Talking with the kids about birth

Iliana has asked a number of times about whether or not the baby has toys in my womb. I've explained to her that the baby doesn't yet know how to play with toys, and right now she just plays by kicking and moving her body. Of course, Iliana thinks this is sad and wants to get some toys in my womb for the baby to play with.

Both girls have been very curious about the idea of birth. I've been giving them all the information I can as they ask for it, and that seems to be working pretty well. I'm rather surprised by how they seem to handle the most explicit and even gory details just fine. Iliana was surprised to learn that there was a hole there for a baby to come out of. Lenora wanted to know about their birth as well, which was a C-section, and handled the cheerful, frank, and explicit three-sentence summary I gave her just fine - even the bit about the doctors cutting into my womb. She just listened and said, "Oh!" and then went back to playing. Who knows how much she actually retained?

Now I'm just waiting until we're waiting in line at the supermarket and they start explaining what they've learned to some hapless person who just happens to be standing next to us.

Kids say the cutest things

I got a few good quotes from the girls recently.

A few weeks back, Lenora offered me some of her food. I thanked her, and she told me that she was feeding the baby!

Lenora is so ready to help nurture and care for her baby sister. Iliana seems to be more ready for a playmate, so I suspect she won't show more than curiousity until the baby gets more active and can interact a bit more. Lenora wanted a baby sister, and Iliana wanted a baby brother. I suspect Iliana has noticed that younger boys tend to be more active than younger girls, and therefore more interesting (to her mindset). Lenora wants something to cuddle and love, so "more active" isn't a good thing to her. Judging by the kicking, this child might be more like Iliana than Lenora. Then again, it might just be that this little girl has more room to move around.

Other cutisms:
When I got home from work on Monday, Iliana ran up to me saying, "Mommy! Mommy! Mommy!" Then she got to me and asked, "Did you buy anything?" I think she wasn't asking for presents, so much as she was realizing that when I come home before their bedtime, I've usually bought groceries. But it was still funny!

At bedtime, Lenora was talking to herself a lot - then suddenly out of nowhere she looks a little concerned and says, "But Mommy, if you keep getting bigger, then maybe you might not be able to fit in the house." I reassured her that the baby would be born and would finish growing outside of me, just like them, and I would go back to my normal size. She didn't seem convinced - I think she then said, "But you might not . . ."

Girl anecdote

DH and I communicate via IM throughout the day, with me mainly asking him about things weighing on my mind from the "family life" sphere, and him sharing information about how the day is going so I don't feel too disconnected. I get some great stories from him, and here is one of them:

"Iliana and I were having a conversation about not drawing on me
and she was asking very nicely if she could draw an O on various parts of my arm, to which I was saying no.

"And she finally stopped asking if she could draw on me and said instead, "I can draw on you after you say yes. Say yes daddy!""

Since this is my diary, effectively, as much as anything is, it is a good place to record this. Someday I need to collect all the various bits and pieces I've written down and put them together in a book for the girls when they get older. I know that for me, that was even cooler than a scrapbook or photo album (although Flickr gives us that, as well) - my grandmother had a plastic-bound book of all the cute things her kids had said over the years, including my sister and I.

One of those milestones

Well! Another day, another new skill for the girls. This one, however, is not a new word in the vocabulary or a new trick on the playground toys. No, this is one of those milestones parents dread.

Lenora has learned to turn doorknobs. That's right: She now possesses the ability to let herself out of her bedroom. We can only hope she will use this power for good. Snd be too tired to get out of her room at night, given the recent middle-of-the-night "Mommy" screamfests - have I mentioned here yet how, two nights before Halloween, she spent three and a half hours straight (no exaggeration) screaming for her mommy? And even DH going in five or so times to calm her down and get her to sleep again didn't help a bit? Oh yes . . . here in the Ellison household, we live in interesting times.

Tonight, however, is a welcome break from the norm. The girls went to bed without any trouble, probably because DH and I have gotten back "in tune" with each other over the last few days. And I am rather gleeful to have DH out of the house, visiting his friends for a birthday party. I mean, come on, it's probably been years since the last time we had an evening apart from each other. I certainly don't want this to happen all of the time, but there are also tons of things I've been wanting to do that have been getting put off so that we could spend quality time together. Also, the cause is noble: One of his good friends that he's known for years but hasn't seen much lately is celebrating a birthday, and I would love to see DH maintain his relationships with that circle of friends.

