Super Fun Karine Birthday Weekend 2011!

We did a ton of super fun things this weekend. It was Karine's birthday. The first thing we did was spend a little time in a forest where all the trees are labeled. (That's my kind of forest!) After that we had some great food at restaurant called Table Mesa on the square in Bentonville. The do a Thai-curry burrito there that is serious business.

On Saturday we went golfing with Papa and Zeke. It was a great foursome.

After, we went to Nana and Papa's for real-deal chocolate cake and ice-cream. Nana made the cake from scratch. We met up with the twins there and enjoyed a nice afternoon in the backyard.

Blanket Game

You can have a lot of fun with a blanket. Zeke and I have been playing a game lately called Garage. The blanket becomes the garage door. It goes up. It goes down. Fun game!

Here's what the twins do with the same blanket. Fun to watch them entertain each other.

Twin Talk

6 Months Old

My sweet babies are already half a year old. I can't believe it. In just 6 months, these babies have become such a special part of our lives. It is hard to remember what life was like before them. We find it easy to compare the two (and their older brother) when they are so close in age, but there are also things that are very different about them at six months.

ZADIE

At six months, our darling baby girl Zadie Anne:
-weighs about half a ton and is really long (actually, probably closer to 20 lbs, but I'll get back to you on that after our doctor visit next week)
-loves to laugh. She giggles at her brothers, at toys, and strangers with her contagious smile.
-eats rice cereal aggressively. She usually ends up with half of it on her face, but thouroughly enjoys the process.
-can't stand being left out of the action. She'll go from happiest girl in the world to devastated if she feels left behind.
-falls asleep every night by rubbing her face with her hands and her special blanket.
-loves to sleep late in the morning- an hour later than the rest of the family!
-hates the pacifier.
-will roll to her side when highly motivated, but prefers to lay around on the floor and let the action come to her.
-always steals the "crunchy" books from Ezra
-does stomach crunches and lifts her head up to see what's going on while on her back. Abs of steel (covered by a fluffy layer of chub)
-loves to suck her big toe!

EZRA

At six months, our adorable Ezra Allan:
-is incredibly cheerful and smiley by 6:30am every day!
-likes to "talk" and make gurgully baby sounds like "nnn naa" and "gaa" and "daa"
-rolls and scoots all over the floor to find toys.
-appears to be entirely sinewy muscle and brut strength
-adores Zeke and prefers playing with big brother's cars and trains to other baby toys.
-uses his muscular legs to stand up in the exersaucer, jumperoo, johnny jump-up, and with daddy's help.
-digs the rice cereal, and is excited to move on to more exciting foods soon
-puts everything he finds directly into his mouth
-loves family walks- especially being strapped to Daddy's chest in the Ergo carrier.
-weighs less than his sister, but is still getting pretty heavy! (again will update later)
-has a nice head of darkish hair beginning to make a comeback after disappearing for a few months.


And in case you're wondering... BOTH babies:
- are still breastfeeding- and thriving! We supplement with about 4 oz of formula each per day, and are beginning to introduce some solid foods.
- started wearing cloth diapers last week. So far so good!
-love sleeping close to mom and dad. We keep a crib next to the bed and throughout the night, there is often one baby in the crib and one nursing/sleeping with us in bed. This arrangement works really well for our family, allowing mom and dad to get 8 full hours of sleep each night.

Having twins has been surprisingly easier than we anticipated. While there are definitely moments of insanity around the house, for for the most part, the babies are incredibly happy, easy-going, and patient. We are so blessed.

TWO Babies

Sometimes I get a big kick out of the fact that we have twins. Whenever they're dressed alike (which doesn't happen too often), Zeke exclaims "TWO Babies!" Here they are in some matching pjs and their little Sophie Giraffes. TWO cute!

(Zadie is on the left and Ezra is on the right)

The Nursery

We were up late last night putting the finishing touches on the nursery. I sucked the dust out of this room's every crevice, then went to town with a bleach rag and a bucket of Spic & Span. I've cleaned before, but this was like instinctual cleaning, primal cleaning. Karine finished sewing the bumpers around midnight. She sewed the bumbers, curtains, changing table skirt, crib sheet, and crib skirt in a forty-eight hour frenzy of hormone-induced craft euphoria.

Then we turned out the lights and sat on the couch and waited. Nothing happened, so we went to bed.

Twinfants!!!

Don't get too excited. I'm just writing the word here because I think it's a good one. That's what we'll have pretty soon: twinfants. It's fun to write and say. Twinfants, twinfants, twinfants!

Now we just need to find ourselves some names.

False Alarm

Last Saturday things got pretty wild around the ranch here in Omaha. I was set to play my fourth gig of the week and Karine was having contractions, like seven minutes apart, and Zeke had green snot streaming from his nose and he was not happy. To make matters worse, the Nebraska Cornhuskers were in the middle of breaking like two million hearts by dropping four guaranteed touchdown passes. Like, the ball is in your hands. Squeeze it. Touchdown.

We called the doctor's office and spoke with a nurse. She was nice. Very competent. She told us to monitor the contractions and hang in there and come on in if they didn't go away. The crucial question for us was this: would they try to stop the labor process if we went in? Would they give Karine the shot like they did last time, the one that made her heart beat fast? No, they would not, she said. It was go time. Which meant that we were in the early, early stages of some normal-type birth scenario, where you wait until the contractions are painful and like four minutes apart, then you head on in with your little bag full of slippers and Nerds candies and stuff.

So, I went ahead and went to my gig. With Karine's blessing. We remained in constant contact via cellular telephone, and I was ready to split in a jiffy should the need arise. It was pretty fun. How 'ya doing? -- the people at the bar asked. Pretty good, I said, I think my wife is going into labor with twins. That was pretty fun. I had some nice conversations start out that way. My musical partner was very excited, proud even. And then the Trans-Siberian Orchestra came into the restaurant. And they liked the music and left us an outrageous tip. So I'm glad that I went.

And then I got home and the contractions subsided and now we're just waiting patiently. Mostly.