushed, though I swear unintentionally), smacked his head on the carpeted floor, and started laughing.  Success!  There’s no limit to the child abuse possible now!!!  Oh, wait, that didn’t come out right…

And on Sunday we’re taking the boys down to Vancouver, WA to visit with Aunt Joanie, and see cousins Caetano and Felix for a few hours of play.  Wish us luck on the 3 hour+ drive.

And with that trip done, the 8-day birthday extravaganza will be complete!

If there’s one thing we’re absolutely certain of, it’s that the boys don’t have enough toys.  I mean, their toys have filled the family room, dining room, living room, part of the kitchen, the back yard, the entire garage, and the garage attic – which is an obvious indication of our indifference to their happiness.  We’ve been very lucky to have friends with older children, and have had a lot of hand-me-downs passed our way.  Many of those toys are still too old for our boys, so they’re boxed and patiently awaiting their return to the active roster.  It makes life a bit easier, since we can just go grab a new toy periodically.

The bad-parenting-mafia could certainly question the endless stream of toys.  And for that matter, it makes birthdays a little odd – the boys don’t really understand ownership or gifts yet, so the idea of saying “wait for your birthday” seems a bit premature.  Especially (and most importantly), when there’s a new toy that I REALLY WANT THEM TO HAVE (i.e., a toy that I really want to play with).  You have to balance this with the fact that the boys have day-care at our house, and we already change out the furniture at very close to the maximum allowable rate (i.e., any more frequently and Katie might divorce me).  We try to take the boys out of the house as much as possible, but at the end of the day we’re trying to keep them stimulated and happy, so more stuff it is.  We’re trying hard to avoid gratuitous toys – not just more toys for the sake of toys.  No, that’s Daddy’s prerogative - more electronics for the sake of electronics.  We’re trying to get them toys that encourage new activities, or imaginative play.  So we like new games to play, books to read together, outdoor activities that get us running, art & craft supplies., etc.

With how often the boys have been hoping up on their chairs to help us cook, we thought “what a perfect time to get the boys a play kitchen.”  When Grandma Crick and Grandpa Don called a couple of weeks ago asking for suggestions, the play kitchen was number one on our list.  We looked through hundreds online, but finally found one that looked perfect.  It had lots of buttons and took lots of batteries.  It didn’t look godawful.  It fit the space we had for it.  And its design would work well for 2-3 kids playing at it, as opposed to just Nicky standing in the middle and Dexter on the sidelines looking forlorn.

The box arrived last Thursday – we assembled it last night, and unveiled it this morning.

Fits perfectly under the TV, doesn’t it?  And it keeps them playing within sight of Katie cooking in the kitchen.

We probably ought to have waited for their birthday, but setting it up last night meant 1) an opportunity to swear at the minimally acceptable level during assembly as the boys were safely and innocently sleeping, and 2) we got to watch them play with it on Sunday, instead of leaving Malin to that pleasure on Thursday morning.   Maybe we should have kept going with the chairs-at-the-kitchen-counter approach, but see Paragraph 2 for my pre-emption of this intellectually vapid consideration.  Also, it makes it hard to prep meals when the boys have occupied half the counter tops.

This morning the boys awoke to discover the kitchen, and 3 hours of non-stop cooking ensued.

They’re still learning all the ins-and-outs, but so far no animals have been put in the microwave, no one has gotten burned, and no one’s been knocked unconscious with a frying pan.  Here’s a quick video of their early-morning play:

From Movies

The little chefs

Oh, and Katie had it completely wrong – no, it isn’t her kitchen, but she still had to clean it up once the boys ran off, and 33 utensils and accessories littered the family room.

Nicky has been saying “no” a lot lately – not in an irritating terrible-two kind of way – just a boy who is finally able to say, “no, in fact, I do not want to eat pureed beans – I thought I made that clear when I threw them on the floor.” Or, when I’m messing with him, and he’s all done, or doesn’t want me to do something, he’ll tell me. It’s really nice, actually, for him to be able to express his limits short of screaming.

