The Zoe and Silas Show

We headed out to visit Santa's Wonderland yesterday morning, which was the same place we went last year . We've been talking about going to see Santa for the last two weeks and needless to say, the kids were pumped. We wandered through the store looking at all of the (hunting and fishing) displays before we headed down to Santa Central. After all of the anticipation you can probably imagine how my heart dropped (and my mind raced!) when one of the employees told us that Santa wasn't in yet. What do you mean he's not here yet? 3 o'clock. 3:00??? But it's only 11am!!!!  How could this happen???! [Derek is shaking his head] Why didn't I check the hours online?! ["You didn't check the hours online?", says his evil eye] But we visited last year on a Friday morning!!  [Both of us keep glancing at the kids to register their reaction to the news] As I am trying to wrap my head around what in the hell we're going ...

My sister recently turned me on to Pepperplate , which is officially one of the three most useful websites in my life right now (the other two are productivity apps I use for work - Wunderlist and Evernote). You can automatically import and centralize all of your online recipes, as well as manually enter your own family recipes. The interface is really pretty (click here to see it closer), The best part for me is the Planner function. I can plug in what I'm making for dinner (as links to recipes or just text notes), in conjunction with playdates and family outings. Putting everything on one calendar let's me see what's do-able for a meal idea and what might be too much taking into account our busy kid schedule. I haven't tried it yet, but from the planner you can also generate a shopping list. It's like magic! Happy meal planning (which is what I was doing in this picture before S&Z hijacked my lap for a little storytime)!

S&Z are just a month away from turning 2 years old and I can hardly believe it!!!!! Here are a few of our "big kid" developments: -After showing some early language delays, they have so many words in their vocabulary now (even a few in spanish, including 'chico', 'n iño ', and 'tia'!). Both kids are putting two words together, and they consistently say bye bye and hi to many things (including 'bye bye, Mama' when I go to work, 'night night, books' before bed, and 'bye bye, pee pee' when we flush the toilet). -After months of Zoe calling Silas 'Ya-ya' and Silas calling Zoe 'Ya-ya', Silas finally says 'Zoe' (pronounced 'zO-Oe'!). Zoe can say her middle name ('Lee') and is working on saying their last name too. Both kids call Julia either 'Ta-ta' or 'Tia', and Zoe can say Julia's daughter's name, which is Ira. She even knows that she should roll the 'r...

Sometimes great days happen organically, and sometimes great days require some planning. Yesterday was a great day that falls into the latter category. At the beginning of December, following a 3pm dentist appointment, I found myself with an hour to kill before I needed to get home to relieve Julia. I decided to go to the Village and check out a cool new store called Regeneration . While I was shopping, I ended up chatting with a neighborhood mom who was out with her 17-month-old son. Come to find out, she lives 3 blocks from us. We exchanged contact info, and I proceeded to round out my free 45 minutes with a martini and appetizer at a great local restaurant. The mom and I started e-mailing that night about getting together. She joked that we were "cut from the same cloth", because I was celebrating an unexpected free moment to myself with mussels and a martini.  Fast forward nearly a month; I thought it might be one of those notions of a friendship that would never co...

When I found out that one of the conferences in my field, hosted by the International Society on Infant Studies , would be held in Baltimore this year, I set my mind on figuring out how I could attend. First off, it's a conference that is very relevant to my work and I enjoy attending. Second, one of my best friends, Tracy, lives outside of Baltimore. And third, it's within driving distance of Boston and I knew the only way that I could go was if the whole family came along. There is no traveling alone in mine and Derek's futures for quite some time... Tracy and her husband, Brock, were willing to have us stay with them at their new house in Laurel, MD, so Derek got the time off of work and the plans started falling into place. The first challenge was figuring out how to pack for the babies. It was quite the process, but we managed pretty well! We decided it would be best to drive to Laurel overnight, in hopes that Silas and Zoe would sleep most of the way. Julia came a few...

The nursery is finally done, thanks to: Shopping power = me, Derek & a motorized scooter Manpower (painting, furniture assembly, etc.) = Derek Organizational prowress = me & Timery Final artistic touches = me & Rachel YAY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Shopping these days has gotten much harder than it once was. Actually, I won't lie: everything has gotten much harder! We needed to make a big Ikea run last weekend, and we decided that I wasn't going to make it through an Ikea excursion without a wheelchair. I must admit, it was the most pleasant 3-hour shopping trip I have ever experienced! Derek was so great, pushing me around and bringing me to any section I wanted. We ended up finding many things we needed for the nursery, including a toy organizer, curtains, a rug, and a small dresser. We also needed to get groceries when we were finished at Ikea and I never would have had the energy to do it without a little assistance. Thank you motorized scooter :) I did the same thing at Target on Thursday night when we had another big shopping list. Derek just laughs at me, because if I don't cut the narrow corners of the aisles quite right I have to put the scooter in reverse, and it makes a loud "BEEP, BEEP, BEEP" n...

When we found out I was pregnant this spring, we knew that we would need to get a new (automatic transmission) vehicle. I likely had this realization before Derek, because boy does he love a manual transmission. He bought the CRV last year before we were engaged, so while I accompanied him to buy the car, I did not have too much of a say regarding whether it would be a manual or automatic. I "learned" how to drive the CRV in the most basic way, but after a few months of stressful solo excursions in our hilly neighbhorhood, I gave up. When we found out we are having twins, we quickly realized that a vehicle with a single backseat would not cut it. We briefly discussed a car with 3rd row seating (i.e., a Pilot), but picturing my 60-something year old mom climbing into the last row seat made this not seem like a very good option. So that leaves one route to go: the mini van! We ended up buying a 2006 Honda Odyssey two weeks ago. In many ways, I felt like taking this step propel...

Derek and I have been LOVING our weekly farm share this summer. This is the first year we have had a share, and it will definitely not be our last! Every Tuesday it is a surprise to see what we have in the box for the week. We love the large head of green or red leaf lettuce get every week. I have never eaten so many yummy salads in my life! This week our salads were enhanced with radicchio and arugula. I hard-boiled an egg and Derek grilled up a chicken breast and voila! Other staples of the share so far have been radishes, spring garlic, swiss chard, and beets. We are eating lots of sauteed chard and beet greens with garlic, onions, and red pepper flakes. Delicious! This was our first week of new potatoes, so we did those on the grill along with the chicken breasts. The babies are indirectly getting lots of local, seasonal, organic produce this summer! We received the Beaba Babycook (aka, the magic baby food maker) as a shower gift, so we are hoping to make our own baby food when the...

We are taking full advantage of Derek having a few weekends off this month. Organize, purge and reconfigure was the name of the game this weekend! On Saturday morning we picked up all the twin stuff from Eugenia. Considering we didn't have anywhere to put it, this was the impetus we needed to start organizing! The back bedroom (aka, the nursery) is now filled with crib parts and the basement is storing things like play yard, booster seats, and a pack-and-play. At this stage we are way ahead of the game in many respects! On Sunday we went to Ikea to look at other nursery furniture like dressers. We picked one out we really like, but we need to do some measuring to make sure it will fit. Next we went to Jordan's Furniture and bought a rocker/recliner. It is a chocolate brown color and covered in microfiber so it is nice and cozy. I figured that I will be doing many solo late night feedings while Derek works, so having a good chair would be a worthwhile investment. Here's me ...