After experiencing a month in the NICU, and (still) learning about what being parents of preemies entails, we decided to become involved with the March of Dimes. Okay, by WE I really mean I. ("The royal We," right, Lewbowski fans?) I felt compelled to do something to help MOD, so I created a family team and decided that we were going to participate in the MOD's annual March for Babies this year. I invited family and friends to join our team, and even came up with a clever name for our team: The HenderTwins. It's part play on The Wonder Twins, and part tribute to my students who have decided that everything in my classrooms and life should start with "Hender."
I'm really excited for the walk next weekend, and I'm hoping that it can become an annual event for our family. Who knows...maybe the HenderTwins will become some sort of epic MOD fundraising machine! HenderTwin powers activate!
RMH 5/24/13
Friday, May 24, 2013
Wednesday, May 15, 2013
...Uh...Now What?
Mother's Day was yesterday. After a full day of playing with the kids, going shopping, and having dinner with my parents Scott and I ended up sitting next to each other at 7:30 with two sleeping kids and nothing to do.
Nothing.
Eventually, after deciding that cleaning was overrated, we settled on watching a movie, which is fun, but we do that all of the time. Watching movies is becoming repetitive, and boring. We just end up sitting, and not really talking or doing anything. We need a hobby.
I need suggestions. Stuff that we can do at home while the kids are sleeping that doesn't involve yet another movie, or video games. Ready? Set? Go!
RMH 5/13/13
Nothing.
Eventually, after deciding that cleaning was overrated, we settled on watching a movie, which is fun, but we do that all of the time. Watching movies is becoming repetitive, and boring. We just end up sitting, and not really talking or doing anything. We need a hobby.
I need suggestions. Stuff that we can do at home while the kids are sleeping that doesn't involve yet another movie, or video games. Ready? Set? Go!
RMH 5/13/13
Wednesday, April 17, 2013
...Use Your Noodle.
Pasta. Probably my favorite thing to eat ever. As my ever-expanding ass shows, I can't turn down a noodle in any form. Ever. So why can't I get my kids to eat pasta?
My kids have willingly tolerated trying most foods as we keep moving from baby food to table food, but put a noodle in front of them and all hell breaks loose! We've tried them with sauce, with cheese, with butter, with nothing. I've over-cooked them. I've under-cooked them. Nada. It's like something out of Green Eggs and Ham...they won't even touch them. Instead, they scream bloody murder at the sight of them. I'm sure the neighbors are wondering what we're doing to them. Not to worry. We're just trying to get our kids to freaking eat a noodle.
At this point we're either going to give up completely on the idea of giving them pasta, or we're going to have to get creative. Who has an idea for me?
RMH 4/17/13
My kids have willingly tolerated trying most foods as we keep moving from baby food to table food, but put a noodle in front of them and all hell breaks loose! We've tried them with sauce, with cheese, with butter, with nothing. I've over-cooked them. I've under-cooked them. Nada. It's like something out of Green Eggs and Ham...they won't even touch them. Instead, they scream bloody murder at the sight of them. I'm sure the neighbors are wondering what we're doing to them. Not to worry. We're just trying to get our kids to freaking eat a noodle.
At this point we're either going to give up completely on the idea of giving them pasta, or we're going to have to get creative. Who has an idea for me?
RMH 4/17/13
Monday, February 11, 2013
"At first I was afraid. I was petrified..."
Not gonna lie, this first year has been more hectic, emotional, difficult, amazing, fun, hard, rewarding, exhausting, and everything else than I ever thought possible. And I wouldn't change a minute of it.
Happy 1st birthday, Neil and Lizzie. We love you!
RMH 2/9/13
Happy 1st birthday, Neil and Lizzie. We love you!
RMH 2/9/13
Friday, January 11, 2013
The Great Balancing Act...Part 2...
Eleven months, 3 weeks, and 3 days. How the hell did that happen? Neil and Lizzie have gone from being these tiny things to these large, drooling, teething, silly, cruising, and grooving kids. It's amazing...and scary!
