Great Book: Nurture Shock

On vacation I got the chance to do a little reading. I bought the book Nurture Shock when I was on maternity leave, but just got the opportunity to read it. The book tackles some of the things we do naturally as parents but may want to reconsider. It addresses praising your children, talking about race, relationships with siblings and how and why some kids talk earlier than others.

One of the first sections I read was why simply praising your children as smart wasn't helpful. Although as a parent I think I'm helping instill confidence when I say, "you're so smart" what the book pointed out was that children who were smart and told so often would give up on tasks if they weren't successful right away. A better way to approach praise is to reinforce the effort and trying new things. The book recommended sharing with your children that the brain is a muscle and it only gets stronger when you exercise it and try new things.

I loved this idea even as advice for myself. It's so easy to do what's familiar or what you're comfortable with, but you learn and grow when you try something new. I've started to apply this to how I praise Chloe and Connor, but also put it into practice in my own life and trying new things, things that might be a little scary, but that I can get better at over time.

Carl and Connor

Connor has such a great laugh and I caught a little video of it when he was playing with Carl. This is the part of parenting that's really fun!

Carl's Birthday

Saturday was Carl's 34th birthday. I usually try to think up something fun for him, but sometimes it ends up being a massage at the spa and I get to go too, which is a little girly. This year however, I think we pulled off a Boy's Birthday.

First we left the house to catch some of the US World Cup game. We tried to go to a sports bar, Frankies, but it was packed with fans, instead we went to Primo's and had a bit of lunch while watching the first half of the game.

Then it was off to Lone Star Park for the races. We set aside a few bucks for "entertainment" betting and Carl had a Trifecta win, but mostly it was just fun.













Thanks to my Mom heading to the house to relieve the babysitter, we didn't have to rush home and Carl wanted to do one more thing. So we headed to the Gingerman to enjoy beers and a cigar.

We made it home just in time for the babies' last bottle of the night and bedtime. All in all I had a great day, but I think it was a good "guy" birthday for Carl.

Check Me Out

Chloe has been crawling around every chance she gets and sometimes she'll try to pull herself up to standing. She has the most success in her crib and when she stands she shouts out so you know she did it!

Time to Give It Up?

Lately Maria has been trying to get Connor to give up his pacifier. Chloe hasn't been interested in one for months, but Connor still likes to have one.

Don't get me wrong, I don't want Connor to be using a paci when he's 3, but right now it just doesn't bother me. He's still a baby. I'll check with the doctor about when he needs to stop using it, but right now it's just not a battle I think we have to fight.

However, the other day I noticed he pushed the whole pacifier in his mouth. I don't know if he miss judged or if he just wants Maria to have to fight harder when she tries to take it away.

The Challenge of Family Photos

When I was on maternity leave my aunt Karen introduced me to Groupon. Everyday I get an email offer for a product or service at a discount. A few months ago I got an offer from a photographer for a $250 one-hour photo session and prints for $80. I haven't had professional pictures of the babies done yet so I purchased the $80 Groupon and called the photographer to set up our session.

Our photo session was scheduled for last Saturday and I decided I wanted to get a family photo first and then some shots of the twins. I dressed everyone is white shirts, for a casual summer look since we are such a casual summer family and brought a change of outfits and hats so we'd have some options. We weren't sure how long it would take us to get organized and out the door, but we'd planned pretty well and actually made it to the studio 15 minutes early. No one was there yet. Since the studio was in the new design district we drove around a bit to check out the neighborhood and headed back about 5 minutes before our appointment. The photographer pulled up at the same time we did and we all headed into the studio together. The photographer still needed to set up lights and a background and as we entered we discovered the air conditioning had been left off overnight.

It wasn't a disaster, but it was not ideal. The studio never really cooled off, I was sweating and Connor's little checks got red. We sat for the family photo, but the photographer was so busy with the twins I'm not sure Carl and I are smiling or even looking up. We tried to get some shots of the babies together, but Chloe was crawling the second we set her down. After 45 minutes in the studio and only 30 minutes shooting Connor had enough, got fussy and we pack up to leave.

