Twins Update: 11/27/11, 12:40 a.m.

Can’t sleep, haven’t updated girls’ progress for far too long.

NORAH loves to run. Especially down the hall and into my arms for a big lift to the sky.

ALI says “thank you” and “no thank you” so sweetly and softly it could melt brick.

NORAH pooped in the potty two weeks ago, but hasn’t done it in the potty since.

ALI is Queen of the Nap.

NORAH sometimes says she “doesn’t feel well “and wants to “go to the doctor.”

ALI had a giant purple/black toe which she barely complained about, although she had a wicked limp for several days.

NORAH currently enjoys dressing in Ali’s “Pink Batgirl” Halloween costume. Technically, though, it was Norah’s selection that we gave Ali at the last minute when we discovered her Ladybug costume was incomplete, and all they had left was “Batarina” — which was purple, Norah’s favorite color. (Kids are complicated sometimes.)

ALI likes to bring empty plates to the kitchen sink.

NORAH gets a kick out of sitting on top of my shoulders.

ALI knows how to push my buttons, and stares at me with mischief in her eyes and a wicked grin. (I’m a dead man.)

NORAH likes when Mommy fixes her hair and just tried a bit of makeup. ALI hates getting her hair fixed. BOTH love bathtime and splashing.

NORAH could watch the “Yo Gabba Gabba Live from L.A.” special and “Peppa Pig” reruns all day.

ALI rarely makes TV requests, although she does still enjoy “Bubble Guppies.”

BOTH girls enjoy sightings of the neighborhood bunny rabbit who frequents our backyard. I foresee some sort of bunny pet in our future.

 

 

Don’t Kill The Buggie!

Li'l Bee

Parenting is not for wusses.

The other day, I’m walking down the hall with Norah. A pleasant little stroll from the stairs to the kitchen.

And she starts to pull away from me, going towards something on the wall.

Instinct kicks in. It’s a bug. Spider? Poisonous? Is there a yellow recluse spider? What if it bites her? She was “the sickest kid in the NICU” two years ago!

I pull Norah back and yell for Shannon (she’s already in the kitchen) to grab a paper towel. She comes running with the towel, and I squoosh the bug. Several times. Just to make sure.

And Norah is crying.

I saved your life! What are you crying about?

Oh wait. You don’t know that some buggies bite and hurt. You watch “Miss Spider’s Sunny Patch Kids” where bees and butterflies and spiders all get along and have cute adventures.

It’s OK, baby. Daddy’s sorry. But he didn’t know if that was a bad buggie or a buggie that we’d normally just shoo away.

Mean Daddy killed a buggie. Oy.

I repeat: Parenting is not for wusses.

Bad Daddy, Part 2

It’s been six days since It happened. And  yes, I should have blogged it sooner. (Hence the title.)

I mentioned in my last post how verbal our girls are getting. But nothing prepared me for this:

Friday, Ali flicked a mental switch. And all I could hear was “DADA DADA! DADA DADA!”

And yes, she was directing it at me. With increasing volume and joy at seeing me.

Cue heart melting into puddle.

And last night, just because she wanted to make sure she was mentioned in this blog post, Norah said — quite clearly, to both Shannon and me — “Sit down” whilst standing on her little pink chair. She then sat down, taking her own advice.

It feels like I should do this every day. I’m at work, but this took like four minutes to do. Am I too selfish and wrapped up in stupid things to capture moments like these? Answer: Kinda, yeah.

I promise to try to be better about it. Excuses abound, but that’s not fair. Some day in the year 2031, my daughters might be hanging out reading Dad’s old blogs (“How quaint!” they may chuckle at our primitive technology) and wishing that I had been more online-attentive.

I’m a writer, for Pete Rose’s sake. Paid for my skill with words. I should be better at this kind of thing.

Sorry, girls. Daddy’s only human. (Clearly, one of the greatest living humans, but still.)

Please don’t put me on a floating chunk of ice  when I get old.

