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.

Max and Isabelle

For your viewing pleasure, we have some pics from Logan's mom's blackberry. I was silly and in my rush packing everything up before heading down to Albuquerque, I wasn't able to find our camera. it's okay, though... until today the babies had all kinds of breathing tubes and stuff, didn't make for very cute pictures. they are off those machines now, which is great. The tube in Isabelle's nose is her feeding tube. Whatever she can't eat on her own goes down that way... you can also see an IV on her hand.

If you are in the neighborhood, we'll take visitors...

partly cloudy with a chance of baby.

So, I had made a yummy breakfast, slaving over a hot stove (really just stirring their cereal every now and then...) and it was time to eat. James was around, but Helena was not in the kitchen, so I go searching. She's not in the living room, not hiding under the table... the doors to the bathroom, office, and guest room are all closed.

I check our bedroom. No Helena. I check the babies' room. No Helena. Hmm... maybe she was hiding in another room? As I turn to walk back down the hall, I hear a sound from inside the babies' room. Aha! She's hiding! Not many places to hide in there. I check behind the door, no Helena. I hear a small sound again coming from the closet. The closet! of course. The closet door is usually closed, which makes it playtime promised land. all that fun stuff to play with, like outgrown clothes and carseats, which are all about to get some use again very soon.

I curse myself for leaving the door to the closet open, when I realize it's possible they opened it themselves: James can open doors now, after a sustained effort. These are the thoughts going through my head as I navigate across the toy-strewn floor, which are interrupted by Helena making her appearance: not, as I thought, hiding on the floor, but rather flying out of the closet from a few feet off the ground. It was raining babies! Helena landed in a pile of 6 mo. onesies and plastic Easter eggs without a sound, and looked thouroughly shocked. She had been climbing up the boxes of old clothes, and was no worse for the wear, just a little surprised.

What do April Snowstorms bring?

New Mexico weather confuses me...