Well That Was Unexpected

I'm gobsmacked.  The article I wrote for xoJane made it's rounds in the infertility world, showing up in my feed from FB pages I follow, without my prompting. It may never happen again, so excuse me while I gloat just a tiny bit.  I'm so happy it was shared (4.8k times!) and brought hope to others dealing with infertility. Infertility sucks. I want all deserving potential moms and dads to get their "free baby"! It makes me sad knowing that my story is not the way it normally turns out. BUT, you really never know.

Thanks to my friends and family that read it and to those that shared it :) The more page hits, the more likely they will allow me to write for them again!

See my article here:
Infertile for 7 Years and Now I have 3 Kids Under 3

Getting Some Time to Myself After Baby

Cant.stop.baby-wearing. On our way to the doctor yesterday

Tonight I am forcing myself to get out.  Any mother of a newborn knows how hard the first time away is, if even only for an hour or two. Actually, BEING away won’t be so hard, its the tearing myself apart from the cute, wriggly newborn that spends most of his days attached to me like an additional appendage.  My excuse for near constant babywearing is that I fear the twins will trample, feed, pick up, or basically unintentionally kill my littlest. However, the truth is I love it. Chances are this is my last child, and I plan on snuggling 24/7 until he is actually strong enough to wrestle himself away from me. I hope he is prepared to put up a good fight, because I won’t be letting go easily.

The downside to this constant togetherness is that I feel like he NEEDS me ALL THE TIME.  When in fact, my husband can take care of him almost just as well as I do. He doesn’t have the preferred boobie milk delivery system, but Marlowe will settle for a bottle (if he must). After being excited about his two month doctor appointment yesterday because it meant I was going to have “me time”, I determined I was in dire need of true, actual time alone. If I’m considering time out with just ONE baby as “me time” then the situation must be extremely serious.

Here’s the problem with mama “me time”: Unless you have money to hire a babysitter during the day for a few hours, it has to happen after the kids go to bed. I don’t know about other moms, but once bedtime rolls around (7:30) I’m completely knackered. All I can really be bothered to do is watch some crap reality TV or MAYBE read. And if I’m reading it has to be something like Kinsella, Giffin, or if I’m feeling slightly more awake than usual maybe Gabaldon.  Once the sun goes down my brain is too fried for the greats like Wharton, James or Kundera. I miss feeling smart… so forcing myself to go to yoga tonight at 7:30 feels like an exercise in endurance. It’s not really “down” time; I will never consider exercise down time. BUT hopefully it will keep my brain awake enough to have some thoughts to myself, rather than just turning it off like I usually do. Hmmm. Is it weird to go to yoga so you can daydream? Probably, would be my guess. Either way, I’m super pumped and excited to hopefully make this a regular thing.  Just the idea of listening to music on my headphones the entire way there and back is enough to put a huge smile on my face. Hopefully Marlowe rewards my efforts by sleeping through the night. Oh, there ya go. That’s what I’ll most likely daydream about. Sleeping all the way through the night until morning…. bliss.

What My Crazy Pregnant Self Did Today

I was starting to feel like a loser for not getting the "nesting" instinct. Surely by 32 weeks (tomorrow), it should have started, right?  So in a fit of frustration I forced myself to organize my twins' closet, retrieve things the newbie could use and I went crazy in the kitchen... Managed to make Kale Chips, Chard Chips, Parsnip fries, hamburger buns, three swiss chard/garlic scape quiches (to be frozen for post baby days), rhubarb tea and granola bars.  My feet were about ready to fall off after I finally washed the final dish.  I've been immobile on my butt since, but at least I can say I had a productive day! Here are recipes/instructions for what I made:

Kale Chips:  Simply "de-bone" (is that what you call it?) the kale by tearing the green stuff from the stem stuff.  Do this with a bunch of the kale. Place it on a cookie pan. Drizzle some (NOT TOO MUCH) olive oil, sprinkle with mineral salt and mix it up. Bake in a preheated 275 degree oven for about 20 minutes.... I never time it, and it never seems to burn. Just gets nice and crisy :) Same rules apply to the Chard Chips.

Parsnip Fries:  Still perfecting this one, but today I washed and peeled four parsnips with a peeler thingy, then I cut each one into three sections, after that I cut each section into wedges about 1/8 inch thick.. put them on a cookie sheet, sprinkled them with olive oil, garlic and some rosemary. Baked at 375 degrees for about 20 minutes.  After about 10 minutes of baking stir the parsnips around a bit.


Swiss Chard/Garlic Scape Quiche: (NOTE: I have not yet taste tested these. MAKE AT YOUR OWN RISK!!!!)
Quiche Crust

Quiche Filling:
-1.5 cups of grated cheese of choice (my favorite is Gruyere)
-4 teaspoons of flour
-1/3 bunch of garlic scapes, washed and prepped (cut off bulbs and cut into 1 inch pieces)
-A few swiss chard leaves, washed and chopped very small.
-handful of sundried tomatoes. Chopped small 
-3 eggs
-2 good squirts of Dijon mustard
-1 cup of milk (or half n half if you're feeling too damn skinny!)
-1/4 teaspoon of salt
-Freshly grated parmesan for the top

1) Make the crust. Its easy, just do it. Recipe link above quiche filling instructions.

