Happy Birthday Dad!

Happy Birthday Dad! 

Thanks for being such a cool dad and for always making us laugh (Mom tells us we're pretty lucky!)

Remember when we were little 5 pounders?! We hadn't even left the hospital in this picture. You look kinda tired, Dad. How come?

Have fun next week in Miami at the Bowl game - Go Hawks!

Love, P & M

An Instant Cure

Feeling a bit sad that the long holiday weekend is coming to an end?

Here's a short video guaranteed to make you smile.

Giggling before Bath from K Schultes on Vimeo.

Cube-n Cuisine

Before the boys were born I decided I wanted to try making their food. I had no idea I would enjoy it so much and get so serious about it. With the exception of rice/oatmeal cereal, I have made everything else. As of 10.5 months, the boys have never had a bite of food from a store-bought baby food jar (or formula). Here's the process - and a process it is.

Step 1: Purchase fresh produce, allow to ripen if necessary. This summer it was fun to visit the Minneapolis farmer's market on Saturday mornings. The boys got to ride along in their baby bjorns.

Step 2: Peel the fruits and vegetables. There are some that I do not peel, like apples.

Step 3: Cut and place into pan for cooking. I steam vegetables such as beets, sweet potatoes, yams, carrots, beans, and peas. I bake apples and squash. I do use some seasoning (but never sugar or salt). I add cinnamon to the apples and nutmeg to squash, carrots, and yams before I steam or bake.

steaming sweet potatoes

Step 4: Bake in a pan of water or steam until very soft (easily pierced with a fork). Baking typically takes 45 minutes to an hour and steaming takes 15-20 minutes depending on how small you cut up the fruit/vegetables.

apples in a pan with an inch of water, sprinkled with cinnamon

Step 5: Blend or mash. Pears are easy to mash. However, I blend apples because I leave the skin on them and the blender will puree the skins so you don't even notice them. I also blend squash because it gets a little stringy. The left over cooking water is good to add to the blender so the puree is nice and smooth. I did everything in the blender when the boys were younger and I have tried to do more mashing lately so the boys get used to different textures.

mashing pears

blending sweet potatoes

Step 6: Pour/spoon into ice cube trays. We have about 20 ice cube trays on hand and I try to make enough to fill all the trays when I am getting everything out and dirty.

Step 7: Cover the trays with press-n-seal and place in the freezer overnight. If your freezer looks anything like mine you'll need to do some rearranging to make room for the trays. Make sure to mark the trays so you know what is what. Otherwise peas look like beans and apples look like pears.

Step 8: Remove the frozen cubes from the tray and place in freezer baggies. I use a permanent marker to write what is in the bag and the date. Frozen food is only good for a few months but with these two hungry boys I have not had a problem with food getting old. 

When the boys first started out on solids I would spend 3-4 hours on a Saturday making food for them and it would last a few months. Now a batch of 20 trays will only last about 2 weeks! 

Here's a list of what I have tried:

• Veggies: butternut squash, acorn squash, beets, carrots, beans (both fresh and frozen), peas (frozen)

• Fruits: apples, pears
  

Other fruits and vegetables, such as avocado and banana, are also very yummy and fresh, so baking or cooking isn't necessary.

If you are interested in learning more, check out this website. It is an excellent resource and I have used it a lot.

Are you motivated to start cooking yet!?

Santa's Helpers

Mason/Prior

Prior

Prior

Mason

Mason/Prior

Props were needed to get the boys to forget they were wearing hats.

Santa is very lucky this year - he has two of the cutest little helpers in the whole wide world. And I am also very lucky this year because I get to be P&M's momma. This is easily the best Christmas ever. 

I'll start with the hats. I would love to take credit for making these hats, but I can't. Just not enough hours in the day. I knew exactly what I wanted and was lucky enough to be able to find them on Etsy.

And then there are the pictures. Again, I knew what I wanted but haven't had time to learn enough about the various settings on my camera to get these effects. So our neighbor John took the pictures. John has a photography business but he takes pictures of really expensive homes - aerial and inside shots of the homes for sale. You know, things that don't move. It was hilarious - Prior and Mason would sit still still for about .2 seconds (and never at the same time). My favorite quote was when John said, "people do this for a living?!"

