Blog Number 400

Today marks our 400th blog entry. This approximately 53,000 word effort now rivals a medium-sized novel by word count. An average blog takes about an hour to produce. Each story is written, and then edited down to between 100 and 140 words. Writing the blogs isn’t always the hardest part. Each blog generally features a photo or more. A significant amount of time is spent conceiving a photo layout, taking dozens of versions of each photo concept, downloading, photo-shopping and then posting the finished product. We have taken 100 photos in just a few minutes attempting to get one with both twins looking at the camera and smiling. Thank goodness for digital photography. In this first year we have taken over 7,000 photos to yield the 500 or so we’ve published.

A Christmas Tree-mendous Idea

Sandy and I knew that Christmas decorating the house this year was going to be a challenge because we now have four little hands touching everything in the room below 34 inches. As our older home has tall ceilings, we considered placing our Christmas tree high on a table, but this would be inconvenient and limit the space for presents. Baby gate-like fences are sold that go around Christmas trees but are cost prohibitive for this short phase in our twin’s lives. No problem because our brilliant mommy suggested the perfect solution; putting the tree in the entry hall. This works because it’s visible and accessible to the living room, guests can easily be detoured to the side entry door and there’s already a baby gate protecting the area. It’s a solution ideal for looking, but not touching.

Birthday Benchmark Photo – 1 Year

Trey Davey and Benji’s birthday party last Saturday was wonderful. Unfortunately, their one year birth anniversary day was less fun. We went to the pediatrician’s office for a checkup and vaccine shots. Something interesting happened during the weigh in: as we anticipated, the boys’ weight this month was essentially the same as last month, despite their each growing another ½ inch taller. Sandy believes their substantially increased activity level has contributed to their slimming and strengthening. Statistically, they are still very tall for their age with Davey at 32 inches (95 percentile) and 24 lbs 14 oz (86 percentile) and Benji at 31 inches (85 percentile) and 24 lbs 10 oz (83 percentile). These vaccine shots usually zap their energy and cause them to sleep quite a bit, which they did all afternoon.

Tunnel Vision

Grandma and Granddaddy Roe special ordered a nine-foot nylon tunnel for the boy’s birthday. A similar tunnel had been a favorite toy of mommy and Aunt Susan’s. The big blue toy was an immediate hit with the boys, and they attacked it with glee. Seeing them play brought back vivid memories of one year ago today. Sandy was very uncomfortable all day. In retrospect she now realizes she was in labor. Finally we agreed to go to the hospital about 10:00 p.m. Because she was five weeks early, her doctor wanted to stop the labor to allow the babies to grow more before birth, but the boys were having none of that. After fighting with them all night long, everyone agreed to deliver the boys the next morning. The blanket and Cookie Monster came later.

Vote for your Favorite Christmas Movie

Everyone has their favorite Christmas movie. You know yours by heart, but need to watch it again each holiday season to complete your annual yuletide ritual. So what if it’s sappy, your favorite Christmas movie never fails to send your Christmas spirit into full throttle. The movie’s characters have become like family members, who may be more than a little eccentric, but are loveable none-the-less. After a year’s interval, you forget all their past transgressions and look forward to seeing them again. You know they’ll warm your heart, restore your faith in humanity and generally bring joy to the world. Vote in the right-hand column for the Christmas classic you recommend the boys view annually.

Slipping Free

We have such smart boys, and their knowledge grows daily. With their increased mobility, we have introduced them to the game of chase. They adore being pursued and scream with joy as we follow just behind them around the room. Evading capture has become increasingly sophisticated. They learned early on that our pursuit would be temporarily thwarted by them crawling under the dining room table. After observing that we would go around rather than under the table after them, the boys began reversing course causing us to circle the table repeatedly while chasing them. Now they’ve learned that by crawling under the sofa table and through the gap between the couch and fireplace that Mommy’s pursuit can be stopped. Florida deserves a 15 yard penalty for taunting his opponent.

Elmo’s World Joins Ours

Our babysitter’s children are a little jealous, because their mother so often talks about the adventures of Davey and Benji. It’s obvious to everyone who’s met her that Carol Cox loves our twin boys, and they love her. She’s been watching them nearly every weekday morning since they were eight weeks old. She gives them their bath, dresses them for play, feeds them their 10:00 meal and puts them down for their morning nap. Carol reads to them, sings to them and plays games with them. She also introduced them to the world of Sesame Street, which they love. So it was only fitting that she would chose to give them a talking Elmo and Sesame Street answering machine for their birthday. We opened the presents on Monday morning and haven’t stopped playing with them.