Birthdays, Blood and Boo Boo Doctors...

It’s official! We have two two-year olds. Astral and Defy celebrated their second birthday earlier this month. They really seemed to enjoy receiving and opening presents for the first time and would scream WOW as they opened each one. I taught them the happy birthday song for Lucas’ big 30th birthday at the end of February, so they were excited to have it sung in their honor a week later.

free the horsies!

Astral and Defy decided to make their first month as two year olds very memorable for mommy and daddy. The boys were playing on a kiddie slide we have inside and they decided to push it across the room toward the treadmill for reasons unknown (actually because they are total dangerous thrill seekers and I’m pretty sure they were going to jump from one apparatus to the other). I was a couple of feet away, ready to get the boys from atop the slide when Defy fell and hit the back of his head on the bottom corner of the treadmill. I immediately scooped him up, as I cupped his head in my hand, I felt the most awful feeling of wetness. When I looked at my hand it was covered in blood! He was screaming and crying, and I became hysterical. In a panic I screamed for Lucas to call 911. I had no clue what the damage was, but I reacted like it was the worst case scenario; you just can’t take chances with head injuries. I wrapped his head in a clean white towel (bad choice in color) which also ended up covered in blood. The ambulance was here in a matter of minutes, and I ran out to meet them carrying a bloody little Defy.

By the time we got into the ambulance D had completely stopped crying. The emergency workers quickly examined his head, and to my relief informed me that it was just a small scrape. Apparently head and face injuries tend to bleed a lot but are not always all that serious. My heart was still beating faster than ever, I could barely believe what they were saying. Here was my sweet little baby who had a just hit his head, was covered in head blood, and now according to EMTs, was completely fine! I was just so happy that he was okay, but still in total shock. They advised me that I should follow up with the doctor even though it was such a small abrasion. Since it was after 6pm they suggested we go to the ER, just in case. There, the ER doctor cleaned the area and put a tiny dot of antibiotic ointment on it. Thankfully he didn't have a concussion and no stitches, no shots, no radiation exams, no blood work, no follow up or aftercare necessary. She said it was smart to bring him in despite the all-clear from the EMTs. You just can’t chance it. She asked Defy if he liked popsicles. I told her that he's never had one (at least not the kind they would’ve provided) and that he loves fruit. She laughed and asked if I had any fruit with me, jokingly exclaiming that “this is a hospital we don’t have healthy things like that”. Of course I had three mandarins, a banana and an apple in my purse (this is how vegan moms roll). She wanted him to eat the fruit before we left and then 30 minutes later we were free to go.

As first time parents we are often extra cautious, but accidents do and will happen. I have learned a lot from this experience. If a similar situation occurs in the future, I will try to take a second to breathe and assess the situation before totally freaking out. I was too frightened and panicked to examine Defy’s head closely, but even if I had I would have probably still gone to the ER, just maybe not via ambulance. We can laugh about the ridiculous situation now, but at the time it was far from amusing. It was really touching to see how much empathy Astral showed for his injured brother. He seemed very concerned, and before we left in a rush, he handed Defy his favorite little plush turtle friend to bring along for the ride. Hopefully this is learning experience for EVERYONE. The boys have been discussing the “boo boo doctor” often since, so they have not forgotten. And of course the slide has been put away until further notice (forever).

The spring weather has been super beautiful (slightly eerie) for most of the month, Astral and Defy would live outside if we let them. They love digging in the dirt, picking wild flowers, playing in leaves and exploring/examining trees and their bark. The boys often prefer collecting sticks, burying themselves in leaves or climbing on stones and fallen logs over playing on playground equipment. It’s a rare occasion that we are able to come inside without directing them straight to the bath tub.

