Michael slept in this morning because he has been so tired, probably recovering from all the burns he has. Even with his help, we were late getting to our Waterbabies class. Will we ever get there and not panic as we’re getting ready? The boys didn’t do as well as last time because we did “water safety”, which meant wearing the life jackets. They didn’t like it. The poor boys faces were just smushed from the jacket being so tight around their necks. I wish I had my camera. So I think that irritated them so when it was time to dip Rowan wasn’t ready. But Elijah did really well. As we were walking out, Rowan was in a better mood so I did a quick dip. He cried for a few seconds afterwards but quickly got over it. Michael thought I was doing a 2nd dip, so he did another one with Elijah. Elijah also cried but again for like 2 seconds. I told him later that I only did one, so Elijah did really well.

Since Michael didn’t go in in the morning, we just had a Starbucks sandwich in the car and I dropped him off. I went home and we all took a nice nap. The weather was really weird today, it rained super hard and had lots of loud thunder but the boys slept through it all.

After they got up and I fed them, it was already time to pick up Michael from work. Since traffic was so bad, we decided to eat at Thai Ginger. I usually get the Phad Thai, but I remembered the last time I went, my mom got the Thai Ginger House special and I liked it. So I ordered that instead. Yes, it was really good. The boys didn’t fare so well, since they were hungry and I wasn’t prepared with bottles. I breastfed them (one of the handful of times I’ve done it in public) and I was surprisingly calm. I am usually nervous and distracted. Maybe I was too tired to care. Luckily, the restaurant is really loud with white noise so no one could hear the babies crying! Michael isn’t as calm as I am when the boys cry and I can feel his stress levels going up. I have to remind him to stay calm. He’s working on that…

Since Michael had the day off today, he accompanied me to the Infant Massage class. It was soooo much easier having him there and he was amazed that I was able to do it by myself all this time. I think the boys were extra fidgety today, but at least I was able to get in some strokes. Towards the end of the class, they were super tired so I had to swaddle them up and put them in the stroller. They both immediately fell asleep. We wanted to go get a cookie but of course the place is closed for the holiday! Bummer! The darkness of the room and the NPR voices in the class made Michael very sleepy. We came home and napped and then decided to go for a late afternoon hike. We also wanted to visit with the Tokumis’ but they had other plans. We headed out to Issaquah anyways and started up one of Michael’s running trails. I had on our new Sherpani backpack with Rowan in it and Michael had Elijah in the bjorn. Rowan didn’t like it and leaned a lot to the left. We didn’t know how to fix it. Then we put Elijah in it and the same thing happened. I don’t know if it’s my hair or my posture that makes it uncomfortable for them but once Michael put on the pack, Elijah was ok. So I had Rowan in the bjorn and we were all happy. We didn’t have any water and I was getting tired, so we make it about .75 of a mile up, so a total of 1.5 miles. They were so cute, the whole rest of the “happy” time, Rowan talked a whole lot and Elijah blew raspberries the whole time. It was so cute becuase whenever there was a little silence from Rowan and we weren’t talking, Elijah would chime in with his raspberries and we would laugh. Michael had a hankering for junk food so we went to a place called “XXX Root Beer”. The burgers weren’t that great but the root beer was good. After awhile though, the food got gross and the root beer too sweet. When we left, we didn’t want to see junk food for a long time. I guess that’s a good thing. Elijah turned on his charm before going to bed. He is such a sweet and gentle baby. We were charmed by his smiles and coos, and we both said “awww” every few seconds. They both have been going to bed very easily (and naps too), not putting up a fight at all. They are excellent sleepers, just like their parents!

We didn’t do much today. I was going to go visit Shari and Roland, but well, I was tired and got caught up on my sleep. It’s so funny because everyone assumes I’m tired because the babies are keeping me up, but they’re not. It’s the damn pumping! Michael came home fairly early today and told me all about his trials and tribulations on the mountain (Mt. Rainier). Basically, his partner, Carlos, got altitude sickness but it wasn’t very obvious. Thanks to Michael’s experience, they got off the mountain safely. If you want to read more about that, you can read his trip report whenever he has the time to get one up. It was nice to have him back home, the boys really smiled and watched him, I think they are noticing when someone is gone.