The balancing act this time isn't mine, it's theirs. Watching them teeter as they try to stand independently, and holding their hands as they try to walk...they look like tiny drunk people! It's funny, but it's also terrifying. Every wobbly step makes me so proud of their achievements, but every tumble and fall breaks my heart.
Okay, maybe that's dramatic (I have a flair for it), but it's nerve wracking. I keep choking back gasps as they fall, trying not to make the fall worse for them. I sound ridiculous! Ai know that with each tumble, bump, and fall that they are becoming more confident. I just wish that I could wrap them in bubble wrap until they can walk!
RMH 2/4/13
The balancing act this time isn't mine, it's theirs. Watching them teeter as they try to stand independently, and holding their hands as they try to walk...they look like tiny drunk people! It's funny, but it's also terrifying. Every wobbly step makes me so proud of their achievements, but every tumble and fall breaks my heart.
Okay, maybe that's dramatic (I have a flair for it), but it's nerve wracking. I keep choking back gasps as they fall, trying not to make the fall worse for them. I sound ridiculous! Ai know that with each tumble, bump, and fall that they are becoming more confident. I just wish that I could wrap them in bubble wrap until they can walk!
RMH 2/4/13
Tuesday, September 18, 2012
...Making Food From Scratch
I love food. And it loves me. So much so that it sticks around in places that I don't want it to (read: hips, thighs, stomach). I enjoy making the food almost as much as I enjoy eating it. So I figured that making baby food for the twins would be a logical move for me. I wasn't thinking about the cost at first, but let me just say that the savings are worth every minute I spend making baby food!
First, here's the basic method: Clean, quarter, steam, puree, cool, freeze. The whole process works for most fruits and vegetables, and generally takes less that an hour. If you really need a more specific recipe, here's the one for apples:
5 sweet firm apples (Gala, Pink Lady, Honeycrisp), cleaned and quartered (skins on)
Step 1: Place steamer basket into a pot with 1 inch of water (or use steamer if you have one)
Step 2: Place apples in steamer basket
Step 3: Turn heat on high, cover pot and steam apples until soft (anywhere from 15-30 minutes)
Step 4: Turn off heat, transfer apples to a bowl and cool to the point that you can touch them
Step 5: Remove skins (they should peel right off) and place in blender
Step 6: Puree apples, adding some of the steaming liquid, breast milk, or formula to thin the puree as needed
Step 7: Transfer puree into an air-tight container to keep in the refrigerator for up to 3 days, or freeze in an ice cube tray (each well is 1 ounce) for up to 3 months.
You can substitute pears, carrots, butternut squash, peas, zucchini, or pretty much anything else that you want for the apples and do the exact same process. A word of warning: the peas came out much more concentrated than everything else, so I thin those out with some formula when I feed them to the twins. The zucchini was very watery, so I mix that with rice cereal to get a consistency that stays on the spoon.
Some vegetables require a little more time. For beets and yams/sweet potatoes clean the vegetable (leave the skins on), prick with holes, and roast at 350 degrees for an hour or until soft. You could do this with the carrots and squash too. Roasting sweetens the vegetables slightly.
I haven't attempted to puree my own meat. The thought of making "meat paste" doesn't really appeal to me, so I'm using jarred food until the kids can eat the same food that I make for dinner. (Based on how fast the teeth are coming in, I don't think I'll have to endure this cost for too long!) However, Momtastic's Wholesome baby Food site has some basic recipes for purees if you're interested. (http://wholesomebabyfood.momtastic.com/MeatRecipes.htm)
Happy puree-ing!!!
