Wednesday, December 10, 2008

Old band videos

Some of my buddies have been digitizing old video of bands I've been in, so I thought I'd link them here. Enjoy - if you can. :-) There are some more on Facebook.com - join and become my friend if (for some strange reason) you want to see them!

Ground covering Harvester of Sorrow at Lundo's house in Benson:


Ground getting frustrated (mostly because of me being a jerk):


Jabberwocky plays Planet Made of Sound at Lee's Liquor Lounge in Minneapolis:


Jabberwocky plays Positive at Lee's Liquor Lounge in Minneapolis:


Jabberwocky plays Voodoo Lady at Lee's Liquor Lounge in Minneapolis:


Jabberwocky plays Emma's Song at Boomers in River Falls, WI:

Thursday, November 13, 2008

Walking on air


This picture was just too perfect...I couldn't resist captioning it!

Tuesday, October 28, 2008

My son has a hard head

This weekend Rohan decided to give me a reverse head butt while I was holding him. He arched his back and smacked me right in the glasses. This hurt, and it also broke the nose piece off my glasses. D'oh! Thankfully, my broken glasses stay on my face, but they don't quite sit right anymore. I'm off to the eye doctor to get an exam (for which I happen to be overdue) and to order new glasses. Hopefully Dina can epoxy my current glasses to get me by until the new ones arrive.

Monday, October 20, 2008

What a weekend

Dina had a Creative Memories retreat this weekend, so I was Mr. Mom from Friday afternoon through Sunday afternoon. Luckily I had some help from my mom, because Caden and Rohan had a lot of trouble sleeping due to teething issues. Caden, in fact, had another tooth come through, which means that both times Dina's been gone for the entire night, one of the twins has had a tooth pop through. Dina's theory is that they'll do anything to get their mama back. :-)

On Saturday my mom watched Caden and Rohan for a while so I could take Griffin to the Shrine Circus in Minneapolis. It was fun! That was his first circus, and the first I've been to in a long, long time. It was hard to get good pictures since it was so dark, but here are some of the elephants:
From Kids


From Kids


The elephants were almost Griffin's favorite part. For him nothing could top the human cannonball, which had a really loud boom and shot a guy pretty darn far through the air into the net. Griffin thought that was just awesome. He was right. :-)

On Sunday I got some cleaning and such done around the house while my mom watched the boys, and in the afternoon Dina came home. Dina's sister Gretchen and her boys came over (Keefe is staying at our place for a couple days) so we all had pizza. The adults also had beer - Bell's Special Double Cream Stout. Tasty!

Speaking of beer, the final event for the evening was bottling my latest batch, Amarillo Pale Ale. A quick sip of the uncarbonated beerjuice revealed lots and lots and lots of tangy hops goodness. This will be a good one. Rob, a friend who is interested in brewing and was around to help brew this batch, helped me bottle. Good God Almighty, it goes so much faster with two people.

Bring on the week!

Griffin's first dentist appointment

Last Tuesday Griffin had his first dentist appointment. He was a little worried beforehand about the vacuum they were going to put in his mouth. When he first got to the appointment he would only talk with his teeth clenched shut. :-) But he watched me have my appointment, and that loosened him up. When it was his turn and he got in the chair, he was great. No hesitation, followed directions very well, and just did a great job overall in a somewhat weird situation. Here's a pic of him in the chair:

From Kids


The sunglasses were to keep the bright overhead light out of his eyes. The assistant really helped make it a positive experience for Griffin. I was pretty proud of my boy. :-)

Monday, October 13, 2008

OH MY GOD THEY'RE MOBILE

Over the weekend, Caden and Rohan started crawling in earnest. Life will never be the same.

Monday, September 29, 2008

Lots of great stuff

It's about time for my monthly blog posting...

Two weekends ago, lots of great times were had. Rhyno's bachelor party was on Saturday, and we went out to the Leinenkugel's brewery in Chippewa Falls, WI. That was pretty cool, more so now that I've been homebrewing and understand a little more of the process. After the tour we made the traditional bachelor party progression: first dinner at a restaurant, then some bar hopping, and then, of course, the library.