Just a couple of minutes ago Katie and I were finishing putting together a toy in the living room, when Nicholas started making some noise up stairs where he was sleeping. He kicked a few times, whimpered, cried out once, and then, heartbreakingly, said “no, no, no…” It was such a pathetic sound – a please stop kind of sound…

I love that kid.

With a title like that, you may be wondering where this post is going.  Well, let me set the stage….

This weekend, we are throwing a Happy #2 Birthday party / glorified play date for the boys.  I asked Joel to make cookies for the occasion.   Did you know that changing one ingredient (butter to margarine) can cause weird affects in cookies?  Thus, the cookies spilled over into the oven and eventually ended up in the garbage can (Joel’s decision, not mine).

My smart idea was to set the oven to “Clean” mode and head upstairs to go to bed.  Normally, when we “clean” the oven, there is a burnt smell that permeates the house.  So, as I got ready for bed, I thought nothing of the smell of smoke wafting up to our bedroom.  But as I climbed into bed, the smell grew stronger.  I was about to turn to Joel and say, “maybe we should go check out the oven before the smoke detector goes off” when, you guessed it, ALL the smoke detectors, of which there are 5 upstairs and two downstairs, started to scream with a fury.

Joel and I leaped from the bed and struggled to get into our robes quick enough.  He ran down the stairs and I headed straight for the boys’ room.  Unbelievably, the smoke detectors seemed to shriek louder.  The boys slept on, blissfully unaware of the chaos going on.  I grabbed Nicky first and then walked to Dexter’s crib.  “Dexter, Dexter – get up.”  No movement.  I grabbed  his arm.  No movement.  Seriously.  I lifted him with one arm, by one arm and clasped both boys to my chest.  I hurried down the stairs and out the front door.  Joel shouts to me “Katie, go to the garage – there is no fire” and then he proceeded to dismantle the smoke detector downstairs.  The beeping ended.

Malin appeared and wondered what was going on.  In a sleep filled haze, she had thought that she had set off the smoke detector in her room.  That’s when Joel informed her that our system is networked and when one smoke detector goes off, they all do.  Funny, I didn’t know that either.

We put the boys to bed and spent 30 minutes attempting to air out the house.  The next morning I looked in the oven because there was no way that much smoke was normal.  Oops – I had left the silicon oven rack protector’s that Joel had bought me to prevent me from burning myself, in the oven when I set it to clean.  They were charred to a crisp.

My parting thought to Joel on this adventure was, hey, at least we know the batteries are still good in all the smoke detectors. 

Ah – the blackmail photo.  It started off innocently enough with me asking for a kiss from Nicholas.  It ended with a surprising show of brotherly affection from Nicholas towards Dexter – which may be the reason why Dexter looks a little uncomfortable here.  Usually he’s the one giving too much love.  It was so cute to see.

There were a couple good hugs given too.  Hope these pictures brought a smile to your face and brightened your day.

One evening, as I was struggling to make dinner when all the boys wanted to do was play with me, I came up with an idea – let’s cook together.   Now, each evening when I get home, the boys, of their own volition, pull the chairs up to the cooking peninsula, and we all cook together.  They know how to crack their plastic eggs, add spices, mash metal together, and stir up a storm.  Just look at my budding chefs.  One day, these two little guys are going to make me dinner. 

Dexter did eventually discover that it was easier to mash in the pot than on the lid of the pot.

Nicholas shows him how it’s done.

Nicky’s caught in the act of stirring the sauce.  Dexter is manning the lid.

Teamwork – it is a glorious thing when it works. 

It was Sweden vs. Australia in the great ball match.  Nicholas, on team Australia, looked comfortable, waiting for more balls to arrive.  Dexter, for team Sweden, looked a little unsteady, but recovered nicely.

And then the balls arrived.  One bag of 250 balls shot through the top hoop and it was chaos.

Another 100 balls followed.  I think team Sweden got bonked by more balls standing right beneath the drop zone.  It’s your call whether the match goes to Sweden or Australia.  They have so much fun in that ball pit. 

Thank you Helen, Malin and Petra.

For Laura – I bet your heart is just bursting right now.  Your little footie player.  Such the bruiser.

