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The kids received a package from Granny Frani this week. Burke couldn’t wait to wear his new clothes! (Thank you Granny Frani!!)
Burke
All of the girls at Maggie’s dance class received their costumes for the big recital (that’s in June!). You should have seen the extra bounces in all of their steps that day! LOL
Maggie
(Now, to keep her out of it until the recital!)
Filed under: FFFF, twins | Tagged: The clothes make the man, tutu | 2 Comments »
Mike has a cat, Gabriel.
Burke, Gabe, Maggie
I have a cat, Tiger.
Tiger
The boys have lived together for the past 7 years or so (not always loving every minute together…)
They’re both strays and they’re both about 14 years old.
I’ve noticed lately that Tiger isn’t jumping as high as he used to and is finding various “steps” to use to get to where he wants to go. (Gabriel has always been too…fat…to jump very high, so I’ve seen no change there.)
Warning! Things may get a little graphic…
Tiger has always been ‘hesitant’ to use the litter box (his favorite spot to pee is in he sink *sigh* ). And if he does use the litter box, he tries to “balance” himself on the edges, so his aim isn’t so great.
Gabriel is like your favorite old stinky uncle. He just can’t help himself… And he always has wet paws because he brings his food over to the water bowl and then fishes it out.
But it’s all getting…smellier. It’s more common than not to find a little poo on the floor in various room. And sometimes even a whole pile!
Needless to say, this means Mike and I have been contemplating sending the cats “to the farm.” It breaks my heart! But it’s so incredibly disgusting. And I don’t like that the kids may run across an icky pile at any moment. The kicker? We’re not even sure that it’s BOTH cats with the problem.
And you know that “the farm” won’t keep them. They’ll be put down. Which seems so cruel … especially since they seem to have so much more life in them!
(And I’m feeling a little extra guilty because the thought of new little kitties seems like so much fun!)
Filed under: cats | Tagged: old cats, piles o' poo, smelly cat | 1 Comment »
Cheryl over at Twinfatuation hosts this one. Go on over to see who else is playing – and join in too!
My preschool – way back when – used to have field trips where all of the kids and teachers would go out to a kid’s house for a home visit. It was a neat way to see how everyone lived and to feel more comfortable with your classmates.
This was a home visit to our house! I’m not even sure I’m in this photo (unless I’m the one on Stan’s lap with my tongue out..?) It looks like we’re eating lunch. 🙂
Since my big sister (pretty sure she’s the one in pigtails ) and my big brother (pretty sure he’s the one in the red jacket) are both in this…it’s probably before I was a student at the school. Plus, based on the wallpaper and the lovely linoleum floor…this was pretty early on. So…maybe 1977? 1978?
Otter Creek House Visit
Filed under: me, WBW | Tagged: fond memories, home visits, old photos, preschool | 4 Comments »
Burke and Maggie brought home their school pictures today!
(Remember their pictures from last year?)
Burke
Maggie
Filed under: twins | Tagged: school pictures | 6 Comments »
This is actually a product review for the Calphalon Removable Plate Grill.
Because I’m a member of BigTent (for my mom’s of twins group), I received an email a few weeks ago asking me to join another BigTent group and I’d receive a free Calphalon product in exchange for an honest review put up on their site. Thinking “ya, right…I’ll see THAT product.” I joined anyway. What could it hurt? BigTent already has all of the information that this new group wanted. On Saturday, my Removable Plate Grill showed up at the door. Can you say Happy Dance? 🙂
Oh, come on – you have to admit receiving free stuff would Make your Monday as well 🙂
Cheryl over at Twinfatuation hosts this one. Head on over to see what else makes people’s Mondays (there are always some really good ones!)
Below is the review I put up on their site … with a few extra pictures, and a few extra links.
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Calphalon
Removable Plate Grill
As a member of a family that grills outside year-round, I was skeptical about this product at first. Until I read the Panini tips in the user guide. Panini! Of course! The Removable Plate grill is *perfect* for creating delicious paninis.
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Just to test it out, I grilled some chicken on it – marinated in Italian dressing – and those turned out nice and juicy. The burgers weren’t a great hit with my kids, but they’re used to the charcoal flavor, so that might have had something to do with it. The hot dogs were well received though.
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The grill itself is wonderful! I have owned two George Foreman grills in the past, and this one far out-reaches either of those. The grill is HUGE – perfect for a family of 5.
I love that the grill plates are removable – and SUPER easy to clean off. It’s nice that they go in the dishwasher, but if you’re grilling anything messy, it’s just easier to wash them up in the sink.
It’s wonderful that there’s an up-end storage option … just remember to clean out the internal drip tray first! (Luckily, the folks at Calphalon put a permanent reminder on the bottom grill plate.) The drip tray is great for scraping scraps into before a second round of grilling as well.
My only complaints are that the arrows on the temperature and timer dials are VERY hard to see. If these arrows were black, or outlined in black, it’d be much easier to tell which end indicated the correct temp/time.
And it’s nice that there is a height selector (although, I didn’t actually use it since I like the squishy grill marks on my food), but it seems rather cheap. Every time I move it and close the lid, I’m afraid it’s going to break! (It hasn’t yet though, so I’ll keep my fingers crossed.) …this is actually the reason for the 4 stars instead of 5…
The first time I used it there was a LOT of smoke. I was afraid that this would be the case every time, but it was simply a matter of getting all that “newness” out. There was little-to-no smoke the second time I used it.
Overall, a GREAT product. If we didn’t grill outside year-round, I’m sure we’d use this all winter for burgers and stuff. We’ll just have to use it year-round for paninis instead!
