Den Of The Danimal

For the last couple weeks, the girls have been increasingly determined to be mobile, and that’s a good thing — except when it leads to mishaps like we had this morning after breakfast. They’re not quite crawling yet, but they’re very close! They get up on their hands and knees and then sorta rock back and forth like contestants at the top of a ski jump.

Anyway, I had just finished feeding the girls and as usual, Elizabeth was trying very hard to scoot off the edge of the sofa. Carolyn, on the other hand, is usually less aggressive in her efforts, and more content to just lie on the sofa next to my leg after finishing her meal. Usually. So there I was, grappling with Elizabeth’s legs on my right side as I once again hauled her top half back up onto the sofa, when all of a sudden there was a distressing plop and scream from the left side. (It was as if they had agreed in advance to coordinate their efforts — “You distract him, and I’ll make my escape!”) Carolyn timed it perfectly and went all the way over the edge. Now, if she had simply landed on the carpet about one foot away, this probably wouldn’t be worthy of a blog post. But no, sweet little Carolyn launched her sweet little face right at a sharp and unfriendly corner of stone at the edge of the fireplace! OH NO!

Ouchie!

I know this sort of thing is inevitable, of course, but that knowledge doesn’t keep me from feeling horrible nonetheless. The good news is that the scrape is very shallow, and as I gently dabbed at it with a damp tissue there was hardly any blood (less than a drop). I’m sure it will heal just fine in a week or so. But still, right now there’s this glaring testimony to my less-than-perfect parental oversight right there on my little girl’s face! [sigh] She only cried for a few minutes as I held her, and then she started smiling and wanted to play again.

I suppose the moral of the story is that there will be no more playtime on the sofa after meals for a while — not until they can safely dismount by themselves (or respond to instructions to stay put). In fact, this will be tested very shortly; I can hear them kicking their cribs in the other room, signaling that they’re ready for lunch! Wish me luck.

She's a trooper!

Last Friday was a fun first — I took the girls out for their first playdate with another infant! One of our good friends from college named Amy lives locally and had a baby girl (Tesiah Rois) a few months after ours were born. We had Amy over for dinner one night last year when Janet and Amy were both still pregnant, and we’ve been wanting to get together again for introductions ever since the girls arrived. (But, you know, life has gotten a lot busier since then!)

Carolyn, Tesiah, and Elizabeth

It was only a short visit, but we had a real fun time catching up and it was a pleasure to meet little Tessa. Carolyn and Elizabeth only look as big as they do in this picture because Tessa is indeed pretty small, and of course our girls are nearly twice her age! (Correction — everything seems small about Tessa except her EYES.) It will be fun to see them together as they get older and can interact with each other more, but for now Carolyn and Elizabeth seemed quite happy merely to play with (and slobber over) all of Tessa’s interesting new toys. One other fun thing about our visit was that we got to take Amy and Tessa out for their first geocache hunt, which was conveniently located just down the block from where they live. I’ve gotta take advantage of every opportunity I can these days!

Carolyn & Elizabeth celebrated their nine month “birthday” on Friday. They’re rolling around now so we have to keep a closer eye on them when they’re playing on the floor. Elizabeth has even gotten proficient at getting up on her hands and knees and rocking slightly back and forth.  She’s not quite crawling yet; but she’s oh so close…

Elizabeth now has two teeth; Carolyn has one. A few nights ago, Elizabeth began making kissy noises, obviously imitating Mommy and Daddy. It’s a gesture that we do with each other and with the girls occasionally, but we hadn’t really set out to teach them — and then a few days ago she just started doing it out of the blue!  She’ll often do it now if we prompt her, and sometimes still spontaneously. What can I say but VERY CUTE! Here’s a little video Dan put together of her first few kisses.

Click on the image to load the movie in a new window.

We took the girls for their first hike in their backpack carriers yesterday. The day started out kinda grey, but the sun came out in the afternoon and we took the opportunity to spend some time in Brushy Peak. We hiked two miles — half uphill, half downhill. Not all that long of a hike, but it was more than I had done since I was nearly six months pregnant. Of course, this time I only had to carry one baby. I look forward to rebuilding my endurance so we can introduce them to some of our favorite parks and hiking spots.

