Eat Real

Last weekend we needed something fun to do and Danny's boss told him about a foodie gathering in Oakland called "Eat Real".  It was a gathering of food trucks and outdoor classes about eating sustainable foods.  We invited my parents and left Pleasant Hill in short sleeves because it was a very pleasant 75 degrees. We got to Oakland and it was a chilly, overcast 70 degrees. We were a bit cold-and worried about the babies being cold-but had a really great time. We found an awesome parking spot on the street with no meter, which pretty much made my day right there.  There were a ton of people and we browsed all the food trucks and stalls before picking several to stand in line for.  Part of the deal was  that all the food had to be $5 or under-so that meant we were able to walk around and try lots of things. My favorite thing was a slider at Jim N Nicks BBQ.

Can you see some of the slogan in the background? It says "First we send them to heaven (the pig). Then we send you there". They did- it was wonderful.  We waited at Joes sea food truck for probably 45 minutes. We tried one of everything and the sea food eaters amongst us (= everyone but me) loved it. We also tried some great tacos, a naanwich (a delicious Indian sandwich) and some great fresh sorbet.

Lobster roll and shrimp poboy=yum and worth the wait

The babies were wonderful and got a ton of attention. At one point a very nice family walked by and just cooed at the girls for several minutes. They didn't speak any English but that didn't stop them from asking me all kinds of questions! I answered the best I could (with smiles and "Two girls", "Very different", "Big sister".)

Conference Sunday in Instagrams

So I've seen a lot of "my week in instagram" posts lately. Today I got on Danny's phone (I still have an old school flip phone) and played with it. It was so much fun! Like blogging, it is fun to share your life with others through pics (I think we have maybe three followers on instagram:) Anyway, I'm afraid taking pictures distracted me from a couple talks-but here is our day in instagrams:

Danny looks naked here-I promise he's not

It was so fun to try and get a pic with Danny. The last picture we took together was going into the OR when I was delivering the girls-not the best one for a profile pic. I took several before I got one with Danny's eyes open:)

5 months

My babies are five months. Why is it that with each monthly update I say to myself, "Already?!". Seriously. Already.  Well, we had no Dr. appointments this month so I can't record any stats but the girls seem a lot bigger lately.  Bathing them tonight Danny predicted that Lydia is a bit bigger but honestly they both feel about the same. Their car seats are definitely getting harder to heft to and from the car.  I'm getting too weak to carry both seats at the same time.

Both girls have been able to flip both ways for the last couple weeks but only this week did they start turning over onto their tummies CONSTANTLY. The problem is they often forget they can get back to their backs and after a minute they get really mad laying on their tummies. I hope they start remembering soon because I feel like all I do is flip babies:) Unfortunately with all this turning I have to stop swaddling them.  Our only bedtime/naptime ritual thus far has been swaddling the girls, saying I love you and leaving them to sleep peacefully.  The last two nights I have gone in when I heard Lydia crying and found her on her tummy while swaddled. I don't know how she does it but it makes me too nervous to leave them swaddled when they don't have their arms to help flip themselves back over. Does that make sense? So tonight I put Lydia in a wearable blanket, said I love you and left her. She cried. I let her cry for awhile, went back in and put her binkie it, more crying. Danny went in, held her arms close to her body for ten seconds and she was sound asleep.  Shoot. We'll see how this transition goes, I hope our awesome bedtime doesn't end.

Poor Joycie got stuck. Can you see how much baby equipment I have in my little house! For the record that is two bouncers, one excersaucer/thing, one bumbo, one swing and one playmat. You can't take two steps without hitting a baby related item.

Joyce:
Joyce has been smiling a lot more this month. Most people have to earn it, but she loves to smile at me:) She is a bit wary of strangers and if someone freaks her out she will cry a really sad cry. Poor baby because she gets looked at a TON. I can't go places without nice people wanting to look at my babies. As long as they don't touch (which they often want to do) I love it-but poor Joycie does not.  Joyce likes her exersaucer for small periods of time but does not enjoy sitting-she would much rather stand. She is very even tempered, but her sad face is adorable.  We call her Joyce, Joycie, Re-Joyce (my dad),  and Cute Girl (me).

mid chuckle

Lydia:
Lydia still constantly has a smile on her face. That baby will smile at the wall simply for existing.  She likes to be thrown in the air by her Daddy, turn over and stuff toys in her mouth (Joyce likes those too but Lydia seems to do them ferociously-does that make sense?). Lydia wakes up happy. She is not afraid of strangers and will smile at anyone who walks by.  When sad she has a wail that could wake the dead. We call her Lydia, Lydie, Wide Eyes and Beautiful Face (me).

