Cheese (Style)

A couple of weeks ago I bought a package of Daiya, a dairy and soy-free cheese substitute, to try out in a new recipe. I'm committed to the diet change, but *woof* - fake cheese... I was scared. Consequently, the Daiya and the other recipe ingredients stayed in the fridge for a while. But then the night came where I was out of options. There was no cash in the house for delivery, nary a freezer meal to thaw, and no leftovers...so I had to actually cook with the fake cheese. (Dun dun dun!!!)

And you know what? It was pretty dang good. It melted like cheese, it tasted like cheese, it even smelled like cheese. There's a subtle difference, but my husband ate it up and still has no clue it wasn't real cheese. (That was the real test, as far as I was concerned.)

Then I started thinking about all of my mom friends whose breastfeeding babies have dairy and/or soy sensitivities/allergies. This product is perfect!

Did any of you know about this stuff?

Four Websites Worth Your Precious Mommy Time

Stonyfield Rewards - With most rewards programs, it takes forever to build up enough points to get anything. Not so with the Stonyfield program. If your family uses Stonyfield products (hello, YoBaby yogurt!), you've got to get in on this. I've already gotten a free magazine subscription, a free four-pack of YoBaby yogurt, and two free HappyBaby products.

Upromise - I didn't use Upromise for a while because I thought that since we don't do much shopping at conventional grocery stores, it wouldn't work for us. And then I discovered that they also offer online shopping savings. Savings as in "free" money going into a college fund for the babies based upon a percentage of what I spend shopping online. I downloaded the toolbar that reminds me when I'm visiting a participating site, and just with Christmas shopping, I added about $30 to their account. Yeah, it's not going to pay for a degree, but if I can save enough over the course of 18 years to pay for a semester of books, it's worth it.

Environmental Working Group's Cosmetic Database - This database has cosmetic products rated according to toxins and allergens. I'll admit to not running everything I use on myself through this database, but I certainly do for anything that goes on the babies. Just run some of your family's favorite products through it for kicks and giggles. You might be surprised.

Amazon Mom - Okay, this one isn't exactly a website, but it's definitely worth checking into. When you sign up for the program, you get 3 months of free Prime membership, which means that you get free 2-day shipping. Then for each $25 you spend on baby products, they add another month of free Prime membership, all the way up to a year (and the Terms & Conditions page says they may extend it - yippee!). As if that wasn't fantastic enough, if you do the Subscribe & Save thing on their diapers, you save 30% on diapers. Seriously. (Yes, we do cloth diapers, but I'm on an every 3 months schedule with the Amazon subscription. It works out well with any traveling, weekend excursions, nighttime diapering, etc - and having two babies. You could even do every six months.) The only catch is that you have to cancel the membership when your time is up or they'll charge you for another year of it. Eh, put a reminder on your calendar.

What about you? Any wonderful websites to share with fellow mommies?

10 Free or Almost-Free Things To Do Outside Your House With a Baby

1. Take Baby to the park and take pictures.
2. Take Baby to the park and put Baby in a swing. But not a super tiny baby.

3. Take Baby to the park, put out a blanket, sprinkle some toys around, and let Baby do whatever he or she is developmentally capable of at the time. Babies love being outside.
4. Take Baby on a walking trail. If your stroller is as beastly as mine, look for a paved one.
5. Take Baby for a stroll around the mall. While it’s best to do this on a day when you have strong financial resolve, an impatient baby can help motivate you to move it along. Babies don’t like waiting in lines.
6. Take Baby somewhere with a patio or a big window. Ice cream or warm beverage-type establishments are ideal. You get a treat, and baby gets to people watch. Lucky for Baby, no one finds his or her staring weird or intrusive.
7. Take Baby to the library for story time. Babies are never too young to enjoy a book or a song.
8. Take Baby to the library and have your own story time. While you’re there, check out some books to read at home and maybe even a little something for yourself. I do recommend using the online catalog to check availability BEFORE you go. Not only do babies hate waiting, but the library is also the perfect place to forget about every book that’s ever sounded interesting.
9. Take Baby to visit a family member or friend.
10. Join the local chapter of MOMS. I happened upon MOMS when we made our cross-country move, and it’s been the key to helping me keep my sanity while we’re away from everyone I’ve ever known. Even if you’re surrounded by friends and family, though, MOMS is still a wonderful organization. Check it out. Shout out to my MOMS gals!

http://www.momsclub.org/

Nine Months Appointment

The Stats:

Linus
　

	Measurement	Percentile
Length	28.5”	50%
Weight	18# 5 oz	15%
Head Circumference	45.5 cm	50%

　
Veda

	Measurement	Percentile
Length	27”	25%
Weight	14# 11 oz	<5%
Head Circumference	42 cm	5%

　
　
Both babies have made huge progress in length since their last check-up. I’d been suspecting that their height was in a greater percentile than their weight since they both tend to outgrow clothes tall-wise before they do fat-wise. Considering where we started out on the growth charts (as in not on them), we’ve come a long way. Note that Linus's giant head is now allegedly of average size. Ha! The hats I just bought for him were 18-24 months.

According to the alternative vaccine schedule we’re following, the babies were in for the polio and flu vaccines today. Polio went well - whimpering from Linus and minimal crying from Veda. I decided not to do the flu vaccine today since the practice doesn’t usually offer the thimerosal-free version for babies. (Thimerosal is the mercury preservative in most flu vaccines.) They’re going to order doses for Linus and Veda. Did I mention that I am LIKING this practice?

I’m so, so grateful that my babies are healthy and perfect. Only three more months until our next weigh-in fix!