Here are a few pictures of the girls in their Valentine’s Day outfits.

Twin Valentines

Carolyn

Elizabeth

Last weekend was a fun and special time for our family. We participated in the Baby Dedication at our church. There’s nothing magical about that for the girls, of course — it basically just means that we stood up in front of the congregation, showed off our beautiful little girls, and committed ourselves to raising them well and teaching them about God as they grow. And then, in what I think is a very valuable gesture aimed at building community, the congregation was asked to commit to supporting us as parents and caring for our family. Best of all, a lot of our family was able to be there — in addition to my immediate family, who all live right here in Livermore, Janet’s Dad and his wife were able to fly out from Illinois for the weekend, her sister and niece drove out from Stockton, and her Dad’s cousin (Janet’s first cousin once removed , if I understand correctly) and her husband drove up from Fullerton, stopping off near Bakersfield to pick up my Grandma on the way. It was really fun to have so many caring family members here to celebrate with us.

Here’s a 5 minute video of the event for those interested:

Click on the image to load the movie in a new window.

I really like the verses that we picked out for them. Here they are:

Psalm 20:1-5
May the Lord answer you when you are in distress; may the name of the God of Jacob protect you. May he send you help from the sanctuary and grant you support from Zion. May he remember all your sacrifices and accept your burnt offerings. May he give you the desire of your heart and make all your plans succeed. We will shout for joy when you are victorious, and will lift up our banners in the name of our God. May the Lord grant all your requests.

Psalm 121:3-8
He will not let your foot slip — he who watches over you will not slumber; indeed, he who watches over Israel will neither slumber nor sleep. The Lord watches over you — the Lord is your shade at your right hand; the sun will not harm you by day, nor the moon by night. The Lord will keep you from all harm — he will watch over your life; the Lord will watch over your coming and going both now and forevermore.

Also, here are a few recent pictures we’ve taken of the girls. Enjoy!

Carolyn just woke up from a nap

She got Mommy's beautiful blue eyes

Elizabeth

She loves making the turbo-poop noise!

Janet and the girls with Grandpa Hucker

Don't they look like cute little happy meals?

CUTE CUTE CUTE!

I’ve been eagerly looking for a good opportunity to take Janet to go see Avatar ever since the film opened a month ago. It’s a little tricky to manage since Janet works during the day, and I’m either working or otherwise busy several nights a week, and we have these two darling little girls that we love to spend time with at home. Furthermore, even when we do both have a free evening, Janet’s always short on sleep these days. Plus, it’s hard to arrange getting away for that amount of time simply because even if we get someone else to watch and feed the girls, she still has to be able to pump milk every few hours — so everything has to line up perfectly in order to pull it off. But yesterday Janet was off work thanks to MLK Jr., so it seemed like the best opportunity we were likely to get for a while.

My parents were more than happy to care for the girls while we were out, of course. For Janet, this was the first time she had left them with anyone other than me, and it was the first time we’d gone out together without the kids since Elizabeth came home from the hospital about 7 months ago. The only question was which showing of Avatar would we go see — 3D or regular old 2D? I like the theater here in Livermore much better than the one out at Hacienda, and it’s obviously much closer and more convenient, so that would seem to be a natural choice. But although the Livermore theater was showing Avatar on two screens, both of them were 3D showings. Hacienda had several 3D showings, but also had a couple screens that were displaying in nice old fashioned 2D.