Of course, there is the potential for chaos to ensue while he is out; Iliana is sick (Lenora was sick last Wednesday, rather spectacularly, while we had friends over, and these girls are great about sharing), so there is the off-chance of a huge mess being made in the middle of the night. But, hey! I managed nights alone back when DH worked late, when both girls were infants and were spitting up or vomitting on a nightly basis. At worse, it'll be just like the good ol' days.

So unless that happens, I am going to indulge in a treat I rarely have the time or energy to enjoy anymore: Housework!

(Oh, how my views have changed since becoming a WOHM! But now I dream of clean laundry and counters . . . and tonight, dreams will come true!)

"Please don't lick the sidewalk"

I was praying outside an abortion facility the other day with a friend, and Iliana tagged along (which deserves a post of its own). My little girl was (of course) a little bored, just hanging out while the big folks prayed (and chatted a bit, too). The title of this post is one of the amusing things that came out of my mouth. Other gems included:

"Don't drink water off of the street! Ewww!"

"Please don't lick the pole."

"Please don't walk on the umbrella. It's not ours."

Overall, she was actually very well behaved (I don't say 'please' when I get frustrated). Still, when she gets bored she backslides into the "oral" phase again, and everything goes into the mouth. Especially puddles. What is with this fascination with drinking from strange things, like gutters and bathtubs?

Lenora, on the other hand, was left at home for the day. *She* has been deciding not to sleep lately.

Last Thursday, Lenora was awake from 3:30 AM until 7:00 AM yelling for Mommy. Daddy went in multiple times to help her to bed, and each time she cheered up and happily went to bed and got kisses. Within five seconds of him leaving each time, she was back at the door yelling and fussing for me. I'm lying in bed, knowing I'll be exhausted at work the next day and thinking, "If she is this stubborn at 2 1/2, she'll have no problems resisting peer pressure when she's a teen."

Well, fortunately DH (Dear Husband) and I both have strong stubborn streaks as well, and we had no problem outlasting her . . . kind of. If you look at things right. Well, no, actually, we caved in. *Ahem*. See, since Lenora is allowed to get up at 7:00 AM, I went in then and talked her back into bed. Once she got what she wanted, she went back to sleep. Naturally, Iliana slept through the whole thing. It's probably the soundest sleeping I've ever seen her do. Hrmm . . . that makes me think - maybe Iliana would sleep better ALL the time if we played a recording of a screaming child at night?

I probably shouldn't try it. If we do that too much, the neighbors might call the cops.

Thursday night went fine (thank you, O Lord, for a good night's sleep to rest between our parently trials) and Lenora woke up much less sleepy on Friday, in time for Halloween. We went trick-or-treating at Microsoft and in our neighborhood, with the girls dressed as fairies and joined by a friend and her four children.

By the end of the night's excitement, the girls were covered in stickiness; I wanted to wash my hands every time I came in contact with them. Iliana, in particular, was sticky. This may have had something to do with her sucking on two lollipops at once, and then rubbing them all over her face just for the fun of the gloriously sticky messiness of it all.

My husband, in his great wisdom, ordered the girls to the bathtub shortly before we got home.

That night, Lenora screamed until after midnight. And again, I caved before she did. I really hope she doesn't ever give us the silent treatment when she gets older. If she does, it could be years before we hear her voice again. I can see the diagnosis now: "PVM, Parental Vicinity Muteness, caused by acute stubborness."

She did nap while Iliana and I were out, and now seems to be returning to a less stubborn pattern of sleep. That is to say, she has been keeping the screaming down to less than an hour before naps and bedtime and we have high hopes of her returning to her previously normal pattern of going to sleep happily after a small bribe of kisses and hugs. Please, don't anyone tell her we enjoy the kisses more than she does! She still seems to think she's coming out ahead with this deal.

The girls slept well . . .

They started their nap at 3:30 PM yesterday, or so DH tells me.

They woke up at 5:45 AM this morning.

We did go in and change them into diapers at almost 9:00 PM last night. They did not eat dinner. DH and I played video games and ate dinner at our keyboards. It was almost like being in college again. This morning, Iliana got a huge kick out of being awake before the sun (she's going to LOVE Washington's winters - she'll beat the sun up almost every day in a month or so!).

Can "Food" be a love language?

There's a neat book about "love languages" that I borrowed from a friend recently, which has the premise that everyone feels most loved when love is expressed to them in a certain way. This way of expressing love is a person's "love language". The five languages discussed in the book are Words of Appreciation, Acts of Service, Quality Time, Physical Touch, and Gifts. I'm not sure it's quite that simple - five precise categories and that's it - but the basic idea that some people express their love differently from others, and it behooves us to learn their "language" so they can hear our love for them, seems solid.