2) Fill the quiche crust with the grated cheese, add the flour and kind of mix it up with your hands. You could also mix the cheese and the flour separately in a bowl, but then your just adding a dish to wash later. I try to minimize unnecessary crap.

3) Top evenly with the scapes, chard and sundried tomatoes.

4) Whisk eggs, mustard, milk and salt in a separate bowl.

5) Pour over quiche filling as evenly as possible.

6) Grate some fresh parmesan cheese on top, as much or as little as you want.

7) Bake in 400 degree preheated oven for about 50-60 minutes. Or cover it and put it in the freezer for future nights when you just don't wanna.

Rhubarb Hibiscus Tea

Chocolate Chip Granola Bars

Hamburger Buns


Nesting instinct or no, I think I can be happy with the amount of "nesting" done today.  Even if forced!

Buh Bye Winter!

 

 

I feel like we are finally coming out of hibernation. This winter has been awful! Between morning sickness (YUP, unexpectedly pregnant with boy number 3! Due August 31!), the seemingly apocalyptic winter weather (i.e. unstoppable snow) and sickness after sickness after sickness the boys and I are ready for spring sun! 

I'm excited to wear something other than sweat pants and extra large hoodies. Time to break out the sandals, tank tops and sip iced coffees (I'm allowed 1-2 cups of coffee a day according to my doctor. I'm a mother to twin toddlers.... don't fight me on this one.). No more "snowy/rainy day" activity madness... My boys just eat art supplies anyways.  The one time we went to a scribble art class they spent the entire time screaming and stomping on all the well behaved toddlers' artwork. They may look serene and angelic in the photo above, but they are straight up BOYS.  All snails and puppy dog tails, these two! *Love them.

My boys are outdoorsmen. They like to explore and chase birds for now.  They can be artistic when they are older and more coordinated. For now they just want to know how the world works and why they can't eat that little bit of a balloon on the ground. Why not, mommy???! Pneumonia, and gross. THAT's why.

Winter at a glace:

 <scribble art class (before the destruction)



               just some no nap kisses>

 <Fav winter activity: Cuddling and reading.





                       And more reading>

<Indian Road Playground






          Fort Tryon, just a bit icy...>



 

FIRST AWESOME WEATHER!!!! The day they opened The Great Lawn in Central Park. We got there before it become annoyingly crowded. Look at us! We own NYC :) Also, look at their faces. Seriously.



Just so you know... This is my "normal". They NEVER go in the same direction. They coordinate this, I know they do.

One of the Many Perks to Living in Inwood

Flowers In Fort Tryon Park-Beginning of Spring

NOTE: This post was written April 2013, but I just now got around to publishing it :)




This picture makes me ADORE where I live.  Just a five minute walk to Fort Tryon, and a short (albeit GRUELING) uphill mini hike away.  The trip is even shorter when you have your two napping adorable Littles, a great friend and her very own Little to keep you company.  I'm hoping for many more days like this this spring :)

Today felt good.  With twins its a day by day thing... Having a great day today means NOTHING for tomorrow.  However, I am having more and more "feeling good" days.  We are all falling into a more predictable schedule and the night time crying/waking is diminishing, and mommy is getting her sanity back, JUST in time for the predictably amazing NYC Spring.  

Since having my sanity (aka night sleep) back, I've been craving some pavement time.  My solution was to wait for Jason to return home from work and run then... however, that would definitely end up being just a seasonal thing and therefore NOT good enough.  Jason suggested that I meet him with the boys in mid-town right after he gets off of work.  This idea was certainly an improvement however visions of tired and pissed off subway commuters screaming obscenities at me for bring a double wide or double long stroller on during rush hours shied me away from the idea. Rightly so. I would have been a pissed commuter too (prior to kids. However, now? I GET IT.).  

Luckily, last week I braved the subways and traveled all the way to Union Square.  I was determined to not be confined to my usual one mile radius surrounding the apartment (MUST learn how to nurse in public without feeling embarrassed.. would make life so much easier!).  And of course, since I'm a mother now, I bypassed my pre-mommy store (Sephora) and walked straight into Babies R Us (Ill be back some day Sephora!).  I couldn't believe it... BRU had the Bob Revolution Duallie on clearance for $300! WHAT? Unfortunately I am not an octupus, so I had to drag Jason back down to BRU on the weekend.  This is actually funny, because in order to get back home (including a detour to Central Park to test out Bob) we had to haul TWO double strollers (each containing one baby so we only looked half insane) on two separate subways and up and down too many to count itty bitty elevators.  It was like Real Size Tetris. 

Testing out my new Bob. Screaming Marek riding the "trunk" ;)