Happy Birthday Dad

Andre, the girls and I went to visit my dad to celebrate his 74th birthday. To celebrate we went to dinner with Uncle Ray and Aunt Donna. They are relatives by marriage--the marriage ended years ago, but the inlaws remained and they are truly wonderful people.

My dad is doing really well. He's a young 74, which surprises me considering the crazy life he's had.

Its been a joy getting to know my parents as an adult. To begin to see them as their friends must see them. I find that I have a new appreciation and a new love for them both. I like talking to them about their lives and hearing the real story--not the phoney baloney stuff you tell your kids when they're little so that they have a good example--but the real stories, the stories that make them interesting, complex, fallable and human.

My dad really has some great stories too. And he never tries to cover up his mistakes or make himself out to be the good guy if he wasn't. And his stories are funny too. Like when he used to drive an ambulance back in the day when ambulances were owned by private funeral homes and the ambulance drivers would fist fight over who got to take the patient, or they would drive a "not yet dead" old person around the block a few times because they'd get paid more by the funeral home than the hospital--that sort of thing.

He's lived a hundred lives in one, been married to four women, had many girlfriends, many careers and traveled all over. He's one of the few people I know who can make friends with anyone and treats them all with genuine kindness--sometimes to a fault.

Anyhow, this time I asked him about his favorite car. He said it was a 1956 Ford Skyliner that he bought in 1956. It was two tone blue. This is a picture of one, but not his--he totaled his "doing something stupid," he said. When he talks about that car you can still see his eyes light up. I wish I could see him as he was then. I'm sure he gave (his mother) poor old Juanita a terrible time.

Emma, Alan and Maisie

Its funny the places that life takes you and the people you meet along the way. I spent a year in England on a study abroad program while I was in college--or "uni" as they would say. I met some of the most amazing, wonderful people and I've been lucky to stay in touch with so many of them.

Well, as luck would have it, one of my very good friends, Emma, married a man from Texas. Isn't that crazy? I mean, sure its a big state, but I never imagined that she'd have ties here. They may even move back one day! He's really awesome too and absolutely perfect for Emma.

Anyhow, they visit family and friends from time to time so we got to meet up with them. They just had a baby girl who is only a few months younger than our girls. Her name is Maisie and she's beautiful. She has the clearest blue eyes and porcelain skin. She's just a doll. It was so nice to catch up with our friends and always feels like no time has passed between us.

Girls First Visit to the Zoo

We took the girls to the zoo. Its a small zoo that's actually an animal sanctuary for animals that were confiscated or retired. They have a few lions and tigers, some other big cats, several monkeys, birds, and lots of goats.

The cool thing is that on each animals cage or fence there is a sign that not only says what kind of animal it is, but also where it came from. One of the big cats was confiscated from a drug dealer, another one was kept as a junkyard guard animal. Its crazy and cruel. The zoo said on their website that they get an average of 200 calls a month asking them to take in new animals.

Of course the girls favorite animals were in the petting zoo area. You can buy food pellets to feed the goats and sheep. Rowan and Evey both laughed when they got to touch a furry goat. It was really cute.

Phoenix Award

Last Saturday, the girls and I went to see their dad honored for saving someone's life. Not too many people can say they've saved someone's life. This was Andre's third time to receive the award. They are all for people who were saved using a defibrillator.

Andre played with the bagpipe band at the ceremony as well.

Happy Valentine's Day

Rowan and Evelyn On The Go from Leigh on Vimeo.

The Girls at 10 months

Well, they'll be 10mths on the 10th, but we went ahead and took their pictures.

Pediatrician Wellness Checkups

The girls had doctor visits today. Rowan weighs 18 pounds 12 ounces and is in the 50% for weight. Evelyn weighs 16.12 ounces and is in the 25% for weight. Rowan is 28 1/4 inches tall (75%) and Evelyn is 27 inches tall (25%).

The doctor said that both girls look to be doing really well. They are growing on schedule and developmentally they are doing well.

They both got a polio vaccine and didn't even flinch. We're following Dr. Sears vaccine schedule so this is their first polio shot.

Playing Hookie

I had court yesterday morning and took the rest of the day off to spend with Andre and the girls at the park. They are growing and changing too fast not to play hookie when the opportunity presents itself. The weather was so beautiful its hard to imagine its winter.

We took the girls to see the ducks, geese and swans first. They were quacking up a storm and the girls really loved it. I wish we had some bread for them. They were kind of feisty--the geese, not the babies--and they apparently attacked some girl who was trying to cross over on some rocks. People were still laughing about it.

