Today I was eating a banana and wondered if the boys would like it. Since bananas are good “first foods”, I decided to let them try some. Up until this point, they haven’t had anything except breastmilk and formula. The first bite was a little weird for both of them, they didn’t know what to do with all that stuff in their mouths. It was quite funny to watch them figure it out. Rowan figured it out very quickly! I would put some banana on the tip of my finger and put it in their mouths. They barely opened up at first, but after the first couple of bites, Rowan would open real wide, sticking his tongue out. I’ll have to video it because it is so cute. Elijah will open his mouth a little, let me put some banana in it, then he’ll shut his mouth really quickly and it would all come out. But then he would open his mouth again and it would go back in (he was lying down, this wouldn’t work if he was sitting up). Elijah is a very messy eater, he got bits of bananas everywhere. Rowan will eat anything and doesn’t waste a bit! I couldn’t feed him fast enough! In between bites, he would fuss a lot and get really mad if I took too much time feeding Elijah. His arms and legs were flailing about as if the world was going to end if I didn’t feed him more bananas! I’m glad their first solid food eating experience was a fun and pleasant one.

Nothing too exciting happened today. The boys slept in pretty late, and it was very leisure. Rowan is still not getting the hang of turning over and gets so frustrated about it. Elijah definitely has it down, he doesn’t stay on his stomach more than a few secions unless he is playing with something. He looks like he might even learn to turn back onto his stomach. We took a trip out to the post office (another ebay sale, yeah!) and then went to the video store to get more movies (this is going to be a daily thing). In the evening, I worked on a web front end for my movie database, it’s actually pretty neat! It is linked to the “Rotten Tomatoes” site so you can read reviews and what not. It also tells you if someone is borrowing the movie and what “rating” it got. I want to add searches to it next like - “Show me all with rating over 90″.

I have been reading the book “Dave Gorman’s Googlewhack Adventure” and it’s pretty good. I am starting to really like British comedians. Well, I guess this technically makes him #2, Richard Herring is #1. I guess Michael Palin counts as well, but I never really was a Monty Python fan. By the way, for you Richard Herring fans, if you have seen the printing of the “Someone Likes Yoghurt” program, my name is in there! I donated £20 to SCOPE (an organization that helps people with cerebral palsy) so my name was included. It will be handed out to thousands of people at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival! Wow, I’m famous! ;) I wish I could’ve made it there this year.

Today I went into work and dropped the boys off at the Pro Club. It is getting easier to do this, if I can only be on time. I had my meeting with my boss and he has been very satisfied with the job I’ve done so far. It’s so nice to hear that sometimes! The boys did really well at the day care. Rowan was fast asleep when I came to pick them up. I wish he could’ve slept more. But he wasn’t grouchy at all, he was his happy go lucky self. He has been just so much fun to be around lately! It goes in cycles and here is my theory. They gain some kind of new understanding. It frustrates them that they can’t comprehend it. Then they accept it, learn how to deal with it, then they’re happy again. Then it starts over. Elijah is on the “low” end of the cycle now and Rowan is on the “high”. I’m sure in a couple of weeks, I’ll be writing the opposite.

I forgot to mention a couple of days ago, Michael made me feel better when he read me the following from the book “Freakonomics”. The chapter is entitled “What Makes a Perfect Parent”.

According to the ECLS data, eight of the factors show a strong correlation - positive or negative - with test scores. The other eight don’t seem to matter. Feel free to guess which are which.

1. The child has highly educated parents.
2. The child’s family is intact.
3. The child’s parents have high socioeconomic status
4. The child’s parents recently moved into a better neighborhood
5. The child’s mother was thirty or older at the time of her first child’s birth
6. The child’s mother didn’t work between birth and kindergarten
7. The child had a low birthweight
8. The child attended Head Start
9. The child’s parents speak English in the home
10. The child’s parents regularly take him to museums
11. The child is adopted
12. The child is regularly spanked
13. The child’s parents are involved in the PTA
14. The child frequently watches television
15. The child has many books in his home
16. The child’s parents read to him nearly every day

I bet you can’t get all 8 correct! If you did, please email me, because you deserve some kind of medal.

