And there was applause

I've said this before, but I find it to be true even more now - after having twins it's as if I only exist from the shoulders down (or whatever happens to be cresting the top of where the boys stand or sit).  And you know what?  I kind of dig it.  My beauty routine is wash, brush, gloss and go.

Tonight we went to dinner with a friend and his son (who goes to daycare with our boys) at the party hour of 5:30pm (blue plate special applies to oldies and parents).  At the dinner table we heard applause - suspecting a sports game on TV we started looking around to see who touched down/scored/home ran (?)/whatever.  Then we saw the applause was for our boys - Cole and Wilson were waving madly at a table of girls next to us and the girls were clapping and cooing back. Weirdly enough, walking out of the restaurant we again happened on a group of applauders cheering the boys' roll (our walk, their stroller roll) up the street.  Strange ...  but whatever - yay.

Never going to be in a picture again

It's funny, Matt's birthday is in two-weeks, but his present came today (well, part came today, and part he stalked the UPS man waiting for the package to arrive.  Literally, stalked.  We got the notice yesterday and starting last night at 10pm Matt was on the phone with dispatch scheduling a pickup.  Fast forward 12-hours and the package was still on the truck so Matt started calling the truck driver and dispatch figuring out how they could meet up - end result, package came and Matt's a happy birthday guy - two weeks early).

As soon as Matt finished opening up the boxes and putting the camera strap securely in place he looked up, grinned, and said "I'm never going to be in a picture again."

Of course I need to tie this to the whole mom angle.  As soon as I had the boys, it was as if my face fell off - never to be in pictures again.  Strangers frantically wave when we walk around the city, and when I smile and wave back - oops!  The hand flapping and oo'ing is for everything under my chin (and not in the Dolly Parton way - in the Cole and Wilson smiling and being the raddest babies ever way).  On the mom note (or parent note, more), we still don't let the boys watch TV.  We only cook organic foods and try for local when possible.  We read to the boys in Spanish and in English.  We always talk about how amazing the world is.  When the boys are sleeping we kick up our feet on the couch and drink imported (non-local, non-organic) beer, eat candy, watch trashy TV, and talk about all the doofuses we came across that day.  Hm...

Taking this whole "those who do, aren't in the limelight" concept to another level, I started thinking about work.  I work for an open source software company with some of the most brilliant coders in the world.  Are they coding because they'd rather not "architect" software solutions in silos for companies?  Would they rather enable developers and architects around the world to use our software solutions for anything they want?  Hm...

Switching gears to race land, I noticed a handful of the race coordinators for runs I've been doing lately aren't exactly runners.  They put on awesome races - literally over rivers, through the woods, up ladders, and up another 3k+ feet to what feels like the top of the world.  Then they celebrate with the runners giving candy, banana bread, and more goodies.  I'm not complaining!

So here's my thinking ... are those that enable sometimes those who can also "do," but always those who want to see others happy and excelling?  Are passions not necessarily things we need to be part of, but things we can enable (e.g. photographers don't necessarily want to be beautiful photos/subjects, but they want to take and give the world beautiful photos/subjects)? 

Enough deep thoughts - it's time to get back to my online class (oo - teaching marketing while taking a break from doing - fitting), eat some candy, and watch some trash TV.

Money Saver Monday: Buy New!

Over the past few months I've been trying very hard to save money and cut corners wherever possible.  To this effect, I've been scouring the web for deals in "ever online nook and cranny."  I've scored in some respects - Cop Copine fleece for $10, check.  Half off on desserts for myself and a group of other twin moms, score! 

But I also tried to get a few goodies for the boys - videos to be exact.  We don't let our boys watch TV yet - not sure when we will in fact.  A while back I bought "Your Baby Can Read" DVDs, but they were so scary we stopped watching them - instead we just started (drumroll) reading more.  In a moment of weakness, I bought the boys two more DVDs I'm not sure when we'll let them watch: Aladdin and The Jungle Book.  Problem?  Aladdin is orange on the cover and the video is only 45-min ... hm.  The Jungle Book has a female lead and appears to have subtitles, even in the inside cover.  Weird.

Moral of the story?  A deal isn't always a deal - cheap can be ... cheap.

The things you Google

It's interesting thinking about Google search in the context of what's happening in your life.  A few years ago I was Googling "marketing jobs."  Then "sale on Jimmy Choo."  And finally "twin belly" (heck, I wanted to know what was to come!) 