Here’s my dilemma. I was really curious about seeing it in 3D, really really hoping that it would be extra fantastic. But frankly, I’ve always thought that the current 3D film technology is still woefully inadequate. I guess you could say I was skeptical and curious in equal portions. I know a great many people think 3D movies are super cool, but I just think it looks super lame and gimmicky. The system uses polarized light and glasses to produce a stereoscopic image; this does produce some sense of depth in the image, but it’s a far cry from the kind of 3D vision produced by our eyes. Every time I’ve seen a 3D movie in the past I have hoped that maybe the technology had advanced enough that it was actually worthwhile, but I’ve always been disappointed. The system seems especially incapable of handling fast action sequences. Inevitably, I end up wishing that I’d just seen the film in regular old 2D. Rather than adding anything new or extra to a film, the lame and gimmicky look of 3D effects simply ends up distracting me from enjoying the image onscreen and the story as a whole.

Anyway, I finally made up my mind to see a 2D showing at Hacienda at 11:40 AM with Janet, and figured maybe in a couple weeks if I still felt curious I might go catch a late show in 3D. We got everything ready, we dropped off the girls, we drove out to the theater, we dashed through the rain to get up to the ticket line, we waited for our turn… And then we found out that the showing of Avatar that we had planned on seeing featured Open Captions, meaning that there would be text at the bottom of the screen throughout the movie. Now, I don’t really mind watching subtitled films if it was shot in a language I don’t understand. But when viewing a film in English whose major selling point is the visual effects, I really don’t want to be constantly distracted by printed dialog that I understand perfectly well and notations like “bomb explosions” and “creature roars”. Needless to say, the fact that this showing featured captioning was NOT mentioned in the theater listing that I looked at. And needless to say, that pissed me off! I think I will probably NEVER see another film at Hacienda. They have disappointed me for the last time.

The next showing in 2D that wasn’t captioned was 3 hours later, and we couldn’t make that because I had to work in the evening. We had a pretty narrow window of time in which to see this 2 hour 40 minute movie, and we were already going to be pushing back Janet’s next appointment with the breast pump. I knew there was a 3D showing in Livermore at 12:30, so I gritted my teeth and resigned to seeing a 3D showing after all.  We hopped back in the car to drive back to Livermore, and made sure that my parents wouldn’t mind the extra hour. They didn’t, of course.

The movie was pretty much exactly what I expected, and I enjoyed it. The CG visual effects were absolutely magnificent, and the 3D effects were lame and gimmicky, and I wished my original plan had worked out. I definitely would have enjoyed the movie more in 2D. But despite the distraction of the consistently lame 3D effects — and even despite the overly politically correct storyline — I have to say that it was a very entertaining film. Yes, it made me want to be a giant blue skinned alien, running and flying through the beautiful jungles of Pandora. I may even still try to go see it a 2nd time if I can find a theater other than Hacienda showing it in 2D. And I don’t think I’ll bother with another 3D movie until the next generation 3D technology gets invented. Polarized light and glasses just aren’t good enough to be worth it.

Wow, Carolyn and Elizabeth are already 8 months old!  Carolyn now weighs in at 14 pounds 6 ounces, and Elizabeth is 14 pounds even. They’ve both doing great! We have managed to keep them healthy this whole time (even though Janet and I have each been sick at one point or another), and we’re very thankful for that. For Christmas, they got some new play toys that help them practice standing and bouncing, and they are really getting some good use out of those. Another big new thing (well, rather small actually) is that Elizabeth is getting her first tooth in! I’ve told her all about big people food, and I know she’s really looking forward to her first big juicy barbecue steak. MMMmmm…

Elizabeth's First Tooth

After noting in the last set of pictures that the girls could practically fit in their Christmas stockings, we decided to test that out with some traditional red stockings before all the Christmas decorations got put away.  It was now or never!

Stocking Stuffers

For the first time in ages, Janet and I didn’t get to travel up to visit with friends and play in the snow at their cabin in Dorrington. I’ve always said that I look forward all year long to hanging out up there and playing games with our friends, and this year I am definitely missing it — but since the reason we’re missing out this year is thanks to these beautiful baby girls, I guess things are not so bad. Indeed, we are truly doubly blessed! Even without our traditional Christmas cabin vacation, we’ve had great fun celebrating with family here in Livermore, and of course playing and laughing with the girls. Here are some fun photos from this December.  Enjoy!

After waiting for an hour in a very noisy, very overcrowded room, the girls had their first visit with Santa!

