That Bowl Holiday

We've watched less and football as the girls have gotten older.  You'd think it would be getting easier to occupy them with something long enough to watch a football game now and then, but for some reason, it just seems harder.  As a result, I haven't watched a single game this year. 

That doesn't stop us from being excited about SuperBowl.  (Who's playing anyway?)  And even the girls are excited about it.  Why you ask, are the girls excited about it?  Because around our house, SuperBowl is known as "That bowl holiday where we eat all the snacks."

Yep, that's what SuperBowl means to us, a holiday of junk food.  A huge, plentiful array of artery-clogging snack foods.  

To prep for this momentous holiday, Laura took the girls to Safeway to prepare.  They stood in awe in the potato chip aisle.  "We can have anything we WANT?  REALLY??" Yup. For one day, all the snacks you can eat, and hot dogs for dinner too!

Happy Super Bowl!

California Academy of Science

On Sunday the girls, Dad, Nancy, Alex and I went to the NEW! And IMPROVED! California Academy of Science in San Francisco. Our first successful trip since it reopened in September last year. I say successful, because Laura & the girls and I were turned away the week after Christmas because they were sold out! It’s an extremely popular place. We vowed not to come on a weekend or holiday again, but since Dad & Grandma Nancy offered to take us for the girls birthday, we decided to take our chances and brave it on a Sunday anyway. The crowds were very large, as expected, but we got in (thanks to pre-purchased tickets). And we only got a parking space because we arrived 30 minutes before the museum even opened. Laura didn’t feel well and stayed home, and probably would have felt worse in the tight crowds. At times we felt a bit like, well, sardines.


It was truly amazing though; thanks Dad & Grandma Nancy for taking us!
The new aquarium exhibits were spectacular and huge.



The 3 story rainforest exhibit was amazing too, and none of these photos do it justice.

That big fish there…is at least 3 feet long. 

The whole rainforest is covered in these skylights.

Here’s a particularly fine photo:
That butterfly is bigger than my hand. Or Sophie's head. Practically. Well, almost.



















Another finely composed and focused shot, don't you think? Yes, that poison dart frog is so easy to see, isn't it? Unlike the butterfly, this frog was smaller than...well, smaller than most butterflies.

Touring just the rainforest takes at least 30 minutes, and it’s probably at least 85-90 degrees inside and, as you would imagine, incredibly humid. Of course it was 40 degrees outside where we waited in line before the museum opened, so we were a little overdressed for rainforest weather and started to wilt by the end of it. As demonstrated here:

And yes, that is an official seven-year-old eye roll by Zoe. ENOUGH with the pictures Mama! I’m melting!!

All in all, a terrific Sunday; I look forward to going back to the museum many more times!

Tooth Fairy, AGAIN?

Dear Tooth Fairy –

I’ve got an extra room if you want to just move in for the next year or two. I’m just saying, because you drop by so often, it must be exhausting, all that flying, carrying teeth, carrying all that money around. What do you do with all the teeth by the way? My kids want to know, as we discussed extensively here.

Anyway, let me know if you want me to make up a shoe box or something for you to sleep in one night. On second thought, that might be a little creepy.

Nevermind.

Love,
Stacey

Before:


After:


Perhaps the Tooth Fairy is getting a little old?

Every once in a while I feel like I have this motherhood thing figured out

Have you ever tried to feed Sophie lunch?  Since almost all my readership is made up of family members, I'll take that as a yes from most of you.  And for those who haven't...well, trust me, it isn't fun.  The kid eats 4 things: 

1. tuna, 
   
2. fish sticks, 
   
3. chicken nuggets
4. plain pasta  
   

I call it the beige diet.  Well OK, maybe it's a little exageration, she also eats 

1. soup, 
2. bean (only bean, no cheese) burritos, 
3. hot dogs, 
4. french fries
5. cheese pizza (the only time she'll eat cheese at all)
6. and...and...and nothing, that's the end of the list.  

OK, what is wrong with this list in terms of school lunches?  8 of the 9 items on her list taste like crap cold.  Seriously, I don't even blame her here, cold fish sticks? Ewww.  And the ONLY item that is good cold you can't feed a kid every day cause of the mercury content.  (Yes, that would be the tuna.)

So, what's a mom to do?  Buy her lunch tickets and let her buy a hot lunch that's what.  But that can only go on so long.  I know she only eats the cheese pizza, and has no veggies or fruit whatsoever.  So I've been searching for a satisfactory lunch box meal.  PB&J? Nope. Kid likes neither peanut butter nor jelly.  Lunch meat sandwich? Nope, won't eat them.  Cold pizza? Nope.  

But a week ago I had a genius idea.  What if I shredded up cooked chicken, really small, mixed it with mayonaise, and called it tuna? What if??  So I tried it. And you know what? She LIKED it!  Miracle! TAAAAADAAAAAA! Ding, Ding, Ding, little Mommy bells go off.  And to top it off, Zoe likes it too!! A double winner!!!

So for the next 10 years I'll be making Sophie chicken salad sandwiches (in pita bread mind you, she doesn't like any regular bread, except for the end/crust pieces, weird) and calling them tuna pita sandwiches. And I'll wink at Zoe, and she'll know what she's really having.  

And someday Sophie will read this and say, YOU LIED?? About my sandwiches????  And I'll fess up and say, "YEP!  But I prefer to call it creative parenting."  

Finally

YES WE DID.  

I'm so thrilled today has finally come, I don't have anything more to write.  

Well, except this - 

                    Get to work!