Thanks, John! I LOVE these pictures.

New Ride

Prior testing out the new big-boy car seat.

Mason/Prior in the new stroller.

Prior

Mason

We officially retired the infant car-seats and the corresponding double snap-n-go stroller. A little sad for mom. We passed the stroller along to another mommy with twins so that made it easier.

We absolutely love our Bob Duallie stroller for walks but it is a little big for going to the mall or Target and it takes up a lot of room in the truck. So we went with the Macleran Twin Triumph for quick trips to the doctor or the mall. (Don't worry - these strollers were recalled but we have the piece that 'fixes' the recall).

Happy Birthday Auntie Cara!

Love, Prior and Mason

Bed Head

With twins, life is one constant comparison. We are constantly comparing the boys and noticing their every difference and every similarity. Knowing these boys were identical I must say that I have been amazed at how many more differences there are. Many more than I was expecting. I have heard stories of families that had to take their same-sex twins back to the hospital because they couldn't tell them apart. That is unbelievable to me. While P&M sometimes look alike - they are very different.

This is one example. 

Mason always, always wakes up with messy hair. There are no exceptions. It doesn't matter if he slept for 10 minutes or 2 hours. It's always crazy hair. (Prior's hair is almost never messy.)

Jumper-Saucer

For all of you baby-gear savvy readers, you know there is one very clear difference between an 'exersaucer' (featured in this video) and a 'jump-a-roo'. 

The jumping feature.

Next will be the bed, the couch, and other things that also aren't meant for jumping...

                            

Jumping in Exersaucers - 10 months from K Schultes on Vimeo.

Santa Claus is Coming...

Thank you Grandma Barb and Great Grandma Rupiper for the two newest additions to our Christmas stocking collection. (Sorry, Gus - we had to move your stocking.)

We are super excited for our very first Christmas. These little boys have been very good this year and I am confident this will pay off when Santa comes to town...

Lip Smackin' Good

So Prior has this new thing - a noise he makes with his mouth.

In this video he displays this new noise, his two new teeth, and his love for his mom's applesauce.

                            

Prior @ 10 Months from K Schultes on Vimeo.

Now What, part 2

This gate was approved by some pediatric association, I'm sure. Who knew I should have checked with a zoological association to see if it was monkey proof.

Ten Months Old

Here's what's new with us: 

• two bottom teeth and enough drool to guarantee several more are on the way
  
• standing up along everything
  
• walking along the furniture
  
• standing without holding anything - prior for 1-2 seconds; mason for 5-10 seconds
  
• climbing
  
• opening cupboards
  
• we even graduated to the big boy car-seats
  

Now What?

This gate system was supposed to last until these boys went to college...

(Or at least until they started walking.)

Now what? 

Especially This Year...

I am thankful for these two healthy, happy, incredibly adorable little boys. 

Happy Thanksgiving.

Hibernating

Several of you have asked for an update on the boys' sleeping...

Very good news to report. The boys have continued to sleep through the night! While I wouldn't officially classify it as a habit just yet, it is definitely more than just a fluke and we are trending in the right direction.

It was well worth the long 9 month wait. Similar to everything else with the pregnancy I have quickly found myself (after only 6 short nights of sleeping) saying that getting up 2-3 times each night wasn't that bad!

Now I'm just wondering when my energy level will reflect the increase in sleep?!?!

I'll leave you with a video of the boys in the bathtub displaying their energy...

                                    

Untitled from K Schultes on Vimeo.

It's Official - Mark The Calendar!

On Saturday, November 21, 2009, at 9 months, 2 weeks and 1 day old these two little boys FINALLY slept through the night. Yes - you read correctly. They slept through the night - from bed time until morning. They went to bed at 7:30 pm and slept until 5:00 am.