If I do have a single love language, Words of Appreciation seems likely for me. But Acts of Service seems likely as well, especially one particular act: Feeding me. Food is love.

However, I also note that being given a meal falls under most of the languages. What better quality time is there than a family dinner? What better gift than a home-cooked meal? What greater daily act of service than providing someone with the food they need to live? Even DH's request that I stay seated when I rise to get the girls more milk makes me feel special - because implicitly, he's saying "You deserve a break because of all the things you do for us. Thank you. I love you" I can hear the Words of Appreciation clearly, even though the actual words are, "Stay seated. Geesh, I can handle it!"

I'm a great translator ;-) And exaggerating slightly for comic effect.

Last night, DH made a special meal with me in mind. Spinach, meat, peppers stir-fried with peanut butter and coconut milk and served mixed with noodles. We sprinkled Thai spice on ours, but left the kids' food plain. Yummy - but also very high in iron, and stuff that will help asorb iron. Just that morning, we'd learned from the 'Net that non-heme irons (not from meat) asorbed better when eaten with heme iron - and DH planned a meal for me based on that information.

I mean, wow. That's caring - hearing a little bit of information, and then figuring out a way to apply it to make your spouse healthier and happier, that very same day.

I just ate the leftovers for lunch. And I'm in love. I'll try to remember to give him a hug - his language seems to be Touch.

P.S. I cooked up the rest of the spinach for a side-dish for myself, and was eating it. The girls insisted that I give them some of Mommy's Food, and then gobbled it down. It's funny how making a food just for myself makes it seem "special" to them. This, plus chanting the name of the veggie, is how we got them to love broccoli too. And zucchini. ZU-CCHI-NI! ZU-CCHI-NI! BRO-CCO-LI! UGH! YEAH!

We rarely limit the amount of treats we let them have - we're more likely to limit their veggies (because DH never cooks enough!!! ;-) If we have something sweet to share, we usually just let them eat as much as they want until it's gone. The trick is that we don't share with them most of the time - we just wait until after they are in bed.

More humor - potty horrors

Our girls are ready to potty train. Which is what Bjorn is doing today. However, the pre-training fascination with all things potty-related (especially pee and poo) has given us a couple of fun anecdotes. I'm too tired to write this well, but you should get the gist of how things have been going.

WARNING: Parents will think this is hilarious. Everyone else is at risk of thinking it is disgusting. Do not read while eating.




You've been warned.




There are actually two potty anecdotes, which I will record here for posterity, and also so I can drag these stories out when my kids are teenagers, after they graduate from college, and when one of my daughters is running for President. Or taking vows to become a nun, that would be just as funny.

The first: My daughters have started enjoying using the potty. They also have been starting to play make-believe games, like pretending to be a kitty, or pretending rounded blocks with a square block on top are a car.

Make-believe games, like pretending the vent in their bedroom becomes a potty when they remove the cover.

That's right. Our daughters have been peeing in their bedroom vent. Who knows how manny times. Ugh. I guess that explains the strange smell in our house (it seems to be mostly better now).



Which leads to the second story: To try and curtail the vent-peeing, we left a baby potty in their room one night (since it seems to happen after bedtime usually).

Two hours later, they still hadn't fallen asleep. We went in, and found that one of our daughters had a very large bowel movement in her diaper (and was obviously a little sick, to boot), removed the diaper, and placed the non-gushy parts of the diaper into the potty.

The amazing thing is, she apparently remained standing the entire time since she removed her diaper - which had obviously happened a while ago - since her bum was filthy, but the bedroom was mostly clean. We had to wash a few blankets, but the carpets and walls were perfectly clean, and there were enough clean blankets that we didn't have to go hunt for more.

We are really lucky that the daughter who did this is the one with a strong sense of "clean" and "yucky". Really lucky. Really, really lucky.

Time flies . . .

. . . when you have waves of illnesses going through your home, are buying your first house, and are nearing the beta release of your product at work. Has it really been three weeks since the last time I updated?

Not for lack of things to say, I assure you. I went through a fascinating lunch meeting with several other working moms whose husbands are SAHDs that is screaming for a blog entry (later, though), and the girls have been doing tons of neat stuff. Lent is always a time for reflection, and all kinds of meaningful thoughts have been ambling through my brain. There are the hiccups in the weaning process . . . in other words, fairly normal life for a young family of four.

