Category: Uncategorized

Bog blog.

Art, Lewis and I met up with preschool friend Henry and his brother, Benji and mom, Bridget the other day at the Bell Museum of Natural History. Super kid friendly and cheap. Used a library pass to get in free! Here are all four of the kids playing on the simulated bog area, with squishy underfooting.

In the big Touch and Feel room the education person will take out any of the live snakes, bugs or lizards for kids to touch.  We touched a hissing cockroach….

A female tortoise….

And, to Art’s great delight, a real SNAKE!

Follow Art’s Mama

It should be easy.  I’m hard to miss.

According to my mother there was an “audible gasp” as I walked onstage with my fellow altos for our recent concert.  And today I fielded three separate “You look like you’re ready to go any day now” comments during my grocery run.  It’s no wonder that every book I’ve read about raising twins has addressed the issue of strangers’ comments.  Most resources have committed a section, or even small chapter, to the attention twin-pregnant mom draws and then the barrage of comments the babies will draw after they are born.  There are suggested strategies for responding to or even avoiding the attention.  
The books and a couple people we know who have twins have provided some lists to prepare us.  “You look like you’re ready to pop” is really up there.  I heard three versions just today.  And “Do twins run in your family?” is another one.  ‘Gotten that countless number of times already.  Countless.  Apparently I can expect, “Did you use fertility drugs?” and “Do you plan to breast feed?”  The breast feeding one has come up several times, but so far just with people who know me.  I can understand the difficulty wrapping one’s brain around nursing two babies.  After they are born I will apparently hear “Are they twins?!?!” almost constantly and “You sure have you’re hands full!” all the time.  “Are they identical?” is a hot one and I have been asked that many times already, sometimes more than once by the same person.  One book recommended not making eye contact while I am out about with my twin-packed double stroller so as to avoid giving an invitation for curious onlookers.  Another suggestion was to wear one baby and stroll the other siting that “most people don’t even notice the baby you’re wearing” so you avoid oggling there, too.  We’ll see as this road goes along.
I’m actually not bothered by the attention or comments. I like to surprise people when they ASK a question like “When’s your baby due?” I say “They are do in October.” And I’m happy I’m getting really big, it means the babies are growing!

For now I am still very comfortable but also very tired most of the time.  I took a nap this morning and I about to take another.  I’m out of air after climbing a measly flight of stairs and mopping the floor is out of the question.  I practically need a whole ‘nother nap to recover from that activity.  Thank you, Ben, for being so supportive of my near-constant desire to put my feet up and picking up so much slack around the house and with the kids.  Anyone who would like to come over and hang out with Art and Lew while I sleep is totally welcome.  I’ll be gestating.

What Jessica and her sister are doing right now.

They're laughing very hard as they try and reach over their big bellies to hug. Emily is pregnant (due in November) and showing quite a bit. And of course Jessica is already a fairly absurd size. So seeing them hug is funny. "It's only going to get more ridiculous," said Jess as she was bending laughing and hugging her sister. Now they just went into the kitchen to see if they could 'rest' their bellies on the counter.

LOL

This is quite a funny little exchange on Jessica facebook account I wanted to share:

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Jessica Parker Garvin Just W-D 40’d my back door after almost 2 yrs of enduring it squealing. Now, without the squeaky announcement I feel like I’m magically entering through some kind of teleport.

Checking up well!

Yesterday I had a routine ultrasound to check up on the twins and be sure they are growing at even rates and well. My midwife said, “You had a beautiful ultrasound! You couldn’t have asked for a better twin ultrasound.” Both babies are estimated at around 2 lbs and change with “beautiful” hearts, good movement and all their necessary parts. One of them, Twin A, is curled up in my right side with her head down while the other, Twin B, is stretched “transverse” bent at the waist with her body and head across the top of my uterus and legs and feet hanging down over the left side. B took a lovely 3D picture:


Twin B

A was less cooperative for the 3D pics, but the technician got this very nice profile:

Twin A

And here is a picture better displaying their position. Those are Twin B’s feet in A’s face. She kicked her many times while the tech did her measurements. B! Do I have to separate you two?!?!

My Summer Reading List, and a couple funny comments

Our children are trying to drive each other crazy.  I honestly can not leave them alone except under the most special of circumstances.  Unless they are involved in some mutually designed project like rolling things down a 2×4 or painting with water-doused chalk Lewis will be screaming, causing Art to scream and cry, or run away from his brother cackling about his achievements.  It's been exhausting and terrible!   So I am reading "Siblings without Rivalry", apparently a 'classic' in parenting literature and highly recommended by the author of my most recent read, "The Explosive Child".  Oh, and I've also reread "Contact" by Carl Sagan for fun.  But I digress…

So we're dealing with a host of sibling torture about what's "mine", who's first… mostly invoked by Art with a taunting little smile but not always.  Lewis knows how to get Art, too.  He can scream at the top of his lungs which will usually make Art crumble, or he start banging on a drum right next to Art and not stop until a parent has physically removed him.  As my friend Erin, an excellent school teacher, has said about her own kids, "I think they are exploring conflict.  In order to figure out how to deal with conflict they have to create some."  Yep.  We have a lot of conflict lately.
Now on to a couple funny comments from today.
Art:  (coming up to me in a whiny, baby-like voice for a hug, then bumping into my twin-filled belly) Too hard!
Lewis: A baby in a belly, Mama?
Me:  Yep, two babies in my belly!
Lewis:  A baby a gackoo, Mama?
Me:  No, they don't have gackoos?
Lewis: Why, Mama?