The next morning came too early, as mornings after bachelor parties tend to do. I rode back to the cities with Lundo and was back home by about 11 am. Incidentally, it was cool to ride out to Wisconsin and back with Lundo, because I haven't spent much time with him lately, even though he lives something like 400 yards from my house. Anyway, I did some chores at home, and then that night I flew out to San Francisco for Oracle OpenWorld.

OpenWorld, for those who don't know, is Oracle's annual conference for its customers. Employees, like me, can come, too. They essentially take over the area around the Moscone Center in downtown San Francisco. There are hundreds of hour-long sessions on dozens of topics, both technology- and business-related. Long story short, I went to a lot of really good sessions, fell asleep during a couple clunkers, had some fantastic food, drank some good local Anchor Steam beer, and got better sleep than I've gotten in the past 8 months.

Did I mention Rohan and Caden are eight months old now? It's crazy. They'll be crawling soon, and then Dina and I will realize how much we've let the childproofing slip as Griffin's gotten older.

So anyway, I got home on Thursday night, and worked from home Friday. Then on Saturday we went to RyanJ and Meghan's wedding. It was great! Those two are perfect for each other, and Dina and I were happy to be invited to the ceremony and reception. The reception, as I remember it, consisted mostly of whiskey, vodka, and phone-bowling. Good times...

Dina, the boys, and I stayed at the hotel that night, and early the next morning we went to the Minnesota Renaissance Festival. We wanted to get there when it opened, and we did, which is pretty amazing considering how long it takes to get all three kids (and all the stuff associated with them) packed. The Ren Fest is awesome - I've been going for something like fifteen years now, usually more than once a year, and most years I've gone with Dina. Like the total geek I am, I went in costume, and this year Griffin went in costume with me. Dina normally goes costumed as well, but went for practicality this year and went in street clothes to make it easier to deal with Rohan and Caden. It is beyond cool to be able to share the RenFest with Griffin. He fell in love as we went in the front gates; there are a bunch of performers that interact with you right away as you come in. Griffin couldn't get enough of it - he basically spent the whole day talking to random people (both people who work at the fest and those who don't). Who can resist a cute little three-year-old in costume? We made sure to see the Fandazzi Fire Circus, which is organized by our friends Theresa and Chris; it was awesome. Fire rules :-)

After all that, Sunday night was basically an effort of taking care of stuff around the house that really needed to get done, then falling asleep exhausted when the babies allowed for it.

Wow, that was long and rambling. I must be tired. :-)

Monday, August 25, 2008

Weekend 8/23 - 8/24

It was a good weekend. Saturday was spent recovering from our long day at the State Fair and catching up on some house cleaning, laundry, and other domestic activities. At the end of the day we decided we'd try to squeeze in a trip to pick up some necessities at Sam's Club and swing by our favorite swimming beach. It was late, so we were pretty rushed, but we did get our stuff from Sam's and make it to the beach in time for Griffin and I to swim for a half hour before the beach closed. Dina hung out with Caden and Rohan in the minivan. The swim area we go to is the Elm Creek Park swimming pond, a man-made sand bottom pond and beach. The water is chlorinated, but pretty lightly, so you can hardly smell it. After the swim Dina and I took the kids over to the "creative play area," which has the coolest playground structures around...bridges, swings, zip lines, tunnel slides...it's great, and Griffin had lots of fun and got lots of exercise. We stayed until the sun went down, then went home and had a little dinner and got the kids to bed.

Caden and Rohan didn't sleep great; probably because of their teeth coming in. That's nothing new; Dina and I are adjusting to having cruddy sleep at night. It's only temporary...every tooth they get is one tooth closer to them being done.

The next morning I got up and played bass in a church band. Pretty boring music, but it's all the playing I have time to do these days. After I got home Dina had to run off to a Creative Memories event, and my dad came into town. He stayed at our place that night because he had a doctor appointment the next morning. All the kids had fun seeing Grandpa Dice. After Dina came back from her event we all went out to Old Chicago for some yummy pizza and beer goodness (root beer in Griffin's case).