Right now I'm too caught up in the thousands of details of our busy lives to focus on anything else. So that's what I'll write on - the details.

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I want to start with Lenora's latest five-word sentence: "I want . . . more . . . pepper . . . too!" The story behind this is pretty funny. Our girls saw us putting pepper on our food. Since we like spicy stuff, we use quite a bit. So of course, they wanted some as well. So we put a little pepper in a pile on their plate, assuming that they would taste it and then demand milk and get upset with us - but would hopefully also learn something. Well, no such "luck". They dipped their broccoli into the pepper - and LOVED it! Iliana demanded to be allowed to serve herself her own pepper, and that was when Lenora delivered another fine five-word zinger.

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The current big craze / phrase in the household is, "purple, purple, purple, hey!" My MIL's SO started this, and it's now one of the girls' favorite phrases. In general, purple is really in style around here. And orange. I'm just happy it's not pink. I'm not very fond of pink.

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We've been having fun dreaming about what we want to do with our new house. It's a big house in excellent condition, but cost more than I had originally planned on spending. I'm honestly struggling with feeling embarrassed about it - and both the dreams and the embarrassment deserve their own posts.

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I also want to write a post on health care. After going from no care, to little care, to the best care around - I have a few thoughts on the matter.

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Edited to add: This post claims to have been written by Bjorn, but it wasn't. I (Ethel) just accidentally posted it from his Google account. Whoops. I'll fix it later.

Day 12 of mother-encouraged weaning

Well, it certainly doesn't feel like I'm weaning the girls. While we are making progress (I think), it's mostly at bedtime - and they are nursing more at other times to make up for it, so they don't actually nurse less. The advantage is that bedtime is the hardest time to distract the girls from nursing, so if they quit nursing at bedtime I just need to focus on distracting them from nursing during the afternoon to go nursing-free. Now we are offering them a choice of pacifiers, or milk right before bed - seems to be working, although we'll have to wean from the pacifiers later.

I think once they are routinely skipping the bedtime nursing, I'll probably try to have them skip nursing all day one day a week, then two the next week, then three days, and so on until they are just nursing on weekends.

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Some neat things the girls have started doing:

Lenora is learning her colors. I thought she might be starting to grasp them about a month ago, so Bjorn and I have been working with her (and a little with Iliana, but she doesn't seem to get colors as well). She now recognizes purple easily, and requests purple items and orange items specifically. She is starting to get green, and yellow and will occasionally recognize red or blue correctly.

Iliana, on the other hand, is practicing another skill: Asking, "Why?" This one blind-sided me. I simply wasn't prepared to have to start justifying our rules to our children quite this early. The first time she clearly asked it, she wanted to know why she shouldn't go downstairs after her bath. I fumbled out something about how it was inconvenient to have her downstairs while we're upstairs and how we were busy trying to get pajamas and diapers on her. I needn't have bothered working at it so hard - she was more interested in getting any explanation at all. She looked so pleased with herself by the time I was done talking!

Lenora has started singing her "AFB's" - that is, the Alphabet Song, but a bit tuneless and with random letters that she likes alternating with F. "A, F, B, F, Y, F, A . . . " Iliana isn't as good, but does sing her "UBU's" - mostly just alternating between U and B, and with absolutely no tune at all.

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And the big anecdote . .. We were watching an episode of Full House from the season with the twin boys. In this episode, Jess has to punish his toddlers, and during their time-out they call him "mean Daddy." Ouch. I joke to Bjorn that if we're not careful, Lenora will pick up on that and start saying it. About two minutes later, she does just that - "Mean Daddy!" and laughs.

But it gets better . . . when I start encouraging her to say "Nice Daddy" instead, she first repeats herself for a bit - then starts saying "Nice Mommy". If she weren't a toddler, you'd think I'd have set this up ahead of time and bribed her.

And a little more . .. we finally get her to say "Nice Daddy," so in the interest of equal treatment (or something), she spontaneously decides to also throw in "Mommy bad."

Definitely a story worth writing down and saving for when she gets older.

Quit being cute so I can get some sleep!

Last night Iliana woke up, and then Lenora woke up shortly after. This isn't all that uncommon, but it's always a hassle since I need to wake up Bjorn, get his help getting the babies onto the nursing pillow before anyone gets too worked up, nurse, and then wake Bjorn up again to get his help returning the girls to their sleep spaces.

