Nana's Birthday at Fortune Inn

Nana's birthday is March 10, but it falls in the middle of the week this year. Normally, we would meet her for her birthday and go where ever she wanted to go for dinner. She's been wanting to go to Fortune Inn in Glendale for more than 2 years. She keeps mentioning it and we never seem to go. That is, until tonight!

We met Nana and Gracie and Lukie's cousins Hailey, Bianca and Brandon for a dinner at Fortune Inn. All the same waiters are there! It's amazing, considering they have been there for the past 10 years I have eaten there.

We ordered Hong Kong Chow Mein, Smoke Flavored Beef (OMG!), Mongolian Chicken, Broccoli Chicken, and something else that Daddy wanted, but I forgot the name of. All 8 of us had a ton of food and we were very happy.


Gracie and Lukie especially enjoyed the Hong Kong Chow Mein.

Nana had chocolate raspberry gelato for her birthday cake and we ordered a mango coconut to share.  We passed them around, each taking a bite until they were all gone.

Gracie and Luke were starting to get antsy (we'd been there for over 2 hours at that point), so the head waiter bribed them with lollipops.  You'd think someone gave them a huge slice of chocolate cake!

My favorite picture!

In the end, we had a great time, but Lukie was ready to go.  It's a good thing I have fast reflexes!

We had enough food leftover for lunch the next day!

Happy Birthday, Nana!  We hope you had fun!

Sunny Palm Springs and Salsa

Nana, the Twinsies, and I hopped in the car and trekked to Palm Springs today. Our goal was to go to lunch at this Mexican restaurant we never remember the name of. We know what it looks like and where to find it, but when called upon to name the darn place, none of us seem to remember.

It turns out that the restaurant is called Las Casuelas. Usually, we get the Chopped Chicken salad and if we were thinking straight today, we would have ordered our usual. However, Nana and I were thrown off by the presence of Gracie and Luke, not to mention the fact that Lucas fell off of a bench and hit his head. He has a nice goose egg in the middle of his forehead. Nana ordered a combo and I ordered a Chicken and Avocado Salad.

But what we ate is not the relevant bit of this story. You see, Gracie and Luke were starving by the time we were seated. Out on the patio, there were lots of things to look at: people, birdies, motorcycles. However, Gracie and Luke were not interested in these things. Oh, no. All they cared about were the chips, and the salsa, and the guacamole!

Gracie refused to eat a chip without salsa on it. At first, I dipped them for her, but when that got boring, I pushed the little bowl to her and let her dip her chips herself. Notice the pinky action.





Lucas really had fun with the Guacamole.


By the time the meal was over, we were all covered in salsa and guacamole!



We were very happy that we drove all the way out to Palm Springs with Nana!

This will be a long one

Make sure you are sitting in a comfy chair. Maybe grab a coffee or other refreshment. Heck, if it's lunch time, I recommend bringing it over to the computer. This is going to be a long one.

We'll start with news from the Daddy front. I spoke with Daddy tonight. The gastroenterologist came to see him and decided that he wanted a more detailed look at what was going on inside of Daddy's body. They had him eat a radioactive egg salad sandwich (I'm still giggling at the idea of a radioactive egg salad sandwich) and they took x-rays for several hours. What they saw was that his digestive system is moving very very slowly. The good news: it's moving. The bad news: much more slowly than it should be. Before he could tell the doctor about the drug that helped him back in 2003, the doctor actually recommended the Propulsid (our banned by the FDA drug) and he increased Daddy's dosage to "with each meal." He is also putting him on some kind of antibiotic that tends to get your gut moving for some reason. Dr. A, our pediatrician, tells me that it is most likely Eurythrimiacin as it tends to do a number on most digestive systems, but that it really seems to help people with slowly moving guts.

The gastroenterologist wants to send Daddy home so that he can start getting back into the swing of things, hoping that being at home will help him heal more quickly. This is exciting and terrifying news. We desperately want Daddy home, but he gets very anxious about his nausea when he is not in the hospital. Today, marks 25 days since Daddy was admitted to the hospital. We were hoping he would be home for the Super Bowl, but it looks like he'll get to watch it on his flat screen tv in room 5211!

Genetics Suck. I know what you are thinking, Mom. I have better words in my vocabulary, but right now, the word "suck" fits the bill quite nicely. At four weeks old, Gracie was diagnosed with an ear infection. In the almost 17 months she has been alive, she has had more than a half dozen ear infections, four of which have happened since September 2008. This is to be expected. I had multiple ear infections, tubes in my ears, and was generally a sickie-poo. I was hoping that Gracie and Luke would some how be spared from tonsillectomies and ear tubes. We have been referred to an Ear, Nose, and Throat doctor to check out Gracie's right ear and to see if there is anything that can be done.