That night after Griffin and my dad went to bed, I bottled the batch of Scottish Light Ale I'd brewed. The oak chips that had been soaking in the beer gave it a very Scotch whisky smell. I'm looking forward to opening one in a couple of weeks to see how the taste comes out. Bottling took FOREVER though, since it was the first time I'd done it on my own, and I was using 12 ounce bottles; the previous time I bottled it was with a few other guys and with 22 ounce bottles, which sped the process up quite a bit. But as Ben says, the reward will be worth the work. Now I need to start thinking about when and what I'm going to brew next! Woot!

The Minnesota State Fair

The day after my blood donating experience, my mom came into town and joined my family in going to the Minnesota State Fair. I love the Fair. I think I only went once as a kid, which is really too bad, because I think I would have had a lot of fun. As it was I basically walked around in wonder at how much of everything there was. Livestock, people, grease...everything in abundance.

Griffin, my three-year-old, had an absolute blast. First of all, he loves spending time with Grandma Lynn. But he loves pretty much everything else about the Fair, too. Highlights for him were the Kidway rides, the huge corn dog (so long he could hardly reach the end), the fish tanks at the DNR building, the newborn animal barn, and the butterfly house.

Caden and Rohan had a pretty good time, too. They love being outside, feeling the wind, and soaking everything in that they see - and there was a lot for them to see! It was pretty warm outside, so for much of the day we had them wearing only their diapers. It is amazing how drawn people are to twin babies wearing diapers! There were countless "awwwwww" comments from people. Grandma Lynn couldn't get her fill of carrying a baby. I'm sure her arms were pretty sore the next day!

We had my mom up for the Fair last year, too, and it's a family tradition I like and want to continue. I love the feeling of creating family traditions for my family. It's very rewarding and fulfilling. I love being a dad!

In Which the Author Donates Blood, and Lives to Tell About It

(Note: prepare for rapid-fire. I've got some blog catching-up to do, and I'm listening to The Sword, which makes me type 150% harder than usual.)

Last Wednesday I gave blood. I've never donated blood before, I've only sold my plasma back when I was a college student. The last time I sold plasma, it was a bit embarrassing; I got light-headed after I was done, and had to sit in a chair for a half hour drinking a ginger ale before I was allowed to leave.

Anyway, my wife is a member of the Champlin Moms Club, and they organized a blood drive. My wife and I showed up for our appointments; we were among the first of the morning. After answering the exhaustive question list and getting my red blood count checked to make sure it was high enough, I was moved to the reclining chair apparatus. The nurse found a vein, tapped into it, and started filling up the blood bag. She was very nice, and even commented about my blood's nice bright red color.

The supervisor there was a small, thin, man of fifty-something years with a thick eastern European accent. That just shouldn't be allowed. I couldn't shake the feeling that he was a vampire. I kept my eyes on him. For a while, anyway.

I remember thinking about the frigid air conditioning, the annoyingly bland music they had playing in the speaker right next to my ear, and the faint sanitized smell in the air.

That's when I lost consciousness.

The next thing I knew, I was waking up...everything was dark and I heard voices saying my name very loudly. I was completely disoriented; I had no idea where I was, how I got there, or what I was doing...and it was scary. Eventually memory returned, and I realized what was going on. Luckily I had warned the staff about my previous plasma experience, just in case, so they were keeping an eye on me. Apparently I was extremely pale and shaking a little before they got me awake again. They had me drink a couple bottles of juice which had such a high sugar content that they immediately gave me nausea. I didn't retch, but my gut certainly didn't feel right.

I ended up taking a sick day from work and sleeping about six hours that day. I assume my body was hard at work replacing the blood that had been taken. I wasn't back to normal until the next morning. I'm glad to know that the pint of blood I gave will do someone good, but from now on the only pints I'll be dealing with are beer going into my body. No more donating blood for me.

Monday, August 18, 2008

Cleaning a Glass Carboy Sucks

I've always been a fan of beer. Well, not always, but since I've been of age. Or possibly slightly before. Anyway, this summer I've started homebrewing. Ben and Ryan have both been brewing for a while, and earlier this summer they lent me some spare equipment and helped me through the process of brewing and bottling my first batch. It was a Copper Ale, and I thoroughly enjoyed the whole process, from the serenity and wonderful aroma of the boil to the rewarding first taste a month later.

