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.

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!

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.)
  

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?

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!