The curse of genetics does not stop there. Gracie has been on all 4 antibiotics pediatricans will prescribe to children her age. She started on Amoxicilin, then was on Augmentin, something called Omnicept, and last, but not least Biaxin. The last time she was on Augmentin, she was switched quickly to the Omnicept. The Augmentin gave her terrible diarreah and made her generally sad. This time, the Biaxin did not do its job and Dr. A decided to prescribe Augmentin again along with a probiotic to counteract the diarreah.

She started the Augmentin on Wednesday. Yesterday, the day care ladies mentioned a rash to me. I did not really see anything when I gave her a bath, but when they mentioned it again today, I took a really closer look. Gracie has a rash over her chest, back, chin and neck. It is bumpy and red looking. She hasn't been scratching it (thank goodness), but it worried me enough to call Dr. A and get her take on it. Dr. A was so worried that she had me take digital photos and email them to her. Sure enough, an hour later, Dr. A called me and told me to stop the Augmentin. Gracie is having an allergic reaction to the stuff. I asked Dr. A if she could be more specific about what part of the Augmentin Gracie was allergic to (it's a combination of antibiotics) and Dr. A said that most likely it was the Amoxicillin component. Notice the suffix "cillin" in that word. As in penicillin. Yes, just like her Nana, Gracie is allergic to the 'cillins. Great. Fantastic.

I'm going to pick up a new prescription for Omicept in the morning. In the meantime, Benedryl is our friend and I keep sneaking in to make sure she is okay. There hasn't been a peep out of them since I put them to bed at 7:30 pm. Which makes me think I need to go check on them again....

Our picture of the day is of Gracie's rash. All I have to say is "Go away rash! Go away!"

I'll be up checking Gracie throughout the night. Honestly, I'm terrified that her allergic reaction will get worse. I'll stop by tomorrow to let you know how it goes.

Mass - Our First attempt goes horribly awry

I've promised myself that I am going to go to mass this year. Nothing huge, just 12 times. Once a month would be wonderful considering we haven't been going at all!

Last night, Gracie and Luke spent the night at Nana's house and I drove out to pick them up this morning so that we could go to lunch with our friends. Nana was reading at Mass today, so I decided to see if I could check off one of my 12 Masses for the year.

Let me put it this way, if I hadn't had Teddy Grahams with me, there would have been a nuclear meltdown in the church! One Mommy and 2 toddlers does not equal a good time. The first thing they did was pull every prayer book and song book out of the pew. I solved that by sitting both of them on my lap. They were interested in the lights and flowers. Lukie was especially enjoying the Christmas trees. When they saw Nana walk up with the priest, Gracie shouted a loud "Hi!" and waved at Nana. I managed to keep her quiet with a quick Teddy in the mouth. They kind of liked the music. Kind of. But then, Nana had to go up and read and I was left by myself.

Dear Lord in Heaven, I am so sorry for the words I said in my head! Please, please forgive me!

Lukie tried to wriggle off of my lap and when I would not let him down, he started to yell. Gracie cried every time her supply of teddies fell short. Then, Lukie pulled his famous "Throw the binky and they'll put me down" trick - to no avail. Nana came back and held Gracie, who immediately started to cry because I was not holding her. When Nana stepped out of the pew to remove the screaming Gracie, Lukie chucked his binky at Nana's back. I am not kidding! You could hear the collective GASP! that came from the parishioners throughout the church. This is not an exaggeration. Nana sat us in the second pew and, in the semi-circular church, everyone saw what he did. That was the end!

So we officially made it to the beginning of the homily. Nana helped me take them out to the car. We hightailed it away from the church and headed straight for McDonald's. French fries made the Twinsies feel better and an iced tea did the trick for me. About 5 minutes later, they were both asleep.

Oh, well. Better luck next time!

Reasons We <3 Nana

Reasons we love Nana:

1) She lets me bring my twins to her house and doesn't freak out when they reduce it to rubble in under 1 minute.

2) She lets me bring 10 loads of laundry and doesn't freak out at how much the water bill is going to be.

3) She lets me vent about stupid smoking floors at hotels, dorky Sprint who has ridiculous cell phone plans, and overexcited adjusters who have scheduled the clothing cleaning crews to arrive tomorrow before I can start purging unwanted things from our smoky, dirty, cluttered house.

4) She tells me that it is totally okay that I live with her for the weekend so that my babies can play and be crazy fun kids instead of almost 15 month-olds who are restricted to one room.

5) She knows we are on a schedule and goes with the flow so that I can follow it.

6) She loves the Twinsies even though they throw tantrums the size of Texas and pitch their binkies across the room.

7) She lets us be us without judgment.

