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Our 4 Babies

Defy, Astral, Star and Sunny

Blueberry Snack Time

Astral Defiance - 1 Year Old

Defy Aster - 1 Year Old

12 month old photos

We have toddlers! Two toddlers!! Two healthy beautiful VEGAN toddlers!!! Their immense love of discovery and learning has rejuvenated our fascination with the world and life. Everything is new and amazing to them and getting down on the ground and viewing the world from their level is such a truly inspiring second chance at the most wonderful thing about childhood; ENDLESS POSSIBILITIES.

Astral and Defy turned 1 on March 3rd. We aren’t traditional people. We will never be traditional people. For some traditions like birthday and “holidays” we will do our own version of what we feel is important on those days. At other times will we just act like that “holiday” or whatever doesn’t exist, because honestly it doesn’t for us. But hey, birthdays are GREAT in many ways, they celebrate your birth and there is nothing wrong with that. We do find problems with the commercial aspect of birthdays and other holidays, but as the boys grow older we will teach them that on your birthday you should also spend time helping others and giving of yourself and that is the best gift!

We didn’t have a traditional birthday party for the boys on their actual birthday, but the following weekend my parents threw them a birthday celebration when Lucas’ parents flew in from IL. It was a double set of grandparents extravaganza! We wouldn’t have picked the gender specific decorations or any of the character specific balloons (sometimes grandmothers forget on purpose), but the boys won’t remember any of that stuff. The most important part was both sides of the family coming together to celebrate the birth of these two amazingly bright little boys.

We are abhorred by many because we did not let Astral and Defy tuck into neon frosted, artificially colored, sugar infested pieces of cake. That may have made a cute photo op, but we are not ruining the palate of our 1 year olds for the sake of a photo. These boys eat the best food and are so vibrant and healthy, so I just went with that and made these sweet little fruit face cakes. They were cakes made of all organic fruit: pineapple, mango, blueberries, kiwis, strawberries and raspberries. The boys each enthusiastically ate their entire fruit cake piece by piece (except the pineapple, because it wasn’t ripe enough). They didn’t know the difference and certainly didn’t feel like they were missing out on anything, BECAUSE they weren’t. Only the best for our guys…

The boys are little vegan eating machines. We’ve introduced a bunch of new vegan and organic foods that are listed below. The pediatrician still recommends spacing introductions and holding off on nuts and nut milks. Feeding them is super fun and we love making random mixtures of healthy foods for them. Watching them eat is so special, messy but special nonetheless. Each bite receives such great expression (sometimes good, sometimes bad), their eyes sometimes describe what their little taste buds must be experiencing. They’re still picky and for instance one day will love oven roasted seasoned potatoes with olive oil and then the next day they will chew them up and spit them out in disgust on the floor or try to feed them to the doggies. You just never know, so we just move on, but try again at a later date when they’ll most likely be into that particular food again.

New Foods:

Coconut Milk

Soy Milk

Tempeh

Raspberries

Kiwi

Sprouted Grain Bread

Whole Wheat Seed Bread

Whole Wheat Tortilla

Durum Wheat Semolina Pasta

Quinoa Pasta

Coconut Butter

Spinach

Seasonings/Spices

Kelp

Olive Oil

Orange Juice (only oranges)

Apple Juice (only apples)

Oat Milk

Blueberry Jam

I was reading about identical and fraternal twins and found out that identical twins usually follow right behind the other with milestones and progress at the same speed, while fraternal twins have similarities that are merely comparable to siblings born at different times and tend to have milestones at significantly different times. It is really interesting because from their teeth, to crawling, to walking and to talking these boys have done everything just days after the other. Even their hair grows at the same speed. They sometimes sleep in the same exact position and then move to adjust positions at the same exact time as well. While they don’t look exactly alike their mannerisms and physical characteristics are shockingly identical.

The boys are getting some of their back molars and their gums have been so swollen lately. Last week for this first time since they were born Defy was inconsolable one night because of the teething. I tried everything and nothing worked, he eventually cried himself to sleep in my arms, it was just awful. I hope not to experience this with Astral or Defy ever again. Talk about heart breaking…

At their 1 year well baby check up Astral weighed 24 lbs 4 oz and Defy weighed 23 lbs 12 oz. They are both in the 75th to 90th percentile for height and weight. Everything was perfect. Astral still has the hemangioma on the back of his neck, but it hasn’t gotten any bigger which hopefully means it will begin involution if it already hasn’t. Their next appointment isn’t until they are 15th months.

DnA are really intrigued with books right now. They destroy these board books we get them in no time, they are really rough on them and love breaking the bindings. Though most of their time is spent figuring out the quickest way to destroy these “toddler proof” books they do spend a lot of time looking and pointing at the pictures and "reading" them while they are turned upside down. They have also started coloring with these great non-toxic vegan friendly crayons we found and they are getting pretty good at it. At first they didn’t really get the concept of crayon to paper but now they’re becoming pros. We still have to remind them constantly that the crayons are for drawing and coloring and not for eating.

