What a day, what a day and we haven't even gotten dressed up yet! We had a mommy date at the Incredible Pizza Company and my, oh my what a place it is! It is the most garishly amazing place we have ever been. Think CiCi's meets Dave and Buster's meets Chuck E Cheese all with a 1950's vibe. $7 bucks for all you can eat pizza (and tacos, and pasta, and salad, and desserts, and...) and hours of fun- yes, I said HOURS! I knew when I walked in and saw highchairs as far as the eye could see we were in the right place! The baby 'arcade' rides kept them busy for 45 minutes after we ate and they LOVED running around the big kids arcade and watching the bumper cars and go carts! If you have one of these in your area it is a MUST for all ages!



I walked in the door from our long afternoon of rides and pizza to find that my incredible hubby had left flowers on the counter for me! There is something so romantic about a surprise bunch of fresh flowers...hard to believe we started dating EIGHT YEARS ago today! What a fabulous eight years it has been!

The Meek household was up early this morning- 6:30am to be exact which is E*A*R*L*Y for us! We normally slumber on 'til closer to 7:45ish. We walked downstairs in the dark and decided to just keep on going...PJs, pancakes, binks, and Yo Gabba Gabba on the couch. No hand washing or face wiping. No bibs. Just the three of us hanging on the couch with a plate of pancakes. Fin laughed all morning as if she was doing something totally illegal. Parker kept taking his bink out of his mouth and showing it to me, as if to say 'Mom, you forgot to leave my binky in the crib this morning!' We even managed to get in a little no-more-monkeys-jumping-on-the-bed time...A fabulous start to what is sure to be a fabulous day! Hope yours is going just as well...

We love the organic brand Annie's (the one with the bunnies). Having said that DO NOT BUY ANNIE'S WHOLE WHEAT BITE SIZE BUNNY CRACKERS! They look similar to the above picture. They are a SERIOUS CHOKING HAZARD- they are flat, hard, and the perfect size to get caught in little throats if swallowed whole. We tried these about a month ago and Fin choked and turned bright red. Luckily Brian was there to turn her over and give her the infant heimlich. I tried them again this afternoon, thinking maybe they were just too little for them then. Nope. Parker was gagging when I walked into the dining room (I had walked out to get the squash that had just finished cooking) and was neon red, quickly turning a shade I have never seen. I grabbed him and flipped him over like Brian showed me. He started throwing up and finally turned a normal color. AHHH! Needless to say the crackers swiftly found a resting place in our garbage can...these should have a warning on the package, "NOT FOR CHILDREN UNDER THREE YEARS OF AGE"

Brian's brother Kyle was in town this weekend (yay!) and we celebrated by taking a field trip (with his fabulous camera!) to the St. Louis zoo...a must for any visitor! The babes were sooo good- nary a complaint or whine the whole day!



















Loving the train...


HATING the tunnels...

Craig Wilson wrote a great piece in yesterday's paper on "How happy we all were when we had nothing." You know the story. The one where your newly married parents stretched a $20 for two weeks, eating only spaghetti noodles and marinara on their dining room table made from a reclaimed door and two wooden saw horses, sitting on milk crates while they gazed into one another's eyes. "The good ole days," they will tell you. I'm afraid those days are upon us again. I by no means am making light of our nation's financial situation- both sets of our parents have lost (a lot) in the recent stock market plunge, retirement seems a distant dream to so many who were so close, things are bad and seem to only be getting worse, but last night as I struggled to fall asleep I couldn't help recall these stories of an older generation who oft refer to them as 'the best years of their lives.' It all sounds kind of romantic to me...trying to stretch a dollar, carpooling for lack of gas, new recipes because there is no butter and a lot of potatoes, snuggling by the fire because we turned off the heat to save money, canceling our tv/cable/DSL/Netflix and reading free library books as a family, selling all of our primary colored plastic toys for some extra cash and having to play outside instead. Could we be looking at this financial crisis all wrong?! Perhaps it is just the thing to bring families and our great nation together, uniting us regardless of ideology and political belief and thus bringing us back to the thriving prosperous nation we once were. Let's look at the bright side of all this...think of it as an adventure!

When I was pregnant Brian and I had the "which-things-we-hope-our-children-don't-inherit" conversation. Brian picked his rosy cheeks and short fingers, I hoped our kids wouldn't get my full head of gray hair and my keep me up at night borderline personality disorder obsessive compulsive habits- to say I like organization is an under statement. As a little girl my favorite place in the world was the grocery store. As my mom shopped I would plant myself in front of the messiest shelves and get to organizing- canned foods, cereal boxes, frozen entrees...I didn't have a preference as long as it was messy! My 'playing' was really just organizing...Barbie was a favorite- I could sit for hours re-arranging all those tiny pieces!

