The Zoe and Silas Show

Some of the experiments you try as a parent work, and some of them do not. Today's "nap experiment" was an epic failure. Let me explain... S&Z take one nap each day. They eat an early lunch and then play for awhile longer before becoming crank-meisters and going down for their nap around 12:30. On average they sleep for 2 hours - sometimes a little more (Silas' preference), sometimes a little less (Zoe's preference). Yesterday they took a 3 hour nap because they've had pretty bad colds this week. That should have been a sign that experimenting with the schedule today in order to accommodate a daytrip to Ipswich was a bad idea. One of my best friends, Timery, moved to Ipswich this fall . Now that we live only 75 minutes apart, we try to see each other 1x/month. We take turns with who visits who, and usually it works out pretty well. Now that we're down to one long nap per day, however, making this type of daytrip is a little more complicated. I de...

I haven't posted any recipes for awhile, but that doesn't mean I haven't been cooking! Here are two go-to recipes I've recently made that are hits with the whole family. Turkey Goulash Original recipe can be found here . Below is the version I make, taking into account minor modifications.  This isn't a true one-dish meal because the pasta is cooked separately, but it definitely feels like one.  1-13.5 oz. package of whole wheat pasta of choice Salt 1 tablespoon extra-virgin olive oil, 1 turn of the pan 1 tablespoon butter 1 package, 1 1/3 pounds average weight, ground lean white turkey 2 to 3 cloves garlic, chopped  1 medium onion, chopped 1 red bell pepper, seeded and chopped 2 tablespoons sweet paprika 1 teaspoon ground cumin 1 teaspoon dried marjoram Black pepper 1 cup chicken stock 1 cup sour cream (I was short on sour cream so I supplemented with some whole milk for additional creaminess) Several handfuls of fresh spinach...

In addition to all the toy stealing and driving-each-other-crazy business that I seem to mention all the time, Zoe and Silas are also showing a lot of prosocial behavior toward one another. When one of them is crying, the other will come over to rub their back or pat their belly in an attempt to say, "it's okay". Zoe always brings Silas his sippy cup, wherever he is in the house. They share toys with one another (when they want to). Recently, they have started giving each other hugs. It's really cute. Probably no coincidence that they love this book . Here is the only video I've been able to get so far...

Derek and I had an amazing belated birthday brunch at Upstairs on the Square in Cambridge today. We had arranged for Julia to come for 4 hours, so we ended up with extra time to run errands after brunch. I've had a Toys 'r Us list building in my head so we decided to cross that off the list.  We have been looking around for a little table and chairs, and didn't find what we were looking for at Ikea on Friday. We ended up finding a great, inexpensive Little Tikes plastic set today, however. We also got them their first set of crayons, and they had a great time coloring like big kids at their new table. Derek's friends, Dave & Kirstyn, gave us some fun, colored printer paper so they were all set! Zoe at times seemed more interested in climbing than coloring, But Silas was really into it! The activity definitely held their interest longer than I expected!  We also got them a magnetic farm toy like one that we had played with at The Brennan's hous...

At a ripe old age of 16 months, Zoe is turning into a little Miss. We need to figure out a good nickname for her. In a previous post all I could come up with was Zoe the Hun (like Attila, not Pooh Bear). She wants to dole out the food. She wants to dole out the water and milk. She takes toys away from poor Silas whenever she wants. All he's trying to do in this clip is play with a toy and mind his own business! Oh boy, oh boy... just wait until I tell you about the green toothbrush!

Even though they drive each other (and us) insane sometimes, they also have a ton of fun... Per my last post, when I get rid of all the toys the tent and tunnel can stay :)

The name of the game for S&Z these days is getting into anything and everything that they shouldn't be getting into. It seems like they just troll the house looking for "adult" stuff to mess with. Silas is the size of a 3-year-old so he can reach a lot of things that we don't expect or anticipate. If Silas is quiet, you know there's trouble. The most fun thing right now is getting into the recycling. Who needs toys when you have boxes or flattened cardboard to play with? Or a box of garbage bags and a giant bottle of Cascade? And that box of garbage bags can be pushed across the kitchen and used as a climbing device. Here sister, let me help you keep that stable, How proud does she look???! They also had a ton of fun with a couple of Valentine's Day cards the other day... Seriously, we'll have a lot more room in our house if we can just get rid of all the toys!!! Of course the tent and the tunnel have to stay :)

One of the things that I have learned as a new mom is the value of having a community of mom friends. As a new parent, your free time and ability to hang out with friends changes dramatically. After S&Z were born, I quickly learned how sanity-saving playdates can be.  Now that I'm 1-1/2 years into this mommyhood thing, I have developed a great network of mom & kid friends that we get together with regularly.  This holiday weekend has been jam-packed with playdates. On Thursday we had our friends Miriam and Garrison over to visit. Garrison is 3 months older than S&Z but they're all close enough in age that they play really well together. All of them eventually ended up in the pool together, Zoe has recently started standing on the edge of the pool in order to get a better view of the street out the window. This makes me nervous, so I got out a step stool.  Of course everyone wanted to stand on the stool, so eventually I got out a second sto...

Because I had to work on Sunday, today started a 5-day weekend for me. I haven't been to Ikea since I was VERY pregnant - I'm just over 32 weeks in the picture below (and yes, I was shopping in a wheelchair by this point in my pregnancy. It wasn't pretty). As usual, I wanted to get S&Z out of the house this morning so Derek & I decided to head to Ikea. The kids were very happy when they saw the shoes and coats come out, and they waited patiently by the door to be loaded into the car. Ikea is great because they have "family friendly" parking close to the door. They have these neat little carts parked nearby that worked great for us each to take a kid. After doing some shopping, we had lunch in the Ikea cafeteria. S&Z love being out and watching all the people so they had a great time. Once we were done eating, it was time to pack them up again and finish our shopping. They were exhausted and provided each other lots of goofy entertainmen...