The boys have learned even more body parts and objects around the house. They are mimicking us and one another. Astral and Defy have watched Lucas every morning open up blinds around the house. As he opens them he looks out the window and animatedly greets the day with “HELLO WORLD”, the boys just love it, so now they both say it ("hehwo wohd")! Astral started saying it first and then a week later Defy started saying it. It is absolutely the sweetest and cutest thing ever! Just hearing the sound of their little voice is just heart melting. They are ready for major exploration this spring and to start making their mark on this wohd…

Our Big 20 Weekers...

19 weeks

18 weeks

17 weeks

16 weeks

15 weeks

Time has just flown by and our sweet little sprouts are 20 weeks old today! At their 4 month well baby check-up they both weighed in at 16 lbs 8 oz and both were the exact same height (26 inches) and even had the same head circumference. AMAZING!!! The pediatrician said that identical stats are very rare even for identical twins. They are in the 75th percentile for weight which means they are larger than 75% of babies. Those stats really mean nothing to us, but so much for the scrawny, malnourished vegan baby theory...

After their 4 month appointment we tried to start them on organic rice cereal, but they did not like it. They didn't want it from the spoon or a bottle with a y-cut nipple. Since they are doing so well the doctor said it wasn't necessary to add it to their diet, so we have given it a rest for now. After their 6 month appointment in September we will begin giving them solids, so that should be very interesting. At 6 months the doctor said I could slowly start introducing soy back to my diet. I could totally live without soy, but Lucas' delicious tofu scramble on a Sunday morning would be nice sometimes.

Astral can roll both back to tummy and tummy to back. The pediatrician said that he was advanced in the rolling from back to tummy department. He has been doing it for over a month now. Defy is rolling tummy to back and attempting to do back to tummy. It is a great new milestone for Astral, but this milestone has a scary aspect to it. As you may now, doctors recommend that babies sleep on their back. When I was a baby they told our parents to put us to sleep on our tummies, when my 14 year old brother and my 13 year old sister were babies they recommended that they sleep on their sides to reduce the risk of SIDS (sudden infant death syndrome). Since the boys were born they had been doing fine on their backs, but now that Astral can choose how he wants to sleep he has decided that his tummy is the most comfortable position. He seems to have total neck and head control and moves his head from side to side with ease, but we are still so paranoid and are constantly checking on him and staring at the video monitor during the night.

Astral and Defy are both laughing out loud now and exercising their vocal cords with coos and glorious screams of joy! We haven't felt any teeth coming up from their gums yet, but they are constantly gnawing on whatever they can get their hands on, including their actual hands. They hold hands and interact more than ever. They love their Exersaucers and standing up with our support. They don't really like their Bumbo seats and seem to be growing out of them already, thankfully they finally enjoy being in their bouncer seats while they watch us in the kitchen. They absolutely love their baths and are generally happy little guys.

Next month we are going to take the boys on their first real road trip. We still aren't comfortable taking them on an airplane, so we've decided to drive. This should be a great adventure. Sometimes they like the car, but most of the times they don't. They seem to be fine if we are moving, but if the car stops it is all over.

The weather has been atrocious, I can't wait for it to get cooler so the boys can stay out for longer periods of time. We went to our first vegan family meet-up last weekend. We had never been to a vegan bbq before so it was very nice to know that every thing to eat was vegan! The boys were able to meet other vegan kiddies. It is very important to us that as they grow up they are around other children who are being raised with the same values.

Our lives totally revolve around these children and we would have it no other way. They enrich our lives and we are excited to show them how to live a compassionate life...

From Newborn to Infant...

Astral and Defy 6/3/2010

Our Big Boys

D&A are now 3 months old, which is very exciting (14 weeks this Wednesday). They officially leave the newborn stage behind for the infant stage. Both Astral and Defy are growing into such animated and joyful little people. I'm on my third week back in the office and every morning I still get a little choked up. I just love those cute little sprouts so much that I can't help it. Thankfully, I can quickly snap out of it when I see them cooing and smiling at their papa. They truly love him and I know they are being well taken care of.

Everything is going well! They both have a little cradle cap, but we're treating it with olive oil and natural shea butter. Honestly, we needlessly worry about the boys, but we know that it is only natural and everything always turns out fine.

The pediatrician says that at 4 months they can start on rice cereal! They have such great head control, which is one of the signs that they are ready. Graduating to spoon feeding will be a super fun milestone. We cannot wait to make them awesome organic baby food. A few months ago we purchased the book "Feeding Your Vegan Infant with Confidence: a Practical Guide from Pre-conception Through Pre-school". It is such a great resource and we totally recommend it. It has a lot of nutritional information and awesome guides on when and how to introduce foods to your baby. Feeding the babies will be such a great topic to blog about. (It also has information on nutrition while breast feeding! )

Pumping at work has been pretty easy, though during the first week a man walked in to empty the trash. I didn't have time to stop him so I kind of just shrieked as he entered. He apologized and quickly left. It was kind of funny after the fact. Also, one day I lost about 3 oz of my liquid gold in transport, by not putting the top on the container properly.

