Pediatrician appointment today.

Both babies are growing, but evidently not gaining weight quickly enough, since they both dropped in the percentiles for weight. Neil is 15 lbs even (50th percentile, 1 lb gain in the past month) and 26.5" long (93rd percentile). He's even longer than Iris was at the same age. Zinnia is 13 lbs 3 oz (40th percentile, 0.75 lb gain in the past month) and 25 inches long.

I feel like I have plenty of milk, and it's more an issue of the babies not wanting to nurse quite as much lately. Neil also sleeps a lot (usually through the night or only up once, plus a 3-4 hour nap) and sucks his thumb in his sleep. And they've both had ongoing colds for the past month or so. :-P

Anyhow, I guess I'm feeling all guilty about starving my babies, even though I realize that's not entirely rational. :-(

Last night: homemade Mac & Cheese, peas, and fresh pineapple
Tonight: Chickpea & spinach curry (from Vegan with a Vengeance) and Rice
Tomorrow night: Pizza w/ mushrooms & artichoke hearts (cooked by smws!)
Later:
Spinach & Mushroom crepes and Roasted potatoes
Eggplant Parmesan and Salad
BBQ tofu and Coleslaw
Spring rolls and Vegetable fried rice
Chili and Cornbread

(Not all that seasonal - more based on what was on sale at the supermarket. We haven't made it to farmers' market in quite a while.)

We had a frost last night - very unusual around here (it's Zone 9). My zucchini, tomato, and nasturtium plants appear to be casualties. The last one is a great disappointment, since they usually grow well in the winter. The zucchini and tomato were just kind of lingering on and I was just curious as to whether they'd overwinter. The cauliflower, chard, beets, lettuce, arugula, artichokes, radishes, peas, and onions all seem pretty happy though.

Two nights ago I nursed Iris for the last time.

I've been trying to wean her gently for over half a year now, ever since finding out that I was pregnant with twins. She was having none of that though, and it took a while to get down to nursing only for nap and bedtime. And then she stopped napping. :-P

When I wrote out the calendar for November, I mentioned to Iris that her birthday was coming up and she was going to turn 3, which she was very excited about. A couple nights later, at bedtime, I asked her if she was going to be done nursing when she turned 3. She surprised me by saying yes. I kept bringing it up every few days, and she was on board but reminded me that she was still only 2. The night before her birthday, we talked about how it was going to be her last time nursing, and tomorrow she'd turn 3 years old and have birthday presents and cake with chocolate chips and strawberry ice cream (her choice). She fell asleep nursing that night. She's asked for it both nights since then, but I've reminded her about turning 3 and suggested cuddling up to read a book instead. She's a little upset, but it's no worse than the myriad of other things that send her into mini-meltdowns.

For now, I'm down to "only" 2 nurslings and I've got one big, smart, healthy 3-year-old who I hope was ready to be done with it.

We (the 3 adults in the house) got vaccinated for H1N1 last weekend. It was a drive-thru vaccination clinic, which was a little weird. And it was massively popular, so there was about an hour wait in the parking lot before you could go up to the vaccination tent. We were parked next to a family with 4 kids (6, 4, 3, and 19 months!) who were mostly speaking in a language I didn't recognize. Iris went right up to the oldest girl and held her hand and played with the other kids for most of the wait.

When I picked Iris up from preschool on Tuesday, she'd woken up from nap a little earlier than usual and was sitting at a table with other kids. I came in, and her face totally lit up and she put her arms in the air and said, "Becca, I'm having *snack*!" like it was the highlight of her day. 2 apple slices and a couple of pretzels later, I said it was time to go home, and could she say goodbye to her friends. She went up to each of the other kids and said goodbye to each one by name. I have no idea where she gets her social skills, but I'm super impressed by them.

We went down to the South Bay to have vegetarian Thanksgiving with some Bab5ers. It was so good to get out of the house - I hadn't been doing much of it because of the sick babies and I really missed seeing people.

The babies like the Numa Numa song. They've been cooing and laughing a lot lately, and Neil is totally distractible when we're out and about. He just needs to see everything going on and can't be bothered to nurse when there's neat stuff to look at.

