She Speaks!

A New Chapter

Bijou hosted a holiday tea party at our house with her friends Yuba, Stella, Franny & Maia. Of course, I insisted on a little caroling in front of the fire. Note to Bijou: Never pick your nose while I'm filming a video.

Eero "Stewie" is quite the little talker. He enjoys hearing his voice, as do I.

Wilder got this little frog blankie from Santa in his stocking this year and it proved to be a big hit. He literally shrieked with delight when we first showed it to him. I certainly wasn't expecting such a delightful reaction to a gift from a 4-month-old. He really is one of the happiest babies I know.

Eero shows off his skills in the exersaucer when I ask him to hit the cow button & he actually does it!

Bijou is so sweet with him.

A Few Things To Remember

Hi! It's been a while...

Our "brothers" arrived on 8/28/10 just shortly after midnight and have been keeping us really busy ever since. The past 9 weeks have gone by really fast and some of it is already a blur. We've experienced some colic, some reflux, and some sleep deprivation. On the upside, we now have a kindergartner in the house who has transitioned better than we could have hoped. We have also been blessed with the first smiles from Eero and Wilder.

The other day, Bijou laid down on the bed with her brothers and asked that I take a picture of them since they all look like twins. I think she feels a little left out of the twin relationship so she is always pointing out the similarities between herself and them.

"Mommy, Wilder and I look like twins because we both have blond hair."

The birth story...

At 39 weeks and 173 pounds (I should note that I'm only 5' 4") my OB suggested induction. At 7am on a Friday morning Doug, Kate and I went off to the hospital to have ourselves some babies. After a grueling 13 hours of a Pitocin drip my uterus had stopped dilating at 3cm. At this point I'd had enough jello cups and incontinence to continue. To top it off, the fetal monitors kept me in the exact same position in bed all day and I had the strongest urge to MOVE! After a conversation with my OB at 10pm I decided to have a c-section and had just one special request... surgery just before midnight in hopes of the boy's having separate birthdays. Due to a tech error in the lab which caused a 20 minute delay, the boys were born at 12:22 and 12:24am. They were huge and healthy at 6lbs. 8 oz. and 7lb. 4 oz. It was a busy night at the hospital with many women sharing rooms and one woman delivering in the hallway, so we were happy to have our own room. The boys shared a bassinet just as we had intended.

By Monday morning we were headed home to enjoy our large family. As we left the hospital, we experienced the attention twin babies get from the world.

"I'm a soccer girl!"

OMG!

The other day we were at Target and Bijou said she had to use the bathroom. Doug decided to take her and let her go into the women's bathroom all by herself. We feel she's ready for this since she can lock the door to the stall all by herself and knows to wash her hands and we trust she won't dilly-dally to much. Everything went off without a hitch except this...

Doug: "How did it go?"

Bijou: "Good. Except there was no more toilet paper so I just picked up a piece from off the floor."

Doug: "Uh, yuck! Don't ever do that again."

Needless to say, she had a bath immediately after we got home.

The Waiting Period

Bijou is so excited for her babies to come. I tried to warn her that it will be a LONG wait but she still insists on talking about all the details daily. Her new obsession is coming up with names for her babies. Today, she decided Abigail and Alistair were good names. I told her that Alistair wouldn't be too happy if we have another Alistair in the family but she wasn't buying it. I think she just loves Ali so much she wants another one.

For years, Bijou has joined us in our bed in the middle of the night. Now that I'm pregnant, her early morning visits coincide with my growling tummy waking me up. My solution has been to keep a banana by the bed for me to eat at 4am. The new ritual is for me to keep 2 bananas by the bed so Bijou can have one too. She says, "I'm hungry too." I enjoy this little bonding time, even if it's at 4am.

A milestone was reached this week when Doug taught Bijou the words in one of her Dick and Jane books. It only took one night for her to memorize what each word looks like and now she can read the entire book herself with great pride. We are proud of her too. It also reinforces our decision to have her start kindergarten just shy of her fifth birthday. I know she will be ready.

Christmas 2009

The French Show

Minivan? Say it ain't so

As we plan to add one more to our family, Boogs recently voiced her interest in a minivan. This suggestion is so out of touch with what I thought I knew about her, I'm still struggling to get my head around it. As I see it, one of three things is going on here.

Option one is that she is pulling that ever so popular high school shenanigan where you coax a confession from someone by offering a false confession of your own. For example,

Me: Hey man, heavy business is weighing me down and I've got to get it out in the open.

Unwitting Target (UT): Dude, you know I'm here for you.

Me: Here it is, bro. I still sleep with Bruno, the teddy bear I've had since age four. If Bruno is not snuggled up beside me in the bed, I just can't relax.

UT: Whoa, I am so glad you shared that with me, because I can't fall asleep without the tender embrace of Reggie the raccoon. His faux fur and innocent eyes provide me with the comfort and security I need to nod off to dreamland.

Me: Dude, you are such a pansy. I tossed my teddy bear in the trash when I was five. Wait until I tell everyone about this.

UT: No man, I was just making that up to make you feel better. Really man, Reggie doesn't exist. Well he did, but not any more.

Me: Yeah right, you sissy. This is awesome!

UT: Dude, you are so not my friend right now.

Under this option, the wife is attempting to extract my acknowledgement that a minivan is an acceptable, perhaps even a desirable, mode of transportation. Ain't gonna happen. If the government passed legislation outlawing all passenger vehicles save for minivans (aka the Vehicular Emasculation Act of 2009), I would ride the bus. Any way, Boogs is not the devious type, so while theoretically possible, I doubt option one warrants further consideration.

Option two is that Boogs was abducted and an extraterrestrial doppleganger has taken her place. This would actually explain a lot, but it would not explain the minivan proposal. Aliens drive around at high speeds in super sleek space craft. I can't imagine one settling on a minivan. If she had suggested a Lotus, I would be suspicious.

Which brings me to option three, in many ways the most unpalatable of all: She actually wants a minivan. I would be inclined to reject this possibility as well if she hadn't become so animated when describing this center console games and activities table and chairs set up that these things apparently have. I'm sorry, but I'm not interested in a preschool on wheels. It's bad enough that our current car has a theatre system that presents Dora's incessant yelling in perfect Dolby clarity. I cannot imagine adding to the mix glue sticks and scissors careening around the car every time I forget what I'm driving and attempt to take a corner at speeds greater than 10 MPH.

First Day of School

A lovely first day of school fake smile. Doug was delighted she picked the "Jimmy" shirt to wear her first day. And I was delighted she choose her new H & M petticoat.

She is quite the poser.

Oooh, scary!

Dude, where's my car?

"Bonjour!"

This is her, "I'm terrified! You're not leaving yet?" face.

Kauai- August 2009

When I Grow Up...

I want to be a mom.
I want to be a farmer.
I want to be a fairy.
I want to be a butterfly.
I want to be a princess.
I want to be a mermaid.

A Funny Thing

The other day Bijou and I were at the pool. She had been swimming for 2 hours and I had lost track of time and forgot to ask her to go in and use the bathroom. She decided it was time to go in the hot tub, the finale to our trip to the pool, and a second after she got in she turned to me and said, "Mommy, I am not going pee." "Really?" I ask. Very suspicious.

A Three-year-olds Graduation