For all of you math whizzes out there, guess what this translates into:

 + =  

Yup, it happened today at lunch.  Fortunately he was able to blow it out onto some tissue.  Ewww.  Boys - *sigh*

Remember the Flintstones?  I got adventurous this year and made the kids' costumes (didn't have time to make a hat for him though).  Guh-Guh was Bamm-Bamm and Mei-Mei was Pebbles.  Don't they look adorable?

Have been keeping up on the adventures of Cavengel, and their life with twins.  Two weeks ago we watched my cousin's son Jeremy while he and his wife went to a wedding.  They left at 4:30pm and came back just past midnight.  So we had to keep all three kids entertained for a bit {4:30-6:00}, feed them dinner {6:00-6:45}, keep them occupied again {6:45-7:20} bathe our kids (fortunately we didn't have to bathe Jeremy){7:20-7:50}, give Jeremy his nighttime bottle{8:00}, and put all 3 kids to sleep{8:00/8:15/8:30}.  Jeremy is just 2 months older than MeiMei and with him feeling insecure that his parents were gone and MeiMei feeling the early symptoms of sickness, neither baby was happy.  He was fussy, she was fussy, and whenever she started crying because she didn't feel well, he would panic and start crying as well.  I finally had to take them outside and distract them by walking around the backyard.  It worked.  How do you carry two 18lbs babies (neither can walk yet) in your arms for long stretches?  Easy, haha.  I had to criss-cross my two slings and carry them that way.  Otherwise I was afraid that either one would wiggle out of my arms without me having the other hand to counterbalance, or one of my arms would get tired and drop one of them. 

I got a tiny taste of what life is like with twins and I give huge props to the parents out there that take care of multiples every day.  That, and watching "John and Kate Plus 8" has given me a new understanding of 'busy.' 

 One of the things that we do in our family is make up songs.  Gina started it and is usually the one who does it.  She’ll sing her sentence to the kids (and sometimes Tim, hehe).  Guh-Guh has started picking that up as well.  Here he is making up his own song.  If you can’t make up the words he’s singing, they are “No run away, no run away!  I looove my blanket!  Oh that…Oh Mom, I love TJ.  I love…” and he stops dead in his tracks when he realizes that he’s on camera.  Had us cracking up. 

Tim is convinced that Mei-Mei will be the Rose Queen of 2025.  She seems to think so too, because she’s been perfecting her Pageant Wave lately.

Baba was helping Guh-Guh use his blanket as a cape, showing him how to be a Superman.  Afterwards, Guh-Guh sat on Baba's lap and said "You're MY Superman, Baba."  Tears came down my sappy face. 

On Sunday we celebrated our 7th wedding anniversary.  Wow, we can’t believe we’ve been married 7 years already!  We officially celebrated a week earlier, going to Opaque for a Dining in the Dark experience.  It was on the pricier side, but it was definitely worth it for the experience.  The setting is a ballroom at the Hyatt in Hollywood - the ballroom has been covered up to the point where it is pitch black.  You THINK you know what pitch black is, but you don’t until you’ve been here.  Our typical pitch black is very dark but after your eyes adjust, you can see a glimmer of something and can make out your hands if they are right in front of you.  At Opaque we couldn’t see a thing.  Even after two hours of dining, we couldn’t see anything at all.  When you arrive, a sight-impaired person (sometimes just vision impaired, sometimes totally blind) will lead you to your table.  You put your hand on his shoulder and each person in your party puts his hand on the shoulder of the person in front of him.  As TJ would say - Mommy, it’s a line, a choochoo train!  That same person is your server for the evening.  Ours was named Michael and he was wonderful.  He had “normal vision” until 2005 because of glaucoma.  Before then he was active in building youth centers, centers for low-income communities, going to the gym, working on one project after another.  Becoming blind was tough for him but at the Braille Institute, he learned to read again (albeit differently), and he met some people, one of who introduced him to Opaque.  The dinner experience was amazing.  We couldn’t see a thing, so there were no visual distractions - no people watching, TV at the bar, phone calls, emails, cell phone games.  It was just a chance for the two of us to reconnect again.  They also had a few things for us to play with while we were dining.  The first was a note in Braille, along with the Braille alphabet, and info about the Braille Institute.  Here’s our note.   If you’re not patient enough to figure it out, here’s the answer.  The other game was a bag of herbs/spices that you had to guess.  Gina got one right, yay!  Eating was interesting to say the least.  Sometimes you’d get a HUGE mouthful of food, sometimes you’d get a mouthful of air, depending on how well you stabbed your food with your fork!  We started out with bread (and butter, believe it or not), then had salad, our main course, and dessert.  If you’re interested in seeing more of what it’s like, click on this video link.  We would definitely go again, although not often.  It’s $100/person, which doesn’t include drinks, so it’s great for a special occasion, but not for everyday dining.  Besides, they are only open for dinner on the weekends.  Not open during the week, and obviously not open during the day.  If you’re thinking of going out for a special occasion and would like to try something different, we would definitely recommend it.  It reminds us also to be thankful for our vision and pray for those who are losing or have lost theirs. 

 Guh-Guh and Mei-Mei went on a playdate with Lis and Marcy's kids a week ago.  The kids had so much fun!  It's awesome that Lis' two kids are the same age as ours.  We're sharing in the same experiences at the same time.  Marcy, Lis, Es, and I all had babies late last year - First Es in late Sept, then me, then Marcy, then Lis.  The time between each kid avg about 3 weeks.  Here are pictures from our playdate:

CC didn't waste time before trampling Brandon.

 Ah, much nicer.

The kids all gather around the Musini toy (I bought one, by the way, Lis)

While the younger ones continue playing with the Musini...

The older ones drink their milk and watch Sesame Street.

Boy, having all these kids around gets pretty noisy!

Micah's just chillin'

Time to feed the fish and turtle

Thanks for a lovely time!  Group picture.

Future couple?

Hard to get the younger to stay still for a photo.  Give it two seconds and they are off again.

Hopefully we can get together again sometime this month with Esther too.  How much fun will that be?!?!?

Those of you who are curious as to what our new place looks like, click here.

 Yes, it has officially begun - Tooth Watch '07!  Mei-mei's first tooth is coming in and she is not happy.  Poor thing.