Halloween Pictures

The girls got all dressed up for Halloween -- Ilsa as a monkey and Meribel as a penguin. If you click on the picture, you can see what fun they had all day.

A new play mat

J. went to the twin mothers swap meet yesterday and came back with a multi colored play mat for the girls, which is imperverious to their drool. Here's a short clip of them playing on it, although I missed them smacking the weeble wobble penguin. The poor penguin makes a happy sound when they do that, so Meribel particularly loves hitting him.

It's been a warm October out here -- we have not even turned off the A/C yet -- and some of the fall rituals we used to do in Vermont are no longer necessary here.

A trip to the pumpkin patch

The girls went with their grandma to the pumpkin patch yesterday.

They picked out a nice big pumpkin, went for a hay ride, walked through a maze, and also brought home a bag of fall vegetables.

The twins had a great time, and came home tired and ready for a long nap.

If you click on the picture above, you can see the slide show.

Be Gentle

This weekend the girls went to their nonny's, where they played with
Pablo, the dauchshund. At first, we had to tell the dog, 'Be Gentle'.
So he was polite and only licked their feet. But then the girls
started grabbing at him, especially his long ears, and by the end of
playtime, the girls were the ones being warned to 'Be Gentle'.

I guess that's progress.

The picture with the girls should come with sound, so you'll just have
to imagine the monkey shrieking that accompanied it. They have
healthy lungs indeed. Tonight they had their first vegetables --
roasted pureed butternut squash. They liked it, especially the change
in color from their usual goop.

The paella was from the same recipe that has been in J's family since
the Nixon era. I cheated and took a few short cuts, but it was still
quite good, and J's parents enjoyed it. It's also a good excuse to
pull out the ridiculously large pan we make it in, as well as the
pricey saffron spice jar. And the last bottle of a favorite Rioja.