Monday, August 19, 2013

26 Weeks with Twins and Nooooow I'm Feeling It

It happened a few days ago: I suddenly (seriously, overnight) started to feel all this extra weight. I don't feel mentally slower than I did a month ago, but physically I am FEELING it. I guess a 100% uptick in blood volume plus dozens of pounds all concentrated (for the most part) in the belly PLUS a majority of the day spent on my feet all adds up to feeling like a dad in a '50s sitcom. My dogs are barking. I gotta take a load off. Be a dear and bring me my pipe. Okay, I don't say that last one.

I never used to understand what the big deal was about being on your feet all day. Trust me, I now understand. If you're looking for me, I'll be over here understanding for the next 10-14 weeks!

Friday, August 16, 2013

Philly Noons Visit!

 Uncle John had a conference in Boston a few weeks ago, so Aunt Jean brought her own three plus a bonus cousin: Jenna! Uncle John was super busy but managed to come for dinner the first night:

This was a 4.5-years-later retake of the original Brothers and their (Firstborn) Boys photo:

Emma and Bridget (who is about nine months younger than her cousin) were very cute together. Emma kept calling her "Bridgie."




Megan and Michael also got along great with both Will and Finn:



The highlight of their visit was our trip to the zoo; everyone had a great time.



Jenna was as wonderful and helpful as ever--she was born with the affable, great-with-kids gene (and she gets more beautiful by the hour):







Bridget loved the zoo as much as everyone else. The only time she cried was when the carousel ride was over--the horror!

Thursday, August 15, 2013

Ohio: The Fun Begins

Considering previous pool adventures and her love of bathtub swimming, it was surprising to see Bridget acting so tentative in the (literally 90-degree) pool. Still pretty cute to watch her veg on a raft, though.


My mom celebrated her birthday shortly after our arrival.

The effects of our wild journey didn't set in until a full 24 hours later, but then it took days for Bridget to recover...poor baby. 
The boys, on the other hand, exploded off the blocks.



Here was our whole-extended-family cookout:







My cousin Julie with baby Bryn
Her husband Mike and their son Eli

All that swimming and eating sure took its toll:


But Bridget finally got her mojo back on about day 5:


I finally got to meet my good friend Erin's baby Frank, who turns one in just a few days. He was even cuter than this picture indicates:



Here are the boys in action, having quickly completed their one-day course of what I call Ohio Boot Camp with Finn swimming without help in the deep end for the first time (like Will did last summer).


Meanwhile Will is perfecting his crawl stroke:


It was hard to leave Ohio when I was little and every day felt like a party with so many cousins around; now it's hard to leave because my kids could spend all summer in the pool and with their grandparents, and a week hardly feels sufficient.

Of course, we also miss the sight of my grandmother swinging open the back door to greet us when we get there. The surprise of her absence has ebbed a bit two years later, but the strangeness will never go away entirely.

We left making theoretical plans for how we'd get there next summer with five kids under six, but we all quickly resigned ourselves to a wait-and-see mentality. And thus ended our final family trip as a quintet. (I'm not supposed to go any substantial distance from home now that I'm past the 24-week mark.) It was a great one.

Saturday, August 10, 2013

Planes, Buses and Automobiles!

 We left our house to pick up Mamp at 11:15 a.m. Checking suitcases and car seats went without a hitch, and the security line was manageable.
 And then we waited. And waited. Delays led to updates announcing more delays. Bridget did this:

When we finally got on the plane, our antsy girl did not understand why she was confined to her dad's lap. We coaxed good behavior out of her with her first ever Twizzler (and then her second and maybe her third).
 The boys switched seat configurations a few times, and my favorite was looking back to see my little adventurers all by themselves in a row. (Our airplane was a tiny model with two seats on one side of the aisle and one on the other.)
 We arrived in Cleveland in the late evening hours and had to take a shuttle bus to our rental car:


And then we drove an hour west; we showed up at my grandmother's house a full twelve hours after we left our own. "This is why we have to maintain a one-to-one ratio for air travel," I muttered to Dave. The kids were so incredibly well-behaved, but I would have been twenty times more anxious if there weren't two other adults to entertain them--especially since I no longer have a lap for anyone to occupy nor the energy to explore the airport with them for hours.

Next up will be a post about all the fun we had once we actually got there!



Saturday, August 3, 2013

Party of Five

 Will is becoming quite the artist. His favorite is "drawing tractor trailers for Dad!" but he's branched out into houses, roads, pools and people lately (possibly inspired by our renovation project).

Finny went to Vacation Bible Camp with his beloved friend Henry; here are his siblings waiting to watch him perform on the last day.


Here are some pictures of Bridget looking devious and Cindy-Lou-Who-ish and very cute at just about sixteen months:


And this is our July 4th celebration at our friends the McGinns' house. We spent a while at their very successful homemade waterpark!





The night before, Dave took Will for the second year and Finn for the first time ever to the town fireworks show. They were so excited.

It was a great start to our last summer as a family of five.