Learning the secret handshake

When we first moved to Athens, we were amazed at what a friendly place Athens and our neighborhood is. Our neighbors brought us gifts and had us over for parties within the first week of being here. And everyone introduced themselves and made us feel welcome.

Then we met this one neighbor. Nice enough. We exchanged introductions, then his next question "Do you have children?" We replied, "No." And that was the end of the conversation. We felt a smidge put off, but heck it was just one person and even he was nice enough, just let us know we weren't going to be close.

The last 9 days or so we've been taking the girls out for a walk between their 6pm and 9pm feeding. We walk anywhere from 1 to 1 1/2 hours around the neighborhood with the girls in front carriers. The girls love it and it is good exercise for Mike and me. Since we are out and about more we've been seeing lots of neighbors. We realize newborns are irresistable. You get 2 at once an your are suddenly a complete novelty that everyone must witness. Suddenly folks who we've seen occasionally make a special point to stop and chat us up. And the guy who wouldn't give us, the childless ones, the time of day 1 1/2 years ago. "OH, IT'S THE TWINS!" was his and his wife's exclamations.

So Mike and I realize now, we are officially in the parents club and membership has its priveleges.

On a growth note....Lily 8lb12oz, Addison 8lb11oz

A week on our own

All is well here in Athens. The girls had their Monday morning weigh in. Lily weighs 8 lbs 5 1/2 oz. Addison weighs 8 lbs 2 1/2 oz.

We've been walking with the girls each day for the past 5 days. The weather in Athens has been quite good...highs in the 80s with relatively low humidity. We've been walking them around 7:30p or 8:00p. We had been fighting the girls at that time to take their last nap of the day...they'd cry forever and we'd stress. Finally we wised up and decided to walk them at that time instead of stress. We were quite happy when Lily reached the 8lb mark and could be carried in the Baby Bjorn. Generally the girls are very happy for their 1 to 1 1/2 hour walk. Lily was not so happy towards the end of the walk last night when she'd had a giant poop. Oh, well we can only ask for so much.

Regan and Addison	Kathleen and Lily
Addison floating during her bath	Kathleen and Addison hanging out on the deck
Kathleen and the girls	Kathleen and Regan and the girls
Addison donning her new hat	Hanging out in the pack n play
No idea what Addison is thinking here

Going it alone

So Sunday we bid farewell to the luxury of having extra hands around the house. Kathleen and Regan returned to Dallas after a much appreciated week of help with Lily and Addison.

After dropping Kathleen and Regan at the Columbus airport, the 4 of us went to Babies R Us and bought out the store. Who knew we'd need 3 Diaper Genies? It was a pleasant experience (i.e. no crying although Mike thought about breaking down when he saw the register total!). The 1 1/2 hour drive back to Athens was uneventful. Both girls had bottles on the way and were quite content.

And when we arrived home...Mike and I were on our own. It was a scary thought, but we felt we were up to it. Plenty of other people have survived raising twins. But still scary. We settled in with a little PGA golf on the TV. The girls ate and went to sleep. Then we had a small electrical storm and, as we have come to expect, the electricity went out. Fortunately we had a small battery generator doodad that we could use for the breast pump. And although our electricity goes out frequently, it usually is restored fairly quickly. But really...our first night on our own...do we really need to be without lights?

After about an hour of sitting staring at each other, I realized our neighbor across the street had power. Unusual. Shortly thereafter we went out for a walk with the girls and ran into another near-by neighbor. They also had power. Very suspicious. Mike thought...hmm...the empty lot next to our house was just mowed...maybe the guy mowing ran over the box where our power supply comes in. We looked about at the other houses around us and all had electricity. Closer inspection showed that sure enough the box had been hit and the wires were severed. Unfortunately we were quite sure a single house is less likely to get immediate restoration of electrical service. So wouldn't you know it...not only were we without power on our first night of being alone...but our house was the only one. Comical really.

It ends up that the power company finally arrived on the scene around 10:15 and the power was restored around 10:45. Lily and Addison appear not to have been scarred for life by the experience. And Mike and I are recovering.

5 weeks and counting

We've survived 5 weeks. Fortunately we've had great help in adapting to the new life with 2 babies...Gram for the first 3 1/2 weeks, Grandma for 3 1/2 - 4 1/2 and now Aunt Kathleen and Cousin Reagan for 4 1/2 - 5 1/2. And what happens at 5 1/2? "Game on!" as they say.

Just as a note on growth...On Monday Addison weighed 6lbs 15 1/2oz. Lily weighed 7lbs 8oz.

Since we've been having the babies sleep on their backs...prevent SIDS...and I've always heard about "tummy time" and how important that is, I decided to research when one should start their baby on tummy time. So I found a document posted by the American Pediatricians and it said "From the first day you return from the hospital you should start your baby with tummy time 2 or 3 times a day." Oops. They are scarred for life yet again. Needless to say, we had tummy time during the babies' next wakeful period.

Here are some recent photos.

Grandma and the girls	Addison strikes a cute pose while sleeping on Aunt Kathleen
	Lily - "This is my idea of activity time"
Looks like the dogs (this is Peoopee) are OK with the babies now	Peoopee keeping a watchful eye over the girls during tummy time
Tummy time