Radio Flyer

Thank the Universe for family.  Seriously.  M.J. and I haven’t had a hot meal in about six months (except for when we order take out, which is way too often considering the economy).  Lulu and Grand Ant Kap came to the rescue with homemade vegetarian chili and polenta as well as cupcakes for the twins’ birthday month delivered to our front door all the way from Santa Barbara. And they brought gifts!  This Radio Flyer has become one of the most popular toys in the house.

The polenta was also a big hit with the kids.  In fact, they ate most of it.

Kidspace Rules!

Today we took Dominik & Scarlett to Kidspace in Pasadena (a shout out to our friends Doug and Janet for tipping us to this place on Facebook). Dom & Scarlett had an amazing time in their Early Childhood Learning Center (or as I like to call it THE PADDED CELL WITH TOYS). You walk in, remove your shoes and let your kids go, if they haven’t already torn your arm off trying to escape into this pleather wonderland. Apart from the shoe area the entire room is floored with rubber and contains a myriad tactile fun exhibits designed for kids 4 and under.

Dominik crawled freely throughout the room grabbing toy after toy and either tossing it or tasting it.

Scarlett has really started to piece together her steps into series and can now go as far as 15-20 feet before she needs to “reset” with a crawl.

The toys were incredible and really well thought out: More Details Here.

Kidspace beats Peekadoodle Kids Club a similar indoor play club in San Francisco on a number of fronts. We visited Peekadoodle on our April road trip to San Francisco and I can easily say the biggest difference between these to places is the price. A one day pass at Kidspace costs $10 for each person over 1 year of age. A one day pass at Peekadoodle was $50 for a family. If we’d taken Dom and Scarlett, who turn 1 this Friday, to Kidspace next weekend entry would have cost us $40. So the price difference seems nominal, right? BUT a 6 month membership at Kidspace (which will admit 4 family members anytime) is $89 bucks which is a mere fraction of what Peekadoodle charges for offering a similar safe-play area experience.  To be fair to Peekadoodle they do offer classes (for an additional charge), it’s cafe is way better (and more pricey), and the complimentary internet connection for parents is a kind of a sweet loss-leader, and overall it’s indoor areas are slightly cleaner.  However, the annual membership fee for Peekadoodle starts at just over $2000. GULP! WHAT?! REALLY??! Yes. Really. And don’t get me started on their parking validation deal …

In addition to a similar range of indoor play areas for kids Kidspace also offers: an outdoor tricycle track with helmets, 3 different cool multistory climbing gyms, science exhibits, a play construction site, water spouts, a simulated river with various waterfalls, gardening area and much much more. Again, to be fair to Peekadoodle the weather in San Fran isn’t always amenable to outdoor play so for the moment their options are limited. However, I’m sure as their fees pile up they’ll be able to put a dome over their lawn and create the Peekadoodle Biosphere (with Fresh Oxygen for an additional Fee).

Okay, one last attempt to be fair, when Beth and I drove away from San Francisco  we were fans of the concept and execution Peekadoodle. If you’ve got the money Peekadoodle seemed like excellent place to take your kids. We had a great time there and so did Dominik and Scarlett. If we lived in San Francisco and we had the money we’d probably be members and take them there everyday. I know I would just to feel like it was worth the price.

However, we’re blessed (or cursed depending when you ask me) to be angelenos so if you live in L.A. or are visiting with kids in the range of 1 to maybe 10 I’d say Kidspace is well worth the price of admission even at $10 a head, especially on a hot day. Kidspace provides an excellent environment for kids and parents to play without draining your funds which should be saved for college. We’ll be getting a membership on our next visit.

Best Park Ever

A good friend recently told us about an amazing park near our house. Although the park doesn’t have bucket swings, the grass goes on forever, there are water toys, and we were the only people there at 10 a.m.! Dom and Scarlett will be taking a trip to the beach soon, so we thought we’d give them the opportunity to practice wearing their swim suits.

Note: We tried those pull up swim diapers, but I think they have to be changed as soon as swimming is over.  I didn’t know this, so when Dominik peed, the diaper didn’t absorb anything.  This makes me wonder, what makes swim diapers different than regular ones?

Oh No We Didn’t…

Okay, so the original idea was to get one of those funny mall photo sessions for Mother’s/Father’s day pics for the Grandparents. We entered the studio with the firm agreement that we would only get the picture of Dominik and Scarlett with a traditional background and that was it.

But the folks at the studio really have their shtick down and said, “Of course you can just get the traditional set up but we can photograph up to 5 set ups for you in the session you booked. And you only buy the photographs you like…” Then out come of the costumes with quick velcro tabs and wacky backdrops and next thing you know you’re wading through enough cute photos that if Cute Overload were about babies they would have weeks of posts.

We left the studio with definite sticker shock but once we picked up our prints we knew it was TOTALLY WORTH IT.

I mean, how freakin’ adorable are these little butts?

And these kids were born in L.A. how could we not get this one? Right?