I envy this child's lashes

(Yes I know my nicknames are weird and focused solely on their adorable features-but they are so cute that Cute One and Beautiful Face just come out! Those nicknames are used interchangeably too:)

Parenting

There are some days where you feel like you are a failure as a parent and then some days you feel like you been okay. Rarely you feel awesome, like you taught your child important life lessons, fed them nutriosious meals and only spoke kind words. Today I have felt ALL of those feelings. No super nutritious meal were made and I definitly need to work on my patience, but two things made me feel  good tday. First I saw this:

This picture usually sits on a Lucy's bureau. When I asked her why she moved it she said she wanted Jesus to be right by her bed so she could look and think about Him as she went to sleep. Cue the "Awwwwwwwws" .  Later as we drove to Grandma's she said "The other week during quiet time, Jesus talked to me in my heart and I heard Him. He talked really quietly but I heard him." :) This all comes after our Primary prgram on Sunday where she gave her "talk" and sang the second verse of Jesus wants me for a Sunbeam as a solo (!). She did great-the fact that she was singing it in front of two wards and a microphone didn't phase her. Unfortuantely I forgot to instruct her not to constantly wave at us from the stand, but what can you do.

Then tonight Danny told me that while I was gone Lucy was impatiently pacing and saying, "Mom is taking so beeping long!" over and over.  (Somehow it became a habit to say "beeping" instead f other four letter words:) I guess they hear the good and the bad huh?!

Cannibals

 We have reached that fun stage where the babies love gnawing on human flesh.  No matter how many toys I hand them, they would rather grab and chew my fingers than anything else.  The funniest thing is that they like to suck on each others hands/appendages. I'm not sure they even know it isn't their own-but when a hand comes out of nowhere, they usually seize the opportunity to grab and suck on it.  Lets hope this is just a stage and not evidence that their teeth are coming in soon.

Big Kid

I feel like this blog is all about babies lately! My big kid is doing great lately too.  Here's a little update:
At this moment she is watching Tangled and quoting the dialogue verbatim. She is going to be Rapunzel for Halloween and is super excited about the long braid I'm going to make her. She is anxiously waiting for Halloween-especially the decorating, books, and parties that come with it. She LOVES preschool and her ballet class and I love that she has such fun outlets. Her favorite show lately is Yo Gabba Gabba. I think that is typically for younger kids, but she watches it on netflicks with Katy while I go to the gym so it is their special thing.  She loves the babies. It is so fun to watch her with them because she is such a little mom. She perfectly mimics my mannerisms and vocab when it comes to the babies. I also love seeing how much they love her. If she is around and talking they won't eat because they just want to look at her. They both love to smile at her and she is the best at getting them to laugh. It is so much fun having a big kid.

She got a marshmallow for letting me take pictures of her. Once we were outside one marshmallow wasn't enough to get her to smile and look at the camera at the same time-so I mostly got funny faces-but turns out those are just as good:)

Crazy Labor Day

We had a really fun Labor Day weekend so I want to belatedly document it. I stay home every day and Danny works from home, but somehow a vacation day is still so exciting! On Saturday we went to Bencia with Katy and my parents to kayak, eat at Frankenburgers (a cute place we'd tried) and explore. Well, it was WAY to windy to kayak, Frankenburgers was closed because they're relocating and it was freezing.  I was worried, but fortunately it still turned out to be really fun.

Here is everyone freezing to death. Danny was determined to kayak so he went out on the water for ten minutes. The wind was so strong he was soaked when he came back in.

We found an adorable little cafe that made the best burgers and homemade chips I've ever had.  It was one of those fun finds when you're exploring.

My dad can't take a normal smiling picture. He always mugs for the camera.

 

That afternoon we crashed at the Leiningers to watch the BYU game. The babies decided the game was more interesting than their toys.

Camille came to play and she and Lucy played upstairs the whole time. They came down for cookies and to occasionally cheer for our team.

That is the craziest dress-up dress ever. She is being a Minnie Mouse bride/cheerleader if you didn't know:)

On Monday we had several plans, but we ended up driving to Oakland to explore a park with Steve, Marilyn, Spencer, and Camille. The kids discovered an old "castle" and each had a different sense that detected the presence of dragons.

While walking on some cute trails we were directed to the annual antler ritual. I can't remember what they actually called it-but it was wild. Everyone brought their antlers (?!) and they did a special dance with them. A woman walked by us and asked me to dance with her. I was a bit surprised and being a party pooper I said I should really be watching all the kids and couldn't. Well Danny immediately said he would dance with her. Marilyn, Steve and I just all stared at each other in surprise while Danny ran off (with Joycie on his chest) to dance the ritualistic dance with this random woman.  They borrowed some antlers and got their groove on. It was...memorable.  So there you have it-our Labor Day.

 

 

 

 

During the promenade