About a week ago I borrowed another friend's equipment to brew another batch with Ben and Ryan; this time it's a Light Scottish Ale. Over this weekend I had to crack open the fermenter to add some oak chips, and I decided that before I did so it was time to stop mooching off my friends and buy my own equipment.

I headed over to Midwest Homebrewing Supplies and bought a kit:

The kit contained all the basic supplies for brewing and bottling beer. I also bought some other accessories, like a wort chiller (very useful for quickly cooling down your beer-in-progress before putting it into a fermenter).

Let me just say that Midwest Homebrewing Supplies is an awesome place if you're interested in brewing. There's so much there to look at. I could wander for a long time looking at all the equipment for making beer and wine. I felt like a kid on Christmas when I drove out of that place! If anyone needs gift ideas for me, just head on over to their website.

So now I have joined the ever-growing legion of homebrewers. Should be a fun time! I'll post updates here about what I brew. Too bad for your sake, dear reader, that I can't post taste samples...

If you're not familiar with homebrewing you might be wondering about the title of this post. A glass carboy is that big glass bottle you see in the picture above. I used a borrowed carboy to ferment my Scottish Light Ale. Once I had my own carboy I siphoned the beer from the borrowed one to mine. That went fine, but then I had to clean the stuck-on dead yeast from the inside of the borrowed carboy. Look at the hole at the top of that thing - it's tiny! Cleaning the inside is no easy job. The long L-shaped brush in the picture helps, but it's still no easy task. Even though that part was a pain, I still enjoyed the process. I take that as a sign that this is a good hobby for me!

Wednesday, August 13, 2008

Some recent pics

I had a moment to toss a few photos up

Rohan and Caden having a fun time in the morning



Tribal drumming...at 6 months



Me and my boys!


Monday, July 14, 2008

Pics from the 4th

Grandpa Lee & Grandma Jean



Uncle Guy with Rohan & Caden



Watergun Griffin

4th of July weekend

What's that? 4th of July weekend? Wasn't that something like ten days ago already? Quiet, you...I'm taking baby steps here...

Our 4th of July weekend was great! I was a little worried that it'd be exhausting, and it was, but in a good way.

On Friday morning we packed up the minivan with Caden, Rohan, Griffin, our niece Lizzie, our dog Porter, Dina and myself, and all of our stuff. It was a full load! Luckily my wife is a black belt Tetris master and can pack pretty much anything into pretty much anywhere. We left town around noon for Dina's uncle's place near our hometown of Benson, MN. Every year Dina's mom's side of the family has a gathering there for the 4th, and it's always a ton of fun. Highlights this year included fireworks (some legal, some il-), a huge freaking bonfire, having fun burning clearanced cans of de-icer, a 50-caliber rifle firing tracer rounds, helping the kids catch big fat tadpoles in the pond, squirtgun fights, riding the 4-wheeler, playing with the pet goat one of Dina's uncles brought, lots of grilled meat and beer, and good times had by all. Most people bring tents or campers and camp in the yard, but we decided to sleep at my mom's place in town, figuring it would be easier with the babies. Next year we may camp instead.

So that burned Friday and Saturday. On Sunday we went to my dad's place in town. My grandpa Lee and his wife Jean were going to be in town (they live most of the year in Benson, AZ, but drive a 5th wheel to cooler climates in the summer) so we were going to meet up. We only get to see Lee and Jean every couple of years, so we were excited about that. It eventually turned into a full-fledged family get together at my dad's, including my uncle Wendell and his wife Martha; three of my cousins, Dominique, Jesse, and Alicia, with their families/significant others; grandpa Lee and grandma Jean; my Grandma Fran; and a couple other people that I don't remember. It was great to see everyone. It's a little weird; I'm not all that close to my dad, and because of that I don't see his side of the family that often. However, I have fun on those rare occasions that we do all get together, and I'm glad that they get to see my family and vice-versa.

After spending some time at my dad's we again packed up the van and headed home. Lizzie rode with us again, which is great, because Griffin absolutely adores her and it makes the ride much more smooth (don't get me wrong, we love Lizzie, too!). On the way back, we stopped at our friends Theresa and Chris' house for a quick chat. Their baby girl Morgan is getting big, and is very cute. She's a few weeks older than Caden and Rohan, and I'm sure someday they'll all run around the yard together, getting into all sorts of mischief.