And they may have slept later than 5 am but I literally jumped out of bed at 5 am and realized they hadn't gotten up yet. Of course my first instinct is that something is wrong. I triple checked the baby monitor to make sure it was actually plugged in and working. After that I literally ran upstairs to find the boys sound asleep as if they had been sleeping through the night for months...

It was honestly one of those moments where I felt different. I felt like I had slept through the night - a feeling I haven't had in a very long time. It felt pretty darn good. And to top it off they went back to sleep after I fed them at 5:00 and slept until 8:00. I was so excited (and rested) that I almost couldn't fall back asleep.

I spent the rest of the day recapping Saturday in my head. What made last night different than the other 286-ish days since these boys were born? If we could somehow do the exact same things today that we did yesterday maybe we could recreate another peaceful night!?

Cautiously optimistic is how I would describe my outlook for tonight. I'll keep you posted...

For now, here are a few recent pictures. 

Prior/Mason

Mason

Mason in the tub (I think he looks like Prior here). If you look very closely you can see his two bottom teeth poking through!

Mason/Prior. They LOVE standing up in the bathtub.

Prior/Mason behind their gate. This gate has been a lifesaver, but it is meant for little boys - not BIG boys! They're starting to realize they're being confined and don't like it. They are going to be scaling this overpriced plastic fence entirely too soon!

Prior and his first little curl.

I am not sure who dressed Prior but it wasn't me! Black, navy, orange, and gold. Yikes!

Happy Friday!

Love, Prior

Untitled from K Schultes on Vimeo.

9 Month Statistics

	Prior		Mason
Weight	18 lb .5 oz	25%	18 lb 1 oz	25%
Height	28”	50%	28”	50%
Head	45.6cm	75%	46 cm	75%

As you can see, the boys continue to be very similar in size.

The clinic ironically had TWO H1N1 vaccines left that day. At the beginning of all of the media driven HYPE with this flu I had decided that I wasn’t going to be a crazy person staying up at night worrying about getting sick, standing in line for hours, or calling every clinic in town just to get the vaccine. But, given I was presented with the opportunity at their appointment I couldn’t turn them down.

Sorry for the lack of pictures! I was too busy making sure neither boy touched ANYTHING to get any pictures taken during the doctor visit.

How was your weekend?

Ours was great!

We cheered for the Hawks...

We read books...

"Helped" Mom with laundry...

Went on walks in the stroller...

And cuddlebugged with Mom...

Have a great week!

Love, P&M

The not-so-big Bibs...

On Friday the boys turned 9 months old. NINE. This first year is going entirely too fast. I need a time out...or something (possibly a few weeks of sleep) so I can slow down and take all of this in... 

Today the boys were wearing some pants that looked more like shorts than pants so this afternoon Noi and I went to Babies R' Us and picked them up some new sweat pants.

As  we were walking through the isles I walked by the "preemie" sized clothes. The teeny tiny itsy bitsy preemie sized clothes. At that point I decided either A) they started making preemie sized clothes a LOT smaller than they did 9 months ago, or B) In 9 short months I have already completely forgotten how small these little dudes were. How can I forget? I took thousands of pictures - literally thousands! I honestly had to choke back the tears. It was one of those emotional "mommy" moments. 

Here are some pictures of the boys in their bibs. Their toes officially stick out of the bottoms which means in just a few more months they will officially "fit". 

I've also included a random list of a few of the things the boys have been up to. 

(Mason is on the left in each of the pictures).

Both boys are pulling themselves up at every chance they get. This includes pulling themselves up in their cribs. As you all know we've had some sleep issues in our house. It's a little hard to fall asleep when you're STANDING UP! The boys' favorite climbing tree is mom or dad. They are constantly watching each other and trying what the other one is doing. It's pretty amazing. The crawling and standing now means they fall down no fewer than 82 times each day. At this point the bumps and bruises are accidents but before long the injuries will likely be intentional "gifts" from one brother to the other (i.e. hitting/kicking/biting).

The boys absolutely love books and don't seem to mind reading the same ones day after day. With each page they watch in anticipation as if they have never seen the next page. And their favorite thing to do is to turn the pages themselves. Luckily we have the words memorized to several of the books so this makes it easier when the boys turn the pages.

