Thanksgiving: Nate & Seth Do Not Thank Gerber®

Well, it seems I got the date wrong for Thanksgiving since it's actually today, so Happy Thanksgiving again everyone! For some reason I thought Monday was the "in lieu of" day, but no matter – we at The Oddest Prime are prepared for such contingencies and so without further ado, I present... 

Our first taste of meat protein AKA Nate and Seth's Thanksgiving Dinner!

I thought this seemed a festive meal for the occasion, but let's see what Nate and Seth thought of Gerber's® Vegetable Chicken Dinner:

Here's Nate "enjoying" his first bite:

Seth took a few attempts and I never did manage to get him to actually eat any. He just kept looking at me with that "why are you doing this to me?" face. 

Verdict? Super-stinkeroo, Gerber®. Super-stinkeroo. 

- L.

Happy Thanksgiving!

– Hi everyone! It's us!
– Oh yes, hi everyone. I still exist in case you were starting to wonder.

– Is Thanksgiving today Nate.
– I knew 'dat. Just commenting on how I've been a little scarce lately, but I is thankful for an awful lot all the same. 

– Happy Thanksgiving everyone!
– Oh yes, Happy Thanksgiving! I is especially thankful that I is finally appearing again on 'dis blog, but I make a list of other things also.

– I help with that too!
– I know 'dat. And mommy help too. We all has a lot to be thankful for this year.

•   •   •   •   •

Things we are the most thankful for at The Oddest Prime this Thanksgiving (and every day):

• Each other.

• Good health.

• Full tummies.

• Warm beds.

• And last – but certainly not least – our very gracious friends and family. If you have stepped up, helped out, brought food, sent a heartfelt email, phoned just to see how we're doing (especially when we unexpectedly went offline!), knitted cozy hats, offered a ride or simply a warm hug then this part is about you. You know who you are and we couldn't be doing as well as we are without you. Thank you from the bottom of our hearts.

– L.

PS. It's also 10.10.10 today and I happened to hit publish at 10:10 AM. Spooky. Maybe it's time to buy a lottery ticket.

PPS. A cute outtake from this morning. I knew it was time to put down the camera when I saw the biggest yawn coming from Seth (great way to show off his shiny new white pegs though!).

PooBucket™: A Love Story (Part I)

Once upon a time there was (as you already know) a corner of the nursery that looked like this: 

And after a time and certain "circumstances" it came to look like this: 

This is the story of those circumstances, a love story in three parts. This is part one.

Now you all know Seth and you've seen him in action of late. You know that he has bravely ventured into the hallway at least once all by himself and that he staged an unprovoked attack on ShinyGarbagePail™. You also know that he has some serious moves during a diaper change and that simple restraints cannot keep him down for long, especially with PooBucket™ nearby (as she always is when it's time for a fresh diaper).

It is an unrelenting love. A story for the ages. So great is his love of that little red bucket, it had to be secreted away to a safe location high above the nursery floor. 

Like a princess in a tower, no?

ShinyGarbagePail™ has found a safe new home as well in case you were wondering. 

Now there's something even Seth (whose love burns with the fire of a thousand suns) didn't know until very recently about PooBucket™:

PooBucket™ is also a twin. Yes, that's right – there are two PooBuckets™! 

And so it is that PooBucket™ "B" can often be found waiting it's turn outside the nursery door in the hallway while PooBucket™ "A" does it's work in the nursery, or vice versa. They take turns that way.

Now I know you are probably already 5 steps ahead of me and are wondering why I would leave such an obvious temptation in the very same hallway that Seth has found his own way out to at least once. And the answer is... it didn't occur to me that this might be a problem until, one day, it was.

Of course on that day – that fateful day – it so happened that both PooBucket™ "A" and "B" had convened in the hallway and were lined up like a couple of sitting ducks when suddenly Seth appeared. 

The image above is a still from the video I shot just before his relentless pursuit began. I'm pretty sure he is thanking the powers that be for "the bounty he is about to receive".

And me? Well, the buckets were reasonably clean so I decided to let him go to town (don't worry – hands were thoroughly scrubbed afterwards!). 

Of course, if you'd care to witness the entire spectacle on video (and really, why wouldn't you?), head on over to our YouTube™ channel to check it out.

- L.