I never got to change their clothes or try anything else so I tried to take a few shots when I got home. The one at the top of the posting is my favorite, but it's really hard to get one with both of them sitting still and smiling as you can see from the other shots at the bottom of the posting. Hopefully the photographer had better luck than I did, but I guess we'll find out when we see the proofs. For only $80 it was worth a shot, but I may have to go ahead and pay for a more expensive, professional photographer in the future.

Holding My Own Bottle

After Chloe has her cereal in the morning, she likes to have a little water and hold her own bottle. Neither Chloe nor Connor can hold the big bottles we use for formula, but these little 4oz bottles are just the right size for small hands.

She'll drink a little from the bottle and then chew on it a bit since she working on the one tooth coming in on the bottom. Connor doesn't really care about drinking from the little bottles and I think he's fine with someone else holding his bottle and feeding him. Hopefully he's not too spoiled.

Swimming for the First Time

A few weeks ago I bought Connor and Chloe cute little swimsuits and this past weekend my Mom brought us some swim diapers, so since it was warm enough and we had all the tools needed we took the twins in the pool for the first time.

I don’t know why, but it was so much fun. We all squealed and laughed and the babies were probably a bit overwhelmed.

At one point I pulled Connor underwater to get his head wet. I don’t know why I did this, I guess I thought that was what you’re suppose to do, but poor thing, it scared him to death. I learned later, from another mother, that you’re suppose to blow in the baby's face first to get them to hold their breath. Hopefully I haven’t scarred him for life.

As you know, Chloe is our active, mobile baby, trying to crawl and kicking her legs around to sit up. Some of the kicking she does naturally on dry land looks like she’s actually trying to swim in the pool. Way too adorable.

I've included a few more pictures since the twins were so cute. The pool was really fun for the whole family. 

Max with Connor and Carl

Chloe in her cute sun hat

When Mommy and Daddy Are Away

Maria told JoJo and GiGi they spoiled the twins while we were out of town. I think it was really more of an accusation and she pointed at them when she said it. Although we didn’t find a new pony in the back yard, we did notice both Chloe and Connor had raised expectations on how quickly we should respond to requests or pick them up.

When the grandmothers stay, you get to do lots of fun things:

You get to go for a walk every day

You get lots of kisses

You get to pet the puppies

You get to try on hats

You get to play on the floor and practice crawling, grabbing for toys and wrestling

And you get your picture taken for any possible cute thing you may do

 Thank you to JoJo and GiGi for watching the twins and taking such great shots!

Turks & Cacios

You haven’t seen a posting in awhile because Carl and I were lucky enough to get to take a vacation to the Turks and Cacios Islands in the Caribbean. Thank you to JoJo and GiGi who stayed with the twins while we were gone!

The island is beautiful and our hotel, the Windsong, was amazing. I have a video Carl shot of the view from our huge balcony. Our room was like the best apartment I’ve never lived in with a walk-in closet, washer/dyer, full kitchen, dining and living area, but the wrap around balcony was what we used the most.

We slept late every morning, which was quite a luxury. We snorkeled every day, one day we took an excursion boat, and another we drove to Smith’s Reef, but most days we walked right into the water from our hotel’s beach and snorkeled off the Princess Alexandra Marine Park.

It was a really amazing vacation and we’re so grateful to the grandmothers for watching the twins and making it possible for us to go.

One interesting thing we noticed on our vacation was there were quite a few pregnant women on vacation too. Apparently this is a new trend called the Babymoon, where expecting parents take a vacation before the arrival of their new bundle of joy.

At our hotel was a couple on their babymoon and they seemed to be having a great time, but it doesn’t seem too fun to me. I can’t imagine being pregnant and tired and traveling to an island where I get sandy and salty from ocean water and heaven forbid sunburned from overexposure all while Carl gets to sip on cool margaritas I couldn’t drink. But then, I’m not the new trendy mom either.

We waited for our trip and it was well worth it.