Tracy versus Robert

In case you hadn't noticed Rob and I have a very different approach to the world. And just about everything else. This is best illustrated by the following occurrence today, at Dunkin' Donuts.

We did our usual Sunday afternoon cruise around the back roads of Chester and Lancaster counties and eventually ended up at Dunkin' Donuts -- which is pretty much how we bribe decent behavior from Hannah and Liz. This time we decided to go inside because Hannah wanted a pink frosted donut and they don't always have those at 3 p.m. and then it takes her about 15 minutes to come up with donut choice number 2.

As luck would have it, they had donuts that each girl wanted, so we very happily placed our order and Hannah and Lizzie were being their usual charming selves, spelling out the names of donuts and flirting with the girl behind the counter and finding a table all by themselves. We got our order (no I did not have a donut) and sat at a table.

Since there was no one in the place and Hannah and Lizzie are very cute, the counter woman came out to chat and clean tables. That's when she said to Rob and I, "Are these your grandchildren?"

Tracy's answer, smiling guiltily: They aren't our grandchildren. They are our children. We waited a long time for them, so we were older. I know we look old, but they are our children. We might be old enough to be their grandparents, but we are their parents.

Rob's answer, not even making eye contact: No.

So there you have it. :0

OLD FARTS:

All is Well

*** Warning: Some Grossness Follows ... Some might find it too gross to read. No one should read after a meal ***

Whew ... we've had a couple of rough days around here, but all is well now. As you have probably read, Lizzie had a stomach bug on Saturday. So, after being up with her all Saturday night and waiting for her to feel better on Sunday, I started feeling a little queasy myself on Sunday night. By midnight I was in full tummy bug mode, and by 2:30 a.m. Rob was in the same boat. At 4:30 a.m. Rob was in one bathroom, and I was in the other one upstairs and there's a knock on the door:

"Mommy?" It was Elizabeth
"I'm okay, Lizzie," I say in that chirpy I'm not really all right voice.
"I have to go to the baffroom."
"Can you go downstairs, honey, Mommy's sick."
"Well ... it's dark down there. Can you come with me?
I WANTED to say turn on the light and go. But instead -- being a mom -- I took a break from vomiting ... quickly cleaned the bathroom, cracked the window, let her into the bathroom, ran downstairs to the powder room and continued my illness there.

Seriously, it's moments like this when you know you're a mom. And when you're glad that your new house has THREE bathrooms!

Luckily we're all pretty much on the road to recovery. Rob went back to work, the girls went to school and I had a sweet potato for dinner, so it looks like the worst is all behind us!! And you should all be happy that I did not take any pictures of the past 48 hours!!

Happy Valentine's Day

Hi everyone -- I hope you're enjoying the day with your loved ones. We had a good morning and went to our favorite coffee shop where we had hot chocolate, brownies, scones and coffee (I just had the coffee). I should have known things were going to go downhill when Lizzie pushed her brownie away and said she DIDN'T LIKE CHOCOLATE. Yesterday, she ate about a pound of it, so I should have known something was up.

Then we got back in the car and she said her tummy hurt.

By the time we got home she was in full-blown stomach bug mode. I have to say though, that if you're child is going to vomit all over your house, it's not a bad idea to feed them hot chocolate ahead of time. It really wasn't that bad.

This was Lizzie's first stomach bug ever, so she's a little confused why she feels bad and wants to know why she's not better already (it's been about two hours). So, right now she is laying on a chair watching cartoons and whimpering in the Nancy Kerrigan fashion (WHY ME???)

Hopefully she'll feel better by tomorrow. And hopefully Hannah won't get it. And MOST hopefully I won't get it....

So I was unable to take faces of happy children on Valentine's Day. Luckily we went to a favorite park last weekend when the weather was in the low 50s and I took lots of pictures. Here they are:

For those who live in the area, this park is in New Holland. It's got lots of structures for the kids to run around on, and some nice pieces of equipment. There's a bathroom there, and there's also a pool, although we've never done the pool part. Here's Lizzie in the rocket.

Oh yeah, HUSBANDS like to run around the structures too. Here Rob is in the castle structure. Which looks a lot like the rocket structure, but it's not.

Hannah in the rocket. When we first started going to this park just about a year ago they didn't reach the windows. They have grown about 2 feet this year, I think. (Okay, maybe I'm exaggerating...)

Tire swing! This is a total favorite, especially when they can get adults to push them on it. Usually they meet other kids at the park and go on the swing with them, so that their strong (and younger than us) parents can push them on the tire swing. You can't see it too well, but just below the tire swing is a pool of water. That's not a feature of the park, but the remnants of the snow that melted all of a sudden when the temp went from the teens to the 50s. Both girls stepped in it, fell in it and otherwise muddied themselves in this pool and all the mud in the park.

Do not adjust your computer screens ... this is just Lizzie going so high on the swing that she almost flipped over backwards.Here's one of many slides in the park. Lizzie loves slides......but Hannah is positively ELECTRIFIED by them. Have a happy Valentine's Day everyone!!

