green oatmeal

We're not the type of parents to disguise vegetables in otherwise tasty dishes, because vegetables are tasty by themselves. I mean, you should see our kids eat asparagus.
However, Helena simply will not eat an avocado in any way, shape, or form. even in tasty guacamole dip form, it's a no go. There are two ways we have discovered to have her eat what everyone else in our family fights over. They are to hide the avocado in smoothie or oatmeal form.
This morning we had green oatmeal, and it was tasty! yum yum time at our table, and toddlers asking for more. Helena was so proud and happy to finish her oatmeal this morning... hahaha! the joke's on her!

Christmas in May

When I was little, I could never go to sleep on Christmas Eve, even though I knew that if I did that Christmas would "come sooner." Close your eyes, open them, and voila! Presents!

But I would stay awake and read, or just lay in bed staring at the wall. Right now I feel the same way, but instead of Christmas it's Max coming home from the Hospital. Except while Christmas comes no matter what, we're still not 100% sure Max will be coming home Sunday. He needs to a) pass his car seat test (he's doing that right now... or at least sometime during night shift) and he also needs to b) not have any serious Apnea events, which would mean an automatic longer time in the hospital.

And here I am, up later than I thought I would be, anxious about the wonderful present we will receive into our home tomorrow. At least, that is our hope and prayer, and that Isabelle will follow soon after.

adventures in diaper changing. and barack obama.

Logan and I were visiting Max and Isabelle in the NICU last night, and Isabelle was due up for a diaper change. At least, she smelled like it. When I checked her diaper, there was the tiniest smidgen of a poopy smear, but nothing significant. Oh well, all that stink but no substance, I thought. I wiped her little teeny bottom clean, which must have triggered something inside of her, because that was directly followed by explosive, projectile poo. All over my hand, and my protective yellow hospital gown (for once I was happy to have one), and her bassinet, and the blankets inside her bassinet, and the wires, and the cart the bassinet was on... wowee, you wouldn't think such a small package could have such great range. the girl isn't even 5 lbs yet!

Well, we got cleaned up, and started to head home. it was around midnight. the curious thing was, all the roads on the way to the highway were blocked off by police cars. that's strange, we thought. the first one we thought was an accident, but there were only cop cars. the next three streets as we drove parrallel to the highway also had cops blocking them. finally, we came to a stop as there were cops blocking our street. what was this all about? Oh yeah! Barack Obama was in town! All this hullaballoo was for him as he made his way from Kirtland AFB to wherever it is that presidents sleep in Albuquerque (the presidential suite at the embassy suites?) After a ten minute wait, we saw the President's motorcade, full of motorcycles and police cruisers and decoy limos and... ambulances? huh. traffic soon got underway again, and we finished off our early-interrupted 100 mile drive back to Los Alamos...

she sees flowers where everone else sees weeds

Our backyard has a veritable carpet of dandelions. It's awesome to look out in the early morning and see them all closed up, then to watch as they open with the rise of the sun... from green to gold. i know they're weeds, but they certainly are beautiful weeds. in the meantime, our front yard looks like a jungle as we just haven't had the time, resources, or energy to do anything about it. The lilacs and columbine are blooming, though... and some other trees that i don't know the name for that Logan could tell you. pictures soon, I hope.