To do: read!

We love reading to the boys, and the boys love (eating) books. Our new fav? This is London An awesome gift from Wilson's godmother Ryan. Love this book - great pictures, history woven in, and a fun story.

Love is all around us

I'm not a big Valentine's Day person. In elementary school it was fun putting big paper bags on the backs of our desks with cutout hearts for Snoopy cards and chalky candy. In high school it was nerve wracking wondering if someone was going to send a candygram to class or not. In college I was with Matt all 4-years, so it was always a "what do we do that's new and amazing this year?" Up until now, my favorite Valentine's Day was one of those college years when I sent Matt a singing telegram - I had a man dressed up as St. Valentine deliver flowers and balloons to Matt in front of the campus market during lunch. Classic.

I have to say, today's Valentine's Day was the best. I had not 1 but 3 Valentines and it was awesome. This past week has been pretty tough for us - the boys were super sick (Wilson with an ear infection and Cole with a virus that caused a temperature to spike up to 104.4 - I've never been so scared in my life). It was also a very busy week with work, trying to figure out taxes, blah blah blah. We couldn't bring the boys to daycare this week for obvious reasons and lucked out because my mom took a day off work to come help.

BUT, this weekend things turned - Cole's cold is on its way out, and we (begrudgingly) started Wilson on antibiotics - both of them are very much on the mend. Yesterday Matt and I met up with a friend, James, and his twins on top of Russian Hill. Later we bought some gates from another SF Parents of Multiples-er and talked twins and tips which always feels good. Today we decided just to "hang" near the house. During the boys' first nap this morning I stole 45min for a short run. Post boys' brunch and jumparoo time, we made our way down to Washington Square for a terrific brunch - it was funny, the boys just stared at us as we talked life/dreams/goals over pancakes and eggs. The rest of the day was pretty mellow doing laundry (there's always laundry to do) and taxes.

I have to say, my heart has never been so full. I have the three best Valentines.

It was a great day, it was a horrible day

Sunday was the Kaiser Half. I ran this race last year at 3mo pregnant and vowed never to run it again - the combo of running in my orthodics for the first time (GIANT mistake) and the 4mile out and back (horrible race design) made this race less than fun. That said, a group of friends signed up and being one to always cave to pressure, I did too... well, I signed up very late so I wound up buying a number off someone from my run club (I could have run it bandit, I saw quite a few people do that, but I just can't bring myself to sneak into a race - it's like stealing and the guilt would kill me. That and I would probably wind up telling everyone and then donating more money than the price of the bib # to the cause behind the race).

So, here's the race report Clif Notes:

• Linz, Brett and I taxi'd over
• I had milk puke on my shirt from the boys' breakfast - Cole had a case of the barfs
• At the start Mr. BO of the century stood in front of me - when I stepped right, he did too, when I stepped left, he did too - the stench nearly made me drop to the back. Nearly.
• I went out WAY too fast - 5:38 (!! I still can't believe this, but Garmin says it's true)
• By mile 4 I was miserable, mile 7 gave me a nice second wind
• The out and back was horrible - just as I remembered - luckily I was in the front/middle pack so I only saw people coming "back" for ~3/4 - 1mi
• I finished in 3:33:34 - a new PR by over a minute - happy happy happy! Of course it's a PR under someone else's name ... but whatever

Matt picked me up at the finish and we waited for Brett and Linz. Cole was eating kind of funny, but eating nonetheless. After getting home, the boys and I prepped for lunch and Matt went off to climb. About 2 bites into lunch I knew something as wrong - Cole is normally my eater, but he was pushing all the food away. I felt him and he felt hot hot hot. A quick temp check and I saw that he was 102! I started crying - it's really hard when you see your child is sick - then realized I couldn't be weapy, I had to be mommy, so I called the after hours clinic at the doc. They said to get him in ASAP so I called Matt's climbing gym (one side effect of having 1 car is the need to juggle who is doing what). He came blazing home and we packed the boys up to go to the doc.

Cole's temp spiked up to 103.4 and he just looked miserable. The after hours clinic was ... odd. The front desk guy complained that he thought it was busy because parents were trying to get their kids in before Super Bowl. Really?! Speechless. The doctor was younger than me (I'm starting to have those realizations I am "grown up" - I'm too old to audition for Real World (have been for years), too old for American Idol, and now I'm older than my kids docs - how did that happen?!) The doc was wearing heals and tons of makeup which I found totally odd. When I told the nanny this morning at first she thought the doc was a dude - only in SF would one think that. Funny. All the doc did as say "watch them" and gave them baby Tylenol.

Last night brought more sicks for both Cole and Wilson - Wilson started hacking around midnight and wouldn't go back to sleep. Cole woke up minutes after crying and weazing. We wound up getting up every 30min to sooth the boys but nothing as really working. It's heartbreaking seeing your babies sick - especially because when they're babies they don't know how to make themselves feel better (e.g. blow their noses). Matt wound up putting Wilson in the swing because he only was comfortable sitting up and I brought Cole into bed.

Poor boys.