DnA had their two year old check-up, where they totally impressed the pediatrician with their speech, size and agility (she said so herself). They are sometimes reserved in unfamiliar environments, but for some reason they were happy to answer questions and show off their distinct personalities this go around at the doctor’s office. They both weighed in at 30lbs (Astral was a couple ounces heavier) and Astral came in at 37 inches tall and Defy was 36 ¼ inches. Astral and Defy are both in the 90-95th percentile for height and the pediatrician said that from charting their growth so far they will both be well over 6 feet tall! That’s much taller than both mommy and daddy! We have some tall genes on both sides of our family so it makes perfect sense. Their weights are both in the 75-90th percentile. These statistics don’t matter much to us (as long as our boys are healthy, we are happy), but I wanted to post the figures as proof that vegan children are not - as some sensationalistic anti-vegans would like you to believe - necessarily skinny, weak, unable to grow/thrive, or cognitively or physically deficient in any way. Never let anyone tell you that it isn’t possible to raise healthy vegan children…

all photos are of Astral & Defy at 24 months

Daddy Time and Nursery Rhymes...

Damn, I never contribute to this blog anymore. I have a valid excuse though - I'm busy as hell! Who would have thought that raising twin human beings would be so much work and take up so much time? It is and it does! In fact, it took me about thirty minutes to type those last four sentences because I had to 1.) break up a fight 2.) clean up urine on the floor 3.) clean urine out of a toy bucket full of wooden toys 4.) wipe crayon off the wall 5.) stop Astral from unlocking and opening the front door three times (yes, he can do that now!) and 6.) tickle Defy's belly and armpits. Ok, so I didn't have to tickle D, but it was oh so hard not to.

Can you believe that DnA will be turning 2 on March 3rd? I know, right? I'm going to risk annoying many of you by pulling The Parent Card and telling you that time flies when raising children, like it's all been one big dream. I had always heard that, and it's so true. What most parents won't tell you is that this is actually the result of living in somewhat of a hypnagogic delirium for many consecutive months. A beautiful and magical hypnagogic delirium of course!

Anyways, I've just recently been getting a sufficient amount of sleep to allow my brain to function somewhat normally, and the boys can chill and play without my assistance much more now, so hey, why not help Mama out with this month's posting by sharing some random vegan parenting/at-home daddy stuff?

As you've read in recent posts, Astral and Defy have come a long way in the last couple of months. They are saying more words than ever and their vocabulary expands daily. They're putting words together and forming small sentences. They seem so proud of themselves when they say something correctly. Never mind that everything they say sounds like it's coming from a cross between kung fu movie voice over actors and slightly disgruntled lollipop kids; they're still saying a lot of shit and proud of it, dammit! They've picked up one adjective in particular that they love to use to describe any and every thing. That's the word "big". Big kid, big bite, big step, big jump, big book, big trike, big tower (when they are stacking blocks), big banana, big booger, and big poop (my personal favorite), everything is BIG.

The boys are also very physically active, more so than ever. They can climb all kinds of playground apparatuses with little difficulty and enjoy jumping off really high platforms. Honestly, they scare the hell out of me on a daily basis. At home they are quite the little daredevils. They are not satisfied with simply riding their tricycles or playing their xylophones. No, they have to stand up on the middle bars of their tricycles and flip their xylophones upside down and try to ride them like skateboards (see adorable photos above). One day, I had finished doing something in the kitchen and then walked into the living room to find Defy standing on the couch readying himself to jump. I didn't realize that he had positioned his tricycle in front of the couch to try to land on it. Before I could act, he jumped and landed with both feet on the middle bar and then the trike flew out from under him! I ran to pick him up only to find that he was laughing hysterically along with Astral, who also thoroughly enjoyed the stunt. Then Defy tried to put his trike back into position!

They also enjoy much less dangerous activities such as drawing, dancing, singing, stacking blocks, knocking over stacked blocks, re-stacking blocks, fake-sleeping, watching squirrels, and pretending that they're cooking and eating. No need to have the television on because they have no problem entertaining themselves.

