About Us

This blog is my attempt to document the adventures of our family, which includes my husband of 3 years and our boy/girl twins born in Feb 2010. As first time parents, we’re learning how to juggle raising compassionate and well rounded children with working full time, having fun as a couple, and taking time for ourselves!

Here’s some fast facts about me:

• I’ve spent my entire 33 years on the East Coast. I’m from RI, went to college in CT, lived in NYC for 7 years and now call MA home.
• I work as an office biatch but have fantasies of doing good and saving the world. I even applied to the Peace Corps in college and was in the final stages of enrollment when I chickened out and didn’t participate.
• I’ve been interested in Buddhism for the past 6 years or so. I’d like to think I espouse the belief system but I’ve yet to master meditating every day.
• I am passionate about my tattoos. I have three, including a very large piece on my right arm. I used to have my eyebrow, tongue, and nose pierced, but now I work in a “respectable” office and can’t wear the face jewelry.
• I’ve been a vegetarian on and off since I was 16. I am currently eating meat, but it can’t look, taste or smell like meat. It must be burnt and covered in a sauce such as A-1 or BBQ sauce.
• I met my husband the first week of freshman year in college in 1995, but we didn’t become friends until junior year in 1997. We didn’t start dating until 2000 after we graduated college. We were married in 2006 in a beautiful apple orchard in NH on the first day of autumn. Sigh…
• My husband and I decided to have a baby June 2009. By July 4 we were pregnant. One month later we found out we were having fraternal boy/girl twins.
• I carried the twins full term, had to be induced at 38 weeks, and delivered both babies vaginally even though baby B was breech. Yep, I rocked the crap out of that pregnancy.

Who are Los Twinguinos?

Los Twinguinos are my baby boy/girl twins. Paloma Pippin and Bodhi Atticus joined the world on Wed, Feb 24, 2010. Paloma made her debut weighing 7 lbs, while her baby brother by 3 minutes weighed 6 lbs, 11 oz. I’m happy to say that both babies were delivered vaginally, even though Bodhi was breech, and came home with me after spending 2 days in the hospital. We hit a minor roadblock when Paloma had to be readmitted to the hospital one day after discharge because of pesky jaundice. But she came back home on my 33rd birthday and they’ve been perfect ever since!

Paloma Pippin is our more…shall we say high maintenance baby? Paloma means dove in Spanish and we wanted a name to touch on Dame’s own debut into this world (he was born in Madrid, Spain). Pippin means a “highly admired person.” Pippin is also a type of apple, which we thought would be cool because we were married in a gorgeous apple orchard. But back to Paloma’s personality…high maintenance? A bit. I think in the grand scheme of things she – really both – babies are great, but she seems to want to be held more and needs more attention. This is why she came out so darn cute. How could you not want to hold her? She has a mass of dark hair, olive skin, and huge saucers for eyes. Looking at baby pictures it’s clear she’s my daughter, but she is definitely cuter than I was!

Paloma likes to spit-up – a lot. Burping her after a feeding requires an “at your own risk” sign, and I certainly don’t let anyone but Dame or me burp her. Projectile is a word we use often in this house. She also likes to start pooping mid diaper change. Paloma also has a spit problem. While she sleeps she drools quite a bit and then it dries up and creates this crust all over her face. Yes, sounds disgusting, but it’s just baby spit! Little miss is almost impossible to wake up. You have to blow in her face, take off her clothes, change her diapers…I usually have to get a cold wet rag and wipe her face to really get her out of her slumber.

As she’s approaching 8 weeks, she is smiling and laughing and does a lot of gooing and gaaing. She likes to lay on her back and kick her arms and legs and make all these breathy noises. I’m convinced this is a dance she does. Who knows what it really is but one thing for sure is it’s absolutely adorable!

Then there’s Paloma’s baby brother, Bodhi Atticus. Bodhi is Sanskrit for “awakening” and is also the tree under which the Buddha sat and became enlightened. I have a large tattoo of the Bodhi tree on my back. Atticus is for Atticus Finch from the novel To Kill a Mockingbird. I’ve always loved the name and the book’s character; I knew one day I’d name my son with it.

Bodhi gained 2 1/2 lbs in his first 4 weeks in the world so what was a decent sized baby when he entered this world has become quite a chubbby man! His head has grown faster than his hair has been able to keep up so he’s missing some hair in the middle of his head. He looks a bit like a fat, balding old man.

Bodhi is a great eater and latcher to my breast. He’s so easy to breastfeed and demands to eat every 2 hours. For the most part Bodhi is chill, but he definitely does not have a medium setting. He could be completely quiet and then he decides he’s hungry and starts screaming bloody murder. He cries the same for hunger as he would if he had a broken limb (I’d imagine). Listening to him cry is heart-wrenching – he sounds like he’s in so much pain. He’s starting to smile too, though you have to work much harder for it. Bodhi looks like he’s always thinking, just leaning back and taking in all the sights. He’s so pleasant to squeeze. A sturdy baby, I want to hug him all day long. He loves it when you stroke his head, and I often find him playing with the back of his head.

I still can’t believe it. I have two babies. Twins. I am a mother of twins! I feel like I have to write it down and repeat it often because it still hasn’t set in. But that’s the dynamic duo, los twinguinos. After 8 weeks I can only write a limited amount about them since we’re still getting to know each other, but I will continue to document their achievements and discoveries!