Back to Work...

Kristi went back to work...

sort of? Kristi started back to the UofA last week, once all the tears and anxiety passed, it has been miserable... The Grandmas stepped in for daycare, now others can share in the sheer joy and overwhelming chore of these two little (beautiful) monsters.


but the boys are living it up!




Grandma Emily bought the boys half the bookstore, we now enjoy at least an hour a day of storytime - Dr.. Seuss is amazing - seriously, those books are classics - we learned about Deforestation with "The Lorax", we learned how awful cats are as pets in "The Cat in the Hat", we learned that ninety-seven words rhyme with "blue" in "One Fish, Two Fish, Red Fish, Blue Fish" and then we found out the pitfalls of feeding fish too much food in "Fish out of Water". Powerful life lessons.



Andy was in charge for one full day, and this is what happened:
Innocent and cute in the picture, but Ethan is now obsessed with the shiny box that projects images. he watches while he eats, he watches while we change the diaper, he watches even if it is not on, he knows bright colors come from the TV, its almost like he waits for them... needless to say, we have gone on a TV diet - Ethan's favorite shows are Project Runway, Blue's Clues, Sponge Bob, Big Brother and The Daily Show - we had hoped he would like NFL Live and Sportscenter - no dice. Our little couch commando scares us, to say the least.

Its sad but true, Andy loves to where the Bjorn, poor guy used to make fun of guys who wore the Bjorn, he might wear it to work if Kristi let him.

The boys are getting so big now, we have started to overwhelm them with bouncers and jumpers - nothing like setting a child within 26 neon colored, flashing lights, music, sound making devices. Ethan seemed to enjoy the toys much more than Shawn.


Poor Shawn is still battling his huge head, but its getting better. People wonder how Andy holds his head up, perhaps it takes time to adjust...

A day in the life......

The twins are 3 months old now, and Kristi has been moping around and pouting all week. She is depressed that next week she will return to work (3 days a week).

In order to commemorate her time with the boys, we will be doing a "day in the life" of Shawn and Ethan, toying with their mom, her patience and sanity...

How could this face cause any trouble?...

(oh my god, we are in trouble with this face)




5am
The boys usually wake, eat and then fall back to sleep within 20 minutes. Occasionally, Kristi is too tired to put them back in their cribs so they get to hang out in Mom and Dad's bed for awhile. As you will notice, after 5am, the bed gets a bit crowded. If the space left in the bed for Dad were represented by a pie chart for what to do with $1M, Andy would get the "donate to charity" piece. He and the dog are fighting for 4th place in the house right now... at least the dog has a bed on the floor.

6am
With Andy pouting and banging around getting ready for work, its playtime! They are in great moods and usually just hang out and talk to Frank and smile at him while Kristi sits there like a zombie wishing they would just go back to sleep for at least one more hour.

At this point our day goes one of two ways. As illustrated above, jekyl's way or Hyde's way - Ethan "crazy, high strung, uptight" on the left or Shawn "the water balloon" on the right. Shawn's way: the easy way, as they play for a few hours then BOTH go back to sleep, or Ethan's way as they refuse sleep so they don't miss anything, and insists on staying up. This would be fine, but they eventually get too tired and then are too crabby and still refuse to sleep!! Ironic they have our personalities already, it will be interesting to watch Ethan give Mom a taste of her own medicine. The entire Perkins/Turner family will laugh till they pee as Ethan develops the "but i has to" attitude, the battle of will has already begun. and they are only 3 months old...

8am
Breakfast Part II, and Kristi feeds them on her own with one in her lap and the other propped up on a pillow. Sometimes Grandma Phyllis comes by to help and then there is one person for each baby.
After eating the boys get dressed for the day then go hang out with Frank, and Kristi reads a book or two - bristo pays more attention to storytime than they do, but we are determined to fill those giant heads with knowledge.

Here they are listening to Mommy read them a book.

After story time, we go and do the hard work. Tummy time.....

Once they are done stretching their neck muscles they hang out with Kristi and talk some more.




Then it is off to the playmat
11am
At this point, they are usually tired and fussy and ready to go down for a nap. Shawn is our little egg timer, he is ready to eat every 3 hours, so in order to ensure at least 1 hour of sleep for them and breathing room for mom, we taper the stimulation and rely on our trusty swings, the only place they will sleep during the day.
We repeat this same cycle every 3 hours....Eventually, our favorite part of the day rolls around--Dad comes home.

Mom and Dad usually try to eat at some point, some nights we do, some nights we don't, and then we start the "bedtime routine". We give the boys their baths, dry em off, wrap em up, and give them a bottle then it is off to bed
And in closing, a public service announcement for all of those considering owning a restaurant. Be sure to have changing tables in the restrooms, if not, families will be forced to change their children's explosive diapers in your booths. And for our Tucson friends and families, just know that if you go to the Paradise Cafe on University, there is a good chance that you could be sitting in a pee soaked booth thanks to Ethan!!