8) She lets me (Gracie and Luke's Mommy) have a little bit of time to myself so that I can get a manicure and pedicure.

That's why we love Nana!

A funny video I had to post

This weekend, we stayed with Nana. The Twinsies managed to make it past the dam we built with boxes and ice chests and started crawling around the kitchen. Luke loves to play with plastic bags.

This one liked to play with him!

A Monumental Night

Note the date: Saturday, June 28, 2008
Babies' Age: 9 Months, 3 weeks and 2 days old

This was the date that the babies had their very first Slumber Party. No Daddy. No Mommy. All Nana!

Nana (God Bless her!) offered to have a slumber party with Gracie and Luke so that Mommy and Daddy could get some work done for their jobs. So, packed down with everything babies could possibly need, Mommy and Daddy delivered the Twinsies to their Nana. They even stayed for an hour setting out all of the babies' food, filling bottles with water and pre-measuring formula so that Nana would have everything at her finger tips. Aunt Becca even came down to help Nana get the babies to sleep (although, we suspect that Nana Poppins did not need her).

Kisses were pressed onto little cheeks. Hugs, hugs, and more hugs were given to sweet little ones. And then, Mommy and Daddy walked out the door and got into the car.

Until they reached Pasadena, Mommy suspected that Daddy might just turn the car around and go collect the babies. He was so sad! She kept telling him that they could. But he continued driving and they arrived home to a very quiet house. And for the first time in 9 months, 3 weeks, and 2 days, Mommy and Daddy slept through the night without a baby's arm in their backs, a hungry cry in the night, or a leaky diaper. In fact, they did not wake up until 8 am! (Mommy woke up at 7:30 because the babies have her trained! She just read a book until Daddy woke up.)

As for the babies, Gracie slept in the Pack 'n Play through the night, while Lukie slept in the bed with Nana waking up for his usual bottle. On Sunday, they played with Nana at her house, hitting their hands on her coffee table and following her about the house. They came to an understanding with Nana that a) she will come back when she leaves a room and b) she can still be seen while in the kitchen, so no crying is necessary. At 3 pm, they headed with Nana to Aunt Bec's where they played with their cousins until it was time to come home.

Nana met Mommy and Daddy at Spaghetti Factory to pass the babies back over to their parents. They had dinner at Spaghetti Factory (at least Mommy and Daddy tried to) and the Twinsies even got to try Spumoni ice cream!

Nana did such a good job tiring the babies that they slept in their car seats and Lukie did not even wake up when Mommy took him out to go to bed.

We LOVE Nana!

(P.S. This picture is from 12/7/07 - Nana doesn't like to let us take pictures of her with babies. She couldn't say no this time. She had her hands full!)

One Month Old!

Can you believe it has already been a month?

I am sorry that we haven't been better about updates, but WOW! I was prepared for the lack of sleep, but Eddie wasn't. We are both walking around like zombies but we are loving every minute of it.

Since Gracie and Luke came home, we have been working on some sort of schedule for the babies. In the beginning, we stuck with the NICU schedule, but Gracie and Luke decided after the first week that that wasn't working for them. We still haven't found the best option. We're working on it though.

My mom (a.k.a. Nana) came to stay with us for a few days. We wish we had had her longer. Just as we figured out how to use her (why I did not ask her to take care of the babies one night so we could sleep, I'll never know), she had to head home. Eddie and I have been on our own for the last week and a half. For the most part, we are doing okay. Frozen tv dinners and McDonald's are getting old though!

The babies made their first public appearance at the Diabetic Walk on September 30th. Eddie was a very proud papa and everyone seemed happy to meet the babies. The only bad thing was that Eddie caught a cold, which he passed to me and I passed to the babies. We all have stuffy noses, coughs, and are generally feeling yucky. Gracie ended up with an ear infection and we have to give her bubble gum flavored antibiotics. I can't believe she's already having to have antibiotics. I am hoping this is just a fluke. I was very sick as an infant and eventually had my tonsils and adenoids removed when I was 2.5 years old. I also had to have tubes in my ears. I don't want Gracie to have to go through that!

Both babies have been changing very quickly. Every day they look a little different. Gracie has been gaining weight like crazy and now weighs 5 lbs! Not too long ago, she weighed 3 lbs 7 oz! Luke is just shy of 7 lbs and is starting to look like a Cabbage Patch Baby (he has those adorable cheeks). Gracie's face is filling out and she doesn't look like the same baby. We've gone on a few driving adventures and both babies seem to like riding in the car. My mom and I worked out a game plan for any trip and it seems to be working well. If we feed the babies right before we leave, we have 2.5 hours before we have crying, hungry babies.

The babies are very excited to meet everyone. If you would like to come hold babies, please give us a call. We'd love to see you!