So, the answer is every odd numbered one. Which means, watching television doesn’t hurt or help them. Also, reading to them doesn’t hurt or help them. I know, I know, I know. You’ll just have to read the book to see his explanations (have I piqued your interest?), Freakonomics by Steven D. Levitt. Interesting, eh?

Michael found a new thing that makes the boys laugh. It is tickling their ribcage with your face/nose. Elijah went nuts!

We watched the movie “Aviator”. It was alright. I thought it was 1 hour too long. I’m also not a fan of Leonardo DiCaprio. But I feel bad that last week, he got hit in the head with a beer bottle and now has a scarred face. Crazy!

Wow, this is becoming a regular thing! Michael took the boys again to the ferry (see his post). I spent the day napping until 1pm and then eating, pumping, and then at 3pm actually getting up the energy to do something. I have finally gotten over the pain of the shovelling from last week, so I started working on the “hole” again. Shovelling is a lot of back breaking work! Especially when there’s rocks in the dirt! I outlined the 10×6 area, and started digging. My work from last week was a lot of it, now it’s down to the tedious task of levelling. It’s stil tilting toward the house, so I spent a lot of time digging the higher part down. Whenever Michael came home, he helped out and it went super quick! I got the wheelbarrel out to move the dirt away and the tire was flat. We are the kings of working with flat tires. Michael wanted to just let it go, but I knew we had a lot to shovel, so I got our new tire pumps and filled it up. Man, I got tired from just doing that! Michael had to finish up pumping for me. I got out the wood pieces that I’m using to frame the area, and I measured a little wrong and the hole was too small. So, I had to enlarge the hole and dig more. Thank god Michael was willing to help. All his practice shovelling snow in the mountains really pays off. By the end of the day, we pretty much had the hole dug. There is a little bit I need to take off, but the hole is mostly done. I’m torn between renting a tamping tool or not. The guy at home depot said to use a hose, it compacts the ground pretty well. We’ll see…

The boys did well as usual. Rowan has become Mr. Personality and just has a beaming smile every time you look at him. When they came back from the ferry, they were both in a really good mood and it’s so much fun to sit there and make them smile and laugh. There is nothing like having two little gremlins looking up at you with a big smile, waiting with anticipation for the next set of kisses! They both love getting huge kisses on the cheek and also on the neck, since it tickles. Elijah will squeal with delight! When he gets into his laughy moods, it is so much fun because pretty much anything you do will make him smile and get excited!

In the evening, we put them in their backpacks and we went for a walk to the video store. We need to get them used to it! And get me used to it. Having a 25 pound pack on my back is a lot. I’m used to 5 pounds or maybe 10. They both did great, not a peep out of them. I carried Rowan the whole time and he was perched up over my left shoulder taking in all the sights. Towards the end, the pack was hurting my hips and I think it’s because it wasn’t adjusted for me. The other pack that we have is smaller, so I think I’ll use that one next time. It was a nice evening out but boy, am I going to be sore tomorrow.

Every time Michael takes the boys out it really recharges my batteries for the coming week. I wish he could do it every weekend, but he needs his batteries recharged too, especially with his stressful job!

Ah, Sunday, time for me to take the lil’ fellas out for something fun. Just like last week, I decided that the ferry to Kingston would be my best option. The ferry is good because once I get there, I can be a walk on passenger with the kids and then we get the joy of travelling across the water and exploring a town. We can snicker at the poor folks sitting in their cars waiting to get on the ferry. Man, that is no fun! Last week we showed up too late and had to wait in downtown Edmunds for 50 minutes. Well we got to walk up a steep hill, visit a museum, look for gardening gloves for Kris (but the store was too lame to have them), and eat a slice of pizza. I was oogling the “all you can eat” Before we knew it, we had to hurry back to catch the 12:05. Meanwhile, mind you, sweltering people were sitting in their cars in a line a half mile long waiting to get on. Me and the kids would have hated that.

