Wednesday, August 18, 2010

zoo time

I got a new camera last week and so I tried it out at the zoo and on my children. I still have much to learn in the ways of photography but at least I've got some adorable material to work with!
About 6 months ago I got a Bonzai Palm tree from my dad and was certain it'd be dead within in a week. Recently it sprouted a new branch....which for the first time made me feel like a successful nurturer...odd that I have 5 children and hadn't felt this before. Anyway, here's a picture of the new branch on my thriving plant.


This is the result of a long and fun day at the zoo. Moments like these are few and far between. A random guy at the zoo yesterday told Daniel he knew which twin was older. He said he knew because the older twin is always slightly bigger than the other. Max is the older one. Which one is Max? The one on the left is Max. That guy was full of baloney by the way.



We got to pet the rays at the St. Louis Zoo yesterday. We were also "lucky" enough to get to feed them if we so desired. I thought the kids would like to so I bought some food. Turns out they were too scared and couldn't really reach....so that leaves me with a handful of raw fish to hold out and let the ray glide over my hand and suction food off of it. It was SO cool and creepy...I jumped every time....it felt like they were going to bite my hand off....but I still have both hands and all 10 digits.




The three mustketeers...Ashley, Holly, and Andrew in front of the Elephants at the St. Louis Zoo yesterday.


Ash is such a cute girl. I made her pose a few times to test out my new camera on the perfect subject.

Henry has a great big smile and he's currently winning the competition for favorite twin...for his smiley personality.....with Daniel he's winning anyway. I appreciate Max's fireball self.



Here's my little Max and his camo helmet. He gets lots of extra attention and sympathy for wearing the helmet....not to mention it's a great head protector when he's less than graceful.


Sunday, August 1, 2010

recent happenings

a lot has happened since my last post....so much in fact that I've probably forgotten most of it. The twins have been growing like weeds and are both in the 95th percentile for their height and like 75th for weight....and that's not taking into account that they were born 4 weeks early. Maxwell recently got a helmet...not because he's a bike-riding baby....but because his head is mishapened....if that's how you spell that. Anyway, he's supposed to wear this helmet 7 days a week and 23 hours a day. The idea is that with this helmet his head will be forced(not painful) to grow into the space where his head is currently flatter...and sort of round out to make it symmetrical. Now you might be picturing this sad looking baby with a nerdy looking helmet. Erase that picture immediately from your mind and picture an adorable baby with an awesome camouflage helmet. Anyway hopefully this sweet helmet will give him a perfectly shaped head in the end. I will post a picture of this as soon as I get a camera...mine had a meltdown.

In other news Andrew has a loose tooth...his first...which he's extremely excited about. This of course brought on the toothfairy conversation. Andrew asked me if there really was a toothfairy and I said "kind of.....ummm go ask Daddy". A while back Daniel and I knew this couple where the wife told me about her childhood and feeling so betrayed by her parents when she found out about all the lies they'd been telling (i.e.....Santa Clause, Easter Bunny, Tooth Fairy, etc)...and I mean REALLY betrayed to the point that she told us that she and her husband had decided to be straighforward with their kids and tell them the truth that these things were not real but were fun traditions. Anyway that may seem extreme to you but I kind of agree with that philosophy. I have a hard time looking my kids in the eye and making up a story of how Santa gets in the house and how his elves do this and that or why the tooth fairy wants their yucky bloody tooth. So, Daniel and I kind of agreed we'd just tell them the truth....and so far we've just avoided the questions. Till the other day. Andrew did as I said and went and asked Daddy. And, back he came telling me there is no santa, no tooth fairy, no Easter bunny, etc. Wow...I don't know if I was ready for that. But, how can I expect them to believe me about other things if I straight up lie about these things. Well so I'm everyone else's worst nightmare. My kid will be the one ruining their kids' warm and cozy beliefs in Santa, the Easter Bunny, etc. Sorry. :)

In other news I just turned 28. I've never really felt old till now. I'm uncomfortably close to 30 and I find I'm liking less and less the clothing style options out there for me. That is a bad sign in case you were wondering. But I'm doing my best to swallow some of the current trends and stay young. No one need get offended by the fact that I feel old at 28 . Afterall you're only as old as you feel...right? Though recently I had a feeling I've never had before. I found myself being jealous of my kids who were playing outside with the neighborhood kids....what a weird feeling that was. There are lots of things about growing up that I wouldn't want to repeat, but for some reason the other day I really wanted to be one of them playing outside with my friends. weird. On my birthday I took the kids to The Field Museum in Chicago. It was a lot of fun and we got to see lots of dinosaur exhibits. Here's one that I saw that didn't make me feel any better.


Thank goodness I'm a human being and not a T. rex.