Mason has one bottom tooth that is just barely poking through!

Prior is doing a lot of babbling. 

Last night I was giving Prior kisses and he actually leaned in nose-first for a kiss. Ben even saw it and Prior did it 3 more times. After each kiss he kicked his legs with excitement. My heart melted..

They're trying new foods. This weekend they had meat for the first time. Ben made some ribs on the grill and they loved it. They also have started pasta noodles, rice and egg yolk. They love the whole process of picking things up, shoveling them in their mouths and "chewing" them up. So if the tooth fairy is reading this - they would greatly appreciate a few teeth ASAP!

I don't want to jinx anything, BUT - this past week the boys have been sleeping from their 8:00 bed time until around 3:30-4:30 ish am. That, my friends, is a big fat giant victory for these two little monkeys.

The boys go in for their 9 month well-check on Tuesday so stay tuned for their stats!

Another Guest Post…

This time from Grandma Julie! This is her “attempt at blogging” as she called it after we spent the weekend in Decorah in October. I think it is much more than an attempt – it is perfect!

A side note before the official blog post. For those of you that don’t know, it is my mother’s side of the family with the talent for writing. My grandfather, Joseph Frazier Wall (1920 – 1995), was an American historian and professor of history at Grinnell College. His biography of Andrew Carnegie won the Bancroft Prize in 1971, and he was later nominated for the Pulitzer Prize for his biography on the Du Pont family.

“Being a grandma is the greatest joy in the world!” That is what friends and acquaintances would tell me B.G. (Before Grandchildren). I have to admit that I was rather skeptical especially since being a mom has been the best ride ever. But when I first laid eyes on Prior and Mason the night they were born, I became a believer. It was love at first sight. In their early months, I cherished the holding and cuddling marathons without worrying about laundry, house cleaning, meals, school work or other obligations which always gnawed at me when Kristin and Cara were babies. I could just enjoy these boys.

Now I am enthralled to watch Prior and Mason explore their world by crawling, pulling themselves up, and exploring themselves through manipulating toys and making amazing sounds. Their smiles would melt anyone’s heart. I love reading to them and I appreciate their attention (the attention that is often lacking from my students). At this point the highlight of my time with them, besides feeding them pears and sweet potatoes, is singing to them. They seem totally captivated no matter how hungry or tired or missing mom/dad they might be. It’s very ironic if you’ve ever endured my singing voice. I have sung about hundreds and hundreds of monkeys jumping on the bed ( their favorite), “I love you Conrad” from Bye-Bye Birdie (replace Conrad with Prior or Mason) and “I’ve Told Every Little Star”, but I have also added “Wheels on the Bus” and “Apples and Bananas” to my repertoire. And I can guarantee that Judy Garland in Wizard of Oz, Janis Joplin at Woodstock or Carrie Underwood on American Idol never got the thrill from an audience as I have singing to my grandsons.

Prior and Mason are very good and happy little boys. That is an unbiased statement. Their Great Grandma Bea says they are so good and happy because their mom and dad are such caring and loving parents. That is also a true unbiased statement. So thank you Ben and Kristin for the greatest gift times two. Yes, being a grandma is the greatest joy in the world.

Love, Grandma Julie

I love my job, don't get me wrong....but I don't quite have this level of excitement to get to my computer each morning.

Crawling at 8 Months from K Schultes on Vimeo.

Mason: the textbook crawl

Prior: the super fast army crawl with the extra heavy breathing

Family of Four

I remember when I was pregnant I kept wondering when the whole mommy thing would feel real. I wondered if it was the next week or the next month - or maybe it would be once they were born. Well, I'm still not sure it feels 100% real. (But that could be a side effect of 9 straight months of sleep deprivation.) 

As surreal as it seems, I officially am a family of four.

In September we had family pictures taken at the beautiful Arboretum in Chaska, MN. I'm saving one of my favorites for our Christmas card but just had to share a few of the others here! These two boys truly are the coolest (and cutest) little guys in the whole wide world!

A special thank-you to Annie Torrini Photography for the great shots!