Tuesday, February 5, 2008

Gear

The babies are at an age where they can try out lots of fun gear. Mostly, they aren't ready for it yet, but they are at least interested and eager to try things out. For the past few weeks we have been experimenting...and of course, diligently documenting those experiments on film. Here is a little of what we have learned:


Elias likes food he can gnaw on in the fresh food feeder

...while Gabe could care less about this silly ring thing.

On the other hand, Gabe handles a mean sippy-cup.


Gabe shows off for the camera -- Look ma, two hands!
Elias can manage a Podee bottle though

Everyone likes avacado! Especially Gabe!

& Everyone likes bathing in their Bumbo Chairs!


Babies aren't the only ones with gear. Mom shows off her babywearing skills!

(Guess what the hardest part of this photo was? That's right -- finding a semi-clean place in the house to take the picture! Ha!)

Sunday, February 3, 2008

"Oh! Are they twins?"

Taking the boys out in public is really fun but we often get a lot of attention from strangers. Everybody at the grocery store/restaurant/surf contest/book store/etc. feel the need to come up to us and give us the third degree about the boys. We usually don't mind this but after a while, it can become a little annoying. These conversations typically goes like this:

"Oh! Are they twins?"

Of course they're twins but I really want to say with a straight face: "No they're actually half-brothers." [pause] and wait for that to sink in. As a confused look crosses their face, I follow up with :"They have two different fathers." I haven't gotten the nerve to say this yet so we get berated with the following barage of questions:

"Are the boys or girls?", "How old are they?", "How much do they weigh?", "Were they early?", "Did you have a c-section?", "How much did they weigh when the were born?", "What are their names?", "Can I touch them?", etc.

And we usually get the:
"Are they indentical or fraternal?" question which we answer with:
"We don't know."
This is immediately followed up with a dumbfounded reaction of:
"What do you mean you don't know?"
Now I've been asked this question many times in the past or something like "What do you mean [insert exactly what I just said]?" I think the only way to answer this question is to repeat what you just said:
"I mean we don't know, stupid!"
"Well is isn't there some test you can take to tell?"
"There's an expensive DNA test we could take if we really cared."
"Oh...."

There's always the comments of: "Oh they're twins, well my niece/nieghbor/mailman/co-worker has twins." Or the comment after people hear that they were premature: "My son was premature. But don't worry, he's 18 years old and he's 8 feet tall and wights 600 pounds now." Apparently, premature babies turn into ogres. This makes us feel very comforted.

People also try to work in the phrases: "Double the trouble." "Double the fun." "You must have your hands full." People think they're really clever when the work in the "double" to the conversation.

The conversation usually ends with the complete stranger give some parting words like: "You should really treasure these times while they're young because they grow up so darn fast."

Thank you comptlete stranger for that sage advice, I will take that to heart. I really will.