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Today we took a trip the Eloise Butler Wildflower Garden for nature day, an extraordinary wooded area in (or near?) Theodore Wirth Park on the western edge of Minneapolis. Jess had been there once before on her own for a mushroom walk. It was so beautiful. Super shady and moist, lots of moss and rare flowers. Bubbe joined us, as did swarms of mosquito's. We didn't spend as long as we would've like since we forgot our repellent, but they had neat little cabin/learning center in the woods with fun things to touch and learn about (snake's skin, turtle shell, bear and beaver fur, and a buffalo rib!).

We went to the Minnesota Zoo last week and just found the camera with the photos (we thought we lost it but apparently left it at Jessica's sister Emily and Mike's house). Anyway, here are some photos. The first is of a bald eagle, one of many wonderful birds we saw during a bird show. They were flying around our heads and a certain brainy parrot said more than 20 different phrases. Really amazing.

Josh invited Art and I to go wind surfing with him on Lake Calhoun today (Josh bought a cheap one last year and has become pretty good). After Josh went across most of the lake and back I took a turn. I got out to the middle of the lake without falling down (thankfully, since the edge of the lake is saturated with stringy strands of milfoil reaching up to tangle your legs. Anyway, I turned it around but couldn't figure out how to go back. The physics of it was baffling. Eventually another windsurfer came to the rescue and towed me all the way to shore. A real nice fellow!

Today we spent the morning digging up weeds and bricks in the alley. And made a huge, irresistible pile of dark earth. Jess promptly bathed the filthy animals in the sink.

Ben's been buggin' me, and with good reason, because I so rarely write anything for the blog anymore.  I'm just so much busier!  I can't waste my precious naptime on the computer.  And if I do have a few minutes uninterrupted when the kids are awake I feel like I should be eating.  I've barely gained seven pounds since before I was pregnant, which is below the recommended weight gain for a singleton  pregnancy at my stage, let alone twins.  I have so much catching up to do!  I do NOT want to have tiny, NICU babies.  I must eat and sleep and do everything I can to keep them in until they are DONE! Anyway, back to the out-of-utero kids.  I was bummed to be woken from my nap after just an hour by Art's whiny call, "Mamaaaaa!  I need you!"  He had a bloody nose.  That sucks for him.  Sucks for me and Lewis, too, because Art naturally gets scared and keeps asking, more and more urgently, "When is it going to be done?  When is it going to be done?...

Here's a funny voicemail Jessica just left for me (as transcribed by Google Voice): "Hey E, a deadline in if it's me. It's got to call you back. Excuse me. The cats were, or at work district. We had a lovely night are with the wyney most the time because you didn't take a nap today, but otherwise good to turned out alright and and then the voice to the bath. Lots of polls today. Bye bye, isn't it. Let books. Louis. When Lindeman movement for over half an hour. Hey man, It's only go upstairs ones give me one or we reached his parents plan, Hi Kevin, 840 prenatal regular appointment tomorrow and just you may get a check up perm so when you settle in. You know you just remember that it's on the family can't Realty is talking that I'll be up for about 10 15 minutes you're interested and I'll talk to you. Maybe later in the OR or what her love you."

Jessica sometimes teaches music class at Art's preschool. Today Lewis and I joined them and here's a little video from my cell phone. [youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bWGZjVzYAO8&hl=en_US&fs=1&color1=0x3a3a3a&color2=0x999999&w=480&h=385]

Art's preschool teacher Ms. Jen just posted this photo of the school's blog . I love it.

This morning I woke feeling stoked.  Totally mentally prepared to be a mother of FOUR.  Ben even said, as I calmly dealt with Lewis sticking his fingers in the peanut butter and Art's strong desire for... something ... that I was "on FIRE!"  And I was.  I was the super breakfast-making, kid-soothing, playdate-planning mom.  I didn't even feel nauseas!  Until I drank some orange juice with my breakfast.  That was an unfortunate decision. Anyhoo, we are readying the house for the impending challenges.  I have revamped our laundry system by making a central hamper in our linen closet where previously there were drawers.  I've stored every bed's sheets under their respective beds (in  lidded boxes, of course) so there will be no searching for the correct set.  We have the minivan. That's working out great.  Lewis is out of the crib and comfortable in his lower bunk under Art, so that's good, too.  We have added shelving to storage closets so their conten...

Thanks, Ma! here they are: Baby bump s

I'm no mathematician but if I calculate right, here are the chances for various sexes for our twins: 25% two boys 25% two girls 50% one of each But in reality I think jess and I both think chances or 80% 2 boys. Boys boys boys. Jessica just corrected me and says she feels 65% 2 boys. We find out in a couple weeks!

"Why are those geese flying backwards?" Art asked.

Art's friend Henry brought a cool photo viewer thing to school today. Here's Art looking at 3-D dinosaurs.

Today I went with Lewis to music class instead of Jessica. As soon as we walked in he looked away from folks and grabbed my leg. He's so shy! It's actually quite a wonderful feeling to have a little shy body pressed against my leg. Makes me feel like a protector!

Art has always been a particular eater.  Like many kids his age, he does not like his foods to touch, he is very picky about textures (does not like sour cream, peanut or any other nut butter, hummus, or any other smooth, creamy thing like that) and resistant to new meals.  He doesn't even like hamburgers.  Go figure.  But there is a meal he devours in heaping forkfuls that breaks seemingly all of his rules.  Nachos. Our nachos are really more like deconstructed tacos by design.  I figured he would not want everything piled on together so we would bake the chips over refried beans with grated cheese on top and, hopefully, a little bit of beans would make it into his belly by way of the chips.  Offered as accompaniments are chopped lettuce, tomatoes, olives and salsa but I was doubtful he would want to pile those on.  Wrong.  First time we made nachos (out of desperation - I was scraping the bottom of the barrel dinner-wise) he put all the extras on and literally shoveled it in.  ...

Click Here for full screen http://picasaweb.google.com/s/c/bin/slideshow.swf

We're in FA seeing Art and Lew's great grandmother and grandmother. We'll post pix and details when we're back Saturday... --sent from my handheld device--

He really is just super expressive. He seems to laugh and cry especially hard. I love that about him.

Jess went to grocery, I went to grocery, neither knew, and now we have a fridge stuffed with eggs. So funny. As I was taking a photo of this with my cell phone Jessica laughed and said she oughta take a photo of me taking a photo of all the eggs. That would have been funny. Even better, if I had somehow reached around behind her to take a photo of her taking a photo of me taking a photo...

I'm working late and just got this e-mail from Jess. "...I'm going to bed now. 10pm-ish, so don't you worry about getting up early with the kids. I'll get 'em and throw up and make breakfast and all." Yes, you read that right. Nearly every morning. Poor Jessica!

This is the bumper sticker on Jessica's little Toyota Echo we traded in today. I bet it's being scrapped off as I write this by the humorless folks at the car dealership. Just last week I was in the IKEA parking lot and a woman came up and said, "I just wanted to tell you that's the best bumper sticker I've ever seen."

Every once in a while Art will ask Lewis if he wants a hug, and so far I haven't seen Lewis refuse.

Today Art and I biked to Powderhorn park to see the always wonderful and inspiring May Day Parade as Jess and Lew slept. Art loves parades. He wanted to take a nap early today so he could make the parade come faster. As Jessica noted last year he'll just sit quietly and watch everything closely. Later we met up with Jessica and Lew and Art's school friend Evva and her family to watch the obscure Tree of Life Ceremony. "What a beautiful elephant" -Jessica

taking a break. We stopped on the way home to admire some chickens. I would love to have chickens and eat their tasty eggs, but our cat would object I think.