Well, today was another scorcher and I couldn’t stand it. I couldn’t buy an air conditioner myself, so I had to get the help of Shari and Roland since they have a big car and Roland can help carry it. They swung by the house and Shari brought food from Hawaii, the really bad but really good stuff. She also bought some Vivian’s Pride ice cream for me since I was raving about it earlier. Geez! We went in 2 cars to home depot. Shari stayed in the car with Misha since she was napping, I went with the boys and Roland to pick up the air conditioner. When I called at noon, they had 12 left (out of 14) and they don’t hold those. So, when I got there at around 2, they had 8 left. Roland went off and got a cart, and during the time it took him to return, 3 more were gone. I quickly grabbed one. Everyone around here wants the portable one since we don’t need it year round. That way, during the non-summer months, we can put it away and it doesn’t take up room in our living room or is an eyesore in the front of our house. We can also move it anywhere in the house. We brought it home and immediately set it up. Right when I turned it on, you could feel the difference! Ohhhhhhhh, it was sooooooo nice! We spent the afternoon in the comfort of air-conditioning. The Tokumis’ hung out all afternoon and then I treated them to dinner at the Woodinville Cafe. It was really nice to have visitors when Michael’s not here.

Elijah started to blow raspberries today. It’s really cute! Shari said that Misha started doing that whenever she started teething, so maybe we’ll see some teeth soon.

This morning the stair railing guy finally came! We’ve been waiting sooooo long for this to happen. He came around 9am and started installing the railing right away. Everything was pre finished so we don’t have to do any of the painting or staining. The boys slept through all the nailing and misc. noise that he made, I was kind of surprised. We left at around 1pm to go to Elijah’s cardiologist appointment. Michael was supposed to go with us, but he had meetings that he couldn’t get out of. So it was just us. This was the first time Rowan came to the hospital. I figured it was ok since he was only going to have an x-ray and not an ultrasound, which takes longer. The x-rays looked good and the doctor had only good things to say. Everyone was overjoyed at seeing the twins and my cousin, Heidi, came over to help me with the boys while I talked to Dr. Lewin. He only had good things to say and he had a hard time hearing the turbulence in the ventricle (?), which is a good thing! We’re spacing the appointments further apart now, 6 months instead of 3! YAY! When we got home, I was disappointed that the railing wasn’t done. He ran out of ballisters!!!! He was short 6. So, now we have to wait probably another couple of weeks to get those in, but after that the installation should be a snap. Other than that, it looks great! I love the cherry wood that we chose. One thing we might have them change is the height of the post, it’s kind of high. If they can’t change it, no big whoop.

Today Rowan finally got the connection that if he rolls over, he doesn’t have to be on his tummy. Both of the boys hate tummy time! Up until now, Rowan would bury his head in his arms or in the burp cloth I put under him and whine in his raspy voice. It’s actually quite funny. Today I put him down and almost immediately he flopped on his back. This has happened before and is usually just a fluke. So, I put him back on his tummy, walked away, came back and he was again on his back. I did this 2 more times and both times he successfully rolled onto his back. I don’t think they will learn to roll back onto their stomachs since they hate it so much! HA! Elijah, on the other hand, can stand tummy time longer than Rowan, mostly because I think Rowan has such a huge head that he gets tired much quicker than all those small headed babies. Elijah will look around and he’ll have the movements to turn over but he usually has an arm propped to where it’s blocking his roll. You’ll see one leg lift all the way up like he’s going to turn over, and then it comes back down. Poor baby! He has done some rolls, but they are just accidents. I think he will be turning over soon too. Their desire to not do tummy time is quite strong! Elijah has been sleeping well the last couple of days. I think he is going through a growth spurt. Usually he will get up first in the morning but yesterday and today, Rowan got up first and I usually have to wake up Elijah. I didn’t have too much on the agenda today. I was going to get some pictures printed but because I had my class, I didn’t go. I’ll probably do it this weekend or something. Michael was a little late coming home today, but it was ok, I wasn’t too late for my class even though traffic was a nightmare! It was sooooooo hot today, that he had to feed the boys outside and move their beds downstairs. That’s the first time we’ve had to do that. I hope they don’t freak out and wake up in the middle of the night. Class was good, I talked a lot to a guy in the class who has a wedding photography business. I asked him all kinds of stuff about interaction with subjects, cross processing, all good stuff. During class, we set up the lights to take picture of the main area of the studio. It was mostly boring, so we chatted a lot. I want to play with cross processing more. I always get inspired when I talk to creative types!