On The Move: Seth Conquers The Nursery

Once upon a time, there was a corner of the nursery that looked like this:

Due to some "circumstances", the little red bucket – AKA PooBucket™ – had to find a new home (actually it might have been more of a "safe house" situation, but that's a different post for another time).

Unfortunately, this left ShinyGarbagePail™ wide open and I'm pretty sure the poor thing knew it too:

See what I mean?

Of course if you'd like the full scoop, head on over to our YouTube™ channel to witness how it all went down when Seth spied ShinyGarbagePail™ unattended for the first time.

- L.

PS. No worries – ShinyGarbagePail™ has also found a safe location elsewhere and we expect a full recovery. You know... eventually.

On The Move: Seth Conquers The Hallway

Seth's on the move and last Saturday he made his first solo trip into the hallway all by himself. Of course, the camera was rolling the whole time so head on over to our YouTube™ channel to check out the action.

Here he is at the end of his long journey:

As if Nate and Seth weren't already keeping me on my toes, I have a feeling things are suddenly about to get a lot more interesting around here with two babies on the move.

- L.

8 Months Old

I had an idea for our 8 month photo shoot which for various reasons didn't materialize, but in the words of Douglas Adams:

"I may not have gone where I intended to go, but I think I have ended up where I needed to be." 

In the end things worked out – if not better than I had intended – then certainly more interesting. It all started with the arrival of the boys' first shoes:

SHOES!!!

I was (clearly) pretty excited about this since I spent time taking pictures of said shoes while I should have been vacuuming the nursery in anticipation of our very first playdate guests. As it turned out, the boys were a little less excited than I was about their new shoes, and maybe a little too exuberant about our guests, but in the meantime...

The vacuuming: I did get to it after all.

I knew Seth didn't particularly like the vacuum. He's been known to cry on occasion if I've been at it too long (hey, so have I!), but I sincerely had no idea that said vacuum is actually the stuff his nightmares are made of. Or at least they are now. I brought it into the nursery (everything was OK), I plugged it in (still OK) and turned it on (very much not OK) while Nate and Seth played happily in Seth's crib.

Seth's body left the mattress he jumped so high. He couldn't have cried harder. Cue mommy guilt.

I can never vacuum within his earshot again. Never. Ever. Again. Seriously, it was a bad scene and just moments before our playdate guests arrived no less.

One of the mommies from our Preparing For Multiples prenatal class series kindly offered to come for a visit that day and brought her sweet girls, Victoria and Caitlin. I don't know what either of us was expecting, but clearly we are (or perhaps were) very optimistic women.

The girls were understandably upset by unfamiliar surroundings, Seth was still crying from the vacuum trauma and after a few minutes Nate decided to cry too because he felt left out.

Oh dear.

Mommies of twins really should come equipped with an extra set of arms since 2 mommies + 4 babies = a scenario that is bound to end poorly at times, especially when two of those babies are getting pretty mobile of late. And by two of those babies I mean mine, and most especially Seth.

Oh, Seth.

He got over his vacuum upsets in time to snake his way across the room at lightning speed (this is his only speed lately by the way) and greet poor Caitlin with an open palm on her sweet face as she lay there innocently contemplating the jungle gym.

Ouch. 

And cue more mommy guilt. 

So after our morning and afternoon with the new shoes, the vacuum "incident" and a 90 minute visit that took days to coordinate with many crying babies and some violence it's not really a surprise that our cute photo shoot got bumped – especially since we three had to head out ourselves after all was said and done. I got the boys bundled up in their new fleeces and shoes and everyone was looking so cute I decided to grab the camera for a few quick pics even though we really should have been on our way, and I will forever be glad I did.

Not just because they looked so cute:

... but because something a little magical happened. It's a moment I've seen before but never thought I'd get on film. Perhaps this was Nate's way of showing Seth how to properly touch someone on the face:

Of course, after a few minutes things took a turn for the interesting:

You can catch the whole show on video, including Nate's reaction to his first pair of shoes and Seth's take on "Nate flavor" over on our YouTube™ channel – although if you have a weak constitution you may want to skip Part IV. Don't say I didn't warn you.

- L.

Technical Difficulties

We had some at The Oddest Prime when my laptop abruptly faded to black last week. Our sincerest apologies for the delay in our regularly scheduled programming, but fear not – it looks like it's business as usual around here once again. As always, we hope you enjoy the show.

- L.