Our angels

Bad Daddy.

I have been incredibly lazy/stupid/wrong in not updating the blogworld about our girls. Of course, I never get more than 100 readers (and that’s on a HUGE day), so this is really more for posterity than reader entertainment.

Ali has caught up to Norah and is walking around with speed. She’s a bit more verbal, and recognizes “ball” and “banana” and a variety of other words in print. She’s also eating better, although is still sometimes finicky.

Norah loves to give hugs and, as we discovered a couple nights ago, laughs hysterically at sneezes — especially fake ones that send your arms and legs flying. The sound of her laughter is completely infectious.

They are healthy, happy little girls who will turn 2 on April 16. (We are not expecting anything “terrible” about their “twos.”)

It has been an unbelievable journey thus far, and I eagerly anticipate every minute I can spend with them. (Being back at a full-time job with an hour-long commute cuts into Daddy Time, but I’m doing my best.)

And when they finally do figure out how to say “I love you, Daddy,” I completely plan on melting into a big fat puddle.

Twins Update, 10/3/10

Great weekend for our girls.

Saturday, Mommy had to work 7AM to noon. But when she got home, we got in gear and headed over to Frisco Commons. Which is simply one of the most gorgeous parks you’ll ever see. Great walking trails, awesome playground area, splashy water area for summertime, a nice little lake for you fisherpeople, and more.

At the playground, we put the girls in the swings for the first time — and they loved it. Even looked like they were getting the hang of it on their own, leaning into it to go further. Farther. Whatever.

After the park, we headed out to Firewheel. For those who don’t know, it’s a new and growing area near Garland and Murphy with a big new shopping center. (Locals: Think Southlake with less snobbery.) Got the girls new sneakers. Alex is a size 3, Norah is a size 3Wide. Strolled around the shopping center, considered doing the Build-A-Bear thing (I’d rather do that when the girls can pick and choose their own options).

Stopped for dinner at TGIFriday’s. Entered to a chorus of yelling at the Texas/OU game, which was ending (and not in a good way for the vast majority of UT fans at the bar). We tried putting the girls in booster seats instead of high-chairs, and they took to it just fine.

Although we tried having the girls use those “easier for kids” crayon things about a week ago, Norah grabbed her blue crayon (with her left hand) and went about drawing (mostly on the paper kids’ menu). She also showed a predilection for sirloin steak and sweet potato fries. (Daddy Note: I now LOVE me some sweet potato fries.)

Then the stroll back to the car, with a quick detour through the mini-carnival/fair they had going in the parking lot, as well as a run through one of those temporary Halloween stores. (Daddy Note: I’m not sure whose idea it was, but the “UPS Driver” costume for kids? Seriously?)

Older Lady: Hello, Trick-or-Treaters! Why, if you aren’t just the scariest witch? And it’s wonderful to see YOU, Spider-Man! Here, take a whole bunch of Three Musketeers!

Kid: What about me Mrs. Giffelheffin?

Older Lady: You’re a UPS Driver, kid. Here, have some pennies.

Anyway, Sunday was mostly stuff around the house and then headed over to Shannon’s parents’ house. Dropped off the girls and ran to the consignment shop, where we loaded up on warmer fall/winter outfits. One more stop at the supermarket (where I got my new Starbucks drink: venti iced mocha with soy), then dinner and home.

It’s likely that you didn’t find this as fascinating as Daddy and Mommy did, but it was a great weekend with awesome Texas weather. Oh, and I finished my fantasy baseball season as Champion. (First time in 17 years of playing. Future blog to come.)

Peace, grins, health and twins!

Twins Update, 8/16/10

Tonight, I put the pillow from one of the girls’ old bouncy seats on my head, showed it to Norah, and said “hat.” And she responded by saying “hat” perfectly.

A minute later, I handed a green ball (from our own personal ball pit — courtesy my brothers and my sister-in-law) to Alex and said “ball.” And she responded by saying “ball” perfectly.