Sick babies aren't much fun. These two are both so snotty right now that they have a really hard time breathing while nursing, and I don't think they're eating as much at once. So they wake up more often for snuffly-nursing. Zinnia screamed for 2 hours straight the other night, until about 10 minutes after I decided to give her Tylenol despite the lack of a fever. I don't know if she just conked out anyhow, or if something had been hurting her and the Tylenol helped with that. It's interesting to see how much of a difference our ages make in how sick everyone is. The twins have been so much snottier than Iris, and Ben and I have been less badly off.

Neil was being very fussy during dinner last night. I kept trying to nurse him, and he wanted none of it. It turned out that what calmed him down was sitting on my lap facing the food. I hadn't realized that he was old enough to be so interested in the outside world yet, although maybe I should've guessed based on how he's grabbing everything he can reach and stuffing it in his mouth. The food, by the way, was the very ugly but delicious birthday cake I made Ben yesterday. There will be no pictures of it.

The microwave I bought while hugely pregnant has broken already. Boo. I wonder whether Target will let me return it.

Ben had open enrollment for his work the past couple of weeks, and one of his benefits that we were thinking of taking advantage of was the dependent-care FSA. We wanted to use it towards Iris's preschool that she goes to while Ben is working and I'm taking care of the twins and working part-time (currently a nominal 7 hours per week, but it takes me longer than that). It turns out though that we're not eligible for that benefit because my work is as a self-employed independent contractor, rather than as an employee.

So what I'm making right now by working isn't enough to offset the cost of Iris's preschool. That's okay since the current arrangement is probably better for all 3 children than if Iris were home full-time, the money works out to be fairly close, and eventually it may be good that I did the editing rather than having a total gap in my resume. (I'm still not very good at taking care of all 3 kids by myself. It's not terrible, but I don't do much more than keep everyone fed and not sitting in pee. They all seem to like singing songs and for me to read books aloud. And we can take a brief trip to the playground.)

From what other parents have said at the twins club meetings, having a nanny to take care of two infants runs about $18-$20 per hour, so with that and full-time preschool for Iris, we'd be looking at over $4000 per month in childcare expenses if I were working a full-time job. Totally nuts. Not that child care providers shouldn't be paid well, but it would be hard for me to make enough to cover child care and have any money left over after taxes.

B: I'm going to the bathroom.
I: Oh, I have to come with you.
B: Do you need to pee too?
I: No, I just want to watch you.
B: Why do you want to watch me?
I: Because I really like to see you and not be by yourself.

Sweet and frustrating all at once, which is a pretty good summary of life with a 2-year-old.

Also naive:
"The internet just means working."

Iris says, "Becca, I'm really pregnant."

She was also dragging her baby Zinnia around in a sling today. (Her Cabbage Patch doll, which used to be my doll a long time ago, is her baby, and it's also named Zinnia.

( Today I... )
And now I'm about to start tonight's batch of diaper laundry and crash, I hope.
Iris is home from school tomorrow, so it's going to be a rough day.

Sunday night, Iris woke up really unhappy and with bright red cheeks. She felt really hot, so I took her temperature (in the mouth like a big girl, instead of in her armpit). Despite Iris not really keeping her mouth shut, the thermometer read 100.1°. So we gave her a bit of Children's Tylenol and a glass of water and she went back to sleep pretty quickly. Monday morning, no fever and she was really chipper, so she went off to preschool. Neil has been warm, flushed, unhappy, and clingy yesterday and today, although Zinnia has seemed fine so far. And my cheeks were bright red last night, although I don't think I've had a fever.

Zinnia has a nasty scratch on her cheek, right under her eye. I suspect Guido, although I didn't see what happened. I don't think it was caused by either baby because I'd just trimmed their nails a couple of hours before the scratch happened. Anyhow, I've been trying to keep Guido separated from the babies, and we're shutting the cats down in the basement overnight. This sucks though - neither cat ever hurt Iris as a baby, and they were fairly patient with her as a toddler. I hadn't expected any problems this time around.