Disclaimer: Calphalon sent me this grill for free to review for *their* website. I’m just putting it up over here too.
Filed under: reviews | Tagged: Calphalon, inside grill, panini, Removable Plate Grill | 5 Comments »
Since Debi isn’t doing the Baby Picture Sundays, and since I opted to do a Logan update on Friday…I’m putting up the “this is what we did this week” photos today 🙂
Burke at the Park
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Burke was very proud that he’d learned a new “trick” and couldn’t wait to get me to go with him to the park to show me. 🙂 I have video as well…but I haven’t downloaded it from my Flip yet.
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Giraffe on Logan's Head
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Why can this kid sleep with anything on his head?? 🙂
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"I'm sitting here and I'm not moving."
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I had a really hard time convincing Logan that he had to go back to his own booster seat. He SOOOO wants to be a “big kid” !!
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"Look at me!!"
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So the next day when it was just the two of us, I let him sit in Maggie’s seat. He was so excited!
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Hangin' in the Giga Ball
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Inside the Giga Ball has been a favorite past-time for Burke and Maggie. (They know not to roll it when they’re both inside.) Logan tried getting in with them but said it was “too busy” for him. LOL!
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Hanging' on the Giga Ball
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Burke also likes hanging out on top of the Giga Ball – with his butt in the opening. Goofball 🙂
Filed under: FFFF, kids | Tagged: big kid, car seats, giga ball, hanging around, play ground, sleep | 1 Comment »
We dragged out the Giraffalaff Limbo today. (It’s been in the basement because, as you can see, the kids had a hard time putting it away and there are several parts missing – including the giraffe!) Anyway…they’ve been having a BLAST with it. Even if all the rules aren’t followed. 🙂 And even if knocking it over on purpose is more fun because that laugh is so dang contagious.
Around and Around
I fit under!
(Love Burke's face in this one. tee hee)
Is this how I'm supposed to do it?
Cheryl over at Twinfatuation hosts this one. Go over and have a look at what others are doing on this beautiful Saturday.
Filed under: Uncategorized | Tagged: Giraffalaff Limbo, limbo | 4 Comments »
Dr. Endo called this morning to go over the results of the tests from a few weeks ago.
Looks like nothing changes from what he initially wanted to do: we go back in 4 months to check things out.
The blood work showed that his ESR numbers were just fine (which makes sense because he wasn’t sick this time). And that the other two they were checking out (the two growth hormones) were about the same as last time. One was normal and the other was slightly low.
So we’ll just wait and see.
In other news, Logan had two speech evaluations this week. The one on Tuesday was actually his EI Re-eval where they test everything. He barely makes it back into EI for his speech stuff. And is above average in most everything else they tested. So…we’re good until he gets kicked out at age 3.
He also had testing done today at the public school to see if he qualifies for speech classes through them when he turns 3. He probably does, but they can’t say anything for sure until they go over all of the tests. We’ll have a meeting to discuss it all at some point in the near future.
The ladies there all know Burke from when he was taking his speech classes (and just gushed at how much they love him). It was kind of cute and embarrassing at the same time 🙂
Filed under: Logan | Tagged: endocrinologist, speech, testing | 5 Comments »
On Monday, my Twins Club had a speaker from The Better Behavior Bureau come talk with us.
It.Was.FANTASTIC.
Jeanine Fitzgerald was conversational, funny, and highly informative. She didn’t mind “interruptions” and answered every single question we all threw at her. We weren’t talked at, we were talked with. And her daughter is now working with her…so I’m thinking that means she’s doing/she did something right with her own kids 🙂
She went over a graph of child temperament, describing where kids might fit in – but making sure we all knew that they probably cross more than one quadrant. She also described the needs for each quadrant and effective positive disciplinary techniques for kids who fall in each quadrant. Holy eye opener!! I wish I had been exposed to this about 3 years ago when we were going through major screaming/anger fits with Burke. We eventually figured out how to better deal with him; but it would have been a lot quicker if I’d known all of this stuff at that point!!
One of the things Jeanine said that made me sit up and take notice was along the lines of “fair does not mean equal.” Kids are different. The needs of one child can be completely different than another. A high-level, material example is just because one kid needs shoes, doesn’t mean the other one does – so the other one shouldn’t necessarily get them. I wish I could remember her exact, complete phrasing….but she basically said that she always told her kids that she’d be fair to them by always providing what they need. That doesn’t necessarily mean that they’d always get the same things (typically when they’re older) or be disciplined the same way for doing the same thing (typically when they’re younger).
One other thing Jeanine talked about was the fact that playgrounds used to have activities to help kids to self-regulate. Much of these things are disappearing because they’ve been deemed unsafe…which means that we, as parents, need to provide these “actions” for our kids. Stuff like…spinning (those awesome merry-go-rounds), hanging up-side-down (monkey bars), swinging and going up and down (see-saws), and crashing. There’s more, but I can’t remember all of them. I think I’m going to look into the book she recommended, Take Five by Mary Sue Williams, to find out more about helping kids self-regulate.
Jeanine has a book out too, The Dance of Interaction. I haven’t read it yet, but I’ve ordered it and I can’t wait to get my hands on it!
Filed under: behavior, info | Tagged: Better Behavior Bureau, Jeanine fitzgerald, positive discipline | 9 Comments »
Cheryl over at Twinfatuation hosts this one. Go on over to see who else is playing – and join in too!
These are from March of 2006. The kids are about 14 months old and have discovered the Tupperware cabinet for the first time. 🙂
Burke and Maggie in the Tupperware
Look at all this stuff!!
Filed under: twins, WBW | Tagged: mischief, Tupperware | Leave a comment »
The Zimmer Zoo 