We might have escaped the cheeks and fingers and we'll have to wait until at least the eighth grade (the year my hair turned a lovely salt and pepper hue) to discover if we skipped a generation in the gray hair gene, however, the wait is over to see if our children are neat freaks. I like to stock up on things when they're on sale (and I have a coupon!) and yesterday I brought the six bottles of bath wash I had purchased upstairs and left them in the hall as I put away diapers. I came out of the babes' room to find that Fin had neatly placed three bottles in one potty and the other two bottles in the other potty. She was having a serious fit because she couldn't get the third bottle to fit! Just a coincidence I tried to convince myself. Surly she can't be OCD at 14 months!



Then at lunch yesterday I walked in to find that she had arranged all her carrots in one small section of her highchair tray. She was very proud of this as you can see!



Looks like we have another grocery store organizer in the making! I suppose their are worse traits to inherit...

My Dad drove all the way out to Westport one afternoon to pick up two McCain yard signs. I happily planted mine in the ground (figuring I'd at least cancel out my Obama supporting next door neighbor). That evening as I went out to do my daily watering (yes mom, I'm still watering my plants) I found my sign uprooted and in the middle of the street. Hmmm. It wasn't a windy evening and I'm pretty sure I stuck it far into the ground. Silly silly left wingers...I chuckled as I replanted my sign. About a week later as I'm giving the babes their breakfast I look out the window and something just doesn't seem right....IS THAT AN OBAMA SIGN IN MY FRONT YARD?! Yes, yes it is. Someone had actually taken my sign and replaced it with an Obama sign. Kind of clever, except I immediately called the police, filed a police report, and spray painted a big bright circle with a line through it over both sides of the sign. What happened to freedom of speech in this country?! I don't go pulling off bumper stickers...stay off my property and leave my sign alone! Next time I plan on following a Texans lead and will be putting this in my front yard instead...

Last week I had an interesting conversation with one of my mother-in-law's friends. She was telling me about a book club she had just joined that centered around novels concerning themselves with ethical dilemmas regarding food. Hmmm. She herself was grappling with her feelings about the slaughtering of animals for human consumption. This all got me thinking. Do I have any food issues? Other than of course that I like food a lot...sugar particularly (I have been known to go out to eat and only order dessert- my hands-down favorite thing on any menu). We try to stay away from the enriched-aspartame-high fructose corn syrup-hydrogenated oil yuckies that plague our favorite grocery store, but do I have any REAL ethical dilemmas? Yes. My children's food as of late has presented me with a large challenge. From the beginning I have wanted nothing but the best for them nutritionally. I breastfed exclusively for the first nine months of their lives, nary a drop of formula touched their lips. When it came time for baby food I washed and pureed almost all of my own and in a pinch only bought organic. Then it came time for finger foods. Again, only organic, local, whole grain goodness filled my babies' bellies. Now, at the tender age of 14 months we are facing a crossroads. Somewhere, somehow our babes have become picky eaters. Chicken- no way. Cauliflower- not a chance. Peaches- won't touch them. Waste has become synonymous with mealtime. I'm pulling my hair out knowing that I spend $250 A WEEK on organic goodness only to be ingested by the dog. I know toddlers go through phases but as my husband says, maybe I should just 'get over it.' Last week marked the first non-organic grocery trip (a $75 savings!). Don't get me wrong, we are still eating a fruit, steamed veggie, and some type of whole grain and good for you protein at every meal, I'm just no longer crying about it when half of it ends up on the ground...

We recently went apple picking. Correction. A friend of mine and FOUR one year olds recently went apple picking. Now, you all just read that and thought to yourselves 'what was she thinking.' Why it did not dawn on me that this was a terrible idea until I was knee deep (literally) I'll never know. My friend and I decided to take the gang (her 14 month old, my 14 month old twins, and my 15 month old day care baby) on their first orchard adventure- the orchard just happened to be in Illinois which, for most purposes, is only about a 20 minute drive away. I know only two locations in Illinois, Chicago and the one town across the Missouri border that is 20 minutes away. At eleven o'clock I pulled out of my driveway- two in my car and two in my friends.' At 12:15 we were still in our cars..and not so happy about it. Let the nightmare begin.

Finally we arrive. It is about 90 degrees outside and as I am struggling with the Kolcraft double stroller (and damning all those people out there that wrote a good review for it) I begin to sweat. As I pull out the BOB to set it up I have droplets pooling at the small of my back. I deliver the other stroller to my friend and head to the restaurant to get us a table. This 'restaurant' is Cracker Barrel before Cracker Barrel existed- think wooden benches and plastic red and white table clothes. I'm not sure they had ONE highchair let alone FOUR. You know you're in for trouble when your stroller doesn't even fit through the door. Plan B: picnic tables. By this point my kids are all screaming. They are hungry and have been sitting in a car for an hour and a half. The last thing they want to do is sit in a stroller. Did I mention it is 90 degrees. As I shovel veggie burger into my children's mouths with one hand I am wiping away sweat with the other.