My girls rock.

Twins Update, 7/14/10

At about 4:40 p.m. Central, Alexandra Faye Rose Rubin stood up on her own! Naturally, after all day with Daddy, it was Mommy who found young Alex standing in her crib. (This isn’t about YOU, Daddy.)

It may have taken her a little longer to catch up to Norah in the standing department, but Mommy and Daddy are mega-proud of Alex. And just in time for the girls’ 15-month birthday on Friday!

Sorry no photo available…we were too excited to think about snapping one. Stupid 20th-century parents.

Twins Update: 6/14/10

Quickie update, just noting each girl’s accomplishment du jour:

–Alex got up to a kneeling position all by herself in her crib.

–Norah was standing and holding onto the futon for balance, and took steps sideways to get the toy she had her eye on.

The girls are just awesome, and they knock me out every single time I see them.

Twins Update: Memorial Day (5/31/10)

Today was their first swim in Bubbie Marlene & PopPop’s new pool (or any pool, for that matter). First 5-10 minutes were pretty tear-filled, but they eventually started to dig it and stayed in the water for almost an hour. Very cool little inflatable floats with little movable “roofs” to protect against the sun. Their first attempts at kicking and splashing were stellar.

Skillz Updates:

Alex appears to be left-handed. Not 100% sure. And there was a double Alex Learning for Daddy the other day. Her favorite color may be yellow, since that’s the only kind of ball (from the girls’ big Chuck E. Cheese-style “ball pit” — thanks Uncle Shawn, Uncle Jonathan and Aunt Steph) that she wouldn’t reject Hakeem Olajuwon-style. AND, she can throw. Not just shake her arm and drop the ball. I’m talking very close to a full-on windup and throw. (SWEAR: I have NOT pushed this and NOT made her watch hours of baseball, nor have I attempted to teach this in any way. She’s just a natural.)

Norah is not just sitting up and standing on her own (while holding on to something). She is now testing the proverbial waters and occasionally letting go of the gate or crib side and doing some Olympic-level standing on her own. Holy crap, y’all. She’s like weeks from walking. Until then, she is pretty much the fastest crawler I have ever seen. (And I attended the 1997 Crawling Championships, coincidentally located in Harleysville, PA.)

Twins Update: 5/18/10

May 9th, Bottle Time.

It has been way way way way way (did I say way?) too long since I blogged about my incredible amazing fantastic children.

Norah was 1st to hold her own bottle, but Alex was the 1st to master picking up Cheerios and putting them in her mouth.

(Each girl does both with ease now.)

Norah eats everything. Alex scrunches her face when given food she doesn’t like, which is more often that we’d like. (Finickiness does run in the family on both sides, though.)

Norah is able to stand up, and even did a little bit of “walking” while holding on to the gate of our “Fun Zone” in the living room.

Alex is lazy like Daddy, but has recently started doing the “get on all fours and try pushups” phase — which was the precursor for Norah’s standing up.

Norah is now having full-on babble conversations with herself (or with imaginary friends?).

Alex is all about “Da Da,” but I’m 65% sure that she hasn’t quite attributed that title to me specifically. She does throw in a few “Mamas,” as does Norah.

Norah’s hair is coming in fast now — dark and straight.

Alex has had a mass of curls for a while, and it’s kinda “dirty brown” but still pretty light.

Norah enjoys splashing in the tub.

Alex enjoys fighting me when I try to get her in the tub seat. I have to basically hold her above it and wait for her to stop kicking or swinging her legs around. Eventually she gets tired and goes into the seat.

When she’s not standing in the Fun Zone, Norah crawls like a Navy Seal.

Alex has picked up the pace, although she uses her elbows and forearms more than her hands when crawling.

They just turned 13 months two days ago.

And being a parent is the most incredible experience of our lives.

So you’ll have to excuse me as a lazy blogger. I’m also a devoted Daddy.