Our Happy Little Helpers...

riders...

watching the planes take off from National airport at Gravelly Point

We are entering the 20th month of Astral and Defy’s lives full speed ahead (in only 3 days)! Our shining twin stars are becoming quite the little helpers. They follow direction so well (when they want to) and really enjoy helping with little chores around the house. They love stuffing the laundry into the washing machine or drawers, sweeping, loading the dishwasher, wiping things down with a cloth and picking up their toys/books. We sing them a little clean up song for motivation, which they're totally in to. They often put all their books back on the shelf and all their toys where they belong only to throw them all back on the floor upon completion. They seem to get more joy out of destroying a room than cleaning it and I’m sure that will continue for some time...

Astral and Defy do occasionally fight over a book or toy but mostly they cooperate with one another and help each other out. If one guy has a toy or book he wants to make sure the other one has a toy or book too. If one of them is upset then the other one will often try to make him laugh. I mentioned in the last post that they were sitting on booster seats at the dining room table and that they could already unlatch themselves and get down. Now when one gets down he will unlatch the other guy so that he can "escape" too! Talk about brotherly love...

Astral Defiance

Defy Aster

Observing their evolution into little people is just indescribable. I could call it amazing, astonishing, remarkable, but none of those words do it justice. Watching their development is a lesson in humanity and reinforces our choice to live a vegan life and share this vegan life with them. Human children are so compassionate, empathetic, and seem to naturally love animals. Most parents nurture that love even as they set a piece of nonhuman animal flesh or a cup of stolen mammary secretions on their children’s highchair trays, beginning their lives as unwitting animal exploiters. Astral and Defy really do love animals. They absolutely adore our companions Star and Sunny, although we are not sure the feeling is always mutual. They also love all the animals and insects they see in nature and are so interested yet gentle when they come across them. They thoroughly enjoy matching animal noises to pictures of animals in their favorite books. I just can’t imagine them making cute piggy noises then letting them shove “hot dogs” down their throats at lunchtime. So many people claim that it is, or would be, “hard” to raise vegan children, but to us it would be so much harder to outright lie to them and break their trust after encouraging them to “love” animals.

The fall weather has been extremely beautiful, but is quickly becoming quite cold and crisp. We had our first snow this past weekend. It wasn't much, but it marked the beginning of brisk and cold bundle-up weather. Astral and Defy are still getting used to their winter coats and aren’t quite fans yet. Virginia is so beautiful in the fall and we’ve been taking advantage of the spectacular scenery. I’m so excited for them to play in the snow this year! They are going to love it!

Great Falls

They are doing quite well with potty training and they are “going” in their potties a couple times a day and sometimes more (and sometimes less). They are still sleeping in their rooms alone for the most part. Their speech is getting clearer and they are adding more words every day. They are learning their colors and shapes and surprise us every day with what they know.

kamut and corn puffs with bananas, kiwi and raspberries

Astral and Defy’s hair is really growing in now. It’s so curly and cute; they might actually need a little taming trim soon. Astral’s hemangioma on the back of his neck is going down (involuting) a lot, which we were told would probably start to happen around 18 months. Their appetites and bodies are growing like weeds, their favorite shoes are getting too small and they are wearing 24months-2T clothing.

Astral and Defy have taken us on quite the adventure for the past 20 months. It hasn’t always been easy, but it has always been wonderful despite the lack of sleep and endless responsibilities that come with the territory of parenting twins (and parenting in general). Hopefully they will continue to have a desire to help out in life. Each day we try to ensure that they will continue to be creative, imaginative, and intelligent little people. Our lives have changed so much, but we have yet to experience anything as rewarding as being their parents. We used to be on our own time and could be completely selfish if we chose to be. We now know the true meaning of being self-less…

after nap fist bumping

LOVE

Protein, Potties and Peaceful Sleep...

18 month photos

Another whirlwind month in the journey of raising vegan toddlers! The boys are 18 months old for another couple of days, and there have been many exciting transitions during this pivotal month.

Astral and Defy had their 18 month well baby check up (their first visit to the Dr. for any reason since they were 12 months). Their pediatrician said they were doing EXCELLENT! I had been worried because they had not been eating as much as usual, but the doctor said they were both really healthy weights and there was no reason to be anxious. Pediatricians aren’t nutritionists, and as supportive as our doctor has always been of raising the boys on a vegan diet, she never ceases to amaze us with her questions and concerns. While discussing all the nutritious foods the boys eat she asked, "so what are their protein sources?" Lucas and I just paused a second, shot each other a quick look, and continued slowly naming all the foods they eat. It seems like most people just automatically assume you can only get sufficient protein from animals and their bodily functions, and doctors are no exception. I mean seriously, FRUITS, VEGETABLES, BEANS, NUTS, LEGUMES, SEEDS, GRAINS (virtually all plant foods) are all sources of protein, people!!!!!