Eleven Months

About once every eight or nine weeks I pick up my copy of What To Expect The First Year and although it is slightly informative, it always FREAKS ME OUT. For example, I had no idea that 11 months is a good time to start weaning the twins from their bottles. Considering they eat solids three times a day AND 38 ounces of milk/formula (each) broken up between six bottles, weaning seems like an impossibility. We’ve been using sippy cups since they were about five or six months old and, while they can down eight ounces of formula from the bottle in about 10 minutes, it takes them several minutes to drink 1/2 an ounce of juice or water from a sippy cup.

Oh, and What to Expect the First Year also recommends transitioning straight from the bottle to a regular cup.  I figured I’d throw caution to the wind, surround us all in towels, and give it a try.  The twins loved it and only dumped their full cups on the floor twice.

After the big weaning experiment, I decided to let the twins do whatever they wanted for their 11 month birthday. This meant that Dominik got to pull all the books off the bookshelves and Scarlett got to play with my keys, the remote, the digital camera, and my cell phone.

Two To Toddle

I finally got a picture of Scarlett walking. Unfortunately, it was during a time when she refused to wear pants. Dominik hasn’t taken any steps yet on his own, but he is a master at pulling himself up.

More Teeth, More Steps

On Sunday Dominik’s 4th tooth broke through and Scarlett took 13 consecutive steps. Because the new teeth are so small and the walking happens randomly we don’t have photographs or video of either, yet. So…here are some pics from a recent trip to the park.

Bath Time

Having twins is labor intensive. In an effort to make bed and bath time a one woman (or man) show, I’ve started changing up our nightly routine. Instead of waiting until dad gets home to give the twins a bath, I’ve built up enough courage to do it all on my own. At first, I was terrified one kid was going to drown while I was drying the other one off, or one would slip and poke out an eye on a bath toy while I was washing the other’s hair, but what I’ve found is that babies are resilient far beyond what I imagined. Dominik (aka Michael Phelps) loves to get on his stomach and “swim” in the tub and often gulps water and gets soap in his eye. None of this seems to bother him. Also, after months of doing my best to slowly pour water over their heads with a special cup from One Step Ahead that is supposed to keep all the water and shampoo off their faces, I realized they like it when I pour the entire cup of water directly on top of their head so that the water goes all over their face and the (tear free) soap gets in their eyes. It cracks ‘em up.

The best part of our new bath routine is after the bath. It took me almost 11 months of parenthood to learn that babies love to be naked. Who knew?  I found out accidentally. In order to prevent one baby from cracking the noggin’ on the porcelain while I got the other baby out of the tub, I spread out all the towels on the floor, got them out of the tub one at a time and they immediately began giggling, kissing each other, and putting fingers in each other’s mouth. (And luckily, neither of them has contracted E. Coli from crawling naked on the bathroom floor.)

Post-bath naked play time is now a 20 – 30 minute activity which mostly consists of crawling around the perimeter of the room at high speeds,  standing, jumping, clapping, kissing, doing the “noodle” (this is when Scarlett head-butts me or MJ or Dom, then throws herself on one of us (similar to a pro-wrestler) and drapes herself over who/whatever she has landed on), smiling, laughing, and playing peek-a-boo.  

All Kinds of Fun

This Saturday we got invited to Cameron’s 5th birthday party which was held at The Coop.  Although the twins aren’t big enough to enjoy the huge indoor slide or light up dance floor, there were plenty of age appropriate toys for them. Dominik got his first tattoo and Scarlett practiced her standing.   

Spring Break in San Francisco

San Francisco was a culinary adventure for these young palates. Up until this trip we’ve been exposing Dominik and Scarlett to foods regularly from our local farmers market. Their favorites have been: strained blueberries, avocado, sweet potato, cauliflower, carrots, steamed diced apples, Cheerios, Ritz Crackers, green beans with mint, and mashed potatoes with butter. On our trip we really pulled out the stops and let them try: pancakes, french fries, olives, mac n’ cheese, grilled asparagus, roasted potatoes, hummus, pita, tuna salad, split pea soup, mango juice and feta cheese crumbles.

When we checked into our hotel Dominik and Scarlett were really excited to crawl around the room and check out their new environment while we unpacked. They especially enjoyed the slippery bathroom floor which Dom could easily army crawl across.

The twins also got to meet their great -aunt Candace and great-uncle Pete (the reason for our trip) and second cousin Zach. They also got to meet and go out to eat with our friends Mike, Karin, and Lily, and Chaz, Rochelle, and Amanda. Candace and Pete very kindly volunteered to baby-sit one night so we could go see a movie which was awesome for us but more than a little nerve wracking for them since Dom n’ Scarlett wouldn’t go to sleep without yelling and crying for about 45 minutes.  But as the ol’ timers say, it’s good for their lungs. Thanks! (Sorry).

Really the trip was a smash hit. We have so many pictures that there’s too many to upload so check out the slide show on flickr.

Here’s a couple of our favorites if you don’t have time for the full show.