Alongside the ferry we had an escort of two paramilitary pontoon boats, each decorated with a soldier and two massive machine guns. It looked like something out of a movie, probably starring Bruce Willis or Kurt Russell.Rowan liked being carried in the “Baby-Bjorn,” but when we went to the front of the ferry the wind was sostrong that Rowan blinked repeatedly, took in some sharp breaths, and began to squirm and cry in surprise!we had to beat a hasty retreat!

This time, on our second visit to Kingston we looked for a steep hill to hike up. There was a road leading north that climbed 400 feet in a mile. The kids fell asleep but I was pretty sweaty at the top. We found the “Northwest Labor College” a comforting series of buildings with orderly signs indicating purpose. “DINING” said one. “CLASS ROOMS” another. I had to take pictures of the kids in front of each sign. A Labor College seems like a fun place to go, like, a vocational college. In my job it seems like I’m carrying around tiny nuggets of knowledge and trying to route and order a pile of spaghetti accordingly. All the systems drift toward chaos and it starts afresh every day. How many times have I set out to solve problem X, but problem Y, brand new and urgent supplants my solution time? It is pretty exhausting at the moment. Me and the boys sighed.

When they grew tired of the Labor College, I jogged back down the hill for some adventure in town. This consisted of wandering into a bar (”children are welcome when dining with their parents,” warned the sign) and ordering a pint of Pyramid ale. I also got a hamburger to go. I’d eaten here once with Robert after our climb of Mount Constance and the burgers were great. The waitresses kept coming by to play with the kids, and a gruff old fellow playing pool made hearty comments. Fortified by the cold beer, I pushed the little ones outside to feed the three of us on a green park lawn. Kris and I had a quaint picnic blanket, with a waterproof bottom and cute orange stakes. I duly staked my blanket out, feeling a little light-headed.

I got the kids out of their stroller and they seemed kind of confused laying on the blanket, I think the sun was kind of bright in their eyes. It wasn’t a sunny day, but you know how sometimes thin clouds are worse because the whole sky is uniformely white? So that bothered them. Propping them up to feed was tough. Finally with Rowan’s hand pushing on Elijah’s head we achieved equilibrium with bottles at the right angle for drinking. And so it went.
Finally they were fed and I could eat my steaming burger. It was not as good as I remembered, but still pretty good. Uh-oh, Rowan is unhappy despite feeding! I changed him and put the stroller into “nap mode.” This involves swaddling the subject in blankets, lowering the seat to recline position and putting the yellow blanket over the top. He muttered a bit then dropped off to sleep. I finished my burger then I heard some announcement about the ferry leaving. I quickly calculated available milk supply, approximate crankiness level, and likelyhood of additional marvels in Kingston. A quick diaper change of Elijah, and we moved with whatever haste small babies travelling with their father allowed to catch this ferry. They had a nice nap and I read a book. Back at the car they were so tired I didn’t want to wake them up. Such swea-peas they are!