I've been drinking Organic Mother's Milk tea in order to keep up my supply while away from the boys. It seems to be working so far! I cannot wait to walk in the door in the evening and nurse the boys. I never thought I would actually enjoy breast feeding, but the bonding experience is unparalleled. After my early college party years I have always been career focused and basically all my goals revolved around that, but these boys make me feel like I am fulfilling the actual purpose of my entire existence.

I still have about 16 lbs to lose. I haven't started exercising yet, but I plan on getting to that soon! At least the first half of the weight fell off immediately. I'll keep you posted on my progress.

a daddy post...

So I'm going to be a father! A vegan father at that! I have thought about the idea for some time but wasn't sure if I was ready to become a parent. Kenya, on the other hand, has been ready for some time but agreed that we'd wait until the time was right to try.

Before trying to conceive I started thinking about the state of the world today. I don't want our child to believe in fairy tales. I don't want our child to be brought up on lies that soften her or his critical thinking skills. I don't want our child to be ridiculed for being “different”. I don't want our child to ridicule others for being “different”. I don't want our child to be brainwashed by the mainstream media. I don't want our child to be targeted by very intelligent psychologists working for corporations that simply want her or him to mindlessly consume, consume, consume. I don't want our child to face resource shortages, or toxic pollution, or the effects of environmental degradation, each of which are a result of mindless consumption practices and, even more so, the predatory nature of capitalism.

I currently live in a world in which compassion and respect for others beings is stunted from an early age and the exploitation of humans, other animals, and the Earth is condoned and encouraged if one can derive mere pleasure and perceived benefit from it. I live in a world in which wars are accepted as a natural way to peace. I live in a world in which violence is considered to be an acceptable problem-solving tactic. I live in a world where people don't think about the consequences of their actions. I live in a world where people will do just about anything to “belong” and uphold the status quo. I live in a world in which racism, sexism, heterosexism, classism, ableism, and speciesism run rampant. I live in a world in which the majority of people do not have the basic necessities to survive while only a small minority live comfortably as a result of the labor of those who are struggling. I live in a world where all this is seen as “normal” and/or “natural”.

I don't want our child to be taught (or brainwashed), as I was, to believe that some people just aren't as good, or efficient, or capable, or smart, or worthy, etc. as we in the West are and therefore are doomed to live in the horrendous conditions that they live in. I don't want our child to ever deem anyone inferior to her or him, human or nonhuman. Yet, I live in a world in which humans create hierarchies of who is most deserving of our consideration and who is least deserving of our consideration. Every other being on this planet is susceptible to being dominated by us humans, including other humans, simply because we feel “we can” dominate them. In the U.S. Some 12 BILLION land animals (not including aquatic animals) are killed just so that humans can eat them. Around 50 BILLION is the worldwide estimate. Our best justification for this is that we like the taste. We proudly display our domination over other animals in the food we eat, the clothes we wear, and the products we apply to our bodies. Their lives aren't even worth our consideration because they have been deemed so inferior to us simply because they are “not like us”.

I don't want our child to be brought up in THIS kind of world where this mentality is the norm!

But then I got to thinking. How are things ever going to change for the better if there aren't more children being raised and taught to reject the exploitation and oppression of other beings? For me it's clear that the notion that we can exploit “others” for our own perceived gain is at the root of many problems we face today. Therefore, a rejection of the mentality that we humans can do whatever we like to those who are vulnerable simply for our pleasure or perceived benefit is the solution. Veganism is a rejection of that mentality. Veganism, at it's core, means showing compassion and respect to all, especially to the most vulnerable among us.

I want to live in a peaceful world. I don't want to see any war. I would love to see vital resources freed to benefit those in need. I would love to see more people taking a stand against injustices rather than sitting idly by as many struggle to survive. I would love to see more people waking up to the way we are conditioned to over consume, and to the problems our consumption practices cause. I would love to see more people waking up to the way we are conditioned to treat each other and other beings. I desperately want to see a world where humans recognize that other animals have an interest in their own lives and realize that enslaving, torturing, and murdering them is against our moral principles. Unfortunately, it's highly unlikely that I will ever see this kind of world. But maybe, just maybe, through the right, compassionate education, our vegan child will be able to, at very least, catch a glimpse. As Gandhi once said, “We must be the change we wish to see in the world.” Our vegan child will be brought up to challenge to do something considered impossible. Our vegan child will defy standards and reject traditions and societal norms based on exploitation and exclusion. That's the kind of change we wish to see. That's the kind of change we, as a family, will be.