We walked around a bit. Went through an exhibit set up about water conservation and ecology. Andre bought me a snow cone and we walked around the place where he proposed to me. It was under an old tree during the Festival of Lights. The tree is just a stump now, which is kind of sad. But its nice thinking about our engagement, and then being at the park very pregnant eating snow cones, and now back there again with our girls--and with yet another snow cone. Ah memories... And it occurred to me that I should have asked for Cotton Candy flavor instead of Coconut--note to self. It also occurred to me how happy I am with my little family.

Back at work today made me appreciate our time together at the park even more. All of my work days tend to run in together. Even the exciting ones. But being in the sunshine, playing in the park, was really zen. Those are the memories when you're sad or blue, or when you're laying in bed at night thinking about your life, you can pull out of your mind and hold in your hand again. That's an important thing to have.

playing

I never could have imagined how much fun it is to play with the girls at this age. I guess I pictured pre-verbal babies to just sit around and play with chunky toys like they do in commercials. Our babies rarely sit around to do anything.
They're playing fairly well with each other. I try to give them time to play together without us and when we're all playing I try to facilitate them playing nicely with each other.

I think their favorite game is attack mom and dad. They speed crawl to us and then climb over us, slobber us with kisses and giggles. I'll grab them and roar which they find hilarious. And Andre likes to zerbert their bellies.

Andre said Rowan stood up on her own today. I think she's going to be walking soon. I'll hold her hands and help her to walk across the floor. Evey too, but she really hates it. She wants to be held instead and complains the whole time she's walking. She's getting a new tooth though and will soon have two vampire teeth like Rowan. They change so much every day.

The girls are eating more grown up food. They haven't quite mastered the art of using utensils, but they are very adapt at giving the dog their food. The babies are the best thing that ever happened to Joey.

Weekend getaway and Superbowl

We went on a mini vacation this past weekend with three other couples. We rented this really wonderful lake house that included two additional cabins. We took the girls and the dogs, enjoyed the nice weather, played lots of games, and cooked great meals. The only downside was that it went by too fast.


They had a fabulous porch swing that the girls and I loved. There are those sweet moments when you're holding your baby and just wishing that time could stand still. This was definitely one of those moments. Rowan was all curled up in my arms rocking, and with every rock her little eyes would get heavier and heavier.


We returned Sunday evening to a Superbowl street party with our neighbors. The kids are so cute and Evey and Rowan have so many friends. This is such a good neighborhood for them grow up in.

Our babies

The girls are so mobile now--and I don't mean in a cellular phone kind of way. Its more of a running around like a crazy person trying to keep up kind of way. And let me tell you, if there is anything even remotely dangerous in the room the girls will find it in less than a micro-second.

But they are so much fun. We just love to play games with them, read to them, and snuggle.

So, last night Rowan and Evelyn were in the bath and let me just say, these girls have lots of toys. The bath is full of baby toys. Is it enough? Of course not. We have two little yellow duckies, and Rowan's favorite is whichever one Evelyn has.

Rowan keeps trying to take the duck away from Evelyn, so I told her, "No, No Rowan, that's Evey's," and as I said this I pointed and wagged my finger at her in a very mommy sort of way. She looked at me, pointed and wagged her finger at me in the exact same way. Andre and I died laughing, it was so funny. Ah kids...what better way to learn about ourselves than to see our reflection (even unflattering ones) repeated in a child.

This evening we moved Evey's crib into the baby room. It had been in the guest room so that the girls could sleep better. Its nice having them sleep in a room together though. They're very close as sisters, little though they may be. That being said, I think I can hear them jabbering back and forth in their cribs.

Mangos

This is Rowan eating a mango today. It wasn't quite as ripe as it could have been, but she loved it. She would take a bite and then squint her eyes and nose and take another bite. She has four teeth now, two on the top and two on the bottom.

Bush's retirement party

We had a little last minute inauguration party to celebrate Obama's new job, and perhaps more importantly, George Bush's retirement.

Here's a picture of Julie and Erin holding Evelyn.

Bath Time

The girls have graduated to the big bath tub. They enjoy playing in the bath together so much. We have quite a few bath toys, but I'm discovering that one can never have too many bath toys. Their favorite is still the little blue plastic bowl the hospital used to give them their first bath.

The weather was so beautiful today that we just had to play outside. Its hard to believe that its suppose to be winter. All the neighbors and their kids were playing outside too. We live in such a great area for kids.

Andre went up to Dallas this weekend. My grandmother left me her player piano when she died and my cousin has been holding onto it for the better part of a decade. My uncle Russel was restoring it when he passed away and so its in pieces. But we're excited to have a piano and a family heirloom for the girls. I believe the player part has been removed, but I've seen places online where you can buy replacement parts. And you can still buy old player music rolls. It will still work as a piano even without the player, which is how my grandmother used to play.