That was pretty much the weekend! I'll post pics if I can get my hands on them. :-)

Friday, June 27, 2008

Update on Big Babies

Caden and Rohan had their five-month doctor appointment today, so I now have official weights. Caden is 17 lbs 14 oz, and Rohan is 19 lbs 12 oz. They're even bigger than I estimated!

The important thing, of course, is that both of them are perfectly healthy and doing great. Woo hoo!

Wednesday, June 25, 2008

Holy Blogging Deficit, Batman!

Has it really been this long since I posted anything? I'd swear the date is wrong on that last post. It couldn't possibly be this bad, right? Sigh...

Well, much has happened in the last 2+ months. The twins are getting big. And I mean big! They're in the 16-17 pound range now, and they're just over 5 months old. Big babies! They're starting to be able to figure out their bodies now; they're able to grasp and gather objects to them. They're still teething, but no teeth have erupted yet.

(As an aside, one of the reasons I haven't blogged is that I keep waiting until I have pictures to post. We've taken lots of pictures, but we don't always move them from camera to computer in a timely fashion, so by the time the pics are available to me, I'll be too busy to blog. I'll try not to use the "I don't have pictures" excuse anymore!)

Griffin had his third birthday on June 11. It's hard to believe that he's been in our family for three years already - wow! With the recent stretch of very nice weather Dina has been hitting the potty training hard with him, and he's doing very well. He's pretty much done with diapers during the day, although he still wears them when he sleeps. That is a BIG RELIEF. Changing diapers on three kids is a chore, and being potty trained frees Griffin up for many activities that he just wouldn't be able to do otherwise.

We had a couple of "kid parties" since I blogged last. One was a "come meet the twins" party (kind of like a post-birth baby shower), we had lots of friends and family show up, and it was a lot of fun. We found a great deal on an inflatable jumping-house for the little kids to jump around in, so that gets set up when kids come over now. We also had a party for Griffin's birthday (two actually - one early playdate party for Griffin's kid friends and one later party for family).

Whew - I really should give more time to each of these things, but there are just too many things to touch on.

My father-in-law helped me build a big cedar playground for Griffin with swingset and slide. It's sweet! And it was great to have his help, because I know as much about building stuff as I do about martial arts - just enough to get myself hurt. He also helped us fix some very crappy wood on our deck, which rules, because that was sorely needed.

I got together with Ben and Ryan and brewed my first batch of beer! (Other than the Vine Park beer I've brewed, which is mostly hands-off, but still cool.) I made some Copper Ale, and I must say, it turned out pretty darn good for a first batch. Stop over and have a taste sometime! Ben and Ryan graciously let me borrow some of their equipment, and walked me through the steps (quoth Ben: "STIR, mofackey!"). Brewing is great - I will definitely be brewing again, and plan to buy my own equipment sometime soon.

Well, out of time for now. Hopefully in the future I'll be posting more often with more content. Once-every-two-month cram posts wasn't really the intent when I started this thing. :-)

Friday, April 18, 2008

Pics from Coon Rapids Dam Park last weekend

I finally put some pics from last weekend up on Flickr. Here you go! Also, if you want an RSS feed of any photo I upload to Flickr, here's the feed URL: http://api.flickr.com/services/feeds/photos_public.gne?id=22696873@N03&lang=en-us&format=rss_200

Me pushing Griffin on his stroller tricycle:



Caden and Rohan in their stroller, with the dam in the background:



Griffin and Dina crashed on the couch after we got home:



Rohan crashed, too. Doesn't he look like an infant Emperor Palpatine?



Here are a few other random cute photos:






(other sizes can be found here: http://www.flickr.com/photos/22696873@N03/)

Monday, April 14, 2008

The sun is alive!

What a great weekend! It started out a little rough as neither Dina nor I got much sleep on Friday night while Dina prepared for her Creative Memories event on Saturday and we both took care of the kids. We think Caden and Rohan are starting to teethe (at three months! give us a break!); it was definitely a long night and early morning.

