one way to keep twins happy

this blog lacks capitalization. amanda is taking a short break, so i have two babies in my lap. here's one way to keep fussy twins happy when no breasts are around:

holy cow do i ever love these guys.

this is from a conversation with amanda today in which she said the following: i don't want them to grow up. i love babies. i don't want 9 kids but i can see why someone would want nine of them because i love babies.

we had just gotten back from the store where we saw a couple with nine kids. we both decided nine kids was insane, but i had to acknowledge that my initial adversity to more than 2 (there are already too many people on this beautiful planet of ours) is already waning a bit. I know that one more pregnancy would be it, though!

so yes, we went to the store today. amanda is so bloody tough that she decided that, since she was feeling stiff and wanted to move around but the area near our house is full of hills, a trip to the store was called for. the boys slept the entire times and amanda braved it like a champ only 3 days after a c-section. my wife is pretty burly, folks, but she's also a sap. Winning combo? i think yes.

She's Crafty

The title is a Beastie Boys reference. I made it because I was trying to be relevant, hip and funny, but then I realized that the song from which I look the line came out in 1995. Oh my...

Now as to actually being crafty, that applies to many members of my family but this time I'm focusing on my sister-in-law, Emily; you can find her blog here. She's moderately addicted to quilting in a similar way to how William S. Burroughs was moderately addicted to smack. From what I understand, quilting is much less destructive.

She is known for her "wonky" quilts, textiles that are a little less symmetrical and a little more on the eccentric side. I like them for that very reason. She also takes the quilts, once they're pieced, to an insanely talented lady at Green Fairy Quilts who freehands intricate quilting details. The results of both of their efforts are below:

The last photo is a close-up of the detail work on the darker quilt. This talented duo produced a wonderful set of quilts and we're very thankful to them.

* * * * * * * * * *

By the way... it's almost Friday.

*GULP!*

Ain't No Party Like a Baby Shower Party

This post will be a little light on the words. Here are a few scenes from the recent baby shower, this time focusing on the attendees.

First up is Olivia & Isabelle, daughters of Tami. Amanda has been friends with Tami since they were in their early teens. She has had two beautiful children so far and, since they're so darn cute, I wanted to lead off with them. The last photo above is of Audrey, our niece, holding Miss Isabelle. Aud carried her around for at least two of the three hours of the shower. It was kind of adorable.

Amanda's mother, Elva, did a wonderful job coordinating all of the food and beverages for the event. She (along with the rest of the family and close friends) helped us put on quite a show and we're very grateful to them. The sash is a bit of a lie, obviously, as she's already a grandmother twice over.

Next up, a few random shots of the attendees. I won't name names (I'd probably fail at it, to be honest), but they're all wonderful people and we're happy that they were able to share in this celebration.

I'd like to single out Nick (no doubt texting someone) & Shawn (the curly headed one engaged in conversation) in the above photo. They always help out at any event they attend and this was no exception. They're pretty great people. Thanks, you two!

I'll end this post with the cake:

Super cute, right? You'll note that they reproduced the monkeys from the invitation. Sadly, about half of those who came to the shower never got to see it because we were all so involved with the festivities that we almost forgot about it entirely! Oops!!! It was quite tasty, though, and people can see it here, at least.

Enough for today. Tomorrow, a tour of some gifts!

Hardly Workin'

Another cute gift came in today, this one from my mother and step-father. My birthday is on April 3rd, the same day as out baby shower. As is to be expected (and as is greatly necessary), most birthday gifts are likely to have a theme of "soon-to-arrive twins." The gift from these two was certainly no exception.

First, a little background: as you may know from my other posts, I'm a graduate student in philosophy and, as you may guess, the market for folks with MAs in philosophy is rather minimal. I had originally planned to go on to obtain my PhD, but the field is ridiculously competitive--both to get into a PhD program as well as to obtain a full time, permanent position afterwards--and both my passion and my confidence in my abilities are waning. Amanda's job is willing to give her a significant degree of mobility by allowing her to work from home just as she has been doing for the past year and a half. Couple all of this with my own desire to have a trade and be able to contribute more financially and we arrive at a situation wherein we are free to do just about anything. The "anything" we've chosen to do is to move to St. George, Utah, where my brother has a flourishing contracting business. Every time we've visited them, I've gone to work with my brother. We laugh and play while also busting butt and the visits are always such special, wonderful times. Every time we leave, I get pretty teary-eyed and miss him and his wonderful wife and kids. Over the years, he has half-jokingly asked if I wanted to come out and work with him. I think he's still in shock since I asked him if he was really serious about the offer. The point of this long-winded story is to give a little background as to why I'm leaving academia for contracting and to explain this adorable birthday gift from my parents:

Take a closer look.

Pretty darn cute, no? It's a tool belt with a few key work elements and a handful of baby supplies. I can't imagine wearing it while diapering a child, however. I foresee being the one who conducts the bleary-eyed 2:00 am changings and, from what I understand, caulk makes very poor diaper rash paste.

My step-father wrote a pretty adorable poem to accompany the gift:
Speaking of gifts, we had perhaps the cutest card to ever be mailed arrive not too long ago, without warning. We get to see our niece, Grace, only once every few months. She adores Amanda but has seemed a bit hesitant about this whole baby thing. I'm not sure if this card was to her or to the boys, but in either case it had to be shared:

The inside card was just a piece of white paper with the word "baby" emblazoned on it in bold, red letters. Absolutely adorable, needless to say.

We were in a news lull for a bit and I was quite busy, hence my infrequent updates. I expect to return to regular posts again, however, as appointments are growing more frequent and more changes are taking place. Look out for a Fatherhood Friday post tomorrow in which I'm going to give a general update and pose a very serious question about c-sections, twins and breech babies.