Flippin' Cute Kids

Hey look, a post!

The boys are two weeks old today and this is the first post I've made in about 11 days. I have no idea how people manage new multiples and a healthy blogging relationship. As such, I've obviously let the blogging slip to keep up with these beautiful boys. As far as an update goes, just know that the boys are incredibly gorgeous, my wonderful wife has been recovering perfectly and we absolutely love being parents. Now for what you've really been waiting on: photos!

These were taken in an inexpensive in-store studio on May 14th. They aren't perfect, but the subjects certainly are. Hopefully more updates are to come soon; I've tons to say now, but no time to say it. See you soon, all.

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.

A Sight To Behold

Amanda contends that people stare at her "like I'm a freak show." I think they're merely impressed with her poise and strength as she carries 12 pounds of baby while barely batting an eye (although she does take lots of naps). See for yourself:

She's pretty incredible, no? Five days to go and she's still fabulous. ;-)

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!

A Co-Ed Shower

...No, not that kind! What kind of blog do you think this is? I'm talking about our co-ed baby shower to be held on April 3rd in Perrysburg, OH.

(Wait, isn't any baby shower with at least one male fetus technically co-ed?)

It's going to be held at the Schaller Memorial Building (the VFW/American Legion), which is a pretty ideal venue given the location, kitchen facilities, size, etc. It will be nicely spacious without being too huge. As a side-note, I hate it when one encounters a small event in a big hall. It feels so awkward and lonely, like the feeling one gets when wandering around a store after closing.

Elva, Amanda's mother, is doing an incredible amount of work for this event and we're very thankful. With family as spread out as we have, it's no small feat to bring together even a small contingent of them. Hopefully we'll see some faces we don't get to all that often.

Amanda and I will be handling invitations, decorations, and a bit of planning. We don't want the shower to be excessively traditional; lots of people I've talked to seem to dread showers a little, so we're going to sort through the myriad of games and try to find the ones that are actually fun for all participants. One thing we know for sure is that we're going to hold a "Diapers Wild Texas Hold 'Em Tournament" in one area of the hall, off to the side, to entertain those who wouldn't normally come to a baby shower. Buy-in will be one box of diapers, any size, and the top chip holders will receive prizes. Here's the flyer for the event; it will be included with the invitations:

The idea is not original to me, by any means, but after reading about it it seemed like a great way to get those folks involved who would normally eschew such an event. I'm still trying to come up with some worthy (but below $50) gifts for the top three chip holders. Any ideas?

As for the invitations, Amanda had the great idea of using pre-made 5x7 sheet stacks typically used for scrapbooking, then applying a printed vellum overlay. We found a perfect match at Hobby Lobby for half-off and, needing 100 of them (and not yet knowing the sexes at the time), we picked up one of each and have sorted through them to pick out the best ones.

After that, I set about trying to design the overlay. I couldn't sleep one night, so I brought my laptop to bed and worked away while Amanda slept. I knew I wanted some type of image along with the text; originally I had something a little more mature in mind. I knew I wanted to use this awesome letter block font I had found located here, but I couldn't figure out what else to do. My original stylish design was pretty dull, so I scrapped that idea in favor of monkeys. After all, I had already started called the twins (by then we knew they were boys) my little monkeys, so why not? I found this super cute, cartoony clip art of two monkeys in a tree:

(Elva came up with the idea of having the baker replicate this on the cake, a pretty nifty idea!) I cleaned the image up (I think it was a scan from a coloring book), then slipped it to the right of the wording and the title, "Monkey See, Monkey Do." The result is as follows:

At this point, Amanda woke up, looked over at my work and mumbled sweetly "Monkey see monkey do...how cute..." and then drifted back to sleep. When I asked her the next day about this, she had no recollection of the invitation. Happily she still liked it on seeing it when actually awake.

I printed these on vellum, but we had to come up with a way to attach them. Back to Hobby Lobby I went, this time to pick up pastel brads. I tried attaching the overlay a number of different ways, but one in each corner ended up being the best option. Here are a few examples of the results (the scans don't really do them justice; they're not nearly so off-white nor are they blurry):

I guess you could say that they're all "limited editions" with a maximum run of three each background. Which one will you get? I think that's my favorite part of this design; while they're not completely unique, they do still differ a bit from one to the next. I'll finish them up this weekend (punching those little holes for the brads takes forever!) and we'll get them out the door soon thereafter.

Ok, off to do some thesis work. The next update will probably be a bit shorter and news-oriented, but soon I'm going to post a review of the rather invaluable book "Juggling Twins: The Best Tips, Tricks, and Strategies from Pregnancy to the Toddler Years" by Meghan Regan-Loomis, which you can find here.