Snowing in Portland!

It doesn't snow often in Portland and when it does it tends to cripple the city. So, it was a big surprise to wake up to a couple of inches of snow this morning! The city doesn't have any plows and state law doesn't allow salt to be used on the roads, but the biggest problem is the people who abandon their cars. We're not sure where the people go once they get out of their car in a snowstorm, we've just seen the empty cars on the highway.  They don't even pull over, they just abandon their cars in the lane.

It took about 45 minutes of prep to get snowsuits, shoes, jackets, and gloves located and on.  Violet lasted about 5 minutes once we got outside. She was not amused. In this photo, you can see how they both ditched the gloves pretty quick and no amount of conversation could change their minds. Neither Luke nor Violet liked walking in hard shoes, so they attempted to crawl on naked hands. Violet complained quickly, but Luke lasted a little longer because his hands slipped inside his jacket and he crawled around on his sleeves down the street. No walking. I guess we will have to wait till next year for snow angels in triplicate.

Livvie had fun, snowballs, snow angels, writing in the snow, playing chase. But she soon was too cold and retreated inside for hot chocolate. It's cold, real cold, about 10 degrees with the wind chill. We're out of practice with this kind of gusty, frozen weather.

Naturally, we didn't have enough milk and eggs. The lack of whole milk is quite a problem when 2 members of the household still get most of their calories from milk. The first snow storm of the year and we were flat-footed and under-prepared. At least we can claim Michael's "surgery" as out excuse for not preparing for the biggest (only) snow storm of the year! Lucky for us we're only a block from the store.

For the video fans, there is a little taste of our lovely snow day over at YouTube.

The Twins' 1st Birthday

Luke and Violet enjoyed their 1st birthday celebration yesterday.  We waited for this special day to introduce them to chocolate.  Jen made banana cake with dark chocolate buttercream frosting from scratch, and it was a big hit. Here's the before shot...

Violet got a little more excited about the chocolate.  The texture was just right to smear into the hair.  Perfect.  Bath time!  Despite the fact that they each had huge pieces, they felt compelled to steal cake from each other.  Ah, siblings.  Needless to say, the post-cake-sugar-high was something to behold.

There's a little more of this on YouTube.

 

We'll slowly start adding some more goodies to their diet over the next couple of weeks: whole milk, cheese, butter (technically, not new to them), eggs and berries.

Naturally, the wrapping paper was the favorite new toy.

The paper or the boxes...

 

Luke put on a show with their new walk-behind toy.  Thanks Grammy and Papster!

Too much Love?

More videos today.  Livvie loves the twins.  Here's a little example of just how much she loves to hold Violet.

 

You can catch a glimpse of the cut Luke gave himself on the nose below.  Well, maybe he gave it to himself.  It's hard to tell.  There's lots of yelling that goes on upstairs when they go to bed and we let them work most it out on their own.  You've got to stay on top of those fingernails, they grow fast.

Barriers don't work very well with the twins now (Violet is climbing over one below).  They attempt to climb everything and are getting pretty good at it.  They are both getting more demanding about being picked up and held, too.  I guess the view is just better from above.

They are both actively trying to figure out how to go down stairs.  Up is easy, but the technique is trickier in reverse.  Violet tries to finesse her way down, Luke likes to lead with his head.

Finally, here's a short video of Luke's dismount from the couch.  Violet had a similar smooth exit earlier in the day (not caught on video) when Jen let her play on the couch and got distracted. 

The Salad Days

The salad days of child-rearing are upon us as Luke and Violet are nearing mastery of the snack trap; here pictured filled with mini-goldfish and attendant Beagle.  This marks the start of them feeding themselves.

 

Luke is the current odds-on favorite to start walking first.  He can successfully stand un-aided and did a no-handed power squat today. Violet walks well with arms raised and hands clasped firmly on your fingers, but she doesn't like the repeated forced-attempts at walking one-handed.  Violet remains the champion climber with several impressive displays up the stairs this week.  It'll be nice to get their hands off the floor since they find every piece of dirt that Sadie brings into the house.  Housekeeping has never been a favorite of ours.

Michael just picked up two new snow sleds for this season.  We went looking late in the season last year and missed the short window in Portland for buying sleds (this window also applies to children's snow apparel, particularly mittens).  We've got some nice ones now and are just in a waiting game with the snow.  In the meantime, Livvie likes pulling Violet around the kitchen and living room.  Luke and Violet together on the sled are a little too heavy, though.  As always, Livvie's dressed as a princess, today it's Ariel.