Thank you Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.

I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin, but by the content of their character.

I believe that tomorrow's inauguration of Barak Obama as the 44th President of the United States of America is evidence that we are living Dr. King's dream. Not in all places, at all times, and in all instances, and there is progress to be made, certainly. But in the 45 years since Dr. King spoke those words, what a remarkable change. Barak Obama's parents couldn't get married in 19 states when Dr. King spoke those words. Tomorrow he will be the President of our nation.   This revolution is due in large part to Dr. King's actions, words, and dedicated life, and to those he inspired to continue his work.  So for that, thank you Dr. King, thank you. 

Now, how long before gays and lesbians can get married in all 50 states? How much longer after that before a gay man or lesbian woman is in the White House? I expect to see the first in my lifetime, but I don't know about the second. Will my children see that milestone?

I have a dream that all grown gay and lesbian children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by who they love, but by the content of their character. 

And I hope that the nation is the USA.

We may have to move

I can't describe how happy on the successful landing of Flight 1549, and at the pending inauguration.  I'm thrilled that 2009 is starting off on such high and hopeful notes!  

I do have to share this EXTREMELY ALARMING story however.  To me, it is the most horrific news of 2009 so far.  Continue reading if you dare, but I warn you, it's extremely disturbing and includes a photo.  Taken from the Castro Valley Forum website:

Unusual 8-Legged Visitor Pays Visit to CV Family Christmas Eve
By : Robert Souza : 1/6/09

After home returning from Neighborhood Church on Christmas Eve, Steve George and his family had an unexpected visitor. But it wasn’t Santa Claus.

“We took a few blankets with us and when we returned, my wife unfolded one of them and felt something underneath,” George told The Forum. “It was a pretty good sized spider, and pretty unusual to see a spider that size around here.”

Thinking on his feet, George trapped the spider with a plastic cup, and did some arachnid homework on the Internet.

Known as Zoropsis spinimana, the spider George caught is a native of Northern Africa and the Mediterranean coastal countries. Males of the species reach a length of about 10 mm while females can reach up to 15 mm.

Like most zoropsid cribellate (spiders that spin a wooly-appearing tangled mass of finer threads instead of a single sticky-thread strand), spinimana is a wandering spider that does not build a web, but hunts freely with a unique arrangement of two rows of eyes that are more equal in size than other spiders.

“Each time we get a range extension is exciting for us,” said expert Darrell Ubick of the California Academy of Sciences, Ubick has been studying the spider’s migration and how the species has been settling in the Bay Area for the past 10 years.

This was the first sighting in Castro Valley. So far, Zoropsis spinimana has been encountered in Oakland, North Berkeley, San Mateo and San Francisco, since its arrival the U.S. in 1995.

Ubick believes it probably traveled to the Bay Area with a furniture shipment or in a vacationer’s suitcase.  The Zoropsis spinimana appears to be harmless and is normally found under rocks and bark on forest perimeters, where it hunts for prey during the night.  Since the spider cannot survive in harsh climates, human houses where temperatures are moderate and food crumbs can be readily found are preferred.  

OMG did you read that last line????  Here is the horrifying picture!  

AAAAAAAAARRRRRRRRRHHHHHHHHHH.  

Honey, call the movers. 

Happy Birthday Sophie! Happy Birthday Zoe!

Happy, Happy, Happy

 7th Birthday!!!

Happy Birthday Sophie!!

Happy Birthday Zoe!!!

Busy, busy, busy

Turns out that getting ready for double 7 year old birthday party trumps scanning dozens of photos and making slide shows....I hope to resume slide shows after their birthday. Stay tuned...

2003 A Year of Double Diaper Duty (Doody?) in Review

I am highlighting each of the girls 7 years in the seven days leading up to their 7th birthday.  Today's highlights are from 2003, in which our little darlings are 1 year old, learn to walk (14 months for Zoe, 16 for Sophie!) and get into all kinds of mischief.  Sophie starts turning everything she finds into a hat.  Zoe calls Sophie "Sosie" and Sophie calls her sister ZoEEEEEEEE. 

This was also the year where we became the parents of twin toddlers, not twin babies. We experienced the challenges of two toddlers.  Like chasing Sophie through the park and swooping her in the air, only to have her slip out of Laura's hands and crash on the cement. But wait! As if we didn't already feel like the world's worst parents, while we were checking Sophie for damage, Zoe climbed onto the bench next to us and decided to nose dive off the bench for fun.  We left the park quickly before someone called Child Protective Services on us.  Sophie was fine but Zoe had to get a CAT scan from that little adventure. 

Oh then Halloween. First trick-or-treating ever, at my office. Great fun. The next day Zoe shoved a mini M&M up her nose. Another trip to the hospital for her...again, she was fine, of course.  But it was a busy year chasing babies! Enjoy the pictures!

Welcome to 2009! Let's Review 2002....

Ok, so 7 days in 2009 and this is my first post of the year.  What's up you ask?  Well, just a little thing called the birthday month.  6 weeks early those little girls arrived, making me have to deal with their birthday a mere 20 days after Christmas.  Who's got time to take down the tree, the lights, the decorations, AND assemble 4294 Lego pieces into various Star Wars ships, AND plan a birthday party, AND go to work, oh yeah, and keep up this here blog?  Not me, that's who. 

Now we're down to 7 days to their birthday, 7 days to their 7th birthday...so I thought I'd count down to number seven.  So following is Year 1 in pictures - can you believe they weighed only 4 lbs each? It seems like just a minute ago.