I asked my dad when my grandmother bought it and he said he didn't know. He said it seemed like she had always had it. From a basic online search, I'm thinking its from the 1920s.

I loved that piano and wanted to take piano lessons so badly as a child. We didn't have a piano when I was a kid and couldn't afford the lessons even if we did. I used to convince my friends who were "forced" to take lessons to teach me songs they learned. I still remember 'The First Noel' and surprised Andre when I played it on the girls' Winnie the Pooh push car/piano. ha

Anyhow, it means a lot to me that my grandmother left me the piano. They didn't have many possessions and I know that piano meant a lot to her. She was a school teacher and won an award one year when her students scored the highest reading scores in the district. She realized that people learn best when they use as many of their senses as possible. And so she taught her students to read by singing out of song books as she played the piano.

It'll be great for the girls. Luckily we have a few years to put it together before they'll be ready to play.

Ro-ro, Micken and the joy of sleeping

The girls are doing really great. Their new sleep routine has worked out very well. The first couple of nights they woke up just once or twice and now they seem to be sleeping all the way through. They're ready to go to sleep earlier, but their naps are shorter during the day. Sleeping a full night is the most wonderful feeling in the world. I even managed to win two trials.

Rowan has been very silly lately. Tonight she was dancing to the ABC song from one of her toys. And yesterday she growled at Evelyn when she took something away from her. Here's a picture of her four teeth. She has two in the middle on the bottom, and then her vampire teeth on top.

She's so active and adventurous. The other day she was in the dinning room, I walked into the kitchen to pick up Evelyn...it took half a minute at most...and when I went to get Rowan she had crawled halfway up the stairs. Since then we have been very diligent on making sure the gate is closed leading to the stairs. But its just crazy.

Our house is in this constant state of rearrangement and baby proofing. I think the word "baby proofing" is misleading. "Baby" too often means "little," or "smaller" or "not as strong," as in "baby Tylenol" or "baby clothes," or even just "baby." Its just too easy to think, "what could a baaaaby do? an itty bitsy cutie pie like that? why, they couldn't do a thing." Which I am discovering is very far from true. So instead of "baby proof" what they should call it is "Nearly Impossible Proofing," or perhaps "Get Rid of Everything You Spent So Much Time and Money to Acquire Proofing," or the more simple and still effective "Fort Knox."

The girls are both growing so fast. Now that they are crawling they are looking more and more like little kids and less like little babies. They're both fitting into 12 month old outfits now.
Evey is something else too. I haven't seen her steal very many toys from Rowan, but if Rowan has a bottle--watch out. And it doesn't matter that Evey has her own, oh no, she want's Rowan's bottle too.

Her hair has been growing a lot. She has lots of curls. After a bath her curls will curl up really tight all over her head and she looks like I did when I was little. Then after playing a while her hair will get this wild, crazy, Albert Einstein look.

Sleep Deprivation

There are certain things in life that you can't possibly appreciate until they are gone. Like the memory of being full when you're starving. Sleep is one of those things and for the past nine months we haven't been getting nearly enough. With two babies waking up in the middle of the night, we're getting up four or five times every night. Some nights as soon as we get one baby back to sleep the other starts crying. Those are the rough nights, as are the times I'm getting up at 6am to get ready for court. I've been so tired lately that I feel nauseous all the time and I'm getting bad headaches and I'm nearing rock bottom with my Dr. Pepper addiction.

Now as far as I can tell, there are two main theories you'll see displayed in bookstores on parenting. One is "attachment parenting," and the other is the "parent centered" approach. There are two things you need to know about these styles: the first is that everyone has an opinion and the second is that you're better off discussing the benefits of communism to a room full of trust fund beneficiaries.

Each style has a specific method for getting a baby to sleep--and the spectrum is: letting the baby cry to sleep from birth to sleeping with your parents indefinitely. Most people fall somewhere in between, except for really annoying people who's babies sleep all through the night from the time they were brought home from the hospital--these people are imaginary and don't actually exist.

And so we have decided. Something had to be done. And although we have always been the attachment style type of parents we are now also "ferberizers."

We moved Evelyn's crib into the guest room. Moved her white noise machine (air fliter), gave her a nice nightlight. We gave the girls lavender scented aromatherapy baths, we feed them rice and grains to keep them full throughout the night and kept them on their routine. Andre took the first shift and everything went quite well. The girls only woke up once each and went back to sleep very quickly. He checked on them, then went in again at 5 minutes, then 10 and they fell asleep on their own.