After

Here's my big news of the week. I earned my 10 pound weight loss (actually 10.5 pounds if you're counting, which I am!) ribbon at Weight Watchers on Monday night. I took a picture of it with my "after" picture. I know most people wait until, you know, they've actually LOST the weight to show an after picture, but since this is what I hope to look like when I'm done, I'm posting it and my ribbon together.

This picture was taken (I think) just prior to my parents' 35th wedding anniversary, which makes me about 33 years old. Of course I'm not 33 anymore and will require much plastic surgery to look this way again, but STILL, it's my after picture. Why? Because it's one of only a handful of photos that actually exist of me and it's probably the only picture ever taken of me that I actually like. I even like the fact that for a photo that was supposed to be an anniversary gift for my parents, I'm wearing a tee shirt and jeans.

So that's 10 pounds gone. YAY!! Lots more to go, but I'm on my way.

If you've gotten this far, I'm going to reward you with a recipe. I made these today as a Valentine's Day treat and they are really, really good and healthy, too. This is an official Weight Watchers Recipe, but they call them something else, which I can't remember right now

Fake Rice Crispy Treats

3 Tablespoons Smart Balance Light butter

3 cups mini marshmallows

2 cups Fiber One cereal (just the regular kind, not flavored or sweetened)

5 cups Puffed Wheat cereal

Melt the butter and the marshmallows in a large pot stirring until smooth. Remove from heat and dump in the two cereals. Mix to coat everything. Then pour into a 9 x 13 pan that you've sprayed with some sort of releasing agent (like butter spray, but I used olive oil spray) and press firmly with the back of a spatula (also coated with spray). Refrigerate until cool. Cut into 24 squares. Each square has a half point in the Weight Watchers plan (roughly 25 calories.)

I just had a couple with a cup of coffee and it felt quite decadent. They're big, too, if you're like me and like volume food!

Dancing Girls

Here's a short video that I shot during observation day at the girls' dance school a week or so ago. You'll just have to trust me that this is a massive improvement over the first observation class I went to in November!!

(Here's my disclaimer that I am a much better still photographer than videographer!)

Big Girl Smiles

Two posts in two days -- told ya, you needed wheels to keep up with us these days!

The big news today is that Hannah now has a big girl smile -- you know, one of those smiles with a gaping hole in the front of it where the baby tooth is gone and the permanent tooth has yet to grow in.

In the interest of full disclosure, Hannah had help from the dentist who yesterday, during a routine cleaning (no cavities for either of them) noticed that her front tooth had abscessed. Hannah banged the tooth on something (who knows what) when she was around three years old and the tooth has slowly been discoloring over the years. Yesterday it was decided that the infection was bad enough that the tooth needed to come out.

This morning, in a procedure that took all of about five minutes, the tooth was yanked with nary a tear (Hannah did well, too) and we were back home and already wondering what the tooth fairy was going to bring her.

So here's Hannah a couple of weeks ago:

And a couple of hours ago:

Lovin' Spoonful

(This picture is from our Welcome to the Family party/baptism in 2003)

Six years ago today, we became a family.

Although I don't remember a whole lot from those early weeks of parenthood, the events of that day -- of those first moments -- are a part of me.

And while we discuss adoption in our house whenever it comes up, I do try to make special mention of it on Family Day.

Hannah and Lizzie love to hear the story of how we came to meet them; how I thought they were cute; how Hannah looked at me with one eye open; how we took them to a hotel where we lived for a week; how we changed their diapers; how we all fell in love with each other.

Tonight though, I told them one of my favorite stories from our first day as a family.

Since we had fewer than 24 hours to prepare to be the parents of twins, and since I am not the most organized person on a good day, we arrived at our hotel room with two babies, a couple of bottles, some diapers, two cans of formula and nothing with which to open the cans or to mix the formula.

I sent Rob out to get provisions for the week we were expected to stay in Delaware while paperwork was filed. He came back with a measuring cup, a can opener, a spoon and a couple of cartons of Chinese food.

We fed the girls and then, as they slept, I opened the Chinese food only to discover that Rob had not gotten anything to eat the Chinese food with. I was starving, so we spent that first meal sharing not only the chicken lo mein, but also our one lonely spoon.

To me, this was clear evidence that we were simply too dumb to be parents. And when I tell this story I use it to illustrate just that fact.

Tonight though, as I was telling this story, I dramatically opened the dishwasher and pulled out the serving spoon that we had used to mix the girls' formula and eat that first meal together.

"This is that very spoon," I said to them, holding up the freshly washed spoon.

But instead of laughing, Lizzie took the spoon and looked at it very closely and said, "This spoon has love on it."

I looked at her as if I hadn't heard her correctly and she clarified: "Because you passed it back and forth when we were babies ... it has love on it. It's got our family on it."

Which is really a much better way to end the story -- and to celebrate our family day together.

(This picture was taken in late 2008.)