Days of our Laives

I just did the bedtime routine by myself. It was short, but painful. Here's how it went down: 6:00 - Kira and I eat dinner The most difficult aspect of this part of the night was that Renee was still awake. Usually around this time, she takes a 20-30 minute power nap. But, she didn't, I let her cry for 20 minutes and she still wouldn't rest. So Renee sat in her highchair somewhat well-behaved while Kira and I ate. 6:30 - Feed and change Renee; read Kira a book; start cleaning dinner dishes Renee had just had a bottle at 5, so I didn't want to feed her right away as she probably would not eat without at least a little bit of hunger. Thus, my decision to hold off feeding Renee until both Kira and I had finished. I'll rate the feeding at "B-". Because she had not napped, she was cranky and impatient with eating her solid foods. She ate about 2/3 of what I had prepared, and she got it everywhere. Nothing unusual, but not fun to deal with on my own. ...

We got a bread machine. We've been wanting one for a while, but the cost of the nice ones kept us in thinking mode. Finally I saw one on GILT , and we went for it. It's a Cuisinart Convection Bread Maker, and it has many many features. So far, I've made 3 loaves of bread: 1 challah loaf and 2 whole wheat loaves. The challah bread was ok...the texture was there, but I was not wow-ed by the taste. I think I'm a bit biased when it comes to challah bread because I grew up in Brookline and my mom bought fresh challah bread every week. (Brookline has many many Jewish residents.) The first whole wheat loaf was a bit dry and I think it was because I accidentally used too much honey. For the size loaf I was making, the recipe called for 1.5 T honey, but I looked in the wrong column, i.e., the column for the larger loaf, and added 2 T. So, that made me want to try the whole wheat loaf again. This time I went for the large loaf because the first loaf was eaten up pretty ...

Quick list before anything is forgotten: 1. Raspberries. ALL. THE. TIME! 2. Head-bob dancing. Will try to catch this on video! 3. Crawling...well, sort of, but it's a start 4. Opening cabinets and pulling out the contents 5. Random blurting and talking We went to the doctor on Monday for her 9-month check up. Here are the specs: weight - 19.5 lbs height - don't remember, but the doc said taller than average head - "a good size" and "overall, very proportional in general"

Just last week, Renee started sleeping through the night for the first time!!! I feel like a whole new person and very quickly we're falling into a nice groove. This is good news for blogging. I'm looking forward to telling more stories about the family so that people reading can keep up with what's going on in our lives and so that we will have documented memories to look back on in the future. The latest news is that both girls are sick. Nothing earth-shattering, but sick nonetheless, both with the same set of symptoms: raspy cough (even while sleeping during the night), runny nose, and intermittent low-grade fever. One of my FB friends mentioned that RSV is going around. I don't know if RSV is what Kira and Renee have; regardless they need to get through it on their own. There are so few drugs for children. Even antibiotics are given very cautiously. The best I can do for my girls is too keep the humidifiers running, give them plenty of fluids, and plenty of...