On the bright side, Neil rolled over from belly to back for the first time yesterday. He also sits well with support and can push up and is trying to slither a little when he's on his belly. Zinnia is a bit floppier and not as strong. It's a little weird that they're at different stages, although of course babies develop at different rates.

3 months. The babies continue to grow. They both gained 1 lb, 4 oz this month, for a total of 6.5 lbs over their birthweights. Oddly enough, this means that Zinnia is right on target as far as the percentiles, but that Neil has dropped in percentiles from last month to this month. The pediatrician was a bit concerned about this yesterday, but in a sort of, "well, that's something to keep an eye on" way, rather than a, "this needs immediate action" sort of way. But it was a little weird to me that she was concerned about the weight of the bigger baby, since when I worry about their weights at all, it's more about Zinnia's weight. Anyhow, both of them are right about average size for 3-month-old babies, and the 1.5 lb difference is typical of boys vs. girls.

I want to do a write-up of a typical day here soon (like sbtorpey and anemone), but of course a typical day doesn't have a big chunk of time for updating LJ, so it hasn't happened yet. Maybe I'll try a list later today.

Take me out to the big old ball game
Take me out to the big old ball game
Take me out to the big old ball game
Buy me some peanuts and cracker jack
And it's, "woot! woot! woot!" for the home steam
If they lose it's a shame
And it's one, two, three shirts you're out
At the big old ball game

( pictures )

Conversations with Iris:
Iris: "Why is Ben at work?"
Becca: "To earn money so we can pay for the house and buy food to eat."
Iris: "Actually, mostly diapers."

Iris: "Hey, you steffed me!"
Ben: "Steffed? What is stefing?"
Iris: "Stefan is a woman. Stefan is a man. Stefan is an uncle."

We had a crazy rainstorm last week after a drought. And then we had another heavy rainstorm today. Our house is in a bit of a low spot, and our backyard, garage, and basement flooded. We have a sump pump (and a backup sump), but they couldn't keep up, quite possibly because the backyard was too flooded to pump water into. Fortunately, smws was working out in the garage and noticed as soon as the water started coming in, so we were able to get stuff out before too much stuff got soaked. Zinnia slept through the whole thing, and I strapped Neil into the stroller where he sat contentedly watching us work.
( Pictures )

Becca: We're going to have a visitor tomorrow. Do you know who it is?
Iris: Yes. I know.
Becca: Who is it?
Iris: I think it's a business partner!
(Actually it was rubrick.)

joshbuckler has become one of Iris's favorite people. The other day, Zinnia was crying a little while I was nursing Neil, and Iris wanted to help. So she held Zinnia's hand, and I suggested that she talk to Zinnia. She said, "Zinnia, do you remember Josh? He lives in Josh's house. Do you think he's going to be at Josh's house tonight?" She also often tells us that Josh is so tall, and that he's bigger than me or Ben. The strange thing about this is that he's almost exactly the same size we are, and that she knows a few people (my father and brothers) who are quite a bit taller than that, but she never talks about how big they are.

The alphabet song, according to Iris:
"Let's count to three, so we can all start together. 1 - 2 - 3 A, B, C, D, H, I, J, K, L, M, N, and P. Q, R, X, Y, and Z. Now I know my A B C D, next time won't you sing with me?"

She's also picked up the habit of showing the pages of the book she's reading to the whole room after each page. Her favorite "reading material" these days is the phone book. "This book is about the telephone."

Yesterday evening as we were eating dinner, the babies were a little fussy, so Ben and I were each holding one. There was crying, so I started bouncing and rocking my baby a little to calm it down. This had no effect. It turns out that the one I was holding had fallen asleep, and Ben was holding the crying baby.

(This is sort of like trying to nurse the wrong end of the baby or rocking when standing still to help keep the baby asleep, even when I'm not wearing a baby in a carrier.)

( Baby pictures, as requested. )
Is it helpful for me to label which one is Neil and which is Zinnia when they're both in gender-neutral clothing?