Pierce Best Babies

So, they clearly hate cake. They have refused other sweets as well, notably donuts and brownies. They have eaten a little vanilla ice cream, but spit that out the first time they tried it, too. I forced it on them a little when they wouldn't eat birthday cake and I felt like they should have some kind of birthday treat. I know, you think it's bad that I let them eat these things? Me too, except for I only do it knowing full well they won't like it and therefore won't eat it. I don't give them junky things I know they would like, since when they sign "more and please" I'm a sucker and give them what they want. That would be salty things. On the plane to Spokane I let them eat cheese crackers of a couple different kinds and they tried pretzels. Loved it all.

I have to say that I am a little mystified by their lack of a sweet tooth, especially since flavors are supposed to pass through in utero and in breast milk and I eat a ton of sweets. I literally cannot go a day without chocolate of some kind (preferably multiple kinds) and Andrew has joked to more people than is probably appropriate that the babies get a lot of chocolate milk.

What do they like to eat, you ask? Other than the salties that I won't give them...plain starches are a hit (except bread for some reason), any plain meat, CHEESE, and then a TON of fruits and vegetables. The thing I thought was strangest that they liked was frozen bell pepper strips from Trader Joe's. It got stranger, though...


I was cutting an onion for dinner. Kara kept asking me for some. I said, well, you can taste it if you want. She did, and signed more. And kept coming back to taste it. And bit some off and ate it. Anna ate some too. Yuck! And last week Anna walked around with a head of garlic at a friend's house, just chomping away.

I'm not complaining that they like healthy things and things it seems like babies shouldn't like...dietitians love people who love vegetables and fruit and whole grains. I just think it's really weird. It encourages me to eat more fruits and vegetables, though, since I tend to snack on what I'm feeding them. Thanks girls! Keep up the good work of loving strange healthy stuff.

Just another little video. They LOVE hopping. Remember how they used to hop their bunnies? Now they just like to hop. We visited some friends and jumped on their trampoline last week and they loved that, too, of course. They laughed the whole time.

Other things we've been up to lately: we went to the Arch and stuck their tiny toes in the Mississippi...they wanted to go in further, but well, no babies drowning in the river, please! We forgot our camera. Oops! They constantly amaze me with how much they understand. I have to watch what I say so that I don't say one of their favorite trigger words - any food they like, juice, outside, and books are the biggest ones - or else they will place themselves where they need to be to receive said item and persist until I give it to them. We have molars! 1 for K, A's looks really painful and is coming in. We're mostly hanging out until the beach next week.

We finally got the babies a pool, and it rained every day after we got it, so it has become a fixture on our kitchen floor. They love to climb in and play in the pool, and we've been known to eat breakfast or snack sitting in the pool (me feeding the girls, not me and Andrew!). It keeps them a little corraled in the kitchen, which is a helpful thing. Now that it's hot again the pool will have to make its way outside.

These pictures and video are the babies dancing in the pool...pardon my singing and how the videos from our camera are ALWAYS really dark (and upload even darker). Hasn't their dancing improved since last month? Ha - it is more violent at least. They seem to get more excited by more excited, less melodic singing. This is their favorite song - it always quells their protests about getting into the car when I say that we're going to listen to their "little birds" song.

Don't we look mature enough to parent children effectively? haha. Showing my muscle to Peter, Andrew refusing to flex for me and messing around with Stuart taking pictures.

Dad and the grandpas did the decorating, and here are some of the presents.

Hats from Pop - he has a "Pop" hat, so he got Kara and Anna "Snap" and "Crackle." Books and babies.

Hockey sticks (Andrew insisted, to balance out the baby dolls), Little People, and basketball hoop.

Note them holding the Little People...they very much prefer the 3 blonde ones, and in particular the blonde girls, and the mom that drives the car.

Set-up (Kristan with Kara, Andrew with Anna). How old are you, sweeties? One! (Anna still can't do it, she waved.) Dad brings cake.


Cakes and blowing out candles. Don't they look excited? Haha.


Testing the cake. Poking was as far as they got, just about.


Kara did finally stick her face in, which was promising. Anna just watched her.


Trying to make them eat some. Clearly not interested. Andrew even shoved Anna's face in it to make her taste it. :)

Sorry so many pictures. We had to capture the saga. Thanks to Uncle Toot for the photography. We did catch them happy about cake at one point - the point at which Andrew said, "what, do you want a cheerio cake?" - that garnered applause from the girls. Alas, we didn't have one. Maybe next year. I was going to do rice krispie treats instead of cake since I hate for them to have junk food. My mom protested (hence the healthier cake). Maybe they would have liked that, though.

BEFORE. So pretty, huh? We liked them, anyway. My sister Sarah and I designed and made them. I did the beautiful curly letters by mistake on 1 and then had to replicate it on the 2nd. :)

AFTER - can you tell? Kara's is destroyed by my picking it up to feed her some, thinking she maybe just didn't like the frosting. Neither of them ate any. They scraped their tongues and spit it out.

I thought maybe they just didn't like it at the time, since they did have an audience of 9 and were ready to take a nap, so we tried frosting by itself, cake by itself, and both together - for the next 3 days. The best I got was each to eat 2 tiny bits of cake before lunch (the biggest meal of their day, so they were hungry). They didn't ever say "more" like they do if they even remotely like something.

I'm a little insulted. Homemade from scratch - I wanted to start a tradition of always making their cakes from scratch every year. I've made Andrew the scratch cake of his choice for his birthday every year. I know it was good cake, though, so I guess there are worse things for them to dislike. 1. It's the recipe for the cake for a Boston Creme pie that I've made Andrew twice for his bday. 2. Andrew and I ate it after they refused. 3. We cut these little ones out of a bigger cake and Sarah, my Dad and I ate the scraps. 4. My dad had it as his birthday cake (his bday is the 14th) - he tries to be so healthy these days b/c of family history of bad cholesterol and my recipe is low fat, only uses 1 egg yolk, etc. (but don't let that deter you from thinking it tasted good - there were 3 other reasons. ha.)

Anna rides the horse (mine from when I was little), and Kara watches. Kara looks at books, tries to get the horse.


Kara waits a little more, Anna shows her baby how to ride, Kara looks on longingly.


Kara says "finally! yay!" Anna waits for a second and goes for books...

And Kara's off...that was fun - for a second.