Okay, I've been bad...

But I promise to try and update more.

The kids are growing like weeds. Chubby weeds, just like Daddy! A month ago, Daniel was at 13 lbs and Sophie at 12, with their next check-up to come in July. The doctor says that they have hit virtually every milestone at four months that they were supposed to except for rolling over, but did remind us that no child has ever gone to college without being able to roll over. Does that mean that they can't go to college if they haven't rolled over by age 18?

The two most common questions we get are about eating and sleeping. So let's hit those.

The kids are still eating every three hours, starting at about 7:30 am with the last feeding around 10 pm. And we have been serving them two "food" meals per day, with one meal being a fruit/veggie puree (The apple sauce is actually pretty good, although after four months, I still haven't gotten up the guts to try the formula.) and the other being rice cereal, which strongly resembles a mixture of paste and oatmeal. The kids addressed the food skeptically the first time we fed it to them, but seem to have adapted nicely. The added bonus is that we can mix and match the types of food, leading to a lot of dinners for the kids of "whatever's on sale." Unfortunately, I can't buy stock in Babies R Us. We're now at the point at which the kids are grabbing for the spoons when we feed them. Now if I could only teach them how to feed themselves...





Sleeping: The kids are sleeping through the night. We had some issues with Daniel, who decided that 4am was a good wake-up time, but a double-swaddle seems to be keeping him down. We still get the occasional cries between 4 and 6 am, but a pacifier usually, well, pacifies them. Oh, that's how it got that name. "Binky" just doesn't cut it.

Mike

Ahh, sibling love

They've hit that age...

I was just speaking with a friend of mine who has 7 and 4 year old sons. The only thing she remembers about when her kids were babies is how cute they were. I can't wait for that day...

Because right now, they're doing a heck of a lot of screaming. We feed them, burp them, swaddle them, etc. and they continue to scream. Due to the fact that they don't yet speak coherent English, we're at our wits' ends. And we only have them for four hours per day on the weekdays!

But I will say this: when we finally get them swaddled and they are lying in the crib looking like little burritos, they look awfully cute.

This year, I'm missing a conference in Las Vegas that I have gone to every year for the past six or seven. Man, I need those frequent flyer miles. And it's at Encore. Fortunately, AA is offering a double elite qualifying miles promo for the spring, so I'll work with what they give me, but I could end up going back to India. Won't leave the airport, of course.

Mike

Strollers and car seats

All the cool people in the city are buying Bugaboo strollers. Don't be a cool person. My suggestion is to go with Graco, which makes strollers and car seats. Find the products that overlap, so you can just put the base in the car and lift out the car seat. The car seat should then fit right into the stroller, so that you don't have to wake the kids as you transfer them between modes of transportation.

Just the helpful hint of the day.

Oh, a Diaper Genie ad keeps popping up, too. We really like that, also. -->

Oh, and due to popular opinion, I have decided not to post the photos of the kids' poop, which bears a strong resemblance to creamed spinach. It's not pleasant.

Finally, we figured out how to put up some pictures. We call the first one "The Boxing Match," although I'm guessing that Rocky didn't have cute little booties on when he was boxing.

And we're back!

Really, I promise to try and be better about this But apparently, kids are a lot of work.

We've arrived back in Boston and the kids are safely home. People tried to describe to us how much work kids are, but without living through it, it's simply impossible to tell you. Fortunately, the Parasites are happy and healthy and have gained weight nicely. Daniel is pushing seven pounds, and Sophie is pushing six.

We also hired a night nanny, which means that we occasionally get some sleep. She's excellent, although we probably would have hired Satan himself if it had meant that we would get some shuteye.

Meanwhile, here's how the schedule works: Kid #1 wakes up. Hopefully, we remembered to prepare the bottle while they were sleeping, but if we didn't, it's a balancing act of hanging one kid over a shoulder while preparing the bottle. We keep a thermos of hot water nearby and use that to make the bottle, but we also have a bowl of cold water that we put the bottle into to cool it if the mix is too hot. Then, we spend a few minutes trying to coax her into taking it in her mouth. Usually, she's hungry enough to take it, but just in case, we can always give her feet a little flick. She usually gets an ounce down before deciding to stop. Tap the bottle to get it flowing again. Lather, rinse, repeat, with the whole process taking about 30 minutes. Then, the burping begins. Sophie is good burper, while Daniel is still working on it. And then we're done. Start to stop, the entire feeding takes about 45 minutes. Then, repeat with the other kid. Usually, we can sneak in 60-90 free minutes between feedings.

Mike