Sandy here:
Those of you who are regular readers of our blog may remember that a while ago Doug posted about his less than soothing ability with the girls at bedtime. Well, recently the shoe was on the other foot (Tava is on the left and Analee is on the right):
I don't really sing the boogaly boo song anymore. . .
Thursday, July 23, 2009
Friday, July 17, 2009
Swimming!!!
Doug-
The other day I found out that my friend LaRae's 8 year old son swims faster than me. By quite a bit. I could work my tail off and still not match his 100 meter time. And the thing is, he wasn't even the fastest 8 year old in his swim meet.
Anybody who knows anything about my triathlon hobby knows that the swim is a big challenge for me. I consider it a successful swim in a tri as long as I don't drown. So far, so good. Now this year I have actually hired a swim coach and she has helped me with my technique over the course of 5 or 6 lessons. The result is that I now have a much prettier, more efficient swim stroke in which to cover the exact same ground in the exact same time. It's too bad there are no style points in triathlon.
In an attempt to avoid having our daughters go through this kind of embarrassment when they are 40, we have started taking them swimming at the ripe age of 5 months. Sandy noticed that our rec center offers a "Mommy and Me" swim class for infants and insisted we sign up for June (of course when you have twins, "Mommy and Me" becomes "Mommy and Daddy and Me and Her"). However, when we showed up, we were bummed to learn that we were the only people signed up (they usually cancel classes if they don't get enough participants, but they told us they must have forgotten to cancel on us). So instead we got a semi-private lesson with the swim instructor which was fine and all, but apparently with big groups they do songs and games and lots of fun stuff that just didn't work with 2 babies. Oh well.
In any event, the girls had a great time and they have been going to the pool 1 or 2 times a week since. They have been dunked in the water, have spit up in the pool and even stick their faces in themselves sometimes. They really like the bubbles and the swirling water in the hot tub (never more than 5 minutes!!!!) and think the pool is awesome across the board. I'm just hoping in 8 years they aren't faster than me.
P.S. When I started this post I thought we had more than 3 pictures of them swimming, but it turns out we don't. As Sandy explained, when there are two of us and two of them, it doesn't leave any hands left over for the camera. You can't just let them float on their own, they haven't gotten that good in the water. We'll get some more soon.
The other day I found out that my friend LaRae's 8 year old son swims faster than me. By quite a bit. I could work my tail off and still not match his 100 meter time. And the thing is, he wasn't even the fastest 8 year old in his swim meet.
Anybody who knows anything about my triathlon hobby knows that the swim is a big challenge for me. I consider it a successful swim in a tri as long as I don't drown. So far, so good. Now this year I have actually hired a swim coach and she has helped me with my technique over the course of 5 or 6 lessons. The result is that I now have a much prettier, more efficient swim stroke in which to cover the exact same ground in the exact same time. It's too bad there are no style points in triathlon.
In an attempt to avoid having our daughters go through this kind of embarrassment when they are 40, we have started taking them swimming at the ripe age of 5 months. Sandy noticed that our rec center offers a "Mommy and Me" swim class for infants and insisted we sign up for June (of course when you have twins, "Mommy and Me" becomes "Mommy and Daddy and Me and Her"). However, when we showed up, we were bummed to learn that we were the only people signed up (they usually cancel classes if they don't get enough participants, but they told us they must have forgotten to cancel on us). So instead we got a semi-private lesson with the swim instructor which was fine and all, but apparently with big groups they do songs and games and lots of fun stuff that just didn't work with 2 babies. Oh well.
In any event, the girls had a great time and they have been going to the pool 1 or 2 times a week since. They have been dunked in the water, have spit up in the pool and even stick their faces in themselves sometimes. They really like the bubbles and the swirling water in the hot tub (never more than 5 minutes!!!!) and think the pool is awesome across the board. I'm just hoping in 8 years they aren't faster than me.
P.S. When I started this post I thought we had more than 3 pictures of them swimming, but it turns out we don't. As Sandy explained, when there are two of us and two of them, it doesn't leave any hands left over for the camera. You can't just let them float on their own, they haven't gotten that good in the water. We'll get some more soon.