There really haven't been any social problems so far with Astral and Defy being raised as vegans, although I expect there to be in the near future once we start encountering more involved social situations. The only issue I've encountered is having to turn down snacks offered by other parents, guardians, or nannies when at a park or at playgroups, but that's fine because it gives me an opportunity to talk about veganism. Surprisingly, no one has ever responded negatively when I mention that the boys are being raised as vegans. I don't think I've even been asked about where the boys get protein, probably because they're so freaking huge. From what I read online, there is this idea out there that babies raised as vegans are small, weak, slow developing and listless, but that's obviously bullshit. Of course, people, babies included, come in all different shapes and sizes, all with unique personalities, and all children develop at their own pace. My point is that a vegan diet, in and of itself, clearly does not stunt growth or development no matter how many times some asshole from the Weston A. Price Foundation claims otherwise.

On many occasions I've taken the boys to story and song time at the library, and every time I feel the need to change up the lyrics of nursery rhymes and folk songs. There is a lot of animal exploitation in nursery rhymes and folk songs and, well, we can't be havin' that. For us, Old Macdonald doesn't have a farm; he has a sanctuary (sometimes it's a veganic farm). Baa Baa Black Sheep most certainly does not have any wool to give to humans. And when she comes around the mountain you can bet that she'll be riding a fucking bicycle, and we will definitely not be killing an old red rooster to eat his dead body. No, we'll happily share our chickpeas and dumplings with him! I mean, these are supposed to be children's songs, right? I met a vegan mother of two young girls at a storytime when I overheard her doing the same kind of thing over "Thanksgiving". A story about "turkey dinners" was being read and this mother kept telling her daughters that turkeys are their friends and that they love them so they don't eat them. How awesome is that?

I recently joined a local at-home dads’ group that has weekly play dates at one of the members' homes. The boys and I have been going and it's really cool. It's important to talk to other adults during the day, and every dad I've met shared this sentiment. Also, the boys get to hang out with other kids, so that matters too!

It's difficult to cram twenty-one months of at-home daddy moments into one blog so I'll just have to leave it at that. Since I take the boys out into the non-vegan world every day, I'll try to post about being put in more non-vegan situations and how we handle them. That is, if/when I can find the time...

all photos are of Astral Defiance and Defy Aster @ 23 months

The Fountain Effect...

Lucas taught Astral and Defy to toast! Cheers to the kale juice!!!


January has been a month of many new adventures in the lives of Astral and Defy, our 22 month old big boys. With the promise of a new year we expected many changes, but not this fast. Within the past month our guys have started making sentences and communicating more clearly. We have always been conscious of our behavior and actions in front of them, but now we realize that even little things that we say are being totally absorbed. For instance, whenever the boys eat a meal Star and Sunny, our canine companions, wait to gobble up any food that is dropped. We have no problem with that, we love them being instant little vacuum cleaners. Sometimes they get overly excited and jump up on the chairs and scratch at the boys’ legs and feet to try to get a hard-to-reach morsel of delight. I have found myself saying “go away” on occasion and had never thought anything of it. Well…until a couple of weeks ago when Astral and Defy started saying “go awaaaaay”. Where the hell did they learn that? They don’t watch television, go to daycare or a babysitter. After thinking about it, I realized it was me! They picked it up from the mealtime chaos of two toddlers and two doggies! I now try to choose my words even more carefully,no matter what the situation.

