The twins went to the hospital on Wednesday for a check up so they were gone most of the day.  Mikayla and I took full advantage of it just being the two of us.  We cleaned, watched a movie and had some fun Mommy/daughter time.  She only complained about the twins not being here first thing in the morning!  We ended up having company over for dinner on Wednesday night (Ben was actually in town trying to take care of some things) and the kids all went to bed late.  That meant they all woke up early on Thursday and for some reason didn’t take good naps.  Needless to say with all the crankiness everyone had early bedtimes!

I made some really delicious banana bread courtesy of a recipe from my good friend Jennifer.  It was delicious and enjoyed by many in the office and hostel. The recipe is below.  That was really the only thing I baked this week because we ran out of butter and it isn’t like there is a grocery store on every corner here!!

The twins are making a lot of progress this week.  Nosipho is crawling efficiently and moving all over the place. She has gone from crawling while dragging one foot behind to crawling the right way.  She is also pulling up on stuff and cruising along the furniture like a mad woman!  She is smiling, laughing and jabbering constantly.  Simo is also becoming very good at mimicking you.  We even caught her the other day soothing her brother when he was upset by patting him on the back like we do.  She has also picked up a few signs along the way.  She now knows eat, more and milk.  Simo is making progress in his own little way.  He is now pushing up (with a little help) while holding on to your hands into a standing position.  This is something that a week ago (and even a few days ago) he refused to do and would hold his legs up so you couldn’t make him stand.  He is laughing and smiling and jabbering along as well.  He will occasionally sign for eat and more.  He is clapping and is still perfectly content to just sit still!  And of course they are both eating like champs.  They eat twice as much food as Mikayla (and poop three or four times as much)!  It is amazing the progress they have made in a week, I can’t wait to see where they are at the end of the month. 

We are getting into a pretty good groove of being a family of five.  Bath time is still a little tricky because everyone wants to be in the bathroom at the same time and if you saw Ben’s video, it really isn’t that big of a space.  We have started letting the twins "cry it out" at night and that is going well.  It takes a little bit longer for them to settle down than it does for Mikayla, but they are getting much better at putting themselves to sleep. 

I also found out that Ben will be in Manzini (the town about 1.5 hours away) for three days next week for a meeting.  I will get a real taste of what it is like to be a mommy of three toddlers then!

I almost forgot, one of the volunteers here talked me into going for a run with her last weekend

Cookie time!  Or as the Swazi’s would say Biscuit time!

Beautiful Nosipho

My baby girl and I

Banana Bread Recipe

Prep time: 5 minutes

• Cook time: 1 hour

Ingredients

• 3 or 4 ripe bananas, smashed
• 1/3 cup melted butter
• 1 cup sugar (can easily reduce to 3/4 cup)
• 1 egg, beaten
• 1 teaspoon vanilla
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• Pinch of salt
• 1 1/2 cups of all-purpose flour

Method

No need for a mixer for this recipe. Preheat the oven to 350°F (175°C). With a wooden spoon, mix butter into the mashed bananas in a large mixing bowl. Mix in the sugar, egg, and vanilla. Sprinkle the baking soda and salt over the mixture and mix in. Add the flour last, mix. Pour mixture into a buttered 4×8 inch loaf pan. Bake for 1 hour. Cool on a rack. Remove from pan and slice to serve.