evohr.org

Wednesday, November 29, 2000

No. This was not a veiled commentary on the current electoral shenanigans in Florida. One of those men will become President soon enough, but neither of them is anywhere near this cute.

1:42:00 PM

How to take an early morning nap. We're currently waking the kids up early (just after 6 am) so that Kathy has time to feed them and still get into work at a decent hour. (One nice side effect of this is that they no longer try to trick us into letting them stay up until midnight.)

It seems that Maya has come up with an interesting napping strategy, as follows:

1. Chase your sister into a corner of the play yard. To make sure she doesn't escape, grab the corner of the blanket you're both lying on and pull it up over you.



2. Be resolute. Stand your ground no matter how much wriggling happens.



3. Be gracious. You were the last to eat, so she's been up longer, which means she'll give up and fall asleep first.



4. Be cute. Once you fall asleep too, any grownups looking on will just think it's really sweet that the two of you are sleeping all closely entwined.



Any questions?
11:26:00 AM

Tuesday, November 28, 2000

Another developmental milestone. Last night, Bryn seemed inconsolably fussy, so we figured, what the heck, let's see whether she's ready to try her Exersaucer yet:



Uh, that'd be an emphatic yes. She hopped right in and immediately started reaching out to move the toys around.

Happy 5 month birthday, kids!
10:18:00 AM

Monday, November 27, 2000

This has nothing to do with the family, but hey, it's fascinating.

Ever wondered why faces look and work the way they do? Here's a lengthy book excerpt with more answers than you'll ever need. A lot more.
2:10:00 PM

Foggy autumn dawn. One of the cool things about this house is the "double exposure" effects you sometimes get. Around 7 this morning, as it started getting light, I noticed a cool reflection in the back window:



Through the window, you could see both the gorgeous red leaves in the foreground, and the murky fog looming just over the fence. At the same time, in the window you could see a clear reflection of the lamps on either end of the couch, plus blurrier images of those baby standbys -- a bottle on one end table, and the breast pump on the other.

But that's not the best part. :-)

In the upper left-hand corner, just above the lamp, you can just barely make out another splash of that gorgeous red. Here's another angle:



Hmm, maybe the reflection's still washing out the image too much. Let's try again:



Can you tell what it is?



Bingo!
12:42:00 PM

Friday, November 24, 2000

Due to a scheduling mixup, we realized sometime last night that our plans for the twins' first Thanksgiving weren't likely to work out. Never fear, though. In a burst of manic energy, we decided that this wouldn't stop us.

As a result, for the first time, we hosted our very first Thanksgiving dinner at home. Among other things, this meant:

• Get out the Moosewood cookbook for menu ideas
• Put the babies down for the night
• At 1 am, head off to the 24-hour Safeway ;-)
• Sleep
• Go back to Safeway for a few more ingredients
• Start cooking at 3 pm
• Pick up Gramma and Grandad at the airport
• Eat at 7:30 pm

It was a lovely fall day, and to get in the holiday spirit, we chose a decidedly festive playlist:

• Mahalia Jackson, Gospel Christmas
• various artists, Hipster's Holiday
• Squirrel Nut Zippers, Christmas Caravan
• Judy Garland, Christmas through the years
• Sonny Rawlins, Sonny Meets Hawk!
• Bernstein Century, Copland: Appalachian Spring, Rodeo, Billy the Kid, Fanfare for the Common Man

So what was this sudden feast you ask? Well, here are the "before" and "after" pictures for the entire menu:

Cucumbers Vinaigrette,

  

Scalloped Potatoes and Carrots,

  

Holiday Cranberry Squash,

  

which left some extra cranberries as a side dish,



plus two more conventional, non-Moosewood items -- namely, a turkey breast,

  

and Pecan Pies!

  

Put them all together, and it's a miniature feast:



Mmmm, tasty!
1:42:00 AM

Saturday, November 18, 2000

For those of you who haven't had the pleasure of taking twins for a stroll, here's a quick look at what it's like...



At least, that's what a Dad's-eye-view was like midway through today's lunchtime stroll. :-)

For completeness' sake, here's a more conventional shot of the kids at departure time, twelve minutes earlier:



Previously, the kids were too small to ride sitting up, so today was quite a milestone for them. Here they are, arriving home after a 35 minute walk:



Boy, that's hard work!
2:45:00 AM

Wednesday, November 15, 2000

Getting bigger all the time. Yesterday, the kids went in for their four-month "well baby" visit, which basically means -- yep, more shots. Fortunately, that went quite well. Acetaminophen rules.

More to the point, we were able to officially confirm that the babies have each doubled their birth weights, and gotten half a foot taller. Before you get out your calculators, here are the official stats:

• Maya: 12 lb 5 oz, 25 3/4 in
• Bryn: 12 lb 14 oz, 25 1/4 in

Also, the pediatrician confirmed that the massive quantities of drool currently being produced are probably not a sign of early teething. (Phew, what a relief!!) This is just when, developmentally, the salivary glands start functioning.

Boy have they ever!
7:35:00 PM

Wednesday, November 01, 2000

Technical note. From time to time, we update the design of this site to make it a bit more user-friendly. For example, early on we enabled the archives feature, which allows you to go back and see earlier posts after they scroll off the home page.

Today's innovation are those little gray pushpins after each entry, which allow you to link directly to the beginning of any specific entry in the archives. To use this feature, pick the entry you want to refer to -- for example, the infamous "Bullseye!" story -- and scroll to the bottom of that entry. Just after the time, you should see a little gray pushpin. Clicking on that icon will give you a permanent URL which links directly to the top of that entry. Once you have that shortcut, you can copy it and use it again whenever you like.

Enjoy!
3:35:00 AM

From the "we'll regret this later, but now it's cool" department, another milestone. We've been noticing in recent weeks that both babies are getting better at grabbing things and bringing them to their mouths to gnaw on. It's been a steady progression:

• First fists,
• then burp cloths,
• then thumbs,
• then toys,
• even sibling body parts...

However, they've been continually stymied by the whole pacifier thing. Perhaps it's our fault -- to help maximize breastfeeding success, we banned those props for the first three months of their lives. Thus, when we finally caved and started using them for the plane flight back East, they just weren't used to the contraptions.

You could almost see the confusion in their eyes. One moment there's this cool nipple in their mouth to happily suck on, then it's gone. Waaah! Eventually, they learned not to spit it out unless they wanted to. However, at about the same time, wandering fingers realized that those cool ribbons were fun to yank on. Waaah!

Have no fear though -- these kids can put two and two together:



Yep, that's right. This morning, for the first time, Bryn was caught yanking that plug out, then sticking it right back in. Look out world, here she comes!
12:39:00 AM

© 2000-10, the evohrs