Ode to Brave Molly

Hundreds of years from now, great poets will still be writing verses, which will be shouted from the mountaintops, lauding young Molly who faced her successful tenotomy with such bravery. In the absence of a great poet, here are a few mediocre lines to commemorate the event.

Ode to Brave Molly

Molly Molly Ding Dong,
Bravest girl you'll ever meet,
Steadfast, strong and stoic,
Throughout the surgery on her feet.

Roly-Poly Jacobite,
A brother loyal and true,
Just six feet from the surgeon,
Yet soundly he slept right through.

Molly Molly Ding Dong,
After surgery, hours and hours,
Of casting and re-casting,
While her dad's the one who cowers.

Roly-Poly Jacobite,
Matched his sister yelp for yelp,
The only real difference,
He cried for dinner, not for help.

The surgery was a success. Molly's perfect little feet now look even perfecter. With the achilles tendons clipped, her feet are now casted in a normal, right angle position for the first time. These casts will stay on for 3 weeks while her tendons heal, and then she'll be in the boots and bars. What would have been a very tiring day, became even more so when they had to re-do her casts 3 times in order to get the tightness right (so her circulation is okay). We left Orillia at 9am and didn't leave Sick Kids until 4:45pm and then hit the long weekend cottage traffic so didn't make it home until 8pm (including one breastfeeding pitstop). Sleep was very fitful last night and not much better today, as everyone's equilibriums seem to have been thrown off a bit. We're looking forward to a quiet weekend. Jacob really did sleep soundly through the surgery, only waking up during the casting to lend vocal support to the proceedings. And at the official weigh-in, Jacob came in at a chubby 10lb 7oz, while Molly is up to 9lb 3 oz (which was my own birth weight, I believe).

The Lee Clan

I had the morning at home alone with the kids while Kate was off doing a surgery and delivering a baby who was bigger than Jacob or Molly are today! So much for my theory on how big our kids are getting.

We had a nice lunch picnic down at the beach (impeded only slightly by the massive thunderstorm that drove us running for shelter) with the visiting Lee family (the whole clan, up from both Rochester and Toronto). We got to see what a 14-monther looks like - fully grown as far as I can tell. It is so good to be back in Ontario to be able to more regularly see old friends like Tiffany. As per usual, I forgot my camera, so hopefully Tiff or Eric will send me some snaps.

We're off to T.O. tomorrow for Molly's tenotomy. I'm not worried in an "I'm concerned something might go wrong" kind of way, but rather, in some new "don't hurt my kid, you bastard" kind of way.

Well-Rested Parents

Four out of the past six nights we have had 6 (repeat 6) consecutive hours of sleep. Amazing! That's enough to change one's entire outlook on life. We're cheerful in the morning, energetic in the afternoon. We've gone for four runs this week. We might even be enjoyable company to others.

What's our secret? We have no idea. There appears to be no correlation between actions and consequences. We are big believers in the Baby Whisperer's dream feed though, which helps to top up the tummies around 11pm without really waking the kids up.

Two Month Photos

Here are some photos of the kids on their 2-month "birthday". The photos I posted yesterday were from last week.

- Molly is on the right in the top photo. Both kids have their eyes open at the same time!
- Samson lost all his strength when his hair was lopped off. We'll have to see what effect it has on me, other than an immediate loss of about 5 pounds.
- Jacob drying off post-bath

Two Months Old!!

Time flies when you're sleepless, feeding every 3 hours, and you've changed 1000 diapers (seriously, you do the math), but it's true - the kids are two months old today. Jacob has doubled his birthweight and Molly isn't far behind (to be confirmed at their 2 month checkup on Wednesday - along with their first shots). Molly is in her final corrective casts and is scheduled for her tenotomy on Thursday. That's a lot of ouches in a two-day stretch this week.

So, what are their personalities like at the two month mark. It's tough to project too much given that they're barely animate. And nearly everything we know is just comparing one with the other - not terribly scientific. But, here goes. Molly is very aware of the world around her - she is constantly looking around, she loves staring at her mobile, and likes looking at pictures of babies. She seems determined and strong. She can hold her head up for long stretches and has been able to flip herself over forever. In the past couple of days she's developed the ability to produce large, crocodile tears whenever the situation demands them. Jacob is at his happiest when he's staring at himself in the mirror (a trait he shares with his mother and her two brothers!). He's a big eater and likes to go "boneless" when carried around. And he really likes being cuddled over his mother's shoulder.