I was cleaning up my email and found a thread that I totally forgot about and demonstrates the humor that my husband has. Some guy emailed “k.stanton@gmail.com” and not “kstanton”, and we don’t know if gmail screwed up or what. The guy wrote “Good seeing your destructive ass around here today. I was just wondering if you could shoot me an email…” and it went on about contact information. My email client was open while Michael was on the machine so he emailed the guy back with “Hmm, my wife and her destructive ass is sleeping in the next room. We live in Washington State. Mebbe you have the wrong K. Stanton? Or maybe gmail is screwing up somehow…”. Then the guy writes back “I am truly sorry.” Oh my god, that kept me laughing for a few days.

This morning I went to the doctor because I have a lump in my left wrist. I wasn’t too worried about it because it’s very small and it doesn’t hurt or anything. I also wanted to talk to her about my morning back pain. It’s still really bad, even with the new bed. The boys were really good in the office up until the doctor walked in, then they started to cry. We had to talk over their cries, good thing the appointment was short! She said that the lump in my wrist is just a cyst and nothing to worry about unless it starts hurting or growing (gulp!). Sometimes those things just appear out of nowhere. As for my back pain, she gave me a handful of exercises that I need to do as well as put a pillow under my knees when I sleep. I think that will help a lot. Our stair job was delayed AGAIN because the painters didn’t finish in time. So hopefully it will be finally over with on Friday.

Today at our Waterbabies class, the boys finally, finally put their faces in the water! We’ve been waiting for this moment for so many weeks. While everyone else in the class was dunking their babies and exclaiming, we had to sit on the side with a sad washcloth. Elijah and I were first. I said “Ready, Set”, then I blew in his face, he took a breath, and then I put his face in the water and brought him up. When he looked up, he gave me a look like “What the hell just happened?” and he was about to cry but everyone was cheering and praising so he promptly stuck his hand in his mouth and started sucking away like nothing happened. Then Rowan and Michael did it and Rowan didn’t even flinch, he did so well! The teacher was really surprised that they didn’t cry because most babies cry the first time they do it. Must have been all that washcloth practice we had all those weeks! There was also this other water mat that they played on that Rowan was just having a grand old time. Both of them are getting really used to the water. I think this is the first class where both of them didn’t fuss at all. It’s too bad that Frances (another student) and her dad weren’t there to share in their glory, since we’ve been there from the beginning together. Oh well, there’s always next week! We went to lunch at Oobas as usual. We really like this new tradition. It’s fun to do something in the middle of the day as a family. In the evening, I had a photo shoot to do at school, so I drove to Michael’s work with the babies, we switch cars, and then I drove to the city and Michael drove home with the boys. This way, Michael could stay at work longer. The shoot was very successful, I took pictures of my cousin, Eric, in his full Kendo (japanese fencing) gear. We had a lot of fun with some other props. I got home in time to put the boys to bed. Michael told me this hilarious story that someone called and asked for me. He said that I wasn’t home, then the guy said “Are your parents home?” I started cracking up. Michael didn’t want to correct him and have a long phone conversation, so he just said “NO”. Too funny. I stayed up way too late posting the kendo pictures…

We made it to massage class today, but we were still a little late. I couldn’t really massage them there because they were just too fussy. They are always good for about 30 mintues, and then they break into “I’m super fussy” mode. We did head massage strokes, but I found it to be really difficult because you can’t use oil so you can’t move your hands very well. The great news is that I was able to get 2 more plastic beakers from the maternity center! We use them to warm their milk, and the 4 that we got from when the boys were born are all cracked and barely usable. I asked a nurse where I could get them and she said “oh, I can just give you a couple”. Yay! Then we went downstairs and took a trip down memory lane and got a chocolate chip cookie. Michael used to get me one every day when we were at the hospital. They are super yummy. We walked around the hospital a bit while I ate my cookie and then came home.

This morning Elijah woke us up at around 5am, we let him cry off and on until around 7am. I think these disturbances are due to teething. He has had his hand in his mouth, sometimes 2 hands, the past few days. Their naps have been very short today, so I think it’s a sign that their teeth are coming in. Michael got up early and went on a trail run. He came back and then I left to do a photo shoot with Theron and his friend, Matthew. My first paid photo session! :) Well, technically, I have done other paid sessions but I usually didn’t charge much more than processing/film. But since this is all digital, it is all for me! The pictures are here. It was a lot of fun taking pictures of them and meeting Matthew. I mainly used 1 or 2 softboxes, nothing too complicated. I have noticed with the past two shoots that the best pictures are usually last. I think it’s because we are all more relaxed. After we were done with that, they came over later in the evening for pizza and cokes. Our house became a “nerdery” for a few hours. They watched an episode of “The Office” (the BBC version) while I bathed the babies. “Free love on the free love highway…”