I honestly did know I had it good then

Kiernan walked at 10 months. But until then, he was barely mobile - a little bit of wall walking and that was it.

And then he started walking and people said "watch out!" and we got all this baby proofing stuff ready. And he never got into anything.

"Kiernan, don't touch the books on the bookcase" and he would veer off and do something else. He rarely pulled at cords or lamps. He didn't eat every single thing he saw.

So we stayed lazy, and there was still crap all over the floor all the time, and it wasn't a big deal.

And now we have TWO crawling babies. TWO babies who climb up and pull on things and rip things and pull down down books from book shelves, and eat any little thing they can find. They will wrench things off the walls, they will scootch under chairs to get at wires.

And they divide and conquer. "You go that way Quinn, I'll go over here. She can't stop us both at once!"

Thank GOD we moved and I have my playroom. But I do miss my TV a bit. Good thing I can bring my laptop with me when I am supervising ;) I mean, good thing I can get housework done while they are in the playroom and I am not down on the floor playing with them.

House update: the stove and pancakes

Our last house was fully equipped with gas when we moved in so when we bought appliances we decided we'd get a gas stove, even though I was a bit nervous about the idea. Turned out I would love it so much I wouldn't be able to handle the idea of ever going back to an electric stove.

So when we had to buy all new appliances again this time I knew I wanted a gas stove, even though this house didn't have a gas line in the kitchen (cost a pretty penny to bring it in - WORTH EVERY PENNY!) We ended up buying a pretty basic Kenmore because my needs aren't very complex - I just want to be able to cook with gas! But it turns out this stove has a few nice features that I'm really pleased with.

1) The grills are cast iron instead of the porcelain coated kind that we had on our last stove. Porcelain is prettier... until you accidentally chip it. Then it looks like crap!! Know how I know this? Oh ya, cuz I chipped it tons of times. I can't chip these. They may scratch the bottom of my pots and pans a bit... so... don't examine the bottom of my pots and pans next time you're over, k?

2) The last stove had this little simmer burner in the middle. I didn't use it once. This stove has this long and narrow burner down the center. I wasn't sure I would use that either. Until I opened up the box that I thought had the broiling pan in it only to find a skillet thing. I take off the middle rack on the top of my store and place this baby on it and I can cook straight on the stove!!



Know what this is perfect for???
Pancakes!




This was my first time out so obviously I need to learn the intricacies of the thing... the back apparently doesn't heat quite as hot as the middle.



Tada!!! Pancakes made right on the stovetop. I love it!!



Wow. I need to work on my food presentation skills before breaking out as a star food blogger. Note to self, clean stove better, remove cutlery and extra crappy bits of pancake from the plate before taking a photo.

But they were yummy!! And in case you're ever wondering, vanilla flavoured almond milk in my favourite non-dairy replacement when baking and making pancakes.

House update: the playroom

When I was pregnant with the twins I read a lot of twin blogs, advice articles, discussion groups, etc etc to try and learn about what to expect. One thing I read and heard in multiple places was to have a dedicated room where you could safely leave the babies. And it wasn't an option because our last house has no extra room that could be used for such a purpose - unless it was the basement and I certainly didn't want to spend the whole day in the basement every day.

But our new house. Our big house with lots of room to grow into? It has a nice big living room. And we don't have any living room furniture. So we set up the family room, and it has quickly deteriorated into the same chaos/mess/comfortable room we're used to. And with the living room.... we did this:




The area behind the playroom has a couple of IKEA chairs and a table I want to set up with crayons and activity books. And I am LOVING this room. We've had our first ever playdates since it's been set up and it's so nice to have a big room to let all the kids hang out in!

Wanna come over and play? :)