What Astral and Defy ate for dinner one night this week:

adzuki bean cutlets

mashed red skin potatoes

kale, bok choy, romaine hearts, flax seed oil smoothie

coconut milk yogurt with fresh strawberries

banana slices with peanut butter

Does this meal lack sufficient protein??? I think not!!!

And every visit she brings up concerns about B12 although we tell her every time that the boys receive a weekly oral methylcobalamin spray supplement in addition to all the fortified coconut milk and nutritional yeast they consume daily. She seems to think that just by being vegan they are at risk of B12 deficiency. Nope, they're no more at risk than anyone else, thank you! We're happy she's concerned but it is getting rather annoying.

Astral weighed 27 lbs 13 oz and Defy weighed 26 lbs 11 oz, they were both in the 50-75th percentile for weight (not that we give a flying crap about those statistics, but just to give people out there an idea they might be able to relate to). As for height I don’t remember off hand how many inches they were, but the pediatrician said they were very tall and the exact same height, coming in at the 90-95th percentile. They’ve come a long way from those delicate little infants that we could hold in the palms of our hands. We don’t go back to the doctor for another check up until they are 2 years old.

I have been so excited to announce that DnA officially sleep alone in their rooms in their own toddler beds!!!! We started by weaning them off of night nursing (so emotional for me) with Lucas going back to being the one that comforts them during the night if they wake. Once my boobs and I were taken out of the equation the boys started sleeping better and for longer stretches of time. It has been about 2 weeks, and every night gets better. If they happen to cry out during the night Lucas goes into their room and rubs their backs until they go back to sleep. At times he still ends up falling asleep in there with them for a little while, but mostly they are on their own. They sleep at night from around 9:30pm until about 8:30am. Nice!

So now that we have our room and bed back Astral and Defy have decided that their nice afternoon naps of about 2.5 to 3 hours should be slashed to a short 30-45 minute nap. Lucas would use that time to get things done around the house, wash the cloth diapers, exercise, read, prepare food, and on the rare occasion relax, but now he basically has no time to do anything. Hopefully, this is just a phase. These kids just have so much powerful energy.

As far as nursing goes, I am down to nursing the boys once a day during the week and twice a day on the weekends. I usually nurse them right when I get home from the office. I still cherish that mommy/baby time with them. I don’t know when I will completely wean them, but I am pretty sure I will just let them naturally lose interest as they are already beginning to do.

They are doing so awesome with potty training and already try to pee standing up! They have a new thing they do where they refuse to keep their diapers or pants on. We let them run around naked when it is time to try to use the potty, but they want to be naked all the time. I wouldn’t have a problem with nakedness, but it equals pee and sometimes even poop on the floor and that just gets to be a big stressful mess! I don’t know what other people have done about their own diaper bandits, but any advice is appreciated. We’ve tried the backwards diaper thing and keeping pants on them, but they still know how to rip off the diapers and the pants! One day this past weekend I think I put their diapers back on almost 15 times in like 5 minutes. Talk about DRAINING!!!

Another messy but less annoying change for the boys is that they are now sitting at the dining table with us. We are so thankful that their appetites seem to be back on track. They joined us at the “big kid table” only a few days ago and they seem to really love it. Their highchairs have been retired as highchairs. Not only are they made of recycled materials but they also transition into little toddler desk/chair sets, so they will still be of use. Astral and Defy have already figured out how to break free by unstrapping themselves from their booster seats, so keeping them distracted during meals is very important. They are still the most dangerous tiny twosome around. Sometimes we feel like we are watching a toddler version of the show Jackass with the gnarly stunts they pull, only Astral and Defy are actually interesting and fun to watch. They play off of one another jumping, rolling and swinging off of anything and everything.

Our guys are continuing to add more words to their vocabulary, this week they both said Tofu in their adorably angelic little voices! They are learning to indentify objects by their colors and to point out the numbers 1-5 in pictures. They are perfecting their fine motor skills and really try hard to use their fingers to represent the numbers, but so far have only mastered 1, 4, and 5, though 2 is right coming along.

We continue to be thankful every day to have the opportunity to witness these two phenomenal beings grow into the people they will become. We learn so much from them and for them every day. Being a parent can be the most challenging and the most beautifully rewarding part of life at the same time. We still think back to when we thought that we were having one child. We had no clue what the future had in store for us at that time, and the same is still true…

Natural Disasters, Kisses and Fist Bumps...

