Sunday, August 31, 2008

Run the Gap


WooHoo!!! I did it!

Never in my life did I think I'd be a "runner" (and I'm still not sure if I'd classify myself as that) but I ran my very first 5K this weekend and it was fantastic! I'm torn because even though I'm just so proud of myself for actually doing it I'm kind of disappointed in my performance....I really wanted a trophy! I finished 7th in my age group, but there were only 10 anyways. Oh well. I've been super nervous about the whole thing and very glad that
I survived!


Thursday, August 21, 2008

Skating

The boys were so excited to go skating for their first time ever.


The above picture was taken at 7:06PM, immediately after their skates were strapped on.
"Daddy... these shoes have tires!"--Owen




The above picture was taken at 7:11 PM.



And this final picture, taken once they decided they were done skating, was taken at 7:18 PM.


Friday, August 08, 2008

Twins

I remember with clarity the day we found out Kara was pregnant with twins. We were sitting there in the ultrasound room when the doctor came in to confirm what the technician thought she saw and said, “Congratulations! You’re having two!” My first reaction included a skipped heart beat (not the good kind) and an incredulous, “Are you serious?”

The trials associated with having twins are dynamic. It’s this competition where you constantly work to outsmart your own children. And they usually win, and then you have to invest in more tools and more time and more purchases to install more locks, gates, barriers, etc. You have to tell yourself to relax when you see the rug being melted from the hair dryer, the dirty diapers being smeared into the carpet, the toys already disassembled, the pages torn out of the textbooks, or one of the other endless list of ways they have managed and continue to manage to destroy things.

Once in a while we get a break, usually from grandparents watching them. Sometimes it’s planned out. Usually it includes us going to bed relatively early and sleeping in pretty late. We have unconsciously learned to use those occasions as a chance to catch up on lost sleep.

So it strikes me as odd that at those times we do get some time without the boys, our conversation is all about them. We talk about the funny things they have said or done, and even fall asleep laughing about their antics. It’s hard to not mimic their behaviors, like leaving to go to the store and fake-arguing about who gets to “sit by Costco!” on the way, or suggesting, “my feet broken! Daddy/Mommy carry me!” when we’re tired of walking. We get sentimental just hours after they’ve left.

It’s true: we miss them when they’re gone. It feels weird going to bed without reading their chosen four books to them—and for that matter, not dedicating an hour to bed time. I sort of miss having one of them (but not both of them) climb into bed with us after “it’s no more dark outside” but before the alarm goes off. I miss hearing those random 6AM whispers to me like, “Daddy make Owen waffles and ice cream please.” Or the excited announcement, “Daddy! Dad! Dad! Daddy! Daddy! Dad! Nick! NICK! I built a boat!” and his boat, made of those large Lego blocks, is indistinguishable (to me) from his tower, his truck, his “dinner I cooked,” his computer, or his doggy.

They come back home tonight. Getting them to go to bed will probably be a fight. And I’m confident I’ll wake up tomorrow morning sometime between 5AM and 7AM with an urgent, “Wake up! We go Lowe’s, do project!”

It will be fun to have them back home.

Tuesday, August 05, 2008

More interesting than rocks

Owen stopped throwing rocks for a minute because, "I want to watch the sun go to bed."

We love Saturdays


Three times a month (first Saturday at Home Depot, second and fourth Saturday at Lowe's), Jack and Owen get to do a kid's project. These projects vary with the season but all involve some hammering. We just started about three months ago and have built
  • a Mother's Day planter (complete with wooden flowers)

  • an actual planner (and we grew real flowers in these but they died)

  • a bird house

  • a dune buggy (with working wheels)

  • a baseball stadium toy

  • a catamaran (kudos if you know what that is without looking it up)

  • a sailboat

  • a tape measure

  • a miniature toy of that game you play with the pole that has a rope attached to the top and a ball attached to the end of the rope, I can't remember the name of it

We usually take it to the next level by letting the boys pick out a color and buying a can of spray paint to colorize their project afterwards. Fortunately (and, at the same time, unfortunately), Jack is happy with painting everything purple.


Saturday is also the day that Mom and Dad do other projects around the house, which this past weekend included painting the two remaining walls in the boys' room, installing a ceiling fan in our bedroom (haven't finished), some landscaping work, and replacing our front porch lamp. The last lamp busted somehow and someone cut it off at ground level. So replacing it means digging up the entire concrete foundation and putting a new one in. I'm halfway there. The concrete is too heavy for me to take out myself and I have no concrete breaking tools.


Anyway we also built a shelf for Jack and Owen's room, as pictured below. Plank: $7, supports, $21, wall anchors, $2. We routed off three edges, stained it, and glued it all together. Also we had to move Neptune and Pluto to a different place in their orbits.


So the picture above demonstrates our painting efforts, our shelf-building efforts, and most of the boys' projects to date (one of each-- in most cases one of the two toys is destroyed within 12 hours).