Wednesday, July 15, 2009
Sleeping Again, Redux
Sandy here:
Since I posted my last entry about the girls and their crib positions, I have captured a few more pictures. All of these are actual positions I found them in when they woke up in the morning:
But this is my favorite so far (maybe they'll be wrestlers when they grow up):
And finally--a bedtime video. They had been changed into their sleepers, but were still in such a good mood I put them into their crib to play.
Watching them interact like this makes all that extra work worth it.
Since I posted my last entry about the girls and their crib positions, I have captured a few more pictures. All of these are actual positions I found them in when they woke up in the morning:
But this is my favorite so far (maybe they'll be wrestlers when they grow up):
And finally--a bedtime video. They had been changed into their sleepers, but were still in such a good mood I put them into their crib to play.
Watching them interact like this makes all that extra work worth it.
Tuesday, July 7, 2009
Sleeping, Again
Sandy here:
So, we haven't written about sleep in a while. At least in our opinion, sleep became the most important thing to figure out. I mean, you can live for a while without food (besides, isn't that what Wendy's is for?) and showering and reading and socializing, but sleep? For the first few months, Doug and I would obsess about sleep -- ours and the babies. The girls had a few reflux issues and got some bad colds this winter so the jiggly chairs turned out to be at the perfect angle for their little digestive systems and noses. Well, this was all great, but we knew we would need to get them back in the crib. We made the transition almost a month ago (right around the time Tava started doing this) and it's been funny, to say the least. We put them down parallel to each other and parallel to the short sides of the crib (can you tell I'm a math teacher?). Tava is always on the left as you're looking in the crib (Analee's right).
Inevitably, when we go in to get them in the morning, this is what we find:
In fact, some nights Analee has woken up because Tava woke up and started kicking her in the face. Analee deals with this all pretty well though, I think she thinks of it as her "big sister" duty to put up with Tava. For a long time, all Analee would do when we put her to sleep was raise her arms up in a "don't shoot me, I give up" gesture. Now, she's taking cues from her sister:
Some of you might be wondering why we don't just separate them into their own cribs. One night we tried putting them on opposite ends of the crib (since we only have one crib set up right now) and we had potentially the worst night of sleep EVER from Tava -- she was so upset and couldn't get settled. As soon as she fell asleep, she would wake up and be upset again. We speculate that it's because she wasn't touching her sister (and while she's very good at scooching around in a circle, actual forward or backward motion still eludes her), and I just don't have the heart to make her so upset again so soon. Analee is learning the meaning of "sacrifice for the greater good."
So, we haven't written about sleep in a while. At least in our opinion, sleep became the most important thing to figure out. I mean, you can live for a while without food (besides, isn't that what Wendy's is for?) and showering and reading and socializing, but sleep? For the first few months, Doug and I would obsess about sleep -- ours and the babies. The girls had a few reflux issues and got some bad colds this winter so the jiggly chairs turned out to be at the perfect angle for their little digestive systems and noses. Well, this was all great, but we knew we would need to get them back in the crib. We made the transition almost a month ago (right around the time Tava started doing this) and it's been funny, to say the least. We put them down parallel to each other and parallel to the short sides of the crib (can you tell I'm a math teacher?). Tava is always on the left as you're looking in the crib (Analee's right).
Inevitably, when we go in to get them in the morning, this is what we find:
In fact, some nights Analee has woken up because Tava woke up and started kicking her in the face. Analee deals with this all pretty well though, I think she thinks of it as her "big sister" duty to put up with Tava. For a long time, all Analee would do when we put her to sleep was raise her arms up in a "don't shoot me, I give up" gesture. Now, she's taking cues from her sister:
Some of you might be wondering why we don't just separate them into their own cribs. One night we tried putting them on opposite ends of the crib (since we only have one crib set up right now) and we had potentially the worst night of sleep EVER from Tava -- she was so upset and couldn't get settled. As soon as she fell asleep, she would wake up and be upset again. We speculate that it's because she wasn't touching her sister (and while she's very good at scooching around in a circle, actual forward or backward motion still eludes her), and I just don't have the heart to make her so upset again so soon. Analee is learning the meaning of "sacrifice for the greater good."
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