Breakfast with Fin

Me: Don't use those knives (Relax!! Butter knives!) on the table. It could scratch the table.
Fin: And then it will get mosquito bites?
Me: Not all scratching is related to mosquito bites, Fin.
Fin: I'm Dad. (Continues to try and cut the table with the knives - one in each hand)
Me: Sorry. Dad. Stop using the knives on the table!
Fin: Just use them on your head?? (Starts scratching his head with both knives)

Fin has been insisting that we call him Dad lately. It gets very confusing.

Every conversation with him lately has been like some surreal art movie where I'm too stupid to follow the dialog, so I end up hopelessly confused.

The Year of Living Sleeplessly

Ok – I know I’ve been slack and I deserve a reprimand for that…. but you have to cut the mom of a pair of newly minted one (OMG!! ONE!!!) year olds a little bit of slack. My head is still spinning. I have 2 one year olds!!

So this seems like an appropriate time to reflect on the year that was. Except that I basically have no memories before November. There is photographic evidence that I was around for the months leading up to November but my brain seems to be in denial. Anyway, they look cute in the photos! My brain appears to be missing out on some fun times!

Life has become much easier in the last couple of months especially. They sleep more, they play more, they interact more… They are just plain MORE in so many ways. They both have charming personalities. Laurel is such a sweet, quiet little thinker. Don’t get me wrong, she can lose her little mind like only a one year old can, and she can be goofy but mostly she seems to be giving the world a great deal of thoughtful consideration. We used to think Joe was a real little bull-dozer, always on the go, full steam ahead, but he has revealed that he also has a more considered approach to the world. Joe has the readiest smile anybody we meet has ever seen. Laurel appears to find the world a fascinating and thought provoking place, Joe seems to be constantly AMAZED by it and charmed by the wonderful things in it.

We had a lovely little picnic party for them on the rooftop garden at our building to celebrate their birthday. There were 4 sets of twins in the mix and from how they behaved, I think we gave the impression that life with infant twins is one of sedate and agreeable pleasures. Snort!

We had a little cake drama the morning of the party. Steve went into Central to pick up all the cupcakes I’d ordered and shortly after I got a call from the bakery saying that he’d forgotten one box and that it was so big that it would require two people to carry it. Weird, I thought to myself - those must be massive cupcakes! So I called an already irritated Steve and got him to go back and try and figure out how to get all those massive cupcakes home on his own. The bakery woman was helping him carry the giant box out of the building when he noticed that the order slip on it had someone else's name on it. When they looked in the box it was a GIANT cake in the shape of a rooster. Clearly not our cupcakes. We were a little annoyed by the needless cupcake drama but can you imagine the drama of arriving to pick up your GIANT rooster cake and discovering someone else had taken it home??

The next day, their actual birthday, Laurel took her first wobbly steps. She has been absolutely determined the last couple of weeks to get this whole walking business underway. If you make the mistake of sitting down anywhere near her she crawls right over turns herself around, reaches back for your hands and stands up and she’s off. I have become accustomed to walking bent over from the waist with her and then hobbling around clutching my back after like the old woman I am quickly becoming.

Anyway, Joe and Laurel's birthday: a beautiful day.