To the orchard! At the top of a large hill we see what appears to be a booth with a sign. The only other thing around us is a nursery (think plants and ground cover). The logical choice was to push our doubles to the top of the hill and have at it. Sweating. Really sweating. We arrive only to discover that the booth sold tickets to the children's playground- where am I?! No highchairs and a paid admittance for the swingset?! We are told we have to go through the nursery (what about some signs people?!) to catch the bus out to the orchard. Yes, a bus. Back down we go.

As we wait for the bus our kids are running around the mums and causing serious havoc in the nursery. One child has the hose, another is munching on flowers (I'll give you one guess), and another is screaming because they got sunscreen in their eyes. The bus arrives. My friend gets on with two children while I bring her the other two. I fold up one of the strollers and hump it on careful not to bump the elderly lady sitting in the front row. We're off with a lurch that sends everyone flying. I grab two babies fearing I have made a huge mistake. A few minutes later (and at least one highway crossing) we arrive at the orchard.

My plan was to grab ten apples and get the heck out of dodge. I strap two into the stroller and carry Parker to the nearest tree where I place him on the ground hoping he will stay right next to me. HA! No sooner than I had grabbed my first apple was Parker off and running. No one tells you about the rotten apples at an orchard. I mean it makes sense. They can't all be hanging ripely from the trees. Some have to fall. And fall they did! The ground was literally covered with them. Everywhere you stepped, rotten apples. Parker was falling in them, Finley was eating them, my daycare baby was still blinded by the sunscreen snafu and as I stood there watching the chaos all I could think about was how good my apple crisp had better turn out for all this to be worth it!

We finally did make it home that day and I learned a very valuable parenting lesson. My babies could have been at the mall, they could have been at the church playground, they could have been anywhere as long as it was someplace new and someplace they could run. From now on we're saving our day trips for when they actually have a cognizant memory of them occurring!

Don't be fooled by my happy face...I knew the video would be the only memory of the day and I was trying to make it a good one! PS my apple crisp was delicious!

Dear Lisa Marie Presley-

You copied. My beautiful twins have been on the earth for exactly 14 months. Their names are Finley and Parker. You stole our names! Did you think I wouldn't notice?! Finley and Harper sound awful close. Were you jealous of how incredibly beautiful and smart ours are?! Copycat.

Yours truly,

Mom of the original Finley and Parker

Alright, alright. I've been slightly slacking on my blog duties. My blog is kind of like my therapist (bare with me here), when I'm feeling overwhelmed or excited or happy I blog. Lately I've just been feeling content; in love with my husband, my children and my life. Due to my overwhelming contentment you all have suffered and I apologize. There is also the issue of not having a camera. This makes blogging slightly challenging. Then there was the ongoing drama of trying to change up my look (which by all measures I think was a success!). Nevertheless, I'm back and have a TON of updates!

* Both Parker and Finley can now say "hi" and "hot"
* When I tell Fin her food is hot (or anything really) she blows on it
* Both of our children are now running
* Parker and Finley LOVE flowers (real or fake, they don't discriminate) and know how to "sniff" them
* Both run to the window when they see a dog walking by and point and say "woof woof" (their name for all things with four legs)
* They both know what a bear says, a lion says, a horse says, a monkey says, a dog says, and what a choo choo says
* They brush their teeth with me every morning
* Parker has discovered that his finger fits neatly inside of his nose
* Both children know how to take their diapers off (which was a fun surprise one poop filled morning)
* Finley loves to dance
* Parker loves to figure things out - he knows how to do puzzles, how to open doors, how to put toothpaste on his toothbrush, the list goes on and on
* Both know how to go up and down the stairs
* We are making serious progress on eating with a spoon and fork (A few more weeks and I think we've got it)
* Parker loves to play toss (you should have seen him throwing a ball for Wrigley over the weekend)
* Finley thinks it's hilarious when she farts or burps

Hmmm, what am I leaving out....Ah, yes, PARKER WENT PEE AND POOP ON THE POTTY! Yes, at 14 months we have started using the potty. Brian and I bought two potties for the babes to get used to them (I read that one of the reasons children can take some time to become potty trained is the fear of the newness of it all). They started last week just playing with them and sitting on them. Then we started sitting them on the potty when we took their diapers off before bathtime. Well, Parker gets it. You may think I'm lying so I took a picture for proof. I know, I know I promised no more poop pictures, but really I couldn't resist showing it off! My son is pooping on the potty! Real pictures to come tomorrow...