Well, we went through this routine last night, but when the girls returned to their cribs they didn't just fuss for a few seconds and fall asleep. No, instead they used their growing motor skills to stand up. Still, nothing that out of the ordinary - except that instead of crying at us to make it better (which usually means another trip back to the pillow for everyone) they started shrieking good-naturedly at each other! They were little attention-getting shrieks, like a game of baby Marco-Polo!

Very cute, and yet another sign of their rapidly growing sibling bond. Nonetheless, I was very relieved when Lenora climbed down, laid herself down, fussed a little, and went to sleep. Iliana continued to call at her a little more, than started crying. I got up and brought her back to bed with me, cuddled close, and let her nurse to sleep.

Baby sign language is working!

Bjorn and I were first introduced to the idea of baby sign language while I was pregnant, and thought it seemed cool and fun. I don't know if we really expected the babies to get much out of it, but it was interesting and easy.

We only recently started putting much real effort into ASL, however - probably around the time the girls turned eight months. Our first evidence that it was working came about three weeks ago, when Lenora signed "milk". We told my MIL, who watches the girls three days a week, about it that evening - and learned that Lenora had actually signed it some later that day as well! However, we haven't seen the sign from her since then (although she does wave "Hi" when she wants attention, now).

Tonight I decided to mix up the bedtime routine a little as part of my efforts to get the girls to go to sleep more independantly instead of nursing to sleep - which has caused sleep associations and a lot of nightwakings. One of the things I did is nurse with the lights on to discourage the girls from falling asleep. The other thing I did was not carry the girls to the nursing pillow. Instead, I sat down, put the pillow on my lap, and called their names and said "Come here! Milk!" while beckoning them with a wave and then signing the ASL for "milk". They took their time about it, but then figured out what was going on. Lenora worked it out first - Iliana was too busy playing, and wouldn't look at me. So Lenora came over quickly and started nursing. Iliana finally turned around, and when she saw the motions and sign, she suddenly put it together, got pretty happy, and started to try to crawl onto our mattress. I ended up having to pull her onto the mattress, but then she crawled the rest of the way to the pillow!

My interest in baby sign language has been renewed - and great timing. This Monday the Eastside Mothers of Multiples First-Year parents are getting together for their monthly meeting, and the discussion topic is ASL for babies! Hopefully the specialist they've invited will be happy to help my MIL and I expand our vocabulary. Assuming I can talk my MIL into attending with me.

Cry it out with twins

I'm really not a fan of cry-it-out (CIO). However, I no longer believe it should be avoided at all costs, either. There are worse things than having your babies cry for a long period at bedtime until they go to sleep - and for us, one of those things is having your babies cry for long periods of time at night until they go to sleep because Mom is too exhausted to wake up and care for them. Oops.

We had another one of those "too exhausted to wake" nights recently, and it prompted me to do another round of CIO. We've done CIO before after two months of unsuccessfully working with no-cry methods, including the end of our cosleeping, when Iliana and Lenora were seven months old. I never felt comfortable with my decision to resort to CIO, though, and I got back into the habit of nursing them to drowsiness . . . and sometimes to sleep. Again. And the sleep associations redeveloped, and the nightwakings came back. Then I got sick - and realized that night wakings due to sleep associations are a luxury we can't afford. While I could handle their extra wakings when I was healthy, being sick and handling nightwakings pushed me past the point of being able to care for my children.

CIO with twins is a bit more complicated than CIO without twins. You have two temperaments to consider, not one. If you are in a small apartment, like we are, then they will hear each other crying and keep each other up to some extent.

And then there are all the questions about which version of CIO to use. I started with Ferber's method, just at bedtime, and over one week of CIO plus the last three days have ended up doing something very different. What I do is more hands-on when the babies are upset, and more hands-off when they are calming down. If they are worked up, I will do anything to calm them down again - even nurse them a little. The calmer they are, the less I interfere. Two nights ago and tonight it worked amazingly well. Last night I accidentally nursed them to sleep, oops.

I also see the brief visits to soothe differently now that I have more experience. Ferber says that they are there to reassure the parents that the child is OK and to reassure the child that the parent is there. I see them as a way to keep the baby from getting too worked up. Tonight, the girls seemed really upset when I first left the room, so I went back in after only a minute. But that was the only time I went in - after that, they slowly wound down, and then got quiet, and the whole CIO was over in less than ten minutes. Two nights ago CIO only took 15 minutes. That is much better than the 90 minutes scream-fest when I used Ferber's method for the first time two months ago. And much better than an hour or more of crying in the middle of the night while Mom and Dad, two feet away, sleep through it all - or, if I woke, fell asleep before actually getting up.