This morning Michael went climbing with Theron so I took care of the boys. Rowan would just not stop crying, it wasn’t “emergency” crying, it was more like a whining. I think it’s because I’m forcing him to do tummy time and he just hates it so much. He has had so much improvement in neck strength since we started forcing him to do it! Most of the time he’ll put up with it, but today he was just not in the mood to cooperate. I put them down for a nap and had a nap myself. Michael and Theron returned and then it was Elijah’s turn to cry. He was alright up until I fed him and he bit my nipple so I scolded him. He usually cries for about a minute and then he’s over it. But this time I think because there was so many distractions and a stranger was there, he would just not calm down. We gave him a bottle instead and I realized how this could become a problem (with breastfeeing) quickly. We’ll have to stop giving him the bottle every time he cries. He still wasn’t feeling himself after the bottle and poor Theron was kind of getting stressed out hearing babies cry. Sometimes Rowan would join in with the crying and I could see Theron kind of panicking! Haha! I was laughing! I’m such a meanie, aren’t I? We put them both down for a nap and that seems to have taken care of things. Elijah was back to his normal self after that, laughing and smiling and he forgot all about his last episode. Rowan was a lot better as well. Theron stayed over for pizza for lunch (we found a new place, Garlic Jim’s and we love it), but after the whole crying thing, he went home, probably to take a nap after all that stress! We took a nap too. Man, crying really does wear you out! In the evening, I went to the video store and signed up for the “Netflix” type video rental. It’s a pretty good deal, I’m probably going to do it for a couple of months until I’ve rented the whole store, quit, and wait until lots of new releases come out again.

Today I ran a bunch of errands, so I took the boys in tow. Man, I will miss the infant car seats. As much as I hate them, and I’m sure I’ve said it a million times, it will be so much harder taking them in and out of non-removable car seats. Especially for the quick stuff. I wonder if that will affect what I do during the day. We’ll see. I haven’t bought the new seats yet, I’m waiting for a sale. They are still ok in the old seats, Rowan is quickly outgrowing it though. Elijah still has a little time.

In the evening, I went to Home Depot to pick up supplies for the patio. I’m excited! I ran all around the store looking for stuff. I bought some lumber to frame the sand with. I am making a 10×6 area, so the guy was like “the 8 footers are over there”. I grabbed a 12 footer and he was like “oh, so you’re going to do a 12 foot now?” and I told him “No, cutting a 12′ in half makes 2 6′ pieces.” I think he was embarrassed. Then, I was going to buy a tamping tool, but the guy talked me out of it. He said the hand one is pretty much useless. It would be just as effective using water. So I’ll try it I guess. I will probably break down and rent one of those heavy duty machines! It would suck for things to settle and everything goes out of whack. Especially after all this hard work.

Today I was actually ON TIME for our swimming class. I’m usually running about 5 minutes late. I think I have the timing down now. It only took me several months! Today’s class was MUCH better than last week, mainly because the class was smaller. We seem to be moving way faster in this class than we were in the last. We did dips today and it was only the 2nd class. Last time I think we waited until the 4th? Anyways, the boys did SO WELL! They each did 6 or 7 dips, which before they only did 2 and that was plenty. They are really getting used to the water, which is great to see. Rowan was downright happy, grabbing for stuff and playing with anything. Elijah got a little upset towards the end, but he was able to finish the class. They were both super tired after swiming! We went to Starbucks for lunch and got some sandwiches, rolled down the windows and ate in the car. Both boys were fast asleep.

Michael had a rough day today, almost quit his job! I feel so bad for him that he almost HAS to keep his job for the benefits and for the pay, of course! It doesn’t help that it’s no fun anymore…

OK, I think this is the 10th time that I’ve tried to go. Thwarted again by bad weather! Geez, how can these people make money? I think I’ll just call whenever the weather is sunny, instead of trying to plan something. Am I ever going to do this????

I ran errands today, we went to the post office, Albertsons and Top Foods. The boys did fabulously! They have been really good when I’ve taken them out.

I’m a little worried about Elijah, he’s been sleeping a lot lately, but maybe that’s normal? He’s not acting sick or anything, so I’m not too worried about it and he’s probably just going through a growth spurt. Imagine that, a parent complaining that their kid sleeps TOO MUCH!

I didn’t do much today. Nothing spectacular happened. My Aunty had this problem with a guy she hired to do some website work, basically he’s trying to milk them for money. Anyhoo, I did a search and found that you can buy all these templates, pretty cheaply to customize your website. I even convinced Michael to do one. So, maybe you’ll see a different Mountainwerks.org one day. If we ever have time. The coolest ones are in Flash, so it’s giving me motivation to learn it.