I thought it would be fun to get out and have some fun in a kid-friendly environment before my own arrive. The perfect opportunity arose when my friend invited me to join her and her toddler daughter to visit the Phoenix Zoo, for the special Boo at the Zoo event they hold each October. With our (nearly) five-year old niece in tow, I headed to the Zoo to join in on all the fun.

The moment we got there I felt anxiety. It was pure and utter chaos there, from the parking lot to the ticket line, and all throughout the zoo tour. I felt overwhelmed merely by watching moms and dads chase their small ones around. “I’m having two, I’m having two, I’m having two” was all I could think! Well, at least I know Daddy would never send Mommy and twins to the zoo on their own, so I could take comfort in that fact right away.

I did ok, though, all things considered. I kept cool in whatever shade I could find, kept hydrated with a big bottle of cold water, and kept my patience no matter how many times our niece strayed on ahead of us with so much excitement to see the next animal.

The only thing that went wrong was that I lost my balance taking a picture once when I crouched down to get the perfect view, and fell on my butt when I tried to get myself up! A nice man nearby noticed this and immediately offered his hand to me to help me up. I was so embarrassed, but now I know…I can’t do everything I used to anymore!

Lately, there is a new trend for pregnant moms and dads. It is the concept of taking that one last ‘hurrah’ vacation before life changes with the birth of a new baby. This new trend is referred to as the ‘Babymoon’.

Well, with two new babies on the way, you just knew we’d have to take a part in this one. We planned our escape to California, so we could drive there rather than deal with airports and flying. After some research, we settled on visiting Santa Barbara, also known as ‘the American Riviera’. Ironically, we wanted to leave Phoenix to get away to cooler weather but the heat followed us, since the average temperatures were in the 80’s–granted, still cooler than Phoenix but not cool enough when you’re pregnant. I didn’t get to use a lot of what I packed for the brisk weather we expected, but I was lucky enough to buy some new stuff out there to wear right away.

We stayed in Carpinteria, about 20 miles south of Santa Barbara, which is also very quaint and peaceful (just what we were looking for). It was so nice to get away and really not have an agenda. We visited some local sights (including the Mission of Santa Barbara, which was an architectural beauty) and enjoyed the local cuisine in and around Santa Barbara. Most days we were back in our hotel by 8pm, which was fine by me, since we did a lot of walking during the day. Besides, the World Series games were on, so Victor was happy to be back in the room watching them, and they turned out to be quite the sleep inducers for me! Overall, I am glad we took a trip when we did in my pregnancy, because any later would have been too much for me, as I got bigger.

All the great eateries we visited are described in my Food & Wine Diary, at http://www.hdfoodie.blogspot.com/. Also, pictures of this trip will follow soon.

Getting ready for the babies is exciting, except that registering for all their baby gear was not as fun as we had hoped it would be. There are so many choices and decisions to make and, as we are finding out, it wasn’t easy as we thought to find the perfect items for twins. We have finally managed to get our registry lists put together though, after extensive research on the internet and kind advice from in-store salespeople.
The most challenging decisions have been the ones dealing with selecting the stroller, playpen, and whether to register for one or two sets of their daily items — such as onesies, bibs, etc. Another frustrating detail is that many items are only available online at certain retailers, so we actually ended up creating two registries to maximize the selections available in stores.
So, we are happy to announce that the first big step in preparing for our babies is behind us. We can now focus on getting their nursery ready…

You can find our registries online at: BuyBuyBaby and Babies R Us.

Here is the proof, in case you were wondering if we were pulling your leg or joking (as many do, when we share the news)! Have I mentioned that we don’t want to know the sex of the babies? We both think it will be a lot more fun to be surprised when they are born. So, in this case especially it was really nice to find out that the way the doctors keep track of both babies during my checkups is by calling them ‘Baby A’ and ‘Baby B’ — and they will be tracked like that throughout my entire pregnancy, so they will be able to monitor each baby’s growth and progress separately.

The pictures above were really fun. It was really the first time I could see them so clearly, instead of just looking at two little fuzzballs on the screen. I was shocked to see them positioned with their feet towards each other, but my doctor says they will do a whole lot more moving around before I deliver them. Although both of them wriggled around a lot during the ultrasound, Baby B was especially active–kicking and stretching its arms. So cute!

I hope you enjoyed your first glimpse at my little bundles of joy. I am bracing myself for a lot of kicking in the future. These days I just feel a few flutters here and there, so I can imagine how active they’ll both be as they grow bigger in my tummy.