Something else is different this time around besides having more experience. I also have no guilt. I still consider myself an attached parent in spite of using CIO, and my babies seem attached as well. I actually had fun tonight when I went in to soothe them because I was so sure I am doing the right thing. Why? Well, it's because of how they acted the day after I was sleeping through their cries. They were MAD at me. They fussed whenever I was around, and quit only when I left. I gave them some extra attention that evening, and by the next day things seemed to be smoothed over and they seemed to have forgiven me. A couple days later we tried CIO - and they were fine the next day. Perfectly normal and cheerful. Of course, I did make sure I coslept with Iliana a little in the early morning since she is more sensitive emotionally, to help smoothe things out a little :-) I really like cosleeping, but these days it is a treat I enjoy less frequently since it leads to nursing to sleep which leads to - sleep association problems!

Doctor's visit

We visited the doctor yesterday morning. Everything looks fine, and she isn't very concerned that Lenora isn't babbling. She said to come back in a month and a half if she hasn't started by then. I'm not too worried, either. Lenora is actually doing better with language and communication than Iliana, except that she doesn't babble. She uses gestures more effectively, though, and even had a day where she was using a word of sign language ("milk"), although she hasn't used it since. Lenora is also better at responding to spoken language than Iliana, probably because we need to speak to her more frequently - she can be so mischeivious! I'd be more concerned if she weren't able to communicate, but it looks like she is just slow to make certain noises with her mouth.

Yesterday we also had a breastfeeding "Oh, cute!" moment. It was after the girl's bath. Bjorn was lowering Iliana's crib since she became a pro at pulling to a stand in it overnight just the night before. I wanted a few minutes to relax with a book, but knew that the girls would want to nurse. I solved this by declaring an open buffet - that is, I lay down with my shirt off and let the girls crawl over to nurse at whim. At one point, Lenora was draped across my chest, lying on one breast and nursing on the far side, keeping Iliana from having nursing access. Iliana started to fuss, so I shifted Lenora all the way to the far side. By that point, Iliana had already started to go around, so I called her back. "Iliana, look!"

She turns around, and seeing that her sister has been moved and she can now nurse, she begins to crawl as fast as she can with this *amazing* expression. It was sort of a, "Wow, it must be Christmas, I'm so lucky, thanks, Ma!" look, with her mouth wide open and her eyes gleaming. I really wish we'd had a camera!

Happy New Year's Day . . . with twins!

Welcome to 2007 from the Ellison twins, Iliana and Lenora, and myself, Ethel. Iliana and Lenora are 9 mos. old today. They are fraternal twins who are very different, though obviously sisters. Iliana is older by one minute, though almost everyone is surprised by this for some reason. She is the smaller and quieter of the two, but also the more social and better at her fine motor skills. Lenora is a very large baby, weighing over 22 pounds at 9 months, and into the gross motor skills. They have very complimentary personalities, just like I imagined they might during pregnancy.

This is a great age to have twins. Iliana finally got the hang of crawling during the last week, after several weeks of watching her sister move around the apartment at whim. Up until this point, they loved to look at each other and would occasionally play small games, like Lenora rubbing her head on Iliana's stomach to make Iliana laugh (this first happened when they were as young as five months . . . wow). However, yesterday was their first day together as crawling buddies.

It's like watching my daydreams from pregnancy come true. They spent most of the day hanging out together, with Iliana following her faster sister all over the babyproofed parts of our apartment. They laughed a lot, and there were only a few minor squabbles - such as when Lenora tried to crawl over Iliana, or when one baby took the other baby's toy.

I think the highlight of the entire day was when I had one of those "Hrm, it's awfully quiet" moments while Bjorn (my amazingly wonderful husband, also known as SuperDad) and I watched a DVD on the laptop. I glanced over at the girls, and noticed that Iliana was playing with an orange. We've had a number of them rolling around here since Christmas Day from our stockings. Then I noticed that she had actually managed to bite off a piece of the peel and eat a fair amount of the fruit! We rescued the orange and fished the peel out of her mouth. Fortunately, it didn't seem to upset her stomach at all.

Hrm, maybe I can get around to posting my New Year's goals (not resolutions, I resolved not to make New Year's Resolutions back in the second grade) later today. But probably not - I'm really very sick. Fortunately, I am blessed with a wonderful MIL who will be coming over and giving me a chance to sleep later today. Yay good MILs!