It was awful to hear them cry, even for a moment. I wanted to pick them up and bring them into our bed and snuggle next to them. But this morning I felt really great. I felt like I had slept soundly for the first time--ever. And I felt like I could be a better parent too. Instead of struggling to stay awake as I fed them breakfast, I put on some podcasts, laughed with them, made myself breakfast too, and enjoyed my time with them. And they seemed fine this morning too.

so tonight is my turn and so far so good...both babies are sound asleep in their beds and I am off to mine.

Us as Babies

People are always asking us who the girls look like. I think they look a bit like both of us, a bit like various family members, and a bit that is uniquely just them. But just for laughs, I uploaded a few pictures of Andre as a kid and one of myself.

Happy New Year

This year we spent New Year's at Jaime and Beatriz's house (Andre's cousins). I can't say enough about how much fun we had. First of all, Jaime and Beatriz are awesome and we always have a great time with them. They are intelligent, kind, fun-loving people who have traveled and lived all over and always have interesting things to talk about.

So of course, people like this know other interesting, intelligent, fun-loving people. Several people were from South America so we practiced our Spanish a lot too. I enjoyed talking to everyone I met. There was amazing food as well.

As the night went on they moved furniture around and everyone started dancing--and I mean everyone. It didn't matter if you were four years old or seventy-four, you were dancing and probably knew the words to the song too. They played all types of music: Latin, rap, pop--we even danced to the YMCA.

Here's a clip of Andre dancing; it's pretty dark, but the video was from my digital camera:


New Years Eve from Leigh on Vimeo.


At midnight we drank champagne and ate grapes for good luck. Andre and I called it an early night and left before one. The party was just getting started, but my mom was watching the girls so I didn't want to stay out late.

It has been a great year for us--here's to many more.

Happy New Year everyone!

Xander and the Post Christmas Party

Christmas weekend we drove to Houston to meet up with Andre's dad and stepmom. They were surprised at how much the girls have changed since Thanksgiving. We put the girls on the floor next to each other and showed his parents how they can speed race (crawling). Its very funny.

We spent the night in a nice hotel which I love to do. One of my very first jobs as a teenager was working at the Sheraton so I always find it a treat to stay in a nice hotel. It was nice to see his parents again too even though our time went by fast.

Anyway, the next day we met up with the Houston family clan. Michele and Peter brought their new baby Xander. He is an absolutely gorgeous, good-natured, little boy. Here's a picture of Michele with Xander.

Andrea and Matthew also brought Avery who is the same age as Rowan and Evelyn. Here's a picture of Andre's stepmom Eileen holding her. She's super cute with her little dimples. I'm so glad that the girls have so many cousins. We had a really good visit.

Christmas!!

We celebrated our first Christmas with the girls this year.

We spent Christmas Eve at our friend's Kate and Kevin's house. They had a New Years Eve party for their family and friends. We have known so many of their family members that its always fun to see them. Myles and Bri came into town too.

Christmas morning we woke up early with the girls and went downstairs. We hadn't wrapped the girls' gifts yet, and thought, "they're so little, lets just give them the presents." So as the girls were eating breakfast Andre brought their gifts in from the garage. As soon as they saw them they became very excited, waving their hands around and babbling. We hadn't expected them to understand that they were for them. So we wrapped their gifts and let them open them one at a time. Of course, once wrapped, the paper became so much more interesting than the gift.

I don't think any of us really think about how old we are on a day to day basis. I still feel the way I have always felt. Yet there are moments when it hits you: when you think about the fact that you're paying two mortgages, or professionally responsible for other people, the first time you say, "my kids,"...well, Christmas morning was another such moment. As Andre and I were drinking our cup of tea in our pajamas, videotaping our girls opening presents, fishing wrapping paper out of their mouths, and assembling various toys it struck me just how "mature" we really are. Then Andre thew a wad of wrapping paper at me, hitting me on the side of the head and its all normal again.

The girls got a lot of toys, some new clothes, books...the whole works.They seemed to be interested in everything. Santa got them a little Winnie the Pooh push/ride toy that also has some piano keys. When the rider pushes the keys the little Winnie the Pooh figures dance around. The girls took turns riding their little toy around the living and honking at the dogs.

Rowan loves animals, especially dogs. Every time she sees a dog she gets really excited. Well, we bought the girls this little plastic pull along dog--the kind they've sold since I was a kid--and she was so excited to see it. Hilarious.


That afternoon we went over to my sister's house to celebrate with her and Scott and the kids, my grandmother and mom. The girls opened more great presents and we all played Boccie Ball on Forrest's Wii. It was nice just to be together laughing and playing.