Today I Googled something I never thought I'd have to think about: "what happens when you eat poop."

This morning after breakfast the boys were playing in their room naked while I got their clothes together (these boys LOVE being naked).  I turned around, diapers in hand and Wilson was holding something that looked like a big piece of wood.  It was poop.  It was his poop.  Wilson was holding his poop with a giant grin getting ready for a bite.  GROSS!  I picked Wilson up, tossed the poop aside, and went running for the sink.  Luckily, I had gotten to him before he took a bite.

Returning to the room Cole was oddly quiet.  I put Wilson down and Cole scooted around to face me.  His face was covered with poop!  AHHHH!!!  The poop was not anywhere near Cole so (my detective sense kicking in) I knew Wilson must have had something to do with it.

Wilson and Cole are learning to share right now and I think Wilson had offered Cole some poop before going in for a bite himself.  I unfortunately only saw Wilson doody handed so took him to the sink first.

So gross.

Rave run: planks

The run club I "roll" with (GGRC) meets up Sundays at 10am at the Warming Hut near Chrissy Field.  Typically we break off by speed and by distance we want to go, but there are a handful of "norm" runs (including: planks, saddle, lands end, and Ft. Mason).  Planks is one of my all time favorites, and I really enjoyed pushing hard on the planks run this weekend.

Here are the planks highlights:

• Start at the Warming Hut
• Weave up and under the Golden Gate bridge
• Run along the water past old army barracks all on dirt trails
• This weekend we added the stairs (a set of about 250 stairs that go down to Baker Beach and back up again)
• Sharp left at Seacliff back into the Presido over the planks (there's literally a plank trail through the woods)
• Up around the golf course
• Through the Presidio proper (the bowling ally, old houses, and Lucasfilm)
• Back along Chrissy Field and the water to the Warming Hut

I wound up running with Pete the entire way as we chatted about work, kids, training, and pacing (something I'm terrible at).  The last mile was pushing directly against the wind so talk turned into a couple cuss words and silence pushing through the wind. 

The end of the run felt awesome!  Totally exhausted and enjoying the sun now peaking through SF's cloud bank.

What an amazing weekend

Being 4th of July weekend, this was a 3-day weekend - and it was great!  (and exhausting).  Saturday my mom threw a birthday party for the boys (their real birthday is next week, but we'll be in Santa Fe at my best friend's wedding).  The party was SO much fun!  Good friends came from all over, Matt's parents came up, and the boys got to blow out the cake with my grandpa who just turned 90. 

The boys also enjoyed their first bite of cake with Maceo and Levon, their twin friends who are just a few weeks younger, and my co-worker Veronica and her fiance who are expecting baby Max in 6 short weeks.  Here you see Cole managed to grab someone's entire piece of cake and try to put the whole thing in his mouth before getting caught.

After cake the boys enjoyed some splash time in our faux pool (a plastic boat).

Sunday morning Matt's parents watched the boys while Matt went for some hard indoor rock climbing and I enjoyed a run with GGRC around the Presidio.  Post workout we met up with the rents again for impromptu picnic lunch and play time with the boys.

Last night, after Matt's parents went back to their hotel and the boys went down to bed, we snuck up to the roof to watch the fireworks (being in North Beach we have the best view with fireworks in Marin, over the Golden Gate bridge, and over the Oakland bridge.

Today was a welcome 3rd day off work.  Matt's parents came over in the morning for breakfast and then hit the road to get back to San Diego.  We walked around North Beach and then played in the back yard until Paloma came. We also worked quite a bit on Coley's crawling (it seems he's totally down to get across the house for a musical instrument, but that's about it), and we worked a lot on getting the boys to drink out of sippy cups instead of bottles.

At 4 Paloma came over so Matt and I could do date afternoon.  For date afternoon., we tried to shake things up a bit with Bikram yoga and then dinner.  My goodness Bikram yoga nearly killed us both - 90-minutes in 111 degree heat (my eyes were on the thermostat) of poses and sweat - yeesh!  We enjoyed our Italian dinner more than ever tonight.

Yet another way Heman and Shera are different: their workout

Ever thought the workout that was written catered to half marathoners, guaranteed results was just not for you?  Interestingly, many of the phys ed studies have been based on men working out, not women, so the findings are a bit skewed. 

Here's an interesting blog in NY Times on "What Exercise Science Doesn't Know About Women."