Along with clearer speech and an extensive toddler vocabulary Astral and Defy absolutely love to sing! They are seriously entertaining and really feel the music. They try so hard to carry the tune. I think we might have two little singers on our hands! They also love to dance and have the best and most randomly creative moves ever. They just need one more member to form their own little punk band…

Potty trainings is going very well. We introduced the potty early on to make them feel comfortable and to ease the transition. Astral and Defy currently wear diapers during naptime, bedtime and when they go outside. They use their potties the rest of the time. We have a bunch of organic training pants, but realized that they posed a problem, a problem we’ve coined as the “fountain effect”. Astral and Defy pee standing up and daddy taught them how to pull down their training pants to go to the potty, but sometimes they have a problem with pulling them down properly, so we end up with pee going straight up in the air. Not a fun clean up but worth a chuckle or two after the fact…

The cutest thing happened two nights ago. Lucas went in to check on the boys during the night. He didn’t see Astral in his bed and after looking around for him in the dark, he found him cuddled up in Defy’s bed. It was super adorable. We knew this would eventually happen. We’ve read and heard many stories from other twin parents about their sets sleeping together. We wonder if they will choose to sleep together often; they haven’t since that first time.

Over the past month we have had our fair share of the usual bumps and bruises that come along with twin toddlers. Astral scraped his back after falling from the handlebars of our treadmill. They are always scaling something and I always tell them when they are at the top of a rock climbing wall at the park or any appropriate climbing apparatus that they are “AMAZING”. I turned my back for like one second while in our bedroom and I hear “AMAZING” in the sweetest little voice and then a big CRASH! Again…they are such sponges! Thankfully he was okay and there was no permanent or severe damage. They are such stealth little danger twins. Lucas and I need another pair of eyes in the back of our heads and an extra hand or two each. EVOLUTION…

Lucas took the guys to their first stay-at-home dads’ play group yesterday. There were around 30 dads and many children. It was such a great opportunity for Lucas to mingle with other dads that understand and can relate to his lifestyle. He’s come along with me to a couple of the mommy playgroups I belong to, but I rarely get to attend since I work outside of the home fulltime. He had been hesitant to go to them without me because he just wasn't sure if the moms would feel comfortable with some dude hanging around, cramping their all-mommy style! We are very fortunate to live in an area with plenty stay-at-home daddy support. Now if only we could find a vegan stay-at-home dad playgroup. Ahhh vegan parents can dream, can’t they…

all photos are Astral Defiance and Defy Aster at 22

The Writing Is On The Wall...

21 Months

We are moving toward a new year and our future as parents of two, two year olds. Our little guys are quite expressive artistically and love drawing and coloring…especially on walls and other surfaces not quite meant to showcase the work of a toddler! We always redirect their creativity to paper (to their joint disappointment), but they always try a sneak a scribble or two on a wall, cabinet, or piece of furniture. Maybe they are just budding graffiti artists!

Their language skills are developing rapidly. They try to repeat what people say much more and have eased up a little on the baby talk. Recently, we pulled out the camera to take a picture of them and asked them to smile, and they both kept saying “my-allll”. They say it all the time now, usually coupled with an over-the-top, tooth-filled smile. They are now calling out for one another by name, especially if they are in separate rooms and often when one wakes up from sleep and the other is still snoozing. So sweet!

Every once in a while, when the weather is not suitable for outside play and when daddy can stomach it, he takes the boys to an indoor play area in a huge nearby shopping mall. Daddy is usually a little grumpy when he has to venture into a church of hyper-consumerism, but this play area gives the boys a chance to meet other children and expend some energy, so he tries his best. Recently, there have been live musical events for the holidays so daddy has taken them a little more frequently. On previous occasions Astral and Defy have refused to dance in public, but those days are long gone and they’ve been thoroughly enjoying showing off all their amazing dance moves. Clearly vegan babies are the best dancers!

Astral and Defy are eating really well and growing strong. They still love their green juices and smoothies, especially ones with avocado. Last week I made my first batch of homemade granola with oats, buckwheat flour, walnuts, raisins, coconut flakes, and maple syrup, and it was a big hit! They (daddy included) ravenously devoured the first batch and whined for more.

granola made with vegan love

We wanted to get one more post in for 2011! Short and sweet! I can’t believe it is going to be 2012 in a few hours. Having children seems to make the time fly by faster than ever. Hopefully the new year has great things in store and more people will be inspired to end animal exploitation and become vegan!!! Happy New Year...