The actual day went pretty well, though. Dina took off for her all-day event a little after 8:00 a.m., and I was alone with the kids for a couple hours. My mom was coming into town to help take care of the kids, but the roads between her place and ours (she lives about 120 miles from us) were horrible, and her trip took much longer than normal. She arrived around 10:30, though, and it was nice to have her help for the day. Dina came home around lunch time, and then she went back to her event while my mom, the kids, and I took an afternoon trip to run some errands. We met up with Dina at her event to show off the babies for a little while, then went home and hung out until it was time for me to go pick up Dina. Normally we stay up really late when my mom comes over, but that didn't happen this weekend due to Friday being such a bear of a night.

The sun showed its face on Sunday! I had my doubts for a while there...I was really getting into a lack-of-sun-and-warmth funk. Sunday, with its bright sunny sky and decently warm temperature, completely changed that. Dina and I took Griffin, Caden, and Rohan out to the Coon Rapids Dam park. My mom came with and took a quick walk with us, then headed home to make sure she was home before it started getting dark. Dina and I had Caden and Rohan in a double-stroller that you just clip removable carseats into, which is very handy. We brought Griffin's stroller-tricycle (it's a trike that has a handle sticking up from the back that lets an adult push and steer). We walked across the dam, which is always impressive, spent some time at the park's visitor center, then walked to a little playground and let Griffin run off some steam. After some playtime we headed back across the dam and to our minivan to go home.

It was great to get some fresh air and exercise with the whole family! We were pretty pooped out by the time we got home, though - Griffin and Dina collapsed on the couch while Rohan slept in his carseat. Caden and I had some one-on-one hanging-out time, then I put him down to play on his playmat while I dozed a little. I've got some great photos I'll have to post!

Now it's back to work. Mondays are so much easier after having a refreshing Sunday. Here's hoping for many more to come!

Monday, March 31, 2008

Easter weekend

Griffin had fun on Saturday of Easter weekend playing with some water and food coloring in a squirt-bottle while Daddy cleared the snow off the driveway.







He also had lots of fun playing in the ball pit his Aunt Gretchen gave him. He even got Mama and Grandma Lynn to join in the fun!





Rohan got some good quality sleep time in Daddy's arms.



And Caden was showing off his grins and smiles to Grandma Lynn.



Here's Grandma Lynn proudly holding her two newest grandsons, who are all business.



We spent some time playing video games as a family.



On Sunday morning, Griffin got to hunt for Easter eggs and couldn't decide what to play with first from his Easter basket stash:



Later that day we all went over to my uncle Wayne's house and got to see Wayne & Melody and all their kids and grandkids. Griffin was a little shy at first, but he warmed up to all those people after a while. The babies mostly slept. :-)

All in all it was a good Easter weekend!

(larger images available here: http://www.flickr.com/photos/22696873@N03/sets/72157604332882865/)

Monday, March 17, 2008

Whirlwind weekend

The weekend went off as planned. Almost. Saturday morning I called my dad, who was going to show up around noon, and asked him if everything still looked good. His reply? "Yeah, I'm still coming up tomorrow!" Uh...what? It wasn't a big deal, we were able to shuffle things a bit so we could hang out with my dad on Sunday morning, which gave us Saturday morning to just chill around the house.

Saturday evening we took the family to Reuben's place and hung out with a bunch of friends and friends' kids. Seeing my kid(s) play with my friends' kids will probably never stop being weird. It's like looking into a hall of mirrors where you see images of yourself, but smaller, repeating forever into the distance. Anyway, Griffin had an awesome time playing with the kids, and Dina and I had a great time with our friends, too.

Sunday morning my dad came over and saw Caden and Rohan for the first time. They treated him like one of the family, spitting up on him almost immediately. That's a sign of true acceptance right there! That afternoon we went to an indoor Equinox egg hunt (no wait...EASTER egg hunt) that was put on by the local Mothers of Multiples group that Dina recently joined. Eggs, easter bunnies, dozens of families with twins and triplets...with all those signs of fertility a woman could probably get pregnant just breathing the air in there. We met a family that lives close to us that has kids whose ages line up pretty close to our kids' ages; we'll probably be spending more time with them in the future, so that's cool. It's bizarre seeing so many twins and triplets in the same room. I was comforted by the fact that all the other dads there looked just as tired as I did. I'm glad I'm not alone!