Carolyn enjoying some tummy time!

We had a nice time caroling at our Sunday School class Christmas Party.

Janet reads a bedtime story to Elizabeth & Carolyn.

We could practically fit our whole bodies in these stockings!

No, we didn't pose them like this!

Nana & Papa with Carolyn & Elizabeth

Merry Christmas, everyone!

Christmas was fun! When can we do it again?

People keep asking us if the girls are identical twins, and we keep telling them that we just don’t know for sure. If you missed a previous explanation, the reason is that the hospital didn’t do DNA testing because it’s not essential, and all of the things that might have indicated one way or the other turned out to be inconclusive in our case. For example, if the twins are different genders or different blood types, then they are definitely not identical twins — but our girls are the same in those respects. This doesn’t necessarily mean they are identical, but they might be. Similarly, if they had shared a single amniotic sac, then they would definitely not be fraternal twins — but our girls had separate sacs. This doesn’t necessarily mean they are fraternal, but they might be. One thing is certain — they definitely look a lot alike.

Yet over the last six months, as Janet and I have spent countless hours staring at their beautiful faces, we have fortunately become fairly proficient at recognizing which one is which, although admittedly this is a good deal easier when we can see both of them together. And of course, just to make things easier we make sure to dress them differently, and we usually make a habit of putting Carolyn on the left side, Elizabeth on the right. (Alas, the latter technique will only be helpful for another couple months until they become independently mobile.)

A few days ago I had both girls sitting in their little bouncy chairs and they were smiling easily, so I thought I’d take a couple pictures. Here are a couple pictures I took side by side, illustrating some clear similarities. You’ll notice that they are facing slightly different directions, and of course their smiles are different, but I pointed out to my Dad that if you horizontally flip one of the images, they line up surprisingly well. My Dad was so struck by this that he put together a little video, fading back and forth between them. It’s pretty cool! Click on the picture below to open the movie in another window.

Can you tell who is who?

If you grab the slider and move it back and forth more quickly, you can tell more clearly that the two images were taken from slightly different angles. Still, I’m pretty pleased with the way it turned out. But you know what? Even with these obvious visual similarities, as time goes on we find ourselves noticing more and more differences in their personalities and behaviors. It’s amazing, but many of those differences were there (albeit subtly) even in the very first few weeks after they were born. But I think I’ll write up a separate post to highlight the differences we’ve noticed so far. Stay tuned!

Okay, I know that Thanksgiving was over a week ago. We were spending time with family and I never got around to creating a new post. But the girls are so cute I wanted to share. Plus we have so much to be thankful for! It was one year ago that we shared with you that Carolyn & Elizabeth were on their way. It has certainly been an eventful and exciting year! Not all has gone as I thought I wanted, but God has blessed us immensely! And I’ve learned a few things in the past months:

• When the girls were in the hospital for the first six weeks of their lives it was a challenging time. I so desperately wanted them to be home with us so we could be a family. (They were a couple of weeks old before we were able to hold both girls at the same time, or even be able to see them side by side!) But as much as I wanted them home, I wanted them to be healthy. And I learned that I must treasure each day and not wish their lives away.

• I’ve had a chance to see how willing our friends and family are to help. We received emotional support, lots of prayer, and practical help — and there were several times people volunteered to do something before we even recognized that we had a need.

We have MUCH to be thankful for!

These two little girls bring such joy and wonder into my life. It doesn’t matter how tired I am, when one of them smiles at me I can’t help but smile back. They went to the doctor two weeks ago and their current statistics are:

• Carolyn:  13 lbs; 24 1/4″
• Elizabeth:  13 lbs; 24 3/4″

Their weight is now in the 10th percentile for 6 month old babies, which is up from the 5th percentile at six weeks. They’re doing pretty well considering they were impatient to begin life outside the womb. When their age is adjusted for being 8 weeks premature, their weight is closer to the 75th percentile.

We had a fun time celebrating with lots of family. I hope you all enjoyed your holiday too.

Happy Family