RMH 9/18/12
First, here's the basic method: Clean, quarter, steam, puree, cool, freeze. The whole process works for most fruits and vegetables, and generally takes less that an hour. If you really need a more specific recipe, here's the one for apples:
5 sweet firm apples (Gala, Pink Lady, Honeycrisp), cleaned and quartered (skins on)
Step 1: Place steamer basket into a pot with 1 inch of water (or use steamer if you have one)
Step 2: Place apples in steamer basket
Step 3: Turn heat on high, cover pot and steam apples until soft (anywhere from 15-30 minutes)
Step 4: Turn off heat, transfer apples to a bowl and cool to the point that you can touch them
Step 5: Remove skins (they should peel right off) and place in blender
Step 6: Puree apples, adding some of the steaming liquid, breast milk, or formula to thin the puree as needed
Step 7: Transfer puree into an air-tight container to keep in the refrigerator for up to 3 days, or freeze in an ice cube tray (each well is 1 ounce) for up to 3 months.
You can substitute pears, carrots, butternut squash, peas, zucchini, or pretty much anything else that you want for the apples and do the exact same process. A word of warning: the peas came out much more concentrated than everything else, so I thin those out with some formula when I feed them to the twins. The zucchini was very watery, so I mix that with rice cereal to get a consistency that stays on the spoon.Some vegetables require a little more time. For beets and yams/sweet potatoes clean the vegetable (leave the skins on), prick with holes, and roast at 350 degrees for an hour or until soft. You could do this with the carrots and squash too. Roasting sweetens the vegetables slightly.
I haven't attempted to puree my own meat. The thought of making "meat paste" doesn't really appeal to me, so I'm using jarred food until the kids can eat the same food that I make for dinner. (Based on how fast the teeth are coming in, I don't think I'll have to endure this cost for too long!) However, Momtastic's Wholesome baby Food site has some basic recipes for purees if you're interested. (http://wholesomebabyfood.momtastic.com/MeatRecipes.htm)
Happy puree-ing!!!
RMH 9/18/12
Thursday, July 5, 2012
...Momma Said There'd Be Days Like This...
I don't want to give the wrong impression about having twins. It's freaking hard. But Neil and Lizzie are pretty easy-going babies and for that I say, "Thank you, Jesus!" However, we've had our moments over the last few months. Here's an email (edited to delete some profanity that slipped out in my moment of stress and now including a few details that I was too frazzled to email at the time) that I sent to Scott about one of those moments. I hope you find the humor in it like we did...once it was over!
So, I start feeding Lizzie and Neil flips out on me big time. So I put Lizzie in a bouncer, grab Neil, and feed him on my lap while I feed her in the bouncer. Lizzie gets disinterested in eating so I stop feeding her and concentrate on Neil who starts slowing down and falling asleep. I decide to switch their spots to see if Lizzie wants more to eat. Nope! She poops all over my leg. I have to grab her, hold my pant leg to keep the poo-glob from falling on the rug, and get upstairs. Once there, I take off my poo pants and change Lizzie without any pants on! I get her cleaned up, she's laughing at me by now of course, get my leg cleaned up and start taking the laundry to the basement...completely forgetting that I don't have any pants on until I hit the kitchen! I run back upstairs and put pants on, then run back downstairs to get laundry started. So, now I have a second load of laundry going and both babies are mad at me because their feeding time was hectic! It's only 12:30!!!
RMH 7/10/12
So, I start feeding Lizzie and Neil flips out on me big time. So I put Lizzie in a bouncer, grab Neil, and feed him on my lap while I feed her in the bouncer. Lizzie gets disinterested in eating so I stop feeding her and concentrate on Neil who starts slowing down and falling asleep. I decide to switch their spots to see if Lizzie wants more to eat. Nope! She poops all over my leg. I have to grab her, hold my pant leg to keep the poo-glob from falling on the rug, and get upstairs. Once there, I take off my poo pants and change Lizzie without any pants on! I get her cleaned up, she's laughing at me by now of course, get my leg cleaned up and start taking the laundry to the basement...completely forgetting that I don't have any pants on until I hit the kitchen! I run back upstairs and put pants on, then run back downstairs to get laundry started. So, now I have a second load of laundry going and both babies are mad at me because their feeding time was hectic! It's only 12:30!!!
RMH 7/10/12
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