Happy Thanksgiving

Thanksgiving is my favorite holiday, hands down.  I love being with my family without any gift giving/receiving pressure - just enjoying each other's company.  And I love the food.  LOVE. THE. FOOD.  My mom is an incredible cook and has always put together a great Thanksgiving spread - fried turkey (well, my dad does the turkey), cornbread dressing, mac&cheese, spinach gratin, seven-layer salad, chicken&dumplings, sweet potato casserole, cold corn salad, and on and on and on.  She also always goes all out for dessert - pumpkin pie, pecan pie, carrot cake, apple pie.  I am a pretty healthy eater all year long EXCEPT for Thanksgiving (and Christmas).  I give myself a break on those holidays and will literally eat myself into a coma.

But not this year.  Deuce's diet restrictions (and, therefore, my diet restrictions) kept me from eating a single thing that my parents put together for Thanksgiving.  And that was ok - Scott was working this year for Thanksgiving, so I stayed in Mobile w/ the boys instead of going to my parents' house.  That way, my mom didn't have to change her menu and I didn't have to feel miserable looking at all that good food but not being able to eat any of it.  Fortunately, Scott didn't have a single ship all day on Thanksgiving and we ate really well despite the dietary restrictions.  We had sweet potato hash with turkey sausage for breakfast then roast chicken with winter veggies for dinner.  We got the recipe for the roast chicken here and I would recommend it to anyone - super easy and super, super delicious:  http://www.amateurgourmet.com/2010/01/thomas_kellers.html  We will definitely be making this one again. 

Here are some pics from our first Thanksgiving with the boys - we have so much for which to be thankful this year!!

(Scott & Deuce)

 

(Me & Tait)

 

(Deuce)

 

(Tait)

 

(Twinks)

 

(Roast chicken)

Four Months!

The boys were four months old on November 12.  I continue to be amazed at how quickly time is moving!  They are going to be in college in no time.  Scary! 

The boys' four-month doctor appointment was last week.  At their appointment, Deuce weighed in at 13lbs, 1oz and was 24 inches long.  Tait was 14lbs, 8 oz and 25.25 inches long.  Those measurements put Deuce in the 10th percentile for height and the 15th percentile for weight.  Tait was in the 75th percentile for height and the 50th percentile for weight.  Our pediatrician said Deuce looked great and was back on track growth-wise - she said she wasn't concerned about his size at all.  That means this insane diet of mine (still dairy, soy, wheat, and nut free) is working!  Seeing Deuce so happy and healthy b/c of the diet makes it a little easier to forget about all the delicious food I won't be eating over Thanksgiving and Christmas! 

The only other notable news from the doc appointment is that Deuce has to start seeing a physical therapist to treat his torticollis (his head is tilted to one side b/c the muscle that connects his breastbone and collarbone to his skull is too tight due to the way he was positioned (wedged under my ribs!) in utero).  I've been trying to stretch his neck out at home but I haven't been very successful at fixing the problem because he screams bloody murder when you do the stretches.  I'm glad someone other than me will have to do those stretches from now on - listening to him scream (because of something I'm doing to him, no less) is heartbreaking!!

In other news, the boys have found their feet and Tait has gotten his into his mouth.  The boys have also rolled over a few times, but totally on accident - they haven't figured out how to do it purposefully yet.  Oh, and Deuce has started sucking his thumb (argh!!! how do I get him to stop?!?!).  Also, I've moved the boys from sleepers on the side of my bed to the cribs in their nursery.  It was a hard transition for me - I really liked being able to check on them all night long by just sticking my head over the side of my bed.  But they had to make the transition at some point, and I figured four months was as good a time as any.  So far, they are doing great in their cribs.

Here are some recent pictures:

My beautiful (sorry, handsome!) sons:

(Tait)

 

(Tait)

(Deuce)

 

(Deuce)

 

The first (and really only) cold day of the year:

(Tait)

(Deuce)

(Me and Deuce)

Sitting in their big boy chairs:

(Tait)

(Deuce)

The Connecticut Crew.

Scott's family (his dad, brother, and nephew) came to visit last weekend and we had a great time.  They came in from Connecticut and we were worried that they might not be able to make it due to Superstorm Sandy.  Fortunately, they made it intact (aside from two of Bill's ribs, which were broken - and he still made the trip - what a rockstar!).  We ate dinner at the house, hung out at the pool at their hotel, and watched a lot of football.  My boys didn't totally cooperate but they didn't totally not cooperate either (we had some fussy moments but only at the usual times - evenings!).  I know my boys will have a lot of fun playing with their cousin in the future (for now, my guys were a little too small to be much fun to their cousin).  Here's a picture from the weekend with all of the Driscoll boys:

In other news, we took Deuce to see a GI specialist last week.  We got some good news and some bad news.  First, the good news: there is nothing wrong with Deuce other than his sensitivities to dairy, soy, and eggs.  The bad news: he had blood in his stool again, which means I have to cut out the nuts I added back to my diet last week.  I also have to stop eating anything made in facilities that even so much as process dairy or soy (even if there is no dairy or soy in whatever I am eating).  Frustrating, but oh well.  Hopefully Deuce'll be able to tolerate dairy/soy/eggs/nuts soon.  I've got my fingers (and toes and legs and arms . . . ) crossed.  For now, it's back to chicken, sweet potatoes, and avocado . . .

Happy Halloween!

The boys' first Halloween was pretty uneventful.  They were too little to carry around trick-or-treating and we never get any trick-or-treaters at our house, so we didn't even hand out any candy this year.  But we dressed them up anyway - mainly because I wanted some cute pictures.  They were a (red hot) chili pepper and Elvis.  When we bought the costumes, I intended for Tait to be Elvis.  But, when the costumes came in the mail, Tait's head was too big to fit into the Elvis costume.  So Deuce was Elvis instead.  Neither boy was particularly pleased to be dressed up (especially because their mama foolishly waited until about 5pm to try and do it . . . ), but here are a couple of pictures:

In other news, Deuce had an appointment with an allergist last week and we found out that he's not actually allergic to anything.  Yay!  She advised me to stay off dairy/red meat, soy, and eggs, so I'm still not eating those things.  And I'm staying off wheat too, just to be safe.  But I'm so thankful I was able to add fish, corn, and nuts back to my diet.  We've got a GI appointment this week, but I think we've pretty much cured Deuce's tummy troubles.  He weighed in at 12 lbs, 3.5oz last week (very close to double his birth weight!).  That was a 9.5oz weight gain in one week.  Yay!!