Monday, June 27, 2011

Time Flies Like an Arrow ... Fruit Flies Like a Banana

Wow, does time fly!  The Twinkies were 5 months old last week.  Jeff went to drop off some items to friends who had a (BEAUTIFUL!) little girl in April and came back saying, "Our children were never that small!"  This despite the fact that their daughter was more than twice as big as Jenny was when Jenny was born.

Where to begin with an update?

First, the kids are happy and healthy and Daddies could not be happier (more rested, but not happier; in better shape, but not happier; less terrified, but not happier; richer, but not happier).

Second, they may be twins, but they are completely different people.  KK is a perfect angel.  Sweet and cuddly and thoughtful.  Plays and smiles all the time.  Drinks his bottle, burps, and then promptly falls asleep.  Jenny is also sweet and beautiful and smart, with a smile that lights up the room, and she's absolutely brazen.  From the moment she wakes up, until the moment she goes down, she's in charge.  As I said in the last post, there's a pecking order in our house.  I thought that I was in charge (or I thought that at least Jeff A. might be), but I'm not even close to the top.  For a while, Gloria (our baby nurse) thought that she was in charge, but she was also mistaken.  Jenny is ruler of everything that she sees (except Kaden).  Then comes Gloria, then Jeff A. and way, way, way down at the bottom is me.  Fortunately, she's a benevolent dictator.  (KK's lucky: he's totally exempt from Jenny's reign.  He's on his own schedule and does and gets whatever he wants, whenever he wants it.  "It's good to be the King.")

Third, although they are growing like weeds, I think that we have grown even more than them, in both obvious (waist line) and not so obvious ways (it's hard to worry about the house being clean when you can't even see the floors because of there is baby stuff e-v-e-r-y-w-h-e-r-e!!).

Fourth, the babies had their Christening.  The church was great.  I don't know what religion (if any) the babies will choose when they are older, but the sentiment of the service was perfect.  The officiants spoke about the Christening as the beginning of the babies' spiritual journeys, regardless of which path they choose to take.  Since we're Christian (mixed with a little attention deficit disorder) and their egg donor was Hindu and their surrogate was Muslim, they have a full menu from which to choose.  But regardless of what choice they may ultimately make, they were adorable and well behaved during the service.  And (thanks to Vicki), they were beautiful.  Plus, Jenny spit her pacifier into the baptismal font, so now she has a holy binki.  (Seriously, it works.  Put that thing in and she immediately gets quiet.  Thank heavens for small miracles.)

The babies could not be luckier than to have such wonderful Godparents in their lives.  We're hoping that Steve can teach KK how to do guy stuff (as long as you don't count showing up at the gym about once a month and spending the whole time talking with friends as "guy stuff" 'cuz I already do that pretty well).



Fifth, they are both eating solids.  We started them on rice cereal and they are champs.  Although we were warned, I was still not ready for what comes out the other end.  Pheww!  Can't wait to start the fruits and veggies to really see what they can produce.

Sixth, they are rolling over.  Way to go, little ones!  They aren't quite sure what to do once they get to the other side, but they can do it.  Now we have to start baby-proofing the house.  Until we had kids, we didn't realize how much dangerous crap we accumulated over the years.  At least I finally have an excuse to get rid of the tchotchke.  And if a few things "accidentally" break, Jeff A. can't get upset with me.

Seventh, Jeff A. is a great Dad.  Not that it's a surprise, but he's really a great Dad.  And he does it his own way.  After I leave for work, when the kids are just getting up in the morning, Jeff goes into the nursery.  If Gloria is there, she takes a break and he gets the kids out of their cribs and spends the next hour or so feeding and playing with them (before they get their morning baths).  They have their own secret little games and I'm not allowed to know about them.

Eighth, there are a million and one other things to report from their first Pride (They insisted that they wanted to celebrate marriage equality in NY and who were we to stop them?  Plus, they got to march in the next Mayor's contingent.), to Jenny's efforts to stand and walk, to their first Easter outing, to the fact that KK melts hearts where ever he goes, to the fact that we still don't know what to have them call us ("Daddy 1 and Daddy 2"?  "Daddy and Papa"?  "Hey, you, dude with the bottle"?) or what to call them ("Thing 1 and Thing 2"?).

Oh, finally, it's probably not a surprise, but I smile whenever I think about them.  Just look at them; how could you not smile?