Some morals:

• When running, standing behind stinky people makes you go out faster - to get away!
• Sick babies break your heart - holding them close to your heart makes them and you feel better
• One sick twin equals two sick twins in a matter of hours

Running around the world

When I was in highschool, my track coach took me on a trip that changed my life (opened my eyes to the world you could say). Every other year he (Mr. Taylor - no, I did not pick my husband based on my life changing track coaches last name) chose 8 runners to study and prep for a trip across Europe. For a year we read the Bible, studied Nietzsche, read philosophy spanning Socrates and Plato to Epicurus, and more.

Mr. Taylor is writing a book now and occasionally sends thoughts and pictures from past trips. I love reading these and being reminded. It's a reminder of where I've been (and run!) and where I'm going to go - I can't wait to show the boys the world.

Our trip took us to:

• The Dome on the Rock in Israel to study religion
• Egypt to run with the Bedouins see the Dead Sea scrolls
• Greece (Athens, Mycenae, Nemea, Sparta, Pelos, Olympia, and Ithaca) to run and dig on one of the first olympic tracks (literally dig - Mr. Taylor is friends with an archaologist there)
• Rome and Florence where we read about Brutus while sitting in the cave where he was burried
• The Swiss Alps where we read Thus Spake Zaratheustra while visitng Nietzche's old house
• Verdun where we had our hearts broken by war and tragedy
• Finally, to Paris where we studied Freud

The trip culminated with dancing on the Themes and reading from our journals. I felt oh so important then.

Mom in the City

I'm a city girl through and through. I don't know if it was all the SATC we watched in college, the study abroad trips to London, Thailand (various big cities), and Sydney, or just all the great memories in cities like Boston and New York. San Francisco is very much my city - right down to the countless isms that happen here almost daily (isms being things like men hula dancing in Washington Square while wearing traditional Chinese dragon outfits, Sushi restaurants in North Beach staffed by all Mexicans, or people speed walking in suits rocking out on their iPods with flip flops and North Face backpacks as they sprint to work in the financial district).

You can read more about my city love affair on Shabby Apple's blog. This was from the days when I traveled more for work and got to spend a week in NYC and is about one of my favorite city memories hands down. It's also about another love of mine ... great clothes.

p.s. the photo is a definite San Franciscism, not a New Yorkism.

TIART: Unconventional Races

San Francisco is full of unconventional … “things.” Races are one of the best. Yearly there’s Bay to Breakers – one of the most unconventional races. I started running Bay to Breakers in highschool – one year I was lucky enough to run in the seeded race and then get to “recover” (aka celebrate) in the seeded post-race tents. Awesome! Over the years since highschool, I’ve run an additional 6-times. Bay to Breakers is known for people dressing up, or not dressing at all (read, naked). Bay to Breakers is the epitome of San Francisco.

Here are some of the highlights:

• 1999: Running with my mom, we found ourselves next to a boy a few years older than me … who was running naked
• 2001: I convinced Matt to do a race with me and my dad – this was our first race together, and one of the first times Matt met my dad … being the ADD runner I am, I took off leaving Matt and my dad to get acquainted
• 2003: Linzy and I dressed as “ladies in our 80s in the ‘80s” with pink cutoff PJ bottoms, pink off the shoulder sweatshirts, and hair in curlers with rain bonnets – this was the first time the trolley driver on Hyde screamed … profanities to be polite (like the icky yucky nasty kind that makes you wonder why some peoples’ minds are so messed up)
• 2004: Linzy and I were going to go as the “Mighty Mullets” but due to a hair cutting incident (OK, wig cutting) we wound up throwing all the junk together in our apartment for junk costumes; Matt and Zach went as Rocky IV – what Zach didn’t know was wearing a Rocky sweatsuit would really make him sweat!
• 2005: Linzy and I went as “Thing 1 and Thing 2” from the Cat in the Hat – every child on the street stopped to waive
• 2009: I was going to wear a “I’m not naked, but they are” shirt, and Linzy (whose bday it was) was going to wear a “It’s my birthday … the suit’s under here” but we were all so wiped, we nixed the race and costumes
• 2010: what will this year bring?!
  

Life as a working mom of twins

Juggling work and life is tough (duh) - add in twins and it's tough and messy ... and so much fun. I have never been so exhausted/stressed/dizzied by everything and at the same time I've never been so happy.

Here are some recent examples of being a "working mom:"

• I walk to work and wear my running shoes (but pack my work shoes) - this morning, upon arriving at the office, I realized I packed one short brown boot, one knee high
• Yesterday I was running late for a morning meeting and had to drop the boys off at daycare, just as we got to the front door, Cole threw up a good part of his milk ... down my work shirt
• Last week I was in a meeting with a vendor - I went to grab something out of my laptop bag (which I also use as a diaper bag ... no dirty diapers go in there, don't worry) and grabbed a squeaky toy instead - hah!

I have to say, the boys help kill the stress, though. Today, after a brutal webinar in the morning, I got home to giggles and hands grabbing at my face with huge baby smiles. Loved it. The whole day got better.

Plus, the boys remind me that it cannot be all work no play - life is still one big playground.