Twin brunch!

We hosted a twin brunch today for a bunch of families in parents of multiples - 7 families made it (!!!) all with their ~6mo old twins. When it came time for twin pics everyone surprisingly made it to the couch ... except for two ... Cole and Wilson decided it was nap time no ifs ands or buts.

All in all, though, AWESOME morning! It's always a little stressful having people over (you never know how many are going to flake), not quite sure who is veg (we are definitely not) or what other weird food things people have, etc. This brunch was a great time, though - we shared stories and best practices on adventures in twinhood and all got to commiserate a little on the shared exhaustion. Can't wait for another.

Race day - hurray!

Today was the PCTR Pacifica 21k and it was friggin awesome! I ran a 2:01 beating my time last year by over 12min (then again, last year I was 4-months pregnant with the twins) and placed 2nd female. Trail runs are always a great time for thinking - my thoughts were truly all over the place, so I'll give you the Clif Notes:

• My new phrase? Just did it. The race that is. The Army can keep "be all you can be," Nike can have "Just do it" - I say, skip the planning and get 'er done.
• Motto for the race? Feet on the ground, heart with my boys, and head somewhere else.
• Thoughts on happiness? Take time ... that's it. Just take time - time to enjoy, time to be alone, time to push it to the limits.
• The t-shirt line I want to make? "As is." Says a lot - no need to fake, just be. As is.

More musings to come - for now I need ice ... stat!

Weekend Roundup: I heart San Francisco

We've been having a lot of "what's next" conversations. Where do we want to live/raise the boys/work/play. I keep thinking a lot about nature v. nurture in how someone's upbringing adds to who they are (e.g. Seattle might give us goth teens, Marin bubble children (I grew up in Marin and loved it, though), San Diego surfer dudes, etc.) Yes, sweeping generalizations. Some days I think we need out of San Francisco to give the boys room to roam, other days I think we need a farm in Oregon so they can play with lamas in the back yard. Hopefully one day my company will go public and I can just have both :o).

Weekends like this, though, make me want to give the boys the city life for at least a few years.

Friday, after a much-too-long week, we had Rob and Emily over for dinner. Saturday brought rock climbing for Matt and walking the town for me and the boys.

Here's our Saturday night:
After a delicious dinner...









And some tunes with daddy:








We took the boys out walking and stopped by Sts. Peter and Paul Church on Washington Square (1-block from our house); we enjoyed the sites including an old Chinese man drinking a 40 who was watching a group of 20-somethings hackey sacking for a group of bums:











Around the corner we stopped for some live music at a restaurant (we were later joined by a guy tap dancing on the sidewalk ... not sure why he had tap shoes on):









All in all, a mellow San Francisco night.

Today I enjoyed a great run over the Golden Gate bridge, followed by "hang" time with a friend and good greasy Mexican food, wrapped up with my mom babysitting so Matt and I could go on a date for the best sushi ever. No really, it's the best.

To do: financial fitness

Like many, I vowed to become more financially fit this year ... again ... but this time I mean it, I have to! Intro: mint.com. A friend introduced me to this site and it is terrific - you can manage your money all from one place; you put your bank info, credit card info, retirement funds, etc. in and it gives a graphical monthly budget and tracks spend. Don't worry mom, it's also secure.

Going over our finances this weekend we've had a "holy carp!!!" moment. Twins are expensive. San Francisco is expensive. We're going through everything to try to tighten our budget - here are some of the highlights:

Swapping:

• Whole Foods > Trader Joes
• Eating out > cooking or inexpensive takeout
• Wine bar with friends > come over!
• Bi-monthly races > more club runs + the occasional "needed" race
• New clothes > digging up old duds

Laughing in the face of fear

And falling on the face of fear ...

Who knew "boo!" could cause such giggles. I love it.

Starting solids!

The boys are officially 6-months old today - my goodness time flies! I remember(ish) the first few weeks when migrating them from a mini co-sleeper to a vibrating chair was a big deal. Now, we're on to solids - and it is SO fun!

The first food? Sweetpotato. We baked a sweetpotato and then pureed it with a little milk. The result? The boys loved being allowed to put the spoons in their mouths, but they weren't quite sure what to do next.

Introducing solids is yet another reminder of what "new" is like. Every taste, texture, smel, feel is brand new for the boys. Some are greeted with wide happy eyes, others with confused scowels. Introducing solids is brand new for the boys and it's so cool for us to be reminded of what "new" is.

I see your true colors

I think how people act on the road is indicative of who they are.

We live in tourist-ville in San Francisco on the North Beach Russian Hill border - we have Fisherman's Warf down the hill, Coit Tower up the hill to the right, and Lombard up the hill to the left.

Today I took the boys for a short jog down to the Ferry Building, but this 3-mile run turned into an obstacle course trying to make my way along the sidewalk. People, tourists especially I have come to think, love walking 3 or 4 in a row thus blocking the entire sidewalk. These same 3 or 4 in a rowers did not seem to want to budge today so my double stroller and I were forced to stand off to the side of the sidewalk behind lamps and bushes as people walked by. In fact, the only people who did move out of the way were two groups of who I would otherwise call "thugs." You really can't judge a book by its cover / person by their appearance ... but you can judge by how they act.

Weekend Roundup: over the bridge, and through the trees, the holiday wrap-up has come

I just got used to being on holiday and work is back upon us. This past (long) weekend was pretty awesome, though. The boys are more exhausting than ever, but luckily we're surrounded by amazing friends and family who help.

New Year's Eve didn't bring much partying this year - instead it brought a (wonderful) mellow evening watching the ball drop on TV in New York and bedtime for Matt and I at 9:30pm. Friday we went to my mom's house for the Wilson (family name, not baby name) family Christmas.

Saturday brought a GREAT run in the park - my first with the Bob!! - with a friend from Parents of Multiples while Matt climbed with Rob and Emily - then we went to Rob and Emily's new place for an amazing lunch and "chill" time in their new loft.

Cole is not loving belly time, but he is digging (faux) walking. Wilson has taken to lounging while eating - he's comfortable with everyone.










Sunday, winding down from the weekend, we spent the morning cleaning (a never ending task here now). I met up with GGRC at 10 for a nice 8mi run through the Presidio - GGRC runs are the only things helping boost my mileage, I have no idea when/how I'll get enough miles to give the Boston Marathon a proper go ... but I'll do it. Sunday afternoon Ryan (Wilson's Godmother) came over to play with the boys - we all walked through North Beach and made it to a local wine bar to close out the weekend.