Our First Halloween

Today Veda and Linus’s Halloween costumes arrived in the mail courtesy of Nana. This is a big deal.

Christmas has to be everyone’s favorite holiday, but my personal close second is Halloween. Playing dress-up, all the candy you can eat, spooky stuff, and carving pumpkins… what’s not to like? But after a certain point in your life, Halloween, a holiday that like most others is centered around children, becomes a bit hollow and difficult to celebrate if there are no little ones around. For this reason, Halloween, which had previously been one of my favorite days of the year, became sort of… depressing. I could dress up, but go where? Do what? I had to go to work the next day, and I didn‘t associate with people who threw adult-type parties anymore. A couple of years ago I decided to take Halloween by the reins and put Mimi in a doggie Tinkerbell costume so we could participate in the costume parade in the little town we lived in. When we got there, we were the only human-dog pair. Everyone else in attendance was, of course, either a parent or a child. It was humiliating. We left before it actually started, because it would have been more pitiful to have actually participated.

But here I am, back in the business of my almost favorite holiday. We’re too little for trick-or-treating, and I’m afraid that’s a tradition that’s on its way out anyway. (What’s up with that?!) This year we’ll dress up, go to a kiddie party, maybe go to a fundraiser in our costumes, and probably stroll around the neighborhood. The babies will never remember it, but there will be plenty of pictures. It feels good to be eligible to play in the game.

Veda and Linus FAQ's

1. Are they identical?

No. One is a boy, which means he has XY chromosomes, and one is a girl, so she has XX chromosomes. This means they DO NOT have identical DNA.

You’d be surprised how often people ask this.

2. Do twins run in your family?

No. Linus and Veda are miracles of science. It took a team of doctors, embryologists, and lab technicians in two different cities to help us create them with IVF and Assisted Hatching. I don’t mind telling anyone this, because it’s proof of how much they were wanted and loved before they even existed.

3. Do they have different personalities?

Well, yeah. They’re different people. Being a twin will always be a part of their respective identities, but they are individuals, and we make efforts to promote their individuality.

4. Are they crawling?

Linus does an army crawl with increasing efficiency. Veda is content to watch. We’re pretty sure that she’s going to skip crawling and go straight to walking.

5. Who was born first?

Most people think it must be Linus since he’s bigger, but, nope, it was little Veda. She was Baby A all along, which just means that she was closer to the birth canal. Even though they were born by Caesarian, she still managed to make it out one minute before her brother. You’d be eager to get out of there too if you’d been stuffed in there with a brother who was still turning flips at 37 weeks.

6. Were they premature?

No. We made it to one day short of 38 weeks before our planned C-section.

7. How much did they weigh?

Veda was 4 lbs 14 oz, and Linus was 5 lbs 10 oz. Veda was diagnosed with IUGR (Intrauterine Growth Restriction) towards the end of my pregnancy. I’ve had pediatric nurses ask me if I’m sure that she wasn’t premature. Uh, yeah. I was there. Pretty sure.

8. Do they play together?

At this point toy stealing makes up the majority of their playtime interactions. Occasionally they do make an even trade of toys, which they seem to have some sort of mutual understanding about. I love, love, love it when they look at each other and grin and coo or babble to one another. It melts my mommy heart and reminds me all over again why all of those shots in my hip with the world’s biggest needle were worth it.

Dog Sister

This is Mimi.

From the beginning, Mimi has been looking out for the babies. After Linus and Veda (at that time known as Sticky and Underdog) were transferred, Mimi knew something was up. She kept the cat shooed away from my lap and made noticeable efforts to avoid any clumsy moves around my tummy.

When Birth Day finally arrived, Mimi passed our four day hospital stay at Ray’s parents’ house. Having never been away from us for so long, Mimi was thrilled to see us when she joined us at home. Just like in a dog food commercial, she charged at me, I picked her up, and she joyously licked my face. Then smelling that something in her domain had changed, she trotted into the newly occupied nursery and stood up on her hind legs to sniff out the new little people dozing in the crib.

Sweet as she is, we’ve tried to avoid any situations that could lead to trouble. The baby-dog relationship has been strictly monitored. In fact, we’ve probably erred on the side of being overly cautious. Yet, in spite of our best efforts, the inevitable ear pulling and tail grabbing has occurred. So far she’s been a little doggie saint, only looking up at me as if to ask for help.

There have been a couple of slip-ups - a chewed pacifier dropped on the floor and one chewed spoon, but considering how many brightly-colored objects that resemble dog toys get strewn about the floor, that’s practically doggie behavior perfection.

Why, Hello There

When I was pregnant, I spent some good bedrest time looking for baby books made for twins. I found just the right ones. In those first weeks home from the hospital, I sometimes pasted pictures in the books and filled in baby statistics. It didn't take long for me to realize that a) remembering to update those books is impossible and b) they completely fail to capture the individuality of my little people. In twenty years, I doubt that Veda will care what the exact date was when she first said "Mama". but I bet she'll be amused to know that she frequently stole the pacifier from Linus's mouth to put it in her own. Linus will probably get a chuckle out of knowing that most of the time he didn't mind. That's my primary objective with this blog. One day I'll hand this on to them as a big ol' love letter.

The second goal of this blog is to have a forum through which to share the Linus and Veda experience with family and friends who live far away.

Finally, I enjoy writing. I've considered trying to do magazine work, but I think we all know how the magazine industry is going. (Which ones folded this week?) Maybe this will turn into something interesting, or maybe it will just be another mommy blog that's only relevant to our friends and family. I'm okay with that.