And then, of course, Sunday night was D&D night at Ben's. R.I.P., Gary Gygax. The session followed the typical pattern of very little role-playing and a whole lot of hanging out and chatting, which was awesome. I managed to trade a bag of Cheetos for a six pack of Ryan's homebrew Irish stout. That's a win in my book! I left sometime around 11:00 p.m., and had some mundane stuff to do at home before I could go to bed, so this morning is a tired one. Hooray for coffee!!

Friday, March 14, 2008

Where did the last month go?

Since I last posted, it's been a long month of changing diapers, staying up late, making time for Griffin, and staring at babies. I've been back at work, which means my time at home is much, much busier, leaving little time for blogging. But I plan to get back into regular postings!

Dina sent me some great pics today at work. You can see how much bigger these babies are getting! They're looking more and more like little people every day.


Here's Griffin grabbing on to the baby toy, Caden looking fascinated by it, and Rohan looking bored of the whole thing.


And here are Caden and Rohan being very expressive. This is great to see! They're starting to progress beyond the "eat/poop/sleep/repeat" phase. Woo hoo!


This weekend looks to be busy, but fun. Saturday around noon Grandpa Dice (my dad) and Great-grandma Fran (his mom) are coming up to visit for a couple hours. That evening, Dina and I are piling our family into the minivan to trek out to River Falls to Reuben and Carrie's for Halvard's birthday party. There will be a number of other kids and babies there, plus a bunch of the Jabberboard crew as well. Should be a good time! Then on Sunday night I'm heading over to Ben's place to play D&D with a bunch of other D&D nerds, in memoriam of Gary Gygax, the creator of Dungeons and Dragons. I am far more excited for this than I have any right to be. I even bought a brand spankin' new set of dice for the event! And yes, the set includes a d12. I refuse to believe the D&D world has changed at all since I was a teenager.

Saturday, February 9, 2008

What day is it today?

When our twins were born, I took four weeks vacation from work. The interesting thing about having so many days off in a row is that there is no differentiation between weekdays and weekends; this means I usually have no idea what day it is. It'll be a little strange going back to work and knowing what day it is again.

A couple of good pics today. First, we have Griffin playing with his numbers and letters in the tub. He was arranging by color today, which means he already has a better sense of color than I do!

Next we have Griffin stepping into the big brother role, helping Caden keep his pacifier in. We have to keep a close eye on him, but he loves to help!


And finally my favorite - while my lovely wife was taking a well-deserved hot shower, I was in charge of the three boys. They were all piled on me and I tried taking a picture. I couldn't get much of myself in the picture since my arms aren't very long, but the picture of the boys is great.


Ben, Kerry, and the Gwenner came over tonight to meet Caden and Rohan. Griffin had a hard time sharing his toys with Gwen, but eventually warmed up. He even invited Gwen to help feed the kitties - and that's a big thing for Griffin! Ben and Kerry bought some cute Baby Gap outfits for Caden and Rohan, and Ben dropped off a couple homebrews - a stout and a trappist ale. Yum!

Thursday, February 7, 2008

This blog worthless without pics

I should have learned this a long time ago, but pics will make this blog much, much better. So on to the better!

First, a picture from the hospital. The five of us!


And here are the promised "first bath" pics. Here's Caden's bath, catching Caden in a moment of full alertness.


And here's Rohan during his bath, looking around for something to eat - a favorite pastime of his.


Lastly, one of the cutest pictures we've taken of Caden and Rohan yet. I'm working on getting this put in the dictionary under "adorable."

Holy time warp, Batman!

Has it really been so long since I posted? The days are flying by, which I don't expect to stop anytime soon. That's right, my boys will be driving any day now, I'm sure. I completely subscribe to the theory that as one gets older time seems to go faster because each unit of time is relatively smaller to one's realm of experience. It's why when you're five, the time between Christmases seems huge (a fifth of your life!), but when you're thirty, it seems much shorter (it is, relatively).

