Ordinary Time

We like to snooze in the morning, We like to snooze all day, We like to snooze where ever we choose, Snoozing our cares away. But when the world grows quiet, And the evening moon is bright, We put on our pajamas, And all hug our mama, And never fall asleep all night.

(G. on left, L. on right) For much of our marriage, J. and I had a herding dog, Simone...a Bouvier des Flandres. I had always read that many herding dogs would herd the children, and I thought it would be so cute to watch Simone herd our future children around. As you probably guessed, reality wasn't quite as cute as I had imagined it. Simone was happiest when everyone was in the same room, preferably sitting down. When outside in the yard or going for walks, Simone would be on constant alert. If a child ran across the yard, Simone was after him or her, yipping (if you can say a 68 pound dog yips) until the child could be convinced to return to the 'herd'. Games of tag were impossible if Simone were out in the yard too. For an animal who had never seen a real sheep in her entire suburban existence, she understood about keeping her sheep together and gave it her best effort...whether it was convenient for us or not. I have decided I must be part herding dog myself, minus th...

E. (in a much more flattering picture) with L. (in purple) and G. (in pink). Did I mention how little I did at the end of this pregnancy? I was really not exaggerating about just sitting in a chair. This included actually parenting my children. Oh, I did the basic things. They were fed, clothed, and a modicum of reasonable behavior was expected. But, I gave a lot of passes to other behavior. I just didn't have the energy to be as on top of things as I usually am. Now that I am coming out of the pregnancy fog (it's feels a bit like Dorothy suddenly finding herself in Oz), I am looking around at my younger children and wondering how things have reached the state they have. I am reaping the effects of a lack of schedule and minimum expectations. So, we are going back to basics. There have been a lot more 'do-overs' around here. The younger ones evidently all need to practice responding and obeying in an appropriate manner and everyone has fallen off the chore wagon. We a...

"Everybody knows what a mammal is, Everyone who understands. They're warm-blooded, have hair on the bodies, And suckle their young from mammary glands." This is a rhyme that M. learned long ago about the characteristics of mammals. She would repeat it often. So often that it has become part of our family culture. If anyone says the word 'mammal', someone else is bound to repeat the rhyme. Sort of our own family call-and-response tradition. Since nursing has become such a big part of life, discussions about mammals have been fairly frequent around here. TM and D can tell you all sorts of animals which are mammals. They can also tell you what is not a mammal...fish, frogs, birds, and dishwashers. And until the newest members of our family decide to sleep for more than 1 hour at a time at night, there is the strong possibility that my posts may become loopier and loopier. Anyone hoping for coherence may have a while to wait.

(G. in pink and L. in green. They just won't stay awake, no matter what...at least during daylight hours.) On Thursday, the babies and I were finally discharged and thankfully came home leaving the small four walls and the constant pokings and proddings of the hospital behind. For those of you knowledgeable about such things, you will wonder at my spending three nights in the hospital and not the normal two (or less). In his previous postings, J. left out the 'excitement' which occurred after the twins' arrival, in which I started to hemorrhage, requiring an hour long procedure, the details of which, thanks to the narcotics they gave me, I remain blissfully unaware. I received one unit of blood in the recovery room where I spent the next 6 hours, floating in and out of conciousness thanks to a second dose of a different narcotic. I finally met my new daughters about 7 hours after they were born. (J. promises me that he brought them over to me so I could see them, but I...

[J] Here are a few more pictures... from yesterday, the girls' birthday. This is baby G, the first one out. She practically leaped out at 6:59am... weighing 6lbs. 15oz. And here is baby L, who arrived at 7:02am. Despite the fact that she was only 3 minutes behind her sister, she required a bit more... umm... manipulation... before she finally made her feet-first entry/exit. She was 7lbs. 6oz. Are they identical? Not sure yet... though all of our biological infants have had a striking family resemblance. However, they are similar enough that I think we'll be color-coding for some time to come. Clearly, E would not have chosen this picture of herself to post, and I hasten to add that she is looking much less disheveled one day later. But she and the girls are all doing well, and have had many visitors. M and D are very good big brothers, carefully holding their new sisters. K, however, is mainly interested in poking the babies' eyes, noses, mouths, etc. He won't be assign...

Here they are! The newest Currys! (G is on the left; L on the right.) More pictures to come....