I went to a casino for the first time while we were in Punta del Este. It was a small-stakes place – mostly slots (dull), blackjack (interesting), and roulette (fascinating). In the beginning, I felt a bit claustrophobic and like my every move was being watched and analyzed by the dudes in the suits lurking at every turn.

The first night we each had a budget of $20. We played a bit of roulette, some blackjack, then more roulette. Lost everything, but learned a lot and it was fun, especially the people-watching aspect. We went back the following night with the same budget. Jonathan won back everything we lost spent both nights – and then some- in blackjack. I played roulette.

At one point I saw a young woman put down a chip in the winning number after it had already won. I was the only one at the table who noticed. I waited to see what would happen – it was clear she hadn’t meant to – and I wanted to see what she would do when she realized her mistake. The dealer saw her chip, prepared a large stack of chips, and placed them in front of her. I watched as she slowly realized what happened and she pointed out her own mistake. Veddy, veddy interesting. After that, all the dudes in suits watched her quite closely.

This picture is Jonah in the bassinet on the plane ride home from Montevideo last week. You cannot reserve the bassinet, nor are you guaranteed the plane will even have one (which it didn’t on the way down). And, unless you’re in first/business, the only row you can use it is the bulkhead.  The next picture is a very tired Jonah waiting an hour for our luggage in customs (mechanical failure of some sort, we were told).

A customs officer reprimanded me for taking photos in the customs area and was annoyed by my indifferent shrug. “Yes, officer, I am photographing my son because I forced him to swallow a bag of cocaine before we left. Also, we have several endangered parrots in our luggage because we have the time and energy to care for them as well as two 11-month-old boys on this trip.”

WFMW: Someone asked me recently where we got the preemie clothes  for our boys. Knowing beforehand they would be preemies, I bid on a few lots of preemie clothing on Ebay and got seven gently-used outfits for less than $20, shipping included. But had I not known ahead of time, I would’ve gone to Wal-Mart – it offers a good selection of cute and comfortable preemie outfits. Try to look for kimono-style outfits – they are the easiest to put on and take off of any newborn, especially the tiny ones! (Find other helpful tips here)

Since Benjamin loves to smear liquids around (baby food, his own spit-up, etc.), I had the brilliant idea of stripping the boys down and offering them cooked Cream of Wheat on their booster seat trays out on the patio. It entertained Benjamin for about one minute (Jonah hesitated to even touch it). And then the world’s longest clean-up ensued: hose down the seats, give the boys a shower, let them crawl around naked on the bathroom floor (Jonah is recovering from a nasty diaper rash), clean up someone’s urine off the bathroom floor (not sure whose), dress them, then continue to wipe dried Cream of Wheat bits off them for the rest of the day. Never again. At least until we can use pudding instead – that makes for a tastier clean-up!

Used men’s undershirts make excellent burp cloths since they are soft and absorbent (and God knows how we go through burp cloths around here). I was cutting one of Jonathan’s up the other day and threw all the little bits into the air above the boys, saying, “It’s raining t-shirts! It’s raining t-shirts!” Both gave me the "I hope we're adopted" look. It’s good we’re visiting family soon and I’ll get some help… I may be losing my mind.

In honor of Heidi’s birthday, a photo of two of her favorite boys! (One of Benjamin’s favorite pastimes is undressing women – including Heidi – and thus far Bob has shown remarkable restraint in not beating him up. Thanks Bob!)

An excerpt from Reuters: “Premature babies born before 22 weeks gestation should not be given intensive care treatment to keep them alive…. according to the Nuffield Council on Bioethics. Despite medical advances in prolonging life….the chances of an infant surviving after less than 22 weeks in the womb are very slim and that they often develop severe disabilities.” Though certainly potential quality of life is always a factor, the fellow Mom of twins I met last week (whose daughters were born at 20 weeks and are now perfectly fine teenagers) might beg to differ. You can read the article here: http://today.reuters.com/news/articlenews.aspx?type=healthNews&storyID=2006-11-15T152701Z_01_L15615306_RTRUKOC_0_US-BABIES.xml&WTmodLoc=Home-C5-healthNews-2

"A man never discloses his own character so clearly as when he describes another's." Jean Paul Richter

We will not take a bath!” I’m not a big fan of Veggie Tales, although it is significantly less annoying than Barney, DoodleBops, Teletubbies. I’ve never seen a Veggie Tales movie, but we do have one of the CDs and, of course, Jonah loves it. He loves any music, especially once it becomes familiar.

I was too busy vomiting, then gorging myself, trying to urinate so I wouldn’t have to be re-cathetherized, hallucinating/shaking from the pain meds, pumping every three hours around the clock, and trying to breathe in and out without pain for the few days/weeks after the boys were born ….so…. I did not exactly have a chance to record my NICU experiences. However, someone else did and it’s worth reading: http://rocksinmydryer.typepad.com/shannon/2006/11/the_corrie_stor_2.html

There’s a few differences between her experience and mine, though: her baby was born freakishly large, our boys needed feeding tubes/UV lights for over a week, and I admit to having no desire to take either of my boys home at any time during their stay! Also, Mercy Hospital has a small NICU and preemies with serious treatment needs are taken elsewhere, so there were not any babies who were really at risk of dying there.

I made a carrot cake for the first time Saturday and it was insanely delicious, if I do say so myself! Click here for the recipe (and thank goodness for food processors for carrot-shredding!): http://www.seabirdchronicles.com/cake     I plan on making it again for Thanksgiving.

Finally, Jonah flaps his arms like a bird trying to fly when he gets excited. Benjamin just started doing it yesterday as well. At least, that’s what I thought he was doing. Each time I would greet him with “Hi, Benjamin!” he would Flap, Flap, Flap! But just one arm. Then it dawned on me that he was waving! Benjamin knows how to wave in a contextually appropriate way – wow!