Anyway, here are some of the things that have been going on the last few days:
  • Caden and Rohan got their first sponge bath. Total cuteness! (Pics coming soon.)
  • Wildly inconsistent sleep. Some nights the boys seem to want to nurse about every half hour. It's tiring for me, since we co-sleep with the babies, but it must be totally draining for my wife.
  • Food, food, food. I think we're finally near the end of all the food people gave us. I have truly never eaten so well!
  • Two of my coworkers had their babies, both on Feb 2nd. Congrats to Greg and Jenn, and to Aaron and Becky!
  • Yesterday Theresa and her New Year baby Morgan visited. Morgan is a doll; such a cutie! I spent the morning with Griffin at a huge indoor playground called Adventure Park. It was awesome, because it's set up so parents can climb around in the tunnels and stuff with their kids. I felt like a big kid myself. The best part about being a parent is how young it makes you feel! (Of course, reality crashed headlong into my body and I feel MUCH older today. Ah, well.)

Thursday, January 31, 2008

One-Hand

Did I mention I'm getting pretty good at typing with one hand? And not for the reasons one might expect from a computer geek.

Delirium

I haven't posted in a couple days, because illness has been touching my family. A few days ago my eldest son was up all night puking. Fun. He didn't really understand what was going on, so he was pretty scared. We went through a lot of bed sheets. He seemed to be better the next day, but then he puked again the next night. And the next night. The next day (yesterday) my wife got it and was letting loose the floodgates as well. I thought maybe I'd avoid it, but, alas, it hit me later that day as well. Luckily the babies were unaffected (so far...eep).

The sucky parts of being toilet-ridden (to borrow a phrase from rhyan/djay) are well-known. The fun part, though, is that if you're sick enough you get to experience a taste of LSD-like hallucination. Yesterday there was one point where I was convinced I was living Space Quest II: Vohaul's Revenge. I had just crashed on the planet Labion, and all around me were wonderful low-res graphics. I was ready to go explore the jungle, but I decided to go back to sleep instead. (If you've never heard of Space Quest II, shame on you. Go here.)


I am pretty much better now, as is the rest of my family, but a part of me is secretly waiting for the next time I get to hallucinate from being sick. You've got to look on the bright side, right?

Monday, January 28, 2008

So I'm a dad of twins...

On January 19, 2008, my twin sons Caden and Rohan were born. I already have a 2-and-a-half year old son Griffin, so just like that my wife and I tripled our kids. WHOA. I've decided that in order to process all this I need to journal some thoughts and experiences, which I figure should be an interesting read in a few years. Probably a good laugh as well!

My twin sons have been around for a little over a week now, so here's a quick unordered list of some thoughts so far:

  • The Births - spiritual and amazing. I was front and present for the births, which were entirely natural and unmedicated with no interventions - not a common occurrence, and almost unheard-of for twin births around here. My wife is an absolutely amazing woman!
  • The Babies - could there be anything more precious? It's quite a different experience from our first, which was amazing in its own right. Now with two little ones around there is an overwhelming number of quiet touching moments, as well as some chaos when both need attending to.
  • Griffin - he's such a great kid! His first words when he saw the babies were, "They're kinda cute." He's having issues with his mother and I having our attention split from him, of course, but he's working through it and I'm sure he will be a fantastic big brother. He's told me more than once that he loves the babies. Awww....
  • Lack of Sleep - this is tough. Keeping up with one baby all night long is enough of a chore. Two is a lot more work. Add to this that Griffin has had a bad cold (he was up all night our first night home) and an upset stomach (he was throwing up all last night) and it gets pretty rough for Dina and I sometimes. Luckily we've had lots of help from friends and family, which leads me to...
  • Generosity - I sincerely cannot thank everyone enough who has helped and continue to help us out with this transition. It's amazing how generous people have been. Coming over to help us with mundane home tasks, spending quality time with Griffin, bringing food - good god, the food...I've never eaten so well, not to mention the various gifts people have given us. It's very humbling and I appreciate all of it very much. Thank you all!
Well, that's all the time I've got for now, but I hope to keep up posting here every couple days or so. Expect over-the-top cuteness, doses of frustration, and probably some wackiness due to sleep deprivation. It'll be a fun ride!