Ahhh – May 9th – Mother’s Day in America and Malin’s day everywhere.  This year I shared a celebration with our au pair Malin, who turned 20 years old.  And like a typical 20 yr old, she couldn’t even wait for us to be home when she opened her presents, but I digress. 

I have the best husband in the world.  My first present was the ability to sleep in (until 6:45am).  My second present was fantastic home-made waffles made by chef Joel and line cooks Nicholas and Dexter.  They then presented me with my official gifts – Nicholas purchased a gift certificate to a local nail salon (he said he wanted to go with me, but that might lead to future problems), Dexter has lots of energy and wants to do some fun activities with me and so bought me a book entitled “Unplugged Play – no batteries, no plugs, pure fun – 710 games and activities for ages 12 months to 10 years”.  Of course, I just opened it and turned to a page with a sample itinerary for a 2nd birthday party and here I was just going to let the kids go wild.  Hmmmm – I wonder if I need to rethink my strategy.  And Joel got me the newest  book by my favorite author (“Bite Me: A love story”).

Anyway, breakfast was followed by nearly-naked reading time with my boys.  Those diapers stayed on.  We’ve had one too many naked accidents in this home.  Then the clothes went on and Joel, I and the boys walked to the local, authentic, French bakery for some heavenly croissants.

By the time we got home, the girls (Malin, Catrin, and Angelica) had awakened from their beauty sleep and had opened all of Malin’s birthday presents without us.  I’m still disappointed in that.  I love birthdays.  Even when they belong to others.  Dexter then flirted up a storm with the girls.  He so knows how to work it, in order to get close to a computer…….

My cheese shot of the morning – hot tea in a last year’s mother’s day mug with my heavenly croissant.

The day was absolutely beautiful.  You couldn’t have asked for a nicer day, so the boys and I headed over to the local elementary school to play on the playground equipment.  Thank God for Joel.  This is the part of motherhood I am not made out for.  As soon as Nicholas and Dexter started to climb the equipment to slide down the slides, I started to panic.  It freaks me out watching them play above the ground.   They did fine though and Joel kept me calm.  No one fell down or had a heart attack.  No pictures either.  We forgot the camera.

After feeding the boys lunch and putting them down for a nap, Joel capitalized on the fact that he had a harem of women to do his bidding and made us move the air hockey table out to the garage (I think he’s a little confused).  With a harem of women, he made us move furniture.  That just goes to show you how tired he was from a night of listening to the monitor and how lucky I was to sleep in that morning.  Here’s Catrin and Angelica playing with it before it could be reassembled.  It was sad to see our toy officially kicked out to the garage in order to make more space for the boys’ things.

Then it was off to my parents’ house where my mom cooked a fantastic dinner for all to enjoy.  The boys discovered the deck and the fact that they could throw balls on it and no one would yell at them.  Don’t worry, there is a glass barrier between the deck and certain painful injuries (Joel tested its safety by trying to ram Dexter’s head through the crack repeatedly).

I made a cake and we all sang Happy Birthday to Malin.  I wonder what she wished for……

More playing with Grandma and Grandpa followed by the trip home.  You can see how happy Dexter was to leave.

I’m not quite sure what Nicky was thinking about though….

And then the boys cuddled on the couch watching Shrek while I fixed the evening meal.  It was a fantastic Mother’s Day.  I hope all you moms out there had an equally great day because you deserve it.

.

-Katie

It’s so rare that I can get a blog post up before Malin, but she’s stuck in the living room so I have my chance! Malin’s very good friend from Sweden, Catrin, who is currently an Au Pair somewhere on the East Coast, just surprized Malin by showing up for a weekend visit, and for Malin’s birthday on Sunday! Malin cried… Silly girls…

Catrin’s host family has apprently had something of a change in circumstances since they decided to host an Au Pair, so Catrin is now desperately trying to find a new family in the next two weeks. Know of anyone interested in hosting a Swede for the next 10-11 months? Malin says she’s very like herself, only cleaner and nicer. Sadly, I don’t think we can have two Au Pairs at the same time…