The New Family

Wednesday, January 30, 2013

Buggy Smile

CAPTURED! Liesel's elusive smile.



Sunday, January 27, 2013

Weekend Fun

BUGGY spent her weekend crawling into (but not out of) the bottom of her Exer-Saucer. She cried for Daddy's help when she was ready to come out.

"Where's Buggy? There she is!"

Bugaboo the Adventurist.

Buddy has refined his palate to enjoy the most exquisite and rare of all delicacies, his foot.
 
Buddy the Zombie ate his foot.

Don't worry, he has another one. At least he does for now.

So far, Buddy has sampled every foot in the Family.

Buggy had a small medical issue. She and Mom took a trip to the doctor.

Buggy is ready to go see the doctor.

Poor Buggy required a prescription. She is much improved now.

Buggy gets extra huggy-lovey during feeding that day.

Buddy decided to stress test Dad's heart. Having slept on his back since his sixth week, Buddy suddenly decided to try a different position (side sleeping), and after a prolonged nap, he was not easily roused. Dad observed his face buried in the loose sleep sack. Dad gently shook him, Buddy did not respond.

Adrenaline poured into Dad's stomach.

Buddy eventually waved an arm. But the adrenaline would take a while to clear Dad's system.

How did you spend your weekend?

She Knows Her Name...

...and it is Buggy!

Liesel was spending time in her Exer-Saucer with her back to Dad repeating her syllables, "Bah, bah, bah, bah, bah, ha ha!" Dad had Mom's last comment fresh in his mind. They call the kids by their nicknames (Buddy & Buggy) or other cute names, the kids don't know their real (formal or informal) ones.

Dad tested this. He repeated her babble, "Bah, bah, bah, baby." She did not respond.

He called her by her informal name, "Liesel." She did not respond.

He carefully measured his voice to imitate the two previous tests and called, "Buggy."

She promptly turned and smiled at him. Coincidence? Perhaps.

Friday, January 25, 2013

Fruit

EJ shows off his yellow sleeper.

Mom thinks he resembles a banana.

Mom with her banana and strawberry

Thursday, January 17, 2013

Update: Venturing Out in the Cold and Clean Feeding

WELL, Snowmageddon was a bust (so far this year, but if we revert to the mean we'll have some monster late season snowstorms yet). However, the kids needed to get dressed for the cold to venture out to the pediatrician, so of course the New Family parents over dressed them (it was a calm 28 degrees and they were moved from a heated house to a heated car to a heated doctor's office and back again).

Ready to keep 'em warm.
Dad has learned how to feed the Twins such that he and they create a minimum of a mess. To you experienced parents, his "discovery" will sound amateurish, but he was really excited to figure it out.

Barely there. Can you see the green veg on her face?
The "secret" is simply to offer only the quantity of food their little mouths can hold. It is about half a baby spoon sized spoonful. Also, Mom pointed out that adding oats to the otherwise thin pureed food thickens it and also helps reduce the mess.

Update: EJ finished his fruit and wanted his picture included in the post.


Wednesday, January 16, 2013

Resemblance?


Son in 2012




Mom in 2006


Monday, January 14, 2013

Weekend Fun

HOW the New family spent its weekend:

Here already? Amazon.com shipped the dolls really fast!

Mom loves her's.

Dad's baby doll came too.

They came with interchangeable binkies.

Let's play dress up with them.
 Liesel looks like a boy in the photo above. It is the pants.

Tired already? Let's check the warranty and return policy.

This one is tired too.

 How did you spend your weekend?

Another Food Post

WELL what can Dad say? Its food! We all eat it.

This dish is called spagagna (spuh gon yuh), as in the combination of spaghetti and lasagna. Its a casserole that the New Family Mom thought up and Dad assembled.




Note the fried noodles.






Tuesday, January 8, 2013

The Twins Wrestle

BUGGY is pretty independent. While she likes Buddy, she can play on her own. He craves constant interaction, especially from her. While let loose on the floor, she can crawl away from him, and he'll try to follow. He can't crawl, he can only roll, and not necessarily the direction he wants to go. So when he captures the object of his desire, her, he holds on tight.


"I got you now!"
"Let go! Dad!"

Buggy Backup and Buddy Rockin' Roll(over)

THE New Family Twins are really mobile now. 

Buggy now "crawls" regularly, but with more strength in her arms than in her rear, she tends to push herself backward rather than move forward. Buddy has yet to get up on all fours, but wanting to keep up with his sister he has figured out how to rollover to her.









Above, Buggy rocks back and forth until her legs slip backward out from underneath her, at which time she pushes herself back up onto all fours. After some minutes she will have backed up by several feet.




Over the period of just a few seconds, Buddy starts out on the mat and ends on the carpet.


Sunday, January 6, 2013

First to Crawl and Other Changes

IT is official, Liesel is the first to crawl.

She does it in reverse, but hey, she will get there.

She began about two weeks ago. She would get up on all fours and rock back and forth. Then she added a butt wiggle motion. Then she began to actually move, as in change her physical location, and not by rolling but by actually crawling.

Buddy Too still gets about by rolling over. And he isn't real motivated to do that, so he'll be stationary a while longer. 

Now that she has had tasty solids, the bottle isn't terribly interesting to her. She still feeds from it, but not if she is hungry or tired. And it takes her ten to fifteen minutes to finish 4.5 ounces.

He will eat anything and everything (including Dad's socked foot) in any form presented to him.

They have had a role reversal in going down for naps as of the past few days. He would typically cry for a few minutes when put down, while she would often go down with minimal fuss. Now he goes down easily, and she cries on and on. And Dad's favorite trick to avoid any and all tears of protest no longer works. She now doesn't care for her binky and cry despite having it in her mouth.

Thursday, January 3, 2013

Play Time Together

HERE is some vdeo clips for readers to enjoy.



The kids enjoy interacting with each other. When they have been separated for a while, as they typically are during a nap, their faces light up with joy when they see each other.


Dad is still editing other video clips and will have them up when they are ready.

Tuesday, January 1, 2013

New Year's Resolutions

WHAT are your New Year's resolutions?

Mom and Dad's resolutions are the same ones they are every year (get in shape, lose weight, eat healthier, blah blah blah).

Dad is usually good for about eight weeks. He can get down to about 5 lbs. of his ideal weight, but then the carbs start calling. It is subtle at first, a plate full of french fries flies by him in a restaurant on its way to another diner. Then it becomes more overt, the bread rolls get placed in front of him and stare at him during the entire meal. Then they slowly become an increasing portion of his diet until, oops, he is 15 lbs. overweight.

So his resolution this year is not just the same old resolutions, but a resolution to keep the same old resolutions until April 15th.

Oh yeah, and to have this



 by using this
by tax day too.


You can stop laughing now.

Roast Beast

DAD gets feedback on the blog. In person the general consensus is "please post less food and more adorable babies." Okay, but when he looks at page views, food posts remain among the most popular. So someone is enjoying them.

For Christmas the New Family Dad made rib roast.



Above is what 133 degrees looks like. Dad would've preferred 125 degrees, but this was cooked to order for the New Family guests (who contributed money to its purchase, so darn right they were going to get it their way).

Notice the lack of ANY gray meat? Many roasts are brown on the surface, with a wide swath of gray and a small circular pink or even red center. That is roast #fail.

Long post: Click to continue reading.

Happy New Year!

WELCOME 2013!


Buggy wears her bug sleeper.


"I've got this sitting up thing down pat."