Here are a couple of pictures with Grammy from the Hazel's recent visit. Molly's on the right. With them both dressed in yellow, you get a sense of how similar they look to each other - especially the eyes and nose.

Catch-Up - More Photos from Hazel family visit

- Cuz Sean & Uncle Don at the Classic Car show
- Molly gazing up at Aunt Beth
- Don and the cousins at Couch beach

Supreme Athletic Endeavours

Inspired by a weekend of watching the triathlons in Orillia (2 photos from the very cute Kids of Steel triathlon posted below), Kate and I went for an 8km run on Sunday night. Yes, my wife, a mere two weeks (edit.: oops, 8 weeks!!) post-twin delivery, with minimal sleep reserves, in her first run in over a year, completed 18.9% of a marathon. We didn't break the sound barrier, but we ran nonetheless.






In an equally heroic athletic achievement, I performed the Double-Pinky-Soother-Maneuver (known as the DPSM to some). We don't recommend trying this at home. But if you're flying solo with two squawking twins, this is the failsafe move of last resort. And if you're asking, "If he's flying solo then who's taking the photograph?" then shame on you. It's called artistic licence people.



And we broke out the new Ergo on the weekend. It's fantastic. And check out Jacob's perfect little peach-fuzzed head.

Trip to the Big Smoke

We spent yesterday down in Toronto for our weekly Sick Kids visit. The physio was really happy with Molly's feet, so she'll just need one more cast before a tenotomy on August 30th, when, under local anaesthetic, they'll snip her achilles tendons to allow her feet to move up into the proper position. Then a 3 week cast to allow the tendons to heal and the final position to be set, and then the boots and bar will be fitted (in late September). So, it looks like she should be finished the daily wearing of the boots-and-bar by Christmas (just wearing them overnight for the subsequent 3 or 4 years). All good news.

We visited with Ben for lunch and then came back home for an Indian feast for Don's birthday (he's singing here, much to the amusement of Erin).

Wednesday Night's Cotillion

Okay, so it was a baby shower, not a Cotillion, but it kind of felt like the twins' debutante event, being introduced to Orillia society. And ever since the O.C., who hasn't dreamed of going to Cotillion - the dresses, the white gloves, the dancing. Umm, maybe that was just me.
Anyway, we had about 20 people over for the baby shower and the event was further proof that Orillia is the friendliest, most welcoming town around. People who we hadn't even met before, or who we've known for only a couple of months were so kind and generous. And the kids were on their very best behaviour. I was convinced that being passed around all evening from stranger to stranger would have them too wired to sleep, but they slept from 11pm straight through until 4:45am, when it was just about time to get up to prepare for our trek down to Toronto anyway. So, I propose a cotillion every week!

I'll add some photos later when mom gets home with her camera. Right now we're on 2-hour reprieve as my family have taken the twins for a walk down to the beach. Kate is napping and I'm futzing about, enjoying my coffee in the calm, quiet of an empty house.

Photos added:
- Laura, Lisa and Liz laughing uproariously at some pithy comment I've made.
- Kate holding court with, from left to right: Michelle, Liz, Rose, Julia and Sara(testing my capacity for name-remembering)
- The fabulous cake. Those with extraordinary powers of observation may have noticed that a very similar looking cake appears as Don's b-day cake a day later. Reuse, recycle, re-eat.

The Joy of Being a Twin

Sean and Erin (Molly and Jacob's 5-year old cousins) gave us a homemade book on the advantages of being a twin, filled with photos and statements they'd made such as "you always have your best friend around". After reading the book together I asked the kids if there was anything hard or not so good about being a twin. After thinking for a bit, Sean responded, "One time I went to the hardware store with Daddy while Erin was at diving lessons, so we weren't together, which wasn't nice". So, the worst thing they could come up with was that sometimes you have to be apart from your twin.

More Family Photos

Two more family photos.
- Proud Grammy's first photo with her four grandchildren.
- The four cousins (Molly with Erin and Jacob with Sean). In his Maradona jersey, Sean looks ready for a throw-in.

Backyard BBQ

Some more photos of the Hazel-Fields visiting from Montreal.

Note Kate sporting her Barry Bonds cap - any godson of Willie Mays is alright in our household. After all, if we can have a president who "didn't inhale", can't we suspend a little disbelief and allow that maybe Barry did believe The Cream was for his arthritis.

Cardboard Boats

There seems to be a different festival or happening every weekend at the waterfront. This weekend it was the cardboard boats - quite elaborate designs. Almost got rained out but the thunderstorm proved to be a brief one.