17 months old
Wow…that was fast! It’s almost September which marks the half birthday of our teeny-tiny twosome Astral and Defy! The boys will be 18 months old in a couple of days! That’s a year and a half and also only 6 more short months until they are 2…

This has been quite an exciting month. We’ve had family visit from the Midwest, an earthquake and a hurricane of sorts. Astral and Defy would have slept through the earthquake if it wasn’t for daddy yelling an expletive when the house started shaking. They went right back to sleep though and had no clue what was going on. Fortunately everyone was fine and only a few things were broken from falling off of shelves, etc. I was at lunch with a colleague in Arlington, and it actually took a while before we realized it was a natural disaster rather than a man-made one. People in the DC Metro area are somewhat paranoid…talk about PANIC. When we got back to the office, the building had been evacuated and people were just beginning to roll back in.

This past weekend hurricane Irene made her debut, but didn’t really hit our area badly (yeah…no coast here), but since the media hyped it up people were running around, frantically clearing grocery store shelves, and preparing for the apocalypse. We had a lot of rain, some high winds but thankfully no power outages in our neighborhood. Tree branches were everywhere, but besides that no other sign of a hurricane.

Cafe Green - Duk Bok Gi, Jobche , Quinoa Burger, Chocolate Shake and Spicy Green Juice w/ Organic Vodka

Lucas and I have been together for almost 10 years and this month celebrated our 5^th year of marriage! We worked together when I was an undergraduate and our first date was a keg party the day after Valentine’s Day. After that one night we were inseparable! We celebrated a nice dinner out with just us for the first time since I was hospitalized for strict bed rest at 28 weeks pregnant. It was so weird not having the boys with us, since we’ve chosen to do a more attachment style of parenting. Lucas' family was in town and took care of the boys while we were out. We dined at this great 100% vegan restaurant in DC, Café Green. The food was ridiculously delicious!

Astral and Defy aren’t eating as much as usual right now. We’ve been assured that this is a normal phase that many toddlers go through. They will eat all the fruit you can put in front of them, but are pretty picky with their other usual favorites. Thankfully they still love their smoothies and green juice, so we pack them full of green veggies, legumes, seeds, flax oil and other fats like olive oil or avocado. I am still nursing, and they also drink about 20 plus ounces of enriched coconut milk a day. Star and Sunny are enjoying this phase because they get all the rejected food that Astral and Defy throw on the floor, but mommy and daddy aren’t quite as happy about it!

the tofu scrambles they took a few bites of and then fed to the pups

They are talking so much more now; they basically mimic whatever we say (if they are in the mood) in their baby talk language of course. It is so cute to hear their little vocal cords at work. They are starting to say the names of people which is totally heart melting.

They’ve recently mastered the fist bump. A few weeks ago a cousin tried to give them a fist bump instead of a high-five. No one had tried it before and ever since they’ve been fist bumping. Defy just holds his fist out to everyone he meets. It is super freaking adorable. I am sure there’ll be many secret handshakes in their future.

Astral is our stubborn boy and really won’t do anything by request right now; they’ve traded personalities yet again. He will look just look at us like, "yea right", and continue doing whatever he was doing (so like mommy). Defy will shower us with kisses, but a kiss from Astral is a rare and beautiful little treat. Defy actually kisses everything from the phone while talking to one grandma or another to illustrations in his books. Speaking of books, they are such little book worms! Sometimes when you walk into the room they will just be sitting right next to one another, each with a book on their lap. They’ll be side by side, intensely eyeing the pages like they are reading about some complicated theory, then all of a sudden they’ll switch books and continue "their studies". It’s just too much!

They also love to draw, color, throw balls, run from one end of the room to the other (sometimes high-stepping), and ride their tricycles. Their feet can almost reach the pedals on their tricycles. The packaging said they were made for 3 years and up, but I think they’re almost tall enough to get cruising on their own.

Timing is always a challenge with multiples when there is one parent on duty, but today everything ran smoothly and Lucas was able to take them to their first baby concert this morning. They love music and dancing so we thought they might enjoy it. They weren’t at all thrilled with it; Lucas enjoyed it way more than they did. They didn’t dance as expected and Astral only clapped once. Yes, just one single clap. Defy cried a bit and they hung really close to daddy the entire time. They are off and on when it comes to large crowds. They each seem to prefer their brother over any other playmate, which is normal with identical twins.

Astral had his first splinter on Sunday and we had to remove it with tweezers. It was a two person job and was just awful. Astral is also the same little guy that a couple of weeks ago took a spill down some concrete steps out in the neighborhood and scraped his little nose and upper lip area. It was so terrible! It bled a little and then looked raw for a week or so. It is healing up nicely, but is still pinkish. This happened while I was at the office, but if I was there at the time I’m sure I would have panicked and unnecessarily rushed him to the ER (another reason Lucas is a great choice for the stay at home parent). This little injury happened as a result of a new found independence. He wanted to hold the handrail on his own and walk down the steps like a big boy. It is super hard to know that letting go may equal falling down at times, but we realize that we just might have to let go in order for them to go for IT…

16 months old