The masher and the stasher

Violet and Luke eat very differently.  Violet prefers to shove as much as she can into her mouth.  Luke is a bit more of a biter.  He likes to bite off small pieces and isn't shy about using his teeth on clothing, skin, or small dogs (if they'd just stand still).  Here's a little video of lunch today.  Apples.  Violet has got her entire slice in her mouth while Luke is demurely nibbling away.

Here's a link to the video in case anyone is looking at this in Facebook.  I just discovered that the videos don't show up in Facebook when they are imported.  I don't think there's anything I can do about that (use the "Original Post" link at the bottom of the Facebook note).  I also updated the Blogger template to try to make it a little easier to read online.

Luke and Violet are eating almost any solid food now.  They're still banned from milk and chocolate until they hit 1 year old in a couple of weeks, but they've moved past just Cheerios now (that was sooo last week!).  Just today, they've had baby carrots (steamed), crackers, yogurt, egg noodles, apple, and real oatmeal (Mom's oatmeal at breakfast - they don't really let us eat alone anymore).

Violet swings

Another video today, this time of Violet enjoying the porch swing.  Violet doesn't nap as well as Luke in the afternoon, so he was already snoozing while the sisters were out enjoying the sunshine and giant breezes.

Also caught this great self-portrait (holding the camera out with one hand).

The weather was great today, warm and breezy. Michael and the neighbor Joe were both out cleaning gutters today. Michael discovered that climbing on the roof is for younger men. We had a tree branch rubbing against the roof in the wind (you can't imagine how annoying it is to try to sleep through that AND the twins chatting to each other in the next room, one of them had to go!). The roof is much steeper and I am much less foolish than I used to be. It's funny to think about all of the roof climbing that Mark and I did back in Delaware. The roof used to be just another door, up and in through a window. Maybe this roof is just twice as steep, yep, that's got to be it.

Brave Olivia went all the way to the top of the ladder (~15'). Things were great until she tried to help clean the gutter and got a scrape.  Immediate princess band-aid application was required!

Livvie Sings and Roux

Olivia loves The Little Mermaid.  You can hear a little of "Part of That World" below.  She's also playing with her Ariel Polly Pocket at the same time.

On Saturday we tried to go see Wall-E at the Family Matinee playing at the Kennedy School (great pizza right out of the oven!).  For the un-initiated, the matinees at the Kennedy School are super cheap, second run movies with couches, pizza and beer.  The Kennedy School is an old elementary school converted into a brewery, bar, restaurant, and movie theater (in the old gym, so it's perfect for strollers). 

Luke and Violet haven't been to the Mommy Matinee (same thing as a family matinee, just during the week) in about 2 months.  They used to do great during the movie (by that I mean that they had a bottle and went to sleep, of course), but now they can crawl and eat and movies don't work for them anymore.  Michael took them to a nearby park for a ride on the swing instead.  That's something they really enjoy.  I wish I took some video of this because they were making soft cooing noises the entire time they were on the swing.

Once again, someone at the park asked how far apart these two were in age.  The boy has only got about an inch and half and two pounds on her.  I think it's his gigantic head that makes people think they aren't related.  Doesn't help that Violet is still bald.

After the usual afternoon nap, the kids went to Kim and Matt's while Michael and Jen went to Danielle's, our next door neighbor, 40th birthday party at Roux.  Much fun was had, the food was amazing and over 30 friends came to toast Dani being over the hill.  Jen discovered a new fav drink - the Sunday Confession and had the resulting headache on Sunday.

We sat next to Roni and David who also have young twins.  We spent much of dinner swapping twin stories.  Their girls, Lilly and Kate, are only about 6 months younger than Luke and Violet.  It seems like big age gap at the moment, but it will start closing fast.  Another highlight of the evening was unloading our exer-saucer (also known as the neglect-a-chair) on Roni and David.  One less large colorful plastic contraption in our living room!!

Livvie spent Saturday night playing dress up with Lana who is about 6 months younger than Liv and the two princesses had a great time.  That is, until it was time to go, then there was much weeping.  I mean seriously, it was only 12:30am, why couldn't she hold it together?