Playing Catchup

I know, I know, it's been a long time since I last blogged. I'll not make any excuses, I'll just try to catch you up on what has been going on.

Let's see...

My sister, Cindy, came out to visit at the end of may, and took a lot of wonderful pictures, most of which are on line at http://eclecta.blogspot.com with a bunch more on her flikr site http://www.flickr.com/photos/noisypond/519274223/ By the time she left, Lisa had serious camera envy, as the little digital camera we have is no match for the behemoth that Cindy lugs around. I feel a little intimidated posting pictures taken on the little camera that could, but I'll try to do it on a regular basis so that no one goes into total baby withdrawal.

Immediately prior to Cindy's arrival, the entire family was sick with a cold. Lisa and Reece got it first, then Lorelai and I got it. Having twins is difficult enough, but having sick twins is a whole different kind of grueling, especially when you aren't functioning at your top level either. It usually takes about a week for me to get over a cold, and this was no exception. Lorelai probably had it the worst though, and we spent a couple of nights trying to keep her nose clear. It wasn't pretty.

Prior to the cold, we had a visit from Lisa's grandmother, Marilyn Spear for a few days, and then we loaded up the family for a trip to the east side of the mountains to Lisa's mother's house. It's about a three hour drive from our house, and since we hadn't done it with the kids before, we tried two different theories:

Option a) Leave first thing in the morning, after the 4:00 AM feeding, and get there before the babies wake up. Sounds nice in theory, but it takes 2 hours to get 2 adults showered and 2 babies fed d ready, and then 10 minutes to get the baby that had a butthole explosion just as you were on the way out the door, out of the car seat, changed, calmed down, and loaded back up. We stopped about halfway there and move Lisa from the front seat to the back between the two car seats to keep crying babies a little happier. Still, with a bout 20 minutes to go, the babies had had enough of the car seats, and were ready to mutiny.

Option b) Leave as the babies are going down for the night, on the theory that they're tired and will fall joyously asleep as soon as the car starts rolling. A couple of points here. If they aren't asleep when you put them in the car, you may want to reconsider. Point 2, if they have finally gone to sleep after an hour of travelling, don't stop for coffee, not even a drive thru Starbucks. It will always take 30 seconds longer than your babies ability to stay asleep without the sound of the tires on the road, and the coffee is never that good.

The time at Lisa's parents was a nice break from the routine at home. There were plenty of extra hands to hold babies, and for the most part, the conversation was a little more involved than the "gooo gooo hah gack" we talk at home most days.

I know most of you are saying "What about the babies?" I'll get to it, really, I will, but I have to recap everything else first.

Last weekend, Lisa and I took the babies to the farmers market in Puyallup. That may sound kind of routine or dull for some people, but this was our first trip out in public with the babies for any extended period of time. Sure, we've walked down to Starbucks, or hauled them to the doctor's office for their checkups, but we spent about an hour just browsing and shopping for ordinary stuff, vegetables, fruit, flowers. This was a major milestone for us, a brief sign, a glimmer of hope that there is life after twins! After the farmer's market, we made a quick trip to Target to get some baby clothes and some new gizmo's, and for the most part, everyone survived that as well, though Reece got a little cranky at the end. Still, for a brief three hour period, we were back out in the world, together, as a family. It was pretty cool.

We've also been taking advantage of the good weather recently to do some work around the house, including installing brick edging around our garden beds in the back yard, and planting a vegetable garden, with Tomatos, Squash, Pumpkins, Strawberries and Marigolds. The vegetable garden is my little project, and it seems to be doing quite well. We have some plans to clean up the rest of the flower beds around the house, but we're trying to do one little project at a time. Last summer, I hit a rock with the lawnmower because of the unfinsihed edges in the back, and the rock smashed a large window in our living room and set us back about $350.00. I can't imagine what it would have been like had we had babies in ther at the time, so it was important for me to get the edging in. I still have a lot more bricks to put in, but if I can do 20-30 a weekend through the summer, I should be done sometime in 2009.

We also, took on a project that had been bugging me for about 2 years. Putting together our wedding album. We had the box of pictures from our wedding sitting on the floor of our spare bedroom, constantly getting in the way. It took me about a week of working an hour or so a night after the kids were put to bed to get it done, but we finally finished it up today, and I can mark it off my to do list. It was kind of nice to look back at our wedding day, and to realize just how beautiful everything was that day, and how much fun it was. It was truly the greatest day of my life.

Anyway, got to take a break now. I'll write about the kids the next chance I get, and post some pictures and videos.