We're Baaaa-ack...

We had a fabulous trip to Florida!

We started with two days with my grandmother, which was a horror show. My grandmom is lovely and I enjoy her company, but, well, she's 83 and her house is absolutely not babyproofed. We turned her living room into our fortress, moved the furniture around, kept all the doors closed, put the knick-knacks away. We bought those Pea.pod travel beds for the girls just before the trip and they HATED them! Bedtime had them hysterical... they'd start to fall asleep, but the zipper on the top was so loud that zipping it would wake them up again. We were ECSTATIC to go to Zazie's sister KT's house. The girls had room to run around and a very patient dog to obsess over. Plus it was nice to hang out with all the sisters and husbands too.

And then...this happened:

The promised meetup with the girls' half-sibs and the donors family happened! We stayed with two of our favorite families for an entire week (the rest of the families came Thursday-Sunday). We first explored these connections because we wanted to foster them for our kids as they get older, but N & A and their 3 1/2 year old b/g twins, and A and her 2 1/2 year old daughter are friends. It was so nice to hang out with them and their kids this past week. Sweet kids, awesome parents, similar parenting styles.... everyone in our house was a joy. I just wish they all didn't live so far away. Of course, we enjoyed hanging out with the girls' grandmother and their aunts (donor's mom and sisters). The other families were nice to see too, though we probably won't go the extra mile to see any of them unless there's another big group meet up.

Our situation is so crazy unusual and I love it. The girls' aunt brought home videos featuring our donor and the rest of the family growing up. Their grandmother told us about growing up and told us lots of great stories about our donor. Toward the end of the weekend, we talked with their grandmother about trying to have another baby in the fall and she gave her blessing. We really weren't sure how she'd feel about it, though we were pretty sure her reaction would be positive- it's been a year since his death and there are still babies being conceived! She said that her son didn't get to be an organ donor, despite his wishes and her pleas at the hospital, because of the circumstances of his death (vehicular homicide), but she's happy that he will continue to help people.

We are sad to be away from our peeps, the sun, and the relaxation. We feel like we left NY with babies and came back with little kids! The girls seem to have gone through a developmental growth spurt. E. is almost caught up to R.'s number of words. Last night in the bathtub, I started to count to three... I said One.... and E. piped up with TWO! I even got her to say Three with coaxing. Seriously. Love my girls.

New Ways to Adore Me

Haha. No, but seriously, I've set up on Tum.blr and Inst@gram... if you're set up too, follow me! I'm ze.ebah on Insta and ze.ebahtro.nic on Tum.blr (ignore the dots in my name on both)...

11:11

It just hit 11:11 am. For several years now, I often find myself glancing at the clock randomly at 11:11, am and pm. It's apparently a thing. It started as we were trying to get pregnant with the girls- I'd notice the clock, and pray that we'd conceive. Or I'd notice the clock while Zazie was pregnant, and pray that the girls made it here healthy and whole. Now I just pray for the health of my family and the people we know.

Sweet Girls

Zazie called this morning to tell me how sweet the girls were. They were hanging out in a diaper box together (we keep a couple at a time so they can play in them), and Ruby started patting Ellie's head, then she gave her a hug. And then, she leaned forward and kissed her on the cheek (complete with kissing sound)! Then she went back to patting her head and saying soft. Cuties.


On another note, Di.s.ney week with half-sibs is coming up! We're excited... we're sharing a house with two of our favorite families. We met one family (two moms, b/g 3 year old twins) in March and we Skype with them every few weeks... their girl even draws pictures for our girls. The other mom and daughter (who goes by Ruby too- there are 3, including ours) live out west, so we haven't met them yet, but we get along well with them on IM and F.b. Then there are a bunch of other families coming, but we like some of them less than others, so we're glad we're not sharing a house with them. Haha. That'll make 2 weeks in Florida total (we fly down a week early for Zazie's sis' graduation)... yay vacation!

Changing Perspective

Also, this: Grabbing our Way to Peace. I made the mistake of posting it on my F.b status yesterday. You should have read the outcry! My mother actually called me to beg me not to start trying to reason with the girls (Yes, serves me right, friending my mom). Honestly, unless you have experienced parenting two children exactly the same age, I'd rather not have your admonitions on this topic, thanks.

The girls are at the grab everything stage. One grabs something, the other cries, grabs it back, then that one drops it like she was never interested in the first place. We have been stepping in with "Ruby's playing with that", "give it back"- these are also the main "suggestions" I was given after posting this article (uh, duh, thanks for the obvious tips). However, now the girls are looking at us, expecting us to step in, which isn't how I want to continue- they should learn to negotiate and solve some stuff for themselves, no? So we're trying to dial down the intervention a little- it's hard to give them space when our living space is so small! :)

Mostly what I like in the article is the respect that is shown to the kids' perspective. I'm not really down with the level of negotiation that went on in the story that was told (our girls are 18 months like the kid in the story and that approach would be a waste of time), but I also like the idea of a kid being motivated to do the right thing on his own eventually because he wants to do the right thing, not because there are consequences or external forces that will make him do it if he doesn't (That was another suggestion from a family member- just tell them do it, and if you don't there are consequences).

I am trying to be a thoughtful parent. I want to have a good relationship with our girls. I don't have a good relationship with my parents and it kills me to think that I might end up in the same place with Ru and El, so I want to parent in a way that will foster a good relationship with them as they get older. I've been reading Raising Our Children, Raising Ourselves and finding some good insights.

Hysterical Laughing

We woke up this morning to hysterical laughter from the baby monitor. It's times like those that make us wish we'd sprung for the video monitor so we could see them without them noticing us, since they immediately stop whatever they're doing when we come in. We'd hear THUNK! and then hysterical peals of laughter. They both have activity mirrors tied to the rails at the end of their crib, so I'm guessing someone (El probably) was flipping it out and then back into the crib. I tried to get a good picture of their happy morning faces, but they know our tricks- a camera comes out and they want to play with it. It's my fault for showing them that you can change the lens on my ipod so it's pointing toward you. And for downloading one of those stupid kid apps last time we went on a trip. Ru wants to grab it out of your hands so she can tap tap tap on it.

Hat Trick

I do the wake-up routine with the girls in the morning. When we hear them on the monitor (or I finally decide to get out of bed), I go in, take off their sleep sacks, change their diapers and clothes. When both girls are dressed and ready, I usually say "Let's go see Mommy" (the only reliable phrase that will get them to stop what they're doing and leave the room) and we all walk over to the door. If they still have their pacifiers, I'll pull them out of their mouths with a cluck of my tongue (somehow the tongue clucking keeps them from being annoyed that I've just made them pacifier-less), put the pacifiers away, and then we go to the living room. What happened THIS morning was a little like some old-fashioned comedy routine. Ru was standing on one of the car seats when I pulled her pacifier out. I turned around and crossed the room to put her pacifier away, and when I turned back, she had another pacifier in her mouth. For a second I was a little confused- maybe in my half-awake state I only thought I'd pulled it out? So with a cluck, I took the pacifier out, turned around to put it away, and saw that yes, I'd already pulled one out because it was in the box already. I turn back around and what do I find? Ru with another pacifier in her mouth! Ru somehow had not one, but THREE pacifiers! I couldn't stop laughing. Ru laughed like she was in on the joke, but maybe she was just laughing because I was. :)