It Began with a BBFT

we have twin dogs and twin kids. o.k. so our dogs only look like twins, but we are pretty comical walking down the street with matching babies and dogs. Anyhow, with two dogs it is pretty hard to avoid interaction between the kid and the dogs. Right now the dogs go after the kids--and when I say "go after" I mean they try to lick their faces, hands, clothes (there is usually baby food to be had), etc. Widget and Bocce are very friendly and are actually very good with the babies. The dogs get that Grace and Lydia are little humans and they will lay down next to the twins and roll over as if the girls will just start petting them or something. We try to stop the french kissing between dogs and babies but as you can see from the pics we can't always prevent it and in this instance decided it would be funny to capture the moment. I am reassured though that in my 3 years of residency I haven't had a kid in the hospital with illness from being licked by a dog. Kids get lots of junk from daycares, but dogs--no. If you screen through the pictures you can see Lydia being knocked backwards by bocce--and loving it! Just another little glimpse into our lives. Now you'll never kiss our girls again :)

this is a random post that has nothing to do with the babies--not directly anyhow. A blog is a place just to put little here and there thoughts, right? So I figure that at least my mom and husband will see the inner workings of my mind through these entries as my faithful followers (although Ryan is sporadic I think). We go to the gym quite bit, probably because we get 2 free hours of childcare a day. anyhow, I think the locker room is a very interesting place. You can feel any way that you want about your body depending on who you decide to focus on. There's the morning aqua aerobics class which is comprised of older, usually rotund ladies--they make me feel young and svelte. and then there is the a morning mom group-with tiny little yoga bodies and perky boobs despite childbearing. They make me feel squishy and large.
I love watching everyone get on the scale. Regardless of the woman's size, they slowly walk up to it, resolutely step onto it, and wait for the numbers to settle. Then they sigh, look around to see who saw their weight digitally displayed for the whole locker room and then step off to accomplish their workout. I have heard women of all shapes and sizes complaining about their bodies. I want to shake the ones that have absolutely nothing to complain about and say "enjoy it! you will probably never look better than this; let me show you what twins can do to you" and then show off my new and "unimproved" stomach but I just look away from them back at my more rotund locker room mates and head off to my workout feeling thin for the moment (until my eyes catch a glimpse of the young skinnies again :) ). Moral of the story: focus on other people's flab to feel better :)

This year was my first mother's day. It was weird to be on the recipient side of mother's day. I don't know that I necessarily feel like a mom--I mean I don't have a mini-van and I don't even know how to go about scheduling a play date--but maybe that stuff comes with time :). Nevertheless it was a very monumental day for me and I'm very thankful to be a mom even if I need to work on my maternal side some days. We started the day at our favorite breakfast place (North Star for all you Columbus people), next was church and then an afternoon shopping and hanging out at Easton. Ryan was the model husband and father and bestowed on me flowers and gifts including a card with the girls handprints in it. It's a saver. I had to work mother's day evening/night but Ryan even brought the girls to the hospital to visit complete with starbuck in hand. This mother's day gig is great--like adding on another birthday, except that you have to share it with a million other women.

The 6 grandkids that were on vacation (L-R; Hudson, Grace, Charlie, Bailey, Lydia and Troy)