The Ups and Downs of Twinfancy--Part 1

This week has been a bit rough, a relapse if you will. Both boys have reflux and we had some long days this week with babies who just didn't feel good. What that means is that they cried all day and could not be consoled. This would be fine if there was only one baby to take care of, but when there are two, it is nearly impossible to maintain your sanity.

The only spin we can put on this week is the mind-blowing quantity and audible range of FARTING that comes from two babies with reflux (either its reflux or their mommies gene pool...). WOW - every stretch, twist, sneeze, even sleeping provides sweet sounding horns from their tushes. Aside from the unending humor and laughs, they really seem relieved with each thundering rip.

Kristi has ramped up from 2 hours of sleep per night to a mind blowing 4 hours EACH NIGHT! Unfortunately, none of these hours are consecutive - Andy has assumed the role of transporter - a mindless task (thank god) as he lumbers out of bed 7-8 painful minutes after one baby begins crying, picks up the baby who is crying (hopefully - you would be surprised that this task is blundered from time to time) and takes out to the living room for a diaper change. Once changed, said child is ready for feeding and the sleeping ogre wanders back to the bedroom to sleep until the next baby begins to stir - and then the process starts over and the babies are switched out and put back to bed. In a given night, Andy sleeps (6) 45 minute intervals, while poor mom sits on the couch hooked up to a pump or a baby, accruing a whopping 4 hours of sleep between 9pm and 7 am. twins are amazing, but very very difficult.

Meanwhile, the boys have made a new friend. As a matter of fact, other than each other, he is clearly their "best friend". They could spend hours staring, smiling, and kicking their little legs with him. His name is Frank, and we have come to LOVE Frank, and Frank doesnt judge them for farting.

The boys staring at Frank



A few smiles for their new friend



And here he is......


Yes, it is Frank the fan. Who would have guessed that a ceiling fan could provide so much enjoyment. Frank babysits during showers, lunch time, mental breakdowns even weekends. Even though we could realistically get away with a $59 fan entertaining our children for 4 hours, we have yet to take full advantage. In our biased opinion, they are smart boys, but even we take a step back and wonder if any of the lights are on in those little (giant) heads - because they could really stare at that damn fan for hours.

When we were able to pry the boys away from Frank they enjoyed watching some TV with Uncle David - the boys are too young to evaluate the quality of programing provided by xena warrior princess - but it was a cute photo - how is that show still on?
Ethan gave Andy's sunglasses a try and practiced his tummy time skills, he finds all this hilarious

While Ethan was having fun and fooling around, Shawn turned to Jesus and asked for a smaller head.
And one last picture of the boys together, I couldn't resist, they are just too cute.

8 weeks already

The misfortune of inheriting the Hesse head - in four parts:
head, getting, heavy...
oh s%&@ - i cant hold it up any longer!
no matter how bottom heavy shawn gets, he may always bear the burden of a ginormous head.


What are you looking at?





it is official, we have proven that 2 hours of sleep each night over 5 weeks severely deteriorates your health, patience, social skills and will to live. We have gotten to the point where we have both agreed that anything muttered or shouted between the hours of 2am - 4am is forgotten by 6am - its the only way we can make it through the first 6 months... please tell me they start to sleep longer than 2 hours at some point before 6 months.

The boys in their "Chick Magnet" shirts - yes Grandma Phyl, thats a "chick" not a duck. "Duck-Magnet" does not make sense, even in bizarro world...

meanwhile, while mom and dad aren't sleeping, the boys have been storing up fat in preparation for winter, as you will notice, we did not swap out kids, thats just ethan in his fat suit. the boy has doubled in weight in just 8 weeks. perhaps this is normal, but we were just getting used to describing our twins as the short, chubby one (shawn) and the long lean one. it was easy - now we have two little goombas that breathe like tony soprano scarfing a plate of ziti (its a chubby joke - they are so fat that they have become mouth breathers - its quite funny.)


Shawn is now 22 inches long and a mini-sumo-sized 10lbs 10 oz.

Ethan is now 23 1/4 inches long and a whopping 10lbs 14oz.


As the twins get bigger and older, they use their magic powers of cute on Mom during the day. they both want to eat at the same time, patience from either of them is non-existent, and their lungs are very, very strong. we find about 14 minutes a day without crying, and Mom is actually keeping up with both appetites with breast-feeding. Kristi will be pushed to the breaking point daily with the constant feedings, poopings, and screaming contests from the boys.

While we are all tired and a wee bit stressed, there have also been some great highlights this week. First, the boys are officially out of Newborn diapers. This was very traumatic for Kristi as it was the last shred of tiny Newborn babydom that she had to hold on to. They are growing so fast.....here is a comparison pic from earlier in the blog (3 weeks and again at 8 weeks). What a difference 5 weeks make.



The good news is that as they get older, they are starting to look at you and actually see you, at the end of this week we saw a smile from each of the boys. And it was not because of a fart, it was because they were smiling and interacting with us. It makes all the sleepless nights a little less painful to see those two smiling back at you!!