5 year-old Twins are Big

We have my sister Beth's family with us for a short visit. Can't believe how big her 5-year old twins are, or that ours will be that big one day. Here's a hint of the kind of fun we're having. At bedtime on Sunday night, Beth suggested to Sean that he should show me his Spiderman underwear. So he came running through to the nursery, completely buck naked, holding four pairs of Spidey shorts to show me.

Yesterday the big kids spent the morning at the beach, and then in the afternoon we all went up to the Muskoka Wildlife Centre, which is populated with orphaned and injured animals (moose, wolves, beavers, etc.). A cougar and a black bear have become best buddies and they share living quarters. Apparently the cougar gets quite mournful every winter when the bear goes off to hibernate.

Pride Flag Raising

Here are a few photos of us at the flag-raising for Orillia's gay pride week. First time the flag has been raised at the Opera House, the centre of the community. Great turnout and lots of talk of how hard it still is to grow up gay in a small town. The Raging Grannies sang a couple of songs - are they the coolest old people around or what? One of the grannies came up to me with tears in her eyes and said, "It always makes me cry to see a father so involved with his babies. My husband wanted to be like that but it wasn't possible - he would have lost too much face". Jacob was sucking on my finger after an inconsolable period and I was thinking to myself "I'm not being involved, I'm just trying to keep the peace here". But it led to a great little discussion about small public actions and their larger political impact, about social progress needing baby steps, and how those baby steps are taken by regular people, not by big, important leaders.


The bottom picture is of Kate and I heading out on our first "date night" on Wednesday.

Bourne

Summer escapism at its best - we thoroughly enjoyed the Bourne Ultimatum last night. We left the kids with my parents, who said their time was uneventful (making it look easy only shows us up though). First time for us to be together, without the kids, since they left the hospital.

Picnic at Tudhope

Yesterday evening we walked down to Tudhope Park, with takeout from the new Chinese restaurant on the main street ("ethnic" food in the Big O - be still my beating heart). Perfect weather, great view and the kids enjoyed breastfeeding in the great outdoors.

Unlike Tiger . . .

. . . I remain unbeaten on the golf course as a new dad. I brought my A game today, shooting an 84 at Settler's Ghost, annihilating my heavily favoured father. To be fair, he hadn't brought his new clubs with him (what, he seriously thought he could beat me with old clubs?), he wasn't playing his home course (like Nadal on clay he's not a threat out of his comfort zone), I lent him a sand wedge that I had discarded 10 years ago based on its unreliability (gotta fight dirty), and I believe he's still suffering jet lag from the drive from Montreal.

More importantly, Kate survived the 5 hours home alone with the kids. When we got home, all 3 were sound asleep.

We Win!!

Unfortunately, "we" refers to the twins, not to their parents. The kids have proven a little trickier to put down over the past week. These two photos capture them after they'd finally fallen asleep, but not before: squawking for a lengthy period, busting out of their swaddles and striking victorious poses.

New Jacob photos

Here are two new photos of Jacob (note the slightly chubbier cheeks). I've taken Darryl's advice to heart so there will be no more photos of me scantily clad on the blog.

Got some exercise yesterday for the first time since the kids arrived - delivering a thorough tennis trouncing to my little brother-in-law. The skinny guy couldn't handle the heat. Unfortunately I'll be getting my athletic comeuppance in a few days when I take to the golf links with my parents. Dad has gotten too good for me with his daily golfing and I wouldn't be surprised if this is mom's opportunity to take me down too.

We're having a relatively quiet Saturday. Walked this morning to Mariposa for coffee then down to the waterfront (busy with long weekend visitors and the annual Funfest (!!)). Picked up a few things from the weekly farmer's market and now we're hiding from the heat while the kids nap.

Weekly Toronto visit

We had our weekly visit to Sick Kids. Molly's feet continue to progress well. We didn't sleep all that well last night, which made the early drive to T.O. and then the long day a bit of a struggle. Jacob now weighs an even 8lb (what a monster) and Molly is up to 7lb 4oz sans casts. So they're both continuing to grow well.

We dropped by a super-cool baby store in the big city. I think the Ergo has won the head-to-head comparison with the Bjorn. I also realized that if I lived near stores like this one, I would spend gazillions on trendy gear for babies. I am so weak.

Ben came home with us from Toronto, shared Indian leftovers for dinner and is getting a flavour of our exciting parental lives.

Here are a few photos from Lindsey and Serge's recent visit that Serge just sent my way.