Thursday, January 1, 2009

A couple of exciting things

It is currently 10:45 and the broge girls (all three of them) are asleep. It is my “shift” and so I valiantly keep watch and will drop the laptop like a sack of vicious-rabid-toothless cobras-who-cannot-bite-but-will-try-and-gum-you-to-death if anyone needs me, but for the moment all is calm and while trying to get an hour nap in before the midnight feed would be wise, I will use this unexpected, but cherished, gift of time to munch on a tasty brownie while I fill in all of you with what is happening in the lives of me, my beautiful wife, and my two little beautifuls. (Yes…that was a long sentence)

Where to start, where to start?
Well, how about here…Emma Jane has hit the 7 pound mark!! She is actually a couple ounces over it. The girl hit a turning point about a week and a half ago where she really figured out a) how to eat and b) that she really, really likes eating. And it is showing. She is visibly bigger than her sister. I was looking at her last night, while idly waiting for the TV stations to replay the ball dropping in New York and just pretending that it was happening live (further evidence that we live in a fake time zone) when I suddenly realized…she’s a little chubby. Her face and fingers have that…well…baby look to them. Naked you notice her tummy still looks a little slimmer than you would expect, but other than that this four month old baby finely looks like a newborn!! God be praised! It was all I could do to not wake her up and tell her.
You can really see it when you look at her face and compare it to Parker’s. Both of them have an adorable cheek thing going on, but while Emma Jane now has this nice round baby face with ample cute cheeks, Parker has this narrow face that suddenly juts out in these huge (but cute) jowl like cheeks and then shoots back into narrow.
Now the question I seem to get asked the most these days is…how is Parker eating. The short answer is ehhh. Things are better, but we seem to move in such small bursts that sometimes it is impossible to realize that she is getting better without going over our notes for the past week/week and a half and going…oh…she does eat more before being tubed now.
And both girls can and will still throw big ole fits come nine. My parents got to see a few good ones while they were in town over Christmas (thanks again for coming and helping and…well…seeing your grandchildren. We loved having you and are really thankful for all you did). Christmas Eve was an especially fun one. Christmas Eve was a work night for me. We had three services at Church. 5, 7, and 11. I went in for the 5 and 7, then rushed home after the 7 to help with the 9 o’clock feed only to rush back for the 11 service. When we first planned this we didn’t think it was going to be a rush getting me back to church but the girls were in rare form. I guess it got started a during the 6 o’clock feed. Parker wasn’t in the best of forms for it, but things didn’t really get cooking until closer to 8 when both girls were screaming bloody murder. You know your wife is at the end of the her rope when she calls your cell phone and instead of asking when you are going to be home, just lets the babies scream into them. Luckily I was about at the door when I got that call, so I was able to swoop in like a hero and be there at the moment she was thinking…if he’s not here in the next…of course I really would have been a hero if I could have magically fixed everything, but no….they continued to scream…a lot.
Even singing Christmas Carols was not the magic cure all that evening…although it definitely helped.
On that note, I’m still doing the singing thing. It’s really quite funny. Parker doesn’t seem bothered by it, but it isn’t any type of magical cure for her, however for Emma Jane…she loves it. Frequently screaming will just stop when I start. It’s weird, but I guess there’s no accounting for taste.
(Uh oh…both girls making noises…this might be the end of blogging. Oh, come on Parker…50 more minutes till your third dinner…you can make it…you need the sleep).
I’ve been trying to wean Emma Jane off of the Christmas Carols. She will take a lot of different songs, but she responds best to hymns. The irony is that I am horrible at memorizing. I never know the lyrics to anything, so 90% of the time I am just making words up. I have finally gotten sick of this and have begun bringing home my hymnal from work, just so I can have the words to sing…but of course this can be hard to read when you are doing deep knee bends. (trying to phase those out too)
Speaking of exciting…today the Good Lord dropped a minor miracle on our door step. At the six o’clock feed both girls were done in under 20 minutes. That’s right…both girls. Emma Jane has been eating faster and faster, so while this was particularly fast it was no shocker, but Parker…Parker?!?!! The girl who we have to force to finish her bottle? Yep, she just chugged that sucker down like we had never offered her food before. It was awesome. The next feed was good, but not nearly as good as that. We have no false expectations that a switch was magically flipped, but boy did it give us a sense of hope…this is what it could be like…this is what it will be like…one day.

Okay…natives are getting restless. Really need to take care of that. Sorry, typed before uploading pictures, and now there’s no time. I’ll get some up soon…ish.

Blessings, and thanks again…to all of you. For the many ways you have helped, for your prayers, and for caring.

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